Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Known Legacy Podcast brought to you by Known Legacy Ministries. For more information, go to knownlegacy.org now here's your hosts, Bill and Travis.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Good morning everybody. Welcome to Known Legacy Podcast.
[00:00:16] Speaker C: Good morning.
Good. Good morning.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: That was two different energies.
[00:00:20] Speaker C: It's entirely. I'll meet. I'll meet you where you're at.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Meet me halfway.
[00:00:25] Speaker C: Even know what that Is that a real song?
[00:00:27] Speaker B: It's from. Dude, it's from the movie over the Top.
[00:00:30] Speaker D: Man, I don't even know that movie.
[00:00:32] Speaker C: I don't know that movie at all.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Are you kidding me?
[00:00:34] Speaker C: Hey, welcome to Known Legacy where Bill makes obscure pop culture references that no one is familiar with.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: You're kidding me. You don't got. You guys don't know. Is that Sylvester Stallone? The. The. The arm wrestling movie?
[00:00:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:00:46] Speaker D: Said it all.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Can. Can't imagine I'm unfamiliar with that one.
[00:00:52] Speaker D: Thumb wrestling movie.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: Remember the Indian leg wrestling Mov.
Sylvester Stallone.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Welcome to Known Legacy Podcast where I'm inviting you people to join me on this from this point on.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: So infonownlegacy.org if you are on Camp Bill and you know the movie and it's your favorite and you can secure 80s movies with songs from that movie info known legacy.org anyways, thank you guys for checking us out. You can find us on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. We always love hearing and sharing that with friends and family. And if you want to give it a like, you know, give it a review that's always helpful for us, you can go to knownlect.org to find out about speaking engagements that Bill has as well as information about his book and Bible studies that he has coming out. And if you want to make a donation to support what we're doing, we'd always appreciate that too. So Bill, why don't you tell us about some of the other things besides the Known Legacy Podcast.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Hey. Well, we're glad to have you guys here today. Want to help you wake up, gear up and come alive on the Known Legacy podcast. Also want to help you gear up and come alive in other ways as well. One of them is our adrenaline shot that we do every Thursday morning at 6:45am It's a call in study where guys all over the country get together and connect, hear some truth and be challenged by. By each other. So we'd love you to check that out the links provided below. The next thing we have for you is if you feel like you're in a journey, you know, with the Lord that you're you want to challenge yourself and grow. You want to know where you are in your journey. We have the thing for you guys. It's our wake up guide and seven day Reset. The that we have designed just for you to download. It is free and it's available right below this link. And finally, we have our known legacy brotherhood that's on Facebook that we'd love you guys to join. Check out that link as well. It's a great place to connect with other guys on an older social media site.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: Yes. So. And if you don't know, we're doing things a little bit different over the summertime, so Bill's gonna share with us one of his favorite previous episodes. We always know we have new listeners, we have new guests. Welcome. If you're one of those people. And this is one that maybe back in the archive that is wor to bring forward and be reminded of some of the great conversations we've had in the past. But before then, we have the question of the day.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Question of the day.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: And the question of the day is this.
Old restaurants that maybe have shuttered their doors, that have closed, that have gone
[00:03:09] Speaker B: away like a violin playing in the background.
[00:03:12] Speaker C: Yeah, that wasn't a violin. I don't know what that was.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Anyway, don't ever do that again. Yours is like a bee.
[00:03:18] Speaker C: If there's one restaurant that's closed that you would love to resurrect, what restaurant would that be and why?
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:03:26] Speaker C: You know, like, what was your go to item at the restaurant or whatever. Memory, whatever it could be. Go for it. Kyle, how about you, our producer in the corner?
[00:03:34] Speaker D: I'm going. Well, there's two really, but the main one would be Bonanza Steakhouse.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: Did it. Was it, like, affiliated with the show?
[00:03:44] Speaker D: No.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: I do remember you'd walk in and
[00:03:47] Speaker D: you could get a tray. But I was so young, all the steaks cooking. So you just picked one. One what? And. And you went down the thing and they just.
[00:03:55] Speaker C: That's amazing.
[00:03:55] Speaker D: Got everything right. It was like a cafeteria, but with steaks.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, Steakeria.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: I don't think the cafeteria motif of restaurants is going strong in today's culture, but back in the day.
[00:04:07] Speaker D: And they had a salad bar, too.
[00:04:08] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Well, of course they had a salad.
[00:04:10] Speaker D: There used to be a barbecue restaurant DFW called Luther's that was really, really good.
[00:04:14] Speaker E: But it's gone.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: But anyway.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Oh, wow, that's my.
So there were two for me, I'm going to go with two. The first one is a. Is a local that has closed down called Black Walnut. It's a. Oh, breakfast place. Amazing Eggs Benedict. It was amazing. But as you talked more about it, there was one when I was a kid, it was called. It was in upstate New York. It's called Ground Round.
[00:04:35] Speaker E: Round. Remember Ground Round?
[00:04:37] Speaker D: Yeah, they had them in Ohio. Yes.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: They were great. Ground.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: No. If you could have seen Kyle's reaction to hearing the word ground round.
It was amazing.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: So Ground Round was a man. It was this cool little. I don't remember what they really served, but I remember this. When I was a kid, they'd play a black and white movie.
[00:04:54] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: And it was because. And it's like using kind of like a Western or something kind of like that. And even as a kid, you're like, this is cool. I'm in a restaurant, There's a movie playing.
[00:05:02] Speaker C: It's a cheat code. It's a cheat code to life. I'm entertained and consuming food.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: It's like, now we do that every day. It's okay. But. But they would also have popcorn that you could just, like. That was like. It was popcorn on the table. It was amazing. And so I do remember it was a great. I remember enjoying it because it wasn't just those. The food was good too.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: But I was young. But I just remember the experience was so much fun. So you'd go in there, the movie's playing, the other popcorn. It was a good day.
[00:05:25] Speaker C: Okay. So I have two as well, but I'm going to go for a third. I'm going to start with my third, which is honorable mention. And it's the restaurant Chichi's. And it's not because it was exceptional celebration of food. It wasn't exceptionally good Mexican food. It was my first introduction into Mexican food, But it was Midwest Mexican food. But I love the name because I think it's the biggest joke that Mexico has ever played on America that they would have a restaurant named Chichi's, which, if you know what chichis means in mech, it. It's boobs.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: Okay. Yes. That's what it means.
[00:05:55] Speaker C: Right. And so, like, you. Where are you gonna go eat? I'm gonna go eat. And it just. I found that that's hilarious in my junior years. So the other one is Bennigan's, because Bennigan's was amazing. And my dad would always get the Monte Cristo, which I thought was fantastic. So good, because he would. It's a deep fried sandwich. Like, there's very few things in this world with jam. It's not deep. It's deep fried with powdered sugar, and then you can have jam on it. And I'm like, dad, you're a walking heart attack. But he loved it. Finally, the Bombay Bicycle Club. Do you guys remember that?
[00:06:25] Speaker E: No.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: What is that?
[00:06:26] Speaker D: I remember the name. I don't think.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: I didn't even know what you're talking about.
[00:06:29] Speaker C: It was it. I thought we were eating, like, the bougiest food in the world because it was the Bombay Bicycle Club. The food was horrible, but I just remember that was fantastic. So I wish I could resurrect those bad boys.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: So.
[00:06:42] Speaker C: Share if you can, in the comments or info. No Legacy. What is your closed restaurant you would love to see resurrected?
[00:06:49] Speaker B: You know, it's funny, I. I remember Chi Chi because they had fried ice cream.
[00:06:54] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: But I remember, I remember the commercial had fry ice cream. I was like, that's when I was like, I want that. I want that. Now. That's amazing marketing as we are walk working our way through the summer. Yep, we had some favorites. And like we said, we know there's a lot of new listeners that have that have subscribed to the Known Legacy podcast that are part of this. And we wanted to let you know about man. We have over 270 episodes. And so this one is actually episode 203, and it's with my old pastor, Pastor Duke, and it's all about making a change after 40 years.
This idea of he was faithful in ministry for over 40 years. If you're in your journey and you're like, how do I prepare to make a change? How do I plan now, even in my youth, to make a change? This is a great one for you. So check out this episode, episode 203 from Pastor Duke, and hope you guys enjoy it. Well, we're so glad to have you on today. We're super excited because I know you've just started, literally, like this week, just started a completely new chapter to give you a little bit, little background. Pastor Duke was my pastor in New York. He's the ministry that I came to know Jesus through.
Al Tolson, one of the guys in his church led my father to the Lord. And then from there, you know, my father came home and led me to the Lord. So it's because of Pastor Duke's impact in the world as to why I truly understood the love of Jesus. And side note, he helped me understand the balance of church and Jesus and walking with the Lord because he always made it simple for me. He always kept the main thing, the main thing. And that's why I wanted to have him on. And his journey is now starting fresh because I think after 44 years, if I'm correct. Is that right? 44 years, 45 years. And I'll let him share that story. He has. He's moved from a new chapter of being a senior pastor, church planner, all out amazing individual to now moving from that to being a traveling speaker, but also to a new state.
So why don't you share a little bit about your story really quick for our listeners.
[00:08:52] Speaker E: Well, coming to you live from upstate South Carolina.
I never dreamed I'd be in South Carolina. I'll learn to talk all over again. Now I'm just getting down the New York thing after 44 years, you know what I'm saying?
Now I got to start out all over again. But you know, the thing that's important in life is just being in the will of God. It doesn't matter where. I think the safest place to be is in the will of God. The smartest place, not always the easiest place, but the best place.
So we just thought we'd live out our days in New York, but a number of things just made it clear it was time to go.
Winter of 2021, we were able to go to Florida, become snowbirds.
Lived in Sarasota, Florida for three months. And while we were away, we were just completely immersed into another world. All the Yankees are down south and trying to make new relationships. A lot of people who were unchurched in the north kind of go to the south in the wintertime and they don't know anybody. And somebody invites them to church and they go down there and get saved.
[00:10:06] Speaker C: So anyway, awesome.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: It's so cool.
[00:10:08] Speaker E: That's what happened to my mother. Well, we were already saved when we went down, but I thought of freedom. When I'm in New York, I'm Pastor Duke, who I used to be. And you know, pastoral care. I'm not preaching, you know, in my church. I was just pastor emeritus attending the church. I planted, you know, three or four times a year when I was not on the road, but still I was local. And Pastor Duke do my. Do the funerals, which I love to do. Pastor Duke, the weddings do the hospital visits. Man, I can't say no to people. I love them. They're my sheep.
[00:10:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:40] Speaker E: But I was in Florida, away from all of the responsibility of continued pastoral care, even though I wasn't their pastor. And I was able to focus my mind on the word of God in a deeper way.
I don't have the energy. I had as a young man, but I hopefully have more wisdom. And so my podcasting is my focus now. I'm up to between five and seven thousand listens a week on. On my pastor duke.podbean.com my podcast. I. I never dreamed of that. Seven thousand people.
I'm a pothead from a little village in Ohio, and grace was greater than all my sin. And so I need to be able to focus. And I'm really not able to on focus. Focus in New York the way I need to.
And just starting a new life is pretty exciting because I. We kind of know how to make friends. We show ourselves friendly and show up.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:40] Speaker E: Talk to people. Next thing you know, we have a lot of friends in that part of the world. So the Lord made it clear I. I need to be away from New York and my son. We thought we'd move to Florida, but my son moved to South Carolina to get away from tyranny. Government tyranny in New York. 73 vaccines for our grandkids. No, thanks.
So they moved and we thought, well, instead of going to Florida, we'll go to South Carolina. And we've been here five days.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Five days.
[00:12:10] Speaker C: The siren call of family is. Is. Is hard to pass up for sure.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: Freedom and family, I think, is what the deal is. So. Well, good. Okay, so. So, you know, and for those who know, just like I said, he just stepped away from that ministry. What's going through your heart and mind? I mean, even as you think about stepping away, you know, I guess my heart goes into, like, the transition, the change kind of, those kind of moments when you're like, man, this is all new.
What would you share with somebody? Because I think there's a lot of people that are on the edge of wanting to make a jump, to make a change, to make something change. What would you share with them as you kind of go through your emotions and thoughts to encourage them in that?
[00:12:54] Speaker E: Well, God spoke of himself as the great. I am, not the great I was.
I know I'm going to sound like George Carlin now, but has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?
You know, it's now. It's always been now. It's always going to be now. It's never been anything but now. God isn't the God who was. He's the God who is.
And he doesn't want us to live in the past. I. I love the past. It was awesome. He was there. He is here. He's everywhere.
And so I celebrate what he did in the past, but I'm not tied down to it. I'm not trying to, you know, go back and live in the 80s when, you know, we were building a church, carving it out of the rocks. And of course, it's the Lord that builds the church, but he does it through people. We got to watch him build an amazing church that planted seven other churches in the region. And it was like, you know, people getting saved and baptized. And young men like yourself, Bill, are called to preach and go off to Bible college, man. That's the ultimate, man. And so I celebrate that. But I don't live there. I live right now.
Now. I want to be relevant now. I want to point people to Jesus now.
And I have a platform now that I didn't used to have. I want to use it for the glory of God. And my greatest thing to commit to God's kingdom now is not just running down to Albany Med and holding hands with somebody, praying for them at six o' clock in the morning before their surgery, which I've done a thousand times. Loved every minute of it. But now it's the knowledge that I've gained that's most important to advance the kingdom. So I'm just going to do what he wants me to do now. And we're making new friends and we're sharing the gospel here everywhere we go, so. So, yeah, it's kind of surreal. Never saw it coming, but it's upon us. And Joel loves adventure. That's my first wife.
Billy and I married up a bit. Amen, Bill.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: Yes, we did. Yeah. Yeah. This whole table. I'm pretty certain at this point, Kyle Travis definitely married. Out of his league.
[00:15:00] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: But it's. It's. Yeah, no, we can all prove that
[00:15:04] Speaker E: beautiful women will marry ugly men if we get close enough to Jesus. Amen.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: That's the plan. Kyle, is that another amen over there? Amen. There it is, buddy.
[00:15:12] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: That is. That'll. That'll preach right there. So.
But, yeah, I, you know, I just. I think about the journey. I think about, you know, what is some from. From the truth of God's word. What is some wisdom that you would share with a guy who's walking through a journey that's like, he doesn't know what the next step is?
And. And it's kind of in that time where it's not the beginning of his life? That's the thing. I think there's a lot of men who. We just talked about it in our last podcast. They're bored. There's no adventure. They're seeking out the wrong things, but they want to do something big for God. What is some wisdom you would share with them? Because you got these guys who are 45, 50, that are feeling like God is trying to do something with them, but they're just afraid.
And what's some wisdom that you would share with them?
[00:15:52] Speaker E: Well, I love the word that you just used, adventure. But I think the mistake that we make is thinking that the adventure is in the things that we're doing and where we're doing it at and maybe even who we're doing it with.
I think that's an error. The adventure. The adventure is Jesus. We are complete in Him. In him, wealth, all the fullness of knowledge, and it's just going deeper with Him. And I know it kind of sounds, you know, kind of. Maybe, maybe it sounds goofy, but I'm telling you, as we get to know him and explore him, and he puts us in situations over our head and we don't know what to do. And then he shows up and we know it's Him. I call him Smooches, where you just. Just having that moment. And a lot of times, it's. It's. It's in difficult times, it's moments that we're not comfortable with.
But because we've committed to him and we're trying to do the right thing, we find ourselves in these difficult moments.
And then as we're seeking him in our desperation, he shows up and he's the ultimate. So the ultimate is in him and not in where he has us and exactly what we're doing.
It was phenomenal. To stand in the same pulpit every week and have 700 people show up to hear me preach that, that was crazy fun.
But it's crazy fun to sit in a room all by myself in front of a camera or in front of a microphone and just be excited about the word of God and then. Then find out at the end of the week, 7,000 people heard. It's like, whoa. I'd rather see them face to face. But knowing that we're making a difference, and it isn't making the difference, maybe in the 7,000 who listen or the 700 come. Maybe he's making a difference in those seven children that were in junior church where I spoke last week.
You know, it's just being empty of self, full of him wherever he wants you to be, celebrating him, knowing he's coming, knowing that he's already come and paid the penalty for our sin, and just be overwhelmed with him and his glory and what he's done, what he's gonna do, and then, man, the rest takes care of itself. And we just had. Even in this move, which we. The Lord tipped us off almost three years ago that we're going to be moving, but then how he did it was just. Just exciting. You know, he. He doesn't part the water until your feet are, you know, in the water and Egyptian armies, you know, breathing down your back. And he did that for us, getting us into this house here in South Carolina. The very last second, we're going to be homeless. Our house is on the chopping block in New York. York. And, you know, homelessness isn't so bad for us guys. You know, cardboard box, sleeping bag, and a bag of Doritos.
[00:18:43] Speaker C: We're cool, man, but Cheetos.
[00:18:45] Speaker E: Okay, yeah, we.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: There is, but there's some theological differences between us and you. I'm more of a Dorito guy, too.
[00:18:52] Speaker E: So, you know, my wife kind of wanted to know where she might be spending the night from time to time and.
[00:18:57] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:18:58] Speaker E: We did not know.
And the last night, my last Sunday in our church in Florida, I had a visitation from God. And I'm not too big on all that stuff. I had about three or four in my whole life where he came up and almost spoke audibly, and he said, dude, stop worrying. I love your wife more than you do. She's worked hard. I know what she wants. I created her. Her little artistic flair and all I cared about. She's beautiful, and all her gifts and all that stuff. And it was 16 months of frustration trying to find a house. We wanted to be near our best friends here, the De Novos, near our kids in our price range. It was like a needle in a haystack. And the Lord visited me and said, I've got this. I. I'm your realtor. Stop worrying. And I. On the way out of the church that day, I told you, I started crying. I was really moved. On the way out, I told her, I said, God visited. He's going to show up. It's going to happen. It's the last minute. It's going to happen. She didn't quite have the faith in that moment that I did, but it was a touch from God. It was a smooch. And then our last night in Florida, which was four days later, she came to me and said, duke, look at this house on Zillow, sight unseen. The perfect house. The perfect Joellen look. The perfect location in our.
Our. Our price zone.
And I just had that. That. That moment in Time, man. I'll tell you what, I don't care how big the crowd is where I'm preaching.
I, I, I just want to know the Lord is with me. And I know he is because he says so, but I don't always feel it. Yeah, we felt it. We made an offer the next day and we, and they accepted it. We bought a house, sight unseen. Scene. I'll tell you, the moment we walked into the house, which we sort of already owned under contract, it was better than we ever guessed. And to see the look on my wife's face when she walked into this house that Jesus gave her and how he did it. Then the miracle, providing the money. We had the money, but it was all wrapped up in assets and cashing them in. We needed a miracle. And guess what? We got a miracle at the last minute. So I love living life on the edge. The adventure. Adventure and being where you just need God if he doesn't show up or dead meat. You know what? So far, so far, he's always showed up.
And I don't think he's going to blow his perfect record in any of us on the podcast or any, anybody listening to the podcast is on the throne.
[00:21:37] Speaker C: Yeah. And what I love about that is, is you're right. We, we often think the adventures over there or someplace else. And man, God's word is clear. Thy word is a, Is a lamp unto my feet. It is enough for the next step. And we don't step is always. But he does. And he's like, you want the adventure? You want the adventure? Trust my word in the next step. And that's adventure enough for us.
[00:21:59] Speaker E: I'd like to take hold of that. The next step. Jesus is the light of the world. He lives in us. He makes us lights. And that light is, you know, we're thinking 500 watts. Well, no, these are like lamps. I give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning, burning, burning, Right? That you can see about maybe 6 or 8ft with those lamps. And if you walk in the six or eight feet that he gives you, you can see six or eight feet further. So it's a faith walk. You know, we get the idea. Well, show me something exciting that you want me to do. God, if it's really cool, I'll do it. That is not how it works.
[00:22:38] Speaker C: No.
[00:22:38] Speaker E: Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Just be satisfied, be praising him, enter into his courts with thanksgiving, with praise, and, and be sold out to Him. And wherever he leads us is fine. And I think you'll find that the adventure will continue.
[00:22:57] Speaker C: So, Bill, what do you think about what he's saying?
[00:22:59] Speaker B: I think that this podcast was for me. So I don't. I'm just like, literally. This is like, just literally. I should said this one's for Bill.
[00:23:06] Speaker C: Duke, he's almost crying over there.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. I know you're still. I just need you to know you're still my pastor forever. Like, I don't really have any other pastors. Like, he's the only one. I would always call that, you know, I love it. That's because that's it. I think there's so many moments where you get. I think these are one of these moments where you just kind of like re. Clarify and then you get on that you're on the journey and then you're like, you're waiting for the flashlight to go up, like the million candle watt power, and you're like, I just need to take the next step. And I think. I love what something else you said is something that I think we found true is God always shows up and at like 1:30 and we're expecting 11:59, right? And so it's like 1:30 or 3:00 clock in the morning. And we're like, where are you, cuz?
[00:23:48] Speaker C: At 11:59, who gets the credit? We get the credit.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:23:52] Speaker C: And he's like, I want to do this in such a way that only I can get the credit. And that's what you see with. With your wife, Duke. And that's what you see with you. Like God saying last second, I'm going to work a miracle so I get the credit. And that's what he wants.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: And he's so faithful. I think that's it, guys. If you're listening to this today, God is so faithful. I needed to hear this. I know you probably need to hear this too. That God is faithful and he will see it through.
He will not fail us. He will not leave us or forsake us. He can't. Or he's a liar.
[00:24:17] Speaker C: Right.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: And he's not a liar. And if he was a liar, I don't think Duke would have. Because you've been a testimony for people. You know, one thing I want to touch on today is that I remember when your last recorded time when you spoke at your church in New York, which is called Newtown Church now. Right. Church at Newtown Road. And so. Yeah, but I think was I heard the words at that time. 44 years of ministry and zero scandals.
And the thing that breaks my heart is I was A big Ravi Zacharias fan for a long time. And then I heard what's going on with him.
Yeah. And then Bill Hybels and all these different names.
But you, sir, are well respected.
And how did you do it?
I know it's not a secret, but how did you do it with no scandals? Because I think men of God who are in the church need to hear this, because you are an example, you're a giant among men to say no scandals. How did you do it?
[00:25:17] Speaker E: Well, Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God, but by the grace of God, there go I, Knowing that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
You know, just knowing that I am capable of, you know, ultimate stupidity. You know, I just. No confidence in self. I think is a great place to start.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: That's good.
[00:25:44] Speaker E: I remember the.
The, you know, my past coming out of darkness. I've tasted of sin deeply and know it's sucks. Excuse me. No, it's a good word, but it is a good word for sin.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:00] Speaker E: And I know that the lust, the flesh lust, the eyes, pride of life. I know what it does to people. I'm in the battle every day. I think if we become a little something in our own minds a little bit too much, we fail. I've seen this.
When I was a young man in Bible college, there were, you know, they wanted us to be blessed by some of the great men of it, seemingly the great men of God. And they were paraded before us, had big ministries, and they were very gifted men and very much motivated me, inspired me. But, boy, most of them didn't finish well.
Praise God. Praise God. Jerry Falwell did finish well. Billy.
Well, there's been. There's been a lot of men that did finish well, so.
So.
But it seems like men don't do too well with success. We really. We want it so bad, and then we get it and we come up so empty. And that's in the secular worlds, even in the spirit world. Turned out a lot of the guys that, you know, were prayed in front of me. Jack Hiles, adulterer.
Who was the guy with the family. Bill Gothard, all that.
Pedophile.
Jack Kyle's son. Pedophile.
Just. Just heartbreaking, you know, Hillsong, you know, debauchery and women and money. And so if we recognize the things, the wonderful things that God has allowed us to see and do and know it was him and not us.
[00:27:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:33] Speaker E: Be thankful to that. And he gives grace to the humble. But as the moment we lose that humility, we lose that grace were operating in the flesh. And a lot of men with great gift, they're seen of a lot of men. They have a lot of following. They love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
The spirit of diotrephy comes in loving to have the preeminence. And in this world, with media driven things, you, you men can become pretty big and not really have a close walk with the Lord. So no, haven't, haven't finished yet. But I like where I'm at now and you know, I've got a little ways to go to finish up this journey, so I don't know the answer to that. Just try to walk close to Jesus every day and you walk in the spirit, you won't fulfill the loss of God.
[00:28:23] Speaker C: Well, and I think the word that you referenced toward the end that I think is absolutely huge is humility.
And often when you get successful again, you begin to rely on yourself and what's worked in the past. You forget that the most important thing that brought you success was that intimate relationship with God and you begin to think of yourself a little bit bigger than you are and you forget the plank in your own eye. And it's the story that the Israelites had throughout the Old Testament where when they were desperate, they were intimate with God and when they had success, they were intimate with themselves and each other and they forgot that humility of like this. None of this happens without God.
None of this happens without him and his providence within our hearts and within our lives. And I think humility is huge.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: No, I love it because I think so. And I'm not against accountability groups, but sometimes they turn into sin management groups. And I think what it is is the authenticity that if we can't be authentic with another guy and be like, hey, I'm hurting, or for them to know enough to go, hey, you're not in a good place right now.
[00:29:22] Speaker C: Right.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: And I think most guys don't have that. And I think we need to step up and be that guy for somebody before someone is that for us.
[00:29:29] Speaker C: We have guys that are cheerleaders. We don't have guys that are coaches.
[00:29:32] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:29:32] Speaker C: Guys that are cheerleaders that are like, yeah, you keep doing it, you keep doing whatever, you know, and, and excited and. And we'll ride the coattails.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:39] Speaker C: Success rather than the coaches. Like, yeah, you're still short here. Yeah, you're still not all that in a bag of chips.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, like, you're still an idiot, but yeah, yeah, but yeah, no, I think it's great, Pastor Duke. I love that because I think that's exactly what we need is we have just, we're seeing these men who are defining success by how much they get and how many people they have and followers, but we're not seeing. And that's why I wanted to bring you back on because success is where you are. You know, you came from a broken legacy to grandchildren. Is it eight grandchildren because one's in heaven? Is that the deal?
[00:30:13] Speaker E: Yeah. Eight here, one in heaven. And by the grace of God and glory to. Glory to Jesus. My oldest granddaughter is entering into her second year in Bible college in Highlands Bible College near Birmingham, Alabama. She is on fire. Gifted, young, beautiful young woman.
And my, my grandson just graduated high school, Boston Spa High School in upstate New York and he has a one year he's playing leading worship in a big A camp in western Massachusetts for the summer, then coming back to a one year internship at his home church, being prepared for worship leadership. Very gifted musician, never broken his parents trust.
He's kind of got a warp sense of humor which has always served Bill.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: I don't know where he got that from.
[00:31:04] Speaker E: No, I don't know. But, but he's, he's a great kid and he's. And he'll be going off the Highlands, so he has a gap year actually doing ministry while he's going to head off to prepare for ministry. So when he is, when he's in Bible college, he'll already have a year of ministry application under his belt. So no greater joy does a papa have to see his grandkids, you know, standing up for Jesus and being bright and shining lights in our generation. So if you hear me complaining, I'm lying.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: I love it. I love it, man, it's been so good having you on here, hearing some truth and I love it. And so I know we want to just keep having you roll through as we do these because I think the wisdom that you have is far above who you are. It's got to be from Jesus because I know you personally and so it's got to be.
I had to get a dive in there somewhere, guys. But no, we are so blessed to have you on and love it. And you know, before we go into our next segment, do you have any last words, any last comments you want to share with these guys that are listening?
[00:32:02] Speaker E: Well, just the ultimate in life is just learning to celebrate the little things.
I learned a lot of that during COVID A lot of things could be taken away from you. You Learn to appreciate what you have.
Nice cup of coffee in the morning, and just think where that coffee grew and who picked it in the process. And then, you know, having this beautiful woman is my wife. I get to give her a kiss in the morning and enjoy her for another day and do life together. And now we go to the grocery store together. It's awesome.
And goals.
[00:32:41] Speaker B: Goals.
[00:32:41] Speaker E: Enjoy. Just get in the word in the morning. Let the Lord speak to you and. And just be learning to take your worship deeper and enjoy the Lord, his creation, his calling in your life. And if you're enjoying the little things, the big things will find you. If you go after the big things, you miss the little things. You miss it all. So, wow. I think that's how it's worked. Light upon line, precept upon precept. Here a little there, a little now.
[00:33:15] Speaker C: And I would encourage the guys if I would add your podcast to the listening.
Yes, to the listening cue, for sure.
[00:33:22] Speaker B: We'll put a link to his podcast in our podcast, so we'll make sure we have that ready for you. Because this has been a blessing. I mean, because I think you need more listeners. I don't think 7,000 is enough, so we'll help bring some more in.
[00:33:33] Speaker C: 7,000, 27,000.
[00:33:37] Speaker B: But no, this has been a huge blessing. And, you know, as we do these, we have a little segment that we call Fast five.
And so I don't know if you had those Fast five on your list, but I would love to. Are you ready for them?
[00:33:50] Speaker E: Yeah, I forgot what they were, but I thought about them when you sent them.
[00:33:53] Speaker B: Okay, good. That's all that. That's why they're fast.
Okay, what's the most interesting place you've. You've been?
[00:34:00] Speaker E: Egypt.
[00:34:01] Speaker B: Egypt. Whereabouts in Egypt?
[00:34:03] Speaker E: The pyramids, of course. The.
Was it the Valley of the Kings where Moses was?
That was just crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy.
[00:34:15] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome. If you could have one haircut for the rest of your life, what would it be?
[00:34:20] Speaker E: No haircut.
[00:34:23] Speaker B: Just wear a hat.
[00:34:24] Speaker E: I'm a hippie.
[00:34:26] Speaker C: Let that hair grow long, man. Retirement's gonna treat you well.
[00:34:29] Speaker B: That is it.
[00:34:30] Speaker E: Almost cut my hair. Happened just the other day.
Getting kind of long.
Might be too young to know where that.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: I am too young.
Oh, my gosh.
[00:34:42] Speaker E: I love it.
[00:34:43] Speaker B: I love it. All right. Favorite thing to do with your family
[00:34:48] Speaker E: time together. Chit chatting, talking, drinking, drinking coffee, eating pastries.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: Fika. Fika in Sweden. In Sweden's fika, right? Is that Fika is the term of when you basically sit down. You have coffee and pastries, and you eat and so we're big fika people.
[00:35:05] Speaker C: You didn't even know it. So we're big people. Just. That's all you need to know.
We're larger people than we should be.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: Yes, we are. We're very big fika people, so we even know it. So that's how. That's how international we are.
[00:35:16] Speaker C: So.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: All right, favorite childhood memory.
[00:35:21] Speaker E: Camping with my Uncle Bill. Catching fish, cleaning them, eating them. Having him tell us scary stories. Uncle Bill and camping.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: That's awesome. That's so cool. Okay, one thing on your bucket list you want to accomplish before. Before you die.
[00:35:35] Speaker E: Finish. Well,
[00:35:38] Speaker B: that's awesome.
[00:35:38] Speaker C: That's a known legacy.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: That's it right there. Well, guys, if you have a chance, check out Pastor Duke's podcast. We will put the link in the bottom, but you can look up Pastor Duke.
Pod is like podbean. Is that what it is?
[00:35:51] Speaker E: Just got my webpage. It's a static web page. Pastor Duke.com hit podcast will take you right there.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: Pastor Duke.com.
[00:35:59] Speaker E: pastor Duke podbean.com will take you direct.
[00:36:02] Speaker C: Okay, got it.
[00:36:03] Speaker B: So Pastor Duke.com is probably a simple way to get in there and can connect and connect with him. I know that he's always open to speak and share different events. So if you want to. If you want to book him as well, you can go to pastor duke.com and you can book him for a speaking event as well. It has been a blessing having you on today. Thank you so much, guys. Thanks for listening. And hey, you can check us out on Instagram and Facebook and all those places. Known legacy ministries.
[00:36:27] Speaker C: If you have any questions or comments, infoownlegacy.org and you can check out the book too.
[00:36:31] Speaker B: I never mentioned last one, but more than you. Book.com, you can check that out.
[00:36:35] Speaker C: Audio version is out as well.
[00:36:37] Speaker B: Yes, it is. So you get to listen to this voice? Yes, chapter two. So you get to listen to this voice all the time. Hey, guys, thanks for listening. Share it like it if you. If you're on YouTube. And we are so grateful to have you guys be a part of our community.
God bless you guys.
[00:36:50] Speaker C: God bless.
[00:36:51] Speaker B: Have a great week.
[00:36:53] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to the known legacy podcast. We'd love to hear from you. So email us your questions or comments to info at nolegacy.
[00:37:02] Speaker E: Org.
