Built on the Rock // SO7E13

What foundation is your life built on? Should it be laid on fleshly desires, or on good works and deeds? No! Nothing can be our foundation save for Jesus Christ and His gospel. In today’s episode, we wrap up season 7, God Intentions, by showing how necessary the right foundation is in our lives. Then, in the second half of the episode, we recap the 12 previous episodes of the season and look forward to next season: Road to Revelation. See you then!

Verses from Firm Foundation:

Daniel 6:26, Hebrews 12:28, 1 Corinthians 3:11, 2 Timothy 2:19

Quotes from Firm Foundation:

It’s not going to crumble. And that’s what we’re saying. You know, you don’t have to. That’s the beauty, that’s the gospel. That’s, that’s the burden that is light. He gives us this foundation.

Michelle Watson, The Pantry Podcast, Firm Foundation

You know, this foundation, it’s not something I build. It’s not like something that I put down. I don’t go out and lay cinder block and concrete and say this is my foundation. My foundation is on God. Everything in the temple was God and so when we look at this and we put him out of the equation, then the temple is just a building. It’s not God.

Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast, Firm Foundation

Annotated Transcript:

Shea: You think you’re standing on sinking sand. Do you feel like your life is falling apart? Maybe it’s time that you find a foundation that is firm. Let me tell you something. The rock of salvation is where we need to be. We need to give all of our efforts, all of our energy into serving Jesus Christ, our firm foundation. Hey, I’m Shea,

Michelle: And I’m Michelle.

Shea: Are you equipped for the real battle in the spiritual? It’s not just about your weaponry. It’s about what you consume and who’s calling the shots in your life. You are listening to the Pantry Podcast, season seven, God intentions, where we look at the way we live and ask is this from God or do I just think this is good?  

Michelle: Help us fuel 59 countries with spiritual nutrition, donate on Patreon or the Pantrypodcast.com.  

Shea: Now let’s dig into the meal

Shea:  Oh right. Here we go. Here we go. Go, go. Here we go. Here we go. Go rap, rap, rap, rap, rap, rap, rap

Michelle: Welcome to the pantry.  

Shea: Welcome to the pantry. It’s exciting to be here. Hey, what better way to start off the last episode of season seven than our shenanigans. Man. It is so awesome to be here. It always is. I just like sitting, number one, with my wife and I also liked knowing that we are communicating outwardly to people, you know, globally.  I think it’s really cool that we get an opportunity to sit here and talk to each other and talk with guests and really just dissect the Bible and really encourage people, challenge people to really take a look at themselves. I think it’s okay. I think spiritual temperatures are a good thing. I think that when we take a look at ourselves, it’s not that I’m trying to beat myself up or it’s not that I’m trying to degrade myself and be like, oh, I’m so shameful.  I mean, we fall into that pattern. I get it. I get it. But that’s not what it’s about. Really what we’re doing is a spiritual temps. Like, Hey, you know what? Maybe I could spend a little bit more time with Jesus after all, watch this. He is our what? Firm foundation! And that is this episode Y’all. Firm foundation. This is something I love to speak to. I really just, I think it’s just because of life experiences and things on that such, which you know, you can always go back and listen to our episodes. Shout out, sorry episodes. Anyways, all of you have to listen to all of them! You will not hear my complete story. No, I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. But here’s the deal. Here’s the deal. When I hit rock bottom, I hit the rock of salvation. Therefore from that moment forward, my foundation was solidified and I think that’s an important place to be.

Michelle:  To take that a step further, as far as like when you’re saying like we’re not trying to beat people up, I think that we are big on training. I say faith is preventative medicine , but that’s just one of the many ways that we like train our selves up in the ways of the Lord. And when I think about training, you’ll see people do drills and it’s like relentless. When we take Kalia to the park and we watch soccer players like practice the same kick like dozens and dozens of times. And they’re tired by the end of it. And they’re probably sick of doing this one thing over and over, but it’s training their muscles. It’s it’s honing in on this skill. And so sometimes we were so used to the world that considers all forms of critique, kind of like getting beat up. I like to think of it as like each episode is us practicing a specific kick and yes, we might be pounding a point home.  You might feel a little tired and worn in that specific area by the time we’re done. But it’s the training in real life. You don’t have to do that 50 times in a row. You’re going to have to do a little, a little, a little day, go and pick different spices out and make, you know, whatever. But that’s the idea, right? , and so before we go too much deeper, this is the final episode of season seven, God intention. So thank you for sticking around if you’ve been sticking around. So I just want to shout out, cause I know there were some episodes we recorded out of order before we started shouting out countries. That’s the secret y’all sometimes we record out of order. So I want to shout out some really cool places that we have reached over the last seven seasons. We have reached Argentina Belgium, the Cocos or Cocos island sounds like, you know, hot cocoa  

Shea:   If you’re from there and are listening, let us know! 

Michelle:  Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Germany, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Namibia, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, and Venezuela. That’s just a few, I have a list, but I didn’t want to, you know, I wanted to make up for some lost time. So thank you for listening. If you know, some people they listen once and then they’re done and I hope it ministered to them, but I’m, if you know anyone around the world that can be touched by any specific episode, send it to them. That is like one of the best ways that we get passed around from ear to ear. And it’s really cool. I think we’ve heard a lot of people share with us this last season, that we didn’t know we’re listening like undercover listeners, including in our own congregation.  

Shea:   No, seriously hit us up because like we sit here and we’re like, okay. I mean, you know, the numbers are numbers. We get it. It’s what it is. But it’s quiet. And we’re like, hold up, people are listening and they’re listening. It’s like, but we’re not hearing anything. And it’s like, I just want to hear, I love community. I love, you know, having conversations and all that stuff. Who knows, man, maybe we’ll, we’ll, we’ll pop you into a meeting on zoom and we’ll just sit there and chat with you. I mean, Hey, why not? We love it. We love it. But tonight firm foundation firm foundation, you know, what do you guys think about when you think of a firm foundation? , you know, we can always jump to the verses of like, you know, like, oh, you build your house on the sand.   Well, I mean, come on sinking sand, or you build your house on a rock. I mean, Hey, sometimes it’s just like one of those things like common sense, common sense, you know? And, and, and when I say it, I was like, yeah, yeah. Am I, am I throwing out corrections to myself? Yeah. Comments is why do I keep building things on the sand that sink. But as I’m digging into this, Michelle, I was like, it was like, I kept hearing pillars, pillars, pillars, pillars. And then you start looking at pillars and you’re like the seven pillars, the pillars. And it’s like, wow. It gets kind of like, it kind of goes all over the place. Like, I mean like, but there’s some things it’s like, like people saying this or people saying, but then really what came to my, came to me, I started thinking about the temple.  I start thinking about the temple that Solomon built. And I started thinking about the two pillars that he built one to the north and one to the south. And they actually named them.  They actually named them. Jachin is one of them. And the other one was Boaz. You know, of course everybody knows Boaz, but it’s like, okay, cool. I came in today to Michelle. I said, hey, you know who Jachin is? And Boaz, she goes, I know Boaz. But actually in reality, Boaz was also a pillar of the temple. And it was really cool on Boaz was to the north and Jachin was to the south of the entrance. , and watch this, Jachin means he will establish and Boaz signifies his strength. And as I’m thinking about these, these pillars right now, let’s just think about this. Let’s just think about this.  I’m a little off camera there. Hold on. I’m gonna kick it back. Here we go. Y’all that are online. You got to just hang for a second. All right. There we go. All right. Anyways, we’re back. I kicked my camera. Y’all this is fun. I got excited. I got excited. Cause this is cool. This is really cool because like, let’s think about this. The pillars were built and these are literally really staples to a building back then. It was like the pillars at the fountain, you know, there they are. And, but what happens when God’s taken out of the equation, what happened to those pillars? They were destroyed. Like their gone, Temple’s gone, the pillars are gone, everything is gone. , and you know, the Caldeans really came in and just wrecked house. And I think we have to understand this, that it’s not the pillars. Right. You know, this foundation, it’s not something I build. It’s not like something that I put down. I don’t go out and lay cinder block and concrete and say this is my foundation. My foundation is on God. Everything in the temple was God and so when we look at this and we put him out of the equation, then the temple is just a building. It’s not God. Yeah,  

Michelle:  Yeah. Dude, my mind just went in three different directions. I’m going to try and make two really quick so that the really meaty one takes up this portion of my talking. , but what you just said, you know, without him, the pillars fall made me think of bones versus, you know, a stick, right? Like a stick that’s kind of just fell out a tree, whatever he gets brittle because it’s no longer attached to life. So it gets brittle and it can just kind of snap. Whereas like our bones, you would think it’s like, well, I mean, you think of steel. It’s so strong, but bones are incredibly strong when they’re connected to a living organism, you know, with the marrow and all that stuff. And so it’s the life force that gives things they’re their real strength in their, in their endurance and their durability.  And so, you know, obviously the Lord is our alpha and our omega, he’s our beginning, he’s everything. And and he’s also outside of time, et cetera. But I think about the foundation when it comes to a house and I think of how this season we’ve been focused on good versus God intentions and a good intention is this idea that I’m going to rip up the foundation I built in the world and I’m going to replace it with a godly foundation of Bible verses and church attendance and not cursing and giving up pornography and et cetera, et cetera, right? Like all these things like I’m going to stop, you know, muttering under my breath, disrespectfully, all the things. And I’m going to make a strong, biblical, Godly foundation to build my house on. Now that’s a good intention. Right? Right. But the God intention, because it’s like, well, what’s wrong with that?  Right. Well, first you’re saying, you’re going to put the foundation down, but the Bible and I’m about to drop two different verses from two different books of the Bible that shows what the foundation actually is and how it’s impossible for you to replace your own foundation with works. Now, can you build bear fruit aside through works? Oh yes. And that is what makes all of this work. And that’s how, that’s how God uses him. Like all of this to, to heal us, to grow us, to bless others, et cetera. But when you look at 1 Corinthians 3:11, it says for no one can lay a foundation. Other than that, which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus is our foundation. Like Shea said, the rock of salvation, Jesus Christ is our foundation. And you can’t lay another everything else. Like pretty much, if you define foundation with a perfect definition, nothing else can actually be a foundation because everything else is just fickle, crumbles, deteriorate.  Like he’s the only one that ain’t going anywhere. He’s the only one worth being called a foundation. But then it’s like, okay, well that’s nice. So Jesus is my foundation. Like what does that mean practically? Well, if you go to 2 Timothy 2:19, you get more of an idea, but God’s firm foundation stands. Jesus Christ bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. The Lord knows those who are his, right? When that is, when you know that you belong to the Lord, a secure salvation, not from your own work, but the work that is finished and done by Christ. When that is your foundation, then everything else can not be torn down by any enemy because you understand you are his. And then all the works of reading the word, hearing the word, doing the word will reinforce this and give you a deeper understanding that allows you to walk in this practically. But first and foremost, before any of that, you got to know you’re his right. And that you’re sealed by the holy spirit. Another sealing that happens. You’re sealed by the Holy Spirit. Now you have a foundation that cannot be destroyed or ripped out from under you like the lies that come the lies, the come, they won’t, they’re not going to affect you the same because you have that one identity that can’t be taken.

Shea: That’s kingdom mentality. 

Michelle: I’ve been outed.

Shea:   Gosh. You’re right. See, but it’s with God, right? The whole point of this. So the pillars without God crumble, those pillars, remember what I told you they represent. Right? They represent the strength is the ability of God’s promise. Right? So when you look at that, look, think about this. He will establish, he establishes us. Right? And then when you look at Boaz in him, his strength, he establishes us in his strength. See? And so when we break that down and we put God back into the equation, as God is the equation, right, God is the equation. Then we sit there with this beautiful epiphany that like, okay, here I am, I’m his, it’s not by my works it’s by his, it’s through faith. Right? It’s his grace. And so therefore I am now a portion, a part of a kingdom that will last forever.  

Michelle:  And that is how you can now depart from inequity, which is the other half of that. Some people might be listening to it, but she didn’t talk about a second part and a second part. And they don’t sin no more. Amen. But what allows you to go and sin? No more like at any point, like what, what enables considering everything you’d ever did before was sin because it was outside of God. The only thing that allows you to have an option outside of sinning, outside of being part of the spirit of the antichrist, the only thing is that now you have the Holy Spirit. Now you have the Father, the Son and the Holy ghost. You know, I don’t know why I said, holy ghost. I say, Holy Spirit. But that just kind of rolled off. You know, it’s like the Christmas season and you know, Ebeneezer, Scrooge  

Shea: And the holy ghost. And I’m like, I sometimes I’m like, that’s cool. Although I hardly ever say holy ghost, but I see  

Michelle:  ’cause. I mean, you know, like, yeah, but anyway, we digress. Right? But that, but that’s the thing is this firm foundation we’re not here to beat you and be like, these are the 72 different good intentions you’ve got to do to have that strong foundation. It’s like, what’s at the, what is the foundation? t’s a truth. It’s a true statement. It’s a reality. You have to, your foundation needs to be reality. And what is reality? That Christ is real, that Christ did come, that he was born of a Virgin through the holy spirit, that he came God with us, that he lived a perfect life, that he died for the sins of the world. And then came back three days later. And that, that all of that, he made the promise that he would leave us a counselor and we have the ability to have the holy spirit.  And that’s the reality of the world. There’s no negotiating. And there’s no point debating that fact. Paul literally walked in and shared it in Rome. I forget where in Rome, he walked into all the philosophizes. I say philosophizes. And he goes in there with the philosophizes and he tells them, and he doesn’t debate it. Some of them leave with him when he drops the mic and some don’t. And he’s like, I don’t really need to debate the truth because the truth has an authority all on its own. The foundation, the real one. I mean, someone can throw some stones at it, but it’s not going to crack. It’s not going to crumble. And that’s what we’re saying. You know, you don’t have to. That’s the beauty, that’s the gospel. That’s, that’s the burden that is light. He gives us this foundation. You don’t have to build it with a recipe,  

Shea: Man. I mean, even this house, right? Yeah. I have to go around and do point up on the rock. It’s just what it is. Right. But he is unchanged. 

Michelle: Explain what point up is. 

Shea: So we have a stone on the outside of our house. And every so often you have to go through with the concrete and fill in the cracks because you know, concrete, you know, it shrinks down and creates cracks, and then you get water behind the wall. So you gotta protect that. But see God’s kingdom is infallible, right? There’s it’s an inerrant. He is an inerrant. He is perfect. My found the, his foundation, my foundation, my foundation is on him. And that’s my hope. That is my hope. You know, we sit in the world and we, and we look at everything and it’s like, like she just said crumbling, crumbling. Right? But there’s, there’s things that help us in this, in this idea. There’s things that get us through every day. You know, I was, I was actually reading in Proverbs 12:12, and this is like, this stuff’s just coming off. And it was like, these are jealous of each other’s loot, but the godlier well-rooted and bear their own fruit. Number one it rhymes, it’s kind of cool, but it’s like, but it’s like, listen to that evil, even consumes evil. But see, when we have that focus on God, which then watch, this takes us to Hebrews 12: 28, wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, and see what does that do though? See it just said, but the godlier well-rooted and bear their own fruit. When we seek Jesus, we stay rooted. We end, we bear spiritual fruit and it gives us the confidence to go forward. I mean, firm foundation, I absolutely needed this in my life. I needed something that was solid. I needed something that didn’t just shake and crumble and fall apart. I needed something that would uphold me. And when I would fall down, I wouldn’t fall so deep, but there would be the stopping point. And what’s really cool is as we, as I dig in the word, seek the word and I  start to understand and bear these fruits that God gives me not what the world gives me what I do myself. But what God gives me that fall is less and less and less. I mean, I remember at the beginning of all this coming back to Christ and it was like, it was like a fall and was like, oh no, here I fall again. And I felt like, and it was fair. It was like, you’re fall forever. It’s like you ever have them dreams when you’re falling in your sleep. And it’s like, you fall forever. I  

Michelle:  Always like to that jerk thing, like my leg kicks and all that stuff.

Shea:  I was the weird guy that would like try to stay in it. As long as I could to see if there was ever a bottom, I never was go. I woke up before I was put forth at the bottom. But anyways, but it’s like, but the fall becomes less. Yeah, because the foundation becomes more noticeable where you fall is not no is no longer falling into, into sin or into, or into yourself or into the world. But you’re falling into the arms of a father who loves you from foundation.  

Michelle:  Yeah. I’ve mentioned this, I’ve alluded to it a lot on the show that I go down, rabbit holes. It’s like a thing. Right. And the Lord is so faithful that he always ministers to me. He knows I’m going to do it. And so what I’ve learned though, um, because I think we’re in a time right now where there’s so many rabbit holes, um, and there’s no tinfoil hat to a lot of them. They’re just rabbit holes and you’re going to go down them and you’re going to learn a lot and it’s gonna wreck you. And what happens. And this happens a lot. Like, again, it’s, it’s the Christmas season we’ve talked about, you know, Santa Claus, but also your Easter bunny, tooth fairy. Like it, it doesn’t mess with every kid when they find out it’s fake. But a lot of people have actually said things akin to, you know, over and over and childhood.   I just learned this wasn’t real. That wasn’t real. That wasn’t real. And eventually I learned God, isn’t real. Because like over and over, they trusted an authority figure. And I say that it sounds a little cold, but like someone that, like, if you’re their parent, you have authority. Like they, they kind of take it for granted, you know what you’re talking about. And  and the more of these little things that these harmless little things that we’ve made up in life, whatever they are, the things we try to like coat over. And then one day they learn the truth about it. , the more in everything’s up for grabs. And when you go down rabbit holes, the same thing can happen. And so you go down and you realize yet another thing there’s, there’s evidence to the contrary and you might not choose the, to go completely in this new direction.  But at the very least, now you have doubt. Now you’re like, there is plausible deniability here. There is room for doubt in this area and what I’ve seen. , what’s  amazing is in a lot of these things, when people start hunting down truth, that is what they think is unrelated to God. They end up finding God. And I’ve seen that a lot over the last couple years. people saying that their testimony involves hunting down some truth, some obscure thing. And then they just ended up it all roads led to Christ being the only option. But,  the other thing that can happen is people then, because every foundation that they’ve built for themselves is being taken and swapped out for something else over and over. When they come to Christ, they can be like waiting for that foundation to crumble. And I’ve seen people who, they go to Christ and all of a sudden they’re like Jesus Christ and the actual Messiah, Paul didn’t actually write the Bible, like crazy stuff, crazy stuff, because they don’t trust.  They’re so detached from reality, they’re doubting everything. And that can happen to us. Even if you just go down one rabbit hole, even if you just uncover one lie that someone lied to you about in your life. But here’s the point. Every what I do is I, I realize because I am saved and I do have the holy spirit and I do cling to him like a tree in a storm. That relationship, no one can take that from me. No one can be like, yeah, that didn’t happen. That’s not real. You know, that’s the thing, our testimony, there’s power in our testimony. And so through all the doubts of like which Bible translation is real and what denomination and all, all these things, these distractions, God’s like, come back to me, come back to me. Don’t just, don’t, don’t obsess over this, that, and the third come back to me and I will sort it out because I’m the one that’s faithful to finish the work, not you. And, and the relationship with me is what counts, right? So again, the firm foundation can’t be the facts that prove Jesus was resurrected. The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel and Cold Case Christianity, all these amazing books, like, you know, the one that J Warner Wallace, they’re great, but that can’t be your foundation. You know, you can’t make history or science that reinforces the Bible, your foundation. You have to make that truth about Christ the foundation.  

Shea:  Right. You know, I think that what you struck on there was our testimonies. I think that those actually become very beautiful in a lot of ways, because they describe things. When we look at Daniel and king Darius, right? , Daniel was set up. I mean, dad, the world set them up. The world came in against him. You know, they wanted to take care of him. He gets thrown in the lion’s den. Most people, their lives would be crumbling in front of their eyes. I mean, who knows what I would have done, but Daniel was like, no, my God, my God. And see, here’s the point. All of this happens and Daniel survives, the lion’s den. And at the end of it, the king Darius sits there. I mean, this is the testimony. He just witnessed this. It just became a testimony in his life as well.  Not just Daniel’s life that man, but king, Darius’s a friend that I had, I had to sentence him to death in the lion’s den. And yet when I opened the door, the next morning, my heart was aching. My every ounce of me was in mourning for my friend. But I messed up. I made a decree, but he opens the door and there’s his brother, his friend, the one that he had a relationship with. Right. And even says this, and this is the affirmation of God’s power and God’s foundation and how it doesn’t his doesn’t crumble. And in Daniel 6:26 says, I make a decree that in all my Royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for he is the living. God enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed. And his dominion shall be to the end. Alpha and omega the beginning of the end.  Yes. That’s what we’re talking about. Y’all that is what we’re talking about. What I have to reinforce within myself every day. You know, I, a conversation day, I’m like, please convict me. Please look, if you see, I’m saying it’s, y’all on camera. And I’m saying to you all on this station, if you ever witnessed me stumbling or falling down, please tell me, please tell me, come with me, love, come with me, whatever, like we should and tell me and realign me back to the foundation where I need to be. Because when we’re in that, we hear all of these wonderful, beautiful testimonies of what God does. 

Michelle: I think that it’s so important to cling to the simplicity. And you say this all of the time, I think for the last, have we known each other eight years now? Very early on. You started talking about the simplicity of the gospel and yes, there are complexities and nuances and you learn and you learn so much. But I think these verses we’ve talked to today, really hammer it home. That it’s not the religion. The world has used the word religion so much interchangeably. It is the relationship, God is our personal God. He’s the God that’s with us. And he wants to build that, that with us.  And since this is the last episode, and I’m throwing this on you last minute, but, um, but I want to give you a second to open notion so that you can see a list of all the episodes in case you need a little trigger, but this, this season, this is we’ve had 12 episodes not counting this one.   This is the 13th episode in the season. And I would love for us to go through and kind of drop a nugget we recall from each episode, we both, like, we can take turns. We both don’t have to do it for every episode. But, um, and y’all Shea’’s memory. He says it, he says it every once in a while in case, this is your first episode. He  does have a little bit of TBI. You know, sometimes his memory, you know, I have to jog it a little less and nothing personal, if it’s go episode and you were on it and he don’t, and he needs a trigger, but,  

Shea:  And don’t be mad if I trigger you. I’m just, I’m just throwing it out there.  

Michelle: But yeah, like we can kind of just kind of go down the list so that the people who, you know, have been with us, the people who haven’t banned, they can get a little bit of nuggets about what kind of God intentions we’ve gleaned over season seven.  

Shea: Wow. You know, that’s good. Starting out God intentions, you know, God intentions versus good intentions.  I think it’s really important that, you know, the world’s gonna throw a bunch of things at us that they say are good. And we have to always go back to the Bible and we have to really look at what the Bible says. And instead of going with what we just think is good, we need to make sure that God says it’s good.  So that was season one.  

Michelle:  So episode two was for, they do not know with Ilonka Deaton, who is a human trafficking advocate and survivor. , and I think that one of the biggest things that I got from that is that forgiveness doesn’t necessarily mean to be reconciled, to like go right back into relationship with a person, but that forgiveness, that whole messy process of forgiveness plain, but it’s a God intention. You have to want to go after what God commands us to do, which is to forgive others rather than what our flesh wants to do, which is to hold on to whatever it is that they  

Shea:  Right. And episode three: Over Fear. I don’t know about y’all, I’m so done with fearful, right? So over it, like, God, God does tell us that there is no fear in him. Like when, when we have got, we have no reason to fear. We are secure. We are settled. We are settled. We are settled because he took care of it all. And no matter where we go from today, I’m going towards him. I’m going to my eternal destiny.  

Michelle:  Yes. , so then the next episode was Renaissance with Victor Vala who is our friend, he’s a pastor, he’s a Christian rapper, he’s a Tik tok minister, um, or a Tik tok evangelist, you could say. , and I think that that whole conversation really hit this point that we’ve been making about it’s about the relationship with Christ and often the good intentions are these traditions, manmade, somewhere along the line, they get us hung up, confused the kind of detract from the point. And that tends to be where we debate amongst one another, or get confused and discouraged. And really that relationship with Christ is what will bring that Renaissance in our own lives and within the church

Shea:  And then we had the next one was a crass crashing courses with Sam Sorbo. Oh my gosh, that loaded y’all if you haven’t heard this, you got to hear, I mean, it’s conviction all the way through and it’s going to make you think, it made us think. And it’s about, you know, teaching our kids at home versus sending them into the arena of the public schools. And it basically, you know, when we put our kids into the public schools, we are just putting in reinforcing and then that were hypocritical because what the schools are teaching our kids are not from the Bible. And so when we, when we look at this, you know, I think one of the, one of the things that got me was are you going to sacrifice yourself for your kid? And I think that we have to have these selfless sacrifices because we have to raise up another generation. We have to raise up the next generation. We don’t want the next generation forgetting about God, because the Bible has shown us over and over and over again, this pattern of forgetting who God is and the consequences that come with it.  

Michelle:  That’s good. And then the next episode was love fights with Rosie McKinney, who is our dear friend. She is the founder of fight for love ministries, which helps people overcome their porn addictions with Bible based foundational resources. And one of the biggest things that that episode reinforced is that there’s a lot of good intentions when it comes to the mental suffering that we go through. And a lot of it sounds good and a lot of it might be a bandaid fix, but when you’re dealing with pornography addiction, she made it very clear that there’s a lot of things out there, advice and resources that will lead you even deeper astray, maybe in a different way, but it will only exacerbate the problem. And that going back to the Bible and really examining what godly love and godly grace really looked like in mean is how you’re actually going to defeat and conquer this addiction that hits us on all levels. It’s such a pervasive addiction.  

Shea: Next episode is counter-culture. My favorite man can come up. I am a firm believer if your culture isn’t of God now see, cause I could’ve came straight out and been like the culture tradition and all this stuff. If it’s not, I will say this. If it’s not of God, then it means nothing. It has no weight, has no merit, has no direction. So we really have to be careful when we’re dealing with everything that’s going on. Like, you know, let’s, let’s think the institutions, if the institutions are promoting something that is not of God, then how can we look at the institutions and say, okay, I’m going to follow you without thinking or having common sense towards it. No, I need to go towards God. I need to be in the Bible. If you, if you’re looking for a voice, open your Bible, stop waiting for the audible voice. You know? I mean, I get it, Isaiah heard it. Okay, cool. But, but, open your Bible up, check it out. When you start to see what the Bible is telling you, you just start to unveil it. It unveils a lot of things that we see in culture here. Like, oh, I used to fall for that. I better realign what I’m thinking. Yeah. Counterculture.  

Michelle:  Yeah, that was, that was a fun. And that’s the episode that we recorded about five times, but it’s one of the ones people have enjoyed the most this season. So that shows something, not sure what it shows, but it shows hard work pays off. And lots of prayer, The next episode was Got Questions with Jeremiah Mensah who another really good friend we’ve met. We’ve been so blessed to make so many good friends that we actually text and keep in touch with and, and trade prayer requests with.  He is another Tik Tok evangelist that does an amazing job as an apologist and also just like a gospel preacher, really like out there on the internet, he’s on YouTube and everything he’s working on in on a physical real world ministry. , and that episode was all about tackling how you handle the questions like defending the faith. What does it look like as an apologist? What does it look like to be prepared with answers and how do you answer in a godly way? And there’s a lot of good intentioned answers out there. That kind of apologize for the faith and that’s not what apologist means. Apologia is a defense of the faith, not sorry that it’s so tough, you know, I’m sorry that God, so me, you know, like, no, like that’s not what it is, but like answering, what does it look like to answer in a godly, loving way and… Ask yes. And ask questions back, like focus less on what answer you’re going to give and more about why they ask the question because that’s loving them more  

Shea: Because I can sit there and beat people up with the Bible all day long, but really what I want to get to is what’s going on in their life. Cause then, then I can sit there with practical applications and like, okay. You know, cool. And then discuss it in ways where the Bible comes back in the next episode Bible between us, Hey, y’all want a spiciness in the bedroom, study the Bible, be in the Bible, be with the Bible, have the Bible in between you and your marriage. Right. Don’t stop at the beginning. Keep that Bible between y’all okay. Keep it between you for life for life, man. And I’ll tell you when you keep the word of God right here and right here on your heart and in your soul, that bedroom gets spicy off. 

Michelle: And you know, what’s funny about that episode. We had another episode slated for that slot that is kind of like on hiatus. And so we’re like, we need a marriage episode and like, we were like, okay, we’re going to do it. We’re going to talk about, you know, like sex. And we did in the sense of like, but we were just really odd. Like honestly, y’all like it really firm foundation, if the Lord’s truth is a firm foundation and your, and your focus there, then the rest follows. And then the bow Chicka bow bow, it’s gonna come. It’s gonna come. Okay. Like the pure undefiled marriage bed. So focus from there to overflow. Right. Perfect segway. Because again firm foundation leads to overflow and I think the biggest takeaway there is often we hear overflow and we instantly, even if we’re not prosperity, gospel people, a lot of us will think prosperity, gospel things. When we hear overflow like, you know, all, all this like worldly overflow and the worldly blessings, and yet we were talking about how God intentions lead to an overflow of glory for the Lord and Thanksgiving and what it really means. How do you actually experience God’s overflow? And I think that until we did the homework for that episode, I wasn’t even that clear. And then I dove into that verse was like, so, that was pretty legit 

Shea: The next episode was Grace Steeps with a good friend of mine, Bradley Hopp, man. I love this brother’s heart. He loves the Lord. He loves people. He loves that when people come to Christ and he loves where people recognize that that is the way to go. , and we all recognize the grace. We recognize God’s grace and that we wouldn’t be where we sit today without his grace. He is Teshuah Tea company. He’s one of the founders of Teshuah Tea company. It is a company that was founded through doing the work of rescuing girls from human trafficking. And so what happens is they, these, these girls actually work for themselves now and they put together all of these things, the tea comes over and they put little gifts together and they put little like bracelets and necklaces and all these kinds of things that they sell on their website. And actually the profit goes right back to them to help them get back on their feet when they’ve been rescued from  these situations. And it’s hard for, for the traffic is just huge. And I just love my brother Bradley Hopp.

Michelle: Yeah, yeah. That, that episode, like, I love that because of Teshuah Tea company, I was coming up with the name for the episode and I was like, grace steeps, like the longer you let that little teabag grace in your hot water, the stronger it’s going to get, not that grace strengthens over time in itself, but your grasp of it and what you do because of it, gets bolder and bolder. And I just love, I just love that. 

And then we, last week, dropped an amazing episode called Prison Break with Dan Johnson. And I think that was one of the most, I don’t know, it was just a really good, there was depth. There was some depth there that like, just, you know, because Dan has been serving abroad for so long and he’s been in the trenches doing the work we’re all called to do, which is spread the gospel. And so he said some really beautiful, convicting things. But I think the biggest takeaway that I got from that episode was when he was talking about, you know  the issues that come when we have this good intention, when we say that, like we know God and we know who he is. And we say these things that we know are true, but do we really know them because the God intention is building that relationship with God to really know him. , and that’s what really changes us

Shea:  And I also think that he brought in some really good points that like, it doesn’t matter who you are, you can share the gospel. Don’t, don’t encase yourself in a prison of I’m not knowledgeable or I don’t know, or whatever, trust, trust in God, trust in God, get out there and share how good he is through your testimony through however, but you just do it, just keep doing it. Yeah. And he’s got some beautiful man, you got to go in there, listen, you got some awesome people that have just come up and does some wonderful things. And then of course, Hey, last episode of the year for our foundation. And really what I want you guys to understand is we walk out of here to there or some questions that you should be asking yourself. Do I seek that foundation that Christ gives me, or do I, or do I build my house on the sand?  Or do I build my house in my family on the sand? Or, you know, like watch is my family on the sand is my relationships on the sand is my, is my, what? My daily walk on the sand, you know? Or is it on the rock of salvation? Jesus Christ. Because I think that when we’re on that rock and we put everything on that rock, then our lives build how that builds pay. Look, God has different ways for different people. I couldn’t give you one formula for one person’s life, but I can tell you this when you’re on that rock, the only way is up So Hey, love you guys. It’s been awesome. It’s been another great season. We’re looking forward to season eight and we’ll drop that. Okay, go ahead. Go ahead. Revelation road. Revelation is going to be hot y’all and Hey, take care of yourselves. Okay. Yeah,  

Michelle: The best. And God bless you also till next time. Bye

Shea: Bye. 

Michelle: Visit the pantrypodcast.com to hear all of the episodes we mentioned this week to get show notes, Bible verses, prayer requests, and to help support the show.