A Truth in Love Interview

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Cling to the cross then put both arms around it Hold to the crucified and never let him go

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I'm a fresh to the cross at this moment and rest there now and forever

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Then with the power of God resting upon you go forth and preach the cross

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Welcome to the truth and love podcast. We are thankful that you're with us this evening Tonight is another special Interview stick with us

01:03

Welcome again to the truth and love podcast. If you haven't already go to laborsconference .com

01:10

Be looking forward to next April April 2025 the last weekend in April for the labors conference take a black cross the registration is open

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We would love to see you there's gonna be in Newton, North Carolina So go to that website and register the comment line is open if you are watching

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Now or if you're watching or listening later Let us know say hi or ask a question.

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We'd love to hear from you Dan and I have another special guest and I'm grateful to have him with us and I'm looking forward to hearing more from him pastor

01:45

James Lynch James, how you doing brother? I'm doing well tonight. How are y 'all?

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I'm doing good. I'm tired Yeah We we've had a bunch of weather up here

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But I believe I'm most tired because we just I just finished up a semester of seminary yesterday

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So we got no four classes got six more More than you're done.

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I probably not. Dr. Dr. Dan has a ring to it For But so far that'll be it for this degree anyway nice Dan is a super hard worker and I Looked up to him and his his efforts in the school and the work that he's doing

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I appreciate him being with me on the podcast and the work that he does for the school and the preaching that he does and The work we does with his family

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He's a good brother and I appreciate him so To you brother

02:53

James Lynch You are in Boone, North Carolina. So I'm not gonna

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Steal any of any of the thunder. I'll go ahead and ask the first question Share with us your testimony.

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Let us know how God saved you Yeah, that's a that's a great question

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Well, I can't point to a single day where I was born again

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I know that that day happened. I know that God has given me the new birth and given me his spirit, but I don't

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I don't have a memory of a particular Conversion experience or a crisis moment in my life where I was converted

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I mean I can point to a lot of moments where I felt like the Lord did a new work or humbled me or sanctified me in a moment and Had new experience of his grace, but I don't know when

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I was converted when I was raised in a My parents divorced when

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I was very young when I was three and but they were both involved in my life They both loved me very much lived in the same town.

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I spent time with both of them but I didn't have a holistic Christian upbringing

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There was not a sense of family religion No family worship family

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Things like that, but I did go to church My mom made sure we went to church just about every

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Sunday and I don't really ever remember hearing the gospel though going to that church and and I don't know if it was just because I was spiritually dead or I was very young or Because it wasn't preached because it was a

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Southern Baptist Church and there are many many many faithful Southern Baptist churches But since then since that time they had left to be part of the what's called the

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Cooperative Baptist Fellowship And and so they had gone a more liberal direction and I don't know how much that was happening then

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But I do remember the first time That I have a memory of hearing the gospel clearly

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I was actually at my grandmother's house and we were sitting in her room watching

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Charles Stanley on TV And I remember him explaining the plan of salvation and I thought I didn't know that's how you got to heaven

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I didn't know that's how your sins were forgiven that Christ paid for my sins on the cross and all I need to do is

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Trust in him and it was it was eye -opening Like I said, it wasn't really a crisis moment for me or I didn't you know

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See any clove and tongue descend from heaven and rest on it It was nothing like that but I remember hearing that and thinking wow something's there and then

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I got involved in a youth group in middle school that some people had invited me to and I Think I had a typical experience that many young Southerners raised in Churches that emphasize conversion and revival which are wonderful things have where I probably said what's called the sinner's prayer you know a hundred times in that youth group and went to the altar several times and and I think

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I had an unhelpful focus on am I doing this right? Am I repenting enough? Is it real and very experiential type of thinking?

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and then, you know finished high school went to college and Started dating my now wife who

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I had really really liked had a crush on in high school, but she was More smart and wise and godly to me.

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So she was not very interested then but in college we started dating and Basically one day she said

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I'd really like to read the Bible Do you have any suggestions for how to go about that?

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I know there's different plans and approaches and I had you know, I had never read the whole Bible I'd read lots of parts, but I said well let's read it together, of course and let's just start at Genesis and go all the way to the end and So we did that in a year from August 1st of July 31st of the next year and We just read the

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Bible cover to cover out loud over the phone each day because we were in different states And so just read three or four chapters and it was so so formative and I finally began to understand

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The great story of God that there was one story that there was one people of God that God was sovereign He chose his people that he did everything to save them that we were helpless without him but he still loved us and while we were weak, he sent

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Christ to die for us and It was during that year that I really began to yearn for a deeper relationship with God it's during that year that I felt called to seminary and to go into some form of ministry and it was

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We then I went to seminary. I got connected to a good local church my

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Wife and I got in my now wife and I got engaged we just began serving and and just really throwing ourselves into kingdom work and we got married and Then We had

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I graduated seminary. We hadn't had children yet But I figured after seminary

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I would just kind of step right into the pastor And I feel like that was the picture maybe that I had imagined in my head or that someone had

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Led me to believe in seminary you go through this step -by -step process you get your MDiv and BAM There's gonna be a pastor waiting for you at the end

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And as many of us found out it wasn't quite that simple. And so I ended up working for 10 years at a

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Chick -fil -a restaurant as a manager. We were blessed with Now five but during that time for wonderful children that we have the oldest will turn seven next month and Just kept pursuing ministry in whatever ways we could began to really throw ourselves into Family discipleship and doing daily family worship and catechism and these crazy things that I'd never heard or encountered growing up but realized that in the

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Bible and in church history we have this treasure trove of godly ways of the old paths that we can walk in and and that God's faithful and walking these paths to bless us and and So we've just been cultivating a

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Christian family and which requires with with with two centers leading five centers

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Daily repentance and daily forgiveness and but it's been it's been wonderful. It's been busy It's been happy and we're we're super grateful to be where we are walking with the

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Lord and now with me pastoring a church So I'm I'm Nearing the end of my seminary journey as well.

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I'm also going through the process of ordination with our PCNA So I'm doing different exams and brighten papers and you know talking with folks getting asked to preach all over the place

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So I mean we're kind of interested in asking folks about their Journey into pastoral ministry.

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Like what did your preparation process look like? Obviously you said you went to seminary, but what did it look like, you know the type of study you did

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Where'd you go to school? Yeah, how did that that so a lot of the stuff

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I've been finding out is a seminary While helpful isn't where I was getting the best

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I said the most practical training was is actually coming through no working with my pastors and stuff

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So, how does that look for you? How did you get your start in pastoral ministry? Yeah, that's that's a good question because yes seminary is just it's it's important I would never denigrate it but but it is just a piece and it's not even the biggest piece for preparing

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So I did get an MDiv and then for actually

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I took a year and a half off and then I went back to do a PhD program and Focusing on Christian ethics.

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I thought I might want to teach and When I started that PhD I had one newborn and then by the time

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I got to four children Which was less than five years later and working a overtime job and preaching every week

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I felt like I can't do this anymore responsibly. So I talked to my advisor and he said well Do you want to be a pastor or do you want to have a

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PhD more and I said I want to be a pastor I don't care about the letters behind my name. He said well I don't

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I had already done all my classes and comprehensive exams and mentorship He said why don't you just take a THM which is like a research master's degree a

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Master of Theology and and head out and after I did that I haven't looked Back I have enormous peace and so I encourage you in your pursuit of the doctorate

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But I don't think I'm everyone at seminary. But yeah, like you said, it's it's so much more outside of that For me, you know the most important thing

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I think the most important thing for any young man or old man that's considering a caller or discerning whether they've truly been called the ministry is to be

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The three spheres that you want to really be seeking the Lord in and serving is Serving the Lord in your church plugging into a local

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Bible -believing church Leading your family. Well, I Just can't emphasize enough how important daily family worship has been for us reading the

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Bible with your wife praying with your children Letting them see you repent singing together And then just pursuing the

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Lord in your own devotion and prayer life and studies Whether it lines up perfectly with you know, what you're doing in seminary or not because sometimes you know,

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I mean seminary is it is a shotgun type of approach and sometimes you might not be reading the books that Your pastor were like you right here.

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You really want to read and you know There's different approaches to that one is save all that until you're done and just throw yourself in your studies

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My approach was do what I need to to do the job well in seminary but if I have any extra time to spend it on the stuff that I it was either in my local church or that I Felt that would would benefit me more

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So actually one interesting thing that we did that I don't even know if in the moment. I was actively thinking well, this is what

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I need to prepare me for the pastorate, but We were my wife and I were both in grad school and every single month.

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We made our budget every single month You know, it was red We didn't have enough money we were scrounging around for food and it was just a trying time as to poor students and One of my pastor said my lease was coming up to an end we were trying to figure out where we need to live and one of my pastor said why don't you just come live with us and You know, we're just kind of sitting around the table and we all kind of laughed

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Oh, yeah, that'd be fun. Wouldn't it know like a week later? I called him. I was like, were you serious the other night? He said yeah, why don't you just come live with us?

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and so me and my wife before we had children we lived with one of our pastors and his wife and his four children and it was it was wonderful.

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It was just a wonderful time and Very generous man, I mean they didn't charge us anything to live there and it just totally involved us in the family

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We weren't some separate group. We did whatever the family did. We helped with the meals. We helped with the kids we Went to the parties together and I think we need more of that is pastors are saying why don't you just come live with me?

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I mean, that's what Jesus did with his disciples You know when he first calls his disciples, you know, they he says follow me and and and you know

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When John and Andrew start following him, actually, they see him walking by John the Baptist says behold the Lamb of God They leave

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John they start following him. Jesus turns around says what are you seeking? And they say master? Where are you spending the night? I mean they're already bought in sold completely there.

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I'm wherever you're going I need to be with you because you're the real rabbi and so I think we need more of that and that's that's really important and then as I Just continued to grow and as I got done with my

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MDiv and was in my other school You know, I really started to see more and more of my work as a ministry

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I worked at a Chick -fil -a. Like I said for over 10 years I had a boss who was a believer and he he basically, you know

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He didn't put any roadblocks in my way to sharing the gospel or to discipling others He kind of gave me a green light.

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And so I would just see that as a ministry whether it's a you know Teen girl in high school who's unexpectedly pregnant and doesn't have people speaking truth in her life

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And I was able to be there or whether it's people I met people who had literally never been in the church before or never heard the gospel

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And so one thing I did was I did all our onboarding and all our orientations I would just I would share the gospel with every single orientation

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Person that I had come through the doors and I would give them I would I would get tracks from Chapel library and I'd give them some tracks

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I Gave them I mainly gave away stuff from Horatius Bonar and we would talk through it together

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And I mean it was just it was awesome. It was a great opportunity. Not everyone has that I think a lot of people don't have it But I think a lot of people might have it and they don't take it

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So you're seeing everything I could as a ministry and then the last well I'd say two more things

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I really did to try to prepare for the ministry was one I looked for Preaching opportunities and any preaching opportunity.

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I was ever given I took I mean anything it could be I mean

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I preached in independent churches. I preached in United Methodist churches. I preached in SBC churches

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Alabama, South Carolina Virginia wherever I needed to go and the way

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I did that and an opportunity that a lot of Baptists have before them is I got connected with our associations director of missions and I don't know how it is in the

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RPC and a but in The Southern Baptist Convention, there's always a lot of empty pulpits

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And so I just told him anytime you have someone that doesn't have a preacher on a Sunday Please let me know and we'll go and my wife was so so supportive watching the kids well, you know, no, we always work together, but Strange new environment and I leave her in the pew with all the kids with new people and she just she pressed it

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She was an absolute rock star and that was super helpful. And then others long answer, but the last thing I'll say

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I'm not a big fan of You know, there's a movement I feel like in some of our circles to go to all the

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Conferences to meet all the people to do all the podcasts to do all the blogs the local church is where it is

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But I also have one exception. I had a very very sweet couple

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Lutheran Missouri Synod conservative godly couple Elderly man and woman who I was preaching at this church.

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I only preached there four weeks and at the end of that time It was

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Christmas and they gave me a Christmas card and inside the card It was a check for a thousand dollars

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And they said just use this for whatever you need for your ministry that you want to do that You can't do otherwise and I had been reading a lot of books from Banner of Truth I said

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I want to go to the Banner of Truth ministers conference And so I went and I was that was transformative too.

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So I go to the Banner of Truth ministers conference I'll give them a plug every year and I've met some really amazing brothers two of them there ordained me

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That I'd met there Got connected with great opportunities and I'm on text chat with with a couple of those brothers

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We talk multiple times every single week. So find godly like -minded brothers, even if they're in other states

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Those are kind of all the things I would say for how I've prepared You go to the one at Elizabethtown College.

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Yes. Yes. Yeah, I went there. I think it was 2019 Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was great.

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Great. Yeah, wonderful. It's good stuff. Yeah. Well, I hope you I'm going next year Yeah, I hope you can come next year

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I don't know if I will be able to or not, but it's a lot I mean, yeah, you have to you got to pick and choose

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Yeah Well, you were at Kings Cross Reformed Church in Boone, North Carolina Currently, so tell us tell us about how you came to Kings Cross Reformed Church And also from my understanding talking with you

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There's a link there with CREC and you may want to explain what that is

18:42

Sure, and you you were there was an association and now there's not the association anymore.

18:47

That's so Let us in on some of that sure. Well, um,

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I had done a year of Pulpit supply at a church that didn't have a pastor in Durham where we were living

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And if there was ever a Sunday where I wasn't preaching We were looking for another Church home.

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We had been part of a Wonderful church there in Durham First Baptist Durham pastored by Andy Davis and a great church

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But we had come to more reformed convictions over a few year period and during that year of stated supply we had really become convinced of Essentially Presbyterianism and all that that implies we'd become convinced of pedo baptism baptizing infants and and other things and so we knew

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It was important for us to find a church home where we could Flourish within those convictions serve well and be served well, and so we had been visiting some other churches and We visited one

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CREC church and we liked some things about it very friendly people And they had let me know they were planting a church here in the mountains.

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I said, oh, that's great and the pastor said We're really looking for a pulpit supply because we we haven't found a pastor.

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We need someone to fill the pulpit He said you think you could do that. I said absolutely, you know sign me up anytime and so I'd come up here to this church plant just to preach and Wonderful connection.

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I mean really love the people love the area. I loved the worship and Just I gave a few messages and so the church

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Some of the families in the church They really felt like we had a good connection and thought that it might be a good fit to call me as pastor

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But the sending church and was not as much in favor just because we had some doctrinal differences

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That I would say are pretty important and I think the biggest doctrinal difference is really boiled down to an emphasis on and a clarity regarding the new birth what it means to be born again and The way we understand scripture at King's Cross and we're very clear about this this is a very top -tier issue for us is that The new birth is a sovereign work of God.

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It is done totally by his spirit when God's Spirit enters in to a sinner takes out the old dead heart gives that sinner a brand new heart that will love

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God and obey God is a total work of grace and it's irrevocable It can't be undone when you get born again, you're never going to be unborn again

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You're never gonna spiritually die again that God who began a good work in you is going to carry to completion there's an absolute guarantee of perseverance for those that are truly born from above and The sending church

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Just wasn't quite as clear on That and I never

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I never got an exact nailed -down Answer, you know, is it more

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Baptismal regeneration, is it more what's called presumptive regeneration? I don't know exactly where they would fall on all the details

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But I think the big difference was the focus that a lot of people have in the

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CRAC and not all of them But especially in what's kind of known as the federal vision camp.

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It's such a focus on The corporate reality of being drawn into the regenerate body and This idea that if you're a part of the church through her sacraments through baptism, especially

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Then you are part of the born -again body of Christ, which of course we would say

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Yes, the church is corporately Regenerated that that's true But in the circles that we were connected to and the people that we were associated with in that church those church planting days the corporate realities and the the objective realities were really clouding out that inner subjective individual experience of the new birth and that was just a big concern for us and So that was brought up in in a number of conversations with the sending church and some of the

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Men in our church plant and we just saw things differently We held we hold to a evangelical historic church view we believe what the

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Puritans believed about the new birth We believe what Reformed Baptists and Presbyterians have always believed from from what

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I can understand from history And they just had a different view And so it that was important enough for us to part ways on it and go a different way and because of that Once the member families that were on that more

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I would say traditional evangelical side once they were no longer part of that CREC church plant. They were released on their own

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They said well, let's not give up. God's called us to do this work God has put this desire within us

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God's opened up doors for us and look now We have a man who we think could possibly serve as a minister of the gospel.

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And so they reached out to me again after having some conversations with the home church and said can you just come up on Sunday and Every Sunday after that and preach for us and we'll have conversations and we'll discern is the

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Lord really in this are we really gonna go forward and that was in February and then in April we moved up here and We have been sharing the gospel living in community

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Seeing God's spirit work and it's just been Unexpected Providence of God.

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I never thought it would work out this way. And so it's wonderful. And so now we are independent We're non -denominational.

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We may join a denomination in the future or another network Just in the reformed stream, but right now we we're happy to be where we are

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If I didn't answer some aspect, I know I kind of rambled let me know and I'll we can circle back to something No, that was good.

25:02

And and I feel like you generated several more questions we could go on for a little bit longer just on some of the things that you talked about but We can probably get to the other questions tonight.

25:15

Maybe have those conversations later. Sure. Sure So your church

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Being up in the mountains in North Carolina. Y 'all just had a major Hurricane come through and into September that's right

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How did that affect y 'all? Because I know it hit it different depending on the topography of where you were

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How close you were to streams, you know what the valley looked like the different stuff like that but how did y 'all do how the folks in your church do and Just kind of kind of tell us how how that went down for you guys up there.

25:52

Yeah Watauga County, that's right. Yeah, we're in Watauga So Watauga didn't didn't get hit quite as bad as some other counties, but we still did get hit quite hard Um, yeah, we we it's kind of funny because Me and a few of the ladies from our church had gone out to Appalachian State to do some evangelism on that Thursday and it was raining a lot

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We were out there just getting soaked handing out Bibles and sharing Christ and kind of thought what a Just kind of a funny circumstance like what's going on?

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No one knew I mean we had heard about a hurricane but no one knew what was gonna happen We went home dried off went to bed and then

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Friday morning I remember waking up just the wind howling crazy crazy loud wind and rain and it was that Friday in the end of September that the hurricane hit and It was just it was it was something unexpected.

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We thought moving in the mountains well, we're getting farther away from hurricanes which Occasionally would kind of touch us a little bit where we were in the

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Raleigh Durham area that's closer to the eastern part of the state, but it was totally unexpected and We did

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Get out that day. We lost power for a little while But me and my family we left the house that day to go just see what was going on in town try to get some cell service so we could contact people because we didn't have any service and We stopped by the church just to see what was happening there and when we stopped at the church

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There were several church members already there Squeeging out water because it had flooded about three inches.

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So not bad They're already there serving just I mean just pushing that water out the door and had been there for hours

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We had fans up. We had to take the carpet out it wasn't it wasn't that bad really and we worshipped on Sunday and We and part of our service when we do our confession of sin

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We kneel down and we stood up everyone's knees were all wet you could see all the wet spots all everyone's knees that Sunday morning from from because the floor was just still wet and But it did hit a lot of people hard My two lay elders they actually own a business together and they had a

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Fairly sizable office building it got flooded about four and a half feet of water so totally destroyed pretty much everything there and me and and several of the church members and other people in the community we spent a decent amount of time just Busting out drywall and tearing things up and breaking things down and getting that back to square one before the mold sets in a lot of our young men at church

28:24

They drove through the community cleared roads checked on elderly people checked on friends and neighbors checked on people

28:30

They hadn't heard from figured out new ways to get places I mean our congregation and our community just stepped up massively.

28:38

I live in a little gravel road Dead end with a couple little splinter roads that that break off of it and me and the neighbors all got together

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Saturday morning to Clear some trees and branches that had fallen and it's just a amazing community spirit the body of Christ Was was just present.

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I went to Newland a couple times. I went to Just a couple places where I knew needs were to help out in whatever way

29:07

I could and everywhere I went people were there serving and they're still here serving We've got people coming to Samaritan's Purse to kind of be sent out all over the place

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To serve in Western, North Carolina showing up at our church on Sunday. I'll say oh, hey, it's great. We have another visitor

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You know, how'd you how'd you hear about us? Do you live in the area? No, I'm just here serving with Samaritan's Purse You know, we've had that multiple times and the body of Christ is just here

29:30

You know, it's not it's not the government. It's not the You know social services and of course

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We believe civil government has a role and they're good good things being done back community organizations But it's just been

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Christian stepping up and we've just seen that over and over again and the churches around here have been doing amazing

29:49

There's a bigger church near us. That's just better resource Perkinsville Baptist and they've been doing wonderful things.

29:54

There's a Franklin Graham's home Church Alliance Bible Fellowship. They've been doing wonderful things

29:59

So we were hit hard on the whole but in our congregation no one lost their home no one lost their life

30:07

Everyone's healthy. Everyone's dry and we're just working on rebuilding So you can

30:13

I answer the next two questions How are you all doing how's the community doing we as a but those of us outside don't always

30:24

We get fake reports, right reports So so we don't know everything that's going on and so I appreciate you letting us know how you guys are doing what happened and the next question would be

30:39

Because I know the works not finished right in your opinion Those of us outside of the mountain area your extended

30:49

Church family, right? How could they be of service? Well, what are things that that?

30:55

Those who are able and can help you and the other folks in your community Yeah, that's a good.

31:02

That's a good question. I mean the work of rebuilding is is in one sense really just beginning Now is that a meeting?

31:09

Pastors the other day and there's a group forming called a long -term recovery group. There's several of them in Western, North Carolina, but talking about just how how long it's going to take and and the immense effort that is

31:22

Has to go into rebuilding There's different things with making sure you're up to code.

31:27

There are houses that now because there's changes to floodplain determinations have to be elevated before they can even be rebuilt and it just the amount of machinery and equipment that requires and it's it's more than I would ever have thought like I never thought about being in the mountains and You know the city or your insurance or whomever?

31:48

I don't know all the details how it works, but says this house has to be raised six feet You know or or you can't rebuild it or you can't build here anymore.

31:55

You know, we can't have a house here because of this damage and So it's it's it's it's really tough and there are still people who are displaced

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Still people who are I mean by God's grace living with friends and family and neighbors and church family

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But there are people whose lives are not back to normal and won't be for quite some time I would say, you know, the best thing we can do our first resources is, you know, go to the

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Lord and pray That's not just kind of like a last resort nor is it a cop -out if you don't want to do anything

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I mean to labor and prayer for someone is is actually hard work and I would just ask that people labor in prayer that would be a big need spend time praying for safety for health for Favor with the government for favor with insurance companies

32:45

For for people to be saved people have been converted I mean God has used this event to bring people to know and love him

32:51

We have seen people converted to living faith in Christ. We have a couple of our Ladies at church have been serving very faithfully with Samaritan's Purse and one of them came to a

33:01

Wednesday meeting the other day and said she had been Serving cleaning out mud out of someone's house where just mudslide had gone in and the lady that lived there was did not know the

33:11

Lord did not know Christ and During that time of recovery with Samaritan's Purse that day

33:16

Someone shared the gospel there and she believed and she trusted in the Lord and she was she was converted that day

33:22

And so the Lord's using this to bring people to know and love and serve them And so pray that there would be more salvations and then for people that want to get boots on the ground

33:31

I Mean the best the best resource I think the best connecting point is Samaritan's Purse And I know some people don't want to go through a big organization, but they they are connected to the local churches

33:43

They know the needs our congregation, you know, we have 45 people on a Sunday morning and we're new we just we don't have the

33:52

Connections or resources to get you to the places you need to go So I would say the best place is to go there and they will get you to the individual people

34:01

They're not just doing food pantries and come show up and do donations They are sending teams out every single day to Individual people's homes to families that still don't have houses that are serving them.

34:10

I would say go to them It's believers who run it there they're thankfully a lot of brothers and sisters coming and working and laboring with them and And just helping us rebuild.

34:21

So that's definitely what I would say let's let's shift gears a little bit and Wanted to ask you about discipleship

34:33

How do y 'all do? discipleship at your church because I know a Lot of folks a lot of churches will have discipleship is something that they want to do

34:43

Well, they even try but maybe they don't have something Something in place where they can they can observe what they're doing

34:53

Maybe repeat it. You know, it's kind of just a well I'll disciple this one by grabbing my

35:00

Bible and that's helpful. But How do y 'all do it over there?

35:05

Yeah, it's a good question I'm sure we could use some refinement in in In our approach because we don't really have a super formalized system,

35:18

I would say the way we do discipleship is Our number one emphasis, of course, we have

35:24

Lord's Day worship, which is very important and we also have a Wednesday meeting but our number one emphasis for discipleship is

35:31

That fathers would be leading their families to know and serve the Lord. So we emphasize family worship.

35:37

We want to equip fathers By, you know me or the elders coming alongside them bringing people into our homes bringing young families in our homes sitting out at the dinner table together and just giving them a model of what it looks like to Seek to raise your family to know the

35:52

Lord to disciple your children It's like that pastor, you know did with me where I lived with me and my wife lived with him for 14 months

35:59

So it's a lot of life on life We want to spend a lot of time together in each other's homes at each other's tables knowing each other's kids names

36:08

Seeing how each other parent and of course not everyone's in a family though, there are people that are single that are widowed and We want to draw those into our families too, though.

36:18

We don't want to leave them out I was really influenced and this is the discipleship and an evangelism thing but I was really influenced a few years ago by reading

36:26

Richard Baxter's the reformed pastor and He viewed his calling as a pastor not just as a teacher and preacher

36:34

But as a true shepherd who would go out and visit the people in his community Not just the people that showed up for worship on Sunday, but every single home in his parish

36:41

He committed to visiting every single household at least once per year and he had 800 households in his parish

36:47

And he would he would go to their home. He would greet them. He would bring his Bible. He would ask penetrating questions

36:53

He would ask about their soul. He would offer them encouragement. He would teach them things if they were confused

36:58

He'd leave them resources. And so that's something that I've tried to do is During the summer

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I spent one day a week doing Visitation in the community where I would just go to every random door and knock on it and share the gospel and see how

37:12

I could Pray for and serve people and then as needs arise you can connect those people with other people in your church

37:17

Of course and bring them into the life of the community So that's that that was something that it is largely evangelistic, but it's it's also discipleship

37:26

It's not only sharing the gospel and then leaving But keeping notes of that and following up with people that those would be the big things we do for discipleship and then as a pastor,

37:37

I just try to Always talk to my people and know what's going on in their lives and see how

37:43

I can encourage them Just the normal things pastors do, you know If someone's got to have surgery you go to the hospital if someone's had a loss you go to their family and pray pray with them grieve with them

37:55

We have we've thanks to our evangelistic efforts, which I think we'll get to talking a little bit about in a moment we have a number of young men that are coming to our church and just you know getting lunch with them and meeting with them during their school day and just taking time to invest in them and and It's it's been a really rich good time, but we don't have a great formalized system

38:16

And maybe that's a strength or or maybe it's a weakness Might be some of both but that'd be our general approach to discipleship.

38:24

Well, it sounds like you do have at least a formalized Structural idea of working through Fathers and the families and then drawing everyone together.

38:35

So it there's a familial concept there anyway, right? Yeah, that's good stuff

38:40

Thank you. No one and I think it was encouraging too because you have There's many folks who are in the ministry who who see what's going on over here and feel like I Like those results.

38:54

I need to implement this over here But to hear your encouragement and what you do that, it's not formalized, but it's it's familial.

39:03

It's relational It's those those type of things that that you're doing and it's not some some massive program

39:10

And you know, it's all so neatly structured Well, I think that that was encouraging to me and I think hopefully it'll be encouraging that other folks too

39:19

But I appreciate that and along those same lines I was one of the questions that I thought about too, which is the next one was

39:27

I Think that I've seen and you just you mentioned it earlier your evangelism efforts

39:36

That That you go out and you do and I think that you go to Appalachian State University some

39:44

Yes. Yeah, so if you would share some of your Your desire for evangelism some of your experiences there on campus

39:52

Maybe some of the other evangelism efforts that you do and then this is this is always

39:58

Something that's on my heart. I know it's when you're in a College town or when you're in a city urban area

40:09

Evangelism seems to kind of It's a little bit easier in those places, but when you're in a rural community and people are more spread out

40:19

If you've ever had any thoughts on how can folks in more rural areas be more creative that are

40:25

They don't have the advantages of having a college nearby or university or you know

40:31

Urban setting where you can just walk them down the streets. Maybe you could touch on that a little bit, too Yeah, that's a great question.

40:37

So yeah evangelism is is near and dear to my heart and to the heart of our church During during the summer mainly what

40:45

I did for evangelism was just pastoral visitation Go into just whatever doors in the community, whatever people in the neighborhood and wider area and it's interesting

40:54

You mentioned the urban ruled about I live in a very small rural community of maybe a couple thousand people. We're unincorporated

41:00

It's called deep gap and then it's just 15 minutes outside of Boone though and Boone is

41:06

It is for a city. It's very small I think there's maybe only 15 or 20 ,000 permanent residents

41:11

But the college makes it, you know feel a lot larger and crowded and you're right It is easy to evangelize in an urban area anyone that says

41:20

Being in an urban area or a liberal area makes it hard to evangelize is is confused because it makes it way easier

41:27

So during the school year what I've done is once a week I try to go to or at least once a week

41:33

That's the goal is go to Appalachian State which is a public university I don't know how big it is, but it's not small.

41:41

It's not a tiny little college. It's a it's a good -sized public university here in Boone and We've done a lot of different things

41:49

I've done open -air preaching a number of times where I just go to This area called

41:55

Sanford Mall, which is just kind of like the hub of campus. It's just a big grassy area and Buildings all around us.

42:01

So students are constantly walking to classes or eating lunch out on the grass or playing You know

42:06

Frisbee or soccer or whatever? There's always people there no matter when you go So I'll just go there and just stand up on a little brick wall or stand up on Whatever elevated or slightly elevated surface

42:17

I can find and just preach the gospel and it's just a simple message of salvation Calling center centers to come to Jesus to just come to the cross to trust in him to believe on him and I would say a lot of people are afraid of open -air preaching and If anyone happens to be watching this and think

42:39

I can never do that I'm afraid of open -air preaching I would say that I think a lot of open -air preachers are afraid of open -air preaching.

42:44

I'm afraid of it I'm nervous. I mean every time I drive to campus to do open -air preaching I Immediately think of a million reasons not to go and there's always you know something that could steer me away, but once you stand up there and and Open open your mouth and proclaim the gospel there's just what

43:05

I've experienced is just an amazing divine unction an anointing empowering from the

43:10

Spirit to preach and He blesses that and so I've done that a number of times.

43:16

I've also gone out and One of the young men that I met there on a day where I'd gone to do evangelism

43:22

I had not I didn't actually preaching that day. It was just more kind of talking to people conversational but I connected to this one young man who

43:31

He was also very interested in evangelism. He's a student there and We got each other's numbers.

43:36

We talked and he reached out to me one day said I'd really like to do some evangelism Would you just come with me? I said absolutely

43:43

You know what? I'll do anything and it's so sad I said well if any of your pastors ever come with you said no, no, they've never come with me before Yeah, that's sad, you know, yeah whenever you want to go and so we'll go out and what he what he has done and Now we do together is he just brings a whiteboard like a kind of a larger whiteboard and writes a question on it

44:04

Like who is Jesus or do you believe in a higher power something like that? And we'll just stand on the sidewalk and every single person that comes down.

44:11

We will just say hey you want to answer our question It's amazing college students. So yeah, sure sure items for question. And then it's as soon as they take the marker

44:18

We'll say, you know, okay, you know, oh see you put this answer What's your faith background and just immediately opens up a conversation?

44:24

We've had conversations with people who did not know the gospel With people who were raised in the church and had walked away from the faith with people who had vastly different beliefs crazy things and we've had conversations with true devout loving believers who feel alone in that Public university space and have been so encouraged

44:45

I mean, I've talked to people that have just started crying because they feel alone and and They feel like, you know

44:54

Like everyone else is about the need of bail and and I'm I the only one left that really believes The Lord and follows him and sort of encourage them and pray for them and and just love them

45:03

It's been wonderful and then we've done a We've done other things where we'll bring Bibles and hand out

45:09

Bibles or along with cookies or some type of treat just to bless people Handed out cake one time but always with the gospel whether it's tracts or Bibles or preaching or whatever we do and it's a great time

45:21

It's a wonderful time and we've had of course some angry pushback and things but normally

45:28

That's not a dominant theme, you know, you'll have someone yell at you or someone say something crazy or try to bring up some

45:35

Well, of course, you can't believe the Bible because the Bible says this, you know some type of gotcha thing but we've also found

45:41

People that Just seems are not far from the kingdom. And we know that God's Word says that no one seeks after God and that's true

45:49

But but there are also people that God's Spirit is drawn and hasn't hasn't given them true new birth yet That that you can see almost and we can never be certain we can see that they're on the road they're hungering and thirsting for something they're looking for something with meaning and We are the ones that have been entrusted with the gospel and the church has the gospel.

46:09

These people are hungry And we have the bread of life and we can give it to them. So it's it's it's wonderful.

46:15

It's it's it's a great opportunity and yeah, I would say if you're in a college town if you're a

46:25

If you're a man who has been blessed with the gifting and ability to preach if you have

46:34

Been you know, I know different denominations in different traditions approach things a little bit differently but if you have been given the go -ahead from your church to preach or if you if you're in a tradition where it's more open and and you just feel an urgent need to preach and and and Go out and do it.

46:54

And if you're not if you're not in that Circumstance, but you still are a believer You can you can still go out and have conversations with people about Jesus.

47:03

You can anyone can hand out a tract I mean my my toddlers have handed out gospel tracts to people they have the words of life on them

47:10

It doesn't take any training to do that. You don't have to be qualified in any way to do that So there's there's a lot of opportunities if you do live in a town or especially your college town and then in a rural area

47:22

It is it is sometimes harder, but I've I've heard of people that live in rural areas. That'll go to the

47:29

Convenience station, which if anyone's in a city, that's not a gas station. That's where you can take your trash You don't have to drive all the way to the day

47:34

The landfill go to the community station and preach the gospel in the open air there or hand out tracts to every car that drives in The convenience station or just meet people in your neighborhood.

47:44

A lot of people will think it's weird if a stranger knocks on their door I mean, that would be the dominant response I think but a lot of people are grateful even if they're confused at first or thrown off at first I've had one lady.

47:55

I remember I knocked on her door and she was utterly confused why I was there I said, I'm a pastor and I'm here to share with you about Christ and see if I can pray for you and She said she'd never had a pastor show up to her door before You've had salesmen show up probably had heretic show up Jehovah's Witnesses Mormons, whatever had

48:16

All types of people show up to your door political canvassers people for the census But had never had a pastor show up.

48:23

So there's there's always an opportunity To share the gospel and we just got to take it and be faithful and the

48:29

Lord blesses it. He always blesses it His word doesn't return void Yeah, I had an opportunity to meet my neighbor a few weeks ago

48:39

As we were both hunting in the backyard and he heard me shoot nice He was able to come over while I was cleaning one out.

48:47

Oh nice Talk to each other for a little bit good stuff. That is good

48:54

That's definitely a fun way to meet people. Yeah, I was actually uh, I was my convictions about the

48:59

Lord's Day We're really tested yesterday. We had gotten home from church and my daughter says daddy. There's three deer in the backyard get your gun

49:06

I said no, no, I'm not gonna do that right now, sweetie, but let me just go look Right That's right, yeah, you got the next one,

49:26

I don't know No, it's good, yes, yes

49:33

We'll just we'll just let you finish up with it with the next two. So how can folks find you?

49:39

I know I found your sermons and and I really enjoy your sermon that I listen to and How can how can they find you?

49:47

How can they support you? How can they pray for you? And then after you tell us that We end every episode with the gospel

49:55

So if you will share with our folks the gospel of Jesus Christ and how how they can be safe how they can respond

50:03

Yes, how can you find us Well, there's a number of ways You can go to Kings Cross Boone calm.

50:11

That's our website. You can also find us on sermon audio so if you if you're not familiar with what sermon audio is it's just a treasure trove of sermons where pastors from I Find it to be mostly

50:26

Reformed and evangelical pastors I said, I would say you can generally trust the sermons on there, but go to sermon audio comm

50:34

I think is the website and there's an app also that you can find really easily on the App Store and We load all our sermons onto there and so you can just listen to them when you're driving in the car when you're at home

50:44

If you're sick one Sunday and and your church doesn't have a live stream option or something. You can click on there you can also find us on Facebook and You just look up Kings Cross Reformed Church.

50:54

We're in Boone. I think I don't there's nothing else with that exact name here That pops up there are other

51:00

Kings Cross Reformed churches that exist, but we're the only one in Boone And then you can also find my facebook.

51:08

My name is James Howard Lynch I'm on Facebook and I believe it's a totally public profile. You can reach out to me

51:13

We have a contact form on our website. You can reach out there. Also if you have any questions I'd love to talk to anyone about anything.

51:21

I mean we have questions about the gospel or the Bible or what our church is about and then if you're ever in Boone or if you are thinking about going on vacation to Boone and if you're here on a

51:30

Sunday, then don't don't forsake the assembly just because you're not at your home church, you know, find a good

51:37

Bible believing church and and We'd love to have you at ours, we're on highway 421 right as you enter into Boone coming from the east on highway 421

51:48

Just right up on the left. It's got a white sign that says Kings Cross just as you cross over the new river

51:53

So yeah, we'd love to have you sometime And then share the gospel you said is that the next thing?

52:00

Yeah. Well the gospel I mean that's when when Christians say gospel what they mean is the good news of Jesus Christ The Bible tells us very clearly that God Is an eternal

52:11

God. He's from everlasting to everlasting. He's a God who is love. He is God of justice a

52:18

God of mercy. He is a God who is glorious and wonderful and He decided out of the overflow of his love and to the display of his glory to create

52:31

Everything that we see to create the heavens and the earth and he created it all very good. Everything was great.

52:37

There was no Sin, there was no sickness. There was no death and he especially created mankind

52:43

Adam and Eve in his own image and likeness and he put Adam in this wonderful beautiful garden and he had fellowship

52:52

Adam had fellowship with God Everything was was wonderful and Adam had the moral law written on his heart

52:59

But he also had one specific unique command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Adam broke that command and God had told him if you if you eat of this tree then in the day you do it you'll surely die and so Adam ate of the tree and he did surely die spiritually that day that very day he surely died and The Apostle Paul tells us very clearly in Romans that because Because of that sin

53:25

We actually all sinned in Adam that he was our representative of the whole human race and that all of mankind

53:31

Died in Adam that day. And so now all of us are born spiritually dead And of course, it's not just spiritual death that Adam also was now consigned to die physically

53:39

We were not supposed to die. Our bodies weren't made to die, but he was sent away from God's presence He was sent away from God's love death had entered sin had entered sickness and entered all the bad things

53:50

In this world began to just creep in at a quick rate because of Adam's sin and now every one of Adam's children is born into sin and so You don't have to send your children off to sin camp to learn how to sin.

54:05

They know how to sin within their hearts. They They are in the flesh haters of God even and it's it's it's it's terrible

54:14

That this is this is our nature, but it is the truth and we can't we can't deny it And then of course, it's not just something we blame on someone else.

54:21

We all Choose to sin often we make choices to do the wrong thing

54:26

And so God would have been just in all of this to not only say you're spiritually dead But you're spiritually dead forever.

54:32

I'm I'm sending you all to hell who would have been very just to damn everyone to hell We had broken his law. We had despised his word.

54:38

We had not believed his His voice we had not obeyed him. He would have been just to do that. But God is love

54:44

God is a God of love He is a God that's not willing that any should perish but that all of his children would come to know him to love him to repent he is a

54:52

God who Makes away some people say I've heard the phrase, you know I would move heaven and earth to do this or that but God that's exactly what

55:00

God did He was willing to move heaven and earth to save his people. He won't compromise with his holiness.

55:05

He won't negotiate with his holiness He won't break his law. He will never do that, but he will he will fulfill it completely for us

55:12

And so God sent prophets he sent promises. He gave his old covenant people signs and symbols of his love for them he showed them ways to repent and he gave them the tabernacle in the temple for worship and these things what they did was they they

55:27

Represented in a very clear visible way that even when we sin God is providing a way

55:33

For us to be forgiven all those animals that you read about in the Old Testament If you ever read a excess

55:38

Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy all these animals being killed constantly. What is this about? It's showing us how horrible our sin is how

55:44

God has provided a salvation for us in sending a substitute God would pay for our sins himself.

55:51

He wouldn't just wipe them away and forget about them our sins have to be paid for but God would provide a way to pay for our sins himself and Ultimately, he did that by sending his own son.

56:01

God himself was born as a baby God and man He is Jesus Christ.

56:06

He came to earth. God sent Jesus to live under the law Under the same law that we are born under but to live it out in perfect obedience to perfectly obey

56:16

Every aspect of the law and just like those animals that were killed they had to be spotless and pure God said you can't bring any lame or or messed up animal into my presence

56:28

I have to have a perfect sacrifice just like those animals that were led to slaughter even though they didn't they weren't the ones that sin

56:35

Jesus himself Offers himself up as a sacrifice. He lived that perfect life.

56:41

He was sanctified and set apart by God He goes to the cross at the hands of lawless men's to pay for the sins of all of his children

56:49

Everyone who would call upon him Jesus paid for all those sins. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice

56:54

He was the way that God provided For us to have our guilt taken away for our debt to be paid for our shame to be turned to honor

57:02

And so Jesus died on the cross as our sacrificial lamb as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of this world

57:08

And then he was laid in the grave, but death could not defeat him death could not hold him down He was perfect and God would not let a perfect sacrifice.

57:17

He would not let Jesus Christ see corruption He would not let him go to hell He would not let him suffer in dignity of death even long and so God raised him up on the third day

57:26

Jesus rose again from the dead. The Bible says he rose again, which secured our justification our being declared righteous in Christ Our being looked at as holy because of Jesus's love

57:38

He was raised again promising us new life that we even though we died in Adam We were dead in Adam that when

57:44

Jesus raised from the grave We were promised new life in Christ that we can be born again that we can be raised from the dead and we can't earn

57:51

This it's it's a free gift. We cannot do anything during our salvation Remember, it's all about God providing our salvation for us

57:59

And so God says all that he asks of us is that we would believe him What Adam failed to do in the garden

58:05

Adam didn't believe God's Word We are to believe God and if we believe it's because God's given us the gift of faith

58:10

We are to believe that God is who he says he is that he truly sent Jesus Christ That Jesus is the

58:16

Lord of lords and King of kings that he did die on the cross They for our sins that he did raise again From the dead on the third day and that he has promised all of us if we would just trust in him as Lord We would believe on him and believe on his resurrection that we would be saved that sacrifice would be perfectly sufficient for us

58:33

That our sins would be totally wiped away that the power of death and sin and the stranglehold that they have over us would be gone and That we would not only get to have his presence in this life his spirit within us our old dead heart taken away

58:46

But we would get to go to heaven when we die and that our eternal home would be in the new heavens in the new Earth with God our

58:52

Savior and so it's not just individual though. This is the message for the nations this is the message that Jesus Christ has conquered death and he is now conquering all of his enemies either through bringing them to salvation or by bringing them

59:06

Ultimately to judgment and after he raised from the dead he gave his church what's called the Great Commission He said go into all the world and and teach the gospel to all creation

59:16

Said make disciples of the nations baptize them and teach them that to obey all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo

59:21

I am with you always Even to the end of the age and we have this promise from Christ that the gates of hell will not win that the church

59:28

Will win that God will make the nation's his heritage that the world will come to know

59:34

Jesus Christ is Lord and that the knowledge of the glory of God will cover the earth like the waters cover the seas And so we are heading for a wonderful kingdom.

59:41

God is redeeming us He's redeeming the world and if you're hearing this message if you're hearing us if you're sitting under These words then the free offer of the gospel of salvation is extended to you that late

59:54

We would ask you to lay hold to the claims of Christ lay hold to that forgiveness That's offered to you and trust the

59:59

Lord don't harden your hearts, but trust in him and love him Amen, praise the

01:00:05

Lord brother. I'm glad that God Saw fit to have our paths cross

01:00:11

I'm glad I finally met you and I'm glad that you are serving here in North Carolina where I am

01:00:19

Thankful that we're to have you here in North Carolina and the work that you're doing. They're your church Thanks for being on the true love podcast then would you mind to close us out sure

01:00:31

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for all that you've done for us Thank you for your word and we pray for our brother's ministry as he continues to preach the gospel

01:00:39

Pray that you would uplift him and those folks in Boone. Thank you for For your son, especially in Christ.

01:00:47

Let me pray. Amen. Amen Thank you everybody for watching the truth love podcast. We really appreciate it.