God's Grace in Church Drama and Conflict. | A City Post POD w/ Hector

City. Post What's up?

We back. It's so good to see you guys.

And it's good to be seen, you know what I'm saying?

My name is Hector and I'm here with.

Pastor Ricky, you guys, what's going on?

And it's another episode, first episode back on camera of build

equipment, man. I know.

And I'm sitting here, what a pastor that quoted a lot of bars

this past Sunday. You know what I mean?

Yeah, man, I grew up with it. I was just saying, man, like I,

I like the like late 90s cousins, you know, as you get

older, I don't know if it's just I got old or the music got like

tastes changed. Yeah, It, it just became more

like hype rap, which is fine. You know, everybody's supposed

to turn out to about it. I'm I like lyrics, man.

I like, I like listening. I like stories.

I like the way people mess with words and stuff like that.

So it's it's real cool. Yeah, man, it was really dope

for me personally, like, 'cause I always refer to you as my

pastor, homie, you know, And then like the, the quote is

like, 'cause when you break stuff down in the Scriptures of

like, bro, that's a bar. Like, like that's something

that's quotable or something that we can live by.

Like just your appreciation for the word, the spoken word in

various forms, whether it's the scriptures, whether it's bars,

you know, I mean, like this is you can tell it's influenced

you. Yeah, I know.

And it's like you want you want the scriptures to be seen for

people to like, understand what the word is saying, like where

it's coming from. And then of course, you speak to

your context. So I'm not going to go do that

at Prestonwood, you know, and that's the city post things.

But yeah, you know, when you think about like this whole idea

of conflict and beef, the first thing that kind of popped in my

mind was like battle rap, like like Biggie versus like Tupac.

East Coast, West Coast. Yeah.

Like that's that was the thing. It's like you just go after each

other, other 50 versus Ja Rule, Drake versus Kendrick.

You know, it's not really a battle, but like there's just

all these things that. There's I saw one behind the can

you know what I'm saying? #1 Drake fan so but like, I just

think of, I don't know when I thought about conflict, like how

rap like things that rapper said, like or hip hop artist

said that that dealt with it, you know.

And yeah, just this all this like nostalgia started hitting

me. So I was like, you know what?

This how I'm gonna start the sermon.

Hey, man, it's set the tone. I love when like people talk

back to you like in, you know, in the, in the, the sermon

itself and the service. Like I just love when people are

engaged. Yeah, you know, so it was one it

was dope hearing E with that quote.

I don't bust back because I was quoting that so much today.

It was just stuck in my head, you know, so man, but it, it

definitely brought that message of conflict like it, it gives us

a very visual representation of that man.

And that's something that the Lord is truly gifted.

You mean I don't know how you do it from donkey?

To. To Weezy, you know what I mean?

Like, yeah, man, it's it's dope, man.

So from that sermon, like where did that come from?

What prompted that in the series for you?

Man, so as we were going through, you know, Fight Club,

you know, we looked at all of these battles like David and

Goliath and an Esau and Jacob and Jacob, the Angel and and

Balaam and the donkey, you know, but then I was like, you know,

I, I think a lot of that conflict.

Nobody ever talks about you versus you, you know, everything

is against somebody else, something else.

But what James is saying is when you look at fights and quarrels,

like, where does all this fighting come from?

You got to look in the mirror, You know, like, people have to

start looking at why am I mad? Why do I want to box?

Why do I want to go after people?

And kind of like, what? And remember, he's talking about

brothers and sisters in Christ. This is James chapter 4, yo.

James 4 · chapter mention

So it's really easy for us to use some of those like

narratives like, Oh, it's just mom with yelled at.

So I yell all the time or I I'm I'm streaming from hurt and all

these things, but he's talking about believers.

So Christ restored you. There's regeneration of the

heart. That means that that you have

the Holy Spirit. So if you have the Holy Spirit,

then where is this animosity and confidence coming from?

It ain't from God at all. You know, like, and all of us,

everybody even like pastors, you could, you could be the most

spiritual person in the world. Everybody has that.

Everybody fights with our sinful nature, you know, so that's,

that's where it like stemmed from.

And I just felt it was important, like, Hey, we, we got

to look at ourselves. Right, on that topic, man, I

know in previous conversations, like you've always said, when

putting these messages together, you preach to yourself first

like Holy Spirit is is coming at you.

What if you alluded to it a little bit in the message on

Sunday? But if you would you like to

dive a little deeper in like what that personally was for

you. Oh, yeah.

Because as a pastor, something that I never faced until

recently, like maybe the last couple years is conflict.

And and if you're not careful, it could, it could develop like

a bitter root. And, you know, so you have to

start thinking like, OK, where did that come from?

Why did somebody come at you like that?

So, you know, first thing I checked my heart, like, OK, was

it me? And if it was, you always try to

reconcile. You always try to apologize.

You always try to make things right.

But if it keeps coming, then we have to be honest.

And it's like, it's not anybody. It's, you know, but nobody wants

to hear that, right? It's it's, it's everybody else's

fault. So for me, it just helped me.

I, I felt like we talked about grace.

It almost was like, like God showing his grace on me, on my

life. Like, you know, Rick, like this

is part of the gig, you know, like this is part of shepherding

people, You know, like sheep are going to run off, Sheep are

going to try to ram you in the shin.

They're going to poop at your doorstep.

It's like, so you, you have to, but, but you have to understand

the spiritual side. You know, it's not that they

don't like you, you know, like taking it personal.

It's because there's because of our sinful nature and because of

we live in a sinful world. That's that's a reaction out of

sin. So there's a spiritual side to

it. So for me, like this passage,

James four, it was actually extremely encouraging, man.

It actually comforted my soul to be honest with you.

I love that. Yeah, that's awesome, man.

And then you hit the the Derrick Henry, you know?

That's the farm boy, that street Trump.

Yeah, for real, man. Yeah.

Well, I'm like, I'm going to take that moment to shout out

City Post like the body and all the members, bro 'cause that's

not something that's a common experience here, you know?

And for me personally, that's, that's an anomaly in church

experiences in church bodies that there's not petty conflict.

They're just outright for real, like physical conflict or

anything like that, man. So I just want to shout out our

church in and take that moment cause city post is really built

different. No, I agree.

The people here are just they're real.

Like I tell people like our church has real ones.

So you can't come in and and try that high school crap.

You know, like I remember there was a time where somebody was

going around saying like there's clicks and I was like, So what

are we like freshman in high school again, like we're all

like throwing up gang signs. Like there's no clicks.

You're just upset because you feel like nobody.

And I was like, no, that's not the case.

So you, I think if when people see that, they dress it really

quickly and and and they squash it, they squash it quick and,

and then it just stops. Like I think that's the thing.

It's like it just stops and then people don't dwell on it.

Like girl, you know what he said like none of that.

Like she's most cyclops, you know, like, right, it's squashed

and then we move on. It's like, man, we have too many

awesome things going on, right, doing all that.

So. Yeah, and there's no clicks, but

shout out to MSG boys. You know, that's not really a

man. It's the men in the church, you

know, like, yeah, man. It's just a group.

They kept together bro for real and it it started with a a laugh

around MSG. That's it dude.

Like MSG in football is really where that came.

Start with KFC and Chick-fil-A and pizza.

Yeah, and just ended up going. Yeah, that's right man.

But like, back to the conflict in the church's topic, man.

Would have been some experiences of church conflict for you in

the past. I know it hasn't really happened

much here. Yeah, but you know, you've been

a Christian for a minute, bro. Yeah.

No, I I've seen it and it's funny because it's gotten real

bad when it goes like unchecked where where stuff in the church

is happening, but it whether it's the leadership or the

pastor refuses to address it. And when it's when it does not

get addressed, it festers and then it goes, it's one of those

things like where people like, if I just ignore it, it'll play

itself out, which is not true, but that does not happen.

It actually gets worse me. So it must be addressed with

grace. And I also think having

spiritual maturity, like spiritual mature Christians

helps as well. But I've experienced times where

where it's just been like gossip, it's been pettiness,

it's been jealousy. I mean, like ministry, you know,

like I'm jealous of your ministry or you guys are are

growing, you know, like how come we're not?

And then it just starts. Yeah, it goes back and forth.

I mean, we were at a church, man, where this was years ago

before I felt called the pastor where our youth group man, it

was it was going great. And we started a youth worship

Wednesday night. And I don't know what it what it

was. The pastor just felt some sort

of way about it. And he's like, you know what, we

all need to worship together as a church.

So he broke it off day. And I'm like, bro, nobody's

here. No adults are here.

Like let us do our thing. Like kids are coming, you know.

Yeah. So it destroyed that and and it

just it did, you know, And then there there was another time

where we were using youth to like serve with the kids, kind

of like we do here. And the pastor didn't like that

he didn't have enough people listening to him.

He felt like they wouldn't grow. So he's just a little bit booty

hurt that that he didn't have a a crowd, right.

And and we're like, yeah, but they're listening like they're

growing, they're learning, they're being developed as

leaders. Like it's a great thing.

And and he that got squashed. So like things like that, it, it

just destroys ministries. And I've just seen bad

leadership, you know, things managed not well, things not

managed in grace, not forgiveness.

I've seen people called out from the pulpit just just petty,

like, like by name, you know. Yeah, Yeah.

So it was grimy. It was not good, bro.

It's it was bad. That's tough, bro.

I'm trying to visualize that, yeah.

It's not good, man. I'm sorry, it might know, it

might know whoever it was, but they that's, I can't imagine

coming back to church after that.

No, it, it, it's embarrassing. Like even as a believer, you're

just like, what in the world is going on here, you know?

Yeah. And it's, it's sad.

It's not something to laugh about.

I, I think it's actually sad because those are the churches

that I don't know, like there's just no movement.

Like it's almost like they're just flat.

They're stagnant. They're stagnant, yeah, which is

not what you want to see. You want to see people come to.

Jesus. So right.

But yeah, man, hearing that takes me back to something you

were kind of describing on Sunday of like the toddler of

like mine. This instantly, you know?

Yeah. It's like maturity.

Yeah, bro. But to to hear like that example

is like, bro, that that's tough. Yeah, but you know God uses

everything 'cause I'm imagine they gave you an example of how

not to lead in this. Position 100% yeah you know like

the before city post and I was just at a really toxic church

but we knew we were called there like Rachel and I were called

there we were called there to help and but man I just saw like

what not to do right so. Man, how did you all keep going

after that? Like you, you knowing that the

Lord is calling you there and it's such a toxic environment.

I'm imagining me, I'd be like, bro, like I'm out, I'm sliding.

Oh yeah, like what kept you going back?

Man, a few things, you know, we we knew God called us there and

when when it got to the place where it wasn't what they and

then you got to just to go back a little bit.

And when you look at Scripture, the Lord uses even disobedient

people for his will and ways. If it wasn't where I was at, I

would have never stepped out in faith to plant city pole church.

Like I would have never been pushed.

And it was almost like, because honestly, where we were at, I

remember talking to Rach and I was like, Hey, we're like, I'm

not raising my kid in this. This is not church, man.

Like this is, I'm not raising Elaine in this mess.

And, and we were going to leave and chill for like 3 months.

We were just going to go take a break.

We're going to go pray and see where the Lord LED us.

As once I made that decision, that's when I felt the Lord call

me to plant a church. And then I interviewed like 20

pastors because I was like, I don't know man.

I don't know if this is for real.

So I, I talked to a lot of pastors that I respect.

I just asked a lot of questions. So because I knew what this

meant, right? Yeah.

So that's kind of where it came from.

Man that's dope bro. And that's a another example of

God just using a donkey. That's it.

Bro, that's a great way to do it and and you have to stick with

it. And that's why I tell people

it's like if your faith is in Christ, that's why I like man, I

don't get church hurt like I don't man.

Now, I'll, I'll get church sarcasm.

Well, I'll look at it. I'm like, dude, that's crazy.

But no, because my allegiance is to Christ.

It's not to a church. Jesus is always first.

So if, if I do get hurt in a church, if something does go

wrong, I'm never like I'm never going back to a church again.

Like for me, that's crazy. It's like I'm never coming back

to this church. Yeah, I pray for y'all.

I'm out, man. Yeah.

So that never crossed our mind. It was just where does the Lord

have us next, right. And that was it.

Man, that's so dope, bro. Yeah, man.

So I know we talked about it a little bit on Sunday and, you

know, sharing these experiences now, I doubt we're the only ones

that have similar, you know, experiences with church

conflict, man. So yeah, like, what makes that

normal in church bodies? Like what?

How does that happen? Yeah, I, I think you got to

understand church is a body of, of believers, but I, I like to

say we're a bunch of unperfect people that serves a perfect God

born. Yeah, it's true.

It's like, yeah. So when you have all these mix

of people, you're going to have differences and that's OK.

You know, it's OK. So it's up to, I think it's up

to the pastor to to present God's word, to give his

revelation. And then that's going to help

people mature and grow into faith.

So whenever conflict does arise, they're going to know what to

do. Yeah.

And usually conflict that shows up is a lot of like

misunderstandings. It's just this high was raised.

That's how. That's not what I meant.

Yeah. It's just a lot of

misunderstanding. Yeah, it boiled down to

communication. Communication.

It's going to happen, man. It's going to happen.

It's part of life, you know? You have to learn and even like

I will say this, if you're not a pastor, let's say like you're in

the business world, if you cannot deal with conflict, then

you're only going to go so high in your career because the

higher you go, the more stuff you get to step in.

So you have to learn how to manage it and have tough

conversations, but have it with grace.

You know that that Grace piece, man, that was, yeah, when I read

that, that I don't know that that just hit me like a.

Time man for real man, that's convicting hearing you say that

like especially in the business world.

And I'll just be honest with you and you know, viewers and

listeners, bro, like Holy Spirit checked me today.

Like it's been past couple days have been tough because we have

a big event coming on tomorrow. And this is like my first Test

with this new position at this new company, man.

And like Holy Spirit told me to fix your face, 'cause you're,

you know what I mean? Like.

You're not saying anything with your face is.

And it's just like, yeah, it's an uncomfortable situation just

because it's it's a different dynamic and it's hard, but it's

like, remember what you prayed for this morning?

You prayed to represent me here. And that face ain't representing

me here. It's not like that.

That's how you're coming right now, bro.

It is hot. I'm sorry.

Yeah, bro. So, man, that conflict is

everywhere internally, too. You know what I mean?

So. And you got to remember, like

things are, are spiritual battles and, and the goal for

the enemy is to pull you away from your purpose and the faith.

So things are going to come at you, people are going to come at

you. Like I said, you can use

anything, but God can use anything too, you know, And so

you always have to be ready. You always have to be ready to,

to give a word and to be the hands and feet of Christ.

So man, I, I, I get it, man. It's like sometimes, usually I

go for a walk. For real.

For real man. Yeah.

But man, back to the topic of, you know, conflict in the

church. What does the Bible say?

I know we spoke a little bit about it on Sunday if you want

to elaborate a little more. Sure.

So you know, we went over James chapter 4 verse one through 10

James 4 · chapter mention

and in James 4 verses one through 5, it it talks about

like the cause of conflict. So where where does conflict

curls fighting? Like where does all that come

from when it comes to believers? And James says it comes from our

desires, which is our and and really the term is hedonism,

which is everything in life that's good and pleasurable is

the goal, right, which all of us facts.

We all want that, you know, Yeah, I want what's best for me

and my life and you know what's comfortable.

And I want what's best. And I'm not going to be willing

to weigh the cost because I want what's best for me.

And when you, when those desires go unchecked, then they birth

something. And that something is you end up

wanting to covet. And when you covet, you kill,

which is you just, you know, it's kind of what Jesus talks

about. And so all of that rises up.

So we see that in the Bible. But I will say we see examples

in Scripture, like in the book of Acts where Paul and Barnabas,

like, like they disagreed, you know, like there's disciples

that disagree with each other, even to the point where they

went their own separate ways, but they didn't hate each other,

you know, like they didn't go after one another.

They didn't, you know. Trash each other's names and

they're like, you go that way. I'll go this one.

Shout out rush hour. We good.

So I think conflict is is normal.

It's just the way we handled it that we got to follow the

Bible's prescription. Do you think that church

conflict is something that's preventable?

If so, how? Yeah, I think yes and no.

I think the more the church grows spiritually, then people

are going to be better equipped to handle it.

So there's always going to be conflict.

I think that it's, it's just difference of opinion than how

you were born in this ABC and D, but it's how you react, how you

handle it. That's the difference.

So preventable. I think the more people grow and

and mature in the word, then yes.

But the less people grow, then it gets out of control, right?

And that's when splits happen. That's when fights.

So as to my understanding it, church conflict or conflict

within the body of Christ is inevitable.

Yeah. How do we address it?

Yeah, so it's kind of what we've talked about .1 like the heart

of the problem is the problem of the heart bars.

So I think the first thing we got to do is really look at

ourselves and say, did I do anything?

You know, I do anything to entice my brother or sister, you

know, so you always look at yourself 1st.

And then we look at in the book of Matthew 18 talks about

spiritual church discipline. So if there is somebody that is

in the church and doing some stuff in Matthew 18, it talks

about the first thing you do is you, you go one-on-one, you pull

them aside. You don't do in front of

everybody. Hey, this is what's happening.

What's going on? We have to stop.

All right, If that doesn't work, then the then the Bible says you

bring about two to three people with you.

So you grab about two or three witnesses, you address it.

All right, cool. Now if they don't do it still,

then you take it to the elders. You know, you go to the, I guess

the principal's office. You know how you can say you

take it to the pastor, the elders.

Now, if you if they still refuse, then the Bible says you

treat them like a non believer. So you let everybody know what's

going on. You address it with the whole

church and, you know, like you said, like you, you, you treat

them like they're not a believer, you know, so they're

welcome here. But if you think you're going to

serve like you think you're going to lead, yeah, no.

That's real. Bro, hey, man, I've heard

stories of pastors like churches that there's like there was a

dude creeping like, like, you know, asking girls for numbers

DMS. And they followed this and they

got to a point where they had to put brothers like face and name

on the screens and they let the church know, hey, this guy right

here is up to no good. You know, like be aware, right?

And, and it protects your people.

So as a pastor, I got to protect the flock, you know, like like

first and foremost most, I got to protect the people of this

church. So when there is somebody that

comes in and I'm not, there's a funky like spirit or vibe there.

Like I'm going to go and check, I'm going to go and check him or

her and and ask questions and address like now what you doing

here? Like what's your story?

Tell me your testimony. Where are you from?

Like like just stuff like that. You just want to make sure.

So in just instances period of conflict within the Church, how

do we grow from it? Yeah, I think the way you grow

from it is you address the elephant in the room.

You don't avoid it. I think when you avoid it, it

makes it worse. So you address the elephant in

the room and then I think it's like it's worth kind of praising

God for the outcome. You know, it's like, man thank

God that for his word. Like we were able to follow it

and and there was reconciliation and man, like I'm so happy for

so and so I know if it was a year ago, he would have threw

hands, but he didn't. For real.

Yeah, that's I like, like that's gross.

Like, man, praise God that you didn't choke slam somebody.

Wait, a year or two ago you would have 'cause I shoot for.

Yeah, yeah, it's like so. So I think that's how you grow

from it. And then you address it with

your, your ministry leaders, right?

You know your leaders, you share it, you get it out in the open,

right? You don't hide stuff, man.

That's. Good.

Yeah, and you learn from it, you grow from it.

So that way when it does come again, hey man, look, we had

this experience already and this is what we learned.

So it's it's AI think it could be a good thing?

Yeah, man. And then equipping your flock to

address it too, man. Have you ever had a conflict in

the church? Directly like me straight up.

With somebody. When I was younger, when I'll be

real enough, like I was just in a bad place.

Like I was at a place where I was just super rebellious and

like, I just want to smoke with whoever wanted it, you know?

Like, so for me directly, like no church conflict that wasn't

rooted in like, my attitude. You know what I mean?

Yeah. So like, I'm man enough and

honest enough to admit that and proud to say that I've grown

from it. That's good, you know, man.

But it's tough, bro. It's tough, man, because I've

had it indirectly with people that I care for.

Gotcha. Be just other people, other

other humans that have seen and have their flaws and, you know,

serve a perfect God. And I've allowed that to man to

be super real hard in my heart to like the church family that

the Lord has taken me to and even more real to to harden my

heart and like not be as committed to my relationship to

the Lord and giving into my sin and different lifestyles and

doing stuff I noticed wrong and like to be super real being

given over to it. Like, you're not even having any

conscience about it, you know? So a lot of internal conflict

with the body of Christ and just my relationship with the Lord,

period, I think is the biggest underlying conflict.

It's been struggles within myself rather than others.

Gotcha. Yeah, I mean, but that's exactly

why we talked about James. It's you verse you you know, But

you know, the good news is James doesn't just leave us hanging

with this is the problem, right? There's a but, you know, and the

but is he shows us how how it's fixed.

And I thought that was so encouraging.

You know, he talks about it's not just grace, it's more grace.

Man, when I read that, I was like, what?

That's it? And then I was like, what do you

mean? That's it?

He's like, that's everything. That's everything.

That's massive. Yeah, man.

Because it, and it's like we read like in Romans, I think it

was 520. And then Second Corinthians like

when he talks about like we have grace that we have for

salvation, that's Ephesians 2, right?

So it's by grace per SE. But then he's like, no, but then

there's grace on top of that. Like it's just like never

ending. So so yeah, there's conflict in

the church, but because we are believers, God gives us grace in

our mistakes and in our like I said, you can't out sin.

God's grace. It's impossible.

Yeah. And then he goes on to say, hey,

man, like resist the devil. Yeah.

So conflict is not normal like that.

God created it this way. No, like we're supposed to be

unified. And like I said, you know, unity

is not uniformity. So we all don't have to speak

the same, look the same, talk the same.

Dress the same. Yeah, that's weird.

That's called the cult, right? Yeah, man.

So it's, it's just that right there.

Like he, he tells us, man, we have the power to resist the

devil. So when the devil comes, man,

you have to resist. They're just like, all right,

God handle it. Nah, man.

There's some things that I don't know.

The more I read this, like, the more that the series goes on,

like we got to get active, like we got to start, like man up.

Yeah, it's it's time to like fight, right?

Like it's time to fight back. Yeah, man, and it's gonna get

harder. It is, and it's gonna get worse,

right? Look, I hate to say that.

But it's, it's the truth, you know, it's like the, the bigger

the impact that the Lord calls us to in this community, like

the more individual battles everybody's gonna have.

But that's the importance of the fellowship piece.

That's the importance of having brothers and sisters that you

can lean on. It's like, bro, I'm struggling

with this, this, I'm struggling with this like man.

And that's what I love, love, love, love about this season

that City Post is in because this is the most unified I've

personally observed and experienced, you know, City Post

just just how like locked in everybody.

Is for each other dude. Like my dad, we were talking on

Monday and my dad was just talking about how like after

church he was. He he was so blown away by how

everybody jumped in to help put those chairs out.

Like Monica and Rachel were like, hey, we want to use the

chairs in that room. Do you think you get some guys?

I was like, yeah, man, just let like wanting them know.

Like, man, dude, it, it was like ants facts.

Like it was done so quickly and so well.

And it was just really cool to see how many people were

involved and putting together that, that like Carla shower and

the joy everybody had and like helping, you know, I'm like, you

see this right here. Like that's true.

Like you can't, you can't fake that.

Like nobody's a a paid event planner.

They, they do it because they love their sister, you know, and

I don't know, man, like we're just talking how cool that

looked. Yeah, and they hooked it up,

man, it was awesome. Like Monica said, we don't do

basic. You know, so like he said that

looking at at us, Yeah. But, you know, the the ladies,

these things a little different. That's right.

Yeah. I was like the fellas, we had

the football game and Michael hooked it up, man.

He made burgers on burgers. Like, we were good, dude.

Like, yeah. Guys don't do much, yeah.

They don't take much for us, you know what I mean?

So that's that's so true. But it, it was just really cool

to see how the whole church like jumps in and that's the heart of

this church man, you know, like it's that servant, that servant

heart that everybody has. So it's it's really cool.

And I'm imagine, I don't want to assume, I imagine that makes

Carla feel very like encouraged that everybody showed up for her

in that way. And you know, imagine and I hope

she had a great time at the the her shower man.

But like you're saying, that's just our church, bro.

In my experience, that's not normal as unfortunately as as a

statement is that is with churches that that's not normal.

It's not and and and I'm going to say something that's a little

controversial. So if I get in trouble,

whatever, but I truly believe like as we pray, I always pray.

I was like, Lord, send us people send us, you send us people and

I believe that there's seasons that the Lord, I'm not going to

say removes people, but that that people exit so that his

will and purpose could continue. You know, so I've stopped.

I remember when we first planted a church as AI felt so guilty

when people leave and I would blame myself and I'm like, man,

what I do wrong? I jacked it up.

It's my preaching is awful. You know, I'm I'm boring.

I don't know, like you start saying all these things about

yourself and then you're like the what ifs, man, if we had

more money, we had this, we had that.

And honestly, dude, that's, that's such a selfish statement

because you are what you're telling God is that you're the

one doing it, not him. And it's, and that's something I

had to learn. And I remember I got checked

early on, shout out Pastor Bart and he goes, it's funny how you

think that you're the one building the church.

And I was like, well, like, he's like, no, it's God.

God is the one who sends people. And I was like, wow, that's so

true. Man, shout out Pastor Bart.

Yes, he hits you with that Wheezies.

And I want to bless him back because, you know, we, we need

those in our circle like those drug wisdom, right?

And that are not going to pull any punches.

They're going to tell you, bro, you're tripping.

And This is why. Yeah, you know.

So if I look back and and and it's like, man, so, so and so

left and you know, it wasn't because like the word was not

being preached or like we're doing stuff biblically.

It was just like, it's maybe God has something different.

For. Them and maybe has something

different for us and that's OK Like people come and go.

It's all good, right, man? You know, So there's no, there's

no. Yeah, You don't feel bad for

that. Man, that's awesome, bro.

Well, I know we're getting close to rapping man, and I'm a kind

of impromptu put you on the spot here, man.

But in in the spirit of, you know what we talked about on

Sunday, the references, bro. And I always say my pastor got

bars. You got any bars for us like any

bars of wisdom, like any scripture, any like sayings,

anything for for us personally, your listeners?

I think something James talks about is after he says resist

the devil and he will flee, and then he starts talking about

wailing and like, man, those are all signs of repentance.

And there's a difference between repenting and feeling

remorseful. And when you feel remorseful,

you deal with conflict first before you deal with the heart.

And when you deal with conflict before the heart, then you end

up acting out of your feelings and emotions.

And then it goes back to hedonism because it's like, then

then your desires get stirred up again and you don't get what you

want. You didn't get the response that

home girl or homeboy and you're back at square one.

It it's a it's a terrible cycle. So when you're repentant and you

come to the Lord and you're like, Lord, I jacked it up like

I have sinned against you. This is what I did.

I need your forgiveness, you know, like like you just saying

it verbally, like, Lord, I need your forgiveness on this.

I am sorry. Help me fix it, you know, and

then you pray for the other person and you pray for your own

life. When you come out of that space,

then regardless of the reaction, you're not acting out of your

desires anymore. You're acting out of the spirit.

So whenever you you have like the spirit of him instead of the

spirit of the world like Jay at the end of James three man,

there's peace. So I'm walking away from this

thing regardless of the outcome or how I did what I was supposed

to do. I have peace in my life.

I sleep beautifully. Like I didn't even need

melatonin, bro. I just knocked out.

She has. Fired bro, have you not delete

out of melatonin? It's just like you're able to

rest in His grace and His peace because of repentance.

And then what does he say in verse 10?

He goes, when you repent, I will lift you up, man.

There's nothing better than knowing that God's going to lift

you up because you can't do it yourself.

You're you're crawling on the ground like like major pain.

I can't feel my legs. There's nothing you could do.

God is the one that does it. You know, I think that's what

people have to understand. It's it's like man rely on on

the Lord and he will renew your strength.

So that's, that's what I got with that one man.

I was just thinking about like how how James ended and I was

like, man, that's the mistake that we make.

Bro, that's, that's so encouraging too.

It's just we go mess it up, bro. Like we are like we're, we're

human. Like that just happens.

And that's something that I know you say every time, like you

baptize somebody, but we just got to keep running.

Back to the you got to remind yourself, yeah, I'll be honest,

man. Like Sunday, that last song that

the worship team that that punched my soul in the face and

the stomach at the same time. Like it was one of those.

There was something about with with that song, man, that whole

heart, like the way Eric sang that bro, I, I, I just couldn't

stand still. I was like, man, I was like my

hands all the way up just in surrender, just as like, Lord,

whatever, I I just want to be in repentance.

I want to be free, you know? So yeah, man, it was good.

It was awesome. Bang man so real quick before we

close man I got this e-mail today OK, we got a lot coming up

bro. You want to give a lot of plug

in a lot of great things, a lot of.

A lot of opportunities growth. Man and a lot of growth like

within the church, like there's some stuff that's being unveiled

for the the church man so if you want to.

Yeah, no. So I know this Friday we have a

retreat for creatives and worship team Man.

It's just going to be a time of encouragement.

You know, we're not going to sit around and like, do charts and

no, no, no. It's just taking in encouraging

one another, going to get hooked up with some some good food and

and then just have a great time. And then Saturdays are I serve

Saturdays. So that one is where if you are

interested in serving in any capacity, show up and we're

going to talk about the church. We're going to talk about like

ways you could serve. We're going to talk about the

community and then we break off into teams and just talk, dream,

pray. We get plugged in with our

ministry leaders. Even if you come on Friday, you

can still come Saturday. You know, don't, don't think

it's, it's either or it could be both.

And you know, and then I know in October we have, yeah, October

5th, our next step. So if you've been coming to City

Post Church and you're ready to take that step of like deeper

commitment. So this is people have been

coming for a while. They just want to get plugged in

more. Some churches have memberships.

We just have next steps. So that's that's coming on the

5th. On the 11th, we're doing a

discipleship pathways. It's a Saturday, you know, so

I'm going to call the church. I would love 20 people that will

commit to discipling one person. That's it.

And we're going to talk about how to do and what that looks

like. And then on the 19th, it's a

Sunday, we're going to do a how to teach the Bible seminar.

So a lot of people have been asking like, how do you do smart

group studies? What's inductive Bible study?

How do I do it? Well, we're going to we're going

to do it right there. So these are just great tools to

equip people. So that way you, you go

anywhere, come on and be able to teach the Bible.

Yeah, curriculum. Like you have these tools in

your pocket. And and that's the goal.

But this is also the equip piece of our church, you know, build,

equip sand. Come on.

So it's time to start equipment. Yeah.

So a lot of great stuff. Oh, and in the new sermon

series. Yeah.

OK, For the love of money. Oh man, for the love of money.

Anyway, my bad. Yeah.

We had a House of love. That's right yeah, some of y'all

I didn't grow saving no so that the series is it's going to be

having a biblical relationship with money.

It's not about you can make all the money in the world, but if

you don't have a biblical viewpoint of it, it's never

going to be enough. And you're going to make the

same mistakes with it. So that's just something that

the Lord's been working on my life.

I just feel like, yes, we're just going to look at money from

the standpoint of the Bible. Jesus talks about money more

than anything. Yeah, it it's like one of the

most talked about subjects in the New Testament, you know?

So, OK, we're just going to address it, you know, and then

I'm going to ask the church to fund my airplane.

Now I'm lying so. Yeah.

But if we see some new rings on that, you know what I mean.

I just go to Kenneth Copeland's house, bro.

I just borrow his jet. No, it's just really that it's

that like relationship with money, you know, why do we, why

would we rather have elements of wealth than wealth itself?

You know, like there's this all these things that the Bible

shows us, like, you know, like you're trying to flex with a a

Land Rover, but you still have a landlord.

You know what I mean? Like, why?

So there's just all of these perceptions and the way that we

think about money that that needs to be.

I think we have to look at what Scripture has to say.

Yeah. So that's what's coming.

Man, it's a lot. It is a lot, man it, but it's a

lot of great stuff. Exactly.

You know, it's it's fun. Yeah, man.

So. A lot of opportunities to get

plugged in and man, it's been an episode of Build Equip saying we

let y'all we out. Peace bro, that was fire.