The Power of Slowing Down

In this episode of The Extremely Rational Podcast (“The ER”), Pastor Anthony and Alden have a conversation on the value of slowing down and spending time with the Lord. We talk about why quiet, intentional time with God shapes your heart, your decisions, and your daily life. You will hear practical ways to invite Him into ordinary moments, grow in awareness of His presence, and live in closer alignment with Him.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Welcome back, everybody. This is the Extremely Rational Podcast. I'm Alden Brown, and this is PA. We're pumped. Uh, we love doing this, and uh obviously uh we're gonna continue to. So thanks for tuning in. Uh, if it's your first time tuning in, we are the Extremely Rational Podcast because PA tends to be pretty extreme. I tend to be pretty rational at sometimes. Yep, that's sometimes full flip-flops. But um, yeah, we want to be uh in short an ER. Extremely rational, ER, the ER for you. So if you just need to get a laugh, if you need some biblical advice, if you um, you know, just need someone to pray for you, we're here for you. We'll be your ER. Tune in, hang out, have fun with us, and jump on, jump in and go along for the ride.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Topics you want, any questions you want, just comment and we will address them.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Yes, absolutely. Yes, please do that. Please do that. Uh, we always open up with the open mic segment. Really? Uh we do, and um I I don't have anything wacky or weird. I just want to tell a story that just happened to me this past weekend. Um, that was so much fun. Um, so I went on a trip with my dad uh on the New York Mets dime.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Why?

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Um I was named one of the employees of the year. Yeah, downtown Brown. Congratulations by the New York Mets, which was amazing. Um, such an honor. I love that organization. Um, and they are so first class. And so what they did for us was they um provided everything um from start to finish to go to spring training um and a plus one. So I brought my dad. Um 4 45 a.m. We met at City Field on Friday and got in a shuttle and shuttled over to LaGuardia Airport. It's only two seconds away. It's you can see it from City Field. Um by you know, whatever. By 7 a.m. we're on a flight. By 10 a.m. we're off the flight, and we are given a rental car. So we we shuttled over to Enterprise, get our own rental car, and we have the whole first day free. Fridays free for us to do what we're doing. Walmart trees, done. So things get the cold. Things get pretty wild, things get pretty cool on this trip. It just felt like God was in it, and I I don't even know if it was just for the sake of blessing me or if there was something more to it. But it was pretty interesting, and something also happened that has uh direct uh correlation to this podcast, which is interesting. So, anyway, we are driving now. The airport, the enterprise is at like 50 minutes uh from our hotel up in Port St. Lucie. So we landed at West Palm Beach. We got to drive up to Port St. Lucie. Um, first of all, it's been a brutal winter here in New York. Coldest January in 70 years, snowy in February. So landing so just getting on a flight and two and a half hours later, you're in summer, paradise under palm trees. I mean, I I almost wept. I was just I had not been that happy.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

I thought you were gonna say wet your pants.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Well, that too. Uh everything almost came out of me all at once. Anyway, it was it was incredible. Um, so we drive up and we get to our hotel, but instead of checking in, we we're starving. So we there was a Miller's Ale house right next to the hotel. Oh yep, which we are familiar with here on Long Island. And so we uh a producer. Yeah, exactly. Me and me and Tony uh frequent Miller's Ale house. Yeah. So um me and Pops jumped in there, right? So here's where things start to roll. So we're having lunch. When he comes in, on this one of the screens in there, there's many TV screens, they have a show, Wake Up Barstool on. And I said, Hey Dad, isn't it why all these Barstool guys, right? And he doesn't really know much about Barstool. I was just telling him like Barstool started Dave Portnoy. It was like a little mini newspaper and whatever. It really just blew up. It's this billion-dollar enterprise now, and uh, they're sports guys, and they're really just most of them are just a bunch of regular dudes, and now they have their own show on Fox Sports One, Wake Up Barstool, and it's just unbelievable. And I'm very entertained by a lot of it. I don't endorse a lot of it. I wouldn't say it's not the cleanest thing in the world most of the time. It's not Christian, but um, but it's a it's a pretty cool thing, and they talk a ton of sports. I mean, that's what most of it is, but anyway, they're they're a content creating machine. That's basically what they do. Anybody's working for them is is uh expected to create content and create content that engages millions of people. Um, so they have some of the biggest podcasts in the world. So anyway, I was just talking about it, and then I said, and you know, they they put on what's called the Internet Invitational. It's the first ever golf tournament earlier, well really last year in 2025, so a few months ago, that um is for internet like internet influencers, like golf influencers. So people who have huge followings for golf on YouTube and TikTok and different things like that. But they made teams and a lot of their bar stool employees were a part of it as well. Cool. And my dad was like, Oh, yeah, I think I did hear about this. The winning prize was a million dollars. I mean, it was mega, it was huge, and they had more viewers than they ever dreamed. It blew up, it was absolutely gigantic. Yep, and it was only on YouTube. Cool. And it crushed. It absolutely, I think it was only on YouTube, it might have had a partner deal, but it crushed. And the winner, the team that won, it's three guys. Um, one of them, they they called him Beef, and he was a very, very, very, very large man. And unfortunately, he passed away shortly after winning. And he was a great dude. He was very young, it was a very unexpected uh thing that happened. It was really sad. But I was just telling my dad like how cool it is. And and I was like, you know, and then there were two other guys on that team that won it with him, and um, it was just wild. So anyway, we have our lunch, it was great. We go over to the hotel now and and check in, and we get to be in the pool under palm trees. We got a workout in, we're in the sun, we're getting a tan, it was awesome. The first day was great, but really night day two is the highlight of this trip. So we wake up, breakfast supplied by the New York Mets, and then we have to go meet at the stadium, Clover Park, where the Mets play spring training, um, at 10 a.m. We get there, parking is provided for us, they give us a hundred dollar gift card to shop with. Before we even went, though, this is an important note. Before we got there, my dad and I had heard the night before from somebody else that was there on the trip that um a place called Pop Strokes is nearby.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

And it's Tiger Woods um mini golf place. And this mini golf place is uh awesome. It's awesome. It's basically top golf for mini golf. So it's it's really high-end. It's all like just all the holes are there's no like you know, pinwheels and like weird things. It's just like really classy high-end. They give you a real putter, a real tailor-made golf ball that you get to keep. Um and it's bar, foods, all of it. It's just amazing. So we we checked it out before we went to Port St. to um to Clover Park that morning. We went and checked it out. It turned out it was only a hundred feet away from us. It was in the same parking lot as the hotel. And we were scouting it out. It wasn't open yet. It was too early in the morning, and we were like, we really want to go here. So we said, we're going here. We're gonna go to Pop Stroke after the game tonight. No doubt. Now we get to the stadium, they give us the gift card, we do some shopping, it's awesome. We get to go for batting practice before the game on the field behind own plate. Mark Vientos signs my dad's jersey right on his chest. It was super cool, and we're just having a great time. So here's where it starts to kick off. It gets pretty interesting. My they tell us, all right, you have an hour, you can go explore the park. Make sure you're back here in section 113 at 1220. Okay, no problem. So we start to go walk around. We're walking around, we're on the main concourse level, and I spot a TGL tent set up. TGL is tomorrow's golf league. It's also a Tiger Woods created uh indoor golf league, and it's all the big pros uh, and they play on teams. It's team golf simulated indoors at SoFi Stadium in Jupiter, Florida, right near um West Palm. Yeah, right near where we were. Um so they have the tent set up, and it's New York Golf Club. It's the the tent is from New York Golf Club because the owner of the Mets owns the New York Golf Club from TGL. Anyway, I point out the tent to my dad, and the lady sees me do that, and we're far away, we're 100 feet away, and um she calls us over through the crowd because she saw that I noticed. We go over and she's like, she's got two other guys working with her, and she's like, hey, here's the thing. We have these, they have these putt, putting greens set up, and they're like, if you make, you'll get three putts. If you make one, you can put your list down to enter our your name down on a list to enter the raffle.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Like, all right, cool. So we both do it, we both end up making a putt or two, and so we put our names down. We know hundreds, maybe thousands of people are gonna be doing this throughout the course of the game. And they said in the seventh inning, we'll announce um the winner. Uh, so anyway, now we go about our day, whatever. We're gonna we got we have to be back at that section um 113. We get there a little early, we're sitting there, some woman comes over, she's looking at us, and I'm thinking she's like gonna ask if this is our actual seats. And I was like, we don't sit here, don't worry, we're gonna be sitting in our real seats. She's like, No, no, no. I was wondering if you wanted to be a contestant during the game. And I was like, I would love to. My part of my job with the Mets and the Islanders for years was to pick contestants. Well, again, listen, to be on the other side of it was fun for me. So I'm like, yeah. And she's like, okay, cool. Um, here's what you're gonna do. You're we're gonna put a putting green down after the third inning on the field. You're gonna putt, if you get three putts, if you make one, you win the prize. And I'm like, that's amazing. But I said, I have to tell you, I am an employee of the Mets. And she's like, Oh no, where do you work? Like, what do you do for the Mets? I said, I work at City Field in New York. I'm here as one of the employees of the year. Um, she was like, Oh, they're gonna love that then. You're in. Don't worry, you can represent City Field for us. And I was like, Okay, cool. So now we we get to the bottom of the third. I'm set to go on the field. I go out. I should also say that we had a ceremony before the game to honor us as black. So I met Sean Mania, the pitcher on the mats, took photos with him. It was amazing. But now the third inning comes, I'm on the field, I make my first putt. Boom. Fired up, amped up, place goes wild. The winning prize is a free round at pop stroke. A free round at pop stroke. I'm like, I couldn't even believe it. I'm looking like I'm like, thank you, you know, like I'm fired up. I'm like, Dad, this is insane. We just said we were gonna, we've never been there before. It's next to our hotel. They did at least five contests that night at that game, that day at that game. None of them were for pop stroke. The fact that I would be randomly selected out of several thousand people there that night, and the game she wants me to play is a putting game for pop stroke, and I win it. Love it. It was so cool, it was so impossible. And I'm like, how cool is God, right? Now the seventh anyway's around. We're standing there at the top of the seventh out in right field just for fun because we were exploring, and suddenly I hear this music playing. And I'm like, Dad, do you recognize this song right now? And he's like, he's like, uh, yeah, but I don't know why. I said, Dad, this is the intro music to the Extremely Rational Podcast. Love it. Playing through the whole stadium. Love it. And I'm like, my producer Tony gave me like a link to like select this from hundreds, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different options that I sifted through for a while until I landed on this piece of music that is available for anyone to use. And they're playing it through the whole stadium at Clover Park. I'm like, this is insane. Like, what is going on? Asking my name. Everyone, they were chanting P Yay, PA. Um, so anyway, now we get to the middle of the seventh, and I'm like, there aren't they supposed to draw the raffle for the TGL? They're supposed to, you know, announce uh who won. He's like, my dad goes, I'll go check. And he comes back like three minutes later. He's like, I didn't win, but you did. And I'm like, what? He's like, you won. He's like, there's a sign that literally says, Congratulations, Alden Brown. I'm like, get the heck out of here. What is happening right now? So I go to their tent. They're like, You're Alden. I'm like, yes. They're like, congratulations. They give me a whole bag full of um a hat, a golf towel, two uh sets of Pro V1, titless Pro V1s, uh a putter cover, um, a hybrid cover, all kinds of good stuff. And then they're like, come on down, we're gonna do a little shoot with you. They take pictures of me on their golf cart. They had me shoot a little promo commercial for them.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

So cool.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

It was unbelievable. I'm like, what is happening? So it was unbelievable. Then they do announce my name. Then he ends and they go, uh, the winner of the TGL raffle is all the brown. I'm like, get out of here right now. This is wild. So we just it was like I was winning everything. It was the wildest time. We ended up going to pop stroke that night. We played 36 holes. We had so much fun. I had a hole in one and I won round two. Thank you. Thank you. I was on fire with the putter all weekend. But here is one of the craziest things of the whole journey. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

I do know. He told me already.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

We're spoiler. It's now Sunday, the next day, and we're set to go home. And we're at the terminal in West Palm. Uh, at um, you know, whatever it is, West Palm International Airport. I just made that up. Whatever the name of the airport is in Palm Beach. Palm Beach International, something like that. Anyway, we're sitting at our terminal, I'm on the phone with Jules, my girlfriend, dad's sitting next to me. Three seats to my left sits down with the winner of the internet invitational.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

That million dollars.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Yep. I'm like, hold on. I said, Jules, hold on a second. I said, Dad, that's the winner of the internet invitational that I told you about a day ago. I'm like, this is impossible. What is going on? So we end up waiting. Our flight gets delayed. I end up sitting right in front of him at one point. So I did talk to him. He's famous on bar stool. His name's Francis C. Ellis. Francis is famous for um doing really he's a comedian of types, he's very funny, but he does videos where he eats weird and wild things at the barstool office. So I started asking him, like, what's his next plan? He uh, spoiler alert, sorry, Francis, uh, might ruin this for you if anybody's listening. No, you know what? I won't say. He did tell me what he plans to eat next, but I won't say. Um, but it was really fun, it was just so cool. I'm like, God, I don't understand what's happening. I don't know. This is a lot of golf-related things. I win the TGL raffle, I win the pop stroke, we go and play putt-putt. I hit every putt I need to hit. Then I meet the guy from the Internet Invitational who won the golf tournament. Oh, it was all very strange. Maybe you're going on a PJ tour. Maybe I'm going on a PGA tour. It was really one of the most memorable, fun, enjoyable wild trips we've ever had. Me and my dad were so blessed. We had a great time, and thank you to the Mets. Shout out, Mets, for a really um first class experience. Love it. Yeah, it was so cool.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

And you got some warmth and uh Oh, yeah, we did. Spring is coming. I'm so excited. Uh thank you, Lord. I almost peed my plants.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Well said. Well said indeed.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Carol Ann, that's for you, baby. Reduce is dying. I'm like, I'm waiting the whole time. I'm gonna shoot that one in. Yeah, we sought that in um we went to see Caroline's mom last year, wasn't doing well. Thank God she uh she's better, she's uh home, she's vacation now, and we're in Arkansas, and there's a sign spring's coming, and something like uh I'm so excited I almost peed my plant. Something like that. So I figured when the time comes, chucking it out there. That's for you guys. I do like that. Bam! That's a good one. Uh the producer loves it.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Shout out, Tony. Um, all right, so let's get into some things. Um, it's just been amazing what God is doing in so many ways, not just um for us, but just across the world. Obviously, it's a really wild time in the world right now. It is, it is, but God is faithful.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Even I just want to say something. I um I'm watching more. I'm watching TV. And they're putting on so many more biblical things, which tells you they don't put things on unless they're successful. If anybody knows the history of the Passion for the Christ, they would not do it because there had not been anything successful. Hollywood's only there to make money. So they're seeing that people are searching now like really never before. And they're willing to make movies now, TV shows, it's all about the Bible. And and that is just um the Lord and and the time showing us that there's really nothing without him. And we have we're seeing in in our church just a younger generation who are just it didn't work. Yep. The world's got nothing for me.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Yeah. Yeah, and it that's the beauty, is that this young generation does seem to be running to the Lord in a lot of places and in a lot of ways, and that's a really cool thing. I I just feel it's just it's different this time than it was for me, and probably even for you, which is so interesting. I think we've kind of talked about this in the past, so I don't want to dive too far into this.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

But just Well, we can, I think. I think it's much better. Yes, I just you know when I think a lot of the form and tradition has been uh found out that and this is a shout out to Pastor Stephen and and Steph. Um they they did, you know, especially Pastor Stephen, who I have the honor to work with. We we have quite a story, one day we'll tell it. Our history is really unbelievable. But he really researched how to get the people to do that first thing, which is to walk through the door.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

And it was so difficult for them with people in suits and and traditions and rules, and and and it really um what was it, 2018? Is that when we uh break that down?

SPEAKER_02 17:16

And and there's smoke machines and there's um they're called Hayes machines, but we you know, we'll we'll let it fly.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

It um it just makes a whole different environment. It's the same gospel, same message, same God, same Holy Spirit, just being uh presented in a different way that it just seems like people are more and more comfortable just to walk through the doors.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Yeah, and it's also it's without compromising that that what the church is actually for. And that's what is so important because so many churches made their shifts to being more appealing to the non-believer and also compromised in ways that are inappropriate, making church first about winning the lost, and it is not. And so I'll be quick on this because we have touched on this in the past and I want to move forward. But the church is first to worship the Lord. Amen. It's for the Christian believers to gather and worship their God.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Prayer. Amen. And it is a place of worship and prayer.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Right. It's second um necessity or its second function is to equip the saints. It's for our pastor teachers to actually equip us to teach us to um give us the word so that we can learn and grow together. And third, third is to go when the lost. Go win the lost. So it's awesome that we create a space where there's a level of comfortability in uh for the non-believer. So they can hear that. Right, but we don't compromise how we worship or what we say or do in there to try to appeal to the non-believer.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

But I will challenge anyone out there, and you know how hard I was in the world. If you don't, I was Canadian prison, lunatic, 20 years warrant. Uh just when you sit in an environment of faith, it does change you. Yes, it does. If you did not go to church for a year, do you think you'd be in the same exact place you're in now? No chance. No chance. No, no possible chance. No chance. It does. Being in that environment, my whole testimony was that I sat in a place that I didn't want to be in. Right. And I said, you do it there, and I'll listen here. Just listening to it begin truth. Just begins to work in your life. Yes, it does. In the same way, if you're in the world and you're listening to corruption and and and lies, uh deception, uh, trauma, toxicity, well then that's you know, what is it? Garbage in, garbage out.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Yeah. The truth is what I really was saying when I said it looks different this time is that uh when we were encountering the Lord, and I say we, I mean like uh when I was a in youth group, when I was a a teen, a late teen, a young adult, uh early twenties, even so I'm talking 15, 20 years ago, when we encountered the Lord, there was a real dispensation manifestation of God that was very physical. Um, you know, like you really saw people like uh including myself, like on fire. Like like we would feel the power of the Holy Spirit, and we would like be violently shaking and crying, and and it felt amazing. It was glory, it was beautiful, it was God, it was it was really powerful. We we had just a wild move of the Holy Spirit within our church. I just feel like it's it looks different this time. That's fair. Um, and that is uh great, that is okay. It doesn't have to look the same. God is um big, very big, and big enough to reach um anyone and everyone, however he pleases.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

If I could say, I just think we made a priority on that, and I think that was wrong, right? And so because we made a priority, we saw it more. Yes, but we also it was wrong. That's not the priority. There are certain people, even I'm gonna do a shout out. We're having a Holy Spirit night again. Last time we had it, 150 people on a Friday night. That's a lot for a Sunday morning. It is and we're expecting more, but we've made it very clear to if you don't want this, don't let anyone touch you. Right. You can just watch it, you can come participate, you can listen to the teaching, you can even watch people get touched. But if you're not ready and you don't want to, we're not going to force you to. Yeah. That's important for me. Yes. Because we used to.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Yep. Yeah, we did. Um yeah, and I I just um I remain hungry for more, and I wonder if I myself, and I probably include most of us, are really just sitting with the Lord enough. Are we sitting with him? Are we listening enough? Like just listening, just being with him. Uh it's something I want to improve on. Right now, Pastor Steven has uh the leaders at Eastgate Church for the second time now, it's been years, but uh reading through a book called The Emotionally Healthy Leader, and it is by Pete Schizero. Uh amazing life changing. Yeah, he'll say that a lot of times is nearby in New York, Brooklyn, I think. Um Awesome stuff. But the material is phenomenal. It's lived experience by a man who's done this. And this the the importance of a healthy leader is it's key.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

I I think it's the number one thing after we get saved is being healed. Yeah. And I think we've made it nothing. I think there's three major steps. Obviously, there's just so many things that can happen to you, especially I've been with it almost 50 years. But I think the three major steps, we all come in traumatized, toxic, we all come in, and so we need to be healed. Yes. Then we need to be discipled. And then we need to be plugged into this incredible body that's going to change the world. I think those are our three biggies. And the number one is this emotional intelligence to help us be healed. I don't think we really know how to do that. I think we think the Holy Spirit just touches us and heals us. I think it is a um I think it is a conscious pursuit mentally of who you are in Jesus Christ. Right. And I I uh that was not part of my upbringing.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

No, it is so incredibly tied to identity, who we really are. Absolutely. Um there's definitely I I love what Pete says, and he says that the Holy Spirit, or he says Jesus might be in your heart, but grandpa's in your bones.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

And that is so good and it is so true that there is just the reality that um there's a lot of things in us that we need to deal with and we need to work on just naturally, um, based on where we came from, how we grew up, uh what our DNA is, and um, and it's okay to, and we need to. But it really a lot of it comes down to slowing down. We live in just this billion mile an hour uh life and world, and and it's you know, it's with these phones and everything's firing at us, and we're scrolling for hours, and we're it's like, boy, it's uh it's crazy. Like we gotta shut it off, shut down, sit down, and just be with them and just listen and just sit there. And just say, I welcome you right here into the room, God, and I'm just gonna sit here. And I don't do it enough. And uh Sabbath is a very real and important thing that it gets that gets neglected. And uh I just love to see that more from leaders, from everyone. I think it would be very effective in people's lives if they would just sit with them.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

I think it's 1 Thessalonians 4, 12 and 13. And obviously it doesn't matter where it lives. But two years ago, obviously, you know I'm a very uh strong, extreme human being. Yep. And uh I have, I know, changed a lot. And uh, but I want to continue to change more. I want to be like him. I want to and so I I think it was a couple of years ago. It doesn't really matter when. I said, Lord, I just feel that I'm not quiet enough. I just feel, listen, I'm a preacher when it's time to talk, or I'm a Christian when it's time. But and somehow he led me to 1 Thessalonians 4, 12, 13, and it's just it says, make it your ambition to live a quiet life, to mind your own business, to work with your own hands as we have commanded you. That's just Paul talking to a people, to conduct yourself well with unbelievers or outsiders, and basically, and you guys can just read it. It ends with um knowing that uh in God we'll never need anything. He's a oh my god. And I saw a preacher on, he's like, You ever wonder why I believe Jesus was in the temple when he was twelve? And the next public place is thirty. You ever wonder why there's not one story? Maybe he was living a quiet life. Yes, maybe he was minding his own business. Maybe he was spending time with his father. Maybe he learned the secret, and it's really hard. You've been to Haiti, yes, and the culture is different. Yep. It's hard, but that doesn't mean that um it's not attainable and or it's not important to learn how to be quiet and to be silent with him. Because the truth of the matter is, and I I I was telling him um uh m my opinion is that the church is still not very healthy. The world is a disaster and um and it's much healthier than it was, but Jesus being our example of health, he said, Whatever I see my daddy do, that's what I do.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Whatever I hear my daddy say, that's what I said. We want to be healthy, we should challenge ourselves. I don't know what time you get up, I don't know what time you go to bed, 14 hours, 16 hours. How often in the day does my life consist of whatever Jesus does, I do. Whatever he says I and it it's only to be a check place for us to get healthier.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

And to notice it, well, I don't want to do that anymore. I want to be healthy. Um I'm I'm having the honor of of mentoring a lot of people, probably more than I ever have in my life. And um the main thing I'm trying to teach him, it's so much better to be boring and healthy than to be so active and unhealthy.

SPEAKER_02 27:11

Correct. That's great. And even uh simpler, because you were saying that, you know, how often during our days, our days and our waking hours do we, you know, really question whether we're being like Jesus, but how often are we just simply inviting him in as part of it? Um, I think it was A. W. Tozer that said something like this. He said something like, Um, I rarely pray for more than 10 minutes, but rarely does 10 minutes go by where I don't pray. Amen. And it's such a beautiful thing because the point is simply that I live with him. I I live with he's he's a part, I'm praying all the time. He's in every moment of my life. I allow him to lead, I talk to him, I hang with him. He's there with me, and I'm I'm aware of it, and it's he's very present to my every moment. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

And I really believe we're headed there. I really do. Because I'm I I have a cup, a lot of young people who just want to be healthy. And you know, I've said this in Bible class, and but we have a generation of lonely, horny people. Yeah, and let's just be honest. Yeah, it's true. We could all get lonely, and we could all get horny. That's just part of life. Yeah, how we conduct ourselves in those moments will really define how healthy we are. That's right. And um that's why, you know, um, I won't say the person, but I I know somebody used to come to our church. And at those times, it was uh Wednesday and Sunday, I believe. We didn't have Friday that then. And um, this person who came from the world, very still young, he said, I would literally lay in my bed just praying because it was Friday night, and that's what you do. You go out. He said, But just spending time with God, next thing I know, I woke up and I didn't do what I shouldn't have done. It's just taking that time. God, I don't want to go there, and so I'm gonna do other things. Yeah, and I'm gonna learn how to be lonely. Because really the truth of the matter is, guys, you're never alone.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

And so our loneliness comes from our mind that we are all alone when you're never alone. Never. There's a God who is always with you, and He so wants and has such a healthy life for you because we we live in a you know a really destructive world. I have a daughter now who came in 12 years ago, who uh, you know, I told her the only reason you're here is we want to see God's best in your life. That's it. And it could take five minutes to ruin your life these days. Oh, less than that. It's it's absolutely amazing. And um the last thing I'll say, and I don't know, maybe we'll get into it, maybe you don't, but some uh somebody had a topic about God's testing and the devil's tempting and you know where we play. Always know that God is testing you to prove you, to refine you, to bless you. He's testing you for good purposes. Yep. Um, the devil is always tempting you to sin. Yep, he's always tempting you against God's word. He's always that's that's that it's constant. And then where you lie in between is learning how to discern them and learning how to let God do what he wants to do in our life. And um I I I truly see America needs an awakening, whatever you got want to call it. I don't want to put a name on it. Yeah, we need to be refreshed in God again. We people can tell you that this has always been a nation under God, this has always been a Christian nation, this has always been, I believe, a place where family, church, and God were prioritized, and they're not anymore. And I believe we're paying a price for that, and um we're uh hopefully headed in that direction. And your generation, kudos my opinion, is the one that really just have changed it. And I'll uh I I have said those who uh you know, I've been in this thing almost 45 years, and in my day, if somebody preached or somebody taught or somebody prophesied or whatever, that person uh after service would be idolized. Yep. And when the shifting of our church came, and I'm not gonna get into the history of it, but when the shifting of our church came and the young people began to be used more and more, I noticed an amazing thing. That they weren't idolized. They went downstairs, put their hats on backwards, and played hockey. They made it as this is just a normal thing. And and it's not to be prioritized and it's not to be worshipped. Right. It's what Christians should do. We should have the power, the authority, the boldness to carry him everywhere, and that should be normal.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Yeah, it should. And it's I mentioned prophecy to you earlier, and just how the the word declares that we should um desire it. Desire everyone should desire to prophesy. And it's not as mystical and and terrifying as it sounds, it's as simple as edifying one another. And yeah, I it should be normal. Like it should be normal that wherever we are in everyday life, we sense the sense the pulling of the Lord on something and the leading of the Holy Spirit in something, and then we act on that thing, whether that be with fellow believers or even amongst non-believers, it should just be this normal thing where he's so much a part of our life, he's so much a part of our every moment. Why wouldn't he be? Right. That he's impacting and influencing everyone around us. So we really are the salt and the light of the earth. I sure do have a girlfriend. And is she part of your life? Very much so.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Is she God? No. So what part should our God play?

SPEAKER_02 32:36

I have a wife that's like, and I want to tell you this because it's funny that you say that. But I in my lean and difficult, challenging years in waiting for the right one and waiting for a partner. Um, I very distinctly remember hearing the Lord say to me, You're praying for a spouse and you don't even treat me like one. I'm the groom and you're the bride. Right? It's like, yeah, oh, yeah, you're right, God. And I remember like, oh yeah, uh, sometimes I'll wake up and I don't even acknowledge you're there. Would I do that to my wife? Sometimes I don't even acknowledge that you're around until nighttime or or until the middle of the day or something. You know what I mean? It's like, I can't treat my spouse like that. And so uh I had to grow up in some ways and really prioritize him in ways where he felt I was finally ready, you know. The church has to.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

The church has put the family so last, and the family is first, and it's first the family with God and our personal family. Yeah, that's what keeps us healthy. These are things that keep us healthy, they're so important to our growth. Yes. And um, I really believe we're getting back to that place of such an importance of family. It's just it it's key. It is. It's key. It is. And unfortunately, I'll give you some real bad stats, but um one out of every ten ministers will reach the age of retirement. Can you think? Imagine one out of every cop retired. I don't think so. It's probably 70 or 80. I don't know what it is. Right. But 90% of all ministers who start will not reach the age of retirement. Yeah, that's not good. That's a statistic. Not good. And and I can promise you a big reason is because they did not prioritize family. Yep. Amen. And and we want to do that, and we want to do it in a healthy way, we want to promote it. It's a good thing. It's a good thing to be faithful and loyal and love the Lord and love your family and uh love your children. Yep. Uh and I'll say it, be boring. It's that's a wonderful thing. Oh, yeah. Now we still have fun. You want to hang out with me, I still have fun. Yes. But uh there's a line. There is a line that um it cannot go over where it's not fun anymore. Right. And so really I I I just truly believe and emotional intelligence is such a huge part. A huge part. And I've said it and I try to push Alden out, but he it it's uh it's really you're gifted in that. You're gifted in every color. You're gifted in uh uh seeing a color, reading a color, knowing how that color reacts, how you react. It will help you build healthy relationships on this earth. Yeah, which means then the church will have healthy relationships.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

Yes, which is key. Key 100%. All right, let's pray.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Okay, I just want to add one thing. Yeah, and so the number one way to change the world according to the Bible is not with anointings, it's not with miracles, uh, it's not with preaching, it's not with teaching. The number one biblical way to change the world, and I'll give you all your scripture, Jesus said, Daddy, when the church becomes one, like me and you are one, then the world will know that you sent me. So that means the world's not gonna know until we become a family, until we become healthy, like they are. Do you know that the Father, Son, and Spirit have eternally existed and never had a fight? They have never had a disagreement. It's incredible. He's asked him questions. They have never had a disagreement. We disagree with the person sitting next to us in church because they sat in our seat.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

How's that possible? How can that possibly breed something healthy? We want to identify it, we want to be aware of it, and we want to be very proactive in working together as a community. Amen. In loving each other.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

Absolutely. Big time. Love that. Lord, we love you. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, we just pray that we would begin to sit at your feet and just be with you. That we would be a people that invite you into every moment of our life. That we would be ones that go every day with you taking the lead, you holding us up, you by our side. We know you're there, but we want to be ever present. And we want to continue to hand you the wheel. We want to continue to invite you in and say, What are you saying? And we want to learn to slow down and to just be quiet and just sit with you and just listen. So teach us, help us, draw us to you. Lord, we pray for anybody who needs healing in their body right now. You are a healer. You still heal right now. There's no question about that. And so we ask, first, we simply ask for anybody who's got pain in their body, a physical issue, thank you, something going on. I pray that you would heal them. I ask that you would heal them supernaturally. But also, I speak to the condition. Yeah, I tell the condition with authority in the name of Jesus. I command it to be made well. Thank you, Jesus in the mighty name of Jesus. And Lord, I pray for anybody who doesn't know you that they would know you, that they would see you, that they'd encounter you, and that they would give their heart, their life, thank you to you, Jesus. You are the way, the truth, and the life, and we know it. We thank you, we honor you, and we love you in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Awesome. Amen. Love it, love it, love it. Tony, you're the best. Love it.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

Peace out. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. It truly means a lot to us. If you'd like to hear more episodes like this, please subscribe to our channel. It's the simplest and most impactful way to show your support. We'll see you on the next one. And as always, God bless.