 I don't need a microphone right, I'm going to speak loud enough, cool, cool. As good as it could be here, I do quite good speaking with my job. I was here actually a month ago, I think I saw most of you guys here. So you never know what to expect coming into the smaller towns and stuff, but it's good to be here. Do a favor for me. I want you to get out, if you have a Bible or a phone, where you can access scripture, I want you to get that out. Because what I'm speaking on today, I'm speaking from a passage, share my testimony, and then kind of challenge you with a couple of things that start on the passage, and I'm a visual guy, and so I think, and if any time you can follow along with what somebody's speaking on, it's a lot easier to internalize that. So Luke chapter six is where we're at, so Google it, Luke six, or if you have a Bible out, you can type in Luke six and pull it up. It will be at the very end of the chapter. But one of my favorite passages I think it explains, or sheds light on my testimony quite a bit. And so I'll read the passage, share my own fakes early with you guys, may or may not relate to you, and then I'll challenge you with a couple of things at the end, and then I think we'll probably do a Q&A or something. Anybody has any questions at the end? I'd love to connect with you one on one afterwards. But this is Luke chapter six. This is kind of the tail end of what is known as Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. You've probably heard about that before if you've read scripture. Probably his most famous sermon. We have an account of it in Luke and Matthew, and basically what's going on is Jesus is surrounded by this large crowd of people. It says that he's surrounded by a large crowd from all over Judea and Jerusalem that came to hear him speak and to be healed of their diseases. And so he teaches on a wide variety of topics. It covers a lot of different things, but at the end of it it says that the people were astonished because he had taught as one with authority. We'll come back to that here a little bit later. Get that picture in your minds. He's surrounded by a large crowd. They're kind of in awe of him and what he's saying, and they're listening to his words. And so this is what he says at the very end of Luke 6. And verse 46 is where we're going to start. This is the last few verses. Luke 6 verse 46 says, Why do you call me Lord Lord? And do not do what I tell you. Verse 47, Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like. He's like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built his house on the ground. Some translations say sand without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately fell in the ruin of that house. It was great. We'll come back to that here in a second. My own faith journey. Man, I grew up going to church. Man, I believed in the existence of God. I considered myself to be a pretty good person compared to most people. So my mindset as I grew up was I believed in God. I go to church. I'm a good person. Boom. I'm a Christian, right? Like I'm checking off all the right boxes. I'm going to heaven when I die. But when I look back at my life, middle school, high school, on into college, my life really revolved around two things. That was relationships and sports. I'm sure some young people can relate to that. Relationships and sports. All right. I had a very large friend group. I went to a 6A high school. It was very successful. And so I was a popular kid at school. I had a girlfriend all throughout high school who is now my wife. We're high school sweethearts. Thankfully we stayed together that whole time. And so my social life was in order on the field. Man, I was a four sport athlete in high school. Had success on the field. And so that stuff was in order. And I had success on the football field. Get a chance to earn a scholarship to play at K-State. So that's every kid's dream, right? Growing up. I want to go D1. I want to play on TV. All that kind of stuff. And people always ask me, what was it like, right? What was it like playing for Coach Schneider? Janine just told me she has a picture of Coach Schneider in her bathroom, right? What was it like playing for Coach Schneider? Don't be ashamed of that. That's a first for me. What was it like? What was it like traveling around the country, playing in front of thousands and thousands of fans and on TV? Man, it was great. It was great. I wouldn't trade for anything. I always tell kids, because I'm a coach right now, I always tell kids, if you get a chance to play college, fall, go play. Because it teaches you a lot. I learned a lot about welcome. Everybody's going to embarrass you to turn around and say, Hi Bailey. I learned a lot in college sports about how to wake up at 6 a.m. a workout. We were talking about that. Russ and I were talking about that beforehand. Waking up when I didn't want to wake up to go workout. Getting a class on time. All these little disciplined things that have helped me as a husband and father. So all that football stuff was great. But when I look back at my time at K-State, what I'm most thankful for is what was happening off the field. Because it was during that time, it was first exposed to people my age actually following Jesus. For the first time. I had a few teammates on my team that I always talk about when I share my story. Morgan Burns. You might know that name. Blake Slaughter, Alex Reman. And I always talk about Morgan Blake and Alex for the simple fact that they were different than everybody. They were different. For them, it wasn't just hey, I go to church on Sunday. I'm a Christian. But these guys were living radically different than everybody else. The way they talked, the way they acted, the decisions they were making inside and outside the locker room. They were even known as the guys on the team that would try to talk to you about Jesus. I was warned my freshman year, Alex is going to try to share his faith with you. Watch out. Those Jesus guys. And I'm thinking to myself, hey, I'm a Christian. I got this much Jesus. I don't need that much Jesus. They're kind of weird. And maybe that might be an encouragement for somebody in here. Maybe that's what you need to hear tonight is if you're that Jesus guy or girl in your team and you're getting some pushback from that, don't be ashamed of that. Or if you're that Jesus man or woman in your workplace, don't be ashamed of that. I'd be like, guarantee you there are people like me right now surrounding you that are being challenged if you're being faithful in that witness because I was being challenged by Morgan Blake and Alex. Because really, when it came down to my faith, you could reduce it down to this simply. I sat on the fence. Give me enough Jesus to get me out of hell but not enough Jesus to actually affect how I live my life. That was my mindset. I'm the guy that, man, on the weekends I'm going to go out and party it up, get drunk and then wake up Sunday morning go to church thinking like that's normal, right? Everybody does that, right? So I'm going to behave a certain way around this group of friends with me. When I get to Bible study, I got to watch what I say and act so we're out of different group of friends. I got to act like a Christian. So I'm so thankful for Morgan, Blake and Alex because they were so intrigued and really challenging me during that time. I got done with K-State, got a chance to continue my playing career down in New Orleans, Louisiana, sat down there in 2014 and my playing career got cut short pretty soon. I ended up having four surgeries in three years which I don't recommend for anybody in here that someone playing career got cut short. But that allowed me to look back at college and realize hey, something needs to change. Like what I'm saying that I believe and how I'm living is not matching up, right? And so something needs to change in my life. My wife and I moved back and joined a small group at our church and got surrounded me with some very faithful people in my life. That's a consistent thing in my life. Faithful people that witnessed to me and for the first time around 2016 to the first time the gospel really began clicking. It really began making sense. You see, I was intellectually in my head understood that Jesus died on the cross. Like I would have been in your seat saying hey, I believe that. But it didn't move to my heart it didn't change the way that I live. You see, I knew of Jesus. I knew of him. I knew facts about him, right? I could tell you about him but I didn't truly know him. That was the first time in my life I began to realize I'm not living to earn God's grace. I'm living in response to it, right? And because of what Jesus did on the cross like death and resurrection that should literally change everything about the way I live my life here and now. And so, man, I got baptized that fall as a sign of me going all in and saying hey, I'm done with all life this new life with you God. And my passions and desires began changing. I began to have a hunger for God's words and know God on a deeper level. And I've owned the Bible my whole life. It was always my good love charm. Put it on my nightstand I don't die when I sleep, right? I'm going to take it with me on the airplane until a way ends and this plane doesn't crash. But nothing really ever made sense in Scripture but the Scriptures began coming alive as I began to see them. I want to know this God who created me and can die for me. The sin that was in my life that I used to really enjoy doing I no longer desire those things anymore. Paul talks about St. Corinthians 5. He says if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. Your old life is gone. Your new life is here. How do you ever experience that? Because the Godly things that in my life that I used to look at as boring I don't want to really do those church things but I need to do them because they're the right thing to do. Now I truly desire that. And that sin that I used to truly desire I no longer desire those things anymore. I've become this new creation in Christ and I begin to have a passion to reach other people for Jesus. And that's not normal for me. I'm introverted by nature. Are there any introverts in here? One introvert. I'm sure there's more than one introvert. There's introverts like me that wouldn't even raise your hand when you get asked that question because you're afraid of people looking at you, right? I struggle with anxiety. I was telling the high school students this last month that I struggle with anxiety. So public speaking and being in front of people is not natural for me. I'd much rather be home with my wife and kids just hanging out in front of a group of people vulnerable like this. But I begin to see that everything in my life and my experience my passion, my platform has allowed me a unique opportunity to point people to Jesus in a way that I wish somebody would have done earlier on in life. And so my testimony, my story is not hey, I was a drug dealer criminal that changed overnight. My testimony is that for the vast majority of my life I knew of Jesus and now that I know him my life's never been the same. Because once you understand like, man, I am secure in the Father's love that he has adopted me as his child and I have the Holy Spirit in me that I desire to know God like once you understand that security, that peace that changes everything about the way you live your life now, right? Once the cross becomes personal to you not just some fashion statement I wear around my neck not just something I hear about on a Sunday or see on a movie or TV show but man, I begin to realize that Jesus died from my sin like my sin actually put him on the cross man, that changes everything about the way you live your life here and now so in this passage, I've spent a lot of my life pursuing things and trying to build my life on the ground without a foundation and now I know what it means to build my life on the rock, right? Now see, here's the question I want to challenge you with this evening I'll keep coming back to it and then where is your foundation? What are you building your life on? Who are you building your life on? I see wherever your foundation is that'll become the source of your identity, right? It'll determine how you live your life right now and as a result where you will spend eternity so what are you building your life on? What is your life revolve around? Like what is your motivations in your life? Like if man, if I could just take your heart and your desires and put them up on the screen the thoughts you think about every day what would that say about what you're building your life upon? You see as Jesus in this passage as he's closing out this sermon on this mount he gives us this picture, this visual of two different houses we can almost picture these houses side by side, right? And from an outside perspective they may look somewhat similar like I can't really tell what kind of foundation a house has like I was driving around in a bungee I got here a little early and I was just driving around checking out a large town, right? Wasting all this gas but I can't really tell what kind of foundation a house has but we know even if you don't build houses for a living you know that the foundation is vital to the life of that house My wife and I just went through a house buying process about a month ago and in that process an inspector comes and they're going to look at the foundation and they're going to tell you hey, that foundation is good or it's bad if it's bad it's a bad investment, right? It's a bad investment because Jesus tells us in this passage two different houses two different foundations two different types of people and he tells us what ends up exposing the foundation of each house, alright? Look at verse 48 he says this he's like a man building a house the one who hears and does his words who dug deep in like the foundation on the rock and when a flood arose and a stream broke against that house it could not shake it verse 49 but the one who hears and does not do then is like a man who built this house on the ground on the sand without a foundation what happened when the stream broke against it immediately it fell so the floods, the streams, the storms exposed whether or not that house has a solid foundation for one, what was exposed was that house was sitting on the rock but the other one was exposed that house was sitting on the sand so the storms in this parable represent both a temporary this life reality and an ultimate reality okay, from a temporary perspective the storms of life represent the trials and every single one of us is going to face to one degree or another, right? sickness, disease, job loss, health social discontent all those kind of things that every single one of us will face sometimes people I know will face a trial and that faith or that lack of faith will be exposed even that person has a solid foundation I'm abiding, I'm continuing with God or what's exposed is hey, maybe I didn't really desire God but maybe what I thought he could give me so temporary trials can certainly expose our faith but from an ultimate perspective the storms of life actually represent the judgment of God that day when every single one of us will have to stand before God and give an account for our lives sooner or later the foundation of our life will be exposed so the question isn't a matter of if but when when the trial hits now or when we stand before God and it's too late so what is the foundation of your life that you're building your life upon is it on Jesus or something other than Him because here's the danger, here's the problem is we live in this society that tells us if you can just get this this thing in your life this it then your life will be complete and satisfied so that's what you need to pursue so a lot of times it comes down to the American dream that's what we're tempted with almost every day if you can get into that the best college you can get into the best degree so you can get the highest paying job make a nice big paycheck move up the corporate ladder so to speak and if you can find that right lady to complete you and then when you're financially stable have a couple of kids and then live in that nice house and drive that nice car and save them for a nice retirement and then your life will be complete and so man that's what I want to pursue that's what I want to build my life upon maybe it's not the American dream a lot of times it comes down to what I call the three P's popularity, performance, possessions popularity man if I can be well known in my school man if I can go viral on tiktok right if a lot of people know my name then my life will be complete and so man that's what I want to build my life upon that's what I want to pursue performance right if I can just go D1 if I play a sport, if I can make it to Hollywood if I can play in that band that I want to play in if I can move up in my job get that nice promotion and then my life will be complete so man that's what I want to pursue possessions man if I have a lot of stuff to have that nice wardrobe and drive that nice car that everybody wants surely my life will be complete and so that's what I want to pursue right that's what I want to build my life upon popularity, performance, possessions that's what we're tempted with daily now can I just tell you from somebody who's been there who's experienced that who's experienced it like that'll never be enough that'll never be enough alright cause from my perspective my past life people look at my past life as the life to live like if I can just get what Ty had I know my life will be fulfilled and maybe not not everybody here is into sports, I get that but just insert whatever you've got your talent, passion, desire insert that into my story Division I football Power 5 school traveling around the country playing in front of hundreds of thousands of fans walking out of the tunnel to 50,000 Yellen Street fans playing on traditional television in front of millions on video games seeing my name on the big screen right more gear than I could fit into my closet winning the big 12 championship going to all the bowl games like man if you get that my life will be complete it'll be content right that's what I need to pursue in my life being known on campus right people trying to buy you lunches and free stuff which was illegal at the time now it's illegal but I have a lot of free lunches that's it right if I can get that my life would be complete if that wouldn't do it man going down to New Orleans same locker room as Jew Breeze and Jimmy Graham and Mark Ingram and all these guys that you see on EBC more money and more paycheck than I've seen in my entire life and I'm on the very low part of the total pool I'm not making Patrick Mahomes $500 million money and I'm still being blown away by our patrons that's the life you get that surely your life will be fulfilled that's what I want to make my foundation that's what I want to build my life upon and honestly looking back I always struggle with the attention that I got at K-State because again I'm introverted by Dave's Trump struggling with anxiety I don't really like being known as as Tyler Football Guy I didn't really want to travel around that just wasn't me I always struggle but as I look back and I reflect my time at K-State my time at New Orleans my playing career as I look back and reflect I realize that that career was never about me it was never about me experiencing all these things for myself and I realize that now in Christ 7, 8, 9 years later I realize that he allowed me to experience that all the people all the stuff that people want and desire the popularity performance possessions all the stuff that people look at and really aim for in life he allowed me to experience that so that now in Christ I can go around to different groups of people I can go to old Bunzee, Kansas on a Tuesday night and tell somebody that's not it that's what you're pursuing in life that will never be enough 19th century missionary William Carey said I'm not afraid of failure I'm afraid of succeeding at things that don't I'm not afraid of failing I'm afraid of succeeding at things a bunch of things that in the end of my life are not going to matter or as Jesus said, what's your profit to what gain the whole world and lose your soul I remember coming across a YouTube video of Tom Brady 60 minutes with Tom Brady after he won his third Super Bowl he's up to what, six now he's retired now he's un-retired he's coming back he had won his third Super Bowl and 60 minutes in an interview with him and you can YouTube this Tom Brady sits across from the interviewer and says something so profound to me he says you know there's still something missing in my life he says I don't know what it is there's still something missing in my life think about that, Tom Brady three times Super Bowl champion in VP Tom Brady married to a supermodel wife Giselle Tom Brady making more money than any of us will ever see in our lives I'm saying there's still something missing in my life he has it the popularity of performance possessions and it's not enough it'll never be enough alright? I don't know who I'm speaking to specifically but what do you believe in your life upon he said oh Jesus is on something that the world has to offer because those things aren't bad in and of themselves right? I want people like me not dislike me I want to perform well we need to excel at our jobs to the glory of God I want to have some nice stuff I mean I drove a car here I didn't walk but to pursue those things thinking those things can somehow bring some type of fulfillment to my life and I'm succeeding in a lot of things that don't matter again in the world and losing my soul alright we have an overview that's the question I want to challenge you with hopefully it'll stick with you what are you building your life upon? let's look specifically now at the difference between these two types of people these two houses right? because if you're sitting there and your seat thinking okay I hear you tie like okay I want to build my life on the rock and tell me what does that look like alright Jesus tells us what that looks like why do you call me lord lord in what I do not do what I tell you everyone who hears my words and does them is the one on the rock everyone who hears my words and does not do them is the one on the same right? the difference between these two types of people is obedience it's those who live their lives in obedience to Jesus versus those who do not it's those who maybe have some empty professional faith like I used to have versus those who live with a true heart that's surrendered to him again thinking about this context here it's famous sermon on the mount scripture says he's surrounded by a large group of people from all over Judea and Jerusalem people who have heard about Jesus people who have seen his miracles probably saw his baptism saw him multiply the loads of the fish right all that people who have seen what he's done has heard about him and they even acknowledged him as a teacher of authority and Jesus says acknowledging him as someone special is not enough respecting some of his teachings is not enough many of them even called him Lord like me back in college yeah I'm a Christian acknowledging him some intellectual knowledge but their lives didn't follow that pursuit why do you call me Lord Lord and do not do what I tell you what does Lord mean Jesus is Lord that's not another name for him that's actually a title my name is Ty husband and father are not my names and he didn't introduce me as husband father right those are titles and they mean something in my relationship to my wife and to my kids what does Lord mean when it says that he is Lord it simply means that he is master and owner that he is in the position of a rightful ruler of my life see here's what we need to understand about scripture if you haven't been paying attention up to this point like lock in now here's what we need to understand that scripture makes it clear that all of us have been created in God's image you have been created in God's image you are an image bearer of God the fact that you have a capacity to love and fight for justice and desire and mercy speaks to the fact that you've been created in God's image now because you've been created by God because I've been created by God and my lives are accountable and there's coming a day when all of us will stand before God and give an account for our lives and we just talked about it a little bit ago now here's the problem most people think that's not that big of a deal like yeah I've made a few mistakes in my life but that's not that big of a deal I'm probably on the good side of creation like of all the people that have ever existed I'm probably on the good half like God will understand but I go great on the curve like my teachers do what makes clear is that sin is not something outside of me as if I just made a few mistakes sin is actually a condition of my heart it uses Bible uses this language that says you are dead in your sin alright so now listen if I'm dead in my sin and I have to face God on judgment day my only hope is that God would do something for me that He would do something on my behalf the solution to my sin can't come from something that I offer to God hear God let me make up for my sin by being a good person hear God take my church membership hear God my good will outweigh my bad the solution to my sin can't come from something that I offer to God it must be that something that He does on my behalf something that He offers to me look back in history think back in history for a second when I say history I'm saying Genesis 1 God creates man in His image Genesis 3 what happens Adam and Eve rebel against God alright and they're naked and they're ashamed they're guilty before God now something happens in Genesis 3 a lot of people skip over he's a little detail to miss Adam and Eve are guilty before God they're ashamed verse 21 in Genesis 3 it says the Lord God He created the nations and clothed them in other words an animal had to be killed blood had to be shed for them to be covered for their nakedness to be covered by God did something for them on their behalf that pattern continues throughout the whole Old Testament Israelites are captive in Egypt and God raises up a prophet Moses to go take the Israelites and he tells Pharaoh go and tell Pharaoh let my people go Pharaoh won't do it so God sends 10 different plagues upon the land of Egypt the last plague is the plague of death death would sweep over the land that very night kill the firstborn of every household if you're familiar with that passage God tells the Israelites this very night if you sacrifice a land an unblemished spotless land and what smears some of the blood over the doorpost of your home this very night death will pass over to you you will be protected that's exactly what happened that's why the Jews to this day celebrate the Passover celebration again God did something for them on their behalf to protect them to shield them from death now is all in that just some cool Bible stories that we hear about in Sunday school no that's a real history and all of that is foreshadowing the day when Jesus steps on the scene in chapter 1 John the Baptist sees Jesus walking towards him and he says behold the land of God who takes away the sin of the world what he's saying is the crucified Messiah this is the risen Lord who's going to cover our sin who's going to protect us from death Romans 6.23 the gospel in one verse the wages of sin is death what you earn for your sin is death but the gift of God is internal life in my moral life in my goodness no eternal life in Christ Jesus see Jesus took your sin my sin upon himself at the cross all of my guilt all of my shame my sinful thoughts motives desires placed upon Jesus at the cross he became sin for you took your sin my sin upon himself took the punishment that we deserve died and death that we deserve was again from the grave three days later another way to understand that is the father treated the son like us so that he could treat us like the son the father treated the sinless perfect son as if he was a sinner so that he could turn and treat us guilty sinners as if we had been the perfect life of Jesus Jesus was covered in your sin so that you could be covered in his righteousness again the ways you've sinned is death the gift of God is eternal life he died as your substitute now in response to that Jesus says follow me follow me turn and trust in me trust in my life death and resurrection not acknowledge me one day out of the week and follow me as the Lord who has gone to the cross for you recognizing that he is the one who has created me one who has purchased me with his own blood and therefore man I want to live in my life for him now that may sound simple and that's because it is turn and trust in Jesus who died in my place so simple a child can understand I got a six year old daughter three and a half year old son they can understand but think about how distorted the words follow me are in our society right we live in a social media culture right how many of you have social media almost everyone in here I'm guessing there's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram TikTok, Snapchat I grew up with dial up internet you have to dial up to use internet you got the high speed stuff as a legend but think about our social media culture I'm not speaking on the evils of social media it's not what I'm doing but think about our context when you say follow me you can do what, go online click the follow button and follow somebody without actually being in a relationship with you I mean I can follow people half way across the world and not even knowing right I can go online right now tonight when I go home go on Instagram I don't have Instagram but if I did I'll go on Instagram click follow on the bronze right greatest basketball player alive and I can stay up to date with what he posts about basketball and his family and all that kind of stuff now imagine if I get some confidence so they say you know what I'm going to fly out to Los Angeles and I wouldn't do that right now because nobody wants to go to California right now it's a mess but hypothetically I'm going to fly out to Los Angeles and somehow I find the bronze address and I take over to Lebron's house and I go up to that door hey Lebron it's me but Lebron I follow you he's going to say man I don't know you I don't know you right because I can follow him intellectually without being in a relationship with him I can follow him intellectually and not follow him relationally I can be in the crowd seeing the miracles of Jesus listening to him to his teaching even telling my friends hey guys I heard Jesus speak today I was up on that mountainside he gave a great sermon I can acknowledge him I can attend a church service I can go to a group and I can know of him without truly knowing him has the cross truly changed my life right the reality is that Jesus is Lord that's not up for debate he is Lord I either bow to him as Lord and Savior or I bow to him as Lord and Judge when it's too late call of Jesus is a command to follow him as Lord of my life I'm submitting myself to him in response to him submitting himself to death on my behalf again as I miss with my own story I'm not living to earn God's grace as if God's grace could ever be earned in the first place I'm living in response to it in response to what he's done at the cross right what is your foundation you can know of Jesus again like I did without truly knowing him you can check off that box that says Christian on that questionnaire you can post a Bible verse in social media and have your heart far in front of him the rock solid foundation the thing that carries us through the storms of this life and protects us from the judgment of God whether or not it's truly responding to Jesus to follow him as Lord of my life I'm going to close with the Christian him I'm not actually going to say it because I can't sing but one of my favorite hymns is called my hope is built and I believe it's based off of this passage but think about these words in relation to what we just read it says my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus's blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame but totally lean on Jesus name on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand challenging to build your life on if you have one already thanks for letting me share my story we can open it up for questions if we want to I would love to connect with you I love speaking to big groups but what I live for is connecting with people one on one so I'd love to hear your story and answer any questions you might have any questions up front now football wise, life wise faith wise hopefully somebody has something so I'm not standing up your awkwardly because again I'm an introvert face about to turn really red right now you have a dog I do, Lucy is her name and we're going through a weird stage because she is a veteran my wife got her in college 2011 so that makes her 11 years old so she's getting towards the end but my daughter that's all she's knowing so she told me the other day she's like yeah when I get married she's going to be my dog and I'm like Dave I don't think she's going to last that long she's a Maltese oh yeah she's a Maltese she's a funny dog when you came to know Christ did you have the support of your family or did they question it or did they wonder or did they fully understand yes yes and no some were supportive some really weren't there's some context to that but I really didn't know what it meant to count the cost to following Jesus until I started following Jesus and I realized that there's some family relationships that are strained and there's some friendships people that don't really want to hang out with me anymore I was talking to, I think it was Bailey about this when I came the first time talking about how when I'm saying yes to Jesus there's things I need to say no to and part of that process for me was recognizing my hope is that those family members and friends are looking at me the way that I looked at Morgan Blake and Alex on college like why is he taking this so seriously because if that is the case then I know they're being challenged how would you say you went from being on the fence to having a meaningful relationship with Christ only by God's grace Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 that God who shined light out of the darkness shined his light and our hearts to give us the knowledge of Jesus and so you referenced Genesis 1 when God said let there be light like that same miracle of physical creation is what he does in our hearts when we turn to Christ and so it was those guys in college that were sowing seed in my life guys in New Orleans that were watering that seed and then when I played in that small group started reading through scripture applying it to my life and yeah really it was just challenging it was other people in my life that were challenging me by their witness and by what they were saying to where finally I actually responded in a baptism service and went up and I felt like okay this is it like I'm all out or I'm all in I think a part was reading a Bible, reading scripture huge I mean what I'm thankful for is like when I was in college a couple of those teammates started a Bible study and so I started going to this Bible study we started memorizing scripture and again at the time I'm not a Christian but like God was leading me to do habits like read scripture and memorize scripture that now have been so instrumental in my faith walk and my maturity and growth so yeah I think all those things led me to the point where I'm now and that helps me when I'm trying to like reach other people I'm really trying to connect people with God's word because it says word doesn't come back word when somebody connects with God's word begins reading it it's either going to harden or harden or soften their heart it's only two options so that's what it did for me soften my heart and sorry one more question as you were reading it if you ever do a lot of it doesn't naturally make sense so how did you make it meaningful or how did you come to a place where you understood it yeah I think I would say most of what you read in scripture is not super complicated for me understanding that the whole thing from Genesis real relation is pointing to what Jesus had done across like yes Old Testament is real history but there's so many foreshadows to what Jesus is going to do in the New Testament Jesus is here talking about his life first-hand witness and then the rest of the New Testament hey Jesus is coming back this is how you should live in light of his return I would say the reason I didn't understand it I think back then because I didn't have the Holy Spirit like Jesus says in John 14 15 16 17 I'm sending I'm leaving and I'm sending the Holy Spirit it's going to be your teacher and comforter and so if somebody has the Holy Spirit you have the ability to be taught God's Word which is hard because someone without the Spirit doesn't understand that they don't have the Spirit like I did that's the basic thing is having the Spirit and then I was taught just a simple method of looking at the context of the passage who's the author, who are they writing to that helps me understand how can I apply this to my life sorry if I don't want to answer sorry for all the questions that's a good question if you wouldn't mind talk a little bit about your FCA and how you how I'm imagining in my brain it was kind of a God's knock on the head when you came and said oh my gosh there's this opening because sometimes those just you just kind of fall into a perfect scenario yeah so I was teaching and coaching and God was doing the change in my heart I began to have more passion talking to my players about Jesus less of a passion for putting together lesson plans and stuff so I was thinking at the time I'm more mature in my faith obviously now at the time I thought if I'm not in ministry I can't do anything worthwhile for God which is not the case now I understand you can be a full-time minister regardless of what you're doing I'm a state home parent, I'm a secretary whatever I'm doing I'm a pastor but so that got me thinking how do I get into ministry what does that look like I got connected with Morgan and I was in church as the whole state of Kansas and so I sat down with her over two months that was in 2018 my wife we had our daughter she was pregnant with our son and we were like yeah God's calling us into this so I left a full-time paid position to go and raise support for ministry while my wife was pregnant some people thought we were crazy but went full-time that fall after support raising and then yeah been on staff for three years FCA like 15 counties but what bungee is part of this but we do huddles at school, what bungee is a huddle we do a lot of events, a lot of camps throughout the year you guys have to come to our state camp next year we do some summer camps and then we do some one-on-one discipleship as well and kind of what we prioritize is reaching coaches anybody that's played sports in here you could probably remember most of your coaches that you play for good or bad and so we realize if a coach the light bulb comes on for a coach so we try to try to really empower a coach to use that platform to start a huddle to do a camp and really try to reach their kids so yeah we're on staff now three and a half years come to the home for years teaching in coach high school you're at Fort Alley Middle a couple years at the adjunct city high school my dad's a teacher in the coach there so natural fit for me adjunct I live in a junction yes I do no football questions well my grandson said if he wouldn't have gotten hurt in 2012 they would have went all the way maybe it's kind of eerie I never had problems with injuries junior year 10th came in the season TCU I broke my left ankle and then we lose to Baylor the next week I was out and Tyler Lager was out that game at TCU I broke my other ankle same opponent, same team, same type of tackle different ways so I missed the last two games came back for the board games both the years and then I also tore both leg rooms so football is a violent support I was always told NFL stands for not for long which is very true very true any other questions over there somebody who's raising their hand oh no I was telling her to report that but did you do baseball or track in the spring I did baseball and track foot flop years two years of track, two years of baseball and I played basketball in the winter I was telling a group of people a couple of weeks ago I tried wrestling one time I think I was in like 4th or 5th grade my dad takes me to a wrestling practice and I was wrestling as a kid and at one point I kind of stepped back and the kid had peed on himself a little bit and I said dad I'm out I am retired I'm going to dribble the basketball so I have a lot of respect for wrestling wrestling here I enjoy watching it, it takes a lot of toughness it's a grit, it was just too much for me so basketball and then track in baseball in the spring what event did you do in track? oh man way back senior year I did 4x1, 200, javelin and long jump do you track what event? 2 mile, 1 mile, 800 4x1 2 mile, 1 mile, is that long distance or mid distance? my wife she runs I was telling them she runs 10k, she ran the Boston Marathon she runs 10k, 5k that's mid distance no, that is long distance it's like long distance is cross country 2 mile is not mid distance do you have siblings? yes, older sister Rindy lives in Linsburg younger sister lives in Texas younger brother lives in Junction so that's good so for some reason I have to ask how is Bill Schneider really like? you want the TV interview answer or do you want the real I want the real that's why I want the real because you hear about him writing notes and stuff at that level you don't get a lot of interaction with your head coach I don't know about other programs he is phenomenal at managing like the management aspect getting the right coaches in the right places our itinerary our traveler itinerary was to the minute like 531 we're here 428 we're here and we always joke I actually saw a former team that went today and he had showed up late to lunch I was like bro you're not on cat time anymore like cat time was a thing so like if you're 5 minutes early you're on time, if you're on time you're late and that stuck with me like there's times when I wake up like did I just oversleep for something and it still sticks with me so he's great at management I just have way more interaction with my position coach and the class that he operated his program with the discipline like we were talking about that today with a buddy of mine that's something missing from a lot of programs nowadays is the self-discipline we've almost gone the other way of you can't do two days anymore you can't do full padded practices and really what that does I mean you hate it when you're going through it and it sets you up for real life really a bit of a job every day you don't like stuff how old were you when you got married how old 2014 so I was about 26 I'm 31, I'm going to do the math for me real quick July 5th in 2014 we got married so I was right after I got into college I think I was 23 or 24 so we had been together since I was a sophomore, she was a freshman 2006 but I'm on 16 years and we both kind of came across around the same time which was really cool when you watch the K-State game now what runs through your mind is it something you kind of still miss or is it something you say well I'm glad it's over, I'm glad I'm here I miss it, I'd go back and do it again if I could save the injuries I don't like I don't like going to games honestly being on the field I go into the sands and I usually have done this some of those, not everybody there's great fans, but there's some people that it's like you have no idea what they're going through out there so yeah I don't like showing up two hours early or walking two miles to get into the game so I don't go to many I watched actually the last couple of years I've watched quite a bit because there was a kid from Junction that I was kind of the cycling and mentoring Ryan Hinton I don't know if you know that name but he played Linebacker so at least I knew somebody on the field but I just I don't watch it a ton anymore college football has changed college sports in general has changed so much with the NIL stuff and the transfer portal I think NCAA as we know it, I don't know if it's on record but I think it's going to be gone pretty soon was Tyler Locker playing at the same time you were? that's my dad's favorite player he always talks about Tyler Locker it's impossible to practice him every day and not give out so he was he loved him a lot he's a good guy I got a deep question for you I love deep questions if you're well I guess in Mike's situation I got a couple kids that have some significant women in their life that are very unfamiliar with church, God, Jesus any of that how do you, I guess, approach I would you recommend approaching that from me from like a removed perspective but still, you know, around them a lot I don't want to chase them away but I don't want to smother them would you have any guidance for someone like that? and what specifically you're just the woman in their life who's not good? they're wonderful girls I'd love them to seal the deal someday but if they're going to church and I want them to stay but my fear is if they hook up with an individual that isn't used to going to church or even knowledgeable at the church they might be pulled away so I want to embrace them and bring them in without scaring them or smothering them I'm not sure what a good route would be for introduction that's tough the way I learned to share the gospel was I got into rate comfort or living waters that to me is the simplest part of my English simplest conversational way of evangelizing somebody and so that would be my recommendation to check out some of his videos see if it's something you can adapt in your conversation and maybe even send some to your I mean my wife has done this before to send some to her sisters and check them out and what I believe from Scripture and how I approach other people is it's impossible to truly encounter Jesus and remain the same and so I need to expose that person to Jesus in his word and as hard as this is there's some people that are hardened to it and sometimes it's not the right time but it's impossible for somebody to truly encounter him and remain the same just to coaches before different things like that people always say youth is getting so bad the behavior is bad the solution is not behavior modification I gotta clean up their life or their behaviors though that discipline is good the solution is I need to expose them to Jesus I need the one that changes their hearts and I can walk alongside them the fundamental issue is that anybody somebody struggling with marriage or any other sin in their life whatever that is it's not first addressing that sin or that issue it's first hey do you know Jesus where are you going when you die what are you placing your faith and trust in and I think if somebody obviously if they wake up to that then the spirit's moving in on them I don't know if that answers your question but that's how I approach yeah football field I have a few Texas my freshman year cause I ended up starting I played quarterback in high school and then when I got to spring ball they switched me over to safety so I never played safety before somebody got injured in front of me like the first game of the season so I was starting as a freshman playing Texas I grew up like a Copacoy then she young fan seeing them like we played a really good game I played a really good game so that was really cool like what's in the big 12 moment my junior year going down to Oklahoma in 2012 beating them they were ranked like 6th I think we were at 10th or 11th and that kind of put us on the map and then today I won the big 12 championship that year I was injured I broke my legs I was on the sideline but there was a point during the game where it was the old press box but Willie was up on top of the press box and they were playing jump around and he was up there jumping and the fans were just going nuts so that was really cool was it snowing? was it snowing? because there was one game and he was up there and I couldn't remember which game that was it was a huge game and it was snowing and he was up there so that thing came down right after my junior year then they built a new one and now they have the nice complex and everything you guys man as soon as I leave and all the nice stuff 4th yeah give you not fun have you had shoulders really hardest stay humble with all of the fame and the stories and all of the everybody like oh there's ties under me yeah I just think now now that I'm in Christ I have the right perspective before like and I still struggle with pride I just want this super humble guy I still struggle with it but the more I get exposed to God's word the more the spirit is humbling me and I recognize that I'm just a sinner saved by grace but yeah having that perspective now that see when I was playing I would turn down all kinds of speaking opportunities and hated doing interviews and being a football guy like I said but now I realize that platform allows me to go into a school and people can play a highlight film and most people listen and so I recognize like Jesus says much who's given much is required and so I realize like that's a humbling thing for me to realize that that whole platform that I was never about me I need to use that to point to the people of Jesus so it's easier for me now to embrace the title of football guy because now I can be like yeah that was my life and now this is my life so you played some highlights earlier I did I played it again four times I had it on repeat repeat yeah I'll play it again for you highlights always make it even better than the actual work alright any other questions oh sorry could you does your children get upset when you have to like come to places oh yeah they don't understand yeah I'll get home what is it 7 30 I'll get home by 8 30 so my son will probably be running around causing havoc so yeah but that's fun too because I get to tell him hey I'm going to talk to people today about Jesus so it just cultivates some conversations with him my son I mean three and a half I don't think he comprehended a whole lot like daughter started asking for questions we talk through scripture and try to help them memorize scripture my wife stays at home she coaches and does photography but she stays at home home schools are dotted and so she's made a tremendous sacrifice to disciple our kids which is the most important they don't understand I believe is your speaking circuit going to take you maybe down to Wichita with all the icicles there I've been to a bunch of different places I mean in my area and outside my area so yeah it's been the most humbling thing you talk about humility like I'm I've been terrified of public speaking my whole life like I'd be in coats I remember giving speeches in high school I'd be drenched and sweat like I remember walking back to my desk in my classmate he was like you need this towel so I never would have imagined to do anything like that but once I took this job people started calling for whatever reason and asked him to come speak I remember the first time I spoke somebody was like hey can you speak to this group of youth for 20 minutes I can't speak for 20 minutes that's what I'm going to say for 20 minutes and now I feel like it goes by like that so it's just cool how when I'm speaking I feel the most vulnerable and so it's when I feel that the presence always creeps most biggest crowd you ever spoke to? I don't know I don't know it's a good question I spoke to Oasis a couple years ago and that was a few hundred so nothing, nothing crazy I used to focus on all the numbers they used to tear me sometimes when I show up when a lot of people are there but now I'm realizing that somebody's in the crowd that needs a good message I like that shirt, Bench Jesus I'm waiting for season 3 oh I know I've been losing my patience here we go Dallas I follow, subscribe on YouTube or whatever like how to set back how to snow storm you're filming in Utah and Texas let's get going there you go let's give them a huge round of applause it's awkward exchange of information