Autoshop Ministries Episode 14 - Break the Self‑Sabotage Cycle

All right. What's up players coming at you another Sunday, Master Tech to Millionaire Auto Shop Ministries with, uh, our resident chaplain, Pastor Devonte Tidwell. Devonte, how you doing? I'm doing great. Uh, I wish it would cool off a little bit. You know, they said it was the first day of fall in Houston, but I haven't seen it yet. So I'm trying to figure out where the fall weather is and why is it still showing 100 degrees in my truck. So other than that, I'm great. Hey, we're close. It's gonna be 50 degrees this weekend low, uh, at the time of filming this. Uh, the first day of fall to me is Texas OU football game. Okay. And I ceremoniously, you know, as is tradition, more lately, more often lately than not, we were very depressed when we watched the, uh, Oklahoma Sooners, uh, yeah, give us our lunch. So anyway, but that's neither here nor, uh, there. I, uh, you know, when I pray for victory over the

Sooners, there's less Christians on their team. So, uh, their prayers, I, I wish that my prayers would work more than theirs, but yeah, yeah, I'm rambling here. So let's get into it. Happy Sunday. How are you doing and what are we talking about today? Man, I, I'm, I'm doing well. I hope everybody else out there is doing the same. And even if you aren't, what I'm gonna encourage you with is to stick around cuz I, I believe you're gonna be better by the end of this episode. Uh, I wanna talk to you today about this topic and it's one that I see in multiple industries, in multiple spaces. Uh, and the title of today is Don't Do Yourself Wrong. Like we hear about people, Uh, having distrust or, uh, losing trust for people who have done them wrong. Maybe it be their past experiences or something that they've encountered in a relationship or in another role. But I don't think we talk enough about how we do ourselves wrong, Joe, if I'm being honest. Okay. And, and, and I really

wanna get around this topic of self-sabotage. Oh yeah. What are— oh yeah, we're going, we're going there. Oh yeah, we're going there. Yeah. Yeah. We're going there today. There you go. What are the things that we are doing where we don't get to blame anybody else. We are the ones holding ourselves back from whatever success is in, in our life. So, um, I, I wanna start off with a question which may be a little bit different than the way that we have done podcasts in the past. It's, if Jesus chooses you, why don't you choose you with what's best? Dude, how deep are we going into this? Romans, Romans 6, you know, Paul, he's like, it, uh, I mean, I don't know if this is where you're going, but it's like, yeah, there's a passage where he says, I know what to do, I know what's right, but I continue to do wrong. I don't even understand myself. And I think a lot of us think that way. So, uh, we do, we do. And whether or not you've said it out loud,

Joe, that's exactly where I want to go. Um, and I'll actually start, we're gonna go to Romans 8 after that, but we're gonna go first to 1 Corinthians chapter number 6. Are you, are you kidding? Like, I not even, not even met, like, that's actually what I read in my quiet time this morning. That's crazy. Like, what, what are the odds of that? So, uh, hey, Yeah, dude, it's a God thing that I'm not even making that up. That's what I read this morning. That's crazy. That's wild. So, so keep it going. Yeah. So 1 Corinthians 6:19 says this, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body. Man, you know, typically if you spend any amount of time in church, like sometimes people, you know, reserve this passage for one specific area of self-sabotage, but I think it actually is a lot more broad than that.

And, and we'll get to the next verse here in a second, but I wanna give some people some categories of some things that you may know are damaging, but things that you also may not know are actually damaging and self-sabotage. So maybe like gluttony, you know, because people talk about drinking and smoking and drugs or, you know, gambling sometimes, whatever it may be, they'll talk about that, but they don't talk about eating food. And even if it's food that you enjoy, that you love, like eating too much of it can be damaging. We already mentioned drinking. Uh, what about pleasure? Chasing pleasure in general, not just physical pleasure, but just being somebody who is literally looking for the best feels out of every single thing at the detriment of a process. Or what about frivolous spending? What about overspending? What about not asking for help? I don't know if anybody has ever seen not asking for help as self-sabotage,

Joe, but it actually is. Yeah. Or what about doing everything alone? You know, my introverts out there that are listening to this, they probably just like, wait a second, like, what about me? I'm like, no, I'm not introvert. Let me just talk to you for a second. Introvert. Introvert means you recharge alone. It doesn't mean that you have to do all of your life alone. Right. But if you commit to that narrative or any of these other narratives, narratives, sometimes you realize that the very thing that you are leaning onto is not just because this is who you are, But you're medicating something deeper. And I've told many times to people before that I am more interested in the root than the fruit. Because if you fix the root problem, you will fix the fruit problem. If you fix the thing that you are actually medicating, well, guess what? You no longer need medication. So if I can fix the ailment, then we can fix the

fact that you feel like you need to cope. Most of this is just coping because that's honestly what it is. It's, it's not just as simple as let me stop the behavior because a lot of people who have addiction history understand that stopping the behavior is actually some of the worst advice that you got. It's like, have you ever thought about just stopping? Like, yeah, no, a million times actually. You know, it's not just stop. It's actually what can I heal at the root of all this? So I do wanna encourage you, number one, to, to go back to that question that I started with is why don't you choose what's best for you? And, and I've realized that if we get deep into this, a lot of the reasons that people don't choose what's best for them is because they don't feel like they deserve it. They don't feel like they're worth it. They don't feel like they have value. They don't, they don't feel, or they may have been told even at a young age by people that they

love and respect and maybe meant well, that that's not for them or that's unattainable, or that's just how things go for people with our last name, or, you You know, and so you start to believe this narrative. So then you do behaviors that reinforce the same narrative that you've repeated. And honestly, when we understand that we were bought with a price, like I love the fact that the scripture is very, very intentional about using that language about being purchased because there's no better way to describe value, right? If Jesus figured, That you were purchased, that you were bought, that you were so valuable that he would pay a price to have you. That should change the way that we look in the mirror. And if you can change the way you look in the mirror, it'll change the way you behave out in the world. Does that make sense of where I'm heading today, Joe? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Self-love. You know, I got

to be blessed to be a blessing. I've got to take care of myself. I've got to take care of my marriage, you know, before I can pour into others for sure. 100%. And I just wanted to comment on the Gluttony, you know, like I love that one because it's not just food. It's, it's gluttony of the mind. It's gluttony of YouTube, you know, or like scrolling, doom scrolling, reading the news, uh, you know, gluttony of work. I, I, um, fall victim to this. We believe work-life integration and our business is a ministry and I love to work all the time. Like I love it. And I've had to grow recently in the last year of, there are times when it's like, nope, I'm spending time with my wife. I'm going to watch this movie and like not feel productive and that's okay. And that comes from a root of, that is a form of self-sabotage for me, for sure, is, uh, um, kind of a gluttony. To me, it's fun. It's like a pleasurable experience to

like think about whatever we're doing in the business and, um, to, to, to submit to my wife and serve her in a way that is, uh, foregoing that, that gluttonous experience. Um, I just like the gluttony one because I think it's, I think it applies to To everything. It really does. It really does. And I think, you know, what's interesting, and, and you mentioned a word there because I want to kind of get to a moment where this, and there's somebody out there that's listening that's dealing with this very same thing, is you say, man, I, it's okay for me to not feel productive for a moment. Yeah. What if we reframe that for everybody, Joe? And it says, actually, it's not that you are not productive, it's that you're being productive in another way. Yes. I love that. You know what I mean? So now it's not, oh, I'm, I'm unproductive. Yeah. You're not being productive at work. You are being a very productive

husband. You know what I mean? You're, oh, you're, you're not being productive at work. You're not being productive in a, in a meeting and in a Zoom call, but you are being productive with your wife and, and building your home. So that's the space where it's like, again, you see how we, when we heal the root word, how everything changes the way that we interact afterwards. So now we get to feel a lot better about binge watching the 3rd episode with our bride because I'm working. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like, sorry. Hey, sorry, boss. I'm working. I'm watching Love Is Blind. You know, exactly. Love Is Blind, man. It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of analysis. Yeah, man. Keep up. There's a lot of characters you got to keep up. But sorry to interrupt, but the, um, you're exactly right. Like, uh, I, I think I subconsciously had this realization years ago. I started to frame when I first started dating my wife

about, uh, 4 years ago to frame it as an investment. You know, I think investing is all over Proverbs. It's all over the Bible. Yep. It's like, okay, I'm making this investment in this relationship because I've been in, you know, conflict or disagreements with your spouse. And anybody who's listening to this, hopefully you know what it's like when, when you're struggling at home. And, and there are, the return on investment is almost unmatched. Like, yeah, it's almost the number one place you can invest besides your faith is, yeah, your marriage so that you are more productive at work, more clearheaded, you're more supported, you're more understood. Same thing with your fitness. You know, it's like, yes, I could work one more hour, uh, today, or I could, uh, go exercise and invest in my health and fitness and feel better, be more fit, think clearer, and be more effective in other areas of my life. So I love the way you reframed it there. Yeah, man, because it is,

it is true. And I think, you know, I wrote this analogy that self-sabotage is the only way, like, if we think about this, like, as a robber, or somebody that's breaking into a home, right? Nobody kicked the door in in this scenario, right? But self-sabotage is the only robbery where the thief has the key and the alarm code already. It's you. Yeah, it's you. You broke into your own house when you could have put the key in the door and twisted the lock or put the code in on the keypad and turned the alarm off. But you said, no, I'm actually gonna kick in the window and do damage and And it's like, but why? And nobody, nobody listening to this has that experience. At least I hope so. I hope that you have not kicked in your back door to get into your house just because it was Tuesday. You know what I mean? Like, I hope that's not the case. But as silly as that sounds, it doesn't sound so silly when we put it in the context of our own self-sabotage.

It's like, why would I treat this, this temple, if God is calling this a temple, a, a, a holy monument, something that is Powerful, a powerful structure that's not just powerful, but houses him. Yeah, that's crazy. Houses him. Why would I treat it so poorly? I don't know about you, but I don't trust a lot of people who don't take care of their stuff. Like, why would I? If I, if you don't take care of your vehicle, why would I let you drive mine? Right. If you don't drive well in your own car, why would I let you drive mine for the weekend? And so then I come back, oh yeah, I got a few, you know, I hit a few things, you know, not that big of a deal though. It'll be okay. Like, wait, no, no, no, no, no. Well, again, I don't want people to understand that. I don't want them to try to do this about behavior modification. This is what I'm trying to say. Okay. I don't want people to just say, stop doing behaviors, do this

and do that. I want them to heal at the root first, because I think when you get to that point, when you understand, like we talked about the investment, All right, well, spending time with my wife is not costing me anything. It's actually investing more than it's costing me. Well, when you change that, then guess what it does? It makes it a lot easier to sit on the couch under a blanket and let her lay her head on your shoulder, right? It makes it a lot easier if you say, oh, well, this is an investment into my body. It's not me working an hour less. It's spending that same hour on something that's just as valuable, right? So now it's, oh, I go to the gym with a smile. Or I, I block that outta my schedule with a smile. Well, I wanna read this too because I talked about the Romans verse and there's 3 things I'm kind of wanna reframe it in an interesting way. Um, and it says this, I'm gonna read 28, 29,

and 30. So 3 scriptures. So stick with me. It says, and we know God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose, for those he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those who he called, he also justified, and those who he justified, he also glorified. What does that mean? Those are a lot of very valuable words, a lot of processes that God has taken us through. He predestined, he foreknew you, he called you, he justified you, he glorified you. All of these things sound to me like reasons to value yourself. Wow. Wait, you took the time, God, to know me? You took the time to call me? You thought I was worth it enough to glorify me? You thought it was— you thought I was— I had a future that was bright enough to

justify me? Well, then yeah, if I reverse engineer the order of this passage, it makes sense that all things work together for the good of those who are called according to his purpose. You always design for things to go well for me. I don't want to get in the way of that. And I hope today that that's somebody's attitude change after the end of this podcast. It's, well, God, if you've gone to this great extent to call me, to know me, to justify me, to glorify me, then yeah, I want all things to work together for the good. And the only way that's going to happen is if I do it in alignment with you. I don't want to be the hurdle that stops that process. So I'm not gonna put myself in positions where I self-sabotage. I'm not gonna be crazy with my spending. I'm gonna be, if I'm gonna be blessed to be a bigger blessing, I gotta be a good steward. It's not just for me anymore. I, I'm, I'm not gonna try to do life alone. And you've designed

for me to be in community with you and with others. And if that's the case, I'm not gonna neglect the community you've blessed me with. I'm not gonna neglect the fact that I got, a good friend like Joe. I'm not gonna neglect the fact that I got peers that'll pray for me, or I got mentors that will pour into me on business. I got all these different family members that, that I can love on and spend the holidays with, or whatever your thing is. I'm not gonna do things alone. I'm not gonna neglect the help. Help doesn't make me weak. It actually makes me more powerful. See, and when you change, and I'm, I'm getting really passionate about this, but when you, when you change the perspective, Joe, You will change the behavior. And then you understand that the very behavior, the very behaviors that you were putting in place that were a hurdle actually have no place in your life. Yeah. They don't, they don't have a place. When you say, man, I am committed to

a process that leads me to a result where all things work out for the good. I don't want to be the reason that it goes from good to bad. I don't want to be the reason that it goes from good to eh. I don't wanna be the reason that it's like, it could be good, but because I self-sabotaged it, now it's just mediocre. Or it could be good, but now it doesn't happen at all because I'm not focused. I wanna be the reason that we get to partner with God as we say, you know what, Lord, I want your best for my life and I'm not gonna sabotage the greatness that you have put in place. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. And, um, Something that I wanna point out is that God selectively uses the most chaotic and likely to sabotage people throughout the history of the Bible. Yeah. David killed Bathsheba's wife, uh, you know, and cheated, you know what I mean? Like the whole Bathsheba story. Yeah. And Solomon, you know, wrote all those

proverbs about lustfulness and then ended up falling victim to thousands of concubines and foreign wives and, um, You know, Peter cut the guy's ear off in the Garden of Gethsemane. Saul, uh, turned him into Paul. You know, it's like literally one after the other. Uh, it's full of, the Bible is just riddled with people. And we have the opinion here at our company that, you know, I hear people beat their chest all the time. They're like, yeah, I fired my best sales guy because he was bad for company culture. And I'm like, was he, or were you bad for company culture? Like, were you a bad manager and you couldn't realize that the most talented people are typically the most broken people and the most, you know, apt, the most likely to self-sabotage. And exactly what you're saying is what Todd preaches to us. Like, here are the rules in business. Wake up, go to work, come home, don't do dumb stuff, go to bed. And that's it. It's like,

it's like, you know, it's actually not that hard to get in shape. It's like, wake up, go to the gym, work out, eat good food. To bed. Don't drink alcohol. It's like, it's actually not that hard once you know the game, once you have a great career, once you have a great family, it's not that hard to have a great marriage. Just have a great, you know, just like communicate all the time, love unconditionally, you know, do it constantly. There's no silver bullet. And the only person who can mess it up is you. Like, that's it. And so self-sabotage is a, I'm so glad we're talking about this because it is a fundamental theme of our business, our mentorship, our leadership, uh, programs in our, in our business. And so, yeah. Um, yeah, I'll hand it back to you. Yeah. Well, and, and I wanna give people some encouragement because I don't want to just tell them, hey, don't self-sabotage. Yeah. Good, good point. You know,

I want to give them some encouragement as well because I want them to experience the grace of God. Um, you mentioned all of the different people in the Bible, you know, for those people out there who may not have a lot of biblical context, like, I'm so glad you're listening. But there are a lot of the Bible heroes, people who God used to pen this very book that had a very flawed background. Moses, we, we know about Moses and we've heard about Moses. He's, he may be one of the most famous Bible characters, even if you don't know Jesus personally as your Lord and Savior yet. And Moses killed a man before he led Israel out of Egypt. Yeah. Murder. Like, like think about that. Yeah. Not like in self-defense. Like he murdered a guy. Yes. That's actually crazy, dude. He murdered a dude. Okay. Keep going. Yeah. And God, and God Yeah, you're the one I want. Yeah. Saul was not just killing people. He was ordering the death of Christians specifically.

In the New Testament. Yeah. Yeah. In the New Testament. And then became Paul after a conversion experience. Mm-hmm. And then after convert, then after convert, here's how crazy God is. After converting, God sent him back to go impact the very community that he was putting to death. Imagine that, like coming back into the neighborhood of just like, yeah, hey, are you coming to drag me away? Oh wait, no, you're not. You're coming to preach the gospel. That's crazy. Like, that is insane. But only God can do those things. So I never want anybody that's listening to this to feel like you're too far to be made new. Hear me and hear me well. And, and, and if you're watching, look at me and look at me very clearly. I wanna tell you, you are not too far to be made new. You are right where you are supposed to be, and you're not listening to this by accident. As a matter of fact, I hope that you take this as a sign. As a

call from God to say, hey, you know, there's a better way. Hey, you know, you don't have to medicate like that. You know, the Bible says this, that Jesus literally says, come to me all who are weary. He says, are, are, are you tired? He said, and I will give you rest. He says that my yoke is easy and my burden is light. What does that mean? Well, in the Bible, when it talks about yoke, it's referring to oxen. And in order to plow ground, which everybody listening to this is probably familiar with, you're plowing in some way. You might not be literally plowing ground and, and, and harvesting crops, but you are doing this in business. In order to plow ground, they would put a yoke, which is a piece of wood around the head of 2 different oxen so that they could walk together and pull a sled behind them that would leave tracks where they can then drop seed. Right? Well, he's saying my yoke is easy. Because when you wear what

I mandate, when you wear what I am referring to, when you wear what I am telling you or the way I'm telling you to behave, it actually is lighter than you anticipate. Your way has been weighing you down. So imagine this heavy thing and you're trying to trudge through life and I gotta keep putting one foot in front of the other and you're dragging your feet. And Jesus is saying, hey, I actually got an easier way. And a lot of people look at what Jesus puts in place as like, man, he's being so restrictive. And actually, I would counter that and say his way is a lot more free. It comes with a lot less heartbreak. It comes with a lot less pain. It comes with a lot less regret. So I wanna encourage somebody out there that's listening to this and, and they may be medicating a certain way, or times have gotten tough and business is hard and you're, you're coping with substance or you're coping with gambling

or you're coping with people or whatever it may be. Um, today is a great day. To say, you know what, Lord, I, I'm, I'm tired and I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. Because honestly, if we're really honest, Joe, I wanna tell some people out there this. If what you were doing as, as, and using, I'm sorry, as medication was gonna work, it would've worked by now. Yeah, it would've worked, dude. It's like, why do I keep doing it? He says in Romans, he's like, I keep doing it. Why do I keep doing it? Yeah. It's, we're all the same. It's not working. And it would've, it would've worked by now. Yeah. But something in you who's listening to this, and I hope that this is hitting hard, something in you feels and knows that, man, like this is not, this isn't sustainable and it's not giving me the result I thought I was gonna have. If at best, at best, as somebody who has had a pa— this is not a pastor who does not

have a past. Like as somebody who understands this, at best it's numbing you for a while. At the very best, you just don't feel like, I just need something to get outta my head. I just need something to take off the edge. I just need something to not be where I am or not think about my problems or the debt or the phone calls or the, or the overwhelming schedule. At best, it's just numbing you. But what if I told you there's a Jesus out there who doesn't just want you to numb? He wants you to be healed. And I know, I don't know about you, but anytime I'm in pain, I don't want to just numb it. I want it to go away. And that's what grace does. Grace is the best medication for your soul that you can ever experience. So if you're out there listening, I want to encourage you. Number one, Jesus loves you. Number two, you are not too far to be made new. Maybe you're saying, oh, well, Devonta, you don't know what I've done. And man, you don't know how long I've had this addiction,

this habit. I've seen God break stronger things off of stronger people. I promise you, it is no match for the God of the universe. So if you have been self-sabotaging, I want you to understand that today could be the last day. That you say tomorrow. If you, if you understand that language, there have been a lot of people who have said, oh, tomorrow will be the day I quit. Tomorrow will be the one I'll stop, or I'll wait till next week, or I'll do it on Sunday cuz it's the beginning of the week. Oh, I didn't do it. I'll do it on the 1st cuz it's the beginning of the month. Oh, I'll make a New Year's resolution. We're getting to the end of the year. You, it would've worked already. But I do wanna encourage you that right now you can have an encounter with God where grace actually heals the very things you're running from, the very things that you're, that's ailing you. And you won't need these medications anymore. You actually will be

free. That makes sense, Joe. Yeah. So good. I have 2 things I want to touch on. Um, one, I think Romans 8:28, it says, you know, he causes everything to be made good for those who are called according to his purpose. Right. And I fundamentally believe that the deeper the pain of your past, the more zealous you are for how God uses you in the future. And I think that's demonstrated by Paul in the Bible. Like he was literally murdering Christians and then God, uh, God road to Damascus moment with him. And, uh, he wrote most of the New Testament. I mean, he's one of the most influential people in the history of the world, whether you're a Christian or not. Um, and you know, it's also not a silver bullet. Like God's not a silver bullet. You know, we've got to do our part. We've got to do the work. And I think a lot of the, you know, we're not maybe specifically talking about recovery here, but like, if you're trying to grow

in your relationship with Jesus, uh, maybe you're trying to give up alcohol. Maybe you're trying to grow up, whatever your vice is. Um, I think one of the biggest, this is just my advice. You know, I've got, I've got history too. You know, uh, uh, everybody's got a past. One of the biggest pieces of advice that I've ever experienced is that shame is the number one, uh, weapon of the enemy. And it's okay to be tempted. Jesus was tempted in the desert. You know what I mean? It's okay to like want to do, like in Romans, Paul's specifically talking about, he doesn't, doesn't understand himself. He's like, why do I keep wanting to go back to the thing that has been ruining my life? Whether it's insert any worldly vice or pleasure, you know, insert whatever your deal is. Yeah. And, you know, just recognizing like, okay, that's a thought that came into my mind that I wanted to do. I just wanted to self-sabotage there. Like, because guess what?

We're humans and we sin. And there's probably going to be a day where you either do self-sabotage or you try to, um, whether that's in your marriage, whether that's in, um, you know, your personal life or your career. And I think it's very easy to just become extremely ashamed. And what happens is you're like, oh, I need more dopamine. Why did I do that? And then you spiral and then it's like, you go through this binge purge cycle because that is just trying to white-knuckle it and figure it out. I've found in my experience that the only way to truly experience Uh, freedom is, I mean, straight up just like the unending grace and love and salvation from our Creator, living life in the Spirit, right? Um, it's the only thing. And that's not to like shame anybody. That's not to say that we've, we've got to figure it out. We certainly do not. But, um, framing your whole life from the perspective of Jesus first, everything else second, right, has been transformational for me. Yeah. Um,

yeah. And I think it's good to recognize that God makes all things work together. And so whatever pain, and those of you listening who know me, you know that when I was a kid, we had tremendous pain in our auto repair business. You know, my parents had a great business. Uh, they set us up great for success, but there were years, financial recession, where it was very difficult on our family. And 15 years later, I would've never known. Yeah. God uses that pain in my career every single day. And I'm so zealous, in my opinion, just like Paul was in the Bible, but about my little world, auto repair world. I, I love it. It turned me into who I am. And so just a reminder, God makes all things work together for those who are called according to his purpose. So great message, man. Keep it going. Yeah, absolutely, man. And I just want to pray for some people who are out there who may, who may need to experience the grace that we're referring to,

Joe, because again, the shame, shame shows up and one of the powers of shame, and I remember reading this in a book, and one of the powers of shame is this agility. It's the fact that it shows up And, and then you don't even realize where it came from or how it got there. So then you medicate and then you feel shame about how you medicate. Right, exactly. Yeah. Medicate it again and it, and it just goes on and on and on. The best way to break that cycle is to literally get out of the way and let Jesus put grace in its place. So maybe you're out there and you're listening right now and you don't know this Jesus that we're referring to as your personal Lord and Savior, or you've been listening for a little while and you're like, you know what? Like, I'm not certain. That I've, I've known Jesus to be taught this way. I've known him to be about rules. Like, as a matter of fact, Devonte, I was so triggered when you started talking

about this. I thought you were just gonna give me a bunch of rules to follow. No, actually, I, I wanna point you to his grace. So maybe you say, man, today is the day I wanna do something different. I don't need it to be, I don't need it to be the beginning of a week. I don't need it to be the beginning of a month. I don't need it to be beginning of a year. I just know that whenever I'm listening to this, The now is the moment. Right now is perfect time. If you are listening to this and you don't know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, I just wanna make this invitation to you to accept that free gift of grace. It's completely free. All you have to do is receive it. That's what he says. He says, if you believe it in your heart and confess it with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, you shall be saved. So all I want you to do is all— I just want you to identify yourself. Not for me, but I think it's gonna signify something

to you and maybe whoever you're around while you're listening to this. But I just want you to just raise your hand right here by your face. You don't have to lift it up high or anything like that. I just want you to signify that you're making a new step. You're taking a new step. You're making a new decision. And I just wanna pray for you. So just repeat this after me because we all need it anyway. Say, dear Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I need the grace they're talking about. I'm tired of the shame. I'm tired of doing the same things and expecting different results. You have done so many things to show me I'm valuable. Help me going forward to not sabotage the process. I get out of the way so you can have your way in my life. I believe you died. I believe you rose. And the whole time you had me in mind. Thank you for saving me. Now I'll follow you as Lord. In Jesus' name. Hey, listen, if you prayed that, I believe that you are saved. It's the best decision

that you will ever make in your life. And I'm not suggesting that everything around you is going to get better right away. But what I am suggesting is that everything within you will. You will start to see your heart change. You will start to see your patience change. You will start to see your appetites change. As a matter of fact, I think that there are going to be some things that happen in your life and in your world that are going to change a lot faster than you anticipated. So I'm so grateful that you made that decision today. I hope you smile with the, the love of Christ because you are walking in freedom. And I hope this freedom is here to stay, that this isn't a temporary emotional decision, but it's a permanent one. And I'm so glad that we got to do this together. I love y'all, man. Dude, I'm fired up. I, I'm like fired up. So hey, uh, you wanna take us home, Devonte? Uh, let's pray us out. Yeah, let's do it. Father, in the

name of Jesus, thank you for every single person who's listening to our podcast. God, it's ours. All of us, God, we are all— this is not me speaking to them or Joe speaking to them, God. This is you speaking to all of us. We never outgrow being your children. We all need you. So I pray that their week goes better because they started with putting you in first place. Continue to bring them back safely and let their life flourish because they have you in their heart. Help us, Father, to not self-sabotage. Whether we know you or we don't, let us not be an enemy to ourself. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, man, this has been another episode, one of my favorites maybe, of, uh, MasterTech to Millionaire Auto Shop Ministries. Thank you guys so much for listening. Have a great week. We will see you next time.