SPEAKER_00 0:01

Okay, God bless everybody. Good to have you guys back. This is Pastor Les with the beautiful Pastor Lewis, and we are the host of the podcast called Talking with Purpose. Because we're talking on purpose with a purpose. As we're talking, you will receive a purpose. That's good. That's a good word. Good to have you guys back tuning in, man. It's been a long time. It's been six months since the last time you saw us. Post something from the podcast. And a lot.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Why don't you turn your preacher voice on?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

I don't even know. I'm excited. And a lot has happened since then. Let's run through let's run down a list of what has happened in the past six months. So it was September.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Right?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Okay, that was the last time you saw us. October was the people's pastor's birthday. So you didn't say happy birthday, but you get the chance to say it now. Happy birthday, Pastor Lance. Thank you very much. And then November came. Oh, wait. October was also my son's birthday, the 28th. Clap for him. November came, and November was Thanksgiving, which everybody did Thanksgiving. Um, I don't remember what else happened in November. I'm trying to go month to month. This is fun. November. December, yeah, we don't have an eventful January for you. Oh well, yes. December was Christmas. Hey, my mom's birthday the 22nd. And then January 15th, my mom passed away. She suddenly passed away on January 15th of this year. So imagine starting your year with something like that was crazy. Uh, but by the grace of God, we made it through. God has been great, He's filled us with strength. Shout out to my brother and my sister. Um, and we're we're we're we're we're making it. We're making it because God is our strength. And uh also the church, inspired church is here in Elyria, and we're ready to go. We're ready to go. We got people that are part okay. Wait, I'm jumping all over the place. Focus, focus, no squirrel, no squirrel moment less. First, let's talk about this. I want to talk about how blessed this church has been. Not because it's our church, but because God has really showed up and showed off. And um, we know that we've had a lot of doubters out there that doubted on this ministry, right? They doubted on this ministry. Um, the beginning of this ministry was hard.

unknown 2:53

Oh, God.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Super hard.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

It was so hard.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

I mean, it's still kind of hard. It's still hard, but but not it's a different heart.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

It's a different heart. Man, you took it right out of my head. Um, it's a different heart. It's a hard that's manageable. In the beginning, it was a hard that would make you feel like quitting, man. That's for real. And if a pastors out there ain't as real as us, so they probably ain't gonna tell you that they didn't feel like quitting the first year, that's probably a lie.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Bro, I felt quitting. I felt like quitting more than just the first year.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yeah, yeah. Earlier than just the first year. Like a month in, I was like, man, what are we doing, bro?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Right. Like, if it wasn't for the calling, I would have been like, bro, bump this, let's find a church ourselves and sit down.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Right. But we we we we stuck it through. We stuck it through because we believed in what God called us to do. And since and that's all it takes, guys. You believing in what God called you to do and going to do it. Because you're gonna have your haters, you're gonna have your doubters, but if you believe yourself internally in what God called you to do, bro, you will not fail. You just gotta run the course. You gotta run the race, you gotta stick through it. Because, like I said, babe, like I always tell you, we were being tested.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

And a lot of it has to do with faith.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

A lot of it has to do with faith. Great point.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Because like if we were to if we were to live our lives based off of the opinions of others, we wouldn't be where we are right now. And that's like in in general, like we wouldn't be married, we wouldn't have kids, we wouldn't be in Ohio, we you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Oh my gosh, yes, our story is.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

If we would have listened to people, like we wouldn't be here, you know, and it's the people closest to you, like that you would expect them to be, you know, like okay, well, if that's what God said, let's go for it. No, that's not the case at all. Nah, it really wasn't. You know, pe a lot of people didn't think not that we weren't called, but that it wasn't time. And so, you know, so it's not that we weren't it it wasn't that they were doubting our calling, they were doubting the timing, right? Right. And so if there's one thing that I've come to learn myself is that you're never gonna be ready, bro. Like you're never gonna be ready to pastor, you're never gonna be ready to whatever whatever your ministry is, like you're never gonna be ready. You know, like I feel like God prepares you to a certain extent, right? And a lot of people, like for you, God has spoken to pastors and told them, like, I need you to put less under you, right? Under your wing, and they didn't listen. Yeah, right. So when other people are disobedient, that doesn't mean that your calling stops, or that doesn't mean that there's a pause on your calling, like you still gotta walk it out. So we've literally been learning as we go for real.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

And uh man, you said something and it really made me think. Um when you excuses, did you say excuses? What did you say? Doubters, man, it it left me, but it was good. I knew it was good. It was gonna it was gonna go with it. But anyway.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

I think you're talking, I was saying that if we relied on the timing of others, we wouldn't like the opinions of others, we wouldn't be where we are.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Think about that in your own life, right? Uh I'm sure we're not the only ones that been through something and you had other people's opinions in your ear telling you, hey man, I know that looks good, but maybe you should, right? But then you have what God told you. Yeah. So it's what God told you, and in the opinion of someone you love. That's what makes it hard. Right. It makes it hard because if that person is a believer, then you would think, wait, so what I felt God say wasn't me.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Right. You start to doubt.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

And is God using this person to tell me, hey, go this route, or is it the other way around? So it starts to create some doubt, some fear, but we stuck it through, guys. We stuck it through, and we have our own place now, right? At first, when when when you first when you first uh when you last heard from us, we were at a place renting um at Divine Destiny Church, Divine Destiny Fellowship Church, um with the Apostle Janice and her whole crew over there. We are so grateful for you for opening the doors to us, a very small church, just a family. She opened the doors and allowed us to use everything in there and have service like it was our home. So we will always be grateful to her and not knowing us. And not knowing us, but she knew the spirit. And she knew the calling. And she said, nah. She saw us and she said, No, I'm gonna help them out. They're really gonna get started. That's exactly what she did. She was grateful to us and all our day ones. Evangelist Jocelyn, her son.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Uh she's the only one that's been since day one.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Oh, yeah, because everybody else came after. Everybody else came and went, and then everybody else that's here now came after. So Evangelist Jocelyn, her son, thank you for believing in our ministry, right? And sticking this out through through sticking through that tough time. Ministers, pastors, y'all know what we're talking about. When you're preaching by yourself, because there was a service where she couldn't come, and I was preaching to my wife. And I almost didn't do it. And I begged her, I said, babe, why don't we just pray, bro? Let's just pray. Nobody's here. The girls were downstairs. We let them go downstairs in the room, and she's like, nah, babe, give that word. So I gave the word, but before I did, I begged her, I said, can you at least put the Facebook live so I can have some type of audience? At least I know my mom and my sister, my brother, people in Norwich, in Jersey will be watching. Just put that so at least I know. And that was a very discouraging service. I'm sure you guys, uh, other pastors out there have experienced that moment where you're ready, you go, and then no one's there, and you're like, whoa.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

But nobody would know that the church was empty. Yeah. You go back and watch that video. We ain't even gonna tell y'all which service it was. I'm not telling you. What I'm gonna tell you is. If you go back and watch that video, you ain't even gonna know that the church was empty.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

You're not gonna know. And another thing that we really don't touch is the struggle you're having with worship. We found a great app though now that has some instrumentals and it's it's cool. It's working. It's cool, and it's working for now.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Uh there ain't nothing like having musicians, bro.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yes, there's there really isn't. There's but you know, I'm a drummer, but we don't we don't have other musicians.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

If we just had a piano player, we'd be good, bro.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Piano player keys out there. Let me look, can I can I can I let me let me emphasize donate. I wanna emphasize donate.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Come see us at 1019 East Broad Street.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

1019 East Broad Street in Elyria, man, where we'll be worshiping here every Sunday morning at 11. Uh, but the church is great, right? Uh, we're gonna give you guys a tour of now that we have our own spot, because I forgot to mention that. So we left Divine Destiny because God said, okay, time to move and expand, right? And that was fearful for me. But my wife, but, but, but, yeah, but you were more like, nah.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

And that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

I got a feeling because it's it's usually backwards. So backwards, I'm the crazy faith guy, but for some reason, that move from the comfort to the unsureness of our own spot, the responsibility of it was a little bit like, whoa, wait, babe, hold up.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

See, what people don't realize, or a lot of people don't know, right? Like people assume churches are rolling in money, right? Like we get donations from everywhere, and that's not the case. Um, for most churches, especially us, we're independent, we don't have the help of any other church. So everything that we have is based off of givers that give directly to our church.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

So we were like, okay, we're gonna go into our own spot. The rent was four times the amount that we were paying at Divine Destiny, and that's why I was scared. Right? So you're talking, so now we're like, all right, well, if if people don't give, then we're gonna have to, right? Temporary sacrifice. We'll we'll have to put out the money.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

But guys, but we were ready for that though. Yeah, we were ready. We were ready for that. It was gonna be tough, but we were ready to take that step if we had it, if we had to, because we believed that God called us.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Right. But stepping out in faith like that, like everything in this church has been donated. And we have not, we've we have not missed rent. We haven't missed the light bill, the gas bill, the water bill. Everything's been paid. Yes. And it's it's it's just amazing how God has provided everything that we needed and more. Like, we got a piano and no piano player. Right. Right? Like, uh, like it's the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Shout out to Lily for donating the piano. Lily, I love you.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

It's the same thing that happened with the chairs. Like, we got the chairs donated from Pastor Ruben at um Tower of Refuge Church in Lorraine.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Shout out to Tower of Refuge and Lorraine! Love you, Pastor Rubin. And thank you.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Like, they gave us the chairs and we didn't have our own spot. I, you know, and I told them, I'm like, look, we don't have our own spot. So all these chairs sat in the garage for months. For months, yes. And I tell Pastor Les, I said, I said, God has a sense of humor. Like, you give me chairs with no building, right? Right. And now he gave us a piano with no piano player.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah, that's what it was. It was the chairs and then the piano, and then it was the waiting. Okay, whoa. We got this eventually.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Yeah, because we got the piano before we moved into this place.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Yeah, so it was like eventually we're gonna get a spot. And man, the way it happened, we'll we'll testify about that another episode, man. Um how amazing God's hand. But you said something, how God has blessed us. I love that. But I I also believe, too, that we as believers, we walk into what already God had set for us. And we'll only see it if we take that step of faith. That my wife said, you know what, babe, let's take that step. And I was like, All right, let's go. And I'm telling you, the moment we took that step, the growth started happening. Yeah, donations started flooding in. Uh and you know, she talked about the chairs uh donated by Pastor Rubin. Well, in his church, the associate pastors, uh the Latours, shout out to Nate and Alyssa Latours. I mean Latour, sorry, shout out to Nate and Alyssa. And they were with us in our first marriage conference that we just had March 28th, which was an amazing success. Shout out to everybody that came. Shout out for everybody who believed in that. Shout out to them. And shout out to my wife for the amazing chicken that she made that day. And uh shout out to Evangelist Jocelyn for the uh what she mean? For the pasta salad.

unknown 15:09

Woo!

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Shout out to my mother-in-law, my grandma. I mean my grandma. Yeah, well, she's my grandma too, I guess. Shout out to um my wife, my my wife's grandma who made the rice. Shout out to Texas Roadhouse, local Texas Roadhouse, for that bread.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

And salad.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Wait, but let me talk about the bread. For that warm bread with that cinnamon juicy butter. Bro, nothing like that. Shout out to them and the salad, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Because you probably ain't even eating that.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

I didn't touch, I didn't touch the salad. And um shout out to Dunkin' Donuts, the local Dunkin' Donuts here in the lyria. Uh they donate to us.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Every week.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Every week they donate to us. So every Sunday we're able to hear the fellowship. We're able to fellowship with our uh members at the end of service, which is something we take very seriously, and we're big on that, the fellowship. Uh so shout out to them. But our first marriage success, our first marriage conference was a success, man. It was amazing. We'll be putting up some content from it. We haven't yet, because you know, life be life. As Evangelist Johnson always says, life be life. And our life's just been hectic the last six months, you know, and I think that the toughest thing was stepping out into this ministry and then the passing of my mother. Because we st we stepped out into this ministry after her passing.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

No, we already had everything in motion.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Oh, okay. So we already had every yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

We were gonna move in two weeks later.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Yeah, right. So that was the toughest things that we've been through uh in the past six months. Is there anything else you want to add, Babe? I think we I think we covered it all. Right? Yeah, I think we covered it all. That's what's been going on in our lives the last six months. What I ask is that you like, share, comment, and subscribe to this channel so that algorithm could push this podcast up and other like-minded believers could listen to a man who looks exactly like Dwayne DeRock Johnson. You don't like it's like who's that? Pastor Les or it's confusing. I know you're confused, but don't be confused. Um, and a beautiful woman who looks like um my own personal Barbie.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah, I was gonna say, who I look like, don't even come.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

I don't think you have a look alike.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

I don't think I do. I don't think you look like the rock, so I don't know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

She hates, she hating. Comment below. Look, comment below anyway. I'm just being silly, guys. Comment below. Maybe like, no. Um, but thank you guys uh so much for tuning in. We're gonna try to be consistent with this. Six months is a long time. But but in our excuse, babe. In our defense, in our defense, yes, thank you. In our defense, pastoring, you don't just pastor in the church.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Right, which people assume.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

You don't just if it was like that, I think everybody that'd be called would think this is great, let's jump right into it, let's do it. But it's more to it, and you know, the more we step into this ministry, the longer we go, the more we learn about what it takes to, you know, Pastor. But we're learning, man, step by step, and we're excited for this journey. God has really been um showing us everything he had in place for us to walk right into, all the blessings. But again, sorry, thank you for tuning in, man. Uh God bless you all. If you're local in Elyria, Ohio, please come to 1019 East Broad Street in Elyria, Ohio. Come to Inspire Church. Sundays at 11 a.m. And Thursdays at 7 p.m. Come join us, come worship with us, come visit. Maybe you got a church. That's cool. Come visit though. Ain't nothing wrong with visiting. I want you to stay, but trying to steal memories. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's not, no, I'm kidding. But come through, visit us, and uh, that's it. I did too much talking. You didn't talk that much. You see how she is?

SPEAKER_01 19:59

That's you.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

You see how she is?

SPEAKER_01 20:01

That's him. He did the same thing to me at the marriage conference, y'all. Blowing splowing your spot.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

But only our second one.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Though back, you still did it.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

So the other day, real quick, the other day we were looking through it. Wait, but real quick, I gotta say that it was funny. The other day, I think two days ago, I was looking through it, right? And I remember her telling me that we we were joking about it. And the other day I was running through them just looking at the content. And there's a spot where I I'm talking, and then I ended my sentence, and then I started again, and I see her drop her shoulders and look up. That means she started scratching her eye, and I caught it. I was like, oh babe, oh my god, I'm laughing now. Look, look, look, look, look. This is the moment you did it. And we started laughing. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

And we're in a marriage conference, so I can't be like, babe. Like everybody looking at us. That would have been weird. That would have been super rude, super rude.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Really, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

I should have kicked you because we had the pulpit in front of you.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Oh, you should have been like, or little nugs like, shut up, my turn. Stop talking. Time is running out. But again, sorry. Squirrel, let's go back to saying goodbye. Goodbye. God bless everybody. Thanks for watching. Until next time, but not next week. Until next time, whatever time that is, you'll get the click the bell so you know when it comes.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

This is gonna be the most inconsistent podcast you've ever been subscribed to.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

And it should be consistent, but then the most inconsistent podcast you subscribe to.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Follow us on Spotify, too. We're on Spotify.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Oh, yeah. Talking with purpose.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Apple Music, I think.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Apple Music, talking with purpose. Um, follow the church, Instagram. Inspire Church Ohio at Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Follow us in all our content. We have amazing content there for the glory of God. And again, thank you guys for wasting 22 minutes of your day.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

God bless.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Bye, guys.