5.0 Five-Fold & Beyond - Dr. Matt and Amy Carpenter

Beyond what I could ever dream/ Guest evangelist Herb Desjardines

IHIM TV /In His Image Ministries Episode 57

Have you ever stood at the crossroads of a life-altering decision, feeling the pull towards a path less traveled? Evangelist Herb Desjardins stood at just such a crossroads, and his choice led him on a remarkable journey from business owner to full-time ministry. In our latest episode, Herb recounts the hurdles and epiphanies that paved the way for the founding of the Christian Fellowship Center. His narrative isn't just a tale of transition; it's a lesson in integrity, the strength found in testimony, and the unyielding perseverance needed when heeding the divine call. Herb’s infectious humor and wisdom shine through, offering a dose of encouragement and inspiration for anyone navigating their faith journey.

Can you imagine a soup kitchen, struggling to keep its doors open, transformed into a hub of hope for an entire county? This episode brings you the heartwarming story of a community in Hartford County that rallied behind a failing soup kitchen, turning it into a beacon for the hungry. Herb shares the roller coaster of developments, from overcoming infrastructure issues to the almost magical provision of resources that reinforced the mission's calling. The tale doesn't stop at feeding the needy; it’s a saga of collaboration and individual transformation, like the story of a once-unstable woman who became a fundraising powerhouse, echoing a broader narrative of hope and redemption.

Our final reflections touch upon the resilience required in the face of life's ceilings and the power of a faithful testimony to the blessings received when pursuing God's path. Herb Desjardins opens up about the early days of his ministry, the unexpected allies, and the pastor who transitioned from skeptic to supporter. This episode is an invitation to rekindle your spiritual passion, remember your purpose.

Thanks for listening! Connect with us, for more products or our availability on Facebook, Linkedin and ihimtv.com

matt:

Welcome to 5.0, 5 Foldin' Beyond with Matt and.

amy:

Amy.

matt:

In the 5.0 podcast, we're going to peel back the layers of the Ephesians 4 model, revealing a thriving church, ministry or organization. This will help leaders to identify, work together, implement or raise up the believers who want to move in their calling.

amy:

We also offer seminars, conferences and strategic advising to pastors and leaders. We'll sit down with you and help you to learn how to have a 5 Fold influenced church or organization. I'm also going to show you how to identify and integrate people with 5 Fold giftings into your teams and organization. So connect with us at ihemtvcom.

matt:

So get ready to engage, as these podcasts will open an understanding, remove confusion of the 5 Fold and open your eyes and heart to what you and those around you carry. Welcome everybody, glad you were able to join us. This is Matt.

amy:

And Amy's here. I'm just not on camera. For those of you who are watching the video version of this podcast 5.0,.

matt:

Thank you all 5.0ers. It's great to have Herb Desjardins Evangelist Herb Desjardins, back with us again. He was in the last episode as well. We want to continue unwrapping His life, god's call on His life, and hopefully some of you can relate. That's the whole purpose of hearing someone else's journey and testimony. It just does something to you. It fires you. It helps you when you're facing the hard times in your life and you won't give up as easy. It puts a backbone in some of you that need that and others who have been doing this for a long time. That you know what? We just talked about it off camera. There is no retirement To the servant of the Lord. You know I'm not at this point in your life, that's right. I'm not going to mention your age, but you're a lot older than me. I'm older than you, oh yeah.

Herb:

And look at your guitar. Still, I'm old enough for you to listen to me.

matt:

Exactly. And look at dude, he's got a sense of humor, and we kind of spark off each other once in a while.

Herb:

Amen.

matt:

We got a good read on him and so good to have him back. He's now residing in the state of Maine. His ministry was back and forth, touching many lives all over, but his home base for a long time was in Connecticut, as he mentioned in his last session, bristol area, right, and we're going to kind of pick up the story a little bit from there and just see some of the things and the miracles that God unfolded in his life, right, aimee.

amy:

Yeah, so I think just to kind of catch you up in case you didn't listen, but you got definitely got to go back and listen to the last podcast. But, herb, you were saved only at 39 years old. You had a career, owned a business and ran that business. God radically changed your life. You ended up testifying everybody and people get saved, that's right.

amy:

That's right, running your business with integrity. All of a sudden you've got this big house group going on and then the call of God comes and after a little bit of wrestling with that, you finally said yes, walked away from the business, just handed it over to your partner and said yes to God and man. What a journey. So this is kind of where we're picking it up. You are stepping into full-time ministry.

Herb:

The thing I need to back off and share about the vision that I had when I left the business. My father said it was an old theater in Bristol and it was called my Father's House. The Catholic priests and the lay ministers were in there, lay people feeding they old bread and they were trying to feed the people. But the building was a mess. The water was coming in, the roof was leaking and it was an old building. There was three stories of 20 feet high in the ceiling. It was a big building.

Herb:

Now, after I left the business, they called me up. They wanted me to see if I would take over. So, wow, I thought that was quite an opportunity. So I went and I said, yes, great. So the only thing I brought for my business was my desk. We came in there, came in there right off. As soon as I came in there, there was an old lady there that didn't like me and there were lay people, older people, retired, that they would give their old bread and try to a little soup kitchen. They give a can of beans or whatever to my family or whatever, and so, of course, the floor was tapered and so I came in and I started to do things whatever, but everything I did, she was complaining she didn't know I was going to do that.

Herb:

And so, anyways, I had a meeting with them aboard and I kind of can come out straight. And I told her. I said, helen, you might be wearing your husband's pants, but you're not going to wear mine, I'm out of here. And so I left, wouldn't you know? I left and I was called to go to the hospital to pray with someone. And I went there. And then on my way home, I was so discouraged I took my hand off the steering wheel. I said okay, lord, you drive. And I got home. Of course I drove my car home, but I was just giving an example. I want you to drive. And I was troubled. I really didn't know why this happened and I would go to bed. I can't sleep.

Herb:

Two o'clock I'd get up, I go into the living room and I lived in Platsville then and there, where the animals were, threw myself down and started praying. And after an hour, all at once that moves me. Every time I think about it I see this frame come up. It's funny, it was like a white board comes flying up and I see the name Christian Fellowship Center. Then it flips again. The next one that I see was tables and telephones and offices and room tables and telephones. Then it's flipped again. I walk in at the theater and there's a lot of people there, young people singing in the front, and there's a lot of people in there and then it flipped again. Then I see people sitting in tables and eating. Still remember, I remember I still see this guy as I'm floating around this coffee cup. And then it flipped again and I saw that thing that I saw was so amazing to me because there was a room that I went in.

Herb:

It was a big building it was a building and everyone in that building was in a wheelchair, but they were all Christians. There was young, middle-aged, older people and they were all doing crafts that were sewn. I saw something there I'd never seen until I went to Florida.

matt:

And this is your vision, student.

Herb:

Yeah, that was in my vision, in your vision, and so you know, and at the end of that vision there was something that said make my people whole. And so now, you know, I put it all down and I realized they're all in wheelchair. But after that vision, you know, I, you know, in 1991, I think, of course I kept ministering but doing things I got the storefront in Bristol Christian Fellowship Center. Then, three and a half years later, I needed more office space. I go on High Street to rent that place and when I came in there the Democratic Party had just rented the place and it was over, the elections were over and every room is full of tables and telephones. It never hit me. Wow, oh, the vision. Three and a half years, it never hit me. And then another three and a half, seven years, three and a half years, three and a half years, and then, seven years later, another three and a half years.

Herb:

I get a call from my father's house in 1991. And he says to me we were thinking about you, we had a meeting and we've seen what you do, and we were thinking we can't keep it up here. The roof is leaking, we have no finances and would you take over the building if we give it to you. And I said, and he said there's a little soup kitchen. Would you keep the soup kitchen going? I says no, I'm not sure what I would do, but I'll think about it. So I said yes. In December of 1991, in December of 1991, they turned it over. They gave me the keys to the building. I had a banquet and they gave it to me. I walked in there, the place was awful, I mean, the water was coming through and they had tax sales, clothes was wet, it stunk, it was like no windows, all black. And so I got up on the stage and I started saying Lord, why did you? Why did I say yes? What am I gonna do with this?

matt:

That's a good question. Why?

Herb:

did I say yes, why am I? What am I gonna do with this? You know, and I'll up once. It's an amazing thing, but the floor was, of course it's a theater, and all at once I'm on the stage where the screen wasn't, and there's a mic there, and I see the light in front door and all at once I see the floor come up and I could. It was transparent, I could see through it and, almost like ducked my head, I saw the whole construction of the building, the staircase, of everything.

Herb:

So I started weeping and then I saw the scripture and John 14, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house there are many mansions. If I had not thought I would have told you I'd go to prepare a place for you. My mansion that where I am, you will be also not broke down. But so I took off from there and I saw the vision about Christian Fellowship Center Telephones, tables and telephones, theater. Oh my God.

Herb:

I got up and I took off and started to got people to help me. We started ripping the floor and lifted up, and so I brought it right up and kept that soup kitchen going. Little by little I had lay people there. We lifted the floor and brought one of the coolers rolling down. It was up on top. I brought it down and so the people that were helping feed people still were there, and so they were given can of beans for a family.

Herb:

Hey, you know you're not gonna talk. There was no support for it really. And so I said to the woman I said she was still there, but I said listen, you know, it's beef. Give him food for a family. Give him the food. What are we gonna do next week? Well, if God's called us to feed the people he will provide. It's unbelievable. That week a trailer truckload came. I don't know how come? I can't even I go back and I thought how did that? It pulled up in front. I had to call the school to come and help unload. It was so much food, it was full. A ten-wheeler full of food came in there and so they realized, and so I went from there. I knew God had called me.

amy:

That was a sign right there, right there.

Herb:

And so we then fed people. We became the number one of feeding the needy in the Hartford County. 350 families every week got groceries and it was like talk about we had five. At the end we actually had to get coolers, five walking coolers. We had the downstairs. I had to redo the downstairs, put pillars and there was a dirt floor, put concrete and that was full of food down there. Wow, and so all the way to 20-foot high ceilings, yeah.

Herb:

And so then people were getting food, the families we had, of course, everybody was registered, you know, and so we had a bunch of people helping, and so the food that we gave for family would feed four people. I mean six people with the family, with the mother and father, for four days. And so then the weekend, soup kitchen Friday, saturday and Sunday they had all-heart meal. They call it soup kitchen. It wasn't soup man, yeah, it's good stuff. We had five teams of different the Knights of Columbus, the Lutheran Church they had five people. There's another other people, the Catholic Church, and so all five of them had a team of five people that would have their turn Every month. Somebody was doing for a month, the next week, the next month somebody else was taking over Sure, and so it was really well organized. It was running like it's amazing.

Herb:

Now I've seen out of this and I'm gonna. You know, there's a woman that came, a woman and her husband that she had been divorced and they married and heading for another divorce. But at the healing service I was doing now at the theater I had a. You know she lived in Manchester and she had. She was in the Institute of Living and the psychiatrist said that she will never hold a job, she'll never hold a marriage, she'll be in the Institute of Life for all her life. Well, they came in one Saturday night and I knew they had called and I told them where I was. I never met them but when they came in they gender-flected and I knew that they were Catholic.

Herb:

Whatever came into the seat and all the months the Lord gave me a vision of them. As I started to minister I saw she was on him holding him. You know they were close. You never would have believed that they had a problem. But I came down to them and I said I see a V-plow. You know these trucks would V-plow, come in between you and spreading you apart? You know she's such crying. And he looked at me. He was a Vietnam man, he had a 38 on him and he was like rough guy. But at the end of the service they came up for prayer and she gave her heart to the Lord and crying and went down in the spirit. He looked at me with a stone face and said to me I wanna know why I'm crying. And no, no, solving. His features were not changed, nothing, just tears are running.

Herb:

And so he gave his heart to the Lord. But the reason I mentioned that is that she would have been the last one because I needed somebody downstairs. Somebody had left to take care of the soup kitchen and we used to give. We used to all the volunteers to help feed the people. On a Wednesday At noon we'd have hot meals for the volunteers, and so she was there running it. But she asked me to run it. She wanted to do it. She would have been the last one that I would have called, so if I had nobody else, I put her down there. She went down there and I saw something there. I broke down and went. When she came down she was part of these people. She looked.

Herb:

She was glued to the hopeless I mean meaning she was in one day. I come into the kitchen and there's an old lady there. She comes out with a birthday cake, comes up to her, there are women and they're saying happy birthday. That woman had never had a birthday. She was in her 80s, late 80s in all her life, and she fell on the floor crying and things like that that. I saw how God used somebody that was so hopeless and out of that today she would go and raise funds. Nobody could say no to her. She was amazing, so it was quite a blessing.

amy:

Yeah, how God just brought the right people to you. Yeah, just the right people.

Herb:

Anyways, now, from there we became, you know when, the, of course, the building, oh, there was such. I think about your building and I think about what's going on, how, god provided, you know I like this. Inspectors came and they'd warned me to tear the stairs down and bring you beautiful stairs, no, they're too wide enough. Or too wide there? No, it was not wide enough. Anyways, he, I said no way. I said, well, you're gonna have to, I'm not gonna inspect. I said, well, listen, I don't have any money, but I have a lot of time. I went to Hartford, talked to the inspectors out there and, wouldn't you know, the head inspector that was dealing with all the counties did not have time to bring these rulings to the different cities, but that ruling was changed and the guy that brought it ended up in my church and the church gave his heart to the Lord. It was amazing the things that happened there. But the inspector was like what did you do, watson? Well, you know, that's what the day do it's what the Lord did.

matt:

God always backs and reinforces up when you're obeying his will, doesn't he? The provision for the vision comes in more ways than just financial. Financial is a big one. He provides people, resources, favor. He provides all kinds of things to complete what he put in your heart in the first place to unlock that right and so out of this food, kitchen and pantry and ministry that you had, people were getting saved. Is that?

Herb:

correct. Well, definitely.

matt:

I forgot something.

Herb:

I forgot something. This state of Connecticut came by. Now how they did that? Because it was amazing, because we're under construction. They came and they gave me a grant for $100,000. But the roof I had a quote from the roof, isn't it 85,000 to do the roof? And so I said to the guy that gave me the quote, that says no way, all I have is 100,000 to construction and so I'll get it done for 12,000 or 14,000 somewhere around there.

Herb:

You know, somebody came is a contractor, he was doing it. Came, he says I will do it for 12,000. I did all the roof. I had somebody else. He was an engineer. They worked on a bridge, he had cranes. He came and put the stuff on top of the roof and that whole thing was done for 12,000 dollars. And so the amazing miracles that took place has. When we finished the building, the state came and they had to survey, look at it and they couldn't believe what I did. But $100,000. He says you got over $350,000 worth of work for $100,000. And they could not believe it. But that's why we were that's.

amy:

God's mouth, and so I know we're talking about God bringing people to you. But sometimes we encounter people, as we're following the call of God, who aren't for us or with us. They don't see our vision, and I know that you've got a story there with the pastor that you were currently. Well, sometime during this process that you were attending this church, you were, I think, were the associate pastor there and he didn't see that vision and actually became kind of threatened. We're not going to mention any names, but I think this is important for people to understand that sometimes we encounter this type of people too. So tell us about that, because you didn't intend to be a pastor, correct?

Herb:

You were an evangelist? Yeah, but it was not. See, I didn't intend to be a pastor, but the main thing is I don't know if you want to hear this, but the pastor that had been there for four years now, somehow he saw miracles that he tried to stop me from doing the healing services and I knew something was wrong. But I had. Of course the Lord had called me now to go and fold on ministry. That's how I went to see him. I've all excited about it. We went to eat, sat there, told my whole story, but the Lord had said whatever, he's listening to me. When I'm finished, he takes his fist, he hits the table. He said God never called you. It's a full-time ministry. And I said I'm sorry. And he tried to stop me from doing Because of the fact that I was doing.

Herb:

A lot of people didn't say a lot of people was coming to church, not church. I never told them They'd come over. Where'd he go to church, what church he ought to? And I told them they would come. They were standing room, only they wanted to. There was a building program. He wanted me to be there, a building program. So he wanted me to stop the service on Saturday night and he was sitting in my office in my chair, in the business. Tell him to be this. And I said no way. And of course the Lord helped me calm down a little, but I was not. I said no, you don't tell me that I'm going to do this or that. And so, anyways, he left.

Herb:

I left, but, amazing miracles, what I did it was I sought pastors that didn't know me and because I have a fear of God, what if I'm wrong? And so he was told he had come to my house on a Friday. He had mentioned one a once a night before I left that church, he mentioned a story about his wife. Somebody was after a man was after his wife and he said that Wednesday night. I'll never forget that. He said I prayed Lord, remove him or kill him. And he said in three days he was dead. And when he said that, something pricked my heart. I said well, he's talking to me.

Herb:

So now this was Wednesday night. Friday night he comes to my house and he tells me my wife's going to leave you, your wife's going to leave you. You never were called in ministry. I stopped him, I said he's standing at the counter and I said pastor, I said Wednesday night when you said about the story about the man, lord, remove him or kill him. You were talking to me, weren't you? He hit my counter and he says yes, I was wondering when you would take the hint. Now, my wife knew me before and there's a saying he's not big but he's Anyways I. Never she wanted me. She would have liked it. I would have grabbed him and threw him out. I said no, I just went and opened the door.

matt:

Take a drink there for a moment. Thank you.

Herb:

I opened the door and he left and so I told my wife it's OK. But now I was going I went to see that there's three pastors that I called that didn't know me and I was telling them the story I wanted them to know. I wanted to know that am I really called? And I know it's crazy, but did you really call me, lord, to go in full time ministry? Because so now, because I had so many confirmation.

Herb:

Anyways, I meet one in Sanington. I go up he's got a steeple up there go up, we kneel down and pray. He prays and then he opens the Bible and he reads the story of Joseph. So, okay, good, so now I leave there prays for me, I leave, I go see another the other one, he was really busy. He's in his office and talking, so I tell him a little more story and so he says, brother, he says, go home and read the story of Joseph. It's okay, that hit me. So now I go to Manchester.

Herb:

I was supposed to meet this pastor. He had a big church at school. He meets me at Denny's and so I walk into Denny's. I didn't know him. He's a big man. Finally I kind of figured it was him. Let's all sit down. And so he says he's eating some. I tell him my story and he looks at me and he says brother, have you considered Joseph? Wow, the story of Joseph. And I broke down. Oh, he says you've considered Joseph. But I knew the trials that I was gonna go through.

Herb:

Well, but that pastor, finally, when I decided to leave, that Sunday morning, as I'm going there, the Lord says to me I'm gonna speak to you through the message this morning. And I grip, I tell him home, the pastor, oh my God. So he says I will send somebody to bless you, I will send somebody to encourage you, and the word I give you you will know. And I go over there. I say, oh my God, I'm thinking, I'm nervous. I walk in the church and sit down. I don't sit in the same place I used to, I sit to my wife and I. So, all the months, the overseer of that church, the denomination, I'm not gonna mention that denomination, but the overseer comes and he was gonna preach that day. Oh, and guess what, he starts preaching on Joseph. Wow, I could cry. I mean, he tells the host I know his whole message.

Herb:

And then, so now, okay, so now a man, the last man. No man comes to me, he shakes my hand. He's got a hundred dollar bill. I'll provide for you. The Lord had told me it's a hundred dollar bill in his hands. So now, oh my God, two things.

Herb:

I go down, I leave earlier the altar call. I'm leaving, I left, I'm down the steps, there's the steps and there's the door, my car's in the back. I meet this brother with his child in his arm at the door, at the steps, the last step, he grabs me. We've been said brother, I wanna tell you something you're the only one that could reach my wife and she got saved because I'm falling. I wanna thank you, I wanna encourage you. I could not believe what I heard. I left there, but everything, see to me. People say don't you know, come on, go do it. God is such an amazing God that all my fears, all my uncertainty, he kept confirming and he helped me, moving me along. And I'll tell you, it's amazing how the Lord ministered to me in these things and so there, that's when I left and that's when I started the ministry and started the healing service, and it was amazing.

amy:

It's easy to see the enemy at work, and a lot of times when we're in these situations, whether it's the initial call of God in our lives, or whether it's even stepping into ministry, expansion or a new position or just maybe a five-fold ministry or we're shifting gears it's easy to hear what the enemy's saying. And that pastor, who, because of his own insecurity, became a mouthpiece for the devil, essentially to try to shut down your call, the demonic got on it and if we just focus on that, we're gonna quit, we're gonna turn around. But you pressed in and God just was faithful, and so it's important that we don't just hear what the devil's saying.

matt:

Because it comes from the area, it comes from directions that he didn't expect. He was looking for support and did not expect that, and that's what makes it so hard. And that's what makes it hard.

Herb:

Well, you know. Beyond that, when I was ordaining in South Carolina, one of the prophets came up to me. There was quite a few of them, but one of them I'll never forget him. It's an old man. He said, brother, he's excited like this that our clothe would compassion For that one that has come against thee. You will see, will come and bow his knee before thee and for giving. This is what you will see. Well, I started crying.

amy:

Which is kind of like Joseph right Same experience.

Herb:

Well, that man, that pastor, he lost his church. He went to another church. He lost out. He ended up in Virginia. Call me up. He's coming to Connecticut, coming to Connecticut visit. He wants to see me.

Herb:

He comes in to see me and he looks at the building and he's shocked by it and I said but, pastor, do you remember? Yeah, it's obvious that I was wrong. I'm sorry, it's obvious. I've never seen something like that. He said to me. He said to we're out to eat. The mayor of the city came in and of course I introduced him. And so he said to the mayor he is the fruits of my preaching. In other words, you want to take credit? Because he couldn't, he had, no, he never saw any fruits of his preaching. I'll never forget when I first went in there. The word of God is the word of God, doesn't matter what man, when man distribbers the word of God, and it's still the word of God. And it moved me. But little by little, his wife was sick. He called me, she had cancer. We prayed for him. So restoration came and he was okay.

Herb:

That's good, okay, and so I keep thinking past the dean dog he was. His last name was Bell.

amy:

There you go. But yeah, so God brought restoration to that and you know your faithful testimony in the fruit just following that call was so bountiful. What a harvest. Yeah, it was like Probably hundreds and thousands of people. You don't know how many you touched really after a while.

Herb:

Over those years we had a banquet every year for 25 years and people have changed lives. But come, I would listen to them, and I think that what there was a professor from a school that had marriage problems, you know. He told a story about him and his wife, james, and what came out? I couldn't believe what he said. I didn't believe did I say that, you know? And it changed his life, and the testimony he had is that we don't need psychiatrist, we need spirit filled people that have a gift of God to come out and deal with people's lives.

Herb:

I'll never forget, in dealing with people, one particular person I share about often, about this old lady that was Italian. She bit her and I had preached in church in Waterbury and she was there. She was a Christian, Her son was a pharmacist, and he came to see me after I said would you see my mother? She has been depressed and hopeless. She doesn't do her garden anymore, doesn't do anything anymore. Would you see her? I said, only if she'd see me, senseless for me to see her unless she wants to. And so she did come, and so I sat there with her. She's mean, I mean, she's a tough lady, an Italian lady, and so how did I start? I teased off and I said show me your hand. She puts her hand up. Put her hand like this, put her hand like that. I slapped her in the head. She looked at me like oh wait a minute, that's a love tap from the Lord. And I started and said let's pray. I prayed, god showed me. I said you've got a sister that lives in Waterbury, not far from you, and you haven't talked to each other for 25 years and she loves a blueberry pie. You're gonna cook a blueberry pie and you're gonna deliver it and God will heal. And she said to me after I finished. She looked at me and said no. I said, okay, the session is over, nothing I can do, and so, but she went home and she did exactly that and later on her son, she came told me that she spent all day hugging and kissing each other and forgiving each other and her depression and fear was gone. And it's an amazing miracle.

Herb:

When I look back, I often think about Lord. They taught because some people came they thought I was a what do you call them, fortuneteller type of person. Yeah, a fortune teller. Psychic, psychic, you know. I said no, and so I think about this often.

Herb:

I said, lord, people would come in and they'd fill in intake. I never met them before and I would pray and I said, lord, I don't know this person and I know you know that person and, lord, there's no way that I can help them unless you, lord, open me up and to see things that they need or whatever they need. I want your Holy Spirit, lord, to move and unbelievable stories that I you know, I would relate to them and they would. There was a woman one time she had gone to a psychiatrist in 40 years and she came to see me and after finishing the sessions she's crying. She says for 40 years I've seen a psychiatrist, I told you things. I never told him whatever, and I'm free not to comment because she's bawling, but I think basically, we need to take time to know that's a child of God and amazing things could take place, cause God can gift you If he's called you for something. You fulfill the call and your life. So praise God.

amy:

Amen. And he's still doing it today, decades later, you're still serving God. You're not pastoring anymore. Probably you're saying thank God, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's quite a thing. But you are fathering, mentoring, you are evangelizing, just igniting people to go out and tell others about Jesus. And we just love your heart and love. Thanks for joining us today and glad that you're actually partnering with us in this region to see people come in the kingdom of God. What about?

Herb:

you. I told pastor why I was there.

matt:

So if you're out there and you're struggling, maybe a little bit, maybe questioning about your call, like evangelist herb shared today, like why am I doing this? Why did I say yes? Or you know what you gotta value? The people Look for the fruit. Look and see if there's fruit in your ministry. I believe we're speaking to people maybe a little bit more experienced, but it doesn't matter how experienced you get.

matt:

There are times in your life when you hit ceilings and you just wonder if it was worth it all. Sometimes you go wow, like cause the battle and the heat was very strong in your against you maybe. Or you've got into a dry season in your life and you wonder did I make the right choice? The Holy Spirit is saying you made the right choice. And so look around you and maybe you might have to till up the ground a little bit. Maybe you have to spend a little bit more time with the Lord asking them to refire.

matt:

You Step away from the mechanics, stop being so busy that you're losing touch with the vine, the source. Maybe that is where you're at today, but wherever you're at, these are just examples. You know the source, you know and today maybe just reflect, look back and say I remember when God first called me and how unsure I was, but yet, at the same time, there was a fire that burned in me that I could not shut up. I could not stop it, and maybe that's you today, and I just ask that you will reflect and look back, take some moments and reflect over that and be encouraged. Reach out to us down below, as all the information get ahold of us. Subscribe you know, share this and to others if you've been encouraged. We thank you for joining 5.0 today and we're looking forward to seeing you in the next session.