Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:00:07 Whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. Colassians Hey, Brian Phillips here with gray. Softs welcome back to the podcast where it is our aim to empower you to live upright. We're discussing biblical masculinity aimed towards men, but this podcast is for everybody today, we're actually going to focus on a topic that's relating to, uh, keys and the effectiveness of your leadership, so that you can be an impact in the sphere of influence that you're called, that God has called you to your assignment. And I'm in the studio with a great, great friend of mine, and he'll be on plenty of podcasts in the future. He's from Kansas city. I've known him for over 20 years. Lenny LaGuardia runs the children's equipping center at the international house of prayer, uh, under Mike Bickle. And you've always been in really Stoller. Uh, you've been in stellar Lake houses and cultures. I've always loved that about you, right. And it's good to be here. And one of the things I want, I want to lay down work ethic today. Right? As men, we got to work, it's good, man. What's the good stuff and the bad stuff about work and how do we balance it? But we keep that drive no matter what we're doing.
Speaker 2 00:01:21 Yeah. And how do we support churches? How do we support those things? God's calling us to
Speaker 1 00:01:25 Work, man. I love work. Like, I mean, you know, all the scriptures, it's a biting and producing. Right. So I know that right. I'll shoots. If I don't abide with Christ, I can't really, my producing doesn't do much. Right. Right. And so, yeah, let's talk about, let's talk about work ethic, Lenny. So you're in a culture that literally where you are now, you've been there for how many years? I have 20 years. I hop okay. 20 years. So yeah. And the program's been going 24, seven hours, 24 hours, seven days a week, 22 years, 22 years. That's insane. Like I love it when I go live worship and music live worship every two hours, a new team comes up and it's just the beauty of what you guys do. The rigors of the rigors, right. The pains, right? Like everybody's like, Oh, they got 250,000 subscribers on YouTube and they got this many millions in this and that, but it's like, okay, that all comes from a work ethic. All of it comes from, it all comes from our work. I mean, it's all about a biting. So I want to lay that down real clear. I mean, we, I, you got to have oil in your lamp. Right. And I'm always challenging myself in that area because, uh, I got to stop and actually go pray because I love the work so much, but I want to just get busy working for God. I also want to know God.
Speaker 2 00:02:37 Yeah. And also we have ministries that go along with the international house of prayer. So not just going into the prayer room, sitting down and being S uh, quiet for two hours or whatever, it's not just sitting down. There's actually, you know, 25 departments. I am one of the VPs of all those ministries. And so there's a lot of things to support that. Right. A lot of moving parts, a lot of moving parts, I've known you
Speaker 1 00:03:00 For so long and we we've been running together and I'm really honored to be in your life. And same there have you and grace, SOPs and MEB out in your culture. It's really fun, man. It's really cool how God does all that. But I hear these stories. And one of the stories that you've shared with me over the years is I love it because, you know, it's funny because when I'm out there, you're like, go sir, out of Mike, Michael X, you. Right. And I'm like, I got to mess with Mike dude. Like I just interrupted him praying right over. But I appreciate that. And I appreciate, uh, Mike and what he runs in. But, but there's a story that you always kind of like, go get around to like, yeah, these people will travel from across the world to find the secret sauce. Right.
Speaker 1 00:03:38 What's the secret sauce of the 24 seven engine, right? Like the never stopping night and day prayer. That's very biblical and very needed in this hour and very powerful in Kansas city. I mean, I think that the church in Kansas city is actually benefiting in a large way from the prayer there, because they're the closest to the furnace. Right. But we're benefited from it too, because it covers the nation. But, but, but Lenny, tell us, tell us the secret sauce, man. What's the secret sauce? The 24 seven and all these moving parts. I mean, that's what people travel the globe to come ask you that question. Don't they? Yes. Big leaders, right? Big leaders, big, big influencers, phone calls to secret sauce, zoom calls, phone calls, right? I mean, there's all these questions. What's the Lenny. What is the secret?
Speaker 2 00:04:20 Give it to you. Well, I have a position where I need to mobilize hundreds. You know, I work with the children's equipment center, uh, young people, you know, it's a, it's a big machine at iHub, man. There's a lot of moving parts. We don't only have the 24 seven prayer room night and day prayer. We have, uh, expression, Sunday mornings, Friday nights, we got internships. So all that to say, I mobilized tons of people. And then we have these outreaches to the city, you know, uh, for whatever reason, there's a generation out there that found themselves in a fatherless future, this hopeless situation. And we go be hope on their worst day. So we are penetrating the neighborhoods. And so that's going quite well. And so you're right. People come to want to know what is the secret sauce? What's the formula of night and day prayer, right?
Speaker 2 00:05:10 I mean, they come from everywhere to understand that one, but I have people coming to, to pick my brain and I, I do summits and all that kind of stuff to really help people because I just want to shift paradigms. Right. But, uh, you know, I had this group come to, uh, meet with me and, uh, my assistant actually forgot about they them coming. And so she tells me at the last minute, she goes, Hey, w groups coming from California and we need to meet with them. Uh, they want to take you to lunch and I'm going, I want to go home. And I want to go to, I want to take a nap. I, I'm not doing it. Sends sin, sin, or guy sending, send a gal, send out. One of our leaders know that I forgot about it. You gotta, you know, I got to, don't throw me under the bus, go meet with them, just do it for, she says, just do it for an hour. I'll go hour. Are you kidding me an hour? You know, I'm tired. And we just finished several hundred children in the neighborhood, in the worst neighborhood. Uh, we parked ourselves, uh, in a neighborhood, which was the dividing line between the Crips and the bloods. This was Denver, Colorado. Right. And so we were truly tired, man. And, uh, it was a powerful outreach because two gangs, they called a truce between nine and 12 every Saturday. So their kids could come. They had sense
Speaker 1 00:06:36 Enough to, and get the guards a piece, right.
Speaker 2 00:06:39 That's it, 1201. We better be out of that color for sure, man. And so, uh, we love this man. We love this. We're made for this. And so we're doing well at it. And so this group from California came and I didn't want to meet with them, but I ended up doing it. And uh, they took me to lunch and we sat down and they organized the lunch. They sent their entourage before me and make a long story short. They, uh, sat down. I came in and they all got your pads out. I go, wow, that's interesting. This is going to be anyway. They're eager, man. They're ready. I say, Hey, everybody, get your notes out. We have a privilege here to have plenty here. And I'm going, I'm nobody, I'm tired. I'm failing. I don't want to do it anymore. I'm quitting. I want to quit every, almost every other week doing this.
Speaker 2 00:07:28 And uh, I just really needed to change my heart toward these people. So they go, okay. Uh, pastor Lenny, would you, would you tell us, tell us what, what is it that makes this work for you? How do you do what you do? You've been an agent. He gives me my bio. I go, I didn't even know that. I didn't even know that about, I sound pretty good. I go, no, I didn't even know that about me. He added a couple of things. I didn't even know we did, you know, but I didn't care. I said, okay, Hey everybody ready to go? Let's do this. Let's go. And I'm playing with him a little bit. I don't want the, uh, your listeners to think that I'm, you know, I'm rude or whatever, because I live to live to lead leaders. I have no problem, but they asked me what is the secret to the ministry here? And I know the pastor sent them to get the sauce. They, because the guy told me on the way over to the restaurant, Hey man, I can't go home.
Speaker 1 00:08:25 Well, I mean, unless I have a game plan for you drop what your answer is. I mean, we live in a culture. That's looking for formula.
Speaker 2 00:08:31 That's right. That's right. What's the formula. I got to go back with this thing, man. He, you know, he sent me here. It paid like, you know, seven people came out the plane ticket, it gets the hotels, the whole nine yards. So he put some money in it. Right. And so, uh, I go, Hey, you guys ready to go? This is going to, it's going to be kind of short. I said, uh, but, but let's,
Speaker 1 00:08:51 We can get this in before the food comes. Guy goes, no, no, take your time bro. Take your time.
Speaker 2 00:08:56 We, we got all the time. It's hold the food. No, no, let's not hold the food. I want the food. I'm going to go home. Right. So anyway, I didn't say that. I said, okay, listen, everybody, write it down. Number one. And they're all ready to go. And they're looking at me like, I'm looking at you, man. I go number one, the secret to ministry. What we did here, number one, write this down, everybody we showed up and I paused just like I did just then I go, number one, we showed up. Everybody get that. You need me to spell it. We showed up three words. We showed up point, 0.1 and the guy, you know, you always got that one out there. That goes, Oh, Hey, uh, Lord, give you a dream. Did you have some form of revelation? Uh, how did you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 00:09:42 How'd you know, you were supposed to be there. We picked the wrong park by accident. We stayed there. We showed up. I go here. Number two. Let's just go through my outline. I told him, I go, uh, number two and they're ready to go. And their eyes were just fixed on the paper. Hey anymore to number one, I go, no, no, no more to, well, number one, we showed up. Number two, I said, we came back. That's it. We came back. Oh, did you have some feeling from the Lord that he gave you the dah dah, dah? No, no, no, nothing. We went once and we said, we got to go back. I go, that's the sauce? That's the ticket right there. You got to circle that circle. That one, underline, we came back, came back and then number three, what I said, all I know about ministry, the guy goes, tell us everything you know about ministry.
Speaker 2 00:10:38 Now I'll go. I am. I just gave you the two big points. Right? I'm in it for 38 years. I hear two points. I tell this to young people all the time, man, show up, do it twice. And the third one, I said, if you guys liked the first two and they're looking at me, like, I can't believe we're here, man. What are you doing? I go, number three. You'll love it. Keep coming. So Brian, I have to say, man, uh, I have the pressure of leading hundreds of volunteers, man. My job is to shift paradigms. They're not volunteers. They're ministers, right? They're ministering unto the Lord. But everybody's looking for the formula. These men and women were looking at. I said, look, we just, the Lord told us where to go. We went to the wrong place. We stayed there. We came back and we kept coming. That's what makes a difference in ministry? How many times are you swinging the Batman? Yeah. So that's my it's powerful. Brian has all I know about memory.
Speaker 1 00:11:39 That's my secret ministry. That's you said it, it can be
Speaker 2 00:11:43 Done back and keep coming. Yeah. That's
Speaker 1 00:11:45 My one minute of fame. One minute, show up, come back and keep coming back. That's what a needs and what that does though. When you get that, it's a warrior mindset, right? Once you get that in your mindset, that's a, it's, it's a wiring. It's a hard wiring. It's it's show up through difficulties conviction. You guys have had bad press, right? Like three years. I mean you've had glory and victories and mountain tops and valleys, but it's it's the seasons. The terrains it's it's you, you might be in wilderness or the promised land of your life, whatever season you're in. But it's this
Speaker 3 00:12:20 On unrelenting devotion to what we opened
Speaker 1 00:12:23 Up with. When we opened up with this,
Speaker 3 00:12:26 This passage of Colassians right? Of whatever you do, whatever you do do it. Heartily, which is the word I don't know,
Speaker 1 00:12:34 Use in my everyday language. But maybe I should try you. You need to do that more heartily Lenny, but do it harder to do it. Passionately. Ask for the Lord and not men. What a simple statement. I love that about the scriptures. Paul is like, so poignant and powerful. Here he is. I'm going to drop this quick little line on you, right? Whatever you're doing body of Christ, wherever you went, people of God. See, we got it all wrong. We've had 1700 years of corruption. Since the days of Constantine has come into the church and create a church hierarchy in which church hierarchy also came this false idea that there's secular and sacred work. Right? And that's wrong. No matter what you're doing with your hand, if you're a believer, if you're in the marketplace, which that's where most of the kingdom activities taking place, you know, you're you run something called the equipping center, right?
Speaker 1 00:13:24 I run a church. I founded a church, right? It's a place to equip the believers, the fusions forces to do the work of the ministry. So every believer is in the ministry. So I'm in a ministry that happens to be at a church, but you're in a ministry that happens to be at wherever God's called you to be right now in the marketplace. Whether you work at a restaurant, you're a server, you're a manager, you're a leader, CEO, entrepreneur, whatever thing you got going on in your life, the scripture charges all of us and see that's we got to cut through the corruption of the days of religion that we live in. And we're pastors have because pastors get insecure. They don't know how to lead well. And so they, they go along with stuff that they've been spoonfed and they don't know, they don't do. What's actually in the Bible. You know? So the Bible says, whatever you are called to do, do with all of your heart, not as on demand, but
Speaker 3 00:14:14 Work is under God. If you're a janitor and a building clean the toilet, like you're cleaning God's toilet, right? If you're flipping burgers at a place flip, flip that
Speaker 1 00:14:22 Burger, like it making that meal for God. Right. You know, if you're, if you're at, Chick-Filet take that order, like you're taking the order from the father himself. Right. And if you live that way,
Speaker 3 00:14:30 The way you will be promoted, if you live that way.
Speaker 1 00:14:34 Yeah. And not, everybody's called to have a company and start a company. You know, there's a lot of people called a work and companies like that, but you will Excel in life, whatever you do. And you got to have this mindset of show up, come back and keep coming back. You got to have an unrelenting devotion. I'm proud of my daughter's 20 years old. She's extra resigning, her first position. She's going on to study nursing. And she works at a local hospital. And she has actually, I mean, they don't even want to let her go. She goes through 200 cases a day where most people would go through like 50. And they're like, how do you do all this? She's like, I don't know, just do the work. Right. Well, she does it because she does it as under God she's been trained. She knows.
Speaker 1 00:15:12 She knows that. And then she's become so valuable to them that they're like, we know you have to go because you know, you're never going to stay in a role like this, but we have no idea how we're going to replace you. You know? So it's doing the work Lenny, Lenny, I know you you're, you're a work ethic guy. Right. And we know that the Bible says, unless we abide in Christ, he's the vine. Right. And we're the branches. And apart from him, we can do nothing. So there's an abiding, right? Absolutely set of biting, understand, getting in the way
Speaker 2 00:15:38 I think there's facing God's faithfulness, you know? And I look at what detaches us from things, you know, is the, even in the church, when you look at the church, uh, you know, and children, most of what's being done in the church with children's being done by the women, which I I'm, I'm proud of that. I mean, there are some amazing people doing that and spiritual moms, dads, spiritual family, and things like that. But it's, it's like, that's a job for someone else. And I think as men, sometimes we don't see a reward in what we're going to do. We're used to earning our key, making the money, providing for our families and things like that. But when it goes outside of that, then we, we don't do anything because we don't get anything for it. And I started thinking about that. I've got to mobilize hundreds, man, hundreds a week to work with the next generation in all of our cities and communities and arts in our church, in the house of prayer.
Speaker 2 00:16:33 And I looking at the worship leaders, you know, 24 seven, that worship leader coming back, seven o'clock or six o'clock or nine o'clock or 10 o'clock every day, six times a week, nobody in the room doing it when nobody's watching, you know, I want to zone to God, right? As unto God, it's what you were saying, man, are we willing to do it to an audience of one? You know? And I had to learn that, you know, because I want man to approve of me and I want to be noticed and I want to be recognized, but had a very, very powerful guy come to me, a very successful man, uh, come to me and said, Lenny, until you learn how to do this to an audience of one, you're going to deal with insecurities the rest of your life. Right? And so I got all these volunteers that I need.
Speaker 2 00:17:21 And I, I was looking at a passage in Corinthians and I just say it real quick. Uh, Paul's dealing with a group of people, the church of Corinth and they're feeding the poor. And all of a sudden there must have been rumbling among them that what they were doing didn't matter. Right? And I look at what I do with children and young people. You know, people work with us every week and they're going, you know, I'm not really making a difference, man. I'm not really making a difference, the St for, and I think that's what Paul was dealing with. And he comes out of the gate with, he goes like this. He goes to this service that you perform is not only fully supplying this, the needs of the saints, meaning those groceries. You're given those people. It's not just filling their bellies man. Right. But it's overflowing. Paul says with many expressions of Thanksgiving until the Lord, it's your point, man, doing it on to the Lord. We are a marking our hearts with the Thanksgiving of God, his gratefulness can God actually be grateful for us doing the work of the Lord.
Speaker 1 00:18:30 Absolutely. And the entire, this entire thing started with God setting apart at people. So that in turn, right, we got sanctified at people. So that, by the way we live, we can sanctify the name of God in the nations. And so our work actually joins into that energy of sanctifying, the name of God. So if I work as I'm the man, I'm going to pollute it. But if I shift my mindset in my heart and the, and I, and I get a new outlook and a renewed, that's where I can be joyful. Right. No matter what job I have, I can wake up and have his joy. I'm doing it as unto God.
Speaker 2 00:19:08 Brian is like, no matter
Speaker 1 00:19:10 What, like I can wake up and have joy. Like I love, I love the grind man. Like I, I kind of joke around with my kids a lot. I'm like, I'm on assassin. And they're like, why am I gonna stay? I'm killing it. Right? Like, I'll say things like that. Cause there's just a, there's a, there's a rhythm in the work. Right. You know? Yes. It's about my prayer, my devotion to God. But God also wants us to the great commission doesn't happen automatically. Right? We we're partnering with our father in heaven. And that, that energy of partnering with God is what the Bible calls hastening the day. Right. You know, so I can actually get with, God's only plan, which is the church coming alive and functioning in the way he called her to function. That's his only plan. I could go make disciples and be about the great commission. And if I do that, it hastens. If I don't do it to delay it delays, that's good, man. I look at all of our work matters, right? Like the clerk at the gas station, like, you know, all of it. It's not just people like you and me who are doing church ministry work, you know, the ministry of the church. It's the ministry of the marketplace.
Speaker 2 00:20:10 This text that I gave is for the marketplace as well. Not just the church, because I think for all of us, uh, at one time or another, we just sometimes think about, we're not doing the job we were made for. Right. I know there's a lot of people out there right now. Look, man, you're in a position. You're in a company. It's not what's in your heart. It doesn't give you oil. It doesn't bring your heart alive. But here's what I want to say to that. I say, Paul says, Hey, this thing you're doing in that company, it's not just providing the needs for your family. It's connected to the Lord. It's overflowing with many expressions of Thanksgiving unto the Lord. So it's like, you know what? You're not going to maybe do what you want to do. You're not in the right company. And you put you're meeting the needs of your family.
Speaker 2 00:20:59 But the Lord upset one. He raises the bar and he says, look, you're not only providing their needs. You're touching me. You're touching me. So I want to say to men all over the earth, through this podcast then, and what's going to come out of this with grace ops. You're touching God, you're taco bell. You're wherever you're at. You're at a tire shop, automobile plate. I don't know where you're at your dozer. You could be the greatest attorney, doctor making all of what you need and more, and still not be happy if you don't understand what you do is more than just supplying the needs. It's touching God, touching God.
Speaker 1 00:21:38 Yeah. And the work work ethic to me when you're, if we're going to do this as unto God, no matter what you're doing, no matter what your role is, their assignment. And I, and I want to lay it down so thoroughly because it's, it's been so mistaken, but everything we're doing, everything we're talking about, all of our work is it's all sacred. Yeah. I mean, all of it is. I can't say that enough. I mean, I've apologized to marketplace people publicly on behalf of church leaders for only being looked at as an ATM, you know, like what, what we have to actually really do is flip that because the marketplaces where the great commission takes is happens. That's where the bulk of the great commission happens is in the marketplace, right? It's not at some church building. It's not it's. The gatherings are built to refresh the saints, get the warriors recharged and go back out, right.
Speaker 1 00:22:31 Go keep doing the work of your father. And I think about work ethic. And I think about the grind, I think about go to work. Here's some, here's some really practical things. Go to work with a clear mind, turn your phone off. Who cares about your social media? Um, go to work. If you've got a meeting, prepare for the meeting, read the notes, be ready to be engaged, right? Don't get there late and sloppy and unprepared. You're not doing that. As you know, we're doing this as unto the Lord. So God, I'm coming to your staff meeting today for a boss that I really don't like, but I'm going to say, God, this is your staff meeting. I'm going to come to it. So how would you be prepared if you were going to sit at a staff room table with God? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 00:23:18 Like, like, but if you live that way, you'll get promoted. Nothing can stop a person like that. Even a bad boss, even a bad company, nothing can stop you. If you work as unto God, God will promote you and open doors because he can actually, he has something worthy to promote if you're a slob and lazy. And, and I'm sorry for saying this, but which is most of our culture. Um, that's why we're doing a podcast on this is to motivate you and inspire to have that warrior mindset and actually understand the power of work. Understand the power of working is under God. So it's kind of like an actually working as unto God puts him on display. You know, we, you don't even have to tell somebody about Jesus, show them in your work ethic. Really? You know, like think about that, right? Like show up, do the work Excel, uh, get the promotion.
Speaker 1 00:24:05 I can guarantee you. My daughter has an opportunity to share Christ because of her work ethic. What makes your, you are not like a usual normal 20 year old you're outworking. People who have been here for years. You're outward. She's outworking everybody in her department and her, the key boss at the hospital has, has, uh, has recognized or noticed, or is like, we don't know how you do it. They can give her a list of people to call is two to 300 people should get it done in a day, should move an entire appointment block. You know, which normally takes people a week or achievement says up to two or three weeks to do that. They're like, how are you doing it? You know, why is because she's focused. She knows that she's a, she's a bold witness of resurrection and that her work ethic matters and she's going to go really far.
Speaker 1 00:24:48 So we'll all my children because that's, I'm training them in these things, work ethic, grind, I mean a 24 seven prayer, right? Like you get an assignment from God God's gifted us. Like that's a whole nother, you know, this important for this conversation to understand your gift and your gifting because your gifts make room for you. Right? So we want to do things according to, but so many people are just prone to kind of kick back, be lazy. You know, it'll just kind of happen for me. Or somebody will take up the Slack or, um,
Speaker 2 00:25:17 I think what you're talking about too, with a gen, a younger generation, what I'm seeing and I got to, I need to deploy a lot of people and they're quite young, but it's almost like they come in with a spirit of entitlement, almost like they're helping it's right. You know, it's what they can do for me. Hey, I'm doing you a favor by being here. And uh, I want to see that get changed. And you know, it changes that strong work ethic, strong work ethic, strong work ethic will change that. And, uh, being a good example. So I think, you know, as, as men we have to, in our jobs, we have to watch out in terms of what we model for a younger generation. Do we complain? Do we, are we bitter who are grumbling and grumbling humbling? And that's why I go to that scripture, man, my go-to scripture, the service you perform, the job that you have, what you're doing is not only filling the needs of the saints.
Speaker 2 00:26:18 It's not only just providing a product for some people you don't even believe in, right. You know, across the world, across the globe, across the oceans, you know, it's, you're you're Oh, it's overflowing with many expressions. And so that's what I want young people to know because there is a S I think we need to address this in some way, you know, a younger generation, there's a spirit of entitlement. I'm doing you a favor by being here, Hey, look here, you know, and what have you. So anyway, I love it, man. I love what you're doing. I love the fact that grace ops completely shifting paradigms. And I just think we have a, an incredible opportunity to go forward. I even look at the church, man. I want men to be raised up in the church, whether you're ushering or whatever, it doesn't matter. You know, there's, the reward is touching God. That's what you said. You're putting God on display. Every person who, who we're talking to should write that down in their heart, man. We're putting God on it.
Speaker 1 00:27:18 Yeah. You think about Jesus, right? He said, I didn't come to be served, but to serve. And there is a power in that. There there's a power in, you know, I lead a church. I started church 14 years ago, founded it, got a great team, got a great people here. And sometimes I just wish sometimes I really just wish. Cause I'm like, you know, I'm a man of God. I've been around the block a few times, you know, Hey, what do you want us to do? What's God calling me to do, um, well, Hey, go do this, go take on this test. Oh no, I got, I don't, I'm not really know if I'm wired. That we're called that. Well, who cares? Do it anyway, do it for a few months. Do for six months, do it for a year. One just to, uh, maybe make things easier that the body would be so United that it's like, just put me in coach.
Speaker 1 00:28:04 You know what I mean? Um, you know, and you got to kind of serve your way in, you know, you serve your way into a culture. You serve your way into a community. I'm uh, I'm 45 years old right now. I've led this church for 14 years and I still bend over and pick up trash. I still clean a window if there's a smudge on it. Um, I still have my pet peeves about, um, you know, walking upstairs and seeing dirt and the cracks between the stairs and like, uh, we didn't vacuum that too. Well, you know, the new mom's gonna see that, you know, the moms had been here on our times. They probably won't see it, but the new mom, that's all they got to do with work ethic. Well, how'd you think I got to lead in a church. He thinks someone just gave it to me. Do you think it just fell on my lap? You know, no, it's because of the way I work. It's because I care more than anybody else cares. I CA I take on more responsibility than anybody else does here.
Speaker 2 00:28:49 And Mo uh, beloved out there, man, people that are listening to this, I'm telling you that this man models it. And, but I think Brian, I think Pete, a lot of people in the, even in the church are waiting around for their calling, even outside the church. It doesn't matter. We're waiting around for our calling. What's my calling. I'll tell you what your calling is. Your calling is until the Lord. Yeah, it's a summit calling is from the direct word summons. We're summoned to serve the Lord, right? So we don't get a choice. We don't get a choice. We can't wait around for those positions to be created so that we can go do it. If there's a need in your church or there's a need in your neighborhood, a need in a community or whatever, you know, go serve, go serve. Because I looked at the word volunteerism and I looked at the word laity, you know?
Speaker 2 00:29:36 And uh, there was a research project done on the word laity volunteerism. And uh, in the church, we were recruiting volunteers, right? Well, in my ministry at the international house of prayer, and I've been doing this for 38 years, I'm not recruiting volunteers. I don't want to recruit volunteers. I want to, I want to gather people that are summoned to a generation to give them the things of God, not just put warm bodies in there. And I won't name the denomination that did this study, but I'll say it real quick. They started researching the word volunteerism and laity. And they found out that volunteer is actually connected to those positions that are less, less with authority than clergy. So when you recruit for volunteers, you're actually saying you're recruiting for people that are less anointed, less skilled than the pastor. And that's wrong, man.
Speaker 1 00:30:39 It's kind of that secular system again, right? I'm the Holy man and your little minion. That's exactly right in my empire.
Speaker 2 00:30:48 So pastor comes that we need volunteers in this church. What he's actually saying by definition is we need the people that are less anointed than me to actually be raised up and go do it. When we've got to change that, the word summons, uh, summoned, you get a, I get a summit in the mail for a traffic situation. I've got to show up, right? You got jury duty. You've got to show up. These are summons. So, so men are you summoned to something? Well, I'm not doing the job. I want to, man. I'm tired of this. I'm yet, man, I've got no life. Oh, you don't have life meeting the needs of your family and, and, and touching God. I think when you do that, the Lord says, man, I can trust you right here goes and things might shift and whatever. I, I, I've never been out of work in 43 years of, of my marriage. I married very young. I've never been a day out of work, you know? And I love the ministry man. And I gave my heart to the ministry. I've been in full-time ministry for 38 years. But prior to that, when I got married at 18, I went to work, you know? And uh, so
Speaker 1 00:31:55 Work ethic matters. You know, men are called to provide, right. And you're going to provide through your work, or we're talking about the layers that go into the provision. And I think Paul covers it. Uh, whatever you do, right. It's not just waiting for your calling. Yeah. It's whatever you do, people, you haven't failed. Whatever you do, people of God, right? Like worship the word, worship and work, uh, actually go together. And it comes from like the same Hebrew word. That means, you know, like worship would be like worth ship, right. He's worse. Yeah. You know, it's, it's putting words on God. So when I work to God, it's a form of worship and powerful worth right. On his name because the Lord says something very mighty. My name will be great. Whether you hollow it by your lifestyle or you profane it by your lifestyle, that's good.
Speaker 1 00:32:44 But apart, apart from you, you can partner with me or you can profane me, but I'm going to declare to you either way. My name will be great. I don't know about you, but I want to be on the winning team with God. And I want my work to, uh, to honor his name. Right. And to bring glory to his name because you know, I've been working here 14 years now. There's government leaders. I'm a chaplain with the police force as well. And the local Sheriff's department and people know who I am. And it's because of just been a man who came out in the middle of nowhere and it just started working. I show, I showed up again. I quit a thousand times, but we started the next day. That's exactly right. Yeah. So
Speaker 2 00:33:23 I look at people, look at it and you know how much you do and stuff like that. And my wife, sometimes he'll go, man, you made a mistake here. You put the wrong person in a position and what have you. And my go-to with, even that is that, Oh, you know what, at least I'm swinging the bat. I just want to tell a bunch of men. I'm telling you, I see the kids. This is something you're taught this stuff you're talking about right now. I see the effects in the next generation of men who are just paralyzed by not making enough money. Don't think they're in the right position or whatever. And I want to encourage people, man, just keep their stand steady, stay steady. And so for me, I tell my wife, you know, at least I'm swinging the bat. Yeah. Okay. So I swing the bat 2000 times a year and I got a batting average of 400. I'll take the 400, but at least I got 200 swings. Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I've got a bunch of strikeouts. Yeah. So men, if you're striking out, get up, suck it up, get off your rear end man. And, and know that you're touching God by meeting the needs of your family or your own
Speaker 1 00:34:30 Needs, you know, don't be lazy. Go serve your chair,
Speaker 2 00:34:33 Go serve your neighborhood. Go get into something that the Lord can use you in.
Speaker 1 00:34:37 Yeah. Put the bag of chips down, right? Turn off, uh, pornography. Something that you, uh, you, you, you crave in your life for distraction and let those be signs to you that you're, you're kind of living way sub below par and the grace of God. Wash, train you out of those ways of living your band of brothers will help pull you into a better day and actually help you live in power. Doesn't mean we're perfect. Uh, it's not about the perfection. It's about the pursuit, but you got to have a work ethic. You gotta have a grind, get a side hustle, do your day job, do a night job. Whatever do I mean when I was younger, man, I had four jobs. I was, I was, I've just always worked. I've always known how to produce. You know, I'm not, not where I'm not where I'd like to be, um, in my goals financially.
Speaker 1 00:35:19 But you know, I'm, I'm building streams of income that will pan out down the road. You know, I'm not worried about it, but at the end of the day, this whole world could implode right now. And it's really about the name of God being great. So even at the end of the day, the economy could crash and I'm not going to lose hope. I'm going to wake up swinging for the fence. Even in that day and age in that terrain and Malcolm Gladwell actually has a powerful idea. It's not an original idea from him, but he made it really popular called the 10,000 hour rule. And he actually says the 10,000 hour rule, roughly says, if you practice one skill for 10,000 hours, you have a good chance of becoming an expert at it. Wow. And so, you know, one of the skills I've practiced over the years is just speaking.
Speaker 1 00:36:01 You know, I learned how to speak in public high schools, which was a really gnarly place to learn how to speak. You know, it was a tough crowd every time that you spoke, not very forgiving, I had to learn the art of communicating. And so that's just something, you know, that's just one of my skills, right? So 10 years, 10,000 hours doesn't guarantee it, but it puts you in that place of just preparedness and being ready. And you've just done the work. And you know, you've done this tent for 10,000 hours. And I think that the generation coming up needs to hear that we're not overnight rock stars, that God doesn't care about how famous we are. He wants us to be faithful, but in our work ethic, get up,
Speaker 2 00:36:37 Can do the work, do the work, do the work. Right.
Speaker 1 00:36:41 You say that all the time, I'll look at them. I'll cut right to the little attitude sometimes. And just be that kind of like annoying father. Yeah. That's uh, maybe saying it the wrong way in the moment. But my passion concerned, like do the work sometimes, sometimes I've made the mistake shut up. I just need you to shut up and do the work. I've said that to my kids before I apologize for the shut up later, but I'm like in the moment, I'm like, I just need you to sh
Speaker 2 00:37:01 Your mouth. It just do the work. Just quit whining. Just, just freaking do the work. It's about the work, not the pay, right? Because some guys struggle out there. I'm with a bunch of guys all the time where their wives work and they, their wives knew make more, right. You're not a failure if that's going on.
Speaker 1 00:37:19 Not if not, if there's a powerful, loving marriage. Exactly. But you still have to be the man of that relationship, you know? Absolutely. And you still need to be fulfilling your God-given role.
Speaker 2 00:37:29 Absolutely. And just because you don't make, as much as your wife would make doesn't mean you don't fulfill that role. Yeah. Yeah, yeah man. Good stuff.
Speaker 1 00:37:37 One more thing I want to throw in there for kind of wrap it up because it's very, it's very powerful because we've talked about work, work, work, and there's some of you on here that are like, yes, that's right. Work ethic. I'm all about the work ethic. Well, I know people that don't shut down. I know people that just go nonstop and they get, they become workaholics, right? And that's a, that's not balanced. That's not that's workout a balance. Good man, workaholic ism is work is, is actually work ethic out of balance, right? That's not doing as unto the Lord and the reason why, and I can prove it to you real quick, a Sabbath because God worked for six days and he modeled for us something he wants us to take on forever. The Sabbath didn't stop in the old Testament. It continues to all the way through the cross, all the way through the return of Christ.
Speaker 1 00:38:21 And the Lord said, I worked for six days and I created, and then I, I paused my work and I enjoyed it and I rested. And I want you to do the same thing. I want you to grind. I want you to be in a sass and I want you to kill it. Do the work ethic thing for six days work under me. But then on that Sabbath, I want you to pause. I want you to actually make yourself stop. I want you to be diligent in your life to make yourself prepare, work harder on Friday. So you can stop on Saturday or work harder on Sunday. So you can Saturday. So you can stop on Sunday, whatever day you Sabbath. Right? Like my Sabbath is actually Monday. And I actually need to remind myself right now that it's it's Saturday, we're recording this on a Saturday and two days from now, I have to literally have to stop and enjoy my family. Rest, take some naps, give some time ago going to walk stair to Lake Sabbath.
Speaker 2 00:39:16 I have to tell you, I have, I, I've not mastered that. Neither have I have a young age, man. You're convicted me here. And you know, I, my prayers are with everybody who feels that they have to be driven. I mean, I had somebody come to me and say, you don't have to feel guilty taking a day off. You, you, you don't have to, you don't have to kill yourself right now. So, uh, it's good word, Brian.
Speaker 1 00:39:37 Well, God gives you permission, right. You know, and he, uh, he tells us, I want you to rest. I want you to say, but the Sabbath is very powerful core value from the old and new Testament. And you know, even in someone 27, you know, you're part of the problem and break down in the house of God was that we were eating the bread of anxious toil. Right. You know? And so the Lord says, you know, you need to stop. Otherwise, if you, if you just go full throttle off the, if you ignore the guardrails and you want to become a workaholic, your life can actually fall apart. Right. You can lose everything you're building. And then that's a powerful lesson to, you know, it's like, I remember when I started learning the power of Sabbath and pulling back a little bit, I was nervous and I had a good friend of my life.
Speaker 1 00:40:17 I said, yeah, I'll take that day off and I'll rest, but I'm afraid I'm going to get lazy. And he just started laughing so hard. He's like, you're never going to be lazy, man, because you're not, there's nothing about you that will ever be lazy. He just started laughing. I'm like, okay, well that makes me feel better. But you know, but actually to try to stop or 24 hour cycle, that's insane. It's hard. I don't master Atlanta. I, I value it. And it's not necessarily something you master, but it's something you return to, you know, good word, what is important. So, all right. It's been awesome to be with you again. Thank you, Brian. And I'll look forward to our next podcast together. Um, we're asking everybody here on this podcast to, to, and I will also include all the links on how to find Lenny and any resources he has.
Speaker 1 00:41:02 I'll include those in the podcast that he's involved in. And so you'll be able to find all that in the show notes, please check out grease ups.net, get involved on our email list, click the little, share button on this podcast, get it out, help us get it out to millions of people. We know God's going to impact this, uh, this nation with grease ups. So it's just good to have you part of this, uh, uh, culture that we're creating until next next time know that we love you and we care about you. We want you to live up right.
Speaker 0 00:41:31 <inaudible>.
