EPISODE 9

Jesse and Seb discuss the misconceptions of strength and how true strength can be found in God. They share personal experiences and discuss Bible verses that highlight the importance of relying on God's strength rather than their own capabilities. They emphasize the need to trust in God and seek His strength in all aspects of life. They also mention examples of biblical characters who either leaned on their own strength or relied on God's strength. Hi, my name is Jesse. I'm Seb and welcome to the Sinners But Saved podcast. And today we're going to be speaking about strength, the misconceptions of what strength is and the actual strength that we can find in God. So it's going to be really, really quite intense today. I was really spoken to by Gord the past few days about the issues of what we think strength is and the strength, what we think the strength we find in God is, but before we get into this today, how's your week been? I've had a crazy, crazy, crazy week. Yeah. I think you have as well. Yeah. In Spain. Jesse and I were at a night service. Yeah. I don't know how much might talk about this on a later episode, but like we had, we had like, both of us had prophetic words spoken over us. Yeah. It was so cool. We spoke so accurately into our lives. Exactly. I mean, it was so good. Yeah. It's insane. But yeah, amazing week. Made some new friends from the podcast. Yes, we have. And just, I guess, going along with school. Yeah. What about you? I've had a great week. Yeah. As you said, made some friends with the prophetic words on Sunday. I can really feel like God's just working in me right now and guiding me and showing me many different things about myself and about my life that I didn't really see before. So it's been quite an eventful week for both of us. We should probably keep you guys updated on the fast. The fast didn't really last long in the past. I mean, you did a bit of fasting. I kind of... Oh, physical fasting. Yes. I didn't really get to fasting because I have no excuses. I just... I just wasn't up to it. At least you're honest. At least you're honest. Yes. But nah. Well, today we're going to be speaking about strength, which is going to be quite an intense topic, because strength is quite easy to understand in general, but to speak it from a sense of spirituality and biblicalness, it's actually a lot different to what we may think. Yeah. Yeah. I was... Like, as soon as you brought up this topic, I was really interested, because I'm still kind of interested, because I want to hear, like, from you what you think strength means. Yeah. Do you have any verses you want to start with, or... Well, I feel like, in general, strength nowadays is definitely seen as muscular and skillful. It's built on this sense of being super built, or super strong in your aspect, or going to be seen as the strength that you have in your workplace, or your school, the strength. Being successful, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But if we want to look at the first verse that actually speaks, and probably the most famous one, it comes from Philippians 4, verses 13, and says, So, this is probably one of the most famous verses, and it's in most soccer, basketball, football, rugby guys' Instagram bios. It says, And yes, it's true, but I think it's one major misconception about this verse, is that it's not talking about strength in your own capabilities, and it's not talking about strength in, you know, your workplace, or in your sport of choice. It's actually speaking about the strength to have, to still go to God when everything is going bad. It's the strength that you have that, you know, when everything in life is going downhill, when you're having so many mistakes going on, and it feels like everything is going wrong, do you have the strength to still go back to God? That is strength. Because that's one of the hardest things we ever face, is to still choose God over everything when it seems like everything is just going wrong at the moment. Yeah, definitely. And also, like, it's, like, the things that He strengthens you in is, I think we were talking about this a bit earlier as well, not like, not like a huge amount, but it's the things that He has planned for you that He will strengthen you in. It's not always, He's not always going to strengthen you with things, Yeah, exactly. with things of your plan. Like, He'll strengthen you through what you're doing into His plan. Exactly. And, like, especially, it's important to actually get the verse fully, and it says, I can do everything through Christ. It doesn't say through your own capabilities, through what you can do, through your own skills, through your own mindset. It's through Christ. And I feel like that's something we honestly forget, and it's the first few words of that verse, it's speaking about, it's actually so important to remember that we can't do this without God. Like, He is our strength. He is our refuge. He is everything. And if we actually want to be strong, we actually have to go back to God and go back to the root of our strength, which is Him. And it can be hard, and it's probably one of the hardest things to choose God when things are hard and you're weak. Yeah, yeah. That's really good. I also had a verse from, I don't want to take any of yours that you've already got. No, you're good, you're good. But it does, I think it says, in Isaiah 40, 29, it says, Okay, okay. Your strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Yeah. There's so many verses in Isaiah that talk about strength. That's crazy. What was that one again? It was Isaiah 40, 29. Do you have that highlighted? That's so good. I don't actually. That's so good that He does actually give us strength, but it can only be found through God. I think it's good to remember that. It says, as you were just saying, He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. And how good is that? But then later in, in 31, it says, But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. You're only going to have that new strength when you trust in the Lord. That's the root of your strongness, and that's the root of actually getting this strength. If you want to have the strength to go through a week of, I don't know, work or something that really struggles with you or sin or still trusting God, it's that trust you must have. And it even continues to say that they will soar on high wings like eagles. They'll run and not grow weary. They'll walk and not faint. And that's what happens when we renew our strength. Have you ever felt that when you've, you've been going through all this rough stuff and you finally go back to God, that you actually feel like you've got this new strength built with you? That's what it is. And speaking about it in Isaiah 31, chapter 40, verse 31, that it's so good to go back to God. And that's the only way we can get our strength back is by the trust that we have in God. Yeah. I feel like for some reason I never, I never like, like in the everyday stuff, I wouldn't say I never, but like a lot of the time I don't actually pray for God's strength or God to strengthen me. Yeah. And like the things I'm nervous about, like I try to, I try to like handle them myself so often. Yeah. So that, um, with my own strength, but it's just like, it's so much easier to go, to go to God. And like the, the strength he might give you might be peace. It might be joy. It might be, um, like freedom. And those, those things can like set you free from the things that are like creating like weakness in you. Yeah. Like anxiety, like worry. Yeah, definitely. Um, like it also says in Isaiah 41, verse 10, it says, I know Isaiah is cooking right now. Oh my goodness. He was, he's going crazy. And it says, do not be afraid for I am with you. Do not be discouraged for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. And how good is it to be reminded that he's victorious? How good is it to be reminded that he is our strength and he will strengthen us? You know, it's saying that he will strengthen us, but it's not going to mean that now you have to do it on your own abilities. It's now you'll be renewed by him and you can use the power he's put through you now for it to see it work all in different parts of your life. And how, how cool is that? I can tell you how many times like, oh my goodness. Like I can't tell you how many times that I've, I've lent on myself rather than God. And I've just seen it fall flat on my face. Like I was saying, um, I spoke on Friday. I was saying like, we're not Bob the Builder. You know, you can't, we're not going to be able to fix every single thing. Like we have to have God. He's the one that can fix everything. If we're constantly relying on ourselves and our own capabilities on our own strength and other people's strength and capabilities, we're never actually going to get the chance to see God work. You know, we're only giving him a limited amount of room for his, for him to actually work in our lives, for his power to actually be seen in our lives if we're constantly leaning on ourselves and the people around us. Yeah. I guess like biblically, I kind of think of like, who do you think of like, just say some examples of some strong characters, not like, I mean like spiritually strong, like, like names and characters, I guess. Well, I mean, look at David, I think. David was constantly like, he wasn't really like, he knew what God wanted for his life, but he kind of just was hoping he could do it off his own capabilities. And he was, he was, he was definitely with God and he was after God, but he would always be moved away from what God was calling to it as well. And he wasn't leaning on God's strength in him. Sometimes he was leaning on his own strength. You can also see in King Saul, not Saul Paul, but King Saul before David, that he actually ended up losing everything because he was leaning on his own capabilities. Yeah. So much so he actually ended up forgetting the power and the things God had actually given him to the point he thought it was all him that had done it. And the strength wasn't, was from him. It wasn't, it was from God. Yeah. What about you? I guess now that you mentioned David and Saul, I would say like Solomon as well. Yeah. Solomon is like, he's given wisdom by God, but then he just throws it all away because of the desire to have like so many different wives from different nations and then just bring them away from God and stuff. Exactly. I was also thinking like Moses as well. Oh yeah. But the funny thing is like before Moses, I guess, encounters God as the burning bush, he's like so weak. He's just fled from the Egyptians. Yeah. He really just dipped. Yeah, he just dipped because he's so scared. And then he's eventually leading all of the Israelites through the desert, like performing miracles all the time. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because it's good to, a good reminder of Moses' story is like he fully ran away from everything. He was like, no, I'm not doing this. I'm getting out of here. I can't do this anymore. He ran away from Egypt after he had this calling. And how many times do we do that? How many times do we forget the strength God has put into us? Like legit, if I had the faith to remember every single time that God's strength lives in me, oh my goodness, like how good would that be? Honestly, I feel like we are always forgetting it because we are always leaning back onto what we can do in our own capabilities and our own friends and people around us. But I feel like it's a part of our faith. You know, the more faith we have in Him, the more trust we have, and the more strength we will gain from God. And it's not easy to still choose God when it seems like everything is like, how am I going to fix this? How am I going to get this all sorted? And me being, I'm always trying to problem solve every single thing. Like as soon as something goes wrong, like I have to fix this, have to get this all neat and tidy again and stuff and just there, to lean on God can be really hard in those moments because you feel like you have to fix it. But God is nah, like He's like, nah, like lean on me, lean on me, talk to me about it. And then you will have the strength, not in your own capabilities, but through me and then you can go through those situations. So I just remembered, because you say like you have to fix it straight away. I just remembered that worship night that we went to and like our friends got off the bus earlier. And like we got off the bus and like I look over at Jesse and he's already on the phone calling them to see where they're at to catch up with them. Oh guys, it's so good. Like honestly, it's so cool that God is renewing our strength constantly. But the thing is we have to go to God first if we actually want to see that happen. I have a question for you. How have you seen God's strength work in your life? In my life? I feel like there's so much happening recently in my life that's adding to my testimony. It's actually crazy. Like all of this stuff is like here's the rest of my life. And obviously God's been working in that leading me up to this point. But I feel like there's like everything's like in this one bit that's currently happening and it's still going to happen. But like right now and the reason I mentioned Moses is because I feel like Moses, like when he encounters the burning bush and like obviously God, like I feel like I have no other option of getting through what I want to face to like uplift God in my life other than going to God. Like there's no way I'm going to be able to do that relying on God's strength and not my own, I guess. What about you? Yeah, I think with strength in my own life, I've definitely seen more of me doing things my way and leading myself and realizing I can't do this without God's strength. The amount of times I've gone into situations, whether it's of conflict or of being lost or of doing something stupid and not knowing how to get out of it and instead of leaning to God, I lean on myself and I'm trying to find all the problems, I'm trying to find all the answers using my own capabilities. And I feel like people don't know this enough, that actually limits God. When you are using your own abilities, you're only just limiting God from what he can do in your life. If you don't limit him, man, imagine how cool the things he's going to do in your life if you actually give him the space to work. You know, you don't go to an artist workshop, you don't go to an artist and give them everything they need but not a canvas to actually paint on. When you go into those things, they actually have to have the place to work and they can't be limited. They have to have all the space needed to work. Yeah, 100%. That's such a good analogy. How do you come up with these analogies all the time? It's so good. It's the spirit, man. But for real though, don't limit God because if we limit God, then we're only going to get a limited amount of his power working in our lives. Yeah. I was also thinking our strength in Christ is also, I guess, reinforced but also shown by the fruits that we bear. Definitely. I think, and also the spiritual gifts that we receive as well. How much more faith we have when we can see the fruit and the gifts that God is giving us every single day and recognizing that as well, how much more strength. To me, strength is directly related to faith when it comes to God. I think if you have no faith, you're not going to have any strength. Exactly. You have no belief that there's going to be any positive outcome. Yeah. I mean, just like you were saying, strength doesn't equal your own capabilities. Strength equals your faith in God. Strength equals your trust and your confidence that God is going to work in those situations. Oh, bro. I'm going to burst. I'm going to burst. Fine. Fine. Fine. But when you go into situations and instead of using what you can do and just reminding yourself. I don't know why I struggled with that. Reminding yourself of what God's done in your past and what he's still doing and just think about what he could do. How much greater is that than just trying to lean on your own capabilities and what you can do? Because you know you have your limits. You know you can only do this much, and God can do anything. So why are we limiting him from actually working in us? Because he's the provider of all strength, and he wants to strengthen you and help you and help live this life with you. So I was reading this last night, and 2 Corinthians is a crazy book. There's so much in there. I'll probably highlight the whole book if I could. Anyway, it says, So we fix our eyes not on what is sane, but on what is unseen, since what is sane is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Wow. Yeah, wow. And I think that's just absolutely crazy for us to think about because it's not like the things that we put our trust in and our faith in can't be what we see around us. Yeah. It has to be on God. Exactly. And I mean that's totally linked to what that verse is like. Our faith is the trust in what is unseen. I'm afraid to butcher that verse. I know what you're thinking about, yeah. But I guess something like that, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like faith is trusting in the unseen, and that's so important because I feel like it's hard to trust in something that you can't see. Like when you go onto a car, you trust it because you see. It's visible. You can sit in there. It's got a seatbelt and stuff. When you go on a bus, you can see that. You've got all these seats that you can sit in, and they all go in the same way. But when you're trusting in something you can't see, that can be really hard. And I think for that to be the focal point of all Christianity, to actually do that is a sign of your strength. To actually choose God over everything is a sign of your strength. Because if you look at the amount of distractions that are in your way and the amount of things that are trying to take your attention, to still choose God over all those things, and even to still choose God when it sucks, and even to still choose God when you feel like everything is falling apart, you feel like everything is just not working out, to still choose God over everything, that is strength. Strength isn't your own capability. That's what you just said. To still go back to God, even when it's hard. And also, especially when you have the most strength, when you don't really see anything happening. You don't feel like God is talking to you, but you still rely on Him even when you don't feel like that. That's the most strength. Going back to David, he's anointed king, but then I don't know how many years he has to wait even after he's been anointed. A long time. He has so many opportunities to take the throne from Saul. He's in a cave with him three different times. Saul doesn't even know that he's there with him. He doesn't kill him any of the times. He just trusts in God's plan and has the faith. That's strength. Not waiting on God. There are so many different ways of categorizing strength, and I feel like every single person in the Bible had strength in different ways and different things, the way they relied on God. We all have a different strength, but it's the way that we rely on God to work in our situations that proves what our strength is. Have you seen nowadays strength? I feel like it's lost its definition biblically because it's such a thing to be like, yeah, I find my strength in God, and it's just like getting ripped and stuff like that. It's so good to exercise, so good to do sport, but that's not what God is speaking about in these aspects. It's actually a thing of decision-making, and it's a thing of faith to still go back to God, to still go to the root of your life, even when everything is falling apart. With that, you can't limit God in those situations either. As you were saying, there's so many times where David could have just killed Saul, so many times where he's right there, but he still knew that there would be a time and a place, and you can have faith in that. God is there. God knows when things should happen and when things shouldn't. The fact that he had the strength to not even attempt to do anything and to just run away is a lot, because I know if I was in that situation and I knew someone was trying to murder me, I don't know if I would just see them sleeping and be like, yeah, I might just dip now and stuff. That's crazy. It's crazy. What about Job? That's a definition of stuff. Wow. Job is just like everything is gone. All his friends are telling him that he's done something wrong to deserve it and that he should, I guess, curse God, and he doesn't the entire time. Exactly. It's crazy. You can see that it was his choice that even after every single thing was going wrong, he still was choosing Christ. He still was choosing to follow God, to have faith in God. How cool is that that we can actually learn that from Job and that God sees that and God actually can reward us, as we were saying last time. He sees our faith, and he sees the strength that he's provided with. He provides it with strength, but we actually got to go use it for his name. It actually says in Deuteronomy, chapter 31, verse 6, it says, So be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, and do not panic. It's so hard to just say that and then believe it as well. Because when you're in a situation where it's like, say you're in a situation where it feels like you've got all this dust being thrown at you, to remember to not fear and to not panic is like, you can't just... It's the opposite of what you're actually feeling. Exactly. It's easy to say it when you're not facing all the troubles and stuff. But guess what, that's not the end of the verse. So, let him cook. It actually says, Do not be afraid and do not panic, for the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. He goes ahead of us, you know. So he already can see the future of what's going to happen. Are we going to actually choose to believe that he knows the right way? Are we going to actually choose to follow his way and follow his strength and actually follow what he has for that? Because I feel like sometimes we are like, we can see that he could work in a situation but we're too scared to actually go and attempt it. Even though he's already actually walked those steps, he's seen the future of that, he's blessed that future, now we actually have to go into that. Yeah, I feel like I've done that so many times, which I never have. No, I feel you. And then afterwards, you regret it so much because you know that God would have provided for you in that situation. But it's just that, I guess, stepping out of what you're uncomfortable about, like around with, I mean it could be evangelizing, it could just be talking to anybody about Jesus. It could be getting up on the stage at youth and worshipping. It could be praying for anybody. But I guess if you're doing something to uplift God that you think is in his plan for you, he's never going to let you down. There's a preacher that was at this night service that Jesse and I were at, and he basically said the first time he ever preached, he thought he did absolutely shocking. He was like, oh, I'm never going to preach again. And then years later, a woman came up to me. He didn't even recognize who she was. And she was like, oh, you saved my life with your preaching. And he was like, oh, where did you hear me preach from? It was like that first time he ever preached. And he thought he failed God. How cool is that? God's plan is fulfilled, but we don't understand what's going on and how we don't see it. Yeah, exactly. I mean, how cool is that? Because I cannot even tell you the amount of times in my life where I've seen things that I know if I actually stepped in God's, and in his direction, and I used his strength in me, that my life would be so much different right now, maybe in good ways and maybe in bad ways. And it's crazy, or not in bad ways, like following his strength, the bad ways. I can see how the things when I lead in my own strength, how things have gone differently in not the best ways as well. And I've seen that all throughout times in my life where I wish I just relied on God because it would be so different, and I feel like it would have connected. There's been plenty of times where I feel called to pray for people and felt called to speak to people, but I haven't actually had the guts to go and do it. And I really regret that. And it's a conviction as well, like that as well, because I feel like in that moment, I underestimated what God could do in that moment. And not only that, I didn't let him cook. I did not let him cook. I was thinking about this on Sunday when we received those words, and I pretty much received confirmation that I should go to Kona. I'll talk about it more in a different episode. But if I hadn't have asked for prayer, sometimes it's just the faith of stepping out and asking for prayer. And if I hadn't have, I wouldn't have received any confirmation at that time. But now that I've trusted in him and his plan for me and that he can work through other people praying for me, it doesn't have to be just me receiving his voice through him speaking to me, through my thoughts or whatever. There's so many ways that God can speak to you. It can be through the Bible. It can be through prayer. And as you said, if we're limiting him, it's going to diminish his strength in us. Yeah. I remember one time growing up, me and my dad went to a theme park. And this has to do with strength, by the way. It's a bit random how the blue bit. I remember we went to a theme park and pretty much what happened was there was this really big roller coaster that looked really sick, but I could not bring myself to actually go on it, maybe. Was it California Screaming? Yeah, it was. I was about eight at the time and this was a big ride. And my dad was like, oh, just come on, just come on. I was like, oh, I can't do it. I couldn't do it. I didn't end up doing it. And I remember I regretted not doing it for over 10 years. And I got the chance to do it last December. But it was crazy because it taught me so much. Because I remember in that moment, my dad told me something afterwards. Because I remember we left and I was like, I really regret it, dad. And he said, well, like, you've learned something now, that the opportunities you get, you know, you're going to miss out so much on life if you don't take the opportunities that are brought before you. You're going to miss out so much on life if you keep worrying about how it could end, what the outcome is going to be like. You don't have to worry about the outcome. Just choose to step into that. And then the next season and the next steps will come with that. I feel like in most situations, we have to go with that mindset of not worrying what the future is going to be like with it, not worrying about how hard it's going to be, not worrying about how it could have ups and downs, like the rollercoaster might have as well. But reminding ourselves that we can trust in the Lord. We can have strength in the Lord. We can have confidence in the Lord that He's going to work in our lives. And if we constantly are worrying, we're not going to truly find this life and this plan God has for us. If we're not actually trusting in the strength that He claims He has to be, we're never actually going to see His strength come in our lives. Because God is legit. You're only really going to see the God that you truly believe God is. If you believe that He can go and work through you into your whole school, then He's going to work through you into your whole school. But if you believe that He can't even help you out on just a single day of work or of school or in situations, you're going to get this image in your mind that God is limited and that God can't do that. Don't redefine God. Don't redefine who He is and what He's made it. Because when you get that in your mind, then you've changed your perception of God to be what you believe He is. And you're not going to actually fully see His potential and fully see how great He is and how almighty He is. Yeah. As you were saying that, it kind of struck me how, for me, the fear and anxiety and worrying about what will happen, and that's just stopped me so many times from trying to do something for God. It's just crazy that sometimes we don't even give it a try. Exactly. We just let what could be affect our final decision on what we might do or do not do. It's just crazy that we would even, and I still do it. I'm not saying I don't, but that we would let that deny God's plan for us. Yeah. I feel like we spend more time worrying about what could happen instead of stepping into what's going to happen. We spend more time looking at situations being like, oh, my goodness, it's not going to work out. Oh, my goodness. And having meltdowns and fearing and worrying, we spend more time doing that than actually stepping into it and trusting in our Lord sometimes. I can tell you, for one, that I do that a lot. I do that so much. But when I've actually stepped into it, even though it can seem like, oh, this could end badly, God has worked. God has worked so well, and God is still working, and how cool is that? How great is that? I wanted to talk about Samson as well. Oh, my goodness. He was one of the strongest people in the Bible. He has physical strength, but because he's so confident in his physical strength, it takes away his strength in his faith of the Lord. And he basically, because the book of Judges is basically about, I think, I don't know how many Judges there are, but it's like there's Judges that lead the Israelites for a period of time. One of them is Samson, and God blesses him with strength. Great strength as well. He was so strong. He does lead the Israelites for a time, but then with, I think it was his, the girl that he liked was Philistine or something like that. Yeah. And basically he, I don't know why, but he pretty much just let himself be captured because he loved her. Yeah. And he obviously knew he shouldn't have been married to someone who would bring him away from his faith intentionally. And he saw it so many times that it was, I don't know how, but it's so obvious that she was doing that. I mean, she asked him where he gets his strength from and then just tries to get rid of it, I think on like five different occasions. And he does eventually. Yeah, he does eventually. And Samson loses his strength, but then instead of dying, he tries to, like before he dies, he does die, but he tries to live out God's plan one more time. And God does give him strength one more time to fulfill his purpose. Yeah. But it's not so much about the physical strength, but I mean that was a blessing that was given to him, but actually relying on God. Yeah. And using that gift for him when, like instead of your own gains or, because if I had super strength, I don't know what I'd be doing, but it'd probably be great. You'd be the Hulk. Yeah. You'd be rampant. I'd be setting world records and stuff like that. What would you do if you had super strength? Bro, I would be becoming like Earth's mightiest hero, bro. I would be like, can you fly as well? I would be flying around if I was able to fly. Or just super strength. I would just be, bro, I would just be like flexing everywhere. Just be like, yeah. Don't let Jesse go to the gym. But no, I was just thinking about that. And it's like, I want to remind everyone that it wasn't David's rock and sling that was able to defeat Goliath. It wasn't Moses' hands that went out across the Red Sea that was able to part it. It wasn't the ark that made Noah be able to get through the ocean. It was the strength they had in God. It was the faith and the trust they had in God in those situations. That's what got them through those moments. That's what got them to do some of the greatest miracles ever was the strength that they found in God. It wasn't their own capabilities. It wasn't that David was super strong when he picked up that sling and got some massive rock that was truly actually about as powerful as a boulder. It wasn't that. It was that he had faith that God was going to work in that. He had faith that he was actually going to do things. And he trusted in the Lord with all his heart. He didn't lean on his own understanding. And he remembered that God renews our strength. And through that, God was actually able to work. Because right now, if you have something in a situation you're going through and you actually want to see God's strength be worked out, be like that. Don't limit God. The same God that parted the Red Sea, the same God that struck Goliath, the same God that worked in every single person you've ever read about lives in you today. The same God that was around 2,000 years ago is the same amount of powerful. He talks about God is forever to the end. He is the same then, now, and forever. He is always the same. So why are we limiting God like he was only good then? Why are we limiting God like he had a prime 2,000 years ago and he's out of his prime now like he's some out-of-form footballer? He's not washed. Yeah, he's not washed. He's exactly the same. So why are we limiting God like he can't work in these situations? And, man, oh, my goodness. I'm not saying that I don't limit God. I limit God all the time. Probably every single day I limit God and what he could do in that day. Because for all I know, he could bring thousands and thousands of people through me on just a random day if I actually have faith in it. But, man, I want to have the strength to go into situations and recognize and remember what God is doing. How in your life have you seen, like, when you have chosen God, that's given you strength to get through situations? I think every single situation where I've relied on God has never failed, ever. I can say that with 100% confidence. I'm so fearful when it comes to, like, public speaking. I'm the most anxious person, and yet, like, relying on God, and he's gotten me through it every time. And keep in mind that it is public speaking that does glorify him. Yeah. Jesse and I have been talking about a podcast in an assembly, but I feel like if his plan for me is, like, ministry or something, or whether it's worship or something like that, he will provide. Yeah. The only thing I can do possible to actually step into that stuff will be to rely on him. Yeah. If I don't, then the worries and the anxiety and the fear within me is just going to take over. I'll probably just never step out of my comfort zone because I'll have nothing to even rely on. Exactly. When you just rely on yourself, you're going to fail so, so, so much. Even when you rely on others, the only person you can possibly rely on is God. Yeah. And relying on yourself and others will only get you so far. And, you know, God is Alpha and Omega. God is A to Z, beginning and end. He has no limit. When you trust in that, you know, every single person only has a limited amount of capability in what they can do. Even the strongest man in the world can only do a few things. Even the smartest person in the world, or the most intelligent person in the world, the most, I don't know, coolest person in the world or something, they only have a limited amount of power. But God is always powerful. God is always great. God is always good. God is beginning and end, you know. He created every single thing we see around him. He created us. And how, like, he wants to help you. He wants to give you strength. You know, the God that created every single person around you wants to give you strength. That even, like, I can feel fearful in that, you know, because I'm like, geez, like, he has all this strength and he wants to give that to me so I can actually live my life. I feel like, wow, like, that's a lot of strength to actually want to work in my life. Yeah, 100%. Like, being fearful as well, I feel like in order to have faith, you have to be fearful. Yeah. Because you can't just, if you're relying on yourself, then you're not fearful of God. Yeah. Because you're not, like, fearful that the outcome of relying on yourself is going to be, like, you're not worried that it's going to be worse than God. Yeah. And, like, your plan will be greater than his. Yeah. Yeah, you're not relying that his plan for you is the right plan, you know. You're not relying on that. You actually got to fear God knowing that, you know, if I'm not trusting in his plan, who knows what's going to happen. Well, I've got this final verse from Psalm 28, verse 7. Ooh. I know. It's a big one and it says this, and this is from David. It says, You know, we can see now from David's strength and the strength that we can learn on that God is our strength and our shield. You know, the strength that we can be renewed by, it shields us, it secures us, it has our hand over us. And how good is that going into next week, being reminded that we can have strength in God. It later says in Psalm 78, verse 26. It also says here, it says, You know, and how good is that to, like, remind going into the next week and the week after and the days after that God is our strength. And without God, we are weak, you know. We only are fully strengthened and fully know God when he's in the picture. You know, we need to have him to fully have strength. And we need that. And that's, I think that's a great encouragement going into next week. But as we wrap up, do you want to pray? I would love to pray. All right. Sounds good. Dear God, I just thank you. Thank you for the opportunity for Jesse and I to just talk about you, Jesus, talk about how we can find strength in you. I pray that everybody listening to this and me and Jesse ourselves that going into this next week, we would wholeheartedly rely on your strength, God, that we wouldn't feel the need to just trust in ourselves. But when trials come and when worries come and when fear comes, God, that we would just absolutely rely on your strength to get to the other side of whatever we're facing. God, I pray this in your great and mighty name. Amen. Amen. Yes, sir. Amen. Thank you guys for watching. We hope you have an amazing week. We'll see you again soon. Is there anything else you would like to say? Amen. Amen. Amen. Damn, that was cold. Like, who wrote the last book, John? All right, well, anyway. Congratulations. We'll see you later. Have a good week. Peace. Yes, sir.