Men's Breakfast 2026-04-25

Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

Thank you for joining us today.

All right, we're going to get started here.

Can you guys hear me, George? You can hear me back there? Okay.

Thanks again for coming out. We had a great turnout here today.

And today our speaker is going to be Joshua Owens.

And Joshua grew up in Doylestown area, lives in Lansdale right now.

And his main job, he's a UPS store manager in Bluebell and can be found on his side

gig here at White Jasmine Thai right here in Lansdale.

Joshua has been actively attending Lansdale Life since September.

He has an interesting story about how he got here.

I don't know if he'll share that here this morning or not.

And Joshua is working with Zach Bonner to help head up our brand new softball team.

So have we had a game yet?

The first game is tomorrow or May 5th?

May 5th, okay.

All right, and so anybody else here on the softball team? No? All right.

So Josh has two broadcast series that he's doing. One is called The Long Story.

And these are fascinating historical accounts,

biblical events and characters that he talks about.

I got to hear about his story about Vesuvius and Pompeii.

It was very, very interesting. I really enjoyed it.

And then his other podcast series is called Heart Lessons.

And this is about relationships, faith,

and he's going to be throwing some personal testimonies in there too over time.

The one I got to hear in this Heart Lessons series is about breakups.

And that was very interesting.

What I like as I was listening to these podcasts is Joshua puts a lot of details in there.

He does a good, thorough job on his podcast.

And he's also humble and shares his own personal experiences.

So I found it very interesting.

So let's give it up here for Joshua Owens.

Good morning, brothers.

Happy Saturday, everyone.

I hope everyone's having a great Saturday.

Thank you, Doug, for the introduction.

You know, I don't know what I would do without men like Doug or Pastor Chris

or any of you guys in this room.

I'm so blessed to be a part of this church now.

Lanzell Life Church has been one of the best congregations

I've ever been blessed to be a part of.

And I've been a part of quite a few, you know,

when I was born into a Lutheran family, baptized as a Lutheran.

My mom's second husband was Catholic.

So I had a lot of his views growing up as a young Christian as well.

My grandparents and my stepdad, you know,

they had conflicting viewpoints with the difference in denominations

and that kind of stretched me thin as a kid.

Plus there was people in my family who were atheist and I had their viewpoints.

So there was a lot of mixed viewpoints as a kid.

But the thing I learned from both my grandparents and my stepdad

was that Christ was king.

But I didn't really know how to form a relationship with him.

And that started to change in sixth grade.

We moved to a place called Danborough, Pennsylvania,

which eventually became Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

And I met a woman.

Her name was Kathleen and she invited me to her church.

And that was the Community of Christ.

So I was there at the Community of Christ

and I really had a touching moment where I started to connect with God.

So I started to go to the church more and more

than I started to attend their youth groups and their church camps.

And in ninth grade, I was baptized by my own choice again to accept Christ.

And until then, I kept going to the Community of Christ.

The only issue was that as it was so far away,

I would have to go all the way to New Hope.

And since COVID, the congregation sort of split up a little bit.

So it was very infrequent.

And I knew that I needed to find a congregation here closer to home here in Lansdale.

So I had a plan to go out to first Friday and to find a church.

For those of you that don't know what first Friday is, first Friday,

they meet the first Friday of every month from May through November.

And our church goes out there to try to be fishers of men and women

to be able to bring people to the Lord.

And I knew that.

I knew that churches were going out there.

So I had a plan to go out and find a new congregation.

But that plan got set aside because when I was going out there,

I got a text from a friend.

He says, I have a tent out here.

I need help.

Can you come help me?

So I was like, yeah, I'll come help you.

And so I did.

And then I got too busy and never got to go out and find a church that night.

And when I did go out that night, I met someone and I ended up befriending her.

And then we ended up having a relationship.

And it was almost like I completely forgot about that goal.

You know, the enemy sometimes has ways to distract us.

And that's exactly what happened that night.

I didn't let my yeses be yeses.

I got distracted and dove right into a relationship

and totally forgot about my goal to not still be a Christian

who is lonely in his room trying to connect with God.

I knew that I needed brotherhood.

I knew that I needed congregation.

But instead, I focused on a relationship that wasn't even really God-based.

The woman herself wasn't a Christian.

She came from a Christian family.

It was super important to her family that she become a Christian again.

And I had it be super important to me.

I really wanted to bring her to the Lord, but it didn't really work out.

The relationship started to dwindle.

And I remember praying to God.

I said, God, let me know if this is for me.

Let me know what I need to do next.

About three hours later, we broke up.

And we never spoke again.

Then a couple days later, my car finally took its final breath

and stopped working.

And I had to get rid of it.

So weeks later, I'm on the September bus to work.

I'm broken.

I'm like, I don't know how to fix my car.

I'm newly single.

I don't really know what to do.

I was sad and depressed morning after morning, just trying to figure things out.

And one morning, I'm focusing on this family I see on the bus all the time.

And when they leave, I see a little blue card sitting on the floor of the bus.

At first, I think it's a Pokemon card that one of the kids dropped.

So I was like, let me go grab this card.

I'm going to give it to them next time I see them on the bus.

So I go to leave off the bus, pick up the card.

It's a Landzell Life Church business card.

And I take it into work.

I look it up.

I see the great website.

I see a video of Pastor Chris and Jill.

And I'm like, this looks like a great church.

They have Bible studies on Wednesdays.

Look at all these events that they do.

I was like, I think I want to go to this church.

It's also on 4th Street.

But I live on 2nd Street, two streets down.

I've never even known it was here because all the places I travel

were all the other opposite directions from this church.

I've never been down this way.

So I was like, let me go check it out.

But I'm going to come to Bible study

because that seems like it's going to be more intimate.

I might not be so overwhelmed on a Sunday.

So I do.

I go to the Bible study.

And I'm not sitting in the chair for more than 5 to 10 seconds.

I get a tap on my shoulder and I look up and it's,

Pastor Chris, I'm like, there's that guy from the video.

And safe to say, it was a wrap from there.

I remember John was teaching that night on the book

in Numbers and it really captivated me.

And I've been coming to church here,

men's breakfast, cell groups since.

Like Doug said, we're starting a softball team

for anyone who wants to come out to softball.

We could definitely use you there to just come cheer us on

or if you want to come play.

I mean, there's a bunch of age groups here in this church,

but the softball team doesn't discriminate by age groups either.

I think our pitcher is probably 65 years, 66 years old

and he's still out there crushing it.

So I'm really excited about that as well.

But I just wanted to lead off with exactly how I found the church,

but just to also say that I'm super thankful

to have met all of you brothers here

and have you guys help shepherd me back to the Lord.

So today though, I want to talk about the wilderness

and it's not as a metaphor,

not as a poetic symbol for hard times,

but I mean the real wilderness.

The forest, the mountains, the deserts,

the rivers and the valleys,

the places where the noise just all fades away,

the places where there's no crowds, there's no traffic,

there's no constant notifications buzzing in your pocket.

Just silence, just the wind moving through the trees,

water over rocks, stars in the sky.

And throughout history and throughout the entire Bible,

one thing's clear that God meets us men in the wilderness.

And before we even talk about the wilderness,

we have to understand something deeper.

The wilderness belongs to God first.

Genesis tells us that in the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth.

He shaped the mountains.

He carved valleys.

He separated seas from land.

And after each act of creation, he said it was good.

Psalm chapter 95 verse 4 and 5 says,

in his hand are the depths of the earth.

The mountain peaks belong to him.

The sea is his, for he made it.

Nature is not random.

It is not empty.

It is not just scenery.

It is the craftsmanship of God.

Romans chapter 1 verse 20 says,

for since the creation of the world,

God's invisible qualities,

his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen,

being understood from what has been made.

So that means creation itself is preaching.

The mountains preach strength.

The oceans preach power.

The forest preach order and design.

And the sky preaches infinity.

And when men step into these places

and become silent and they become still,

they start to hear what creation has been saying all along.

Psalm chapter 46 verse 10 says,

be still and know that I am God.

God.

One of the greatest examples of this in the Bible is Moses.

See, Moses was not always a shepherd in the desert.

He grew up in a palace in Egypt.

He had wealth and education.

He had everything the world at that time had to offer.

But then we know that story after a violent incident.

Moses flees Egypt.

He becomes a fugitive.

And for 40 years, he lives there.

40 years watching sheep.

40 years just in the desert.

And then one day something strange happens.

He sees a bush on fire, but it's not burning.

So he approaches it.

And then God speaks.

The book of Exodus chapter 3 verse 4 says,

when the Lord saw that he had gone over to look,

God called him from within the bush.

God didn't call Moses when he was in the palace.

God waited to call to Moses once he was in the wilderness.

And that moment in the desert changed history

because that shepherd would go on to confront Pharaoh

and lead an entire nation out of slavery.

Another powerful moment happens with Jacob.

You know, Jacob spends most of his life running from his problems.

And these are problems that he caused himself

taking the birthright from his brother, Esau.

And then he fools Isaac into giving him the blessing.

And Esau's rightably pretty angry and starts to,

once Jacob dead, so Jacob flees.

And he's running and God sends him dreams and says,

don't worry, I'll bring you back.

And for another 20 years, he's out there and starts a family

and then has another dream that he should go back

and face his problems.

And one night he does that.

It's just him at night in the book of Genesis chapter 32 verse 24 says,

so Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

And we know that that man was now ordinary man.

That was God.

Jacob wrestled all night long with God.

And when the son arose, God changed his name to Israel.

And not only did he change his name that day,

Jacob walked away with a limp

because sometimes the wilderness leaves marks on us.

But those marks remind us that we encountered God.

Another example is David.

Before becoming king,

David spent much of his life outdoors as a shepherd.

He lived in the hills and in the wilderness watching over sheeps.

He fought lions.

He fought bears out there.

He learned courage.

So when he later faces Goliath in first Samuel chapter 17 verse 37,

it says the Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion

and the paw of the bear will rescue me from this Philistine.

David already knew something, but God did too.

That's how God had that relationship with David

to know that he was more meant to become king than Saul.

But David also trusted that relationship in God

to know that he would protect him.

Protect him and the sheep when he was younger

and then when he would go on to face Goliath

and go on to become king.

He had that relationship with God

and that was all started in the wilderness.

Another story in the wilderness is one

we've all probably heard about

if you've come to Bible studies on Wednesday.

We did the book of Numbers.

Now we're on the book of Joshua.

And it's the story of the entire nation.

After leaving Egypt, they don't immediately go

to the Promised Land.

They wander for about 40 years.

Now that may sound like punishment,

but God explains something important

in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 2.

It says, remember how the Lord your God

led you all the way in the wilderness these 40 years

to humble and to test you

in order to know what was in your heart.

The wilderness reveals what's inside a man.

It reveals our faith.

It reveals our weakness.

It reveals whether we truly trust God.

The next person in the Bible I want to talk about,

it's one of my favorite stories of the Bible.

Since I was a young kid,

I always really loved thunderstorms.

So when I grew up, I went to college to study storms

and now I photograph them

and sort of storm chase, if you will.

I've just always been fascinated

by storms.

So that brings us to the story of Job.

He's a man who loses everything.

We see that God points him out to say that,

look how great this man is

and how he follows me.

And Satan says, well, he only does that

because you give him everything.

Take all that away

and he's not going to follow you anymore.

So God does that and Job loses his health.

Job loses his wealth.

And after all the suffering,

Job is finally getting a little bit fed up with God.

He starts telling, asking God all these questions

and God responds not with excuses,

but as a whirlwind, as a storm.

In Job 38 verse one, it says,

the Lord then answered Job out of the whirlwind

and God begins to speak,

not by explaining the pain,

but revealing the power and creation.

It says, where were you

when I laid the earth's foundation?

Who shut up the sea behind the doors?

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow?

God points Job back to nature,

back to creation,

back to the wilderness,

back to things Job cannot control

because sometimes the answer to our suffering

is not understanding everything.

It's remembering who created everything.

God speaks through storms.

God speaks through wind.

God speaks through the natural world that he formed.

And Job's response after this

is not any more questions,

but he immediately becomes humble

and then he ends up getting everything back

that he once lost.

Another powerful wilderness story

comes from Elijah.

You know, Elijah defeats the prophets of Baal

and who Queen Jezebel once him killed

and he flees and runs into the wilderness.

He's running and then God stops him

and makes him take a nap under a tree

and eats.

I saw a joke about that online

that says sometimes all God wants us to do

is eat and take a nap.

And that's true,

especially when we're stressed out

like Elijah was.

You know, he's discouraged and afraid

and for 40 days he's traveling

and he finally gets to Mount Horeb

and he's hiding inside a cave

and God comes to him again there

and says, come outside.

I'm about to pass by.

And first there's a powerful wind

and rocks are falling

and you'd think God would be there

just like he was in the wind with Job

but he's not there.

And then there's an earthquake

but God's still not there.

And then there's a fire

and maybe he's there

because he came to Moses in a fire

but he's not there either.

Then God whispers to Elijah.

And that's important

because all these other stories

I've talked about where he shows up

a little, not aggressively,

but in a fire or in a storm.

Sometimes he doesn't need to.

Sometimes he's more gentle.

Sometimes he does reach out

and let you know that you can rest

and that you can eat

and he comes to you in a whisper.

It's not always loud.

Sometimes you just have to be

still enough and quiet enough

to know that God's whispering to you.

Another man who spent much

of his life in the wilderness

was John the Baptist.

John lived in the desert.

We know this.

The Bible says that he wore

clothing made out of camel hair,

that he ate locusts and wild honey.

People actually traveled

into the wilderness

just to hear him preach

just to get baptized by him.

And it was John the Baptist

who prepared the way for Jesus.

He was the messenger

who announced the Messiah

and he lived in the wilderness.

And then finally,

there's the example of Jesus.

Before starting his ministry,

he goes into the wilderness

for 40 days.

40 days fasting and praying.

He faced temptation.

In the Gospel of Matthew,

chapter four, verse one,

it says,

then Jesus was led by the spirit

into the wilderness

to be tempted by the devil.

The spirit led him there.

The wilderness was his preparation.

And we see even after this,

there was many times

that it said that Jesus

would wake up early

and go out into the wilderness

to pray or go into a garden

or away from other people

just to pray.

There's something about

wild places

that changes a man.

When you stand

in the wilderness long enough,

something begins

to shift inside you.

Your thoughts slow down.

Your prayers become more honest.

Your perspective changes.

Isaiah chapter 40, verse 12 says,

who has measured the waters

in the hollow of his hand?

Or with the breath of his hand

marked off the heavens?

Psalm 19.1 says,

the heavens declare

the glory of God.

The skies proclaim

the work of his hands.

And when you stand

under a sky full of stars

far away from the city lights,

it is difficult

not to think about God.

But here's something

we're thinking about.

Modern men rarely

experience the wilderness anymore.

We live surrounded by technology

and screens

and notifications,

noise.

Our phones buzz

every few minutes.

We scroll endlessly.

Our minds are never quiet.

But the men in the Bible

stepped away from that.

They went where things

were quiet.

Where they could pray.

Where they could think.

Where they could listen.

And maybe one reason

many men feel lost today

is because we've lost

those places.

We have lost the silence.

We have lost the wilderness.

And thousands of years ago,

we see that in the Bible

where God would meet

with these people.

But that's not anything old

that still happens today.

Even within the last thousand years,

there's people that I've

read about through history

since I do, like Doug said,

have my own podcast

called The Long Story

where I talk about

a lot of historical figures

and I try to base it all

on their faith as well

as much as I can.

And the first time we see this

is with George Washington.

You know, George Washington

is only 11 years old

in 1743

and his father Augustine

passes away.

And then everything that

Augustine has is left

to George's older brother,

Lawrence.

That's from Augustine's

first marriage.

He's the oldest

so he gets everything.

He even gets all the money.

So there's no more money

left for George

to get the same education

that Lawrence got.

So George is forced

to kind of find his own way

and he does that.

He runs out

into the Shenandoah Valley

and starts to become

a surveyor

and out there

as just a young boy

at maybe 14 years old

or so by then,

he's learning how to hunt,

he's learning how to fish,

he's learning how to

just survive out there

in nature on his own.

And that would shape

George's life forever.

It would lead him to become

the leader that he was

throughout the American Revolution.

The other example

that I know of this is

with also Abraham Lincoln.

He grows up in the wilderness

just in a cabin out there

in Illinois

and he loses his mother

in 1818, Nancy Hanks.

And then what his father does next

is could be seen as

neglect abuse nowadays

or anything like that,

but what he does is

actually pretty smart

and cunning for the time

because you can't survive

out there in the wilderness

back then in the early 1800s

without having a full family.

His father Thomas couldn't

be the father

and then also be the mother

and take care of the household

and he knew that.

So he made a difficult decision

but he did it anyway

and in 1819 he leaves

and he goes out

to find another wife.

And he's gone for months.

So at this time Lincoln's

probably about 10 or 11

and his sister's only a couple years older

but so they're out there

learning how to pretty much

fend for themselves for a while

there in the wilderness

and that both shapes

both of their lives

but Lincoln especially.

And then later on that year

Thomas does come back

with Lincoln's new stepmother

Sarah Bush Johnson

and she also has a great impact

on Lincoln's life

but the wilderness

totally shaped his life completely.

Now both of these men

did have relationships with God.

You know George Washington

was a part of a church.

There's transcripts of him

speaking about Jesus sometimes

a lot about God

and he does quote the Bible.

Lincoln quoted the Bible a lot.

Unfortunately there's never

really much talk about Jesus.

He has a lot of scrutiny

about religion.

But he did seem to believe in God

and quoted God and the Bible

quite frequently.

But unlike these two men

there is another man in history

who is fairly Christian

and he let those beliefs lead him

in his ways throughout his life.

And this is Theodore Roosevelt.

He was a part of a movement

in Christianity

that was called muscular Christianity

and that believed that men

could find strength through faith.

And Theodore Roosevelt

actually genuinely believed this

because Roosevelt's not born strong.

No he was born with severe asthma.

He was born really small and weak

and he was sick all the time.

He would have asthma attacks

that were so bad

his family would take him

outside of the house

just to try to help him

breathe fresh air.

Back then they didn't have

albuterol so they were doing

all these natural ways

to try to fix it.

And one of these ways

that I still even use today

with my asthma

is just to drink straight black coffee

as a stimulant.

And he did even up in his presidency

Theodore Roosevelt would drink

up to 25 cups of black coffee a day.

Like I said he was small,

weak and constantly ill

but when he was young

his father told him something

that shaped his life forever.

He said you have the mind

but you must build the body

and Roosevelt took this seriously.

He begins lifting weights.

He begins boxing.

He hikes.

He pushes himself relentlessly.

But you can get as strong

as you want as masculine

as you want on the outside

but there's still ways

that the world can break you.

And this happens to Theodore

in 1884 on Valentine's Day

of that year.

He loses his wife Alice.

She passes away

due to childbirth complications

from giving birth

just a couple days earlier

to his daughter

who's also named Alice.

But on the exact same day

his mother, Martha Roosevelt

also dies from typhoid fever.

And this really, really

made Theodore Roosevelt depressed.

He even writes about in his journal

he says the light

has gone out of my life.

And after this he leaves New York.

He goes into the wilderness

into the Dakota Territory.

He lives there as a rancher.

He rides across frozen plains.

He works cattle.

He hunts far away from the city life

that he grew up in

that he was used to.

He let the wilderness rebuild him.

It gave him strength.

It gave him clarity.

And it forges the man

that he would become.

You know he moves home

in the late 1880s after this.

He becomes a police commissioner.

He becomes governor.

He leads the Rough Riders.

And then we know from there

he becomes the President

of the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt truly believed

in Christ's ability

to change his life.

And he truly believed

that there was ways to do it.

Whether it was muscular Christianity

or whether it was retreating

into the wild to reshape

the life that he had.

The life that was broken

when he lost

two very important people to him.

And there's also a season

in my life when I stepped

into the wilderness.

It was four years ago

when I was first living

here in Lansdale.

I was a general manager

for a different company.

And that company sold to another one.

And I ended up losing my job

because they didn't need me anymore.

They already had a general manager.

So I lost my job.

My mother at the time got cancer.

Was she beat?

God bless that.

That he was able

to save her from that.

But at the time

I was going through that.

I was going through losing my job.

I was dealing

through a rough friendship

that I was trying to handle.

And it was a lot

for me to try to handle.

And I didn't know what else to do.

So I decided to think back

on these stories of men

finding God in the wilderness.

And I decided to do the same thing.

After all, I wasn't working.

So I had a little bit of free time.

And I decided to do that.

I ran out into the wilderness.

And I camped

for a couple weeks.

I was on the Appalachian Trail

for a little while.

Then for a little while

I was right off

the Perky Omen Trail.

A little bit closer here to home.

And I was focusing on

reading the Bible.

Staying up and praying.

Just trying to better myself.

Going on late night hikes

and prayer walks.

Just trying to do whatever I could

to just try to stay as close

to God as possible.

And when I'm out there,

there's the one night

I'm there and I'm camping at night.

I have my campfire going

and I just got done eating.

And I'm looking down the hill

and I see a little flashlight

bobbing up and down in the distance

heading up the hill at me.

And I'm still just watching it.

And then eventually the light

is almost like it's pointing directly at me.

And then it shuts off.

But the moon's pretty bright that day.

And I can still see the figure

or whatever's walking

even though they turned their light off.

Walking through the side of the hill

up towards the west.

And I just was like,

okay, well, someone's probably out there.

That's okay.

And then later on,

I end up having to go down towards that way

because I know that there's bathrooms

and I probably would usually just go outside.

But in this case, I can't.

I have to go to the little bathrooms

down below and I'm headed there

towards the bathroom.

And when I get closer,

I end up seeing a small campfire

and there's someone sitting there

and I have to at least walk past them

within 20 or 30 feet.

And all I hear is a small mumble

of, am I in trouble?

And I'm like, are you in trouble?

That's what I thought they said,

that they were in trouble.

I said, are you in trouble?

They're like, no, am I in trouble?

I said, no, you're not in trouble.

Why would you be in trouble?

And they're like, well,

this is private property

sometimes over here with the camp.

And usually when they're running it,

they kick me out of here.

They won't let me stay here.

And I was like, well,

I'm the only one here that I know of.

Maybe I'm not supposed to be here.

But it ended up being a homeless woman

who went there and stayed in that area

and she would go to these campgrounds.

And we hung out that whole entire night.

I gave her some of my leftover food

and some water and we just talked a lot.

And we did talk about faith

and we talked about God

and I talked to her about

what I was going through in my life

at that time

and how I really just needed

to get away from it all.

And she reminded me that I was blessed.

She reminded me that I was blessed,

that I even just had a home to go back to.

That at that moment that, yeah,

my mother might have been sick

and a couple other people in my family

that I was dealing with,

but I still had them at that moment.

And I'm not there experiencing them

at that time if I'm out here running away.

And it reminded me of the story of Jacob

when Jacob's out there

trying to run from his problems.

You know, God even lets him go out there for a while.

He lets him reshape his life.

And then he does come to him and say,

it's time to come home.

And that's sort of what I thought about

that night after I talked with her,

that I'm out here trying to reshape,

trying to be a better guy

and have these plans to be a better Christian.

But there's also problems

that I need to go home

and I need to face.

And that was really important to me

because I went out there

looking for a message from God,

looking to be able to talk to God.

And I ended up maybe meeting a messenger from him

or a message that he sent me

in a very unique way.

So now after my venture in the wilderness,

you know, any time that I realize

that I maybe am going further from God,

I try to retreat back out there.

I try to go on a hike.

I try to walk in prayer walk

and experience God in any way possible.

You know, the wilderness is still there.

The mountains still stand.

The forest are still there.

Rivers still run.

And sometimes the best thing

that a man can do is step away

from the noise of the world

and go into those places to pray,

to think, to listen.

Because throughout scripture

and throughout history,

the wilderness has always been a place

where men meet God,

where God speaks most clearly

when the world grows quiet.

But here's the truth.

The wilderness is not just a place of struggle.

It's a place of shaping.

It's where God forms identity.

It's where he builds strength.

It's where he removes noise.

It's where he teaches dependence.

And maybe there's some reasons

why men feel lost today.

It's not because God is absent.

It's because we are absent

from the places where he shows up.

From the places where we can hear him.

So maybe the call is simple.

Let's step away from the noise.

Step into silence.

Step into creation.

Step into stillness.

Because the same God who spoke

fire to Moses,

spoke through a storm to Job,

who wrestled with Jacob in the night.

The same God who led Jesus

into the wilderness

is still speaking today.

And sometimes he speaks most clearly

when everything else goes quiet.

And that's pretty much all I had written

to speak to you guys about today,

about the wilderness and my experience

and guys in the Bible and history.

But I didn't know if anyone else

had any stories about themselves

maybe finding God in the wilderness

that maybe they wanted to share with anyone.

I'll leave it up to you guys.

I know it's a lot quicker than

I planned this beach to be.

I wanted it to be a little bit longer,

but moved faster than I thought I did.

I think it's a little nervous up here.

Yeah, I'll just jump in.

Yeah.

Joshua, that is great.

That is fascinating.

And I want to give guys

a chance to respond here as well.

But just thinking it

in your more recent wilderness

of the breakup, the car breaking down,

God pursued you by that kid

dropping the Lancel Life Card,

going out seeking God

and out in the wilderness

and meeting a homeless person

that helped you to think about

coming home sort of,

coming facing your challenges.

And that's the goodness of God.

And I love that idea of

getting in the wilderness

so we can hear God,

getting in a quiet place.

But let's just pray

and then we'll open it up

for some questions

and maybe somebody sharing a story.

Lord God, I just thank you.

Thank you for Joshua.

And he's articulate

and he's very interesting to listen to

and he's focused on you.

And I just thank you for that.

And I pray you continue to bless Joshua

in his thoughtful pursuit of you.

This is a, that he would reach many people

for you, Christ,

in his pursuit of you.

And I just thank you.

Thank you for working in his life.

And thank you for just blessing

the rest of our time here.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Yeah.

So if anybody maybe has a story,

or, and then we could give,

let people ask some questions too.

Yeah, sure.

Wow, that really touched me, Josh.

I mean, when you hear my story,

you may be able to understand why.

Well, I'm here in Lansdale.

I never heard of Lansdale before.

And it all stems from the fact

that right now I'm going through

what my wife's counselor calls

a therapeutic separation.

For 34 years,

I worked in a level one trauma center.

Doing CAT scans and X-rays.

And I worked for probably

a good 30 of them.

I probably put in 50 to 60 hours a week.

I would work 12,

or I'd call it 6 p.m.

to 6 8, 6 30 a.m.

Six days a week.

And because of that,

I retired last year.

And my wife and I had kind of

grown apart a lot

because we weren't around each other too much.

It's like 20 years ago,

in order to get ahead,

I always learned,

I used to drink alcohol.

And I learned from my father that

the way to get ahead

is to kind of schmooze your bosses.

And I did.

I would go out with my boss

all the time after work.

And sometimes I'd come home drunk.

And it didn't go too well with my wife.

And that was 20 years ago.

But in the meantime,

I tried to,

after the last time,

I came home that way.

And I didn't even remember

what happened or anything.

And I had to get somebody

to take me home in a cab.

It wasn't a good thing.

But at that night,

I decided that's it no more.

And I quit drinking.

And that was 20 years ago.

And when I retired,

all those things still stuck with my wife.

She remembers every bad thing I ever did,

every bad thing I ever said.

And so we had quite a few arguments,

and she would have things

which she called triggers.

So she said,

well, I said,

we need to see counselors.

Well, I've been to seven counselors already,

seven marriage counselors.

I went to a marriage intensive

in Elizabethtown here in Pennsylvania.

And none of that seemed to work.

So I said,

I'm not going to another counselor.

Why don't you go see a counselor?

Because she had a pretty tough childhood

and an upbringing.

And so I thought,

maybe the problems with her,

I've done everything I can.

I think I don't know.

So her counselor said,

well, you need to have

a therapeutic separation.

Why don't you have him leave her?

So we decided,

and not my choice,

because I fought it tooth and nail.

I was like,

this is my home.

I'm not going anyplace.

I worked all these years

to pay for this house.

Now I'm going to enjoy it.

And finally,

it got so bad,

I prayed about it.

And Lord said,

you need to leave.

So I said,

okay, I told her,

I will go away.

I don't know where.

So where am I going to go?

I looked at apartments.

Now I'm not going to move out

for a long time.

I want to come back.

Where can I go for

two or three months?

So hotel extended stay

is too expensive.

Doesn't fit my budget.

Let me,

how about Airbnb?

So I looked at Airbnb's

and where am I going to go?

Well, I have a friend

in Doyle's town.

Maybe I'll go around there.

But Doyle's town is expensive.

So I couldn't find anything.

Let me find something

in my budget.

So here's one

in this little town

called Lansdale.

I never heard of Lansdale before.

This was back in December.

So I got the apartment

in Lansdale and I said,

well, if I go there,

I'm going to have to find a church.

Where am I going to go?

So I looked at all the churches

in Lansdale.

I investigated.

I looked at different

YouTube videos and stuff.

And I saw this guy PB

from Georgia Stinks.

I was like,

oh, this is interesting.

This guy's pretty cool.

And I started listening

to Pastor Chris's sermons too.

And I say, huh?

I saw pictures

of men's breakfast like this

with all the guys.

I said, this is what I need.

I need some men to be around

and to hear their stories and stuff.

And so I decided

I was going to go

to Lansdale Life Church.

And turns out it's only about

10 minutes from my apartment.

I can walk back and forth.

I said, this is great.

I'm just going to plug myself

into everything I can.

And this was the first week of March.

So I decided

also at the same time,

I always wanted to write a book

and now I'm retired.

So I thought I would try

to write a book.

And this is where it comes in

because the book that I titled

was going to be called

The Wilderness.

And I already started

taking all kinds of notes.

And I said, Lansdale's

My Wilderness.

And it's not like the woods

or Montana or anything like that.

This is urban setting.

But it's My Wilderness.

Because I spend a lot of time

walking around,

going to all the parks.

I walk every day.

I spend a lot of time

in my apartment writing.

And so to come here today

and hear your wilderness story,

it's just like almost like God

putting his stamp of approval on this.

And this is what he wanted me to do.

And I thank you for that.

So, I was only going to be here

three months.

But my wife said,

you know, I love you again.

You're the love of my life.

Why don't you make it

only two months?

So I said, okay,

I'll make it two months.

I called my host and I said,

oh, listen,

I'm going to only stay here

two months now.

So, I was actually,

my last day was supposed to be

on Thursday.

But two weeks ago,

for some reason,

we were texting back and forth.

And I don't know what happened.

I don't think I did anything.

But I thought,

oh, I must have done something

to offend her

because she's not talking to me anymore.

And so I wrote,

I said, what's going on?

You're not communicating with me.

Should I stay another month?

And she goes,

what do you want?

And I texted back,

no, what do you want me to do?

And she said,

stay another month.

So I was like,

oh, I don't know what happened.

And then she didn't talk to me again

for another week after that.

Finally, she started talking.

And I called my,

I said,

Lord, what do you want me to do?

If you want me to stay,

I'll call my host.

And if he didn't book it

for the month of May,

then I'll stay.

But if he's booked it to somebody,

I'll go home.

So what's it going to be?

So I called my host,

and he said,

no, it's open.

So I guess I'm staying another month.

So then she finally communicates to me

and says,

when are you coming home?

And I said,

well, you told me to stay another month.

So now I'm here until the end of May.

And I said,

can I ask you,

what did I do to offend you?

I'm sorry if I did anything.

And she said,

no, I had a dream.

And you were saying a lot

of bad things to me in my dream.

And they triggered some things.

So I was like,

there's nothing I can do about that.

So I guess the Lord wanted me

to stay here another month.

And he must still have

some work for me to do.

And I liken it kind of like to Joseph.

Joseph was in prison,

not that I'm in prison or anything.

It's more like a wilderness.

But just the fact that

he had to stay there.

He couldn't figure out

why he was there in that prison.

But the Lord was working on him

until he figured out

what the Lord wanted to do,

until he put things in his way

to get him out of that.

And so I still got a long way to go.

And I hope the next 36 weeks

or so that I'm here.

I'm going to improve even more.

And I've already seen

a lot of improvements in myself.

It's all because of you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, Rocky.

Yeah, what's up, Rocky?

No, there's no touch.

I woke up the next morning

and she was gone.

Because there's a lake right there.

And I think that.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, she was already a believer

by the time that I talked to her.

I think she brought up God first

because I didn't even bring up God yet.

I just asked her if she wanted food.

And she was,

God bless you and things to me like that.

And then that's when we started talking

about God.

So, yeah.

But I never got to really talk to her.

Like I said, I woke up the next day

and they were gone.

Yeah, yeah.

Thanks.

Yeah.

Thanks for your testimony too, Charlie.

That was really good.

We're all glad that you're here.

Yeah, yeah, no, we're all glad that you're here.

We're all rooting for you too.

And I like that you brought up Joseph

because, you know, he had to be patient

through things that he's going through.

It sounds like you're being patient.

And he also says in that story

that things that were bad that happened,

God turned them to good.

So that's what God's doing with you too,

it sounds like.

So I'm really rooting for you.

I think we all are here.

But we're glad to have you here, Charlie.

For sure.

Anyone else have a wilderness story

or question or anything?

Yeah, thanks, Roger.

You know, that's really cool.

I'm glad that you are able

to have that sort of relationship

with your son-in-laws.

It sounds like it's a really good bond

that you guys have for sure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you.

Yeah, like they said there,

you don't have to go too far away.

It's Green Lane Park right over here.

If all of you guys live here

in Montgomery County,

I think they give you like half off

if you live here in the county.

It's only like 20 or 30 dollars to stay there.

And you can access the Perkeoman Trail

from Green Lane.

There's lakes there and stuff as well.

So you don't have to go too far.

Even here in Lansdale,

there's walking paths and stuff

that once you're in there,

you can kind of feel the spirit of God

just kind of close out

this world around us.

But yeah, no, thank you

for sharing that testimony,

especially the view in the oil field.

That's really, really great.

Yeah, I think it's the 9th Street Station too.

I think that's what it's called.

Because there's Lansdale,

there's 9th Street,

and then there's the,

I forget the other station here in Lansdale.

But I think it is 9th Street Station.

But yeah, I know where you're at.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, it's all a hand come up over.

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Well, that sounds great.

Yeah, no, that sounds like something

we should run past.

Yeah, yeah.

I know I look that much like that,

Josh, I guess.

Yeah.

But no, yeah,

that sounds like a great idea.

We could run that past Pastor Chris

and all these other guys

and get us guys out there.

Maybe have a little wilderness venture,

men's retreat, I guess, if you will.

That would be great.

I think we would all kind of bond

from that even more.

It was like I said earlier in my speech,

this is a great group of brothers.

It's something that I definitely like to see.

Because even at my old church

with the Community of Christ too,

that was one of the biggest issues

that I also had was

the people that I grew up with

that were my age,

I get older now and see them on Facebook.

And there's a lot of them

who've just denounced the Lord completely.

And I kind of felt like Elijah

in the story of Elijah then too

when he tells God, he goes,

am I the only one left?

And God says, no,

I have about 7000 more people.

And that's kind of what he showed me

when he brought me here to the church

because I didn't think

that I had anyone left.

All the people I grew up with

that were my age

didn't really seem to follow anymore.

And then I was in the young adult group

there at the Community of Christ

where I would help shepherd

people even younger than me,

probably my sister's age.

And we could get through

to a couple of them,

but a lot of the other ones

were still kind of challenging

what you'd say,

or they'd speak lowly of religion.

They'd think that people of religion

were mean to them

or mean to their friends

who kind of grew up

if they were in LGBTQ

or anything like that.

And I'm like, well, we love everybody.

I shouldn't get that confused.

We're supposed to love everyone.

And yeah, maybe there's some people

that are harsh with it,

but that doesn't reflect

what the message

we're trying to send here.

You just got to come out

and kind of listen to God's message.

But it was hard to get through to them.

So I really thought

that I was the only one.

That was half the reason

why I was being a lonely Christian.

Anyways, and just like

he said about Reb Dev,

that was one of the first sermons

that I came here to see.

And that was one of his things

that he talked about

was how important it was

to find a congregation.

And I remember actually crying

when he was speaking about this

because it resonated with me so much

because of how important it was

that I finally found this congregation

when I came here

and saw the branch of,

I would say generations of people,

the older men

and then the middle-aged men

and then the men my age

and even younger.

It's a really great spectrum

of people here based on age.

And I really like to see that.

It really made me feel like

I'm not alone

and that there's other men here.

And that's definitely

one of the big reasons

why I also started

the softball team with Zach

because I got here

and I was like,

there's a lot of young men here.

I think we're ready to go

and start a softball team.

And like I said,

I can't wait to keep

furthering my relationship with God

but also furthering my relationship

with all you guys.

And doing a men's retreat

into the wilderness

actually sounds like a perfect idea.

So we should do that.

Anyone else?

Yeah, man.

You want to come up or?

Yeah, sweet.

Josh, it's so nice to meet you.

My name is Leo.

And I'm going to connect

a lot of points

from my testimony to yours

and what you shared today.

And for those of you who know me,

it's probably no secret

that I'm an extrovert, right?

I love conversations

and relationships

and I love being around people.

But probably what most of you

don't know is that growing up,

ever since I was as young

as I can remember,

I've also always been

a hopeless romantic

and always enjoyed stories

of the hero saving the princess.

I always had these dreams

of becoming an exemplary husband

and father and things like that.

And I'm 28 now

and I'm still as single as they come.

So when COVID happened,

I had actually just got back

from a year in Vietnam

doing missions work

and I was on a tear

through the whole country,

just city to city.

I was with my friends

and we were doing

missions training programs.

We were doing prayer nights,

healing nights, sharing testimonies,

going out evangelizing,

praying for people,

seeing people get healed,

seeing demons get cast out.

Just a lot of the miracles of the acts

and just the Holy Spirit

moving like fire

through the country.

And actually since that year,

Vietnam has experienced

its very first missions revival

in its Protestant churches history

where they've been sending out

dozens of Vietnamese missionaries

for the first time ever

every year since 2019

to other countries as missionaries.

But when I got back here in 2020

and COVID happened,

I got stuck here in America

because all travel shut down

and I was actually really confused

and upset at first with God

because I had been serving him

as a missionary probably for about...

Six years at that point.

And I thought I was gonna go back

to Vietnam that year

to be like a long-term missionary there

and what ended up happening

is I got stuck here

and at first I was like,

God, what the heck are you doing?

Why are you pulling out the rug

from under me?

And very quickly he showed me

that my worth,

I was placing my worth in my work

and results as a missionary

in the activity of missions

and I was really treating

like that calling

with this idolatrous attitude

that I was putting my worth in there

and I was seeing that

if I was useful to God

then I would be valuable to God

and he showed me

that I had this agenda

that if I did good things for him

that he would do good things for me

and so it was very transactional

and I didn't realize it at first

but just through great mentors

actually right here in this body

God showed me that

and he and actually like you know

he posed like

I received this question

on my heart from the Holy Spirit

like Leo, if you are unable

to do any of these things for me

am I enough for you?

And that really shot down

like every idol I had at that point

including marriage

even the idea of marriage

because we often you know

I think like the wilderness

is a place where our needs

are not getting met

where our physical needs

our relational needs

our spiritual needs

are not getting met right?

And in that place

all we have to fall back on

and we still have that choice

whether to fall back on him

all that we have to fall back on

we're posed with that choice

do we fall back on God right?

Or do we fall flat on our face you know

like we always have this

no matter how dire

our circumstances

or our weaknesses

become in this life

we always have a choice

whether we turn to God

or we turn away from him right?

I think in the wilderness

is that place

where everything else

gets ripped away

to the point where

we now can only turn to God

or turn away from him right?

Where you know there's that

there's this saying

we don't realize God is all we need

until God is all we have right?

And so like when I got back

throughout COVID

God taught me a bit

about responsibility

I started working part-time

and then I went back to college

at age 23 for nursing

and he really taught me

to slow down in that time

and I you know like

a lot of a lot of revival

happens in someone in

first in the heart

in the wilderness

it doesn't happen like

you know like we were

when I was serving in Vietnam

we were constantly praying

for you know like revival

in the in the church right?

In the people groups

in the congregations

but actually what God taught me

throughout COVID

is that revival actually begins

in the heart of God's people

he led me back to his word

he led me back to himself

and he actually showed me

Leo it's more it's more important

who you're becoming

than what you're doing

and most importantly

Romans 8 29 right?

We're predestined to be

conformed to the image of his son

so that he might be

the firstborn among many brothers

and so God's destiny for us

is that we become like him right?

And so who we're becoming in Christ

we can only know that

by getting to know Christ

and God really showed me

recently too like that

it matters especially

as this world gets darker

and darker

we know the world is getting darker

because God prophesied in his word

and we see it playing out

in the current events

you know it's going at a rate faster

than human history has ever seen

the world is getting darker

but as that happens

more of God's word gets fulfilled

and we have to be able to recognize that

and counter intuitively

be reassured by that

because our foundation

is not what's happening

but it's God's word right?

And so like

as God's word gets fulfilled

God proves himself

as the faithful one right?

As the intentional one

as the all-knowing

the all-powerful one

the one who's in control

and in charge right?

Even though things seem

to be getting chaotic

but if he already knew

what happened in advance

like an author of a novel

right?

He has a plan right?

And so it's so much

it's so important

especially for Christians

to know who God is

not what he's doing right?

What he's doing is changing

all the time

what he's done in my life

has changed all the time

from when I first took my

first missions training program

I went and served in Turkey

for a year and then in Vietnam

for a year after that

and then I went to nursing school

for years like

we change like our seasons

of life change right?

And God changes

what he's doing too

but what does the Bible mean

when it says God doesn't change

like Jesus Christ is the same

yesterday today and forever right?

It means who he is

his character doesn't change

and that's what the Bible

reveals to us

the Bible the content

of the Bible is often

about what God is doing right?

Like from Genesis to Revelation

what he's doing

has changed all the time

he's not making light anymore

he's not putting the stars

in place anymore

he's not splitting the Red Sea

anymore right?

He's not coming down

on 120 disciples

with flames of fire

with tongues of fire anymore right?

What he's doing

will change all the time

and what he's doing in our lives

are going to change

all the time too

but who he is never changes

his character never changes

and so as we read the Bible

as we study the Bible

the most important thing

we have to look for

who is God in this?

How is he revealing

his character right?

And again and again again

every single story

prophecy narrative poem

in the Bible

reveals a God

who is loving

who is caring

who is faithful

right?

Who is intentional

who is personal

who's also universal

who's powerful

who's in charge

right?

Who's in control

who's good right?

Who is you know like

and he's loving

and he wants to know us

through that love relationship

and you know like

I went through a really rough breakup

the roughest one of my life

just two years ago

and since then I like

my personality has changed a lot

actually like

through that relationship

through that breakup

I once again turn to God

like when I felt the rug

get pulled out under me

about traveling

I felt it again

when the relationship

like crashed and burned basically

and it wasn't my choice

for the relationship to end

it was you know

the other one's choice

and in that time

I really sought God

through the wilderness

I started to

literally like

just to save myself

from spiraling

into depression

and self-pity

I started to go out

to places of nature

parks

hiking trails

nature reserves

my favorite place

is only a 40-minute drive

and it's actually right here

on it's actually right down

on the other end of Welsh road

it's called

a penny pack ecological reserve

it's only a 35-minute drive

from this building

but it's like rolling grass hills

and there's like horses

and cottages in the distance

I feel like I'm the Lord of the Rings

when I'm there

it's like it's magical

I feel like I'm in the Shire

and I go there

and like

I would come upon these places

like these little clearings

in the woods

or this stream bed

with like a little rock

that's perfect for sitting on

and I would experience

this God who is romantic

like this God who like

I got this one moment there

I got this feeling

that God had been waiting

from the beginning of creation

for the past

however many thousand years

to meet Leo

in that place

and in that moment

that's romantic

and I started to experience

a God who wants to know me

on that level

right where he like

he became my faithful friend

companion

and he began to fulfill

all the relational needs

that I was seeking

through a worldly relationship

with a with a

I mean it was a sister in Christ

you know

but like

but like

I started to experience

this God that was

you know

who knows me

and loves me deeper

than any person

uh

let alone spouse

ever will

and ever is able to know me

he knows me

like he knows us

from beginning to end

inside and out

he knows us better

than anybody in the world

because he created us right

and not only that

but like

true love

is when someone

sees you completely

right

and accepts you completely

and that's God alone

right

and that love is like

literally like

it's revolutionary

it's like

it's the most powerful force

in the universe right

love can overcome

it can conquer anything

and I'm I'm learning

and getting to know

that God

right

and I'm experiencing

that God who just like

loves me

like language is not enough

it's insufficient

to capture

like how deep

and how intense

and how amazing

that love is

and just how powerful

that love is

like that love

literally overcame

death for us

and gave us eternal life

right

and like that

like God

God

he exhibits many emotions right

and so like we see in the Bible

God has grieved

he has regretted

sometimes he's angry

right

he's a very just God

right

but God is not made up

of these emotions right

what is the substance

of his makeup

God is love

love

and especially as men

it's so important for us

to know this God

who loves us

because we can only love

others as we are loved

we can only give what we have

and the more

we get to know

this God who loves us

the more

we are loved by God

and it's so important to like

especially as men

to learn to be his bride

as a church right

because we can only love

our brides

as we are loved by God

as his bride

right

and so as we you know

like that

the love that God has

for his church

he has chosen

that picture

of a bride and groom

to portray

like the most clear relationship

between him and his church

right

and that's how he wants to love

each and every one of us

as men really

is you know

like the more we

we experience

and know

and learn

how to be loved by God

the better

we can love others

and serve others

yeah so

thanks for letting me share man

yeah

and thanks so much

for sharing Josh

yeah thanks for that Leo

yeah you're definitely right

God is pretty romantic

we can see that

in the wilderness as well

if you ever

look at a sunset

or the mountains

or anything

you can see that

he's definitely

knows how to make beauty

and he does want

what's best for us

so yeah

let's bow our heads and pray

Lord I

thank you again

for this group of men here

this great brotherhood

that we have

we're also blessed

to have each other

we also thank you

just for the opportunity

to be able to talk

about the wilderness

and and have all these men

share that

their personal stories

to help us realize

that even in the most

troublesome times of our lives

you still speak to us

you still reach out to us

and sometimes it may be

through a storm

sometimes it may be

through a fire

sometimes it may be pretty loud

but other times

it may be quiet

we do need rest

we do need silence

we need to be still

whether we're quiet

and here together

just meeting as men

in this congregation

or we're out in the wilderness

directly trying

to connect with you

Lord we're so blessed

to just be able to have

the opportunity

to have this relationship

with you

to be your sons

and we can't wait

to the day

that we actually

get to see

this next world

you have in store for us

and how beautiful

that world

really is

so Lord again

to thank you

for all the men

here in this congregation

we are super blessed

and we thank you

for everything

in your name

we pray

Amen

Thanks for joining us

at Lansdale Life Church

as we praise God

and discuss his word

don't forget to join us

for worship lives

Sunday mornings

at 10 a.m. eastern

on YouTube

be blessed

and have a great day