Pastor Plek's Podcast
Pastor Plek's Podcast
Embracing Sabbath Rest, Generosity, and Kingdom Influence
315: Pastor Russell Daniel from Hutto Community Church as he shares his inspiring journey from a young pastor at The Fellowship at Scofield Farms to planting his own church in Hutto. Discover the trials and triumphs of establishing Hutto Community Church, the unexpected challenges of running a CrossFit gym during the pandemic, and the resilience required to build a thriving community of faith.
Pastor Plek and Pastor Russel delve into the profound significance of Sabbath rest and the boundaries between work and worship. Learn how the principles of Sabbath and tithing, rooted in creation and the Mosaic covenant, can transform your approach to time and finances. They also explore the spiritual benefits of tithing and generosity, sharing compelling personal testimonies of financial miracles and God's provision that will inspire you to trust more deeply in divine blessings.
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And welcome back to Pastor Plex podcast. I'm your host, pastor Plex, and with me in studio today is none other than the pastor from Hutto Community Church, russell Daniel. How are you doing, man? Awesome, man, man, this is so exciting to have you back in the branch, back in the hood, if you didn't know this.
Speaker 2:Russell was a pastor at like 22 or something. My wife would say 18., 18., 25. He was pretty much 10. Oh, 25. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:At Schofield Farms. Yeah, what was the name of the church then? The Fellowship at Schofield.
Speaker 2:Farms, the Fellowship at Schofield Farms.
Speaker 1:It was great that was a great starter church for you. It was and that was exciting and we would meet regularly and kind of talk about different things. Pretty sure you saved my life a couple of times. It was awesome. I enjoyed that period of time and it was exciting to watch you grow, watch you get married which you were pastoring as a single dude, which Don get married, which you were pastoring as a single dude.
Speaker 2:which Don't ever do it. Don't ever do it. Terrible idea.
Speaker 1:Just terrible. Anyway, I'm really proud of you and the fact that you went through. I think Austin Christian Fellowship planted you guys and now are you your own thing. Yeah, now you're your own thing and we're going to adopt you in eventually to the Hill Country Association if I can convince you of that.
Speaker 2:opt you in eventually to the Hill Country Association. If I can convince you of that, I think we were supposed to talk about that. Yeah, that's what we were supposed to talk about today. I totally forgot. We'll talk about that. We'll have to get together again. You can buy me lunch again.
Speaker 1:All right, so tell me when you planted at Huddo. Okay, so we moved.
Speaker 2:My wife and I got married in 15. We moved to Huddo in 16. Spent a couple of years trying to raise up people, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:So, hard.
Speaker 2:People are like, yeah, we'll come when you start the church. So finally we just pulled the trigger. We launched Easter of 2018. Nice, and it was great. Fast forward about a year and a half and things at ACF had kind of shifted and they decided, hey, we're kind of going in this direction. So we're going to draw a line in the sand and if you guys feel like you want to take your church and become independent, we'll help you, we'll bless you, go, be fruitful and multiply. And so we took that back to our leadership and we said, yeah, this is probably the best thing for us to do at this point. Huddo's kind of out there. It's not as far as you think, but people in Hutto just have a different mindset. Yeah, like not Austin, don't want to be Austin. So we did that and so we started Hutto Community Church January of 2020. Yeah, which was?
Speaker 1:impeccable timing. Yeah, it was great timing. Oh wow, wow, that's wild.
Speaker 2:We also bought a gym at that same time, which was a terrible idea CrossFit gym, I don't know. Did I tell you that? No, yeah. So we had joined a CrossFit gym, fell in love with CrossFit, which still am, yeah, our owners decided they were going to close and so we were like, well, what if we just take it? And they were like, okay, yeah, sure. So we took over that Same time that we planted a church. I'm a glutton for punishment, if you didn't know.
Speaker 1:Wow, I mean, you couldn't have predicted what happened. No.
Speaker 2:So what happened with the CrossFit gym? So that went about a year and a half and March, april of 21, we really got it in a good spot. Then we lost one of our most important coaches and like she was doing kids stuff and personal training and all this stuff, and she got a full-time gig at another gym, which we were like wow, like good for you, but that sucks for us. And that was a time period when nobody was like nobody wanted a job, nobody wanted to work and we couldn't hire anybody to save our life. I mean, we tried and tried and tried. Finally we were just like, all right, we've got to pull the plug. So I met with some owners of another gym. They were looking to get out of their lease and so they moved into our spot, took over everything and we just became regular members again and it was great oh wow.
Speaker 2:Glad to be out of that business, for sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, so tell me about how church has grown, and all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we were meeting in the YMCA when we were with ACF, which YMCA, hutto, ymca, yep. So full setup and teardown every single Sunday. How?
Speaker 1:was it? Did you enjoy setup teardown?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh no, I hated it. Like I tried to have a good attitude about it. I'm like all right, here we go, team Like good job, but like you can only fake it for so long, like it was just miserable and like we started with way too much stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know, full pipe and drape, like the whole gym gym, and it was, I mean, this ginormous screen as big as what you have like um, it was rough. But so we were like we're not doing this anymore. So we found another church in a little industrial place. Uh, they said, you know, we could meet on Saturday nights, which, uh, started out great. And then, you know, covid happened and we were obviously, you know, closed. So you do the online thing and after like four weeks of online, you're like I hate my life, like can we record this on Monday? For Saturday it was just, it was weird.
Speaker 2:But you know, being in Hutto and out there, williamson County, as soon as the governor opened things up the next week, we were back person yeah which I mean we were a third of what we were, which was not big to begin with right um, so we kind of muddled through and then man, saturday nights just got tough yeah like tough, tough, tough, especially once football season rolls around and you know, then every every event in huddle, like the chamber, gala, birthday parties, I mean everything happens on a Saturday night, so you're just like dogging it.
Speaker 2:So we met there for two years and then, by God's grace, so my wife is a realtor and so she had some clients who she's worked with for I mean forever with their business and they they were looking for a new space to get into. So they found this old daycare. Um, and it's weird, it's got a like a building up front and it looks like it's two lots, but it was all one and it has like a like a trailer in the back, like a double wide kind of deal.
Speaker 2:Um. And so they looked at the space and owner walked out and told my wife like this building is great, it's perfect for our business. And he looked to his left and he's like but this building back here, like we don't have any use for right, you know anybody who needs it?
Speaker 2:yeah, and like we were like yes, like our church, will take it so we, we did this whole deal where you guys like divide the property yeah, before, before we closed, we had to divide the property, so we took one half and they took the other half and it has been the biggest blessing for our church. So, like we're meeting in a glorified double wide and we've tried to make it, not look like a double wide.
Speaker 2:But it is like it has been awesome, and I mean immediately. You know, just moving to Sundays was a huge boost for us and we've been meeting in that space a little over two years now and we're busting at the seams, we're setting up extra chairs in front of the door. I'm sure the fire marshal would hate it, but we've got kids shoved in these little tiny rooms everywhere.
Speaker 1:I mean it's great, it's much better problems to have Listen, if I understand, making the best of what you have.
Speaker 2:I totally get it yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, Russell, what are you preaching through right now?
Speaker 2:So we are about to finish a series called the Treasure Principle, which I stole from Randy Alcorn yeah, of course, but he's got great stuff. So this is kind of our little giving series for the year. Oh nice yeah.
Speaker 1:We preach through the Treasure Principle. We kind of like did a modified treasure principle because we kind of fit into our Catholic campaign, I think for our Nehemiah series I think. I think we read through the treasure principle and we preached through Nehemiah.
Speaker 2:It's a phenomenal little book. It's awesome.
Speaker 1:I love that. It's like that changed. That changed everything when it came to giving. Well, I want to.
Speaker 1:I want to incorporate what you're talking about with the treasure principle, with what I talked about on Sunday, because we talked about time, treasure, talent like how God wants your time, and we were talking about this over lunch, like when it comes to the Sabbath, because I always think this is and it's not funny, because it's obviously chronologically a different dispensation, a different time, a different covenant. Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day, which they're about to build, a tabernacle which takes a lot of fire to kindle or to put in the kiln to do gold and design stuff. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. Now I know there's a lot of people who believe that everyone should still be keeping the Sabbath, like that is, like the requirement of God. However, they don't have guns ready to shoot people who don't keep the Sabbath.
Speaker 2:Now I'm not sure, why that is.
Speaker 1:That's the part where I'm like either it's the death penalty or no, because that was the Old Testament command, that was part of this dispensation. So, anyway, that might be a bit extreme, but I think that's kind of how I read it. That's what the Bible says. And maybe someone might say well, the government says you can't kill people. So that's why I'm just waiting, I'm going to petition to the government eventually to have the law put in.
Speaker 1:If people don't keep this out, good luck with that, which I think is a bit far. That's why I think that Jesus, when he came and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this Jesus when he came, he died on the cross, he rose from the dead, and the symbol of our freedom in Christ is baptism, and then the continual relationship with Jesus is the Lord's Supper. And for me, the Sabbath day was a symbol. And for me, because it's written, the Sabbath day is a symbol for all generations, to all the world, that they can trust God for their provision, because he's commanding them to rest one day a week. Your thoughts?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I go back to the creation order. So God made the world in six days and on the seventh he rested. So you've got the commandment, you've got God's order, and so I think our God is a God of order and he does things on purpose. So I don't think it's by accident that he rested on the seventh day and then he commands us to rest on the seventh day. Now I don't think, you know, I don't think we need to be putting anybody to death because we're not taking a Sabbath.
Speaker 2:But, for believers, like there's a principle there that, like you, should live by like you should be able to back away from work long enough to be able to rest, to be with your family, to worship the lord, to have fun together. Um, and I think it's. It's really similar to the tithe, uh, like when you, when you are tithing and you give 10 percent like and just pet peeve, like I hate when people say, oh, I'm tith and it's like 20 bucks, I'm like.
Speaker 1:I don't think so.
Speaker 2:But you're saying I'm not God. There is a God, he's in control, he's going to provide for me, he's going to take care of it. So I can trust him with my treasure and I can trust him with my time, because I don't have to work all the time, you know, to make sure everything's done, like God's going to do more in six days than he than I can in seven.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:And like it's just good for you.
Speaker 1:Like you need a day to rest and not think about work and to let your brain like, relax and one of the things I brought up on Sunday and I do not think I made this up because I didn't I stole it from somebody else.
Speaker 2:As all good pastors do, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:When you think about creation, day one, day two, day three, humans come on day six. Yeah, god creates human beings. Day six. I'm not sure if that was an all-day thing, I'm not sure how long it took God to make the humans, but it happens.
Speaker 1:On day six there's their day zero and then day one for human beings was a rest day I've never thought about that so you work from rest, not for rest, and I think that that principle has is seen, uh, even in the in the mosaic covenant is that they were first liberated, given rest from slavery, and then they were given liberated, given rest from slavery, and then they were given freedom. Then they're given the law. In the same way, when you are saved by Jesus, you're dead in your sin. He makes you alive in Christ. He'll come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, but there is a yoke, there is something that you put on when you follow Jesus, even though there's rest, but that comes after, you receive the comfort of Christ and you're in him.
Speaker 1:So anyway, I bring that up and I do think what your point was like. You were designed not to grind it out.
Speaker 2:Seven days a week Right?
Speaker 1:How do you, as a pastor, do you have a day of rest? How do you? How do you? How do you sabbath? Is that even a right thing? How do you? How do you implement?
Speaker 2:yeah, um. So generally I take fridays and I say no to all meetings, like I mean, it's got to be a pretty special deal yeah, for me to say yeah, I'll do that on a friday, right? Um, you know, I've told even our staff like, don't call me, don't text me. Like if we want to text about something fun, like great, cool, let's, let's do that but, like don't text me about work on friday right uh, so I try to put a limit on that, like I don't let my message prep bleed over into that.
Speaker 2:Like, if if it's yet to be done, then it's going to be on saturday, right, like I'm gonna take that day now, like I'm not the greatest at it. Um, like it's yet to be done, then it's going to be on Saturday.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like I'm going to take that day Now, like I'm not the greatest at it, like it's still, like there's still life to be lived and everybody else is working on Friday, so it can be tough, but I really try to take that day and you know we'll do date night with my wife. You know, pick my daughter up early from school, jump in the pool. You know that kind of focus on the family. You know, have my quiet time in the morning. I'll still go to the gym, you know that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I kind of do the same thing. So kind of for me, I do my sermon practice, so I preach the sermon on Thursday around three and then five o'clock. It's Sabbath time and I, adrian. I usually have a date night Thursdays, and then Friday morning is more non-things all the way up to Friday night.
Speaker 2:Because usually, whenever you do a rehearsal dinner for a wedding, it's usually on a Friday night.
Speaker 1:You do a whole lot more weddings than I do, and then Saturday would be the wedding or another event.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some church event.
Speaker 1:Sure, there's always something going on, usually Fridays you don't have. So I kind of take that same policy, yeah, and I think that works. So I think the big thing, the question we got on this, let's see, the question I have about this specific thing is where did you get? The Sabbath's purpose was to show the world that God was in control instead of for rest. This was a new concept for me. That Sabbath was abolished with Jesus. Well, first off, it is still for rest, the Sabbath, but the concept that the Sabbath day is a specific command for a specific day, with a death penalty of enforcement being a thing is no longer in fact. Um, it's the same thing with circumcision.
Speaker 1:So circumcision was the symbol of the abrahamic covenant, which is for land and blessing, uh, for abraham's descendants, which has been fulfilled in jesus, which is that why now the whole world has opportunity to be. Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so if you were a Gentile, that is impossible for you to be a son of Abraham unless Jesus adopted you to be a co-heir with Christ, and so therefore, through that, because from this rock, god can make a descendant from Abraham. So that's essentially what he did.
Speaker 1:So the symbol of the Abrahamic covenant was circumcision. The symbol of the Mosaic covenant was keeping the Sabbath day holy. So it is for rest. You need to rest one day a week. It is for rest, you need to rest one day a week. The whole point of saying that was not that To our point. It's like we do it on Friday, whereas Jews would do it on Saturday and they kept it religiously. This is where Paul says one person sees one day more sacred than another, whereas everyone regards every day as holy.
Speaker 1:Well, if you make all of them holy, you've made none of them holy. You could make that argument, but that's where it's personal conviction. So how you rest and this is where it goes into kind of what you're saying about giving Like how you rest, like if I don't work, don't look at my sermon on Friday I have to trust, by the power and grace of God, that on Saturday evening when I start to look at that sermon again, by the amazing supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, all the sermon block you ever get sermon block where you're trying to write a sermon and you just nothing.
Speaker 2:All week until this morning.
Speaker 1:You're sitting there going like I have no idea how to start this. I've got a page of.
Speaker 2:it's going to take me five minutes, five minutes. I got five minutes of stuff yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm going to sit up there and be like, hey, don't sin, all right.
Speaker 2:I'll see you next week. You know, I don't know. Yeah, think about that. Yeah, think about that.
Speaker 1:Contemplate that. And so I think, for me, like I'm always trying to think of, like how can I make this intro match a contemporary intro hit to a biblical time? How do we make a theological bridge? And sometimes you just beat your head against the wall because you're wanting to make something be relevant and yet interesting and yet biblical.
Speaker 1:And you know it's a sin to make the bible boring, you know, because it's the word of god, it's's the most powerful, amazing thing in the world. And then so you're feeling the pain of that. So that's why, for me, when I don't look at it on Friday, god has always come through. Yeah, yeah, right, amen to that, yeah. And so that's why I look at it sort of like trusting God. With that time, it's like I am intentionally taking time away from work to focus on the Lord and to rest, and so that's how I feel like giving is, like when I, you know, god can do more with my six days than I can do with seven. In the same way, god can do more with 90% than I can do with 100.
Speaker 1:And I and I know you know, 90, like 10%, like I always think 10% is a good number to start with, but if you gave 5%, because that's what the Lord called you to give, I think that's okay. If God you know, my wife and I decided to give like 1% more every year and that is we're now at oh gosh, we're at 20. And then we now give, and then every year we increase a percentage that we give to other things. So instead we give 20 to the church, but now we give to something else and that's hard, but it's growing.
Speaker 2:And I don't sit there and go like I have to give.
Speaker 1:It was the first time. This year was the first time where I looked at money and I go, I get to bless a ministry. Yeah, and it was not that it's not exciting to bless the church's ministry, because I really believe in our church and all that we're doing.
Speaker 2:But when you're the pastor.
Speaker 1:Now it's like, oh, I'm going to go and this is going to impact something different what I think.
Speaker 2:sometimes I think people don't believe us Like I don't ever miss my tithe. Yeah, you know like there's never been a day where it's been like looking at the bank account like man, you shouldn't have tithed.
Speaker 2:Right, like I've never, ever thought that. And like we tithe, we give more than the tithe. And again, I think people are like oh yeah, okay, sure, like, but like that's something I passionately believe in and I think our churches not you and me, but like as churches as a whole are super underfunded. But they would be. They would have all the money that they would need to do all the ministry that they need if all of our people would just tithe Like.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Like I don't want to beat people over the head Like oh, you need to give, but like there's such a blessing in, it.
Speaker 1:There is, and I think here's where I always go with this. It's like I don't want to drive by, guilt you into giving.
Speaker 2:Like be guilty. It never works. It'll never work. It never works.
Speaker 1:And you can only give and you can only live to the measure of faith that God has given you. However, I think part of growing is asking God. I really believe this. Asking God grow my faith and then this is why I love Malachi 3.10, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.
Speaker 1:Test me in this as the Lord of hosts and see if I will not open up the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there's no more need, and I'll be translated until you don't have room enough for it. I love that, because that, in fact, the actual translation is until there's no scarcity. In other words, it is the opposite of scarcity.
Speaker 2:You're going to have an overabundance.
Speaker 1:It's going to be mind-blowing.
Speaker 2:This is Old Testament passage right? I always have questions about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hit me, I love this one.
Speaker 2:Part of that passage is I will rebuke the devourer. Do you think for our people who may be like, oh it's my money, I'm not giving.
Speaker 1:That's a great question.
Speaker 2:There's a devourer in their life that God's just allowing that to be there Like hey, you got another flat tire.
Speaker 1:Man.
Speaker 2:Hey, your AC's going out. I'm just kind of wondering out loud what are your thoughts on that? God allows those things to happen, whereas if we trust him, we give, we're generous. He's like, hey, I'm going to rebuke that, I'm going to keep that from you, man, that is a great one.
Speaker 1:I really believe that. I think sometimes you give, or if you don't give, and then your air conditioning goes out and you have some medical bill you can't pay and then you have another, you probably add all that stuff up and it might. I'm not. This is where I don't want to get overly superstitious.
Speaker 2:This is where it's like well, well, well, the reason why all these bad things happen to you is you weren't giving. I'm not going to say that. I had a friend in seminary who believed that and he would. He's like I'm not tithing this month and sure enough something on his truck would go out. He's like dang it, I should have tithed.
Speaker 1:I knew this was going to happen. I don't know if it works quite like that, but yes, you should have tithed. But there is a general principle, right?
Speaker 2:Like it's God's protection over it. You're trusting me.
Speaker 1:It gets. So there's such a nuance there because you don't want to be like if you tithe, nothing bad will happen, because that's not true. That's not true, right, yeah, but I've never seen someone who gives generously ever being won. How about that? I've just never. I mean, you could.
Speaker 2:I agree to that.
Speaker 1:I'm not a person that's homeless because they gave all their money away and they weren't about to go kill themselves or something. I think if someone who is generous because God has led them to be generous, god's not going to lead them to a place where they're going to be in want. I think the problem is nobody asks God to lead them in this. In fact, one of the things I always say is like because James 1.5, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask of God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, for he who doubts, like the way of the sea blown and tossed by wind, he should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man and stable in what he does. Okay, when you pray, god tell me what to give and you go to God's word. I'm like which 10%? Because in the Old Testament you got the 10% that went to the Levites, the 10% that went to the national feasts, the 10% that went to the poor every three years, and then so you've got at least 23 and a third, and then you got first fruits on top of that and all the holiday stuff, okay, so what does that mean? So should you be given 23 and a third percent? Maybe, maybe that's it. But I really think it's more like what God is saying here is ask him, because there's freedom. In the same way, there's freedom with your time. Ask God how to lead you.
Speaker 1:And so the way I always think of asking God I think I've mentioned it God's word, god's spirit, god's people. So, god's word, you have freedom. There. There's a general principle of giving, there's a general principle of Sabbathing God's spirit. I feel led in this way. And then God's people.
Speaker 1:This is usually when it comes to our money. Nobody wants to show me the budget. Right, you know. One, people just in general don't have a budget. But two, no one wants to show that because if we saw how little that you gave to the purposes of God, then you would say you're going to judge me. Or maybe, on the flip, I don't want anyone to think too highly of me, because what I give At some point the only part that you're supposed to keep secret on this, by the way, is giving to the poor. I don't know if you guys knew that like that, you remember, cause the, whenever Jesus is hanging out the temple and he doesn't say like, can you believe these people giving out in front of everybody? No, in fact, he commends, it's like it's. He uses the widow's example, example as a let's spur on everybody else to give, like shit. So your giving should be encouraging to the congregation, okay, but it does say, when you give to the poor, don't announce it like some people do, and you know, look at me how much I'm giving.
Speaker 2:That's where. How do you guys do offering here, do you?
Speaker 1:have a pass plate. No, we don't do any passing of the plate. Yeah, I got the box in the back. Yeah, the box in the back. Yeah, that's what we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we just Most of it's probably online at this point. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So we've? We never passed the plate ever, so we didn't have to transition that either.
Speaker 2:Which made COVID really easy. People just kept giving online. Yeah, it was super simple.
Speaker 1:I think everybody kind of had to transition to that.
Speaker 2:How do you feel about online? Like I think it's good and bad.
Speaker 1:Okay, here's where it's bad and, to be fair, I don't give online. Well, I give online, but I make sure I do it every paycheck, uh-huh so it goes like you're manually doing, I'm manually.
Speaker 2:You haven't said it on automatic. Yeah, so uh, first of the month, uh-huh I did it.
Speaker 1:I did it manual for a while, um, and then I I found that I in 2022, I think that's when I shifted that's when I hit out of my own personal salary 20%, Because Adrienne still for her, she gives 10% and I just do 20, and then I keep increasing mine Anyway. But when I got to 20, I got nervous and I had an auto pay and I was like all right, the Bible says test me in this. And that's when I broke out a spreadsheet. I was like fine.
Speaker 1:I'm at this place where I need to test God, he said I could, I'm going to do it, and then, as soon as I said I'm going to test, god that's. I had this crazy situation. So, um, I'm watching football and uh, I'm, I'm. I'm home alone with all four kids, I'm watching football, I'm playing outside, I have the football on outside, I'm playing with Austin outside and Titus and Paxton, my two youngest, are upstairs and I think everything's fine, until the point where I go. You know, I haven't heard them scream, giggle, laugh anything in a while and I go crud. So I run upstairs and there they are in their boy's bathroom, taking toilet paper, plunging it into the toilet, throwing it on the ceiling, flushing the toilet and thinking it's the funniest thing ever the toilet is overflowing with water and I go.
Speaker 1:Then I don't even tell them to stop, I go, what are you doing? And then I go, oh crud, and I run downstairs to the garage which is right underneath, where they were flooding the bathroom, and it's raining in the garage and I'm like, okay, god, you're gonna have to come through on this. And so, by the grace of god, um, we had a uh, mitchell remodeling, I'll give them a uh, uh, I don't know advertisement. Shout out thank you, uh, because they they took it. They said, whatever your deductible is, that's what we'll, or whatever the insurance says it costs, we'll, we'll waive the deductible, we'll just take whatever the insurance gives us. And I was like, oh my gosh praise the lord, that was like seven grand right there.
Speaker 1:Then our air conditioner went out. Then, uh, like a whole bunch, a whole bunch of stuff, and I was like give you know. Okay, and then that year. In fact, I keep it all on.
Speaker 1:You have the spreadsheet I have the spreadsheet and I keep it by day to see all the crazy things that happened, because it was so wild. Let me see if I can pull it and just month after month, random stuff would come in. Maybe it was at 23. Let me see if I can pull it and just month after month, random stuff would come in. Maybe it was at 23. Let me see. Okay, yeah, so at first, okay, it was 23, not 2022. So I actually wrote this down. I prayed Malachi 310 at the beginning of January 23. I was fearful that giving 20% would be a little silly and I could out give God and I started recording the extra income that I started to receive since January 1. I wrote that in there, which is sort of wild that I actually even wrote that, that's pretty neat and so I put the giving.
Speaker 1:And then in January God's giving to me I got a buddy of mine paid me back $500 that I'd forgotten about. Another guy paid me $150 that he borrowed but then said I told him don't worry about it, and then he paid it back. And then a church asked me to speak, gave me 500. I got an extermination overpayment for $200. Adrian sold some weather mats on Facebook marketplace for 50 bucks. I got a random Amazon gift card from somebody in another ministry just for a hundred bucks. Gift card from somebody in another ministry just for a hundred bucks, uh, uh. Another church paid me 300 bucks and then the the mitchell remodeling took care of the deductible, which was two thousand dollars. And, uh, adrian sold the car, bet all right. So all of that was just like that was january.
Speaker 1:After, like, the whole thing was like oh, that was one month, that was one month oh man okay, then you know, this is then and now, granted, it's a tax return, but still, but still, it was thirteen thousand dollars of a tax return yeah, which I was like hallelujah okay.
Speaker 1:And then, uh, I got a random check for five thousand dollars. And then I got a random check from a lady who lives in dallas that I haven't seen in 15 years sent me $300. You got to send this to me. I got another check for $10,000, just random. Then, another one of our sweet people at our church we got some money stolen from the church.
Speaker 2:Wells.
Speaker 1:Branch is not known for the purity of souls as far as so anyway, we had money just sitting here, I think. A random homeless guy broke in and stole money and the guy at our church, just a blessing, just felt like bad and gave me $1,000. Then I spoke at another thing and got $2,000. And then here's what blew me away. At the time I was looking for a truck and you've seen my amazing truck out there yeah yeah, so, truck out there.
Speaker 1:yeah so, uh. One of our elders came, it came up to me and said hey, here's a check for twenty one thousand seven hundred fifty dollars out of nowhere. I know this is. This is insane. I'm just kind of going through it, this, uh. Then I got another spoke another church for 250 bucks, uh. And so another thing adrian spoke at a women's treat for a church for $750. And then another thousand dollars came in at the end of the year.
Speaker 1:So when you look at that, here's this is what's wild the total amount of money that we were out of, out of like not expected, not expected. Are you ready for this? $64,932. What we gave was a total of 20,683. So when you look at that, like, this is where I said you will not have room enough for it. I can't even fit my truck in my garage. Okay, that's how, I don't have room enough for it. All right. So, like I think that's the encouragement that I got a brand new truck, a brand new one. Like I was looking, I was on Facebook Marketplace, I was, like you know, going. I was like you know, listen, $20,000. Truck's gonna be a decent truck That'll last me for a while.
Speaker 1:I wanted something that could fit all six of the family in there and yet you know move stuff around for the church and you know help move people and help do all the things and the Lord came through wildly more than I'm going to write that down.
Speaker 2:How many? Let me pull my notes up 64,000, 64,000, $932.
Speaker 1:And what I gave that year was 20,683. The return was 213%. Now, listen, this is not an investment strategy. I am not giving financial advice but listen, that's like.
Speaker 1:But that's what god does I know the wild part about it was I remember in january being terrified and I said, okay, I'm gonna take god, put him to the test with his word, and especially after that it was raining in the garage. I was like we're screwed. Um, uh, let me think, yeah, what else did I have to? Because I had random um expenses? Uh, that, let me see. Yeah, I don't think. I don't know if I wrote those, all those down. Oh, unexpected, yeah, 7700 was the ac heater went out january 1 and then right after that is when we flooded the the house, and so you know you have 7700 and expenses there. Uh, let's see, I had the stolen money of 150. It was only like 150, but still, but still, uh. And then, uh, oh, we bought a new uh washer and dryer. I think, no, no, we were given, we were given a washer and dryer. We were given a brand new washer and dryer. It no, no, we were given, we were given a washer and dryer. We were given a brand new washer and dryer.
Speaker 2:It's like that was $3,000. I was going to say I looked it up, it was like three grand.
Speaker 1:I was like that was because our dryer went out and I was like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? And then someone randomly didn Because we had the top loading ones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I said, hey, we have a what's it face loading the stackable kind. Yeah, I think they are stackable. No, they're not stackable, they're just front loaders. And so do you want it? I'm like, yeah, so we got front loading washer and dryer and we still have that. That was wild. Oh, and there were other things like root canals happened, which is like $650. But still, like the stuff that over and over happened where God came through, over and over again, I stopped counting after, really, the year of 2023.
Speaker 2:It's like fine God, I don't need to test you. I was like, oh my gosh, this is just real. That's insane.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, that's an awesome story, isn't that crazy? It's awesome, just real. That's insane.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, that's an awesome story.
Speaker 1:Isn't that crazy. It's awesome $64,000. I mean just to think like it's wild to me.
Speaker 2:People think like I can't even give 2%, like there's no way. But this is a testament to like yes, you can, because God does whatever he wants. I'm not going to say your return is going to be 213%. However, I am going to say but he'll provide, he'll provide, he'll provide, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, I believe that and all this whole time we were able to give. I told our congregation back in 2021 when we started our capital campaign. We're doing a capital campaign for our property that's in Breakaway, brushy Creek, and I was like we're going to give a full year's salary plus to the capital campaign. And we did, and we finished it a year early, which was wild. We finished it in 20.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, we finished it last year 21, 22, 23.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we finished it in July of 23, when we started that thing in October of 21 or whenever it was November 21. So that was kind of a wild thing. We finished our capital campaign, which is over a year's salary, which is mind-blowing, and that was a blessing, Like that. Like to think that. And there was a part of when I look at that, like when we finished that capital campaign, there was a real sense of, I don't know, dopamine hit, I don't know if that's. You know, it was like, yes, we did it. It was like a real sense of accomplishment.
Speaker 1:that not like I did anything right, but I got to partner with the Lord to watch him by faith, what he would do to provide over and above, over and over again. Kind of wild, so cool, yeah, anyway, so yeah, so time, like, give your time and trust that the Lord is going to make up for the time that you feel like I need to work, yeah. And then your treasure, like he can do more with your 80% than you can do with your 100%. He can do more with your 90% than you can do with your 100%. I always this is what I tell my people. I don't know what you tell yours, but start somewhere, pick a percent and then ask the Lord every year is this what I should be giving?
Speaker 1:And then for me it was like we got to 20 and then it was like all right, no longer give to your church's general budgets. We got to 20, and then it was like all right, no longer give to your church's general budgets. Think of either missionaries, think of poor, think of something else, and then do that.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, Okay. The last one we talked about was like in Exodus 35, 36, Bezalel and Aholiab 35, 36, Bezalel and Aholiab. They are like the two guys who are servants and they're filled with the Spirit of God. The first time it mentions someone being filled with the Holy Spirit or filled with the Spirit of God is Bezalel and Aholiab. Isn't that wild? Isn't that wild? What verse is that? Look at Exodus 36. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see one yeah, and then uh, and there, and he fills him with his spirit to teach in that, and that's what you think. Teach the bible, but no, to teach art, which I always think is hilarious. Um, I, I, I kind of love that. So, yeah, the Lord has put skill and intelligence and he turns their heart and he fills them with the spirit of God. Let me see, let me find the actual verse for Bezalel and Aholiab. Yeah, this is where I just loved it.
Speaker 1:Uh, look at, yeah, uh, exodus 31. Uh, verse 2. Uh, it says let me see if I can find it. Yeah, uh, see, I've called by name bezalel and I've filled him with the spirit of god in that wild, with the ability, intelligent, with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs, to work in in gold, silver and bronze, and then all the way. In Exodus 36, the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with what the Lord has commanded. I love this because God has a mission and if he has a mission, he has the people, he has the manpower for the mission, and I think sometimes people feel like, well, I'm not a pastor, I can't really be used.
Speaker 1:I don't know how many times you've probably heard that at your church.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, like you know, how do you want to serve?
Speaker 1:I just kind of want to sit here and show up and you're like you know, god can use you, even if you don't feel like you can use you. And I also sometimes think here's one thing that I struggle with personally, and I really want to do better at this as a pastor and as the church as a whole, is what do you do with really talented people who like them holding a door?
Speaker 1:man that's great Way to go you are. You would rather be a door holder at the house of the Lord than king of Satan's world.
Speaker 1:Right, right, Like there's something like that, but you probably also could do some other things other than just hold the door, and one of the things that we have at our church whether you're a—we have school teachers at our church and you're making a ministry impact in your school I want you to think about just school teacher the ability to influence people for the kingdom of God, because you are skilled in the art of teaching math, which may not feel like very Jesus-y, which may not feel like very Jesus-y, but it is actually very Jesus-y when you do it in the context of gospel-oriented. I know my son's second grade teacher is a Christian. I think she goes to the Stone and so we know that whenever our son is with her, we feel really confident that she's praying for him, that she's seeking the Lord on his behalf, and that really is comforting. But then what about all the kids who don't know Jesus? She's praying that they might have come to faith, and we have so many Christian teachers in our own church that are ministering to high school students, ministering to middle school students, ministering across the board.
Speaker 1:I'm just thinking teachers for a second. But it's not just that. When you're a great tech person and you have a ministry to the people at Apple, ministry to the people at Google, it's a big deal, and I feel like one of the things that we need to bet me personally, I need to do better as a pastor is empower people. I don't know if it's like bring your pastor to work day, that's a great idea.
Speaker 1:I've been to a couple of people's workplaces and it's great. And they're like this is my pastor, and they're like so.
Speaker 2:You have a pastor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like what does that even mean? And you're like, I guess I'm good, it teaches the Bible, it teaches the Bible and stuff. I know big words.
Speaker 1:I don't know it's weird for the people there, kind of weird for me, but the people that bring me it's awesome because this is who I listen to every Sunday. This is the person that's pouring into my life, but beyond that, because they're probably pouring into the lives of others in their sphere of influence, it's a big deal, and so I always want to challenge people like your mission field or your ministry or your service to the Lord isn't just bringing coffee, although I listen, I love. We need good coffee and people. We have at least 20 visitors every Sunday and they come and they're expecting coffee, or like they're blessed by coffee and you provide it, so way to go. At the same time, god hasn't just put you in your sphere of influence for no reason.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean I try to tell our people that all the time. Like you know the end of Esther, chapter 4?
Speaker 1:Yeah, like, maybe you've been put here for such a time as this, like I believe that about every single person in our church and you have no idea what they're going through I believe that about every single person in our church and you have no idea what they're going through, who. You have influence over what they're going through in their life.
Speaker 2:That's the thing. People look at you and I like oh, you're the pastor, you're whatever. No, you're the missionary on the field, you're the one. If the gospel is going to make a difference, you're the one who's going to do it. I'm here to help you and to support you and to teach you, but God put you in your place of work, surrounded by the people that you work with, or whatever, because that's exactly where he wants you to make a difference for his kingdom.
Speaker 1:So, good.
Speaker 2:Peter calls us priests, and that's what we are. We're all priests, ministering before the Lord in our place of work, the places we go to play, wherever we go to eat, all those places we visit on a regular basis. We are missionaries on mission for the kingdom of God, and our people are the ones who will reach the folks that you and I will never even see, and I don't think we can overemphasize that enough.
Speaker 1:So let's get back to just the Sunday's coming. Yeah, that's one of I think. Recently I was with somebody and said why do pastors always say Sunday's coming?
Speaker 2:Because Sunday's always coming Every seven days Real regular, oh man, it never stops.
Speaker 1:Anyway what I mean by that is we have to. It's not like put on a show, that's the wrong way to put it but the Lord's work is going to be that people are coming to meet with God and what we're trying to do is remove distractions of the world to give them a space to experience God. The reason why people are coming to church is they want to experience a supernatural being who actually exists, loves them, sent his son to die for them, raised him from the dead, and they want to interact with him on the regular. And when there's a bunch of people who all believe, rightly, in the same thing, there's a powerful experience. Now to make that all happen, it doesn't just like people don't just show up at 9 o'clock when our service starts or 10 o'clock at huddle when the service starts. People have been there for a while, prepping, getting ready. You know, my son asked me Daddy, how long does it take you to make a sermon?
Speaker 1:I'm like it depends Some weeks it's five hours and I feel like I'm walking on air, and other weeks it's like 25 hours and I'm like dying. But, yeah, so talk about some of the ways people get involved at your church on a Sunday morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think it probably starts with our worship team. Other than me, they're the first ones who are there. I'll generally come up like super early and do like a message, run through and make sure there's no leaky faucets. So is that?
Speaker 1:the. Would you call it your servant service? No, you do a message. No, no, no.
Speaker 2:So that's me, by myself at 6 am Nobody else is there.
Speaker 1:Nobody's there, you just preach it. They're dreaming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that just helps me work through any kinks that there might be work on transitions or make sure it's in my head. But then worship team shows up at 8.30, and they work through all the kinks they've got to work through make sure all the tech is working good. Which tech is such a headache? Good tech people are like a gift from the Lord.
Speaker 1:Yes, If you're a good tech person, come see us. We have desperate need for you.
Speaker 2:Video sound all that stuff, yeah. And then we have a group that comes at nine and starts to pray for the service oh nice. So we'll gather in one of our kids' rooms and we'll just pray for 30 minutes. So we'll pray for needs that are going on in our church body things we know about things people have asked us to pray for.
Speaker 2:You know, like we're trying to get a new building landed, so we're praying for that, praying for my sanity, you know, but then we pray for the service too, pray that all the things you mentioned, the distractions of the world, that all of those would fall away, like literally as people walk through the door, like we literally pray that.
Speaker 1:So you have people that come and just be a part of the prayer team. Just to pray, yeah, just to pray, so good.
Speaker 2:So we do that, and then 930, we gather everybody and we'll pray, like all our volunteers who are there, our greeters, our hospitality folks, our kids' workers. We'll all gather and we just pray for the service.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's not real long, it's two minutes something like that, but it's kind of like our rally. Here we go. We're here to serve.
Speaker 1:We're here to see the Lord move. You guys get there at 30. You have all your volunteers prayed up ready to go 30 minutes before service.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That listen. Wells Branch Community Church. We have a long way to go 30 minutes before, oh man, yeah, no, it's good.
Speaker 2:That's our rally and we've transitioned like when we launched at Austin Christian Fellowship. I mean, it would be literally 10 of us in the room to start a service and now, like if somebody walks in late, all the heads turn.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Our people just show up early now. It's the coolest thing. That's wild and they're there they gather coffee and there's five or 10 people on the front porch welcoming everybody in and people just hanging out. The kids run crazy. It's so much fun that is great. I don't know what the original question was, but that's what we do on Sunday mornings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that. It's like where can people serve on a Sunday and I think the primary places which you mentioned for us is prayer team. Always we have a 7 am prayer call, which you don't even have to leave your bathroom or your pajamas or wherever, Just call in 7 am. But then we have tech team. Obviously we have huge need for tech team. Obviously we have huge need for tech team, huge need for hospitality.
Speaker 2:there's so much set up that we do outside which is set up tents set up banners and all the things so that people we're not even doing that stuff yet and like we gotta get there, especially when we get this new building.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be confusing for people, yeah everything's confusing especially well we're a split ops, so our children's ministry is all the way down the other side, yeah, which is you know, right past the mexican restaurant yeah, it's ridiculous. So it's kind of weird, right. So you, you worship here, but then if you have kids, you're like where do I go? So you have to have like a whole, a whole team outside to go, like hey, um, children's ministry isn't actually over here, it's down, let me walk you down yeah, and so and those five to ten people just to do
Speaker 1:that yes, and honestly, those people, the people that are new, people that are new and they have kids, they don't know what to do. They come 15 minutes early and so that's a great time to talk with them, but that that gets into. You can't just show up at nine. If you're a servant filled with the spirit of god, you kind of got to be here at like 830, 845. Anyway, and then children's ministry is such an awesome place to serve, and because there's so many people involved, that means the more people involved, the more people might cancel, and so on any given Saturday night we'll have two or three, four people cancel, which means that Sunday morning our children's director a branch kids director they're scrambling to find people and thank God, the Lord always provides, and that might be another thing to put in my blessing thing.
Speaker 1:Like when did people not show up and then the Lord provided somebody else? Like it's a beautiful thing. But I do think that's where you're like when you show up to serve. It's such a blessing because there's so many people who are depending on you to serve children in a way that honors God, and you are blessing kids, you're blessing new people, you're blessing people that are just desperate need for ministry. You just don't know where people are at. They're coming to church.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I always like to say is every greeter is a pastor and every usher is an evangelist, meaning when people come in and you pastor them into the kingdom of God and then when you usher them or if you seat them, you're putting them next to somebody that's going to share the gospel with them, or somebody that they might be able to connect with, or it's another touchpoint of connection.
Speaker 2:So two things here. Number one I think being one of the greeters outside is one of the most important jobs, and here's why it's not just because, oh yeah, I'm here to open the door, because people know if they're coming back to your church before they ever sit down with their coffee here, because of the experience they've already had. So that is literally the most important job out there. But right behind that, I think the biggest opportunity to make an impact for the kingdom is kids' ministry. I can still tell you names of the men and women who served me as a child, and that's where kids come to know Christ. And that is so true. I can't overstate that, you can't. That's so important.
Speaker 1:Well, and let's just go back to that Psalm 87 too, the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. So when you take a look at that, that means that God loves the gates of heaven more than all the other places in the world, loves the gates of heaven more than all the other places in the world. And when you, your church is a gate of heaven because someone's coming for the very first time and the very first person out there greeting them is a person who says like come on in. And that says a bunch, especially if you've got face tattoos, especially if you feel like you're different or you don't have, like you don't feel like you belong. Or maybe you're like well-dressed and you're different, or you don't have like you don't feel like you belong. Or maybe you're like well-dressed and you're like I don't feel like I belong, like you can go and like, hey, you are welcome here, come on in. And that's a big deal.
Speaker 2:It is, it's huge.
Speaker 1:So, and that's where, like you know, the gospel is, I guess is exclusively inclusive, meaning like it takes everybody from all walks to say here's the king. Like in your darkness, in your sin, in your weakness, come on and worship the king. So yeah, all right. Yeah, I think you and I hammered that home.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, come serve, you know, be a part of the ministry that's happening. I think one of our, the live stream. I had somebody come up to me and say, hey, I watched the sermon online because they were out of town. That was a big deal. That was because our live stream people were out there cranking away serving our church, which is huge. We need more live stream people, more live streamers.
Speaker 2:It's wild how you know, it takes nothing for that thing to go down. I mean just nothing, so frustrating it is so frustrating.
Speaker 1:Praise the Lord for Cody. Cody, thank you for revolutionizing the live stream.
Speaker 2:Hey, I don't know if Cody remembers this, but he actually led worship at my church here at Schofield.
Speaker 1:No way Like way back in the day. Way back in the day. I think it was one of those Sundays.
Speaker 2:I was like hey, Chris, Pastor, Chris, you have anybody who can lead worship at our church? You're like well, I got this guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I got this guy. I don't know if he's going to be there, but if he shows up he'll be really good.
Speaker 1:That's probably exactly what I said.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, that's funny. Well, yeah, and he probably was what were you like 2013 or so, or 2014? Yeah, we lost in 2013. Oh, that's wild. That's funny. Cody's awesome. Yeah, cody's great.
Speaker 1:Hey, any other thoughts on all that we just covered? That was a lot. Oh wait I actually have one more question. Sorry, I have one more question. This also came in from the sermon, which I think actually had nothing to do with the sermon from Sunday. It's a huge question which is kind of like completely so everyone, pause your brains. This is a. This is like a random question how can you honor your parents when they have dementia?
Speaker 2:Is it wrong?
Speaker 1:to put them in a nursing home.
Speaker 2:Ooh, that's tough. Um, you know, I think you honor your parents by caring for them in the best possible way, and sometimes the best thing for them is to be in a nursing home. Uh, and that's really, really hard, I know, especially like, depending on your cultural background, like like for me, like I mean my grandfather he had a massive heart attack in 94. And I mean he just there was no way he could live on his own in our family, like house and family dynamics and all that Like there's just no way, uh, he could live on his own in our family, house and family dynamics and all that. There's just no way he could have lived with us. It was just impossible.
Speaker 2:So when my grandmother passed away, we found a place that was three minutes from our house, which was a huge blessing because we could run up my parents could run up there in the middle of the night if something was going on, or whatever. My parents could run up there in the middle of the night if something was going on, or whatever. We would go see him every day after school and spend time with him Not a lot, because he didn't know what day it was, or what he had for breakfast or anything, but it was important for us to spend time with him.
Speaker 2:Really it becomes a ministry.
Speaker 1:It's a huge ministry.
Speaker 2:You minister to them the best you can, wherever they are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there is no easy answer on this one. I think the negatives of putting a parent in a nursing home is it can lead to social isolation, depression, loss of independence and, depending on the quality of the place, like the mistreatment, elder abuse, neglect. Like the mistreatment, elder abuse, neglect. Okay. And then also, if you're putting someone into a financial burden, it could cost $90,000 to $100,000 a year. I mean, think about that, or that's probably on the upward side of it, but still that's a lot of money to care.
Speaker 1:But sometimes if you don't have the skills to take care of them or you know like they can't I mean you don't, I don't know room might be the wrong word for it but like you all of a sudden realize that the financial or not financial burden, but like the burden of care, that you don't have the skills, the capacity, that might be a reason not to. So the thing that you have to do is really I would. This is why you talk to your parents on the front end of like, hey, how do you feel about nursing homes and what do you think about that? And you can live with me anytime.
Speaker 2:My father-in-law would have just rather us take him out and shoot him. No, I'm serious. I mean they live on 100 acres outside of farmersville. He said nobody will know and but I mean that's where he wants to die, and so like, okay, however, we can make that happen like I don't know like he's, but I mean like how?
Speaker 1:do you? Because like three and like still doing great, but you know but how do I mean, like honestly, if a parent says that and you're like, oh man, this is not good. Okay, you should live with me.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not moving yeah, uh, okay, you know they're still your parent. You want to honor them but you want to man if you make?
Speaker 1:you make me feel guilty for doing whatever I did. I'd make them feel guilty for putting them in a nursing home. I make them feel guilty for not putting in a nursing home and staying at their own house where I couldn't care for. Feel guilty when they were at my house and they hated every moment of it. And then my kid's quality of life was taken down. My wife was frustrated because she felt like I put a parent above her.
Speaker 1:Like there's so many different things, and that's why I feel like this is where, going back to the Lord's will, there's God's word, there's God's spirit. There's God's word, there's God's spirit, there's God's people. Whenever you have a question like this, god's word says you need to honor your mother and father. Whoever doesn't take care of their own family is worse than an unbeliever. That's where you go. Okay, all right, that's what God's word says. So what does taking care of them mean? Then you go to God's spirit how does the Lord convict me? And then you run that by the grid of God's people that are in your life elders, leaders, community group leaders, whatever and you go hey, where are you at with that? And then they're able to through that grid when all three of those align. That's how you know you're probably smack dab in the middle of God's will.
Speaker 2:That's a good question. It's a hard one to answer.
Speaker 1:I do feel like it makes me convicted. I need to go talk to my mom about that, Like what would be? You know, my mom is in her 70s and she's fine, but what happens when she's in her 90s? Adrian's parents live in, or Adrian's grandparents live in a nursing home we call it the resort because it's really nice and that makes you probably feel better about it. Anyway, but he's like 96 and she's like 91. Wow, and they still drive.
Speaker 2:That's scary and it's fine.
Speaker 1:He just takes all the back roads and he comes over to the house. Pretty great, that's awesome, but it's wild. So I think there is a real truth in that that taking care of people and honoring them is a big deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and hopefully you can have a conversation beforehand with your parents.
Speaker 1:yeah, that's probably the biggest thing and and make sure you keep having that conversation what? What I mean? Is someone, what someone might say say in 2024, that might change in 2034 well, yeah, it's so different today that it wasn't 1950.
Speaker 2:Like it's a completely different world, completely different expectations. I mean, did nursing homes even exist then?
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 1:I mean yeah, and just because our culture says it's good, that doesn't mean it is Right, because I think there's something really special about your children taking care of elderly people. It makes them a greater respect, a greater love, because when you see your parents taking care of their parents, that's kind of powerful. So again, I think there's so much into that and I really think that the biggest fear for parents is they don't want to be a burden. I don't want to be a burden to my children, so I will do whatever I need to do and suffer, even if that means going to a place that I don't really want to go to, because I don't want you to have to take care of me. So I'd rather take care of myself and pay the $100,000 a year or whatever, so that you aren't burdened by that. And there might be some truth in that, but that might be self-isolation in some ways as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah there's a lot of things that go into that one, so we don't have a good answer for you. I'm sorry, but talk to your community, talk to the Lord and consult God's Word. All right, any?
Speaker 2:other thoughts, you know, going back to the giving thing, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:You know, going back to the giving thing. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, one more one more giving thing.
Speaker 2:Go ahead. You know the question. My people don't know this, unless they're watching, but the thing I think we have to answer is like or the thing our people have to answer is are we going to be consumers or are we going to be contributors?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And part of that is like not just am I a contributor, but am I an owner, like my pet peeves?
Speaker 1:is when people will say well, you know your church and I'm like, you've been here for five years.
Speaker 2:This is like your church. Your church, you know, like I've got a pastor friend who's like, oh well, there's five things that can happen to me as the pastor and four of those five end up with me not being here. So this is way more your church than it is my church.
Speaker 1:I like that.
Speaker 2:So I think that's just important for our people to know. You've got to answer that question who are you? Are you a consumer? Are you just going to float in, drink the coffee, eat the donuts and leave, or are you going to be the person who's like no, this is my church and. I give to it and I'm going to serve in it. I'm going to serve the people who are here, Because I don't think any of us want to just be consumers.
Speaker 1:It's good man, maybe more than that. Anyway, that was my last thought. I love it. Hey, thanks for watching. You can check us out. Oh wait, first off, how do people find you and your church?
Speaker 2:Howdocommunitychurchorg.
Speaker 1:Okay, and do you have your own podcast right?
Speaker 2:Just YouTube stuff.
Speaker 1:Is it just like find Russell Daniel?
Speaker 2:Find Russell Daniel. Yeah, you can find me on YouTube. Russell G Daniel. Ooh, Russell G Daniel.
Speaker 1:Russell G Daniel. Yeah, that's what's up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the things I've started doing is called Stories of Hope. Oh, nice, so we've got two episodes of that, so detailing. Really, it's an encouragement to people who feel like they're lost or feel like there is no hope. There actually is. We have a big and awesome God who does it all the time. That's wild yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that. It's been fun. All right, hey, thanks for watching. If you have any questions, we'll bring Russell back, because I have a feeling that we're going to do future podcasts more with old Russell from Hutto Community. If you have any questions, you can text us at 737-231-0605 or just go to pastorplekcom. We'd love to hear from you. We'd love for you to text in and just let us know what you're thinking. Any questions you have, we'd love to hear from you, from our house to yours. Have an awesome week.