Drew McHolm EP 48

David W Ebel: Yeah. Welcome to the God Says Yes Podcast. You are welcome here. Come, this is God says yes. I'm your host, David Ebel, after fifty plus years of ministry. It is my desire to continue to share God's love with ⁓ all of us, but particularly those that are struggling, those that have been have gone through things, they've their lives have been difficult, whether you've been betrayed, belittled, cheated, let down, even church hurt, regardless of how you've gotten there, it's safer to pull back. than it is to keep trusting. And a lot of people who really, really could have a wonderful life or g I have less, because of that pulling back. See, God created us to love one at a time, from the inside out. We don't look the same because that's not the important part. We look the same on the inside. He created us with love, hope, and peace and faith before we were even conceived. Who we really, really are is already there. So when we're born, we're born with that promise in us. And then along the way, we finally come to a point where Jesus would love to make himself real to us. Now that the church hurt, I get, you know, people think about getting hurt at church, that can't happen. Well, I'll tell you, if you go to the emergency room of the body of Christ, that's the church. If you go to the emergency room, you look around, over half the people are miserable and don't want to be there. Some of them are kicking and screaming. When you bring people to a to a church service who have no idea what why they're there and spiritually they're not so sure they even want to be there, it is easy for them to take that discomfort and splash it off on the forgiven ones who are trying to live it right. And it hurts. It's embarrassing, it's frustrating. And sometimes that's a reason to pull back. But we get this the reason is because we're looking at the wrong spot. We're looking at the man who goofs up. Not at the God who never leaves us or forsakes us, who's with us always. God created you to love. You were born to love, you've always been loved. You can't run away from that love. That love is permanently there for you and in you if when you invite it. God can't wait to give to bless your life and to do for you more than a great father would do for his kid. The Heavenly Father wants to do fantastic things in you. And that's why there's God says yes. We want you to understand that God says yes, you can have hope. Yes, you can have a new beginning. Yes, you can have all the great things that that He created you to have. All we have to do is just use that measure of faith that was built into us and trust God in spite of man. Doesn't mean that man doesn't justify what man has done, but we don't give man power to destroy us. We let God fill us and bless us so we can have a great life. And ⁓ Today w I have a s a special brother, a friend who who I I have as my guest. His name is Drew McComb. And and Drew has had a an amazing life and he's ministered all over the world. And now he's he's in the US pastoring multiple churches and he's he he's just he's got a great story. And the most important thing is he knows Jesus. And we're grateful he's here. Welcome, Drew. I'm glad you're here. Thanks, Davis. It's great to be with you. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? You know, the two minute version? Sure. I was I was adopted as a baby. I'm Scottish originally and I ⁓ was adopted, never knew who my birth parents were, so my mom and dad ⁓ came along to the hospital and picked me out of a crowd of babies and chose me and ⁓ took me home and raised me all those years and they were just wonderful, wonderful Christian people. My dad was ⁓ Country boy, a little education, ⁓ but one of the wisest people I've ever met in my life. ⁓ mom was ⁓ she was the talent, she was the brains of the the relationship and I think my desire to to read and write came from her. But my dad was one of those guys that ⁓ well his word was his bond. I mean he he was you know product of the Second World War, that greatest generation. And ⁓ he always always finished where he started, you know, if he started a project. He finished it. And so he taught me those those principles when I was young that ⁓ really ⁓ stood by me. so I went to church ⁓ every single Sunday, went kicking and screaming, hated to go. I was a rebel by the time I was a teenager, was doing all sorts of stupid stuff ⁓ that they didn't know anything about, bless their heart. And ⁓ when I was fifteen I I went to a youth camp, deno denominational youth camp, ⁓ with no other purpose other than to meet girls. had no desire to follow Christ or any like that. Went to the camp, ⁓ one of the evening services, a gal got up to sing. ⁓ she was the worst singer I think I've ever heard in my life. And conviction of the Holy Spirit just hit me like a brick. It was it was just unbelievable. And ⁓ you know that that that conviction of sin and I knew I was lost. I knew that my I I was smart enough to know my parents' salvation didn't you know, get me in, you know, or the denomination or the church. There had to be a personal ⁓ personal ⁓ decision that I had to make myself. And a couple of mature people were there and ⁓ they knew what was gonna they led me to Christ. And ⁓ that was the beginning of the whole thing. I started at fifteen, ⁓ went back to to school. difficult times at school, you know, 'cause I was a changed guy. ⁓ I was a big rugby guy, rugby club guy, and so ⁓ there's all just dealing with you know the pressure of peer pressure and and all that was was really a challenge but ⁓ eventually ⁓ the yeah hang on a second I wanna we have the questions we need to ask and and and I I I don't want to miss them so our viewers would would not get it. So who who were you before Jesus? Who was? I was a rebel. I was lost you know, going to hell. And ⁓ And I knew that. I knew not I actually won when I was a pagan. I used to I won Bible knowledge certificates. You know, went to Sunday school, did a national thing and won the national c competition. But that didn't save me. You know, no no one didn't make the difference. And so it had to be the work of the Holy Spirit in me to ⁓ to change my heart. So Okay. Then then you met Jesus, what did he do? Totally changed me. Whole new direction, you new desire to live for him. It was right ⁓ As they're moving into bat way back in the ⁓ let me see, late sixties, early seventies. So the the Jesus movement was going on even in Scotland at the time, and ⁓ our church was growing and and ⁓ so I got heavily involved in the church in music. I'm a musician, so praise and worship team and and all that. Played in some Christian musicals and was a street street evangelist, you know. We'd we did a lot of stuff in the streets in those days. And so it was a Total change. Just a total change of life, you know. And then when you gave your life to Jesus, you changed your life. What did it turn into? A better life. I mean, purpose. I mean a goal, desire. I mean it's as as you know. Bob Dillon said years ago, he said you gotta serve someone. It may be the devil, it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve someone. And I I realized I've been serving the wrong guy. And so ⁓ and that's one of the things that ⁓ I I realized early on. That the the whole it's one thing to get down the front and raise your hand and and make a confession of faith. It's another thing to love for him every day. And so people told me very early on it's it's not just about Jesus being your savior, it's about him being Lord of your life, that he's the priority and his word is a priority in your life. And so that I embraced that pretty quickly. Not perfectly, but at least I knew that's ⁓ kind of where I wanted to go. Mm-hmm. And and from that, tell us more. You know, you you from from that point on, you've lived a g a lot of years. Yeah. And there's been a lot of victories along the way. Tell us some of them. Well, I I one thing, I went into ⁓ secular employment, ⁓ I was a steel worker, I was a railoman, did a whole lot of things. I'm grateful that it didn't go straight to Bible college. ⁓ I think sometimes that's a mistake for some people to do that. They need experience, real people, the real world. So I was a steel worker, I was a railman, and eventually our church in in Scotland was growing so fast. ⁓ it was right at the beginning of the charismatic movement in Scotland. And so ⁓ the pastor there invited me to come on staff as a youth guy, admin guy, everything he didn't want to do. ⁓ I was the ball guy. And Yeah, and it's it was great. It was it was where I, you know, cut my teeth and got involved in ministry and did a whole bunch of things and ⁓ it was just a wonderful time watching just watching the Holy Spirit in that church do some amazing things. And ⁓ so I was there for a number of years as the associate pastor and then felt the call to come to the States and study theology. I I wanted to dig deeper into the the word and ⁓ I knew I was called to to be a a a senior pastor, to be a pastor teacher, and so came to the States to to study and have stayed ever since. So how many churches have you pastored? let me see. I've been the senior pastor of three to date. And then I was an associate pastor, being an executive pastor, running the business then, because ⁓ I took a bit of hiatus for a number of years out of the ministry to get back in corporate business. So owned a couple of companies, was a CEO, CEO. So I re always enjoyed the business world. And did a lot of counseling for Christians that ⁓ sometimes struggle with the business end of church and ⁓ and running their own businesses on a you know, Christian basis. And ⁓ finally just ⁓ eight years ago, got back in the saddle, ⁓ I got invited to come up here and pastor us a little church and through a unique set of circumstances and been here ever since. So let me let me let me say this in in words that I so I your relationship with God is this way. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But your assignment with God changes from time to time. It goes this way, it goes that way, it goes that way. But the ministry stays, the service changes. Yeah, that's right. That's exactly right. So you you you've always had ministry from the time you give your heart to Jesus. Yeah. Good days and bad, great things and suffering. You've always had that relationship with God that you could count on, you could lean on, and even when people weren't nice, you still had Jesus. I think ⁓ you know it's funny she say that. People ask me that, what is what is it that keeps you going when, you know, things are falling apart sometimes, even in ministry. I I think the the biggest lesson for me actually came practically because I was adopted as a baby. And the graphs told of that fact that, you know, I I wasn't ⁓ an like a natural prod. I was chosen by my mum and dad. Mhm. That really helped me understand the whole spirit of adoption. The Bible talks about how we are chosen by God and that it's not just happenstance, that he's got a plan. And ⁓ and so I've always known the hand of God upon me and I've always known that ⁓ my heavenly father had my back, no matter what I was like. And so that that was that confidence that that brings is is just amazing 'cause you can be in a difficult situation and yeah you know that you know God's got you. You know, he's with you. He is your foundation. Absolutely. Absolutely. The storm can rail on the walls and the windows, it can even try to rip the roof off, but the foundation stays. ⁓ They can they can put a new roof on, but they're still you. You have anchored onto the thing that lasts. And a lot of people in the culture in which we live now, if it gets too hard, your shoes hurt, you buy a new pair of shoes. ⁓ you know, like your car, you get rid of it, get a different other one. Everything becomes disposable, replaceable. you know, yeah, it's like changing changing channels on your TV. You get five hundred channels, that's four hundred and ninety nine times you've got to scroll to find something you want to see. Right. The problem is that God doesn't have isn't a channel. No. He's the best relationship that you could ever have. He's the consequ even when even when your relationship gets strained and you misbehave and and do something really foolish, he's still there going, When you're done, I'm still here. I still love you. Your love my love for you is without consequence. You can't out buy, outrun, unsell sell, un out sin. You're you're mine. So when you when you're tired of running or doing wrong or whatever, you can ask God to forgive you and He will. You will and then you get to forgive yourself because if He forgives you, it's over. Right. And you forgive yourself and you get up and He didn't beat you up, so you don't get to. Mm-hmm. So you get up and you say, Okay, God, I believe I was you left me back here. Can we meet here and start again from there? I don't have to go back to go and start us get my two hundred dollars. I don't have to play this is not a game. This is a father that loves me so much that even when I fail, he's still there for me. And he can't wait to pick me up, dust me off, and put me back on the trail. Absolutely. What a g what a loving family that is. Amazing. It really is. Absolutely. And you know, you're in my age group where we've we've been around the block a few times. And we've so we've experienced that over and over again with with either with us ourselves Or with those that we serve and love. Struggle is is part of the game. The Bible tells us that if we serve God, we're gonna we're gonna see a persecution. We're not always gonna be treated well. Right. But boy, that's the truth. Okay. Especially now in our culture where everything is just temporary. You don't like the church, quit. You don't like this, quit. You don't want to do that, quit. But the answer isn't quit because you take you you take with you you. ⁓ Who you are, all your problems, your stuff. It's still there. Right. So we can't quit from you. So the only thing you can change is let God who created you have a place in you. Right. Open up the door to your heart and say, Okay, this ⁓ this is embarrassing, this is awkward, I don't even know what to say. But obviously all that I've lived through, done and so forth, it stinks. This is not where I want to be. All right, God, here you go. Open I'm open in the heart with the heart. Come on in, it can't be better. Then it I'm I'm miserable now. It's gotta get better than that. It's gotta get better. So do something. And as soon as we do that in faith, then the Holy Spirit works in our life and our life changes. And y you've lived that life over and over again, j as I have, and sometimes through other people. Because you tell them that truth, and one day the light goes on and God reveals it. And they come back later and say, why have I waited so long? You tried to tell me that years ago. But the thing is, until you believe enough to receive and trust and do it, it's here. It's not here. This is the ten inch, six million dollar trip from the head to the heart. Yep. Yeah. And ⁓ so how does that apply in your world? I think, you know, when we ⁓ you know, as a pastor you you come across all kind of different people with different needs. and sometimes you come across people that ⁓ they have they have they just not don't know how to help themselves. They get just further and further down the rabbit hole and they think that, you know, alcohol or drugs or sex or whatever is gonna cure their problem. ⁓ I run into those those kind of people quite a bit, ⁓ not just here but in other places of pastor. And and they forget that there is an answer available. But a lot of times pride keeps them from doing that. It's like, you know, you know what it is for people who are addicted, it's like, yeah, I don't have an addiction problem, I don't have a drink problem, I don't have a you know, whatever problem. ⁓ and then you bring them to the point where they realize that ⁓ their life's their life's in trouble. And they've got to make some kind of decision to to get out of the mess that they're in. A lot of times people, you know, they they look they look at the gospel, look at what we have to say to people and say, you know, this begins with repentance and forgiveness. And and and that's it. You know, there's nothing else that we add to the salvation package other than calling people to repentance and to ask for forgiveness and to make that decision to follow Christ. And so lot of people look at it and say, Well, there's gotta be other stuff that we do. There's gotta be good works, there's gotta be this, there's gotta be that, gotta be the next thing. And they make it so difficult to understand the gospel. And so what I try to do is is make it as simple as I can. You know, when I preach or when I share with folks, they say, Don't complicate things that don't need complicated. You know, if if Jesus says, you know, ⁓ you know, if the word says, if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, guess what? Believe it. That's the promise. So if you confess those sins, then he will forgive those sins and ⁓ give you a new beginning in life. But some it's really hard for people to get to that point where the ⁓ the you know, if in a secular society, you know, where humanism is is the you know the the main philosophy basically in America these days, we all think we're self-made people, that we are in control of our life, we're the you know, captain of our fate, master of our soul or whatever. And and yet people come to realisation that guess what? You're not. You thought you were in control, but you're really not. Someone else is in control. And that someone else is not the someone else you want to be in control of your life. And so ⁓ I think when you talk to people and present them with with with the the claims of the gospel, they say that this is what the Bible says. Never mind what you think denominations say. This is what the word of God actually says. about how you can have your life changed. Stick to that. Don't complicate it. ⁓ then people begin to see that ⁓ gosh, you know that that's that's pretty clear. You know, it's not and and I think one of the things that you you always need to try and do is not make the gospel a ambiguous that that people get confused by it. I think there's sometimes too much of that in in preaching and and and we miss the core. We we we ⁓ talk around All sorts of subjects, usually self help subjects, you know, how how you can be a better you and and this and that the next thing. And ⁓ that's not how I preach. I I want to preach directly from the Word of God and let the chips fall what they may. So I'll talk about stuff like the wrath of God, you know, and and stuff like it's in the Bible. You you you've got to preach the whole council of God. Exactly and let people understand that ⁓ that there's something there for everyone. I mean, no matter where you are in your life. ⁓ the Bible speaks to that. And so I always try and relate people, you know, I think our our personal testimony is a wonderful thing. Like yours is phenomenal. But it's it's not our personal testimony alone that saves people. You know, Paul said I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation to all believers. Not not the preacher, not the denomination, not the church, it's the gospel. So stick to the gospel. Keep it simple, you know. I I love it. You're We c we could stand side by side and finish each other's sermons. Right. We ⁓ we we we agree. It's it's it's not how you've done it, it's not how it's been done, it's not how what grandma used to say. It doesn't matter if you're first, second, or twenty fifth generation church. Right. What matters is do you have a relationship with God? ⁓ I it's interesting, but when I met my wife I didn't think I was good enough at all. So I was just gonna be her brother in the Lord, be a pal. Right. Which was nothing. So I but when when we began to know each other, she wrote me a note. By the next day I didn't need the piece of paper, it was memorized. Mm-hmm. Several notes later, I had them all memorized. It wasn't long before I knew her favorite color, I knew what she liked. I knew all those things because it was important to me. Right. Developing a personal relationship with her. And that's what began turned into love. When you when you really want to fall in love with Jesus, you gotta know what makes him happy. And Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the New Testament. Are going to give you a l a great foundation for the beginning of that. I tell people to go to the book of love, John, and read that first. So that they can they can understand God's love. Then go back to Matthew and read it. But pray before you do. God talk to me through this. Not like it's been before, but talk to me so I get it. I want you to reveal something. I want to understand this. Not just words, but truth. Show me what's in it. And then read Matthew, then stop and pray. Then read Mark, do the same, do the same with Luke, and then read John again saying, God, now I've learned all this, show me more. It'll give you a foundation that'll help you with your doubt, your disbelief, your your how to behave, how not to behave. How can I make God proud of me? How can I be a good partner in a relationship, whether it's a friendship or emotional relationship? You know, if I got a best friend, I'm I I gotta make sure he's happy with me. Right. And and he he's gotta wanna be my friend and and make me happy too. The relationship is built on c on on an overlapping helping, loving, serving. And when we love God enough that we really want to please him, we gotta know how to please him. We gotta learn what he likes. We gotta learn what he hates. We gotta learn what how how we he likes us to live. And it's not so that we could be starchy. And we can look down no, it's because we want ⁓ my relationship with God is just him and me. Right. It's not him and all of us. It's him and me. And if I can please him and you like me, bonus. But I can please him and you're not happy with me, I'll take it. Because I know who's the important one, the one who forgave me. Yeah, the one who changed me, the one who he loves me un unconditionally. And I would rather please somebody with those kind of c attributes than anybody else I've ever met. So if I'm not popular with a certain person because I believe these things, so be it. But if I'm popular with God and I'm and I'm pleasing him and he's pleasing me, my life is going to be rich. Mm-hmm. Wouldn't you agree? ⁓ yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That's the that's the key. And and that's the sad thing that there's a lot of people that go to church but they don't have a relationship with God. ⁓ a lot of people go to church have a relationship with a building or or with a denomination or whatever. But they don't have relationship with God and so that's the saddest thing. It's it's it's like going to a a family reunion and you you you don't know who the dad is, you know. It's like you're kinda scrambling around. And so the most important thing to me is is obviously my relationship with God. That comes before anything, you know, and ⁓ you know, we live our life according to the precepts of the script try at least the precepts of the scriptures and ⁓ And and that keeps us right. And ⁓ I th I think it's I think it's important for believers, like I said earlier, just that to don't complicate things. We we over complicate life. We overcomplicate Christianity, we overcomplicate preaching sometimes and trying to please everybody and ⁓ I think you're you learn I mean the older you get, to be honest with you, I don't know how it's for you, David, but for me, the older you get, the less you care about pleasing people. You know, it it's like, you know, I'll I'll ⁓ you know, if you don't like what I say and there's some people, you know, have reacted to some things I've preached on, ⁓ that's fine. You know, if if you have a problem with it, go and study it yourself. I mean if you can go up with a another conclusion to convince me otherwise, then fine. But ⁓ I I think it's you get to the point where you you just want to please God and then everything else can take a number. ⁓ I don't mean that callously, but but you mean that honestly. Yeah, y honestly, and it's like, you know, we try and not let any other things and that's the biggest challenge is there's so many pressures in life, different things that come our way, even pressures in the ministry and ⁓ that can drive you away from your relationship with God. You know, and some people maybe listening to this would be like, What do you mean? that's why there's such a fallout rate and ⁓ with with pastors, because you know, One of the things I didn't learn in seminary, ⁓ I learned later on, is that, you know, when you take on a church you f you d you dis discover very qu quickly that sheep have teeth and bite. And so it's it's not ⁓ my job at the seminary, I was at the kind of Danish students kind of thing at one point. And my job was to convince those guys and gals that were thinking of doing whatever for the Lord, ⁓ not to do it unless they absolutely felt called. I said, Because if if you don't, you'll get you'll get killed. You know, you'll you'll last about a couple of years and then you'll be another fallout from the ministry selling insurance somewhere. And so you gotta know that ⁓ this is what God's called you to, and you gotta know also. One of the books I want to write, to get to is ⁓ you know, what they never taught me in Bible college. There's a whole whole bunch of things that you experience hands on that it would have been nice for somebody there, rather than just teaching systematic theology, to say this is This is how you deal with cranky old people in your church. You know, because we'll we all have them and we all got to navigate that that ⁓ those folks. So there's you know, I think I think when you publish that book I want a copy. Gotcha, gotcha. Well it's coming at some point, so well yeah. This has been remarkable, brother. It's ⁓ the you know, as you travel through life, I've been, you know, various countries in the world, you know, ⁓ seeing how churches there and how they how they act and respond and sometimes you you just it's ⁓ it's amazing, really. You you see people who are get next to nothing. And they've got so much more love for God than we have, you know, in our materialistic society. And ⁓ it it's just it's a heart what is it does us good. I used to take missions teams to Mexico, Africa, Russia, different places. And the thing that really blessed me was that we learned more from those folks than they learned from us. Agreed. Yeah. And so ⁓ I would t we would take kids ⁓ t just over the border and me w I was ⁓ in Texas at the time, and just on short trips there and changed their their view of the world. I mean you you you you you're driving just about five or six hours into northern Mexico, into a city, into the slums, and people are living in parking crates, you know, with blue tarps over the packing crate for their keep the rain out and you know, the kids get bug eyed and never seen you know, never seeing anything like it. And ⁓ it ⁓ it really humbles people to realise that you don't need all the trappings of, you know, this and that and all the technology to be happy, you know. You really don't. So ⁓ at this point, tell us a golden nugget. Something that you can leave us that w leave with us that even after the podcast is done, people can pray about, mull over, meditate, however they process. What can they can they take from this podcast that they can they they can use in their life in the in the weeks to come? I think it'll be this. ⁓ And somebody else asked me this question and and this is how I responded. I said that ⁓ my favourite biblical character is Caleb. ⁓ you know, one of the spies, one of the good spies. And they're now in the promised land and the land's been divided up and ⁓ everyone's getting a nice slice of you know the promised land and I guess Caleb could have chosen a you know, nice area with rivers and streams and mountains and stuff like that. But he wanted the hill country where the giants still were that ⁓ were still ⁓ warring against Israel. And he's eighty-five years old. And ⁓ I looked to that 'cause somebody asked me a question, why why on earth are you writing a book at seventy years old? Or why are you finishing a doctorate at seventy years? It's like because there's n you don't quit. Christians don't quit. You know, we don't retire. We might retire from a job, but we don't retire as being a believer and I started a ministry, I haven't ⁓ because of the ⁓ the studies and the book, ⁓ laid it down for a while, but ⁓ a ministry called Aim for the Highest. And my school in Scotland was a classic school, taught Latin and Greek and all that, and their motto was Summa Patenda, which is Latin for Aim for the Highest. And so the whole idea is I'm gonna take all the sermons I've preached, all the videos that I've I've done of me teaching or this and that, and dump them on ⁓ YouTube. For younger ministers who maybe are bivocational, who don't have the time to study like I've had. ⁓ so they can use it. So so the goal is don't the tagline is don't quit. Keep climbing. And I think if we could say to people out there, that's what I'd say, wherever you are in your life, don't quit. I mean, you're you're an amazing testament to that. And ⁓ don't quit, keep on going because you you just never know what's round the corner and the purposes of God. You might think that you're being retired. But my dad was ninety seven when he passed away. And when I called him in Scotland one time at n I think it was ninety-three, I said, What are you doing today, Dad? You know, way up to it. He was a nun in a nursing home. He said, I'm gonna get on a public service bus and I'm gonna go and visit some old people. And I knew and I knew the people he was visiting and they were all about ten, fifteen years younger than him. But there was no quitting the man. I mean no quitting. And so that's why I'd say to people, don't give up. You might be in a place where you're struggling, it might look as if it's all gloom and doom, you know, but but God's the God in front of you and the God that's behind you is greater than any problem you'll ever come up against. I agree. So if you have faith in God like Caleb had and wanted to climb mountains at eighty five, then surely there's hope for people like us. Amen. my my I wrote down my mission one day. And then and then ⁓ the challenge was how can I shrink it down to a few words? Renew to restore, rebuild to reinspire. That's good. It's very good. Because we when I meet people I I know that if they need renewal, I want to be there. When if if in that process I'm going to help them restore their faith. Right. In spite of the people who've hurt them or whatever's gone on in their life. I want to restore them beyond that to what God has always planned. Absolutely. And then because I'm doing that, I I'm helping them the build their own relationship with God. Not mine, their own. Yeah. And in that process, then they're good that's going to reinspire them. I don't retire, I reinspire. Right. My job description may change. My relationship never changes. Just how I reflect it changes. Yeah. ⁓ And so in this chapter of my life, I can't do some of the things I used to. But I can podcast. Yeah. I can love people. My wife and I teach Bible study. You know, we we we still find things to do. Right. Don't do the same things because in this chapter we can't. Right. But can't it doesn't mean won't. It's can't now differently. Exactly. Exactly. Philippians four thirteen. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Mm-hmm. And that's where we're at today. So As we get ready to close this time, before we do that, Br Drew, you've got a book to tell us about. Yeah, I wrote a book. ⁓ so really strange how it came to this. I was ⁓ I n I never read novels. So this book is a a novel. ⁓ it's a kind of espionage counter terrorism novel. So I was inspi I wasn't a I was flying somewhere and ⁓ I picked up ⁓ Vince Flynn book and read it and I thought, This is really good. You know I'd be I'd I'd read textbooks and academic stuff, you know, for the last forty years and didn't have the time to read novels. So I read the book and I thought, you know what, this is really good and I'd like to have a shot at doing that. I think I could write something like this and some other podcaster asked me, Well, what gave you the you know the ⁓ the right to do that? I said, Well I've been I've been writing short stories for forty years. They're called sermons. And so you know, at least I've been writing. So I decided to try and do that and I made a point actually of not writing it as a in your face Christian book. So it's not. It's a a secular novel. But ⁓ the main character, ⁓ who through a love interest gets involved in stuff that he never wanted to, but gets drawn in ⁓ to do with IRA and and and terrorism and all that. And he goes through a really difficult scenario. And ends up in the States and eventually ends up in this little Pentecostal church. Just driving by and pops in and goes through a salvation experience that totally changes his life. Now it changes his life for the better, but adds a whole lot of new moral ethical issues he's got to deal with. And so the reason I didn't write it purely as a Christian book is because I knew if I did that, a lot of people who are not believers wouldn't even pick it up. And so I wanted to have that seam right in the middle that talks about redemption, talks about forgiveness, talks about salvation, talks about relationship with the Lord. so that that was the kind of you know motivation to do it. So and ⁓ I just wanted like my dad, you know, encouraged me years and years ago, just if you're gonna start something, finish a kit. And so it's like, Well, I'll finish it and see what happens. So And I've got a follow up. I'm writing the ⁓ it's gonna probably be a trilogy, I think, but at least there's gonna be a follow up book 'cause there's a It's kind of a cliffhanger at the end, so people are asking me all the time when's the next one coming out and all that. So the answer is eventually. Eventually. Eventually. In the fullness of time. Yeah. I'm hoping ⁓ I'm hoping before the summer next year. So that's that's the the goal. And then you have a website? Yeah, it's ⁓ www. dot dreom at comm D R E W ⁓ C H O L ⁓ Just my name dot com. And there's some ⁓ stuff on there. We're just populating it some videos and some explanations and and there's a way to order the book ⁓ through there. You can ⁓ order it directly on our website and ⁓ and for a few bucks more you can do I'll do a sign copy from there. And of course it's on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and all that kind of stuff as well. So mm-hmm. It's early days. We're just starting now, we're heading to Texas on Monday ⁓ to do a little book tour and ⁓ my wife and I are musicians, so we're gonna do some singing at the same time. where we are and some of our musical friends in Austin are joining us. So it's it's gonna be a a fun time. So we're looking forward to that. Sounds like a great great time. Yeah. Well I tell ya, I I hate to I hate for this to draw to a close. This has been a wonderful fellowship. I've really enjoyed it. Really enjoyed it. I always picture us sitting in a couch in a living room with you in one chair, me in the other, and the third chair is the viewer or the or the listener. Yeah. And ⁓ together we just are having this wonderful conversation that changes lives. Amen. And we're grateful for each of you being here part of it. So I'm going to pray and then we'll have our challenge. Heavenly Father, we're grateful for the privilege we have to to love you. Because you first loved us. You loved us enough to create us. You loved us enough to give us hope and promise and faith built right into our d our spiritual DNA. Lord, you built us from the inside out to love. Lord, reveal your love to everyone that's listening or viewing. If they know you Stir them up. If they don't know you, start them up. Somehow help help them to understand that the creator loves his creation. Yes. The one who made us can't wait to have a relationship with us. Lord help us to fall in love with you all over again. Get closer to you, close enough that we can forgive other people so that we're they don't affect us. That that you can help us to live past our problems. Past our memories, past our hurts, and live in our promises and our future. Lord bless everything that's that we've shared and bless all the viewers and listeners as they listen. Make a difference in our lives to the glory of God in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Absolutely. You know, and it's now it's time for the ⁓ the famous closing. So it it goes like this Seek after God, He will be found. Wanna know him more? Seek Jesus. Jesus said he is the way to God. You want more? Get in closer. Seek after God. He's here for you today. Be blessed and be encouraged. This has been the God Says Yes podcast with David Ebel. To connect with David, email him at GodsaysYespodcast at gmail.com. You can get his latest book, When the Doctors Say No, God Says Yes, at Amazon.com.