May 4, 2026 • 43 mins
In this episode of the 9941 Podcast, Granger, Tyler, Parker and AntMan dive into one of the most common and misunderstood questions in the Christian life: How do I know if I’m called to ministry?
What starts as a conversation about calling quickly turns into a powerful discussion on faith, obedience, and what it actually means to desire God. Through real-life stories, biblical teaching, and honest reflection, the guys unpack the difference between duty and genuine love for the Lord.
You’ll hear:
- A raw story of spiritual growth and choosing church over comfort
- Why obedience to God flows from love, not obligation
- What to do if you don’t feel a desire for God
- Practical steps to grow your faith and rekindle spiritual hunger
- Biblical qualifications for ministry from 1 Timothy 3
- The truth about “calling” vs. simply living as a faithful Christian
This episode challenges the modern idea of ministry and reminds us that every believer is called to live out their faith daily. Whether you’re questioning your purpose, struggling with spiritual apathy, or considering leadership in the church, this conversation brings clarity straight from Scripture.
If you’ve ever wondered what God wants from your life—or why you don’t feel it yet—this episode is for you.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up on Granger? I mean it, man, I'm Tyler,
I'm Parker. This is the ninety nine for one podcast
at the full Crew here today, walking through common questions
that I get whenever I travel speak. You get a few,
don't you get? I get a lot of questions and
and and some of them are exactly the same every time.
(00:21):
I could expect it every time today I want I
want to run down another one of these rabbit holes.
It doesn't matter where I go, there is always somebody
that's going to say something along the lines of how
do I know if I've been called to ministry? You
get that a lot, or I feel a call to ministry?
(00:42):
What do I do? Those are It's all part of
the same thing, Tyler. You went to Nashville for a wedding.
You actually had to miss one of these episodes and
you went to the to the wedding. But what was awesome?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Man?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
And I want to say it's before we get into
the question about being called to ministry moving to Nashville
to be a pastor. I don't want to say, just evidence
in all of us, everyone in this room, we see
this evidence of the changed man. And you go to
this wedding with all your friends, high school friends that
(01:22):
you love, you know, and you leave those guys on
Sunday morning to go gather with a local body of believers.
It's not your own body, but it's a like minded
church as ours, and you go with them all by yourself. Man,
And I want you to tell me about it. But
(01:44):
also you Parker, and I were on a text thread
with you, and I said, how was it? In fact,
I want to take your exact words, because the old
Tyler wouldn't have said something like this. Yeah, the old Tyler,
I said, because you gave us a picture of the
(02:07):
the worship guide and you said, great song line up today,
come you centers. His mercy is more be down my vision.
I replied, oh yeah, we did be down my vision.
Also love that one, And I said, and also we
did what a friend, we have a Jesus? How was
the service? And you said refreshing to my soul? Great?
(02:29):
I was like, WHOA did you catch that, Parker? Whoa
the old Tyler talking about those songs and that you know,
all by yourself out there the weekend of your buddy's wedding. Yeah, well,
first of all, it's not the it is the old Tyler.
But it's also you know, I'm not going to boast
(02:53):
at all about me. I'm going to boast only in
the Cross and Jesus, because it's all Him that's doing
that changing in me. But yeah, if you're listening and
you're in the national area, go to Edgefield Church. So
there's when I lived in Nashville, there was twenty five
hundred churches. That was early two thousands. I have to
(03:13):
say it's three thousand to four thousand churches. Now, why
would you pick one over the others. That's a whole
other episode. Okay, fair enough of healthy churches, and yeah,
that's a whole other I could But yeah, to your
point was the question.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
You could just you could just think about why Edgefield over?
Why'd you go to Edgefield on Sunday?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Because I've been there before with Granger. We know the pastor,
we know the teaching. We know it's expository preaching based
on you know, you know, line by line, word for word,
good healthy preaching, no lights and smoke and fancy stuff,
just the Gospel. But uh, yeah, to this whole point,
(03:56):
I think, correct me if I'm wrong. I've probably heard this,
but it was Vodei Bacham that said faith and repentance
are all that's needed for salvation and people it was
the Bible, the popular clip from Yeah Yeah, yeah, yes.
(04:16):
But he said then people will ask the question, well,
what about obedience, and Vodi said obedience is a result
of the faith and repentance. So yeah, so there's you know,
you're out at a wedding and it was like a
three or four day thing with best friends from high school.
And the obedience part was like, yeah, the old Tyler
(04:41):
just would have been I don't want to go and
just sleep in. It was a late night last night.
What do you guys doing. You can go work out
or something, but man, just the the love for the
Lord and wanting to obey him and get emotion. I'm
talking about all this, but it was just refreshing to
(05:10):
my soul. But there's there's also like a like a
I'm getting emotional because I just literally just got back
yesterday from all this. But there's a sadness for my
for my friends. You know, the broad is the way
(05:35):
to destruction and that path is easy, and I see
it with my friends and I desperately want them to
be saved. So I don't know what else to say.
It's just it's refreshing to my soul to go and
(05:57):
worship with with nobody, with all those people, and that
I knew none of them, but there was just a
sense of these are my brothers and sisters. And it
was like cool and leaving, leaving my brothers, my lifelong brothers,
you know, best friends. To go see these strangers and
be like, these are my brothers and sisters in Christ
(06:20):
that I'll spend eternity with. That's amazing, man. There there
is nothing like gathering with your your church, your your gathering,
your flock you're but but the the extension of that,
and the next door neighbor to that is gathering with
(06:44):
another flock of of the similar species you know, that
preaches the same gospel and the and they're like they
would be like minded and and and and ultimately that
all that all this required from what I'm saying, is
that they would be Christian and gathering with U. And
why am I saying this? I'm saying this because we
(07:05):
wouldn't recommend that every Sunday you just bounce around to
a different church. Wouldn't wouldn't say that. That's why I say,
there's nothing like eating with your family around the dinner table.
But if you're if you can't be with your family,
for instance, you're in a wedding in a couple of
states away, you would go to another house that's serving
the same meal, and you would go, this is great.
(07:26):
I love this. There is such an assurance in my
own heart of salvation. There's such a there's such a
presence of Christ his spirit that bears witness within me.
And in the simple idea that it doesn't make sense
to walk into a building with strangers and feel totally loved,
(07:52):
and not only feel loved, but you loved them there
that does. You cannot explain it because it doesn't happen
in any of the thing. It doesn't happen in college
football fans fandom, it doesn't happen in an man's wrestling groups.
You could have something so incommon, so in common with people,
(08:15):
and I have been to speaking events that are like
secular galas and just felt so alone around people that
look like me, dress like me, listen to you know
the same things as I do, and yet I feel
so alone because I'm not one of them. And then
I'll go to overseas. The people that don't look like me,
(08:38):
don't dress like me, don't even speak my language, and
they're my family, and I love them and they love me,
and I would literally die for them, and they die
for me. That right there cannot be explained in anything
else outside of the spirit of God, that kind of unity.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Klormisl In Matthew Jesus speaking, and it says, while Jesus
was speaking to the people, his mother and his brothers
stood outside, asking to speak with Jesus. But he replied,
who is my mother and who are my brothers? And
he stretched out his hand towards his disciples, and he said,
here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the
will of my Father in heaven is my brother and
(09:17):
sister and mother. And Jesus identifying with all the people
doing the will of his Father, doesn't matter how biologically.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Close you are.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
It's like, those followers of Christ are your brothers.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Going back to what Tyler said about vote, those are
those people that Jesus says are my brothers and sisters.
Are people that are doing the will of the Father,
But not because the doing is earning them. They're right,
it's because that's the result of my people is what
do my people look like they obey God. Yeah, that's
(09:52):
a good point. And I've been thinking about this so
much lately. This is such a common concept and there's
nothing crazy about it. We we hear we hear John
Piper preaching about all the time, and and but it's
it's such an easy way to understand why we we
would be obedient, or why Tyler would want to get
(10:12):
up and go gather with that body. We don't do
anything in life that's hard or that's out of the
ordinary unless we love it. And man, you don't you
don't serve ask your wife out of duty. Maybe duty
(10:33):
is way down the line, but it all flows from
the beginning. The beginning of it is, oh, you know
why I love her. I love her. I will do
things for her because I love her. It's like when
you go to Chick fil A and they say it's
not a thought either, Yes, it's not a thought, like
you don't go hang on. It's like, oh, yeah, that's right.
(10:54):
It's because, yeah, you don't go to Chick fil A
and you say thank you and the worker. What if
the worker said, you're welcome, it's my duty. What if
they said, it's my duty, and they handed you the
chicken nuggets. Thanks, I mean, but they say, oh, it's
my pleasure. Because they're communicating something. And it's the same
(11:14):
thing with God. We tell people be obedient to the Lord.
Jesus says, if anyone loves me, he'll keep my commandments.
He'll keep my word, and my father will love him.
We'll come in and make our home with him. John fourteen.
You can't make someone do that. Only or you can,
maybe for so long, and then it wears it and
you spin out. You can't say to Tyler, you got
(11:36):
to go to church, man, you gotta go to church,
even though I really would want you to go to church.
That's a true statement. But and you might go two
or three times, or your buddies might go two or
three times. Maybe they'll two or three years, but eventually
you'll go because you love to go.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
So probably one of the questions that you get, at
least I hear all the time imagining that you get
is what do I do if I just don't I
don't feel it here you guys talk about it. I
want that, Like the Morgan Wallen songs, I really know
I should be reading that thing more.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
It's on my nightstand. But I just I don't know.
I don't have it in me.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
What would you say for someone who doesn't want god desire?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I have a book coming out this followed about this
that we hopefully we'll talk a lot about these kind
of things coming up that we can get practical with.
But for now, I would say, it's it's either that
what you just said, Barker is either you're not a
Christian or you're very weak and you need milk. You
can't you can't handle solid food right now because you're
(12:43):
drinking milk. And why why? Then, we would say, why
are you immature in the faith? Why are you drinking milk?
Let's look at your Let's look at the church that
you're attending. What's what does that church look like? And
we could right there immediately we could probably find out, Oh,
there we go, who's discipling you? You go? Here's the church.
(13:05):
It's a megachurch. I'm not known there. It's a performance
based concert, lights smoke, pastor cannot be known. It's topical.
He's not preaching expositionally. It's he's kind of a celebrity guy.
I pop in and out of the seven services they
have on a Sunday, It's like, okay, well there's step one.
(13:29):
You're not being fed. And then I would say, what
your what would your what would your Bible reading look like?
You would probably say, oh, I read devotionals or I
have a daily Bible app that pops up that tells
me a daily verse that says, you know, something that
makes me feel good. I would say, what is your
(13:50):
What does sin look like in your life? Are you
hanging on to sin because sin is always connected to
these things? Are you are you watching things that are
inherently sinful because you're then you're absorbing the world. You're
conforming to the world in that. Are you listening to things?
Are you? Are you this is a nerve right here.
(14:12):
What I'm about to say. Are you spending your sundays
at motocross with your kid who's going to be a
motocross star or a baseball travel baseball team, or is
your daughter in a volleyball tournament three sundays a month
and you're driving and you're with her waking up in
a hotel for the sake of, you know, being a
(14:35):
good father. Then the result of that will always be
I don't feel like I love God, Like I don't
know how I could love God. So so the answer
is always, well, the Lord has to cultivate that love
we love because He first loved us, says First John
(14:56):
one nineteen. So the Lord does that, but it's cultivated
through ordinary means of grace. Let's let's recapture our sundays.
Let's get some kind of consistent Bible reading. Let's start.
Let's start amputating sin in our life. You know, and
when those things start to happen, Tyler's the perfect example.
(15:20):
When those things start to happen, you start to crave
solid food, You start to crave the goodness of God.
And when that craving happens, simultaneously you start loving it.
And then simultaneously you start not being satisfied with these
other things that you used to do. This is all
a chain reaction that happens, Parker, was your question. This
(15:43):
person is asking the question, how do I want to
go to church or how do I.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, like, I've talked to guys before that are like
I hear the way you guys talk about it, but
and like I'm interested, and I believe Christianity's true. I
just don't really I don't really feel anything.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
So I would I would say, man, and what an
I would tell that person, what an encouragement it is
for you to be asking this question. That is a
huge start school and this whole thing, asking that question.
And then I'll encourage him and say, you know, here's
some resources, here's some church, here's some church recommendations. I'll
go with you. I would say a prayer that I
(16:21):
still use to this day, is Lord, change my desires
to your desires. Whatever you want change change me like prayer,
like literally, you know, pray hard about that and he will.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Something that's really understated, I think is that question that
that prayer that you said of asking him to change
your desires. So it's like the question is I don't
desire God? What do I need to do? And it's
like you you can't in the flesh. Your flesh doesn't
(16:57):
want God. The Bible says that we're all dead, and
so like asking, you know, how does Jesus teach us
to pray? Pray like this our Father who's in heaven,
how it would be your name, your kingdom, your sovereign rule, come,
your will be done. Now you're like, you know make
me want your will more than my own, Like this
idea of kind of like it's almost like you're thinking,
(17:21):
like you can we have a temptation to just think
about it the wrong way? What do I do when
I don't desire God? I need to do all these things?
Which is true, Like you guys are saying, like change
your physical surroundings. What are you watching, what are you
listening to? What are you reading? Where are you going
on Sundays? And then also there's the posture even more
zoomed out of like have you asked do you do
(17:42):
you see your need? John through sixteen is great, John
three seventeen all stood condemned already? Do you know that
your status that you were once condemned in your sin?
And you must have a new heart? Have you prayed
for that heart and those new desires?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Nobody bookmarks right now? Like you guys are talking of
like oh verse verse Verson, I'm like, I can't don't
have enough fingers to stick in here. But man, this
is I love this conversation so much. This is completely
spun off. This this podcast is now I hold it's
entirely new direction. But that I think early in the
(18:20):
days and yes, there is the doing. There's a putting
off and a putting on, putting off and putting on
Ephesians four put off the old self and its old desires,
and then put on the new. So there there is
that doing. But ahead of it all the Lord does it.
We love because He first loved us. And that that
prayer that you're talking about Parker and Tyler, that is
(18:42):
so critical and I remember early days. Let me say
this too. They're gonna go to Psalms, aren't you. Yeah.
There was a comment on the last podcast that was,
like Grainger Granger talks, he it feels like he's been
studying the Bible for a lot longer than he has
twenty six years for twenty six not six. Well, I have,
(19:06):
that's that's a misconception. The Lord didn't save me until
twenty twenty, But I had known the Bible before. I
just didn't see it for the riches that it was.
That's the difference. John Wesley was a pastor when he
was saved. You could know the Bible and not be
(19:26):
saved and not see it as the treasure that it is.
See Christ, is that the treasure hidden in the field
that a man found and covered up, and in his
joy it goes and sells all that he outs and
buys that field. You could know the Bible before that
very well, you could have most Americans do. Yeah, so
early on that all that means said, early on, when
(19:47):
the Lord saved me and I saw the Bible, knew
I would see things like this. So I'm forty two.
Is that where you think I was gonna go? I
didn't know.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
We're talking about praying for affections and passion that sort of.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Let me show you a couple of things. Psalm forty two,
because this is the country boy, palm as a deer
pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you,
Oh God, my soul, thirst for God, for the living God.
And I would say I want that. I want to
(20:22):
I want to say that and mean it. You know
that's a good prayer. God give me this. Will you
give me this? As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, Oh God, my soul,
thirst for you. I want that. I want that thirst.
Contrast that or supplement that with Psalm sixty three to one,
(20:45):
so that Psalm forty two to one, Great Psalm sixty
three one, Oh God, you are my God. Earnestly I
seek you. My soul thirst for you, my flesh faints
for you. In a dry and weary land where there
is no water. What an image, right this, especially in Texas,
(21:07):
we we crave rain, and we could see the ground
when it starts to crack. It's just I Sometimes I've
sat out at Mom's and sat on the porch and
you could just see the land. The land is dying
without it. It's craving, it's it's it's it's only desire
is that the the heavens would open up and it
(21:28):
would it would could drink from its goodness. You know,
the flowers, the trees start to sag, the ground cracks,
and it's just as a dry and weary land where
there is no water. I thirst for you like that,
like that ground, like those flowers and those trees. That's
(21:49):
what I want from you. God, You give me all that.
And I would see things like this and say, God,
I want that create in me that kind of desire,
and that that is a good prayer that changes a man,
so that one day you're in Nashville and you're with
all your friends and you say, I Sirs, for God,
(22:12):
I will get that uber. I will leave my friends,
not because I'm going to look God, I went to church.
Aren't I doing good? I'm obedient.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
So all your buddies think about how Yeah, it's my duty.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
No, it's my pleasure to the God who saved me
and my buddies. May it be a witness to you,
But I'm not trying to prove anything to you. It's
totally different. And then, but selfishly too. What the Lord
gives you, what he gives us, you know, through worship,
through reading his word is like a Tesla car battery.
(22:47):
That's it needs to be plugged in. That's what I
was and am every day. Yeah, or a video game
when your your health is running low. And then just
going and worshiping and reading, you know, getting into prayer
and worshiping with other believe and reading his word just
refills you right up, like a dry and weary land.
As soon as it rains, man, as soon as that
sky opens up. I remember one time here at this house,
(23:12):
we went for a long time without rain, and I
remember seeing the rain came. It's sort of rains fall.
It's raining today, ironically, but the rain came and you
could see the trees start to move, they reposition, the
flowers start to like open in, the grass changes its
(23:32):
its stands. Imagine a pot that you have inside the house,
like Parker, the one at the office where you said
something like it's just on its We water it like
once every two weeks, and it just it slowly dies
and starts getting brown and drooping, and then as soon
as we put it in the water, it's just like
then the rest of that day is like just full of.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Green and the roller coaster of motions of this plant,
like it goes from just an inch of death till.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
All of a sudden, it's very abusive. Fled.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, yeah, some plant activists is going to be cold now,
you guys.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yeah. Another another classic, This is probably where Parker thought
was going to go. The classic is one is someone
nineteen and you know there's a there's many many examples
here Verse Tensas with my whole heart, I seek you,
let me not wonder from your commandments. I have stored
up your word in my heart that I might not
(24:33):
sin against you. Buster you a lord, teach me your statutes.
With my lips, I declare all the rules of your mouth.
And in the way of your testimonies. I delight as
much as in all riches. I will meditate on your
precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will
delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word.
We see things like this delight and and thirsting and disatisfying,
(25:00):
joyful language that flows from obedience. None of it is
my duty. If you told Ashley one day, if she
said you came home with flowers, and she said, thank you, honey,
and he said, that's my duty. I must do these
things to please you, because that's what a husband does,
(25:20):
she would say, take your flowers back, man, you know.
But you go, oh, it is my joy to serve you,
and I'll serve you till I have no more breath
left on this earth. And then she goes, yeah, thank you.
That's a totally different feeling than this is what I
must do.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Just to be a little more accurate, she'd keep the
flowers and kick me out.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
She wouldn't back. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
It reminds me of that spursion devotional on the Verse
that says you have not because you ask not, and
he's like, do you not have the zeal that you want?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Have?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
This most zealous pastor person that you know you wish
that you could follow God like they do. You have
not because you asked not. Are you struggling with sin
and you just can't get it off you and just
constantly feel guilty?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Have you prayed about it?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
You have not because you asked not.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I think that transitions nicely into this question about call
to ministry, because the the idea of someone in this
very common question, I get should I what should I do?
Or how do I discern a call the ministry? Or
I am called the ministry? What do I do it? First?
(26:32):
Can you here's my first question to you. Can you
say Psalm forty two to one or Psalm sixty three
to one and say that's me a thirst for God?
Or is it something else? And if that, if you
could pass that litmus test, then the Bible actually lays
out perfectly for us in a few places, one of
(26:54):
them being One Timothy chapter three, it says clearly qualifications
for or overseers. So this would this would be if
anyone says I feel a call to ministry, pastoral ministry,
chaplain ministry, anything where you want to lead and teach,
(27:14):
then you have two categories here. Qualification for overseas or
in qualifications for deacons, and should we walk through this
list park or should we do that quickly? Should we
comment on a few of them? Because this is how
it would start. And often when I hear people say
(27:36):
I'm called the ministry, the calling that they're talking about
is isolated and personal, and it should be qualified by
the church around you that has affirmed this calling. Does
that make sense? So you don't wake up in a
(27:57):
cave and go, Lord gave me a message that I
should go to go into ministry. Because to that, I
would say, first of all, every Christian is called to ministry.
It's totally forgotten. It's totally lost. All of us are
called to ministry. So what if you're talking about your
called to be a pastor, that's a different conversation. But
(28:19):
if you're called the ministry, I say, amen, you're reborn, welcome.
You know, we're called all of us to share the Gospel.
But the specific call to church leadership is always affirmed
by people around that. Would that could see in you
the qualification shad that say, if anyone aspires to the
(28:40):
office of overseer, he desires a noble task. So we start,
we'd start there. Aspire and desire are the words that
you're trying to say when you say call. So instead
of saying, I don't explain all this when someone asked
me a question, but when someone says, I I feel
a call to ministry. There's a seminary professor recently that
(29:03):
said if anyone says that, I always say what church?
Oh great, what church called you? Because it would be
a physical call from a church that says we want
you to come work for us on staff. That's not
what they mean. What the person asking the question intends
to say is they either aspire or desire. Those are
the better words. I aspire to be in church leadership.
(29:28):
I desire And Paul says that that's a good thing.
You want, that you feel that desire. Great, that's a
good thing, and then he gives the qualifications. Therefore, an
overseer must be above reproach. No one could look at
you and say that guy's got a lot of faults,
he's got a lot of sin going on. You must
(29:50):
be above that. I above that. The husband of one
wife pretty self explainatory. A one woman man is what
is somehow that that's translated. Sometimes a one woman man
and m HM and sober minded. It's funny how that
(30:11):
uh second the end of tewond Timothy Paul charges Timothy
to be sober minded in these things as well. It's
the only religion that calls us to think, not empty
our minds, but to think toler and I were just
in a Bible study with this earlier self controlled, respectable, hospitable,
(30:34):
able to teach. That's a big one. Able, the ability
to teach. Not a drunkard. Notice it doesn't say can't
touch alcohol. Not a drunkard. Not violent, but gentle, that's
a big one. Not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
(30:55):
He must manage his own household well with all dignity,
keeping his children submissive, or do the children respect and
love their father? Could say it that way too. For
someone does not know how to manage his own household,
how will he care for God's church. He must not
be a recent convert, or he may be puffed up
(31:17):
with conceit and fall into the combination of the devil. Moreover,
he must be well thought of by outsiders. Notice how
this is. None of this can be something that you
qualify yourself with just that line alone. He must be
well thought of by outsiders so that he may not
(31:37):
fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. And
then we go into qualification of deacons. But all of
this in the context what we would say of the
local church that can affirm these things. And so it's
not wrong to answer all the thousand times I get this,
(31:57):
it's not wrong to say I want to be a pastor.
But but it is wrong to self declare yourself ready.
And it's it's also it would be appropriate at that
point to start being discipled if you're not already and
(32:18):
showing evidence of your own discipling to others. Does this
make sense that would this be how you guys see
this as well? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Psalm thirty seven four kind of it shortly sums all
that up and is the first delighting in the Lord,
second desires of your heart. And you just brought up
both of those one the you know, the first part
with the other three psalms. There's two psalms that you
brought up. You know, are you delighting yourself in the Lord?
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I find it ironic that we're talking about this and
it's rain. You could hear the rain right now as
we're talking about rain on a weary land.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I don't think a lot of people would look at
the Bible or think that the I Will has any
indication of qualifications for it. So I think that that's
great thing to consider, is do I have people around
me who know these qualifications that could help me think
if I'm even qualified to aspire this, which, yay, helpful.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
So all that to say, it sounds like that to
the answer to those questions that you get. It sounds
like these people just needed to be very involved in
their local church and around those other believers and members
and pastors and elders of that church, helping serve in
any way they can, helping be available in any way
they can, And so these others can speak into him
(33:37):
and be like, hey, have you ever thought about doing this? Actually,
yeah I have, Yeah, we see this in you and
where you can help serve and yeah. One thing we
say at our church is if we ever hear someone
bring that up, it doesn't come up occasionally, it does.
We want to say, oh, well, tell us a little
bit about how you're currently serving. And you're currently evangelizing,
(33:59):
your loving your neighbor, you're currently discipling other men around you,
and we don't. It's not that's not a way to
like gotcha or trick you, you know, it's it's a
way to say, let's be thinking that our call to
ministry is universal to all Christians. We all have a
call to ministry and those that are aspiring to specifically
(34:20):
church leadership, like Paul is talking about here, this needs
to be known and affirmed by others around you. It's
not isolation. You don't get this in a cave. And
when I hear this from someone in the audience, I
feel called the ministry. What do I do? I always
(34:40):
say to many too many questions, I say, what does
your pastor say? And a lot of times they don't
have a pastor or a church, or they haven't told
the guy because they're in the megachurch.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I think something that is super helpful is that like
extra category that people don't even think about sometimes, which
is which is like you said, we're all called to ministry,
And like I was saying before this podcast, I remember
talking to a guy and he was like, I just
love meeting with Christians and just like helping young men
out with like their problems, helping them follow the Lord,
(35:14):
reading through scripture with them something about joining being on
staff at this church and just thinking that could be
great if you want to do that. But also like
you're kind of a Christian, just like to be a disciple,
to be a disciple of Jesus is to be discipling
others in some in some way. And so like if
(35:36):
you're like I just love I just love the Bible
and I love talking to people about Jesus and building
others up. Like it doesn't necessarily mean that you have
to be a pastor. Just be a member of your
local church and and love people. And Granger, is it
almost is it almost a how do you think, Granger,
You're the only pastor here? How do you think about it?
If you hear somebody talking about how much they want
(35:56):
to be a pastor? Is that almost a red flag
on your end?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yeah? Unfortunately, that word itself today in twenty twenty six
means nothing. The office of pastor means nothing.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Because people are just like I want to preach, because
it could be given to that's what they take.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, that word could be given to anybody. Like what's funny.
Sometimes I'll see an old country singer somewhere, not old
from my days of country music. I'll see somebody from
those old days that's currently in music and they'll go, man,
what are you doing these days? It's so good to
catch up. Tell me what you're doing, and I'll go,
(36:34):
what's crazy? Yet, I'm actually a pastor now. And every
time they go, I know, I've been watching on social media,
and I think I have never said that on social media.
They just assume Granger's on social media sharing the gospel.
He's a pastor. Now. Oh, they might have seen like
a news clip or an article that said you are
(36:56):
like your bio says pastor now. Maybe, but I think
it's more so just like what Parker's saying. They just
assume a guy that's on social media sharing the gospel
is fulfilling the role of pastor. But that word's just gone.
That that word always was intended to mean to carry
the idea of shepherd. That a shepherd in the context
(37:20):
of having a flock specific flock, not preacher. It's different
from peach a preacher. A pastor certainly can be a preacher,
and a preacher can certainly be a pastor, but those
things aren't totally exclusive to each other. Because the shepherd
idea carries the idea of you are in charge, or
you have the care it's a better word. You care
(37:43):
for people, and not just everybody, not just all Christians,
but you care for a specific, identified group of people.
In fact, Hebrews thirteen says that that pastors will be
held accountable for the souls of those people, which that's
that puts a lot of weight to this idea. But
(38:06):
preaching is just you know, preaching or or being an
evangelist is different. A pastor could certainly be an evangelist.
An evangelist can certainly be a pastor, but those things
are different. You can't that it doesn't all include the
same thing. But today's world, all those terms sort of
kind of lost their biblical idea. A pastor we would
(38:31):
know today if you said, are you a doctor, a lawyer,
construction worker, we would know that's what the guy does.
Not today when it comes to theological things, when it
comes to church leadership, they're all it's all smeared. We
don't really know. So one of them. One of the
things would we would want to just take back the
(38:53):
meaning of what does it mean to be a deacon?
For instance, Parker's a deacon, What it mean to be
a deacon because in many churches deacons are like the
board of trustee decision makers. That's not at all what
happens in the Book of Acts when the when when
we see the the first diaconal offices come to come
(39:16):
to be Well, that that's not they were never trustee
decision makers. But a lot of churches will carry that
term deacon and it's lost its meaning. Or pastors, like
you see a pastor, and you see a pastor that's
not pastoring. He's the head, you know, like the that
the CEO, the CEO, but yet he doesn't know any
(39:39):
of the people because it's chairman. Yeah. Yeah, So anyway,
what's your question, you're still crazy? Well you asked me
what I mean he was in a red flag, and
so I say, and I went off on that tangent
first of all, to just say, let's let's define what
(40:00):
you mean by that you want to be a pastor.
Let's define what you what that word means to you.
Because if you if you're seeing it like like Paul
is talking about here in First Timothy or how we
see it all through the New Testament, pastor and we
see shepherds in the Old Testament, then what's your capacity
(40:21):
of loving people? You know, because that it has to
come from a place of I love. I love people,
and I want, I desire to care for them and
walk them through scripture and teach them and and listen
to them, and and chase the ones that have strayed.
(40:42):
Then I would say you're good, you, you're good to
care for sheep. I wouldn't. I wouldn't jump that quickly
to it. But you know what I mean. It's not
I want to be the head of a church. That's
what we think these days, Like I want to be
a pastor to us these days means I want to
start a church, And that's detached from this idea anyway.
(41:08):
Does that makes sense? You share the gospel with us? Yeah,
because when we do episodes like this, I don't ever
want us to get so far down the road by
saying you should, you should, you should, you should think
of it this way, you should love God. I don't
(41:28):
ever get too far down the road of obedience without
connecting it to the means by which we can obey
at all, which is.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
The gospel we know John three sixteen. Even if you
don't know what it says you at least know the
verse you brought up three seventeen.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
What's that say?
Speaker 3 (41:45):
I don't think I know it off the top of
my head, but roundabout basically those who uh three sixteen
is implying that if you don't have Jesus then you
would perish. And seventeen talking about how actually the whole
world was condemned already, implying our need of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Why because Romans three says it. No one is righteous,
not one. No one understands, no one seeks God. All
have turned aside together, they have become worthless. No one
does good, not even one. But now the righteousness of
(42:28):
God has been manifested apart from the law, although the
law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness
of God through faith in Jesus for all who believe.
For there is no distinction, For all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God. All have fallen
short of the glory of God, and are justified by
(42:50):
His grace.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Amen. Obedience flows from that, not to earn anything, but
because it was already earned for us. Yeah. Amen, that's
the point of this podcast. See you guys next Monday.
I GI
What's up on Granger? I mean it, man, I'm Tyler,
I'm Parker. This is the ninety nine for one podcast
at the full Crew here today, walking through common questions
that I get whenever I travel speak. You get a few,
don't you get? I get a lot of questions and
and and some of them are exactly the same every time.
(00:21):
I could expect it every time today I want I
want to run down another one of these rabbit holes.
It doesn't matter where I go, there is always somebody
that's going to say something along the lines of how
do I know if I've been called to ministry? You
get that a lot, or I feel a call to ministry?
(00:42):
What do I do? Those are It's all part of
the same thing, Tyler. You went to Nashville for a wedding.
You actually had to miss one of these episodes and
you went to the to the wedding. But what was awesome?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Man?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
And I want to say it's before we get into
the question about being called to ministry moving to Nashville
to be a pastor. I don't want to say, just evidence
in all of us, everyone in this room, we see
this evidence of the changed man. And you go to
this wedding with all your friends, high school friends that
(01:22):
you love, you know, and you leave those guys on
Sunday morning to go gather with a local body of believers.
It's not your own body, but it's a like minded
church as ours, and you go with them all by yourself. Man,
And I want you to tell me about it. But
(01:44):
also you Parker, and I were on a text thread
with you, and I said, how was it? In fact,
I want to take your exact words, because the old
Tyler wouldn't have said something like this. Yeah, the old Tyler,
I said, because you gave us a picture of the
(02:07):
the worship guide and you said, great song line up today,
come you centers. His mercy is more be down my vision.
I replied, oh yeah, we did be down my vision.
Also love that one, And I said, and also we
did what a friend, we have a Jesus? How was
the service? And you said refreshing to my soul? Great?
(02:29):
I was like, WHOA did you catch that, Parker? Whoa
the old Tyler talking about those songs and that you know,
all by yourself out there the weekend of your buddy's wedding. Yeah, well,
first of all, it's not the it is the old Tyler.
But it's also you know, I'm not going to boast
(02:53):
at all about me. I'm going to boast only in
the Cross and Jesus, because it's all Him that's doing
that changing in me. But yeah, if you're listening and
you're in the national area, go to Edgefield Church. So
there's when I lived in Nashville, there was twenty five
hundred churches. That was early two thousands. I have to
(03:13):
say it's three thousand to four thousand churches. Now, why
would you pick one over the others. That's a whole
other episode. Okay, fair enough of healthy churches, and yeah,
that's a whole other I could But yeah, to your
point was the question.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
You could just you could just think about why Edgefield over?
Why'd you go to Edgefield on Sunday?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Because I've been there before with Granger. We know the pastor,
we know the teaching. We know it's expository preaching based
on you know, you know, line by line, word for word,
good healthy preaching, no lights and smoke and fancy stuff,
just the Gospel. But uh, yeah, to this whole point,
(03:56):
I think, correct me if I'm wrong. I've probably heard this,
but it was Vodei Bacham that said faith and repentance
are all that's needed for salvation and people it was
the Bible, the popular clip from Yeah Yeah, yeah, yes.
(04:16):
But he said then people will ask the question, well,
what about obedience, and Vodi said obedience is a result
of the faith and repentance. So yeah, so there's you know,
you're out at a wedding and it was like a
three or four day thing with best friends from high school.
And the obedience part was like, yeah, the old Tyler
(04:41):
just would have been I don't want to go and
just sleep in. It was a late night last night.
What do you guys doing. You can go work out
or something, but man, just the the love for the
Lord and wanting to obey him and get emotion. I'm
talking about all this, but it was just refreshing to
(05:10):
my soul. But there's there's also like a like a
I'm getting emotional because I just literally just got back
yesterday from all this. But there's a sadness for my
for my friends. You know, the broad is the way
(05:35):
to destruction and that path is easy, and I see
it with my friends and I desperately want them to
be saved. So I don't know what else to say.
It's just it's refreshing to my soul to go and
(05:57):
worship with with nobody, with all those people, and that
I knew none of them, but there was just a
sense of these are my brothers and sisters. And it
was like cool and leaving, leaving my brothers, my lifelong brothers,
you know, best friends. To go see these strangers and
be like, these are my brothers and sisters in Christ
(06:20):
that I'll spend eternity with. That's amazing, man. There there
is nothing like gathering with your your church, your your gathering,
your flock you're but but the the extension of that,
and the next door neighbor to that is gathering with
(06:44):
another flock of of the similar species you know, that
preaches the same gospel and the and they're like they
would be like minded and and and and ultimately that
all that all this required from what I'm saying, is
that they would be Christian and gathering with U. And
why am I saying this? I'm saying this because we
(07:05):
wouldn't recommend that every Sunday you just bounce around to
a different church. Wouldn't wouldn't say that. That's why I say,
there's nothing like eating with your family around the dinner table.
But if you're if you can't be with your family,
for instance, you're in a wedding in a couple of
states away, you would go to another house that's serving
the same meal, and you would go, this is great.
(07:26):
I love this. There is such an assurance in my
own heart of salvation. There's such a there's such a
presence of Christ his spirit that bears witness within me.
And in the simple idea that it doesn't make sense
to walk into a building with strangers and feel totally loved,
(07:52):
and not only feel loved, but you loved them there
that does. You cannot explain it because it doesn't happen
in any of the thing. It doesn't happen in college
football fans fandom, it doesn't happen in an man's wrestling groups.
You could have something so incommon, so in common with people,
(08:15):
and I have been to speaking events that are like
secular galas and just felt so alone around people that
look like me, dress like me, listen to you know
the same things as I do, and yet I feel
so alone because I'm not one of them. And then
I'll go to overseas. The people that don't look like me,
(08:38):
don't dress like me, don't even speak my language, and
they're my family, and I love them and they love me,
and I would literally die for them, and they die
for me. That right there cannot be explained in anything
else outside of the spirit of God, that kind of unity.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Klormisl In Matthew Jesus speaking, and it says, while Jesus
was speaking to the people, his mother and his brothers
stood outside, asking to speak with Jesus. But he replied,
who is my mother and who are my brothers? And
he stretched out his hand towards his disciples, and he said,
here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the
will of my Father in heaven is my brother and
(09:17):
sister and mother. And Jesus identifying with all the people
doing the will of his Father, doesn't matter how biologically.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Close you are.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
It's like, those followers of Christ are your brothers.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Going back to what Tyler said about vote, those are
those people that Jesus says are my brothers and sisters.
Are people that are doing the will of the Father,
But not because the doing is earning them. They're right,
it's because that's the result of my people is what
do my people look like they obey God. Yeah, that's
(09:52):
a good point. And I've been thinking about this so
much lately. This is such a common concept and there's
nothing crazy about it. We we hear we hear John
Piper preaching about all the time, and and but it's
it's such an easy way to understand why we we
would be obedient, or why Tyler would want to get
(10:12):
up and go gather with that body. We don't do
anything in life that's hard or that's out of the
ordinary unless we love it. And man, you don't you
don't serve ask your wife out of duty. Maybe duty
(10:33):
is way down the line, but it all flows from
the beginning. The beginning of it is, oh, you know
why I love her. I love her. I will do
things for her because I love her. It's like when
you go to Chick fil A and they say it's
not a thought either, Yes, it's not a thought, like
you don't go hang on. It's like, oh, yeah, that's right.
(10:54):
It's because, yeah, you don't go to Chick fil A
and you say thank you and the worker. What if
the worker said, you're welcome, it's my duty. What if
they said, it's my duty, and they handed you the
chicken nuggets. Thanks, I mean, but they say, oh, it's
my pleasure. Because they're communicating something. And it's the same
(11:14):
thing with God. We tell people be obedient to the Lord.
Jesus says, if anyone loves me, he'll keep my commandments.
He'll keep my word, and my father will love him.
We'll come in and make our home with him. John fourteen.
You can't make someone do that. Only or you can,
maybe for so long, and then it wears it and
you spin out. You can't say to Tyler, you got
(11:36):
to go to church, man, you gotta go to church,
even though I really would want you to go to church.
That's a true statement. But and you might go two
or three times, or your buddies might go two or
three times. Maybe they'll two or three years, but eventually
you'll go because you love to go.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
So probably one of the questions that you get, at
least I hear all the time imagining that you get
is what do I do if I just don't I
don't feel it here you guys talk about it. I
want that, Like the Morgan Wallen songs, I really know
I should be reading that thing more.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
It's on my nightstand. But I just I don't know.
I don't have it in me.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
What would you say for someone who doesn't want god desire?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I have a book coming out this followed about this
that we hopefully we'll talk a lot about these kind
of things coming up that we can get practical with.
But for now, I would say, it's it's either that
what you just said, Barker is either you're not a
Christian or you're very weak and you need milk. You
can't you can't handle solid food right now because you're
(12:43):
drinking milk. And why why? Then, we would say, why
are you immature in the faith? Why are you drinking milk?
Let's look at your Let's look at the church that
you're attending. What's what does that church look like? And
we could right there immediately we could probably find out, Oh,
there we go, who's discipling you? You go? Here's the church.
(13:05):
It's a megachurch. I'm not known there. It's a performance
based concert, lights smoke, pastor cannot be known. It's topical.
He's not preaching expositionally. It's he's kind of a celebrity guy.
I pop in and out of the seven services they
have on a Sunday, It's like, okay, well there's step one.
(13:29):
You're not being fed. And then I would say, what
your what would your what would your Bible reading look like?
You would probably say, oh, I read devotionals or I
have a daily Bible app that pops up that tells
me a daily verse that says, you know, something that
makes me feel good. I would say, what is your
(13:50):
What does sin look like in your life? Are you
hanging on to sin because sin is always connected to
these things? Are you are you watching things that are
inherently sinful because you're then you're absorbing the world. You're
conforming to the world in that. Are you listening to things?
Are you? Are you this is a nerve right here.
(14:12):
What I'm about to say. Are you spending your sundays
at motocross with your kid who's going to be a
motocross star or a baseball travel baseball team, or is
your daughter in a volleyball tournament three sundays a month
and you're driving and you're with her waking up in
a hotel for the sake of, you know, being a
(14:35):
good father. Then the result of that will always be
I don't feel like I love God, Like I don't
know how I could love God. So so the answer
is always, well, the Lord has to cultivate that love
we love because He first loved us, says First John
(14:56):
one nineteen. So the Lord does that, but it's cultivated
through ordinary means of grace. Let's let's recapture our sundays.
Let's get some kind of consistent Bible reading. Let's start.
Let's start amputating sin in our life. You know, and
when those things start to happen, Tyler's the perfect example.
(15:20):
When those things start to happen, you start to crave
solid food, You start to crave the goodness of God.
And when that craving happens, simultaneously you start loving it.
And then simultaneously you start not being satisfied with these
other things that you used to do. This is all
a chain reaction that happens, Parker, was your question. This
(15:43):
person is asking the question, how do I want to
go to church or how do I.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, like, I've talked to guys before that are like
I hear the way you guys talk about it, but
and like I'm interested, and I believe Christianity's true. I
just don't really I don't really feel anything.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
So I would I would say, man, and what an
I would tell that person, what an encouragement it is
for you to be asking this question. That is a
huge start school and this whole thing, asking that question.
And then I'll encourage him and say, you know, here's
some resources, here's some church, here's some church recommendations. I'll
go with you. I would say a prayer that I
(16:21):
still use to this day, is Lord, change my desires
to your desires. Whatever you want change change me like prayer,
like literally, you know, pray hard about that and he will.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Something that's really understated, I think is that question that
that prayer that you said of asking him to change
your desires. So it's like the question is I don't
desire God? What do I need to do? And it's
like you you can't in the flesh. Your flesh doesn't
(16:57):
want God. The Bible says that we're all dead, and
so like asking, you know, how does Jesus teach us
to pray? Pray like this our Father who's in heaven,
how it would be your name, your kingdom, your sovereign rule, come,
your will be done. Now you're like, you know make
me want your will more than my own, Like this
idea of kind of like it's almost like you're thinking,
(17:21):
like you can we have a temptation to just think
about it the wrong way? What do I do when
I don't desire God? I need to do all these things?
Which is true, Like you guys are saying, like change
your physical surroundings. What are you watching, what are you
listening to? What are you reading? Where are you going
on Sundays? And then also there's the posture even more
zoomed out of like have you asked do you do
(17:42):
you see your need? John through sixteen is great, John
three seventeen all stood condemned already? Do you know that
your status that you were once condemned in your sin?
And you must have a new heart? Have you prayed
for that heart and those new desires?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Nobody bookmarks right now? Like you guys are talking of
like oh verse verse Verson, I'm like, I can't don't
have enough fingers to stick in here. But man, this
is I love this conversation so much. This is completely
spun off. This this podcast is now I hold it's
entirely new direction. But that I think early in the
(18:20):
days and yes, there is the doing. There's a putting
off and a putting on, putting off and putting on
Ephesians four put off the old self and its old desires,
and then put on the new. So there there is
that doing. But ahead of it all the Lord does it.
We love because He first loved us. And that that
prayer that you're talking about Parker and Tyler, that is
(18:42):
so critical and I remember early days. Let me say
this too. They're gonna go to Psalms, aren't you. Yeah.
There was a comment on the last podcast that was,
like Grainger Granger talks, he it feels like he's been
studying the Bible for a lot longer than he has
twenty six years for twenty six not six. Well, I have,
(19:06):
that's that's a misconception. The Lord didn't save me until
twenty twenty, But I had known the Bible before. I
just didn't see it for the riches that it was.
That's the difference. John Wesley was a pastor when he
was saved. You could know the Bible and not be
(19:26):
saved and not see it as the treasure that it is.
See Christ, is that the treasure hidden in the field
that a man found and covered up, and in his
joy it goes and sells all that he outs and
buys that field. You could know the Bible before that
very well, you could have most Americans do. Yeah, so
early on that all that means said, early on, when
(19:47):
the Lord saved me and I saw the Bible, knew
I would see things like this. So I'm forty two.
Is that where you think I was gonna go? I
didn't know.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
We're talking about praying for affections and passion that sort of.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Let me show you a couple of things. Psalm forty two,
because this is the country boy, palm as a deer
pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you,
Oh God, my soul, thirst for God, for the living God.
And I would say I want that. I want to
(20:22):
I want to say that and mean it. You know
that's a good prayer. God give me this. Will you
give me this? As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, Oh God, my soul,
thirst for you. I want that. I want that thirst.
Contrast that or supplement that with Psalm sixty three to one,
(20:45):
so that Psalm forty two to one, Great Psalm sixty
three one, Oh God, you are my God. Earnestly I
seek you. My soul thirst for you, my flesh faints
for you. In a dry and weary land where there
is no water. What an image, right this, especially in Texas,
(21:07):
we we crave rain, and we could see the ground
when it starts to crack. It's just I Sometimes I've
sat out at Mom's and sat on the porch and
you could just see the land. The land is dying
without it. It's craving, it's it's it's it's only desire
is that the the heavens would open up and it
(21:28):
would it would could drink from its goodness. You know,
the flowers, the trees start to sag, the ground cracks,
and it's just as a dry and weary land where
there is no water. I thirst for you like that,
like that ground, like those flowers and those trees. That's
(21:49):
what I want from you. God, You give me all that.
And I would see things like this and say, God,
I want that create in me that kind of desire,
and that that is a good prayer that changes a man,
so that one day you're in Nashville and you're with
all your friends and you say, I Sirs, for God,
(22:12):
I will get that uber. I will leave my friends,
not because I'm going to look God, I went to church.
Aren't I doing good? I'm obedient.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
So all your buddies think about how Yeah, it's my duty.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
No, it's my pleasure to the God who saved me
and my buddies. May it be a witness to you,
But I'm not trying to prove anything to you. It's
totally different. And then, but selfishly too. What the Lord
gives you, what he gives us, you know, through worship,
through reading his word is like a Tesla car battery.
(22:47):
That's it needs to be plugged in. That's what I
was and am every day. Yeah, or a video game
when your your health is running low. And then just
going and worshiping and reading, you know, getting into prayer
and worshiping with other believe and reading his word just
refills you right up, like a dry and weary land.
As soon as it rains, man, as soon as that
sky opens up. I remember one time here at this house,
(23:12):
we went for a long time without rain, and I
remember seeing the rain came. It's sort of rains fall.
It's raining today, ironically, but the rain came and you
could see the trees start to move, they reposition, the
flowers start to like open in, the grass changes its
(23:32):
its stands. Imagine a pot that you have inside the house,
like Parker, the one at the office where you said
something like it's just on its We water it like
once every two weeks, and it just it slowly dies
and starts getting brown and drooping, and then as soon
as we put it in the water, it's just like
then the rest of that day is like just full of.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Green and the roller coaster of motions of this plant,
like it goes from just an inch of death till.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
All of a sudden, it's very abusive. Fled.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, yeah, some plant activists is going to be cold now,
you guys.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yeah. Another another classic, This is probably where Parker thought
was going to go. The classic is one is someone
nineteen and you know there's a there's many many examples
here Verse Tensas with my whole heart, I seek you,
let me not wonder from your commandments. I have stored
up your word in my heart that I might not
(24:33):
sin against you. Buster you a lord, teach me your statutes.
With my lips, I declare all the rules of your mouth.
And in the way of your testimonies. I delight as
much as in all riches. I will meditate on your
precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will
delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word.
We see things like this delight and and thirsting and disatisfying,
(25:00):
joyful language that flows from obedience. None of it is
my duty. If you told Ashley one day, if she
said you came home with flowers, and she said, thank you, honey,
and he said, that's my duty. I must do these
things to please you, because that's what a husband does,
(25:20):
she would say, take your flowers back, man, you know.
But you go, oh, it is my joy to serve you,
and I'll serve you till I have no more breath
left on this earth. And then she goes, yeah, thank you.
That's a totally different feeling than this is what I
must do.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Just to be a little more accurate, she'd keep the
flowers and kick me out.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
She wouldn't back. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
It reminds me of that spursion devotional on the Verse
that says you have not because you ask not, and
he's like, do you not have the zeal that you want?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Have?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
This most zealous pastor person that you know you wish
that you could follow God like they do. You have
not because you asked not. Are you struggling with sin
and you just can't get it off you and just
constantly feel guilty?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Have you prayed about it?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
You have not because you asked not.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I think that transitions nicely into this question about call
to ministry, because the the idea of someone in this
very common question, I get should I what should I do?
Or how do I discern a call the ministry? Or
I am called the ministry? What do I do it? First?
(26:32):
Can you here's my first question to you. Can you
say Psalm forty two to one or Psalm sixty three
to one and say that's me a thirst for God?
Or is it something else? And if that, if you
could pass that litmus test, then the Bible actually lays
out perfectly for us in a few places, one of
(26:54):
them being One Timothy chapter three, it says clearly qualifications
for or overseers. So this would this would be if
anyone says I feel a call to ministry, pastoral ministry,
chaplain ministry, anything where you want to lead and teach,
(27:14):
then you have two categories here. Qualification for overseas or
in qualifications for deacons, and should we walk through this
list park or should we do that quickly? Should we
comment on a few of them? Because this is how
it would start. And often when I hear people say
(27:36):
I'm called the ministry, the calling that they're talking about
is isolated and personal, and it should be qualified by
the church around you that has affirmed this calling. Does
that make sense? So you don't wake up in a
(27:57):
cave and go, Lord gave me a message that I
should go to go into ministry. Because to that, I
would say, first of all, every Christian is called to ministry.
It's totally forgotten. It's totally lost. All of us are
called to ministry. So what if you're talking about your
called to be a pastor, that's a different conversation. But
(28:19):
if you're called the ministry, I say, amen, you're reborn, welcome.
You know, we're called all of us to share the Gospel.
But the specific call to church leadership is always affirmed
by people around that. Would that could see in you
the qualification shad that say, if anyone aspires to the
(28:40):
office of overseer, he desires a noble task. So we start,
we'd start there. Aspire and desire are the words that
you're trying to say when you say call. So instead
of saying, I don't explain all this when someone asked
me a question, but when someone says, I I feel
a call to ministry. There's a seminary professor recently that
(29:03):
said if anyone says that, I always say what church?
Oh great, what church called you? Because it would be
a physical call from a church that says we want
you to come work for us on staff. That's not
what they mean. What the person asking the question intends
to say is they either aspire or desire. Those are
the better words. I aspire to be in church leadership.
(29:28):
I desire And Paul says that that's a good thing.
You want, that you feel that desire. Great, that's a
good thing, and then he gives the qualifications. Therefore, an
overseer must be above reproach. No one could look at
you and say that guy's got a lot of faults,
he's got a lot of sin going on. You must
(29:50):
be above that. I above that. The husband of one
wife pretty self explainatory. A one woman man is what
is somehow that that's translated. Sometimes a one woman man
and m HM and sober minded. It's funny how that
(30:11):
uh second the end of tewond Timothy Paul charges Timothy
to be sober minded in these things as well. It's
the only religion that calls us to think, not empty
our minds, but to think toler and I were just
in a Bible study with this earlier self controlled, respectable, hospitable,
(30:34):
able to teach. That's a big one. Able, the ability
to teach. Not a drunkard. Notice it doesn't say can't
touch alcohol. Not a drunkard. Not violent, but gentle, that's
a big one. Not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
(30:55):
He must manage his own household well with all dignity,
keeping his children submissive, or do the children respect and
love their father? Could say it that way too. For
someone does not know how to manage his own household,
how will he care for God's church. He must not
be a recent convert, or he may be puffed up
(31:17):
with conceit and fall into the combination of the devil. Moreover,
he must be well thought of by outsiders. Notice how
this is. None of this can be something that you
qualify yourself with just that line alone. He must be
well thought of by outsiders so that he may not
(31:37):
fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. And
then we go into qualification of deacons. But all of
this in the context what we would say of the
local church that can affirm these things. And so it's
not wrong to answer all the thousand times I get this,
(31:57):
it's not wrong to say I want to be a pastor.
But but it is wrong to self declare yourself ready.
And it's it's also it would be appropriate at that
point to start being discipled if you're not already and
(32:18):
showing evidence of your own discipling to others. Does this
make sense that would this be how you guys see
this as well? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Psalm thirty seven four kind of it shortly sums all
that up and is the first delighting in the Lord,
second desires of your heart. And you just brought up
both of those one the you know, the first part
with the other three psalms. There's two psalms that you
brought up. You know, are you delighting yourself in the Lord?
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I find it ironic that we're talking about this and
it's rain. You could hear the rain right now as
we're talking about rain on a weary land.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I don't think a lot of people would look at
the Bible or think that the I Will has any
indication of qualifications for it. So I think that that's
great thing to consider, is do I have people around
me who know these qualifications that could help me think
if I'm even qualified to aspire this, which, yay, helpful.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
So all that to say, it sounds like that to
the answer to those questions that you get. It sounds
like these people just needed to be very involved in
their local church and around those other believers and members
and pastors and elders of that church, helping serve in
any way they can, helping be available in any way
they can, And so these others can speak into him
(33:37):
and be like, hey, have you ever thought about doing this? Actually,
yeah I have, Yeah, we see this in you and
where you can help serve and yeah. One thing we
say at our church is if we ever hear someone
bring that up, it doesn't come up occasionally, it does.
We want to say, oh, well, tell us a little
bit about how you're currently serving. And you're currently evangelizing,
(33:59):
your loving your neighbor, you're currently discipling other men around you,
and we don't. It's not that's not a way to
like gotcha or trick you, you know, it's it's a
way to say, let's be thinking that our call to
ministry is universal to all Christians. We all have a
call to ministry and those that are aspiring to specifically
(34:20):
church leadership, like Paul is talking about here, this needs
to be known and affirmed by others around you. It's
not isolation. You don't get this in a cave. And
when I hear this from someone in the audience, I
feel called the ministry. What do I do? I always
(34:40):
say to many too many questions, I say, what does
your pastor say? And a lot of times they don't
have a pastor or a church, or they haven't told
the guy because they're in the megachurch.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I think something that is super helpful is that like
extra category that people don't even think about sometimes, which
is which is like you said, we're all called to ministry,
And like I was saying before this podcast, I remember
talking to a guy and he was like, I just
love meeting with Christians and just like helping young men
out with like their problems, helping them follow the Lord,
(35:14):
reading through scripture with them something about joining being on
staff at this church and just thinking that could be
great if you want to do that. But also like
you're kind of a Christian, just like to be a disciple,
to be a disciple of Jesus is to be discipling
others in some in some way. And so like if
(35:36):
you're like I just love I just love the Bible
and I love talking to people about Jesus and building
others up. Like it doesn't necessarily mean that you have
to be a pastor. Just be a member of your
local church and and love people. And Granger, is it
almost is it almost a how do you think, Granger,
You're the only pastor here? How do you think about it?
If you hear somebody talking about how much they want
(35:56):
to be a pastor? Is that almost a red flag
on your end?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yeah? Unfortunately, that word itself today in twenty twenty six
means nothing. The office of pastor means nothing.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Because people are just like I want to preach, because
it could be given to that's what they take.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, that word could be given to anybody. Like what's funny.
Sometimes I'll see an old country singer somewhere, not old
from my days of country music. I'll see somebody from
those old days that's currently in music and they'll go, man,
what are you doing these days? It's so good to
catch up. Tell me what you're doing, and I'll go,
(36:34):
what's crazy? Yet, I'm actually a pastor now. And every
time they go, I know, I've been watching on social media,
and I think I have never said that on social media.
They just assume Granger's on social media sharing the gospel.
He's a pastor. Now. Oh, they might have seen like
a news clip or an article that said you are
(36:56):
like your bio says pastor now. Maybe, but I think
it's more so just like what Parker's saying. They just
assume a guy that's on social media sharing the gospel
is fulfilling the role of pastor. But that word's just gone.
That that word always was intended to mean to carry
the idea of shepherd. That a shepherd in the context
(37:20):
of having a flock specific flock, not preacher. It's different
from peach a preacher. A pastor certainly can be a preacher,
and a preacher can certainly be a pastor, but those
things aren't totally exclusive to each other. Because the shepherd
idea carries the idea of you are in charge, or
you have the care it's a better word. You care
(37:43):
for people, and not just everybody, not just all Christians,
but you care for a specific, identified group of people.
In fact, Hebrews thirteen says that that pastors will be
held accountable for the souls of those people, which that's
that puts a lot of weight to this idea. But
(38:06):
preaching is just you know, preaching or or being an
evangelist is different. A pastor could certainly be an evangelist.
An evangelist can certainly be a pastor, but those things
are different. You can't that it doesn't all include the
same thing. But today's world, all those terms sort of
kind of lost their biblical idea. A pastor we would
(38:31):
know today if you said, are you a doctor, a lawyer,
construction worker, we would know that's what the guy does.
Not today when it comes to theological things, when it
comes to church leadership, they're all it's all smeared. We
don't really know. So one of them. One of the
things would we would want to just take back the
(38:53):
meaning of what does it mean to be a deacon?
For instance, Parker's a deacon, What it mean to be
a deacon because in many churches deacons are like the
board of trustee decision makers. That's not at all what
happens in the Book of Acts when the when when
we see the the first diaconal offices come to come
(39:16):
to be Well, that that's not they were never trustee
decision makers. But a lot of churches will carry that
term deacon and it's lost its meaning. Or pastors, like
you see a pastor, and you see a pastor that's
not pastoring. He's the head, you know, like the that
the CEO, the CEO, but yet he doesn't know any
(39:39):
of the people because it's chairman. Yeah. Yeah, So anyway,
what's your question, you're still crazy? Well you asked me
what I mean he was in a red flag, and
so I say, and I went off on that tangent
first of all, to just say, let's let's define what
(40:00):
you mean by that you want to be a pastor.
Let's define what you what that word means to you.
Because if you if you're seeing it like like Paul
is talking about here in First Timothy or how we
see it all through the New Testament, pastor and we
see shepherds in the Old Testament, then what's your capacity
(40:21):
of loving people? You know, because that it has to
come from a place of I love. I love people,
and I want, I desire to care for them and
walk them through scripture and teach them and and listen
to them, and and chase the ones that have strayed.
(40:42):
Then I would say you're good, you, you're good to
care for sheep. I wouldn't. I wouldn't jump that quickly
to it. But you know what I mean. It's not
I want to be the head of a church. That's
what we think these days, Like I want to be
a pastor to us these days means I want to
start a church, And that's detached from this idea anyway.
(41:08):
Does that makes sense? You share the gospel with us? Yeah,
because when we do episodes like this, I don't ever
want us to get so far down the road by
saying you should, you should, you should, you should think
of it this way, you should love God. I don't
(41:28):
ever get too far down the road of obedience without
connecting it to the means by which we can obey
at all, which is.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
The gospel we know John three sixteen. Even if you
don't know what it says you at least know the
verse you brought up three seventeen.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
What's that say?
Speaker 3 (41:45):
I don't think I know it off the top of
my head, but roundabout basically those who uh three sixteen
is implying that if you don't have Jesus then you
would perish. And seventeen talking about how actually the whole
world was condemned already, implying our need of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Why because Romans three says it. No one is righteous,
not one. No one understands, no one seeks God. All
have turned aside together, they have become worthless. No one
does good, not even one. But now the righteousness of
(42:28):
God has been manifested apart from the law, although the
law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness
of God through faith in Jesus for all who believe.
For there is no distinction, For all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God. All have fallen
short of the glory of God, and are justified by
(42:50):
His grace.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Amen. Obedience flows from that, not to earn anything, but
because it was already earned for us. Yeah. Amen, that's
the point of this podcast. See you guys next Monday.
I GI
Host
Granger Smith
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