(upbeat music) - Yo, what's going on? What's going on? It's your boy, Pastor Ron. Welcome to my podcast, Faith Talk with Pastor Ron. I hope all is well. Hope you guys are having a good week, good day, and good summer. Summer's done, man. It's about to be fall my favorite time of the year. You know, only my birthday is next month, but I'm also, kids are back to school. You know, the weather gets a little cooler football, it's back. I love, I love, I love the fall. So it's been a while, it's been a while since I've done a audio-only podcast. And mostly the video versions that I share on YouTube and I upload to here. So it's pretty cool to just do this for a change. You know, I love either way. I love to constantly share my thoughts and I pray that it blesses you. Please don't forget to support this podcast by following it, by leaving a review. That's the one thing. I pray every single person that listens to this could leave me a review, leave me a comment. Good or bad, I'm fine, I'm a big boy. But I think, you know, the feedback is important and it helps grow the podcast. All the feedback helps. Put the podcast out there and allow it to grow. So please don't forget to support, share this in your group chat. Share this with your friend. This is gonna bless you. I know it's gonna bless you. So thanks again. Either way, my summer, my summer has been quick. It's just gone very, very quickly. Took a trip away. The big thing is that we're doing some work to our crib, some work to our house. So, you know, family of five, we needed something bigger. And when we looked out there, the housing prices were stupid. It was a ridiculous amount of money, like 700,000, 800,000. I saw a house for almost a million dollars in my neighborhood for, you know, something bigger. So we decided that probably the best course of actions for us to extend our current crib. I have so much land in the back of a huge backyard. We decided to push our house back a little bit to add a room, bigger kitchen, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know, that process has been challenging, you know, process, we found this guy through one of our neighbors who was getting work done to her house, brought the contractor in, everything sounded good. Yup, I could do this, I could do that. No problem, I've done this, I've done that. Sort of like I bet he didn't charge, like we had a couple of other prices and he didn't charge as much as these other folks. So it was kind of like, okay, we can do this, take some sacrifice, eat ramen noodles. But, you know, ultimately this is the best thing for us to do. Ultimately this is the best course of action for us to do. So I'm gonna cost a pretty penny, but in the long run, it's the best thing for us to do. So, everything starts off well, you know, contract signs. So, you know, how it's structured is that you put a deposit, well, about 50% and you then you put your next payments to 30% and you make a final penny for the rest of the 20%. So, given the deposit and started off well, you know, people in and out the crib, everything going sweet. Then, within about four weeks into the project, he was like, yep, we're 50% done. Next payment is due, he's like, ah, it's snapped. Like, this is gonna be sweet. He's saying, I take 20 weeks, but it might be a lot shorter because four weeks in, halfway through, you know, we're good to go. So we gave our next payment and then everything slows down. Having issues with the addition and all this drama, all this work as soon as we gave our second payment. So, it's like, I told him, I said, I feel like you were in a rush to get your second payment and then that you got your money, you're slowing down and I'm not happy about it. And then I also have, you know, my wife, who is not one to bite her tongue. She's very straightforward and direct. A lot of times she's calling me while she's at work or we're in the crib, we're at dinner and she's just stressing about this house. And I'm my job as a husband is to be a buffer and not only to be a buffer, but to talk her off the ledge. Like, babe, it's gonna be okay and babe, we're gonna be fine, God got us and she's just like stressed out. And, you know, this has consumed like over the since, you know, it's been, I wanna say about two months into the project, it has consumed everything, you know, our mind, our energy, our happiness, our joy. It's just been so difficult, you know, because we're also in the crib. So we're watching nothing being done. That after he got his second payment, we're looking and seeing, yo, there's days where no one shows up or very minimal amount of work is being done. And that's very, very frustrating. And my wife is just like, you know, upset as she should be, but I'm trying to buffer her and then still deal with this guy. And this guy is not listening. And, you know, so recently I made a decision. I was like, yo babe, honestly, this has been so time-consuming, energy-consuming that I'm gonna take my life back. I'm not gonna allow this guy to control me, control my emotions, take my joy. That's the thing that I checked out where I don't care, 'cause I do care because this is my house, this is money we're spending. But I'm also at a point where I'm sitting here like, yo, I can't allow this to stress me out. I can't, you know, I can't allow this to consume so much of my energy. I say, I told her like, yo babe, we have a choice. Like no one can make you mad. No one can make you upset. Like you choose to be upset. Once it gets to that point where you feel that you're overwhelmed or you're upset, et cetera, et cetera, that's your opportunity to check out. You know, numerous times I found myself, 'cause again, we're living in the crib. So the crib has gotten smaller. So we're living out of, as opposed to a large, three bedroom home kitchen dining room, living room basement. We're now reduced to two bedrooms, like my son's room and my daughter's room. And I'll tell you more about that later on while we're just two rooms and a basement. So like we're just like in prison. So we're on top of each other and you know, which kind of I probably asked to the frustration the kids don't think about it, that's created kids don't care. My sons, long as they have their PS5, they're happy and food. You know, as long as they get something to eat and mind you June 29th, they demoed our kitchen. So we haven't had a kitchen since so far over a month. We haven't had a kitchen and there's no end in sight. It's no end in sight. I speak to you today, August 12th. We still have no kitchen. So about six weeks we haven't had a kitchen. So it's eating out a lot and finding ways to, like my goal for my kids to not feel that much of a change, right? I don't like their lives to be interrupted. I wanna protect their peace and keep them in a bubble. So my kids are happy. Long as my boys have their PS5, Gianna, the baby girl, she's always under me. So her and I are always hanging out and you know, I'm playing with dolls and you know, just having meaningful conversations with a three-year-old. But for the most part, our kids are okay. Long as they eat and they have their video games and there's Wi-Fi. That's all they need. They need to be happy. But in the meantime, you know, my wife and I were just so upset and we're so tired of this. But yes, I just made a decision. I'm not gonna obsess about this. And I wanna be very, I want to be very careful in saying, babe, I'm not abandoning this project. I'm not checking out of this project. You know, we're in this together, but I also have to get my life back. I also have to get my joy back. I also have to get my peace back. I need to think about other thing I need to do to prepare for church hunts and I can't be sitting here waiting, missing out on time to prep, stress it about this. And me and this guy, you know, have had so many arguments and so many disheated discussions like bro, you know, this is enough. Like, I don't feel my job is a priority. I don't feel you being completely honest with me, you know? And it's been tough. It's been tough. What, you know, what gives me peace in the solids is knowing that God got me and I trust God. I trust God that this is gonna be okay. I trust God that he is in control. Like whatever that needs to be done, it will be done. And what's not done, God will provide us the way to get it done. So it's a lot. It's a lot and a lot of like surprising, surprising expenses or well, like, hey, we're not covering this. You gotta cover this or this is broken. And now you gotta fix this. So a lot of that is adding stress. The moral story is you have power over your life. Stop allowing people to control your life. Stop allowing people to make you mad or get you upset. You choose to be upset. You choose like this as times where though the house is kind of like small, I've sat outside for a minute. I've taken drives by myself. I've sat in a basement, you know, just, you know, think I forgot football 25, which is a great game. I've had to find different ways to cope and to get through this, you know? Having people in and out your house and it's crazy, bro. It's a crazy, crazy time. But God's in control. I trust God. I have faith in God that he has the ability and power to help us and to gain, and to make sure we're okay. One of the things, and the reason why I said it, it's one of the things that we also experienced in this project is roof issues, right? In the addition, they had to build a new roof obviously for the addition and they had to connect the new additions roof to the old addition. So they connected the roof. And the project, the contractor came to us at some point, like, yo, roof is done. I swear by hand to God, everything is fine. And then what happened was we've had a really, really wet summer, like the month of July has been horrible when it comes to rain, not just rain, but like hurricane-like rain, like monsoon rain, like trees down and flooding type rain. We had at least, I wanna say three or four in the month of July alone, where it was just pouring. And so what happened was when we had a storm, the roof began to leak. The roof leaked and we had so much damage closed. We had so many damage. So many things lost and the ceiling and the bathroom in the master bedroom, the current master bedroom, our room was jacked up and throughout the house. We lost some spots because of the rain. Because the rain came, it caused all this damage in the crib after the homeboy swore up and down. It was good. After homeboy swore, like, you know what, this is fine. You got to worry about, we did our work. This guy is a roofer. He has this blah, blah, blah license in rains. I was vexed. I was upset. I was mad. And then he came back. He apologized the next day. He said, I'm so sorry. I got somebody back up there. And he said, oh, we found an issue and said, okay, bet. So days passed and then we had another storm. And then when the storm came out, more leakage, more damage, more issues to the crib. Like, oh my God, I don't know what's going on. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna tear the roof up and start all over again because I don't know what the issue is. I bet he came out. He said, you know what, it's good now. He took two or three days, gals on the roof, banging on the roof, found an issue. Replaced shingles, blah, blah, blah. I put a whole, I just re-roofed it, he said. So I bet. Storm comes again, flood again. So this happened on three, again, three different occasions where our roof was leaking after this guy said, always well. This is kind of what we're going through and why the guy, while my wife is so frustrated and I'm frustrated, low key as well, but I can't show her I'm frustrated because I don't want to add gas to her fire. So I tell her down plate, but she's not having it and she's upset. So, you know, and ultimately this past week, he brought an independent person, a person that he hasn't worked with in the past and they got a roof and it seems like the roof is good because we had a major storm this week and those who know like this entire week has been rain. I said like, I said to someone, I feel like I'm in Seattle. Like it's all, it's all rain, it's all no sun. And so it seems like it's fixed. And I said to my wife, say, you know what? As much as I am frustrated, I am thankful for the rain because if God didn't send the rain, these issues wouldn't have been detected. If God didn't send this over my life this crazy summer, I sat here and thought the roof was fixed until winter time and we had a snow on top of the roof and it would have caved in. So I thank God for the rain. It reminds me of this story in the book of Matthew chapter seven, verse 24 through 27. And it says, therefore everyone who hears these words of man and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mind does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against the house and it fell with a great crash. So the purpose of this parable or this story is to talk about the issue of obedience and how when you don't obey God and when you don't listen to the words of God so you read the word of God and you don't follow what he says that God gives you instructions and you don't do what the word says. You're like a foolish man who builds your house upon sand. And the deeper meaning to that is that if you don't obey God, your foundation is not God, your foundation is yourself. When God tell you to do something, God tell you to go here, go there or stop doing this or start doing that and you don't do it. You're saying God, my way is better than your way and I am at the foundation of my life, right? And I am the one that knows what's best for my life so the foundation of my life is found in myself or found in people. And God is saying your house is not stable but God also says those that obey is saying that Lord, my foundation is in you, that no matter how hard that may be, how many challenges, how difficult that may be, at the end of the day Lord, the foundation of my life is found in you. The very basis of my life is found in what you tell me to do. I will not put my confidence in myself, my confidence in man, my confidence in you. See, one of the biggest challenges we have is that there's a battle that goes on over our lives and a battle is not necessarily between God and a devil, a battle is between us and God. We wanna tell God what to do. We don't wanna obey the will of God. We don't wanna follow the will of God. And us being so intelligent and so enlightened, it is so easy to fall into that trap of not obeying God. And believing that we know what's best and that what we need to do is follow what we wanna do. I often share this with my church is that if you look it up, the church is Satan is one that's growing within this world and in this time. And the God that is at the center of the church of Satan is not Satan. The God at the center of the church of Satan is us. It's man, we are the gods. The tenant of that is saying, you know what? Why do you need to consult God with your life? You are smart enough. You have enough tools in order to make your own decisions. You don't need God. You don't need God to say, should I buy this house? Should I date this person? Should I take this job? You know, so we as a man, we have enough tools and ability and power to control our lives. So what the church of Satan teaches is that we don't need to obey God. God may tell us what to do, but ultimately we have the ability and power and the very right to make our own decisions. However, one of the things that strikes me in this story is the fact that the wise and foolish builders did not know that their houses were not properly built until the rain comes, right? When the rain came, the deficiencies in the house and the foundation of the house was revealed. So oftentimes God sends storms, God sends rains in our life in order for him to reveal us to us, reveal you to you. That God says, I'm gonna allow the rain to hit you, to show the issues that you're having and you're like, that you're really bitter, that you're selfish, that you're egotistical, that you're angry, that you lack love and compassion. So God sometimes allows the rain to come, to reveal you to you. He allows us to go through those difficult times to show who we really are, because we have the tendency to reveal our true selves in a valley, going through death, going through a job loss, going through a divorce, going through a difficult time. This allows you to see what kind of person you are, so the same thing with my crib, that if God didn't send this rain, if God didn't allow this to come this way, I would never have known the issues in the roof. So I thank God for the rain. And many of us had to thank God for the rain, because by showing us, by allowing the rain to come, he'd allow us to be ourselves, to know who we really are. Right? And the rain comes to everyone. The wise man and the foolish man experienced the rain. God allows the good and the bad person to experience the rain. The rain's not just for bad people. The rain's for also good people as well. So if you're experiencing a season of sunshine right now, wait, you're gonna have a season of rain as well. And some folks who are in a season of rain right now, but God's all the same day one day, you'll have a season of sunshine. Right? We've been making door for the night, but joy comes in the morning. So weeping is for a season, but in the morning God will have a level of showing you, of sun, of better days, right? The rain is always temporary. It's not a flood, but it's a storm. Storms have a beginning and storms have an end, but God allows the storm to come, to reveal to you your deficiencies, where you need to improve. So instead of saying God, why me? This is not fair. Why am I going through this? What you need to do is saying God, why am I going through the storm? What are you trying to reveal to me? Because you're your real self in the storm. You're a real person. You're real and honest in your storm. So I think it's imperative for us to understand the value and the importance of the storm. And many of them need to sit here and say God, thank you for the rain, because it wasn't for the rain. I don't, I want to know how my heart is really bitter, how I'm not a true worshipper, how I have anger issues, how I have communication issues. Thank God for the rain. Because the rain in my life helped reveal, what deficiencies in my roof had. The rain in my life allowed me to see, you know what, I need a better foundation. I need a better roof. So thank God for the rain. So some of you who are going through it right now, say God thank you because you're gonna see one day, 'cause right now you don't feel like it. Right now the pain sucks in the rain and whatever you're going through, it sucks. But one day you're gonna sit here and be like, you know what, yo, this was worth it. 'Cause I found, I grew because of the storm. And the rain that you're going through, it's not against you, it's actually for you. It's not here to tear you down, but the rain that God is sending is here to build you up. So make sure you take notes as to what is revealed about you, about your friends, about your circle when you're going through rain, right? When you're going through storm, you find out who's there for you and who's not there for you. Granted, some people can't be there because they're going through their own storm, they're going through their own drama, but you also have the ability to reveal a lot in your storm. So when you're going through storms, take notes, because God sent this storm to reveal you to you. I pray this blesses you. I pray this is something that encourages you. Again, don't forget to share it in your group chat. Follow this podcast, like, share, subscribe, share whatever you've got to do. Let's do this journey together in pushing this podcast and pushing this word. Again, I pray this blesses you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your time. God bless you. Peace. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
