The preaching of the Cross 03-20-2023

The transcription is a stream-of-consciousness monologue by someone addressing their online audience. They mention various greetings, apologize for being distracted, share personal updates, respond to comments, and discuss topics such as humor in relationships, being equally yoked, sin, forgiveness, and a verse from the book of Habakkuk. The main theme is the importance of praising and exalting God in all circumstances. I wonder, let's see, let's see here, good morning everybody, good to have you this morning, I'm looking for something real quick, let me look up, let me look for something real quick, hang on, here we go, good morning, good morning everybody, good morning, good morning, good morning, let's see here, good morning everybody, good morning, good morning, good morning, I'm looking something up here real quick, be patient with me, hang on, good morning, good morning, good morning, okay, hang on, I want to see something in NLT, see how it reads, well it's going to read the same but, alright, alright, there we go, so we're looking at 318, 318, hang on, I'm going to look up in just a minute, I know I'm missing some highs here and I should be saying hi, alright, okay, hang on, wait, let's see, 17 to 18, even though, okay, says the same thing, practice, okay, let me say good morning everybody, I am sorry to have my head down while you guys are all jumping on, please forgive me, hello, Melanie Brown, good morning, good morning, seeing you on the morning always brightens my day, well good to have you here because you brighten my day, praise God, Cherry Big Bird TikTok, good morning, good to see you, good to see you, let me backtrack, make sure I'm not missing you, hello, good morning, good morning, good morning, hello, hello, hello, good morning, Mr. Jim, good day buddy, Mr. Jim, we're going to have a few to talk today, I've got to do some tile work, but you and I, when I get off here, we're going to be able to talk, today's my off day, even though it's not my off day, Miss Debbie's got, I'm going to be laying some tile, so, but good morning, good morning everybody, make sure I didn't miss anybody, Ace is the place, did you get the job, I got the job, started on the 9th, matter of fact, praise me to God, praise me to God, we got a Google review and they happen to mention the service that we provide and they just happen to mention my name and so that was, I was blessed, you know, they said on the Google review that Paul and the team there at this Ace do a fabulous job with their customer service and you know, that's, that's a, wow, I prayed for you, thank you so much, James, thank you so much, it's a blessing, how many people that I get to encounter in the course of the day, so I, boom, I had a revelation dream last night, wow, he is returning soon, you know what, no one knows the time or day, but I guarantee you, well, let me reword that, I shouldn't say that, I believe in my heart and my spirit that Jesus is returning soon, folks, notice the bank systems, every bank, me and Ricky, the young minister at our church, notice the banking system, you know, the liquidity with regards to their investing in government bonds and this and that and so on and such and now they're closing the doors and I think it's up to three now, folks, I think we're going to be going into a, let me turn this off because this light right here from my iPad, I think, oh, there's our sister that makes the soap, praise God, but notice the banking system, the liquidity, they're, they're investing in stocks and bonds and, and finding that, that they're now having to shut their doors, man, I believe then at that point, then the world stage takes place, start stepping in and then we transition to a one dollar or one monetary piece, it's crazy, I think we better, yes, you can ask a quick question for advice, please go ahead, is that, is that Leah, absolutely, absolutely, the soap was my first episode, the soap was my first episode, oh, praise God, hey, this morning, we're going to be talking to one of my brothers and I, I told him, give me about 20 minutes so I could chit-chat and talk about some things, but we're going to be talking about, real quick, let's see, Christian Fellowship Athlete, oops, what is, let me, let me go to that so I can make sure I get it, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, all right, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, all right, so let's look at what your, who's the question from, well, good morning, you have great wisdom, praise God, is humor an important part of relationships, found a godly man, but he has a bit boring, your thoughts? Um, I think, I don't think I would say humor has to be one of the values that, that, that, that a person must have, but it's good to have a person with a sense of humor, good morning, lamb, I have an incredible sense of humor, Miss Debbie has an incredible sense of humor, so with that being said, I think that when it comes to the scripture, we want to find someone that's equally yoked, good morning, Nate, we want to find somebody that's equally yoked, meaning we, we have a, the same faith, we have the same belief system, we have the same value system, which is all based on what? The word of God, the sense of humor just happens to be the plus, it happens to be, wow, I love that you are, you know, you have the sense of humor, I love that, you know, dress, you know, there, there, there is some, how can I put it, sometimes we meet somebody and they just don't have a sense of dress, but I don't think that's a deal breaker, you know, you might meet somebody and they're a little bit different, we are very equally yoked together, I should pray for God to grow my heart, amen, there you go, there you go, yeah, the sense of humor, it's a great thing to have, but you know what, he might not, he might not have revealed that sense of humor, believe it or not, on this app, Lambrelle will tell you, I think Lambrelle, I have an incredible sense of humor, but I don't allow that, you could teach how to dress, amen, I don't allow my sense of humor to be seen on the app because I want you all to take me serious, but I have an incredible sense of humor, I love to laugh and I see, I see things in a very comical way, even with regards to, if you hear me preach, I will slide in two or three funny things of observation and I have to watch myself so that we don't lose what we're trying to keep our focus on, however, with that being said, I keep praying that the Lord will grow you, a sense of humor I don't think is a deal breaker, if you found a godly man you hang on to that godly man, because I'm going to tell you right now, that's worth more than diamond and rubies as far as I'm concerned, to find a godly spouse, that's right up there, the sense of humor, maybe it will grow, maybe it will, in due season, find itself out, but with that being said, I would hang on to that young man, alright, I definitely need strength to get out of an unequally yoked relationship, yeah, it is important that be equally yoked, folks, raising a child, financial reasons, the list goes on, why we should be equally yoked, what is our benchmark, you know, I was at ACE the other day, of course, you guys all know I work at ACE now, and there was a young manager named Chris, and Chris was coming, and he was really giving me some substance why he doesn't go to movies, and he's in the Dungeon and Dragons, and he was going on, the list was going on, and on, and on, and on, and so I said, well, young man, what do you base your opinions on? Because I wanted to see where he was coming from, and then he says, I base my opinions on the Word of God, and the Bible, so you're a Christian, he says, absolutely, so, you know, what my point is, is that we have to look at life through the eyes of the Word, through the Bible, so we want to be equally yoked, if you have somebody that has, you know, they're using the basis of their opinion on experience, if they're using the basis of their decisions on opinion, or maybe something they picked up here or there, and you're basing all your decisions on the Word, then you guys are unequally yoked, being equally yoked is important, so let's be very careful and make sure that you're equally yoked. Alright, got a couple questions, for God so loved the world, God loves, God loves the world, He died for the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so with that, I'm answering someone's question, so with that being said, this is why Jesus went to the cross for you and I, for our sins, for our sins, so that we may repent and turn from our wicked ways, so with that being said, I hope that answered your question, alright, I hope so. Hey, I've got this morning, I've got a young man that we're going to get on here pretty soon, here about 10 minutes till, and I'm excited about him talking about the fellowship of Christian athletes, I didn't have this growing up, it was there, I guess because I was fellowshipping with Christian athletes in my house, my dad and me, but I'm excited to hear about this young man, so let me, do you think Noah left the water animals off the ark because they could survive the boat, you know what, I don't know, let me tell you that's a good question, because I think about sharks, so I surf, I'm a surfer, and so I think about sharks, I think about, you know, so what I do think, now this is just me, we don't know, okay, I'm just thinking out loud, don't run with Pastor Paul and go run and tell your preachers and pastors and so on, etc., so here we go, here we go, I surf, I know in the ocean there are animals that, there are creatures that will just eat you up, sharks, I do believe in my heart that when the millions upon millions of people who drown in the flood, I believe it was a feeding frenzy to some degree, of course I think some probably, you know, just dissolve, dissolve, I don't know if that's a good word, what would be a better word, I don't want to say dissolve, but some probably just, their body decayed and of course went back to the dust, I do believe some of the creatures ate them, some of them probably settled at the sediment at the bottom of the ocean and decayed, so decomposed, there you go, thank you, thank you so much, decomposed, I think there's a list of things, but I do believe that, because it said, what, anything that was breathing air, not just people, but all huge creatures, absolutely, absolutely, anything that was air breathing, of course drowned, so I think that those animals were probably survivors, that's just my opinion, let's not run with that as doctrine, but that's just my opinion, so that's what I think, that's what I think, folks, anything, I want to comment on something, I've come to the conclusion that anything that goes against the word of God is a sin, okay, that's my opinion, if it goes against God's word, if the Bible says, thou shalt not steal, we better not steal, that makes you a thief, if the Bible says, do not lie, that makes you a liar, right, and so with that being said, that goes against the word of God, when we talk about, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not commit fornication, fornication, anything out of the scope of, I mean, without being married, adultery, out of the scope of the marriage, those are sins, and so anything that goes against the word of God is a sin, now we can twist it and tweak it and all this and so on, I'm leaning about Calvinism and Arminianism, pastor, have you studied either, that's funny, that's one of those big questions, well, so let me get this first one, anything that goes against the word of God is a sin, end of subject, end of subject, you can debate and fine tune and tweak and try to manipulate, but I'm telling you right now, be very careful, do not try to pervert God's word, alright, do not, don't try to pervert God's word to fit a narrative or an agenda, okay, Calvinism, Arminianism, this is a great, I got a young man on my church team, Ricky, he loves talking about this, I am right in the middle, and I go with God's word, so when you talk about Calvinism, Arminianism, I'm right in the middle, okay, so when you start talking about the elect, when you start talking about free will versus not free will, the list goes on and so on and so on, it is such a deep conversation, a deep subject that sometimes it can get convoluted, but this is what I do focus on, I am saved by grace, Jesus is my savior, he's given me salvation, my faith and trust is in him, now though, I promise you, you are an actual pastor, you are actually surprised, yeah, I pastor church in Phoenix, I am an actual pastor, are you actually surprised and I'm actually saddened that you would ask me that, or maybe you didn't mean disrespect, maybe you really did, but yeah, I pastor church in Phoenix, so I believe in saved by grace, salvation, but Ms. Leah, I really appreciate your thought process, yeah, so it's just a legit question, yes, I pastor a church in Phoenix, my father started in the early 60s, 62-63 and I took over leadership probably about 20 years ago, so I am an actual pastor, who pastors an actual church with people in it and the whole work, so absolutely, but I also work a job, I retired about three years ago, sound doctrine started with understanding grace through Christ, amen, I retired from corporate America, I think Calvinism is secondary, issues not determined, amen, amen, there you go, I left corporate America, I used to be in the medical field and then I took that time off to focus on ministry and so now, I got a job on the 9th with Ace Hardware and so boom, here I am, alright, hey, I'm going to have a guest on here in a minute, but I got a verse for you guys, alright, I got a verse, but I got a guest and let me see if my guest is here, just to make sure before, I want to make sure he's here, hang on, hang on, there he is, he's waiting on me, he's waiting on me, okay, good, Nick, hang on a second, oh, did you, okay, there we go, oh, Nick, it disappeared, well, Nick, let me read this verse and then come on and record, I'm here, okay, Nick, give me a second, let me read this verse, alright, let me take a sip, I really, I don't have a lesson today, I want to talk about tomorrow forgiveness, forgiveness, I don't know how many, how many, how many are dealing with unforgiving issues, how many, we, we have a problem about forgiving people, how many, we have a problem about the hang-ups, someone has offended us, we're holding it in our heart, I don't know about you guys, but I'm the king, I'm the king of not forgetting, I can be that guy, so we're going to talk about that tomorrow, so there we go, here we go, but I want to take you to Habakkuk, Habakkuk, that's a weird name, Habakkuk, H-A-B-A-K-K-U-K in the Old Testament, alright, Habakkuk, let's go to that one, and I want to go to chapter 3, and I want to read 17 through 19, Habakkuk chapter 3, 17 through 19, give me an amen if you're already there, good, has done some good in some words, good has done some good, amen, there you go, amen, thank you Lambrio, let's go there, tell me when everybody gets there, give me an amen if you're there, I know it's one of those weird ones, Habakkuk, I do, I try to do it with like, what I think would be the accent of a region so that it sounds legit, like I know what I'm doing there, alright, here we go, you ever thought about why, why does God allow some things to happen, especially when you're doing what you can to serve him and honor him, and to really just dedicate your life to him, watch this, look what the writer said in 317, though the fig tree should not blossom, and there are no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olives should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exalt in the Lord, I will rejoice in God of my salvation, the Lord God is my strength, and he has made my feet like hind feet, and makes me walk on high places, let's stop right there, I want you to really hear what this person is saying, so he's using the imagery of the day, when it comes to the trees that provide, if you will, blossom and shade, he uses the imagery of fruit on the vines, which provided what, wine, could have provided even, you know, something to drink, maybe some substance to eat, he uses the imagery of olive, which olive oils, and olives were consumed, and the oil was used for burning a wick for light, he uses the flock, which provided food, and he uses cattle, which provided milk and food, and he uses all these images, he says, I wouldn't have, he goes, and I say again, though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vine, though the yield of olives should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, but look what he says in verse 18, folks, that's what he says in verse 18, because this is important, this is something you and I should be able to relate to, because when I go through those tough times, when my finances are a bit in trouble, when my relationship seems to go south, when the job seems to be a hassle, when things are closing down, he says in verse 18, even though all these things are going on, yet I will exalt in the Lord, folks, get that, get that, Habakkuk 3, verse 18, yet I will exalt in the Lord, even though you are going through something, a difficult time right now, do not forget to worship God, do not forget to lift him up, this person is saying some things are happening in my life, but yet I will exalt the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation, doesn't matter what you're going through, rejoice in the God of your salvation, doesn't matter what that circumstance or that situation or those finances, I will rejoice in the Lord with regards to my salvation, I'm going to praise God when things aren't good, I'm going to praise God when things are wonderful, I'm going to praise God as the relationships in my life seem to be falling apart, I'm going to praise God when maybe the boss pulled me in the office and said, we don't need you anymore, we're going to let you go, I'm going to praise God when I'm just driving down the street, minding my accent, minding my business and someone, you know, rear ends my car or side swipes my car, I'm going to praise God, this is what it's all about, folks, see, life is a series of events, but we as Christians know that heaven is our home, our focus should be on the Lord and not the circumstance nor the situation, though don't get me wrong, it's not easy, sometimes things do happen and they cause you to get sort of, you know, off balance, but with all that being said, make your mind up, I'm going to praise the Lord, I'm going to be just like this guy, he says, yet I will exalt the Lord, you know, Satan gets mad when you do that, folks, I'm telling you from experience, when things go, watch this, little story time, I've got a young man on the job over there, he's 19 years old and I don't know where this comes from, but you know what, he is always complaining, he's 19 years old and I kid you not, the things he complains about, blows my mind, he complains about his joints, now he could have premature arthritis, I don't know, but he complains about his joints, he complains about his back, he complains about everything, but it's interesting when one of the little girls needs help, all of a sudden he's moving bells of hay, he's hustling, he's moving, and it tells me that all his issues are in his head, it tells me that everything that he complains about is to some degree created in his mind, but what we need to do, and what does that mean, Pastor Paul, a lot of us, a lot of us, most of it's right here, if you would allow your heart, if you would allow yourself to say, Lord, even though I am going through this, I'm going to exalt you, even though I am dealing with this mess, I'm going to lift you up, I'm going to praise you, I'm going to honor you, if you would allow that to replace the complaining, the negativity, if you would just say, you know what, Lord, I'm going to exalt you, even though I'm going through this, I'm going to praise you, I'm going to honor you, if you would do that, guess what, you'd feel so much better about the circumstance and the situation. Last but not least, who's watching you? Maybe your spouse, maybe your children, your co-workers, if you would do that, they'll be like, wow, what is it in you that causes you to be so positive about life? All right, praise God, so tomorrow, let's talk about forgiveness. All right, let's get my buddy on here, and this is a cool name, he's got a cool name, Nick Spaulding, isn't that a cool name? Let's get him on here, let's get him on here. All right, so Jen Taylor, I really want you to go on our church website and look this up, church name, Southern Avenue Missionary Baptist. Hold on, where's my, trying to find my camera here. Nick Spaulding, take your time, man, we can hear you. There we go. Don't worry, I'm going to answer some questions while you're here. You good? I'm here, man. All right, I want to, can we see you? Uh-oh, wait a minute. Ah, there's Nick Spaulding. Let me, I'm going to do this. How do I, how do I make that picture bigger to see? Well, I can't. Nick, how are you doing today, sir? I'm doing well, Pastor, how are you? I'm good. So, hey, you texted me earlier, you were taking your baby to school? Yeah, man, my daughter is in preschool here at the church we attended. Oh. We're just outside Charlotte, North Carolina. Oh, how old is she again? She's four, man, she's ready to go to kindergarten. What, what's it like, man, getting her to school? Is that, was that hard? Because I remember back in the, it was a long time ago, but is that hard, getting her to school? No, she, she's the easy one. She, her older sister is the, the tough one, so my wife deals with her. Oh. Yeah, so she, they leave earlier. So, the little one, the little one's easy. She gets up, she's a morning person, so I don't have any issues with her. She gets up, wants to feed the dog and help out. Oh, she's a morning person. Yeah, man, she takes after me. She's, she's easy to deal with, pretty easy going. Oh. She's a competitor, though. She, her only, her only time where she gets upset is she hates to lose, and everything's a competition with her. She's four, but get out of the car to race to the front door, and don't beat her. She'll start crying. She's upset, and. Okay, wait a minute. Yeah, you're taking me somewhere. I know a little history about you. You're an athlete. Did she get that from you? I think so. I, yeah, I was an athlete a long time ago, but she, yes, it's just everything's a competition. She, if we're going to the car, she's, she's got to run to the car and yell, I win. Run to the front door, I win, but if she doesn't win, she's upset, and I, I try to explain to her, you know, but I, I had that problem. Somebody told me, told me when I was younger, they said, you got to work on this because you hate to lose more than you like to win. Wow. Get out of the car. Well, let's be honest. You know, which isn't a bad thing, which isn't a bad thing. Okay, okay, I was going to say, let's be honest. We like, we like people to win. We like winners. I'm telling you, but when it was a church summer camp and stuff like that, and we're doing three-legged races and things like that, you're, you know, I was, uh, it was not Friday night football then, you know, it was baton races and things like that. Like, in the name of Jesus, you know, everything was a competition. Yeah. I love it. I love it. So, hey, hey, man, let's, let's, you know, I, you, you and I have talked periodically, man. For two years now, I looked, I looked up, I looked up earlier how long we've been talking. Two years. December, December 2020. So, man, we, yeah, we've talked, we've talked, man, tell me, tell me the, the, your story, your Jesus story, how you came to the Lord. What's, what's that look like? In fact, I know it, but I want to hear you say it. There's a lot. Um, so I grew up, you know, going to church, uh, well, as I grew up, I started going to church as a little kid, um, up until six. And still to this day, I don't know why, but we moved and my mom never went back to church. Um, but at that point I already loved it. I don't know if it's the music or other things. Singing and stuff. And I'm a relational person and, you know, some, some of your best and worst relationships can come through the church sometimes, you know, and, and I loved it. I'm still in contact with people from when I was, that church I was born into, five years old, uh, you know, that I remember going to my first Sunday school. I'm still in contact with these people. But when we moved out to the other side of the country, my mom didn't go back and, uh, I'm going to age myself here, I guess. And so, you know, back then I pulled out the yellow pages and I looked up, and I tell kids this when I, you know, when I speak to students, they're like, what are the yellow pages? Uh, but, and I called churches and I said, Hey, do y'all have a bus or a van? And I'm seven years old, calling somebody to come pick me up and go to church. I love going. Um, wait a minute. You were a kid doing this? Yeah. Yeah. You know, and so they had the Iwana bus that would come through my neighborhood, you know, and the Iwana, I don't know if you know about Iwana. Yeah, I do. Yeah. So Iwana would come through, they had a big blue bus that would roll through our neighborhood and a lot of kids went to that. And I just, I just liked going to church. Um, I always enjoyed it. And so I went on my own, uh, as a kid and, you know, which I'll be honest, I was a different kid sometimes, especially growing up 12, 13 years old, because it wasn't in my household anymore. I was a different kid. You know, I was, I loved going to church, but I was still had a mouth on me and other things because I wasn't getting fed at home. You know, that's what I tell parents so many times when I work with students, I'm like, you know, they want us to help their kids. And, and I love their kids. I'm like, listen, I only got your kids three to four hours a week. You got them the rest of the time. It's your job to raise them in a godly household. And so I was a firsthand product of that, where I would go and praise God on Sunday morning and, you know, and act like hell Monday through Friday at school. Um, even though I, I enjoyed going and I loved it, but, and so when I was a teenager, um, I got, I got saved, uh, and really made my own commitment. And that was, uh, in Dallas, Texas at Highwood Village First Baptist Church. Did y'all hear that? Baptist Church? No. Yeah. Which late. Yeah. Right. Which later became, um, the village church home with Matt Chandler's church. Oh yeah. Yeah. So that was the same church. But then I had, I had a big falling out, man, um, where I was 20 years old and an interim youth pastor didn't, he was a new guy there and he didn't like, didn't like me that I was hanging out with the kids still at 20 years old. And he said some mean, hateful things to me. And I, I, I was done. I said, I'm done with Christianity. I'm done with Christians. I never, I never had the nerve. I always tell people that I'd never had the nerve to say I didn't believe in God. Oh, come on, man. I kind of tried to act like it, but I knew in the back of my head, I couldn't, I never had the nerve to say it. Yeah. I can relate. 20 to 25. I mean, I persecuted Christians. I made fun of them. I bad mouthed them. And you know, what happened was in front of all the kids, he told me, it's going to be your fault when these kids go to hell. And he said this in front of the church to people. And I was like, all right, I'm done. And I want nothing to do with these people. And I told people a hundred times, if somebody would have just, I just wanted one person from that church, from a church to come and tell me, Hey, he don't speak for us, man, we love you. And for five years, I waited for somebody to come and tell me they missed me and they loved me. And the enemy was attacking me that whole time. Oh, if you tithe some more, I bet they would have came to your doorstep. If your family had money and was at that church more, you know, they'd be missing your money. They'd come and tell you they loved you. And so all these attacks were coming to me. Well, real quick, Nick, you just said something powerful there. You're saying at that young age you left, if someone would have just came to you and just reached out or, yeah, just said, Hey, we've noticed you're not here. We missed you. We love you. You know, he don't speak for, he, he, he, he, he, he made a mistake what he said. And so I spent the next five years running from God. And I went back, I just happened to be in I had left that town just outside Dallas and I went and I was, I was in that town for a reason at that point. I said, I'm going to go by and see if my buddy still lives at this house over here. And he, he always went to church with me and I knew I was missing something. And so I'm just going to go by and see if he's there. And he, he, he, he was, he had this big yellow Jeep. And I drove up, I drove up, I said, Oh, there's the Jeep. And I went in and he came out and he had his Bible in his hands. I'm actually going to the church. He said, man, it's a completely different church now. Why don't you come hang out? And I go, Matt Chandler speaks and everything, and I'm just bawling, you know, and I tell people, I told students this, I said, I felt like I ran a million miles away from God. I was, I was running from him, didn't want nothing to do with him, didn't want nothing to do with his people. And finally, you know, I said, okay, I, I realized I'm lost without him. Things aren't going as well as I thought they would. Life isn't turning out like I hoped it would. I'm going to go back to him. I said, I'm going to turn around and I got to go back. And I tell people, I said, praise God that even though I ran a million miles away from him, I, and I was prepared to walk a million miles back. I said, but praise God, he was chasing me the whole time. And when I turned around to run back to him, he was already there with his arms open. Wow. You know, and so I was like, praise God, I don't have to go. I'm not a runner if you know me. So he was there, he was waiting for me. And, um, and that's the journey I've been on now. You know, I, I knew God called me when I was 18 in the ministry and that's why, and so I, I tried to run away from it and I've tried to do other things and I've never been bad at the other things. There's just kind of coincidentally, some of the things I've tried to do didn't work out. Wow. Because I was always supposed to do this. Real quick, let me interject. Let me interject because I want to make sure somebody asks it. Now, where are you from again? I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina now. Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina, folks. I want you. He's in Charlotte, North Carolina. He's not in Phoenix. He's in Charlotte, but I know Nick and I want to talk to him. So Nick, you now you, you've come back, you've done a lot of things, but what you're good at is, is, is the ministry. Go ahead. Yeah. It's reaching young kids for Christ, man. And that's, uh, I don't know why I always tell people, I said, I don't know. I can't explain any other reason other than God, why he makes a 42 year old guy be able to connect with teenagers. I'm not, I'm 42. Kids are supposed to think I'm cool, you know? Um, but they do. I have fun with them. God, uh, allows me to connect and relate and he uses me and it, and it works. Okay. Real quick, man. If I remember a story, you told me you could, you would be at a sports event, maybe basketball, football, and you'd be out there in the stand talking to kids. Yeah. Yeah. So that, that's a lot of what we do. Um, so we, we go to, uh, well, we're in a public school, so we minister to coaches and athletes with Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Oh, okay. Here we go. Here we go. What's that again? For, uh, what's it called? FCA. FCA. Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Hang on a second. Real quick, folks. If you don't know about this and trust me, I'm sure you all do. I'm the only one, but I went to their website real quick and watch this. And I, I looked at faith plus sports FCA to unite your two passions, faith and athletics to impact the world for Jesus Christ. We've been on this mission for 60 years. Yeah, man. Dude, I didn't, I didn't know that. More than that now. Don, Don McClannan decided to take this journey in 1954, man. This has been around since 1954. Oh, let me tell you, uh, this, this will be a story that people will get, uh, when they, when they, uh, they might know a name, not know a name, but this is a pretty big part of pop culture and just in the United States. Um, Don McClannan was a basketball coach for Eastern Oklahoma A&M. It's a mouthful. And he, he said, he realized, he saw that 30 million kids had no religious affiliation in the United States, 30 million. This was in the fifties, 30 million said that I have no affiliation. And he said, and I'm looking in these articles and I'm looking at this back then before the internet and everything. He said, but I'm looking at newspapers and magazines and I'm seeing athletes endorsing cigarettes, razor blades for a shaving and shaving cream. They're endorsing these things. He said, and how cool would it be if we can get a couple of these athletes to endorse Jesus Christ? Cause they're influencers before. And now we have social media influencers, right? We hear that word a lot more now, but these are the influencers. And so he's got ahold of a guy and some people might recognize this name, a guy named Branch Rickey. And he went to Branch Rickey and said, can I have a five minute meeting? And that meeting turned into a five hour meeting. Now, if you recognize or don't know, uh, Branch Rickey, Branch Rickey was the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. And he is the one that brought Jackie Robinson in. Uh, Harrison Ford played him in the movie 42. So Branch Rickey was a, was a believer also. And he said, man, yeah, he goes, you're right. And it's blown up from there. Billy Graham had a quote that said a coach will influence more people in a year than most people will in a lifetime. And it's not that we're just for athletes and all that stuff. You know, we partner with other organizations. We're in the school. So I partner with, uh, YCI, Youth Commission International and Youth for Christ. We combine our meetings with them. Well, Nick, real quick, real quick. Hang on. I'm sorry. You, you got me there. You guys are in the school. You're in the school. We are in public school campuses. Now, wait a minute. People are coming out. We kick God out of school. Jesus out of school. Uh oh guys, hang on folks. You need to share this with somebody right now. I think you guys all need to be listening because this is, we got kids. That is the website. FCA.org. Somebody's asking. Yeah. FCA.org. Yeah. You'll hear a lot of cool things and see a lot of cool things. And, uh, so, you know, our, our goal and our vision is to see the world transformed by Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes. Right. So we, we go to and through the coach. When you've got a coach on a campus who has 64 kids on a football team, and he's got 45 on his JV team, and he's got another 90 that he's teaching throughout the day. And that, you know, that guy's influencing people and they see there's something different about him. Now he can't stand up in the school and hold his Bible up and preach at them. We, and we can't do that either. We can invite them to our meeting. I can't go into the cafeteria and start telling them turn or burn or anything like that, you know, but we can invite them. Hey, we have this club and that's what FC is. It's a student led club. And now the way, the reason we're able to get into school is they have to allow any club that can be student ran to have a teacher sponsor. So, you know, you'll see other clubs in there, LGBTQ, realistically, if somebody wanted to start a satanic club, they don't, they haven't praise God, but they could if they had somebody that endorsed it on staff. And so that allows us, that allows us, you know, to go on, uh, these campuses and, you know, I'm in 19, I have 19 schools in the County I'm in that we are, 530 coaches. And I tell somebody 529 coaches is not enough, man. We're going to reach 530 coaches for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's the goal. If I hit 529, praise God, but man, 530 is what he's putting on our heart. And so, you know, that's what we want to do because they're influencers and we're, and we don't turn anybody away. We have kids that come in that don't, Hey, they're atheists. We don't believe, but if we're doing what Jesus has to do and we had let them come in anyway, and we love on them, the amount of kids that are dealing with anxiety and suicidal thoughts and struggles, this club that they don't even believe in gives them a place though, to go where they feel connected with people that love them. And what do we love them? Like we love them like Christ told us to, when he said to love God and love people, that's what we're doing. That kid might not believe anything. I tell them, Oh, Jesus walked on water. Okay. Yeah. You're, you're nuts. Cool, man. But he also said to love you. And that's what I'm going to do. And I've seen a friend of mine who he said, this is where I'm going to put our ministry. Focus that to put it in a position where these kids can also come to our meeting. And after he had his second suicide in a year from the students at his campus, and they've seen, you know, kids with depression issues and anxiety issues come and say, Hey, this has changed my life. You know, a young girl came to a meeting that was abused by her parents. She was locked in a bedroom for two years, just bringing, you know, her parents would bring her food. Occasionally parents were addicts, both of them, mom and dad, eventually mom ODs, dad ODs, mom eventually goes to prison. And after they see how she's being treated and the drug abuse and other things, she goes to her grandparents' house, this young girl does, and lives with her grandparents. Six months into it, granddad dies. This all happens by the time she's 12 years old. She's been abused, raised by addicts, you know, hurt, torn down, told she's worthless. Again, being locked in the bedroom three or four days at a time with a bucket and food being slid into her, having to go to the restroom in the bucket. And this girl goes to an FCA event because they say, Hey, she started cheerleading. And they said, come to this. She said, man, this is the first time I've really felt love. It's coming to a group like this. And this 16 year old girl now is going, giving her testimony at FCA events around the country, sharing what Jesus did, because she got saved at an FCA event. We go to these kids where they're at, because a lot of them will never step foot in a church. They're not going to darken the doorway of a building. So we say, you know, we're going to go and we'll go to practices and just love on them, be kind to them, invite them. We do football jamborees. We feed them, we bring them, we go out there, we'll throw 200 hot dogs on a grill, and we'll let them come out and they'll be a speaker and we'll share the gospel with them. A friend of mine just had what we call fields of faith. 128 kids make first time professions of faith in central Arkansas. Nick, I got to interrupt real quick. You don't mind. I got a question here. So I live in a small town called Queen Creek. It was about two years ago. Lamb, correct me if I'm wrong or right. I told the story before, but we had on the books at least four, maybe five suicides in our local schools here. Are you all seeing, and you just mentioned, you brought it up. Are you seeing an increase of kids dealing, like you just said, with anxiety, depression, plus the ultimate, I guess the worst, suicide? Are you seeing a lot of that? And Matt, how do you handle that? Because these are our kids. Yeah, we see and hear, we hear about it way more. The word, you know, dealing with anxiety and mental health, mental health is coming out. You're hearing more and more about mental health than ever before. You know, we grew up, I grew up in the 80s when it was just a, you know, get over it type mentality. You know, ADD was about this worst thing, this worst thing Scott back then. So, but yeah, we're seeing. That we knew of. That we knew of. You know, and even then you were, he's not ADD, he just needs to catch the belt a little bit. Yeah, right. And so, yeah, we see it all the time. I hear about it constantly from students. The depression, the anxiety of having to deal with these. There's more pressure on them than ever before because there's so much being put on them as far as test scores now and things like that than ever before. The expectations are different and then kids struggling with their identity than ever before. Who they are, which, and they're being told, you know, they're not being told that they have a purpose. Just be whatever you want to be and whoever you want to be, just do your own thing. You know, and realize you can just be whatever you want to be rather than you need to be loved. You need to be guided. So, yeah, we're seeing it more and more, but when we are also seeing when they have a purpose, when they have a place where they feel like they connect, where they feel like they belong with other people that tell them, yeah, you know what? Me too. I go through that. Here's how I deal with that. There is a greater purpose. There is somebody that loves you. Let me serve you. Let's work alongside each other. And that's our big thing this year. Our theme for 2023 FCA, we do a theme every year. And last year was every, like we were trying to reach every person, every coach, every athlete. This year is greater. Greater. I'm writing this down. John 3.30, right? And so, you know, he must become greater. I must become less. But in that, in Christ, our goal is, yeah, he becomes greater. We become less. But then you realize in Christ you have greater potential, a greater promise, greater performance on the field, greater performance off the field in your life, and you have a greater purpose. And that's our four keys for this year, our potential, promise, performance, and purpose, that you can be greater at all those things. Wow. Wow. Now, okay, real quick. I got to, I'm thinking about me. I'm thinking about it as a kid. I was an athlete. I played, you know, basketball, played football. I was on swim team, yada, yada, yada. But you know who had the greatest influence on my life was my coaches. And do you know, in 2023, I couldn't tell you, maybe I could tell you one or two teachers, but I can tell you every coach I had. Yeah, absolutely. And when you think about coaches, it's funny, like maybe a teacher, you know, Mr. Joe Smith, once you're 30 years old or something, he's not Mr. Smith anymore. Hey, Joe, how's it going? Because he's a peer around town. But think about your coaches. That coach could be 90 years old, and you can be 60, and that's still Coach Smith. That's still Coach Smith. Amen. And because they have an influence on you. And the things that they say to you, you look at them different. And you say, hey, this guy is, everything he's told me works. Or he told me to block with my head up. Okay, well, that helped me from hurting my neck, you know, because I blocked that way. Or he was swimming. He told me to do my stroke this way. Or he told me to choke up on the bat. And then guess what? My swing got better. He told me to run in this position. Okay, so he told me that, and it worked. And he told me this, and it worked. Well, he told me, he told me about Jesus, man. I wonder if this will work too. I've been counting on this church, or this coach, and he hasn't let me down. And, you know, so the coaches have influence. They have great influence on us. And Dabo Sweeney, let's think about Dabo Sweeney. Dabo Sweeney is one of the biggest coaches in the country right now. He coaches the Clemson Tigers down here in South Carolina. One national championship. He's came and spoke for FCA a few times. He got saved at one of our FCA events. That guy has got influence. When I say, when he stands up and he talks to people about what Jesus Christ has done for him. And he's got 100,000 screaming Clemson fans in the stands. That's when I talk about influence. Now, is he going to save 100,000 people? Probably not. But if one soul in that crowd, man, just like those people are cheering for the Tigers, the heavens are going to cheer for him. They're going to remember that one person. So Dabo has influence, and he realizes he has influence, and he has integrity, and he does it for a purpose. He does it for the kingdom of God. And that's what FCA was started on. Don McClanahan didn't know that there was going to be a Dabo, Sweeney, and Clemson with 100,000 people watching. But he said, man, there's somebody who could have influence for Jesus Christ. And that was the purpose. And this has grown. We've went international now. They're all over the world, FCA is. FCA is in the Ukraine, in Asia, in India, all over Europe. FCA is in Africa. This is just in the last few years. FCA is mostly in the United States. So real quick, so you're telling me, you know, that there are men and women like you play strategically all over the world, working with young athletes that help them, come alongside of them, meet them where they are, love them, and point them to Christ. Absolutely. And we're not sending people from the mission field here in the United States. We're actually equipping people to do what I do in those countries. Locally. Yeah, so I'm not going to India because I don't know anything about cricket, you know, but the guy that's there that knows about cricket and he knows that's his culture. And so we actually, they're strategically placing people and people that are being one to Christ, they're saying, hey, this is how I got one. I'm going to do this too. God's calling people into those same ministries in those countries and being able to influence people all over the world. But yeah, and it's huge. I remember when I was in high school, like I said, it's been going on for a long time. And, you know, we have multiple meetings a week. And then we do, you know, and then we give resources to coaches. We have, we have Bibles that are strategically like geared towards coaches. We have coaches Bibles, athlete Bibles. They don't change anything. It just has devotions in there that can, you know, you'll see it. It's like ready, set, go, like devotionals that are very similar to a workout. Excuse me. And so then we do camps. We do camps. I mean, you name the sport, we're doing it. I mean, hunting, we're doing outdoor sports with FCA. We're doing, you know, special Olympic type events. So we have a special, we call it like all needs camps and stuff. So we'll do basketball camp for kids with special needs, a hockey camp for kids with special needs, but you name the sport, FCA is doing it. They got a connection there at some point and somewhere. Wow. You know, and Nick, I've got to say this while you're taking a sip of your coffee. I got to say this. I remember being a kid and I personally remember internally, even though I grew up in a Christian home, you know, I was my own person when I was outside my parents' house. But I remember distinctly being around Christian people, being around folks that had my best interests in mind and the, if you will, the fellowship of other young men like myself and how I felt. I felt good. I can only imagine what that's like for you. Somebody says, I want to coach track. There you go. But I can only imagine what that feels like for your kids to be around somebody like you that cares for them with other athletes that are on the same page. That must feel so good. Yeah, it's phenomenal. You know, and let me comment on this person real quick that wants to coach track. There are ways, I mean, to volunteer with FCA without being on staff and things. We have character coaches that come and just will, we do team huddles and Bible studies. You search your local, search for FCA in your local area. Find a representative, find somebody there and say, hey man, I'll come and lead a devotional. I'll come and volunteer at a camp. Hey, if you've coached track before or you've coached a sport, see what camps are going on this summer. There will be camps that need volunteers. I'm going to a football and a lacrosse camp. There's a wrestling camp that's going to be here local to us. They're all over. There are places where you can serve and you can, you know, I love sports and I love Jesus. I'm relational. So that's why I love to combine these two. It's a phenomenal ministry to be a part of. You know, I'm a big Arkansas Razorback fan. That's where I was born. So we upset Kansas this week. I'm excited, you know, and guess what? I see the next person that's excited about sports. We can talk at Bridges the Gap right there. Things that will connect people, I believe, music, food, and sports. Those three things will open a relationship with you. If you don't, if the person doesn't like sports, start talking about tacos. They'll probably like that. If not, find out, they might like Prince and you like Prince, you know, something like that, you know? Amen. And so, that's me. I'm a relational person, but I love, yeah, connect on that. Look up at camps and stuff, please. So Nick, here we go. Here we go. So my first encounter with your group happened to be, believe it or not, it wasn't in high school. I was a grown man married, but I was going to a church in Fresno, Trent Dilfer, who played for the Buccaneers, a couple of, he was a Christian athlete. He coaches at a Christian school, but he was involved with you guys. So that's where I got my first connection. However, my friend, I mean, you're doing this. This is what you do. You are out there loving on our kids. How do you pay the bills? Well, FCA is fully faith-funded. And, you know, when you talk about Trent Dilfer, we have a lot of guys, top to bottom. Quarterback for Washington right now, Sam Howell. Boom. He's the quarterback there. He got saved in ninth grade at Sun Valley High School here in Indian Trail, North Carolina. That's one of my schools. I wasn't there. My buddy, Stuart Ramirez, shout out to Stuart. He's been the lone guy in our county. There should be about six of us in this county. Stuart Ramirez has been in this county by himself for 12 years. I'm the second person to come on staff. We should have six people, right? And sometimes it's hard to get the staff because it is fully faith-funded. That means I'm a missionary. I rely on ministry partners. And what I mean is not everybody is equipped to be sent out or feel called to be sent out. I feel called to be sent. Some people are senders. Some people are saying, hey, you know what? I'm meant to be a doctor. I'm meant to work. You know what? I do great at customer service. That's my calling. God uses me there. That's just what I'm good at. I'm a firefighter, whatever it is that you're good at. But I still feel that people need to go and share the gospel. And how can you be a part of that ministry is by partnering with us. You might not be the one to go out and do it. Oh, you know what? I'm not a great public speaker. But man, I want to send somebody who is a great public speaker. So that's what I do. I rely on people to partner with me, partner with my ministry. And it just doesn't pay my bills. Again, we scholarship kids to go to these camps. There's a lot of lower-income kids. So that money that people send me, I get $50 a month from people that say, hey, I'm going to be a $50, $100 a month, what we call AMPS, annual monthly partnership. Yeah, you do that. And it does help pay my bills. But it sends kids to camp that aren't going to go to church. And that's where they'll hear the gospel. They'll hear the gospel. But they also will be with world-class coaches to help them be a better football player or be a better basketball player. So they go to camps. We send them there. We help provide those Bibles and resources for coaches and athletes. We do coaches timeout events where we get with these coaches. And we minister to them. And we encourage them. We help them. We give them speakers and mentors on how to be better coaches in the schools. We bring in people. We teach them and help them. Hey, here's how you can be a better Christian coach and share in the gospel or be better at coaching at what you do. We bring in people from all over to help with these things. So it's not just my salary that that money goes to. But then it ultimately equips me where I don't have to have a second job. I'm able to be full-time in 19 public schools because that is a full-time job. I can't be in the schools building relationships with coaches, building relationships with principals that allow me to be there. I'm not just going to games. A lot of people are like, oh, you just go. Man, that's cool. You get to get to football games for free. That is an awesome perk. I love going to the football games. But it is 11 to 3 or 9 to 3 that I'm on that campus and I get to talk to the basketball coach. Hey, coach, how's it going? What can I pray for you about? How's life? Anything you need? We do coaches dinners to encourage them. And then talk to the volleyball coach, the next coach. And I said, I got 10 coaches to talk to at that school. And then they got a staff. And then I got to go to the next school and try to talk to them. There's kids that are calling me that need help. There's kids that I'm building relationships with. We're doing the Bible study. So I'm not able to do that and not make those connections if I'm working a full-time job. Hey, Nick, let me interject something real quick because you said something. Folks, I want you to hear what I'm about to say. And I'm talking to you all as a parent. I know for a fact that your children, not all of you, but your children are struggling with something right now. I know for a fact that your child is nervous about sharing something that they're dealing with right now. And what a great outlet to have a man like Nick on a campus that this man is there and this child can go to Nick and say, hey, you know what, Mr. Nick, or Coach Nick, or whatever they call you, hey, I'm struggling with this. Because I'm telling you guys, there are kids I've known in my life that are dealing with something and the parents had no clue. And Nick is in a position. And if we can bless Nick, if we can support his ministry, Nick is in a position where he is able to talk to our children, not only him, but each volunteer, each individual who's in the mission field. I shouldn't say volunteer. Each individual who's in the mission field in these schools, talking to our children to encourage them. Because I'm telling you, I'm tired of hearing about suicide. I'm tired of kids having someone to speak to. Because I know it's taking place. Myself, without a doubt, I often wonder what my kids were struggling with while they were in school. That's just me thinking. And I wish Nick would have been at my kid's school. Could have been and I didn't know. But I wish he would have been on that wall at that school and been there. And man, that is fabulous. Yeah, absolutely. And we do have coaches and other people that are there. And we love it. I actually get to coach lacrosse in the past. And being able to do that, man, it's fun. It's great. You build relationships. I have kids that I coached 10 years ago that still reach out to me like we talked about. And so we are building good relationships. We are able to be there and listen to kids because kids don't want to talk to their parents about things. There were things you couldn't talk to your dad about that you might be able to talk to a coach about or even talk to a friend. But it does make a difference to have somebody there. And again, we're shorthanded. There's two of us when there should be eight of us. And the hard part is there's people that get neglected. There's schools that get neglected because there aren't enough of us. Because it is hard to raise your support. But it's a blessing to be able to see God provide also. Real quick, Nick, I got to throw this in there. Guys, this is why I brought Brother Nick on because I've known him for now a couple of years. I've heard his heart. I know where he's at. I know for a fact, he hasn't said this, but I know for a fact that he's working at a restaurant that all of us have eaten at just to support himself. Also, he's also doing this mission work. But we need to support him and not only him, but his organization. We need to support what he's doing. And I don't believe Nick is going to go out and buy a brand new Mercedes, but he needs to put gas in the car that he's driving. I don't believe he's going to go out and take a trip to Europe, but he needs to be able to spend some quality time with his family when it's time to do it. Now, if he's at the restaurant working all morning and doing in the afternoon, he's taken away from his family. But we need him in that mission field and we need to support him. So, I know that he's put his information across that screen. Folks, go on there. Support this mission work. I am telling you folks, our kids in these days, I'm speaking to you as a pastor, in these days, our kids are being inundated with negativity, mess. People are telling them lies, trying to cause them to harm themselves. And I want a man or a woman like Nick on that wall in that school, because I don't know about y'all. I don't know. When my kids were in school, I didn't go to their school all the time. I did periodically. But if I can support someone to be there so that he doesn't have to worry about working at this place to support his family, let's do it because it's the right thing to do. Let me say something real quick. ChrissyGirl2244 asked, what about the kids that don't play sports? Those kids are always invited. Those kids, we don't neglect anybody. And part of the process of our ministry is, again, the athletes are influencers. So, we minister to these kids to then minister to the kids that are not... We have kids that are in the band. We have kids that are in theater that come to our events. And we invite all of them to come. But the kid that plays football, he's got the biggest audience in the school looking at him on Friday nights. He's got 2,000 people watching him on Friday. So, if that kid is out there and then somebody comes up to him and says, hey, Joe, it's a great game. You did awesome. Hey, man, thank you so much. Hey, speaking of, we got an event going on next Monday or we have this going on Monday. I would love for you to come and be my guest. Well, that kid don't play sports or whatever. That's why we're doing them, the influencers, to not just reach other athletes. Those athletes go out and then they're the ones influencing the people that are watching them. There you go. And we partner with, again, our meeting at one of the schools is called Fuel. And Fuel is, you know, FCA is in there, but then YCI, Youth Commission International, Youth for Christ, and other events. So, we minister to the entire school. But, you know, we're seeing the world transformed through Jesus Christ, not athletes and coaches. So, our vision at FCA is to see the world transformed by Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes. And so, that's what we're going to do. The coaches and athletes that we reach are going to influence those that are not necessarily athletes. That's a good question, Chrissy, because a lot of people, Chrissy, have that concern that we're going to neglect the other kids, and that's not the goal at all. You know, we're never, I always tell kids, you're never going to lay eyes on a person that doesn't matter to Jesus. You're never going to. And so, whether they, you know, they might hate sports. You know, and the cool thing about this is, when we talk about athletics, here's a big part that's been neglected over the years. The cyber nerds, or whatever you want to call them, they have electronic sports now. You can get an e-sports scholarship to go to college to play video games and be a part of an e-sports team. So, we're reaching way more than just, hey, what is it, GANSTA for Christ? Follow me, and I'll help you find FCA in New Mexico. I know, if not, man, there's ways to start a huddle meeting and different things. I can help with that, too, but there, chances are, there's probably something there, especially if you're near some of the college campuses. I'm not sure. College campuses are pretty influential. Please, give me a follow or shoot me a message. Oh, our Wi-Fi is acting up. Did I lose you? There we go. We hear you now. No, no. Somebody tried to call me. Sorry. Yeah, so, yeah, send me a follow, and I'll connect you. Sorry, I got a phone call in the middle of that. That's okay. But, you know what, I'll try to help anybody connect. I love it. Love it. Yeah, guys, we got to support. Absolutely, they sure can. The musical kids can speak into others. You know, people come to their plays. They come to their things, too. We're not trying to neglect anybody. We take our kids to FCA camp here in high school. It's been a blessing. Praise God, man. That's awesome. Coaches for Christ 1. Amen. Wow. Wow. I love it, Nick. I love it. I am so impressed. Folks, we got to support this. We got to support this, right? I reiterate, in the area that I live in, it's been kids dealing with suicide. If a person would have been on that wall here, like Nick or another individual in the ministry to help that child, folks, there would be some parents that would not have lost their baby. Their baby. Because for whatever strange reason, that child didn't feel comfortable talking to mom and dad. And it happens. Trust me, it happens. My own kids, I am sure there are things I'm going to find out when they're in their 30s. And I'm going to be like, how come you didn't say anything? Praise be to God. The Lord washed over him. But what a blessing to have Nick on that wall. Nick, once again, you are full-time mission work. Need to be supported. Full-time missionary. Fully faith-funded. And how do we- So we do, you can go to, let me put, I'll put the link in the comments again. Yeah. It's myfca.org backslash Nicholas Spalding. Hey, Chrissy, I'm in the greater Charlotte area. I'm part of the greater Charlotte FCA. So I can connect you with people. I saw you said you're looking for something in the Charlotte area. I know tons of people. That's my whole group is the Charlotte area. That's where I'm at. So just message me what school your kids go to. And we most likely have, we are shorthanded in the Charlotte area. So there's a couple schools that don't have, but there are other groups there. I know YCI and Young Life is really prominent in Charlotte. So there are ministries on these campuses. And so don't think, people, please don't think that God's not on these campuses. Prayer is alive at school. We do see you at the pole. We do multiple events at the schools. Sometimes it takes a little effort to find it because there are times where people are against it. They do want to push back on us. But yeah, we are available and we do have, especially in the Charlotte area. So Chrissy, message me and I'll get you connected with that. I got some coaches for Christ also invite trouble kids that don't play sports just so they can feel the different environment. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. A lot of these kids just want to feel loved. And sometimes a lot of kids, we try to tell them, be a good friend and love these kids in the schools because a lot of kids don't go home to love. That might be the only place where they can find somebody to love them like Christ or just love them in general. And then when they find out, hold on, you're loving me like who? Like Jesus? Who's Jesus? Tell me about this love. Amen. And so when we can do that, it's a big difference. A lot of the kids don't go home to it. But partner with it. If you have a church, sometimes something as cool as just saying, hey, we want to sponsor a team dinner twice a season and feed the football team. We'll bring lasagna up there. And you know what? And you do the pregame meals. That is a way to minister to people. I'm going to cook a big pot of spaghetti or macaroni and cheese and you bring it up there and you do a pregame meal for the soccer team or the football team. Those are the type of partnerships we need also. So reach out to your, if you have a church, your local high school football team would love to have a pregame meal. And that's a way, again, going back to food, right? Food, Jesus and sports. We can all build relationships that way. Folks, let's follow Nick. Let's follow him. Let's make sure we get his information. Let's spread the news with regards and let us support this ministry just across the world. Let's support this ministry. And I'm going to do my part. I'm going to be bringing this up periodically as a reminder to each of you and so that we can really help this. This is important to me. I have four kids. I have seven grandkids. And this is important. I need the Knicks of the world out there helping my children. If they just need someone to talk to, someone to encourage them. And folks, hey, real quick, Nick, I got to throw this out there. Christian folks, don't think just because you're a Christian, your kid's okay. Don't think because you go to church every Sunday and they see you reading the word, trust you me, if Satan hates you, he hates your children more. You want Nick on that wall. I'm just telling you my opinion. It is. And again, I was that kid. I told you, I was at church every Sunday with my hands raised up and raising hell Monday through Friday at school when my mom wasn't there. And it's not that I can go and save every kid, but man, I'm going to try. When people tell you you can't save them all, it's a hard thing to hear when all you're trying to do is save them all. But I'm grateful for you guys. I appreciate you guys. Please be praying for just this ministry, my ministry. Please pray for the schools. Pray for the principals to accept, to be open to this, that they'll see results. Because when they, I have friends that are in schools and the principals have came to them and said, man, we've seen massive results. Anything you want, we got your back. Principals that have went to the school boards and spoke on behalf of FCA trying to get into other schools because they're saying, hey, you don't got to believe in Jesus to see these results right here. When you see kids changing their actions, when you see that they're loving people, being kinder to people, when our in-school suspension has went down 20% because these kids started going to these meetings and things like that, when we see the influence that these people are having, I've seen principals go to bat for FCA and say, man, anything you want, I have your back because I've seen what it does in my school. Wow. Hey, Nick, my software engineer, Jim Taylor said, go to our testimonial wall on our website. I'll take even further. I'd love for you to maybe talk to one of your kids on it so they can go to our webpage, see you so that we can help lead people towards what you're doing. So we'll talk about that offline. But man, I want to thank you so much. Thank you for what you're doing, brother. All right. I appreciate you, pastor. All right, brother. God bless you. Once again, guys, Nick Spaulding. Yes, that's his name, Nick Spaulding. Let's follow him. Let's support him. Let's help facilitate this. Not only him, but all the men and women across the world that are doing the same thing, working with our kids. If we don't do it now, real quick, real quick, you know, there's a lot of organizations out there that would love to influence your kids to do the opposite. Let's support God's people doing what they need to do for our kids. Thank you, guys. God bless you. Have a great day, brother. Wow, guys, that right there. Let me speak to this a bit. And there's only eight of you left. I wish there would have been 700 on here. That brother right there. And I can talk now. I don't want to embarrass him. I don't want to embarrass him. Folks, your kids are struggling with stuff. Your kids are struggling. They're struggling with sexual identity. They're struggling with anxiety and depression. They are struggling. Oh, one of my goats got out. Interesting. I have a goat getting out, eating my wife's plants. I'm going to have to go let my puppy loose to scare her. Hang on a second. Wait right there. Missy, go get Bob. Bob's out. Come on, come on, get up. Bob's out. Come on, come on, come on. Bob's out. Go get Bob. Go get Bob. Bob is eating plants. Bob and Betty are eating plants. Okay, my goats got out and they're eating Miss Betty's plants. Ooh, they're in trouble. Let's get back to what we're saying and I got to go put them away. Folks, we need to support. I want you to follow. Yeah, Bob. No, Bob. We need to support Brother Nick Spalding. Okay. We need to support the men and women that are in this. I am telling you right now, your kids are being overwhelmed in their schools. They're being overwhelmed by negativity. They're being overwhelmed by false decisions or false teachings. They're being overwhelmed by people trying to cause them to think they're less than. And to have someone like Nick in the school, to have someone. Now, they could have been on my high school campus. That was a million years ago. And they were around. That was the 80s. I graduated in 82. But I tell you what, to have someone like him on our campus would have been beautiful. Someone that you could speak to, someone that you could talk to and share and someone and to be around a group of people that would love on you. Folks, our kids, they're struggling these days. And I hear, oh, look, somebody said, I wish I had that when I was in school. Don't we all? But now we are able to help Brother Nick to be at the schools in his area. And we can help also the local individuals in our, look at all of us. Look, I wish I had someone like that in my school. How many of us wish we would have had somebody? So if you guys would support Nick, I want to start with Nick, the organization I will support. Because Nick has a certain amount to take care of his household. Anything above that goes towards the organization. Well, the organization takes care of the administration fees right from the very beginning. Because trust me, you got to take care of that administrative stuff. But if we can support a gentleman like Nick or a sister, I don't know anybody, but a sister who's doing the same thing, let's do it. Let's do it. These are our children. And to know that Nick is Nick's last name, Spalding. Nick, put your information. If you're still here, put your information out there. Thomas Champagne06 wants to know. Put your, Nick, if you're still here, get your information out there. Follow Nick. There he is. There he is. Nick Spalding. My.sca.org slash Nicholas Spalding. Let's follow Nick. Let's support that. Now, I want you to go tell two or three friends. All right? You go tell two or three friends. Say, hey, I'm going to, I want to support this guy, man. And based on me talking to him for over the two years, I know his heart. I listen. I've discerned. I know his heart. He's about the kids. He's about the kids. And with that being said, I want to support what he's doing because that's very important. And to have him with that consistent teaching and loving. But notice what he said, too. It's not just about the athlete. They include anybody. I don't know if y'all caught this and you didn't. I probably. But even if you were a kid who says, I identify with LGBT, I'm sure Nick was like, we'd love to have you. Come on over to the spaghetti dinner. We'd love to have you. You might have a kid who says, you know what? I'm a theater guy. You know what? Come on over. Love to have you. See, they're including. See, we're in a world where everybody wants to be inclusive. Who better yet? They're including these young people. He says, if you can't do it, please talk to your church mission board. There you go. Talk to your church mission board. I think that's a grand idea. Right there. Right there. Nick, that was beautiful. Talk to your church. So whatever church you attend, go to your mission board and say, I got this information. I was listening to Pastor Paul on TikTok. He had a gentleman named Nick Spalding. Man, I think we really need to support this. If we could support this young man to help our children, to help our children. Oh, I'm telling you guys, when Nick told me he was doing this, and I've known Nick from the couple of years when I met him. He's an athlete. I know who that person is, but when he told me he was working with kids, I'm like, who better? Who better? This is the guy to do this. So let's support this. Let's support this. Now, I don't get anything out of it. This has nothing to do with me, but I'm just taking the platform that God has given me and said, do it. So for, I don't know, when God tells me different, I'm going to be plugging this every time I make a post. Every time I go on live, I'm going to be calling you guys to help support this so that we can help take care of these men and women in this mission field. All right, everybody, I'm going to have to get going. Once again, let me reiterate, Nick, thank you, sir, for sharing. Thank you so much for sharing. Ms. Chrissy, Ms. Chrissygirl2244, I saw you. Oh, I got baptized yesterday. Rex, praise God. Wait a minute. Somebody asked for prayer. They've been sick for two weeks. Hang on, Father God, we come before the throne of grace with regards to the individual who is under the weather. Lord, I pray that you would just bless them and heal them and restore them, Father God. I pray that you would just touch their bodies right now. For Lord, I know that by your stripes we are healed, Father God. Lord, I pray and I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, I wanted to make sure I didn't forget that. So I'll remind you over the course of the following days, let's support Brother Nick to help these kids in school. All right, God bless you guys. Keep your head up. May the Lord bless you, keep you, and watch over you. All right, God bless. Take care.