What is God's Purpose for My Life? | S7 E5

Boom. Baby bottle pop. Pow. Welcome back.

You don't remember my candy? I do, but I didn't realize there was going to be a joke that I hated more than bear back or chicken back or you know that old joke.

Explain that joke. I don't want to explain it. It's for the old listeners of the podcast. Anyway, this episode is very special.

We had a good friend of ours. Our man, Mike Freeman, director of Mid -South RAs, also has been in charge of our

RA, that's Royal Ambassador Program, here at Witten Baptist Church for close to 40 years.

He has been faithful in that. It's where men teach boys how to be Christian men.

That's the idea behind it. We talked a little bit about how he got started in that ministry and how you know what ministry you're supposed to be involved in.

Where do you start with that? We talked a lot about that practically with Mike and his life. Hunter and I jumped in a couple times, but it was mostly

Mike because he had a lot of good things to say. A lot of good things. He was a teacher of mine personally my entire life and most people here in our church.

So without further ado, let's get into the episode. Well, Brother Mike, you have been in charge of our

RA ministry, the Royal Ambassadors, for my entire lifetime here.

I've been going here since I was six years old. I'm 26 now. How long, Mike? Well, let's see who can do math.

My daughters are in their 40s. That's about when I started RAs. Actually, they were about six,

I guess, maybe. I don't know, dude. Over 30 something years for sure. 40, maybe?

I'm 68. Wow. You're 68? Yeah. Dude, right before you walked in, he said that his birthday was last week.

It surprised me. He knows that. He knows. You age very gracefully. Well, thank you. You gotta see my mom.

She ages very well. Man. But yeah, I've been doing it for a long time.

I started actually at Charjean Baptist Church. You ever heard of it? It's off of Charjean, obviously,

Road. It's over there off of, it's our first house. What's that street? Airways.

It's just right off of Airways. Not the greatest part of town, but it was our first time. I was down there Friday eating

Uncle Lou's chicken at Mill Branch in Winchester, not far from Airways. Yeah. Well, her grandparents lived down the street.

Her aunt owned the house we were in, and she actually just let us move in without, and take up the note, or not take up the note, but buy the house and didn't have to pay it down payment or nothing.

And so that was a good break for us. The house was like 900 square. I don't even know if it was that big. It was very small, but we got involved at a little church that was on the corner of Charjean Baptist.

And a guy that was over our age, I'd never heard of in my life before, we became friends.

And he asked me if I could come over on Wednesday night, just kind of help in police, because he's by himself. Rules a little bit different back then.

We didn't have to have like four or five people and all that stuff, but he was by himself. And he asked if I would just come up and help.

And honestly, I only did it as a, I mean, as helping a friend, because I got my own kids.

I didn't need anybody else's, honestly. But I started helping in that program, and I was probably up there for about,

I don't know, a couple of years, I guess. And it just kind of became part of me, you know what

I'm saying? Because I started seeing how God worked in these kids. It was just crazy, man.

I mean, I never really gave it much thought before, but back in the older days, older, older days, kids in a lot of Baptist churches and probably other churches, they were just kind of shoved into the corner, because they're kids.

What do they know, right? Felt boards, markers, Jesus loves me, blah, blah, blah.

That was the sum total of their ministry, was for a child, was just like nothing. And then there was always the debate, well, they don't really understand until they're teenagers.

And I'm thinking, after working with these kids, dude, by then it could be too late.

If you don't start taking the Bible seriously with them when they're nine, don't expect when they're 15, all of a sudden, to care.

Ingrained beliefs are already so deep. Now, I only had two girls, but I did have a background as a boy growing up.

I was a member of, well, I used to live in California. I don't know if you knew that. Yeah. No, you tell me.

Yeah. Yeah. My brother and I both were members of the YMCA back when it really was.

Young Man's Christian Academy. Young Man's Christian Association, not what it is today. Sorry if anybody hears that.

That's too bad. I don't care. But anyway, that's what it used to be. And back in the days, it was kind of like a

Royal Ambassador program. But we would earn our way to camp every year.

We'd spend time at a camp called Camp Lackey up in the San Bernardino Mountains. And I just loved it, man.

And so, a lot of that just kind of played into my exposure to Royal Ambassadors because I was in Scouts for a little while, but I was more in the

YMCA than I was anything else. But as I started getting more involved, God started revealing to me that these kids need

Jesus. And so, I started diving into the Royal Ambassador program.

I went to what used to be the Southern Baptist or Shelby Baptist Bookstore.

If you remember years ago, a long time ago, they used to sell all of the literature and stuff for the RA's and GA program.

And I went there one day with Carla. We were up there just shopping. And I walked around the corner. I saw this wall just full of RA material.

And I said, what is all this? All I saw was a little magazine that dude taught out of every week.

And he didn't even understand that there was a different age group for a different magazine, but it's okay.

Anyway, so I walked back there and looked at all this stuff. And I said, I've not seen any of this, these advancement books, the patches and the awards and all this.

And I got him on the phone. I said, did you know this stuff even exists? He said, no, nobody's even trained me before.

And I'm like, yeah, this is typical. And this is what I learned with all RA programs. Men are brought into these programs without any training at all, which also kind of fed into another part of what

I did. But anyway, so I started looking around for this stuff and the guy told me, go ahead and buy them and the church would reimburse me.

But I started buying up all these magazines and stuff and brought them back. And he had no idea this stuff existed, man.

And I saw opportunities for us to use this as a way of ministering to kids, and the advancement books and everything that were included.

And I just dove into this stuff. I just started consuming me. And the more

I got involved, the more I realized that, like I said, Jesus would need to be a big part of their lives, that I wanted to be a part of that.

You know what I'm saying? So I started working more with RAs more and more.

Anyway, so when my girls got a little bit older, we came to Whitten.

We actually moved over to Hillshire. That was where we used to live and started attending here. And I got involved here with RAs and it just, like I said, became a part of my life.

I started getting involved with the Association. I don't know if you knew the Brotherhood was here in Memphis. I was telling them that RAs was like the

Mecca right here in Memphis. It was so huge. I got involved with a group of men, leaders, if you will, that mentored me into the leadership part of the program itself.

As they told me, they felt like I would be a valuable asset to their planning, which is part of the men's ministry in the

Brotherhood. And so they started getting me involved in things like helping out with other projects.

I used to do an RA. They started me on RA Olympics. I don't know if you... This all goes way back, man.

But we had arrangements with the track coach at University of Memphis and he actually let us use their track for free.

And we put on an RA Olympics there. We would have like 400 kids come to this thing. And we had medals.

We had all that stuff. It was amazing. And that went on for several years and until University of Memphis worked with a union to start handling their garbage and stuff, and they were going to charge us like about $400 to empty a couple of garbage cans.

And so that kind of ended after that because I didn't really have a budget, honestly. But we did that and then they started bringing me into Camper E.

And that was how I first got involved in Camper E. And I became the role ambassador director in Shelby County.

And as I started getting more and more involved, these same group of men recommended me to the

North American Mission Board as being a national trainer. And you don't get that unless you're recommended by certain level people.

And me and three other guys, two other guys, sorry, were all recommended this group. And we went to Dakota, Georgia for a weekend of training.

And our first job when we got back, this is all volunteer stuff, by the way, they gave me a book that was probably about that thick.

It was nothing but paper, eight and a half by 11 type paper. And it was just full of all kinds of written stuff.

And what that was was one of the new training books that they were going to have with the role ambassador program.

The program was called PGP, Personal Growth Plan. And I actually had the privilege of being one of those that got to edit one of those books.

And so I was working on the third grade book, that big manuscript. It ended up being reduced about like that.

So at this point, you were certain that this is where God had you? Yeah. Like you're doing all this training and all this stuff, but you're certain like this is where God has me?

God's opening all these doors for me, man. So I mean, when I got saved, I didn't get a card in the mail saying, this is your job, by the way.

You are now officially, no, I just started serving. Exactly. I mean,

I just made the step forward and I didn't know where it was going to take me. That's right. But I mean,

I ended up becoming a national trainer that, like I said, I helped with the writing. I even got, they even got my name in one of the books on the leadership books.

My name is a co -author in that book. But in all of this came from just being willing to able to serve.

Yes. I've done training as far out as, what's that? One of these little towns out off of the

Gulf by Georgia. I forgot what, around St. Simon Island, right in that area. I did some training out there.

I did a huge training out in Toccoa at their RA camp out there. And then

I ended up becoming the role ambassador director out here. And all of this just was just my willingness and desire to be able to bring kids to Christ.

But my growth and my vision started growing and how

I wanted to handle it going forward. And so we helped form an organization called the

Mid -South Rural Ambassadors, which is very definition is to train other leaders. Yeah. Remember the leader that I told you about?

My leader that said he had none of this stuff. So many men were put in the program without any kind of training, any understanding of what was going on.

And so my thoughts are that if I could do, train leaders, I could just through that reach more children.

That's right. And so if I figured about every, for every leader, 20 to 25 kids, every leader that I trained, that would be, right?

So, and it was like, and this is all, these are all ideas that maybe

I felt like might've come from me, but I know it was by providence through God and the doors he opened and the mission that he basically put right at my feet.

And every time I stepped forward, he always had something more to it.

You know what I'm saying? It was, it was, it's been such a blessing to do this. And over these 30, some 40 years, whatever, it's, it's just been.

What would you say if someone were to leave and say, Mike, so how do I know where I'm supposed to be serving?

How do I know what I'm supposed to be doing? You just say you started somewhere. Well, number one, yeah. First, you got to have a relationship with Christ.

Yeah, that helps, doesn't it? Well, the thing is - Prerequisite number one. To serve

Jesus, must love Jesus. Well, the Bible talks about is that we have to deny ourselves, right?

And this is part of it, man. Romans 12, we talked about, you know, 12 .1

talks about - That's right. It was one of my favorite verses, you know, I beseech you, therefore my brethren, it's by the verses of God that you present yourself a living sacrifice.

The thing is, is that this is kind of that same idea, is that your willingness to be able to serve.

If God's going to provide for you what you need, all you've got to do is be willing to step forward. I talked about people that I've met that are grown men, grown adults that have never served at all because they don't know what their service is.

You know - That's a sad statement. I found out one of the simplest things to do is just to start helping other people.

Something. Go into your church, find somebody who has a need - And meet it. Yeah, and meet it.

And God's going to add more to that - Yes. Every time. And the more and more you do, the more and more

God is going to give you. When I left that church in Charlegene, and by the time

I got to Whitten, I knew in my heart that that was my ministry, and I've never looked back.

People have even come to me, are you still doing that? I said, dude, I wasn't nominated by some nominate committee to lift -

Yeah, right. To move chairs out of the sanctuary at the end of the service. Dude, this is a ministry, man.

This is an investment in what God has absolutely shown me where I need to be. Yeah, I can tell you when it's time for you to be done with that, that's when they put you in the ground, and you've got to be with the

Lord. That's it. That's when - Absolutely. That's when your job is done. Right, right. I mean, here I've come full circle, and I'm 68 now, and I'm now investing in another young man at another church to be the new director of Camporee.

That's right, that's right. But he says, well, I told him, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere until the

Lord takes me home. God takes me, yeah. I said, so I'm going to be your co -director, and we're going to work together as a team, you and I, and we're going to keep

Camporee going as long as we can. And so he and I now are working together side by side for the same project.

And I was telling these guys, the gentleman I'm talking about, he was like me coming in times 10 on steroids.

This guy is unbelievable, and he has the same heart and passion that I have for these children.

You know, putting kids in the back of a Sunday school room or pushing them up into the side of a corner and thinking that's the sum total of their spiritual experience is just sad.

And I blame that on the adults that grow up in that kind of environment. Suffer not them that come to me, for such is the kingdom of heaven.

Right, right, right. And I've seen so much of that. And you know, this felt board theology doesn't work, man.

I like to get with our boys here, and you know this, you've seen us up at RAs and stuff. We're very interactive with the boys.

We try to emphasize not only the 10 basic virtues that we have in RAs, but we try to help them understand that each one of them have a part in God's plan.

Yes. And what I want them to do is to learn that the best way for them to find what

God wants them to do would be the same advice I would give to any adult, is to start serving.

Yes. Don't wait for a special sign from God. He's already basically told you what you're supposed to be doing is serving

Him. And doing that is to, number one, is to love one another. That's number one.

When you do that, it's easy to serve and find people that, or find something to do that shows that you care.

And I guarantee you that once you start serving, those other doors will be opened. So if they're in their 50s, and they're still sitting in the church trying to figure out what it is that they're supposed to be doing,

I'd say they need to get up and start doing something. Something. Yeah, just anything.

To me, I look back at how many times you've been coming to church and you're still waiting the opportunities that you've passed.

Like I said, I'm 68, and I've seen so much over the last 30 -something years.

It's just been amazing. We had a young boy that I've talked about before.

He was a young man that came to our church. And he was, dude, man, this guy was problems, man.

And I don't know why. I seem to connect with those kids the most, and actually more to them than the ones that don't seem to be having such issues and stuff.

But this guy had some real problems. And it got pretty bad.

And he finally grew up out of our race. And I felt like I failed because when he left, he was, in my opinion, in worse shape than he was when he started.

But I kind of kept in touch with his mom a little bit. And she came to the church. They had left the church altogether for a long period.

And she showed up one day. And I saw her out in the hallway, and I ran up to her and I said, it's good to see you, blah, blah, blah.

But I really just wanted to find out what happened to this young man. And I says, whatever happened,

I'm not going to say his name. And she said, Mike, you need to pray for him. I says, why? She said, he's in the hospital right now.

I said, well, why? He's overdosed on drugs. I says, oh, man. So his dad was an alcoholic.

I mean, it was a bad, bad situation in his house. And so, of course,

I prayed for him, but it made me, it just made my heart drop. And years later, because I hadn't talked to him.

She left, and I hadn't seen her for a long time. I was doing some work at a company that's close to over here off of Germantown Road.

And I went out for lunch one day, and I went over to the subway that was behind the building. And guess who was sitting there in the booth eating a sandwich?

That young man growing up. And I didn't realize it. I walked in there, and I was ordering my sandwich.

And I heard somebody say, hey, Mr. Mike. Yeah, because you look the exact same you did 30 years ago. So why does that matter?

Yeah. Here's a grown man calling me Mr. Mike. And I looked at him, and I said, oh, man, that's so -and -so.

And he says, come, come sit down. Let's have lunch. And so I sat down. He just started getting caught up on, and he was telling me that,

I didn't bring up what his mom had told me about him being in the hospital. I didn't bring it up. But he said that, he just told me, he says, man,

I had some tough times there for a while. And he said, but I've got myself straightened out. He said, I've gone back to college. And I said, yeah.

And I said, well, what did you do? He says, I'm getting into computer stuff, kind of like what you did. Wow. So, sorry.

I knew this was going to happen. But -

Start serving somewhere you have no idea where God will take it. Yeah. And you know, Mike, if I could add.

Yeah. This is one of those things. I think we talked about it last week, Hunter. But if not, it was a

Sunday morning. I get them all mixed up. I think all of us, and maybe some of those people you're talking about who, you know, they're 50 and well, hopefully

I'll find my ministry one day. I think if we quit dicing up our life into spiritual life, work life, school life, home life, those categories do not exist in the

Bible. True. All of those things are your spiritual life. If you ask 98 % of Christians, that percent might not be high enough.

How are you doing with Jesus? They will answer with depending on how they're doing with prayer and reading their

Bible. Now, I'm not mocking those two things, but that is the standard answer, right? Right. And they categorize that that is how they please

God, those two things. What I don't understand is you can please or displease God because this right here tells you how to live your work life.

Home life, school life, etc. Those are your spiritual life. Man. That is.

So, the encouraging part of that for me is I can please God sweeping the floor.

Man. I can please God at a computer tech,

I can please God in any of those things because He tells me what a boss should look like, what an employee should look like, what a servant should look like, what a husband should look like, what a friend.

So, I am living my spiritual life if I'm living it according to those standards.

So, the men, the women who are like, I don't know how I'm supposed to be, well, the natural flow of applying this to your life will have you serving somebody.

That is ministry, and if you do that, I make you a promise. You know, the women we have that help do the

Wednesday night meal, you ask them, they just loved to cook.

And so, we had a couple events where we needed extra people, they did it, and I can think of one right now.

She goes, well, I should do this more often. And Rebecca was like, well, good, I'm tired of cooking every week, right?

Stuff like that. Like, the Saw Gym, so many things like that.

God will open those doors to any heart that's willing. What's the old saying? He doesn't call those already equipped,

He equips those who He has already called. Yes. I love that, man. I love what you said, that you can please

God by sweeping a floor. It's like, that just needs to be your attitude is, for what am

I doing this? Yes. I do all things as if unto the Lord. Yeah. And you said, oh, these different categories of life, man.

I'll tell you, man, the most depressed people, Christians will be, is when they separate their categories.

Yes. Say, my work life, my family, my home life. Because you think that 10 -hour shift you just did cannot be pleasing to God.

Well, it sure can be. Right. Well, it can certainly be displeasing as well, because if God's behind you for that 10 -hour shift, and then like, oh, you come home and now you can pick it up.

Or you say, oh, you come home and you wait six more days till Sunday comes around, and then we can talk about your spiritual life.

That's not the way that God intends us to live our lives. And if we're really interested in pleasing

God, we shouldn't be categorizing these things. A mom can live out her spiritual life at home teaching her six -year -old how to read.

Yeah. A father can live out his spiritual life going and being a shovelman at an asphalt company, and then coming home and playing capture of a tiger with his kids.

Every example we have mentioned so far, this tells us how we're supposed to do it.

And if we're doing that, we are living a life – what we're doing right now, what Seth and Dalton are doing right now, if we're doing it with the right attitude, we are living out our spiritual life.

Man. I just, it blows me away when I hear so many older folks that have just not, because they still haven't figured out, what are you waiting on, man?

Let me show you this number. See that number there? 20 ,400.

Okay. Cadbury is 51 years old. If I were to average the number of kids that have been ministered to, that's the number.

Wow. Wow. 20 ,000. 20 ,400. That's an average. We've had years, and I told them that back in the days when

RAs was really huge out here, at this camp out here, we had up to 1 ,000 kids one year.

I'm one of them. I'm one of those numbers. You were my teacher my entire life.

And look, man, like, what I love about that, I'm a pastor now.

I said this last week. You weren't here. One of the first ministries

I served in was RAs, and it was like three or four years. And you know the reason why?

Mike had a need, and I wasn't doing anything else anywhere else. And I was 19, maybe. And he got up one

Sunday, and he was like, Hey, I could use some help. And I said, I got it. Yeah, no problem.

I can do that. That's how I got started. Exactly. Exactly. And one thing, I mean, that's how

God works. Well, I've got so many men that are volunteers today that were kids in RAs that are now working.

Donovan. Donovan was in RAs, yeah. Yeah, but I've got a lot of these men that have now committed to this one, we call it a ministry.

It's an annual mission project as far as I'm concerned for kids. But they have put it on their calendar every year.

I don't even have to ask them. They're already on board. And these are men that have grown up into the

RA program. And I've got men last year that have basically retired at old age physically.

They couldn't do it anymore physically. I had one man. This is no joke. I love him to death.

He did our camp craft stuff at the campery. He set up all the log saws and all that stuff for the kids every year.

And I was on one of the little golf carts driving around the camp trying to make sure things are getting taken care of. I drove by there and he's out there by himself trying to load a big giant log onto the side of a, what do you call those?

Like a cross support? Yeah, yeah, for sawing. He's got a cane in one hand.

Man. And pulling the log with the other. And I'm like, what are you doing, man?

He's all drawn to get this up here. And I said, let me help you. And I got out to help him, but that day he finally had to retire.

And I says, wow, where have those people gone? Where have those people gone? Commitment.

Yeah, that's what it is. And I think real quick on that is he was doing all that for the log saw.

The log saw. For the log saw. And you think, well, I want to do something that's so important.

Man, the log saw. All it is is teaching kids how to use a saw.

And even more so, just like how to get past hurdles. Because that saw will catch.

And then everybody's looking at you and watching you. And you're trying to learn it. Like just a small little thing is putting the log up on that thing.

It's such a big service for all those kids. And if you're looking for the biggest, flashiest job, you're looking with the wrong heart.

Well, see, and he used to have a lot more than he did before that. Because as he got older, he kind of had to let some things aside.

But he said, I'm committed to this. You know, I'm going to be putting that log on there. The thing is that he's one of those men

I was talking about that brought me up to the program. That young man,

I want to go back to that real quick. When I left, he hollered at me.

He said, Mr. Mike. And as I was walking out the door, he said, and I said, yeah. He said, thanks for not giving up on me.

Man, come on. Man, that's right. But yeah, that's why

I do it. Yeah. And to watch kids and to see them grow up through this and go,

I mean, it's just, it's amazing. And how you could deny yourself of doing something like that.

I just don't understand it. It's beyond me, actually. And I'll tell you what, I think it's so important what you said when you first brought it up.

When that guy, he asked you, hey, come help me. And you said, I don't want to do that. I've got my own kids.

Yeah, it's like that's the thought that goes through people's head. Yeah, I've got leaders that have joined and helped.

And then when their kids, their boys have aged out, they dropped out with them. I'm like, I don't understand those things.

See, because - I've seen that too. And no, I'm not trying to offend them or anything like that.

But because to me, it's a ministry and it's ingrained into the soul that Jesus gave.

So, I look at it from a whole different perspective. So, that's why I don't understand why when your kid ages out, why you feel like your job is -

Because your motives were wrong. Right, exactly. But let me tell you something, as a current parent of young children,

I owe so much of my children's knowledge of the Bible, not to me, to Louise Maddox, for example.

She is 79. Did y 'all know that? She's about to be 80. She's one of our faithful Sunday school teachers.

And she doesn't do felt bore. In other words, when she teaches on the flood, she actually teaches on the flood.

You know what I mean? She doesn't like, not a colored - I mean, you understand what I'm getting at.

Naomi is three years old. She came home and said,

Daddy, here's my verse. And they took a verse, and they took out words and put in a picture to help her, because she can't read yet, right?

So, it's Matthew 4 .4, and man must not live by bread alone. And instead of the word bread, it was a loaf of bread, like a picture of it.

Man was a picture of a dude. And she said, Matthew 4 .4, man must not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Wow. Wow. She's three. It's not because she's a genius. It's because there's,

I don't know, 12 people in that nursery every Sunday. They say, all right, kids, stand up.

I mean, once a month, it's me, and it is a lot. And they stand up, and they say, all right, kids, they stand up, they have to stretch their back, and they have to like, all right, raise your left hand, raise your right hand, put them down, then repeat after me.

The hand thing was just getting moving. Man must - And Naomi comes home, and right now, she knows

Matthew 4 .4, and I've never opened this up and read that with her. Wow. You can't buy that kind of influence.

Let me tell you something. If you have, and this is what I mean about people, you don't have to be the greatest orator.

You don't have to be an alpha personality. You just have to go to work somewhere.

Somewhere. When you say, how do I know God's will for my life? Here's God's will for your life.

God's will for your life is that you are more sanctified, and the body is more sanctified.

And He has so set up this world that those happen at the same time. You don't get more sanctified and more holy off by yourself all the time, only with your private...

There's an old hymn that's a very beautiful hymn, but sometimes it can lead us astray a little bit, and you'll know exactly what

I'm talking about. I come to the garden alone, and He walks with me and talks to me and tells me

I am beautiful, intimate. Then the last line, and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other shall ever know.

Well, and I understand the intimate... Gatekeeping, God's love. I understand the intimate.

It's a beautiful song, but I wish there was a fifth verse that said, and I did share that joy that me and him have with somebody else, and they got to see the beauty of it.

You know what I mean? In other words, your ministry is to show through whatever means necessary what

God has done and is doing in your life. There's your ministry. And that can be through a log splitting competition.

That can be through music. We have a sign language class going on tonight.

I'm going there right when this is over. I was trying to decide, will that be the quietest or loudest class in Witten history?

Because it could go either way. It could go either way. She went and visited the nursery the other day, and the kids were learning

Jesus and the Lord and all this stuff. That is using a gift, skill, and talent.

Right. That you have. Sarah Workman's, they were painting the other week when I walked up in here.

Right. Okay. That counts. Yeah. That counts. Stuff like that. Get up and do something.

Something. At the beginning, I said, number one, obviously, you have to have a relationship with Christ.

Yeah. But number two, I think you need to develop a compassion for other people. Yes. And look around, see where you can actually help.

And once you've done that, you can actually start serving. It's just like you said, it's just like setting one foot in front of the other.

I think of a child that is a brand new child. You're going to put them behind the steering wheel of an 18 -wheeler, right?

Right. Yeah. So they've got to learn to grow up before they, I mean, physically grow, mentally grow, before they're capable of doing that.

Spiritually, we're kind of that same way. When I got started doing what I was doing, I had no idea where I'd end up with it.

I would have knocked me over the stick, I mean, with a feather if I'd have looked out into the future. But the thing is, is that God prepared me one step at a time.

The other thing is I had to be willing to take that step. Yes. So if we've got people sitting down at our pews today and don't know what their ministry is, my advice to you is get up.

Say that sentence again. Just get up. Man, come on. And do something. Something. Something. And God will show you.

You're not going to get an email or you're not going to get a letter card and tell you what.

He's not going to do it that way. He's going to show you through your faith and through your faithfulness. Being obedient to God is so, that's it.

That's your path right there is showing your obedience to God and loving one another, having compassion and serving as he served for us.

I mean, when he showed us how to serve when he was here. This might need to be a Sunday morning sermon by Mike Freeman. But it's as simple as that.

There's nothing complex about it, man. It's just get up and do something, man.

Don't sit there and watch the world go by. I'll give you a perfect example. Yes, sir. Several people in here have been several times.

I'm not going to say his name. We're going on a men's camping trip in November. We've already done one this year.

We normally just do it once a year, but the demand was so high. Pastor Jeremiah was like, well, maybe we can do it again in November.

And like 30 people have signed up. I'm serious about that number, by the way. Wow. So, and Pastor Omar, one of our pastors that we work very closely with in Puerto Rico is coming, and he is not used to camping.

This will be interesting. But Jeremiah approached this guy who, a little awkward, but eager to help.

And Jeremiah said, hey, will you help me cook dinners on these three nights of camping?

He said the guy stood up. He said the guy stood up and said, I would love to. Wow. That's what we're talking about.

Yeah. But it's, yes, it's just being willing to just step up and do something. And that's the best advice

I can give anybody trying to find their path and how to serve, is that you got to get up and serve.

And I'd say, man, somebody who's looking to, man, what do

I have a passion for? What do I have a heart for? I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't like this. I would say even farther, don't ask

God to give you a heart for a specific ministry. Ask God to give you a heart for his heart, a heart after his, a heart after what he wants from you.

And so it's like, get up, get ready, go do something, and be praying all the while,

God, give me a heart for your ministry, whatever ministry it is that you would have me do. You know what drives me crazy?

What? When churches send out these gift surveys, trying to find out what your gift is so that you would understand where you're going to serve.

I'm like, dude, just serve, man. I look around, there's so much that you could be doing.

And if, and I don't, I'm not trying to slam a lot of the, if there's, if they're waiting on some kind of a analysis to help them try to understand what they're, where they should be doing, working and stuff like that, what their talents are, they know what their talents are.

You know what I'm saying? But the thing is, is that if they just, just get up and do something, and I don't mean just one time.

I mean a lot, all the time. In fact, the doors are going to open.

The door's going to open. God's going to put people in your life that you never would have expected, and you're going to see some results that absolutely never would have expected.

Absolutely. All you got to do is just be willing to put yourself out there. You know, that's it. Simple as that.

Yeah. Yeah, the picture's bigger than what we could ever see. Mm -hmm.

All right. Did you have any scripture you wanted to share with us? Just one. I actually have two, but 1

Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3.

We've read this one here before. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3 says, For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

Oh, wow. For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

And the word sanctification just means being set apart, being made holy, being made different from the world, and that process is called sanctification, the process of you being sanctified, holy, set apart, more obedient to Jesus today than you were yesterday, and that's the will of God for your life.

And if we're all doing that individually, by default, because part of obeying God is serving others, you will also be sanctifying the body of Christ.

The Bible says that the goal of the church is that until Ephesians chapter 3, we all reach full unity, the global church, moving that direction.

You know, whenever persecution strikes the church, and I mean globally, there are negative effects, obviously.

There's also positive effects in that those who remain are loyal because it costs them something, and more unified and all the little differences just don't seem to matter anymore.

You know, God sometimes purifies

His church by burning away the chaff, and He does that often.

The Bible says that for a nation, judgment always first begins in the household of God.

First Peter says judgment always begins in the household of God. You look at the fall of any nation, judgment begins in the church.

But I want to say when it comes to your sanctification and that being the will of God for your life, that's what

He wants from you. He will do it in such a way, let me word it this way,

I think I said this before, this book is very thick, and He says that you show

Him love by obeying Him, and I had this thought years ago, I'm like, alright Lord, I hear you, here's the problem.

That book is that thick, and I know that much of it. It will take me 25 years to have a moderate understanding of this whole thing.

How do I obey you in the meantime while I'm still learning it? You know what I mean? It's like those, it's like all those jobs or those internships that require two's experience, but if they all require two's experience, you can never have two's experience to apply for it.

Right? I've never understood this. Yeah, you get a degree in something, oh, require two's experience to apply for the internship.

But the problem is all the jobs want the two's experience also. And then it hit me.

What He did was He told us that every single command in this book boils down to either loving

God or loving others, loving your neighbor. And you know,

I just put it to the test. I'm like, alright, you shall not steal. Well, love neighbor as yourself.

Have no idols. Love God. Ephesians 5, share all good things. Well, love neighbor.

You shall not commit adultery. Love neighbor. And you just, Jesus said the entire law and the prophets hangs on those two commands.

Every single command in this book. So, if you are obeying those two commands, you are accidentally obeying the whole

Bible, even commands you haven't even read yet. Isn't that something? You are accidentally obeying the whole

Bible if you are obeying those two. It's not about the letter of the law, it's about the spirit of it. Exactly.

So, I think what Mike's saying, and this is the last thing I have to say, and I think he said everything. I think what

Mike's saying is, do not wait for the clouds to part and the

Archangel Michael to come down and hand you on golden tablets. It sounds really Mormon -esque right now.

This is your ministry, ministry, ministry, ministry. Well, I'm thinking like Price is

Right. Yeah! Come on down! Come on down! This is your ministry! Ministry number one.

Nursery and flashing lights. Ministry number two. Or ministry number three. But instead, go to work somewhere and he'll open the door for the rest.

So, I think that's exactly what Mike's saying. If you're loving God by nature, you will love God's people, and then it will open up from there.

That's right. Well, amen. Guys, that's going to be it for this episode. If you liked what you heard, if you didn't like what you heard, let us know in the comments, guys.

Always be sure to like and subscribe in the video. If you have any questions about any of the topics that we covered today, or any of the past videos, or any ideas for topics you'd want to hear about in the future, go ahead and drop a comment on this video, or send us an email at listenpointtaken at gmail .com.

That's listenpointtaken at gmail .com. But until next time... Deuces!

What's up? This is Mike, and he looks like Mr. Monopoly. I've thought this my whole life. I've thought this my whole life.