Scott Stankavage- QB Mentor

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Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. We might have to change the name of the show to Coffee Talk because I'm Stu Everson. This is Truth Talk. And I'm sitting next to one of my favorite people. The guy just emailed me last week.

We hadn't gotten together in a long time. He said the Truth Network has changed my life. He's probably our number one listener.

The Truth Talk. And he keeps me straight. He'll say, Hey, Stu, what was that crazy person you put on the radio or this and that. But he's very gracious, commending. He's the author himself called a book called The QB Mentor.

You don't know by now QB means quarterback mentor. We are in a coffee shop. So you might hear some noise, some ambiance.

You might hear some lattes being brewed up there. The subtitle words of wisdom from an NFL veteran for an injured quarterback that can improve your life and career. The man I'm talking about is Scott Stankavage. Scott, what a blessing.

I have never got your name, your last name pronounced properly, as long as I've known you. But God in heaven knows that one day we're going to get this one part of being in heaven one day. We'll have all that stuff.

Right. But, Scott, brother, you should be in heaven right now, because between now and last time we talked, you were a special guest on Truth Talk. You have had quite a journey from bone marrow transplants and battle with cancer.

What's God doing in your life, brother? And what an awesome just privilege to sit down with you. Well, I appreciate that. It's great to be here and great to see you, my friend. And when we get together on the other side, you'll be the power forward.

And I'm a real little point guard, if that's OK with you. I'm just so blessed. You know, we were chatting here earlier, too, when you walked in and you said a verse in the Bible just jumped out at you. It was the Corinthians verse that we talked about. And that happened to me in the bone marrow transplant, which I had three and a half years ago.

And the day I was told that we had to have it, my oncologist was crying. My wife was crying. I would cry later, but I was in the word. And the verse that jumped out at me was John 11 four. Now, Stu, I'm looking in the eye and I ask you, do you know John 11 four?

And I know you don't, because I texted a couple of pastors at that time. John 11 four. John 11 is about Lazarus dying, about Jesus going to say, I'll get there when I get there. And when he got there, Mary was upset. My brother died.

You could have come earlier. John 11 four is where Jesus says this illness will not end in death, but will be for the glory of the Father and the Son. And I got that on the day that I was told I had to have this bone marrow transplant about 50 50, you know, live or die and a lot of suffering.

And it was very hard spiritually and physically. But I'm still here. Every day I wake up, Stu, I look up to the Lord and say, thank you. This is the day the Lord has made. And I rejoice and I'm glad I share that with my family. And then I say, OK, Lord, what's the purpose of this day for you?

Because it's all gravy. I'm not supposed to be here, but I've had three different miracle drugs that have saved my life and then the transplant. And so every day is just for his glory, whether it's a conversation with the barista or whether it's my cross necklace out or I see a cross necklace or cross earrings. And I say, I love that. God bless you. When I greet somebody or leave somebody, I say, Happy Holy Week. Right.

Happy Easter. All of those personal ways that we can just stand and represent and witness what the Lord has done in our lives and for us. And I think that's our job. I know that's why I'm still here. Seven children, five grandsons, a beautiful wife.

I mean, that's enough on my plate there. But as I venture out into life, I say, Lord, just let me reflect your glory so that your son would be praised. Well, we're on Fayetteville Road here in Durham, 105.5 FM country. You go a little bit east, you hit 105.7 Raleigh. Great Truth Network affiliates of Truth Talk. We've got 200 some odd radio affiliates nationwide that are brave enough to carry this show and hear from you, Scott, your message about what Christ has done in your life.

I want to go back to those earlier days. But how providential is it that we're sitting in front of a young man, my nephew Watson, who he's a big time football guy. I mean, he used to be 275.

He's dropped down to maybe 248, you know, and he's 6'4", strong as an ox. He's a beast on the basketball court. Loves football. Watson, what's it like to be sitting in front of this guy? What kind of question do you have for him?

I'm going to put you on the spot. Look at that. Just look at that guy right there. There's his pictures of him as a Bronco.

His son played some serious ball in his book, quarterback mentor. Watson, what's it like to hear from a godly man? He's already been speaking into your life. He gave you some pretty tough medicine, didn't you, as a 20-year-old young man, huh?

Absolutely. I feel like just sitting here, I've gained a lot of wisdom and definitely got some good notes. I started journaling. Just, you know, growing in your faith and your walk with God.

And sometimes, you know, you don't have it all figured out and you can't answer every question, but you know that God can and that's just, you just got to keep the faith. This book was driven by your love for your son and seeing him battle and struggling and getting to the right school, getting the right slot, getting the right time, dealing with major injuries that could have ended his whole career. So you see a young man like Watson, what's your word to him, Scott?

What's your challenge? What burns in your heart toward this next generation that you're pouring into? Yeah, for the next generation, they're in a world, Stu, that we weren't in.

And it's more difficult, I would say, by a lot. And I think that we as elder sages in our experience should be forthcoming and looking for opportunities to speak in the young generation and provide truth in love rather than confusion or delusion. Live a life seeking the truth and the ultimate truth is Jesus and the way, the truth and the life. So the other thing is, you know, your mess becomes your message, that every event that happens in the providence of the Lord, he knew it, he's with you. Any hospital room you open or doctor's office, he's opened the door, Jesus is already there. Any emergency room or any situation you find yourself in, you know, from prison to being a hostage, the Lord is there and sometimes it is blind faith. But he will use everything that happens in your life for his purpose and his good, his glory. That's Romans 8, 28.

We know and we know that that verse begins with and we know that all things work together for the good of those in Christ Jesus. So that's something that you have to adopt and you have to believe and you have to lean on, especially when you walk through the shadow of death and the darkness of the desert and we all got to walk there as part of life. In fact, if you don't have a limp or you don't have some scars, you don't have some wounds, or you don't have some stories about what happened to you, then you haven't been living, man. Because if you live, you will be in the battle, you will be on the front lines, you will be in the game and things happen to you.

So it's not about what happened to you, it's about how you react and how you respond and bring the Lord with you because he's there every minute. That's the voice of Scott Stankavage, man of God, author of The QB Mentor. The word mentor is capitalized big, big, big M on the front of your book and people think, oh, this is a football book.

Oh, this is about the X's and O's. But I read this book and I was like, whoa, hold on a second. This is like mentoring, like what, you know, you look at a young man like Watson, who's he mentoring? And you're trying to pour into him and your mentor just walked out of here, the author of the book, The Heart of the Warrior. This amazing ministry with men he's had, the legacy, men all over the country have been transformed and encouraged by Michael Thompson. His new book, King Me, is coming out soon. Scott, what's it like to see him? And he hit you with some straight medicine.

Watson, you're getting ganged up on all these golly men, man. What's it like going through your mind? Give us a closing word, Scott, on mentoring. What's going on? What's it like going through your mind?

What about Michael? His mentor just talked to you. You get both the Paul and the Timothy here. Very eye opening. Definitely some things to reflect on later and just think about and pray about.

So I'm very grateful for this. What's your challenge getting out here about the power of mentoring? I mean, he's got a little brother. You know, he's got he's got a lot of impact, a lot of influence.

All the young men listening. It's not about them. One of the things about life is we're not meant to do it alone.

God in the triune, God and the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit is in relationship and been in relationship before he created anything. And so it's a fallacy to think I can do this on my own. I can tough it out. I'll take it all. I'm going to keep it in secret.

No, no, no, no, no. You have to do it in Christian fellowship. Men on men. Iron sharpening iron. The word sharpens us and each other. We hold each other accountable and God will discipline us. But in Christ Jesus, we're not condemned. He'll discipline his sons and your father discipline you.

And you have to set. He sets the example for the family. You set the example for your younger brother. And we set the example, Stu, for those the generation behind us. And that's the way God works through generations. And that's that's the message right there is that we're not meant to do it alone. So don't try if you find yourself alone. The devil attacks there.

He only has a couple of plays that he runs them well. And one of them is isolation. That's the first thing he tries to do is separate you from God, separates you from godly men, mentors, friends and colleagues.

So don't let that happen. Find fellowship in the word. Scott, you've been a quarterback playing on the big stage in the NFL, playing college, University of North Carolina, a legend on the gridiron. You've been just a great author, mentor, father, grandfather.

Now, cancer battler, survivor, all kinds of things. As we wrap out of here, what what is it you want to be remembered by? What do you feel like your legacy is in terms of how would you articulate that to all the rest of us that have been sitting here admiring you and being encouraged by you? I've thought about that, Stu, because I laid on what for some would be a deathbed and the darkness was right there. And I had to ask myself, do I really believe this blood of the lamb stuff and the light of Christ? And I realized I do with my whole soul, with all my life. So that had a very big, very big impact on me.

And, you know, life is precious and we're not really in charge of the things that happened to us, but we are in charge of the way we react. And if we can stay in the word and stay in Christ, that that solidifies and and makes you strong in anything that happens since that faith, if we can share it and pass it on. And for my legacy, I just want to be known as a strong Christian, godly man who cared about the word and who shared the truth in love and with compassion. That would be that would be all I could ever ask out of my life and and go to God and say, Lord, I hope you will say well done, good and faithful servant.

Amen. Before I get out here, I can't help but resist ask this last question, because I've got emails from you giving me the whole overnight lineup. You are an avid listener to Christian talk radio, the Truth Network or wherever you can get a Christian station. You listen to Truth Network, Utah. You listen to stations. You just named a host I'd never even heard of.

And I'm thinking, how does he? But tell us about the impact that's had on your life. Christian radio, just for others out listener, inspiring some of them and encouraging them. Well, you're always listening to something and you always had the last word in your own head. So I like to or I've learned that filling my head with good music, right? With good reading material, including the word and then listening to people teach the word, preach the word in exegesis line by line and connect the Old Testament and New Testament. And it's all one big connected story.

God's redemptive narrative. And so when I go to sleep, you know, there might be some TV on in the background. My wife might have, you know, the wife, Beverly out, you know, the housewives are somewhere. I don't want to listen to that. And so I put in the Truth Network in my earbuds and they don't turn off. And so that washes over me all night. And in the morning I have my favorite programs. And so Truth Network and the depth of the word, I have probably over 50 notebooks of notes. When I wake up, I take notes on every sermon that I hear and I just and I enjoy rereading them. And so I can't get enough of the word and the Truth Network on 24 seven from MacArthur to Alistair Begg to the local guys. Daniel Jeremiah. I love them. Lon Solomon. I just go on. We just got him. You're John Fonville, your brother in law.

I listen to all of them and I love it. And I appreciate you. And it's real privilege to have friendship with you, knowing that you're running that.

And you're right. If I have any ideas, I always text or email. Watch out who you ask for advice from, because he's listening. So he's got also got that that, you know, that doctrine radar up, making sure we're keeping the truth on there and not not drifting, because there's a lot of bad stuff.

We're trying to avoid putting on. Yes. And that's a tremendous comment. And once you are in the word of the Reformed faith, you can recognize that which is not in line with that and the doctrine, you know, whether MacArthur's teaching it or RC Sproul or Al Mohler or Sinclair Ferguson or any of the guys, Daniel, any of the guys we name, their doctrine is tight and it's in the word and it's in scripture. And it's not what they think is what the word says. And once you get a strictness to that and a firm foundation in that, you recognize the prosperity gospel or you recognize, you know, the liberal theology that wants to say, you know, marriage outside of, you know, the biblical description is OK or gender disorientation is OK. And we the religion of tolerance, we that know we're the religion of the word and of Christ the Savior. So I love the Truth Network for its commitment and discipline to the strict Reformed doctrine that is true to the word.

And that's that's one of the great things about Truth Network. Praise the Lord. Well, we're grateful for those words and we're grateful for listeners like you. And it's always a blessing to bring you. I brought you my brother in law's book, John Fama's book, Hope and Holiness, a great biblical exegesis and real exposition on how the gospel enables and empowers sexual purity.

He just wrote this forward by Michael Horton. So I hope that's a blessing to you. And of course, I'm going to do something special here. My nephew Watson's here, who really is a great football player, and he took a little bit of a time out from football. But we've got to be careful.

This could be dangerous because I want to ask you if you would. This is an extra book I got, The QB Mentor by Scott Stankavage with Robert Irvin. Words of wisdom from an NFL veteran for an injured quarterback that can improve your life and career. This is like you're like the the football whisperer. So we're going to let you whisper a signature on this page to Watson.

Will you customize that? Watson, are you excited about getting this new book to your library? Oh, I'm so excited. Remember, leaders are readers. So you've got some reading to do now. You didn't know we'd be having coffee and doing a live national radio show with a legendary ACC and NFL veteran quarterback. How about that? Oh, it's shocking.

I'm thrilled. You would be either tackling or blocking him, depending on which side of the line they have you line up, right? Which one would you be tackling?

Oh, NFL quarterback's first nightmare. Watson McBride. Hey, God bless you, Scott. Thanks for doing that, man. What do you write on the inscription? What do you write? May the QB mentor inspire, encourage your life, and may you lead a life that pleases God.

Praise the Lord. Awesome. I'll let you finish signing that with your new Truth Network pin. We brought him a little one of our cool pins.

And Watson, now you've got your work cut out for you. And then you can share that with other people that you're mentoring. OK, God bless you. This is Truth Talk. Hey, meet Scott online.

We'll post a picture, information about the book. Be encouraged. Be blessed. And look into the ministry. What's the name of Michael's ministry? I know he's got Zoe. Z-O-W, right?

Z-O-W-E-H is a ministry that I've supported with Michael Thompson. And he's written several books. The new one out is King Me. It's been out for two weeks. I think they've sold almost 10,000 copies. And it's going to be a best seller. And we pray that the Lord ordains it and anoints it. And it really blesses men's lives in small groups, in church groups, and in individuals. And Michael Thompson would say the same thing you said. He'd say, get other men around you.

Women, get other women around you. Get in community, get in. Here's a fancy word we don't use much anymore. Discipleship.

Whatever happened to that? Who's discipling you? Who are you discipling? Who are your mentors?

Who are your brothers in the trenches with you? Right, Scott? Yeah, absolutely. Don't do this alone. And don't be afraid to speak in a man's life. And hold them accountable.

And be transparent. Allow him to hold you accountable to the Word. And to encourage each other. We're not to judge and condemn. But we are to encourage and call out and call up and woo men to their glory, which is in Christ. Rather than condemn and judge and tell them all the things they did wrong, tell them who they are in Christ. And tell them what Christ did for us on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. And in that, call them up and into their glory and out of their addictions and out of the ruts in the road. That's our job as godly men, especially as we get older and doing that, calling up the next generation. This is the Truth Network.