Deep Water Faith: How to Pursue the Plans God Puts on Your Heart

What do you do when you believe God has put something on your heart—but accomplishing it feels overwhelming? Steve opens today’s show with a challenging word from Proverbs 20:5: “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” Dreams, goals, callings, and plans aren’t always easy to pursue. Sometimes they require prayer, perseverance, wise counsel, hard work, and the willingness to keep going when you encounter roadblocks. Then Steve introduces a brand-new feature: Bible or Hallmark? Can you tell the difference between a genuine Bible verse and something that just sounds biblical? Test your Bible knowledge—and resist the temptation to Google the answers! Steve’s son Tyler, creator of the 1189 YouTube channel, also joins the show. 1189 is an ambitious project to create a free video commentary for every one of the Bible’s 1,189 chapters. Tyler discusses Acts 21, Paul’s return to Jerusalem, the warnings he received about what awaited him, and Paul’s determination to follow God’s calling even when it could cost him his freedom—or his life. They also preview Acts 22 and Paul’s powerful testimony before the crowd. Plus, Steve talks about the importance of discernment when listening to Christian teachers, shares the Dad Joke of the Day, continues this week’s Faith Between Your Ears with Hebrews 11:6, and closes with Your Next Step: don’t assume “deep water” means you’re headed in the wrong direction. Sometimes following where God leads requires diving deeper.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

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He's just a regular guy with a cool job that God loves for some reason. Welcome to The Steve Marston Show, a daily journey in learning how to live more like Jesus, conversations with those that God is working through, and dad jokes. It's the most unique show you'll hear today. Now, here's Steve. And away we go. Welcome in. The Steve Marston Show is underway. And I got to say thank you right off the top. Several of you have heeded the call.

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We ask you to go to our YouTube page and subscribe to it because we're trying to get to that 300 level, which will open up a door for more people to see it and be able to interact with our content. And you guys are coming through. We're getting closer and closer to the goal, but we still are a little ways away. So if you would do us a solid, go to our YouTube page. That's youtube.com slash Steve Marston show. And when you get there,

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like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell. And that will greatly help us, again, once we get to the 300 mark. And I don't want to beg, but this is me begging. Okay? Thank you for doing it in advance. We really do appreciate it. Now, I wanted to start today with this. It's a scripture passage that I had in my quiet time out of Proverbs, and it really has challenged me and really has made me think a lot today about this.

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And it's a verse out of Proverbs chapter 20 verse 5 that says, plan in the heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of understanding draws it out. Now, maybe it's just because I'm a creative type guy and I seem like I have a lot of plans all the time. I mean, look, having a career in radio forces you to have plan B and plan C.

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already kind of in place because you could be the greatest broadcaster ever and still lose your job. I mean, especially back in the old days. In the old days, when a new management team would come in, it would automatically mean that people's jobs are going to be on the line. Even if they were the number one rated show and billing out a bunch of money and the whole thing, it's all subjective.

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I mean, people are either going to like you or they're not going to like you. You could be so talented and it doesn't matter. So I always have plans. I always have things in the back of my mind that I'm thinking, okay, if what I'm doing now, if this radio show and this podcast kind of peters out, how am I going to make it? How am I going to come up with something else to engage audiences and to keep going?

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It's always on my mind. Now, maybe that's not you. Maybe you're not in that kind of boat. But I can tell you that we all have plans, right? We all have dreams and aspirations. And they're like deep water, this verse says. And when I think about deep water, it means overwhelming. It means something that is not easily attained. And as I continue to try to

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wrap my mind around it, I think about how to do it. How am I going to make what's in my heart, in my mind a reality? Because see, I think we so many times, especially as believers, especially as those of us that have called upon the name of the Lord, all of us have these ideas and have these dreams. And we sit around and think, well,

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if they don't come to pass in our first try at it, you know, our first go of it, then yeah, it's maybe not what God had. Right? But this scripture says it's like deep water. Deep water is not easily conquered. Deep water is not easily, it's not easy to dive the depths of deep water. But then the verse also goes on to say,

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a man of understanding draws it out. So, if I'm understanding that right, it's saying that our dreams are there, but it's going to take a lot of work. It's going to take some effort on our part. And I'm not trying to make this a works-based thing. This is not our salvation. Don't misunderstand that this has nothing to do with your initial relationship with God. I mean, God...

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delivered his son to be our sacrifice for sin, we come to him empty-handed and just fall on his mercy and say, God, I can't make it without you. And he wraps us in his righteousness and his glory, and we are his sons and daughters. And there's nothing that can take that away. That's our salvation. That's not what we're talking about here. These are things that he's put in our heart. And maybe...

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For you, it's something along the lines of just being a good parent. Maybe you didn't have a great example of a mom or a dad growing up, and you want to break that cycle. But that's deep water for you. See, for me, that's not as big of an issue. I had great parents that loved me and that supported me and kept pushing me to achieve the things that I thought I could and wanted to do.

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So when it came time for me to be a parent, it was easy. Or not easy, but it was pretty much a task that was not very difficult, I'll just say. But for you, maybe it's different, because you didn't have that example. Or maybe it's a thousand other things that have got you, that you're thinking about, but it seems so...

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far away seems like you're on the surface and the goal, the idea, the dream is in the deep water. But it says a man of understanding draws it out. Now how would that be? How would we be able to draw it out? I think at least in part is that we make sure that God is leading us in this really is a God-sized dream and that it's not just

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our idea. So how can we tell that? Well, I think if it's something that keeps buzzing around in your head and in your heart, that's probably from God. If it's something that you yourself are kind of ginning yourself up to create, then you gotta check that. But if you try to put it out of your mind and put it out of your mind and it keeps coming back and you keep seeing it,

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in your dreams and you keep thinking about it, then yeah, that's maybe from God. That probably is from God. So then, how do we draw it out? Because it says a person of understanding draws it out. Well, I think drawing it out means finding people who are involved with that kind of dream that you're having that's already been established there, finding a mentor, kind of pattering.

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Pattering what, pattering, pattering, can I buy a vowel please? Pattering what you're doing over someone who's successful, that's a good start. Also of course praying, letting God direct your steps, asking God to open the doors that you can't open. And then it's a lot of work. I mean that's what I think scares us off sometimes is that

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When we want something like this, we don't want to put the effort in. God never said that a dream is going to be easy to accomplish. He's calling it deep water here. Our plans are in deep water. And nothing found in deep water is going to be easy. There may be some setbacks. There may be some roadblocks that you run into that may even

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get you to the point of wanting to say, I'm done, I'm not going to do this anymore. But don't let those roadblocks stop you. If this really is something from God, you got to find a way around those roadblocks. You got to pray through those roadblocks, asking God to say, look, you put this on my heart, I'm pursuing this, you have to continue to lead me, you have to continue to guide me because I don't know where to go. But I'm just so impressed.

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by this verse. And I have never really seen it before in Scripture. And it really has struck a nerve with me. And I hope it has with you as well. Whatever your plan is, don't let the deep water keep you from doing it. Because a person of understanding is able to draw it out. That's Proverbs 20 verse 5. Okay, more of the Steve Marston show coming up in just a bit. Don't move.

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Welcome back, it's the Steve Marston Show, your daily dose of encouragement, how to walk and act and be more like Jesus. Thank you for your company. Our ministry of the month is Dr. Michael Youssef and Leading the Way, which you can hear that program every morning at 8.30 on our station that carries the radio show, AM 6.30, The Word in San Antonio. But we're also giving away a wonderful resource.

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from Dr. Yusef here this month. And look, it doesn't matter whether you're listening to the radio and the show live at three o'clock in the afternoons or if you're listening on your own time, you can still get in on this resource. It's called Winning the Invisible War, How to Recognize Lies, Resist Temptations, and Be Victorious in Spiritual Warfare. It's a fantastic book that Dr. Yusef has written.

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and we want to get a copy into your hands. again, whatever time of day or night that you're listening right now, you can get this copy or at least register for it. Just send me an email, steve at Salemmedia.com and that will put your name in the hat. Again, steve at Salemmedia.com to get yourself potentially a copy of Winning the Invisible War from Dr. Michael Yousef. And speaking of, he is coming with Chris Tomlin,

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to the Smart Financial Center in Sugarland on September 19th. That's growing closer and closer by the moment. It seems like the time is just crazy fast, but they're gonna be there with a night of worship, a night of calling out to God for revival. This event is hopefully and prayerfully gonna be the first of many awake events all over the country. Dr. Youssef has it on his heart to

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have revival and to see revival come and this might be the very beginning of it and you can be a part of it. September 19th at the Financial Center in Sugarland, just go to wake houston.com, awake houston.com and you'll see a banner for it there or you'll see the banner for the tickets there and those of you that are listening on the radio, you can go to am630theword.com in San Antonio or 99.5

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the word in LittleRock.com and check it out and get your tickets there. And I know September 19th, Houston seems like a long way away and not only, you know, in time wise, but also in distance wise, but this is going to be so worth it. So if you're so inclined, so moved, go get those tickets right now. Okay. We've got a brand new feature we want to try right now. I don't know this is going to work or not. If it will, we're going to...

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make it a staple every single week. If it doesn't, we're gonna just move on and pretend like it never happened. mean, it's kind of the other way to do it, right? We're just gonna throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. Now you may have heard of things like this similarly, but we're gonna try this little game, this little feature, this little interaction with you and I. We're gonna call it Bible or Hallmark. We're gonna give you some phrases.

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and you have to decide whether it's Bible or Hallmark. And we'll have a place for you to answer on our website, SteveMarsdenShow.com. we want you to check it out and be a part of that website. And we'll post the questions and the answers there for you. You'll be able to see it right there on the home page. So let's see how this goes. Okay, let's see how this goes. We'll give you three of them and have an opportunity for you

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to answer. And again, there's no cheating, there's no Googling, okay? Let's just, let's see if you just know off the top of your head. That's what we want to do. We want to try to test your Bible knowledge here. So no using the phone, okay? This Scouts honor. Pinky promised me right now that you won't use anything else but your brain, okay? All right, we're going on an honor system on this. Okay, so let's get started here.

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This one's I think pretty easy. Number one, a friend loves at all times. Is that hallmark or is that the Bible? Hmm, okay. Let's do number two. Where love is planted, hope will always grow. Where love is planted, hope will always grow. Is that hallmark?

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Or is that the Bible? Okay. And let's get one more here. Love covers all offenses. Love covers all offenses. Is that hallmark or is that the Bible? Say, well Steve, are you gonna tell us? Well, no, I'm not. That's why you gotta go to the website, stevemarshtonshow.com. You'll see it there on the homepage and you can find the answers and we'll also register you to win some

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Really neat prizes. about that? Okay. So let's see how this works. I would love for you to flood the website and check it out. And I will say this, the website is completely updated and all new. And I would be thrilled for you to click around and check it out because it's not just going to be a website for a podcast radio show.

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Where you say, oh yeah, here's about me and here's this and here's that and listen to the show, blah, blah. No, it is that, but it's so much more than that because we have put a lot of time and effort into making the website more of a database. Meaning, if there is a subject that you've heard us talk about or one of our guests referenced, you're gonna be able to type in the search engine, say grief, and you'll be able to

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pull up everything we've talked about on the show as far as grief goes. Or if it's being encouraged, same thing. And all the categories and all the tags are so in depth that it's gonna be really good and it's gonna be a great resource for you to help you continue to live and walk more like Jesus. I mean, that's the whole idea of the show.

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And that's why I wanted this website to be so much more than just your quote unquote typical radio show slash podcast website. So do us a favor and check it out. Stevemarshdenshow.com. And again, we can play, is it Bible or Hallmark? Should be fun. coming up we're gonna be joined by my son Tyler. He is the content creator of 1189. It is a online YouTube channel.

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that breaks down every single chapter of the Bible, every single one of them. Now, it's a work in progress. He doesn't have them all completed yet, but he's got a bunch done, and you can really get some in-depth Bible discovery there with his YouTube channel. I'm so proud of him for the way he does it, and the best part of it is he does it for free, and we're gonna be talking to him about the latest video that he has uploaded about

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1189 and find out what else is going on with that channel. It's all coming up on the Steve Marston show. Stay put.

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Steve Marsden show continues. We are glad that you're joining us today. And again, check out our all new revamped YouTube page. It is really good. I really feel proud and confident that you're going to like it. And we've got all of our conversations there individually, plus the podcast as well. And we need subscribers. Just being honest, throwing it out there. Our next plateau is 300 subscribers.

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So if you're listening and you're going to be on YouTube, which is probably a good bet, then go ahead and like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell. It will really help us. And speaking of YouTube, notice that transition, boys and girls. My son Tyler joins me. He is from the YouTube channel 1189, where he breaks down every single chapter of the Bible. It's in video form, just as a commentary, just to be able to help you.

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learn and understand and know God and His Word better. Bud, welcome back. It's been a while. Yeah, it has been a little bit, but it's good to be back. All right. Well, let's talk about, again, since it's been a while, let's reset a little bit and give a little bit of the backstory of why and how 1189 came to be. Yeah, you know, I mean, really started from what I was looking for myself, you know, as I was going through my

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my kind of daily Bible study and reading, I would have questions. And so I would start to look into the answers. as far as like commentary things go, there's a lot of great resources online with videos breaking down maybe a book of the Bible or something like that. And then if you want to go chapter by chapter, verse by verse, you got to break out a book or something like that, something a little bit more.

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as much good stuff online as far as that goes. Or you can find uploads of those books, but not really engaging videos or anything like that. And so really, that's kind what I was looking for was something to help me with my Bible study, a video just for somebody to kind of tell me, answer some of my questions and look for the ways that

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one singular chapter connects to the rest of the book you're reading or to the rest of scripture as a whole and things like that. And really, as I was looking, I couldn't find a really great, reliable resource for that. And so saw that need and God put it on my heart. You He's given me the skill set to accomplish this. And so I just decided to do it. So it's called 1189 because there are 1189 chapters in the Bible. By the time we're done with the project, we'll have

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1189 videos dedicated to breaking down each chapter of the Bible verse by verse walking through it seeing how God is how God is revealing himself through scripture through the the stories through the characters how we are relate to God through that and and how it all connects as one Unified story is really really kind of my goal in my vision for the project

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And what's so cool is I came across this verse called, it's in Proverbs, it's Proverbs 20 verse 5. I never really paid attention to it before, but it really dovetails with what you're saying. A plan in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding draws it out. So just because you had that idea and thinking, there's a need for that, I mean,

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to just think, it's just going to happen because, well, God put it on my heart and everything's going to be easy. No, the Bible says it's like deep water. You've got to be expecting the obstacles. You've got to be expecting the things that are difficult. But it says a man of understanding draws it out, meaning with God's direction, that deep water treasure that's down there, that goal, that plan that you've had for your life,

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or dream you've had in your heart is able to be plumbed in depth and be able to become reality. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think that's an awesome illustration. It really does kind of feel like that. what I'm glad that I get to do, I'm blessed in the position that I'm in to offer this as a resource for other people too, and to do it completely free.

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Every video is up on YouTube you can subscribe and like and all that stuff But it's completely free to watch and engage with you know again I was looking for it as a resource for myself, and I thought that it would be a Little hypocritical of me to try and put that behind the paywall or something for other people And so yeah, it's it's completely free and so hopefully you'll be able to access that that well that deep water in the same way

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when you're engaging with the videos. So use that kind of same illustration. Let's jump into it because you've already got a big series of back catalog which we'll get to later. Let's jump into the latest video that came out. It's been a couple weeks but it was Acts 21. You're in the middle of the book of Acts heading towards I guess kind of the climax and this one is Paul's time in Jerusalem. This is right before

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He heads off to Rome to meet his ultimate destiny. This is some really deep stuff. When you talk about deep water, this is kind of deep right here. For sure, yeah. We're kind of rounding third base on the book of Acts. We see how we've tracked, you know, Jesus' spirit through his disciples as they're spreading the gospel to all over the known world. And then we kind of zero in in the second third. Excuse me.

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on the ministry of Paul himself and his radical conversion and him preaching the gospel on his various missionary journeys. But he gets to a point here in chapter 21 where he has finished his third missionary journey and God has called him to go back to Jerusalem, to go to kind of his college town, the place where he spent a lot of his adolescence and time learning and growing in knowledge of

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Jewish law and knowledge of the Torah, right, and those commandments. And God is sending him back there to tell his Jewish brothers and sisters, hey, the scriptures have been fulfilled. Jesus appeared to me, you know, and he's going to do ministry there and preach the gospel to his, you know, basically extended family, right? And so that's the calling God has put on his heart through the Spirit of Jesus. But

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As he's headed back there, all of his companions and all the Christians that he's interacting with are saying, hey, remember what happened last time you were in Jerusalem? Like they were trying to kill you, Paul. Hey, sentiments haven't changed. They're still really angry at you. It's going to be an uphill battle. There's going to be bad things that are probably going to happen. There's one prophet named Agabus who in this chapter takes Paul's belt.

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And he ties himself up with it. And he says that if Paul goes to Jerusalem, he's going to be bound up in the same way and taken before the Gentiles. Basically, he's going to be arrested and handed over to the Romans. And so everybody's begging Paul not to go. And he says, no, this is what God has called me to do. This is what God has put on my heart. I'm ready not just to be bound for the sake of the gospel, I'm ready to die for the sake of the gospel. You know, Paul really

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recognizes the sacrifice that Jesus gave to save him, and he's ready to do the same in return for Jesus. He's ready to give up his life. Again, that's really high calling, but it's one that all of us are called to emulate. We're all called to be prepared to die for the sake of Jesus because he died for us. And so ultimately we see

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exactly that happened. Paul goes into Jerusalem and despite his best efforts to appease everyone and stay on everyone's good side, he's not looking for a fight. He's not trying to go into the temple and rile people up. He's trying to offer sacrifices and do the purification rituals like the people want him to do. But despite even all of that, it's just not enough. And they end up attacking him in the temple and arresting him. And he gets taken before the Roman authorities, just like the prophet Agabus said.

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Yeah, it's a fascinating story. And it also, I think, is a fullness of time kind of story, because Paul, at other times, whenever the heat got really hard on him, would flee to another city, flee to another area. But this time, it's like, okay, no more of that. He feels like his time has kind of come. And you can see the struggle that Agabus and all the rest of them and Paul are having.

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Paul has made up his mind. This is, this is the way it's going to be. And they're trying to talk him out of it. it's, and it's, it's kind of a really hard thing for Paul. think he's, because his friends are causing him to maybe second guess a little bit, but he knows this is what he's got to do. Absolutely. Yeah. I think, again, I think that's a really relatable struggle and you we don't always pass the same test in the way that Paul does. Right. I mean,

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When you think about, I mean, it's so applicable. When you think about, you know, one example I think of is going on a mission trip, right? Everybody, you know, we think of missionaries as really, you know, just really holy, really renowned. Like we pray for them, they send out material and stuff until what? Your son or your daughter says they're going to be a missionary or until your brother or sister says,

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Hey, I'm going to move to the Middle East to tell people about Jesus." Well, then you start saying, what, what, what, what, you sure? God really called you to do that? That's a really dangerous place. Have you thought about the financial side of it? Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? Right. And, and I think, you know, again, this is, if God has called somebody to move overseas and do something like that, then by all means we can't inhibit them from doing the will of God. Right. And again, being a missionary is just one.

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example of that. There are countless other ways that that kind of tension rises up in our lives, in our relationships, even with other believers. No doubt about it. My son Tyler is our guest. He is the content creator of 1189. It's a YouTube channel that's absolutely free. He breaks down every chapter of the Bible with a 10 or so minute video, some shorter, some longer, but really it does a fantastic job of

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describing the scripture, analyzing the scripture, and connecting it back with everything else that has come before it and will come after it. And he spent some time with us today. We're happy that he's doing that. So when you're looking at Acts 21, Paul is headed to Jerusalem knowing what's going to happen. So up next, obviously, is Acts 22. What are we going to see there? Yeah. So he basically gets arrested

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uh... in jerusalem in the temple uh... there's these roman soldiers that are seeing kind of the basically the riot the mob that's starting to form and so they intervene and uh... and they take paul and and bring him back to the the kind of prison barracks uh... but while they're doing that uh... paul uh... begs to address the crowd one more time because the the crowd in the mob are following them all the way back to the uh... to the prison and so

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the commander obliges him. And so he begins defending himself to the Jewish mob that have just been attacking him. And really what we see is Paul retells his testimony. He goes through the whole story. He talks about how he had been tutored under Gamaliel and how he had been raised to be a Pharisee of Pharisees, as he talks about elsewhere. And then one day he met

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the risen Jesus. Jesus appeared to him and he realized that he was alive. And that reframes everything for Paul, right? That completely changes the object of his zeal, right? Because before he was zealous for the law and the Torah commandments, and he was zealous to arrest and kill these Christians who were blaspheming the name of God as he was seeing it.

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If Jesus really raised from the dead, if His disciples were telling the truth, then that means Jesus really was the Messiah. Jesus really was the Son of God. He really was the fulfillment of all these scriptures. And so all of a sudden now, Paul is zealous for the gospel, is zealous for Jesus Christ. And so now, his zeal for God hasn't changed, the object of it has. And so now he dedicates his life to

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saying, I was wrong. Let me tell you about the guy that I met. Right. And that's what he's been doing all throughout the Book of Acts. And so that's his defense to the mob. It's really pretty interesting, makes this defense that Luke, the author of Acts, makes a big deal about how he's speaking to them in Aramaic and Hebrew dialect. So number one, that kind of disguises it from the Roman soldiers who are also there. They don't really know what's going on.

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But the other thing is he's he's still showing solidarity with his Jewish brothers and sisters. Yeah You know, he's he's saying hey, I'm gonna Speak this in a language you understand because Jesus died for you as much as he died for me and just like I have been forgiven of all my sin of persecuting Jesus and persecuting his people even though you're doing the same thing that I used to be doing

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The grace of Jesus is sufficient for you too. If you believe in him, you can also be saved and also be forgiven and be reconciled to the truth of everything God was trying to set up in the Hebrew scriptures. And so that's Paul's message. Now, there aren't a lot of people who are really convinced by it, but that's what we read about in Acts 23.

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Well, that's fantastic. We look forward to that video coming out. When is it going to drop? It'll probably drop Monday, next Monday. So yeah, we're really excited about that. then that goes into Acts, well, yeah, that goes into Acts 23, too, where we see there's an assassination attempt on Paul's wife. And so that's a whole other can of worms. We're excited for that to continue.

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And we can talk about that on our next time together. Before we let you go, we've got just about a minute left, or actually less than a minute. Give everybody the heads-up on how to connect with 1189. Absolutely. You can find it on YouTube at 1189. Type out the words. youtube.com slash 1180-9. We have videos on every chapter of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,

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Numbers and Deuteronomy and every chapter of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. So you can check out the back catalog. Again, we're working our way through the Book of Acts. And so we've got a lot of videos already out on the Book of Acts. So if you're anywhere there in your current Bible study, hey, check it out and see what I have to say. just hopefully I can help you have another set of eyes and be able to answer some questions and be able to show how all scripture works together.

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as one unified story. It's so good. 1189 on YouTube. Thanks, buddy. Talk to you soon.

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Steve Marston show continues. Thank you for letting us be a part of your day, night, weekend, whenever you're listening. It's a thrill and an honor. It's the only podcast that matters. And there's something I have been remiss in doing the last several days. I go back every day and listen to the program just to find things that I feel like I could do better and just kind of listen and critique myself.

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And one thing that I have consistently failed to mention is our free PDF that we have on our website. And I'm really proud of it. I just keep overlooking it. So I made a note to myself in big bold letters, don't forget the PDF. So that's what I'm doing right now. The PDF is something that I came up with to help you in your Bible study. Because at some point, I think all of us get to...

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an area in our life where we like, I love doing devotionals, I love doing workbooks, but I want something more. I want to be able to open the Bible and find its treasure myself without any other kind of helps. And sometimes we think that's, well, impossible. Well, it kind of is unless you have some strategies. And when I...

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first got serious about studying the Bible for myself, I looked around and found a lot of different ways to study the Bible. And I kind of did my own kind of trial and error and put them all together in this free little PDF for you. It's just five tips in how to study the Bible. It's nothing earth-shattering, but they are very helpful. It's what I use all the time when I open my Bible. And listen.

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It has helped me and I think it will help you as well. And again, it's absolutely free. just want to get it into your hands. Just go to our website, stevemarschdonshow.com and there at the top of the page, you'll see the free PDF. Download it and it will come right to your inbox as a link. And then you can open it up from there. And I think it will help you. And we've had people from literally all over the country do that.

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So I'm very thankful for that. I'm hoping it's helping and would love for you to check it out. And again, it's not going to cost you anything. All you have to do, again, is just go to the website and ask for it. It's really that simple. Again, it's called Five Tips for Studying the Bible. So, okay, you can check that out at stevemarschdonshow.com. All right, let's see what else is going on around the world in headlines here.

37:44

This story is pretty interesting. Do you know who Josh Howerton is? If you've listened to our program over the last several weeks, you do know who he is. We talk about him in his podcast a lot because he is a solid Bible teacher and God has just opened these doors and these platforms for him and he's become huge over the last, oh I don't know, year or so. And I know I brought it up to

38:14

some of the people in my small group and when I said his name they were like, oh yeah, we love that guy. His podcast is called Live Free and again, he's just 100 % solid in his teaching and it has opened the door for him to be able to be on podcasts like Sean Ryan. I don't know if you know Sean Ryan but he was an ex-Navy Seal and he's not a Christian or at least...

38:41

He's maybe Christian adjacent. He hasn't made a profession of faith, but he has a respect and has a thirst for knowledge about the Bible and about Christian stuff. And Josh was a guest on a show here just the other day, which we linked to in our podcast. But those type of opportunities have been happening for Josh here lately. And now...

39:05

Uh, it's kind of grown where he is going to be a part of the blaze, which is a Glenn Beck's outfit out of Dallas, uh, where he'll start to be a contributor to the blaze. There'll be a distributing the podcast for him and all this kinds of different stuff, which I think is fantastic. And I'm, I'm happy on a certain level because like I say, he's such a solid guy and he's got his head on straight.

39:35

The only thing that concerns me and worries me about this is the fact that every time a pastor gets these opportunities to kind of broaden the platform, to be able to take the message to a bigger and wider audience, all that sounds great, and it is, but what can get lost so easily is his actual congregation, his actual people.

40:04

that he ministers to and that is involved in their lives on the regular, on a day-to-day basis. That's the only thing about this that makes me concerned because I would hate to see him or anyone else sacrifice that important ministry, the ministry that he has actually been called to for, quote, unquote, broadening their horizons. Again, that's just some...

40:33

Some things I hope he is thinking about, hope he's praying through and not just seeing one part of it, but seeing the whole picture. That's all. Let's see. Oh, this is kind of crazy. I don't know if you know who this Katie Souza is. I've never really heard of her at all until this story. And it just makes me want to bang my head against the microphone.

41:02

because she's supposed to be, again, on our side as a Christian evangelist, you know, telling the lost about Jesus. But she's claiming, are you ready for this? That not only are aliens real, but they're also the cause of women's infertility, including her own. She says she doesn't have any children, and she claimed that her biological mother of a hybrid

41:31

being named Starburst. Yeah, that's what her biological mother's name is. Anyway, she started talking about all this stuff on her YouTube channels and on her website. She emphasizes the process of soul healing, saying that these techniques she's witnessed thousands of miracles when she starts this stuff that she's doing. Okay, look, I don't know this lady and I don't know...

42:00

what her story is, I don't know what her mental health status is, but look, if it smells weird, if it sounds weird, it probably is weird. Just keep that in mind as you navigate through a bunch of these quote unquote Christian evangelists, because there's a lot of sheep's wolf's clothing and then there's a lot of just mental cases out there, and it takes us, you and I, to...

42:29

have a discerning heart to make sure that we don't fall prey to these knuckleheads. So just throwing that out there just as a little tip from your Uncle Steve. OK, we've got one more segment coming up. It's the Steve Marston Show, and we're back for it after this.

42:55

Here at the Steve Marston Show, we are serious about faith, but we love a good dad joke too. Today's dad joke comes from Eleanor. Eleanor's in San Antonio and she says, hey Steve, you may think you've heard this one, but I bet you haven't. Okay, let's try it. She says, why did the scarecrow get promoted? Why did the scarecrow get promoted?

43:22

Well, not because he was outstanding in his field, but because apparently HR thought he had great stalk options. Okay, she's right. I haven't heard that one before. That's pretty good. It's a Steve Marston show. Just about to call it a day today. Grateful that you have spent so much time with us. Let's get to faith between your ears. This is

43:50

where we learn a Bible verse. So we started on Monday breaking down this verse and we have little by little continued to try to learn it through the week. And now we're getting to the end, so let's see how we're doing. Hebrews 11 6 says, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who comes to him must believe that God exists and rewards those who sincerely seek him.

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How did you do? Well, again, faith between your ears doesn't necessarily mean that you have to hit at every word in order, letter perfect. It just means that we know God's word and we understand what it means. That the baseline for everything that goes on is faith. We have to have our faith in Christ and what He has done for any of this

44:50

Bible stuff to work. We just, that's the first step. If you don't have a faith relationship with Christ, then you're on the outside looking in. So is it possible to please God without faith? We must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Meaning it will pay off. It may not pay off in this life, does it say that? But

45:19

there is reward for those that continually, faithfully, ongoing, day by day, seek after Him. Not perfectly, but at least consistently and faithfully. So let's learn Hebrews 11 6, however it takes for you to learn it, to get it memorized, let's do it before we move on with another new Faith Between Your Ears verse next week. Okay.

45:47

We end every day with a new challenge for you. It's called your next step. This is actually to take what you've learned and to put into practice. So I think your next step after listening to this podcast is referring back to the first segment, man, deep waters aren't something to be unexpected. When we start thinking about our dreams and our plans and our goals and our accomplishments, expect

46:16

deep waters, but they are navigable. They are able to be plumbed the depths of. That's the good news. That's the encouragement. So if you find yourself in those situations where you say, it's so overwhelming, that's okay. That's good because you're on the right track. Now find a way through God's direction to dive the depths of.

46:44

That's the Steve Marston show for today. Back live on the radio at three o'clock tomorrow. Everywhere else online. Adios.

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