How Do I Handle Losing Friends? | Ron + Hope: Unfiltered

Welcome, baby.

Welcome. It's Ron and Hope Unfiltered. Real, raw, relevant. So glad you're here today, baby. You look good today.

Maybe I'm losing so much weight. I feel like a little boy.

You do look like a little boy in your little zip-up sweater shirt with your collar.

Told you. I'm gonna grow my chest hair back where a wife beater and a cross. No, no, no. Put a big cross around my neck.

We're not doing that.

Big gold cross.

Why? No, we are not.

That's in.

In where?

Wife beaters with big gold chains and crosses. But I like your little sweater.

I like your little sweater zip up.

Phil, what'd Chase tell me that one time? Chase said, I don't want my daddy to be little. He said, I'm used to my daddy being big. I started losing weight. He didn't like it.

He said, I'm used to my daddy being bigger than everybody else.

He said, I don't want my daddy being little.

He liked to go to school and brag that his daddy had more muscle.

He got in a fight. He got in a fight one time with another boy over whose daddy could win.

Oh my Lord, have mercy.

Remember that? I got called to the principal's office. He got in a fight. And I said, what?

Did you hold your arm up like this?

I told him, I said, son, what in the world did you get in a fight for? He said, "This boy was saying his daddy could beat you." Well, I couldn't get mad at him then. I let him off the hook when he told me that.

I'm like, "You defend your daddy, son." Chase said, "My daddy can whoop your daddy and I can whoop you." Chase probably could.

See? I don't even know who it was. I remember that. That was back in junior high, I think. That wasn't high school, that was junior high.

That's funny.

He got in an argument about his daddy. But I have, I've lost.

And how you doing it? All meat.

He's eating meat. If I say what I'm doing it, I'm gonna get 1,000 responses.

"That's not good.

That's not healthy." I don't do diets, guys. I do not do diets.

You try to eat healthy.

I do lifestyles. And I try to pick a lifestyle, number one, that I can sustain with the way that I live, which is crazier than it's ever been. It's hard in airports and in hotels and on the road and time zones, and it's hard to eat right. It is. It's hard. Restaurant, we eat in so many restaurants and it's hard to eat right. But long and short of, you're looking at a guy who just despises taking medicine. And I think with time, a lot of people just think, well, you know, I'm gonna end up taking cholesterol medicine and I'm gonna end up, I'm taking blood pressure medicine. I'm gonna end up taking pills for my pre-diabetic, and I just— I don't want to live like that. And so, I've tried to choose a different route, and about, what now, 3, 4 months? It's been a while now.

It's probably more than that, Ron.

Half a year?

You started it in January.

First of the year.

So, 6 months.

And I started looking at the carnivore. Is it total meat? No, but—

You are wiggling.

75%, 80% meat. I will eat occasional salad. I will eat an occasional vegetable. I'm not eating any sugar. I'm not eating any carbs.

But you do love you some pork rinds.

I have eaten pork rinds. But here's the thing. I've checked my blood work. My blood work is still checking out, 'cause you know, everybody talks about cholesterol when you go on the— meat, but my body is burning a lot of bad fat that I've carried for years.

You work out, that makes a huge difference.

Yeah, but I was still carrying bad fat even with my workout. And it was not good fat.

I'm talking about with your cholesterol. That's really good for cholesterol, working out.

I've always worked out, but I've been doing that, and they talk about the inflammation and everything that goes down. I'm gonna tell you, that is true. Most of y'all know last year I had my knee operated on. Both my knees, I didn't need operation, but both of them, just because of all I put them through by being a sports guy and everything, you know, it takes a toll. And both of them would ache, but one of them had a torn meniscus, and my pain level didn't really decrease afterwards. Still felt like it was tight and—

Took a while, maybe 2, real cold.

And so I made this, and they said, you know, your inflammation in your joints is just going to— almost disappeared. I'm like—

It did.

I mean, unbelievable improvement. Unbelievable improvement. And like I said, they say belly fat is not good. There's people that get big everywhere, but if it's just right there, it's not good weight to carry. And I was having a hard time getting rid of it, but this has worked for me.

Done a good job.

It has worked for me, and it is hard.

I can't do that diet or lifestyle. I cannot eat just meat all day, every day.

It is hard. It's not easy. When you're sitting down, when you go on a vacation and everybody there, you know, our restaurant's known for its cheesecake and everybody's slamming cheesecake or everybody's pounding a pizza.

Or a French fry.

No, people pounding pizza and I get 3 meatballs. That's not fun. I don't hardly eat any carbs. I have totally cut out sugar. And like I said, it's not easy. The sodas and all that, I was all right with. I told you, the thing I miss the most is my coffee. I had a way that I have fixed a cup of coffee since I was probably a teenager. And I enjoy my morning cup of coffee.

We still make you good coffee.

And I've had to go— I still put a certain creamer in it, but all the sugar, the sweetener is gone.

We use allulose.

And it's not the same. So I always like my Coca-Cola after I preach. I miss that. I don't drink a lot of sodas, but after I preach—

Feels good on your throat.

Yeah, the ladies in the back would always have me an ice cold Coca-Cola, and I'm like, "Ugh." So it's not easy, but people didn't get on here today to hear about my carnivore diet.

Well, we've been talking about it about 6 minutes.

But the inflammation's gone down. I've burned a lot of fat off. Energy levels affected a little bit, 'cause your body's used to that sugar for energy source. So, it's having you making your body change what it uses for energy. I have felt that. I look at you sometime, I'm like—

What would you do right now if I sat a large pepperoni pizza in front of you?

You've seen me sit in front of them. What did I do?

What would you do if you could eat one right now?

Would you eat? I'd eat the whole thing. The whole thing. I wouldn't save any for anybody.

That's Ron Splurge.

I've had tomato sauce all over my cheeks. I'd have— yeah, I'd dive into it. Yeah, I'm not a— I've never been a cake and pie—

No, you don't like that. You will eat ice cream, but you like—

I love a cheeseburger and a pizza, though.

You like pizza.

Yeah, I love pizza. I miss that. So, but it's been worth it to me. And once I can—

So, on our vacation, you gonna eat some pizza? We're going on family vacation.

I told you the last night of vacation, I'm gonna eat me one.

Okay.

We're gonna go out, we're gonna get a big old pizza and I'm gonna get me one.

We going to Dirty Myrtle. People who don't know, that's Myrtle Beach.

I've not been to Myrtle. We did go to North Myrtle one time. I agreed to it, but I told you in 2008, I was never going back to Myrtle.

Hordes of people. I'm talking about so many people, they have banned Tents and umbrella, that kind of umbrella stuff, because there's too many people to even put that on the beach.

It's a huge tourist place. It's going to be. But the thing is, our kids, we're doing it. Interesting. It's not a place where me and Hope would probably go if me and her just want to get away.

No.

'Cause there's no getting away from anything there.

You're right, it's going to a campground.

Yeah, it's going to a campground. But our grandkids are beyond this.

Themselves.

They're texting us just telling us how excited they are. So, hey, the family time's worth it. The family time's worth it. But you and me, we'd rather go somewhere else.

Well, we are going somewhere else the week after.

Why is it so hard when God starts blessing you to keep your same circle? Ooh.

That's a loaded question.

There's a lot that goes on in that. And it's not that you didn't want to keep them. It's that they normally don't stay.

Yeah. Just different levels require so many different things in your life. You know, you don't get to another level, you don't get to another grade in school until you finish everything on that level, you have to take a test and pass to go somewhere more stringent, harder. And not everybody's willing to take the test and pass to advance with you. There are a lot of people— and it's okay. You know, a lot of people are fine with the level they're on and totally fine. But if you're wanting to advance, You will leave some people behind.

The most difficult decision sometimes you have to make, babies, is when you know God's next level is going to force a relationship to end. I don't mean— it don't have to be an offense. I don't mean end bad. No. I'm not talking about nasty. It's just—

Sometimes with a grieving heart.

Two different people going two different places. And those are the hardest decisions. And I can think of several of them in my head now. When people that were very meaningful to you. But here again, I've seen the other side where people forfeit what God wants to do because of their deep, deep need for relationships. And they will compromise their future, their potential, their calling even—

To stay.

Because there's certain people that they refuse to lose. And there's other—

Not just people, you know, it's a lot of things you lose to go to another level. Everything changes.

Excuse me for wiggling.

You are such a wiggler right now.

But go ahead.

It is not just people. It's a lot of things you lose, you forfeit. You know, you sometimes have to forfeit your freedoms. You sometimes have to forfeit— being frivolous with finances, just, you know, random spending. There's a lot of things that are required for us to go to another level. But today we're talking about people. Those seem like sometimes they're the hardest.

The scripture that I've gone to over the years, and I've gone to this with pastors when I teach pastors, There was a day where I did a lot of like breaking the 200 barrier. The 200 barrier still exists. The 200 barrier is not a demon in churches, and 90% of all churches fall within that range. It's not a demon. It's not, "We need to pull these strongholds down and have a breakthrough." The 200 barrier is a relational barrier because you have maxed out your ability to pastor everybody one-on-one.

Yeah, you can't do it. It's unreasonable.

You're totally maxed out. And the 200 barrier, you're killing the man. He's gonna end up in the hospital. And because he can't even really care for 200 people. It's hard for me to care for the people in my house. You know, it's hard for me to care for us, care for our family. You tack 200 people on that and I gotta be there for when my child gets sick and your child gets sick. Yeah. It's unmanageable. But people, especially in the South, where tradition is high, people demand a one-on-one relationship with their pastor, or I will leave and go somewhere where I can get that.

Yeah. So, you go from one small church to the next small church. And again, that's okay if that's what you need and want.

Yeah, I've lost more people in church over my church— getting big than any other thing.

And let me just stop right there and say, that is so funny to me. People criticize a big church, whether it's ours, Joel Osteen's, Rod Parsley's, T.D. Jakes', whoever, big church. Furtick.

Furtick.

Craig Groeschel. Like we had anything to do with it. Like we paid the people to come or we forced people to come.

Our intent was to get people saved and get them to church. Right.

And they get mad at the pastor and talk about him because the church is so big. Guys, we can't stop the people from coming. I mean, do you want to turn people away at the door and say, "No, you can't come because we're not going to get a big church"?

Listen, there's a lot of reasons people lose folks in their church, but that by far and away And that ain't a close second. For no other reason than the church has gotten big. And so here's what happens, and it is hurtful. It ain't hurtful to me much anymore, but boy, back in the day when I'd never experienced before, it was very hurtful. You start hearing stuff like this, well, I remember when the pastor, well, I remember when he wasn't a big shot. Well, I remember when he still had time for the regular folk. I remember when it, it has nothing to do with his love for the people. It's like when we had more kids, I remember when you said you wanted to have another kid, number one, after our first one, I couldn't believe it, 'cause he was so tough. But you was wanting to continue the family, and I remember this private little, not a fear, but concern that I had is, can I love another one like I love this thing right here? And when you start having more kids, it don't mean you have less love, but it does mean you have less attention. Yeah. You have to spread it around. That's what happens when a church starts growing. It's not that I love you less. It's not that you're no longer important to me. It's that I got more kids.

We can only give our attention to a certain amount of people or things.

And so, I have noticed over the year, just about every level, we had a circle. And then when we break through that level, it's almost like the circle changes. And then we break through that level.

And a lot of it has to do with that the people in your circle are jealous to the point they don't want to open their arms to more people in the circle. They like their circle the way it is.

They don't like it when you invite other people in the circle.

They don't like it when you invite somebody else. And they're like, "No, I'm not doing this.

I liked it the way it was." Yeah, I remember, and I'll tell you, not just church, the ministerial fellowship, when I had 18 or 20 guys that were kind of connected to me, and then I opened it up and said, "Well, let's open it up and see what happens here," and then things started moving into hundreds, people did, "Ah." 'Cause they just wanted you to themselves. Exactly. It ain't that they want to be mentored, 'cause I can still mentor you. It's not that they even want to be— They want attention. They want attention. It's the same as, "I want a meeting with the pastor. I've got an issue. I need a meeting with the pastor," you know, or, "I have an addiction and I want a meeting with the pastor." And I tell people, I say, I think people would understand now, I can't do private meetings with everybody. But there was a day that was expected. And I remember the first time I got up and told the church, And it was caught with some negative and some positive. I said, "I don't have a private stash." Right. Like, you keep it counseling session. Yeah. If you can get in a room with me, I got this secret information. Yeah, I got this secret sauce that I can pour over your life and everything will change. And I said, "Everything I know privately—" I tell you publicly. —is what I tell publicly. But you've already made a decision you're not going to do.

No, 'cause you just want attention.

So, yeah, if you're not gonna do it, that means you don't want my help, you want my attention.

So, the root of that is an unmet need. Mm-hmm. Is not that there's something wrong with us, or the pastor, or whoever, who can't give you that attention. The problem is you, who needs that attention because of something that's broken on the inside of you. People are not— God did not create people to fill our attention void. Only Jesus can satisfy those longings. So, we put these unrealistic demands on our relationships and wonder why they don't last.

Well, the ultimate story in the Bible of this unbelievable relationship that changed, the nature of it truly changed, is John the Baptist and Jesus. That's the one over the years, and when I teach on it, and I teach pastors, lead pastors, there's almost a silence in the room when I try to bring out the true nature of just what a big split that was. You know, Hope, John the Baptist was the forerunner. John the Baptist had the crowds, and if you go read about John the Baptist, people were coming out of the woods and the cities and the towns to hear him.— and his message was, "Repent, for the kingdom is at hand." That was his message. He had a baptism of repentance. And he had the crowds. Jesus, at that time, was a nobody. Jesus, one day, came walking on the scene during one of John's meetings, and John pointed him out.

Recognized him.

"Behold, the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world." Jesus begins his rise into prominence, and then all of a sudden, you know, this explosion happens of popularity and followership. And then later on, John the Baptist is taken captive. Well, he's in prison and he gets mad. I mean, let's just say what happened. He gets mad, he's offended.

He wants Jesus to come see him.

I want it like it used to be. I want a personal visit from my cousin, Jesus. And so he sends his disciples— listen to— I don't know how Jesus didn't get offended. Listen to this kind of a sideways shot he takes at him here. "Are you the one, or do we look for another?" After he had already pointed him out. In other words, yeah, you're the one that pointed him out, and now you don't even believe your own prophecies. "Listen, you're sitting here, and what you are offended at is he can't function the way he did when nobody knew who he was." Yeah. "And you had total and complete access, and you had probably unlimited potential." I mean, not potential, attention from him. "And so, now I'm in prison, nobody's come to see me. So, go ask him, is he really the one, or we gonna look for somebody else?" Jesus said, "Tell him to lame walk, tell him to blind see." And I tell people, that's where everybody starts shouting. But the real revelation is usually beyond the shouting material, comma, "And tell him, blessed is he who is not offended because of me." Nobody reads or talks about that part. And what Jesus is saying is this, my life, "Is at another level of impact." You're wanting it to be like it used to be before I walked under this type of oil.

That's that, "Who do they think they are?" mentality.

And tell him, "Blessed is he who does not get offended because of the way I'm handling my ministry in my life." And it's not a, "Who do they think they are?" That's not the root of it.

The root is, They're just walking out their purpose. They're just fulfilling the promises of God over their life. And unfortunately, it may not include me or you. It may not include them. But we've got to love people enough to want them to walk out the promises of God, to ascend.

See, I got a message I preach. You've heard me— remember that message I used to preach out of Ephesians 2 called "The Picture"? Yes. God has a picture. And if so and so— if I get to a place in my life and so and so is not a part of the picture, God does not go back and redraw the picture. No. God will remove the person from my life. Yeah. So, God is in charge of my picture and God is in charge of my days, my seasons, and God is in charge of my levels. He's a faith to faith, glory to glory God. He's in charge of my levels. And if somebody is not supposed to be in my life on this level that was on this level, then it is God's responsibility to remove them. And sometimes we don't understand that because when a relationship goes in two different ways, we get so offended, we get so mad. And here's the big thing, we start character assassination. Now, let me talk about that. I made a statement a while back, baby, that I got a lot of response from on. Social media. I am not a victim. I can't stand to be around people with a victim mentality. They drag me down, and it mess— I'm telling you, I don't mind exhorting and preaching and lifting people out of it, but if you want me to come stay in it with you, I can't do it. Can't walk around with you, man. It makes me feel like I'm drowning. Right. Now, having said that, I just made a statement. I said I've got less friends than I've ever had. Oh, I remember that. I made that statement. I said, "I got less friends than I've ever had." And they put that, I think— You got some people upset about it. They were not like mad. I didn't do nothing wrong. No. But—

They were hurt that you thought you didn't have any friends because they thought they were your best friends.

Yeah. Maybe that was— I just know I got a lot of feedback. Positive and negative. What I meant by that was this: when God starts blessing you, whether it be in your business, whether it be ministry-related, whether it be economically, whether it be an influence, an impact, or on social media— there's many different ways God can elevate your life. And when God starts doing that, your circle is going to get smaller. It's true. Period. It's just going to get smaller. You know why? Because we think that a great friend is somebody that'll be there in your tough times. I think people almost take a pride in being there in your tough times. Tough times to me has never been when I've lost friends. I've never lost friends in tough times. You know when I've lost friends? When God blessed me. When I got to a level where God was bringing success or God would bring some type of achievement or a goal had been reached, I'd have friends dropping by the wayside left and right. Because they thought that I thought I was something of myself that I was not. I'm very much the same guy you met at Emmanuel College.

Yeah, the very same guy.

I'm very much that same guy, but I'm functioning in a different level. I'm functioning in a different world.

You're just walking out the blessing and the promises of God and walking through open doors that God opens for you. Yep. But in the same time, we've had many shut doors.— that other people have never seen.

They've not seen that. Well, you know, you're with me when my church has got 20 and we have a prayer night for God to give us revival, breakthrough, and grow the church, and you were in the bowels of intercession with me, and then God starts growing the church and you get mad. Why? Because it took away from the attention. Let me address that, and I want you to chime in. Another reason people when God begins to elevate their life, I probably am less inviting. Can we be vulnerable and say that? Yeah. The reason is you learn something the painful way. I think in the business world, the political world, all this, you know, you're— Senator so-and-so, you are CEO so-and-so, but in a lot of those things, maybe political somewhat, business it don't. Your private life never plays into your business life. The two can be held totally and completely separate. In the secular world. Yeah, in the secular world. You can be a scumbag and be a very wealthy stockbroker. Right. You can be a scumbag and be a very wealthy entertainer or movie mogul, or athletic superstar. It's never questioned. One does not disqualify the other. Right. However, in our world, one will destroy the other in a day. Right. Okay. None of us are without flaws. I am a flawed man. I couldn't sit here and pull nothing on you. You live with me. You know my uprising, my downfalling. You know my vulnerabilities. You know the places where I have to have you help me be accountable. You got my back. You know the things God's brought me out of, the things God's healed and delivered me from. You have all that information, all of that. You have to be careful who you invite into that information. Right. That's why people that— and people can't handle it. Right. That's why people that work on a higher plane, and I'm not being hypocritical. I've experienced it. I'm not going to call the person's name, but there was a person back in the early '90s that I— esteemed. Oh my gosh. And I got a chance for them to come to my church, and I went to pick them up myself, me and another gentleman with me. And I remember, Hope, I almost had diarrhea. I was so nervous about meeting this person. I mean, I remember when I was standing outside the door, like in a cold sweat. I esteemed them so highly because they were on TBN, and I was a guy with rabbit ears on TV watching TBN and crying, watching these guys having this global impact. He was one of those guys. Well, I got him to come to my church. I went and picked him up. He was in the car. And on the way back, he said something real off-colored. I was, what, 25, 26? I was devastated. I remember my heart sinking in the car. Do you know how unfair that is? He didn't sin. I just—

Right, he was just joking.

I just see him You thought he glowed in the dark? He's Jesus, and here's this guy, you know. And when I found out he was human— Just normal. It was such a letdown.

So, you knew how you felt in that situation. Exactly. And you're like, "Ugh, I don't wanna do that to anybody else." I don't wanna do that to anybody.

I kept my circle very small. So, in our world, you have Hope and you have Pastor Hope. —right. And what we can't get people to understand is we are not our gift. Right. Ron is not his gift. But if you've seen Ron on TV for 10 years and you are walking in a hotel and you see him in the lobby walking out, immediately, what do you want him to be? Pastor Ron. The guy on TV. Yeah.

But we're hungry and we're running late. We're running late. And we might be aggravated.

And we're agitated. Yes. And we're sunburned. And it's hot. And I've already had my plane canceled 2 times. I am not Pastor Ron.

Right.

I am a guy trying to catch a plane.

Yes. And it's not that I'm rude because I didn't stop and give you a prophecy and pray for you. I'm just in a hurry.

Right. "And so, I know the nature of it because I did it. I know better now." So, the reason you don't have that many friends is because you have to slowly allow someone in. I think this is helping somebody right here. I may be helping you understand your pastor. Somebody who can navigate back and forth between Ron and Pastor Ron. I'm very careful about you. You know why? Because you are an amazing free spirit. It's one of the things that made me fall madly in love with you. You have this thing that is amazing, but that same thing, I've always told you, it creates familiarity very quickly because you've never known a stranger. If somebody enters your house, they cousin, come on in. And so, you have this thing that is natural with you that brings people in real quickly, and they feel like they've known you for 20 years. I am not like that at all. And so, I've always—

But you don't want people to use that against you.

I don't want people to take it and hurt you. I don't want people to take that and hurt you. Right. Because you're kidding, and you're playing, but they came into Hope's room expecting Pastor Hope, and they got Hope. And then what'll happen is, if you ever offend them— They'll take that information and use it against you. They'll take everything they learned about Hope and use it against Pastor Hope. And that is why the nature of, you see, so many people who function at a high level of impact keep to themselves. They're not bad, they're not rude, they're not cocky, they're not stuck up. They're scared. Exactly. It's because— I told— I had one guy one time, he said, "Man, I would just give anything just to get behind the scenes and find out what you're like." I said, "No, you wouldn't." And they look confused. I said, "If you got to hang out with me at my house all day on Saturday, you'd be amazingly disappointed at how amazingly normal I am." I said, "I'm so normal, and you don't want me to be normal.

You want me to break every chain." But you know, I think the older you get too, You're totally fine with your circle being small. You really are.

So, I just had two guys, two couples actually, that we talked about. I talked to 'em and then I talked to you about 'em, about opening up our life to 'em. And I had a sit-down talk with 'em. And I told 'em just that. I said, "The burden is on you—" Yeah, it's not on me. "To navigate between Ron and Pastor Ron. I'm not gonna change my life." just for you to have some access. I have got to be run, and then I've got to be pastor-run. And I said, I might be flipping hamburgers and I'm run. I said, and I might flip the second one and I've shifted. And I said, and you're gonna have to know when I've shifted. I said, the burden is not on me, the burden is on you. And the people that make it with People of Impact are ones that can manage Is he in his gift or is this the man? I had a wonderful Bishop Tony Miller, you remember. I do. Tony Miller, who went to be with the Lord a few years ago. I told you, I said, "That was where God gave me a clinic in learning how to manage that." Because he was a voice, but he was a friend. And when I would spend time with him, I would literally sit there and say, "Okay, is he in his gift?" "Is this friend?" "Are we just chilling or not?" "Am I his buddy right now or is he?" Is this a word from the Lord right now? Because I remember the struggle of having to navigate. And I think one of the things that made our friendship last, even through some tumultuous times, was the fact that I tried to handle that well. And when I let the man be the man, it didn't— Can you see my weaknesses and still believe God uses me? Yeah, that's good. That's good. That's the key. I can. That's the key. You don't have a choice. I do have a choice. You don't have a choice. You go, you know, you go home every day with her. I could be ill.

I could be mad. I could use it against you, but I don't.

Yes, you could. I've told you, I said, "There's one person that could ruin anybody's life," and I said, "That's their spouse," because they have all the information. They know everything that don't work right. But that, I think this is maybe give some people some explanation who maybe lost a relationship, Or maybe you misjudged one. Maybe you misjudged what was going on. You gotta understand, it's not that they think there's something.

And too, just in a natural sense, you'll never end with everybody you start with. I mean, just look at your high school friends. How many of those are in your life?

Y'all hugged at graduation. "We gonna be together forever." And then look at your college friends.

How many of those? Have gone the distance.

Those lasted longer than high school.

But then look at the other people that's come in and out of your life over the years. You usually are friends with the people who your children are friends with, and you do things with them, and then they move to a different season. People just come and go, and you have to learn to navigate that. It's tough, but you—

but it's doable, right? Well, we've gone a little bit over our time.

I hope we helped you today.

That was a great conversation. I enjoyed that. And I think maybe it helps somebody who may have been misjudging something and offended by it. Maybe they can have a little bit of a different take on it. Absolutely. Because we have lived this now for some time. And there's not anybody I don't love. There's not anybody I'm mad at. But I have had some huge misunderstandings. And all we were trying to do was function on the level God put us at. Absolutely.

I wanna tell you about some things I got coming up in Hope Carpenter Ministries. Oh, dope stuff. Yes. Okay. It's called, "Come Higher." and it's where I take 10 to 14 women. We go rent these beautiful mansion homes and we spend 4 days together.

If I go to Come Higher, what you gonna do?

You can't, 'cause you are a man. It's only for women.

Can I come lead worship?

No, absolutely not. So, you come, I cook for you, I minister to you. We're in pajamas. Would you cook for me? I cook for you anyway, hush. Just come and relax, be in the presence of God. I always say, "Do you need time away with Jesus?" And that is such a good description of Come Higher. It's curriculum that I've written. I would love to have you. We have 2 more events, Come Highers, in the fall. One of them are already filled up, but there's one more in November in Las Vegas. I would love to have you go to hopecarpenter—

How you gonna come to Jesus in Las Vegas?

hopecarpenter.com/events.

It's beautiful. How you gonna come higher to Jesus?

Because we're not going down to the strip, Ron. We are going to be in a beautiful mansion with wonderful weather, with wonderful people. So, I would love to have you. Go get registered. Until next time, it's Ron and Hope, Unfiltered, real, raw, relevant.

We'll see you later.