Episode 152. Your Battleplan for Prayer with The Kendrick Brothers

Unedited Transcript

I am so excited to have you today. Welcome to the show. This has been an interview I've looked forward to for so long. So thanks for, oh, our pleasure. Honored to be a part of it. Okay. Here's what I do. When I interview multiple people in the same interview, your voices are different. I would love for you to, to kind of give us like, Hey, I'm I'm so-and-so and I'm so-and-so you introduce yourself.

So people will start to recognize. Sure. I'm Dustin and I'm a pastor. I'm Alex. Yeah. So I'm Alex Kendrick. And, uh, and I'm Stephen. Kendrick is a younger brother by three years. Perfect. Awesome. Well, everybody knows who you are, but they may have not heard your voices before. So this is really fun. I'm so excited to chat with you guys today about several things, but we're going to start by having you guys share a little bit of your hearts behind two films that you guys are releasing very close together, which is so exciting.

So you want to kind of tell us about both of them a little bit in your heart, behind them. Well, the first one we have coming out is called show me the father. It is our first documentary, but it has some of the best stories in it that we have ever shared in any film. There's five true stories and each of them come.

Fatherhood from a different perspective, but ultimately we point to God as father, all of a sudden the fatherhood stories, some are Tinder and, and um, sometimes, uh, we have a scar in our heart. When we think about our father, other people feel blessed. They had a great dad and a good relationship with him.

So there's a, there's a pretty wide variety of experiences when we bring up the topic of father. But God is a perfect father. He's not just God. He is father. And he wants us to see him as such. And so he's not distant far away. He is desirous to be close and intimate with us and wants us to know him.

That's why Jesus said, when you see me, you see the father, he was answering a question that came from his disciples and they said, show us the father. And he said, don't, you know, if you've seen me, you've seen the father God's loving, gracious, truthful forgiving characteristics. And yes, he's also judged. Uh, his characteristics were displayed through Jesus Christ.

And so this film will show you five true stories and they have wonderful twists drama from various vantage points. Uh, almost nobody ins without tears in their eyes and inspiration. And at the very end of the film, we talk about how to bless your children, what that means from scripture. And how to ask the Lord, put his hand on your children to bless them and to, uh, and to ask God to watch over them.

It's a powerful moment. And so we can't wait for, show me the father to come out in theaters September 10th. And because everybody has a father story, we think it's going to minister to him. Somebody who comes and watches in the theater? Well, two weeks after show me, the father comes out in theaters. Uh, we are releasing in theaters.

Uh, the movie courageous legacy. It is the remastered updated way, better versions of courageous. It is, uh, been, it'll be on the 10th year anniversary, basically the same week as courageous. When it was released 10 years ago, we've gone back in recolored the film it's in 4k now. It's in, uh, updated the music, the sound effects re edited it added in bonus scenes and we've shot a new ending showing these police officers 10 years later.

And so, um, if you haven't seen the movie, this is, uh, you're going to fully enjoy it. Courageous is quite the ride God's been using it over 10 years to impact millions of people around the world. And. Probably over 70 countries around the world. We've had, we've heard stories of a thousand police officers coming to Christ in the Philippines.

After seeing courageous men in mud huts in Malawi, Africa, writing out their own resolution saying I'm going to provide for my wives and my kids, uh, Ecuador. Uh, men gathering in a field in uniform connected to the military saying I'm going to be the spiritual leader of my home. And then the personal stories of people saying, my dad told me, he loved me for the first time after he saw the maybe courageous or, uh, we heard one lady, she said my dad was antagonistic towards the gospel.

His entire life broke down after seeing great. Ended up giving his life to Christ. And at his funeral, we gave out copies of the DVD to show people how God, what God used to basically when our dad to Christ. So we're just very grateful for what the Lord has done through the film. And we're grateful that we've got millions of men that have become dads in the last 10 years.

That will be watching this film now with new eyes, holding their own kids in their arms. And so we're hoping that believers will go see, show me the father on September the 10th, learn how to bless their children. And that men will then take their families to go see courageous a few weeks later and then do a prayer of blessing time over there.

After they've seen that. Maybe what they're painless. So courageous comes out September 24th. So that's two weeks later, so that we'll have two movies in the theater at the same time, but we think it's a great one to punch, especially as it relates to, uh, to fatherhood. Absolutely. And Rebecca and I were talking just before we began and we were saying that.

As best as we can determine your movies have been the staple of our church movie nights, more than any other movies. So whether that's going to the theater, taking a group to the theater or, or hosting a viewing there at the church, um, you, you, you are a, you are a station. Uh, and, and it's, it's always, it's always incredible.

Just always an incredible time. That's very encouraging to God be the glory because every one of them is birthed in prayer months of prayer. And we're praying every day on set, we've got a prayer team prayed behind the scenes. We know that it's not us. The Lord. By his grace and through his spirit empowers believers, working in unity, cross racial and denominational lines with every film to enable us to produce something that hopefully will be a tool of ministry.

So our prayer has been that people will have an encounter with the Lord when they watch the film. Well, and I, I think that's, that's bearing that fruit out and we're, we're seeing it. Uh, I want to ask you a little bit about, about the first film, about show me the father. Um, you tackle the idea of how we view our earthly fathers and then how we personally relate to God.

And, and how that, that can be different. So why, why does this matter so much to you? And could you explain a little more about that difference? We get our first concept of God from our earthly relationship with our dad. If our dad is loving and a part of our lives, it's easy for us to believe that God is the same way for those people that had a distant father who either wasn't there or was harsh or unloved.

Their concept of God is that he's also distant and harsh and impossibly unloving. So it is for a wise father to recognize that he. The first concept that his kids will have of what God is like. It's the same thing that Jesus said when you've seen me, you've seen the father, well, I have six kids. So what I have to do is to the best of my ability, reflect what God is like to my children.

Well, that comes with practice. Of course, and I mess up at times, but I can be loving. Uh, attentive to them, teach them, um, rebuke them, discipline them when necessary and direct them to a relationship to God, my, myself, through Jesus Christ. So when they see that I have my own relationship with God, they're more apt to realize that they need a relationship with God as well through Christ.

And so it is very important that we realize that as a dad, we're the first concept now. Can that be broken if you had a bad father? Yes. When you realize that God does not have the bad or sinful attributes of a bad father, and we have to differentiate between the two, God is perfect. He's perfect in everything he does.

He's loving, he's perfectly loving, perfectly merciful, uh, perfectly perfect in his justice. Our earthly dads aren't. And so if you had a poor father, the first thing that we would would say to you is your earthly sinful father may have characteristics that are not anything like God, the father, God is a perfect dad that that's actually shared in the story of Jim Daly's.

The president focused on the family and his story shared in the movie, show me the father. He doesn't phenomenal job walking through how he differentiated between what his earthly dad was like an alcoholic. Who was often abstinent gone from his life with a loving guy that want it to be a part of his everyday life.

And it's a powerful, powerful story. So good. Yeah. I love that so much. It matters so much. A great experience as it comes, as it pertains to that, of like that first experience of my earthly father, I have an amazing dad and I also have friends who have wrestled with that and had different experiences with their earthly father.

So I love that y'all have taken that idea and really flush that out in the film. I think that matters so much. So I'm excited for people to watch it. You know, one of the other things that you've done. Uh, responsible for in our lives that has been so impactful to, I know not only me and Dustin, but to our church is the book that you guys wrote the battle plan for prayer.

And I remember when I got the pitch email to talk to you guys, my first thought was. I'm okay. I'm really excited about both of these films that are coming out. But if I talk to them, we have to talk prayer. I'm going to go. We're going to go there next. And I mean, I know Destin and I have both read the book.

We have both taken a small group through the book once, and I know Dustin you're, you're at least in prayer about potentially doing it again this fall. And so it's, it's been a powerful book in our church and the place I'd love to start there is you say in the book. Speaking about prayer. It is like oxygen to our spiritual lives.

It provides the needed wind in our sails to propel everything we do as believers. And it's the unseen key to the success of every ministry in the church. It's a big deal to God and it should be a big deal to us. So I'd love for you to talk about why was it important to you to discuss. The priority of prayer within the church.

Well, so Steven's going to break down some of the methods of prayer that we talk about, uh, strategic prayer, you know, it occurred to us. Even in the church, we have all of these strategies. We have strategies for our health. We often have strategies for our kids' education. We have a strategy for finances and our retirement.

One day. Why don't we have strategies for prayer? And when in Matthew six verse six, just jumped off the page at us, go into your inner room, shut the door. That's where you get the concept of the closet. Go into your inner room, shut the door, pray to your father in secret and your father who sees. We'll reward you.

And so we're like, okay, so the Lord wants that time with them. He wants that prayer, but how can we, uh, go into all of the battles that we face referring to Ephesians six? How can we go to all of the battles we face without a war plan? You know, when our military goes into battle, they first go in the war room and come up with their strategy.

Why don't we do that spiritually? Cause we S we fight a very real spiritual battle. There is a real king. We're standing against the enemy's kingdom and we're standing for the Lord's kingdom, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And so why don't we do that? So we said, we got to break this down and come up with strategies.

We often share an analogy. So what I tell people, not praying is like needing light, buying this wonderful land out with a beautiful lampshade on a great stand, bringing it home, all the pieces are there and you set it in the corner and don't plug it in. Why would you do that? Our our time with the Lord is essential for spiritual growth and coming up with strategies for prayer, the way I pray for my wife, the way I pray for my children, the way I pray for their future spouses, the way we pray for effectiveness and fruitfulness in ministry, that those are all pieces I break down and I spend time with the Lord praying about.

So I'm going to turn it over to Steven, to talk about some of those specifics and how we strategically. So we grew up in a praying home where we saw incredible answers to prayer in our parents' lives. And, um, and then we have attended a praying church for the last 20 years where you're seeing believers really seek the Lord in prayer and then to see God respond, uh, in scripture, there is a connection between prayer and the power of the holy city.

And so believers are always planning events and let's plan an evangelist pick effort. Let's do it. Summer camp. Let's do this outreach Bible study, but ultimately when all is said and done, we're dependent upon the holy spirit to show up. Turn someone's heart during the invitation time or set a couple, you know, set people free that are dealing with addiction or helping people to forgive.

Ultimately, we need God to show up when all is said and done at that moment and bring transformation well in scripture, when believers are praying. They are not only in unity, inviting the holy Spirit's presence to be with them, but you'll see if you read the book of acts, there's this incredible concert of fruitfulness and effectiveness in all aspects of ministry when believers are devoting themselves to prayer.

So you'll see Jesus prioritizing prayer with casting out the money changers and the devil. Priorities prayer in acts two they're meeting in unity and praying. The holy spirit shows up. You'll see, later on when the apostles rise up, they said we can't be distracted by these other things. We have to prioritize prayer and the ministry of the word.

And then you'll see in Romans 12 and in Colassians for him, God telling us, devote yourselves to prayer, make it a priority. And first Timothy two. Do it, first of all, it doesn't need to be the last ditch effort that's in the, you know, it's not the spare tire and your truck, it's the steering wheel guiding your decisions.

So if you realize that when you give your life to Jesus, Ephesians one says you're then sealed with the holy spirit and Ephesians two and three says you now have access to the father to be boldly, to be freedom of speech, honest with him. And he is listening and loving and. And he will answer the prayers of his children.

You don't have because you don't ask. And so it believers by faith realize this is true. And if, if I being evil, know how to give good gifts to my children, how much more will I loving father give good things to those who ask? So this is what I tell people. Part of your identity in Christ is you have access to a father's throne in prayer.

With that in mind, he didn't send Jesus to die on the cross, tear the veil, open up the way between you and God, just so he can tell you. Hmm. He intentionally says, pray for what you need, because he already knows your needs. Pray for good things, even if you don't need them. And then Johnson 17, four, he says, you can even ask for your heart's desire.

If you are in an abiding relationship with me. And my words are abiding in you. You're at spiritually in a position where God can hand you a blank check. What I have found is it's not whether or not he answers prayer and he can say, no, God can do whatever he wants to, but oftentimes it's just about time.

If we will pray for a hundred things, 10 of those, he may answer within a few hours or a few days. Some of them will be over the next weeks and months. There will be a few items that it may be 5, 10, 15 years before he answers. We have to trust God's timing. And so if we will pray actively and trust him, And just trust his heart.

You will see consistently God showing up in answers to prayer. And every time he does it builds our faith. Our joy has made full Jesus said, and the father is glorified through this relationship. We have to resign. So it is very exciting to shut down the mouths of the skeptics by answering prayer. And it causes people to realize God is alive and well.

And he is the kingdom of God is here and now and actively at working. It's not a thing of the past. He is presently, actively inviting us into, you know, to pray, to pray to him about anything and everything. So part of us that Kendrick brothers, we pray for money. For the direction concerning what project, what movie, what book?

And then we're praying as we're writing, we're praying is before we're casting anybody. We're praying every day on set as we're filming, we're praying in the editing room and we're trying to make decisions. We're praying before we plan up the marketing straps. We've just seen God. We've seen a big difference when we pray and when we don't, I want, I want to add something to real quick.

This is important too. When we dedicate time to the Lord, we dedicate our work for the Lord. It always works. It doesn't always look like we thought it was going to look right, right. So, so it's not just whatever I want. See in my head, God always gives me that, but he says, if you seek me, you will find me.

If you seek me with all your heart, Jeremiah 29 13, that's one of my favorite verses. If you seek me, you will find me. If you seek me with all your heart. So it's for me to chase after the Lord and God wants to be found. And so when I'll pray about things, You're directing us to make a movie about fathers.

Would you allow it to be fruitful? Would you allow it to work? Yes. The answer is yes. Now to what degree? That something, you know, so, so when I do things, are they fruitful? Uh, do they help multiply the, the saints? Do they help encourage the body of Christ? Yes, they do. But it never looks exactly like, I think it's going to look with praise.

God, God, God sees everything. So clearly I see in part, you know, I only know in part and so we are for whatever God wants to do. So, so when Stephen talks about writing a blank check, God's not, we're not saying God's a genie in a lamp is not right. What we are saying is that he is capable of doing the impossible.

And when we are in alignment with what pleases him, he delights in giving us our requests. Yeah, so good. You know, another portion of the book that I think gave a lot of color to prayer for me was in the strategy section. And we've mentioned this a little bit, but you include several different ways that you charge believers to price.

So think praying on offensively preemptively, defensively, extraordinarily, right. I loved those chapters because I think it gives so much color to. To our prayers and what that looks like biblically. And so I want to hear why was that important? Right. Like I'm working on my first book right now and I know what it feels like to sit and brainstorm of man of everything about prayer.

What, what should we include? Like why did that matter so much? Well, if, if people can get some kind of biblical framework that lines up with scripture, that turns on the light for them, where they're like, okay, I get it. Now. I understand now prayer, you know, from a greater degree, when you look at it like, well, whether it's military or sports, the authentic praying is the praying for good stuff.

You're going on the offense, asking the Lord. To provide a, to bless, to use, to give wisdom, to guide you're asking for all good things. You know, it says in Romans 1221, we should not be overcome by evil. We should overcome evil with good. One of the best ways to build unity between people is not just to teach them not to fight.

But to teach them how to love, you know? And so we're turning on the light rather than just cursing the darkness. And when we're praying, may your kingdom come, may your will be done. Will you give me provision? Would you give me wisdom? We're praying offensively. The defensive praying is when Jesus said deliver us from him.

You know, the evil is already upon us and we need to be praying that for our families, for our nation, for our churches, because the devil, it says redeem the time, knowing the days are evil, he's constantly trying to steal, kill and destroy at every level. And we have to recognize that and be praying and gets his attacks that are upon us.

The preemptive praying is before the evil shows. That you're praying against it to block it in a sense. So when we're saying lead me not into temptation temptation, isn't yet in the room, but it's knocking on the door, you know? And so when Jesus told Peter pray that you not enter into temptation is preemptive and, and, and Peter's not doing that.

He falls asleep instead. And so when he wakes up. This shoveled, Judas shows up and it's it's Peter's worst day of his life. He's hacking off ears rather than walking by faith. He denies Jesus three times. He totally walks away from the ministry in a sense he's devastated because he didn't do what Jesus told them.

So there needs to be this sense that we're on guard Lord saying, Lord, take heed. When you stand lest you fall as Mike, like we just dropped off our kids at college this past weekend. So we're already praying preemptively. We're keep them away from bad friends. Bad, future mates, bad professors, bad teachers.

Those things haven't shown up yet, but I don't want to wait until they're engaged to the wrong person before I get them, you know? Yeah. We use this analogy and you probably, you guys will probably remember it from the book where a prayer should be the steering wheel, not the spare tire. Right. You know, you don't, prayer is not just, oh, I've got a flat top.

God now helped me. Well, you can pray in that circumstance, but prayer is more the steering wheel, all along the journey and not just the emergency cord. You pull only when you're in trouble. And so that's preemptive praying. Let, let, let you know. You pray in faith. God, I want to think of wisdom. How can I already be laying the groundwork for my kids' future spouses for the ministry we're going to do next year?

For the hearts of these people that are going to see a film, you know, it's, it's, it's, I'm thinking ahead of time and I'm asking the Lord to already begin to move you up. And I would say studying Satan's strategies and scripture, he's operating the same way now as he did back. I mean for thousands of years, he's deceptive.

He's going to lie to us of our identity in Christ and who God is. He's discouraging. Um, he's distract things. He will deny what God says. He's accusatory and demeaning and he's divided. And so knowing that he's still doing the same things now, with that in mind, anytime we're going into, you can have a church event, you can have them calling a new staff member.

You can have something going on with your kids and you just ask the question, how do we know Satan's going to be attacking them days ahead. Let's go ahead then now and pray against all of that. And ask God to go ahead and be shielding us and protecting us and, you know, and, you know, put a hedge of protection around us in the situation.

And then the extraordinary prayer is when you kick it into high gear on steroids, there are things that scripture says that we can do, and it takes our purse to another level. Praying in unity with other believers is one of them fasting. Praying, according to God's will, um, walking in repentance, you know, corporate prayer, all of those things are tied to it's like putting prayer on rocket fuel steroids.

And you'll see when Billy, when, when Esther called the people to fast for three days before she went in, she was asking for extraordinary prayer, you know, praying, according to God's word and his name to his reputation, all of those things take it to the next level. Otherwise we end up getting. Caught in these roads, systematic, just I'm praying for the same thing all the time.

And that's not because you asked me and that's one of the things whenever for, I guess maybe, uh, two years now, uh, we have had an evening service. That was just devoted to prayer. And so our Sunday evening service just devoted to prayer and, and then COVID hit and in, and then we had a time where we had to meet online, but I remember the staff came and they said, so, so are we going to, are we going to cancel this?

And I said, no, Prey online. We'll just, we'll just go through that. And, and battle plan for Paris is one of those, one of those books we went through and we, we pulled aspects of it and said, listen, this is, this is, this is what we're praying about tonight. And so we basically taught on prayer and then prayed through many of those exact things that you're talking about, uh, strategically.

And, and we've seen prayers answered. Uh, just amazing ways, uh, I encourage them to do or what you had at the beginning of the book where you make a list and the things that, that God has to work in order for these things to be met. And we've had people show up and say, God answered. God answered this prayer.

God answered that prayer. God is beginning to work in this prayer. As you said earlier, we've seen people who have, who have shown up and said, God answered the prayer, but he answered it in a way. I did not anticipate him answering that prayer. And I always tell them that, you know, God's will well, is exactly what you would ask for.

If you had all the information that he has that's right. If you knew everything that he had, that he knew and you had perfect knowledge. That's exactly what you would be asking for. That's exactly what you would want. Uh, but we, we don't, we don't know that. Um, but then we've had some, you know, we, we always run into people who will make statements like this.

Well, God's going to do what God's going to do. So my prey, or we end up with people who say, um, well I've prayed and prayed and prayed and I've become discouraged. And so I'm going to quit praying about that particular thing. And, and so w w what are some of the other reasons maybe, or maybe fleshing those out that you've seen prayer being essential, but yet at the same time, believers, Nicholas.

For whatever reasons, what are some of those reasons? Sorry, James four eight says draw near to God. He draws near to you. And of course, Psalm 37 that says delight yourself in the Lord will give you the desires, desires of your heart. So I see from that, there's something for me to do draw near to God. And he will draw near to you.

I need to seek him and Psalm 37. When I delight in the Lord, he gives me the desires of my heart. So am I delighting in the Lord? I have to ask myself that. And again, ultimately this life is not about me. It's not me. And the universe goes around me. It is the Lord and the universe goes around the Lord. So ultimately is what he wants first.

But secondly, um, I can't treat God like my employee is not my enemy. You know, he's God, I am his servant. And when I make my needs, my wants and my desires, the number one thing, and they're not lined up with what the God delights in. I can expect to be waiting a long time and I can get frustrated. So, so I have to check my heart and I often pray this prayer.

David prayed this prayer. Would you go through the corridors of my heart and see if there's any wicked way in me to see if there's anything out of alignment from you, Lord, anything I need to get right with you, uh, and then help my desires line up with your desires and when they do. You you're more apt to see God working.

And so I have to die to myself. You know, Paul says that I have to die to myself daily. So sometimes people pray for good things, but the Lord says not yet. Uh, Stephen and I spent, oh my goodness, how many years praying for dad? You know, we prayed for a decade for our files. And God was answering a lot of prayers quickly.

You know, it was a day or day of, or next week or whatever, but we had this big, but what about this Lord? You know, our dad had gone into depression and multiple sclerosis and was physically going downhill, lost the joy of his salvation. He misunderstood his identity in Christ and the enemy was just pounding him with depression.

And so we prayed for a decade. And it was like, man, there's some things in scripture that you will see it's decades of been praying before the Lord responds. And then you realize, oh, his timing was perfect. It wasn't that he was being slow. He was being patient. And he was being patient with us because he was doing a work in us in the process.

And he was being patient with the people that we were praying for at the same time. Uh, and it says that in second, Peter, it says the Lord is not slack concerning his promises he's patient. And if we view it. I think in this generation, you know, there's all the debate about Calvinism and Arminianism, we talk about sovereignty of God and free will of man.

And you've got churches that are leaning more Calvinistic sovereignty of God. And they're strong on theology and trusting God's sovereignty. Oftentimes though their flesh kicks in and they start, uh, not praying cause they think God's already determined everything and they're not going to influence him at all.

And then you have those people that think it's all up to us. That, you know, it's all in our hands and everything else. Jesus explained that prayer view it like a father, son relationship. Now think about kids and their dad. There are, there are, there are certain things about my relationship with my kids that are unchanging.

I'm wanting them to come to Christ. I want them to walk in wisdom. I want them, and I'm going to be guiding their decisions and they're not going to change the fact that I'm guiding them on an, a good path and away from evil and those kinds of things. But there's also the condition. Will of God. And that is if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, then I'll do this.

If you seek me, then you'll find me like Alex just said, if you, and he's put, he's hitting the ball in our court in those situations. And he says, I love you. I'm prompting you to pray with my word. I'm prompting you to pray with my holy spirit. That's rising up in you saying cry out Abba father, and I'm telling the church to train you and equip you in praying I'm doing all that so that you'll get busy praying.

And so. Uh, you know, problems in our lives to motivate us, to pray things that we're worried and anxious about. Should we should turn into prayers. Philippians four says. And so my children come to me often and are constantly asking me for things. I don't say yes to 100% of their requests, but many times it's not something they need, but because I love them and delight in them, I will say, yes.

And I will answer those prayers. Jesus did that as the model of the father on earth, where people would say, Jesus, Jesus have mercy. Let's come over here and he heal us. He would stop. And all of this, busy-ness heading to Jerusalem and turn, go over and heal a blind Bartimaeus or a woman with an issue of blood or, you know, whatever, because people act.

And so he, he keeps telling us, asking you shall receive, seek, and you will find, so there is a balance with, yes, God is sovereign, but in his sovereignty, he's inviting us into relationship and saying, I want you to relate to me like a father and a son. And watch me answer prayers when you ask and relate to me intimately and know that I'm listening and I care and I deleted it.

And I want this relationship to be reciprocal and not just you're a robot or a slave. I want to add one, one quick analogy. I know we're talking a lot. Um, this is exactly what we want it to be. Yeah. You wound us up. And my kids asked me about some of the trials that God allows us to go through. Uh, could not finish your senior soccer season.

And she wanted to play soccer in college because of COVID. So she was really frustrated and I said, okay, if God allows these types of trials in your life, how are you going to handle them? Well, all of us want to grow spiritually. All of us want a growing thing. You know, there, and there are measures of faith.

You know, Jesus turns to one woman says, oh, you have great faith. Or he talks about the faith of a mustard seed when he's in the boat and the storm comes and the disciples freak out, he says, you have a little faith. He talks about measures of faith and he wants us to have a growing faith. Well, when I go, this is what I told my kids.

When I go to the gym and I want to get stronger, uh, build muscle. What do I do? I add weight. I add weight. Or my trainer comes over and he adds 10 more pounds this week than I had on the last week. He's adding weight and I do the exercises and I don't like it. I don't like the additional weight, but I do the exercises, but what happens then I rest for a while.

I'm getting stronger. The next week he adds five to 10 more pounds. So to get me stronger, he's adding weight. And I said, you will find it at times in your life, the Lord who wants you to grow in. Grow patients grow. The characteristics of Christ is going to add weight is going to add resistance. And then as you go through that, if you will listen to your coach, if you will listen to the Lord and obey him, you will grow in strength.

A trainer does that to every athlete they're trying to increase and, and, uh, agility and speed and strength. They add weight, they add hurdles that, you know, whatever it is and they grow in strength. We just did the Olympics, all of them, all of those amazing athletes. Push their bodies stretch their limits, add weight, add height, whatever it is.

And sometimes spiritually, we view that as, oh my goodness. I want to get stronger, but why is this happening? The Lord may be allowing you to feel that weight and add that weight so that you can express faith. So good so that you can show patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness. Self-control all those fruits of the spirit.

So when trials happen, For example, we were promoting October 15th for courageous legacy Sony calls up after we've spent tens of thousands of dollars and moves the date from October 15th to September 24th. What in the world, we have to read, promote a new date and pull back all our posters and flyers, everything.

Okay. So Lord, what are you doing? Are you up to something? Is that a better date? You're going to reach more people. So we are going to respond with patience and kindness. We're going to respond with prayer and with the fruit of the spirit. So that that's what we're going through today. That's what we're going through today.

If the Lord adds weight, Lord, give me the grace to learn and grow and get stronger. Yeah, that's so good. And those are so often just the very things that make us more like Jesus, right? Like those times where, um, he does add weight or does add hardship, but those are just those opportunities where we get to trust him and we get to.

We get to trust what we can't see in that. Right? Like you don't know, you might not know this side of heaven who needed to see that film in September, right. That, um, that needed to see it in September instead of October. So, man, I. I'm so excited about both films. I love this book so much. I just have been so blessed by both of your ministries.

As I know my husband has his, I know our church has. And so this conversation has meant so much to us, and we're just so excited for you guys in this season. So I want to make sure I say the names of both films. Again, show me the father and courageous legacy. They both come out in September and friends can go grab them.

Battle plan for prayer. Anytime it's already out. One of my, one of my favorite books, we are going to hop on over to our Patrion community for a quick five minute kind of bonus round, um, here next, but just for this part of the conversation, we just want to say again one more time. We are so grateful for you for your time today and for both your ministries.

Thank you. Thank you very much.