This is the Truth Network. I've been all over the world doing interviews, but I've never done an interview from Tipsy Taco in Greenville, South Carolina. But I'm with a guy named Matt Weathers, who is part of admissions, but he's also done tons of leadership training. And you gave a stirring chapel message to the student body at Bob Jones University that blessed my socks off. I've already sent it to a bunch of people.
You talk about a Christian manifesto, but also a manifesto against mediocrity. What is it about that? What drives your passion? Uh Matt, Matt Weathers.
Well, thank you for the opportunity to talk here today. On the background of my computer, I have Jonathan Edwards resolution, resolved to live with all my might while I do live. And God has given us one life to live. And told us to live it for his glory, and that is a tall task. But not only does he give us that tall task, he gives us himself to accomplish that because he is with us wherever we go, and he's empowering us and strengthening us to live for his glory.
And we are now facing a culture that is in chaos, and we need to develop young people that have backbones and a culture of wishbones. We need to encourage them and strengthen them. And this manifesto against mediocrity is a call for young Christian and women to step up, to step out, to lead with offense rather than retreat in defense. Because we serve a great God and the kingdom of heaven was never advanced by men and women of caution. We need to be courageous and advance and take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth because it is good news only if it gets there in time.
And there's so much out there on, like, how do I save my marriage? How do I not lose my faith in college? But why aren't we more on the go, on the offensive? I mean, you just said, go into all the world. You know, go, those are the first two letters in the word gospel.
And you're really challenging people not just to survive, but to thrive. In fact, you have a podcast by that name. Absolutely, it's called Steps to Thrive. Jesus Jesus lived a life of perfection, and we can't live a life of perfection. But his perfection for us is awesome, and that gives us a foundation for living in confidence because of our identity in him.
And we need to live life as he told us to live it. And he came to give us life, abundant life. And that's life not lived squelched with our head in the sands, but with our head screwed on straight, and not being unrealistically optimistic, but being realistic. And as Christians, what's real is what is true. And we know the end of the story of eternity.
And that should give us hope for today, not to live with... an idealism that isn't based on truth, but on a reality that is based on God's truth. And that can give us hope each day as Paul encouraged the Romans in Romans 15, 13, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit may we abound in hope. And if there's anything that the world needs today, it's joy and peace. And as believers, we've been equipped with that because we have a God of hope to give us that and to give us the strength and the ability to go reach a world who desperately needs the gospel.
Matt, tell us a little bit about your testimony. Like what lit your fire for all of this? How did you come to know the Lord? You know, you weren't always this big, enthusiastic, charismatic. Chapel speaker and challenge, and you challenged all the student leaders this morning.
By the way, I'm a big Christian college fan. You're at give a shout out for your school and what you do there. Absolutely. I have the privilege to serve at a Christian higher education institution called Bob Jones University. It's in Greenwill, South Carolina.
We invite folks to check us out at bgu.edu and we have lots of options for visits and talking to our professors and meeting our team. But we're a school that is founded on the authority of God's Word, and we don't mess around at all with that. We believe in the inspired, inerrant Word of God, and we infuse a biblical worldview of education in everything that we do in our curriculum inside and outside the classroom. We encourage you to come and check it out. And my story is that I kind of grew up in a home that prioritized the gospel, and I saw my parents' model faithfulness and Christ-likeness and a joy in ministry.
It wasn't a burden to them, although that was hard work. They approached ministry in a spirit of joy, and that was contagious for me. And I saw a lot of my friends and peers make decisions that maybe weren't the best decisions and kind of saw where they ended up. And truly, God's blessings come within God's boundaries. And if we stay within God's word and seek to follow Him, certainly not perfectly, but in a spirit of grace, but also in a spirit of advancement.
that we have an awesome opportunity to serve. And my aunt actually, a little autobiography, my aunt, she graduated from Bobby University in 1954. And then she was a single missionary nurse who rode a boat from New York City to Africa to be a missionary nurse. And that, hearing those stories growing up, lit a fire for me for evangelism, for worldwide missions. I've had the opportunity to spend several years living overseas, teaching and ministering in multiple cross-cultural contexts.
I've had the privilege to serve in over 40 different countries around the world and meet people and see the church at work and active and growing and blessing people and incredibly shaping the cultures in those contexts and shaping the lives as well. And there's still some Christian schools, Christian universities that have not bowed their knee to bail yet. Bob Jones is one of them. And by the way, we're at Tipsy Taco. You and I can never catch each other.
We're both moving trains on separate tracks, but I caught you here in Greenville. Why am I in Greenville?
Well, the new 96.9 FM, great Truth Network affiliate, great station, is here in Greenville, bringing the word of God every day, 96.9, 88.3 Spartanburg. Professor, admissions leader, leadership guru, Matthew Weathers, has agreed to interview me real quick. Whatever this music is, I'm not saying this is Bob Jones soundtrack approved, okay? It's just we're in this restaurant, they're playing it, so it's the background noise. He's about to rustle up and bring us out some yummy tacos we're going to eat for lunch.
Before the food gets here, I had to talk to you about this idea. of thriving in the kingdom. The idea of Of really building up the next generation of kids, not just to survive, not just to eke it out.
Okay, they made it through and they didn't party and they didn't do this and they didn't lose their faith, they didn't use bad language. No, but there's so much more than that. I mean, God, this abundant life, Matt, talk about that and talk about. That's not just changed your life, but you're really a catalyst for that, and everyone listening. should be Thriving and getting above this mediocrity that's out there.
Absolutely. One of my favorite verses is Luke 2:52, and that's the answer to the question: what was Jesus doing when he was the age of high school and college students today? Because that's the only verse we have in scripture that specifically speaks to what Jesus was doing. Because we have the birth account in Luke 2, the temple account when he was 12 in Luke 2, and then his ministry at age around 30 begins. But what was he doing when he was a teenager?
What was Jesus doing? And the answer is Luke 2:52. He was increasing in wisdom and stature and favor with God and favor with man. That word increase has the idea of moving forward in spite of obstacles, to advance, even in face of challenges. And he was a hard worker.
We know that from his vocation and learning with Joseph. But he was increasing in wisdom and making decisions that align with God's word and intellectual development. He was making advancements in his stature, his physical growth and development, making intentional choices to position him physically well to serve. And he was a guy that was in shape, and he had to walk a lot back in that day, even for his earthly ministry. And he was preparing for that.
He was developing in favor with God, he was developing spiritually, spending time in prayer. He was rehearsing, no doubt, the Old Testament truths that were available to him. And he was developing in favor with man.
So he's developing relationships. He had siblings. He had parents. He had friends. And he was growing in those areas.
And we can model that to be Christ-like or to be like Christ. And how is he growing? He was intentionally growing in spite of obstacles in wisdom and stature and favor with God and favor with man. And we can model that behavior as we seek to grow and to lead ourselves and to position ourselves through our daily choices of discipline to be able to serve more effectively. I love how we started the conversation.
He not only is that model for us, but he gives us the power, he sustains us. He who began a good work in us will complete it in us, keeping our eyes on him. Hebrews 12:2. What's the best way to learn more about your thriving podcast, like the website? And also, I want folks to go and watch your chapel message.
They will be shocked by it, and rocked by it, and encouraged by it. This manifesto manifesto against mediocrity. Sure, the chapel message was preached in, I believe, March of 2024 on the campus of Bob Don's University. You can look that up on Sermon Audio and just search for Bob Don's University and the name Matthew Weathers. I would encourage you to listen to that and thank you for taking the time to do that for those that do and for the podcast.
It's fairly new and just getting started and so learning a lot along the way and learning the technology. We'd love to hear feedback. You can find more about that at stepstothothrive.com, where we are empowering them Christians to live with purpose and lead with courage for God's glory.
Okay. True to the blind Yeah.
