Gratitude

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk the truth. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you why.

Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. What is the one thing, right, that God has done in your life that you have never? Really, when you think about it properly, thanked him for gratitude is such an amazing thing to think about.

And we are headed from October into November quickly. It will be Thanksgiving, and that idea of gratitude. Stu's new book, right? Thanks, Living, that we're all looking forward to reading. If you haven't read it yet, it's now available.

Thanks, Living.

So, you know, what in your life, if you think about it. You know, it's something to just ponder, right? Because you remember the ten lepers that happened in. the The book of Luke, chapter seventeen. There were ten that were healed, but only one came back to give thanks.

What might that one thing be for you that you've never really properly given thanks for?

Well, we're excited because we are giving thanks for a great event that is coming up in Layton, Utah. The Imperials, right? They have got Gratitude United. It's a gratitude expression. Is coming up Saturday, November fourteenth, so that's kind of around the corner, and we want to make you aware that we've hopefully got Rick Evans and the Imperials coming on with us to talk about that event.

But you know, as you as you think about your own idea of thanks living, you know, I can just tell you, I just got back from vacation with my own family, an amazing opportunity to spend some time with my grandkids, and how grateful I am for them.

So you know, it's pretty cool that God has given the Imperials this amazing career. I don't, I think the hits are countless, and now they have a chance for gratitude. I did again. Coming up to, hey Stu. Apparently you're on the air, Robbie.

There's no there's no greater there's no greater thing than gratitude, but you can't have gratitude without grace. And this concert that we're promoting that's going to be in Utah and coming to an area near you is very powerful. Everyone's heard of the Imperials; they're a legendary group.

So they're back together, and Brother Pat, who's going to call in in just a second, is going to tell you all about it. And Robbie, one of your good friends, just wrote a book about the power of gratitude. Yeah, that's what I just said.

Well, I he's he's you know he's a little he's a little crazy, you know, but he does talk about the Christian car guy in chapter seven. That's true, and how you in your dark moment. On the table, it's pitch black in there. You got stuff going on in your brain. You got doctors with scapulas and stuff ready to tear you apart, and you were grateful in that moment when a nurse, like an angel, held your hand.

Remember that, Robbie? Of course, I do. I was just talking about how grateful I am for the experience I just had with my grandsons, but this particular one you're talking about too. I was actually had an infection in my brain. And what they called a staff infection, and I was waiting for a room because they they'd rushed me in for surgery, and something happened where they couldn't get me into the operating room, and they couldn't give me any more medicine to try to stop the pain, and I was almost unconscious just from the pain.

I wish I almost had been unconscious, but it was just it was just brutal. But all of a sudden. Ramona Seegers came, that nurse you're talking about, and she was in my Sunday school class. And she said, "Robbie, I'm not going to say a word. I'm just going to hold your hand because I know your head hurts." But it was if God had sent her specifically for me.

That's who's talking about. And talking about being grateful, it is definitely one of the most grateful things I can ever remember. And and. You know, obviously, the opportunity to do this show and so many others on the Truth Network is to be around somebody who teaches Thanksgiving so much. Stu, you're still with me.

You turn you turn Thanksgiving, Robbie, into Thanks Living, and I'm not telling you too much, but I was just on one of the largest Christian radio shows in the world. They read the book multiple times. And of all the things they ask me about, like who is this Christian car guy, and what happened to him, and I was able to recap the whole story is in the book, mythanksliving dot com. But this is a night to celebrate gratitude with the Imperials in Salt Lake City in November. Rust East, I think, is just called in.

You got to talk, Russ. We got to hear from you. We got Pat calling in from the Imperials, and they got one of their lead band members. Robbie, this is a gratitude jamboree right here, brother. I'm telling you.

I'm wondering if we might be having a phone issue because they got we got your call. I sent him the number. You sent him the number. I gave him the direct number. We've got no listeners calling in yet either, so maybe that's the issue, too.

Well, here we go. We got a call. This could be it. Finally, this is it, man. This is big time.

Well, bless you, man. Thank you, Stu. Appreciate your call. I got to come in and help. I know.

All right. I'm grateful for you, and I'm grateful for this concert, and I'm grateful for what the Lord has done for us. It's a gratitude experience. Thank you, Stu. It is happening in Layton, Utah, at the Christian Life Center.

Coming up, November 14th.

So, Rusty, you've you've got not only that you've got a dinner with an artist that's coming up afterwards, right?

Well, let me tell you really quick how this all came about. I was going to church with my wife for driving over the mountain here in Utah, and my wife she knows I had a rough day, a rough week, rough month, or whatever it was going on, and she thought I want to play this song for you, honey, and so she played the song by the Imperials called. Be still, and I don't know if you know if you know that one, but maybe many in our listening audience do. It's a beautiful song. It's called "Be Still," and it's all about "Be still, my soul, know that He is God." And I listened to that song, and I just got choked up, and I just was so blessed by it.

I thought to myself, "Is it possible to have the Imperials come to Utah?" You know, we've done a couple concerts with a with a Christian hip hop rap artist, and he's great, Halsey. But I thought, wow, what about the Imperial?

So I I call the number that I see associating with their website, and can you believe that their manager, Pat Melfi, lives in Utah?

So so Pat answers the phone. In fact, he told me then afterwards that when that phone Of his ring, it was a Sunday afternoon. I was waiting for my wife in church, come out, and I, I, his wife said, "You should, you should answer that phone call," and and Pat answered, answered the phone. One thing led to another, and now, praise God by His grace, we are, we are all set at Christian Life Center in Layton, Utah. We have the Imperials, along with Leon Patillo.

Michael Peterson and a local man of God here named Caleb Went, and so Robbie, I couldn't be happier and more excited. And and we're going to have if if if people were to order, either the you know well we have two tickets. You you can do the general admission, and then you can order the the VIP ticket. If you buy the VIP ticket, you go to the concert and you also get to have dinner with the artist. After the concert, so this concert's at 4 p.m.

in the afternoon on Saturday, November 14th.

So, I think I think we should be hearing from Pat or from Rick or both in just a moment or two.

So, are they on the line? No. I wish we. Yeah, I've sent them the numbers, and again, I don't know if we're having phone issues or what. But you know, the good news is, Rusty, that.

You know, Stu has written this book on gratitude, and you guys have this whole idea of surrounded right there by Thanksgiving. And so, you know, they say, "Granted, gratitude united." So, how did that part come about? The gratitude experience.

Well, yeah, it's interesting because we've always well the last couple years we've been having a Thanksgiving centered kind of a banquet. We we have our listeners in Utah get together. We have a dinner. We we share some devotionals amongst local pastors, some of which are on our station here, and basically we just we just try to like remember gratitude towards the Lord for who He is, and then what He's done for us. And so.

You know that's been going on, and then and then Stu writes this book, but the the Imperials, they I think after so many years of ministry, I mean, you know that they're they're going to be at the Cove, I believe in December, you know, with the with the the Graham ministry, and they just didn't want to pass up this theme of gratitude to the Lord because if we forget the Lord, if we don't thank Him, that doesn't do well for giving Him glory. And so we have so much to give Him glory for, and that that yeah, that concept of appreciation to the Lord, Thanksgiving.

So we gotta go to a break, Rick, Russ. We miss it. You might try calling Pat or Rick or to see where we can get them in on the next segment. It'd be great. We got so much more Truth Talk Live coming up.

Truth Talk Live. Welcome back to True Talk Live. Today's question. Is what is the one thing God has done for you in your life that, in a way, maybe you can never really properly thank Him for? But what an opportunity to thank Him again!

What's that story in your life? We would love to hear from you. Eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four. And here to help us out with gratitude, we got our very own station manager in Utah, Russ. As we have this big event coming up, "Gratitude United: The Gratitude Experience." It's the Imperials and Leon Petello and Michael Peterson and Caleb Went all happening at the Christian Life Center in Lehi, Utah.

That must be a huge place there, Rusty.

Well, it holds about a thousand people, and so they've had many concerts there. It's a great. A blessing to have that church in our area here in Utah, and so you know I'm just wondering, Robbie, if there are people listening today that maybe have a memory too, in in that theme of Thanksgiving, maybe they're thankful for. Maybe a particular imperial song. Maybe it was the trumpet of Jesus, or maybe God spoke to them through the song "Praise the Lord." There's a there's so many.

It would take us quite a while to to mention all of them. "I'm forgiven" is an excellent one. There's a funny one called Oh Oh Boot Old Buddha, I think it was. You remember that one? I don't know.

It's this is this is gospel music that was like this. This is classic Christian music back in the '70s and '80s. God's blessed them with some Dove Awards and Grammy Awards. I mean, you just you have so much. Blessing here that God has chosen to to be in our area here in Utah.

I mean, it's just crazy to think that this would happen. They've never been to Utah before, so this is a first.

So let me tell you, the website you can go to order your tickets. You just go to Utah Partnerships for Christ dot Brushfire dot com. That's a mouthful, I know, but just remember Utah Partnerships. With an S at the end, for Christ. Dot Brushfire.

Dot com.

So, I'm really excited for all of our friends in Utah here. I want to encourage you to just even actually, there's it. It's even easier if they can remember the Imperials because if you just go to the Imperials website, the right on their front page there is the link to buy the contact to buy the concert tickets with all the information we're talking about right there. All you got to do is just go to the Imperials website. It's got a big beautiful brochure there, and boom, you can click that, and away you go.

Just easy peasy. Great. Again, the idea of gratitude in Thanksgiving as we get ready to do this again. Stu's new book, "Thanks Living." Have you had a chance to read that yet, Rusty? I have cracked it open, and I gave it to Pat Melfi, who's the manager of the Imperials.

And I was reading it while my wife and I were leading a trip on the footsteps of Paul to Greece.

Well, that's where my wife and I just were, so I'm I'm thankful for that trip. We got to take 39 people, and uh and and just go to the places that Paul went to. He went to places that we went, like Philippi and Thessalonica and Corinth and Berea and Athens, and we we were taking a little ferry boat ride over to a couple islands as our day of kind of rest and relaxation, and um. I was reading that book and I was just blessed by it. I really was, and so I ordered 24 of the books, and I'm going to give those away at the concert.

And I'm hoping that maybe our our our friend Stu Epperson might be able to make it to Utah. That would be great. We'd love to see him out here, and anyone from the Truth Network, if you can make it, Robbie or anybody there. Back east, we would love to have you here, and I just thought, what a great time to have our our Thanksgiving gratitude banquet and tie it in with the the concert. And so it just no, absolutely, it's worked out.

It's worked out. A gratitude experience again coming to Utah, but you know, what's your gratitude experiences? First, you talked about maybe there was an imperial song that was. You know, and I, you know, be still. I love that one, Rusty.

I love that idea. I love that concept. I think it's several people I know's favorite verse, including my wife, right. To be still and know that I am God. It's it's it's absolutely an amazing idea.

What would that be for you? Eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four. Or maybe there's a a gratitude experience that you just want to share. We would love to hear it because as we enter into this particular Thanksgiving, I said it's fascinating to me how God puts things together, isn't it, Rusty? Like you're talking about that you met Pat, and and you had a chance to put this concert together that Stu wrote this.

Book? Do you think he overall he's trying to tell us something? Oh yeah, absolutely. And and and I'll ask for your prayers for I'll ask all of our listeners to pray for this concert because here's the thing about Utah, we've been tilling the ground and planting seeds for about eighteen years now with the Truth Network here in Utah and the mission trips to Utah we do and all and all the good church plants that have been planted here and all. But the people that are born again here in Utah, unless they came to Utah from, like, say, California or Nevada or were transplants in, it's it's safe to say that you know the Christians and they were just born born and raised in Utah in the nineteen seventies and eighties.

The number is. Fairly small compared to, like, say, North Carolina, and so, so we want to, in a sense, kind of gently educate people that might be in their fifties and sixties, and say, you might really, if you if you like the Gaithers. You know, like the Gathers Vocal Band, you know, or the Cathedral.

Some of the some of the groups that goes back. You know, you can start mentioning some of them that go back a ways. But sometimes you can you can find those those programs on TV and they and of course the Gathers do concerts all over. But this is the kind of style music they have. And boy, it's just.

It's just encouraging. God uses so many different genres of music, but this is just one that I think can really minister to us, and especially, you know, it's it's always there's a we're at a time when politically speaking or global events, it's always rough. It's always you know can shake us, but when we have like a Just a big old celebration, pep rally, praise to the Lord and worship, in stories and music and just God's faithfulness. I mean, you're gonna walk away. You know, thanking the Lord for your local church all the more.

You know, you walk into your church whenever it's open, and you and you you hear the word of God, and and we're going to share the gospel at this concert, Robbie. We're going to so bring your unsaved friends. You know that love music, and and just maybe they're on the fence and they just want to hear the simplicity of Jesus. You know, and the beauty of who Jesus is. We're going to share the gospel, and I can't wait.

I just got some printed off cards, kind of like when Greg Laurie came here to Utah not too long ago, and and I was blessed to be one of those guys that talk to people that make a, you know, they share their their belief in Christ, they they they choose to believe in the Lord as as their Savior, and wanted to be their Savior, and I got to talk to them and give them a Bible. We're we're doing that same kind of thing at the end of the of the concert, so. This is very intentional, and we we appreciate your prayers greatly. Yeah, I love that. We're just so grateful.

There are, you know, this opportunity for the VIP tickets again. I imagine they've got better seats as well as the dinner, but there's only 75 of those available.

So you want to. Be sure and go to is is either Rusty's website UtahPartnershipForChrist.Brushfire.Com or go to the Imperials website and get them, but the seventy-five tickets because these people not only obviously they got a better seat. I'm I'm guessing Rusty.

Well, for the dinner, yeah, for the dinner, it's just a small gathering, kind of a small group. Seventy-five is not my dinner. Small group. Yeah, for the dinner, and that's right after the concert.

So the concert starts at four p.m.

So if anybody's nervous about the dark skies and the and the snow that might be here, hey, we're gonna get us out about six o'clock or so, and then the dinner is just down the street at the Davis Convention Center.

So if you buy that VIP ticket. That'll that'll just cover your your dinner and that dinner is going to um going to be at the at the Davis Convention Center, which is just about ten minutes from Christian Life Center, um, yeah.

So, well, my understanding, right? You're going to have the concert, and then these seventy five people that have the VIP experience, right? They get they're also going to join at the concert at the Yeah, that gives them a concert ticket. They get to sit down on the floor, you know, just a little closer up, you know, and and make make some eye contact with the with the guys and stuff. And so that'll be fun.

And and then afterwards, they'll be able to you know get a picture with artists at the at the dinner, and.

So it's it's going to be great, and then for people that want to, those tickets, by the way, yeah, just seventy five. But we're going to be right back with a whole lot more. We would love your gratitude story eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four eight six six three four. Truth, we'll be right back with a whole lot more on gratitude. Truth talk live.

Welcome back to True Talk Live. How exciting! We do have the Imperials with us. We have both Pat Melfi with the Imperials and Rick Evans to talk about. Hi, how are you?

Hey, everybody. This is the very late Rick Evans with the Imperials. It's so good to have you, Rick. Thank you, sir. And so, I take it Pat lives in in Utah.

Do you live in Utah as well? I do not. I live in Florida, which is we've been fighting all kinds of weather.

So, I want to apologize for my tardiness and thank you for being able to get us on. We're so excited to chat with you guys today. And I know our listeners are so excited to hear from you and your story of gratitude. And so, I love the theme of this event. You know, can you kind of set it out for us?

Boy, I can.

So you know, you have a you have a group like the Imperials. We started in 1962, and at that time, it was a Southern Gospel quartet. Jake Hess started it with a guy named Cheryl Nelson, Armin Morales, Gary McSpadden, and that group was kind of the super group of Christian music. There was no such thing as Christian contemporary music, and so the Imperials went through a few changes. And all through the years, they finally came up to the mid '60s, late '60s.

They wound up backing up Elvis for several years. They came out of Vegas with this whole strange new Christian vibe in music, which was Christian contemporary music, and there was no genre like that.

So you had groups like Love Song, you had the Imperials, you had. Calvary Chapel, Chuck Smith, Greg Laurie, all those guys—they were vibing into this Jesus movement thing, and we were part of that.

So we developed that Christian contemporary sound, kind of the one of the godfathers of it. There's so many. I mean, there were so many that were involved. None of us were connected. We just all kind of did it at the same time.

Anyway, from there, it became. Kind of a legendary group. This was long before I was in it. Guy named Rusty Taff came along, and that changed Christian music, Christian music like crazy. And then Paul Smith and Ron Henby, and and anyway, this whole thing wound up about ten years ago.

We decided to pull off the road. Our our two of our one of our founding members and one of our members that had been in the group for 38 years were going through some difficult health issues and and both eventually passed away. Armin Morales and David Will. And we decided as a group, me and Paul Smith, that we just wanted to kind of sit back and rest.

Well, about a year or two ago, Paul wrote a song called "Blessed." And he sent it to me, and we just really felt like we needed to record that song. We did. God used it in an unbelievable way. We we we booked a few events, and and there was a lot of interest in the group. Still, we connected with Pat, who is strangely beautiful, and he began to develop this gratitude tour.

And I have to tell you, the Imperials. All through the years, all the Grammys, all the number one songs, all the Dove Awards, we we never really were looking for awards. We we always were just kind of in the moment. Ministry was always very very key to us, and so looking over our career, it's like we are we are grateful for a thousand things. One that we have an opportunity possibly to still be relevant.

You know that we have singers that can still, you know, sing and and and can can bring the gospel. That we we're connected with some ministries that are you know worldwide and and known around the world and and through all that we just we feel like this next thing we're going to do is going to be. You know, I hate to say, man, I don't know. Maybe our best, but it's going to be our legacy. We're gonna we're gonna build the thing to last now, beyond our lives.

We want to build something that goes beyond us. We've been talking with Russ, and Russ has expressed interest to be a part of this. We have Leon Patillo part of this, country music star Michael Peterson going to be part of this, and we're putting together these events. Going to do fifty cities, and boy, that sounds like a big promotional thing. But that's kind of it in a nutshell.

Our our gratefulness is that you know God's grace covers us, that we're going to heaven, that He loves us even though He knows us, and we want to help the new artists coming up understand that grace, their position in music. And the responsibility to the congregations and the audiences that they get to sing, so we're feeling very fortunate to be able to do this, and we're so excited to be partnered with Pat and his team. They they are literally amazing. Yeah. Anyway, was that was that too much?

That's absolutely beautiful. Exactly what I'm sure we're all. But I'm very interested now, Pat, in your your take on that. You know, this began as a conversation with Michael and and Rick, and we were talking about how would it be if the Lord wanted us to go out and share a little bit more about being thankful and grateful in our lives, and try to shift humanity a little bit. And get them thinking, get them on the track of thinking about being thankful for what they have and what we've all been given, no matter what that is in life.

And that's how it all started, you know. And then we started. I got with some attorneys to talk about names and things of that sort. That's how we came up with the name Gratitude United, and that's going to be our tour that we want to launch for next year. And this is sort of a test in late Utah to, you know, start it up and make it move.

And we thought, you know, if we could sell out in Utah, we could probably do that all over the country, as you know. As you know, Utah has its own culture and. We felt that that would be a great place for us to start. We got a lucky break with running into Russ and seeing what he could do and what he's been doing. He's Kind of like a chicken with a head cut off, man.

He's all over the place, doing whatever. It's amazing. I get all these texts from him about these churches that he stopped off, stopped off at, and different places like that.

So I'm pretty excited about it, you know.

So it's very exciting to put these three artists together. I've managed them at one time or another, with the Imperials being my most recent addition to our. Our little stable of folks here, but Leon and I go back a long ways, all the way back to Santana, and Michael and I been doing stuff for, you know, going on three years now.

So we're excited about it. Glad to be a part of Utah, and I live in Utah, so. Don't tell anybody that it just happened by accident. I met this beautiful woman there, you know, and I decided to marry her after she decided to let me do that. Took her about ten years to say yes, but we are here, and at some point in time, we'll probably be be moving on to California, which is where I came from to begin with.

So that's where we are. That's what we're doing. That's beautiful. You know, there's a certain, you know, the presence of God is what happens when you worship, but also, certainly, when you have gratitude and when you're, you know, experiencing both things at the same time. It's it's more than amazing.

And so, Rusty, of your take on this now that we've had a chance to share with Rick and Pat.

Well, I'm just grateful myself. I'll use that word.

So many, so many reasons to use the word grateful.

So I've, I've really learned a lot from Pat, from Pat and Rick, and continuing to learn. You know, maybe the Lord has, you know. Just some more, more, more than we can imagine. You know, with this concert, I'm thinking that that this is like like it's already been said. This is the beginning of this tour that's going around America, and it's it's it's going to just be amazing.

And so there's a lot of there's a lot of challenges. I think there's some there's some obstacles out there, but but we're just going to trust the Lord. And so if you haven't bought your tickets yet. It would mean so much to me and the Imperials just to let us know that you're you're out there and you know it. It would just be awesome to hear from you.

You can you can send me a. In fact, we're gonna give away some free tickets. If if people wanted to send me a text, I'll give you my cell phone number. It's eight zero one six four five seven four three three. I'm giving away a hundred free tickets.

Because we have some sponsors, we have some sponsors like the Albano Clinic, we have the Cornerstone Financial, we have Ogden Valley Community Church, we have Monarch Precious Metals, we have the Cornerstone Boys Ranch, which is not part of Cornerstone Financial Services, but. But all these guys have come along early on, and so yeah, send me a text and just just write down the words in the Imperials. Give that number, guys. People need the number so they get their tickets. Go ahead, give it out.

Yeah, yeah. My my number is eight zero one six four five seventy four thirty three, and I'm going to give away some tickets. While supplies last, so we have those available for you. We we don't want finances to be a an obstacle. We we look forward to hearing from you and fly out from wherever you are.

Come to this. This is a like a monumental moment here in Christian music and ministry, and so come join us. We'd love to have you. Yeah, and by the way, if you go to the Imperials website, which is absolutely Beautiful, there they have the song "Blessed" that that Rick was talking about, and it's it's as a video that you can watch them perform it. And I can't imagine what it's going to be like for you to actually be there in Utah for this event coming up.

So, Rick, you know what was it like after that rest to come back and feel God's presence in your group again?

Well, yeah, scary.

So you know you you you when you finally step back and you take a time to reflect and you kind of see everything you and you get a sense of the legacy to try to come back. There's a comparison that happens, and and the one thing that Paul and I and Ron Hinby is with the group and and Rod Fletcher and these are all very iconic people. We our biggest concern was that we would not be able to reproduce that signature sound, and and just because of our age. Right. And you know what, Paul Smith and Ron Henby, those guys.

It's not fair. God just decided that they just get to sing until they are no longer on Earth, and it's not fair that they can do what they do. It is un. Believable, they sound exactly the same. They're, they're, they're.

Oh, it's, it's, it's, it's amazing. That song is something. It still is. Yeah, when when Paul Smith sings "Blessed," it it it went through to my bones. And just a little pause there, you know.

Hey, Russ, good to see you, buddy. You do this this guy, this this crazy Russ guy. He decided that he was going to do something for the first time, with the first of the concerts, with the first time this team was ever together, with the first time he'd ever done anything like this. It's like the first, the first, the first, the first, and he said, "Yeah, sure, sign me up." He has knocked it out of the park. He is networking organizations.

We're networking the whole city in Layton. We're networking pastors. We're networking lay people. To leave a handprint in this town that goes beyond us, which is part of our mission. There you go.

I hate to jump in on you, Rick, but we got to. Go to a break, and I want to remind people it's coming November fourteenth to the Christ Life Center again. If you go to the Imperials website, it's pretty easy to find the link right there: UtahPartnershipsForChrist.dot.Brushfire.dot.com, or just go to the Imperials link and get your tickets. Thanks. We'll be right back.