# Stop saying you're too young to follow God! | Kingdom vs. Culture ft. Victoria Baldwin

An episode of [Amani Talks Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1669865575), 22 Jan 2025, 43 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/63793426/vic_college_yrs_audio.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Hi guys, Amani here, Welcome back to the Amani Talks
[0:03] Speaker 1: podcast where we talk about our Christian based topics and
[0:05] Speaker 1: deepening our relationship with the Lord.
[0:08] Speaker 2: We have Victoria back again.
[0:12] Speaker 1: She's back, Victoria back from the Way podcast.
[0:16] Speaker 2: Like I said in the past.
[0:17] Speaker 1: Few episodes, we are collabing on our Culture versus Kingdom
[0:21] Speaker 1: mini series this month and we are.
[0:23] Speaker 2: On episode three, Episode three. It's been a good ride.
[0:28] Speaker 3: It has been.
[0:29] Speaker 2: I think we made some really good points.
[0:30] Speaker 3: Oh for sure.
[0:31] Speaker 1: Definitely, we did modestly the first episode, and then we
[0:34] Speaker 1: did kind.
[0:35] Speaker 3: Of dating and married. Yeah.
[0:37] Speaker 1: And now episode TUA is going to be about your
[0:41] Speaker 1: college years, or really it's college years, that's what I
[0:46] Speaker 1: named it, but it's more so using your youth for
[0:50] Speaker 1: the Lord, yeah, or just the idea of.
[0:53] Speaker 2: Your youth in general, what.
[0:54] Speaker 1: The culture says about it versus what the Kingdom says
[0:58] Speaker 1: about it.
[0:59] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:00] Speaker 1: So when I think about my college years, the first
[1:04] Speaker 1: thing that comes to my mind, those are your freedom years.
[1:08] Speaker 1: It's the first time that you're away from your family,
[1:10] Speaker 1: your parents. It's the first time that you can actually
[1:13] Speaker 1: really really make your own decisions. No one's forcing you
[1:16] Speaker 1: to go to class, No one, no one's forcing you
[1:19] Speaker 1: to do anything. It's like your trial run at life.
[1:22] Speaker 1: Like you still might have some of your parents coin,
[1:24] Speaker 1: but you are really living. You're living on your own,
[1:28] Speaker 1: and with that freedom comes great responsibility. The culture will
[1:33] Speaker 1: tell you that eighteen to twenty two the best four
[1:38] Speaker 1: years of your life. That's kind of how they title
[1:42] Speaker 1: college your best four years. I think let's make a
[1:44] Speaker 1: little like some bullet points about what the culture says
[1:48] Speaker 1: your college.
[1:48] Speaker 3: Years are about.
[1:50] Speaker 1: I think one is experimenting. I think another one.
[1:54] Speaker 3: Is it's finding yourself.
[1:55] Speaker 1: Okay, experimenting, finding yourself, testing your limits.
[2:00] Speaker 2: Yes, and they don't say this, but this is also
[2:04] Speaker 2: where a lot of addictions are formed because you experiment
[2:08] Speaker 2: with a lot in college.
[2:09] Speaker 1: You experiment with your sexuality, partying drugs.
[2:13] Speaker 3: Which drugs you like?
[2:15] Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what the culture will tell you that your
[2:18] Speaker 1: college years are for. It's about finding yourself. That's what
[2:21] Speaker 1: it is that they tell you. Eighteen to twenty two
[2:24] Speaker 1: is your time to go out there and just find yourself. Girl,
[2:28] Speaker 1: what do you think about that? Like, what do you
[2:31] Speaker 1: think about what the culture tells us our college years
[2:33] Speaker 1: should be used for.
[2:35] Speaker 3: I think that is all wrong.
[2:37] Speaker 2: I think it's a load of crap, and I think
[2:40] Speaker 2: it is a trap. It literally is a trap because,
[2:44] Speaker 2: first of all, if you don't know anything about me,
[2:47] Speaker 2: I found the Lord in my junior year of college.
[2:50] Speaker 2: I was two weeks into twenty one and I was partying.
[2:57] Speaker 2: I always say my party days were very short lived,
[2:59] Speaker 2: like when I was wild, now about a year and
[3:01] Speaker 2: some change. But because I had a boyfriend that saved
[3:04] Speaker 2: me that first year, my freshman year he broke up.
[3:07] Speaker 2: Then sophomore year was when I went crazy. Then I
[3:09] Speaker 2: found the Lord of my junior year. Okay, praise anyways,
[3:15] Speaker 2: and yeah, I did all those things you got you
[3:17] Speaker 2: tryed to. And I was a college athlete. I played basketball,
[3:20] Speaker 2: so who I was was a basketball player. That was
[3:23] Speaker 2: literally my identity and my whole life was surrounded around
[3:30] Speaker 2: that sport. Like we were traveling twenty verse seven. I
[3:32] Speaker 2: had two days practice this son and the third. So yeah,
[3:36] Speaker 2: that's literally I did all those things. I experimented, did everything,
[3:40] Speaker 2: and it left me empty but ultimately led me to
[3:42] Speaker 2: the Lord.
[3:43] Speaker 3: Yes, so all of it is very true.
[3:45] Speaker 2: Yeah, and I can tell you from experience it is
[3:47] Speaker 2: a load of crap.
[3:48] Speaker 1: And that's why your God's story about coming into your
[3:51] Speaker 1: relationship with him was so interesting because it was right
[3:54] Speaker 1: in the middle of your college years, Like that is
[3:57] Speaker 1: so uncommon. When I was in college and I met
[4:00] Speaker 1: other Christians, it was because they either got saved, well,
[4:04] Speaker 1: yeah by by then. It was because they got saved
[4:06] Speaker 1: way before college. Like they either grew up in church
[4:09] Speaker 1: and they're just kind of now taking it serious, or
[4:12] Speaker 1: they were already saved and this was already their life.
[4:15] Speaker 1: But to gets saved in like in the thick of it,
[4:18] Speaker 1: it's the total opposite of what the culture tells you
[4:22] Speaker 1: how you should be spending those years.
[4:24] Speaker 2: And I got saved, and I was screaming Jesus from
[4:27] Speaker 2: the rooftops, trying to save all my college classmates. I'm like, y'all,
[4:31] Speaker 2: y'all ever heard of Jesus? He saved me. Jesus genuinely,
[4:36] Speaker 2: That is.
[4:37] Speaker 3: How I was in college.
[4:38] Speaker 2: And that was when I just dove head first in ministry,
[4:41] Speaker 2: like genuinely. I took over FCA, was the leading FCA
[4:44] Speaker 2: for my campus, which is Fellowship of Christian Athletes Organization whatever.
[4:48] Speaker 2: But I still do that now for Georgia State University,
[4:51] Speaker 2: not just say Georgia State.
[4:52] Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't.
[4:53] Speaker 2: Mean to say that FCA for my college. Okay, I
[4:56] Speaker 2: played basketball at Yeah, and that was when I was
[5:00] Speaker 2: twenty one, twenty two. I took that over my senior
[5:02] Speaker 2: year and was in FCA for a few years after that. Anyway,
[5:06] Speaker 2: took a little break. Now I'm doing FCA in Georgia
[5:08] Speaker 2: at Georgia State. Okay, here for the female athletes, and
[5:11] Speaker 2: so that's something that's been a full circle moment for
[5:13] Speaker 2: my story. But yeah, I genuinely I dove head first
[5:18] Speaker 2: as soon as Jesus caught me. I'm just so grateful
[5:22] Speaker 2: that man plucked me from the muck.
[5:26] Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many people's lives I've seen
[5:30] Speaker 1: ruined in college because they took that to heart, and
[5:34] Speaker 1: they took it to the head. Yeah, and they went
[5:36] Speaker 1: full dive. And I'm talking, I'm talking freshmen semester. They
[5:40] Speaker 1: didn't waste any time. And now I'm not saying that
[5:43] Speaker 1: that wasn't my meat either, but there were some people
[5:47] Speaker 1: that really took it to the extreme because that's what
[5:49] Speaker 1: the world tells you, like you should be experimenting with
[5:52] Speaker 1: different drugs. You know, when I was in college, I've
[5:54] Speaker 1: never really been a drug person, but the first time
[5:57] Speaker 1: I ever smoked weed was high school senior year, and
[6:02] Speaker 1: then I got really heavy into it my freshman year
[6:04] Speaker 1: of college.
[6:06] Speaker 2: And I always say, I see the Lord's hand on
[6:09] Speaker 2: my life so much before I gave my life to hand,
[6:13] Speaker 2: and basketball truly was one of those things for me.
[6:16] Speaker 2: And I always say the only reason what saved me
[6:19] Speaker 2: from drugs was basketball. I've never in my life done
[6:22] Speaker 2: any drugs. Spoke to me to anything because I always
[6:26] Speaker 2: had to get drug tested as an athlete, so that
[6:28] Speaker 2: was what I'm like, I can't risk, I can get
[6:30] Speaker 2: kicked out of school. Yeah, But by the time I
[6:34] Speaker 2: found a Lord and so as an athlete, so like,
[6:38] Speaker 2: I'm not gonna do drugs now. So I genuinely never
[6:41] Speaker 2: ever have done drugs, experimented, but it was literally protection
[6:45] Speaker 2: through basketball that sport.
[6:46] Speaker 1: Isn't it so crazy when you look back in hindsight
[6:49] Speaker 1: and you have a better vision about things, how you
[6:51] Speaker 1: saw the Lord's hand on your life when you weren't
[6:53] Speaker 1: even following him.
[6:54] Speaker 2: Yet I think about that all the time.
[6:58] Speaker 1: I think about my years when I I was waitressing
[7:02] Speaker 1: and bartending and like lounges and stuff like that. The
[7:05] Speaker 1: fact that the Lord allowed me to be successful in
[7:07] Speaker 1: that so that I didn't do other things, because you know,
[7:11] Speaker 1: there's you know, a stigma surrounding the girls that work
[7:14] Speaker 1: in the clubs, they do other things for money when
[7:16] Speaker 1: it's slow and stuff like that. I was always making
[7:18] Speaker 1: good money doing it. I was living it up. I
[7:21] Speaker 1: was living a life. But even looking back on that,
[7:24] Speaker 1: the fact that I did it for three years and
[7:27] Speaker 1: I was really making good money off of that, and
[7:29] Speaker 1: that alone, I think about that, that's even a testament
[7:32] Speaker 1: to my story, to the fact that He allowed me
[7:35] Speaker 1: to make that money and to be good just making
[7:37] Speaker 1: that so that I didn't have to do other things.
[7:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, this is why I feel like when God chooses you, he.
[7:45] Speaker 3: Just chooses you.
[7:45] Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Like, when when he has
[7:49] Speaker 2: a calling on your life, he's gonna let you stray
[7:51] Speaker 2: and do a little some will. Yeah, he's gonna let
[7:54] Speaker 2: you do what you want for a little bit. But
[7:57] Speaker 2: I really do feel like when it's time, it's just time.
[8:01] Speaker 2: It's just time. There's just nothing you can do. It's
[8:04] Speaker 2: just stop him from just being God. And I am
[8:07] Speaker 2: so grateful for it.
[8:08] Speaker 1: Yeah, me too, truly, because leave it up to me,
[8:11] Speaker 1: who knows what i'd still be doing girl. Like I
[8:13] Speaker 1: said a few episodes back, I probably be married and
[8:15] Speaker 1: divorced by now if I did not find the Lord.
[8:17] Speaker 2: Of it's just hilarious that you're saying married and divorce.
[8:20] Speaker 2: I probably would not have made it this far my
[8:22] Speaker 2: marriage because because exactly there don't be lasting too long.
[8:28] Speaker 3: They really don't. You never forget a.
[8:31] Speaker 2: Few months a few months ago, gross went twenty five
[8:34] Speaker 2: months ago. At this point, it was towards the middle
[8:37] Speaker 2: ish beginning of twenty twenty four. I me and my
[8:41] Speaker 2: roommate did a podcast on episode on singleness, and one
[8:45] Speaker 2: of the clips caught a lot of traction because it
[8:47] Speaker 2: was just, well, mainly me expressing my frustration and singleness.
[8:51] Speaker 2: Do you know how many comments I got on that
[8:53] Speaker 2: clip of all of these married women saying I married
[8:57] Speaker 2: wrong and regretted, I am miserable. Will stay stay take
[9:02] Speaker 2: heart in your singleness. You don't want to miss girl.
[9:05] Speaker 2: All the comments really reeled me back in of like,
[9:09] Speaker 2: you know what, this ain't so bad. It gives you perspective.
[9:13] Speaker 3: It does.
[9:14] Speaker 2: That's why I say I feel like I would be
[9:15] Speaker 2: divorced if I did not find the Lord. These women
[9:18] Speaker 2: are out here miserable, and they'll tell you that girl that.
[9:21] Speaker 2: They'll tell you that, they will tell you that unprovoked,
[9:24] Speaker 2: they'll tell you there's girl. One time I was serving
[9:26] Speaker 2: at church and one of the at my old church
[9:28] Speaker 2: and one of the ladies, Uh, we were just randomly.
[9:31] Speaker 2: She just blurted out, yeah, I married the wrong man.
[9:34] Speaker 3: This She was like seventy eighty years old.
[9:36] Speaker 2: I said, oh, you want to talk about it. I
[9:39] Speaker 2: felt so bad for the poor lady.
[9:41] Speaker 1: Yeah, because you really do be feeling bad.
[9:43] Speaker 2: You have to get it off her chase. But I
[9:46] Speaker 2: feel like we just went off on a tangent.
[9:48] Speaker 3: But oh yeah, sorry, no, No.
[9:51] Speaker 1: I do believe that the general consensus about what the
[9:54] Speaker 1: culture says about your college years in about eighteen to
[9:56] Speaker 1: twenty two is that those are the best years of
[9:59] Speaker 1: your life.
[9:59] Speaker 2: You experiment, you find what you like.
[10:01] Speaker 3: But also they will put a.
[10:04] Speaker 1: Certain emphasis on your younger years to say that these
[10:07] Speaker 1: are the best years of your life. Don't waste them
[10:10] Speaker 1: with doing exactly what you want to do. And that
[10:12] Speaker 1: deters people from following God, because you know how people
[10:15] Speaker 1: will say, oh, I'm too young to follow God right
[10:18] Speaker 1: now when I'm thirty and I have kids, or when
[10:20] Speaker 1: I'm forty and I got a family, then.
[10:22] Speaker 3: I'll follow God.
[10:23] Speaker 1: But my whole thing is like, first of all, we
[10:26] Speaker 1: don't really choose to follow God. Just like you said,
[10:29] Speaker 1: like the Lord, he'll let you have your free will
[10:32] Speaker 1: to an extent, he will pluck you out when he
[10:35] Speaker 1: needs to.
[10:36] Speaker 2: So there is very little free will.
[10:38] Speaker 1: In the plan that the Lord has for you, like
[10:41] Speaker 1: our free will. And this is something that if one
[10:44] Speaker 1: wants to study, you guys can when you study the
[10:46] Speaker 1: free will that we have. It is a limited free
[10:49] Speaker 1: will because if we're dead to sin, dead people don't
[10:54] Speaker 1: resurrect themselves. If we're dead to sin, the Lord is
[10:57] Speaker 1: the one that gives us or gets us up out
[10:59] Speaker 1: of that grave. So he ultimately has a last decision
[11:03] Speaker 1: about where your life is going to be. And when
[11:06] Speaker 1: he calls you, he calls you right. So you saying, oh,
[11:09] Speaker 1: might follow the Lord when I get old. Girl, First
[11:11] Speaker 1: of all, you don't even know if you're gonna make
[11:12] Speaker 1: it when you get old.
[11:13] Speaker 3: How about that?
[11:14] Speaker 2: With these people, we just you know, we were just
[11:15] Speaker 2: talking about that whole thing.
[11:16] Speaker 3: That happened in New Orleans. Yep.
[11:18] Speaker 1: I was just you know, when your last day is
[11:20] Speaker 1: going to be and you could be like, I'm planning
[11:21] Speaker 1: in ten years to do this.
[11:22] Speaker 2: You won't make it ten years. They've identified a lot
[11:24] Speaker 2: of people who passed away in that New Orleans terrorist attack,
[11:27] Speaker 2: and everyone they've identified right now is like under the
[11:31] Speaker 2: age of twenty six.
[11:33] Speaker 1: Young, and I'm sure they thought they had all the
[11:35] Speaker 1: time in the world to do whatever they wanted.
[11:36] Speaker 2: A seen year old just graduated high school tomorrow is
[11:40] Speaker 2: not promised, y'all. Y'all gotta get that in your head.
[11:44] Speaker 2: Y'all need to follow God immediately, because y'all could really
[11:47] Speaker 2: be here one day and then the next day it's
[11:49] Speaker 2: too late. And now I don't want to say I
[11:52] Speaker 2: mean I forbid, but it's the reality of that. People
[11:54] Speaker 2: die every day.
[11:56] Speaker 1: I live right next to that club eleven forty five
[11:58] Speaker 1: with that girl. I don't know if well, I know
[12:00] Speaker 1: it wasn't he high school graduation, had she had to
[12:02] Speaker 1: get in a club. I think it was her college graduation,
[12:05] Speaker 1: shot and killed while she was celebrating her college graduation
[12:08] Speaker 1: over the summer. She probably had plans of what she
[12:11] Speaker 1: was doing next. She probably had jobs lined up, internships,
[12:13] Speaker 1: who knows. She probably thought she had the world ahead
[12:16] Speaker 1: of her died while she was graduating or celebrating her
[12:19] Speaker 1: graduation at the club that's no longer open because that
[12:22] Speaker 1: just happened. So it's like people are really losing their
[12:25] Speaker 1: lives every single day, but you're planning on the next
[12:28] Speaker 1: twenty years. That's why the Word also tells us that
[12:30] Speaker 1: to not even worry about tomorrow.
[12:32] Speaker 3: Tomorrow has his own.
[12:33] Speaker 2: Things to worry about.
[12:34] Speaker 1: Today has his own things to worry about, because you
[12:35] Speaker 1: don't even know if you're gonna make it to tomorrow.
[12:37] Speaker 2: And I also was reading a Psalm ninety one this morning,
[12:40] Speaker 2: and one of the things in Psalm ninety one is
[12:44] Speaker 2: the Lord protects his children like we are.
[12:47] Speaker 3: Literally, it says.
[12:49] Speaker 2: In Psalm ninety one that he will send his angels
[12:52] Speaker 2: to stand right and left and front and back to
[12:56] Speaker 2: protect us. He sends us his angels. It says that
[12:59] Speaker 2: we are covered by the shadow of his wing when
[13:02] Speaker 2: we are his children, his chosen, anointed and appointed ones.
[13:07] Speaker 2: This man bites for us. Why would you want to
[13:10] Speaker 2: just dangle out in this world thinking, well, I guess
[13:12] Speaker 2: I'll turn to this God in five years. No, girl,
[13:15] Speaker 2: you need his protection now. I don't know what else
[13:19] Speaker 2: gotta happen in this world to wake y'all up to
[13:22] Speaker 2: see tomorrow is not promise and we need the Lord's
[13:25] Speaker 2: protection from the evil One. But y'all need to wake
[13:27] Speaker 2: up because this stuff is serious.
[13:29] Speaker 1: When people are dying every day and going to hell,
[13:32] Speaker 1: Like bro, that's when people are dying every day and
[13:34] Speaker 1: going to hell. And it's just like you think that
[13:37] Speaker 1: you have time to give your life to the Lord
[13:39] Speaker 1: in twenty years and you could die tomorrow and.
[13:40] Speaker 3: Go to hell.
[13:41] Speaker 2: That doesn't scare you. And I still don't understand how
[13:44] Speaker 2: twenty twenty wasn't enough for people. That was the highest
[13:47] Speaker 2: death rate in human history. People was dropping like flies.
[13:51] Speaker 2: I literally lost my dad in twenty twenty. And I
[13:54] Speaker 2: just don't understand how a lot of people did wake
[13:57] Speaker 2: up in twenty twenty. But what more has to happen
[14:01] Speaker 2: in this world for us to open our eyes and see.
[14:04] Speaker 1: That tomorrow is not promised. To know, you can't plan
[14:07] Speaker 1: on tomorrow's sys, it's notine.
[14:09] Speaker 3: So even the.
[14:10] Speaker 1: Idea that you can give your life to the Lord
[14:12] Speaker 1: later on when you're done doing what you're doing, that's
[14:14] Speaker 1: absolutely false because you don't know if.
[14:15] Speaker 3: Tomorrow is for you.
[14:16] Speaker 1: And then second of all that whole premise of oh,
[14:20] Speaker 1: I can get so deep into sin and then I'll
[14:23] Speaker 1: just magically wake up one day and not want to
[14:24] Speaker 1: do it anymore.
[14:25] Speaker 2: That's also false.
[14:26] Speaker 1: The more sin you do, the more sin you want
[14:29] Speaker 1: to do, just like we And that's a principle with
[14:32] Speaker 1: really anything in life. The more money you have, the
[14:34] Speaker 1: more money you want, the more clothes you buy, the
[14:36] Speaker 1: more clothes you want. Whatever you get deep into and
[14:39] Speaker 1: your your selfishness, within your own strength, your own power
[14:44] Speaker 1: is the deeper you get into it, the deeper you
[14:45] Speaker 1: get into it. That's just the principle of life. So
[14:48] Speaker 1: you're thinking that you're gonna send it up in your
[14:50] Speaker 1: twenties and then when you're thirty, it's gonna go. It's
[14:52] Speaker 1: gonna be like a flashlight that goes off like, oh,
[14:54] Speaker 1: let me follow God.
[14:55] Speaker 2: Now that's not reality. No, you're probably going to be
[14:58] Speaker 2: me deep in an addiction. It's going to be a
[15:00] Speaker 2: horn addiction, a sex addiction, a drug addiction, or alcohol addiction.
[15:04] Speaker 2: Because you literally have been indulging in this sin for
[15:07] Speaker 2: ten plus scars at this point. I mean, God is
[15:10] Speaker 2: God of miracles that he could put us out of anything.
[15:12] Speaker 2: But again, it is free will at the same time,
[15:16] Speaker 2: but also it's not for you to choose God at
[15:19] Speaker 2: thirty when you are.
[15:20] Speaker 3: Neat deep in an addiction.
[15:21] Speaker 2: It's probably going to be ten million times harder than
[15:24] Speaker 2: if you would just choose him.
[15:25] Speaker 3: Now, that's impossible. It's literally it's impossible.
[15:29] Speaker 1: Like first of all, like we said, like, you aren't
[15:31] Speaker 1: the one that chooses God. We are dead to sin.
[15:34] Speaker 1: We cannot choose life when you're already dead. We are
[15:37] Speaker 1: dead to sin from the time that we're born. The
[15:40] Speaker 1: Lord has to That's why there's the second That's why
[15:42] Speaker 1: you talk about being born again. That second birth is
[15:46] Speaker 1: like your death. You're already dead to sin. You gotta
[15:48] Speaker 1: be born again. That's why the whole that's the whole
[15:51] Speaker 1: term about it. Be born again, like people be like,
[15:53] Speaker 1: oh I was born this way, be born again, right,
[15:56] Speaker 1: that's the whole premise of it. If you think that
[15:59] Speaker 1: you are going to be but to control your own
[16:01] Speaker 1: life and come to God later on by your own will,
[16:04] Speaker 1: that's just not true.
[16:05] Speaker 3: It's not and that's just.
[16:06] Speaker 1: Very dangerous thinking. And then also think about it this way.
[16:10] Speaker 1: There is a lot of power in your youth. There
[16:13] Speaker 1: is and you think that you're wasting your youth by
[16:16] Speaker 1: following God. Is the complete opposite. I promise you you
[16:20] Speaker 1: are wasting your youth by not following God. Absolutely, absolutely,
[16:25] Speaker 1: Like in Jemiah when he called Jamiah to be a prophet,
[16:27] Speaker 1: Jeremiah was probably eighteen nineteen, I think he was still
[16:30] Speaker 1: a teenager, and he said it to God. He was
[16:32] Speaker 1: just like, I can't, how am I going to be
[16:35] Speaker 1: a prophet? Like, I'm still a youth. And what did
[16:37] Speaker 1: the Lord say to him? Don't say that you're just
[16:39] Speaker 1: a youth. Go and do what I tell you to do.
[16:41] Speaker 1: I'm paraphrasing, but the Lord was just like, no, don't
[16:43] Speaker 1: say that you're young. Go and do what I tell
[16:45] Speaker 1: you to do. Like, there's a reason that God called
[16:48] Speaker 1: him in his youth. There's power in your youth. Jesus's
[16:51] Speaker 1: disciples were not old men, y'all. They weren't men in
[16:53] Speaker 1: their forties and fifties. They were young men.
[16:56] Speaker 2: When Jesus called very younger than Jesus.
[16:58] Speaker 1: Yeah, so there was a reason that the Lord is
[17:01] Speaker 1: calling people this young to go out and do great things,
[17:04] Speaker 1: to be the twelve disciples said to be prophets. There
[17:07] Speaker 1: is power in your youth. Even if, even if the
[17:10] Speaker 1: only power in your youth is that you're empowering the
[17:12] Speaker 1: youth around you. If, even if the only calling that
[17:16] Speaker 1: you have to follow God when you're eighteen nineteen is
[17:19] Speaker 1: to give the person that could fall into an addiction
[17:21] Speaker 1: another way to live their life, that should motivate.
[17:24] Speaker 2: You, right. And that's also why one of the verses
[17:27] Speaker 2: in the Bible, it says something about we need to
[17:29] Speaker 2: have childlike faith. Those who are not childlike will not
[17:32] Speaker 2: enter the kingdom of heaven. The Lord literally highlights children.
[17:37] Speaker 2: He loves children. I don't know if you've ever seen
[17:39] Speaker 2: the Chosen, but he loves children. He plays the children,
[17:44] Speaker 2: he loves children. And so again, I think there is
[17:47] Speaker 2: so much power in being young and youthful. And I
[17:51] Speaker 2: think it's also just another tactic of the enemy to
[17:54] Speaker 2: try to convince you that you're too young, that you're.
[17:58] Speaker 3: Wasting your life if you follow God.
[18:00] Speaker 2: There's no power in this age, Like, oh my gosh,
[18:03] Speaker 2: are your friends doing this?
[18:04] Speaker 1: Ah?
[18:04] Speaker 2: Man like, look at you up here?
[18:06] Speaker 3: No, bro, no, I just I can't.
[18:08] Speaker 1: So what do you tell people that are college age
[18:10] Speaker 1: that really do feel like that? Okay, maybe let's say
[18:14] Speaker 1: they want to follow God, but they're getting that fom
[18:17] Speaker 1: they're missing out. Everybody else around them is going to
[18:20] Speaker 1: the college party. They're going to the frat party every weekend,
[18:23] Speaker 1: and they're still, you know, up on Monday morning taking
[18:25] Speaker 1: their bio exam. They're having the college experience that the
[18:29] Speaker 1: world tells them to have, and they're sitting on the
[18:31] Speaker 1: sidelines feeling like they're just missing out on experiences that
[18:35] Speaker 1: every nineteen twenty twenty one year old has.
[18:37] Speaker 2: What do you tell them?
[18:39] Speaker 3: Jesus is better life, His way is better.
[18:44] Speaker 2: He fulfills you like you don't need that, and I
[18:47] Speaker 2: would encourage you to find like minded friends. The Bible
[18:53] Speaker 2: also says bad company corrupts good character. That is very true.
[18:57] Speaker 2: So if you are trying to walk with the Lord
[18:59] Speaker 2: and you think that you can and oh, well, I
[19:01] Speaker 2: can go here and not drink. You can maybe do
[19:05] Speaker 2: that once or twice, but you are still in company
[19:08] Speaker 2: of people who are honestly bad character. And when you
[19:12] Speaker 2: do that, you're miserable.
[19:14] Speaker 1: Right, you're gonna have you like, I'd rather miss out
[19:17] Speaker 1: behind my back, the miss out in my face.
[19:19] Speaker 2: Like I don't want to be anywhere where I can't partake, right,
[19:22] Speaker 2: I think community helps, yes, but Jesus is enough.
[19:27] Speaker 3: Yes.
[19:28] Speaker 1: And there's Christian organizations in every I've never I've been
[19:31] Speaker 1: to three colleges. I attended three colleges. There's Christian organizations
[19:35] Speaker 1: everywhere there is. You will, if you go looking for it,
[19:38] Speaker 1: you will find that community. Yes, there's always a Bible
[19:40] Speaker 1: study on campuses, I promise you, because you'll need friends.
[19:43] Speaker 2: You'll need friends to get through it.
[19:45] Speaker 3: I'll say me through it in college.
[19:47] Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll say college is one of those times that
[19:49] Speaker 1: community is way more important than maybe.
[19:51] Speaker 2: Even in your adulthood. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I cannot I
[19:55] Speaker 2: always say when because it was. It was a few
[19:57] Speaker 2: girls that gave their life to the Lord. Athletes that
[20:00] Speaker 2: I met. There were volleyball players and we all gave
[20:03] Speaker 2: our life to the Lord like pretty much the same day.
[20:06] Speaker 2: And those were the girls that I ran the race
[20:08] Speaker 2: with for.
[20:08] Speaker 3: A few years. And that community changed my life.
[20:11] Speaker 2: I truly feel like God put me in there because
[20:13] Speaker 2: he knew I needed them, and if I did not
[20:15] Speaker 2: have them, I don't know where I would be today.
[20:17] Speaker 2: That is how important community was for me as a
[20:19] Speaker 2: college kid.
[20:20] Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to get in that Christian org find
[20:24] Speaker 1: those other people that are doing it. Yeah, because there's
[20:27] Speaker 1: just like college is just just the.
[20:29] Speaker 2: Breeding ground of temptation.
[20:30] Speaker 1: Oh, yes, you can do whatever you want for the
[20:33] Speaker 1: first time in your life. I remember when I was seventeen,
[20:36] Speaker 1: my parents were like, well, why don't you just because
[20:39] Speaker 1: I was I grew up in Syracuse, they were like,
[20:41] Speaker 1: why don't you just go to Syracuse? Why don't you
[20:43] Speaker 1: just go to SU girl, I don't want to be
[20:45] Speaker 1: in y'all backyard.
[20:46] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[20:47] Speaker 2: I literally went.
[20:48] Speaker 1: I literally went to college three hours away just to
[20:51] Speaker 1: be away from my family. That was the only reason, y'all.
[20:54] Speaker 1: Because I was like, no, I'm gonna get my freedom. Yeah,
[20:58] Speaker 1: forget y'all. Yeah, no, I don't want to and I
[21:00] Speaker 1: don't want to stay home and go to campus Like, no,
[21:03] Speaker 1: I need some space from y'all.
[21:05] Speaker 2: I want my freedom, an say.
[21:07] Speaker 1: I was literally knocking down my mom's door to get
[21:10] Speaker 1: that freedom, and I was gonna do anything.
[21:12] Speaker 2: In fact, I wanted freedom so bad to wear a
[21:16] Speaker 2: Alabama's gone from Alabama.
[21:17] Speaker 3: Alabama School offered.
[21:19] Speaker 2: Me a full ride scholarship to play basketball at their school,
[21:22] Speaker 2: and I broke down in tears because I wanted to
[21:25] Speaker 2: leave the state of Alabama that bad yeah, and I
[21:28] Speaker 2: got out of there, and look what it got me.
[21:30] Speaker 2: I down the lord in law run. But I was
[21:32] Speaker 2: trying to leave for my intention, you know.
[21:35] Speaker 1: And even when I think about all the times in
[21:38] Speaker 1: college to where because I would say, I mean, I
[21:41] Speaker 1: would say, to a certain extent, I had the typical
[21:43] Speaker 1: college experience. I mean, I was always one of those
[21:45] Speaker 1: kids that had to have a part time job. So
[21:47] Speaker 1: I felt it was a little bit harder on me
[21:49] Speaker 1: than a lot of the other students. Especially the college
[21:52] Speaker 1: I went to was very white. You know, their parents
[21:54] Speaker 1: were paying for everything, and I'm having to lead to
[21:56] Speaker 1: go to my part time job to pay for the
[21:58] Speaker 1: books and everything. My parents didn't give me a DA
[22:00] Speaker 1: for college, y'all. So that was just like a little
[22:03] Speaker 1: hardship for me. But even with that, I still went
[22:07] Speaker 1: to the parties. I still I wouldn't even say I
[22:11] Speaker 1: experimented that much because there were already things that I
[22:13] Speaker 1: knew I wasn't willing to do or willing to you know.
[22:16] Speaker 1: But I saw a lot of that. I saw a
[22:18] Speaker 1: lot of things that I was just like, y'all do that.
[22:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, there are people who I know who tried drugs
[22:25] Speaker 2: at school with me, who are drug addicts to this day.
[22:28] Speaker 1: And even like my freshman semester of college, there was
[22:31] Speaker 1: this one girl that went so hard into drinking. She
[22:34] Speaker 1: drank so much one day that.
[22:36] Speaker 2: Her blood alcohol level she literally could have died.
[22:40] Speaker 1: She and she almost got expelled, not I think she
[22:43] Speaker 1: almost got suspended that for that semester because they kept
[22:46] Speaker 1: like college, I forgot a campus officer, somebody kept catching
[22:50] Speaker 1: her drunk and by then it was the third time
[22:53] Speaker 1: and they were like, her ABV was so high she
[22:55] Speaker 1: literally could have died, like it was a lethal amount.
[22:58] Speaker 3: In her system.
[22:59] Speaker 1: And I was just like that easily you could ruin
[23:03] Speaker 1: your life like that easily, just by experimenting. And let
[23:07] Speaker 1: me just say this too, as someone who drank for
[23:10] Speaker 1: many years and always kind of really enjoyed it. And
[23:13] Speaker 1: you know, you, guys, I don't drink anymore.
[23:16] Speaker 2: You're not really You're not missing got on much by
[23:19] Speaker 2: not drinking and not doing drugs.
[23:21] Speaker 1: I swear, And this is somebody I already told you
[23:24] Speaker 1: I never really did drugs like that. Besides weed, I've
[23:26] Speaker 1: taken one other drug and I've drank, and I wouldn't
[23:31] Speaker 1: say that you're missing out like you, I promise you.
[23:34] Speaker 1: I'm not saying it to just say it like for real,
[23:36] Speaker 1: for real, you're not like sometimes alcohol would make you
[23:39] Speaker 1: feel more social, but then it comes with a lot
[23:43] Speaker 1: of stuff like that was cringey, That was cringe And
[23:47] Speaker 1: I only did.
[23:48] Speaker 2: It because I was drunk.
[23:50] Speaker 1: You'll do a lot of things in your life only
[23:52] Speaker 1: because you were drunk. And that was not you, girl,
[23:55] Speaker 1: and you did it.
[23:56] Speaker 3: So what now?
[23:57] Speaker 1: Now you gotta face it. And if you could get
[24:00] Speaker 1: around that, you should.
[24:01] Speaker 2: I was a drinker, huge drinker, literally, party didn't drink
[24:04] Speaker 2: all the time.
[24:06] Speaker 3: And you're not missing on anything.
[24:08] Speaker 1: And the new research coming out all the time, because
[24:11] Speaker 1: you know, drinking now is how smoking was in the seventies,
[24:14] Speaker 1: Like everybody and their mama did it, and they did
[24:16] Speaker 1: it inside schools and smoking was not a big thing,
[24:19] Speaker 1: and now we know how harmful cigarettes were.
[24:23] Speaker 2: That's how alcohol is now.
[24:24] Speaker 1: And I promise you guys, in twenty years there are
[24:27] Speaker 1: gonna be so many studies coming out about how we
[24:29] Speaker 1: treated alcohol so frivolously and how the drinking that we
[24:36] Speaker 1: think is normal the excess is actually being's drinking and
[24:40] Speaker 1: very harmful. And I promise y'all give it to the
[24:43] Speaker 1: twenty years, there are gonna be so many studies coming
[24:45] Speaker 1: out saying that you shouldn't be drinking alcohol period.
[24:47] Speaker 2: And I think we'll see it in our general like
[24:50] Speaker 2: our generation, like in our physicals and health in.
[24:54] Speaker 1: Our generation one hundred percent. Because our generation are the drinkers.
[24:58] Speaker 1: Well you're gen Z, I'm a lie. Oh, but the
[25:01] Speaker 1: millennials more so. Because the millennials are big on wine.
[25:06] Speaker 1: We're big on wine drunk, We're big on every day
[25:09] Speaker 1: have a glass of wine. We're big on taking shots.
[25:11] Speaker 1: I think gen Z has really started to calm down
[25:14] Speaker 1: on a lot of drinking. I think now I'm on
[25:17] Speaker 1: the older end of gen Z.
[25:18] Speaker 2: So my people we were bingers, like it was bad,
[25:22] Speaker 2: yeah and so, but it was liquor like vodka, tequila, yeah,
[25:27] Speaker 2: not necessarily wine, but I mean we was out here
[25:32] Speaker 2: throwing it back.
[25:33] Speaker 1: I mean, I mean saying, I'm on the younger end
[25:35] Speaker 1: of millennials too, so same you know, shots.
[25:39] Speaker 2: Like that was the thing.
[25:39] Speaker 1: Like even when I was drinking, Like if I went
[25:42] Speaker 1: out and had like a cute lemon drop with dinner,
[25:44] Speaker 1: like that was one thing. But if I was gonna drink,
[25:45] Speaker 1: I was gonna do shots because let's get to the point.
[25:48] Speaker 2: So yeah, and one shot, no for real, like, let's
[25:52] Speaker 2: get to it.
[25:53] Speaker 1: One shot is ben's drinking really one because those shot
[25:59] Speaker 1: glasses that they give you, that's not one shot of alcohol.
[26:02] Speaker 1: Most of those shot glasses that they'll give you at
[26:03] Speaker 1: the bar, that's two shots. By the time that you're
[26:06] Speaker 1: two shots in, you've over drink. By that one shot,
[26:10] Speaker 1: you've over drink. Yes, I promise you. You'll have to
[26:13] Speaker 1: look it up.
[26:13] Speaker 3: Yes.
[26:14] Speaker 1: So even the minimum amount of alcohol that we think
[26:16] Speaker 1: is okay, and we see as oh, that's not excessive,
[26:18] Speaker 1: it's just one drink, we're already over drinking because they overpour.
[26:21] Speaker 1: If you ask your doctor how much alcohol consumption is okay,
[26:25] Speaker 1: if they're a good doctor, they'll tell you none. But
[26:28] Speaker 1: your doctor will also say, but if you're going to drink,
[26:31] Speaker 1: you should only drink this much, And you'll be shocked
[26:34] Speaker 1: by how much you over drink, because they'll tell you
[26:37] Speaker 1: if you're gonna drink no more than to portions or
[26:41] Speaker 1: two service alcohol per week, you'll have two drinks on
[26:43] Speaker 1: a Saturday night and by then you've already drank your
[26:46] Speaker 1: entire week's worth of alcohol. If you're going to drink.
[26:48] Speaker 2: Also, the Bible says, be sober minded, because the devil
[26:52] Speaker 2: is prowling around like a roaring line, seeking who he
[26:56] Speaker 2: made of our Yes.
[26:58] Speaker 3: And that's real stuff, y'all.
[27:01] Speaker 2: Like, think about again all the dumb stuff you do
[27:04] Speaker 2: when you're under the influence, because it's not you operating anymore.
[27:07] Speaker 3: This is where Satan wants us.
[27:09] Speaker 2: He wants us under the influence so he can he
[27:12] Speaker 2: can dictate our actions. This is why we make horrible
[27:15] Speaker 2: decisions under the influence.
[27:16] Speaker 3: I mean, it's literally in scripture.
[27:18] Speaker 1: The visualization of it is, there are literal demons walking
[27:22] Speaker 1: around in these clubs right now.
[27:24] Speaker 3: There are literal.
[27:25] Speaker 1: Demons walking around the streets right now, looking to see
[27:28] Speaker 1: who's inebriated, looking to see who's the easiest to control.
[27:32] Speaker 1: He is using those people. And if you're one of
[27:35] Speaker 1: those people, says, it's so much easier for the devil
[27:38] Speaker 1: to use you.
[27:39] Speaker 2: I will never forget when I was in a knee
[27:41] Speaker 2: deep in party and going to the bars and clubs
[27:43] Speaker 2: every week. One of the bouncers for like the main
[27:46] Speaker 2: bar in my club town or college town was one
[27:49] Speaker 2: of my good friends, and we always be in the
[27:51] Speaker 2: gym together at the same time, and I asked her
[27:54] Speaker 2: one day, I said, I was.
[27:55] Speaker 3: Want to say his name, but I said so and.
[27:57] Speaker 2: So why or I said, do you buy being a
[28:00] Speaker 2: bouncer or something like that, and he goes, no, those
[28:02] Speaker 2: clubs are literally just pools of sin. He said that,
[28:06] Speaker 2: and he says he sees it every night. At the time,
[28:09] Speaker 2: I was in the pool of sin, and I'm like, dang,
[28:11] Speaker 2: it was deep thinking, like, yeah, you're right, But now
[28:14] Speaker 2: thinking back, I'm like this stuff that boy saw every night, like.
[28:19] Speaker 3: It's just scary. Yay.
[28:21] Speaker 1: So zero, it's logical to think that there are more
[28:25] Speaker 1: demons in areas where people intentionally go to sin, yep. Right,
[28:30] Speaker 1: So it's logical to think that wherever the demons are
[28:34] Speaker 1: going to get their way, that's where more of them are.
[28:36] Speaker 3: Yep.
[28:37] Speaker 1: So there are more demons around the clubs. There are
[28:39] Speaker 1: more demons around the vape and the smoke shops. They're
[28:43] Speaker 1: just there because those people are they're losing control of themselves.
[28:47] Speaker 2: They are easier to do the devil's work.
[28:49] Speaker 3: Yep. Yeah.
[28:50] Speaker 2: I recently shared this on my TikTok. But I saw
[28:55] Speaker 2: this guy. He said something that was very profound, but
[28:57] Speaker 2: he was saying, how you know how the Bible, especially
[29:00] Speaker 2: a lot in the Old Testament, it says that us
[29:02] Speaker 2: living righteously is a pleasing aroma to the Lord. He
[29:07] Speaker 2: said that us indulging and delighting in sin is a
[29:10] Speaker 2: pleasing aroma to Satan, and it gives him a place
[29:14] Speaker 2: to come and dwell.
[29:15] Speaker 3: That scared me.
[29:16] Speaker 2: I'm not even living in so I mean, I sin
[29:18] Speaker 2: every day, probably, but I'm not even living in sin,
[29:21] Speaker 2: and that scared me. I'm like, I don't want to
[29:24] Speaker 2: give Satan no.
[29:26] Speaker 3: Room to come and dwell in my bubble.
[29:28] Speaker 2: And you know how people be like y'all blame everything
[29:31] Speaker 2: on the devil.
[29:31] Speaker 1: It just be y'all, right, And my whole thing is
[29:34] Speaker 1: like we are bad are we are bad enough on
[29:36] Speaker 1: our own? Like the devil is not the root of
[29:39] Speaker 1: every sin that you that you do, says like, he's not,
[29:42] Speaker 1: that's you, but you do it so often he comes
[29:46] Speaker 1: snooping around like, oh, what we got going on over here?
[29:48] Speaker 1: We got a party? We got a party? Like and
[29:51] Speaker 1: I just don't want the devil to have like a
[29:53] Speaker 1: foothold in my life to where he sees it as
[29:56] Speaker 1: easy pickens because I'm always doing something I'm always he
[30:00] Speaker 1: could use, like he knows he could use the money,
[30:02] Speaker 1: because I'm gonna get drunk on Saturday.
[30:04] Speaker 2: I remember I went to Las Vegas. This was even
[30:06] Speaker 2: before I knew the Lord. And I went with my
[30:08] Speaker 2: parents because my dad had a bowling tournament. And even
[30:11] Speaker 2: like without the Holy Spirit and like without discernment, I
[30:13] Speaker 2: felt that something was off in Las Vegas. I'm like,
[30:16] Speaker 2: I don't know what's going on here. I don't like it.
[30:18] Speaker 2: I felt the darkness. It wasn't even following Jesus at
[30:20] Speaker 2: that point, just dwelling in darkness. I don't know how
[30:24] Speaker 2: we how we do that.
[30:25] Speaker 1: So when it comes to pursuing the Kingdom in college,
[30:29] Speaker 1: like we said in the beginning, I truly believe there
[30:31] Speaker 1: is so much power and following the Lord right now,
[30:36] Speaker 1: don't say that you're too young, don't say you're still young.
[30:39] Speaker 1: In turn, you'll get to that later. You don't know
[30:41] Speaker 1: if later is meant for you. You don't know if
[30:42] Speaker 1: later is in the I was gonna say in the cards,
[30:44] Speaker 1: don't say in the cards.
[30:45] Speaker 2: God saying you know you got these phrases. It's hard
[30:49] Speaker 2: to give them up. You don't know if that's if
[30:52] Speaker 2: that's your destiny, sayst So follow the Lord right now.
[30:56] Speaker 1: When I think about I'm thirty, when I think about
[30:58] Speaker 1: all the things that I could have ACCOMPLI by now,
[31:01] Speaker 1: if I had followed the Lord back in.
[31:03] Speaker 2: My college years, all the things that I desire right now,
[31:07] Speaker 2: I probably would have by now.
[31:08] Speaker 3: Yeah, I probably would have.
[31:10] Speaker 2: I mean, who knows, But it just goes to reason.
[31:14] Speaker 1: If I had totally committed myself to the Lord earlier
[31:16] Speaker 1: and had done a lot of this work earlier, not only.
[31:20] Speaker 2: Would I be a lot more effective.
[31:22] Speaker 1: Yeah, I truly believe that, But who knows, there's a
[31:26] Speaker 1: lot of things in my life I probably would have already.
[31:28] Speaker 2: I think it's very purposeful in when the Lord plucks
[31:31] Speaker 2: you up. I think so too. At twenty one, I've
[31:34] Speaker 2: made a lot of mistakes as a Christian that I
[31:36] Speaker 2: felt like maybe if I got saved later in life,
[31:38] Speaker 2: I wouldn't have made all these mistakes. But that's just
[31:41] Speaker 2: a part of being saved young. Like you really have
[31:44] Speaker 2: to learn.
[31:45] Speaker 3: Like get discipled.
[31:47] Speaker 2: You have to. I think if you are young, especially
[31:51] Speaker 2: college age, you need discipleship so bad. My mentor literally
[31:56] Speaker 2: she was actually just texted me that this was the
[31:58] Speaker 2: woman that came into my life that I gave my
[32:00] Speaker 2: life to the Lord when I was twenty one years old.
[32:03] Speaker 2: She has walked with me through so much, She's witnessed
[32:07] Speaker 2: so many mistakes. And I think that's my biggest piece
[32:11] Speaker 2: of advice. When you give your life to Jesus at
[32:13] Speaker 2: that age, you need guidance.
[32:17] Speaker 3: You need guidance you do.
[32:19] Speaker 1: And that's why we were talking about community being so big,
[32:23] Speaker 1: because if you're the only one in your family, let's say,
[32:27] Speaker 1: and you get saved around college age, that's gonna be
[32:30] Speaker 1: it's gonna be tough because just imagine getting saved like
[32:33] Speaker 1: your sophomore year of college, and then you go back
[32:37] Speaker 1: to your family during the holidays and now you're not
[32:41] Speaker 1: drinking yeah, and now you're not making the store runs
[32:44] Speaker 1: with your cousin and now you're not doing all that
[32:47] Speaker 1: stuff like bro, Like, can you imagine how hard that
[32:50] Speaker 1: would be? Like that, I do it right now and
[32:53] Speaker 1: I'm thirty and I do it right now, and I'm
[32:55] Speaker 1: just like, sometimes I feel like that my family doesn't
[33:01] Speaker 1: like me. My family likes me, they love me, but
[33:03] Speaker 1: I'd be like it's hard to be around them even
[33:06] Speaker 1: now because I'm not doing what they're doing, and imagine
[33:10] Speaker 1: doing that younger. I could just I don't know, We're
[33:14] Speaker 1: not saying that it's easy. Like I'm just trying to
[33:16] Speaker 1: like empathize because we're not sitting here being like, just
[33:19] Speaker 1: do it, girl, just do it. It's definitely hard, but
[33:23] Speaker 1: it's just it's just that, Yeah, you will get so
[33:27] Speaker 1: much more accomplished as you get older, Like you don't
[33:30] Speaker 1: want to do a lot of stuff anymore. Girl, There
[33:32] Speaker 1: are days that I just want to like just sit
[33:35] Speaker 1: in the bed. But when you twenty and you turn.
[33:37] Speaker 2: Like you got a lot of energy.
[33:39] Speaker 3: Use that energy for God. I think.
[33:41] Speaker 2: Also, if it's any motivation for you to stay in
[33:44] Speaker 2: the house, I think again, this thing in New Orleans
[33:47] Speaker 2: has really just freaked me out.
[33:49] Speaker 3: I really don't like it at all.
[33:50] Speaker 2: But I think it is just safer in the house.
[33:54] Speaker 3: I don't know how it's to put it.
[33:57] Speaker 2: And if you can't figure out a way to convince
[34:00] Speaker 2: yourself just stay in, you know, like you might be
[34:03] Speaker 2: trying to try Jesus out and but you want to
[34:06] Speaker 2: go out, but you can't really convince yourself to here's
[34:09] Speaker 2: my way to convin to you. It is dangerous outside. Again,
[34:13] Speaker 2: like we just said, it's scary outside you going to
[34:16] Speaker 2: these clubs and bars. Demons are watching lurking in those areas.
[34:20] Speaker 2: Stay in the house, y'all is fine. Romanticize staying in
[34:25] Speaker 2: the house romanti. Yes, thought some hobbies. Make you a
[34:31] Speaker 2: little nice little cocktail with poppy, you know, and then
[34:34] Speaker 2: like a little nice wine glass if you really like
[34:36] Speaker 2: wine but you don't want to drink wine, put some
[34:38] Speaker 2: poppy in there.
[34:39] Speaker 3: Throw on some candles or something. Romanticize.
[34:42] Speaker 2: You gotta you gotta figure out how to love just
[34:45] Speaker 2: being to yourself. I think that's the biggest thing people
[34:47] Speaker 2: be having fomo. That's a big thing too.
[34:50] Speaker 1: Once you get comfortable, once you get over the fomo
[34:54] Speaker 1: and you're okay with missing out because we've already told
[34:56] Speaker 1: you you ain't really missing out anyway. You have to
[35:00] Speaker 1: find that alternative because you can't be missing out, but
[35:03] Speaker 1: you ain't doing nothing on your own either. You have
[35:05] Speaker 1: to find things to fill that space.
[35:07] Speaker 3: Like, you can't be feeling sorry for yourself.
[35:09] Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't just be taking about missing out stories. Yeah,
[35:12] Speaker 1: Like you can't be like, oh, I'm missing out. You
[35:15] Speaker 1: have to fulfill it other ways. And I mean, shoot,
[35:18] Speaker 1: this gonna sound like I'm an old woman, but crack
[35:22] Speaker 1: them books open.
[35:23] Speaker 2: If that not what college is for work you already got.
[35:26] Speaker 1: And here's the thing too, like you already got a
[35:29] Speaker 1: lot on your plate academic academia wise in college. I
[35:33] Speaker 1: mean I was a biology major, so I know, like
[35:35] Speaker 1: that consumed my entire life, girl, getting them books. I
[35:38] Speaker 1: could have made way better grades if I wasn't out
[35:40] Speaker 1: at that party every weekend, Like I could have did
[35:42] Speaker 1: way better in college. So that's really your main focus anyway,
[35:46] Speaker 1: Like let's let's really get into it, Like college is
[35:49] Speaker 1: really really for the and all this other stuff is
[35:53] Speaker 1: secondary and really it's.
[35:57] Speaker 2: Not necessary, Like you don't really you don't need it,
[35:59] Speaker 2: Like I think that it's I think it's more important
[36:03] Speaker 2: than ever in college to really try to turn to
[36:07] Speaker 2: the Lord, because again, you are setting yourself up for
[36:10] Speaker 2: the blueprint of your twenties, like your first years of
[36:13] Speaker 2: your of being an adult, and being an adult is
[36:17] Speaker 2: hard enough, girl, I have I can say I've been
[36:21] Speaker 2: through almost my twenties now with Jesus, and it's been hard.
[36:26] Speaker 2: Your twenties as a whole, with or without Jesus is hard.
[36:29] Speaker 2: It is transition, trying to figure out how to be
[36:31] Speaker 2: on your own trying to figure out how to be
[36:33] Speaker 2: an adult.
[36:33] Speaker 3: It's hard. You need Jesus.
[36:36] Speaker 2: And I think when you find them in college, that
[36:39] Speaker 2: is the it's it's setting you up, changing the trajectory
[36:42] Speaker 2: of your life for when times get hard and when
[36:45] Speaker 2: you need guidance and help, you you have something to
[36:48] Speaker 2: turn to.
[36:49] Speaker 1: And let's just you know, say this point too, and
[36:52] Speaker 1: it kind of piggybacks off what we were saying in
[36:53] Speaker 1: the beginning. But when you're thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, the mistakes
[36:59] Speaker 1: you make a minor If you make mistakes at that age.
[37:03] Speaker 1: Of course, you can make big mistakes at that age too.
[37:05] Speaker 1: I mean there are people getting pregnant at that age.
[37:06] Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
[37:08] Speaker 1: But most of your mistakes are pretty they're pretty minor.
[37:11] Speaker 1: They're not they're harmless kind of you can you can
[37:14] Speaker 1: bounce back from a lot of that stuff. By the
[37:17] Speaker 1: time you're eighteen nineteen twenty. Those are not mistakes that
[37:20] Speaker 1: you're bouncing back from. Those are life changing mistakes. Those
[37:25] Speaker 1: are life changing decisions. So if nothing else we said
[37:29] Speaker 1: really connects, or if it's not really like what's not clicking, Steven,
[37:34] Speaker 1: you really need to think about the things that you
[37:36] Speaker 1: do in college are setting you up for the rest
[37:39] Speaker 1: of your life. These are the decisions that you make
[37:42] Speaker 1: that set up your entire life. And if let's say,
[37:45] Speaker 1: like we said, tomorrow's not planned, but let's say you
[37:47] Speaker 1: do plan on living the next sixty years and you're
[37:49] Speaker 1: trying to set up yourself for the best possible next
[37:51] Speaker 1: sixty years. You're not gonna do that by experimenting with
[37:54] Speaker 1: drugs right now. Nope, You're not gonna do that by
[37:57] Speaker 1: going to the frat parties right now.
[38:00] Speaker 2: You see what I'm saying.
[38:01] Speaker 1: So, how we said in our last episode, like quote unquote,
[38:04] Speaker 1: like take God out of it, even take God out
[38:06] Speaker 1: of this equation. Logically, if you are trying to go
[38:10] Speaker 1: to college to set yourself up for better, and that's
[38:12] Speaker 1: the whole reason for college, Like that's the whole point.
[38:17] Speaker 1: These decisions with experimenting and finding yourself into a lot
[38:21] Speaker 1: of ninety percent of them are not.
[38:23] Speaker 2: For your benefit for when you're older.
[38:26] Speaker 1: These are life changing steps right now, so make sure
[38:29] Speaker 1: they are positive life changing steps.
[38:31] Speaker 2: Yes, and you could do it, ask literally pray and
[38:34] Speaker 2: ask God to help you do it, Like, don't try
[38:37] Speaker 2: to do it in your own strength. It's hard, it's
[38:40] Speaker 2: gonna be twice as hard. Ask God for help, like literally,
[38:43] Speaker 2: right now, ask him God help me.
[38:45] Speaker 3: That is enough for God to do something. You know.
[38:49] Speaker 2: Sometimes a literally a prayer that we can pray is
[38:52] Speaker 2: just tears, Like God can take those tears and make
[38:55] Speaker 2: something out of nothing. Just ask Him for help, y'all.
[38:58] Speaker 3: Don't try to do it on your own.
[39:00] Speaker 1: You can choose to obey it or not. But the
[39:03] Speaker 1: Lord does call a lot of people in their youth.
[39:05] Speaker 1: I mean, Jesus's mom was a teenager. Yeah, when we
[39:08] Speaker 1: think about the prophets, they were very young when the
[39:11] Speaker 1: Lord called them, Like when Elijah called Elisha, he was
[39:14] Speaker 1: to live in at home and this I mean back
[39:15] Speaker 1: then they used to not you know, not move out
[39:17] Speaker 1: until they got married. But he was a young kid,
[39:19] Speaker 1: still with his family too. He was like, oh, let
[39:21] Speaker 1: me go say bye to my mom and dad before
[39:22] Speaker 1: I go and follow you. Like, uh, who was another person?
[39:28] Speaker 1: Joseph was very young. Joseph and Jesus yep, yep.
[39:32] Speaker 2: He was the youngest of all his brothers. He always
[39:35] Speaker 2: like it was very young when he was they was
[39:38] Speaker 2: very young. Was appointed. There were some years, but when
[39:41] Speaker 2: he was called, he was very young David and Goliath.
[39:44] Speaker 2: I mean he was very young when he killed Goliath. Yeah,
[39:47] Speaker 2: and by then he was already appointed.
[39:52] Speaker 3: Or was it after?
[39:54] Speaker 2: When did Samuel?
[39:55] Speaker 3: It was Samuel? It was before or after?
[39:57] Speaker 2: He might have killed it and then got appointed.
[39:59] Speaker 3: I don't know.
[40:00] Speaker 1: I forgot y'all mean too, A story like the Lord
[40:04] Speaker 1: calls a lot of people to do great things when
[40:07] Speaker 1: they're young.
[40:07] Speaker 2: So don't think that.
[40:09] Speaker 1: Don't say that your youth is an excuse to not
[40:12] Speaker 1: follow the Lord, because your youth should be empowering to
[40:16] Speaker 1: follow the Lord.
[40:16] Speaker 2: And I also think too, you need to be reminded
[40:19] Speaker 2: that God wants to use you. It's not that you know.
[40:24] Speaker 2: He's like, well, okay, thank you forgiving me your life
[40:26] Speaker 2: to be that's it. And he's like, okay, let's freaking go. No,
[40:29] Speaker 2: I have so much sty for your life at twenty
[40:32] Speaker 2: years old. I can't wait to take you on this journey,
[40:34] Speaker 2: my child, like he's excited. So remember that too. This
[40:39] Speaker 2: is a two way thing. God wants you to give
[40:41] Speaker 2: his life to him so bad for him to take
[40:44] Speaker 2: you down the path of everything he has for your life. Esther,
[40:48] Speaker 2: she was young and she ended up saving all the
[40:50] Speaker 2: Jewish people in her in her region because they were trying,
[40:53] Speaker 2: they were trying to put the Jewish people to death.
[40:55] Speaker 1: God called Esther in her youth to be queen and
[40:58] Speaker 1: she's the one that saved her for such a time
[41:01] Speaker 1: as this. And you never know what the Lord has
[41:04] Speaker 1: set up for your life for you to go out
[41:06] Speaker 1: and do great things in your youth. But you're so
[41:08] Speaker 1: worried about, oh I need to have this for year
[41:10] Speaker 1: experience that everybody else tells me I should have.
[41:12] Speaker 3: Girl.
[41:13] Speaker 1: And here's the thing too, the people that are telling
[41:15] Speaker 1: you to do those things. Look at their life right,
[41:18] Speaker 1: look at there. Some people will tell you to go
[41:20] Speaker 1: out and experience these things because they want you to
[41:23] Speaker 1: do it exactly what they did, because they didn't make
[41:25] Speaker 1: it in life, and they don't want you to either.
[41:26] Speaker 3: Let's talk about that.
[41:28] Speaker 1: Let's talk about the people that are telling you, oh no,
[41:30] Speaker 1: like sleep with that person. You need to see what
[41:33] Speaker 1: you like, Oh no, have that drug, like, let's have
[41:35] Speaker 1: this experience together.
[41:36] Speaker 3: Look at what they're doing.
[41:38] Speaker 1: If their life is not what you want for your life,
[41:40] Speaker 1: why would you listen to them?
[41:43] Speaker 3: Like, let's talk about it.
[41:44] Speaker 1: It's not always people's best intentions for you that lead
[41:48] Speaker 1: them to telling you, oh, you need to go out
[41:50] Speaker 1: and be doing this and this and this in your twenties.
[41:53] Speaker 2: People want to see you fail. And listen, God does
[41:57] Speaker 2: not want you to fail.
[41:58] Speaker 3: If that's any more motivation. The people that you're.
[42:01] Speaker 2: Trying to follow and run keep up with the Joneses,
[42:03] Speaker 2: they don't actually care about you. A lot of people
[42:05] Speaker 2: don't want you to do better than them.
[42:07] Speaker 3: They don't.
[42:07] Speaker 2: The day I gave my life to the Lord in
[42:09] Speaker 2: college and I was partying because she stripped me, it
[42:12] Speaker 2: was like a twenty four hour day. I lost all
[42:14] Speaker 2: their friends the next day, Yeah, the next it wasn't
[42:17] Speaker 2: even like they tried to hang on. I lost them
[42:20] Speaker 2: all the next day, yep. Because they don't care about you. Bro,
[42:23] Speaker 2: You're just a fun time.
[42:24] Speaker 3: No for real, like crazy, no for real.
[42:27] Speaker 1: When you come into your relationship with God and you
[42:29] Speaker 1: see how many people get removed from your life, and
[42:32] Speaker 1: then you'd be like wow, like you really wasn't rock
[42:34] Speaker 1: going me like that.
[42:35] Speaker 3: You actually didn't care about me at all?
[42:37] Speaker 2: Oh oh like.
[42:43] Speaker 1: And really be a wake up call. And then you'd
[42:44] Speaker 1: be like wow, like I could have been did this
[42:48] Speaker 1: years ago and it would have made not a difference
[42:51] Speaker 1: to you, because sometimes you be hanging on just for
[42:53] Speaker 1: the friendships. Yeah, for the community, for that community. Sometimes
[42:56] Speaker 1: you hanging on just for that whole time. Them people
[42:59] Speaker 1: don't it's not they're not for usiss. But God will
[43:03] Speaker 1: always be for you. He will remember that. Yeah, thank
[43:07] Speaker 1: you guys for watching this episode, episode three of Kingsom
[43:11] Speaker 1: Versus Culture. May and Victoria will be back with another
[43:14] Speaker 1: episode and we'll see you guys later. Bye.

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