Faith & Purpose

Cailin: Welcome everyone to
Faith and Purpose podcast.

Each episode of this podcast contains the
personal testimony of an ordinary person

transformed by an extraordinary God.

My name is Caitlin and I'm
here to introduce this podcast

for my friend Jesse Duke.

Jesse is a husband, father, author,
life recovery guide, lay counselor,

and small group leader, but his
most important role is disciple.

As a disciple of Jesus.

Jesse created this podcast to help other
believers tell their faith stories.

We'll be hearing the personal
testimonies of all sorts of people

who have one thing in common,
Jesus has transformed their lives.

Jesus used parables because he created
us to learn best through story.

And as we listen to how God has worked
in others lives, we find encouragement

and inspiration for our own faith walk.

Whether you are already a believer, or
just a curious seeker, we believe that

as you listen to these stories, you will
be encouraged on your own faith journey.

We are sure that God can speak to you
through one of these episodes, and that

you will see that our Heavenly Father
truly works all things together for

our good, When we simply love and trust
him if you are currently going through

a trial We believe that you will come
to see that your troubles Heartbreaks

and failures are not gravestones, but
stepping stones into new life in Christ.

Here's Jesse with today's guest

Welcome everybody to the
Faith and Purpose podcast.

Today we have my friend Keith Darnell
from Woodruff, South Carolina.

Welcome Keith.

How are you doing today?

I'm doing great.

It's good to be here.

Well, tell us your story.

What, what is your, what's
your life been about?

My life has been a, I would say a
fairground, lots of different rides, lots

of different activities, experiences.

Uh, grew up in Marietta, South Carolina.

My dad was the, in a family where
we had loggers, we cut putt wood.

They did all kinds of different work and
they also were bootleggers, moonshiners.

And my dad was a runner in the
moonshiners for a long while,

which later on led him into racing.

So grew up in this family.

It was a great family in
Marietta, South Carolina.

It's up in the upper part of
South Carolina, above Travels Rest

in the Greenville County area.

That was.

I guess five years old, uh, my dad
had been to jail for bootlegging

and, and, and assault and battery
and all kinds of crazy stuff.

And when he got out of jail,
they, uh, put him on probation.

So he went to driving a truck.

And so he was gone for
long periods of time.

Then he landed a job at engineer products.

I'm just telling you this to get us
to the beginning of my story where

Christ begins to impact my life.

So my dad.

Gets a job with a company in
Greenville, putting up storage racks

and installing conveyor systems.

And so now he's gone for two weeks,
three weeks at a time out of state.

And so we get to see him every now and
then on the weekends and during racing

season, he would come in and fix the
car on Friday, race on Saturday and

Sunday would be the family day and back
out Sunday night or Monday morning.

So during these periods
of time, he was gone.

My uncle began to invite us.

To go to church, there was a church
up in Marietta called Marietta First

Baptist and they began to, uh, he
began to attend that church and he

wanted us boys to go with him because
he knew we needed to be in church.

He began to realize the need for us
to be in church and so he started

taking us to church with him.

So one weekend, my dad comes home, I
don't know the dates or times, I just

know my dad came in on the weekend.

And my uncle said, Hey, I'm coming
to pick those boys up Sunday

morning, take them to church and
he and my dad, like best friends.

So it's not like this was a truce.

It was like doing what?

And my dad said, no, Sunday's
my only day with the boys.

So we, we spend that day together.

He said, okay.

I just wanted to offer the opportunity.

Well, we boys, according to my dad,
we just bugged the hound out of him.

Cause we enjoy going to church.

Children's church at Mary the first.

It was a blast and it still is to
the day if I understand correctly.

So anyway, that church put a
priority on kids ministry and

that got us wanting to be there.

So we started begging and finally
my dad called and said, all

right, come on and get them.

And then he said he waited around a few
minutes, he said, wait a minute, I need to

go find out what is going on up there that
makes my kids want to go to that church.

So my dad called him back and
said, Hey, if they go into church,

then I'll go to church with them.

So they took us to church.

And that was the beginning step
that the Lord used to get my dad

where he could hear the gospel.

So the lead pastor at
that point was absent.

And there was a pastor called Bill
Cashin, who is a missionary, retired, I

believe today, but he's always on mission.

He's a great guy, great
servant of the Lord.

He was a student at college.

Uh, ministerial student came to
Marietta first and the preacher said,

Billy, you got your guns loaded?

He said, yes, sir.

Let me ready to preach.

And so Billy just went up, you know,
no ready, no prep, just went up to

preach, got up and preach the gospel.

And my dad said something happened
to him during that service.

He ran down the aisle.

He was in the balcony, came all the way
down and went to the front and accepted

Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

And so I'm probably six
years old at this point.

In my life, but I can remember
thinking, this is amazing.

We get to go to church all the
time, but Eddie just got saved.

And my mom got involved in church and
the church built a new building, a new

worship center, new center school, new
area, this old rock church that we've been

going to, they tore it down eventually.

And so anyway, we, I spent my entire
life from that point on in church.

My dad became a deacon, Sunday school
teacher, student department leader.

My mom became church secretary.

She led in the WMU.

So my parents got invested in church and
my dad's testimony was amazing because

throughout his life, he began to live his
life on mission trips and always finding

ways to do labor renewals and go out.

He loved to go out and
canvass communities.

So his role model for me growing up
through high school was pretty impressive.

But in high school, I had, the thing
is when I was about seven or eight.

I got to a place where everybody
in my church, all my family was

going down and being baptized.

So I was just curious, ignorant
of the word of God, ignorant of

the truth of what was going on.

I want to be baptized.

Everybody else is getting baptized.

I want everybody to get baptized.

Well, the pastor sent me
back to talk to my parents.

And I guess they didn't understand
what they needed to say.

But from that day till I was 18, no
one ever, ever just sit down with me

and talk through my experience and
share the gospel with me, knowing the

pastor never shared up at the front,
never prayed with me, never, never

shared with me what the steps I needed
to take to make sure that I understood

that I was accepting Christ as my Lord.

Not just getting a salvation security,
you know, he was going to be my Lord.

No one ever said that now.

And he probably thought that my
parents did, but no one understood

what to do at that point in my life.

And, and so as I grew up, I was
real rebellious because I was

having to go to church all the time.

And so church was like.

It was like coming in, you know, you
had to be in 11 o'clock every night.

So church was not being in 11
o'clock, not something you had to do.

So I grew up in church
and it was probably good.

Cause I got the influence of church.

I have a Bible.

I wish I had it with me this morning.

My family has used it in their weddings.

I have a Bible that I got when I
was, uh, six years old in Crusaders,

which is a program of the Southern
Baptist Convention, of the RAs.

And I was in Sunday school one morning
and realized that all the other guys

in my Crusader class had their Bibles
in church and we would have to open and

read, find verses and find scripture
and I couldn't find none of that.

But I noticed all their Bibles looked
worn and wrinkled and, and, and

was, was flared out at the edges.

Mine was still gold, still up crisp.

I was embarrassed.

I went home that day and took my
little Bible and I wrinkled every page.

I spent an hour.

If I'd have spent that much time every
day reading the Bible, well, I would

have understood why I needed to read it.

But I wrinkled it because see,
I was a poser and I learned

to pose as a Christian.

People say, Hey.

Are you a Christian?

I'm a Christian.

I was baptized when I was eight years
old or seven years old, you know, and I

would always tell people that so I learned
to pretend to be a Christian all those

years and so I graduated high school.

Now in high school, I
was in a lot of trouble.

I was, I was drinking, using
profanity all the time and had become

sexually active when I was like 14.

And so a lot of that stuff in
my life had dominated my life.

And had had, I would say it's
like I had indulged my body.

So my body craves those things
and food was a big craving.

So all those things that I loved in
my life, I made them into cravings.

And so when I graduated high school,
I basically was just gonna go to work.

So for two years, I went to work at
my dad's business and I went all over

the country working and I had the
best of life for a young guy my age.

I was making a lot of money
and didn't know what to do.

I was blowing it as I was making
it on anything I can blow it

on party and play and whatever.

So one thing I had to stay connected,
even though I had moved out of my home,

my mom and I got, I moved out of my home
when I was 18, because I was rebellious.

And I moved in with my youth pastor,
the youth pastor at our church, crazy,

but, and he stayed on me all the time
about things, trying to get me to

realize the reality of what was, but
what had happened up until I was 18 or

when I was 18 years, my senior year.

A youth trip, and I kind of had that, but
I'm going back to it, my senior year, we

did a church camp, and instead of doing
the traditional kind of stuff, this new

guy we hired from South Carolina, he's
passed on now, he came, and he took us

to Sumter, to this little state, South
Carolina park camp, and didn't have

hot water in the boys dorm area, and
so, in the boys bath house, so we had

to run water hoses to take showers,
that's how bad it was, So anyway, it

was way out there and from being up
in the upstate, I'd never seen the

horse flies and experienced mosquitoes
and stuff like they had in Sumter and

the air force base is not fair from
there, so when they would drop bombs

on the practice fields, you can feel
the vibration coming through the water

when you're like, wow, this is weird.

You know, it's like, whoa,
whoa, what in the world?

And so we experienced a lot of
things we never experienced.

And so I had took my girlfriend,
the only reason I really went, my

dad was cooking, my grandmother was
cooking, and my girlfriend was gone.

So at the time I wanted to go because
my girlfriend was going to be there.

And my intentions, they were
not holy or spiritual at all.

My intentions was physical and
because it was a have to situation.

My dad didn't leave me a lot of options.

It was like my last chance.

I guess his last chance
to help me see the light.

So I'm at this camp.

And all week I did what I wanted to do.

My Aunt Rachel was there.

She's passed on before 10.

She was a Sunday school teacher
in the youth, her whole life.

That I remember when she accepted
Christ, she began to teach girls

in Sunday school for years.

But she was always the one to call us up.

She never got married.

She was about four foot six.

She'd call us up.

She'd find out how we were doing.

She'd see you doing something
wrong, she'd get on you about it.

So that week she was at camp too.

All she did, I believe, was follow
me around and call me out when I was

somewhere I wasn't supposed to be.

Whenever I'd get somewhere, that
little girl, get out of my back there.

You ain't supposed to be down there.

It was on and on that way the whole week.

I mean, she would nag me until I
just, oh, about to just scream at her.

But I knew I had to respect her
because that was my dad's sister.

I disrespected her, I'd be in trouble.

So I had a lot of respect and
fear for my dad because he was

a godly man, but he knew how to
bring down the wrath if he had to.

Anyway, on Thursday night of that
week, they did a passion play.

Some college students from North
Greenwood came down and they did a

passion type play where where Jesus
was tried and crucified and I saw that.

And I'd really never seen it in that
likeness, nor have I ever heard the

gospel told in a narrated story,
the way they told it that night, and

it, it, it's just way into my heart.

I had to get up and kind of
move away from everybody.

And I saw other people that night
before I went to bed, kind of.

Crying and praying and
doing things emotionally.

And I wasn't emotional.

I was like, you know, why
are these guys crying?

I know that was impressive, but
that wasn't, nobody got hurt.

Well, no pain for us.

Why don't we cry?

So I didn't understand that.

It sounds silly, but I'm just
giving it to you the way it was.

Then the next morning I
go to our group meeting.

My youth pastor, Mike, gets up and he
starts to share his testimony and he talks

about how his life was before Christ.

And the crazy thing was his life before
Christ sounded like my life right then.

All the desires and things he was seeking
in his life, I was seeking in my life.

And none of it was good.

And he said, that was before Christ.

He said, and then he had written a
song about it, but he talked about how.

In the song, how his life was
at a desperate end, he didn't

want to live any longer.

And then he met, then somebody had
shared the gospel with him and he,

and he repented and received Christ
in his heart and how God had turned

his life around and how his life
had a new purpose, a new meaning.

And I heard all that.

And I was like, wait a minute.

Man, maybe, maybe, maybe I'm not saved.

Nothing about me is saved.

Nothing about me is, I've never even
thought about a relationship with Christ.

What he's talking about is like,
he's like talking to his dad.

And I've never even thought
about Jesus as my dad.

My dad is my dad.

But all of a sudden, you know, this year
I'm going out for the football team.

I'm going to be a senior, I'm
going to be a football player.

And I'm going to be a defensive lineman.

And I'm thinking in my mind.

I'm about to cry.

Emotions are overcoming me, and I
don't want nobody to see me crying.

So I walked away from the crowd
slowly and eased down the hill, and

my Aunt Rachel didn't follow me.

I don't know why, but she didn't.

Maybe she did, and just
didn't come down there.

Because when I got down there, there
was a bench by the lake where you

could sit and fish, and I went down
and sat on that bench, and that's

where I had my Come to Jesus meeting.

And I told the Lord, I said, Lord, I
don't know what I did when I was baptized.

But I know for a fact that I wasn't saved.

I know for a fact if I died today,
I would not be with you in eternity.

I would be separate for eternity.

And the wisdom to know how to say
that had to come from the Holy

Spirit because nothing in me was
smart enough to think like that.

But I remember those words and I remember
out verbally articulating those words

out loud, emotionally broken, knowing
that I was lost and needed Jesus.

And I remember just saying,
God, I want to receive you.

I want you to be my Lord and Savior.

I want you to be the Lord
of my life this day forward.

I receive you as my Lord and Savior.

I want to be saved.

And that is the day that I will
tell anybody that I was saved.

Now, all of that up, that
was a great experience.

I didn't tell nobody I got home.

Now my cousin had done the same
thing and I overheard a conversation

of two adults that were in church.

Uh, one, uh, had just gotten
saved and, uh, was being baptized.

I had been baptized, but that next
Sunday when we got home, my cousin

went up forward and presented herself.

As a candidate for
Christianity and Baptism.

Now she was baptized back when we all
were, but I overheard two adults on the

phone, and one of the conversations,
one of the statements was made that

it just seems silly that she would go
up and be presented to be re baptized

because she'd already been baptized.

Why do we need to baptize her again?

And so at that point, I thought, well,
it's going to be embarrassing if I

go tell people that I just got saved.

And so I put it, I filed that next
conversation of going to be baptized.

I filed away two years later,
now I'm working for my dad.

I am going to camp as a
helper, set up recreation guys.

I had to set up recreation for
them and all that kind of stuff.

My senior year in high school was
the best year academically and

I was living it as a believer.

Okay.

Somewhere towards the end of my senior
high school, I got caught up with

some guys and, and doing a little bit
of partying, but it wasn't the same.

There was like, there was no longer
a concern that my parents are going

to catch me doing what I shouldn't
be doing because I was aware of the

fact that God had already caught me.

I was under conviction that I never
had before, which further confirms that

my salvation was at 18, not later on.

So as I went on, I still struggled.

I was given into peer pressure and
those indulgences were calling my name.

Okay.

Eating was out of control.

The eating disorder was out of control.

A little bit of drinking,
not a lot of drinking.

The sexual misconduct, the, the, the,
the, the looking and participating

in things I probably shouldn't have
been, was always a pressure, a draw.

And so that was trying to rule me, but
the conviction was overpowering me.

I didn't go to church
anymore because I had to.

I went to church because I
wanted to, I wanted to learn.

I was way behind.

I was way behind where I thought I
should have been as 18, living that

many years, over almost 20 years in
church, excuse me, 10 years in church.

And I should have known better than
doing some of the things I was doing.

So I was struggling with that in my life.

And so finally, uh, my second year
out of high school, helping at

the camp, we were doing the drama.

I was in the drama then, helping with it.

And man, something about it
just struck me and I just knew

something special was going on.

And I felt like a draw into ministry
and I felt like man, cause the pastor

said something near the invitation
that maybe some of you sitting here,

you just feel like there's something's
going on in your life right now.

Maybe God's trying to get your attention.

He wants you to serve him
for the rest of your life.

And now that hit me like, that's
exactly what I'm trying to figure out.

That's what I'm trying to say.

And so I went home.

I tried to tell my dad, my mom
and dad and my parents were like,

look, we spent 12 years fighting.

It's in your education and
you've bowed through it away.

And I'm like, look, I need
to go back to college.

They're like, you go to
college, you go on your own.

You know, we're not
going to be part of that.

Which was justifiable.

As I played in school, I was, I could
have been as smart as anybody wanted

to be, but I threw it away because
I was lazy and rebellious and just

wanted to do what I had to do to make
a passing grade to get through it.

And that was evident when I had to go to
summer school, take history in English

and pass it with a B or not get credit for
it my senior year before my senior year.

And I went in and got A's and B's in both.

And my mom was like,
Oh, are you kidding me?

So anyway, so they didn't want to invest.

So my dad gave me some advice.

I went in his office at his
business and I said, Dad, I feel

like God's calling me in ministry.

The youth pastor and everybody's
saying I need to go to school that

they can get me in at North Greenville.

And I think I probably need to do that.

My dad was like, well, that's great.

And so those.

Somebody from North Greenville, I know
his, his name was Mason Easterling.

Great serve at North
Greenville all them years.

I think he serves at Anderson now.

Mason came to my dad's work and
tried to share with my dad, the

importance of getting me in school
and how they could help me And my

dad called me back in his office.

He said, all right, son, this is what
we're going to do is if you're going to

work for me one more year, at the end of
that year, if you feel, if you still feel

called to go to school, then we'll support
you to do, I'll help you do whatever

we need to do to get you in school.

So one more year, I went to work
traveling on the road, selling

equipment, whatever we need to do.

And so nothing changed.

My commitment, my, my, my
draw, my conviction was

stronger that year than ever.

My walk with the Lord increased daily.

My youth pastor gave me a
Bible that I still have today.

It's duct taped together, but it
was a Bible I read all the time.

And so God, the Lord got my
attention, got me on the right path.

And I began to head towards
that call into ministry.

At the end of the year, the end of that
year, I'm registering at North Greenville.

Trying to get my finances together.

And look, how am I going to
get finances to go to a school?

Of course, then it was
only like 5, 500 a year.

You know what I'm saying?

Which was nothing, but to me,
it was a lot making 300 a week.

You know what I'm saying?

So to me, it was a lot.

My tech, my paycheck, I think
was like 275 a week, normal

hours, 40 hour week working.

I got my confirmation letter.

And my financial package letter from
North Greenville one day, and when I

opened it up, it was, I owed exactly 275.

They somehow have fixed this thing
just so that I can get in school.

And so I never have, I never had to
ask my parents to pay for my schooling.

Now, once I left North Greenwood,
went to Charleston Southern, and when

I graduated college, I had an 1, 800
student loan that occurred over the time

at North Greenville, and my mom picked
that loan up and paid it off for me.

So, basically, I had one little loan
I paid off at Charleston Southern,

but it was kind of paying itself off,
because by the time I was a senior,

I was getting all kinds of money.

So, I graduated Charleston
Southern University under the name

of Babbage College, Charleston.

So, I have two diplomas.

So, I tell everybody, that's
both my diplomas, all I need.

Anyway, it was.

Me taking those steps.

So I left during the summers.

Between, between one year in the
Nakeson College, I took a job working

at a place called Camp Pine Hill
in Bennettsville, South Carolina.

And I worked for a guy there, his
name was Marion Lee, he passed on.

His name, his real name that we
called him was Bull Lee, B U L L.

He was a football coach, graduated from
Newberry College, football coach, big

old rascal looking, had big old forearms.

We called him Popeye Arms, you know, but
he was just a great guy, loved the Lord.

Share the gospel anywhere
and anytime he could.

What a great role model.

And I remember my first year working
with him, he would, he and I would go

sit down and, uh, he would share a story
about walking with Christ and, and he

and I had a great relationship and he
would pray for him and pray together.

And so I worked the summers at a
summer camp called Camp Pine Hill

as my first year as a counselor,
slash assistant director.

And the rest of my years
there was assistant director.

I also met my wife there.

At this camp and my first year,
you know, I fall heads over

heels for cause I'm just crazy.

But I don't know how to respect God's gift
because again, my indulgences are bad.

And she's not going to put
up with that kind of pressure

or indulgence or whatever.

And so I knew that from the get go.

Plus, she's the perfect person for me
to, to maybe get some of that out of

my system and get my focus back on just
having a relationship with the Lord.

And so we kind of get together
at the first summer, we were

to camp, which was in 85.

During that year.

Things didn't, you know, because
I was gone, she was gone, absence,

you know, allowed us to kind of
drift in different directions.

She had kind of got back with
an old guy, old boyfriend, which

they eventually got engaged.

So the next summer I'm out and, but, but
in my mind, I know there's nobody else

I would ever want to be with, but her.

And so it's a tough situation.

So another series of events, the
Lord works things in mysterious ways.

And mom got through all
those events because.

It could, it could lead
people to ask crazy questions.

But anyway, a series of events took place.

Um, where my wife had to make some
decisions that summer, cause her

plan was to get married later on.

So I ended up, she called the
wedding off and she and I got

together at the end of that summer.

We began to work through things that next
year and we had a great relationship.

But it's just been one of those things
at the camp the last Thursday night

of the week, coach Bully told me.

And Claire to stay down and put the fire
out, which he never, we never did that.

We never promoted relationships.

That was tough to do when
you're working together.

We worked at Camp Pioneer for almost
five years and we were dating the whole

time and nobody ever knew we were dating.

So he knew, Coach Lee knew that I was
going to ask her to marry me that night.

And I already laid the whole plan out.

So he asked her to stay back, help me
put the fire out and make sure everything

was straightened up when we come back.

Cause like the end of the
summer, he wanted to make sure

everything was done down there.

So we walk up to the road, we're talking.

And that summer we had did the master
life study and that was our orientation.

I led our counselors through master
life and you know, the part of that

master life deals with man, the cross.

Talks about man being a man.

The other part is talking about
man's relationship with God, man's

relationship with each other,
man's relationship with God.

So we built a prayer garden.

Down by a well, and in the middle of
that prayer garden, between the benches,

we put a heart shaped bed of rocks,
and in the rocks, we embedded a cross

tie cross, built out of cross ties.

It was on the ground.

When you walk down there, you see
the cross, see the heart shape,

and the cross, Jesus in your heart.

And so, that end of the summer,
I walked her down to that cross.

And I said, we sit down on the cross and I
said, let's, let's go down here and pray.

And thank the Lord for this great summer
because this is where it all began.

Me and her prayed, sat on that cross.

So we went down there and we sat on the
cross and, and I told her how God had

put her in my life and that I needed her.

And so it was all part of my
spiritual journey, major part.

And so that was on that cross that
sat on those two, on that cross

member that I asked her to be my wife.

And she said, yes, thank goodness.

And so we got engaged at Camp Pine Hill.

And so I tell you that because
we got married my last year

at Charleston Southern.

As a student, I was married,
living in an apartment with her.

I graduated Charleston Southern and we
took the full time job at Camp Pine Hill.

My wife is a school teacher.

She, she, she got a job in Bennettsville
and I was the camp director at

Camp Pine Hill, living at camp.

And that was in 89.

We stayed there until 94.

In 94.

I felt a call to pastor a church or more
toward the pastoral because the thing

about camp is it's great in the summer.

You can't top it in the summer.

There's no spiritual mountains
you can ever get to that is

high as watching children come
to Christ through the summer.

But when the kids go home at last week
and all the counselors leave and it's

just me and Claire, it's a lonely place.

And it's like, it'd be like
sitting in a sanctuary of a

church and nobody ever comes.

Just sitting there waiting
for the next group.

And the groups would come,
they just wanted you, at that

point you became a facility, a
facility caretaker at the camp.

And so, I didn't understand, I was
too young to understand what I needed

to do spiritually to make it work.

And so I was doing work because
the camp couldn't pay us a lot.

So I was all sitting in my paid camp with
other work and doing some work with my

dad still on the road that was anywhere
close I could drive to get home in a day.

And so camp was fun.

We'd start hiring our counselors
in January, but by the time summer

came, we were ready to go and boom.

And then you had that
letdown at the end of August.

And it was like, Oh, and so you had
a whole three, four months of just.

Trying to figure things out,
and I'm not built for that.

I'm built for a continuous, something's
going to be happening in my life.

I don't want this sitting
back waiting or being idle.

We were very active in our churches.

Matter of fact, I was a deacon at the
church we attended in Bennettsville, but

I also took the job as the interim pastor
of a church, Bruton Fort Baptist Church

in Bennettsville, which was the first
church, the chairman of deacons there

was on the board of trustees at the camp.

And so in 1994, Or during that
summer, we were talking, and he

knew how summers were for me.

And he asked me, he said, is
camp what you say you're doing

for the rest of your life?

I said, I don't know.

I love it.

I love it.

But I don't know that that's
what I really need to be doing.

And he said, well, would you consider
being the full time pastor of the church?

And I'm like, I've never
really thought about that.

Let me pray about it.

Let me put that to the Lord and see.

In the back of my mind, I knew
that I already, in my heart,

knew that's where I needed to be.

And so I think it was 1994.

I resigned from camp and took
Bruton Fork as full time pastor.

And I was there until
2000, to the year 2000.

We celebrated Y2K!

I remember the little 2000
confetti we were throwing around

and the world didn't shut down.

It was so much fun, you know,
so I was pastored there.

It was a great experience being a pastor.

I still felt called toward young
people, but, and we, and that was

Intel cause we went to a church and
had about the first time I went there.

We had seven people, we had like
12, 13 people, then at night

we came back and we had seven.

So that's where we started.

And then we left there and we're
averaging around 78 to 80 people.

But, uh, a lot of those were young people.

My wife started driving the van,
picking up kids, bringing them.

And it was just a great experience.

And we're, but I began to deal with
some things in church in my life.

Personally that I wasn't ready for it was
church politics didn't, didn't like it.

Didn't understand it.

I began to go to the convention
meetings and I was watching

things happen on a global scale
that I really didn't understand.

And it was just, y'all ain't what
in the world's happening, you know?

And when I was at Bruton Fork, one
of the big challenges we had there.

One of the big ones was I got to a place
where I began to realize that we're

out here in the country, a bunch of
farmers, I can sit on the front porch.

When I'm doing my Bible study and wave
at my neighbor, going down the road on

his tractor, you know what I'm saying?

So it's like, we're in a farm land.

And on Sunday morning, I'm looking
out and nobody in church has got a

town, but me, I'm looking at my suit
and tie, my double breasted suit, my

tie that I'm having to spend three,
400 on, but I'm weighing 350 pounds.

You don't say I'm a big old boy and I got
to go to a special place to buy suits.

And I'm like, this is what am I doing?

I'm up here like a dad gone.

I felt like I was a million dollar
portrait just sit in the country.

And it was doing them a sit
and nobody understood it.

It didn't mean nothing to anybody, it
was just sitting there, going to waste,

cause the people who really appreciated
it, wouldn't even, you know, wasn't there.

And so I'd heard a story, or I went
to a conference where this guy was

talking about, in his church, they were
very casual, and uh, they just quit.

They just threw the dress code
out, and started inviting people.

And I remember as a kid growing up,
with my granddaddy, who was my hero

as a boy, He died when I, right
in the year I graduated college,

high school, but my granddaddy got
saved when he was 62 years old.

And I remember our pastor making the
comment that he'd go to my granddaddy

and try to invite him to church.

And my granddaddy said, I
ain't got nothing but overalls.

And the pastor said, if you wear overalls,
I'll wear overalls to preach you.

That's what the pastor told him.

But anyway, my granddaddy ended up
getting saved when he was like 61 or 62.

He died like the next year or so.

But I remember I used to go over on
Wednesday nights after church, and he'd

play the banjo and sing him old bluegrass
songs, just before he was even saved.

But after he got saved, was the only one
not talking to him, and my granddaddy

said, son, said, said, said, I've searched
for happiness for many, many years.

He said, I never had true
happiness until I found Jesus.

He said, whatever y'all boys
do, don't waste your life.

I remember him saying that.

It stuck in my mind.

How old were you when he told you that?

That was probably when I was, that was 17.

That was leading up to
the conviction coming.

The Lord was preparing
my heart for all that.

Because I was beginning to see things.

At a realer standpoint.

And so that was the, the kicker when
I accepted the call to ministry.

Let me take you back there.

When I come home that year,
I guess it was 1992, 93, 93.

I came home from summer camp that year.

And my dad was like, son,
I think you really called.

And I got that letter.

I've skipped this open.

I apologize for that.

I got that letter from North
Greenwood acceptance letter.

And all I owed was as much
money as I had in my pocket.

Right.

Then I just cashed my check.

I owed that much money,
and I just humbucked it up

and sent it to North Green.

So I went to my granddaddy's grave up
on Holiness Hill, and I sat down by his

grave, not because I thought he was there.

I knew he was in heaven.

I sat down by his grave and I said
this to the Lord, I said, Lord, my

granddaddy taught me a powerful lesson.

Probably one of the few lessons that
he taught me that were real and good.

He taught me that he wasted his
life and he asked me not to do that.

I don't want to do that.

I don't want to waste my life.

So from this day forward, whatever I
can do to serve you, I want to do that.

When I said to call the ministry, I said
it at my granddaddy's grave and that's

where I made that prayer of commitment.

So anyway, I'm going to jump you back
forward now to where we're, we're at

this church, Pastor in this church,
and some cool things have happened.

We've started having some
revivals, people getting saved, our

little, our small little church.

Led our association and baptism
was like a couple of years in a row

because people were getting saved.

And we were sharing the gospel.

Listen, I overshare the gospel.

I make sure they understand that
it's not just about a prayer.

You say it's about something
you feel in your heart.

It's got to be an experience that
you know, because nobody gets saved

without Christ, without Jesus drawn,
Holy spirit, drawing them to Jesus.

Nobody comes to the father
without Christ drawing them in.

So I know that there's a spiritual
movement happening where Christ

is out there drawing people.

But I also believe in the
heart of that we've got a

responsibility to share that gospel.

So I've always shared the gospel because
I don't ever want people to go through

what I went through as a kid and be
opposed to their life in their lifetime

and not know who Christ is genuinely
and have a relationship with him.

So while I was at Bruton Fort, I
got a situation where a lady came to

my office after a revival meeting.

Reverend Paul Noe preached
revival in our church.

And one night after the revival meeting,
a lady came in my office and she

said, Pastor, I mean, I got to pray.

I got to do it.

She said, when I was eight years old, I
got baptized at my church as a kid, and

I thought I meant it, but I'm not sure.

She said, but I do know for
certain tonight that I received

Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

And I said, first of all, just know that I
don't believe you can lose your salvation.

So you need to know right now, if you
believe tonight was the night that you

got saved, the night you got saved.

She said, well, my
question is not about that.

But I know tonight I got saved,
but do I need to be re baptized?

So I called my mentor pastor, Maurice
Ensign, who asked me numerous times

before he ordained me in the ministry
to share if I was sure that when I was

a kid, and I passed up numerous times
to confess, I got saved when I was 18.

I had many opportunities that I
kept passing up, kept passing up.

So here I am now, pastor of a church.

I said, well, here's my problem, Maurice.

I need to tell you something.

I told him, I said, I
should have told you.

As I guess I was just
embarrassed or my pride.

I said, here I am.

I'm still posing.

I've been posing as a pastor.

I'm trying to be Charles
Stanley or Agent Rogers.

I'm still trying to be
somebody that I'm not.

And he told me, he said, you
need to read Wild at Heart.

And I said, okay, I'll read it.

Let me, when I get a chance, I'll read it.

So anyway, he said, yes,
you do need to be baptized.

So I called the Cherry Creek Dickens
Eye Church, which was Allen Evans.

And I said, Alan, I said, I'm
doing baptism service Sunday.

He always, he would always come
and fill the water up and put the

heat in it and get it all ready.

I said, Alan, we're doing baptism Sunday.

He said, I know, I got your water ready.

I said, well, you need to
bring a change of clothes.

He said, why?

I said, because you got
to baptize me first.

And so, so

that's Sunday morning.

I got up and told my story to the
congregation that I was pastoring,

and they gave me an ovation.

And I went in to baptize, baptize
the martyrs, I was baptized.

And then I baptized five more people.

So the Lord is doing work, and that lady
was, and those people are still in church.

Still committed to the Lord.

God done some great work in
my life during that period.

I knew some growing up.

Let me ask you a question
about the baptism.

So what you were up against was
the traditional belief that if you

were baptized as a child or any
time previously, that you weren't

supposed to get baptized again.

Is that what you're talking about?

What I was up against was the belief
that baptism is for believers.

Right.

A person who had believed, had
received Christ in their heart,

because it's a following up of baptism.

It's a representation of,
I have died to myself.

I'm burying my old life in the
grave, and I'm being resurrected,

that I will be in the future.

I'll be resurrected a new
person in Christ Jesus.

That's what baptism represents.

That's what the Bible
teaches about baptism.

And so that's why I believe.

That I had to be rebaptized because I had
never been baptized as a believer Being

baptized as a kid is just getting wet.

I know that's a hard say for some people
But it's we don't live about what we

feel nor about what some theologian came
up with We live about what the bible

teaches And I know this that there's
one right interpretation of the bible

and that's god's interpretation through
the holy spirit And man, there's a

lot of people out there today that do
infant baptisms even, that they still

will do submersion baptism as an adult.

If you come back later on and
say, Hey, I need to be baptized.

I won't mention any names, but
I know some great pastors that

practice submersion baptism.

Cause later on people come back
who are in their denomination.

They say, Hey, I've got to be baptized.

The Bible is true.

We live in by the Bible and God's word.

And when the Bible says baptizing them
and the word baptism means to take under.

You know what I'm saying?

Okay, now I know what you mean, because
my parents had me sprinkled as a baby

in the Methodist church, thinking
that would kick me out of hell.

But it wasn't my free will decision,
you know, I was just a baby.

So, many years later, after I was actually
born again, I asked my Presbyterian

pastor about getting baptized, and
he said something like, It would be

an act of unbelief to get baptized
again, but the opposite was true.

I needed to get baptized as a true
believer because that fire insurance my

parents had gotten for me wasn't, wasn't
biblical because I was just a baby.

I didn't make that decision.

So, later on, I did get submerged.

About 20 years ago, I got submerged,
uh, by a non denominational pastor

at a, at a YMCA swimming pool.

Uh, To testify to my belief and it
was the right thing to do because

then I was a believing believer.

So I, I think that's something
like what you were doing.

When Jesus was baptized, John
the Baptist baptized him.

It was a representation
of, hey, I'm going to die.

I'm going to be buried.

I'm going to be resurrected.

John the Baptist knew what baptism meant.

He knew who Christ was.

He knew he was going to be killed.

He knew he was going to be buried.

He knew he was going to resurrect
because the scriptures in the Old

Testament tell us he's coming back.

He's going to read
three days in the grave.

Jesus kept prophesying that whole time.

I'm going to be dead, buried,
resurrected in three days.

I'll come back.

Turn this temple down.

He wasn't talking about the big temple.

He was talking about this temple.

The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Carried down three days, I'm coming back.

The Bible teaches me that when I
am absent, when I'm dead in the

flesh, when I'm absent from the
body, I am present with the Lord.

Just like that, I'll be with God.

So anyway, that's why we
went through the baptism.

That was why that experience
is impactful for me today.

I have not lost my fire and my zeal
to do exactly what I did that day.

and to share Jesus.

Man, I get a chance to share Jesus.

I'm gonna do it.

Give me an opportunity.

Give me a person.

I've learned some of the
things I've learned growing up.

I went through a thing called
experiencing God through Henry Blackaby.

Great study.

And people liked it and they disliked it.

I don't care.

For me, the Lord uses all kinds of
tools to train us and equip us and

prepare us for the work of the ministry.

But in there is where I began to
realize that there was some things

in my life that wasn't right.

The book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge.

Great book.

I read it.

All of a sudden I began to
realize that I was a poser.

There was a lot of things I was doing
in my life that wasn't adding up to

what God had called me to do still.

I was trying to be somebody else's
ministry instead of being who I am.

I didn't call this polished,
clean cut, finished guy.

He called old redneck hillbilly out
of the mountains to come and preach

the gospel to people who would
look at him and say, man, you ain't

there, but a simple minded hillbilly.

That's okay.

Who were the disciples?

You know what I'm saying?

Why do I need, why does God need
me to be somebody he's already got

when he don't have anybody like me?

So I didn't be me.

So I began to try to be me
and I brought all that up.

That long story.

I know to bring you to this point.

One of the issues we had at the church
was, I stopped wearing a suit and tie.

I just wore a casual
shirt, maybe a t shirt.

Now, it was clean.

I didn't look like a bum.

I didn't go up there dressed
like a junkie, you know.

I went in there like a regular guy.

Sometimes I wear blue jeans,
you know what I'm saying?

And so I knew I didn't want to take it
too far, but I tried to, I just tried

to be casual and I led the church to
understand that people can come to do

not, I had church members saying to
people, well, if you need a suit, I'll

go buy you one, which is probably nice.

They couldn't go buy them a suit,
but they didn't need a suit.

They didn't need to go buy
them a suit to come to church.

And so that was one of the, the, the
rough areas of that ministry, that

church, uh, they couldn't, they didn't
like the fact that I was not willing

to, that I didn't want to wear a tie.

I could, I was willing.

Anytime we did a wedding or a funeral,
I'd work tiny time, but I just

wanted to share the gospel as it was.

Right.

I wanted to preach the word
and teach the word as I was.

It wasn't a distraction.

And I understood that on the mission field
that all missionaries have to understand

as Paul says, there's some times you
got to become all things to all people.

And Jesus said, I ain't come
to heal the ones that are

well, I come to heal the sick.

The sick aren't going out to
buy a suit to come to church.

The sick, sick are far from God.

They're not gonna, they don't, they
don't care if I got a tile or not.

Matter of fact, they're
gonna feel bad if I don't.

So that was my point of, the
message I was trying to get across

was that I'm here for the loss.

And a lot of us don't care
about the things of God.

A lot of us don't care about our
steeples, don't care about the new

paint on the walls, the walkways, the
crosses sitting all around our buildings,

they don't care about none of that.

What they want to know is,
what is it about your life

that's different than my life?

And so that was where I began to grow as a
Christian for the first time, really grow.

I began to realize that I had to start
taking some real steps toward maturity.

I ended up going from there, from
Root Fort, going back into student

ministry, student education, because
I wanted to, I wanted to try to get

Sunday schools and, and different
Sunday schools in the Baptist church.

Most of the traditional churches
have a Sunday school department.

And so I was an education pastor.

I wanted to try to guide Sunday schools
into a place where we begin to, to

have Bible studies other than what was
bringing through Sunday school quarterly,

into small group type stuff, finding
ways to mentor people and, and making

sure our curriculum was Bible based,
not some kind of curriculum that tells

a story and adds a Bible verse to it.

I wanted it to be a curriculum
that taught the Bible.

Bible says faith comes by hearing,
hearing by the Word of God.

And so I want them to
hear the Word of God.

I had a situation once at a church I
was at where a lady that went to church,

who worked at the church, when you had
a conversation with her, you could tell

her spiritual depth was kind of shallow.

She was very committed, very dedicated
to attending church every week.

If you have a spiritual
conversation, it wasn't very deep.

It was very shallow and very worldly.

Kind of a worldly, well, you
know, I watched such and such

on TV and this is what they say.

And I kind of agree with that.

And I'm like, that's totally wrong.

That's totally wrong.

So either way, we had a program called
Awana that we started and Awana has this

thing called a listening room and every
kid memorizes Bible verses every week.

And they would come, you had me adults
sitting at these tables in the listening

room and these kids one on one come
to that listening room and quote that

Bible verse, scripture and verse.

That's totally wrong.

That's totally wrong.

One after the other, over and
over again, year after year, that

lady sit in my listening room
and heard kids quote the Bible.

And years later, when that church
went through a big traumatic

experience, that lady was one of the
spiritual leaders in that church.

Cause she didn't let them
deviate from God's word.

She didn't let them, you can go to her
right now, throw out some false ideology.

It sounds good.

And she'd laugh at you
cause she knows God's word.

Cause she got a hunger for God's word.

And I'm telling you, faith comes
back here and the only way to

please God, it takes faith.

You want to obey God.

You want to do what God wants you to do.

You got to have faith.

You got to be willing to move forward.

And the only way you're
gonna move forward is faith.

And the only way you're gonna have faith
is to trust God's word and to realize

that God's word's already covered this.

That's right.

That nothing we're facing, it's caught
God off guard, you know what I'm saying?

Everything that we face in life, no
matter how modern we think we are,

no matter how great technology is,
and no matter how, what was the word

they used on the news the other night?

Progressive.

No matter how progressive we think
we're getting, God's word, as old as

time, is still relevant and alive.

And it still changes lives today.

And so that's an awesome point.

Yeah.

So we follow that story.

I leave, I go from there to Calvary
Baptist church in Augusta and I

stayed there for a couple of years.

It was kind of a stopover because
my next journey was Jackson first

Baptist church in Jackson, Georgia.

And we left Calvary to go to
Jackson and at Jackson, we, we

encountered a great experience.

They're just a great pastor.

And we got there.

Who was all about discipleship, and
he, he actually does a thing called,

he had a ministry called Renewing the
Right Spirit, and which is based on, he

was part of the Henry Blackabee videos.

Him and his wife were sitting
in the videos, if you ever buy

the video series of that series.

And so he was big into
that, part of that link up.

So that was kind of a help to begin to
realize that God's at work around us

at all times, and to see God at work.

Learn those markers.

God called me to ministry.

There's specific things
that God used in my life.

First of all, when God got my
attention, he got my attention by

showing me when I was lost, that I
was lost, that I needed a savior.

And I'll never forget how he did that
through testimony, through realizing in my

own spirit where I was and understanding
that what God's trying to do.

And that's why I got saved.

Then when he called me to ministry,
realizing In ministry, what was going on

around me and my circumstances, but also
realizing that what I was experiencing in

my own life through God's word was guiding
me to go preach and teach the word of God.

And so step for step, I began to
realize how God was speaking to my

heart, how God speaks in my life.

It's not an audible word that I hear,
it's not a dog talking or donkey talking.

It's a spiritual movement inside of me.

It's a reckoning from, here I am, and
here's where I need to be, and I got

to do this and this to get there, and
this is, but why do I need to get there?

And that's where I begin to realize,
it's like, I know I'm not saved, I know

I need to be saved, and this is where I
need to be over here, but here I am, and

so what do I need to do to get there?

And so, God leading me
through that journey.

And that next few minutes to
accept Him as my Lord and Savior.

God leading me through that journey.

Here I am not in ministry.

Here I need to be in ministry.

Boy, I need to get there.

Understanding the surrender, the total
surrender of my life, my everything,

my trust that God financially
would have handled me, take care

of me, that I don't have to worry
about money anymore in my life.

You know what I'm saying?

Never do I have to
worry about money again.

And I'm not rich, but I've never had,
anytime we're at, we're at the bottom.

There may be a need.

I know you want me to share a story
too, from experience of struggles.

Let me give you this one.

When my daughter Hannah was born, my wife
decided to take a year off from teaching.

This I'm pastor at Bruton Fort
church, Baptist church, and they're

paying me about 18, 19, 000 a year.

All right.

Hannah makes our fourth child.

Okay.

So we've got three kids already.

We've got another one coming.

And my wife who is making a lot more
money than I'm making is teaching

school is taking a year off.

And we trust that God's
gonna take care of us.

I remember going through that year,
and I got up one Sunday, I said, what

do you want to do for lunch today?

And she said, I don't know.

And I said, well, let's see
what we got in the cabinet.

Opened up the cabinet, we
had a couple cans of soup.

Opened up the freezer, there was no meat.

Refrigerator had a couple little things.

Had some milk for breakfast,
you know, a little bit.

But we were, we were strapped.

Financially, at that moment, right there,
we had nothing really to eat, substantial,

but a few little things, which was no big
deal to us, and we had no income, so we

just paid all our bills to go get moving.

And I said, well, after church,
we'll just make do with what

we got, the Lord will provide.

After church, a lady in our
church, her and her husband owned

a grocery store in Bennettsville.

Her dad worked with her
at that grocery store.

They rotated crops, they rotated.

Stock that morning on Sunday morning,
they had to do it once a year.

They had to rotate once every so
often they had to rotate stock.

They backed up to my front door and
reloaded crate after crate after

crate, fresh milk, orange juice,
cereal foods, all these meats.

We, my wife and I literally
went up and down the road,

giving people food that morning.

Afternoon that they had brought
to our house, delivered milk.

We knew we couldn't make all that milk,
but that day we had enough food to

sustain us for probably two, three months.

Great story.

So that was, that's the story.

How God has taken care of that and
all my life, God has taken care of

that we need to come back to another.

What we need to do is come back
to another podcast where I just

share some highlights of ministry.

Yeah, I'd like and I'll just come back
and share some stories because I got

some funny funny stories and some great
highlights how God's where to be very

emotional, but it'd be a good story.

So let me move on to Jackson
cause faith was getting out there

that faith that my wife had.

She's always had great faith and
I have I have learned her faith.

Over the years and, and her faith is
a push for me to keep moving on and

keep working hard and keep finding
ways to, to do what God wants me to do.

So go to Jackson.

We started in Jackson four years, the
same children and education there.

We saw God do some great work.

We read, we revamped their
committee structure and made it

teams, more of a team structure.

And then everybody's like, well,
we've got to call them teams.

Well, we don't have to.

But the thing about a committee is you've
got a set committee, but a team is anybody

who wants to be a part of the team.

I said, so if you're on a Benevolence
team, and your job is to take care

of people when there's bereavement,
Benevolence, take care of anything

the church does food wise to take care
of ministry need, then you need more

than three or four people on the team.

So y'all need a big team.

You need about, I think, 16
or 17 people at one time.

I believe that's true.

So anyway, so all these people
on the team, and we fixed all

the teams so they could increase
their numbers if they needed to.

Try to use the teams instead
of doing so much of the capital

improvement campaign stuff.

Just use your team already built in and
then use that same concept and go forward.

You already got people doing the work.

Why go out and get a whole new group and
get them involved instead of utilize your

teams and let your teams grow if they need
to grow, let them grow to fit the need.

And so anyway, we're able to do that.

And that's a lot of people
except Christ there.

We left that to go to Myrtle beach.

Took a job there at Beach Church,
was confronted with probably

one of the biggest dilemmas.

I was actually told by a
pastor there at the church.

That I didn't fit at the beach, that,
that I was a redneck country boy,

and I didn't really belong there.

The pastor told me that.

And the truth is I think he
wanted my salary back because

I was hired before he came.

And I was getting a real pretty
substantial salary for my

position, for what he needed.

And he ended up putting my part
time people in the position I had

and then using that money to hire.

Uh, somebody to come in and do the
small groups, lead small groups,

probably smart on that point.

He didn't have to break me down.

The breakdown was humbling
for me though, I needed it.

It was hurtful.

Brought out a lot of emotions
and some of that redneck carnal

pride was, he, he called it out.

I'm about to show it.

It was like crazy.

But he and I, we ended up, it was
one of those things where the Holy

Spirit through his conviction wouldn't
just let you walk away from it.

He continued to bring us, me and him,
back together to, to forgive each other

and to, although I was getting angry
too, I was saying things about him.

I shouldn't have said, I would
never say that about a, a

leading pastor of a church.

Here I am now.

I'm angry now.

I'm letting my flesh win and
because I'm angry and I didn't

feel like I was being disciple.

So anyway, I just resigned.

Didn't have a job.

I just resigned.

And out of frustration, out of
feeling unwanted, Just resigned.

It was a church that had over 80
some volunteers in my department,

uh, 200 some kids every week.

Um, my pride is probably why I went there.

I probably should have never left Jackson.

I'm second guessing some of that because
I didn't really have that marker to go,

but I saw the opportunity to go and went.

And, uh, instead of cleaning up some mess
that I had in Jackson, I just walked,

I just kind of said, well, it's not my
place to fix that and walked away from it.

I'm a peacemaker.

My job is to make peace.

And when I try to make peace
and don't make, I need to find

another way, find a way to do it.

And there's one situation when I
left Jackson that I had opportunity

to make peace between some
people and I didn't finish it.

When the pastor said, I'm
not doing that, I said, fine.

And I took the job and left, ended up
in the pastor, ended up having to leave

the church and within the next year
or so, big split in the church, all

the work we'd done so It's all good.

Was just all up in arms.

They recovered because like I said,
that lady, people like that lady, there

was a lot of other people in that.

There were leaders in that church.

People didn't know who they were.

Leaders were in them listening rooms.

And a lot of those people
have led that church and still

leading that church today.

Wow.

But they recovered and they did
well, and that pastor has recovered

and gone on and I think he finally
retired, but, but it was just.

When you know what you need to
do, when you, the Bible says,

when you know what's right to do
and you don't do it, it's a sin.

You see what I'm saying?

So anytime we know what's the right
thing to do, the right thing to say, the

right way to respond, we need to do it.

And that was a situation
where I didn't complete that.

I just, I felt like, well, this guy, he,
he knows what's going to need to be done.

And so I left and it kind of left
the church in a lurch because even

today, right now, right now, if
that church called me and said,

Hey, Would you be willing to come?

If I knew the Lord, if I saw no blocks
in my way, I knew it was an open door

for me to go back down and serve.

I would be there in a heartbeat.

And, uh, probably when I, when
Claire retires teaching, there's

a chance we may end up moving.

The only problem would be our grandkids.

They right here with us, but we
may end up moving to Jackson just

to finish our life out, you know?

But a lot of our friends
are still in Jackson.

I mean, a lot of, a lot of my wife's
been, I know we're in Jackson.

She's doing a women's
retreat this weekend.

She's there right now with
the women from that church.

Wow.

And a lady from that church helps
her do all those ministry weekends.

And that's a whole different story, but
so we're going to, we're going to have

to start wrapping it up because I want
to try to keep it, keep it down to the

podcast itself down to about an hour or
so, but I would like to, well, unless you

got something else you want to add on.

Let me close with this.

Let me close with this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good.

We are in Myrtle Beach.

Is where I kind of semi retired.

I decided we went to
Palmetto shores there.

Then we went, we planted
a church called the hub.

We tried a church plant and I'm
not, I'm not a church planter.

That wasn't my call.

I don't know why I did that either,
but a couple of things I've done.

I probably shouldn't have, but,
but it was a fun experience.

And, and listen, my kids and my wife would
tell you that we, that they loved it.

We had a great time there.

So what I saw was a failure because
I guess, again, that, I guess I had

this thing about me, about posing.

I wanted to be like everybody
else to plant a church.

So maybe God wanted us to there
for those four years to do what

we did and accomplish what we did.

Because those people are still in church,
still, I still watch them on Facebook.

They're still serving the
Lord and different churches.

So maybe they needed a
little bit what we had.

We came, we came to Woodruff
from the beach and we moved here.

I took a job as a facility manager
at a plant and now I'm in my own

business, but we joined a church called
the meal and a church of the meal.

And we served there.

My wife's a counselor.

We have served a small group.

We've taught Sunday school
for the youth there.

And right now I do one of
my other loves is cooking.

I cook Zach's chicken fingers on Wednesday
nights, 12 to 1400 chicken fingers every

Wednesday night during the year program.

Wow.

And any opportunity we get
to share the Lord, we do it.

You've had a long, uh, career
doing various ministries and

you've learned a lot along the way.

I know this is going to be a
tough question and it's going to

be hard to narrow things down.

But I'm wondering if there was just
one bit of advice that you could pass

along to people out there in the.

And never, never, and podcast land, you
know, maybe somebody might be listening

to this a hundred years from now,
who knows, but what, what one eternal

truth would you pass along to, to
somebody that might be listening today?

Galatians 2 20.

I am crucified with Christ.

It's no longer how I live,
but Christ lives in me.

The life I live now in the flesh.

I live by faith in the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me.

That's my life verse.

And what I'm saying by that verse,
Bo Lee gave me that verse when I

went to work at Camp Pine Hill.

But what that, what I've learned, I
learned from that verse every, every day,

but that's my verse to not be opposing.

The life I live is the
life God called me to.

My life that I wanted to
live is dead and gone.

I need to live the life
that God called me to.

And he called me.

I need to be original.

I need to be me.

I need to be myself.

I need to be the Christian
that God called me to be.

Don't try to be somebody else's Christian.

Follow their example, live through
their mistakes, learn from their

mistakes and not make the same
ones, but be you, be you, Christ

has called you into the ministry.

Your personality is distinct.

Your fingerprint is your own fingerprint.

Your spiritual fingerprint
is just the same.

It's going to mean the same thing.

Nobody else's story is
going to be like mine.

And I shouldn't try to make
mine like somebody else's.

That's what I've learned.

So that's what I would say to anybody, be
yourself, be who Christ makes you to be.

Let Christ develop you.

Don't try to look at, well, I want
to be like these people over here.

I want to be like that up there.

Preachers, when I went to this church,
Bruton Forge, they said, well, Bruton

Forge is a stepping stone church.

I said, that's got to stop.

God don't need no stepping stone churches.

God needs so many gospel preaching
churches that do the work.

Every little church, I learned this
in Cyprus, every little church.

We need every church in every
community and we're going to

win the people for Christ.

We're losing the world.

There's more lost people in the
world than there is saved people.

There's more lost people in this town
Woodruff than there is saved people.

And there's 10, 000 more
coming in the next two years.

So we're losing the battle for
the lost souls and they're ours.

They don't belong to Satan.

They belong to God.

We just got to go out and live Christ.

Be real.

If you make a mistake,
I'll make the mistakes.

I'm the mistake maker.

I said, I'm a rebel hillbilly redneck
from Marietta, South Carolina.

And I am that rebel, but I am who I am.

When I made those mistakes, I go fix them.

I go repent, ask forgiveness, step
forward, move to the next level.

Cause I'm going to make, I'm not perfect.

And I had to hone it when the Holy spirit
said, Hey, you should have said it.

As soon as you were since the Holy spirit
said, you shouldn't have done that.

Go fix it right there.

Don't wait.

Don't try to correct it right there.

Right.

Right.

Well, wow, this has been great.

We do need to do another
one in the, in the future.

I will, I'd love doing some of
my funny stories and some of

our, some of our faith moments.

Well, would you pray for, pray
for our listeners right now?

I will, buddy.

I'll pray up.

Let's do it.

Lord Jesus, we love you.

We praise you, God, for all
that you do in our lives.

Lord, I, us thank you that you know us and
you know us before we even think things.

You already know we're gonna think 'em.

It's how awesome you are.

So Lord, we ask you, first of all,
just to forgive us for our sins.

Lord, I want you to, to convict the hearts
of all people who are listening to this,

that they know that they can receive
forgiveness for anything they've done.

All they gotta do is ask,
because you already know in

advance they're going to do it.

And so you, you, you love us enough
that you died on the cross to give us a

chance to be washed clean by your blood
of all the sins that's in our life before

Christ, before we became Christians.

And even after we become Christians,
your blood cleanses us of all

sin, and we thank you for that.

And God, I pray for the listener
right now, that they will

hear this, God, in some way.

Lord, don't, don't, don't hear this
old boy, let them hear your word in me.

Let them hear your spirit and your spirit.

Take my words and translate them
into their hearts that their

life can be made different.

They will be made stronger and God,
I pray that they'll have, they'll

desire walk with you that's really
personal and their life will be turned

upside down from this day forward.

And they'll find so much joy and peace
in serving you, but they'll never

understand and be able to explain it.

And we love you, God.

We praise you for what you're going to do.

And I thank you for this
opportunity to share this word.

It can last now until you come again.

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you, Jesse.

Thank you, Keith.

I appreciate your taking
the time to do this.

It means, it means a lot, not just
to me, but I'm sure to a lot of

people that are going to hear it.

Well, I appreciate you guys, man.

I appreciate y'all praying for
me when I was going through all

my stuff with my knee and all
the stuff that you did for me.

I appreciate y'all.

Cailin: We hope you've been
blessed by today's story.

In case you haven't noticed, there
are no advertisements on this podcast

and we hope to keep it that way.

So if you've heard something that you
think could help someone you know, please

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Also, if you will give Faith and Purpose a
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You will probably never know how
that small effort can make a big

difference in someone's life.

But our Heavenly Father knows.

Speaking of sharing, if you know a Jesus
follower with a story to tell, please send

them a link to Faith and Purpose Podcast.

It may encourage them to tell their story.

That person may even be you.

Our only criteria is
that Jesus be glorified.

Most Christians don't share their
faith because they mistakenly think

their story is not interesting enough.

Or that it's self centered
to talk about themselves.

Or that they are not competent
to explain the gospel correctly.

But none of that is relevant.

If Jesus has changed your
life, you have a story to tell.

All of our stories are completely unique.

No one has a story like yours, and you
may be the only one who can reach someone

else through telling your experience.

All of our stories are completely unique.

No one has a story like yours, and you
may be the only one who can reach someone

else through telling your experience.

So don't be intimidated.

A story is just that, a true
account of your own experience.

And no one can disagree
with your experience.

When we tell what Jesus has done in
our lives, we are being obedient to his

command to go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature.

It's not about theology, and it's not
about how interesting or special you are.

It's all about Jesus.

So when you're ready to tell how Jesus
has impacted your life, you can let Jesse

know at his ministry website, jesseduke.

net.

There you can download guidelines
that will make it easy to

prepare to tell your story.

Thank you for listening today and Shalom.