175. Summer Break & Updates

I found my freedom in you I found a joy I can't lose And thank God it's true You wrapped your arms around me And heaven broke through From the moment you found me I found my freedom in you Welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James Safer and Brett Martin. Welcome back to the For Freedom Podcast, episode 175. Brett, it has been a long journey. It's been a fun journey, 175 episodes in. And this is our summer break episode. It's also our anniversary episode. And so five years ago on this coming Saturday, June or this coming Sunday, June 8th, will be our fifth official year of having the podcast. John started this podcast many years ago. And we'll go through some of those details here in just a little bit. But man, it's been a good fun. It's been a good journey. I'm excited about the future of the journey. Excited about what the Lord has allowed us to do. And the people we've been able to talk to. A great interview last week with Rebecca and some others that we're going to talk about here in a minute. But Brett, how are things going? Are you excited about being in Dallas in just a couple of days? Oh, yes. I'm pretty excited. I almost got my bags packed now. We're looking forward to it. Five years is quite an accomplishment. You and John have a big legacy here in the podcast and what y'all put in it. The hours of study and research that have went in to y'all's episodes. It's just unreal, especially the minds that you two have for counseling and the heart you have for it. I know that when I was a listener, I got a lot out of the episodes, counseling and things like that. Really helped me a lot. And when I was going, taking my counseling courses through for seminary, John was the one who helped me. I had called him and had some questions about some things and he was able to give me some guidance. And so I'm just thankful to be here part of the podcast. And I'm looking forward to Dallas coming up. Sound like you're getting a little choked up there, Brett. A little excited about what's going on, man. It's awesome. Dallas is going to be great, man. If you are in the area, please reach out to us. Please let us know. We're going to have a couple of meetups, a couple of different times. We're going to be meeting at the house where we've got also a couple of places inside of Dallas. The arena there, the K Hutchins Convention Center. But there's also a couple of places around that several people have said, hey, this is a good place to go. And so we've got a couple of those lined up. And so we'd love to meet you. We'd love to get together with you. And we'd love to share some stories and hang out and have just a wonderful time together. We're going to have our families there. I know my wife is excited about being there with Emily. And it's been a long time coming. I can't believe it's already here, just a couple of days away. Being up here in McKinney with my sister has been great. And so we're excited about that. Brett, what else we got going on? Let's see here. We've got our Israel trip coming up. That's coming up 2026. We want to remind you about that. The deadline for the registration and first payment is going to be at the end of June, beginning of July. So if you want to go, now is the time to jump on. Get on top of that. We've got our trip planned out. We're going to go every day. It's safe, ready to go. We want to invite you to come with us. We're going to have a great time. You're never going to regret going. And, you know, James, in honor of us going to Dallas, which, you know, that is the home of Walker, Texas Ranger. I think it only befitting we tell a couple of Chuck Norris jokes. What do you think? Let's do it. You know, jump on. When Chuck Norris enters a room, he doesn't turn the lights on. He turns the dark off. I love it. Love it. What about Chuck Norris counted to infinity twice? Yes. Then, of course, this is a classic. Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups. He pushes the earth down. Yeah. I love it. That's a classic there. It's been a while since I've heard some Chuck Norris jokes. I love them. That was a big thing when I was in college, man. Everything was Chuck Norris jokes. And, man, that's classic. I love it, Brett. Man, I'll tell you what. When we grew up watching Walker, Texas Ranger, I mean, it was on in my house. Every single solitary night, just good family fun. Just seeing Chuck Norris roundhouse kick some guys. I tried to watch the new Chuck Norris. It was trash. It was. The new Walker. It was just complete garbage. Yeah. I watched a couple of episodes thinking that it wasn't like Walker, Texas Ranger. And then I realized it was. And I'm like, this is so bad. I just have to turn it off. Yeah. It was awful. Awful, awful. Yeah. It was. Can't replace Chuck. Yeah. Hey, one big adventure that we've been doing this last year, we've started as our cigar company. And if you've been listening to us for any part of the time this last year, you'll know that we have been selling our cigars at 1689cigars.com. And we're excited about what this opportunity has. Believe it or not, I say this often, the podcast doesn't come free. There are some expenses that we incur as just website and hosting fees and different things like that. And we don't ever ask for a GoFundMe or a Patreon account. We just, we want to give you something tangible. We want to give you something great. These are high quality premium cigars. And we, we offer them on that website. You can also find the link on our website at 4freedompodcast.com. And we'd love for you to jump on there. If you stay tuned to the end of the episode, we've got some exciting news for you and some things that are going to help you out leading up to Father's Day. And so hopefully you'll, you'll stay tuned for that. But man, we are excited, Brett. We've got our, we're official now. We've got our LLC for the cigar company and just excited about what the Lord's doing and how we're able to use this for his glory and be able to spread the word of what we're doing in different platforms in different areas. Amen. We've got a lot of stuff coming up in that regard. And man, we've got some announcements for the cigar company too. We don't want to, we've got some things coming down the pike that we don't want to let the cat out of the bag just yet. We've got some plans and we're excited about it, but we're going to wait. We're going to be patient. We're going to bide our time, hold our tongue, wait for the right moment. And, uh, you know, and when we do release the info to you, you're going to be shocked. It's going to be shock and awe. Yeah. It's going to be great. We're partnering with some great people and, uh, we hope you can help us out in just a small way there. Well, Brett, we are five years into the podcast episodes. Um, over these years, we have accumulated almost a hundred thousand downloads, which is an awesome feat. Me and John, when we started this, never thought we'd reach a thousand downloads and we've, uh, we've recorded 175 episodes. Um, I came on, um, you know, about episode 20 or something. And then you jumped on around episode 100 when John stepped away. And so there's been some transition, there's been some ups and downs, and, uh, we've been excited over what we've done over the last couple of years. Uh, I want to pull out just a couple of analytics cause I can pull these up very quickly. Um, but we have some, some top performing episodes, um, of all time. And I want to just share some of those, um, just so people sort of can maybe reminisce a little bit on some things that we've done in the past. And so, uh, as I pull this up, Brett, let me, let me go to, I just got it right here. So our very highest performing episode, um, this is an episode that we did. It was the very first part one episode 22 of the King James only ism that we did. Um, that came out in January 7th of 2021. And, uh, it is our highest performing episode by far, um, by several hundred listens, uh, overall, um, number two is our IFB modesty and biblical modesty with Amy Miller. Amy, what a great interview that was with her. If you're listening, Amy, I'd love to have you come back on and talk through a couple of other newer things. And then, uh, number three, our number three episode of all time. And, uh, this is sort of why we've started this series back up again was the fourth episode that came out, which was the history of the IFB part one with Dre Frank Norris and his response to abuse at Hopewell Baptist church. Um, there in that was put out July 2nd of 2020. And so those, those three episodes, very high performing episodes, uh, very, number four honorable mention here, uh, is, uh, aren't you just bitter by Nathan Cravat. And that was the interview number 16 that John did with Nathan, uh, just an honorable mention there, but yeah, we've had some great things and, uh, we've had some great episodes going on excited about what's happening right now. Brett, what is your favorite episode of let's just do this last season that we've been a part of thinking back over, uh, this last season. One of my favorite episodes would have to be the house Anderson episode that we just did. Uh, it's kind of kickoff or footprints of fundamentalism series. Um, really give me a chance. I've given my testimony about house Anderson for, but it really gave me a chance to kind of dig into the college and bring some stuff up. And, uh, man, one of the reasons why I'm like that episode so much is we got so much feedback from it. Uh, we got so much positive feedback and we got some negative feedback too, from people that weren't too happy that we were, you know, kicking over some trees. And so, uh, they're not happy about that, but mostly it was positive. Uh, it opened up a big, uh, opened up a plethora of people that come out and say, Hey, I've got a story. I've got a story. I've got a story. You need to check out this college. You need to check out this, this church. And, uh, so, you know, it kind of led into our series. And so we are, uh, that's one of my favorite episodes over the last season. Yeah. For me over the last season, I would have to say, uh, my favorite one that we've done so far, I did love our, our, our woke series. I know that it didn't get a lot of attention as far as downloads wise. And, uh, it was something that we felt was, was needed to be done as far as just talking through some issues in the church. Um, but I would have to probably say that our interview, uh, with Joe vanilla was just what a, I thought his story was great. I thought he had a great time, um, just talking about his being canceled in the IFB and, uh, his, his just vulnerability to be able to talk through some of those things. And, uh, I thought that was a great thing for him over this last season, uh, which would have been back in August. We did that episode freedom to start over where we talked about that song for a start over, man. I still, that song I played at least once a week. Um, me and my kids will get in the car and we'll play and we'll just, man, we're hanging out, we're singing, we're worshiping. And, uh, what a great song just to remind yourself that we don't have to be stuck where we're at. And, uh, we have this opportunity just to move forward, uh, that God has taken care of all of our sins on the cross and, and we can press forward to the prize that God has for us. Amen. Those are some great episodes. And, uh, yeah, uh, far as the world woke series, like you said, I absolutely loved it. I think that it was needed. Like you said, it didn't get a lot of attention, but it was something that needed to be said. And sometimes it's just okay to put some good content out there, uh, for reference. And, uh, you know, we need to be aware of the way the wind is blowing, but I'll tell you what I am looking forward to the future. We have got some plans when we come back from our summer break, it's going to be, you know, that song 105 days of summer vacation won't be that many days. But when we do come back from our summer break, we've got, we're going to continue in the footprints of fundamentalism. Uh, we have got some interviews lined up that you won't believe. I've, I've let the cat out, cat out of the bag to a couple of people blew their minds of who we've got coming on the podcast. And, uh, so we are really, real, really, really looking forward to what we have, uh, coming down the pike. Yeah, absolutely. Brett. Well, I'm just going to highlight just a couple of things that we have ready for, uh, our fall lineup. We've gonna, we're going to pick up and we jump back over this summer, uh, just to let you know, over the summer, we'll be dropping a couple of sermons by me and Brett, like we normally do. We're going to do a live meetup in the convention hall with Marcus Merritt, uh, at his booth. Uh, we're going to bring some portable microphones and, uh, we're going to record this episode right there. We're going to have the ambient noise of people running around, screaming, hollering, all the crazy stuff that goes on at the convention with people running laps and people making motion. It's going to be awesome. We're going to record right there in the middle of the hall. And, uh, we're going to have a great time with that. We're going to be dropping some of those fun episodes over the summer, just ad hoc where me and Brett are going to be together. We're going to talk a little bit. I mean, we were trying to get our wives to come on the wives episode again. Uh, we haven't had Emily on. We've had my wife on and talk through some stuff and I'd like for you guys to hear Brett and Emily story of how they came through fundamentalism and how they work through leaving the IFB. I think that's a, it's a big thing that I get asked often as far as, um, where couples come through and how we help husbands and wife walk through that. We'll begin picking up with our, uh, fundamental footprints. We're going to be talking about Clarence Sexton. We're going to be talking about Lester Roloff, uh, Peter Ruckman, Lee Robertson, Tom Malone, Carl Hatch, um, the future of fundamentalism and some of the modern day characters. And then the camp meeting movement. We're going to begin with a guy by the name of Charles Finney, and we'll talk through, uh, sort of the movement after Charles Finney leading up to Billy Graham, Billy Sunday, and, uh, hopefully have a modern day Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, be able to talk with us. And so, man, we're excited about that. Some interviews in there, uh, that I didn't quite hit all of them, but some interviews that we've got lined up, uh, with different people that are going to be really exciting. Amen. Looking forward to it. Yeah. Brett, we've got the convention that's going to be starting here soon. What are you most looking forward to with the convention? Uh, let's see here. I am, of course, the preaching conference is, uh, is always a highlight of what we've got going on. Um, and then, then of course, during the convention, you've got the drama associated with, you know, my, my local state convention is like boring compared to the national one. There's plenty of drama to go around, but I would have to say, you know, next to that, it would have to be just the exhibition hall. It's just like, I mean, for a pastor, it's like a fat kid in a candy store. You just go through, get all the free swag stuff. We all get, I've still got pins. I've told y'all before. I still got pins I'm using from the last conference and, uh, just a time just to kind of switch off from the responsibilities that we have in, uh, in churches. And then just, uh, kind of focus on, uh, at what we're doing at that moment, try to grow, try to learn more about the convention that we're in, uh, get some good helps in the exhibit hall. But I'm, I'm looking forward to that exhibit hall. Absolutely. Yeah. One of the things that I say, again, pastor's conference for me, top number one, the thing that I'm going for, uh, number two is the exhibit hall, man. I tell people all the time, uh, this is, it's like Halloween for Baptists. We're going through, what can you give me for free? If you don't have anything free, you're dead to me. And I'm going to keep on walking. Cause I don't want to buy anything in the exhibit hall. I'm just there to see what you got, what resources you have. How can you help me? And so we, we walked through that lots of fun, lots of like get people laughing all the time and people giving things away. I love it. And so we're excited about that. And then man, my wife, she says the only fun part about the convention is letting people make their motions and seeing their motions get shot down. She said, it's my favorite part of it. I just get to sit there and laugh when someone's motion gets called out of order or called, you know, not right. And all of a sudden they get up and they've got to defend their motion. And, uh, it's good. Yeah. It's good to be fun. There's a couple of things with the RLC going on this year that are, will be exciting and interesting to see what happens and the, uh, revised law amendment. They're talking about bringing back up. So some other things that are going on, look excited about that. And man, Brett, one of my favorite things about the convention is just being able to get around people that I've made friends with over the years, uh, pastors from all over the country that get together and faces that I know and recognize. And, uh, we just get to hang out and have dinner and have lunch and get to get to have great fellowship. And so, man, I am excited about that. And then Brett on my way home from the convention, we're actually going to be stopping at John's house. It's a sort of almost a little over halfway back to North Carolina. And so we'll stay at his house, uh, Thursday and Friday night and then get back home Saturday. And so spending a little bit of time with him and, uh, getting to hang out, uh, enjoy some, some, uh, cigars for, uh, the meeting there. And, uh, I'm going to be going up and, and meeting a couple of guys that we talked to on a group chat, the menu room. So that's going to be an exciting time. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's going to be great. Um, really looking forward to it. And, uh, you know, so I'm right there with you. Well, let's drop our exciting news and we'll go ahead and wrap this episode up. Uh, we are going to be launching a promo code for the month of June and July, our summer months, uh, really leading up to father's day. Uh, if you are looking for a father's day gift, uh, to go to our website, our cigar website, 1689.com backslash for freedom cigars. And, uh, what we're going to do, we're going to leave this promo code. We'll have it in the show notes as well. It's going to be five, the number five years, five Y E A R S years for the number four freedom. F R E E D O M five years for freedom. And that'll give you a 10% off of anything on the website. We've got singles. We've got a sampler pack. We've got five packs and we've got boxes of 20. And, uh, your best deal is going to be that box of 20 will be your lowest discounted rate. Plus you can get an additional 10% off of that. And, uh, so we're hoping that you, uh, will have to be able to give your father something nice bill to give him a quality gift, whether it's something from us or something from someone else. Uh, but we'll be running that through the middle of July. So June and the middle of July, we'll have that. And, uh, hopefully you can go on and take advantage of that and, uh, be able to support us in a great way. Brett, any final thoughts from you, my friend? I'm just looking forward to getting back here, recording with you. Uh, you know, we have to take this summer break because as pastors, you know, summer is just so busy for us between the convention that we've got VBS. We've got other things going on during the summer, a lot of missions, sometimes emission trips, a lot of things going on, but I am going to look forward to getting back here in the recording studio. It's just my office, not a studio, but, uh, regardless, I am looking forward to getting back here and recording and I can't wait to do that. And I can't wait to see all after the summer's over. Absolutely. Brett, my, my month of June, I will be at home. One week in the month of June, the first two weeks of June, I'll be in Dallas. The second, third week of June, I'll be home. And the third and fourth week of June is our kids camp. Um, last year, our kids camp was later this year because of dates. We've moved it up and made it sooner. And so for the entire month of June, I will be home for about five days in my own bed. And so, uh, not necessarily looking, I'm looking forward to it, but I'm sort of looking ahead like, man, as much as it's summertime, I'm going to need a break from summer because of how busy it's going to be. And so, uh, we, we just won't be able to physically put episodes out. And so we try to record them as close to our episodes as we can, just to keep you up to date on pertinent information. And so we're excited about that. Continue to reach out to us. If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, concerns, um, any other information you may have, our phone numbers are out there. You can get ahold of us on direct message. Um, and thank you for supporting the show. Thank you for these last five years. It's been a wonderful time. And I do want to give one shout out to the RFP network, the, the RFP for the work that they've done and really paving the path for where we're at today. And, uh, I know the network is no longer in existence, uh, but I think JC for what he's doing. And, uh, thank him for his ability to do what he's doing over there with the covering fundamentals podcast. And, uh, want to just, uh, continue to shine light, share hope and offer freedom to those who are left in bondage through Galatians five, one for freedom. Christ has set us free. And I hope that you will continue to stay free and stay in love with Jesus and everything we do. Brett. Amen. Love you, my friend. And until next time to God, be the glory. Great things. He has done. Found my new name. Found that good grace. Found that healing. And the tears fell down my face. When I found my beginning. Has no ending. Found that second chance. Found my best friend. Found my forgiveness. Found my happiness. I've been singing ever since. I found my freedom in you. Thanks for listening to the for freedom podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing our podcast on whichever podcast platform you use. 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