October 22, 2025 • 38 mins
Nurse practitioner and content creator Courtnee Stagner went from “checking religious boxes” and numbing pain with partying to discovering the gospel... even when she didn't want to!
We talk about the difference between works and grace, why “Sunday-only” faith leaves you empty, how daily Scripture changes you, her sobriety since Easter, abiding in John 15, and how comedy, medicine, and faith collide in the Stagner family. If you’ve felt the void—even with the job, car, and letters after your name—this one’s for you.
Resources:
Courtnee Stagner — Instagram: @courtneestagner (Bible group link in bio)
Courtnee Stagner — TikTok: @courtneestagner12.
Justin Stagner — Instagram & tickets: @justin.stagner + ticket link in bio
The Bible Recap: www.thebiblerecap.com
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary (free online): https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/
The Chosen — Watch/learn more: https://thechosen.tv
Timestamps:
0:00 – Meet Courtnee: nursing, comedy collabs with Justin, the “Southern grandpa” bit, and medical-term skits
5:00 – “Make God go away”: partying, grief, coping, and conviction
7:30 – The house-church invite, hearing plain gospel, and the moment it finally clicked
10:30 – Grace vs. works: why “too easy” isn’t cheap grace—and why real grace changes you
12:20 – The void: chasing success, degrees, and the next hit of achievement
14:40 – Confession time: living like a Christian in name only (both of our stories)
17:30 – Surrender: The Chosen fish moment—turning and swimming upstream
19:45 – Why a Bible-centering church matters (and why motivational Sundays won’t sustain you)
24:10 – Don’t forsake meeting together: community, accountability, and growth
29:00 – Daily bread: Bible Recap, Matthew Henry + Tara-Leigh Cobble, and a simple rhythm
30:30 – Sobriety since Easter: replacing substitutes with Jesus
33:20 – Seeing Jesus on every page of the Old Testament
36:10 – Prayer and abiding (John 15): fruit is the byproduct, not the assignment
38:10 – Where to find Courtnee & Justin and her Bible group
For more information about RevRx or Man Alive Men's Life Coaching, visit www.manalivecoaching.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Rev RX
Podcast. My name is Chad Potts and I'm
your host today. I'm so excited for you to meet
my new friend, Courtney Stagner.If you don't know about her, she
is a social media influencer. Her and her husband have really
taken off as content creators. But one of the things I love
about what Courtney's doing is she's using her platform not for
(00:34):
personal gain, but she's using her platform to spread the good
news of the gospel. Today we're going to dive into
her testimony. We're going to talk about what
happened when a girl that was born and raised in the Bible
Belt really didn't understand about Christianity, what it took
for her life to turn around and the difference that Jesus Christ
has made in her life. Today we're going to dig into
(00:56):
the basics of following Jesus. We're going to talk about Bible
study. We're going to talk about
prayer. We're going to talk about if
it's important or not to go to alocal church or can you just do
Christianity on your own. We're going to dig into some of
those tough things, but you're going to love the authenticity
and just how open and honest Courtney is about her walk and
her experience with a God that never left her, that continued
(01:19):
to pursue her and who changed her life and is continuing to do
so even today. So without further ado, I
introduced to you my friend Courtney.
Courtney, what a privilege it isto have you here on the Rev RX
Podcast. Finally, right.
All right, Thank you. We.
Have we've missed each other back and forth a little bit?
(01:39):
And I tell you what I told you before, this is going to be epic
when we get it. I will make sure.
I will make sure it's epic. Absolutely.
Well, Courtney, I started following you and your husband
Justin on social media not long ago.
You guys have really taken off your your influencers and I, I
just told you how much I appreciate the positive,
encouraging messages you guys put out there.
(02:00):
You're bringing last of people. We need that man in a world
that's so shaken right now by division and hate and all that,
sometimes just refreshing to turn it on and be like, all
right, what's Courtney and Justin doing today?
That's all. That is our main goal, as long
as we can make people laugh. I get messages all the time
saying you have no idea what your content means to me and
that is why we do it. That's incredible.
(02:21):
But I want to give you an opportunity to just tell us who
is Courtney? How'd you get here today?
I know it's kind of a loaded question, but just gonna give us
the overview of how did you get to this place where you have now
reached your peak on the Rev RX podcast?
Well, thank you for having me. I feel very honored.
I can't believe I'm actually being asked to be on podcasts.
That is amazing to me. So it started out, I am a nurse
(02:44):
practitioner. I have a husband who has always
wanted to do comedy. We would try to go viral so many
times and he just couldn't get his little niche.
What would go viral? So one day I was sitting, I was
doing Bible study at the kitchentable.
And I said something like somebody is Hogan something?
And he said, did you just say hogging?
(03:05):
And I said yeah. And he said, you mean hogging
like it? They're hogging it.
And I said, yeah, he goes say that again.
And he recorded me and it ended up being uploaded to TikTok and
it took off. And he said, well, if she can
take off, I'm way funnier than she is.
So he said, let's do let's let'skind of do more of a, a southern
grandpa type of figure. And his grandfather is so funny.
(03:28):
And so his character, the southern grandpa is kind of
built off of that. And so he started getting
followers and of course people followed me because I would be
in the videos. And I said, well, you know, I'm
getting all these followers. Why don't I?
I try to target a different demographic.
So we did the the medical terminology because me and his
best friend Jake are both nurse practitioners.
(03:50):
And we would just we would talk medical to each other when we
would see each other. And he would like, Oh yeah, I
know what that means. So he said, you know, let's kind
of do that. Let's do medical terms, but let,
let me do the comedy thing. And he said, and we can just
have like more of a couple's medical kind of get that
demographic. And so we did that and it, I had
no idea it would take off the way that it did.
(04:12):
We haven't done one in a while, but we've had a lot going on.
But people have just been asking.
So we're we're going to have to put some out there soon.
That's kind of where we are. As a pharmacist, I have a
request, right? Can I can do you take?
Sure, yes. Anything.
Let's do some drug names, right?Because, you know, I feel like
drug names are just like people put a bunch of letters together
(04:32):
and try to make it as hard as possible.
So yeah, we'll be looking for for the next one to come out.
That's where I started followingyou guys.
I guess the algorithm with me being a pharmacist popped up
like, hey, medical terminology. And I just fell out laughing the
first time I saw it. Because if you guys hadn't seen
it, we'll put some links up. But she holds up a A card and it
(04:52):
has a medical term. And it's, you know, it's
something crazy hard to pronounce, you know, something
very technical and you just don't know, Like, say it in his
southern way. For the record, Courtney's in
Alabama, right? Yeah.
OK. Yeah.
Could have done without that. I'll let it that part out.
And I'm in Georgia next door. Go dogs, but y'all won this year
(05:16):
so I can't say a whole lot, but I I love that him make like
guessing the meaning of that medical term because let's face
it, you know some of those are just hilarious and that's.
How they come up with the names?I don't either.
I don't either but but hey, maybe a drug ones in your future
that'd be that'd. Be cool we we have gotten
requests. We'll have to do it.
I'll make sure that's our next one.
(05:37):
Love it, love it. What I really liked about you is
I, you know, I followed your content and all this, but then
you begin to post more about your faith.
And so that's, you know, it's kind of where my worlds meet.
I'm a pastor and I'm a pharmacist.
You know, that that really, hey,the algorithm actually worked
there because that's really the kind of stuff I want to see.
(05:57):
And that that immediately kind of drew me to the stack.
Nurse was like, hey, man, look, she's sharing about her faith.
She's sharing about turning her life around.
She's talk talking about turningher life over to Lord.
Always post an encouraging, positive Christian messages out
there. So I'd love just give you an
opportunity to talk about what your faith means to you and kind
of where did that shift happen in your life?
(06:19):
OK, my faith is the utmost important thing, and without
faith I would just be nothing. I have been without faith, I've
been without Jesus Christ in my life and I do not ever want to
go back there again. And that shift really happened.
I grew up Catholic in the Catholic Church.
I went to Catholic school. And if you don't know much about
(06:41):
the Catholicism, that type of religion is a religion of works.
And so I was constantly working and working and working so hard
for something I would never be able to attain.
And so when I was in my early 20s, when I became a nurse and
had money to, like, actually go out and party, I partied.
(07:03):
And it got me in a dark place. And I said, well, why not?
Because according to this doctrine, I'm never going to go
to heaven. So I might as well just, you
know, eat, drink, be merry for tomorrow I die.
So I had, you know, I got into some really dark, you know, my
drinking or whatever. It got really bad when I was in
(07:24):
my 20s. And that's kind of where it
carried over because being, especially being a nurse, it's
like especially critical care, you see some really dark stuff
and it's like you have to, that was just my coping mechanism.
My dad died about that time. Now again, I was by myself, bad
relationships, got in really dark spot.
I knew there was a God, but I wanted so badly for there not to
(07:44):
be because I knew what I was doing was not right.
I was not living. And it just followed me, that
conviction, that conviction. And I just was like, oh God,
just go away. Just go away.
Please leave me alone. I'm feeling so bad about this.
Got married, still was not saved.
So it's not I claimed to be because I wasn't as bad as I
(08:04):
was. Got saved when I married Justin
and met his grandfather, his grandfather, he was one of the
best Christian men I've ever met.
And he finally got an opening one day because I started going
back to the Catholic Church because we've had a child at
this point. And I was like, I want my child
to be raised into a household offaith Catholic.
I just went over there and I waslike, you know this, I have a
(08:27):
void in me. I go to church, I say these
prayers and it's like, I don't feel any closer to God.
And he said, well, that's not how you get closer to God.
He said, now I have an opportunity to talk to you.
Are you open to this conversation?
And he shared the gospel with me.
He was like, please come to church with me.
And it's a it's a house church. These, all of these people from
(08:47):
all from Mississippi to Florida meet in this little house, my
pastor's house, because they allcame from different churches and
they all came from different doctrines and they could not
find a home. And this was their home.
So he's like, come to my church and let's, you know, let's just
see what you think about it. He was like, my pastor is so
(09:07):
good. So I went and it was like, he
was talking. I mean, it was like Mandarin
Chinese. I was like, what are you talking
about? The doc, you know?
And it was just plain gospel. Yeah, plain gospel.
And I was just like I don't understand any of this.
And so. It was so far and I had never
heard of being saved. I had never heard of salvation.
(09:28):
I was like, uh, uh, you've got to go to confession.
You've got to do this, got to dothat.
And I was like, what he's sayingdoesn't make sense in my head.
It's too easy. That just means I can sin all I
want. If, if that's if Jesus died for
me, I just means I can just go on living how I've been living.
And he was like, no, he was like, just pray about it.
And I'm continuing to pray for just keep coming.
(09:50):
One day I had stopped going for a while and then all of a sudden
it was like a light came on. I went back and every single
thing made sense to me. And it was like, really, when
God says that his words are foolish to the to the lost
people. So it is so true until he opens
(10:11):
your eyes and you can hear the word and it can actually go down
into your heart and you accept that as truth.
It is. I mean, I experienced for
myself, I understand. I feel very bad for the people
who are not saved because what I'm saying to you, I'm sharing,
it doesn't make sense because I've been in your shoes.
They are understanding exactly what they are capable of
(10:34):
understanding. Until God opens their eyes, they
are never going to understand. And then once I got, I mean, I
was hardcore and it was, it's like when you first get saved,
you want everybody to be saved. So you just gospel, gospel,
gospel, just aggravating people to death about it.
And my family still being Catholic or like, OK, we can't
(10:54):
deal with you anymore. And so I finally, I talked to my
pastor and he was like, just just reel it in a little bit.
He was like, all you can do is, is plant a seed and let God
water it. And if it's meant to come about,
that's what's going to happen. And so finally, you know, I just
got to where I just let my lightshow and my friends and my
family. You're different.
(11:15):
And it makes me feel so good when people look at me and look
at my life now when they change the way they talk around me,
they don't share the same things.
I'm like, something has happenedin my life that shows that I'm
not about that anymore. And that is the biggest
compliment, honestly. You could say you miss the old
(11:36):
me, but that old me was headed straight to hell.
And I, and it's, I want everybody to feel the, the joy,
even on my darkest days that I'mlike, I, I still say there's a
Jesus Christ. And if I was, if today is the
worst day, I'm still going to bewith him one day.
And that's all I can. That's all I can.
(11:57):
I can tell people my joy says itall.
Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm, I'm doing the Bible
recap, reading through the Biblethis year and and terribly,
Kabul always says he's where thejoy is.
Yes, and, and I wouldn't wholeheartedly agree with that.
Absolutely. Courtney, I feel like I've been
to church man, that was I love hearing your testimony because
(12:20):
what you described is the power of the gospel, yes, to take us
from where we are, which is thisfeeling.
And I relate so much to every bit of your story because a lot,
I mean, the circumstances were different and in the areas of
life were different, but it's, it's very similar.
You know, I, I thought I wasn't Catholic.
I was raised in the Baptist Church.
From the time I was, I had to tell people had a drug problem,
(12:41):
got drug to church in the morning or Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night, anytime the doors open, I was
there. But I had, I was in that same
trap of feeling like, OK, well, church equals following Jesus
equals going to church, checkingthe boxes, you know, try to be
on your best behavior, but you're never good enough.
(13:01):
So does it really even matter? Right.
And that's that's where I found myself as a young adult, you
know, just graduated from pharmacy school.
I had the the job that I wanted.I had the new car, I had the
house, I had the girl had all the, you know, white picket
fence, all the things that the world tells us we need to be
happy. But something was missing inside
(13:23):
of me. And I love how you went to your
pastor and you said, there's this void in me and I'd like to
kind of sit there a minute because I think there's
something really powerful to that.
What does that look like to be to have that void, but then try
to fill it with all these other things?
I know I did that and I you described you did that too.
Just it's just temporary pleasure.
I would fill it with things and people and bad relationships
(13:48):
over and over again. I felt like I needed people and
it that person I needed was so far away because I was not
accepting of him. That person is Jesus, but all
these things. And it was like, yeah, I could,
you know, go party, have fun. I also, I have a really bad
habit. Even now.
I find my fulfillment in education.
(14:10):
I have to have degrees and I have to sit back and think, am I
doing this for myself? Satisfaction, feeling like I
have to make myself valuable in this way or am I doing it
because I want to better something else and I have to
really talk about it because otherwise I get very prideful
and think that that's that's whyI'm here on this on this earth
is to get all these high accolades.
(14:33):
But that void is just temporary.All these things.
It's like the next day you wake up and you're like, OK, and then
what? And then what?
And it's like there, there's there's an end to these things
with with Christ, there's no end.
It's like every day you're beingsanctified, you should be
getting closer and closer. And I have my bad days.
Lord knows I do. We all do, yeah.
(14:56):
But I, I just feel like my, my, my love for him grows even more
every single day. And that's what I love.
And that's the thing, you know, for the listeners out there, you
may be trying to fill that void with, like you said, success a
lot. I see a lot of men's in
particular and feel like, you know, if I can just reach that
next level, that next promotion,that next thing, then I'll
(15:17):
finally be satisfied. Or, you know, you're right with
the degrees of the certifications or all these
things. If I can put enough, enough
letters beside my name, then eventually maybe then I'll be
satisfied. Or you know, if I can just get
the latest, if I can just get that new car, that bigger house
or you. We always feel like satisfaction
and fulfillment. It's just on the other side of
(15:37):
something that we're chasing. Yep.
But the truth is that unless we find our satisfaction, say that
again and George is coming out my satisfaction and fulfillment
in Jesus, then we're always going to be disappointed.
And I found that too, man. I had my college days when I
went, I was AI was a commuter for undergrad.
(15:58):
You only get into so much when you're living at home and
commuting. But the first time I went off to
college, you know, I had those times where I'm like, hey,
nobody's watching me. Nobody is checking on me to see
what I'm doing. So, you know, I'm going to do
what I want to do. And that's that real moment of
rebellion that I think everybodyhits.
But sometimes that sticks with us, doesn't it?
Yeah. I do not.
I have a lot of regrets for the people that I've hurt.
(16:19):
Yeah. And I've tried since I have, I
mean, I have gone through as many contacts as I can still
reach those people. I'm like, I'm not that same
person anymore. I'm so sorry for hurting you.
I understand how you would feel,and I'm so sorry, but I do not
regret the experience because that experience led me to being
(16:41):
saved. To want to be saved, you have
to. I mean, sometimes you have to
want to be saved. Sometimes, yeah.
However, God will pluck somebodyout just randomly.
I've seen it happen too. That's right.
That's right. And you know then and I think
back in a lot of times, is it like confession hour?
But I'm just going to say it because I think somebody out
there can probably relate. You know, I was, I was doing a
(17:01):
lot of things I had no business doing, but yet calling myself a
Christian. And, you know, I think back to
like, what kind of example was that?
Was that setting, you know, presenting myself as this person
that follows Christ. But yet really, I just went to
church, if that makes sense. I went to church, but I still
live my life the way I wanted tolive it.
(17:22):
And it wasn't until I reached that point.
Sometimes we just got to get fedup, don't we?
Yeah. We just got to have.
We've got to be fed up of how we're living.
We just have to reach the, you know, some people call it the
end of us. You know, I've, I've tried to do
it my way. I, I've tried everything that I
can and I can't do it anymore. And that was kind of my moment
of surrender where I said, God, I can't do this on my own
(17:43):
anymore. I, I just, I don't know what
else to do. And I felt this whisper to my
heart, you know, you don't have to do it by yourself.
I'm here to help you, ma'am. What would we do without him?
And what did we do without him that?
Stuff, horrible stuff. When you finally surrender and
say I can't do it anymore, God'sfinally like, OK, thank, thank
(18:06):
you for realizing it. I've been trying.
I've been trying to pull you in and you just kind of go the
other way. I don't know if you've ever
watched and watched the The Chosen series.
Have you ever watched watch thatthe fish at the beginning where
they turn colors and go the other way.
That is such an amazing picture of just the world.
And then I mean, it literally islike a fish.
(18:27):
But the day that my eyes were opened, I can't tell you the day
it was like over a year period, but finally the day that it
clicked, I was like, I get it now, Like I this does seem so
much easier than what I was doing.
But people that think, oh, you know, I was thinking I can what
you're saying if the gospel is true, then I can go continue
(18:51):
living my life the way I want toand I'll just be forgiven.
But being in Christ makes you want to change your life because
you want to bring other people by your example into the body.
And so. 100% and we talk about it.
I know a lot with the with the group of people that I pastor
and what we say is this if, if you're living for Christ, you're
(19:12):
going to look different than this world.
And that was my thing was I justdidn't look different than the
world I was. I was claiming the name of
Christ, but my lifestyle looked no different.
I'm embarrassed for the like thewords that I used when I was
frustrated at work. You know how it isn't
healthcare? Some people just assume, cuss
you out, then smile at you. Absolutely.
And I would let that get, oh, man, I would just wait.
(19:33):
When I was first married to my wife, she would say, I can tell
it's your weekend coming up to work.
I would work every other weekend.
And I would say, how's that? She said, because of the way
that you're acting like you justwould, I just get on edge.
And you know, I'm embarrassed ofa lot of that, but I kind of
needed to go through that in order to get fed up with it so
that my eyes could be open to see God for what he is.
(19:57):
And he is a he. He is a difference maker.
He's a miracle worker in our hearts.
And there's absolutely nothing we can do to save ourselves.
We need him to do every bit of it.
And your story so beautifully illustrates that.
And then, you know, you talked about I'm interested in the
house church thing because that's very, very fascinating to
me. I've looked a lot into stuff
like that too. Tell us a little bit about how
(20:18):
that works and how that looks, because that's a little
different model of doing church.But you know what?
That kind of reminds me of the first church in Acts, right?
There were meeting in homes and that kind of thing.
Yep, that the name of the he actually does streaming.
It's true. His name is Troy Clemens if
anybody's interested, but it's. Put a plug in for grandpa.
(20:39):
But it's called the Berean BibleChurch and he wanted to we're
supposed to be like the Bereans who went studied the word and
didn't take anybody's, you know,spoken word as truth that went
through the scriptures. But he was my pastor actually
grew up Catholic as well in Mississippi.
He became a Baptist preacher. And when he started, when he got
(21:01):
saved, he started preaching the gospel.
And his Co pastor did not like that because it was sending
people were complaining that they felt like they were
sinners. So they kicked him out of the
church because they were losing money.
So he started his own church. And then slowly but surely he'd
go to like Bible conferences. And it just really became like
(21:21):
word of mouth. And I started going, my husband
goes with me because of me. Obviously his grandparents went
there's I mean, just all walks of life.
They all met through word of mouth.
These people, you need to come here.
You're not, you know, they wouldjust talk about how unhappy they
were because there's a lot of motivational speaking buildings
on Sundays where Jesus, it is a gospel as sermon.
(21:47):
You know, that is one thing thatI love about my church is that
every single every single Sundaywe have Wednesday night too.
He draws a timeline and the cross is in the center of the
whiteboard. Everything leads back to the
cross as it should. And so the gospel is the center
of the message. And so he actually had to buy
another house because our congregation got so big, right?
(22:11):
And so now we've got actual duties in our little, you know,
we've got a secretary, a treasurer, you know, we've got
all these elders, we've got people appointing us elders now.
And it's, I don't know, I've just seen it blow up.
I've been going there since 2019-2020.
And it's just, it's just blown up.
And it's the one of the best blessings that I've ever
(22:33):
received in my life. And it works out for us and
people continue to come and we love it.
We love it. Well, and you're fruit of it and
you know, I think that speaks that speaks a lot to all the
listeners out there. Find you a Bible believing
church, yes, a Bible teaching church, a church that teaches
Christ and Christ crucified thatthat preaches the the message of
(22:57):
Jesus. Because you're right, there's so
many churches, you know, and it's a tough, it's tough for
churches right now because you know, our congregants could pull
up any, you know, any of the best pastors in the world and
live stream them on a Sunday andnot get involved in the local
church and they could say they had their church right.
So I want to talk about that in just a second too, But you know,
(23:19):
it's tough. But then also there's a lot of
I'm not picking on any church inparticular, but there's a lot of
even mega churches out there andthere's their sermon is going to
be like the 5C's of happiness. And it's like, you know, it's,
it's nothing and you listen to it and it sounds good.
You know, it kind of tickles theears and you say, you know, I
could really use that. That's useful, useful message.
(23:40):
But I don't go to church to, youknow, to, to find useful things,
go to church to worship God, to fellowship with other believers
and in order to be, you know, fed the word that's going to
help me on my on my journey. It's going to help me grow.
I that those are the reasons we go to church, not so we can find
something useful that's going toyou know, it's going to help us
(24:01):
like a self help thing. What has the difference says
attending a Bible based gospel preaching church made in your
life as you've made this transition to not following
Jesus to following Jesus. I'm I guess what I'm asking is
what difference does a church maker.
Do you believe that you can justget everything you need from the
TV and just cut it off? And you've been to church?
(24:22):
Now, I'm not saying that I have never live streamed my pastor.
Oh yeah, right, right. However, yeah.
But as a general rule, yeah. God tells us do not forsake
fellowshipping together. The meeting together.
Which is 1, which is one of the reasons why my pastor during
COVID, when they were saying youcouldn't meet, he said I will, I
will listen to the government until it goes against God's
(24:44):
word. And this is not equaling up.
So we're going to continue to meet.
He can shut us down. John MacArthur did the same
thing and they threatened to turn his water off.
But that God will reward you forlistening to him.
And it I went to a lot of churches.
I started going to mega churchesand listening to their sermons
(25:06):
and things. And I felt so good about myself.
And I always say when you feel so good about yourself when you
leave a church, probably didn't hear the gospel.
Yeah, I want to feel about this big.
Yep, actually this this big. Problem can look this big.
Right. I want to feel less about myself
and more about God every time I leave and and I know that such
(25:30):
and I have people. I'm just there for the I'm just
there for the the praise and worship music.
And half of the time it's man centered.
All the new age stuff is band centered songs.
That's why I love my church sings the old hymns that is
focused on the gospel. And it's just sad because people
are thinking that they're getting what they need and, and
(25:52):
they're following Jesus and I'm like, but you're not following
the gospel. You're supposed to be a changed
person. And y'all just like there's a
church down the street that is advertising on their Facebook
that they're having movie nightson Friday on Sunday nights
instead of a worship service. And I'm like, that is so sad.
What movies are you showing? Yeah, right.
(26:13):
Tortured for Christ or what? You know, Like, are you showing?
If it's not, If it's not, No, they're they're watching, you
know, hocus pocus or or something for the kids.
And I'm I'm just like. Not the same, not the.
Same, no. So if you go to church and you
don't hear a bit about Christ crucified or the gospel or or
anything, it could be Bible verses.
But if it doesn't go right back to the cross, you're not getting
(26:34):
what you need on a Sunday. Yeah, you can.
You can take verses and prove whatever you want to prove.
Exactly. But but you're so right, because
there's a big difference in actually belonging to a church
as well. We need each other.
Yes. And, you know, I don't know
where I would be without some ofthe fellow believers that I'm a
(26:55):
part of. You know, we, we ask each other
questions all week. You know, we don't just see each
other on Sunday and say see you later.
We're in, we're in, we're in communication all week.
And you know, we're talking about different things that come
up in our lives. And how do we approach this?
How do we navigate it? We need each other.
We're not made to do this Christian walk alone.
It's not just to us. And Jesus thing, even though,
(27:15):
yeah, he does save us personally, so we're supposed to
walk this out. You're right.
Don't neglect the meeting together of the Saints.
I, like so many of you are accustomed to doing there.
There is this temptation today and I believe that it's the
temptation where all other temptations come from the devil.
They're kind of tricky into thinking you don't need to
church, you know, just just you and Jesus.
That's all you need about how easy it is to pry you away when
(27:38):
that's the case. And so you mentioned too,
several times about getting intoGod's word.
And I think that's another thingthat I struggle with today.
So the group of people I pastor are young adults.
And so it's 18 to 30 ish, you know, right after youth group.
We tend to lose a lot of people after they graduate from high
school. That's where I kind of found the
(27:58):
lore too, is right after college.
And I'm like trying to make my faith my own, right?
I'm taking it from what I grew up believing to all right, why
do I believe what I believe, right?
And is it because I really believe it or just because
someone told me that there's this wrestling that takes place?
And I think that's normal. But what I see is I don't know
how to call it anything else. It's biblical illiteracy.
(28:19):
There's there's a lack of understanding of God's word.
And you know, we need a Bible believing church, a Bible
believing pastor, a gospel preaching preacher in order to
kind of help us understand some of those things too.
And if you just, you know, if you just listen to some things
here and there and it really, I'll say this, if the only
Scripture you're getting is on Sundays, then something's wrong
(28:43):
too, because that was me for a large part of my life, my Bible
reading plan was whatever the whatever the preacher preached
on Sunday. Yeah, that's what I read.
And then I'd close it and I wouldn't open my Bible again
till the next Sunday. Yeah.
What's your what do you do on a daily basis to kind of stay
rooted in the Word and to kind of help you grow and understand
more about God from His Word? So first thing is I used to do
(29:04):
the same thing as well. Sundays was my only God, but he
said give us this day Our Daily Bread and we don't just eat on
Sundays. So you got to eat every day.
Amen. So I'm also doing the Bible
recap. I've done this is probably my
5th or 6th year reading the Bible all the way through.
Awesome. And it's like every and I love
(29:26):
the Old Testament. Most people hate the old.
Testament. Me too, yeah.
I love the Old Testament becauseonce you see the the truth in
it, every single page bleeds. You see Jesus on every single
page. And I'm I have a Bible channel
and because I was also, I fell off, you know, during my
beginning. I started a sobriety journey
this year because and it was actually I was actually, I don't
(29:49):
know if anybody listening is familiar with the floor Bama and
Gulf on Orange Beach. It's on the Florida Alabama
line. It's a bar, but they have beach
church, like church on the wateron Easter Sundays.
And we were at the beach and I had just, you know, I was like,
I was a Christian. I was saved, but I still drank
and indulged and did all these things.
(30:10):
And I've just felt so bad. And something that pastor said
that Sunday just, you know, you hear it from the same person
over and over again. It's just like a broken record.
But it took somebody else saying, you know, you're
replacing Jesus with other things in your life and whether
that be drinking or gambling or whatever.
And I was like, you know, I am. And so I have not drank since
(30:31):
Easter. Well, the day before Easter
Sunday this year. And I said, you know, my
accountability, my reading the Bible was kind of on the back
burner. And so I've made a vow that I
was going to do better. And so I started the Bible
channel on my own Instagram. Anybody could join.
And so we just have those readings and that I kind of do
(30:54):
like was videos and now I kind of do like a voice note about
the main points. I have a like a commentary, I
think it was a Matthew Henry commentary I use.
And then I have the terribly cobbles commentary from Bible
Recap kind of put them together and.
That's a good combination. I love that you got you got
Matthew Henry old school, then you got Terry Lee Cobble Modern
(31:14):
and you put them together. Man, you can't go.
Wrong with that and I will put sometimes there are opposing,
not opposing, but different views about certain things.
I will say both of them wheneverI'm doing a commentary and then
I will say, but according to this past Scripture, I believe
my opinion is that it means this.
(31:35):
However, if you have a differentopinion, let me know.
I always tell them, just like Tara Lee Kabul says, don't
scream where the Bible whispers.Don't try to make a doctrine out
of something when it's if God wanted us to know it would be
laid out just like his law if, if it was that important to our
walk with him or for our salvation or whatever.
He's going to make it very clearto us.
(31:56):
It's not going to be vague. So that's what I try to tell
people, and that's where a lot of these silly doctrines come
out of, as people are taking a verse out of context.
Random. Running with it.
Absolutely. And that's the thing I mentioned
earlier. You can take a verse and make it
say whatever you want to. You know you can, you can search
for proof text and you can find them, but that's not what the
whole context is saying. That's what I love about reading
(32:18):
the whole Bible. For much of my life, it was bits
and pieces. And I'll tell you this,
Courtney, like I was probably inmy 30s before I could start
putting big things together. Like, you know, how did, how did
the Israelites end up in Egypt? Well, it's the whole David
thing, or I'm sorry, the whole Joseph thing, right.
And so it wasn't until, I mean, I was later in life, 10 years
(32:38):
ago, maybe when I finally began to put those things together
that other people who read the whole Bible got a lot earlier.
But because I only read it in bits and pieces, it wasn't there
for me, right. And the whole Bible becomes so
much more real when you start seeing the entire story.
And you're right, all those Old Testament books, all of them
(33:01):
point to Jesus, you know, And ifyou read it with that lens, you
know, I'm, I'm convinced you'll see the Old Testament in a whole
new way. I'm with you.
I love the Old Testament. Used to when I first started
preaching, I would preach mostlyon the New Testament.
But here lately, I mean, Old Testament's so much more rich
when you when you see it throughthe lens of what's it saying
about Jesus? How is it pointing us to Jesus
(33:22):
My. Favorite story is Elijah and the
prophets of Baal where he was mocking their gods and he was
like maybe he's asleep, maybe you should yell a little louder.
Wake him up. The Bible, the prophets, had a
sense of humor as well. You know, you can find all kinds
of comedy through there because you just start laughing.
You're like, yeah, absolutely. This is hilarious.
(33:44):
You know, and Jesus did too, andthat's something I've discovered
in later years too, was, was hishumanity and his sense of humor
there. There's, there's just ways he
could have done things differently, but he chose to do
them the way that he did almost with the sense of humor.
And so I just want to encourage you out there.
Hey, if you want to know God, know his word.
(34:06):
If you're having trouble understanding who is God, what's
he about? You know, we're called to to
love the Lord. And part of loving the Lord is
loving his word. I saw a quote right before I
jumped on here on social media somewhere that said you can't
love Jesus without loving the word of Jesus or the words of
Jesus. And I'm like, yeah, that's true.
You know it. And it's one of those things to
(34:27):
where the more you do something,the more you want to do it.
Yes, I found that to be true in my life because there's been
ebbs and flows where, you know, can we just be honest and say, I
don't always feel like reading my Bible?
There's days where I'm just like, I'd rather just go ahead
and get this other thing over with and I'll do that later.
But you know, you get out of thehabit really easily.
(34:49):
The less you do something, the less you want to do it.
But the more you read the Bible,the more you want to read the
Bible, the more it starts to come alive to you, the more you
begin to understand. And there's no greater feeling
than knowing that you're readingthe words of God and through his
Holy Spirit, he's speaking to you exactly where you are.
I love it. And you can't get enough of it.
And the same thing with prayer, you know, if you struggle with
(35:10):
prayer, you know, and we hadn't gotten into this much, but pray,
Yeah. You know, like, you want to get
good at praying, Pray, you know,want to practice praying, Pray.
That's how you get better. You just pray.
The more you do it, the more comfortable you get and the more
you want to do it. And the opposite is also true.
The less you do it, the less youwant to.
So you want to change some patterns if you want to start
(35:32):
growing closer to God, then juststart doing the work.
We're not saved by works. We're not saved by anything that
we do. But those are some
responsibilities we have as believers to stay connected to
God. One of my favorite passages is
out of John 15 where he says Jesus says I'm the vine and you
were the branches remain in me and I and you and you will bear
much fruit. You know, and the emphasis there
(35:55):
is on the abiding, you know, the, the command is not to bear
fruit. You know, a lot of times we know
that we ought to be Christ like we know that we ought to look
more like Jesus. But the command in that passage
is not to make the fruit on yourown.
The command is to abide in Jesusand through his transforming
power, then you will bear the fruit of Jesus.
(36:18):
And so I love it, Courtney, yourstory is a blessing.
Your testimony is, is a, a true story of Jesus taking someone
who was lost and, and allowing them to have their eyes opened,
their life changed and you're living it out every day.
(36:38):
You're an encouragement to me. I love watching your content.
I love watching your content. It's always positive, it's
always encouraging and you always give God the glory.
And I just want to encourage youto keep doing what you're doing.
You're making a difference, God to put you in the platform that
you're in in order to make a difference to somebody's life
because you're you're living it out loud.
And when you do that, you don't,you don't have a clue how many
(37:02):
people are watching you, watching your example and
saying, hey, I want some of thattoo.
And so I'm proud of you and proud of the journey you're on a
proud of you for sharing your fake story.
And I appreciate you being here with us today.
How can my listeners find out more about you and Justin?
I know you're on several different platforms, but what's
the best way to find you and, and, and learn more?
Maybe maybe even about the Biblegroup that you teach?
(37:24):
I am on Instagram at Courtney Stagner and then I'm on TikTok
as well. I post mostly on Instagram, but
Courtney Stagner, 12, is my TikTok handle and my Bible group
is on my Instagram bio. Awesome y'all check out Justin
too. He's a hilarious guy and.
Justin Stagner on Instagram. Yeah, yeah.
(37:44):
And he's, he's doing shows and stuff now, right?
Yep, he's on tour. His next show is in Naples, FL I
believe, so this next week sometime.
But he is hitting it and gettingit.
He is on the road all the time and you know.
Are you with him a lot or do you?
Yeah. Are you?
I'm not a traveler. I say I stay at home, but I am
(38:06):
going. I will be at the San Diego show
because I've never been to neverbeen all the way to the West
Coast. So I'm going with him for that.
I'll be looking at y'all's calendars.
If you get close to Middle Georgia, I'll be there.
I'm sure we will. Yeah, awesome, Courtney, bless
you, bless your family. Excited about you and the little
one to come. Thank you.
Look forward to staying connected.
(38:28):
Thank you. Thank you for listening to the
Rev RX Podcast. We hope you enjoyed what you
heard today and if so, we'd loveit if you would hit that
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us. Also, feel free to leave us
reviews and comments as we'd love to hear from you.
Be blessed and be the very best you.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Rev RX
Podcast. My name is Chad Potts and I'm
your host today. I'm so excited for you to meet
my new friend, Courtney Stagner.If you don't know about her, she
is a social media influencer. Her and her husband have really
taken off as content creators. But one of the things I love
about what Courtney's doing is she's using her platform not for
(00:34):
personal gain, but she's using her platform to spread the good
news of the gospel. Today we're going to dive into
her testimony. We're going to talk about what
happened when a girl that was born and raised in the Bible
Belt really didn't understand about Christianity, what it took
for her life to turn around and the difference that Jesus Christ
has made in her life. Today we're going to dig into
(00:56):
the basics of following Jesus. We're going to talk about Bible
study. We're going to talk about
prayer. We're going to talk about if
it's important or not to go to alocal church or can you just do
Christianity on your own. We're going to dig into some of
those tough things, but you're going to love the authenticity
and just how open and honest Courtney is about her walk and
her experience with a God that never left her, that continued
(01:19):
to pursue her and who changed her life and is continuing to do
so even today. So without further ado, I
introduced to you my friend Courtney.
Courtney, what a privilege it isto have you here on the Rev RX
Podcast. Finally, right.
All right, Thank you. We.
Have we've missed each other back and forth a little bit?
(01:39):
And I tell you what I told you before, this is going to be epic
when we get it. I will make sure.
I will make sure it's epic. Absolutely.
Well, Courtney, I started following you and your husband
Justin on social media not long ago.
You guys have really taken off your your influencers and I, I
just told you how much I appreciate the positive,
encouraging messages you guys put out there.
(02:00):
You're bringing last of people. We need that man in a world
that's so shaken right now by division and hate and all that,
sometimes just refreshing to turn it on and be like, all
right, what's Courtney and Justin doing today?
That's all. That is our main goal, as long
as we can make people laugh. I get messages all the time
saying you have no idea what your content means to me and
that is why we do it. That's incredible.
(02:21):
But I want to give you an opportunity to just tell us who
is Courtney? How'd you get here today?
I know it's kind of a loaded question, but just gonna give us
the overview of how did you get to this place where you have now
reached your peak on the Rev RX podcast?
Well, thank you for having me. I feel very honored.
I can't believe I'm actually being asked to be on podcasts.
That is amazing to me. So it started out, I am a nurse
(02:44):
practitioner. I have a husband who has always
wanted to do comedy. We would try to go viral so many
times and he just couldn't get his little niche.
What would go viral? So one day I was sitting, I was
doing Bible study at the kitchentable.
And I said something like somebody is Hogan something?
And he said, did you just say hogging?
(03:05):
And I said yeah. And he said, you mean hogging
like it? They're hogging it.
And I said, yeah, he goes say that again.
And he recorded me and it ended up being uploaded to TikTok and
it took off. And he said, well, if she can
take off, I'm way funnier than she is.
So he said, let's do let's let'skind of do more of a, a southern
grandpa type of figure. And his grandfather is so funny.
(03:28):
And so his character, the southern grandpa is kind of
built off of that. And so he started getting
followers and of course people followed me because I would be
in the videos. And I said, well, you know, I'm
getting all these followers. Why don't I?
I try to target a different demographic.
So we did the the medical terminology because me and his
best friend Jake are both nurse practitioners.
(03:50):
And we would just we would talk medical to each other when we
would see each other. And he would like, Oh yeah, I
know what that means. So he said, you know, let's kind
of do that. Let's do medical terms, but let,
let me do the comedy thing. And he said, and we can just
have like more of a couple's medical kind of get that
demographic. And so we did that and it, I had
no idea it would take off the way that it did.
(04:12):
We haven't done one in a while, but we've had a lot going on.
But people have just been asking.
So we're we're going to have to put some out there soon.
That's kind of where we are. As a pharmacist, I have a
request, right? Can I can do you take?
Sure, yes. Anything.
Let's do some drug names, right?Because, you know, I feel like
drug names are just like people put a bunch of letters together
(04:32):
and try to make it as hard as possible.
So yeah, we'll be looking for for the next one to come out.
That's where I started followingyou guys.
I guess the algorithm with me being a pharmacist popped up
like, hey, medical terminology. And I just fell out laughing the
first time I saw it. Because if you guys hadn't seen
it, we'll put some links up. But she holds up a A card and it
(04:52):
has a medical term. And it's, you know, it's
something crazy hard to pronounce, you know, something
very technical and you just don't know, Like, say it in his
southern way. For the record, Courtney's in
Alabama, right? Yeah.
OK. Yeah.
Could have done without that. I'll let it that part out.
And I'm in Georgia next door. Go dogs, but y'all won this year
(05:16):
so I can't say a whole lot, but I I love that him make like
guessing the meaning of that medical term because let's face
it, you know some of those are just hilarious and that's.
How they come up with the names?I don't either.
I don't either but but hey, maybe a drug ones in your future
that'd be that'd. Be cool we we have gotten
requests. We'll have to do it.
I'll make sure that's our next one.
(05:37):
Love it, love it. What I really liked about you is
I, you know, I followed your content and all this, but then
you begin to post more about your faith.
And so that's, you know, it's kind of where my worlds meet.
I'm a pastor and I'm a pharmacist.
You know, that that really, hey,the algorithm actually worked
there because that's really the kind of stuff I want to see.
(05:57):
And that that immediately kind of drew me to the stack.
Nurse was like, hey, man, look, she's sharing about her faith.
She's sharing about turning her life around.
She's talk talking about turningher life over to Lord.
Always post an encouraging, positive Christian messages out
there. So I'd love just give you an
opportunity to talk about what your faith means to you and kind
of where did that shift happen in your life?
(06:19):
OK, my faith is the utmost important thing, and without
faith I would just be nothing. I have been without faith, I've
been without Jesus Christ in my life and I do not ever want to
go back there again. And that shift really happened.
I grew up Catholic in the Catholic Church.
I went to Catholic school. And if you don't know much about
(06:41):
the Catholicism, that type of religion is a religion of works.
And so I was constantly working and working and working so hard
for something I would never be able to attain.
And so when I was in my early 20s, when I became a nurse and
had money to, like, actually go out and party, I partied.
(07:03):
And it got me in a dark place. And I said, well, why not?
Because according to this doctrine, I'm never going to go
to heaven. So I might as well just, you
know, eat, drink, be merry for tomorrow I die.
So I had, you know, I got into some really dark, you know, my
drinking or whatever. It got really bad when I was in
(07:24):
my 20s. And that's kind of where it
carried over because being, especially being a nurse, it's
like especially critical care, you see some really dark stuff
and it's like you have to, that was just my coping mechanism.
My dad died about that time. Now again, I was by myself, bad
relationships, got in really dark spot.
I knew there was a God, but I wanted so badly for there not to
(07:44):
be because I knew what I was doing was not right.
I was not living. And it just followed me, that
conviction, that conviction. And I just was like, oh God,
just go away. Just go away.
Please leave me alone. I'm feeling so bad about this.
Got married, still was not saved.
So it's not I claimed to be because I wasn't as bad as I
(08:04):
was. Got saved when I married Justin
and met his grandfather, his grandfather, he was one of the
best Christian men I've ever met.
And he finally got an opening one day because I started going
back to the Catholic Church because we've had a child at
this point. And I was like, I want my child
to be raised into a household offaith Catholic.
I just went over there and I waslike, you know this, I have a
(08:27):
void in me. I go to church, I say these
prayers and it's like, I don't feel any closer to God.
And he said, well, that's not how you get closer to God.
He said, now I have an opportunity to talk to you.
Are you open to this conversation?
And he shared the gospel with me.
He was like, please come to church with me.
And it's a it's a house church. These, all of these people from
(08:47):
all from Mississippi to Florida meet in this little house, my
pastor's house, because they allcame from different churches and
they all came from different doctrines and they could not
find a home. And this was their home.
So he's like, come to my church and let's, you know, let's just
see what you think about it. He was like, my pastor is so
(09:07):
good. So I went and it was like, he
was talking. I mean, it was like Mandarin
Chinese. I was like, what are you talking
about? The doc, you know?
And it was just plain gospel. Yeah, plain gospel.
And I was just like I don't understand any of this.
And so. It was so far and I had never
heard of being saved. I had never heard of salvation.
(09:28):
I was like, uh, uh, you've got to go to confession.
You've got to do this, got to dothat.
And I was like, what he's sayingdoesn't make sense in my head.
It's too easy. That just means I can sin all I
want. If, if that's if Jesus died for
me, I just means I can just go on living how I've been living.
And he was like, no, he was like, just pray about it.
And I'm continuing to pray for just keep coming.
(09:50):
One day I had stopped going for a while and then all of a sudden
it was like a light came on. I went back and every single
thing made sense to me. And it was like, really, when
God says that his words are foolish to the to the lost
people. So it is so true until he opens
(10:11):
your eyes and you can hear the word and it can actually go down
into your heart and you accept that as truth.
It is. I mean, I experienced for
myself, I understand. I feel very bad for the people
who are not saved because what I'm saying to you, I'm sharing,
it doesn't make sense because I've been in your shoes.
They are understanding exactly what they are capable of
(10:34):
understanding. Until God opens their eyes, they
are never going to understand. And then once I got, I mean, I
was hardcore and it was, it's like when you first get saved,
you want everybody to be saved. So you just gospel, gospel,
gospel, just aggravating people to death about it.
And my family still being Catholic or like, OK, we can't
(10:54):
deal with you anymore. And so I finally, I talked to my
pastor and he was like, just just reel it in a little bit.
He was like, all you can do is, is plant a seed and let God
water it. And if it's meant to come about,
that's what's going to happen. And so finally, you know, I just
got to where I just let my lightshow and my friends and my
family. You're different.
(11:15):
And it makes me feel so good when people look at me and look
at my life now when they change the way they talk around me,
they don't share the same things.
I'm like, something has happenedin my life that shows that I'm
not about that anymore. And that is the biggest
compliment, honestly. You could say you miss the old
(11:36):
me, but that old me was headed straight to hell.
And I, and it's, I want everybody to feel the, the joy,
even on my darkest days that I'mlike, I, I still say there's a
Jesus Christ. And if I was, if today is the
worst day, I'm still going to bewith him one day.
And that's all I can. That's all I can.
(11:57):
I can tell people my joy says itall.
Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm, I'm doing the Bible
recap, reading through the Biblethis year and and terribly,
Kabul always says he's where thejoy is.
Yes, and, and I wouldn't wholeheartedly agree with that.
Absolutely. Courtney, I feel like I've been
to church man, that was I love hearing your testimony because
(12:20):
what you described is the power of the gospel, yes, to take us
from where we are, which is thisfeeling.
And I relate so much to every bit of your story because a lot,
I mean, the circumstances were different and in the areas of
life were different, but it's, it's very similar.
You know, I, I thought I wasn't Catholic.
I was raised in the Baptist Church.
From the time I was, I had to tell people had a drug problem,
(12:41):
got drug to church in the morning or Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night, anytime the doors open, I was
there. But I had, I was in that same
trap of feeling like, OK, well, church equals following Jesus
equals going to church, checkingthe boxes, you know, try to be
on your best behavior, but you're never good enough.
(13:01):
So does it really even matter? Right.
And that's that's where I found myself as a young adult, you
know, just graduated from pharmacy school.
I had the the job that I wanted.I had the new car, I had the
house, I had the girl had all the, you know, white picket
fence, all the things that the world tells us we need to be
happy. But something was missing inside
(13:23):
of me. And I love how you went to your
pastor and you said, there's this void in me and I'd like to
kind of sit there a minute because I think there's
something really powerful to that.
What does that look like to be to have that void, but then try
to fill it with all these other things?
I know I did that and I you described you did that too.
Just it's just temporary pleasure.
I would fill it with things and people and bad relationships
(13:48):
over and over again. I felt like I needed people and
it that person I needed was so far away because I was not
accepting of him. That person is Jesus, but all
these things. And it was like, yeah, I could,
you know, go party, have fun. I also, I have a really bad
habit. Even now.
I find my fulfillment in education.
(14:10):
I have to have degrees and I have to sit back and think, am I
doing this for myself? Satisfaction, feeling like I
have to make myself valuable in this way or am I doing it
because I want to better something else and I have to
really talk about it because otherwise I get very prideful
and think that that's that's whyI'm here on this on this earth
is to get all these high accolades.
(14:33):
But that void is just temporary.All these things.
It's like the next day you wake up and you're like, OK, and then
what? And then what?
And it's like there, there's there's an end to these things
with with Christ, there's no end.
It's like every day you're beingsanctified, you should be
getting closer and closer. And I have my bad days.
Lord knows I do. We all do, yeah.
(14:56):
But I, I just feel like my, my, my love for him grows even more
every single day. And that's what I love.
And that's the thing, you know, for the listeners out there, you
may be trying to fill that void with, like you said, success a
lot. I see a lot of men's in
particular and feel like, you know, if I can just reach that
next level, that next promotion,that next thing, then I'll
(15:17):
finally be satisfied. Or, you know, you're right with
the degrees of the certifications or all these
things. If I can put enough, enough
letters beside my name, then eventually maybe then I'll be
satisfied. Or you know, if I can just get
the latest, if I can just get that new car, that bigger house
or you. We always feel like satisfaction
and fulfillment. It's just on the other side of
(15:37):
something that we're chasing. Yep.
But the truth is that unless we find our satisfaction, say that
again and George is coming out my satisfaction and fulfillment
in Jesus, then we're always going to be disappointed.
And I found that too, man. I had my college days when I
went, I was AI was a commuter for undergrad.
(15:58):
You only get into so much when you're living at home and
commuting. But the first time I went off to
college, you know, I had those times where I'm like, hey,
nobody's watching me. Nobody is checking on me to see
what I'm doing. So, you know, I'm going to do
what I want to do. And that's that real moment of
rebellion that I think everybodyhits.
But sometimes that sticks with us, doesn't it?
Yeah. I do not.
I have a lot of regrets for the people that I've hurt.
(16:19):
Yeah. And I've tried since I have, I
mean, I have gone through as many contacts as I can still
reach those people. I'm like, I'm not that same
person anymore. I'm so sorry for hurting you.
I understand how you would feel,and I'm so sorry, but I do not
regret the experience because that experience led me to being
(16:41):
saved. To want to be saved, you have
to. I mean, sometimes you have to
want to be saved. Sometimes, yeah.
However, God will pluck somebodyout just randomly.
I've seen it happen too. That's right.
That's right. And you know then and I think
back in a lot of times, is it like confession hour?
But I'm just going to say it because I think somebody out
there can probably relate. You know, I was, I was doing a
(17:01):
lot of things I had no business doing, but yet calling myself a
Christian. And, you know, I think back to
like, what kind of example was that?
Was that setting, you know, presenting myself as this person
that follows Christ. But yet really, I just went to
church, if that makes sense. I went to church, but I still
live my life the way I wanted tolive it.
(17:22):
And it wasn't until I reached that point.
Sometimes we just got to get fedup, don't we?
Yeah. We just got to have.
We've got to be fed up of how we're living.
We just have to reach the, you know, some people call it the
end of us. You know, I've, I've tried to do
it my way. I, I've tried everything that I
can and I can't do it anymore. And that was kind of my moment
of surrender where I said, God, I can't do this on my own
(17:43):
anymore. I, I just, I don't know what
else to do. And I felt this whisper to my
heart, you know, you don't have to do it by yourself.
I'm here to help you, ma'am. What would we do without him?
And what did we do without him that?
Stuff, horrible stuff. When you finally surrender and
say I can't do it anymore, God'sfinally like, OK, thank, thank
(18:06):
you for realizing it. I've been trying.
I've been trying to pull you in and you just kind of go the
other way. I don't know if you've ever
watched and watched the The Chosen series.
Have you ever watched watch thatthe fish at the beginning where
they turn colors and go the other way.
That is such an amazing picture of just the world.
And then I mean, it literally islike a fish.
(18:27):
But the day that my eyes were opened, I can't tell you the day
it was like over a year period, but finally the day that it
clicked, I was like, I get it now, Like I this does seem so
much easier than what I was doing.
But people that think, oh, you know, I was thinking I can what
you're saying if the gospel is true, then I can go continue
(18:51):
living my life the way I want toand I'll just be forgiven.
But being in Christ makes you want to change your life because
you want to bring other people by your example into the body.
And so. 100% and we talk about it.
I know a lot with the with the group of people that I pastor
and what we say is this if, if you're living for Christ, you're
(19:12):
going to look different than this world.
And that was my thing was I justdidn't look different than the
world I was. I was claiming the name of
Christ, but my lifestyle looked no different.
I'm embarrassed for the like thewords that I used when I was
frustrated at work. You know how it isn't
healthcare? Some people just assume, cuss
you out, then smile at you. Absolutely.
And I would let that get, oh, man, I would just wait.
(19:33):
When I was first married to my wife, she would say, I can tell
it's your weekend coming up to work.
I would work every other weekend.
And I would say, how's that? She said, because of the way
that you're acting like you justwould, I just get on edge.
And you know, I'm embarrassed ofa lot of that, but I kind of
needed to go through that in order to get fed up with it so
that my eyes could be open to see God for what he is.
(19:57):
And he is a he. He is a difference maker.
He's a miracle worker in our hearts.
And there's absolutely nothing we can do to save ourselves.
We need him to do every bit of it.
And your story so beautifully illustrates that.
And then, you know, you talked about I'm interested in the
house church thing because that's very, very fascinating to
me. I've looked a lot into stuff
like that too. Tell us a little bit about how
(20:18):
that works and how that looks, because that's a little
different model of doing church.But you know what?
That kind of reminds me of the first church in Acts, right?
There were meeting in homes and that kind of thing.
Yep, that the name of the he actually does streaming.
It's true. His name is Troy Clemens if
anybody's interested, but it's. Put a plug in for grandpa.
(20:39):
But it's called the Berean BibleChurch and he wanted to we're
supposed to be like the Bereans who went studied the word and
didn't take anybody's, you know,spoken word as truth that went
through the scriptures. But he was my pastor actually
grew up Catholic as well in Mississippi.
He became a Baptist preacher. And when he started, when he got
(21:01):
saved, he started preaching the gospel.
And his Co pastor did not like that because it was sending
people were complaining that they felt like they were
sinners. So they kicked him out of the
church because they were losing money.
So he started his own church. And then slowly but surely he'd
go to like Bible conferences. And it just really became like
(21:21):
word of mouth. And I started going, my husband
goes with me because of me. Obviously his grandparents went
there's I mean, just all walks of life.
They all met through word of mouth.
These people, you need to come here.
You're not, you know, they wouldjust talk about how unhappy they
were because there's a lot of motivational speaking buildings
on Sundays where Jesus, it is a gospel as sermon.
(21:47):
You know, that is one thing thatI love about my church is that
every single every single Sundaywe have Wednesday night too.
He draws a timeline and the cross is in the center of the
whiteboard. Everything leads back to the
cross as it should. And so the gospel is the center
of the message. And so he actually had to buy
another house because our congregation got so big, right?
(22:11):
And so now we've got actual duties in our little, you know,
we've got a secretary, a treasurer, you know, we've got
all these elders, we've got people appointing us elders now.
And it's, I don't know, I've just seen it blow up.
I've been going there since 2019-2020.
And it's just, it's just blown up.
And it's the one of the best blessings that I've ever
(22:33):
received in my life. And it works out for us and
people continue to come and we love it.
We love it. Well, and you're fruit of it and
you know, I think that speaks that speaks a lot to all the
listeners out there. Find you a Bible believing
church, yes, a Bible teaching church, a church that teaches
Christ and Christ crucified thatthat preaches the the message of
(22:57):
Jesus. Because you're right, there's so
many churches, you know, and it's a tough, it's tough for
churches right now because you know, our congregants could pull
up any, you know, any of the best pastors in the world and
live stream them on a Sunday andnot get involved in the local
church and they could say they had their church right.
So I want to talk about that in just a second too, But you know,
(23:19):
it's tough. But then also there's a lot of
I'm not picking on any church inparticular, but there's a lot of
even mega churches out there andthere's their sermon is going to
be like the 5C's of happiness. And it's like, you know, it's,
it's nothing and you listen to it and it sounds good.
You know, it kind of tickles theears and you say, you know, I
could really use that. That's useful, useful message.
(23:40):
But I don't go to church to, youknow, to, to find useful things,
go to church to worship God, to fellowship with other believers
and in order to be, you know, fed the word that's going to
help me on my on my journey. It's going to help me grow.
I that those are the reasons we go to church, not so we can find
something useful that's going toyou know, it's going to help us
(24:01):
like a self help thing. What has the difference says
attending a Bible based gospel preaching church made in your
life as you've made this transition to not following
Jesus to following Jesus. I'm I guess what I'm asking is
what difference does a church maker.
Do you believe that you can justget everything you need from the
TV and just cut it off? And you've been to church?
(24:22):
Now, I'm not saying that I have never live streamed my pastor.
Oh yeah, right, right. However, yeah.
But as a general rule, yeah. God tells us do not forsake
fellowshipping together. The meeting together.
Which is 1, which is one of the reasons why my pastor during
COVID, when they were saying youcouldn't meet, he said I will, I
will listen to the government until it goes against God's
(24:44):
word. And this is not equaling up.
So we're going to continue to meet.
He can shut us down. John MacArthur did the same
thing and they threatened to turn his water off.
But that God will reward you forlistening to him.
And it I went to a lot of churches.
I started going to mega churchesand listening to their sermons
(25:06):
and things. And I felt so good about myself.
And I always say when you feel so good about yourself when you
leave a church, probably didn't hear the gospel.
Yeah, I want to feel about this big.
Yep, actually this this big. Problem can look this big.
Right. I want to feel less about myself
and more about God every time I leave and and I know that such
(25:30):
and I have people. I'm just there for the I'm just
there for the the praise and worship music.
And half of the time it's man centered.
All the new age stuff is band centered songs.
That's why I love my church sings the old hymns that is
focused on the gospel. And it's just sad because people
are thinking that they're getting what they need and, and
(25:52):
they're following Jesus and I'm like, but you're not following
the gospel. You're supposed to be a changed
person. And y'all just like there's a
church down the street that is advertising on their Facebook
that they're having movie nightson Friday on Sunday nights
instead of a worship service. And I'm like, that is so sad.
What movies are you showing? Yeah, right.
(26:13):
Tortured for Christ or what? You know, Like, are you showing?
If it's not, If it's not, No, they're they're watching, you
know, hocus pocus or or something for the kids.
And I'm I'm just like. Not the same, not the.
Same, no. So if you go to church and you
don't hear a bit about Christ crucified or the gospel or or
anything, it could be Bible verses.
But if it doesn't go right back to the cross, you're not getting
(26:34):
what you need on a Sunday. Yeah, you can.
You can take verses and prove whatever you want to prove.
Exactly. But but you're so right, because
there's a big difference in actually belonging to a church
as well. We need each other.
Yes. And, you know, I don't know
where I would be without some ofthe fellow believers that I'm a
(26:55):
part of. You know, we, we ask each other
questions all week. You know, we don't just see each
other on Sunday and say see you later.
We're in, we're in, we're in communication all week.
And you know, we're talking about different things that come
up in our lives. And how do we approach this?
How do we navigate it? We need each other.
We're not made to do this Christian walk alone.
It's not just to us. And Jesus thing, even though,
(27:15):
yeah, he does save us personally, so we're supposed to
walk this out. You're right.
Don't neglect the meeting together of the Saints.
I, like so many of you are accustomed to doing there.
There is this temptation today and I believe that it's the
temptation where all other temptations come from the devil.
They're kind of tricky into thinking you don't need to
church, you know, just just you and Jesus.
That's all you need about how easy it is to pry you away when
(27:38):
that's the case. And so you mentioned too,
several times about getting intoGod's word.
And I think that's another thingthat I struggle with today.
So the group of people I pastor are young adults.
And so it's 18 to 30 ish, you know, right after youth group.
We tend to lose a lot of people after they graduate from high
school. That's where I kind of found the
(27:58):
lore too, is right after college.
And I'm like trying to make my faith my own, right?
I'm taking it from what I grew up believing to all right, why
do I believe what I believe, right?
And is it because I really believe it or just because
someone told me that there's this wrestling that takes place?
And I think that's normal. But what I see is I don't know
how to call it anything else. It's biblical illiteracy.
(28:19):
There's there's a lack of understanding of God's word.
And you know, we need a Bible believing church, a Bible
believing pastor, a gospel preaching preacher in order to
kind of help us understand some of those things too.
And if you just, you know, if you just listen to some things
here and there and it really, I'll say this, if the only
Scripture you're getting is on Sundays, then something's wrong
(28:43):
too, because that was me for a large part of my life, my Bible
reading plan was whatever the whatever the preacher preached
on Sunday. Yeah, that's what I read.
And then I'd close it and I wouldn't open my Bible again
till the next Sunday. Yeah.
What's your what do you do on a daily basis to kind of stay
rooted in the Word and to kind of help you grow and understand
more about God from His Word? So first thing is I used to do
(29:04):
the same thing as well. Sundays was my only God, but he
said give us this day Our Daily Bread and we don't just eat on
Sundays. So you got to eat every day.
Amen. So I'm also doing the Bible
recap. I've done this is probably my
5th or 6th year reading the Bible all the way through.
Awesome. And it's like every and I love
(29:26):
the Old Testament. Most people hate the old.
Testament. Me too, yeah.
I love the Old Testament becauseonce you see the the truth in
it, every single page bleeds. You see Jesus on every single
page. And I'm I have a Bible channel
and because I was also, I fell off, you know, during my
beginning. I started a sobriety journey
this year because and it was actually I was actually, I don't
(29:49):
know if anybody listening is familiar with the floor Bama and
Gulf on Orange Beach. It's on the Florida Alabama
line. It's a bar, but they have beach
church, like church on the wateron Easter Sundays.
And we were at the beach and I had just, you know, I was like,
I was a Christian. I was saved, but I still drank
and indulged and did all these things.
(30:10):
And I've just felt so bad. And something that pastor said
that Sunday just, you know, you hear it from the same person
over and over again. It's just like a broken record.
But it took somebody else saying, you know, you're
replacing Jesus with other things in your life and whether
that be drinking or gambling or whatever.
And I was like, you know, I am. And so I have not drank since
(30:31):
Easter. Well, the day before Easter
Sunday this year. And I said, you know, my
accountability, my reading the Bible was kind of on the back
burner. And so I've made a vow that I
was going to do better. And so I started the Bible
channel on my own Instagram. Anybody could join.
And so we just have those readings and that I kind of do
(30:54):
like was videos and now I kind of do like a voice note about
the main points. I have a like a commentary, I
think it was a Matthew Henry commentary I use.
And then I have the terribly cobbles commentary from Bible
Recap kind of put them together and.
That's a good combination. I love that you got you got
Matthew Henry old school, then you got Terry Lee Cobble Modern
(31:14):
and you put them together. Man, you can't go.
Wrong with that and I will put sometimes there are opposing,
not opposing, but different views about certain things.
I will say both of them wheneverI'm doing a commentary and then
I will say, but according to this past Scripture, I believe
my opinion is that it means this.
(31:35):
However, if you have a differentopinion, let me know.
I always tell them, just like Tara Lee Kabul says, don't
scream where the Bible whispers.Don't try to make a doctrine out
of something when it's if God wanted us to know it would be
laid out just like his law if, if it was that important to our
walk with him or for our salvation or whatever.
He's going to make it very clearto us.
(31:56):
It's not going to be vague. So that's what I try to tell
people, and that's where a lot of these silly doctrines come
out of, as people are taking a verse out of context.
Random. Running with it.
Absolutely. And that's the thing I mentioned
earlier. You can take a verse and make it
say whatever you want to. You know you can, you can search
for proof text and you can find them, but that's not what the
whole context is saying. That's what I love about reading
(32:18):
the whole Bible. For much of my life, it was bits
and pieces. And I'll tell you this,
Courtney, like I was probably inmy 30s before I could start
putting big things together. Like, you know, how did, how did
the Israelites end up in Egypt? Well, it's the whole David
thing, or I'm sorry, the whole Joseph thing, right.
And so it wasn't until, I mean, I was later in life, 10 years
(32:38):
ago, maybe when I finally began to put those things together
that other people who read the whole Bible got a lot earlier.
But because I only read it in bits and pieces, it wasn't there
for me, right. And the whole Bible becomes so
much more real when you start seeing the entire story.
And you're right, all those Old Testament books, all of them
(33:01):
point to Jesus, you know, And ifyou read it with that lens, you
know, I'm, I'm convinced you'll see the Old Testament in a whole
new way. I'm with you.
I love the Old Testament. Used to when I first started
preaching, I would preach mostlyon the New Testament.
But here lately, I mean, Old Testament's so much more rich
when you when you see it throughthe lens of what's it saying
about Jesus? How is it pointing us to Jesus
(33:22):
My. Favorite story is Elijah and the
prophets of Baal where he was mocking their gods and he was
like maybe he's asleep, maybe you should yell a little louder.
Wake him up. The Bible, the prophets, had a
sense of humor as well. You know, you can find all kinds
of comedy through there because you just start laughing.
You're like, yeah, absolutely. This is hilarious.
(33:44):
You know, and Jesus did too, andthat's something I've discovered
in later years too, was, was hishumanity and his sense of humor
there. There's, there's just ways he
could have done things differently, but he chose to do
them the way that he did almost with the sense of humor.
And so I just want to encourage you out there.
Hey, if you want to know God, know his word.
(34:06):
If you're having trouble understanding who is God, what's
he about? You know, we're called to to
love the Lord. And part of loving the Lord is
loving his word. I saw a quote right before I
jumped on here on social media somewhere that said you can't
love Jesus without loving the word of Jesus or the words of
Jesus. And I'm like, yeah, that's true.
You know it. And it's one of those things to
(34:27):
where the more you do something,the more you want to do it.
Yes, I found that to be true in my life because there's been
ebbs and flows where, you know, can we just be honest and say, I
don't always feel like reading my Bible?
There's days where I'm just like, I'd rather just go ahead
and get this other thing over with and I'll do that later.
But you know, you get out of thehabit really easily.
(34:49):
The less you do something, the less you want to do it.
But the more you read the Bible,the more you want to read the
Bible, the more it starts to come alive to you, the more you
begin to understand. And there's no greater feeling
than knowing that you're readingthe words of God and through his
Holy Spirit, he's speaking to you exactly where you are.
I love it. And you can't get enough of it.
And the same thing with prayer, you know, if you struggle with
(35:10):
prayer, you know, and we hadn't gotten into this much, but pray,
Yeah. You know, like, you want to get
good at praying, Pray, you know,want to practice praying, Pray.
That's how you get better. You just pray.
The more you do it, the more comfortable you get and the more
you want to do it. And the opposite is also true.
The less you do it, the less youwant to.
So you want to change some patterns if you want to start
(35:32):
growing closer to God, then juststart doing the work.
We're not saved by works. We're not saved by anything that
we do. But those are some
responsibilities we have as believers to stay connected to
God. One of my favorite passages is
out of John 15 where he says Jesus says I'm the vine and you
were the branches remain in me and I and you and you will bear
much fruit. You know, and the emphasis there
(35:55):
is on the abiding, you know, the, the command is not to bear
fruit. You know, a lot of times we know
that we ought to be Christ like we know that we ought to look
more like Jesus. But the command in that passage
is not to make the fruit on yourown.
The command is to abide in Jesusand through his transforming
power, then you will bear the fruit of Jesus.
(36:18):
And so I love it, Courtney, yourstory is a blessing.
Your testimony is, is a, a true story of Jesus taking someone
who was lost and, and allowing them to have their eyes opened,
their life changed and you're living it out every day.
(36:38):
You're an encouragement to me. I love watching your content.
I love watching your content. It's always positive, it's
always encouraging and you always give God the glory.
And I just want to encourage youto keep doing what you're doing.
You're making a difference, God to put you in the platform that
you're in in order to make a difference to somebody's life
because you're you're living it out loud.
And when you do that, you don't,you don't have a clue how many
(37:02):
people are watching you, watching your example and
saying, hey, I want some of thattoo.
And so I'm proud of you and proud of the journey you're on a
proud of you for sharing your fake story.
And I appreciate you being here with us today.
How can my listeners find out more about you and Justin?
I know you're on several different platforms, but what's
the best way to find you and, and, and learn more?
Maybe maybe even about the Biblegroup that you teach?
(37:24):
I am on Instagram at Courtney Stagner and then I'm on TikTok
as well. I post mostly on Instagram, but
Courtney Stagner, 12, is my TikTok handle and my Bible group
is on my Instagram bio. Awesome y'all check out Justin
too. He's a hilarious guy and.
Justin Stagner on Instagram. Yeah, yeah.
(37:44):
And he's, he's doing shows and stuff now, right?
Yep, he's on tour. His next show is in Naples, FL I
believe, so this next week sometime.
But he is hitting it and gettingit.
He is on the road all the time and you know.
Are you with him a lot or do you?
Yeah. Are you?
I'm not a traveler. I say I stay at home, but I am
(38:06):
going. I will be at the San Diego show
because I've never been to neverbeen all the way to the West
Coast. So I'm going with him for that.
I'll be looking at y'all's calendars.
If you get close to Middle Georgia, I'll be there.
I'm sure we will. Yeah, awesome, Courtney, bless
you, bless your family. Excited about you and the little
one to come. Thank you.
Look forward to staying connected.
(38:28):
Thank you. Thank you for listening to the
Rev RX Podcast. We hope you enjoyed what you
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