Autoshop Ministries Episode 13 - From Manna to Miracles

Well, good afternoon. I'm Bill Broussard. I'm one of the partners of the Auto Hospitality Group. This is another series of Master Tech to Millionaire, and this is the Auto Shop Ministry Series that we have. We have Pastor Devante Tidwell. Let's go. Good afternoon. Let's go. Let's go. It's good to see you, Bill. How are you doing? I'm great. I am great. It's a good Sunday. I hope it's the same for everybody out there that's listening and watching right now. So, man, it's going to be it's going to be a great week, you know, especially when we started off like this. I love it. Yeah, I'm excited. So what do we get today? Listen, so today I want to talk about transitions. I want to talk about being in the middle. And I really felt like when I was praying about today's session that God wanted me to teach people about how to navigate middle seasons, because honestly, life is lived more in the middle than we realize. Right.

Maybe you've heard it before. Maybe you're out there listening or you're watching and you've heard it before. It's like life is lived in the dash, the dash between the year you were born and the year that you pass. And most of your life, if you look at it that way from that image is in the middle. But I think sometimes that we can mismanage seasons if we're not careful. And what I mean by mismanage, we can be in the middle. And there are things that we will miss because on the way to our promise, on the way to the destination, on the way to success, you look back at where you started and you think fondly of the good old days, if you will. But you forget about how the struggles and the issues and everything that came with those good old days that felt not so good at the time. You know, no pain, no gain. Right. So I want to talk from this topic. I want to get right into scripture. It's from Numbers chapter 11. Let's do it.

Um, if you're, if you have your Bible and then you're listening or you're watching, just go ahead and grab it. I want to encourage you all to read along with us. Um, numbers chapter 11. If you don't, it's totally okay. I would encourage you to download the Bible app on your phone. It's completely free. You know, you can continue to get scripture, um, even beyond the podcast. So numbers of chapter 11, verse one, it says this. Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the Lord. And when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. The people therefore cried out to Moses and Moses prayed to the Lord and the fire died out. So the name of that place was called Tibera because the fire of the Lord burned among them. But the rabble who were among them had greedy desires. And also the sons of Israel wept again saying, who will give us meat to eat?

We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt and the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone and there is nothing at all except this manna. Here's what's interesting about that. If you understand what manna is, Bill, manna is what God miraculously provided for Israel. To give you context, Moses, who is a famous Bible figure, was charged by God to lead Israel out of captivity. They were literally in slavery in Egypt. And Moses has this frustration and this assignment from God to lead them out, hundreds of thousands of people. Well, he leads them out. And in order to get out, God does all of these things and these signs and these wonders, and he parts the Red Sea, and they walk on dry ground, and he closes the sea behind them on their enemies. It's really movie stuff. It really is cinema stuff. But here's what's interesting. Is once they get to the other side and they get into the wilderness and they

have to trek through the wilderness, it's supposed to take them 40 days to get through this process. It ends up taking them 40 years because of things like this. When they get in the middle, yes, Moses was charged with getting Israel out of Egypt, but they never got the Egypt out of them. They never got the season that was the season from the past out of their heart. So now you put a little bit of time and a little bit of space and a little bit of distance. And God has started to provide manna, which is literally bread from heaven so that they can be sustained on this journey. And they're saying, all we have is this manna. That's like literally saying, all we have are these miracles. All we have now is this miracle. But at least back then we had, you know, a variety of options. Well, the variety of options came with you being treated harshly and treated like you were inferior. But what happens is, it's actually a picture of us in our own heart is if we're

not careful on the way to our promised land, on a way to our destination, on the way to what God has the best that he truly has for us. Because scripture says that we go from glory to glory and from strength to strength. We don't go down. We only go up with Christ. Well, on the way from that glory to glory, in that two, right, the glory to glory, we get stuck there and we start reminiscing on the good old days and things that could have went better or the things that we used to have and, so many people mismanage the middle season because they are either focused on, where they started or they're not focused enough or too focused on what's ahead and they can't be fully present in today. God has a lot to say about that. And you see here, it actually really made him angry. It really made him angry. Yeah. Does that make sense? Can you think of times, Bill, where, you know, you can say, man, maybe I've mismanaged some middle seasons. I could have been stronger.

I could have been more focused. I could have, or I was just reminiscing on the good old days that I honestly, when I got more mature, they weren't so good after all. Like I'm actually happy for today. Have you ever had that kind of feeling or moment? Yeah, of course. You know, when we were growing our company you know i started in my um backyard, and um and then i moved to a garage i bought a three family i was working out of that garage and you know, i envisioned something like what we have now i wanted that i just didn't know how to get there and i was frustrated you know i was lacking finances support knowledge and i'm like, you know I was a, you know, a baby Christian at the time. I'm like, when is this success just going to happen? And it's a process. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is a process. But if you're, if you're not careful in that process, you will focus more on the things that will be more damaging to ever making progress in the first place.

And that's the trap because there is an enemy of your soul that does not want you to be successful. That does not want you to thrive. That does not want you to connect with God that would rather you focus on the damaging things. So, for example, let's make this really practical for people. Right. I want to read another scripture in a second, but I want to make this really, really practical for people. This would be like somebody who, has gotten out of debt. Let's say it this way. The family's cutting the cards and they're working the financial plan and, but everybody else is on vacation, but they're eating, you know, hamburger helper or rice and beans, you know, doing stuff like that. But they're saying, man, we used to live nice. Like, man, I remember when we used to live nice and we used to go to the steakhouses and we used to do all of these things. It was like, yeah, you were doing that on 42% in interest though.

It was like, you want to go back to those days and you don't even realize what it was costing you. It was costing you more than what you were experiencing. So maybe there's somebody out there right now that can, you know, resonate with that feeling of looking back and saying, man, I'm making the progress. Like I am working to get debt free. I am being more disciplined, but man, I remember to go to, or, or maybe it's like somebody who's lost a lot of weight, right? Or you lost a lot of weight and you've gotten in shape and you're healthy and you're strong, but you're like, man, I remember, man, remember we used to eat the whole bag of Lay's barbecue chips? Not like a little bit, not the small personal ones that like go in your kids lunchboxes. I'm talking about the big bag. And you remember we used to wash it down with a two liter of Pepsi. And you remember like we used to, you know, have birthday cake and we would

do that for fun. And we were like, well, yeah, that was a great moment and a great feeling. To do it with the people that you were doing it with, but how did you feel afterwards? How did you feel when you started to see the scale climb and climb and climb, or the doctor gave you another- Not good. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. Well, it's funny you mentioned that. We're all on a health kick now. Todd lost 140 pounds. Yeah. I lost like 40. Charlie lost like 30. And it's being infectious to the people that are working for us because we're a leadership in the company. Right. So, but I think back, it's like we were going out to dinner and maybe having you know, dessert and maybe a drink and, you know, and just, we've always had a reason to celebrate and we still do, but like, we don't have to celebrate with cake. Yeah, exactly. Celebrate with steak. Exactly. Lean steak. Lean steak. Exactly. And you're still celebrating and you're

still happy and you're still, we're still happy. We're actually happier. See, man. And now you, now you've said something for people out there. You're actually happier. And I think people needed to hear that, Bill, because sometimes I really feel, that people are afraid of letting go of the past because they knew, at least they knew what it was, right? It may have only been a seven out of 10, but I feel like I would be happy with a seven out of 10 that I know versus the potential of this next season, maybe being a nine, but maybe being a two, right? Maybe being a 10 out of 10, but maybe being a one out of 10. I don't know that. And some people want the certainty of what was, and the certainty of what was is sometimes hindering the possibility of what's next. So look at, look at what Israel is doing. This brings us perfect back full story, full circle to the story. Israel is complaining after they've seen plagues hit Egypt, after they've seen

the Red Sea get parted on their enemies, on their very enemies that are chasing them on horses as their own foot, after all of these things that God had done to show that he is with them. They still are complaining about going back and they don't even realize how good the promised land that they are about to walk into. If they would, they forgot that you, you don't have, you have no context because it's like, well, I would take the five out of 10, but you know, at least it's a five out of 10 that I know. Like I hear maybe that the nine out of 10 is a possibility, but I would rather have the five that I know versus the risk. You know, for example, it's like taking somebody that may be, you know, listening to this that may have a history with addiction or understand recovery. Right. Think about being 90 days sober and, you know, Friday nights feel long and you remember the laughters at a bar or, you know, when you were doing things that

you shouldn't have been doing around people. And you know but you don't remember the the missed custody weekend you don't remember the DUIs you don't remember the the panics at three o'clock in the morning you just remember the you know we used to have fun and that's the hook right, but and it's been said like sin is pleasurable for a season so Moses chose to suffer with the Israelites Israelites opposed to the past and pleasures of sins of Egypt, exactly well here's the thing and he was trying to get them to understand something different bill. He was trying to get them to understand that. Listen, I hear from God on your behalf. Right. And I am trying to get you to a place where you are now better. Right. I don't want you to complain. I don't want you to focus on the now, the discomfort. I don't want you to focus on the discomfort because what I know from God is if you trust the process, I can get you from where we are to where we're going.

And it's far better than you can even think. I'll read another scripture for everybody out there out of Hebrews chapter number one, I'm sorry, chapter number 11, verse one, it says this, now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen. Here's the key in there. Faith is evidence or proof of things not seen. In order to have faith, you have to be able to lean in and commit to and grasp a hold of something that you don't see yet. So even though Israel couldn't see the promised land yet, if they had enough faith, they would have been able to say, yeah, I may not see the promised land from God yet, but I have seen God's hand on my life and I know that I can trust him. And since I can trust him, whatever he has for me has to be good. Whatever he has for me has to be amazing. So you know what's interesting? So faith and fear are the same. You're anticipating something that hasn't happened yet. You are.

You're anticipating something that hasn't happened yet, which is literally the definition of anxiety, right? You're fearful of something that hasn't happened and likely won't even happen, which is another conversation. For another time. But faith is what you place in the God who has the control of the future for real. Fear is you're fearing the future and you're worried about, again, this future being a five out of 10 or this not being as good as I thought, or it being worse than I thought. And you have no control over it. But faith says, I'm putting all of the belief that I have into the one who actually has control over tomorrow. And I know since he sits outside of the context of time, I know since, he's seated on the throne, I know since he has the final say, I know that since God is in control of tomorrow, just the way that he is of today and just the way that he was yesterday, then I can put my faith in him.

Even if I don't see it all, I don't need to see in order to have an experience, with God. I say it like this. Understanding was never a requirement to be obedient. Let me put that, let me make that plain for people out there. God did not ask you to understand every move that he makes in your life. God didn't ask you to understand every move that he asked you to take when he says, hey, you're starting a company, stick with it. Hey, you know, you started with, you know, three bays and you're going to grow and you're going to expand. I want you to partner with this or I want you to go to this class or make this investment or partner with these individuals and learn for two years. God didn't need you to understand. He needed your obedience. He's saying, put your faith in me, trust me, and you don't have to understand every step of the way because I'm the one who has control of every step of the way. So don't look back and complain and say, oh, well, all I have are these miracle manna.

I'd rather go back and get the meat that I had while I was in captivity. That sounds crazy when you put it that way, but we do it all the time, Bill. We do it all the time. We do it all the time. We do it with our relationships. We do it with an ex, you know, you get out of a controlling relationship, you, you know, you're, but one night or one day you're lonely and you're scrolling and you're looking through old photos and you remember the text message thread and, but you forgot all the times that you were wondering when somebody was coming home or when they were going to love or when they were going to support or when you were going to feel cared for, because, you're focused on the deficit and you're not focused on the destination. Does that make sense? It makes absolute sense. Yeah. So Bill, let me ask you a question if I can. Where do you think that people struggle the most, you know, in your experience with business?

Why do they quit in the middle so often? Why do people give up before they ever get to success as somebody who's experienced success? Yeah. So, you know, we, we teach on that. So, you know, we teach wisdom. So wisdom is a knowledge of knowing what to do next. So we teach, we have a perfected business model. We teach other shop owners on what to do. You know, so sometimes pride gets in the way, um, ego. Um so you know we give examples you know we bought in shops where you know the, owner was old in age in the 70s you know they never knew what to do great the sweetest people. And they they went in young and they wanted to fix cars and grow this huge business and you know but then you know how much do you charge a customer how do you advertise how do you hire help. So they never got that help and then they stall out and then actually go backwards and then they plateau out and then you kind of fizzle out over time.

So it's a sad thing to see. So that's why one of the reasons why Auto Shop Answers exists, you know, we, it's a ministry to us. Yeah. Yeah. Two-fold now, now that we have a chaplain on staff. Yeah. But, um, but it's to give back to the industry because, you know, I was a technician, Who wanted a business, but I had no knowledge on what to do next until I met Todd Hayes. Wow. And he groomed me into being a CEO. So I went from a master tech to millionaire, which is why we have this podcast. Wow. Yeah. And congrats on your success. I mean, obviously I know you, but just for the people who are listening and stuff, like congrats on your success because it's a model that works, but it also is a ministry that works. It's a ministry that works not so that people can be successful, just primarily in business, so that you can be successful in life. We want you to thrive. We want you to be successful. We want you to have moments where you can encounter,

Christ, where you can be in a space, not only where you can rub shoulders and connect and learn and get the wisdom that comes with being able to operate a business. But the wisdom that comes with making it from season to season, from like we talked about, the addicts coming out of recovery, the exes that are looking for new relationships, the people who are going from being in debt to financial freedom, the people who are going from all these different stages of life. Because the one thing that I do know is without faith, the Bible says, it is impossible to please God. Impossible. What is unique about the word impossible is it's not used very often. It's not used very often in the Bible. So if that gives you any, anybody that's out there listening or watching, if it gives you any context for how important it is, it's not used very often in the Bible, but the language there is strong because it's supposed to be.

It is impossible to please God without faith. And I'll take it a step further. You will not have faith if you do not get good at seeing the end even in the middle It's like being in the ocean, Once you get out, right? So maybe you go from master tech to millionaire, right? And maybe you are listening and you're not at either one. You're not at master tech yet or you're not a millionaire. You're at the two part. You're at the two. You're in the two. You're in the middle between the two words. Well, you're too far to go back to the shore, but you're not all the way at the destination yet, right? Like, imagine being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and needing to get from one side to the other, right? Well, if you quit in the middle, there's only one option that this ends. The boat sinks, you drown, right? You become a memory. It ends badly. It ends. There's no good ending, right? So if you look at that analogy and even see it the same way,

faith is the fuel that helps you keep going. Faith is the fuel that says, you know what? I have evidence of things that I'm hoping for. I have, I have substance of things that I don't see yet, but I know I hear. We walk, the Bible also says this, that we walk by faith and not by sight. Well, that means you don't need to see it anyway, because in the kingdom of God, our ears are our eyes. I'll say that again. In the kingdom of God, our ears are our eyes. What does that mean? We go off of what God told us. That's right. It says his word is a lamp under our feet. So God didn't give us a headlight. He gave us a lamp under our feet. That's it. And you know what's amazing about a lamp unto your feet? Bible goes on to say in a light unto our path on the end of that verse. A lamp to our feet means that it has to stay close. It's not a streetlight that's further down there that we got to get into. A lamp to our feet means that we're holding it in our hand right by our side every step of the way.

And that's how I want people to see it. When we're talking about faith, we have to keep it close. We have to keep a good grip on it and say, you know what? I'm going to walk with this little by little, step by step. And I'm going to depend on God step by step, not season to season, not just when I'm master tech, not just when I'm millionaire. The two, the middle, the dash between the year you're born and the year you pass. I want every single step. And he wants to depend on us. He wants us to depend on him every single step of the way. And that's where Israel was missing it in Numbers chapter 11. They were like, oh, well, you got us out of there now. Not cool. Thanks, fam. It's like, you know, like, thanks, God. Hey, shouts out to you. Anyway, where's the real food coming? When is the good stuff? When is the, and it's like, wait, you're missing the beauty of the moment of saying in the middle, I get to trust you more in the middle.

I get to walk with you more. In the middle of my transition, I get to walk with you. In the middle of becoming all that you created me to be, I get to learn something about having intimacy with God. And that's beautiful. That's what faith is. It's about the connection being so strong with God that I can trust what he says even when I can't trust my eyes. Yeah. Looking into the future. You know, it's funny. You can watch like the news and really get caught up and like, look at this. Look what's going on. It's like, you know, I always remind myself, me and Todd were talking the other day. I'm like, you know what? I read the book, God Wins, Satan Loses. That's it. That's it. That's it. We know what's on the other side of the shore, right? We know, hey, you know what? I'm not at the end yet. I don't have a tombstone yet, but I do know when I get one, I know where I'll end up because I have the faith to be able to see what's on the other side.

I'm too far out in the water to go back. I definitely don't want to go back to the person I used to be. I don't want to go back to the relationships I used to have that I hated myself in and the version of myself. I definitely don't want to go back to the debt and the financial struggle. I don't want to go back to being the addict or any of the other examples I use today. We don't want to go back to the pig pen. No, not at all. Not at all. So I have to keep my eyes fixed, right? The Bible says, I will look to the hills from which cometh my help. In other words, I will keep my eyes focused forward, on where my help is coming from. And my help comes from the Lord. That's what the Bible says. So when we have faith, Bill- We can have faith in the beginning. We can have faith in the middle. And at the end, we will be found faithful, which is our whole goal of life. At the end of our life, our goal is this. If you're listening.

You know, before I do an altar call and before I do a, you know, a prayer moment and before I do a moment to just have people make a commitment. At the end of our life, I want Jesus to look at all of us and say, well done, thy good and faithful servant. Faithful servant. Amen. He didn't say good and tried hard, servant. He didn't say good and understanding, servant. Faithful. Were you faithful in the beginning? You weren't perfect, but did you get back on the horse and keep going? You didn't get it all right, but did you get back on the boat and keep going? Were you faithful? Were you consistently trusting me even when you missed it? Did you apologize and get back? And did you repent and get back? Did you say, you know what? I didn't get every decision right, but I know the decision I did get right is by putting my faith in Jesus. That's right. So we don't have to be Jesus. We just have to try to be like Jesus.

We got to try to be like Jesus and put our trust in Jesus. That's amen. We let God be God. He's really good at his job. It was funny. You probably weren't born yet because I'm a little older than you. So back in the 90s, they had WWJD. What would Jesus do? You know, everybody had their bracelets on. Yeah. It was kind of really trendy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's really basic. What would Jesus do? That's it. Well, and Jesus would lean on his father in heaven. Jesus would say, the meat is to do the will of the father who sent me. That's what Jesus responded to the disciples. It's like when they're asking him all of these questions and the Pharisees are trying to press Jesus. He's saying my meat, the way that I survive is by doing the will of the father who sent me. And that's this, that should be all of our prayer. And maybe you're out there listening and you say, man, I don't know this Jesus. I don't know this Jesus. That's, that's so compassionate, that cares about my

journey. I thought Jesus was just focused on when I die, make sure I go to heaven. And it's like, no, Jesus says this in the Bible, that I came that you may have life and life to the full, life more abundantly. That's life in eternity and life here on earth now. Well, the way we have that is by putting our faith that he is faithful to his promises. And when he said it, he meant it. If he said it, he's going to do it. If he called you to it, he's going to see you through it. All of the things that we know about Christ. And maybe you say, man, I don't, I didn't know any of those Devante. Like I'm listening to this podcast. I'm looking for tips and stuff because I want to be successful. Here's what I'll tell you. You will not live God's way without God's help. He has a plan for your life. He has a way that he wants you to live. He has success for you. Like I told you earlier today, he has he wants us to go from glory to glory

and from strength to strength, from master tech to millionaire, whatever it may be, whatever your next step is. But you have to trust him now, today, so that you can be found faithful. Faith is really the cheat code. It's the cheat code to life. It really is. That's it. You know, salvation is really simple. That's it. That's it. Did I have faith to believe that Jesus died for me? And we do, but this is a ministry. And we know that not everybody listening is at that place yet, but I want to give you the opportunity if you're listening right now to make that decision. If you are interested you feel something your heart's beating fast there's something that's going on right now as you're listening or watching this and you say man like, something is like i feel like i want to get right i want to i want to be connected to this jesus that y'all are talking about you don't have to know all the answers like i said you don't have to understand you don't even got to know what to

do next you can just make the commitment right now and get around some good people that can help you. That's it. That's it. You, you don't need it all. Maybe, maybe that's you. Um, I just want you to just bow your head and close your eyes. If you're listening, unless you're driving while you're listening, it is keep your eyes open, but the prayer still works the same way. I just want you wherever you are to repeat this prayer after me, because we want to see people saved. So repeat this prayer after me. If you, if you feel any of the words that we were saying, if you feel that tug on your heart, say, dear Jesus, I repent of my sins, come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. I'm choosing to have faith, to believe that when you died, you had me in mind too. I know that you rose and you're alive. Let's do life together. As I follow you as Lord and Savior. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Listen, I believe you prayed that prayer that you are saved,

that you are going on the best journey of your life, that you just made the best decision you could ever make. And we are so grateful to be a part of that journey. And I hope that you have faith in the middle, that you live the dash more intentional this week. Well, Devante, we, I really enjoyed my time with you. When you close this out in a quick prayer and then we'll see you on next Sunday, next month. Let's do it. Hey, Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you for everybody listening. Even if they didn't make the decision today, God, I just pray that their week goes better because they chose to put you in first place. Maybe they couldn't make it to the inside of a church building, but Father, they listened to this podcast and they still are getting built up. Got their faith is still being stirred, that they're being strengthened, that they are being equipped with the tools they need to live the life you've called us all to live.

So Father, thank you for the opportunity for us to be a partnership and work together so that people's souls can be saved because this is a ministry. So Father, I thank you that the rest of their week, they will see your miracles. And unlike Israel in Numbers 11, they won't complain about them. Father, they will just open their hands and say that they are grateful in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother. Thank you. For more information, reach out to Todd Westerlin at 925-980-8012 or visit AutoshopAnswers.com. You can get more information about key-to-key to callbacks, courtside. We have a VIP rack attack day where you spend an entire day in the trenches with our team learning this perfected business model. We offer leadership classes. We have an AI academy and also get more information about Autoshop callbacks. We have auto tech training. We are a part of the team. We are literally your one-stop shop once again that number for todd westerland is 925-980-8012.