Matt Brown 00:03
Hi, everybody, welcome to this edition of Ignite. Boy do I have a superstar with you now? You know I do in these podcasts. I have a lot of fun doing it, but I’m a newbie, okay, let’s face it. And I don’t have a clue what I’m doing. But I’m having fun. I have some real talented people around me and, and they’re catching on and people watch them. That’s fun. But yeah, you’re on the other end of the spectrum. You got Matt Brown, and I don’t even know how many billions of people have watched him. Matt and I have been friends for a good long while and this guy sold me. Here’s my heart. Matt, thank you for joining me today. And I’ve been looking forward to this. We we do these podcasts. But this one I knew it was at some point we’re gonna get together and we did a TV show together. But this is this is really fun. So welcome, welcome. Welcome. And you are my dear friend with huge respect. Oh, it’s a huge honor. Thank you for having me, Barry. And I love what you’re doing with the Ignite podcast and it’s so needed your show your the different ministries, what what amazing work. And so I mean, huge honor for me. Thank you. Oh, that’s nice. You save it. I mean, fake eternity. People aren’t thinking I love the name to begin with. But let’s let’s go back to your whole posturing and where your mind is and the soccer about you. This is not about me, it’s about you talking about even go back. Could you start maybe back when your age whatever was 17 or whatever. And God sovereignly spoke to you at that moment and put a burden on your heart for for the last around geniusness why don’t we start there? Oh, I’d love to share that story. Yeah, I’d love to share that story. I grew up in a Christian home, came to Christ in early age. My mom is a real evangelist, and some people like her. Mark Middleburg who’s best friends with Lee Strobel, Jason Powell, who you know, well, who worked with Greg Laurie for many years, and you are on a different stratosphere altogether. So I’m going to be bringing in the other side here of maybe encouragement for people who go I’m not as good as Barry. But I want to talk about what God did in my life. So my mom led me to Christ in early age, I sensed a call to ministry actually, when I was eight years old, at a youth camp, or I guess a children’s camp, up here in Minnesota where we’re from. And I didn’t really know exactly what God wanted me to do, but grew up in a good Christian home. The parents weren’t in ministry, but they but they serve the local church. So my dad was always an elder, and had a small church here in the Twin Cities in the suburbs that we attended. That was great. Really, what’s interesting, Barry’s a lot of amazing church leaders have come out of that church. So wasn’t a huge church. But the disciples that were formed there to follow Christ. Clearly, it was a lot of good fruit. So that was cool to see how God has used that ministry or that church here in town. I’m sitting in right now when I was 17 years old. Yeah, go. Go ahead. No, I just said, I had a similar experience. Not a big church. But the but the ministry that started her that church, mind boggling so both from our Christian parents, and what that meant to us. I mean, you realize how blessed we are, that we’ve been taught since our earliest years, we really have no excuse. And we were so incredibly blessed. And, and I always come back that scripture do much is given. Much is required of you and I have been given so much our earliest days. I mean, and of course, most people haven’t. So we’re obliged to them, aren’t we to just share this precious gift that we’ve Yeah, it reminds me. Yeah, totally reminds me of Matthew 13, where it says, when you know, the seed of the gospel lands in somebody’s life, in good soil, then it goes on to just see a huge harvest. So it might be a small ministry, but if the gospel is truly getting into people’s lives, and they’re accepting it, and and cultivating it, the work that God can do can literally change history. And so maybe that’s an encouragement to someone listening that you might feel like, well, I’m not, I am not a part of a big church or a big ministry. I don’t live in a big town. Listen, that’s the amazing thing about the Kingdom of God. And that’s the amazing thing about the gospel is that when you plant that in one heart, and you cultivate that, and it’s a good it’s received with a good heart, the Scripture says Matthew 13, goes on to 30 to 60 100. And let’s be honest, very, really millions of times for for a lot of us, God just takes these things and multiplies it in ways that we can’t imagine. And so, the thing is, if you’re following Christ, you’re a history maker. Like you have that DNA inside of you to change Not only someone’s life, but family generations. And that’s what various always telling you on this podcast. So getting back real quick buried to my story I, when I was 17, I sensed the call the ministry still, but he didn’t know exactly what. And I went to a youth conference in my senior year of high school that was happening at what is now become our home church here in the Twin Cities, called a manual. And when I was at this youth conference, there was a evangelists that came in town from San Francisco, and just powerful few days had having a great time with friends. And on the second day, he was talking about just a burden for people who are far from God, who don’t know Christ. And God just really burden my heart. So much so that as a, as a teenager, I began, I began to cry, I began to weep under the burden of the Lord, and just felt God’s, you know, desire for people who are so far from him, God’s heart for His children who are lost. And I felt God speak in my spirit in that moment. Man, I’m calling you to be an evangelist. And I grew up, you know, again, the small church, but just a good church kid, like was kind of my, my roots. But I knew God was calling me people outside the church, people who were away from God, people were far from God. And so that was, that was a powerful moment. There was a lot of things that happened in my life over the coming months and year that just confirmed it in so many ways, people speaking into my life, encouraging me the exact kind of thing that God was saying to me. And I think I’ve shared the story with you before Barry. But a few months later, into that next spring of my senior year of high school, I got an invitation to go to a mission strip, or Yeah, that was going on. I hadn’t done a missions trip at this point. Oh, my, I have three brothers. So all my brothers had done missions trips, where for some reason, they skipped me. They said, Hey, we raised enough money from all our friends, and family, you know, let’s just not do this one that you want to do. And then then all sudden, my, my younger brother was going on a mission trip, I just got missed all together. But I got invited this mission trip to play in the band. So I think my expenses were covered. And it was down in Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana. And I didn’t know what I was getting into I this was not my world at all. I was the kid in high school, that people would be, Hey, you want to come to a party? No, I don’t go to parties. That’s not That’s not what like I do. That’s not my, my thing. My family, you know. And so I was I was just totally this totally foreign to me. And if you don’t know, Mardi Gras z, it just a big free for all party, tons of immorality, and, and sexual immorality, and is not a place for a young Christian kid. And so what was happening in those hundreds of people that were gathered from a few churches in the Twin Cities from some other ministries around the country, and they were actually all on the streets sharing their faith. And up to this point, very, my experience with sharing my faith was I would invite, actually, I did this one year, I think was my junior year of high school, I’d invite dozens of my friends from high school to come to my youth group. So that was my first step into sharing my faith and just invite them to church, they’d hear the gospel at church. And on the way home, my mom would lead them to Christ in the van on the way home because we had a long drive between where my high school wasn’t where my church was. So that was my strategy. I didn’t really, you know, I was kind of a shy kid at that time, to be honest with you. And something happened to me and I think I’ve shared the story with you. But something happened to me that first night I was on Bourbon Street, the worst street of Mardi Gras. I’m supposed to, you’re always with kind of paired up with somebody, I’m supposed to protect this girl who’s my partner in sharing our faith and she’s supposed to protect me, you know, my eyes and all that kind of stuff. So we’re on the street and and I just remember the Holy Spirit just taking over. He, there was no other choice. We’re there to share our faith. And God has used me in such a powerful way that night to share Christ with people to boldly talk to people about Christ. And ever since then, to be honest, the I’ve just never been the same. It’s just hit. It shifted something. And there’s something about it. You talk about this every time on your podcast, I know and everything you do, but there’s just something about sharing your faith with somebody that ignites in, shifts your faith in it’s just a completely different experience after that. And it doesn’t mean it’s not, you know, something you still need to work at. But it’s just so incredibly powerful. And so it’s interesting, because in the fall of that year, God just gave me a burden for people without Christ, I got a burden from my high school. I didn’t want anyone to leave my high school berry without hearing the gospel. And then I go on this crazy missions trip and just the you know, the Lord took over did amazing work in my life. And I’ve just that’s just put me on a life, a trail of just, you know, wanting to share my faith wherever I can with people personally, of course, you know, I share my faith online every day. And I’m preaching the gospel just boldly to as many people as I can. We have a vision for our ministry, to share the gospel to do 20 million gospel presentations over the next five years, we’re trying to just through ads through influencers, we’re just trying to creatively, clearly boldly share Christ with people. And so we’re on track with that this year so far, but we’re just excited about that. And so it’s online to write this thing, we can talk about that later. But what I would just say is that that was just life changing. And so I got a vision during that mission strip, that I didn’t want anyone to leave my high school without hearing the gospel. And so God puts his vision in my heart to stand on my lunch table and preach the gospel. And, again, I want to go back to this for a second, I was a shy kid. So like, just through high school, just pretty shy, like I was, you know, awkwardly shy. I had been leading like a Bible study in the school and doing some of that stuff. There was a kind of a revival that was breaking out in our school over the over those years. That was amazing. But all that led into this passion for sharing Christ and just this heart for people to hear the good news. And so I did end up doing that I fasted a little bit, the final week of school, during my lunch hours, I went into the band room, and I just would pray, skip the lunch. And you definitely know if a young person is skipping their school lunch, like God is doing. So, so pray in and then the final, you know, day before did it I got some of my my Bible study, you know, friends to prayer, walk with me prayer, walk around the hallway, I walked into the lunchroom, and I preached the gospel, and then second lunch, I got up and did it again. And I preached the gospel to every single person in my school. Now again, there was a revival happened in our school, but that still I just knew there’s there’s hundreds who still didn’t hear the gospel. So I just just said, God do a dramatic transformation in my life, when I began to share my faith for the first time. And I think that’s available for every single person, it’s not that you have to go stand up at your work lunch table. It’s not that you have to, you know, do it a certain way. But God wants to use you, and it changes your life. It’s so does it’s funny, we have so many things in common one was I was an introvert, okay, be able to say all well, if I had your personality, really, you know, I could, I could share my faith too. But you know, I, I don’t recall, I do recall a great commission being going to wrote all you who have a certain type of personality, or you’ve been trained, or even it just says, Go and note that it doesn’t say, he didn’t say go into the world and be a good person, or go into the world and read your Bible or go into your world into the world and pray. Now it’s going to tell everybody about Jesus. So I mean, that is our calling. And it is amazing. I have interviewed so many people that share their faith, of all types and descriptions. And some of them are very quiet. But very powerful. In fact, they can be a few words, but their life so exhibits, what they’re saying there’s power in their words, because their steps actions don’t speak louder than words, actions speak before you words of when, when you see a godly person, you know it right. And it even if they’re talking so I think of one particular gentleman that he had gotten down to about 90 pounds, and he’d served the Lord all his life. And he was kind of a farm type. He was eloquent and words. And when he walked in a room, I ran to him, I just, I just want to be as close. I wanted more of what he had, you know, and everybody felt that way. So it is as I used to hide behind Karen, when we went to events, I would hide behind Karen she’s never known a stranger. I mean, Derek Joy heard sending Karen into a room with the whole interviewer she doesn’t know. And so for our business conference stuff, she was by, by lead I would literally she tells you the story, it’s hilarious. And how did you get from there to here it wasn’t in business, it was sharing my faith and I think kind of like for you too, I in sharing my faith, I it was God prompting me I knew I needed to do it and and you know, I just started doing it. And of course after a while you get better and better until that joy thing you know, when you bear fruit, that John 15:11 Verse I so love is when you bear fruit, my joy remain with you. And your joy will be full and when you have joy you just can’t contain it. You just can’t. It’s got to come out. Yeah. had that takes the introvert thing down to a lesser level as you just have, you can’t hide joy no matter what do. So it is similar. That so good, you know, in some sense in some sense, God will use your personality, right, he doesn’t need you to be someone else. But there’s something about the Holy Spirit, complementing and coming alongside and shaping your personality even as you step out in obedience and faithfulness to God, I definitely noticed that in my life, and I didn’t realize but sounds like you had a very similar experience where I feel like the power of God in my life very, very much impacted who I become, and where God is taking me and so it’s just very interesting. And as you said, beyond anything you could have ever imagined, there’s no way you could know that you’re gonna be speaking to as many people that you’re speaking to now, I mean, this ministered you have and talk to us about that a little bit that I think eternity is I think such a incredible Nabis most people are not thinking about eternity. Yeah, well, it’s it’s we can’t live our Christian life through the filter of just what we see God doing here, but we need to have an eternal perspective. I had heard about so there was a an author that I loved named Leonard Ravenhill. I know I read all his books read many of them multiple times. Oh, did you really? Oh my goodness.
Barry Meguiar 16:31
Yeah.
Matt Brown 16:32
So tell you gotta tell us a story about him. Do you negate any stories you learned from him real quick
Barry Meguiar 16:37
how God leads your life. He knew you’re hungry when he knows you’re hungry. He’ll bring people into your life. And he brought David Wilkerson into my life. And David Gwynn ended up being our best friends for 40 years. And Dave moved from California to California long enough to meet us for just a little more than a year. And he always said I went to California for New York City to be very cared. And then he went to Texas, and he ended up with a ranch out in Lyndale, Texas by Tyler, Texas. It is a Ministry Center and we were there as often as you possibly can. And I would be sitting there with him and Leonard Ravenhill talking deep theological thoughts and revival fires and everybody. I mean, you know, and I’m sitting there taking it. How did this happen? I pedal car wax, okay. Nothing. And Katrina, Leonard revinate. Ravenhill and David Wilkerson imparting knowledge in me that was so beyond he was preparing me for what the latter part of my life but the letter Ravenhill Oh, my goodness, I knew him well. So when you when you mentioned his age, and his book and revival fires, everything that’s that’s a huge yet huge impact on my life. So go ahead. I’m all yours.
Matt Brown 18:00
Oh, well, that’s amazing Barry. I knew that you had been on the World Challenge board and, you know, for many decades and, and I think Teen Challenge too, so I knew that there was a connection. But I didn’t realize how close you were until you just shared and that to sit there in the room. It just be so unbelievable to hear that. Them bantering and encouraging each other and oh, man, what an amazing thing. I knew that they had ministry headquarters near each other at that, you know, at some point there and so that’s just incredible. And what an honor to hear that story from you. So, you know, he let me let me take you to a moment it’s me and my my good friend from high school, are then Bible college roommates at a small Christian College in Minneapolis called North Central University. And here we are reading the books on prayer, inbounds power through prayer and no easy road by Deke Eastman and revival praying by Leonard Ravenhill. And that sent me on a journey to read all of Leonard Raven Hills books, I was very deeply impacted by that. But he had in some of his stuff, just that he would have a placard on his desk that just said, he turned it in. I don’t know if you ever saw that, or if this was a certain season of his life, but he had and then he would say, God stamp eternity on my eyeballs. So that was like a phrase that he would say in his in his writings. And what that what I think part of that came from Barry was there was a there was actually a missions college that he was here at here in Minneapolis. Before he was ever in Texas, called Bethany. And you got Bethany House books out of there now and things like that. And they had a phrase by TA Hagar, one of their presidents and pastors that said, think and live with eternities values and view. And so I don’t know if that impacted Ravenhill if it was his time in the UK before all that, I don’t know, but he had this, you know, this call to an eternal perspective. How do we live in the here and now how do we live in the day to day life? that we’re in now for me, Barry. That’s right, we have four kids now. So we just had her for a couple months, all three boys and a girl. So we’re in that busy season right of the young parents and I don’t have a lot of energy, or brain space or capacity for much anymore. We’re loving it every second, I’m sure, but it’s tiring. And so for our listener, you’re you know, wherever you are in that stage of your life, whether you’re a grandparent now, or maybe you’re a young parent like me now, or maybe you’re a young married, and you’re you haven’t gotten to the kids stage yet. But in the busyness of the day to day life, your work the grind the family life, that’s, that’s incredible. How do you keep eternity in front of your eyes? And for me, that was just all very impactful. And so you know, I was coming up with a name. Now we’re in evangelists, ministry, we’re sharing the gospel, we we believe that, you know, most people are overwhelmed with the cares and pressures of life they are. And so everything that we’re doing is sharing powerful faith content that think eternity to help people find fulfillment. And God, we want to lead non believers to say, hey, you can find fulfillment in your life, but not in yourself. It’s in it’s in Jesus, it’s in what he’s done for you. And we want to lead the Christian back to their fulfillment. And God, we want to remind them, there’s a hope, a joy and a peace that you can have in your life and your Christian life. There’s a great fulfillment that God wants you to live with, don’t get bogged down by the world. And so that’s everything we’re doing. But it’s this eternal perspective, right? So sometimes, in this life, it doesn’t might not look like in a moment that God’s answering your prayer, you need an eternal perspective. In this life, you might share your faith and you go, man, I don’t know if that went so well. But time will tell and attorney will tell the God always uses obedience to Him. And so in so many areas of our Christian life, we can’t just look at the world in front of us. And what’s happening right now we need an internal perspective. So there’s really deeply impacted that by that by Leonard, and again, we’re evangelistic ministry, but I just sent me and think eternity, like, for some reason that it all came from that I thought that let’s pick that name. And so we’ve been doing ministry now for 20 years. Yep, preaching the gospel, sharing, writing books, sharing great content and a lot of different platforms and avenues. And in doing podcasts now, as well, thank you turn to you with Matt Brown, how many people are following it’s just been a privilege and everything we’re doing? We’re just sharing the gospel, you know, and helping people find fulfillment and God. So how many people are following you on your podcast these days? Yeah, so that’s been growing. And on social media together, we’ve had, you know, a couple of million people now that follow our channels. And the podcast has been an over 100,000 people have listened now to the podcast. And I’ve got other great avenues. Barry, there’s a, there’s an app that I’ve been able to share on recently with some kind of gospel presentations and scriptural content, called pre.com. And they’ve been letting me know, they’ve been sharing my videos all the time. And I’ll pop in on the app. And there’s 7000 People watching or I’ll pop in on the app. And there’s 20,000 people, and sometimes that popped in on the app, and there’s 70,000 People watching them, like, there I am I sharing the gospel right now with 70,000 people? Well, I’m at home working, I’m at home with my family. So that’s one of just so many avenues that God has allowed, has allowed me to be able to share the gospel, but we’re just you know, to me, it’s not just more people or more number, it’s just, I don’t have come to this point in ministry. Now, I might look young, but I’ve been doing this for a while. I’ve come to this point in ministry to say I don’t want to be faithful. I just want to impact one more person for Christ and I’m praying, amen. My prayer now is shifted to Lord, as I as I tweet, as I post as I do this video, let the power of your spirit be in it, you know, let let a greater anointing beyond it. And so I’ve just been praying that God will just continue to use it and touch people’s lives. Yeah. It’s amazing. When you have that perspective. Even the simplest of texts, you can move people closer to Jesus, you could add an extra thought that moves them closer to puts a bounce in their step that gives them more confidence. You know, in your emails, every every piece of communication, everything we do it everything we do and say is moving people closer or further away from God, we can’t get away from that fact. When we’re Christians, and people know we’re Christians, for the smallest little insignificant kindness or rudeness if that’s a Christian, I don’t want to be a Christian or wow, I want to be we should be representing Christ. We are representing Christ versus ambassadors, right. And so it takes us to comprehensively so everything is about eternity. Everything we’re doing is about eternity. And, and isn’t it amazing to you how few people even Christians are thinking about eternity today? Yeah, it’s not something that’s talked about a lot. And it shifts our priorities right? If we focus on it, and it’s, you know, it’s great to have a vision for your work for your family for the next 10 years for your finances for the next 10 years. But what about a spiritual kingdom vision for eternity, right, so helps you think longer and bigger, and that God might use your life in amazing way. And the point here is, as a listener, I know that Barry’s vision and goal for you is that you get in the game that you get on the field, and that you’re useful for God’s kingdom. And so, hey, it’s great to talk about what Matt Brown Zune, it’s great to talk about what Barry’s doing, but we’re praying that God will use you in a great way and that this conversation even will further you just a few steps down the field to say, Hey, I’m going to be bold, and I’m going to speak into one of my relatives lives, I’m going to be bold, and I’m gonna speak to, you know, to somebody today about Jesus. And it’s not just one or the other of us, you know, it’s about all of us being engaged, and being committed to this great commission. Yeah. Again, playing back this eternity thing and it’s, I just saw a statistic that, that I don’t even know what evangelicals that term means anymore. I mean, half of Evangelicals don’t even have a biblical worldview anymore. And it’s somewhere around half a bad joke. Because even question if there is a hell, you know, God’s given us the like, the ultimate rewards and punishments. You don’t want to go there. Like, if you’re very sad, if you do that, I’m going to ground you for a month, you know? And if you do good, he’s going to the audience, give him his hell, but we’ve stopped talking about hell, Ed, so we’ve taken half the gospel away, there’s no fear of hell. And then there’s if there’s no hell that, that Heaven is not all that important, and it’s more and more just focusing here, we’re not thinking about eternity. So your message of fake eternity, I think is, is huge. It’s just huge today. It is right. It’s the it’s, it’s our why right over why we’re sharing our faith all the time. It’s, it’s God’s heart, but it’s also eternity. And, you know, Jesus spoke about hell actually, more than anybody else in the Scripture. He didn’t do it, because he delighted it, he did it. Because, you know, kind of like Spurgeon said, he said, if people are going to go into hell, at least they have to leap over my body. And, and so it’s this desire, that, that we would warn people in a scriptural way. And, you know, Jesus didn’t give his life on the cross. Because there was another way, or because there wasn’t danger ahead if we don’t turn to God. And so it’s so important. Yeah, that Christians obviously get this this eternal worldview. And it will, it will change a lot of our priorities. But it will also help us to be motivated for the kingdom in everyday in the things that we’re doing. And Barry, I think, you know, this, but I wrote a book called True plus love. In in that I kind of talk about how I learned over the years of ministry, that is not just my intensity, right, and my passion, but it’s about growing more in the fruit of the Spirit. And there’s something about the fruit of the Spirit, you kind of talked about this in the beginning, when we grow in our love, and God does this in us and our joy and our peace, people are drawn to us. And we can give them the truth. Yes, there’s something about truth and love and how they go together. And so often Christians leave lean to one side. So often all of us really lean to one side or the other. Right. And so a lot of times when we’re sharing even our faith, or we’re sharing biblical truth, online with friends, or we’re speaking, you know, our, our thoughts into what’s going on in the world, we got to be careful on how we’re coming across that it’s a good balance, right, a biblical balance of both truth and love. We never should stop speaking the truth. But people should also see our love, that it’s coming from this heart. And this desire, and it kind of goes back to when I was 17. When God put a burden, all of it came from that place of a burden. I sense God’s burden. It’s easy to look at the world and be bothered. But I think God wants us to look at the world and be burdened. He wants us to give us his heart for people, you know, even for political leaders we don’t like even for people who are wicked. And he wants to help us to see that, you know, people need to turn to him now. Doesn’t mean we give anyone a free pass rate or that we we don’t speak into what’s going on. I think how do you find that balance? I’m not exactly the one to tell you. I think it’s always a thing we’re working on. But God wants to make us people have both truth and love. Yeah. Why I hope you’re all listening to Matt real clear to hear you know, the fruits of spirit have always been as important, but in the darkness of this world. They really make us stand out They are making our light, the light of the dark world, the match in a dark room is a lot brighter. And we have to stop thinking of people as, like counting scalps, I need to get them saved and go over. We just need to love on them. He said, They’ll, they’ll know you’re by discipled by your love, not by your presentation, your recitation and your four points and your life story. But by radiates the fruits of the Spirit and God ever they all they all came to Jesus, everybody came to Jesus, we have this stern image of Jesus and, and right for me, so he’s, he’s awesome God. But there’s also you just know, he was engaging everybody, Randy Him, if we should not be putting people off, we should be the fruits of the Spirit, I think what you’re saying is, is so important, because when we do that, then people realize this, but by the Holy Spirit that our love is real. And in an amazing how fast they’ll open up and tell you things that they probably wouldn’t even tell their closest friends and use. You find out where their needs are, then God gives you the Holy Spirit gives you the right words to say. And those moments, I mean, talk about those a little bit. I know you have raw kinds of experiences yourself, but spontaneous moments that you weren’t even expecting and all sudden, there it is, and what that does for you. Yeah, I know, it’s been life changing. And I’ve had the opportunity, personally to share my faith with 1000s of people now. It’s something that I always need to keep on the forefront, even in this season and stage of a family, and then also having the opportunity online to do it every day. And for me, online, very, the simple way that looks is I might share a thought that a scripture a thought that God puts in my heart throughout the day. And then when when it’s fitting, I’ll point people to like a gospel presentation in the comments or in the post. And it’s it’s kind of a simple way. Now, you might not have a video of you sharing the gospel to our listener, but maybe you can grab something from Barry’s where he shared the gospel. And so that’s one way to do it. messaging people personally and talking about their faith. I mean, just yeah, just every single time I’ve done it. It’s just been absolutely, you know, life changing. And going back to what we were saying to I’ve never met an encourager who doesn’t have any friends. Like, if you think about that, like, yeah, if, if you think of someone with a whole lot of love, and a whole lot of joy, and a whole lot of peace, and a whole lot of kindness. we’re drawn to people like that really are. And so how, how can we incorporate this in our witnessing, and there’s so many ways you can do it, I was just just with Mark Middleburg in whose lease troubles best friend. And yeah, he was talking about how he’s led a whole bunch of his neighbors to the Lord in this little community. And one of the simple ways he does it is he gives him a book. So a lot of times, we’ll start by giving them a book, and then they’ll, they’ll start to talk about it, and then he’ll share a clear gospel presentation with them. So we need to call it we could go on and on and on. But just talk about the personal impact on your life. When you’re sharing your faith with somebody, and you know, God’s using you what is what’s the payoff for you? What does that do? People don’t already think about that, you know, they, I gotta share my faith, I need to do this, and it’s hard, I might get persecuted. I, you know, I gotta get it. All right, and the book is all over there. They don’t realize that God’s real purposes is because when when we do that, we come so much closer to Him our own relationship with God explodes. And so, you know that so well put that in your words, how, how? You, you you grow personally from from your ministry to others? Yeah, 100% I mean, that’s what it’s been, whether I was doing this as a minister or not, it completely transformed my life, sharing my faith with people, every time I do it. It gives me such a joy, like you’ve talked about, but also just a sense of purpose. And, and so it’s just, it’s, it’s really, truly the most incredible experience and feeling. And I think that every single one of us needs to, you know, it should step into that it needs to be doing it and so I haven’t had very many experiences where like, anyone got upset with me or angry at me when I was sharing Christ with them. It’s it’s most of the time it’s just that people are grateful right there. They’re kind about it and, and in the times when it’s like led to someone coming to faith in Christ. It’s just, I mean, just can’t beat that like you’re you’re I literally seen an absolute transformation in someone’s life. And that’s something that is an inheritance almost for all of us. Right. And so, and we have a generation in the past of David Wilkerson and Leonard Ravenhill, but God’s calling new people to step up and say, hey, I want to be, I want to be holy surrendered to God. And I want to be wholly available for him to use. And I pray for you, or listener, that that’s you that you’ll step into the mighty works of God for you. It starts at home, with your family. And then it starts when you have opportunities to share Christ with someone. And as you walk in truth in love, with ice for eternity, there’s no talent, how God will use your life. It’s not about anyone else. This generation is so focused on comparison. It’s just about you being powerfully used by God. It’s the most incredible life you can live. It so is and when we do that, that Romans 8:28 Scripture is so well known, but not really understood. I mean, you said, God, it’s going to work all together for good, but it is not working. Good for me. What did I miss? Well, you missed the for the full verse at the end, it says, All things that work together for good if you do two things, you would love me and secondly, that you live for my purpose, and His purpose is to seek and save the loss. So would we folks, when you move into this area of focus that Matt and I share, we’re living for His purpose. And then he’s directly our steps and the joy and the peace and in the midst, it doesn’t matter what’s going on. And when we have that joy, peace, people want to have what we have, and they come to us and the fruits of spirits or their spirit or the spirit is there then people see that and then they run to us. I mean, people literally run to us, we’re not pushing people. I’ve never offended anybody. It’s you’ll get people mad at you when you tell them God loves them. I don’t care who they are, they may not believe him. They may feel like they’ve done so much bad that God can’t possibly or they may say I don’t believe in God it just lavishly well, he still loves you. You don’t have some believe it in forgotten to love you have fun with it. It just you represent the King of kings and the Lord of the Lord and the greatest story ever. And we get the opportunity to share that you bet you and I and you do it a whole lot more people that I do it I just I thank you for coming on the podcast with you. I want to thank you firstly in front of everybody. Thank you for what you’re doing the impact you’re having your heart is solid you’re you’re living what I call the fog you’re living in the favor of God is blessing everything you’re doing and that it just keeps getting better and better. I watch other Oh my goodness. And I know this guy. He’s my friend. So it’s great to hang out for a few minutes. It means the world, Barry. Thank you. You as well. God bless you. All right. All right. We’re doing this again. Okay. All right. Let’s see it. Bye bye.
