Iris After Hours - Episode 89 - Rolland Baker

hi welcome back to Iris after hours we love you guys it's so good that you're back with us and we have got our Poppa back yeah today Roland it's always a pleasure to have you I'm just here to get entertained by you make this in the mood for a great podcast today in Astana mm-hmm and we've got the man of God our mentor and my spiritual papa Neil real Papa Papa Roland welcome I just want to ask you guys some questions I'm trying to find somebody you're gonna answer my questions yes what's God made out of where do you come from why is there God oh when I was five years old I was super worried about eternity you know what's gonna happen when I don't have mom and dad anymore that was one serious kid sorry that was I was being a Papa Roland he's trying to well you think you were gonna die I knew I wasn't gonna be around forever I knew everything we see is temporary I just knew that as a kid so the why didn't you think that your mom and dad will be no cuz they kind of get old and die you're not gonna be around forever in fact I was upset because nothing we see is permanent that's the death oh my gosh that was a photographer you know and I was taking pictures and I wasn't realizing well you know so you take a picture and it's done it's gone it's in the past you can't keep it you know that was philosophically repressed as a ten-year-old as far as all that my gosh laughter yeah but there's guys yeah exactly it's gone you've got the picture of it in the memory but yeah it's it's it's done oh no that still freaks me out about today because when you're kids and they growing up and you see the changes it's like I can never hold my little Debbie as a baby anymore these are Zoey you can never hold baby Zoey she's a little girl Zoey now I'm just saying as a 10 year old I couldn't stop thinking about eternal things I'm gonna question for you why did God choose to make us his kids cuz I'm gonna be a kid again like my mom and dad saw me as a cute little baby I was very obviously know what the world will never have Cuban baby Nathan ever again because that was not even its vanity that was just temporally so childhood is why God make this special toilet it's just here that was gone and it can never be recovered becoming mature as a Christian is all about growing down that's not about growing up it's about becoming a kid again it sets us free nothing to worry about perfect saviors takes the place of mom and dad you know you have all eternity he knows the desires of your heart and he's gonna repay you a hundred times over for everything you did and suffered for him and it's all gonna be okay you can be a kid again spiritually you get to go back a kid doesn't worry about where the next dinners coming from unless your refugee and yes they're here somewhere but would you like to be a kid again and absolutely not worry about paychecks or a trend or a shopping or that's where I'm trying to be at the money that get my life getting your new card editor you know just don't worry about anything I receive it but hustle Paul said do not be anxious about anything so I looked up the great for anything anything anything anything yeah absolutely anything what but that's a lucky that's a slap in the FATA right there is a shameful us Christians but in everything by prayer and Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to the Lord and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and then Jesus and the sermon the mount says you know I have no anxiety don't worry about tomorrow why be anxious like the Gentiles your heavenly Father knows what you need look at the birds look at the flowers and we went to Moe's a big to the poorest nation on the world to preach that that was the big conflict you know first of all you take an impossible promise like that and then go to the people in the world that are least likely to ever know anything like that and see how the two come together that's the most ultimate test of the gospel we could think of I think that was from the Lord you know yeah it's this the big thing iris has always been about take this incredible gospel and take it to the neediest craziest most damaged war damaged crazy suffering atheistic place with full of natural disasters and poverty and see if the sermon on about Fitz or her Philippians three from once was that's what little hole reason we went to Africa what's good beans three Hebdo anxiety about anything rejoice in the Lord always forgot where this is for Millennials you only read the Bible first so did you literally just look up poorest nation in the world well Heidi you know it was told by by Jesus in her initial Holy Spirit baptism encounter Jackson Mississippi I want you to be a minister and a missionary to Asia England in Africa yeah but it's big place that's specific people thought we were crazy to spend a lot of time in one place and then completely change and go to another place and then change again and go to another place but that's what he said and he said it to a woman very confusing so we knew we were going to Africa eventually we already spent 12 years in Asia and three years in England and it was time it started when we were sitting in Hongkong and you were about five no younger before oh I should have peach three or four yes and I'm reading a Time magazine article I'd never heard of Mozambique and it's talking about this war going on in this big East African country and how absolutely tragic it was how unbelievably unspeakably crazy of us is talking about United Nations trucks coming in to help the wielded landmine victims and all of that and instead that rebels would just blow up the Red Cross trucks oh my god people come in to health mana to aid medical care and the rebels are just blowing up Red Cross trucks and it was talking about all the other absolutely unspeakable things going on in the country so I looked up pied he was in the room and I said hey Heidi you want a real mission field listen to this and I read the article to her in her instant responses let's go there they need us they need help and everything else is history yeah we went to London next because that's next on the list and we had to we had to study for PhDs you know I had to do that in theology to find out what doesn't work but but England was absolutely necessary preparation for Africa they were dealing with Street sleepers and you know really strung out people on the streets that were badly ill or violent or you know really dangerous we were told that of them would ever respond they would just as soon slit you throw over there switchblade does listen to you and but we found out eventually that that wasn't the case we got a after a while we had a church for street sleepers called believers center and it became a family a real family and these homeless people would walk clear across London for hours in shoes that have been hadn't taken off in six months and crowded into our little flat you know it got really fragrant and eventually we had a family that we all got together every birthday Christmas Easter you know long holidays and we just become a real tight family and wasn't just street sleepers it was also pinstripes businesspeople from the city and and graduate students that the University of London and we're all mixing up together and rollin on the floor together in the holy spirit it prepared us and you watched a lot of this people pounded our doors at night threatening to break in and slit our throats and and mentally ill people bipolar people violent people you know grabbing Heidi on the streets and banging her against walls and beating her up because you know I thought she was a fake and a hypocrite and we can give them what they wanted and all this event and a year later they'd watch her all this time just taking all this abuse and just loving back and and eventually break down and weep and get saved and so all these supposedly unresponsive people eventually responded deeply and and the researchers you know told us that this big tribe of the Makua in Mozambique that we've been specializing with were unreached and unreachable they said you know the fish aren't biting there you're wasting your time go where the fish are biting make the most of your time go to the big population centers and go to the big cities and it'll trickle out to the countryside you know start with pastors legends and businessman gatherings and government leaders and you know have some influence but everything turned out to be the opposite the exact opposite an exact opposite lots of we had lots of testimonies in London then they encouraged us like one time this guy from Scotland was really really depressed he'd reached the total end of himself and he's on a freezing Street in the winter London in an alley and in the dark finally some guy comes by and just despises him and urinates right on him in the dark you know in his rags and and that was the end you know he was ready to commit suicide he was just totally down and he hears a voice your redeemer lives and he kept hearing it and he didn't know anything about who that Redeemer might be but he heard that there was a group on the streets talking about some sort of stuff like that and he found out where we lived and he walked for hours across London knocked on a door about 6:00 in the morning I said hey I was just in the ditch and I have been hearing this voice for the last few hours your redeemer lives can you tell me so full of the spirit and got so saved and that was our missions training great clear you know good clear experience it was stuff like that that's amazing that prepared us for the bush people of Africa so what was your first experience going into Mozambique my first experience in Africa was Dar Salaam Tanzania cuz you thought you'd go there first yeah because Mozambique was still at war at the time you had to sneak in you had to swim rivers full of crocodiles to get into Mozambique yeah it was it was just really really really crazy for outside didn't get a visa you had to sneak in so we tried to get as close as possible which is the next country but nearby Tanzania and the capital ear Starr Salaam and there we met some people that wanted us to help them start a Bible School but that's you know very very tense area you know racially and spiritually religiously a very tense area between different religions to say the least and so the people that envisioned this Bible School we're so security conscious they started planning this Bible School with the idea of building thick walls like a castle with turrets at the top with guns and all to protect us from the leader was from Korea and he was a black belt kungfu guy okay and his whole idea of a bible school was we decided that was gotta be our approach so but we did look up on the internet trying to find the poorest country in the world and it coincided with that Time magazine article you know it was actually most big right right at the bottom rung of the nations of the world and quality of life and per capita income and healthcare and you name it 500 years of colonialism 500 years of slavery world's worst natural disasters and flooding communism atheism total collapse of the economy AIDS epidemic half the children dead before their five so many public buildings all blown out and bomb craters everywhere and no roads you can really drive on you know pretty crazy bombed out car experience don't you when you first drove into Mozambique where any Emir Miss situation the truck I was driving in stop running this is from going from South Africa to Bose in video so we always had to fly and yeah almost torture we're almost at the border and I was so eager to finally get into the country of our missions destiny but our our car started to die the engine started to act like it was getting gas in the water fuel and just quit running right in front of the customs gate but all of a sudden a whole bunch of soldiers started yelling and screaming a helicopter came overhead everybody's all excited and we found out that the car right ahead of us that we would have followed had our carbon operating was all shot up by bandits and we would have been all shot up if we had her car had worked and we pushed the car around and it ran perfectly and I just stopped it you don't have to save my life and if I ever told you that friend of mine has exactly the same testimony I'd really be born again yeah my brother's my wife marry her brother Nick he was doing missions work in South Africa when they went to go to motivate Corrie a similar time and their car stopped and would not stop them really and then it was it was nothing wrong with the car eventually but that basically they're blocking it there was bombed the cars that went through got bombed hmm yeah that was before that was before the nice new end for highway that you know about you know just South Africa in those days it was just it was still dirt when I got there though yeah when you first got there it was yeah the road is just a rough old two-lane road full of bomb craters and landmines and which means cars had to crawl through all the dips and holes and and that made it easy for bandits to jump out and get you because it took hours and hours and hours to go a few miles there were so many abandoned cars on the sides of the road buses along the way are these carcasses of Rick's of cars all burned out and it was really a warzone and you got into the capital city finally and there's hardly any cars on the road it's like like death it was just quiet nothing almost nothing in the shops which is crazy now cuz it's oh it was never designed for all the people there are now yeah it takes hours to drive I used to spend two hours a day each way driving you to school what just yeah just am a puto from San Pedro to their missionary school all this traffic was just chaos was always dissing tents and it's this is the worse now it's made than top 100 cities of the world it's like number 99 all right now it's why it's the biggest cities in the world look we don't made it now it's full of nightclubs and cabarets and street music and everything else going on the magazines are now calling it the hippest city in southern Africa oh really yeah anything anything goes it's like Savannah Cuba or something you know it's just whatever you know what contrast thing yeah it's when you Communist era is over now it's every man for himself the back alleys are still is poor and dingy and black and as they everywhere yeah but there's all these new shops and hotels on the front side but the bush where 90% of the country lives is still the same they're still living like they did to the Stone Age thousands of years ago legs dick cut dirt floor rope bed an iron pot and that's it and animals animals chickens they don't have any pillars on the wall they don't have a toothbrush they don't have a piece never seen a piece of paper or pencil or crayon that asleep oh he's like going back in a bottle time probably haven't had a any sort of bath or shower anything in months and years you often have to walk hours just to get a bucket of water out of a muddy hole in the ground the way off somewhere come on so different is it yeah yeah two-thirds illiteracy rate the average walk to a medical clinic was 25 miles and then you need they don't have any medicine so we picked we took separately picked the most broken down place we could find that's amazing question is what would make a person do that it's a great question to ask yourself in Ares missionary sin especially why would like the early missionaries totally leave their home country and culture and family never expect to see them again and often didn't expect to live more than six months or so in Africa and that would tighten with him yeah yeah my grandfather never expected to come back to the states ever well neither did Heidi in 1980 and I we looked like Fuller Brush people you know we were carrying everything we could carry there was no weight limit in those days you know we came on that plane just bristling with stuff you know because we'd never thought we would ever see America again Wow carried everything we could possibly carry you know 270 pounds suitcases each and all kinds that carry-on you know if sticking out and hanging on tight on kids one time people gave us gave me hundreds and hundreds of toothbrushes to take back and I really did look like a Fuller Brush man getting on the plane off please yes hundreds and hundreds of toothbrushes and we brought them all the way there and of course pretty soon they're all gone stolen sold you know give it away nobody had toothbrushes anymore we used to bring forks and plastic forks and spoons and oh there they're all gone pretty soon oh gosh it's a completely different world but one time I asked Chris sweet mom and I guessed you guys in elijan where would you like to live we'll go anywhere you're more important than the mission field what would you like a nice perfect place in Singapore or Switzerland or Mayfair you know in London or Baja on a ranch or Montana or and you guys both said no we both sebek's our favorite country mom you can't go anywhere what about your visions what about your colleague we are not going anywhere we were actually very serious we were totally serious cuz it was a little bit rough you're almost hoping they would say say someplace like you know Hollywood yeah we didn't have a school you know we came there without any plans to how to educate you guys and all of a sudden flat buyers comes in it was my teacher when I was in missionary boarding school in Taiwan and here comes right when we need him with a big container full of school supplies and he has no way of getting into the country but we had already been there a little little while and we got to be introduced to the government and got him visas and everything and he just shows up and sets up a great school and it was like it was like having a couple of is like suddenly God providing a couple of PhD educators on the sponson organization that starts schools on the mission build around the world yeah 4m k space and they picked out the puto just when we needed them yeah that's really busy imagine mom teaching you math and science no people still say that like well you were homeschooled I guess right and I'm like are you crazy like when was that of Athens no no hood so she learned perfect Portuguese and she even went to Brazil and all her friends were Brazilian or Portuguese and it was like her when she was in London she developed a perfect Queen's English accent yes and then she goes to her grandparents place in Montana Kalispell and and in one semester gets a and their cowboy accent how do you mom how's everything you know just lasted completely and then they'll I show you know he ends up teaching classes at that missionary school because he's read far more than the teachers so knowing science and math come on but anyway what would make Christians take God so seriously what is it about Christianity that would make people lose their lives for it and Pandy priced to be Christians what's it all about because you would think from a lot of teaching today that Christianity is a way to get rich and so we had to get favor yes we had to get blessing and it's still way to take over and it's a way to get what you want it's the way to control God and it's a way to get your prayers answered didn't sense a way to you know have haven't unearthed what would make someone move to Mozambique oh yeah good question overall I mean for why would people give up anything for Jesus he's supposed to help us get everything we want why would we give up anything that he wants why would we give up anything to have his way when his way is supposed to be our way it's a good question so I'm just saying there's kind of a divide in the church here no it's kind of like a why in the road but one thing that the Angels explained to my grandfather's kids in China in that outpouring you know envisions beyond the veil if you're coming back to that you have to read that book these Christian must read small and can really read it and the short time for foul but you don't need big books don't actually if I see Testament its testimony I don't have to read a big thick book to get really touched and you don't have to write a lot of books to have a big impact just one book like that because mostly it wasn't what my grandfather thought it wasn't like okay what can what he came up with it was what he witnessed it says what he watched he couldn't do anything about it he didn't try to start it he didn't know how to stop it you didn't know what to think it just was what happened I'm believing it's revelation and it's one of the most thorough long lasting out prayers of Revelation on more people than I've ever heard of actually in church history I've actually never in all the church history heard of an equivalent to that certain mystics for a certain while like a day or two or at a time or something like that but we're talking about a whole large large group of kids off the street having visions all day long and all night long week after week after week commonly coming out of visions just briefly to get a bite to eat or go to the bathroom and then they're back in visions the rest of the day not just one or two or three kids but all of them having the same sort of vision seemed totally consistency seeing all these Bible stories of the Bible which none of them knew none of them ever heard of anyway angels came to these kids and said your job on earth is to stand at the foot of the cross where the road divides into there's the narrow difficult road that goes up the mountain is full of trouble and hardships and you have to navigate a lot of stuff you know like pilgrims progress and it's dangerous and there's a lot of traps and temptations and hardships and warfare and trickery and enticement along the way but that's the only way to get to the celestial city oh my gosh it's so caring gee I'm on the right path yeah something seems right about my life then there's the broad easy way that goes down to destruction and the big crowds of people all going down the big Broadway they could see in visions and it's easy and lots of people are going that way the vast majority people are going that way and the kids job the angel set was sustained at the foot of the cross you know where you when you find salvation and warn and persuade people to the limit of their ability go out and persuade people to the limit of your ability talk to them do you see anyone coming back you know from that Broadway going down do you realize what's right around the corner don't you realize life is short don't you realize that everything we see is temporary don't you realize you know you need to think ahead everything you can possibly think of to persuade people that was the job angels gave her orphaned kids but you hardly hear that anymore I'm thinking of Jesus sending out the 72 to do science and wonders you know yes you told him to go out and heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead you know really receive freely give eat whatever is set before you you know just don't just carry staff in sandals or not even a bag just go and he empowered them to do these miracles gave them authority and they came back all excited I mean really excited the demons are subject to us you know is they were just so thrilled that their signs and wonders and all the supernatural they were seeing and Jesus says I'm just reading here I saw Satan fall like a lightning from heaven you know and I've given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and overcome all the power of the enemy nothing will harm you and then Jesus says however do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you but rejoice that your names are written in heaven that's the big deal signs and wonders are what we do along the way to help people but that's not the big deal yeah this is a being game we do why should we rejoice no matter what what is the big deal that fires Christians and their makes them willing to give up anything is that their names are written in heaven that takes care of everything it does it really done the whole point of missions is to share that and if you have that how can you not share it that is it and so whatever the price is Paul says my life is worth nothing to me I mean how many preachers and ministers say that to the people my life is worth nothing to me if only I can finish the task God gave me of testifying to the gospel of His grace in Christ Jesus Wow it's not about me in my life and how much I can enjoy it down here right away it's not what it's about what it's about is that a hundred thousand people are dying every day without any knowledge of Jesus at all the lost literally lost in the end what motivated my grandfather is the same thing that got us to Mozambique which is Jesus parable of the Good Shepherd 99 sheep we're in this in that you know they're all in the shelter and they're all okay and everything's fine and comfortable but just one out there on the mountainside somewhere in the cold and in the night and stuck in the friar bushing and he's determined to go out and find that one and all the angels of heaven are more happy about him getting found then all the rest are all okay 99 which is why my grandfather went as far as he could to find that less lost sheep in the in the mountains of China Tibetan West China he couldn't get any farther he got three days yet three from the nearest white man he just couldn't get any more remote it's very removed and she's been there this remote but China's actually built a road there now that whole trip we're imagining what that was like in those days without cars and a road and yeah he called things out there it's amazing yeah so that was what angels told my grandfather's kids the Christian life in this world right now temporarily is about it's not about just enjoying heaven right away and not worrying about anybody else just you know living as comfortably as you can and getting everything you want mm-hmm we're in a war The Devil's trying to take as many people down as possible separate his kids from God's kids from him and we're created for him created because God loves to be loved and he wants companionship and doesn't want to be alone in the rest of eternity but man we have an enemy on our hands and you look at the shape the worlds in and you realize we are in some kind of fight yeah and this is a war zone this is not heaven right away though we get downpayments along the way we get refreshment along the way we get we get clued in we get taste of the powers of the age to come but they weird strangers and pilgrims here scripture tells us to think about things above not on things on earth yeah for the things that we see are temporary the things that are unseen are eternal we're patiently waiting for a kingdom not made with hands kept safe in heaven for us yes so that's what we're trying to emphasize in Irish we're trying to get back to the basics of the faith once and for all delivered to the Saints and get back to the real key issues and their real predicament to the human races in either do you think it needs the devil role and then it's got us off track seducing us with well the cares of this world and ultimately actually everything in this world is a distraction Wow right from where we're going to be yeah really the first time this plane says don't love the world or anything in it yeah but what about airplanes and fast cars and new computers and cats and and babies and rainbows unless that's down here yes yeah high five Sundays and tennis courts and beaches and family trips to Yosemite and Jeep Cherokee Cherokees and if there's a lot of stuff down here in his mane when I was 20 I didn't like that first at all I was interested in so many things I've subscribed about 25 magazine Cystic because I wanted to be interested interested into all that all this stuff so that was a photographer Road & Track magazine and a soccer world and Sea World and Wow so I could see you see yeah yeah yeah please see magazine yeah come on yeah I bet how you skiing you know I was another major interest it's no scheme that's where to find a missionary wife yeah life is short it's extremely short and I think what the devil would like to do is for us to completely forget about the next life yes forget about it to see how much you can get out of this life you get a good job doesn't he does extremely I have it I have to consciously try to think about heaven in my life and I try that getting in there but it's not like it's my natural well my natural things whatever I see in front of me that's what I'm what do you do yeah let me - I mean I used to have to force myself to pray and force myself to think about eternity and force myself to think about salvation and force myself to keep my faith in Jesus and and now I can't help it there's no way not to think about it there's no way to not be prey there's got to a tipping point some way well I wouldn't say it was overnight yeah I'd say you know I still still growing day by day like I say you go down you know as you get older you get you more realize how far short you follow the glory of God you know you don't get more impressed with their holiness you get more impressed with His grace well maybe what happens if the aleutian see baby self get destroyed along the way your illusions of self grandeur get down meet meet some reality along the top there's a verse in the Bible Psalm 73 25 and of course I've read it on my life but it took a long time for it to start meaning something and now it means a whole lot more and the author says who do I have in heaven but you Lord and Earth has nothing I desire besides you all right how many people feel that way right now say ah how many people actually feel that way that's a slap in the FATA it's true Roland the fact is I think most people use Christianity for their own ends not for the glory of God Wow they use Jesus because they want stuff that they love and they know they can that they think they can get it from God get it from Jesus it's not Jesus they love so much that was a lollipops come from the god of my night is what he did I guess they think Jesus can give them what they really love yeah and that's the deception there and that's called prostitution well obviously if you need stuff you should go to Jesus you know yeah guts upset if you need things you don't go to him you go to other people are yeah but but it's not just that if it's just that way like pray if all the only reason you praise just to get stuff yeah or to make things happen or do a miracle or something you pray because you love God you want to talk to him about everything Communion absolutely everything that's the whole point it's this companionship Christianity is about as a person it's not a bunch of projects or ideals or you know amazing visions or you just want that person so bad that nothing else competes yeah yeah a pot from the gifts that he gives say well why it quite a pot yeah well some people say signs and wonders are what Christianity is all about what we should be doing but signs and wonders are just a way they're just tools for us to benefit each other yeah it's like saying the whole point it married just to wash the dishes fix the house and mow the lawn supernaturally and I say no it's about your spouse you know somebody's not not the end of themselves in the Christian life and it's not what we preach we don't preach signs and wonders and yet among our churches we've seen more there than anywhere so next appraiser likes to say we don't chase them they chase us we can't get rid of them yeah that's a good thing they would understand to hire us isn't it really yeah no place that needs health and wealth and prosperity more than wasn't be come on but we don't preach health wealth and prosperity no but they follow we put millions of dollars into Mozambique every year and it's just getting more all the time and now with the University and everything is just it's just exponentially growing but that's not what I'm chasing yeah I'm just chasing Jesus and guess what comes along with him next if you don't chase Jesus you don't actually get a whole lot of all this stuff that you you're trying to major on yeah because he doesn't want to he doesn't want you to is want to sacrifice you and your best from the leader into deception have a serous a better school when the gift she says something like God doesn't want anything you're a guest at the expense of you yeah God doesn't wanna give you a gift at the expense of losing you this year it's all know what the biggest challenge in Africa is and come to think of it as the biggest challenge anywhere and there's Sermon on the Mount again when when Jesus says seek first his kingdom and his righteousness all these things will be yours as well yeah conferences and miracle Crusades and the poor everybody try to get all the other things as well but until we see people literally starving for his kingdom and righteousness haven't seen real revival I mean starving for it where you just rather be perfect and holy and righteous and happy and pure and peaceful that anything you don't care if your house is bigger little or rich or poor or anything as long as you have a pure conscience Wow gosh that's what we need to be our own that's personal transfer I mean you just really don't care at all anymore they have an old car or a new car or this or that if Jesus blesses you with one because he loves you great but that's not where your heart is you can't split your heart you can't be after money and God both Jesus said whoa preach it Roland can't have both I hear both and more all the time I've even heard of both Hamburg conferences I'll just be really bold we've had both in more diverse comes me events but I'm just sticking up for what I read here somebody write it coming now take Psalms 27 for one thing I asked from the Lord this only do I see whoa it's just by itself catches my attention yeah that's kind of important I know this babies yeah if there was only one thing you could ask only one thing you could seek what would it be whoa and he says that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in his temple and seeking Him is the command most often given in Scripture mmm it's the first week requirement of God that you seek his face that's why it's our first core value yeah God says you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart so that should be the number one occupation of our life it's not something you just do at one point now you're a Christian now let's get on with the business of changing the world now we continue to seek Him because there's always well you know I often think about how to motivate people to see God more but that's pitiful if you have to find a way to get people to try to seek Him if they don't have a river of living water coming out of them and they just don't naturally want him or you can't make them but a spectacular think happens when God gets inside you and puts a spirit inside you so that you just don't want anything else but him and you're not forcing yourself you're not disciplining yourself your justice all you want yeah and that's the process sometimes is it so much the well it's a lifetime process yeah but man that's the direction to go in yeah oh yeah absolutely mmm because then you actually go in for what really matters I mean you know it's like that thing even the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing but Jesus Jesus is pretty mean people ask me where do you talk about Jesus all the time there's so many other things to talk about I go really like what he's the creator all good things came come out of him car in him and there's no good thing outside of him and all that all good and perfect things are in him Paul uses that phrase in him all the time mm-hmm Christ in you the hope of glory and I often say we hide it I want to do this you know we feel this way in the Lord and I add that phrase in the Lord a lot yeah just in him that we live and move and everything and have our good attitudes and comprehension and direction so Psalm 73 says whom I have i well know back to 42 as the deer pants for the water Brooks sold my soul pants for you Oh God and I'm not gonna try to discipline and make them to push anyone to do that but the ministry is really betrothing people to to Jesus that is the matchmaking that's your goal for us you don't just tell people hey do this and that and you'll go to heaven you you need to be trow them to the Lord it's not mechanical it's not religious is some ultimate love affair which is what life is made of yeah it's so the real question is how much of a love affair do you have the biggest sin is not do you do not want Jesus that the real issue is do you want him enough Lord has revealed that you know that the big complaint against the church is not they don't want me is that they don't want me enough he says I mean it's like marriage is a what a marriage is IND because couples get distracted and get the focus off of the desire with a partner yeah yeah yeah well like it things come in offenses or you know and that's it's it's as very super designed so we'll just put that thought about here then it's just it's a similar thing isn't it cuz it's that's what marriage is meant to be marriage is meant to be about the love and desire well that's a huge huge subject in counseling and spiritual disciplines at all ultimately is marriage really supposed to be romantic all the time or is it just a kind of a vehicle to keep the family together and keep society going and you know and organized and keep us civilized kiba civilized and and is it is a living arrangement it's an economic arrangement is it a unit that keeps society together and some you know story and psychologists anthropologists say well this whole idea of romance is kind of a new thing in history meet Song of Songs God why would God make us and why would anybody go through all this toughest if it isn't for something worth dying for I think that was something someone recorded but I keep telling people don't ask don't join don't join Tyra see if you can possibly do anything else and don't support at least so they don't join ours and let you possibly do anything else if ya don't support it either if you can possibly not I would say that if you but if you don't feel compelled to give by an inner spirit in it from God no there's no point yeah the transformation the personal transformation and your authenticity of your relationship with God has got to be primary before way that happens and you just hiding I decided in the very beginning we did not want to play the missionary game if we couldn't actually demonstrate and live and preached the Sermon on the mountain this does not even get started not even not even get up and go anywhere not make a stab at it is just we we're gonna love God and we're not gonna take any substitutes we're not gonna live for something else we're not to live for ourselves or our ambitions or our comfort or anything there's no plan B there's no all the eggs are in one basket if you can't take care of us and pay for us and we're supposed to scrounge around and beg and act like beggars and just go to the church for everything we need and try to get out everything we want out of other people instead of going to God for everything so that's not worth it we're not going to die for that and keep her whole life away for that no I of the authenticity of Eugene so weird weird we're dead serious in our early missionary trips which are far more rigorous and than anything we do now I would do my best to talk people out of coming with us we would need a group of 15 or so to go for six months around Asian anybody that tried to join us I would say do you really don't want to come with us it's just gonna be way harder than you think and you really don't know what you're getting into we're gonna be in communist areas of the Philippines and China and here's we don't know where we're we're going to stay or what we're gonna eat or anything you really don't want to get into all that I did that the more they would weep and throw themselves on the ground on the carpet and go with crying crying pound and we got to come to you recall we have to come with you until we had 15 and then nobody wanted to come anymore so it's always been there it's always been that way so good God has to provide in every possible way here we're not gonna play the game that's our second core value depend on God for everything miraculously yeah Wow it's not that we hope he steps in once in a while to help out it's that the whole ballgame is in his hands yeah it's totaled you really have to trust your whole life with it if you're not gonna give your life with this don't do it you know so if it's not worth giving your life for it don't preach it don't teach it don't write it don't don't go anywhere how's that for anything specific in 2018 I'm excited about things that I cannot imagine and cannot dream up don't expect because all these years I realized all the great things that have happened none of them were things that I view was ambitious for I could have predicted or planned on and what keeps me going is the fact that every day we have the potential of getting know God better which to me means things that are I never expected better than I thought could never have done on my own could not have engineered come out of yes imagine Christianity could not have called into being because you know it's it's I want next year to be totally unpredictable Wow it's not like I want I know I know I was just a corporation now we have vice presidents in six months when your budgets budgets and plans put together but what I personally am really wanting is for God to do things we just did not expect you know just God just break us loose take us to places we've never been show us things we never understood make everything better than we ever thought would ever happen take us just take us and just show your glory you know that glory I mean more love peace and joy in the Holy Spirit than we ever thought possible how that looks at how it's gonna be done man if I could predicted it wouldn't it wouldn't be that and it would be small ways guys small yeah I'm kind of the opposite you know everybody wants us to take ownership of her lies and plan big and do great exploits and get out there and climb the mountains and be amazing if all I care about is Jesus and all I really want to do is pray I'm looking for something better than anything they could have taken ownership over made happen yeah it's not that I want to reduce things is that those things are not enough that things I want to calm down and be small and be little that's not the point the point is that whatever they're planning is not enough for my little heart you know just song in the granny Scheinman church as it is right you know I think that'll be enough like awesome everything nothing you don't ever be enough Church as it is in this world is not great enough yes whoa it's the church's finest hour is not gonna be when everybody's satisfied and everybody's comfortable and everybody has enough to eat and everybody's okay it's going to become it's its greatest hour when we are the most challenged and we realize just how much we need God well that in itself I need more comics right now just finest hour what he's a finest hour when God allows the devil to do his worst and we triumph over it yeah but most of the church today I can't imagine that the church right now is this is its finest hour I don't think we can sit down as a as a committee and decide what we think it's finest hour is going to look like well well it's kind of just saying pretty much just just reading some verses here there's a lot of here okay okay if anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me hmm all right okay then die but that was my very most unfavorite verse all through high school and this sort of thing really yeah but over time after 70 years I realize it is no fun to try to create heaven around yourself and live for yourself yeah it's just no fun it doesn't satisfy your heart it's hard actually it's hard always to be sticking up for yourself and trying to hang in there and gather stuff for yourself so you're gonna be okay in the future and make sure nobody can touch it and build your little safe quarter of life it's it's it's you're under pressures you know it's not gonna work you know you can't keep it anyway but you try and try to try it it's not relaxing it's not peaceful but you're not really free until that's it that's my life is yours garden that's it I just deny everything I'm not trying to get anything out of anybody I'm not trying motivate people change people get stuff out of people get responses nothing that's I just wanted to just went I know what I want I just want him I'm gonna seek him that's gonna be my business my occupation my calling in life and if and then his promise is that everything else will be added Oh c'est la and I think about the first thing that the prophet Ananias said to us all you know many had his Damascus Road experience and first thing God says I will show him how much he must suffer for my name how's that for an introduction to the mystery and minister you've been a Christian for less than three days three days ago this is what he mighty to town three days three days and the first thing God has to say is I'm gonna show you how much you're gonna suffer for me but the point of all that that's actually the easiest path of least resistance it is how you give yourself away it's actually easier on your heart to do that then trying to hold back and grab and keep such it's just so ironic it's a running but it's easy like it's the path of least resistance to follow God's will and do it his way and just give up your life for him and let him love you the way you need to be loved ya know no one else can know you if you don't want to suffer first name what it really means is that you don't want to love people don't want to suffer for his name what it really means is you don't want to love people because unbelievers love people who love them unbelievers like friends who are friendly with them as I am I mean what makes us different than everyone else yeah what makes us different is that God has put in us a life that's his life that the world is never seen before and we're willing to turn the other cheek go the second mile and be happy about it rejoicing it actually is that's what the disciples kept saying Paul says I rejoice in my weaknesses and my trials and my problems for when I'm weak I'm strong and we possess nothing and yet we possess everything yeah and it's just the most freeing thing to absolutely give up your life and realize I'm going to get everything if God did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also along with him give us all things that's what I tell the poor it was a big you're poor right now temporarily and you're getting better but hey you're gonna get all things life takes a little bit of guts to go to the poorest purse country and say that too desperately hungry sick people but if we can't say that why are we there exactly are we there just to kind of make their life a little bit better and do some Amana terrine Aid and hope for a better life in this world give this of Education so god bless you you know give us something temporary that's and running or you know expiration day if you don't give up faith if you don't even part faith and a hunger for righteousness and it love for God that that's above everything else then what's it for I mean all the rich billionaires of the world of getting old and figuring they'd better do something go to their money I'll be freed stars are working on water in the world working on the solution for malaria and all these different things it's all good stuff but hey hours of gold are still people are preach you know just never-ending blessing and this event this life I said really is that all you want exactly it's a shortchanging isn't it no this is a shortchange this is clearly a podcast series clearly we never even get through the whole history I mean it's just so much just a touch on a couple of points good way to rainy buddies at harvest good when David Reagan said I just see God that's all I do I see dog it's it's a job I'm not interested in making a career of anything else you know God may have me do other things but that's not where I set my heart I mean he may keep us really busy doing a lot of stuff but don't set your heart on those things yeah yeah keep this world have a light touch you know he's doing it's not not permanent and that's what that's what true freedom is isn't it that's what true freedom is and you're not bound by anything he's hardly afraid to be here and to be with him well spiritually speaking Paul says we died to ourselves we're dead when the great mystics used to say you know and you're really United with God in union with him you don't have any will of your own you're not contending with him not trying to persuade God to do stuff you're not try to fight with him you're not say oh I just totally in union with the one I love and totally trust and life's much more peaceful yo it sounds odd you know people say oh man that takes a lot of discipline a lot of you know self-sacrifice a lot of self-denial it's like I'm not up to all that but like I just said it's actually the path of least resistance and yeah Roland thank you thank you for preaching there's also and look out for Roland's the capitalists artists media update where Roland's preaching this gospel in the bush bush in Africa you see files out in the plane that's just out of calamari yeah that was it yes which you can find on our YouTube channel I think you where it's a stronger app we're gonna visit the YouTube studios so yeah it's what a team you guys are such a I feel like that was so casual where were you guys in the early days when who needed you to give away these or something yes hmm yes try to figure that it worked somewhere that's exciting thank you for subscribing you can also subscribe to our podcast there's so much useful on Apple pod guys aren't you wherever you get your punch cute if you have questions you'd like to ask or comments please leave them like nathan is said fifteen times in this podcast yeah can't leave comment did you like today's four guys on our YouTube channel wrong you can also get an Irish little app mm-hmm to find all those video updates will be back with Roland very visually more podcasts this podcast is presented by iris global for more information or to support the work of iris global please visit us online at iris global dot org you can also text to give simply text the amount you'd like to donate to five three zero three three eight three eight three seven or to speak to someone at iris global call our office at five three zero two five five two zero seven seven iris global is an international Christian mission and relief organization with a focus on working amongst the poorest of the poor and those most in need we hope this podcast has inspired your journey thanks for joining us for iris after hours you

Channel: Iris Global

Views: 12,391

Rating: 4.8534799 out of 5

Keywords: Iris After Hours, Podcast, Iris Global, Heidi Baker, Rolland Baker, Nathan Kotzur, Crystalyn Human, Christian, Missions, Iris Ministries, NGO, Free, Encouraging, Inspiring, Testimony, Stop for the One, Africa, wisdom, insight

Id: Wavc9CaCrmQ

Length: 68min 51sec (4131 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 02 2018