Ron + Hope: Unfiltered - Greatest Advice Ever

Foreign.

Hey, everybody, it's Ron and Hope. Unfiltered, real, raw, relevant. And guess what? We're already in season two.

I felt like a Netflix, what do you call it, series or something.

We're in season two, Episode six. I mean, come on. We are doing the thing.

Your skin looks different.

What does that mean?

You've been doing different. Your skin looks different.

Ronaldo, don't call me out.

I told you the other day. I said your skin looked different and shiny and new. So what else are you doing?

Two laser treatments.

To do what? Because you said your pores were too big.

Yeah, they are.

What does that mean, Ryan?

It means.

What does that even mean?

Porcelain and smooth. And it's old skin.

So lasers can rescue you from big pores?

They say so, but I don't believe that part. I don't believe it.

But I don't understand the downside of a big pore. What's the.

Because you look like a big old navel.

Be careful. They might have somebody with big pores out there.

Well, I'm sure there's plenty of people listening who have big pores. I don't like them on me, but they say that it can reduce your fine lines and your wrinkles.

How is it? How is a big pore? What is it defined? Do I have a big pore?

Yeah, you do. I see them.

Like in my nose. Where they at?

Well, come here. I see them right here on your face. You do have some on your nose. Big pores, yes. It's not a good thing, Ron, that we have big pores.

So that's what's making it all shiny.

All glowy and new.

I think a little bit of a suntan.

Yeah. But you just brought me back from Mexico. We met with Sam Chan and they.

Need to know the truth, though. Yeah. We weren't out and sunning it the whole time.

It don't matter if we were.

We were gone five or six days and we had four days in classes.

So it doesn't matter.

We still got a little bit. We still got a little bit. I said that like torture. Sam Jand is a friend of mine, but he took a bunch of people down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to do a training conference, and we didn't even get to put our toes in the sand. I'm like, just meet in Atlanta or Dallas while we're doing this.

Why did we come here?

Yeah, like this. Torture.

Stay in the room. In the meeting room. We could have done this in Atlanta.

So, anyway, the info was great to be Here, you got a good. You got a good topic that you picked out for today. I don't know if it might run some people off or they click it when they find out what it is, but I would really like for them to hang around.

I hope they do, because we'll tell.

Them the solution to small pores if. They'll just hang around.

Small pores if. Listen, if I knew the solution to big pores, I would be a gazillionaire because big, winning.

Oh, so big pore is a dilemma across the world.

It is. It's across the woman board.

You hear that?

It is. There's.

So if you out there, who are sponsors, if you could find a potion for big pores.

Yeah, there's cream for it, there's lasers for it, there's facials for it.

Does any of it work?

I haven't found it to work yet, but we are hopeful.

All right, all right. So what's our topic today?

We're going to talk about the best advice that I've ever received. And for us, when we talked about this, because we did discuss this one today, I don't think there's one. There's one piece of advice. It's a lot of wisdom that has been showered over the years to us by great men and women. And I'm so, so grateful that we have had voices in our life who have tried to keep us from pitfalls, who's tried to help us recover from pitfalls. And, you know, there's a lot of people, Ron, who. Who do not take advice.

Well, let's talk about that first.

I love advice. I love wisdom.

Let's go there first. In my teaching series, the Wisdom Society, which we're in right now. When I started in Proverbs 1, there's three personality types in Proverbs. The simple, the scorner, and the fool. Okay? And they're detailed all the way through the book. What makes them like they are, what they respond to, what they don't respond to. And he says in there that a wise man ever increases his learning. A wise man ever increases his learning. Third John 2, I wish above all things that you be in health and prosper even as your soul prospers to the same degree. Your mind, your will, your emotions, the intellect, man of you, the intellect, part of you, the knowing and experiential part of you, that the rest of it follows that. In other words, there's a parallel track. When my mind, when my thinking, when my decision making, when what I know is being advanced, there Are other things that are prospering and advancing on what you said, a parallel track with that.

Your health.

I really like this teaching. Exactly right. Prosperity is so much more than money. I am a prosperity preacher, period. But it's because the. The Lord doesn't just prosper you in money. He came that you might have abundant life. And life is so many things. Life is what's going on in you internally, life is what's going on you financially, it's what's going on you emotionally, it's what's going on with you relationally. There's so many things to prosperity. And when my soul prospers, everything else begins to move along with that. I've said this many times. I say it again because I can't ever remember what group I've said, what to do. You cannot live above the level of revelation you have. So if I cannot live above the level of revelation I have. There's two things. The Bible says you have many teachers, but you don't have many fathers. A teacher gives you information, but you have no accountability to the teacher. He says you don't have many fathers. A father is someone who gives information, instruction, impartation, whatever you want to say there. But then he has the authority in your life, or she has the authority to hold you accountable to the information you have received. That's the gap that I'm seeing in this generation. Me too, because they saw abuses in our generation and they said, I'm going to fix my world and my bylaws and everything else where that can never happen to me. So you got people now that function isolated in a bubble. And when you're isolated in a bubble, you never have a real straight picture of reality. Your reality is how you see it.

Yeah, perceived reality.

Exactly. So we got people operating in the pulpit and in crazy lifestyles simultaneously because they listen to nobody. And there's no accountability structure. We got people reading books and ever increasing in learning. But Jesus said, in the end time, you will be ever learning, but never come into a knowledge of the truth. And I have always said a spiritual father is not somebody with a bigger business, bigger ministry, bigger bank account than you, who helps you. It's somebody who anchors you to who you really are. It's somebody who anchors you to your character. No matter how big you get, that person is the one that when you get off center, has the ability to grab you and yank you and pull you back on course.

But nobody. What do you do? I mean, those who are listening right now, hearing all this, it all sounds great. It sounds wonderful. Until somebody is trying to anchor you to your character.

That's the way it always works when.

Somebody'S trying to say, yes, but you need to stop spending money on that and you need to pay your bills. Yes, you need to stop going on vacation, but calling me when you need money.

Information is easy till it corrects. Yeah, I don't mind. Information that I agree with is not difficult. Information is difficult when somebody is using it to correct the direction that I've taken or the choices that I have making that I've made. So I think what we've got to understand is the whole thing of a spiritual mother and father. If they cannot correct you, that's all a sham anyway.

Yeah. And you're going to stay. Your life is going to be lived with a lid. Really. It really is. There are people who have been there, done that, did get the T shirt, learned some lessons and can turn around and extend a hand to you and help you. But when you are unteachable, you're just going to keep going through the same stuff over and over.

Proverbs says the guy who is ever learning, the person who is ever learning is wise. He says just the opposite about the people who are unteachable. He calls them a fool. The people who despise instruction. That's what Proverbs calls a fool.

And I've been around people like that who literally hate instruction. Like, leave me alone. Stop telling me that. I don't want to hear that. Let me live my life. I'm a grown. And they use that word, woman. I'm a grown man and like, don't teach me. I don't want to hear it. I want to do what I want to do. But if that is the attitude, you're going to stay in that stuck cycle for a very long time.

Because you can't increase until your instruction and your learning increases.

Right.

So you just repeat cycles until you get information that helps you break out. Every time I have grown, every time I have advanced, and when that means me, that means you too, because we've done it together. I can pretty much narrow 80 to 90% of it back to two things. It was instruction we received or a seed that we sowed. It's true as instruction we received. Either way, it hurt or a seed we sow. Like Jesse Duplantis, I had a church, a very fast growing church, very thriving, that was getting notoriety, and God was bringing it to prominence as a lead church, especially in the southeast region. But in much part across the United States. And he saw how you and I were struggling. And he came in and called into our Finance committee board meeting and corrected everybody in the room. I remember that was a very tense room because I was in it. He was on speakerphone. I was in the room. That was a tense room. After that meeting was over, and he said the things he said and instructed, the way he instructed it was correcting everybody in there, including me and you. Church exploded. Church exploded.

But a few people on the board didn't like it.

They resigned.

And they resigned.

They resigned. That was the beginning of the end. Because they were unteachable, because they could not receive that instruction. But the wisdom he gave caused everything as he. As he prospered our soul, Everything began to move on a parallel track with it.

And, you know, I remember that one of the hardest times in my life, I mean, in all the aspects, hardest time in my life, 2013, when I went to Living Waters and lived for nine months. And I remember. I. Ron, I can remember the feeling I felt of having to sit there with my mouth closed and no reply, no. But this is why. Just sit and have to take instruction and correction down to the point of no, I don't think you should do that right now. Right now, I think you should go outside and take a walk and do some exercise. I was 43 years old and had to sit there as a grown woman and take simple instructions, simple things, and have to grin and say, yes, ma' am and no, ma'. Am. It was some of the hardest days of my life. But I knew in my insides if I would do it, that God was so forming me and shaping me and crushing me and ultimately elevating me. The thing he was doing so deep in me, just by learning to keep my mouth shut and say, yes, ma' am and no, ma' am and take instruction, my life exploded and changed.

Mm. Your life changed and you became free.

Yes.

Freedom was on the other side. What you got to understand is. And we need to probably stop right here and acknowledge our sponsors, but move back into this in just a moment. Someone's instruction is to be cherished because their instruction has probably 9 out of 10 times come from pain. So they learn from experience. Their experience becomes information for the next generation to keep you from having pain. So I say this all the time, especially in my ministerial fellowship. Let my pain be your teacher. Be your teacher. Be your wisdom. You don't have to walk through it again. Listen to the words that I'm instructing you with and dodge these Landmines. Go ahead. We love our sponsors and we got a great one right here.

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Thank you, Nutrafol. Really appreciate you guys. Yeah. Let my pain be your instruction. Let my pain be your teacher. That is really what I think. The father and son, the Bible says in the end times, he would awaken the fathers toward the sons and the sons toward the fathers. The fact is everybody needs. Everybody needs somebody that I think can yank their chain. I'm not going to go back and tell all the stories where I've had my chain yanked. But some of these great men that they hear me name drop from time to time, who at different places have invested all of these men, almost every one of them have corrected me at some time or another. And I could have sat there and said, I'm about as old as you are.

Right.

Well, you know, why am I sitting here? You Know, taking you talking to me like that, I mean, one in particular taught me very sternly.

I think it's easy to take when you know they love you and they really do want the best. They're not trying to be mean. I mean, it's just like a natural parent to a natural son or daughter. Sometimes we have to yank their chain sometime we have to call them in and correct them. And sometimes, you know, it gets stern. But it's because we love them, we want the best for them. It's the same way in relationships.

But I think people think because of age, because of status or a level of success, they no longer need that.

Right.

I think when you've been successful, it's when you need it the most. Because success has blinders all over.

Oh, my gosh, we said the same thing.

Success has blinders all over. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Because you think, man, I know how to do this. I'm here now.

I got here because I'm smarter than that, everybody. And I got here because I know better than everybody else. And what you don't understand is you have so many blind spots. And success, failure really opens your eyes. Success blinds you. And so there's always the need for that person who can invest into your life. You had written down a few things that we went over that were some of the best advice we had.

Well, I was thinking about your dad because he was such a wise man. I mean, we could talk all day about your dad and all the things he taught us and lived before us. But I remember him in early years in the ministry, we would go through hardships with people leaving or people saying something or whatever. I always remember him saying, ron, don't hit back, Ron, don't hit back.

Because I'm a fighter by nature. I'm a fighter.

And he would say, let God fight your battles, Ron. Don't fight back. And he would say, he said to us, in that context, he said, not all battles have spoils. That's how you know when you should fight back, is if there's something to actually gain if you're going to win something. Not. Not necessarily if you, oh, I'm going to be the winner, I get the medal. No, not like that. But if there is a reason, if.

I'm going to strive, what are the spoils of victory? What is there to be gained by this if there's nothing to be gained? Don't enter. Even Jesus said that. Jesus said who? Building a house doesn't promise. Well, not first stop and see if he has enough to finish, lest he be mocked by everybody. And who with 10,000 will not wait first and see if he goes up against 20,000, can he win?

Right.

So in other words, even Jesus said, if you can't win, don't fight.

Yeah.

What he's saying, he's saying, sit back before you engage. Is this a winnable battle? Is this a hill I'm willing to die on? I say that all the time. Somebody told me something last week and I said, that just ain't a hill I'm willing to die on. It just don't mean nothing to me anymore. And I think there was this something about me when I say I'm not a fighter. I'm not talking about physically. I went around and picked up fights, but I think that something happened to me when I entered the ministry. Man, I just. I'd hunker down, put my head down and just plow through and swing at whatever I'd swing at. And I think I had so much coming against me that I was used to just swinging all the time. And by the time you hit about 30 years old, you're like, no, this ain't a fun way to live. Or everything's just a fight. And my dad would come in and say, hit back.

Yep.

What will you win? And if I couldn't answer those two, then. And what have you watched me do, especially the last few years of my life?

Don't hit back.

Just be quiet, remain silent. Very difficult to do.

It is.

I don't know that it's gotten any easier, but it has proven to be true.

It is.

Let your character speak. Let God fight your battle. And the best way to silence critics keep succeeding. To succeed. Yes. Did you hear what I said? Those of you that want your critics to go away, don't debate them, don't argue with them. Just succeed.

So good. Another one, your daddy would always tell us, is because we were learning in ministry, we were learning how to navigate, you know, people and problems in ministry and church issues and staff issues. And he would always say, ron, there's always three sides to the story. You remember him saying that? He would say, you don't take. You don't stand your ground on the first side you hear.

Let me interject. Because I was a young preacher, somebody come into my office with a complaint and I'm tore up now. Yeah, you know, I'm on.

I'm going to go fix this thing.

Haven't not talked to the other side.

Right.

And certainly haven't examined the truth outside of the two stories. And after the long haul, I have learned I don't care who they are. I don't care if you think they're the holiest people in the world and they walk on water. There are three sides to every story.

So it's this person's, this person's. And somewhere in the middle, somewhere in.

The middle of the truth, somewhere. The truth is usually not on one side or the others. Usually somewhere.

We can always, all of us, be biased. We're going to throw our slant to anything.

You know, my dad, another thing. We didn't just come here to talk about my dad, but you, you, if you didn't get to know him, you were. You missed something. He's very, very intriguing, a very unique man. He would also tell me, this is not new with him. I've, you know, I've heard it before, but when he said it, you know, life is about 90% of the things you can control and 10% of what you can't. But it'll be made up of the 10% and how you respond to it. Most of the stuff in my day, I control my day. But that little 10% that's thrown at me, how I respond to it will determine the success of my life. So, guys, make good decisions on what's under your control and make good decisions on how you respond to what's not under your control. Very, very sound wisdom. Let's do somebody else.

Besides my neighbor, John Maxwell. I love, love, love. And I have adopted this into the very fabric of my life. And it is always give more than you take. Always give always more than you take. Because, you know, in general, we won't. We're just natural humans, and we want this and we want the house, and we want the raise and we want the car, and we want the Christmas presents and we won't want. That's our natural flesh. But when he first said that, it. It like something came alive in me when I heard him say, always give more than you take. And I have tried to adopt that into my life in everything that I do, in my offerings, at Christmas time, at birthdays, for other people, at trips, trip time, yes, we'll pay for yours, you know, no matter what it is. Give more than you take.

Yep.

It's more blessed to give than it is to receive. And you don't know that until you experience it.

But our podcast is not usually time for correcting and rebuking, but if you're listening and this don't hit everybody, but it will be true with some, and you're like, why do I always end up alone? Why do I not have a lot of connections? There can be a lot of reasons. That can be your personality type can be you're an introvert. But there are people that they put themselves out there for relationships and the fact is they just don't have very many. You need to examine, are you a taker? Because I'm going to tell you, people by nature after a while will begin to dodge you. Why? Nobody can exist in a relationship where one person does all the taking. Nobody can do it. I tell people an ATM can't be in a relationship with you and you do all the taking. A bank can't be in a relationship with you and you. A spouse cannot be in a relationship. You and you do all the taking. And I don't believe some people realize how much they take. Yeah, they don't realize how much they ask and.

Yeah, and not even take or ask just by being in their presence. You drain people.

You drain.

Because it's always heavy.

It's always about you, always about you. It's always about you.

Always. You got a complaint and you always could do it better or pointing out.

Walk into. We're going to pray right here before praise and worship practice. Sunday is going to be a great Sunday. Let's go. We're going to learn these songs. And everybody will say, well, while you're praying and just change the whole tone of it because they just took a whole rehearsal practice and turned it on their practice. Yeah. And these people are so needy, they will go to different groups and turn all of it about them, which makes everybody by nature want to avoid them, start dodging them and wanting to avoid them. And so if you feel like you're that person, everybody sees you coming down the aisle and they hurry up and go down the next aisle. Then you may need to examine, do I give any. Do I bring anything to the table?

Am I a plus person or am I a negative person?

I was going to talk about the plus person a minute ago. To try to be a person, no matter what atmosphere you're dropped into, you bring something to it, you add. You are the kind of person that will always be embraced. If you bring an addition to the room you enter, if you go into a room and every room you enter, you pull from it and you make a demand on it, then you're the kind of person that will be dodged. And so always, always, always give more than you take. We got a few more and we got a little time running out.

Let's See, what about don't apologize for being blessed? Who told us that? Mike Murdoch.

Murdoch.

Years ago.

Like I said, I've always premised Mike Murdoch because I love him. Even to this day, I love him. Been a great mentor. But because he was so heavily bent on teaching people how to walk in the blessing of God, his name conjures up a lot of different responses. And so on purpose, because I don't want to alienate people I'm trying to reach. Sometimes I hesitate. Pulling up his name now. He wouldn't apologize for what he does at all. And he'll never will.

I promise you this. He has taught us some amazing principles.

But that was one thing, too. Because when we finally did start getting to a place, we could actually pay our bills and we could actually drive something that didn't stay on the side of the road broke down, and we could actually take a trip and stay somewhere a couple of nights and have a nice dinner, and you could buy me something nice. I felt bad. Really? I did feel bad.

You felt bad. Let's be honest. You didn't feel bad. You were just afraid of what somebody would say.

True, true.

You didn't feel bad about it. We knew we weren't doing anything wrong.

I'll take that correction.

Yeah. I think you just were so afraid of what somebody was going to say.

And I was amongst. We were an outreach church, and I was amongst a very needy people all the time that I loved and cherished and wanted to see their life elevated. But in the process of trying to elevate everybody else's life, God elevated ours. And I wanted to take that and hide it. Hope. I remember one of the first nice cars we ever bought.

Oh, my God.

I called it Knight Rider. Yeah, I literally called it.

Because you would only take it out at night.

Because I would only take it out at nighttime. I didn't want anybody to know that I had it. And then Mike Murdoch.

That would make me so mad.

Yeah, Mike Murdoch. And I will say this, she didn't share a lot of those same problems. They were hangups that I had. However, it was the early 2000s that he began to just slowly come into our life. And he never sat me down and talked, but he would just. He'd just throw stuff out there.

And he told us, he said, why would you be ashamed to be blessed? Why would you apologize for being blessed when it's the principles that you preach to everybody else?

Exactly.

In other words, he made us question. He said, do you really believe what you're preaching?

The same Stuff that you're trying to get to bless everybody else, it has to be able to bless you too.

Right.

And that's what Jesse Duplantis told my board. I'll never forget this. This is a scripture that I had never even put in that context. But Jesse Duplantis, you know, I was pastoring a church that was a lot of responsibility, and I made a very meager, meager wage. And what started it was I picked him up in a vehicle that was just pitiful. Pitiful. And he almost rebuked me for it. Not because he's too good for that vehicle, but because I was too far in the blessing of God to be functioning the way I was functioning. And he picked up on that very quickly. So he came in that speaker, Hope. And I remember what he told my financial board. He said, you cannot muzzle the ox while he is treading out the grain, which is something Jesus said. In other words, he's saying, this man is plowing the field that you are eating from.

Right. But he's not eating it from.

But you got to let him eat from it, too.

Yeah.

So all of you are eating from it, prospering from it. Your life is being elevated and altered from it, but you're not allowing his. And he says, you know, the ox is going to quit plowing if he don't get to eat sometimes.

Right.

And when he said that, I sat there and I'm like, he's making it very difficult to argue with him. Because the fact is, if I believe so wholeheartedly that the gospel can take your life and begin to move it, it has to be able to move mine as well.

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Yep. Love these guys. Thank you. Thank you. I'm always talking about life insurance to so many people.

You know, it's easy, Ron, to receive wisdom and advice from people who. You see the track record in their life, like the Jesse Duplantis, like the Mike Murdoch. We saw their life line up with the word they were giving us.

Their experience was consistent with what they.

Yes. We saw your daddy show us how to love people. We saw his life. He didn't hit back. He was blessed. He knew how to navigate relationships. So it was easy for us to receive those words from him. It was easy for me to. Not easy. I would do it gritting my teeth, but I knew that I had to because I saw the fruit in her life, in Pastor Denise, what God had done in her. So I said, God, I want that. So I'm going to listen to her. You got to find somebody that you love, somebody that you respect, that you've seen, do the work, be able to speak into you, be able to. To shift you, to mold you, to. To correct you, to stop you, to warn you. And there's so many people, literally, that I know today, that I've had conversations with in recent days who are just unteachable, but their life is miserable. Their life is just miserable. And I don't want to live like that.

Nope. You say, how can I get a person like that in my life? Number one, you ask God. Yeah, you ask God to send people like that in your life. Send voices like that in your life. And, you know, do you have a shepherd? Does anybody shepherd your life? You need that because his rod and his staff comforts you. That means his corrective elements are the things that brings you comfort. But not only that. When God does bring them, submit to it, Understand? You prayed for it, you asked them in, and you're fine till they say something that hits you contrary. They say something hits you contrary. Well, I know better.

Well, you know, you know a good place to practice, you know a good place to start. This is if you have godly parents. I didn't say they had to be perfect. But are they godly? Are they God fearing? You know, have. Have they done the work? You need people listen. You need to listen to the Advice of your parents. Your parents love you, and that's a great place to practice. I don't believe that God will open the door for people to have other voices in your life, disrespect your biological parents who are trying to just mold you, shape you, guide you, and want the best for you.

Yeah. And you say, how do I know who these people are? You know them by, like, anybody else. You know them by their fruit.

Yeah.

Like what she was talking about. We watched their life and the things they would tell us. We saw these things happening in their life. Their life was consistent with that. Last thing we want to say is to forgive quickly. Ah.

Huge.

Forgive quickly. Forgive quickly.

Don't let the sun go down on your wrath.

I'm a processor. You've learned me. You can tell what kind, how you work with things. When I get done wrong. I had something I had to process. The other day. We got some news. That was 180 degrees.

Yeah.

From what I had previously heard. And I told you, I said, give me a minute. I said, I got to be mad for a minute. But the Bible says, be angry and do not sin it. Don't tell me to never feel anger. The fact is, God built me to feel angry. And I.

But you got to deal with.

I felt somewhat misled. I didn't feel lied to, but I felt somewhat misled. And I just told you. I said, I'll get rid of this. I said, I just need a minute. I need a minute to flush it. And usually by the end of a day, usually, unless it's just a profound wound, I can get something flushed out of my system, and I can literally go on. But as you get older and your days become more precious, you realize more than ever how unforgiveness does not benefit you on any level.

No. It keeps you in bondage.

Right. So for forgiveness frees who.

It frees me. Yeah. And. And the scripture, don't let the sun go down on your wrath. That is. That's just showing you. You have to move on it quickly. You got to deal with your heart and your offense quickly. Because the longer you let it sit and fester. That's exactly what it does. It festers. It gets worse. It begins to grow and take root.

It plants, it takes root. It's. I don't know if. I don't know if the word of God meant that literally or figuratively. You know, some things are symbolic in the Bible. Some things are literal. You know, literally don't lay down until you have dealt with that thing. I believe it may be literal. I believe there's something about being able to rest with unforgiveness. There's something not healthy when you can rest, I think then it begins to plant and it can be very easily from that point become a root system in your life, which brings about a whole other set of problems. So I think he does say when you feel that offense, you know, when you've been offended, you know, when you feel that offense, it needs to be addressed quickly and it needs to be dealt with as quickly as you can. I address it quickly, but it takes me a minute to flush it. Yeah, I don't know why.

I used to say. I used to say Ron holds grudges. He don't hold grudges.

I just gotta walk it off to walk it out. Hey, and you know what? I'm gonna credit you. You don't have a lot of close people to vent to. That usually comes out on you. You usually have to hear me getting rid of it, you know, and you do graciously. And I don't ever come to you. I don't think and want you to fix it. But you're my sounding board. You're my sounding board. I gotta get it out. I gotta get it out. And you'll sit there and graciously let me.

And if it's gone too long, I.

Will tell you now, Ron, we need to bring an end to this and just go ahead and get it out of our system. But I'm just being very transparent with the people that are here. I don't usually have long term grudges, but it usually will take me a minute because I have to just. Man, I can't believe they just did that. Wow. And I just got to.

We've had some amazing people in our life, haven't we? To speak into our life and to give us wisdom, to help pull us out of holes and to give us grace.

Let me give one more. Yeah, let me give one more. Tommy Barnett. I tried to do this without crying. We'll end on this one. Tommy Barnett. You know, back in the 90s when we were starting, there were probably only five hate the term mega churches in America, maybe eight. And he was one of them. He was doing it when nobody did church that held 8,500 people and he was having multiple services. Phoenix, Arizona. Just a renowned church builder, a magnetic personality and always made you believe big when you got around him. He just made God so big and you just felt like, man, I'm not believing God for anything, you know, and 30 years have passed. Almost about 25, 26 years have passed. And he was a 60 year old man when he came to our church and. And gave us a bigger world to look at. And I saw him at a meeting and I told you I ran down to the front because I just wanted to speak to him because I literally have not seen him since that time. He brought such a multiplication to our church. He turned around, he knew exactly who I was, said Ron Carpenter. And he put his hands on my shoulders. I was just so glad just to be in his presence. And he listen, Hope. I hadn't seen the guy in almost three decades. He's now in his late 80s. And he looked at me and said, I have one regret, Ron. I'm just seeing him. He said, I regret that I didn't believe God bigger.

Wow. Wow.

My only regret is that I didn't.

Believe God bigger because he met every expectation and he went further and higher.

And deeper in wider man changed everybody's life he ever came in contact with. So as we leave today, I'll leave you with this. Believe God bigger.

Wow.

Yeah, don't have that regret. I don't have the regret of I barely believe God. I want to believe God big. And if I swing, I want to swing short of believing God big. You know what I'm talking about. We love you guys.

We do.

We share it and we appreciate you sharing this time with us. And I hope that some of the things that have been spoken in our life, we've turned around and been able to speak into yours. A lot of it was with stories, a lot of it maybe with comedy, but there's some stuff down in there and what we said today. So take those things to heart.

And if you love Ron and Hope unfiltered, please share this Share with all of your friends and family on your Facebook, on your Instagram.

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Love you guys.