(0:00)Your job is not your source
If you lose your job, it's easy for me to sit here and say it's not the end of the world, but it really isn't the end of the world. It can be devastating. It can be problematic on multiple levels. It can induce a lot of fear and anxiety. But we have to put some things in perspective. Your job is a vehicle of provision. Your provision comes from God. Remember the prophet, God fed him through the ravens and the brook, but then the brook dried up and the raven stopped coming. Elijah or Elisha? I always mix those two up, man. I don't understand why they Elijah. Why can't they have a different name all together? Why is it just an s different Elisha Elijah and they're back to back? Imagine why can't they have why can't one be Elijah be Simeon or something? Why do I be Elijah? Anyway, the Ellies the [laughter] good name. No, no, I think you like it can be one of the Yeah, one of the Right. So, he's there by the brook drinking nice water. raven bringing meat and then the brook dries up and God says well I prepared a widow for you who will feed you goes to this widow and she says yeah well this is a contract job it's only going to last x amount of time he eats there and when that one was done he moves on that's the thing with the jobs right a job is a means of provision it's not source it's not the source of provision right the source is God unfiltered
(1:23)Welcome to PF Unfiltered
welcome to another episode of PF unfiltered um where we talk about all things Christ, the church and our world. My name as you may already know is Tundra. As who may already know as you know like who who are who who knows you, you know, I'm just saying uh the four people. I'm joined to my left by um Hello Roslin. Right. Right. She's my co-host today. And I'm joined to my right by uh a very special man, Pastor Fe Matayo, the PF and PF Unfiltered. Needs no introduction. a person only problem. Don't forget Esther. Oh, that is so true. There is We're also joined by a very special special. I didn't forget this was like a strategic strategic. Yeah, exactly. Gotcha. We're joined by someone that you might not see on camera. Off camera personality. Exactly. She's a off camera personality. She's a rising star. Do you know there's a there's a there's a there's an employment category called on air personality. That's somebody's what's your what's your life? What's your job description, man? Oh, I'm an OAP, but they make money. I'm So that's that's what that's what that's what what they do actually. Personality hire. Oh, so if I work here. Okay. I thought Yeah. Yeah. Someone said I'm an OP. I said what? So I'm off air personality. No, you are. [laughter] You're on air. You just off the camera. Our third host today, you might not be able to see her. You can definitely hear her. Esther Griffith. [applause] You guys even clap for me. Thank you. [laughter] Okay. So, today's topic mean you want to do the honest introduce it? Oh, okay. Yeah. So, today's topic is No. You know what? You know what? Sorry. I'm sorry. PF has things to say. Let him get out. What you got to say? The PF PF on Twitter. It's called PF from future say is all years. Essa is all years. Am I some years? I'm ready. No, she got to say you're ready for so let's just continue. Please can I introduce the topic quickly? The topic is So why didn't you just introduce like why did you have to do that? Anyway, it's like I'm excited or whatever. [laughter] [laughter] I think the article [laughter] what's going on here
(3:57)The core confusion: Passion vs Purpose
topic today is passion and purpose. [laughter] Passion versus purpose. Yeah. I think I mean honestly uh and I like to chime in as well but Pier before we dive into it I think it's maybe important for us to like level set realistically speaking because passion and purpose sound at all times like abstract topics right like but then there are people out there and production made it known like that actually don't have a really don't have a choice cuz they're trying to put food on their table and stuff like that. So, how do we like marry all three? We kind of dive into the con. Passion is
(4:31)Definition check: What is purpose?
what you're excited about. Purpose is what you're supposed to be doing. Okay. Right. Sometimes the two are different. And people seem to think that passion equals purpose. Right? If I'm excited about something, then I should be doing it. Right? It's not everything that you're excited about that you should do. You know what I'm saying? like like I'm called is my purpose to be a pastor, right? But I'm really excited when I play golf. Am I should I quit pastoring and try and get on the PGA circuit or whatever? Do you think if you tried what if you were like good at the golf could it now become a passion after the try the you know after you try it out and you realize that okay I'm actually good at this
(5:20)Being 'good at it' is a trap
being good does not mean that you're good enough right and being good at something does not make it your purpose okay we think that it's like somebody who's good at cooking right you're a great cook make great food doesn't mean you should open a Right. Okay. So, how you defining purpose then? Like is it it's not really an it's not an outcome based thing is what you're saying. It's like Yes. It's not Okay. So, when I when I think purpose, I'm a pastor. I think purpose in terms of what God made you for. Okay. Right. So, God made me in my opinion. Other people can disagree about what God made them for, but don't tell me what God made me for. God made me and said, "Fei, you're going to be a pastor and share the gospel professionally as a career." And when I look at my life and all the things that have happened from my birth, from my conception actually up until now, I can see that I have been equipped for that. Right? That is my purpose. That is why I was made. Now, between when I was born and now, there are things I have learned to do. Right. And some of them do very well. Those things I am good at. I could even make money from some of those things, but they are not my purpose. You just say I'm getting Yeah. Yeah. Some of those things I'm really passionate about, but they're not my purpose, right? Just
(6:48)The bakery & the business test
Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting Yeah. So, I bake, right? And my wife wants to start a bakery, right? So, my wife has a bakery. I bake in my wife's bakery. I'm hearing that I am good at it. That is not my purpose. Even if I made a million dollars from it, it still would not make it my purpose. I'm see. So there's a difference. Even if like you're successful at it, doesn't mean what God called you to do. People are successful. You can be successful at you can you can acquire the skills to be successful. It doesn't mean that is your purpose. How will you know what God called you to do? That's a good one. That's a conversation. If you want to have that, we can have that conversation. Okay. But success in terms of what the world judges as success is not a definition of purpose. Right? So making money does not mean making money is your purpose. Right? The fact that this st this that that screen that the producer that is using if you put that screen on the floor you can stack all this stuff on it and it will do it well. But that's not the purpose. But that's not the purpose for that thing. It's a screen. Oh, right. But we will look at it and say, "Oh, that thing can hold all of these cookie things and this wooden ball. Its purpose was to be a table." No, it purpose was to be a display screen. Ah, okay. I'm tracking. I'm tracking. So passion. Yeah. [laughter] So passion then. I can be passionate about something, but doesn't mean it's what God called me to do. Yes. So it's the same. Okay. So, so, so passion, right? People people
(8:20)Passion is just a clue
passion can be a clue as to what God called you to do, right? But sometimes people elevate it beyond just a clue, right? Passion then becomes the definition of purpose. If you're passionate about it, that means that's what you're supposed to be doing. I'm passionate about injustice. I hate injustice, but I was not called to be a social justice activist, police officer, right? I'm passionate about language. I wasn't called to be an English teacher, right? I was called to be a philosopher. Sometimes I have to educate these KC boys. Of course, you know, I don't know. See, but sometimes this is hard sometimes. I get it. I get it. You hear me? It's okay. So, so, so, so that's why I want to make that distinction, right? Passion does not equal purpose. Passion. Am I passionate about pastoring? Absolutely. But there are ton of things I'm passionate about. So I can't arrive at pastoring is my purpose just based off of passion. There are days when I am not passionate about pastoring. There are days when I dislike it when I do not want to pastor.
(9:30)When you don't feel passionate
Yeah, I was going to ask about that like cuz you said you passionate about it but I was like there days that you grow into like liking that purpose when you when God said you're about to be a pastor. You're like, so so it's it's it's if you want to measure it and say, okay, on a scale of 10, let's say 10 days, a year is 10 days, whatever. Mhm. For 10 days of the year, I have to pastor. 8 days I'm no 6 days I'm passionate about it. Mhm. Two days I'm like, eh, two days I'm like, man, I need to find something else to do with my life. You know what I'm trying to say on the six days when I'm passionate about it, right? It's it's it's it's great, right? You know, and being passionate about it is not always that those are the easiest days. Sometimes those are difficult days. Sometimes those are the days when you are most aware of impact or whatever I am excited about. Right? But passion does not always equal purpose. Right? And one of the challenges that I find with today is that once you are doing something passionately, people immediately label it your purpose or immediately say go and start a business. Right. [sighs] Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. I know what you're talking about. I don't like that. Like there's actually a
(10:52)The downside of 'monetizing everything'
business that I started and at first I just did it just to make I make like flower arrangements for friends and it was fun. Yeah, it was fun. I just did it for a friend's birthday and then some other girl like random girl said, "Can you to make me a bouquet? I'll pay you." And I'm like, "Huh? I'm gonna get paid for this." Why not? So, why not? So, I started doing it and then as more requests started to come in, I started getting really overwhelmed and I was like, "This is not fun anymore." Yep. Did you stop the business? I took a pause. I had to take a different direction that makes it not stressful for me so that it can still be fun, but I can still provide services for people. I'm a great tax guy. Okay. Apparently, there are some tax implications that could benefit you. Wait, [laughter] if the business isn't making that much money, but you're not. No, but but that's that's good information though. [laughter] Hey, hook me up. Yeah. Yeah. Because sometimes cuz you put a lot of money into the business and your flowers are a very expensive hobby. [laughter] So, all your losses can be claimed. Yeah. The tax. I will I will hit you up after this. [laughter] Yeah. You you know you know that thing with the flowers, right, is is typical with a lot of folks, right? Yeah. Being great at flower arrangements requires a certain skill set. Mhm. Running a business requires a certain skill set. Sometimes the two there's no intersection, [laughter] right? Bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is is is one of the easier things about running a business. I know. Right. Getting generating a market, getting, you know, getting people to buy your product, right? Uh supply chains. Yeah. Right. Uh uh uh uh uh fulfilling the orders after they buy it. It's a lot and it requires expertise. Right. In fact, my own prayer. Now, there's a verse of scripture for any businessman listening where the Bible says my wife sent it to me. I have to go
(12:45)Teach my hands to profit
and get all the details. But this is my prayer point going forward. Teach my hands to profit. Because what God says it I'm the one that teaches your hands to profit because it is not intuitive for some people. I'm the kind of person that I want to give everything away. Same. I I I I live for the joy on your face. Yeah. Right. And to give you the best product sometimes does not make any economical sense. Yeah, right. I spend the amount of money I spend making the product, right, makes it I can't sell it, but it's important to me that you have such a fantastic experience with it. Yeah, that's beautiful, man. But that's not a businessman. A businessman says, "At a certain point, the level of improvement I'm putting in this thing is not worth it. So, I'm going to stop here. There's a lot of room to improve it, but I'm just going to stop here because if I keep improving it, the customer doesn't care and I can't sell it to make profit at a certain point. Me, I don't care. I just like the thing to be nice and for people to enjoy it. So, I'm not sitting down here thinking that, oh, because I can make jolof rice, I need to go open a restaurant called Jolof Tough or whatever, right? F man, you know you're doing that. Yeah, I really just raining raining on all the ideas I had because I was I thought I was good at something but it's not my Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, but honestly cuz there's something else that you said. It wasn't jalof but I I've been told I'm really good at it. Actually, I'm just going to say it indomi. Indomi. Okay. Okay. Okay. You make you make your I know it sounds so simple cuz it's like indomi but apparently I make it banging. And I was telling him I said, you know, let me do an interview and then do have different and then you find out right quick it's not so simple, right? You you find out really quick and and that's where people need to be careful, right? That you actually take the time to sit with God, right, and sit with people who know you, who love you, who are wise and help you find your purpose in life, right? Because many people spend all their time chasing wild goose and they don't catch them. Yeah. Right. I remember one time when you know all my friends passing through would they play golf and I had to follow them and I had to take them to the golf course and I'll take them to the golf course and I got tired of waiting for them or picking them up. Okay, let me just start playing golf you know bought some nice clubs took a couple of classes. seriously hit the ball, you know, and like, "Oh, wow. Oh, wow. To me, you look at that drive. What did I just drive? Oh, wow. Oh, oh, wow." And then, you know, like, you know, [laughter] and then, you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm now, you know, oh, I can't use these clubs. I need I need these other clubs. You know, I need to And then you start to think that, you know what, maybe no. stick with your day job, right? Not everybody is called to be a businessman. Not everybody. Some people just don't have the mental capacity for it. And I don't say that in a negative way. But what about destiny helpers? Like you know those people that can come and help you in those destiny helpers are supposed to help you fulfill your destiny, not someone else's destiny. [laughter] I mean, that's a good point, right? So somebody destiny helper, that's not a [laughter] destiny helper. That's a destiny mistra. That's a destiny in Indra. Seriously, [laughter] because remember remember that Jesus Jesus Christ told the parable of the guys that had the talents, right? Five, two, and one. One. Yeah. Right. Destiny helper is not supposed to go and convince the two guy that you should have five and have him chasing five. One of the worst sermons I've ever heard in my life. Worst sermons in my life. And I've heard a few. I've preached a few myself. But never, no, no, no. you if you haven't been preaching this long and you preach some when you think about you'll be shy. I've known you before New Covenant House. You you've never preached one B. Thank you. I have. Yes. [laughter] Yes. Yes. You've never preached one bad never never never never. My producers just [laughter] just signal to me I have never won one bad sermon. Exactly. Ever. Is that is that okay? That's perfect. Continue. Okay. [laughter] Awesome. Continue. Who are we afraid of? You're good. Okay. [laughter] Oh my goodness. What someone ever had in my life? Some guy comes and says, "God will not make you a number two." H And he uses Aaron as an example. And this guy vilified Aaron for being number two. Right? What he did that day was create in some people a dissatisfaction in God's calling for their lives. Wow. That will never be cured unless God intervenes because he used the scripture to say that you have to be number one based on positioning. Yes. Always. Otherwise, you are out of line with God's will. It's not possible. It's not possible that how many companies are in the Fortune 500 100 500 [laughter] I was I was going to mess that up 500 right so if you say that you have to be one of the Fortune 500 CEOs right that means that you have to be one in 500 in a world of how many billions of people right I'm not saying it's not impossible right but I'm saying that we need to be careful how we frame these things right ambition can become toxic right because people are trying to be what they are not and don't have the capacity to be right the Bible says do not compare yourself with yourselves and the reason why we don't compare ourselves with ourselves because everybody's path is Right. So, back to the question. I know I have strayed. It's a long stray. Passion does not equal purpose. Okay. Can we do a segment sponsored by B revenue? Yes. I'm going to call this segment scenario. Scenario. So, imagine the person that is passionate about creating content. Mhm. Right. Mhm. but it doesn't necessarily pay the bills yet. And they're not sure if it's what they are called to do or not. We're not we're talking we're not talking um only only that's a great question or only fans or only only supporters content here. Production is telling me that yeah I need to clarify what kind of content we're talking about we're talking about god yeah god-driven content. No god approved content. God approves content. Uhhuh. Mhm. So that individual, but then the individual obviously doesn't pay the bills yet or pay the bills. Content doesn't pay the bills yet, right? It does the Sorry, godly content doesn't pay because I had those other content they pay me. Yeah. You know why? Oh my god. [laughter] Wait, but those who Yeah, just getting Yeah, I did. I'm just coming. [laughter] Okay. Okay. Um Okay. Uh yeah. Um [laughter] So this individual now like is trying to figure out what their purpose or their passion is. Right. In that situation they lose their job. Right. Right. And they know that content creating is not paying the bills. Might be their passion. Right. Might be their purpose. They don't know that yet. How do they I guess approach that situation? Okay. So I think you have to separate paying your bills and purpose. Okay. Right. Because purpose does not always equals to money, but bills always demand money. Said it. Yeah. Yeah. Your purpose does not always equal money, but your bills will always demand money. Okay. So, sometimes you need something to pay bills while you pursue purpose. And if you're really blessed, there's an alignment of the two. But sometimes it doesn't happen for a minute and sometimes it never happens. Right? I think first of all if you're passionate about something right and you can monetize that thing absolutely pursue that right but the truth of it is that it takes time right for something to go from an idea into your bank account right in that period while you are pursuing your dreams and you're pursuing the content and you are pursuing your passion you got to pay your bills Find a job. Right. Right. Whatever job, whatever job you can do, right? That does not trash your mental health, right? Trash your body, right, and can pay your bills. Do it. Would that take you away from refining your passion for it to become you saying like address the urgent things first or you're going to have to decide, right? bring your cost of living down to the barest minimum so that you have more time to hone your content creation skills, right? Or you know, find a balance. That's the word. Finding a balance, right? Enough time to do what you need to do to build what you're trying to build, but you have to walk and chew gum at the same time. Right? I think that we need to be very careful that the fact that you're good at something does not make you your purpose. Right? So your scenario Mhm. is there anything else this person is good at? Right? So this person is good at content creation. What if this person was good at singing? Great voice. Can carry a note. Never flat. Never flat. Never flat. [laughter] I know. It was like I just I didn't discipline. [laughter] I just had to [clears throat] right. Yeah. Yeah. Why are we saying the person should pursue music as a career? I get it. Yeah. I get it. So you're good at different things does not mean one of those things is your purpose is my point. What is the easiest to monetize? Pursue that. Right. And pursue your purpose. It's practical. Yeah. That's how I look at it. Right. My wife is a is a pharmacist, but she's a pastor's wife and she's a pastor in her own right. She preached recently and it was just I was just amazed and I was so blessed by it. Her purpose is ministry, the gospel pharmacy is what she does to pay the bills and that's how life is sometimes, right? The two I can't imagine the two coming together. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Can we do on that segment? Yes. Okay. This one is untitled. Okay. And it's sponsored by a future person that's watching this. What is what he's telling you right now that hit us up on what is it called again? Sponsors.com. Sponsor at what again? Sponsors at pfunfilter.com. Thank you so much. You listening right now. Yes. You you that looked away. Yeah, that's you. You sponsored by that person, right? Cuz they're enjoying this podcast. Are you talking? No, no, no. The camera. The camera. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Oh. [laughter] Oh. Oh. Okay. I'm like, so how like if that there's an individual sitting here saying, "Okay, like PF on future is great. I I get what you're saying like passion doesn't necessarily mean purpose." Um, how do I find my purpose? Look, there are clues. Clues number. Clue number one, what are you passionate about? Right? Not the only clue. Clue number one, what are you passionate about? Clue number two, what are you good at? What are you good at? Right? What are you passionate about? Number one, what are you good at? Number two, what are you good at? Right. Clue number three, what is God saying to you? Okay. Clue number one, what are you passionate about? Clue number two, what are you good at? What are you good at? And there's a difference in the two obviously, right? You could be good but not passionate about. Okay. And then clue number three, what is God saying to you? What is God saying to you? May I'm done. Clue number four. Okay. Where are you needed? Where you relevant? Where you needed? Where you necessary? Okay. Like to add value to like where can you add value? Yes. Where do you add value? Where to the gospel? To the gospel. It has to be to the gospel. It has to be to the That's God's only mission. Said we were made to worship. Yeah. But how to eat? [laughter] Eat now. Waiting. Oh, okay. Okay. So, by Okay. So, find what you're passionate about. Find what you're good at. What is God telling you? And where can you provide that value to Yes. Okay. Preferably. Preferably in the gospel. In the gospel, right? Yeah. Those are four clues, right? Four, five that I'm giving off the tip of my head. Off the top of my head. Your community, right? Where? What? What are they saying about you? Okay. What are they saying about you? What are they saying about me? Asking them what are you okay? What are they saying about you? Right. What are they saying? Man, you're really good at you should do this. You do that. So, it's not one thing. Yeah, exactly. Right. It's it's it's a combination of things, right? What are your dreams? What are your hopes? What are your aspirations, right? It's a combination of things. It's not just, oh, what are people saying about you? People are saying you're going to be a pastor. Meanwhile, you cannot you hate people with a passion. You can't pastor if you don't like people. If you don't want people around you, if you don't want people to like you, right? You can't pastor and be indifferent to what people think about you. That's it. If you if you are one of say I don't care what anybody thinks, you can't pastor because you don't you won't have the necessary emotional charge. It takes a minute, right? Yeah. To transition to a place where only what God thinks about you matters. If you start off not caring what anybody thinks, it's hard to deal with people. It's really, really hard to deal with people if you don't care what they think. Has that been, I guess, struggle for you in your pastorship journey? Like not care what people think. Now I care less about what people think than I used to. Yeah, I was going to say, wouldn't you not want to not care what people think? Because people are rude and they will be have so much judgmental. So I'll be like, okay, I don't care what you think. I only care about. So I was like, wait for when you don't care what people think, right? [clears throat] You can become very indifferent and apathetic to people and their needs, right? M if part of pastoring requires me to go out of my way, right, to help people, right, go over and beyond to assist people, right? Even beyond what an average Christian would think is required, right? If I don't care about people, I won't. If I don't care about you, shoot, if you call me at 9:00, man, you'll be all right. Pastor sometimes required me to pick up the phone at 11. Some would argue with me about that, but that's what I believe. This is my personal opinion. PF and filtered. Go and start your own. [laughter] No. Facts. Fact. Yeah, this is what I believe. I think you have to care what people think to some degree. You cannot be driven by it. Okay. Because if you're driven by what people think, then you become a man pleaser. Right. I where I am now, I am driven by what God thinks. I used to be driven by what people think. Okay. Is that a real call? I know, right? Well, yeah. I don't know. The timing was off, [laughter] right? I used to be, but now, glory to God, I think I would say I'm 80% 90% driven by what God thinks. There's still a 10% where you know I care but it's the weight in my decision making has diminished to the point where it's almost negligible right those things the four five things that I listed are the things you look at right with godly counsel somebody who knows you right and you walk through it and you know God will reveal it to you one of the things that I tell folks though is this. When you consider all of those things and you don't have an answer, be faithful with whatever it is God puts in your hand. Whatever it is, be diligent with it. Right? So, if God puts a wife in your hands, be diligent. Be a diligent husband. Children, be a diligent parent. A job, be diligent. If you're an employee, be diligent with your employment. Be diligent with everything that is in your hands. And as you are diligent with those things, a way will open for you into the thing that God has ordained for you. Bible says if you see a man diligent in his ways, he will not stand before me and men, but he will stand before kings. Right? If you see somebody who is faithful with another person's then he will receive his own. There is a that is an element that I think is missing sometimes when we talk about purpose, right? how we behave before we find our purpose, before we can label this thing our purpose and not your occupation is not necessarily your purpose. So the fact that you have a job does not absolve you of the need to be faithful or diligent in order to discover your purpose. Right? Your job is not always your purpose. Sometimes it is I'm I'm blessed. My job is my purpose and it pays my bills. Not many people have that. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I got from this? What' you get? PF used to be a man pleaser, but now he's a godpleaser. That's what you got from all that. I mean, not I mean, there's a lot more a lot more. I mean, a lot more is real. I just that just kind of like I I I I mean, yeah, I've I've never pretended to be a perfect person, but I'm conforming to the image of Christ. As I as I behold him, I have been transformed on a daily basis. Okay, I wanted to ask a question. If I ask a question, have you noticed something that PF is doing? Like PF, can I use the word PF makes scripture sound like he gave us three? One was like, go let my hand become my prophet. Hey, that's what I said. Oh said, teach my hands to prophets. You see, I couldn't even do it. Teach my house. Then he now just said something about some brethren and then you become kings. So if you see a man diligent in his ways, he will not stand before mere men. I will stand before king. Come on. The Bible is something else. Yo, woo. Imagine someone telling me that at night. Imagine those like those things that just whisper to you. Morning like this. I'm charged. I'm finding my passion. Okay. Anyway, the question [clears throat] I have [laughter] um is like what about people that have obviously like taking that approach? Mhm. And that resulted in them losing their job. what approach you know like their passion is not their purpose. Mhm. Right. And or maybe they're trying to find their passion. Sorry. And it didn't. If you lose your job, it's a job. Right. Again, if you lose your job, it's easy for me to sit and say it's not the end of the world, but it really isn't the end of the world. It can be devastating, right? It can be problematic on multiple levels. It can induce a lot of fear and anxiety. But we have to put some things in perspective. Your job is a vehicle of provision. Your provision comes from God, right? Remember um the prophet, God fed him through the ravens and the brook, but then the brook dried up and the ravens stopped coming. Elijah or Elisha? I always mix those two up, man. I don't understand why they Elijah. Why can't they have a different name all together? Why [laughter] is it just an S that differentiation Elishah Elijah and they're back to back? Imagine why can't they have why can't one be Elijah and not be Simeon or something? Why do I be Elijah? Anyway, the Ellies the Ellies [laughter] name the No, I think you like it can be very Yeah, one of the right. So the the he's there by the brook drinking nice water bringing meat and then the brook dries up and God says well I prepared a widow for you who will feed you goes to this widow and she says yeah well this is a contract job it's only going to last x amount of time he eats there and when that one was done he moves on that's the thing with the jobs right A job is a means of provision. It's not the source. It's not the source of provision, right? The source is God, right? And when we're talking about passion, right, and purpose, we also need to understand that a job, if you call it a job, right, then it's not really your is not your source. Your career even, right, is still not your source. It is something that you have dedicated your life to to make money. I have a question on the back end. You said purpose, right? So what if the job that God sent you to has something to do with your purpose and then that somehow comes to an end? Then that means what is the pivot? The God the God who sent you there will send you somewhere else. See and and it's hard. It's really hard. I I I understand the emotional toil, right? And the emotional weight that comes with us not knowing exactly what tomorrow brings. But that is offset. The Bible says he will keep him in perfect peace whose eyes are stayed on him. Our peace, right, comes not from the certainty of our paycheck. Our peace comes from God's the certainty of God's provision. says, "I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed beg for bread." Right? That is where our peace comes from. Not that oh, Microsoft is not laying people off. Boy, Microsoft can wake up tomorrow and decide that, you know, for their bottom line, they laying off everybody in this category. They shut down offices. They dismiss teams from the highest levels down to the lowest level. In the blink of an eye, everybody's celebrating on Monday. come to work on Tuesday, you can't access anything. They've locked you out of the system. I have a question up here. So, why don't we like cuz obviously here you say it now. I get it intellectually and we've been around this company before. Why don't we like what's preventing us from actually cuz our food seem to be like maybe it's because the actual cash is we can see the cash. So even if in our minds like we know this is for like example you just said we know our source is God but for whatever reason there is a there's not translating why it's not translating because we don't really believe that our source is God. It's is a hard thing to say but two things can be true. God is either your source or not. He can't be your source and not be your source. Can't worship too much. No you can't. If God is your source, right? Then if you don't, let me tell you something that happened to me when I was in um very early in my Christianity. I moved from working in a secular office to to the church office. I started working in church and they paid me a salary. It wasn't great. It was less than what I was making in secular office. I was I'd come to a point where I believed this was God's calling for my life. Mhm. So I I took the job and and I was doing the job and they were paying me. I didn't even start off as a salary. It started off as a love offering, right? Then it transitioned to a to to a salary and then it became more formalized. While I was there, they hired somebody. Now qualification wise, I was already a pastor. I'd already pastored a fellowship right of um medical students and house officers. Yeah. I had a degree from the university. Mhm. Then they hired somebody who had not pastorred at all who had a degree just like me. An undergrad under what do you call it here? First degree. First degree. That's that's all she had. Like a bachelor's. Bachelor's. Thank you. Okay. And they hired her to be for a role that was lesser than mine. And they paid her more than they paid me. And I found out. I was like, "How do you find out?" I found out those. No, it's not that hard to find out that I was livid. I was like, "What?" I thought it was disrespectful. This person was younger. this person, you know, the only thing that made us pe was that we both had only bachelor's degrees, but I got mine before hers, maybe a couple of years, but whatever. Anyway, so I go to God in my indignation. How dare they? I Lord said to me, those said, "Who sets your salary? Me or them? Choose." I said, I said, "You." He said, "Be quiet." Those were the hard days of my work with God where he was like, "Guy, you're your stop all this nonsense, pity party, neighbor gazing, self-indulges crap. I set your salary. Take it or leave it. If you want them to set your salary, go fight for yourself." And I took it. But can I be honest with you? I'm very happy where I am today. Right? So that is that is the spiritual reality. How does that translate into real life? The just shall live by faith. Are you going to trust God or not? I'm not saying this without understanding how hard it is. Right. Right. Cuz I have my own area where God and I, we are still doing that back and forth, but doesn't change the truth. What irritates me is when we try to change the truth to fit our struggles. No, we rise up to the standard. We don't bring the standard down. You get my point? No, I get it. As you're talking, I'm just trying to think. I realize that the real reason why God's goodness, even though I say I believe it intellectually, it doesn't translate into my day-to-day is because I don't have the faith. I because I I'm tempted. It transl It translates into your dayto-day. You are seeing his goodness. Then why am I in his goodness? But somewhere in your head, you are thinking, well, actually, it's good. I had that degree, you know, and man, glad I aced that interview. Right. The question I want the question I want I'm tempted to ask you is tempted to be honest cuz I feel like I know what you're going to say is how can I practically make that translate like let's all the fluff. How can I celebrate and be grateful every time you see God's hand? this my wife I had my wife talking to one of the kids today and she was talking about how her pharmacy license she put it on hiatus or whatever they call it for a year or a couple of years to come and work in church and she thought she was good and for some reason something I I don't remember the details but she reaches out to the pharmacy board and finds out that her license was expiring the next day and she would have had to do all the requirements again. Internship, extensionship, all those hours, all the exams all over again, 24 hours. That was God, right? It was the Holy Spirit that prompted her because if she had not done that, right, that would have been a problem for us as a family financially, right? Because we are like, "Okay, you've done your bit in church. it's time to go back to to to pharmacy. Right. Those are the kind of things that God does all the time. Right. Right. You get a job. You get a a promotion. You get a commendation. Constantly. He's doing these things to say, "Hey, hey, hey, I'm the one or I'm the one." Well, guess what? We're like, "Oh, yeah. You know, God did this for me." And then we just leave it and we move on. Build a monument, celebrate it, do testimony, give thanksgiving offering, make a force about it, write it in your brain, tattoo it on your body if you have to. I'm telling you, I'm serious. Remind you of the nonsense um we're tattooing on our bodies. You go and tattoo somebody's name and then the person break your heart, then you start finding a way to remove it. [laughter] Uh nonsense. Nonsense. I guess another question if you permit me to ask now is this, right? How can I celebrate the things that God is constantly doing every day when an event like the loss of a job or diagnosed with cancer or so so it's not the day that you lose the job that you start the celebration. You start celebration from when God gave you the job. Right. The day that you lose the job you have something to remember. Right. Right. We we we we do the 6 a.m. prayer meetings in at New Covenant House. We took a break. We're going to start in a couple of weeks. I'm not quite sure the exact date. And when I get on the call, it's a struggle for me sometimes. God, all I want to do is just thank God. Mhm. Right. I spend in fact people say complaining that I'm going on. It's supposed to be a 30-minut call and then I spend 30 minutes or 45 minutes sometimes just thanking God cuz when I start thanking him, I keep it's like I it's like you thank him for one thing, it digs up something else, right? And literally I'm there just thanking him and I'm my own little world thanking God for this and thanking God for that and thanking God for this and thanking God for that. I'm remembering the things he did. I'm remembering how he how I felt when he did it right before and after. And I'm just in this very emotional place of seeing the hand of God in my life. When I come out of that place, the kind of faith I have h any mountain in front of me will move. That's practically honestly I think that was the reason why he you like just got into that because that actually helped me calm down a lot of my overthinkingness, my anxieties. Just thanking God. Yeah. just thanking God cuz like at first I be like, "Oh, thank you God." and just move on. But when you started telling us to really dwell into like all those things and sit in it and I just think about all the stuff that I went through in my 28 years of life, I just be like, "Wow, thank you." Like Yeah. And and you know, we think that God, we don't really we remember the big things. Yeah. I remember I remember little things like one thing that I one little mistake that I made, I was like, man, I can't believe like I would have just Yeah. one. Sometimes there will be days I'm like, man, I could have lowkey like failed college if it wasn't for you. Let [laughter] me tell you, I can tell you stories that I had forgotten until I started thanking God intentionally. Yeah. Right. For the dayto day, the fact there was one Sunday someone was telling that PF, you thank God for Monday, thank God for Tuesday. Come on now, it's enough. I'm like, you don't understand what happened on Monday, what happened on Tuesday and on Wednesday and Thursday. By the time I'm getting to Saturday, man, I'm pumped with faith because what the thanksgiving does is that it is reminding me of God's intervention in my life and God's God's intentional intervention in my life. So that when I face the lions tomorrow, I remember the bear yesterday, but if you forget the bear, the lion show up one more when you piss your pants. Period. Right. And that's just the way it is. This is not when the lie on the sh like god we no you already have a track record in your mind with him. So you're talking about practically spend time right thank you know we spend time asking god for stuff let me just start spend more time thanking him for the stuff he has already done. I wanted to add that we just become so familiar like down to the elementary things of like being able to see like I saw a car accident the other day the other morning and it was a father and son and um it could have been fatal. It actually would have been fatal but I said if if God did not intervene and keep these people and it was Martin Lu it was the Martin Luther King holiday 8 a.m. 8:30 in the morning. Yeah, that was yesterday. And we're so casual about like these small things. We drive on the road day to day, come back, go to the store. We say, "Oh, I'm going to the store real quick. I'll be right back." Until until you see that kind of accident, right? And then you examine the way you you are driving like T- Mark drives [laughter] for you to know that it is God. And it's daily. We get on the road daily. But but that's the thing though. You don't sit down and thank God for that. So when you're now confronted with a situation, you want to say, well, how am I going to remember God? You you have plenty of opportunity to remember God, right? And for me, what that has from a practical perspective, the faith I have now, I spend more time thanking God than I spend asking him for stuff. When stuff when problems come my way now, my attitude is like, it's okay. Once in a while something will happen and I'll be a little shaken but fundamentally I'm not having a meltdown. You know what's funny? It makes so much sense to me though. Tying back to the passion and purpose. It makes so much sense to me because you know now you were saying like how you're passionate about you what you figure out what you're good at and then ask yourself what God is telling you. A heart that is grateful, right? And all they do is spend time thanking him would be able to know what God is telling them because they're no longer talking about what they can get from him. So they can actually listen Yeah. to what he actually has or simply by being grateful. Yeah. Cuz that moment is not about you making requests to him. Being grateful. Being grateful does spending more time in gratitude. It does more for us in our walk with God than we possibly think. Makes sense. We've relegated it to a side note, something you do to get God to do more for you. But just focus on what he has done. Just leave what he has not done. Focus on what he has done. It will it will it will revolutionalize your whole faith and your walk with him. You know, jobs will come and jobs will go as long as you know as [clears throat] long as the earth remains. But what God has ordained for you, nobody can take it from you. I think we should challenge the audience. I think we should tell them, look guys, PF has said that if you are grateful, then this is not just intellectual. You actually practice gratitude, your life will change. If your life does not change by the end of 2026, you can come back on this podcast, but you have to listen every all the episodes. By the way, we can clean your Yeah. How do we know they've listened though? If they comment and they come like when we get Yeah. Okay. Do you know? Let let me say if you if you if you listen to every episode of the podcast Mhm. Right? And leave a comment. Even if it's just a thumbs up, right? And you actively intentionally thank God uh for the things he has done. Not the things he hasn't done, the things he has done. Right? And I'm not just saying, "Oh Lord, thank you for my shoe." Thank him. Think about it and thank him. Right? By the end of 2026, your life will be different. And I say that with confidence. But we want we're going to go and check. We'll check if you come back and meet us that my life has not changed. I will go and check if you have exactly if you've actually been singling out what you're grateful for. Yes, because it actually works. Works. No, I'm telling you my my This is not just vibes. Yeah. I have more peace than I've ever had in my life. Okay. Occasionally there's turbulence, right? But it's occasional. So yeah, I can even I can even imagine PF I can see PF even when the turbulence arise this is scripture where Christ was just snoring and storm was there it's not an absence of the storm but to your point that relationship with the storm changing. Yeah, I I I I I I I see that. I see. This is why I go to SH Rebu this man. Hey. Okay. Sorry. Please don't. Yeah. God God has used PF as a vessel for his kingdom and he always encourages us to do the work as well as ourselves. So, but I still enjoy his teachings. So, we appreciate you PF. We appreciate I really do appreciate you. Yeah. You glad I found your church. Okay. Okay. Bab, you're really honestly you're making me You guys are making me uncomfortable now. So your fashion sense, too. Like you're making me very uncomfortable. Really? And your glasses. You're making me extremely uncomfortable. [laughter] Wrap it up. Wrap it up. All right. Yo. Well, remember to again if you like what you're listening to, like, comment, and share. Like, comment, share, subscribe. Hit us up on socials. If you want to sponsor, you need to hit us up as well. And yeah, be blessed. Um, thank God. Bye. Addio unfiltered. [music]