 victory and through Jesus and Jesus alone we can overcome anything and we're so glad you're joining us for hope today on this Friday so glad to be here with Matt and Anna and we have some exciting things to just share with you and dive into today and Matt tell us a little bit about what we're going to be talking about. Yeah I'm really excited for our guest today you know as a worship pastor you know I'm gonna love music so today we have Mr. Tim Menzies who's a singer and songwriter and man he's got a great ministry and it's it's affecting people all around the world so I'm really excited to dive into his testimony and hear a little bit about how God is using his music ministry because we know music has power right to break bondages and break yokes so and I'm really excited to hear about it. Yeah that's right and his music is fantastic because it has the word in it which when we sing the word speak the word pray the word then we're we're just putting this power out into the environment around us and speaking of music I was jamming to my Christian music on the way to work today and there's a song about like no more shackles on my feet. Let's go. Devils got no hold on me so we just want you to know today that today is the day to lift up the name of the Lord and declare who he is in your life because Devils got no hold on you either. You know I love like one thing with worship music is one where it's like it's a praise is a weapon you know that is what it's all about so no matter what worship song you listen to just remember like you can use that to go to battle and to win and speaking of winning have super exciting news we want to say a big congratulations to Imani Christian Academy for the first time ever they are the single A state champions with the basketball team it is amazing this school we talked about it like earlier this week that they were on the roads of state those are the boys I mean congratulations Imani the school only has 187 students total it's it's a total God story if you talk to the coaches and the students they know it is through God and God alone this whole story it's their 30th anniversary so we just want to say go Saints we are so proud of you so yeah it's like super super exciting man yeah I'm like thinking about the size of that school 100 how many hundred it's like it's like 187 students 187 you know I graduate with a class of almost 400 you know sort of think about like just my class alone was larger than that school and they're winning championships like come on dunking you said yeah like it was going to the game I mean I'm just I'm just being so serious I have never seen in my life okay a basketball game I mean these boys they were like doing all those moves and they were like dunking smack in the ball I mean they played with so much heart it was really inspiring and you know one of the coaches he said it's like a David and Goliath story you know Imani is this like really small school and like the East Hills and for them to come this far if they know it is literally it is the hand of God I mean it's it's really beautiful I feel like maybe there's like a movie coming out of their story totally totally yeah wow that's so good well hey let's get into our guests I'm really excited to talk about just what he's doing but our next guest is a two-time Grammy nominated singer songwriter and a guitar virtuoso he's written recorded and performed with some of the biggest names in music as a songwriter his compositions have been recorded by artists such as George Jones, Reba McIntyre, Trisha Yearwood, and even Randy Travis. Tim Menzies has also released a new album earlier this month called He Reminds Me which showcases a dozen selections all penned or copent by him. He joins us now to share more about his new album and how God is using him and his music to bless others and teach people about God's love and grace. Tim welcome to hope today. Thank you it's a blessing to be here and I feel like that basketball team in this industry it's just me. David and Gliath right? Well hey thanks so much for joining us today you know we're really excited to get to know you before we share about some of you know your ministry and what God is doing in your life we love to tell our viewers and introduce you you know how has Tim gotten to this point today to being a singer and a songwriter being nominated for Grammys. Yes sir thank you I grew up in a family band playing country music in Virginia and we played I Was Unchurched and I fell in love with a Christian woman and the Lord had an eternal plan and I didn't know that and we've now been married 40 years and so when we had our son he started toddling around and she wanted to raise him in the church the way she was raised and so they would go in the church and and it was not only mad that I didn't go I refused to go but the hypocrite in me I didn't mind them going and so looking back it's you know I was just dumb as a stump is there really no no justifying it and one Sunday they came home from church and I was in the kitchen half asleep and my boy was about five and he walked up to me and said how come Mammy and Papa go to church me and my wife's parents and he said me and mama go to church and you don't and so I didn't know the scripture about a little child will lead them or any of that so I just knew I was trapped in my kitchen by my five-year-old boy and I didn't know what else to say and I said well I'm gonna start going and the Lord knew that even when I was lost that I wouldn't lie to my son and so the next Sunday I went to this church where they'd been going and some of that that you listed in the writing all of that was happening my writing career was going great but when I walked into that little church in the country out Mount Julie at Tennessee I felt what I later came to understand was the presence of the Holy Spirit meeting in that building and I was very attracted to it and that was June of 1991 in the fall of 1991 I joined a Bible study and while studying the scripture the Lord transformed my heart and I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior moved to Nashville 42 years ago wrote country songs for living for 30 years and the Lord called me into this ministry in 2013 and I understood it in 14 took me a minute. I love that you know thinking about relationships first off you know I'm a father of three children and it's funny how our children will bring out the best of us right that sometimes they teach us a lesson more so than we're teaching them and so I'm just thinking about you know the relationships that we have in our lives you know on on this album in particular you have a few different artists tell us a little bit about that why was it so important to bring these relationships onto this album. Yes well we know the scripture says where two or more shall gather there while I will be with you and I have experienced that in the creative process and so when you have brothers and sisters in Christ that are with you recording there is a special I think a special anointing to it and I've been in Nashville all these years so I knew all these people from writing songs so the Isaacs Ricky Skaggs my wife sings with me some Rhonda Vincent Bluegrass Dan Tominsky Rebecca Lynn Howard and Jason Krav and so we kind of once I do my lead vocal I kind of start dreaming about who would who I think would sound good and we we've been blessed that you know most of those people were available. That's so good you know I'm just thinking about your music in general and obviously these relationships are great one thing that you do with your music is you know it's all word-based which I feel is so powerful but one thing you say is that you describe your song in parables which is you know Jesus loved to talk in parables maybe you can expound a little bit about that like why is that so important to you how do you relate your music to speaking in parables. Well as you know when y'all said earlier about the music being so powerful and I think music breaks barriers and I think that people who may have had a negative experience or something with church or with anything sometimes music will soften their heart more than if you just go right into a teaching but all of the songs that I have written in the past several years since I've been calling the ministry to me it's very very important to be true to the scripture and so I start when in my mind with the scripture and then the songs kind of become an application of that scripture or even like you say a parable and I think I find that it's been very effective because then people are hearing a scriptural truth in a story and then they remember that it's kind of like you know Jesus told stories all the time and so I kind of try to remember that when I'm writing the way he taught. You know I feel like in country music it's it's usually a lot of storytelling you know so that might just be kind of a natural gift for you what do you feel is like the difference you know I'm just curious from when you used to write just country music to now literally writing scripture and putting it in the song you were talking earlier how it's almost a little bit intimidating it is well because you had there's always that additional writer in the room the Holy Spirit and you better be true to that you know so it's like I don't want to I don't want to find out at the judgment seat I had a whole bunch of that wrong you know and so the the difference is and you're exactly right in the country writing and and I especially love the storytelling of country writing one huge difference is the solution so if you're telling a story in a country song the solution may be negative behavior or that's what one thinks is the solution with these gospel songs we know that the answer to everything is Jesus Christ and so with writing the gospel songs I'm able to get to that point at some point in the song and every song doesn't have the exact same conclusion but it's always pointing to the Creator or pointing to Jesus but that storytelling the Lord was preparing me for this ministry all these decades and I didn't know it until I'm looking at it in hindsight but growing up in that country band we played in bars and and obviously that's not the best way to start but I was obsessed with the music and the music kept me from following sinful lifestyles out of course sin as we all do in Romans 3 22 but anything that interfered with my playing the guitar I didn't want to do again and so there was something it was almost like he was kind of preserving me for this ministry and preparing me for all these decades going back to childhood we talked a little bit earlier and you were saying kind of you felt in the past few years now more than ever you feel like you have to introduce you know your songs to the world because it's so word-based maybe you can talk a little bit about that you know what made this shift in you especially with the day and age that we might live in yes well and this shift started I taught scripture taught Bible classes hundreds of classes for years and that was kind of the bedrock for this ministry but in the last he called me in 2013 and it seems like in the last five or six years I feel a great urgency and like I don't know if my time is short or he's coming back but I feel a great urgency and as we watch the world and it's not just the country it's the world moving further and further away from the Creator further and further away from the answer which is Jesus Christ I feel compelled to be more and more present about being a disciple and pointing people to Jesus it just feels to me like time is short and I don't really it's beyond my ability to discern exactly why I feel that way but so like I say I don't know if it's specific to me or if it's if he's coming back sooner than we think yeah we agree with you we have that same sense for sure and I know you have been your schedule's been really full of going in taking your music into the different churches of all different denominations sizes styles what's it been like for you to take this music that's so precious from your creative point and see it out with the people what's the response been like that's a that's a great question because the I learned to deal with rejection through writing songs if you um when you write songs for a living if five or ten percent of what you write a year gets recorded that's a really good year and so you don't you learn to trust your instincts and the ability more than the immediate response once again he was equipping me for for coming out because some churches are very reserved as you say I'm blessed to be invited to just many you know denominations some of them are praising God when I'm tuning they're ready to go you know and others they wait they'll wait for you know many many songs before they kind of give you their their endorsement and so experience in all of that and having confidence in the message has proved incredibly vital because then I can trust the message regardless of the response and what I have learned is eventually the response is uh is what I would want anyway Tim we've got just about a minute left with you here and so speaking of songs one of your most recent releases on my father's side beautifully written song I'll love for you to share our viewers because we're going to share with them your music video a little bit about the context what's the story behind this song well I was at my home church which is rare because I'm traveling as Anna said I'm traveling all the time and the pastor was preaching and he was not preaching about the divinity or the humanity of Christ and it was kind of a little sidebar he almost said this humorously he said someone asked Jesus how old he was and Jesus said well on my mother's side I'm 12 you know and I just went into my songwriting trance and we read in John 1 that the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and we read in verse 17 of John 1 that no one has seen God but God the one and only being Jesus Christ has returned to the Father's side and I knew that this contrast of which I'm always fascinated that Jesus was fully God and fully man during his earthly ministry we can't fully comprehend that but it's it's an amazing truth and that this idea of on my mother's side I'm 12 but on my father's side I'm eternal gave me that platform to to explore that God man of you know spiritual phenomenon and I don't think I can ever get to the bottom of it but but I thank you for for mentioning that song and I think that it portrays the scriptural humanity and divinity of Christ and I'm thankful for that yeah well thank you for writing it and you know being so willing and obedient to doing I believe that God has an anointing on it and he's gonna use it tremendously Tim thank you so much for joining us today thank you for your ministry you know that's continuing to go and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit what God's doing it today it's speaking major volumes in the world thank you thank y'all for having me on your program and thank you for including me in your ministry today absolutely well hey for all of you watching at home if you enjoyed the interview you're going to enjoy this music video even more on my father's side by Tim Menzies enjoy this video the temple courts were crowded from the feast I sat there surrounded all the Pharisees they said who did you study under son how old are you are you here alone tell us where you're from well on my mother's side I just turned 12 years old born just down the road down in Bethlehem but on my father's side I'm older than time I am the light from up on high the perfect lamb the great I am on my father's side and I dealt by that olive tree to pray a part of me was tempted to turn and run away I hang on the cross redeemed the loss and I knew it was time but on my mother's side I was sweating blood and take this cup on my father's side the plan we made was the only way the world could be saved and through me you could be on my father's side where the angels pray watching me hang there then I heard all heaven's shame on my mother's side I felt each Roman nail I could feel my body fail with every passing breath but on my father's side was from the grave I've prepared a place we can hardly wait for you to see your home on my father's side hour 24 7 prayer line she had so much fear that she didn't want to leave her house she had lost her husband of 54 years just six months earlier Laura was flipping through tv stations when she came across cornerstone television she felt compelled to call one of our prayer partners talked listened and prayed with her for 45 minutes at the end Laura said how much the ministry had helped relieve her fear praise god for how he's using ctvn when you give you become part of what he's doing this month when you give we'll send wild expectance is our way of saying thank you this book will inspire you to live your life as god intended to give and request your copy visit us online at ctvn.org slash donate or call us at 888-665-4483 hope happens here well welcome back to hope today we hope that you were with us before the break to enjoy that conversation with Tim Menzies I so appreciate his heart to bring scripture to bring the word of god right into our homes wherever you're joining us from and we want to bring you some of god's word today and it comes from Colossians 3 which is one of my very favorite chapters like if you have a few minutes today make the few minutes actually go read the whole chapter of Colossians 3 but it says this let the message of christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms hymns and songs from the spirit singing to god with gratitude in your hearts and whatever you do whether in word or deed do it all in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks to god the father through hymn gosh i mean there's just so much to unpack in the scripture i think one of the parts that really sticks out to me is let the message of christ dwell among you richly so when we have the message of christ which is the word of god and we have it dwelling inside of us then when we are with others it tends to just overflow from our hearts on to the people around us and it might not even be directly speaking scripture to them but it's just exuding this love of christ the peace of christ the forgiveness the compassion to those around us because truly you might be the only jesus that people ever see you might be the only bible they ever read and so as they spend more time around you even like tim said his wife his son what an influence they had on him to bring him to christ that you have the ability to speak god's word to just exude jesus to those around you and draw people to christ you know i like what you were saying and what really like stuck out to me was like in the songs from the singing like from the excuse me the songs from the spirit and just when you're talking i had this flashback i remember one of my favorite moments of worship i was just like in my earth like uh like i was 26 or 27 i was going through this whole like spiritual awakening and i remember being around this huge group it was like everybody was like 20 30 50 everything and just for a moment we stopped and we paused and we were in this hotel this huge like hotel room and we just started making up our own song and worshiping to the holy spirit and it was so beautiful and those are some of my favorite moments when we just let down our agendas let down our plans and we just allowed the holy spirit to move through us and in us as one and the new sound that arises it is truly beautiful and that's something i feel like in this season and in my heart that god is doing a new thing as we see moves of god breaking out all over the world he wants to sing a new song through all of us in unity coming together of every color of every creative every background it is truly beautiful matt when we're all able to come together you know one thing that i'm even just hearing you say when your guys are just coming together with your own song but one thing in the scripture it says do it with gratitude you know gratitude in your heart and i feel like when you have gratitude it changes every attitude you know what i mean like even in ourselves but man can i encourage you even watching at home whatever atmosphere whatever room in your family in your marriage then maybe just choose to be thankful you know have an attitude of gratitude because it will change the atmosphere it will change everything that you're going through personally and i know some of you might be faced with some heavy things you might be stressed out and feeling the weight of everything on you right now but let's choose to have an attitude of gratitude it changes our perspective and it helps us to lean not on ourselves but and it helps us to lean truly on god yeah it absolutely does i mean the lord inhabits our praise he inhabits our worship and so whenever you're feeling like god is far i mean first of all he's always so near to you but when we actively begin to praise him to worship him suddenly the presence of god fills the room fills your heart and he becomes so near and isn't it true that's how we fight our battles so if you feel like you're in some kind of a battle today and the storm is raging around you begin to worship begin to praise set yourself before the lord and let the peace of god dwell in you so that you can stand firm in the midst of it just like i was listening to worship music on my way today the devil's god no hold on you the shackles have broken off your feet like just start declaring it and things begin to change you know just one thing i just recently found out is i don't know if you know this but like if you look in the hebrew word and we say yashua and yashua that name means deliverance and different things but did you know yashua means victory so when we sing that saying that his name is victory it's like we're really we're speaking of the person the divinity of jesus and so when we worship him when we praise him when we give our worship we're like we're saying yashua yashua we're praising him i like to think of that yashua song that a lot of churches are saying that we're singing about the victory and we know that he is victory because he overcame death and because he resurrected that that same power that resurrected in jesus and when we receive jesus as our lord and our savior as our ademi is at us so maybe today you need to declare and decree that jesus victory he is in me and because he's victorious i am victorious over every circumstance over every circumstance every everything that you're walking through and you're going through and you know what that is the greatest hope that we have is through jesus and we're so glad that you joined us for hope today have a wonderful weekend we love you