clear and free.
Well, like, OK, so the enemy wants to get us all wound up,
right? So that way you're reactive versus
responsive. Right.
So, you know, you have this tension and
your tension is sitting there and.
And you're feeling it and who knows what's going on in her world, right?
So and like with love seeks the best, love thinks the best.
So we have to think the best and not get wound up.
And then when we get on the call, we need to be present and not
a reactive state because we're upset because our minds been going.
For a week, does that make sense?
So like you need to get present, do some breathing work, like take some deep
breaths and just chill, put on some worship music, whatever gets you
to whatever gets you into your
Zen state and you being you.
So you are present.
See what you know, the enemy doesn't want you to be present for that call and he
wants to ruin it all. Right.
And and I would say that I'd never been fallen victim
to that, but I have. Right.
And so I just, you know, just be yourself, do something, go run
a lap, you know, do a mile and then come in.
I didn't know what I did was see I do something
called Liturgy of the Hours.
I've been getting back into it.
So it's a lot of scripture organized in a beautiful, prayerful way, a lot of Psalms
and stuff. So I've been doing that.
And that's really helped me really focus on God more.
So yeah. So does that get you to you?
Like whatever gets you to be you.
Yeah. Right. Like so if that is what works.
Awesome. I'm glad you found something.
Everybody else, you guys, for me, it's going to the gym.
I just want to clear my head. I'll go to the gym.
I'll pump some pump, some some iron, do some things, do some stretching.
And then all the cortisol goes away.
Right. And then I'm a much better person to human to be, you know, just clear.
So I'm proud of you, Andy.
Yeah. It sounds like you have a plan.
Just work it. So I saw David Dorman's in the house.
I just but yeah, just don't let the enemy steal your joy.
Love seeks the best.
Love thinks the best.
So she just may be super busy.
She may be stressing because you're coming and trying to get everything ready.
So it's perfect for you.
And I think she mentioned that her mom has high blood pressure.
And so she was like worrying about her mom.
So, yeah. And so like to.
Yeah. And usually it's not about us, but if it is, then we have to work on that.
But if we're in the moment and not reacting.
To be a much better place, right?
If I'm cranky, Mike, because I've been ruminating on the wrong stuff,
then she's going to come in and experience that great thing
and then not want to be around for good reason.
Right. So I just I've just seen it.
Don't don't let the enemy tilt you.
And Lord Jesus, I just thank you for Andy.
And I pray for his this date or this call tonight, this trip.
Would you just watch over it?
Would you release angelic protection over him?
Would you break off all fear, all anxiety, all foreboding?
And we just release joy, happiness, peace and just
shalom of all kinds that she just be surrounded
shalom and everywhere he goes in Jesus name. Amen.
All right. I'm going to hand it over to Mr.
Dorman. I just love Andy and I'm proud of you.
Thank you. Thanks, Mike.
I really appreciate you working with Andy. That's awesome.
Thank you so much for stepping in there. I love that.
Hey, guys, good to see you tonight.
Welcome. Welcome.
It is our men's heart check in December 15th.
Twenty twenty five. So
good to see you all here and present sort of and accounted for that kind of thing.
I just came back from the L.A. area.
The only part I was in L.A. was really just the airport.
I was really in Southern California for the last few days.
And so I was enjoying that.
Jackie and I are part of a business
group, a kingdom business group.
You may or may not have heard of. It's called Hundred X.
And we've been a part of that for, I think, going on like more than six years now.
And that's been very instrumental in helping us
establish a lot of things in our business.
It gives some directional things
be a community and friendship.
We're part of there's a sort of a subgroup
of the Hundred X called Master's Mind.
And so it's like a mastermind.
Like if you anybody ever part of a like a business development group
or mastermind or any kind of like, you know, yeah, I'm not surprised.
Thomas, you're kind of you're that kind of guy.
Anybody else? David Henshaw.
And but you've heard.
masterminds. And sometimes they're usually business think tank sort of things. Some of
them can be really good. Some of them can be really terrible. Some of them, depending on
their leadership, it's just nothing more than just a big trying to make connections and trying to
make deals and trying to just really slimy kind of stuff. But this one is kingdom-oriented,
faith-based, obviously, business and all things business, but all things ministry as well.
And it's pretty cool. And Pedro, our esteemed colleague, he named it The Master's Mind. So we
are endeavoring to seek the master and the mind of the master. So that's really what it's called.
And we do a Christmas thing every year. And so that's why we're there for that. But
it was really cool because we do usually a whole day of working and development and stuff. We'll
share our wins. We'll share our tragedies. It's actually really cool because one thing that we
did the last couple of years is we've gotten really, really vulnerable. And a lot of the
have established businesses. And they all are businesses that are a million dollars or more
type businesses. So it's an elite group of people. And they're all just profound, deep believers in
Jesus. And all of them have incredible testimonies and stories and histories. And it's just really
cool to be with this group of people. However, to look at all of us, you'd look at us and you'd go,
like, these are just regular people. I mean, there's nobody flashy. There's nobody
crazy outstanding in terms of just their appearance, if you would. And I say that to
say that even though I'm involved in this group, and I'd give you some credibility of what it is,
we have, over the last two years, become really, really vulnerable.
And each one of us have shared deep, dark moments of our lives. We've got one couple that is being
sued for millions of dollars. And their business is literally being stripped away from them
bit by bit. We've got one young man who's in his 30s is a $40 million business,
like an e-com business. And his business got cut in half this year just because the economy
and so forth. When you're dealing with a $2,000 paycheck, or you're dealing with a $200,000
paycheck, the only difference between that $2,000 and $200,000 is a couple of zeros.
It may seem like a lot of money, but when you've got just as much going out as you got coming in,
$200,000 is much different $2,000. You know what I'm saying? It's all about not the money you make,
it is all about the money you keep. So very important to understand that.
And we've got people that their marriages have been tested and tried. We have people that
I mean, had to decide whether they're going to, how to
manage, what's the next pivot they're going to make when their business goes south?
I'm just trying to think of some examples. Anyway, it's just not all like a bunch of
happy, just happy-go-lucky, we're all just doing, everybody's doing great.
And it's been really profound. And we just had an incredible weekend of sharing together.
And so it was kind of cool. We did serendipitously, we did a level of version
of like, what do you want? And I put that question towards this group months ago.
And then I just went to a leadership development, not a conference, but it's like a leadership
development workshop, session, whatever you want to call it last weekend. And we did a,
what do you want? And it was kind of one of those.
intense things where you stand up in front of the group and the facilitator's in your face a little
bit like, hey, what do you want? No, what do you want? Well, I want world peace. Okay, that's cool.
World peace is awesome, but what do you want? It really was driving. That's a hard thing to do,
especially standing up in front of a group of people that you know or don't know,
depending on the level and the environment. That's a hard question to contend with.
Then we did it again. It wasn't planned. It wasn't anything that we were like, we kind of
just came across that question again in this group. What do you want? We all just went around
the room just declaring, what do we want? We were talking about big dreams. We were talking about
big visions. Our leader was talking about, look, if you have a business,
how many have a business, their own business? Anybody? Jesse does.
Hey, Jesse, good to see you, man. I'm glad you're here tonight.
Well, believe it or not, if you don't think you have a business, what you do is your business.
I maintain that. I think my opinion is that everybody has a business. If you have a career
and you make money with a career, that's a business. You have to decide how you're going
to show up. You got to decide how you're going to manage your time. You got to decide on what
moves you're going to make within the political spectrum of the work environment that you live in.
You got to decide on who you're going to make alliances with in your workplace
so that you don't just show up for a job. You may be employed by somebody,
and you may be getting a payday paycheck, but that is your business. How you manage that,
obviously, it's pretty apparent. I'm sure all of you have worked or are working at a place right
where some people are advancing, getting promotions above you. If you've been to any
one working place at any length of time, you've seen movement within your company.
Why do some people move and other people don't? Maybe you're one of those people that does move.
Maybe you're one of those people that hasn't moved in some time and you're wondering,
why does everybody seem to be moving but I'm not? My question to you is, it comes down to
managing your business. That core question, what do you want, is super, super integral
to asking yourself daily, weekly, monthly, what do you want for lunch? Okay, that's pretty simple.
What do you want to accomplish today? What is on your list of things to accomplish today?
What do you want to do this week? What does this week mean to you? What does this month mean to you
in your business? Maybe you're in sales. Maybe there's a monthly quota type thing, whatever.
That's easy to quantify, especially if it's given to you by your management. But even if you're not
like a sales quota, achievement industry, having those metrics, having those goals,
having those laid out in front of you, it's like, what do you want? Super, super powerful.
And last week, we talked a lot about what is something that you feel like God is asking you
to surrender? Because sometimes there's things in our life, sometimes there's activity in our life,
sometimes it doesn't have to be like something super ugly and bad. Sometimes it's just
stuff that's acting as a distraction to the things that you really, really want.
And the wisdom there being, if you're allowing things in your life to be distractions
against what you want, if you're not clear about what you want, if you're not clear about
the direction where your life is going, what you want your life to be in the next month,
six months, a year even, like this is a pivotal time in everyone's year. It's very culturally
acceptable and appropriate for coming to the end of the year and closing the year out and reflecting
on what happened this year, what changes happened this year, what were things that you had to live
through and that you had to live down because some of the things weren't...
not in your in your control. Maybe there was some other
things that you're like, hey, bro, this happened to me and it
was my fault and whatever. It's not really about whose fault it
is, whether it's in your control or not in your control, it
happened and it was real to you. Right? And you live through it,
you had to manage whatever you had to manage to get through it.
Maybe this was the greatest year of your life for whatever
reason. So and then on the heels of that, we have the year
in January. And that's always a cycle of like, okay, what's
2026 going to be like and people set goals and people like
open up gym memberships, and they try to go to the gym, and
they're going to get fit this year and all this kind of stuff.
And you know, and all the things that happen around the
whole like, you know, new year, new you sort of thing. So this
is the time of year where all of these questions and these
introspective things are happening in a lot of people's
lives. And I want you to really start taking that seriously,
because, you know, I revealed to my to this group, I revealed
to my master's mind earlier this year, I revealed to the
leadership summit that I was at last weekend, and I reveal it
again, to my master's mind, that there's just a lot of things I
feel like that I'm half asking, in my life, I'm capable of
doing more things, not for my own exaltation, or my own ego,
but literally compared to what I am capable of doing, the only
measure of success, if you want to do any kind of measuring is,
what is it that God has given you to do? And how, how much are
you walking and fulfilling that and taking that out? And of
course, this is said, and dealt with all the measure of grace
that goes along with it as well. I just prophetically uttered to
a guy the other day, we were sharing going around the room.
And we were reflecting. So Saturday was the workshop day
that was all day like workshopping and sharing and
like strategizing and doing lots a lot of planning, we've got
some teaching and instruction. And then Sunday was sort of our
celebration of Christmas and gathering together and
fellowshipping and breaking bread and just having an
incredible time of just even more like we we did worship and
we did a bunch of stuff. And I that is kind of weird because
Heidi and Roland Baker shows up to our mastermind at Pedro's
house. And there's, you know, 20-25 of us in a living room
with Heidi Roland Baker. And I'll get to that story a second
that was like craziness on wheels. Anybody know who Heidi
Baker is? I don't know if you know.
Yeah, yeah.
Couple of you know who that is. She happens that that's her
hometown, by the way, Newport Beach, that area, I didn't know
that. And she actually when she's in the state, she's there
in that region. And she happened to be in the States.
She's a friend of Pedro's. And so he asked her to come by and
just kind of share with us. And that was that was a whole
another level of craziness. I'll share that in just a
moment. But I literally prophesied to this guy, because
he was like, we were kind of in a moment of like, we weren't
talking about regrets necessarily, but there was a
moment where we were sharing. And we were saying we felt like
that there was things that God had, like, maybe like, put on
our heart some time ago, like even like prophetic words, or
like instructions, even or maybe like, um, inklings of ideas
that maybe were put in our heart, that we had forgotten.
Any of you have those kind of things like something that was
maybe spoken over you or said to you, or maybe had you had a
dream, or an idea of what it is that you want to be or could
become or do something or go somewhere. And it never happened
for whatever reason. Life got in the way, you know, time
expired, whatever it was. Maybe it was like going to college.
And that never happened. Maybe that was being in a field of
expertise. And something changed that trajectory. All right.
And then it's time has gone so far that some some people have
even forgotten. Even what that was. And here was a guy who was
testifying. He goes, Yeah, he goes, I really feel like the
Lord years ago, was showing me something about China. Or excuse
me, excuse me.
something about Africa and that I was supposed to go
and that I was going to be doing
some pivotal things in Africa.
And he goes, and I never did it.
And I'm a young man and now he has like
electrical contracting business and he does well
and he's got money, he's got a good family,
beautiful family, loves the Lord, does a lot of things,
part of our master's mind, all that kind of stuff.
He's like, and I forgot about that word,
I forgot about that dream.
And then I prophetically spoke up and I said, look,
I said, I really feel like the Lord's
really brought that to your attention
because it's never too late.
Now that may sound cliche and that may sound,
but it was a moment in time where like,
he was just like, yeah, you know,
he was just saying it in a way that kind of sounded like
that ship has sailed, you know, that time came and went.
And I was just like, no man,
it's like it's never too late.
Matter of fact, sometimes as he was saying
the words about going to Africa,
I was thinking in my heart, man,
there's no one more that I'd like to go with
to a place like Africa than that guy
and the friends in this room.
Like five, 10 years ago,
I wouldn't have known these people because I didn't.
But now that I do know these people,
I'm like, I'm willing to go to the mission field.
Now you have to understand one thing about me.
I like to travel, I like nice places,
I like to do things, but I am not a missionary.
I'm just not.
Never thought of being a missionary,
never was excited about being a missionary,
never had any inkling to go to a third world country.
I have no interest, none whatsoever.
Call me whatever you want.
I'm just being honest with you.
Matter of fact, I'm to the point where I'm like,
it's intimidating and it scares me to go to a third world
because I don't wanna go to China
and I don't wanna be like,
I don't know what's gonna happen.
I don't wanna go to India.
I'm not interested in going to India.
I'm not interested in going to these places
that like, oh man, I feel the calling of the Lord
to go to the nations and all that kind of stuff.
I'm like, somebody's gotta stay home, right?
And that's me, I raised my hand for that one.
And so here I am encouraging this guy
that like, it's never too late.
And at the same time, I mentioned this thing about like,
me not like this, how unusual this is for me
because I'm not interested in going to those places.
And then somebody else in the room was like,
yeah, actually, as soon as you said China,
I said, I actually heard something on that for you.
I'm like, me?
He goes, yeah, I think there's something on China for you.
And I'm like, oh Lord Jesus.
Here I am getting myself mixed up into some stuff
that I'm not sure I really wanna be mixed up in.
Now, I'm just being honest with you guys.
I'm being transparent with you.
And what I'm asking you guys to do
is to be honest with yourselves
and transparent with this group of people
because there's some guys that in my master's mind,
like, they're like, man,
I would love to come talk to your guys.
I'd like to come talk to you men.
I'd love to come and like, I wanna help you.
And I'm like, yeah, they want your help.
They need your help.
These are a great group of guys.
These are a bunch of amazing, talented,
incredibly devoted, Jesus-loving men
who are obviously not perfect, right?
But it has nothing to do with perfection
because I'm only saying that
because the inner dialogue, I think,
with most men especially is kinda like,
yeah, well, I'm not that great.
I'm not that special.
I'm not that whatever.
And it's all about that identity piece.
And so I'm just saying that for,
I'm kinda like, yeah, I get it.
But as you know,
we don't really focus on that here in this group.
We don't focus on your inconsistencies.
We don't focus on your insecurities.
We don't focus on your shortcomings.
We focus on identity, focus on what you want.
We focus on your wins.
We focus on your successes.
We focus on trying to get to the next set of downs, right?
That's what we're focused on here in this group.
And that's what we should be focused on.
We can wallow and complain
and share all of our downs and outs all we want to,
but none of that is going to really change
the trajectory of our life.
Now, I'm not saying that we're not honest
and we're not real because we are that as well.
But I just want you to be encouraged to know that it's not just showing up to Monday nights
here that I think about you guys, or that I'm talking about you guys.
I'm talking about you, I'm thinking about you.
I've got people that want to rally around this group, this community, that have a passion
and had an energy and have a desire to connect.
Because people ask us, what do you do?
Obviously in this master's mind, everybody knows what me and Jackie do for business and
what we do for our ministry.
But a lot of people don't, and we're always introducing that.
We're always like, what do you do?
What do you guys do?
Meet people on a plane, meet people traveling, meet new people, and they're like, what do
you do?
And everybody's always interested in the whole last year single and the singles thing and
the love and the relationship.
Like, wow, that must be amazing.
What's that like?
And da, da, da, da, da.
And always the question comes up is, do you have something for men?
And I'm like, yes, we do.
It's not big, it's not huge, because men and women react differently in an online situation.
They just are.
The genders are just different.
You know, women flock to come and share all their stuff and like talk about all their
inner healing and talk about their feelings and all that kind of stuff.
Men?
Eh, not so much.
But you guys are faithful.
You guys are men that are working on yourselves.
You guys are men that are putting forth the effort towards growth, towards development,
towards what's next, what's the better thing.
You guys are showing up and your passion for the things of the Lord.
That is a huge differentiator.
And that stands out because every time I'm like, yeah, man, you got to see the guys that,
you know, I'm able to talk to almost every Monday night.
Like they're incredible individuals, incredible people, you know, and some of them I tell
your stories, stories of your wins and all kinds of stuff.
And it's an awesome thing.
So I'm saying that to encourage you, I'm saying that to tell you this as well.
My coming to myself, because I was just kind of recounting this to one of my fellow mastermind
people the last night we were there.
And he was like, he goes, yeah, it seems like you've kind of come alive more like in this
group, like you've become stepped into more of an authority and kind of like been contributing
more and stuff.
Because that's a really good thing.
I feel like I'm like the little junior kid in this group, right?
I feel like everybody in this group is like infinitely more successful.
I feel like I'm like the kid that's like, I'm just, I'm very scraped by to even be here.
And so he was just encouraging me.
And he says, you know, what happened?
I said, well, what happened was, is I really feel like the Lord's been leading me.
Like I can go back all the way to like years ago when I lost my identity because I lost
my ministry vocational thing.
And I had a huge, big, like, like paradigm shift of what ministry looks like and all
that kind of stuff.
And then I'm trying to blend my family, trying to figure out who I am for 10 years.
And then we start this business and that's been going great, but I'm still kind of taking
the back seat in a lot of ways and just kind of like doing kind of like what I can do kind
of really good, but kind of like halfway there's like, but there's more, but there's more.
And everybody I talk to and every time I'm in a leadership thing, people will set, pull
me aside and they'd be like, I feel like there's more for you.
I feel like the Lord's like highlighting you.
I feel like there's like, there's more happening with you.
I feel like there's, there's this, this, and there's that.
And a couple of years ago I was like stiff arming all that because like, I don't want it.
I don't, I don't want, I'm good.
I don't want to do more.
I'm okay.
Like my wife's great and she does the things she does and it's awesome.
And I'm helping her.
I've been there, done that.
And like, I always thought that doing more at this season of my life for me was just
me being leaning into ego, leaning into accomplishment.
And I'm just not, I'll be honest with you.
I'm just not a very ambitious person.
I'm just not, I'm not one of those guys out there trying to like, Oh, I got to do this
and I got to make a million dollars and I got to do, you know, all these things.
And I got to like have all these people.
That's why I don't have a big church.
I don't have an ego that drives me to like minister to thousands, you know, and have it credited to,
you know, what God has done through me, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's not me.
And so I'm reluctant thinking that's about ego. But God starts tapping me on the shoulder about
a year and a half ago, earlier this year, maybe end of last year, 2024. It's like, hey, man,
like I don't need you to be more than what you, to be the most of what you can be because of you
for your sake. I actually need you to be who you're called to be to 100% for other people.
I have a mission for you. I have purpose for you. This isn't about you. This isn't about,
you know, you just trying to make it through your life, make it to heaven.
This isn't about you just trying to struggle with, you know, whether you're egotistical or not.
I'm like, oh, okay. So he starts getting my attention that way. It's just like, I have need
of you. And I'm saying that to each one of you men in this group, I've said it before,
the Lord in this world, the culture, your work environment, your family,
your family that is to be has need of you.
You are needed. And whether you, and here's the other thing.
Some men and some women in our master's mind have really been tested
this year as well. Not the least of which is kind of like, okay, you know, business and this
and that, and things didn't go perfect and all that kind of stuff. No, no, no. I'm talking about
tested in their beliefs, tested in their morality, tested in their faithfulness,
tested in their commitment, tested in their allegiance, tested.
Some of you probably have felt like in the last year or season or whatever it is that you're
not doing well, not understanding that you literally are just being tested.
It's not about there's something wrong with you. It's not about that, you know,
you're just not worthy. There's a season of testing, trying.
I'm not saying the Lord's bringing bad things to you, but I will say that he watches what you do
with the circumstances of your life and sees, hey, I'm testing you, but I'm testing you in love,
not in condemnation. I'm testing your convictions. I'm testing because I want you to be
tried in fire, like metal is, to be hardened, to be used in a productive way.
If you felt like you have been failing, if you feel like you have been not doing well
emotionally, spiritually, morally, whatever it was, bro, you're just being tested. That's all it is.
It's not about like, oh,
you know, I'm not worthy. Of course you're not worthy. That's what Jesus did for you.
Of course you're not worthy. Jesus did what he did to make you worthy,
not because of anything you did, not because of anything you accomplished,
not because of any sin that you put off or whatever. Your worthiness is not tied to you.
Your worthiness is tied to what Jesus did. Therefore, anything that you've been enduring,
that's hardship, is meant to fashion you into the better and greater version of yourself.
And it is okay. It is normal. As a matter of fact, if you weren't being tested, I would question
what's going on with you. Because lots of times the testing is an indication that something is
happening, that something's changing, that the molecular structure of you is being evolved.
and transformed into who God wants you to be.
That's powerful.
That is masculine.
That is easily understood when you accept the truth of that
and you get the attention off of yourself
and you get the attention off of, hey, I need you.
I need you to stand up.
I need you to say yes.
I need you to say no to the things
that you're supposed to say no to.
I need you to do better than that.
I need you to, are you gonna do it perfectly?
No, but I need you to excel.
I need you to push forward.
Maybe it's just showing up on time.
Maybe it's doing something with your health.
Maybe it's doing better job at the work that you do.
Maybe it's simply just taking yourself seriously enough
to go, man, I matter.
And what I say and what I do affects people
because God's called me to say this.
God's called me to do this.
God's called me to be in this place, you know?
Proximity, where you live and where you're at matters.
What you do matters.
Who you're around matters.
And so I'm saying all of this,
not with any amount of condemnation whatsoever,
because there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ.
There's only uplift and inspiration,
convincing by power of Holy Spirit
that you are more than what you think you are.
You are more than who you perceive yourself to be.
There's more to you than what you sort of
kind of experience on a daily basis.
And so I hope to just inspire you tonight.
I hope to increase your faith tonight
that said, you know what?
I can do it.
I can accept what God's trying to do in me.
And instead of looking at like your shortcomings
as a polar opposite to what God wants you to do,
that's just the devil.
That's the enemy trying to get you to understand that,
oh, your shortcomings overshadow
what God's trying to do in your life.
If you would just let God do what he wants in your life,
these shortcomings would go away.
Well, to be honest with you, they go hand in hand.
The shortcomings and what God's doing in your life
go hand in hand.
It's not about failure, it's about progress.
I said it several weeks ago,
if you can sit in the most darkest, worst,
sinful moment of your life
and actually have a conversation with God in that moment,
not aside from it or not the next day,
but in the moment, like while it's going on,
and you can actually have an honest conversation with God,
you're actually getting somewhere.
Those guys that are doing this and feeling bad
and then like come out of that and be like,
oh, I gotta like clean myself up
and then I'm gonna go talk to God
and then I'm gonna go do God's work, that's false.
That's a lie.
God is a both and kind of God.
He's not an either or kind of God, he's a both and.
Ecclesiastes tells us that.
Ecclesiastes talks about,
it actually says this word,
it's good to grasp the one and not let go of the other.
You can seek that out as Ecclesiastes 7, 18,
you can get a little bit more idea of that.
Mercy and justice, to act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Lots of times justice and mercy,
they don't seem like they're the same thing.
But in scripture or in biblical precedent,
mercy and justice, they go together.
They kind of seem opposite.
In Corinthians, the scripture says,
my power is made perfect in weakness.
What do power and weakness have to do with each other?
You can be at your weakest moment
and yet be in full power because of what Jesus did.
I've known.
people that have been totally high and strung out on drugs
and literally have an encounter with Holy Spirit.
You're like, oh, how can that be?
That's not holy.
Well, of course it's not holy.
It actually is kind of holy.
It's not holy in a religious context,
but it is holy because of the reality of that situation.
Anyway, there's a lot of other truth scriptures
talking about the both and of God.
So I will tell you, if you don't know who Heidi and Roland Baker are,
they are missionaries to Mozambique, Africa.
Mozambique, years ago, short story, I don't know their whole story,
but I've heard about them for years,
but I'm not really familiar with their whole personal stories.
But they responded to the call of Lord years ago
to go to the poorest nation on earth.
Not the second poorest, not almost poor,
literally the poorest nation in the world.
And they began ministry, this is some odd 20, 25 years ago now.
They have since then seen, I don't know how many dead raisings,
I don't know how many healings, I don't know how many miracles,
I don't know, they have been stoned.
I don't mean like threatened to be stoned.
I mean, literally stoned by Islamist extremists
that are in the Muslim country, they're in that country.
They have been left for dead out in the dark in the bush of Mozambique.
They have built schools in villages,
countless villages have schools because of their work.
They own land in Mozambique.
They actually have citizenship there.
They actually fully adopt people, children into their care.
And they have a whole ministry to do this in Mozambique.
The whole ministry is predicated on pure love.
Like just literally like love is the only thing.
Like, let me hug you, let me embrace you,
and let this love, love, whatever's there,
let me love it out of you.
And I just heard a piece of music,
they played a piece of music on a YouTube video.
She's like, hey, call this up on YouTube, play this song.
And several weeks ago or a month ago or whatever it was,
there was a tsunami, not a tsunami, she called it a tsunami,
some sort of weather event.
And it ripped apart the university that they had built.
It ripped apart the building.
And of course, there's nothing there in Mozambique to begin with,
except what they have built for the last 25 years.
And it was pretty good for what it was.
But then when you have nothing and you built something,
and then it gets ripped down to shreds just because of a weather event.
And this video was the community and the villages and the students
and the music program recording a song that they had written.
And it was just the most beautiful music that you could,
I mean, that I've heard in a long time.
And it was just adoration to the Lord.
And in the environment, you can see the remnants of the walls
that was torn down by the tsunami.
And there's literally this fabric just waving in the air
that's acting as a covering temporarily for this school that they built.
And the music was just incredible.
And on that music, as she was sharing,
she shared with us some things that were on our heart.
And then we just started, like, the presence of the Lord
started just really getting strong in that place,
in that moment, that living room that we were in with them.
And we just felt compelled to start praying for them.
So we started praying for them.
And we're like, and people are at their feet,
like, laying hands on their feet, like, praying the prayer from,
like, blessed are the feet of those who bring good news, you know, type of thing.
And we're just, like, weeping and wailing.
And then all of a sudden, they start laying their hands on people.
And people start really being touched by the Lord and weeping.
And just, like, there's all this emotion.
And this is a group of, like, business leaders and millionaires.
This isn't just, you know, like, average normal people.
And here we are, just, like, all over the place,
all over this living room, just being, like, laid out,
just being, like, the Holy Spirit just, like, literally,
like, just changing things and healing people and delivering.
And all of a sudden, Roland, her husband,
he says, I've got something to say.
I goes, what are we doing this all for?
What is the point of this?
What do we get at the end of all of this?
And we're like, I don't know.
We're like, what?
I don't know.
What are we doing?
He's like, we're speechless, right?
He's like, it's only because of the joy, the joy of the Lord.
And so he starts laying hands.
And then we all start having this breakout
of joy in the room.
Now, I'm not of those ministries that all the whole laughter
and silliness that's been, I don't know.
I'm not necessarily about the kind of manifestation
of that kind of stuff.
But something came over me, the spirit of joy and laughter
and excitement.
And Roland said something so profound.
He goes, if I get to heaven, he goes, what do I do?
Why do I do what I do in Mozambique?
Because it's fun.
I'm like, bro, you've been stoned.
You've been left for dead.
You've been seriously robbed.
You have literally been at gunpoint multiple times.
You're like, how can you say what you do is fun?
It scares the hell out of me.
And he goes, we do it because it's fun,
because it's the joy of the Lord.
And the joy of the Lord is our strength.
And I'm like, whoa, bro.
That's another whole level.
And I'm like, wow.
He's like, if I get to heaven and there's no joy there,
I'm going somewhere else.
I'm like, bro, that's bold.
Like you're in heaven, what are you talking about?
What do you mean if you get to heaven
and there's no joy there?
And so there was this revelation from these individuals,
these people, and their experience, and who they are,
and where they're coming from, and the things
that they're doing and still doing.
And they're like, yeah, we do this because it's joyful.
I'm like, wow.
That is profound.
I mean, I'm being blown away.
I'm thinking it would be like heavy, and it's serious,
and woe is me, and the African people,
and look what they're going through,
and look nothing what they have.
No, they literally have nothing, some of them.
And they're the most happy, joyful, Jesus-loving, healed
people in the world.
And I'm like, that is some other right there.
And if your yes has brought about that kind of reality
to the poorest country in the world,
how can I not say yes to what God's asked me to do?
How can I not say yes to the simple task of whatever
He's put on my life?
What's on my heart to do?
And do it with joy.
Not from a heart of like, oh, this is a burden.
This is a thing.
Because Jesus paid the price.
Jesus took the burden.
His yoke is easy.
So I've shared a lot tonight, and I
know we haven't had a discussion,
but it's just on my heart to share it because of where
I've just come from.
I literally flew in this afternoon back here to Austin.
And I just want to challenge you with some of these words.
What is God asking you to surrender?
Doesn't have to be super, super deep.
Maybe it's just something simple.
What is God asking you to surrender?
What do you want?
That is a paramount question.
What do you want?
Maybe right now you can't answer the question,
what do I want in my life, big 5, 10 year type thing.
Maybe all you can answer is, what do I want in this season?
What do I want?
What do I want next?
Like this is the thing that's really holding me back.
And in the process of surrender, because sometimes it
requires to put down something in order to pick something up.
So sometimes it requires you like, you know what?
I'm just going to surrender that.
And I'm going to get clarity on what I want.
I want a breakthrough.
I want an increase in pay, or I want to be recognized for my value.
I want to obtain a certain position.
I want my spirit mate.
I want to meet the love of my life.
Whatever it is, guys, get clear on the what is it you want.
And then also understand that God is inviting you to do what you do in this process.
Do it with joy and allow joy to be your strength because there isn't anything else that's going
to give you strength.
Your grit and determination isn't your strength.
Your white knuckling it, holding on to righteousness isn't your strength.
Your being true to yourself and being kind of like, you know, this I'm unique, that is
not your strength.
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
Allowing the joy to come to you, allowing the joy to be found in what it is that you're
going after.
And putting aside all the things, all the excuses, putting aside the yeah, but this,
and yeah, but so-and-so, and yeah, but I can't, I can't, I can't, putting aside all that.
Maybe the surrender in some of you is just general negativity.
It was like, you know what, I really don't have anything to be negative about.
I mean, I can think of some things, I mean, you know, I get it.
We can all think of something to be negative about, whine and complain about, but maybe
there just isn't that much to be negative about, and I should just count it all joy.
And maybe I should just walk in this season and allow the joy of the Lord to be my strength
as I'm putting down this, and I'm getting clarity on what I want.
And then let your focus be what you want.
And trust me, when you get clarity on what you truly, truly want, it's not going to be
about something selfish or something egotistical.
Others may criticize you, like, oh, you just want that because, no, no, no, no, no, I'm
actually trying, I'm actually clarifying this because I really feel that this is what I'm
being called higher to do and to be.
Just like I was telling you earlier, I was resisting a lot of things because I thought
it was ego, and the Lord's like, no, no, no, bro, it has nothing to do with you, like,
get over yourself.
Like, it's not ego.
Like, it is like, literally, I have need of you.
There's a greater calling.
And those of you that that you're responding to that, let that be the motivation of your
heart.
Like, God has need of you, man.
God has need of your unique story, circumstance, your skill set, all of the story of your life
so far to this point, all has meaning, all has purpose, all has resonance with who you
are and what you bring to the table.
Every negative experience has caused you to learn something.
Every positive experience is to give you encouragement that you can do that, you can do this.
I did that.
You know, that's what you go by, like, what does your resume say?
It's based on all the experiences that you did good.
I did so many of this, I did that.
Why do you put that on a resume?
Because you're showing somebody else what you did, you're, this is what I can do.
I'm a professional at this.
I'm really good at this.
Anyway, man, it's such a heart for your guys' success
and breakthroughs and all the stuff.
Such a heart for that.
And we're going to be doing some more things this next year
with Last Year Single.
We've got more resources.
We've got more people that want to speak to our community, that
want to be resources for our community.
I need you guys to give us some feedback of like,
hey, what are some things that you would
like to see in our community?
Like maybe it's a resource.
Maybe it's let's talk about this.
Can we do this?
Can we organize this?
Can we facilitate this?
I want you guys to be thinking in that
and respond to us in that way.
And I don't know, maybe some of you have some ideas right now.
I'm going to open up the floor for a few minutes,
even though right at the hour.
I'm going to open the floor for a few minutes for you
to respond.
Maybe some of you want to just articulate, hey,
this is what I'm laying down.
Maybe some of you want to articulate,
hey, this is what I feel God's calling me up to.
Maybe you just want to say, hey, I just want to say yes to God.
I don't know.
Who wants to go?
I'll go quick.
That word was so from the Holy Spirit.
It has been a doozy for me.
I had a situation where I couldn't control it,
and I got so sick this week.
I'd be waking up, fever, throwing up,
screaming every single night.
And then it got to the point where
I had a really bad episode on the weekend
where I just disassociated.
I didn't even know who I was.
I looked in the mirror and had no idea
that that was even David Wright.
And so that's really serious for me.
And yeah, so this is just kind of like,
are you saying you had a physical manifestation
of like an illness that was something
that wasn't really an illness?
What do you mean?
Sorry.
Are you saying that you had a physical manifestation
of illness that was really quite an illness,
but it was something that's happening in you?
Yeah, so that's exactly what it was.
Is that like, is that neurologically
my body was just shutting down with like,
because I was OK mentally with it,
but then when I was sleeping,
my body was waking up screaming
and having like this reaction
where I was just like waking up with a fever
and like vomiting.
And so what happened?
To the point where like, I think.
What happened?
Pardon me?
So what, so what happened?
Like what happened to lead me to that?
Well.
How'd you come out of that?
It was because I got a like a.
Pardon me?
How did you come out?
How did I come out of it?
I looked in the mirror and I said,
this is ground control to Dave,
to to Major Tom, like David Bowie,
and just prayed and, you know,
like the Lord brought me out of it
and I talked to my parents about it.
And yeah, so this, this was a real blessing
hearing, hearing this and.
Okay.
Yeah.
Good stuff.
But I think I'm just kind of walking into what,
like I was like, Lord,
maybe I can't handle meeting somebody,
but maybe it's just trusting God with.
Who I am.
I think what happened there,
let me just tell you, Dave,
let me cut this short here.
I think actually what happened with you
is you learned that you actually had
a certain authority in your life.
To me, the things that sticks out
is that you looked in the mirror
and you started speaking to yourself
in a way that you were able to come
in a level of authority
and bring yourself out of a situation
and, and like bring that back to a basis of normality.
So try that on for size and see what that does.
I mean, in terms of just like understanding
what I'm saying there,
that's the thing that stood out to me
and what you're saying.
Yeah, amen.
Who else?
Again, maybe you have something that you want to.
What's that?
Matthew Zando?
Yeah, Matthew.
Sorry about that, bro.
Are you there, Matthew?
How about now?
Can you hear me?
Yeah, you can hear me now.
Okay.
All right.
Sorry.
You had your hand up, Matthew, so we were just calling on you.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah.
Okay.
I'll stop.
I won't touch the phone anymore.
Yeah.
It's been really crazy since Thanksgiving.
And I just felt these blessings this week, I mean, these last few days.
So I have two daughters that are 30 and 35.
And you know my story, I've been looking for work for the last, it's going on two years
now.
I'm doing whatever I can, hustling and everything else.
And they just came after me, you're never going to find a job.
What are you going to do?
I'm not going to take care of you when you get old and can't take care of yourself.
And it's just going on and on.
And they're saying, well, you need to go back to school and train for another career.
After this is like my second.
So I prayed about it and I thought about it.
And that's something that I might do, but they were just so nasty that it was just so
frustrating.
I just felt, God, I still feel that God knows when he didn't bring me this far just to let
me go.
Yeah.
And I just felt like there was abusive relationship with my marriage.
And the way they were talking to me was like their mom would talk to me.
And that's where they get it from.
And I think if I'm going to give up anything, it's not to let them get away with it.
I need to stick up for myself.
Yeah.
Not just to kind of shut down.
But in the last two days, starting with Supernatural Saturday and what Jackie was talking about,
that you need to see what other things you've been praying about, what other goals and dreams
you have that you may have let go.
And I was applying every anywhere and everywhere.
But one thing I did when I was in film school is I had a 300 page book of story of Pixar.
And it was something I was really focused on every day.
I didn't have a car back then.
I was taking the train and the bus and reading through it.
And I applied for a job at Pixar, just like I applied everywhere else.
But I reached out to the guy that is I'm doing the short film for because I know somebody
over there.
Send me your resume and send to the person that's doing the hiring.
Right.
And I feel like I haven't heard anything.
And I'm glued to my phone checking the email.
But it just feels like I woke up at four in the morning, just fired up that this is it.
And it requires me to move from L.A. to Northern California.
But it doesn't matter.
I just feel like this is it.
I just feel so blessed and so fired up about this.
OK.
So that's where it stands right now.
Yeah.
I mean, I could use prayer.
No, no, no.
I understand that.
No, I think it's significant to what you said.
I think it's significant what you said.
So I'm just I'm just prophetically processing.
That's kind of what I'm doing here.
Just kind of like I'm hearing the things that are being said in the spirit.
And you said that God's not brought you this far to to leave you.
And that is true for every man on this call.
And I mean, of course, you as well, Matthew, that's true for all of you.
And all of us.
God's not brought you like that is.
Really profound.
God didn't bring you this far just to, like, leave you half baked.
That makes no sense whatsoever.
Right.
Especially in the sense of like God.
The maker and the creator of all things.
The perfect God that we say we serve.
And he's going to bring us this far and just basically kind of leave us to our own devices.
That's messed up, bro.
That's a that's a terrible dad.
That's a horrible dad.
OK, fend for yourself now.
I mean, like.
How many of you.
Like, I'm not even going to go the father thing, but it's just it's a how many would you how many guys do you want to be that kind of dad?
You may have had that kind of dad.
You may have had that kind of experience.
There's all kinds of different stories that we can share on this call about our dads.
Right.
But nobody wants to be that kind of dad.
Well, you're just like, all right, I brought you this.
fire now just go do your thing make shit up like don't get hurt on the way out like you know like
no that's terrible that's a bad dad and god didn't bring you this far in order to leave you
that is that is reality that's that's a good word right there thank you for sharing that matthew
and we're going to be praying believing yeah that i i'm there's something on that
that this is it thing that's the michael jackson movie this is it yeah and for him it's the end
because he died in the making of that movie yeah but the this is it moment is like this is it
so praise god good for that who else who else on this call i i i would say hi i just want to
say hi to everyone i haven't been on here for a long time can you guys hear me okay yes we can
okay uh i've been doing well but i just i've been really busy with uh my four kids and sports and
hunting and business and i have a prayer meeting that's also monday nights that i like to try to
go to but um i'm glad to uh to come and see you guys this evening and i really appreciate what
you shared david um that what what uh roland baker said about doing it for the joy i love that
um just today i was meditating on the proverb of the day proverbs 15 verse 15 says a cheerful
heart has a continual feast and i just feel like the lord is just like wanting to give us
like to live in that place of like feasting on his the joy that he has over us like he enjoys
each one of us immensely and like he wants us to abide in that like he said abiding my love
you know we're abiding my joy so i just anyhow i just wanted to say hi and and um good to see you
and yeah i'm glad you're here jesse thanks for sharing that because um yeah i know what it's
like and get busy and doing all that stuff but i'm glad you're here and i'm glad that you you
made time and uh i love that thanks for sharing that proverbs 15 i'll look that up and and see
it's 15 15 15 15 all right good yeah so good thank you man it's good to hear that i love that
who else
who else what's up david what's up everybody i uh i was just kind of sitting back listening and
appreciate you guys the meeting and the time and everything uh i know this is only my second
week online with the group so i'm kind of uh just soaking it in and seeing what what this is about
and just kind of being present um i think i have several thoughts one i've this week this i would
say this past couple months has been um for me it's been i guess more so exhausting from a from
like a spiritual and emotional standpoint um and and and reason being is i've i've been
i would say for the last year i've been trying to get planted trying to find a place specifically
like community or church and it's just been that's been challenging um and and it's interesting you
mentioned ecclesiastes i was i was actually i'm going through that right now and i think it's in
chapter 1 verse 18 i don't remember off the top of my head but it's it talks about how knowledge
brings can bring grief like more knowledge and and in other words it's like knowing more may not
always be the best and the reason i bring it up is because you know several years back this is prior
to coming to seminary this is you know i was kind of a i was kind of like a baby i'm like a deer in
the headlights kind of you know excited it was like this joy i don't know anything you know lord
leads me to this church i'm just kind of like yeah excited to be a part of it i felt like i was
and i started to get involved more i started to learn things more more things about the church's
community and and i kind of in a sense got uh i wouldn't say discouraged but it was like
i started to learn deeper things and the lord brought me deeper things and then it almost felt
like as i was spending time with him uh it kind of feels like it's harder to find like-minded people
um and and and what i do and what i what i what i'm pursuing and i know it's unique in in my sense
and so that's that's been challenging i would say
Um, and I'm still in that process.
You know, I visited two different churches over the two weekends.
I met with, I'm meeting with one of the pastors this week, just connecting.
And, uh, so, uh, as I'm doing the heartwork and because of those things, I
think I got discouraged and I was like, I didn't really press in this week into
chapter, into part two for the heartwork.
Uh, so I slacked on that.
I, I'm just admitting and holding myself accountable.
Um, and yeah, so that's kind of where I'm at this week.
Uh, so I can kind of, I feel, I feel the, kind of the, the wrestling and
the challenges are people going through.
I can kind of feel that too.
I'm with you guys.
And then I guess a thought or a suggestion I had in mind while we're just on here
was, it might be helpful, maybe, I don't know if you guys do this or not, but
just going through the questions, like where everybody's at in their books or
or maybe just doing like heart check-ins, like literal, like, Hey, what was your
ups, downs this week, you know, maybe just kind of like talking about those
things and cause I know I've done those in smaller group settings and since we're
all dudes here and it seems like it's a smaller group, I think it wouldn't be
bad for us just to kind of provides the opportunity and a place for us to really.
You know, everybody can be as vulnerable as they want and just really share.
Hey, what was my highs?
What was my lows?
And I think that kind of opens up the doors for maybe other people to start
sharing and, and, and when we, when I've noticed, when I do that, at least it
helps me get to the root of things, like just talking to what other people, maybe
just being heard or just maybe hearing a different perspective from someone.
It's like, Oh, I didn't think of it that way.
Maybe helpful.
Some thoughts.
I don't know, but that's good.
No, the original idea of heart check-in is, is that, is that we
process the heart work in, in order.
We've done that from time to time.
And but we're not in a regular liturgy of doing that, you know, weekend a week
out or month after month, because at some point everybody's like different.
Parts of their heart work journey.
Some people just starting out.
Some people done it a year ago or half a year, whatever.
So for scheduling it, it's challenging, but at the same time, we probably should
take the time to go through it another time, another season.
So beginning of the year, actually, it might be a good way to do that as well.
So take, take several weeks straight in a row, try to do heart work questions
and just process that and do heart work all over again.
So, yeah, that's a good suggestion.
I like that.
Thank you so much.
Good to see you, Lewis, man.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Who else?
Anybody else wants to share?
I'll go ahead and share.
Go ahead, David.
I just wanted to say that over the past few weeks, it's been good.
I think it was two or three supernatural Saturdays ago.
And when I say good, I mean more emotionally good and spiritually good.
Started going to a new church finally locally after being out of any
local connection for over a year.
And then within the past few days, I felt a lot of breakthrough, like
my spark is back, so to speak.
It's like just coming through the dark night of the soul, getting
out of that depression, getting out of the, you know, but I
mean, it's all God doing it.
And I think the biggest takeaway I can say is just to keep it short here is I
don't, I grew up in a very cerebral academic kind of household because my
dad was very academically gifted.
And the thing that's really hitting me is, and I've seen a lot of my negativity
go away is I've heard it said that, you know, it doesn't say in the, does it
say anywhere in the Bible that we're supposed to figure everything out?
And especially, especially like as men, like usually when you're trying to
figure everything out, you're really not.
Most of the time I would argue then not, you're not really
inviting God into it at all.
And it's not, and it's unhealthy and it's not real surrender.
And it just brings in a lot of chaos.
And I mean, over this weekend, I think one of the things that might may have
helped attribute to like the breakthrough I've had financial breakthrough over
the last four days, like, like I have not been, I have not been able to work
for over a year, as many hours as I've put in, in the last four days, because
I was just so at rock bottom, dark night of the soul, whatever you want to call it.
Yeah.
So, but what I did, like, uh,
Yeah, it's just no joke like I literally went on Facebook and I unfriended about 50 people
that like I don't even know who this is or this is not healthy, I'm unfriending this
person, I'm unfriending that and literally I tell you, I literally tell you like the
same day like these people have not reached out for me, to me for a long time and one
of them that was not the healthiest reached out to me and it's like I mean did you get
an alert like the Facebook says they don't get an alert when you do that but it's almost
like in the spirit like they did and then another one was just it wasn't like a bad
connection but was just mainly like through a friend of a friend of a friend on Facebook
that was some ministry in some country I've never been to even though I've been to some
foreign countries and done missionary work but you know on a very short term you know
perhaps but you know and then that you know so it was just two things like the very like
within not even an hour or two of just you know letting go and unfriending them so I'm
just like okay let's see what's going on here.
I love it that's that's something you're surrendering you're cutting out like hey in order to
get clarity on what you want sometimes you have to cut out the noise matter of fact not
sometimes every time you have to cut out noise you have to cut out the noise and that could
be social media that could be friends that could be certain associations that could be
certain activity yes you gotta make room yeah gotta make room but yeah definitely absolutely
all right guys we're well past the hour I want some more input but I think I'm gonna
reach out probably in like texting or some sort of like I'm either in email or some sort
of like it's like a written form to you to everyone this week I've written everybody's
names down that was here tonight and some other guys and I think I'm just gonna reach
out we're gonna have some more conversation we're gonna continue into next week doing
this I want everyone to think and this is for recording sake as well I want all the
guys on here that were on here before tonight and record here listen to this recording I
want you to be thinking about what is it you're surrendering what do you want and really
contemplating stepping into the joy of the Lord being your strength and putting aside
everything else that you find your strength in and just really going after that joy because
if you know at the end of the day if we're not approaching what we're doing in our life
which is godly and what we're doing for God which is obviously godly and we're not doing
it with joy then you know it's like we're doing it wrong and again that's not condemnation that's
just like man they're the only reason that we do what we do is for the joy of the Lord you know
and that's powerful so what are you surrendering what do you want and really going after the goal
being the joy of the Lord and we'll end it with that so god bless you guys have a great great
week and I'll be reaching out later on this week see you soon