God Wants To Save Us, Not Punish Us!

Hey, and welcome to Journey with Jesus. I'm your host and author, Johnny, saying, "This is a platform that's dedicated to your spiritual uplift and encouragement." I'm so excited to share with you today's guest, Matt Cook, who's a friend of mine, and I hope he becomes a friend of yours as well, and he's going to share with us his journey with Jesus. Let's get into the episode. Once again, I'm so grateful that we've got today's guest with us, Matt Cook, and I would love for you to meet him so that ultimately you can get some related ability, some connectivity, and you can see Jesus in his life as much as I have. Hey, Matt. Hey, Johnny, thanks for having me today. Absolutely. Go ahead and say how do the folks. Let them know who is Matt Cook. Yeah, so I'm Matt. I'm married to Charlotte for almost 21 years now. I've got two kids, 14-year-old, girl, 12-year-old boy, so that's a fun age. I am a professor at Freed Hardham and University, and I've been here for 11 and a half years, I guess it is now. I also preach for the Stantonville congregation, which is about 30 minutes south of here, the great kind of rural church, but vibrant and growing, and we get lots of students come down. It's a lot of fun. I am proud to be from West Virginia. Johnny, you may not have ever met anybody from West Virginia before. I wear shoes, even if I'm from West Virginia, so that makes me a big West Virginia Mountaineer fan. And I am a proud Pittsburgh, in fact, man, just look. I drink from my fanhood right here, Pittsburgh Pirates fan, Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I love to watch some sports. In a little golfing phase right now, my son's 12, and he kind of picked golf as his thing, which works out pretty good for dad if I'm going to pick a sport that I can play with my kid. That one's one that I, because I'm not probably not going to golf much without my family, but my son wants to golf. What am I supposed to do, but go golfing with him? It's pretty good gig. Yeah, I am. I did a little bit of golfing and by doing a little bit of golf, and what that means is my adopted grandfather and I, Glenn Wilkud, he took me out into golf course one time. He hadn't played for as long as I've been alive, and I had never played before. So we took out his old set of golf clubs and we took down all the markers that we needed. And we just whack balls around the golf course had no idea where we were going. Didn't keep track of points until we got to the green. And then it was about three hours later. And all we did was whack balls around. And then outside of that, I did a little bit of golfing with a top golf, which is not really golfing is just more wacky balls. It's fun. It is. So now you made mention you said, of course, you're married and you've got two kids. You said you've got a boy and a girl. Wow. Man, I'm married. I don't have any kids yet. Lord's will and that'll come in the future. You do not seem very stressed as a dad. I don't know for some reason. It just seems like a lot of dads that have got young kids seem more tired than anything else. And you're just as vibrant and happy as ever. I don't I'm somehow fake in there. I'm just kidding. No, I think you know, it's funny, Johnny. I'm reading right now. I'm sure you've heard a John Mark Comer in his book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. And it's one of those books. It's real trendy. Everybody's talking about it because I teach spiritual did one of the courses I teach here at freedom in the spiritual disciplines. And so that's one of those course one of those books that everybody's okay. You should read that I'm a bit a little bit kind of anti like if everybody's doing it. I'm like, well, I'm not doing it. It's kind of like that it's that personality test that every the any a gram everybody's talking about the any a gram. And I'm like, I'm not doing it because everybody's talking. So I still haven't done it. And I've kind of been that way with Comer's book. But I finally thought should read this book everybody's talking about it as I teach this course. And boy, it's been great. And his kind of thought line is when we are in a constant state of hurry that is often incompatible with the key, the kingdom values of Jesus. And like it's I'm real. So I'm wrestling with that right now and really thinking through like love, joy, peace, patience, wisdom. Like if you're constantly in a hurry, it is really hard to be loving, joyful, peaceful, be seeking wisdom. So I don't know, maybe it's just that I'm trying right now to not be a rise old hurry because boy, it's hard to it's hard to look like Jesus when we're just in a constant hurry. And I'll tell you what, you know, that's something that I do not have a problem with. And this is why this is the only reason why cultural conditioning. So I'm from South America, but culturally like we've talked about were Caribbean and maybe you've heard of Caribbean time before, but it's a whole different times on a whole different setup. And when I migrated here, I was labeled for my entire two years of my 10 year in the Florida School of preaching as late. I'm always late, I'm late to class, I'm late to things and matter of fact, those that have known me in the past after they've seen how I am now from being married and ministering, they're like, man, it's a whole different turn around. But there's times even where, you know, I might be preaching in the pulpit and I look at the clock and it looks like time I should be stopping, but I'm like, man, you know, they look comfortable. They're fine. I don't see any closed eyelids. The Caribbean time is a whole different thing, man, even like on the church buildings back in Ghana, we put a start in time, but we don't put a ending time. So like we'll say we start at. And that doesn't even hold, wait, we could put like we start at nine, but realistically, we'll start at 9.30, just as long as everybody gets there. And it's just one of those things I never, we were never really rushed by the clock, necessarily, or never had to pay so much attention to it that everything gets governed. It's actually a thing in the Caribbean and it's called to line L I M E and all that really translates to is you and a group of friends plan to come together and do absolutely nothing for extended periods of time. So, you know, when I was growing up, I would call it the boys and say, hey, are we going to line this weekend? Yeah, yeah. And all that means is we'll all meet up at somebody's house whenever they get there and we'll just hang out just in each other's company doing nothing talking about nothing. Sometimes we might play some board games like dominoes or playing cards, but all it did was we just spent time together hanging out. So, when I moved here and I saw that everybody was in a rush or rush or rush, it just, that was a culture shot. That was a culture shot. So, man, you're on a campus there and you're teaching kids and I'm sure you run into some that respect the clock, quote, unquote, and some that don't realize it. Yeah, I mean college students are notoriously struggle was showing up on time, but it really is. It's funny. I've got a morning class. And so, I didn't mention this a minute ago. I was, we were missionaries in Peru before we came back here to Freed Harderman. And so, I've got some exposure to like the event. So, in a culture, I teach missions here. And so, I teach at eight o'clock on Monday and Wednesday, I've got a missionary anthropology course. So, we talk about culture and time oriented versus event oriented. It's funny. That particular class is the one Bible class. Every student has to take a Bible class every semester. And the nursing students have kind of a crazy schedule. They've got clinicals and that's an early morning class fits their schedule. And it's funny. They are all on time to go to, it's just these nursing students have to be really serious and have all this stuff. And so, like, they're on time. But then there's some other students in that class that are not nursing majors and they struggle getting there by eight o'clock. So, you talking about that reminds me of life in Peru as an American. It was tough for us to like figure that out and adjust to the time. My favorite examples of this. I remember we've been there for probably a year and a half. We had these Peruvian friends who invited us to a birthday party. When the kids party, it was, I don't know if it's a birthday, but a dinner for to celebrate somebody's birthday. And they told us we start seven o'clock. And I'll never forget me in my life really struggling with what time do we actually show up? Because as Americans, you tell us seven o'clock, well, we're going to show up, you know, birthday party like that, seven, seven o' five. Anything later than that is late. But we knew, like, this Peruvian party was not going to start at seven. So, I remember us like planning how late to be. So, we said, this is so American, right? We said seven thirty. We're doing seven thirty. So, we show up at seven thirty. And like, we knock on the door, they let us in. And like, they're still running around getting ready. They're not like dressed for the party. I think another American family showed up a little bit after us. No Peruvian showed up till eight thirty. I mean, they said seven o'clock, but nobody showed up till eight thirty. So, for those of us who grew up in a time oriented culture, it's tricky to figure out what time do you actually mean when you say seven o'clock. And it turns out for a lot of, a lot of folks from a event oriented culture, you don't care. And here's what I think is cool. I think the event oriented culture and the group orientation, all of that aligns more with biblical values than the American way of we're in a hurry, we're in a rush. And I'm not really concerned about being with people. I'm just concerned about checking that box. So, I love the community oriented concept that a lot of people in the rest of the world have that I think we miss out on. I think it, it's what the family of God is all about, right? Yeah. It's about, I mean, it's what fellowship is all about. We're together and we're sharing life together. That word, a lot, lime or whatever that word you used. Yeah. Well, that's a lot like, I don't know, it sounds a lot like the book of Acts, right? Throw in some worship and focus on God and just we're going to be together. Boy, I think we miss out a lot in our culture. Yeah, you know, it's really interesting because whenever we do get together in guy and again, it's not unique But there's other parts of the world that does this and when you're around Caribbean folk like you said There isn't a sense of offense offend you know nobody gets offended when you turn up quote-unquote late Or if you turn up earlier than anticipated like you know people were running around they weren't dressed Nobody was odd or awkward about that. I'm sure and that's usually how it is to in our culture Usually the folks that turn up quote-unquote on time or early the folks that turn up on time or early in our culture are the ones with little kids Little babies or whatnot they'll turn up on time so they can be settled in with the kids and Usually that means they put the kids down on a sofa or a bed to fall asleep and they get to helping who to host It's and they'll run around with the host and get things done and do things and get things organized But I still struggle with that when I have socializing moments with folks in the US My wife is ethnically guy and ease, but culturally American. She was born and raised here, but her family are from Guy Anna and Because of that she has been conditioned to this time Constraint as opposed to my conditioning and whatever we're hanging out with members in the church It just totally it totally slips my mind that there's a clock and You know my wife is looking at me and she's like all right, you know, we got to we got to figure something It's been four hours, you know, but I'm just so used to just spending time with people and I guess the other thing is There was a lot of guys when I was in school and you know wrong no wrong or right, you know It's just cultural conditioning really a lot of guys in school that whenever we would hang out It felt rush and the reason it felt rush is because They almost had to get everything in before they needed to leave and get back into their schedule and It just haven't been conditioned to that. There is that difference there with the clock And it is really neat that you are exposed to that a little bit that gives you a good discernment I get insight into just some things and variation there now you've got kids You've got a wife and like you've made mention of Let me know this were you raised at a Christian environment or did you come to Christ at a later point in your life? Yeah, I was my dad's a preacher So I was raised in a in a preacher's house that has its own challenges I was raised in a very Very rural blue collar area. So sometimes I feel especially here in the south where there are southern gentleman and everybody's a little more I don't know that's sophisticated. It's not the right word Sometimes I feel like I'm I don't fit in entirely. I'm a little rough around the edges and Sometimes when I feel that way, I'm like what why is it and then I'm like oh wait. I grew up in coal mine in country Like the the elders at my home church. It was a church of about growing up at 120 members in a tiny little town in the Hills, OS, Virginia All of my elders were either current or retired coal miners. I think in that church. They were probably 12 to 15 men Who were who were coal miners? And so I grew up in that context of I'm just kind of blue collar say it like it is and not really we're not worried about putting on a front We just who are who we are and Yeah, and I miss I miss that sometimes. Yeah, I'll the honesty that comes with that I think there's there's some authenticity also there's some sometimes being The rough around the edges say it like it is can can go too far right and so there's advantages and disadvantages But yeah, I'm a I guess you could say I'm a hillbilly at heart. Yeah I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home. My parents set a great example for me I do not look back on my childhood as a preacher's kid in a negative way at all Yeah, yeah, yeah I was raised in a Christian environment too and and my dad was and he's a preacher still and He's been preaching before I was born so I've only ever known him as a preacher and You're right. There are some advantages. There's also some disadvantages to that just in terms of at least I suppose like a discerning kind of thing, you know being trained to view things from one lens versus the kind of lenses that do exist out there Sometimes we can lack a lit like you're said, you know a little bit of transparency authenticity But also maybe some compassion and some consideration. Yeah, when I'm when I moved to the US and I moved into You know the difference there with a culture I noticed real quickly Matt that I related more to the older folks here that I did to the peers of my own age and the reason for that is The way they were raised it would a simpler life with things not being you know instantly gratifying to you with You know some mutual respect to different people that don't have to quote unquote earn it or demonstrate something to deserve it And that's how I was raised as well, you know, we we grew up where I think we you and I talked about a little bit this in the past before but My parents never had a wash and machine or a dryer You know, we would wash everything by hand and put it out in the line to dry and you know a lot of our food was cooked to Stove that were not electric and sometimes not even gased or cooked outside Outdoor what I moved here and I got to see a little bit of how folks were raised in the 50s and in the 60s and even some of the 70s There's a lot of relatability there so very quickly I could sit and have you know drawn our conversation Comfortably which folks that are older and like you said almost folks that were raised simpler in a simpler life It's simple living as opposed to folks my age. I was just sharing on the episode recently that what I moved here I had a iPhone 5 and this was in 2019 and I had just bought that in Guyana and I was very much grateful for what I have because it was a new phone that we just got And in Guyana that was a very very much a newer phone when I moved here the agents had Verizon said we can't use that on our towers here And I just couldn't believe it. I was like I just caught this phone and I had to upgrade to I think it was like a iPhone 7 or something like that So that I could do them their towers but definitely just crossing waters just a few hours away There's still a Transition in time almost and as we you know my country has gradually grown and progressed into a more modern or Western front But um here right there's just something about simple living that makes you somebody that's less concerned with Front less concerned about how you look or how you sound or the kind of image that you bear because there's a Comedian for better or worst, you know, I'm not gonna say his name But he mentioned this about his upbringing and he said there was never a thing in his upbringing that separated black and white because everybody was poor It was either you were poor or you weren't but there wasn't a race thing to observe and that's sort of how it seemed Sometimes when you're raised in a simpler home with you know less of the privileges As opposed to others that have been blessed in that way But it gives you a real neat perspective moving forward and A good keen observation of things as you move forward as well But yeah, I almost felt like I wasn't authentic when I had to do some of this transition in Because it just didn't feel like me it didn't feel like how I was conditioned Real quickly when I went to in the Florida School of Preach and we have what's called student days and in one of the student days You know you're expected to dress in a suit and a tie as you go and you minister to different places And I didn't know that I just moved here. I didn't know that so I grabbed out of the closet the thing that I thought was Be the most professional or at least the more better look and put together and it was just a pair of slacks and a turtleneck who's colder here at that point in time or cold for me I'm raised in very tropical tropical temperatures and I got there on everybody else was wearing suit and ties and I'm like What's going on here? Well, I got back from the event. That's what I was told you know Hey, we got to go get you some suit and some ties or you know get you a jacket at least or something just because of the cultural variation But yeah, man, there's just something about that West Virginia I didn't know that and again, this is just all new to me that coal mining was still a thing up and to the point in time when you were raised there Yeah, it was up until I was raised really and that's been a few years now a lot of that has Has slowed down and hurt the economy as it slowed down But yeah, when I was growing up, it was still they were starting to shut down. There were some laid-off coal miners at church But it was still a big deal a lot of my buddies at school their dad were coal miners So yeah, still still was a thing probably not so much today as near as much and you hear it in the news sometimes We ask you this Matt Do you think that a lot of your conditioning how you were raised in the environment you were in played a role in the kind of christianity that you get to be a part of today And the christian that you see yourself as yeah, no doubt and I think there's a positive and a negative side to that as well Right, so positive is I think the authenticity it wasn't a southern bless your heart sort of deal it was You're your honest. There's you know, we're not put on a show at the same time. I think a lot of us who grew up in churches of Christ and And I think even the church where I served now we grew up with a very checked the box sort of a mentality It's like okay. We got to do this. We got to do this got to do this and in my opinion I think we missed out some on the grace of God and that wasn't my parents fault That wasn't my elders fault. That was just the culture that we were in and I think I love that as My parents will have talked about this too, you know, we just We thought that we had to be perfect We thought we had to get it just right or that God might be angry at us. Um, and so That's one of the things that I think even though I've come to the south and I am more spiritually mature And I think I've learned hey, we're nothing without the grace of God and we will not be perfect and when we're imperfect God's not out to get us and I think I think sometimes we have this picture of God is this like angry high school principal in the sky just waiting for us to mess up right I've had teachers like that right just I'm watching I'm just waiting for you to mess up and that's not who he is and I think some people like well the wrath of God yeah of course God will punish sin but I think scripture teaches he doesn't want to he wants to save us he has a desire that everybody come to repentance and he's patient with us so that everybody will come to repentance but that's the opposite image sometimes I think that we see it's that he's he wants to punish us and that's that's not who he is and so I'm thankful for the grace of God I think that's one of the things that I've learned over the past probably 15-10-15 years is I need to leave I need to be confident of the in the grace of God and the blood of Jesus and in my place in Christ if I'm in Christ that's a solid place to stand I don't have to live in fear obviously I want to grow in my relationship with him I want to become more and more and more like Jesus Christ but to sit around in constant fear of the judgment day that's not who we're called to be and that means wherever you're at in your Christian journey whether you feel like you're early on or you're later on have some confidence in the grace of God as you grow and as you become more like Jesus absolutely just making me think of Ephesians chapter 6 from around verse 10 and 11 putting on the full armor of God I think it's in about verse 11 Paul says that this power or strength that you can have he says stand for him and be strong I think that strength there he was saying is found in Jesus in the might of his power so the preposition was showing you know you don't or can't be strengthened unless you're in Jesus one then the strength that you do have is not of yourself but it's in his power so there's a lot of times where you're right you know we almost depending our on ability to accomplish things only the short sight the grace that has been given to us and it's like a little bit of a disservice right all of these things has been orchestrated and put in place for us only for us to say no I think I need to be this version so that I'm worthy enough to be in your presence and I'm glad that you're able to experience some of that I'm sure that you have been able to share some of that with your own family and have been able to use that with your own kids as you bring them up in the presence of the Lord you're a Christian you're ministering at a congregation you're teaching at a school you've got a family those things don't happen overnight right I'm sure there were transitional points and gradual growing moments for you do you ever recall a moment in your life where you have this transitional point of saying I want to be somebody that not only have Jesus or has Jesus in my heart but I want to share him with others or was it something that just came from the good graces of others around you how would you describe that moment of being so mature or a person into preacher yeah I'd go all the way back to early high school years I was given the opportunity to do a Wednesday night devotional or I remember probably sophomore year high school we had little little country churches wait I said I'm from a little country church I mean real little country churches back in the sticks who didn't have full time preachers and so since my dad was a preacher we had connections and so I remember my sophomore year being invited out to one of those little churches to preach on a Sunday night you do that a couple times and what I realized by my junior senior year of high school is God has given me the ability to stand up in front of people without being scared and I felt like I needed to use that gift somehow for his glory and so that's that's really why I went into ministry it's not because I thought I was a great preacher it was I have the ability to stand up in front of people and it does it scare me it doesn't make me nervous how can I use that to glorify God so fast forward to my time in college then I was going to be a preacher right that's that's what I was going to do and all of a sudden not all of a sudden gradually because of professors and because of friends it kind of dawned on me wait there's a lot of guys that I'm in school with right now we're going to go do good ministry but there's not a whole lot of people who are willing to leave the Bible belt or willing to leave what's comfortable to them and so I became convicted in college that perhaps God can use me in another in an area outside of where there's a lot of Christians so that's ultimately what kind of let us towards the mission field and then if we get to it you probably don't know this about me Johnny what led me from the mission field back to the states is another story we can get to in a minute it's more of a story of suffering that let us back but yeah I'd say there was couple put high school realizing okay God's giving me this ability to speak and not be scared publicly and then in college it was like listen if I don't go who's going to go and so that kind of led us to the mission field oh yeah feel free to go ahead and share some of that when you transition from being in Peru and then you spent a little bit of your 10 year there did you were any of your kids born while you were there did you already have kids at the time where you're already married what was that like. So we that's funny story we were leaving for Peru and we found out we were pregnant with our first child three weeks before leaving for Peru my wife is type one diabetics and she was five years old so juvenile diabetes she means it's a high risk pregnancy so that was a little bit crazy to think okay we're about to go to the field this is a high risk pregnancy but God worked through all that so we had been there for nearly three years we found out we're about to have about two years I guess about to have another another child and that was our son so after about three years we were back in the states for his birth our daughter was a little over two years old at that point in time she had a random doctor's appointment random test and they discovered that she had a large tumor on her liver we're on furlough all of our stuffs in Peru our dog is in Peru we had just purchased our apartment in Peru so we're not even ready like we bought our apartment we're there for the long haul and the long story short is I'll never forget the day she was diagnosed saying to the doctor we were at Vanderbilt in Nashville so we were at a great place and I said listen we live in Peru what like what are we supposed to do and she said well you're going to stay here for a while she said give me nine months to a year and we'll chemo shrink this thing we'll get it out of there you'll be back to Peru shortly chemo and those treatments did not work it did not shrink the tumor and so in October of that year 2012 the doctors at Vanderbilt were like listen you need to do some research and find out where they can do a liver transplant because that's what your daughter is going to need and so that's when we knew we can't go back to Peru because of the long term the major major event that's going to occur with this transplant in the long term care and so that's it was a long term care and so that's it was at that point that we kind of had to give up this dream that we felt God had given us man we got to get into the mission field was so easy for us the money came so easily we raised I wasn't that I was a good fundraiser but the money came we got there so easily we purchased our apartment because our church helped us just get loans from individual Christ I mean everything had just got the church was growing fortunately we were part of a team and so the two other least that were still there just did incredible work but yeah we kind of had that dream taken away from us due to an illness she's at the age now I can't really publicly talk about this in front of her because that would make her uncomfortable but I'm going to guess that she's not going to run across this podcast conversation but yeah so we that's what brought us back is our daughter had cancer and then a liver transplant and so we for about a year we were in a hospital and then at the end of that year we kind of landed here at free heart and with the standable church and been here ever since I guess wow yeah and that's an interesting set up though you know sometimes you know sometimes people have got the persuasion mat that when you become a christian life becomes great and in some sense yes but physically not necessarily my mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 I believe and she was getting up to stage four and they went through multiple surgeries and she had to have you know certain surgeries that aputeate parts of her and in 2012 she was finally finally seen as cancer free and it was very rough for our family at that moment in time and I remember some of the bigger struggles we dealt with was not necessarily that mom was sick and that we're having to deal with this but soon realizing that if you don't have the best community of christian family around you that aren't emotionally or empathetically trained to deal with some things it becomes very harder and you know just from the way you've described the folks around you it sounds like you've had a great group of friends and family and Christians around your family but all of that was happening the time it did because I'm sure you you know there was a lot of things racing through your mind and a lot of desires feeling like they were cut short but also just being a dad and being a husband and support in your family through that so I'm so glad that you had the kind of people around you and that's what it appeared like it appears that you had some great people around you through that time but yeah there's there's just no way to describe what it would have been like I can't imagine what it would have been like without the family of God right they carried us through emotionally when we couldn't didn't have the words to pray after her transplant she had four more surgeries that we goes Christmas week 2012 wow everything that could have gone wrong kind of went wrong now thank God she's doing great she's 14 years old years old. But there were times you just didn't know what to pray, right? And so just to know that people across the world literally were praying for our daughter, that helped us. And then the financial piece of it people, we were missionaries and we were kind of losing this, now we're stuck at hospitals, turns out all that's pretty expensive. And just the financial support that our community, our church community gave us is just indescribable. And one of the things that happened, one of my favorite moments from all of that, that points to the way that God works in our lives, it was the week that she had had her transplant. And then I think it was three or four more surgeries. After the last of those surgeries to kind of fix something of the surgeon, a kind, wonderful man from India, he was kind of telling us, listen, here's what's going on. We're not going to open her up again. We're going to try to see what just had let this let nature take its course. Of course we believe God had some things to do with it, but he looked at us and this is a guy who's a transplant surgeon for children. He's been in the room in a consult room with some pretty anxious parents along the way. Obviously many, many times. So at one point after he told us all this, he looked at us and he said, you guys are so calm. Now at the moment, I didn't feel very calm. Yeah. So much going on. But I suppose he was looking at us and he didn't see the anxiety that he saw in some other parents. And I look back now and I think what that was is the promise of Philippians four or six and seven that when we give our anxieties over to God, the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, guards our hearts and minds, and he didn't get it. He didn't understand. I think what that was in that moment, that was peace that I couldn't even describe. I didn't even realize I was experiencing that peace, but I think it was the peace of God that passes understanding that a guy who was not a Christian, I would assume, is looking at us and saying, what is this peace that they're experiencing? And I would add that I think even the prayers of our church community allowed us to experience that peace. And so it was just a really cool moment to like see somebody else notice not and not in a prideful way. Like we'll look how calm we are, we didn't even know, but I think looking back now, that was God's peace in our lives because of because of absolutely man. Wow. So now you're you're you've been able to walk through that. You've been able to go through some low points in your life and still have some high points in your life. And I think I think it's really interesting that God still found the way to use you and the kingdom and the way that you've got a passion towards. And one of the recent guests I was talking about made mention that if we pursue the passions that we have, God's going to find a way to use that in the kingdom given that they're in line with his will and not immoral or anything. And you went from being somebody that desire to go into the mission fields and teaching people there to now teaching other people about the mission fields and about connecting with people from different backgrounds and in different places. And I think a Paul a little bit under Island of Malto that when Paul came in contact with those folks there who were strangers and of a different belief system and he described the love that he got from them as strange affection. And then you see by the end of some appalled letters that he is still in close contact with these folks in the island of Malto at least has a great love for them. And there's something about people from different places that just has a way of changing you all together. And I think I think you've been able to experience some of that you desire to be a minister among strangers and their affection allowed you to minister the ought of people and how they can show that affection to others. And that's a beautiful thing man. That's amazing. But are there people in your lives in your life that you would say if you were to name drop some folks that just played a significant role in the kind of Christian that you are today and you're just absolutely grateful for those people? Yeah, I would go all the way back to growing up. Obviously my parents were just wonderful examples. I wish I was more like my dad. He's chill and calm and peaceful. Doesn't run his mouth. So I wish he's been in ministry a long time. And wow, I mean he's 70 and he said he started when he was 26 or 27 started a little late didn't come right out of college with the preaching school after a few years in the workforce. He's been with three churches over 40 years now, which 45 years, which indicates here's a guy who's not causing trouble and has learned to live in peace with people. So I want to be more like that. So obviously my parents and my mom's that kind of a worker be just always busy, always servant, which is still great for us on Sundays because she always cooks for us and she's such a servant to us. I think back to my like high school Bible class teacher who was a co-owner, right? Not an educated guy, not a Bible degree, nothing like that. But he wasn't a youth minister. We didn't have a big enough church or enough money for a youth minister, but he taught our Wednesday night class from I remember from seventh grade all the way till I graduated. No breaks. There were no quarter system. He did it all those years every Wednesday night. And one example of like faithful service and he was real down to earth. He was funny. And so I look back to somebody like that who invested in teenagers. And then I think about I guess there's many people who have impacted me. I think about my teammates and Peru. They became like family. When you go to when you move to another country with some friends, it's it's family. They're no longer teammates. They're brothers and sisters like family. And then if I were to say like now, obviously getting you don't want to you don't want to just like miss out on people. Johnny, that's what's tough about this. We're kids, all the stuff. But there's a guy in my church now. He is a retired preacher. He's 84. It has preached for churches all across our region, our county eventually kind of did bivocational. He was a school counselor at the high school. So everybody knows him. He preached it all the churches. He's a little he's a small small of stature, a little white man. I kind of joke. I wouldn't say this to him. He's about as white as they come. And the reason I say that is he's preached for at least two or three black churches in our area. So there's this little white as they come, little man. And like he's respected by everybody regardless of of ethnicity. Like he's preached for all the churches across ethnicity, which is just amazing. And he is probably my biggest encouragement. You know, I know of other guys who have former preachers and their audiences. And that's intimidating and can be discouraging because they got ideas about how you could do things better. I would describe brother Danny, you banks as my greatest encourager every Sunday. He comes to me and says, thank you. And he'll tell me exactly what it was in that sermon that that motivated him or encouraged him. So yeah, there's a guy. I wish I could have him around forever. And I know that that won't be the case, but boy, what an encouragement. I want to be like that when I get old because I have also had, you know, not too often, but the older Christian who just always has something negative to say, I want to be like brother, brother Danny. When I would say to any older Christians listening, and you got an opportunity to really have a positive impact on those who are younger than you, please take advantage of that. Yeah, you know, I'm 24 and a lot of people when they see me in person, they usually think I'm much older because of how I look and all that good stuff in them. I used to tell my wife, I said, I want to be like that older brother in the church. It's always got like candy and mint in this pocket. And I always hand it out things that the kids when they run by. And she said, you're already that older man does that. But man, there's so many good people in our lives that like you said, we wish we could hold onto them forever. But in some ways, we get to carry them in our hearts and in our minds and get to share their stories with other people like right now so that that can be continued in somebody else's heart and somebody else's mind. I think you're about to say something earlier in connection to just the kind of love that you received from those in the mission field that helped to shape some things when I mentioned Paul, were you about to say something there? I don't remember now if I was. Okay. That's all right. A lot came and went, right? Let me ask you this Matt, there's a lot of young people that you're having to be in direct and direct influence of. And I know you've got to be real intentional about about the way you live. And I'm sometimes even a bit more mindful than the average person might get to, you know, go through life being. If there's somebody out there younger old and they need somewhat of an encouragement, they want to deepen their journey with Jesus. They want to seek him in a way that they haven't before. They want a relationship with God that they might have overlooked and you have become an influence to them through this episode. What would you say to somebody out there that seek in Jesus that might be doubtful young or old and needs Jesus in a way that maybe you have come to know him? You know, you mentioned a few minutes ago when you become a follower of Jesus like it doesn't, problems don't go away. Suffering doesn't go away. And we could have, we could talk a long time about the reasons for suffering. And I could give you some great reasons, but at the end of the day, I think the conversation would end with this. Like if you're hurting, suffering, and struggling with faith, I think the kind of the Christian response to that is, okay, I'm going to choose to trust. Even when I don't understand it, even when I can't make sense of it, because I mean, think about it, it was my two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer. I tried to figure that out. I tried to be like, why is this happening? Why am I two-year-old daughter? Why not me? Like this doesn't seem fair, and then people say, theologically inaccurate things. Like God gives us toughest battles, to the strongest warriors. Oh, really? So God looked at my two-year-old and said, I think I'll get where cancer because she looks tough I mean, that's theological garbage and so you hear stuff like that But at the end of the day and the middle of all that suffering and trying to figure out why things happen For me, it's a matter of saying okay If I don't have trust in God, what do I have? I've got got nothing left and so even when I don't understand Even when things are really tough and even if like I can't read the Bible or I'm struggling to pray There's this deep abiding trust that says God. I don't get it But I'm going to choose to trust you and for me that makes all the difference in the world It changes everything it changes the way we face We face trial changes the way we face good things. So yeah, I'm gonna say at the end of the day Whatever you're going through like and if you're trying to decide if you want to follow Jesus or not You're gonna face some stuff that won't be great. Oh, but there's nothing better than saying I Don't get it, but I'm holding on to Jesus through all of this and that I think helps you now in the moment But in the big picture obviously for eternity Yeah, you know Matt. It's been really neat and it's hard to try and just crunch somebody's journey and somebody's story down into a few minutes But I think I've got a pretty neat snapshot of you and I hope that somebody else. I gotta say screenshot, right? I hope somebody else has got a pretty neat snapshot of you as well as a result of this episode Is there anything else that you want to say to anybody out there? I would just say if you listen to this and think oh, wow. He's got it together. I'd just say no I'm a big failure in a lot a lot of ways But I'm so thankful for the promise of first John 1 verse 7 that the blood of Jesus Just keep cleansing me as I keep following him and seeking his kingdom. So really really imperfect guys I fail every day, but boy. I'm thankful for the grace of God and the blood of Jesus in the middle of all that Yes, sir Matt, how can somebody getting contact with you if they want to learn Jesus through you? Maybe the congregation or some way online if somebody wants to know Jesus through Matt. How can they do that? Yeah, um, if you want to hear my sermons No, this is not a sermon plug, but the Stantonville Church of Christ We've got a YouTube channel and all my sermons are on there and if you love if you want to hear some really great Acapella singing our singing is just awesome And we've got really cool acoustics and college students come and love to sing and so if you want to like just some some YouTube But we've got a Stantonville singing playlist that probably a hundred songs on there You just turn it on and if you want to hear some great Acapella singing including some like new songs If you want to learn new songs, man It's that'd be a great place to do that and if you want to contact me just email me him cook at fhu.edu All right, man. It's been good and I'm definitely going to check out the congregation because I'm always in need for some of those songs too So that's gonna be neat. I'm looking forward to having you back and in addition to other people But we've got so much to talk about and so much that other people would love to hear and get to know more about Jesus through you It's been a great time talking to you Matt. I've learned a lot. I've been encouraged by this I got to see a whole lot of relatability but also a lot of transparency and authenticity You're just a guy that's trying to serve Jesus in the way that he deems worthy and I enjoy seeing Christians like that And it motivates me. Thank you all for joining us in today's episode with journey with Jesus Matt cook and glad you got to meet him and I got to learn a little bit more about him I'm looking forward to all the good people that you get to meet through this platform until next time. We'll see you then