What I Learned from 36 YEARS of Sobriety and Faith

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Have you ever wondered what's the point of it all?

(00:04):
Maybe you've grown up in church, but still wrestle with doubt and
Distance from God or maybe your life just seems a bit too ordinary
To be in God's story
But what if your testimony's true power comes from recognizing Jesus working in your everyday life?

(00:28):
Today our co-host Stewart White will share his journey discovering the meaning of life through Jesus
Stick around it might change how you see your own story
Hey, welcome back to another episode of the stand-up duet podcast. I am Stewart White along with our host

(00:55):
Tim Bisagno (Bisagno). Tim good to see you. Thank you. Today. We are what are we doing?
We're well, we're gonna I'm glad you asked to yeah, you know, I planned the whole thing. Yeah, I made it
Yeah, so we're gonna talk about your testimony. Yeah, we're in a little series called testimony. Yeah, we covered
testimony as in general population yeah, and then I did mine and now we now wait I can't wait to hear yours

(01:20):
Like you said to me. I've heard parts of yours in pieces, but I've never heard your whole thing which is kind of crazy
Right looking forward to hearing it. Well, I feel like it's important because a lot of times people will share their testimony and they'll feel
Like well, I don't have the crazy testimony. I didn't go and party or I didn't get arrested or any of these things

(01:43):
You know as if that's the main focus, but it's really what Jesus has done, right?
Yeah, so it's not a testimony of your
You're corralling I'm not right now. I'm sitting here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I feel like that for me is where where mine would be like I
Would be the kid who'd be like well, I didn't do all the craziest stuff. So what my story is not that impressive and now I've come to realize that's really not

(02:11):
What matters, you know, right?
It matters is your your testimony you're able to say that beautiful story that God wrote in your life early. Yep. Yep. So cool. Yeah. Well, so I want to I'm going to jump right into it and kind of
I'm going to be looking at the cameras looking at the audience
I really want to feel like you guys are engaged in this just as much as Tim and I sitting here talking

(02:38):
Yeah, so if you catch me looking at the camera, you know, that's why but
What I want to start with is just where I grew up. That's where everybody kind of starts within their story, right? Like
grew up in a you know, I was born at an a young age. Yeah, that's a story. So thank you Steve Martin. Yeah, but
For me I grew up in a family that would say they were a Christian family, right? My earliest memories are of going to church as a kid

(03:07):
And I remember it like so vividly. I probably
It can remember as far back as maybe three or four years old go into church and
And it just was we were three-time weaker. Oh, probably. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think we went at that time
Sunday morning Sunday night and Wednesday night. Me too. Yeah, sir
And we went to Calvary Community Church in Phoenix, Arizona

(03:31):
It is still there to this day
My mom actually just saw the pastor and his wife a few months ago
bumped into them. Well, and
It's funny because it's like this I'm 42 now. So that's how long ago this would have been
She's still like still sees him. He's still pastoring there today

(03:51):
Tells tell babies to us. Yeah, I know right?
So for me though, it was just this amazing time of being in church and
Loving it like I loved the music as a kid. I loved
Just the environment. It seemed like there was joy and there was life
And a lot cool, man. Yeah, I've never heard that in a testimony in my life. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's amazing

(04:19):
Well, I think there's something in a in a child that
Not that we aren't born into sin because we are
But there is something in you that it's the same thing that craves that like your parent
Attention when you're a child, you know, it's a good thing to be like I love that my mom loves me that she cares for me
That my dad took spent time with me. I think there's something in you that's just like

(04:42):
This feels right. This feels like this is what God intended. This is the way it's supposed to be
So for me, there is a lot of hope a lot of security in church as a kid
At I would say it was probably four years old. I have this memory of
I think my mom prompted me to get up

(05:03):
But it was in an evening service at church. It's an electric cattle carol. Yeah, it could have been it could have been
It was but I stood up and I said something like
I'm happy because
Jesus lives in my heart or something like that a young age
And that was sort of like this like oh, so you got saved at that age
I don't know that that's really what it was

(05:25):
And for me, I don't have that like oh this was the moment. I knew I was
A Christian it was like I I really had this gradual time of going
I think I believe this you know like over over a long period of time very cool
So I remember that that moment standing up in church

(05:46):
but
Like any kid, you know, you struggle with the same things anger, you know, impatience
You're fighting with your siblings. I had three younger brothers and
We would fight and stuff and I was your typical oldest child like I thought every
buddy existed to serve me
You know, so my wife and I are both the oldest and we will joke I tease her calling it oldest child syndrome. Yeah where you will

(06:11):
Ask or order everyone around you to be like hey go get me a drink of water
You know like at some point. I don't know when this was I had it click in my head. I was like wait a minute
I'm not god. I don't I don't get to dictate what these people do
And so I like swung the other way where it's like I won't ask them to do anything
Interesting which almost had its own version of unhealthiness with it. Yeah interesting

(06:35):
But in those early years too, so I had a lot of these traumatic experiences
I remember my my dad was in and out of the hospital for various afflictions and injuries and
a lot of my view of like what a dad was supposed to be I
This is so weird, but I remember it was like he was always hurt
And I remember thinking well, I want to be like my dad, you know, so it was this weird

(07:00):
Thing and I remember he had injured his foot and I had
Made like something on the bottom of my foot that looked like I had stitches on my foot or something like that
Because it was like you want to relate with your dad, right? Yes
But I don't have that anymore. It's like oh, I just want to be I want to be injured
That's that's actually a mental health issue
But I never wanted to actually be hurt, but it was just like but it was kind of cool like a tough like

(07:26):
Dude, this car's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's in scars. So I also though carried a lot of shame and
Brokiness in my childhood years and or even early teens and it even impact me into my adulthood
because
You know, I'll use the abbreviation for this, but there was
SA if you will this

(07:48):
You know, we can bleep that if we need to
But that had happened to me through three times that I can recall and all of them were other kids
other little girls who were a little older than me and
I didn't understand what had happened. It probably the youngest I was maybe three, you know
and um and I have like this vid not vivid detailed memory, but I remember it, you know

(08:12):
A lot of people think oh you couldn't possibly remember those things. I remembered it and um and it
It had this weight on me like this shame, you know because if you have ever had that happen as a kid or if
You know people who have
Often they keep it a secret because they think they did something wrong and I think that was what I thought too at the time

(08:35):
And now I know that's that's not the case, but you don't even realize how much that stuff shapes the way you view
Life you view sexuality you view all of those things. So
I think for me also what it was is from a very early age. I knew well, I like I like girls
So I was like more aware of like being attracted to them. I think like I'm sure

(09:00):
I was only me. I can't be anybody else
But I think that I was aware at a much earlier age of that
Even though I didn't have a full concept of sex or anything like that. Yeah, just the yeah you knew that you were attracted
Yeah, yeah to the the girls
So so for me what it became was like
being raised

(09:21):
around
Certain influences in my life like it was
Dressing nice. It was like looking like you know, I think this is so dumb
But I remember the show was saved by the bell was on yeah, and I was a kid and I was like I want to be cool like Zach or like
Slater or whatever, you know, I want to be like like that
So I'd either try and be kind of preppy or kind of dressed up or whatever is it is like an eight-year-old ten-year-old, you know and

(09:45):
So I think that that impacted the way I saw myself though my my value was in my
My looks or my
The way I presented myself in life
so
Like I said there was a lot of shame a lot of brokenness that was carried forward in that
When I was a kid we moved
About I want to say 20 to maybe 25 times before I was 18 years old. That's a lot. It was a lot

(10:11):
I don't even remember most of them, but I know it was a lot
And I think that that created a bit of a instability in in my
Foundation, you know the foundation of your life you feel like your
You can't really invest because you can't plant you can't put down fruits because you're just gonna get up rooted and

(10:34):
What's him move on in relationships? Why build? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
And like six months. Yeah, I think a lot of the early ones we we moved around in like the Phoenix area and stuff
So it wasn't like completely out of state
But we had lived in Oregon and then we moved back to Phoenix and then
when I was about
Seven we moved to central organ and lived there for

(10:58):
three or four years and moved away and when I was about 10 moved up to
Near the Salem area and then eventually to Portland area and from there we moved to Seattle
Which was about actually Thanksgiving day
1994
We moved to Seattle. That was our Thanksgiving

(11:19):
So I remember it so vividly and I was about 12 years old and we get there and
We had just left all of our friends the closest we'd been in this neighborhood when I was
Where I had been for like two years. Yeah, and that was like our best friends and we're just like having to leave
This relationship that we had and then I feel like there aren't any kids in the neighborhood

(11:43):
We moved to and then you just start to shut down, you know
Couple that with like being almost a teenager the the twin kind of stage
And I felt just that depressed kind of feeling and Seattle is depressing as it is, you know
It's rainy all the time and it's not like here in Tennessee like when it it's cloudy. It'll rain, but it just dumps

(12:04):
And then there it's like it's cloudy and it's just misty. It's this annoying in your face kind of rain all the time
And so that really had a big impact on just the way I felt all the time
But what happened when we moved there within that year I start going to this youth group
But this little country church in Issaquah, Washington. It was called Issaquah Christian Church

(12:26):
I think it's still there. I don't know if it's still there today, but uh I
Immediately began to make friends and I was about 13
And the youth pastor asked me if I wanted to back him up while he was leading worship from guitar
So he played guitar and saying and I just played my acoustic with him
Well, I had been playing guitar for about three years at that point my dad got me one when I was 10

(12:49):
And I was like, yeah, that'd be great, you know
I was kind of the shy kid and so I'm able to like suddenly
Have this ice breaking thing. That's like oh you're the guy that plays guitar. It's amazing
So I found a lot of my identity in that
But within two years of that youth pastor asking me that he had moved on and the new youth pastor didn't lead worship or anything

(13:12):
So they're like hey Stu can you leave 15 15 years old so
Then I'm up there and I already saying I just didn't sing in front of anybody yet
But I loved music from a very young age loved it and so I'm up there leading worship turns out I was pretty decent at it
You know I wasn't
You know, you didn't song yeah, I wasn't the next Phil Wickham necessarily, but the next Phil Wickham wasn't even the next Phil Wickham yet

(13:36):
I think I'm born so
A lot of this though time there's that teenage angst and I really think that
God was drawing me in like I had faith. I believed Jesus was my Savior
I believed that I was a sinner and then I needed him to save me yeah and I and I made that profession at some point

(13:58):
But it wasn't really real in my life and I remember this moment
And I don't know where it came from if it was a youth group maybe it was
But I remember that I began to get deeply curious about the meaning of life because somebody had had said
What is the meaning of life and

(14:19):
You hear that now and you're like well, yeah people asked that all the time, but it's like a 13 14 year old yeah, you think you go
Well, I don't know like but all I knew was somewhere inside I'm like well
I think it has something to do with God
But I didn't realize I had this view of God that even though I lived like a Christian in my life

(14:42):
I viewed it as well
Mainly you go to church and like your sons and that was like one
one segmented
section of life and then there was your work life and then there was your home life and then there was
Food and there were all these things. Well, you pray at dinner. So maybe you could say that's kind of a

(15:04):
God part of your life
But I really wanted wanted to know like what is the meaning of life? What I don't understand how
Why would God make all this I believe he made everything but then it's like well, what am I supposed to do?
What is the purpose in this life?
So I start digging into this idea and
My gifting is I'm naturally very much a researcher and investigator. I want to

(15:31):
understand and know so
I start digging into this and
Just slowly over time going well wait a minute. Yeah
It's not just like
Something to do with God. I think God is the meaning of life
So throughout my teens I'm getting more
In scripture and understanding all this stuff

(15:53):
And a lot of that was because of this youth group and then I ended up at another church that was a Calvary Chapel
in Washington and that that was very formative
If you don't know Calvary Chapel is a denomination if you've ever seen that Jesus Revolution movie
Good movie, which is about like really the founding of Chuck Schmitts
The Calvary days the Jesus hippie movement

(16:16):
You guys haven't seen it. It's actually a good movie. Yeah, it's very good
So that is kind of my heritage like I grew up in a Calvary Chapel and in Phoenix and then ended up in one in
Washington and
I really began to just want to know what was true like yeah God put it in my heart

(16:36):
To amazing to know the truth
Yeah, 16
I just I wanted to know because I was like there has to be an answer to this like what is the meaning of all of this
So my testimony isn't like
Well, I went uh install a car and you know ended up in jail or any of that but I think so many guys they look at it and they think

(16:59):
I have to have that kind of testimony in order to
Have a significant enough testimony to use for anyone and I'm like nah because my testimony isn't me my testimony is what
God is done in yeah, right? You're testifying of his story. Yeah, yeah, it's his story. Yeah, his so somewhere along the way

(17:20):
I'm being in to go you know what I want to go to Bible College um
And I go to Calvary Chapel Bible College which at the time was in myrieta, California
They have extension campuses all over
Recently they sold that campus and now they're back in the Twin Peaks I guess where they were before that so

(17:42):
But I go there southern california. It's beautiful and
One of the first classes I sit in is this guy named Bob Hoekstra and
Bob's he had two classes really they were it was the same class
But they're you to go through one the first semester and yeah the bee would be the second semester
Well, it was like life in christ and growing in grace and growing in grace was the one I sat through

(18:06):
That's the that's the one all of us would like to
Yeah
Well, I really I knew all these words. I knew grace. I knew the terms. I knew I was saved by grace
Yeah, but what I didn't realize was that I was actually
Empowered by grace too. We what I had and it kind of goes back to that same mindset that I had

(18:27):
where I was
thinking that
God was a compartmentalized piece of my life and then there were other parts that were separate from him
Yeah, and and so I began to go
Oh, well, I think I actually think I get saved by grace and then it's all up to me
It's up to me to to do it to grow to perform to earn back, you know like

(18:51):
I've I know I know pastors have used this but you know and saving private Ryan at the very end when tom hanks
Character is dying and he pulls private Ryan to him and he he mutters
Earn this and I know people have used that in sermon analogies and in presentations
where they're like that's what Jesus was saying to you on the cross, you know that thinking of like

(19:14):
Earn what I did and it's like that's not that's not the gospel
So so Pedro Latori who is set right here. Yeah, one of my favorite things he said in his podcast was
our job as a Christian or our
Calling as a Christian is growing in our dependence upon God

(19:37):
Not growing out of our dependence. Yeah, that's one of my favorite things he said guys
So good. We think well we get better and better and better and better with equals
Well, I don't need God quite as much because I don't need as much grace because I kind of got it kind of figured out
For the most part not perfect, but I'm a lot better

(19:57):
And he's like no man. It's all about growing in two dependence. Yeah out of
Brilliant. It's so good. Well, so another friend of mine from Bible college
His name was it is Sean Renzel. He is now a pastor and Bob Hockster was one of the biggest influences on him too
And he he's written a book called simple grace in fact. I we're gonna get him on the show. Okay, some point great thing

(20:24):
His whole point is you are saved by grace and then you are empowered by grace and there isn't one area of your life that isn't
lived out by faith
Through faith by grace like God is doing it through you your life
Is actually meant to be empowered by the Holy Spirit living the Christian life in and through you. Yeah, we think

(20:49):
Now I have to perform so I got saved so now I have to earn this and that was what I was thinking until I got to Bible college
And then I was like oh my gosh
You mean I I can rest in the freedom of Jesus. I can rest in the gospel
Is that crazy? Oh, it's so gosh. It's set you free like that you could get saved

(21:10):
But then you go on living a Christian life that is no life at all. That's not good news like this
New understanding this actually the understanding of the new covenant of grace
Was something that rocked my world because while I was saved I was living as if it all depended on me. Yeah, and

(21:31):
I don't believe that is the Christian life. Yeah, what it is is
Depending on Jesus in all of your life you are resting in the power of the Holy Spirit to empower you because in Hebrews
It says apart from faith. It is impossible to please God. You can do nothing you can't do anything you can

(21:53):
So we think like well he'll be pleased with this sacrifice with this service with this thing and
It is the same as if you got to heaven and God's like why should I let you in?
Uh
And you're like well, I did a lot for you
You know Jesus says and in the last days they will come to me and be like Lord Lord didn't we
Cast out demons in your name didn't we do miracles in your name and he'll say depart for me for I never knew you

(22:18):
It isn't enough to be like oh while I'm doing great works for God
I think there's going to be a lot of people in the end that are really disappointed by Jesus own admission there
Instead of going I have no other thing to stand on why I should enter your kingdom except for the blood of Jesus
and
Jesus though it says he doesn't leave us orphans right he

(22:40):
talks about in John um and like chapters 14 15 he's giving this prayer and he's praying
For his disciples and then he says hey, I'm not going to leave you orphans
I'm going to send the helper the holy spirit. He's going to empower you to do even greater works than what I have done
In you know what you're doing here because up to that point they thought Jesus is just coming to

(23:06):
Overthrow the Roman government and set Israel free and everything and that's not what he was doing at all
He was there to actually
Reverse the curse to take the curse of sin
take our place and
If you think that at some point you are going to pay him back you were sorely mistaken and I was I was in that place too

(23:28):
because really salvation is about daily rest and surrender to Jesus not personal performance
uh
I've learned that the Christian life is is actually Jesus living
Through me letting the Holy Spirit live through me surrendering to the spirit and and waiting on him to do that

(23:49):
Now here's the thing just like you just like everybody else. I easily forget that
I slip away from that I slip away from that and when I do I fall into sin
I fall into lust I fall into fear I fall into all these things right I look at my surroundings
And I think we talked about this before but yeah, I I'm like the scripture where um

(24:12):
Alayshah is sitting there with the servant of the king and he's like we're surrounded
The servant and he goes god open his eyes so he can see and he god opens the servants
Spiritual eyes to see they're actually surrounded by an army of angels beautiful that are there to um protect them
and so I keep praying lately God would you just open my eyes to see

(24:35):
Open my eyes to see but I forget it's like I go away and immediately think
Now all I can see is this all I can see this is why this is why people turn to other things
We turn to doom scrolling on our phones. Yeah, we turn to pornography. We turn toward
whatever we can see or whatever we can ingest or whatever experience we can have to just forget

(24:59):
And that is not the place you want to be because you are surrendering you're letting that live it's
Life-taking instead of life-giving which is what God gives you you're letting that suck the life from you
You're thinking it's life, but it's actually you're you're starving to death, you know
um

(25:20):
So what I have found though in this is
In that experience I go to Bible college. I get married. I have all these things
Uh, it's now been I graduated from Bible college. I took a year off. I graduated in 2004 from Bible college and
Immediately got into ministry got married
uh and

(25:41):
Just set out on this kind of adventure of life, but I was still struggling to
Live as if that were really true of me
That I am just I'm beloved because Jesus is beloved God loves me because he loves his son
When he looks at me he doesn't see
Stewart this terrible sinner who I really hated, but I saved anyway

(26:03):
He looks at me and he sees his son
You know, he looks at you and he sees his son. He looks at you and he sees a son
And even though I love the expression like sons and daughters. Yeah, but
Biblically it's actually
Not the same because it is you as a daughter are even seen as the son. You're seen by his blood

(26:26):
So it the son the first born is the one who gets the inheritance, right? That was the
The Hebrew model and so that's why when they talk about it. Jesus says it's said of Jesus rather
He's the first born over all creation. Yeah, it's not saying that he was created
It's saying that he is another translation preeminent. He is Lord. He is the one who inherits it all

(26:50):
and so when that gets passed to
You whether man or woman. Yeah, you're getting that right that sonship is so critical
So you can still say, you know, a one is a daughter of the son in us. Yeah, but the son in us is what we're resting in yeah
That is super cool. So right now I I know the true meaning of life is this

(27:14):
There's actually in the
Westminster shorter catechism which if you're not familiar
It's just like a series of questions and answers to help you memorize
Biblical truth
And the very first one is what is the chief end of man? Meaning what is like your purpose? What is the meaning of life? What why are we here?

(27:37):
And it says the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever
Wow, and I love the way I hurt you and John yeah, we don't do a very good job
No, we what you will find in some churches
It's like you better give God glory and you you're gonna suffer and you're gonna hate it
That's not actually scripture sometimes there may be struggles that you have to suffer through

(27:59):
But the real
Purpose of it is that you when God gets his glory you are actually made to bring God glory your greatest joy
Is going to come from God's glory
It God didn't make you to make something else glorious. He made you to bring him glory

(28:19):
But here's the deal you do that through
If you're a table maker Martin Luther says I believe it's him says your job is to make really good tables to the glory of God
You know that is that's a fact
Whatever your hands find to do it as unto the Lord to the glory of God
So my view
Before was that

(28:40):
My life was compartmentalized into sections, but my view now is all of my life is lived before the face of God to the glory of God
He sees everything
He he sees
Into the deepest part of me and he owns everything
There there's so much power in understanding like I'm not just

(29:03):
Living out this one day a week that is to the Lord or one hour of church on Sunday
Yeah, but my job my marriage my parenting my friendships
Even the things that I struggle with and sin
Those are all they belong to the Lord because Jesus purchased them with his own blood. There's

(29:24):
This quote I love and I'm gonna paraphrase it by this theologian
named Abraham Kuiper and it is there is not one square inch in this world
Over which God the Lord Jesus who is sovereign is does not get to declare its mine

(29:45):
And I love it. It's just like Jesus like that's mine. That's mine. That's mine. That's mine. It's his
You think your life is your own, but what we know in
Scripture is we were bought with a price right glorify God in your body, which is the Lord's
So my life is meant to be for Christ

(30:07):
um, I want to leave with a couple thoughts here. There's a section in Colossians. I'm gonna I'm gonna read it that I have up here
It is Colossians 1
chapter 1 verses 15 through 22
Uh, and it really I feel grounds my faith. Okay. It says

(30:28):
Speaking of Jesus
He is the image of the invisible God. That's pretty big. Yeah. Hello
He is the first born of all creation for by him and
All things were created in heaven and honor visible and invisible

(30:48):
Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him
And he is before all things and
In him all things hold together is the big glue. Yeah, he's he's literally without even breaking a sweat
He's the one holding it together. And it says he is the head of the body the church

(31:10):
He is the beginning the first born from the dead
That in him everything
Uh, he might be pre-imminent in everything for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him
To reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven

(31:32):
Making peace by the blood of his cross
In this part here is for you who are watching or listening says in you who once were alienated in hostile in mind doing evil deeds
He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless above reproach to him

(31:53):
Here's the deal
testimony is not about all the dramatics and everything those are part of our story
But it is all about what Jesus has done right in him everything holds together
He made a way for us when we couldn't make anyway there was no chance that we had no amount of work was going to

(32:14):
Earn our way to heaven. It was an eternal debt that could only be paid by the eternal son of God
And he takes our place and he purchases our life and then freely gives it to us. What and then I love this too
We often think okay, well, my sins are forgiven
That's true
But also he didn't just go, okay, I bought you now your free go. He's he adopts us and makes us

(32:38):
His own
That's amazing then he blesses us like you know that this saying yeah, yeah that saying of
Mercy is not getting
You deserve grace is getting what you don't deserve meaning like I deserve death not only did I not get death

(32:59):
I was made a son like what mercy that's that's mercy and grace and grace. Oh man. It is a mercy and grace
So here's the deal
Your story matters whether
Ordinary or extraordinary and it doesn't that part isn't of consequence

(33:19):
It's because it is what Jesus has done
Your true meaning your true purpose the meaning of life is found in knowing and being known by
God through Jesus Christ
There is only one way it says it Jesus
He is the way he says I am the way the truth and the life

(33:39):
No one comes to the father but by me
So when you have other people out there going hey Jesus was a great teacher good man whatever
But he you know he he's not God and there are plenty of other ways to heaven
They're all lying because they're saying he's a good teacher while saying but what he said in that isn't good
They're making themselves out to be God to judge him

(34:00):
But Jesus says no I am the way I am the truth I am the life and
trusting in him with your your for your salvation is the only thing that brings true life true
fulfillment and purpose in your life. So
That's the thing in my life what I have learned is
My life is Christ. I rest and trust in Christ. I don't want

(34:22):
To ever rest in anything else and when I sin
Every single time it's because I have begun to trust in something other than Jesus
I want that thing to deliver me. I want that thing to give me peace. Jesus is the Prince of peace
I want that thing to save me from whatever suffering I think is the worst at this moment

(34:44):
And the truth of the matter is and I'm preaching this right now. I'm saying this and I'm like
I need to hear this myself. I always I'll be honest
I was sitting here going into this today and I was like I don't I don't feel like I want to do this
I don't want it's not because I'm afraid to tell my testimony
There's just this weight in me where yeah the struggles of life the struggles of

(35:05):
sin the struggles of just
Living in a broken world. Yeah, I'm sitting here going
Yeah, it's so heavy. Yeah, and I'm like I needed this I needed to hear this like this is the truth
I'm preaching to myself, you know, so I am so beautiful excited to share that feeling that anyway. Yeah

(35:26):
If here's the thing too if
People want to know Jesus. Can you can you tell them what they must do to be saved? Oh gosh
I'd love to and thank you for being super honest there's to love it. I appreciate you
Very much and I you know, I said thank you for doing it anyway, but really I mean that yeah, thank you for doing it anyway
You showed up. Yeah, and and you you gave your testimony

(35:52):
In spite of feelings in spite of what grace you feel you may have had or not had yeah
In spite of the the the explosive
Stories of of craziness in your testimony. I love that you brought your testimony in such a powerful way one of my favorite things was
Was I think you were around 15 or 16 at the most and and you said I'd want to know the deep things of God

(36:19):
And you went to work. Yeah, you you don't you put your nose in in in books and and didn't quit till it was done
Went to Bible school like man. That is it. It's an incredible testimony. I mean, I was not doing that at 15 or 16
And I have a feeling a lot of us did it. So thank you for you know
I don't think I even made this that clear when I said it, but I I think it was that I realized

(36:43):
It's either all true or none of it's true
Yeah, and I needed to know because if this if this isn't true, there's no
Yeah, there's no value. It's not all true. You know, and I knew it had to be
It has to have something to do with Jesus now. I'm like it's all about Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. Love it
Yeah, I just love that that one of the things about truth is is that it is always true. Yeah, truth isn't true sometimes

(37:07):
That what makes truth true is it's always true. Yeah, so um
Thank you for for giving me the opportunity to to
Give you guys a chance to respond
to to this
Prompting of the Holy Spirit in your life
To know him more deeply
We've started the last two podcasts. We're about testimony and we've mentioned this verse

(37:32):
We started it with this verse. I want to end it on this particular one with this verse
And it says they triumphed they that's us. It's you
They triumphed over the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony and

(37:54):
um
You have an opportunity
uh to ask uh the blood of the lamb to wash away your sins to start a new to start a fresh to make what was what was dirty
And uh make it white make it make it make it beautiful make it shine for his glory pointing to him

(38:15):
You get to be there per the promoter of the real star and the real star in your life is Jesus and he gets to use you to promote him
What a honor to to to never uh get those confused about promoting your life or promoting

(38:36):
His and he gets to um just fill you up and use you and use the power of your testimony
To to to bring others to him and if you would like to begin that journey uh today
um we think of all the stuff you've you've you've experienced up till now
God is the is the greatest economist of of all times he will use all of that to bring him

(39:03):
Glory and to help others what a blessing so you could say three words. I need you
So that is i that's a position of humility that's the first step of coming to Jesus knowing that we have
Send that there's things that we've put between him and us and god

(39:23):
Went to the cross to remove those things and you all you have to say is I recognize that you went to the cross for me
You can say that I recognize that you went to the cross for me
Thank you for for for giving me of my sins
Thank you for rising again and giving me new life starting right now

(39:46):
I give you my life to do with as you may teach me of your ways
I love you Jesus. I want to love you more and serve you with everything that I have
I hand you the pen you're the author write a beautiful story and write it your way

(40:06):
In Jesus name I pray amen amen
Thank you for for praying that prayer with us if you just prayed man for real
Go to standupdood.com/stand because you just took a stand we want to help you there's free
Elements there to help you grow so you can now start looking more like Jesus

(40:29):
You just started a beautiful journey now
Stu said in the last one that the the the people that used to follow Jesus would love to get the dust of of his
feet and robe as it went across the dirt into their face because they're so close to Jesus
Begin to walk with him to get the dust of of Jesus of his likeness all over you and

(40:52):
Lord ask for a special blessing on these
men Father that have made
Today the day that they began to follow you with their life in Jesus name amen
Amen. Thank you, man. Yeah
I
I thank you for being here you guys. Yeah, I've never said this in my entire life, but

(41:16):
You know, I watch YouTube just like you guys and
You know it it it would be wonderful for you to share what's going on here
um
If you subscribed great, but if you're already subscribed, I mean hit that bell
We want it we want to stay in contact with you literally we want to

(41:37):
We what we really want to do is help you grow in Christ from this point on we're going to start having live events on YouTube
We're going to start having live events as an overnight mint dude retreats. It's going to be awesome
But how will you know about it if if you
You know aren't in the loop with us. You can also email us right now at dudes at

(41:59):
Standupdude.com dudes at standupdude.com and say hey tell me about these retreats tell me about these live events
We'll get right back with you. I promise. So we love you and do you have anything else to share?
No, other than that we just have a community that we are working on building that we will be making a much

(42:20):
Fuller announcement about that very soon
But please stay tuned for that
We want to offer discipleship resources to you so that not just not just something you can read
But an actual community where you can be a part of and you can
Virtually stand shoulder to shoulder with guys and we want to even make that into something where
We can come together and

(42:42):
Know that we are physically shoulder to shoulder. Yeah
Would you need that by the way guys? Yeah, so
Fire pit please be on the lookout for that. Let's do that
This is going to be something that we hope and we believe that God is doing a lot with so yeah
Thank you guys for tuning in we can't wait to
Have you check out the next episode and we will be having more guests coming on here in the future

(43:06):
Yep, but this wraps up our three-part series that we've done on testimony
But that doesn't mean that the testimony stopped there. We're gonna have more guys. Yep more stories
And we will revisit this again. Hey email us your testimony. Yeah dudes at standupdude.com
Would love to hear it. We may read it on here. Just give us permission or not

(43:26):
Otherwise, we'd still love to hear your testimony. Yeah, absolutely
Until next time guys. Thank you so much. This has been standup dude podcast. We'll see you again
. God and she man.

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