When God Calls, Will You Go? | Church Hurt, Nahum & Taking the Next Step
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. All right, away we go. Welcome into The Steve Marston Show. After a day's absence, I have returned.
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Now get to what I was doing here in just a moment, but first let me thank you for being here, especially those of you that are listening on radio. You're kind of the heartbeat, the kind of the backbone of what we're doing. AM 6 30 the word in San Antonio.
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As well as those of you in Little Rock listening on 99.5, the word. So grateful for all of you being here. And then the rest of you are listening on your own schedule online. And we really appreciate that as well. The podcast is doing amazing. It still continues to grow. It's got that little podcast that could feel to it. So if you haven't subscribed to it, we would encourage you to do so because it'll expand our audience and expand our reach.
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And also, I think that's a good thing because we're doing some really good content, I think, that is helpful and encouraging to people. Not because it's me, but because I think we're really focusing on God and He's working through this little outfit that we're doing, this little enterprise. So if you haven't already, go to wherever you get your podcasts, look for the Steve Marston Show, and click subscribe. That way it'll come to your phone as soon as we upload it and you won't have to go...
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looking for it there. So as we get started today, I want to cover something that I wasn't able to talk about because I was out, and that is the Dolly Parton passing. You know, like everybody else, was a big fan of Dolly, and I know there were some Christians that were, I don't know, a little bit miffed that people were saying she was in heaven and this, that, and the other because people think she was too much of a universalist and this.
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that and the other. I don't know. I know she was someone who brought joy to every place she went. And it really is amazing that people on the far left, crazy wackos to everybody on the far right, crazy wackos. They all love Dolly. I mean, she was the one kind of unifying figure in the world. And it really has been amazing to see the outpouring of love and condolences.
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And memories being shared from people of literally all walks of life. And when you know Dolly Parton story, it's just amazing because she came from abject poverty. mean, third world kind of poverty. And not only was she an incredible singer, but she was a talented musician, an amazing songwriter, and a unbelievable business woman.
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I mean, she had it all literally. So when she started way back in the day on that show called the Porter Wagner show, she was just supposed to be the quote unquote girl singer, but she proved to be so much more than that. And her philanthropy, her giving back in lots of ways that was never made public until after her passing has just been amazing to see. And she's going to be missed, no doubt about it.
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I just, I was just in awe. We took a trip to Dollywood, what was it, last summer and was able to go through her museum and to be there on her little campus thing there. And it was, it was fun because you felt like you knew Dolly, even though you never met her. She just had that everyday type feel, someone who was genuine in the things that she said and things that she did. Absolutely. She's going to be missed. Okay. Let me get to.
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what we were doing yesterday and why I wasn't here on the program. My church has a deal where we go out and we try to outreach to our college that's in our city. And there's a little ministry called BCM, Collegiate Ministry is the name of it. And we thought they were going to have a big time event going called Back to School Bash, welcoming everyone back.
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we thought it would be good to be a part of it. And so my wife had this brilliant idea of passing out snow cones because we have a little snow cone machine at our church. So she and I, because we kind of head up the college ministry, we're going to go out yesterday and we were going to be a part of this big back to school bash. And the snow cones were a major success. We handed out, just the two of us, well over 100 snow cones in just a couple of hours of a
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period of time. And as we did, we had them register for some little gift cards and between them registering and us making the snow cones, we had a chance to interact and talk with some of these students and get their stories and find out a little bit about them. And when you do that, you never know what you're going to encounter, right? Especially on a college campus. That's why I love
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being involved in college ministries because again you talk about all walks of life you find it there on college campuses and so there was some people that came up and they loved the whole idea of the ministry and what we were doing and they gave us you know props and we were talking to them about you know maybe joining us on our weekly meetings and the whole thing there were others who just came by because hey man it was crazy hot and they wanted a snow cone and that was cool too but we had a chance to also visit with some kids
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who had questions. They were like, I don't like what you guys are doing with this Christian thing. Can I still get a snow cone? And we were like, of course you can. And that led to some conversations, especially with one young lady who told me that she didn't care for church and she didn't care for church people. And I said, well, why? And she said, because I've been hurt too many times. I have been told too many times.
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that I'm going to hell and I just am over it and I just don't want any part of it. Now, that is something that happens a lot. I mean, you may have run into that situation in your own life. If you haven't, you probably will if you're outgoing about your faith. If you're someone who tries to live out your faith and talk about Jesus, you're going to run into that. How do you handle when someone says that? Because that's legitimate.
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whatever has happened in that person's life, they are leery of church and they are leery of church people because of some hurts that they've had in their life. So what do you do? How do you reach out to them? Well, the first thing I did was I breathed a little prayer. Literally, I said, God, give me the words to say. And the thing that kind of just popped into my mind is I said, well, I'm very sorry.
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that you went through that. I'm sorry that people have let you down, but you got to understand people are people and people can be mean and people can be rude and people can be hateful even in church settings as bad as that sounds. But you can't allow people's behavior to keep you from God because God does love you and God does want a relationship with you. Don't allow that to...
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cloud your view of him and be a stumbling block. And you could tell she had heard something along those lines before, but when I was able to try to bring it up to her, she was like, yeah, I know, I get it. She said, my family are very religious. She said, my grandfather is a pastor, and they've tried to talk to me about things like that. And I get it. I understand that.
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It's not God, it's people, but I'm just over it. I just don't know that I'll ever go back to church for the rest of my life. My heart was breaking for that person because of how Satan has been able to deceive her into thinking that it's all the same when there are so many more people who would welcome her with open arms into their congregation.
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So I just encourage you to be aware, especially for someone who's dressed in different, acting a little different, that they may be trying to kind of test and push your buttons a little bit. So don't give into it. Love them like Jesus would. And I know most of you would. Those of you that are listening would relish the opportunity. I'm just saying sometimes we miss it because, well, whatever reason, we just pile on instead of being
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the vessel that God could use to really change the trajectory of someone's spiritual life. So just keep your head up and your eyes open and your ears open for situations like that because I'm telling you, those kind of church-hurt people are everywhere all around us. We just gotta be aware.
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The Steve Marston Show continuing. Thankful for you being here. We've got a free PDF we want to get into your hands. We've talked about this a lot. It's the Five Tips for Bible Study. And they're just strategies to help you to be able to open God's Word and get the most out of your time without having to rely on a devotional book or a workbook of any kind. You can just open God's Word and be able to find those truths that are there.
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by yourself and these again are not unique with me or originated with me. I've just kind of took some of them and tailored them to me and I think because I'm just like you, it should work for you as well. So get your free PDF. By the way, we did have some issues last week with the link being broken and not being able to actually serve you with this PDF. So that has been corrected. Go to SteveMarsdenShow.com, look for the free PDF and you can download it.
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there for yourself. Again, the link is now fixed and you can get the information into your hands absolutely free. It's a download. We'll send you the link. You just click on it and boom, you've got your five tips for Bible study. Okay, on Wednesdays is when we usually do Seek and Find, but since I was out yesterday, we're going to bring it today. And we have been going through the minor prophets in the Old Testament.
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And the Bible promises that when we seek, we will find, but it carries the idea of continually seeking. You know, the door will be open when we continually knock. That kind of attitude and that kind of continuance. So we have been going through the final portions of the Old Testament, looking at each one of these different little books. And today we're up to the book of Nahum.
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Now Nahum is a prophet who wrote about really one thing. It's only three chapters long and it's about the destruction of a place called Nineveh, which was an Assyrian capital city. Now that name may ring a bell right off the top for you. Nineveh, where do I know that from? Well, that's where Jonah went. know, Jonah had the trip to...
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Nineveh or was supposed to have the trip to Nineveh. God told him to go and tell the city to repent and he went the other way. The whole thing, you know the story. Well, this is about 150 years later because when Jonah went, Nineveh was receptive from the king all the way down, repented and turned to God. Well, now they have returned to their old ways and even worse.
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And now judgment is coming on Nineveh and that is what this entire book of Nahum is all about. You look at the first chapter and it's God's anger at Nineveh at what they're doing and how far they are falling. And then the fall of Nineveh in Chapter 2 and then Chapter 3 winds up with God's judgment on Nineveh. Now, why Nineveh? What's the deal here?
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because they were such a thorn in the side of the Israelites, especially those in Judah, but they were so much of an enemy and they kind of conquered the nation of Israel and took them into captivity, at least temporarily. And because they had done that and because they had inhumanely treated so many of God's people in that conquest,
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that God had finally kind of had enough and was going to pronounce judgment on this amazingly big city because at the time it was, you know, a couple of hundred thousand people that were facing God's judgment. And again, they had gone so far and had gone totally past the point of no return. And we don't like to think about that. You know, we don't like to think that God has those
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past the points of no return, but actually he does. There is a point to where God's grace is like, okay, you've had your chance, I've given you all these opportunities to repent and to... And repentance just means to turn away from and to confess is another biblical word, and that just means to agree with God. So basically you just turn from what you're doing and you agree that
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Hey, what I have been doing is against God. So that's repentance and confession. Real simple terms to understand and the real simple definitions. So the repent and the turn for Nineveh wasn't coming. Now, God is everlasting in His grace and His mercy in the fact that He will give you all these opportunities to come. And no matter how bad you are,
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And again, Nineveh was incredibly bad and did some horrific crimes against humanity, what we would call in this day and age. Yet, God would still forgive them. God was still there waiting for them to turn to Him in repentance and confession that He was right and they were wrong. But it doesn't come. Well, as a just God, judgment has to come.
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If you don't take the life raft, if you don't take the grace card, you have to face judgment. Because again, just think about it in our way of thinking with our kids. If you're a parent worth your salt, you can tell your kids, hey, stop messing around, stop doing that, and you're going to get in trouble. You're going to get the toy taken away. You're going to get grounded. You're going to get sp-
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a spanking, you're going to get some kind of form of discipline if you do not stop messing around. And you give them a chance, and they still mess around, and you give them another chance, and they mess around, and you keep going. Eventually, you've got to come through with that discipline. You've got to take the toy away, or you've got to ground them, or you've got to give them gasp, a spanking. Those things have to come, or else,
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they're going to look at you and they're just going to laugh and knowing that you're just all bark and no bite. Well, God being the ultimate judge is not going to let his threats go unanswered. Yes, there's a chance to straighten up and repent, but at some point, God's just going to be like, all right, that's it. You've had your last chance. Here comes the discipline. And that's what the Ninevites were facing, you know, and
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they were going to be conquered by an even greater nation, an even more barbaric nation that did even more inhumane things in the nation of Babylon. And the book of Nahum wraps up with some of the most chilling words, I think, in all of scripture. You can check it out for yourself what God says because it is chilling but it's 100 % just. You can find it for yourself. Nahum.
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Chapter 3, Verse 19, when you seek and find.
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Steve Marston Show continues. It's where faith and fun are both taken seriously. And we want you to check out our website. We have really worked hard on it. All the computer nerds have really, and I say that lovingly, they have worked really hard on putting it together where it's gonna be more than just a homepage for a radio show and website, but really almost like a library. It's cross referenced so well and it's gonna be available.
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with the Google and the YouTube and all the major search engines. So when people start typing in these kind of Christian phrases or things that would have to do with what we talk about, our show's gonna pop up and our resources are gonna be there, not only for believers, but also for those that maybe aren't believers as well. So we're really excited and we would really appreciate you checking it out, stevemarsdonshow.com. Okay, it's time to welcome in my son Tyler who has a YouTube channel.
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called 1189, where he is in the process of breaking down every single chapter of the Bible in video form, just kind of being an online commentary. And it kind of fills a role that isn't anywhere online in that space. And well, first, Tyler, welcome back. It's always good to have you here. Yeah. Yeah, good to be back. All right. So I thought we would talk a little bit about how you not only came up with 1189,
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We've kind of told that story in past episodes, which by the way are available at the website. But, wanted to talk more specifically about the kind of calling you felt about it, and then taking that kind of extra step of actually doing it. Because I think a lot of times we as believers have something put on our heart that we can't shake sometimes, that it really does come from God, but yet we have trouble
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taking that initial step of kind of getting out of the boat and doing something maybe uncomfortable. Yeah, for sure. You know, something I think about a lot in terms of that kind of conversation is, you know, I've been hanging out with this group of guys that I'm working out with. And one thing we talk about a lot is being freed to lead. So the reason you've been saved, the reason you've been redeemed, the reason you've been freed.
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Is so that you can lead others to do the same and to follow you, right? Paul says, you know, imitate me as I imitate Christ. And so what does that look like in practice? Right. Is the question. And one thing it looks like is, you know, when, you've got a calling, when God has put something on your heart, you know, it's really easy to go around and say, Hey, somebody should do something about this. Somebody should do this.
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but it's a lot harder to say, I'm doing this, you know, and I'm going to step forward and I'm going to, I'm going to volunteer myself and, and, and pour my energy into trying to get this, this thing off the ground, this ministry, whatever it is. Right. And so, yeah, I think that's really applicable to a lot of people's circumstances and situations is a lot of times, you know, we'll hear
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things in sermons or, you know, we'll see something online and, know, truly it could be whatever it is, whatever God puts on your heart and, however he gets it there to you. We all after that have a, a choice to make is, we going to take, like you said, step out of the boat, take that first step in obedience or are we going to stay behind in the boat with all the other disciples? Right. Yeah. And I think that's really.
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a really applicable scenario that a lot of people find ourselves, find themselves in. I know, yeah, I found myself in it with 1189, trying to find a good resource for a chapter by chapter breakdown commentary in kind of a video form that was accessible and reachable for people, especially in my generation, right? And so that's what God laid on my heart.
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And so instead of being like, man, somebody should do this, God said, not you, right? And so that's what I did. And so that's what we try to do at 1189. It's a YouTube channel where we break down every chapter of the Bible just as an online commentary to be completely free and just to be a resource for people as they're going through their daily Bible study. Yeah, and I want to circle back to something that you mentioned a little bit earlier, and that is
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you're not only called to do this for kind of yourself, but also to pass along to others. And I think a lot of times that seems kind of hard because, it's vulnerable enough to put our own self out there and then to have others kind of maybe follow that lead. That seems a little intimidating, but really that's the way God kind of designed us to do these things. Absolutely, yeah. I think that's...
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I think that's something we really struggle with, especially in our American context, right? Because we're so individualistic and we're so, you know, nobody tells me what to do, which is great. Like, freedom is awesome, of course, right? But yeah, baked into the gospel, baked into the Bible is this idea that, you know, you're going to go to every other nation and you're going to...
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teach people to obey what I've commanded you is what Jesus says in the Great Commission, right? And so there's gotta be a relationship there. There's gotta be an element of discipleship where I'm leading someone else to follow Jesus's teachings more closely while I'm also subjecting myself to be discipled by another person who's pouring into me and investing in me and teaching me how to follow Jesus's instructions more closely.
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And so that's really baked into the missional strategy of the New Testament, especially as we're in 1189 right now, looking at the book of Acts. That's what Paul does all over the place, literally all over the known world at the time. He's pouring into these individual people and these partners. And then when he decides that they're ready to go along with him, he brings them with him to these new contexts. Timothy is a great example of that.
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But if you keep track of these names, you see more than just Timothy, they pop up all over the place. And then they pop up in his letters too. And so it's really cool. That's how they did it back then, right? And that's what we still need to be doing today. So yeah, who is that person in your life? Who is the person you're letting disciple you and who are you discipling, right? That's been a major theme, yeah, for...
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2,000 years now. really has. My son Tyler is our guest here on the program, and he is the content creator of the free YouTube channel called 1189, where he breaks down every chapter of the Bible. He hasn't got it all finished yet, but it's a work in progress. And we're going to circle back to 1189 here momentarily, but I want to kind of drill down a little more specifically on this kind of calling, because I think a lot of people do kind of feel that. How, in your mind,
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Do you determine something that's maybe a calling from God versus something that maybe is just on your heart that you want to do? What's the difference that you see for God call versus maybe just something selfish that you want to accomplish? Yeah, I think that's a really good question. think what you've got to do is really measure it by the Holy Spirit, you know? And for me, know, people can say that in that
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sounds really kind of abstract. But for me, the way I think about it is that the Holy Spirit is one Spirit. We serve one God, right? And so He's not going to contradict Himself. He's not going to tell one person one thing and another person another thing. So if I feel like God has laid something on my heart, the first thing I'm going to do is check the Bible. Does this line up with biblical principles, biblical values? Is this in line with what we see Jesus doing, what we see Paul doing, right?
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What we see that the prophets of the Old Testament doing Does this further the gospel? Biblically, right? So because the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Bible now the Holy Spirit also speaks to us through other believers, right? So if he's put something on my heart, what do other people think about it? You know, I'm gonna go to those mentors in my life. I'm gonna go to my wife I'm gonna go to to you as my dad. I'm gonna go to my pastor You know and and talk these things over. I'm gonna go to other you know
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peers and colleagues that I have who I trust and know have the Holy Spirit, right? And I'm going to float these ideas by them. And if God is telling them the same thing and saying, Hey, yeah, go for it. Hey, yeah, this sounds like a great idea. It sounds like what God has called you to do. Then that's it. That's another green flag, right? Yeah. And so, yeah, the Holy Spirit is not going to tell me something that he's, he's
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telling somebody else a different thing, right? And so when we're all working together, living prayerfully, living by the Spirit, that's how we get, that's how the kingdom is accomplished. And I think that's such an important part that you bring up because as you start thinking about it, and even I can look it back for this radio show slash podcast, you know, bringing it up and letting others kind of dissect the idea.
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is another vulnerable thing and it's something that maybe you don't want to do, but I have found such freedom in that when I have talked to and I even use you and other people who have the same kind of ideas about what I'm trying to do and would understand it. Is this a good idea? Is this something that would really kind of work? Do you think I could pull this off? And having that counsel and having people being able to speak into you is so important.
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because they can see sometimes things that you can't. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, and again, like you said, that's vulnerable. Sometimes that hurts, right? Yeah. Sometimes you have somebody you trust say, hey, I don't think this is where God is calling you. You know, I don't think this is... I think you're getting a little off base here. And that's hard. That's a tough pill to swallow when that happens. You know, and from there you have to make the decision, right? What is God calling you to do?
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you know, evaluate through everything. But but but still, you know, that is that is a point of vulnerability and it's hard to open yourself out there like that. But again, as we talk about, Paul says to bear each other's burdens. So no matter what we're going through, we're all on the same team. We're all working together for that common purpose of building for the kingdom. And how about this as well?
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if there's something in your heart that you know that's biblical and whether or not somebody gives you confirmation in your life on it, but something that just you can't get away from. You know, I've felt that before where it's just like you try to put it away and you try to say, okay, somebody else will do it or I just don't want to think about that right now. But it just keeps coming up over and over. I think that's kind of a clear sign that God is leading you to do something. What do you think?
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Yeah, I think absolutely, right? Yeah, God isn't gonna let that, He's not gonna let that, you know, if He's got a purpose for you, He's gonna give you, yeah, He's gonna make it clear, right? And so, yeah, I think absolutely that kind of nagging urge could also be the Holy Spirit, you know.
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pointing you in direction. again, you're listening to a couple of guys who are in the video audio industry, but this could be about anything from just talking to your next door neighbor to, you know, maybe setting out, starting your own business or maybe a thousand other things. I think the principles still do apply and it's just something that we have to a lot of times, you know, it's working out our faith, wrestling it out, you know, and
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and being able to trust God even if it maybe falls on its face. At least you're doing something you feel like God is leading you to. My son Tyler is our guest here on the Steve Marston show. He is the content creator of 1189, which is an online Bible commentary. And we've got just about three more minutes or four more minutes left here in our time together. Let's talk a little bit about the next video that's coming out. You mentioned that you're in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 24 is on the horizon.
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Let's talk a little bit about that. Give a little thumbnail as to what's going to be happening and what we can look forward to. Yeah. Well, you talk about being obedient to God's calling and falling on your face. Paul is in the middle of that. You're at the close of the book of Acts. He's arrested. He's being held in custody by this governor named Felix, and he holds him there in Caesarea for two years. And day after day, Paul is getting up.
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and he's preaching the gospel to whoever's in front of him, whether that's a guard, whether that's another prisoner, whether that's Felix himself or Felix's wife or any of the powerful nobility that happened to be coming through the palace at any particular moment. And not much happens with it, to be completely honest. is trying to, Felix has this little bit of interest in Jesus.
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But he says, Paul says, you're going to have to live an ethical life. You're going to have to live a life with self-control. at that Felix kind of turns it off and says, actually, you know what? I don't really want anything to do with this Jesus guy. And it's really heartbreaking for Felix, but we see in the middle of that, Paul being obedient, even while arrested, even while being in custody. And Jesus counts that as success. Success is not conversions. Success is not winning people over. Success is
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being obedient to do the thing God has called you to do. Amen. No doubt about it. And it is such a fascinating part of scripture. And it is something that, you know, we know the outcome, how the story ends, but you kind of always have to put yourself in the place of, know, Paul doesn't, you know, he's spending these years in prison waiting on this king to come in or this governor to come in and hear his case. And he doesn't know if he'll just die right there or what's going to happen to him. But yet he's still
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He's still incredibly faithful and incredibly active doing what he knows to do, whatever the situation is. And so we're looking forward to that. When do you think that video is going to be dropping? Yeah, that'll come out sometime early next week. So that'll be Acts 24, and then we'll wrap up after that. That's fantastic. OK, give everybody a quick recap of 1189 and how they can take advantage of this free resource that you have.
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Yeah, 1189 is a YouTube channel. can find it on YouTube at 1189 or search it in the search bar. Yeah, and there's 1189 chapters of the Bible. So we're making that many videos, breaking down every single chapter verse by verse, really. So we read through it. We kind of break it down, give some commentary. I share some of my research. But really, I just want it to be a free, accessible resource for people to go deeper with their Bible study and
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learn more about the Bible, learn more about how each book connects into this full unified story, ultimately pointing to Jesus and showing how we can be saved. It is such an incredible project that he does such a great job with it. Tyler, thanks for joining me. This has been as enjoyable and engaging a conversation as we've had on this program in a long time. Thanks so much. Really appreciate it. Talk to you next week. See you.
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All right, love you kid. Love you too.
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Welcome back to the Steve Marston Show continues. Discipleship has never been more fun. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your routine, whether you're listening on the daily on the radio shows or you're on your own schedule listening on the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. And we'd love to be able to partner with you with what we're doing. We are a for-profit company and
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an audience that is all about Jesus and that is all about discipleship and going and growing deeper in their faith and in their walk with Him. So if that is the people you would like to reach, let us know. Send me an email, steve at Salemmedia.com and I'll get you hooked up with some people who can help get your message out to this audience that is, again, growing every single day. So let's get to some of the stories that you may have missed. This one,
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is from the Southern Baptist Convention. And I know this is a little bit kind of deep in the weeds on some of the things, but the Southern Baptist Convention's president, Willie Rice, was accused of not taking the sexual abuse claims of some women seriously that happened over the last several decades, I guess, now in the Southern Baptist Convention. In fact, it was attributed to him that he called it a hoax. Well, he
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really did a good job, I thought, in pushing back against that. He said there's a misconception about his views on sexual abuse and the denomination. He said he was answering a question about abuse reform in the SBC, and someone said to him that it's all a hoax, right? It's kind of being sarcastic, kind of being a dismissive figure.
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And Willie Rice said, well, I can't respond to every single comment, but I do want to respond to this in hopes of correcting your misconceptions of my opinion. And knowing that as a pastor, you would not want to bear false witness. He said, I have never said that sexual abuse or concerns about abuse were a hoax. In fact, I've said the very opposite. I was an enthusiastic and early supporter of abuse reform in the SBC. He says, I pray the day is hastening.
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when we can stop this incessant attacking one another and questioning motives of good and godly people so we can unite to make our churches safer than ever before. Amen to that. The tragic reality of the sexual abuse was, is, and remains a serious threat. We need churches to be prepared to and equipped to fight, and we would be so much more effective if we fought it together instead of infighting against each other. What? That's some wise words there from the...
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SBC president and I hope there's going to be continued actions to his words. Let's see another story you may have missed is Skillet the rock band that is kind of the Christian heavy metal band of record. They have dropped an opening act just about as quickly as they announced them. It was just a couple of days ago back on August 18th that Skillet announced that this band called
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Bad Wolves would be opening for them on their Comatose 20 Years Tour. Bad Wolves is a secular metal band and their catalog includes some highly explicit lyrics, which you come to think of when you think of bands like that. They tend to have really not good lyrics, to say the least. Well, Skillet has kind of always, kind of always...
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I don't want to say overlooked, but allowed some of these bands with some of these explicit lyrics to be a part of their shows. But this crossed the line, I guess, because the Bad Wolf's lead singer is a lady and she was found to have an OnlyFans account. So Skillet has dropped them and looking for a new opening act for their Bad Wolf's, or I'm sorry, for their Comatose Tour, which used to feature Bad Wolves now.
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no longer features that band. And look, I like Skillet and I like that they're reaching an audience with that kind of music for the gospel because they don't water it down. They are true about following Jesus just in a way that most of us are like, eh, that's not our style. But I hope they find somebody that they can promote that doesn't have any of these lyrics that can truly
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be a good opening act worthy of Skillet. So we just hope that that happens. Let's see what else is going on that you may have missed. there was a lot of, as we talked earlier, tributes from all kinds of walks of life for Dolly Parton. And some of them that came in are just really touching. Let's see. Carrie Underwood said, she's not gone. I know exactly where she is.
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She was the epitome of faith, grace, talent, beauty, and humor. She had a humble heart for Jesus and made everyone around her feel special. Beth Moore, the great Bible teacher, she said Dolly Parton's kindness will stand out as one of the greatest acts of defiance to mark the last decade. She was just not going to give in to hate. That's so true. Candice Cameron Bure said, Dolly, I will always love you.
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She said, and now you will be with the love of your life once again. Thank you for a lifetime of music and of magic. Danica McKellar, she was the one who played Winnie on the Wonder Years. If you're as old as I am, you know exactly who I'm talking about. She said Dolly was just incredible. And the thing about her is that, she was talented. Yes, she's an icon. Yes, she's all those things. But she made you feel so good. She made everybody.
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feel so great about themselves no matter what and no matter who you were. That's something we ought to all strive to do as followers of Jesus, have that kind of attitude toward people. And then one more came from Riley Gaines who is someone who's very vocal about keeping biological males out of women's sports. She was the former swimmer at the University of Kentucky and she said,
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When I think of feminism, classy, sassy southern woman, I think of Dolly Parton. She said she's one of the most genuine souls and she thanked her for her philanthropic work and her commitment to making the world better. She had a heart of gold and her loss is just devastating. Yeah, again, I don't know of anyone who had such a universal love from every walk of life.
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literally all around the world than Dolly Parton did. She's definitely going to be missed by so many people and her bright light is something that we could take a lot from as born-again believers for sure.
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Here at the Steve Marston Show, we're serious about faith, but we love a good dad joke too. That joke of the day comes to us from the home office in Canyon Lake, Texas. Said, asked the librarian if their library had any books on paranoia. And then she whispered, they're right behind you.
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Steve Marston show continues. Man, I'd stay out of those kinds of libraries, right?
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The podcast and radio show that really matters because of our content and because of you. The show continues to grow and get bigger. And that is a testament to your faithfulness to our program and you doing things like going to our YouTube page and liking some of the videos and sharing the videos and subscribing to the channel altogether. That really helps us out. That really helps us grow the show. In fact,
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We can't do it without you. So if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube page, please do so. YouTube.com slash Steve Marston show and bring the notification bell. So when we upload, which is on the regular, mean, multiple videos a day, you can be the first to see them and then share them. If they really touch you, if they really speak to your heart, please share the video online so that others.
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can see it as well. Okay, let's get to faith between our ears. It's our Bible verse that we try to learn every single week, and this week it's Proverbs 15 verse 4. Gentle words are a tree of life. A deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. It's that classic kind of compare and contrast type verse that you find a lot in the book of Proverbs. however it takes you,
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to learn it, whatever the methods you have to use, whether it's writing it out longhand, whether it's posting it on a little post-it note there at your office computer where you'll see it all the time all day, or just saying it over and over to yourself out loud, whatever your strategy to learn the verse, let's learn it because it's so important that we know God's word. And I really am convinced that we cannot
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grow in our faith, we cannot have that abundant life, that victorious life that Jesus talked about, until we take steps to know His Word. It's just that vital and that important. So again, Proverbs 15 verse 4 is the faith between your ears verse for this week. All right, we like to close out shop every day with a call to action, something that you can tangibly kind of put in place after
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hearing today's podcast, we call it Your Next Step. And I think your next step should be what we talked about with Dolly Parton, being that person who when you come into a room, you are the person that people notice because of their goodness, their kindness, their loving heart, their sincerity, they're making other people feel as like they are the most important person in the room.
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That's something Jesus has called us to do and it's something that we should take full advantage of and take the example from Dolly Parton because of all people, believers should be that and do that. That's all the time for today. Thank you for being a part of The Steve Marston Show back on the radio tomorrow at three o'clock everywhere else online at SteveMarstonShow.com. Adios.