Episode 79: How God Uses Ordinary People To Do Extraordinary Things

Jacob Paul: Welcome to the truth and love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mack. The truth and love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.

Kimberly Faith: Okay, dad. Well, I have to say this podcast is so appropriate. The topic is appropriate given the fact

John McLarty: So, Kim.

Kimberly Faith: Well, okay. So the podcast is how ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things. And we’re gonna talk about what God says about this idea and then how we become part of it. And the reason this is a

John McLarty: Well, we definitely qualify for being ordinary people. And if we do anything extraordinary, it’s definitely because of God’s grace.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And I have to say the reason this is so hilarious to me that we’re doing this podcast today is because this is the first podcast where I’m having to serve as an engineer because we’re learning new software and have new equipment trying to make this podcast more professional for God’s glory.

John McLarty: Yes. And for our listeners, I’ll just give a little visual. Kim is sitting here with this array of wires and black boxes and lights kind of blinking. Yes, Kim is engineering this as we speak.

Kimberly Faith: Well, I have to just confess that tech is like on the scale of one to 10, like negative five on my ability list. So this podcast is very timely for me because I know my inevitability is that a word, inevitability?

John McLarty: We’ll make it then.

Kimberly Faith: All right. It’s a word today When it comes to tech. So I wanna give lots of credit, a big shout out to my office IT guy, Christopher James, and then our production person, Jacob Fanup, because they gave me a crash course yesterday on how to do this. So let’s hope we pray that it will go well.

John McLarty: That we don’t crash.

Kimberly Faith: That we don’t crash. Exactly. So, you know, to to the subject. What does God say about how ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things? And I think our our keystone verse is coming out of verses come out of first Corinthians chapter one verses 25 to 31.

Because and before we read that, you know, we are a culture obsessed with talent, credentials, wealth, strength, beauty, influence, intelligence, charisma. And but the bible just shows us again and again and again that it’s God’s pattern to delight in taking ordinary people. In other words, people who don’t have these things, who don’t, according to the world’s standards, have these things. And in fact, the people the people that the world overlooks or dismisses and uses them to extraordinary accomplish extraordinary things for his glory. And so why you know, the apostle Paul, before we read this this verse in these verses in first Corinthians, he’s writing to a church, people.

They’re proud. They’re divided. And he’s giving them this reminder that he accomplishes the best by by using people the world considers insignificant. So do you wanna start out by reading that just this revolutionary verse?

John McLarty: Yeah. And I’ll throw in a thought first that part of this is the definition of doing extraordinary things. Because we might think of an extraordinary thing as well, it was pretty extraordinary for the American men and women’s team to win the ice hockey championship.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. In Olympics, right.

John McLarty: Yes. And that is extraordinary. Right. But another definition of extraordinary is leading someone to the Lord.

Kimberly Faith: That’s the most extraordinary thing that ever happens. Yes.

John McLarty: And so but the world not only sees extraordinary as as these world, you know, capturing events, but and the people that to to do that. Sometimes very ordinary people do do things that hit the world stage. Right. But just ordinary people leading someone to the Lord in the in the heavenly thinking is an extraordinary thing. Right.

So, yeah, I’ll be glad to read this. So first, Corinthians 25 chapter one twenty five through 31. I love this. The foolishness of God is wiser than men. I love that.

And the weakness of God is stronger than men. What the world calls foolish, the cross, the crucified savior, a message of salvation by grace alone is beyond human wisdom. Wisdom. It seems weak. So that’s that’s just a good a good verse to Right.

Sum up where we’re going.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And capture the the foundational thought.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. And and I think, you know, when when we go on through those verses, for you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. In other words, most of these believers were not scholars. They weren’t powerful rulers. They weren’t from noble families.

In fact, there were a lot of them were just ordinary, even slaves and laborers. But God called them. Why? And the verse goes on because God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the the things which are mighty, the base things of the world, and the things that are despised.

God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. I mean, this is just God deliberately he selects the, quote, nobodies, the foolish, the weak, the despised, the impressive.

John McLarty: Disciples called were fishermen, tax collectors. Right. It’s very ordinary people. They weren’t the leaders of in Jerusalem.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And and and why? Why does God do this? And verse 29 answers that, that no flesh should glory in his presence. You know, when we it’s not that God doesn’t use talented people or brilliant people or strong people or wealthy people.

It’s not that at all. But the problem is and I I I’m sure that you and I can both testify to this. When we become self sufficient, it’s much harder for us to depend upon God and thus give him it’s it’s less obvious that it’s his work and not ours. Mhmm. And so, you know, we know that we are created for God’s glory.

The Bible’s clear that whether you drink or whatever you eat or whatever you do, do for all for the glory of God. And we are if we are created for God’s glory, it makes sense that, you know, God tends to use people who don’t glorify in their own accomplishments to do extraordinary things. And so, you know, in in I think he kinda drives this home where he says, let him who glory or he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. This is verse thirty and thirty one. So everything Jesus himself is our wisdom.

He’s our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. He’s our breath, our life. Everything we have is a gift from him. And and, you know, when I catch myself taking credit for things, I like to remember this phrase, that to boast in myself is like stealing credit from God.

John McLarty: Right. Know? It’s good.

Kimberly Faith: And what’s crazy, it’s not healthy to do that because Pride cometh before fall. That’s right. And we enslave ourselves. We we take ourselves back to the slavery of sin because pride puts us at makes us an of God just like we were before we were born again. You know?

John McLarty: It’s very true. It’s it’s so true. So God uses us to do something that’s remarkable, like lead someone to the Lord. Right. And then say that person maybe becomes a missionary.

And then, the prideful part of us is so

Kimberly Faith: Deceptive. Deceptive.

John McLarty: Yeah. He wants to jump up on the stage and say, Well, I get a little bit of that spotlight.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And we’re just so like that. Have to, you know, what you just said, No, the God gets all the glory. Instruments in God’s hands,

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Well, either are instruments in God’s hands or instruments in somebody else’s hands. That’s I think that the more that we learn to give God the glory, the more we find ourselves liberated from the burden of pride and self sufficiency. And and here’s the beautiful thing about about these verses in Corinthians is that God can use any person. If you’re listening to this and say, don’t have any talent.

I am not very bright. I don’t have much money. I don’t have, you know, I don’t have anything that I think God can use. Well, then you’re exactly where you need to be to be because God has a whole storehouse that’s beyond what we can even fathom of the wealth of goodness to give us.

John McLarty: And that really is you said it before, really is a pattern of God doing things, very ordinary people. I think you had a story in a previous podcast about somebody witnessed to a shoe salesman.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, right. Was D. L. Moody was witnessed to by a shoe salesman.

John McLarty: By a shoe salesman, and then that person was D. L. Moody, and then D. L. Moody, the Moody Bible Institute.

Kimberly Faith: I mean, same with Billy Graham. He was brought to a service by the neighboring dairy farmer. That’s where he gave his life. Mean, that’s

John McLarty: Praise God for those shoe salesman and dairy farmers.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.

John McLarty: That’s so fascinating. I love that.

Kimberly Faith: Well, the Bible is full of these examples, and let’s just talk about a few of them.

John McLarty: Okay.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I think about the stammering fugitive named Moses. Mhmm. And and God used him to confront the greatest leader of of the world, pharaoh, and lead his nation out of slavery. And matter of fact, God told him in Exodus four twelve, therefore go and I will be with your mouth, teach you what to say. I mean, that’s pretty basic.

John McLarty: Yeah, Moses said he couldn’t speak well. Right. And that’s a perfect phrase. I shall be with your mouth and teach you what to say.

Kimberly Faith: I don’t know, dad, can you think of any other examples?

John McLarty: Gideon, the least in his father’s house, hiding from the enemy, and he was sent to defeat Midian with just 300 men. Yeah. Saying, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. That’s out of Judges six twelve.

Kimberly Faith: You know what that kinda reminds me of is, you know, so here’s Gideon hiding. Right? And then he turns God turns him into this man who’s who’s he’s saying he’s calling him what he knows he can be. And our pastor, brother Brian, is a lot like that. He’s very good at treating us as God sees us instead of what we think we

John McLarty: are. Our life is really a perfect example of that. Because Lynn and I joined the church and we were just the normal Mission Boulevard. This is almost fifty years ago. And you had Brian and men called to the ministry and Brian was teaching studies.

But Brian had this attitude that Lynn and I were somehow leaders in the church. Well, we kind of stepped into that role because Brian treated us that way. And then just ordinary people. And it’s really interesting, Lynn said last night, and we had a Bible study, that when she gives a track to somebody, which to us is just a very normal thing to do, people say, Well, are you a preacher or a preacher’s wife? It’s like, No.

But people have this thinking that if you’re handing a tract or witnessing that you need to be the preacher,

Kimberly Faith: the preacher’s life. As if the Great Commission was exclusively reserved for the leadership in the church when Jesus said no. He was telling everybody. It’s interesting the way that you’re describing the pastor treating you because I think that that he recognized also something. I think that Samuel recognized when when when the Lord like, when he anointed David, who was just the teenage shepherd.

Right?

John McLarty: That’s a great example

Kimberly Faith: of this.

John McLarty: Yeah. He was Yeah. David.

Kimberly Faith: He was ignored by his family. And then and, you

John McLarty: know the lineup of all of the sons were there. Right. It wasn’t even there.

Kimberly Faith: Right. He was out watching the sheep and they had discounted the family completely discounted him. And Samuel heard God say to him, The Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. He took David, the shepherd who had been, you know, killing lions and and and protecting his sheep and used him to kill the giant Goliath. But he also led David on a really tumultuous journey with Saul.

I mean, David had to run from his life, and he refused to to kill Saul who was God’s anointed. It it’s such an interesting you know, the humility just God can use the humble to do his work and manifest himself. He protected David. David had this whole testimony of how Saul tried to kill him, but when David was given the opportunity to kill Saul in the cave Right. Right, he said no.

And even though his all his people were saying, you need to kill Saul. You’re the next king, dude. He was like, no. This is God’s anointed. And only a a person who is completely humbled before God could really do that.

So again, this just shows the great contrast about pride and humility. Humility wrote a greater story for David than if he had taken matters into his own hands. Right. Yeah, gave Saul the chances in the world to repent, really.

John McLarty: That also goes back to kind of a misconception of greatness, of how the world perceives greatness. Because here David was called to be the king, But things didn’t go very well for him in those early days. He was being chased and, you know, he was on the run. And there was like, you might say, disasters in his life. It wasn’t just like the red carpet was rolled out.

Exactly. But he persevered. He was humble, and then he ended up the king of Israel.

Kimberly Faith: Right. I think that there’s I mean, if you think about even how Jesus, you know, his disciples were fishermen. They were, you know, tax collectors. They were the despised. They were the the poor.

And but they turned the world upside down. Mhmm. You know? And it it just every biblical example and there’s so many of them where God takes ordinary people and does these extraordinary works. And that that’s what I wanna I wanna be remembered in eternity for being just this simple person who said, God, my life belongs to you, and do your best for But I think that we’ve kind of been touching on this, but it requires that we take the time to develop the mind of Christ and the attitudes of Christ.

And we had a whole series podcast on the beatitudes which

John McLarty: were The attitudes. Mind. The mind of Christ. And then we’ve had podcasts on renewing the mind.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. Yeah. And I think what that does is if you look you always say, if you wanna see what a Christian should look like, at the life of Jesus. Mhmm. Right?

And what that does is it makes us more like Jesus, which makes us it puts us in a position we’re positioned to become extraordinary at that point.

John McLarty: And Jesus humbled himself to the death of the cross. Right. He is the perfect example. Exactly.

Kimberly Faith: And that brings us to our second part of this podcast. How do we get to be part of it? How do we know if we’re part of what God does with ordinary people and doing extraordinary things? Before

John McLarty: we go into part two, I just want to mention the apostle Paul because he was a persecutor of Christians. You know, he was not, you know, a great he wasn’t in the the leadership of Israel, even though he was he was a Pharisee of Pharisees. Right. He wasn’t part of the as far as we know, part of the Sanhedrin and and all that. He might have been an up and coming.

You might say a rising star in in the the Jewish setup. Became saved, and then think about the extraordinary thing that the apostle Paul did. He was instrumental in planting the Gentile churches, the spread of the churches that turned the world upside down. Yet his life at the time, if you were viewing his life, it was literally a shipwreck being thrown out of cities. It was not, again, kind of like David, the red carpet wasn’t rolled out.

But who did anything more extraordinary than the Apostle Paul? Exactly. And he would have at the time been, Boy, this person’s life is kind of a mess. He’s being persecuted and chased out of cities, ends up in prison and Rome. What’s interesting What an extraordinary thing he did.

Kimberly Faith: What’s interesting to me about the Apostle Paul, since you brought it up, is he started as an extraordinary person in the eyes of the Jewish community.

John McLarty: He was the rising star.

Kimberly Faith: He was the rising star, but then he met Jesus.

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And it completely humbled him.

John McLarty: And became Radically humbled him. Or even he he was hated by the Pharisees Mhmm. But also looked upon with suspicion by the disciples. Right. Just like, wait, isn’t this the guy that was persecuting

Kimberly Faith: Right. Yeah. He he was put he was placed in a he was, like, radically taken from a place of self dependence Mhmm. Independence, I should say, to complete dependence because both sides of the of the equation hated him when he was converted or were suspicious of him. Right?

And so, yeah, that’s a great example. And again, I so when we kind of transition now to the the second question was how do we know if we’re part of being extraordinary, really, of extraordinary works? And you kinda touched on it earlier. There’s the most extraordinary thing we do is to be part of bringing someone to Jesus Christ Mhmm. And salvation.

And I love this verse in Luke one thirty seven where Jesus gave us this completely astonishing promise. He said, with God, nothing will be impossible. In other words, we the first the the the the the two words, with God with God, nothing will be impossible. What I think about is we don’t this promise is not activated simply by us wishing for miracles. Our our primary goal in doing something extraordinary I’m sorry.

Our primary way of doing extraordinary things is to be close to God. And, you know, just just take take a zoom out for a minute. We we cannot engage God’s power unless we are first born again. That’s Right. That’s that is, because unless we’re born again if you’re not born again, then your soul and spirit are dead to a relationship with Christ.

Just like if I were laying on the floor right now, we would not be having this conversation because I would be dead to your presence. Our soul and spirit must be born again, and we must become alive in Christ and be be given the holy spirit, the the the way to communicate with God. So, of course, we can’t utilize God’s power because God’s spirit doesn’t live within us. So the power to do what is supernatural only flows from a relationship with Jesus Christ.

John McLarty: And because that’s allowing God to flow through us.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: I’m just looking at these couple of verses I read this morning in Psalms. It says, I have more understanding than all my teachers. This is Psalm 199. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. And then the next verse, I understand more than the ancients because I keep thy precepts.

So being born again and then plugged into the spirit of God, the word of God, and that God’s wisdom, that’s what gives us the ability to do extraordinary things.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Is because it’s God doing it.

Kimberly Faith: Right. You’re a 100% right. And Philippians two:five says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. That’s what plugs us into, you know, the like the apostle Paul who understood this. He’s sitting in prison awaiting execution.

He says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, Philippians four thirteen. How can you sit in prison and say that unless you know that what’s within you, greater is he that is within me than he that is in the world. Right?

John McLarty: Perfect.

Kimberly Faith: He knew his body was confined, but his soul was so free because he was empowered by almighty God. He knew that the prison doors could open if God willed it. Right? And in fact, that’s exactly what happened. The angel came and the Philippian jailer got saved.

Right. Right?

John McLarty: They were singing hymns.

Kimberly Faith: That’s that’s right.

John McLarty: Prison.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And so developing a strong awareness that our human circumstances do not limit God’s ability to work through us. We are there. If we are born again, we are there. And then the other truth that we have to understand that hinders our ability to do extraordinary things is this thing called sin.

Sin is a violation of God’s love, of his will, of all the goodness he has for us. Sin destroys everything. And if we’re born again believers, our flesh still wants to sin.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And we have to understand that to choose our own way over God’s way, it takes us out of the tip of the spear. It takes us out of that.

John McLarty: As as the spirit, it just you know? And I think this guy I mean, we all we’re all selfish kind of all the time. Our flesh is selfish sometimes. But we’re just to give into sin and just like, okay, I’m not even fighting the battle anymore.

Kimberly Faith: Just

John McLarty: letting Satan have his way. Really, we get into spiritual warfare and you’re letting go of the armor of God and Satan’s just that’s his MO. It’s Our taking back

Kimberly Faith: enemy’s goal is that we never experience an extraordinary life. If you’re listening to this and you don’t feel like your life is extraordinary, well, this is the this is the litmus test. Number one, are you born again? Number two, is there something in your life that is putting you at enmity with God? Right.

The Bible says, for to be carnally minded is death and to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is enmity against God. That’s Romans eight, six, and seven. We cling to sin. It clouds our vision. It weakens our judgment.

It dulls our spiritual sensitivity. And the worst thing about it is it puts us in the enemy’s camp.

John McLarty: Right. Where we’re doing more damage than good.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Not only are we not doing extraordinary things, we’re destruct we’re being used as a destructive destructive tool for the enemy. And that’s sobering. I don’t want I mean and and it’s it’s I don’t want to anybody that I know to end up separated eternally from the presence of God because I was a tool the enemy used. And and Lord knows I have in the in in I’m sure many times been in that position because I’ve made bad choices.

I have sinned against God. I have chosen sin over over the Lord and his presence many times. But I tell you, the closer I get to the Lord, the more I experience him doing crazy impossible things through me, you kinda get addicted to it. It’s a great thing. And it’s still a battle to to do that.

But, you know, I I love James chapter four verse eight. It says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Perfect. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. This is the constant invitation to us as born again believers.

God doesn’t give up on us because he knows that we’re weak. Paul described that conflict in in was it Romans chapter seven where he talked about when I would do good, evil is present with me. Right. You know? He was acknowledging that the in his inner man, the soul and spirit is the desire to live in God’s righteousness.

But in the outer man, the flesh is this constant drawing away from that.

John McLarty: You know, and I just think, why why wouldn’t we want God on our side? Of course, we want God on our side. It’s just it’s irrational.

Kimberly Faith: It’s irrational.

John McLarty: To to just, like, let, you know, sin take again, and I’m not saying we’re we don’t battle with sin and the flesh every day, but but to just, you know, totally just give give up the battle. Absolutely. And then just give control over to Satan.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. Why would we give our enemy control?

John McLarty: The rational spiritual mind would never conclude that that’s the wise thing to do.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And just an example in today’s culture today, it’d be like saying, I’d rather live under the Iranian guard, whatever, IRGC. What’s it? IRGC, whatever it’s called.

John McLarty: Yeah. Iranian Republican Guard.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. IRGC. I’d rather live under them than live in the freedom of the Western world that we have. I mean, that’s insane. You’d to be deluded to say that.

John McLarty: The saved, the blinded mindset.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And and to live under the power of the enemy, the spirit our spiritual enemy is worse than that. You know? We we lose so much freedom. But I’ll tell you this thing about God doing extraordinary things.

I mean, you know, we think about what does this what do these miracles look like that God accomplishes through us? I mean, the greatest miracles aren’t I you know, somebody being healed. Oh, that’s wonderful. Right? Their body being healed.

Maybe a financial breakthrough, maybe a dramatically changing circumstance in your job or your family. God definitely does those things, and he’s so good to do those things. Matter of fact, there are probably more miracles, physical miracles that happen than we even recognize. I God has kinda laid on my heart to start giving thanks for all the bad things that didn’t happen to me, like the deer I didn’t hit and all.

John McLarty: The car that did not smash us.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Oh, yeah. And we continually, I think God protecting us in ways we don’t even know about.

Kimberly Faith: Well, know, yesterday when I was driving down here, I mean, I I almost I felt like I probably avoid God probably avoided death for me. I was driving down the interstate, and there’s a truck in front of me that’s kinda swerving and hitting his brakes, and I so I start slowing down, and there is a vehicle parked in the middle of the left lane, sitting there in the left lane of traffic, and I have a semi on my right side. I’m just like, lord, you’re gonna have to I mean, I’m approaching him at 70 miles an hour. And that’s it just I was able to just shoot through the little bitty hoop of of of space there. And then the you know, it it was just like I just my life kinda flashed in front of my eyes like, Lord, you just protected me.

Yeah. Thank you. That was a very visual evidence of God’s physical protection. But the fact is the greatest miracle isn’t any of that. It’s the greatest miracles when one person surrenders to Jesus Christ as Lord and savior and passes from eternal death to eternal life.

John McLarty: Salvation.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And

John McLarty: And to be a part of that. Absolutely. And to be a part of just the ministry. We were talking last night in a Bible study about kind of the fellowship of the saints, the church as a culture, as a nation. And we were sitting here with so a great friend of Lynn and I, Reggie and Marie, when they first joined the church, they were the first family to invite us over for it’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Do you remember that?

Kimberly Faith: I do remember that.

John McLarty: We were thought this is And they were kind of Beautiful house. They were kind of middle class and had a real nice house, and we were just kind of fresh out in the teepee. And we were just impressed. Right. They we were welcomed in their home.

Well, so last night, not only their son, Kyle, but Shannon, a family friend of Mickey and Danny, they’re children. So here we are with three generations. And I was thinking, this is a blessing.

Kimberly Faith: It is a blessing. Yeah. And that kind of So

John McLarty: that’s just God does extraordinary things. That was extraordinary. It was extraordinary. But I realized the implications of that.

Kimberly Faith: And you bring up a really good point because I think the greatest extraordinary thing that we ever get to do is participate, whether that’s planting the seed or leading somebody to Christ in the the salvation of somebody. But the second most extraordinary thing is when we get to be part of helping and encouraging people, a redeemed person to choose their to use their gifts.

John McLarty: And I’ll just circle back to the to the ex what I just said and how it ties into what you’re saying. Reggie discipled me.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, okay. Reggie I don’t think I knew that.

John McLarty: And Reggie said, I went out on outreach with with with Reggie a lot. And then his sons, Kyle, and then so Reggie discipled me, and then here I am teaching a bible study to hit to Reggie’s son’s daughters.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That’s a blessing.

John McLarty: Yeah. That’s extraordinary.

Kimberly Faith: It is extraordinary. And so, you know, just to kind of wrap this up a little bit, you know, the greatest if if you’re if you’re, you know, listening to this and you say, I don’t really have anything extraordinary to talk about in my life that I see this happening. Well, number one, everybody can tell their story of salvation. Everybody can share their own testimony, whether that means like we’ve done, write it write our testimony tract and give it away or just, you know, the people that you have conversations with. Everybody can do that.

And that is the most extraordinary gift that we are given Right. Is the gospel. The gospel is the power of God into salvation. The second thing we can do is we can be part of that encouragement to help other born again believers use their gifts to carry out the great commission. That’s discipleship.

Reggie discipled our family and Marie by inviting us into their home and sharing a meal. You know? That’s part if you look at the early church, that’s how discipleship went down.

John McLarty: And I really just wanna share this because you’re, you know, you’re not a a preacher.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: You’re you know, I’m not, you know, a missionary or

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Called to live with the ministry. I just worked at Regional Planning Commission. You’re a lawyer. Reggie was a phone worked with the phone company. Right.

So just in the world’s view, very ordinary people. Yeah. But through discipleship and salvation of souls, we, you know, we can be a part of extraordinary things.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. I mean

John McLarty: And especially leading people to the Lord and discipling.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And and Reggie didn’t know and Marie didn’t know when they invited you all for dinner and made you really feel like, wow. This is these are my people. This is my tribe. Right?

And inspire your Christian growth. They didn’t know that, you know, years and years later

John McLarty: Fifty years later.

Kimberly Faith: Right. That that you and I would be doing a podcast that that’s being listened to in China. You know? Amazing. I mean, that’s this is so extraordinary that what you would do matters.

And God gives us this is what’s so beautiful about the Lord. He unselfish unselfishly gives us all these opportunities to I mean, he’s generous, probably the better way to say it. He generously gives us every opportunity to use every minute of our life for his glory and make an eternal difference. And, you know, we we talked about over Christmas all the different gifts of Christmas, the eternal gifts. Right?

I mean, if you haven’t heard that series, you’re listening to this podcast, it’s so it’s so encouraging. It’s it’s so motivating because God doesn’t just give us eternal life floating around on a cloud with a cherub. No. That’s not even close. We everything good that we experience here and now is just a taste of the divine glory we’re gonna experience forever.

John McLarty: I’d really like to just share with the listeners this it’s so fulfilling to be used by God, even in not necessarily a mission being a missionary to Panama, but just, as I said, to me, a Bible study to the granddaughter of a good friend of mine fifty years later. But you jump in. Jump in number one to salvation and then to discipleship and get in on God’s work. And it’s not hard to do. God wants us to do it.

He shows us how to do it.

Kimberly Faith: Jesus showed us how to do it. Exactly. And the thing is, it doesn’t matter what, You don’t have to be a lawyer. You don’t have to be a regional planner. You don’t have to be like, you’ve been a telephone.

You it it But she’s yeah.

John McLarty: That’s right. She’s salesman. Mother that just with your kids.

Kimberly Faith: Right. I mean, whether you’re Dad. You’re helping at the Salvation Army, you’re helping, encourage people who are maybe, recovering addicts from substance abuse, you’re a teacher, whether you write music, create art, you work you know, everything you do, loving your family, stewarding your jobs and your homes, these are all every every bit of time we spend, every resource that God has given us are all potential channels of ministry through which God can extend his influence. If we have the fruit of God’s spirit, love, joy, peace being the top three, flowing through us in every aspect of our life, then we are being used to make an extraordinary difference.

John McLarty: I’m just thinking, we have an extraordinary God. That’s can take ordinary people and do extraordinary things. Yeah. He’s the we serve the king of kings.

Kimberly Faith: That’s you know what, dad? That just about says it all. And I I think what if you’re listening to this, you know, and and you’re thinking your life is not extraordinary, you’ve gotta get rid of that stinking thinking. Mhmm. And the only way you do that is to have the mind of Christ.

Amen. And you can have that. You you can have if you’re born again believer

John McLarty: free gift.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Salvation is a free gift. The mind of Christ is freely offered. The attitudes of Christ are freely offered to us. And when we allow God to write our supernatural biography, he he does that one miracle at a time.

Amen. One life at a time. And so I hope and I know you do too that this podcast encourages you to really dig into your relationship with God because there’s nothing more satisfying Amen. Than a life that is lived for the glory of God. Just jump in. Get on the God train. I like that, dad.

Kimberly Faith: If today’s episode stirred your heart, we want to invite you to go even deeper. At gofaithstrong.com, you’ll find a growing library of faith based resources designed to encourage, equip, and strengthen your walk with God every single day. Whether you’re searching for meaningful devotionals, real life testimonies, Christ centered blog posts, or soul stirring music, it’s all there, created to meet you where you are and lead you closer to where God is calling you to be. We believe that walking in faith doesn’t just happen on Sundays. It’s a daily pursuit.

That’s why everything we do at Go Faith Strong is focused on helping you live boldly for Jesus Christ. Our podcast is just one piece of the journey. There’s so much more waiting for you, resources to inspire your prayer life, deepen your understanding of the scripture, and help you share the gospel with others. So visit us at go faith strong dot com and explore, read, listen, worship, and be encouraged. Your life matters.

Visit us at gofaithstrong.com.