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Aug 9, 2024 · 49 minutes

David Magee, Jr., Executive Director of H.Y.P.E., returns to “The Corner.”

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Show notes

0:00 - 15:00. 2 Timothy 3:13-17. The surrounding darkness has no bearing on The Remnant’s obedience. 15:00 - 31:00. David Magee, Jr., Executive Director of H.Y.P.E., returns to “The Corner.” 31:00 - 48:00. All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. or call 504-641-4973 To donate call : 877-616-2396

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Transcript

8,404 words, in two-minute parts. Made by machine, so a few words may be off.

0:0048:51

  1. 0:00

    Darkness is not an affirmative force. It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light. This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio. It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite. Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media. And the philosophies of this world. God has called you and me to be his ambassador. Even in this dark moment. Let's not miss our moment. And now the Hamilton Corner. Phil Louisiana, the address for the church is 1148 Stirlington Highway, Farmer of Louisiana 71241. If you're in the area, you are welcome to come out. Seating is limited, however. I'm going to be ministering there tonight, tomorrow evening, as well as two services on Sunday. So if you're in the area, you are welcome to come. Again, seating is limited. So if you want to be apart, you need to come early. The service tonight will begin at 7 p.m. Tomorrow night the service will begin at 7 p.m. And then there will be an 11 a.m. service and a 1 p.m. service on Sunday. So if you're in the place or in near the place and you want to be apart, come on over. All right. At this very moment, many of you, if not most of you are making your transition from your part time jobs where you generate an income to your full-time jobs. Your full-time jobs are where you cultivate an outcome and as you make your transition I want to remind you to do so with intentionality.

  2. 2:05

    Understand in the primacy that God places on the family. I understand things are absurd to say the least right now in and all over the world in many different places but the absurdity of the environment has no bearing must have should have no bearing on how you and I respond. That's just a simple fact. That is a simple reality. We must never forget that God has placed us in this time for His glory. God has placed us in this moment for His glory. And we have the opportunity to be His hands and feet now. We must, we must, we must take full advantage of it. In fact, we're going to talk about that in the word of God now because with the things swirling, it's understandable for you to have questions. It's understandable for you to have thoughts and concerns. But we have to embrace the fact. We have the opportunity to embrace the fact and we must embrace the fact that God has placed us here now for his glory. One of the most immediate externalized places where we must not only be present but functional is within our families. In many ways, and you can describe what has happened in our country as the byproduct of the deficiencies that have abounded in our families. If you look at the expansion of the Leviathan State, they correspond with retrenchments within the family because we'll never be able to out-politik or out church deficiencies in the home. That's just a simple reality. And when I say out politic or out church, I'm talking about the things that are available to us through the political sphere and even the things that are available to us through the ecclesiastical fear, they will not be able to overwhelm or overcome the persisting deficiencies that are in the home.

  3. 4:07

    Many, many, many, many, many, many people who are adults right now, 40, 50, 60, 70 years old, many people are dealing with overcoming much of the scarring they endured as children, even now. And I'm not just talking about unbelievers, I'm talking about believers as well, still reacting to, still responding to, still being, still attempting to maneuver out of the formation and the shaping that occurred when they were children. It shouldn't be surprising to us that this is the fact because God has ordained the family to be a maximal impacting force upon our development and our formation. And there are lots of people that are still trying to recover from childhood. I'm just telling you what it is. Just telling you what it is. So if you are like I am, I have young children still in my home, my youngest is gonna be three at the end of the year. My oldest is 13, good gracious. So I'll be 14 by the end of the year. If you are in the station of life as I am, we have to make these years count, man. And then no do-overs. There are no mulligans. There are no life mulligans to repeat. The grace of God is sufficient. On the other end, sure. But sometimes we have people that are dealing with war wounds that God never intended for them to have to endure. And so I know right now a lot of people are considering back to school and all that kind of stuff. And you really have you sought the Lord how you're going to train and to disciple your children. Have you concluded that your discipleship must be bifurcated from their academic development? Have you considered it? Have you sought the Lord? Not just thought within yourself. Have you sought the Lord? Have you and your spouse sought the Lord as to what you would do with the Lord's heritage, as he describes him as on 127?

  4. 6:15

    I know I don't believe any parent intentionally wants to put their child in a situation where they accumulate unneeded war wounds that they're going to have to recover from in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. I don't believe any parent does that intentionally, except for the demonically possessed, I would say, you know, those who are just patently sociopathic. But parents, parents love their children. Parents often do the best that they can, but I'm asking, have we sought the Lord? Are we often the best that we can and in and of ourselves and in the flesh? Or have we welcome the Lord to bring the wisdom of God to bear upon our choices? Let's go to the Word of God. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 13 through 17. I'm sharing this with you all because I draw great strength and encouragement from this text. And I want to share this same source of strength and encouragement with you. This is toward the latter part of the Apostle Paul's life. as we've discussed this many, many, many times. Paul diagnoses the metastasizing wickedness that would come in the latter days. And he gets to this point in his letter where he says, verse 13, but evil men and imposters or seducers will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned it, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. I get great encouragement from this passage because just as the Apostle Paul rightly diagnosed the fact that as time progresses in the latter days, wickedness would abound, But then he offers his contrast in verse 14, but you, Timothy, but you, believer. This is what the Lord is saying to his body, but you, believer, the ascending evil surrounding you, does not provide an occasion for you to step out of who you are in your newness of life in Christ Jesus, to dumb down your position as a part of the Lord's remnant, to become co-opted by the the wickedness that surrounds you, you believe or have a contrasting, standing out or outstanding position.

  5. 9:46

    You continue in what you know to be true. Our society works over time to condemn people who would dare assert that truth, first and foremost, is objective. It doesn't change. And those such thing as your truth and my truth, there is truth and there is lie. Point blank. Now you might have an experience, but your experience doesn't rise to the level of objective truth. You may have an opinion, but opinion doesn't rise to the level of objective truth because objective truth, in addition to being objective, it is transcendent. It exists outside of humankind and persists without consent from mankind and foundationally, ultimately, truth is a person. You continue in what you have learned. You continue in the truth that has been revealed to you. Verse 16, all scripture is inspired by God. The Greek term there is theonusitos. It is God breathed. It is God breathed. Because it is God breathed, it is authoritative. It is authoritative. And because it is authoritative, it is profitable. And I love this. It is profitable for teaching. What? You mean to tell me in the midst of this cascading and ascending wickedness that the Lord's people are still, should still be about the business of teaching? Yes, yes.

  6. 11:47

    Because ideas have consequences, bad ideas create casualties. And the most impactful casualty is eternal damnation. It is because we love God and His love works in us to love our neighbor as ourselves. That one of the most loving things you can do is to warn one that is bound for eternal suffering to warn them, hey, there's a cliff that you're heading toward. You're careening toward a cliff. And this cliff is not temporary. This cliff is eternal. The word of God is profitable to do this work. The word of God is profitable for reproof and correction. Wait a minute, wait a minute. In the context of increasing wickedness, the Lord's people are still supposed to be about reproof and correction. And I want you to see from this text is that these qualities, these features of the word of God are not merely to be applied externally. Cause when it says word of God is profitable for teaching, it's profitable for, to instruct us. Because we are instructed, we're able to instruct. It's profitable for reproof and correction. Reproof, rebuke, the Greek terminology there, two different components. At one point, if one is going down an interstate headed east, and he's supposed to be traveling west, it is reproof that I say, you need a U-turn my man. Correction would be you heading east on an interstate, but you get off the interstate and get on the service road or the feeder, you're deviating a bit. And the correction comes and say, no, no, come, get back on course, get back on course.

  7. 13:53

    You haven't completely gone in the opposite direction where you're supposed to go, but you've gotten off course in the direction you're supposed to go. The word of God is profitable for this. It's profitable for training, training oneself, and a vehicle for training others. In the midst of cascading and ascending wickedness, yes, yes. It's wacky in these streets, no doubt about it. What does that have to do with you? What does that have to do with me? What are we to do? Our marching orders have been delivered to us. The environment surrounding us should not dictate to us the quality with which we obey and respond to the orders of our King. Take heart brothers and sisters. Buckle your seat belts, tighten right. Put the work boots on, the steel toes. Because God has ordained us for this moment. And we cannot, and we must not miss our moment. We must not miss our moment. According to a recent study of hundreds of poster board of women, 60% reported that they would have preferred to give birth if they had received more support from others or had more financial security. And that's where preborn steps in. Preborn is there for women in their darkest hour, deciding between the life and death of their precious child. You see, the reality is, women are being pressured to make this fatal decision and are being told that their babies are just a clump of cells. Preborn welcomes women with God's love and introduces them to the beautiful life growing inside of them, which doubles their baby's chance at life. When you support preborn, you not only support women, you empower them. Your donation of $28 will help a woman to make a choice that she won't have to regret for the rest of her life and gives her the ultimate blessing, life. Your love can save a life. Just dial pound 250 and say the key word baby.

  8. 15:56

    That's pound 250 baby. Or visit preborn.com. That's preborn.com. Shiting life into the darkness. This is the Hamilton Corner, an American family radio. Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham, Hamilton the third here. I'm excited to have on the program with me. Man, this is my man. We literally go way back like a wavecap. I'm telling you the truth. I mean, he could tell you some stories of us playing basketball in the gym, and I got my do-rag flagging. My guess is none other than Mr. David McGee Jr., executive director for Hype, a nonprofit ministry harnessing use potential and energy in the greater New Orleans area. Mr. McGee is a member of the chair of numerous boards. For example, the Youth Advisory Council and Jefferson Parish, the Jefferson Parish Children's and Youth Planning Board, chair of the property committee on Girl Scouts, Southeast Louisiana. He is the recent chair of the J.C.F.A. charter school board. He's a youth pastor at his church. My friend, my brother, David McGee, was happening, man. Thank you for joining me here on the program. Thanks for having me, brother. Man, it is truly, truly my pleasure. I'm like, you know, I'm not kidding when I say, you know, you know, the stories with the flag and do rag on the planet. That's true. That's true. But now I wanted to have you on the program for several reasons. First, I wanted to share with our audience here the work that God is doing through you through hype. Would you just share with the audience here what hype is and what it is that you guys, what you are doing to light up the darkness in our hometown? Sure. So the name of the organization is hype and like you said the acronym is Harnessing its Potential Identity. It is based on the scripture in Psalms 127. It says children are as arrows in the hand of a mighty man and blesses the man who has a quiver full of them. And what I like about the scripture is children are a blessing.

  9. 18:02

    And but they are also he like he calls them arrows meaning that they are things that can and definitely advance the kingdom or do some damage in the hands of the wrong person. And so right now what Hype is doing is trying to fill the gaps in the places where the Bible admonishes us to be there for the widow and for the fatherless and a lot of the people that we work with are single parent homes. They come from the juvenile justice system or the foster care system or just in the community where parents are lacking in need. And so we try to take their potential and move them from being possibly powerful to being powerful. And so we get a lot of our referrals from the juvenile court system and their programs there, the human service authorities and things like that. We have contracts with them. So they send them to us and we meet with them weekly and talk to them about who they are, who God created them to be and hold them accountable until they get their pointing people towards purpose and then hold on them accountable and give them the skills and resources until they get there. Man, that's so necessary. It's so profound because the reality is this, and I don't mean this in a condemning manner at all. God knows that we live in a fallen and in a broken world. But the prevalence of fallenness doesn't change God's standards. God's standards are what they are, yet we often have to deal with the fallout from the brokenness and from that prevalence. And I was saying early in the first segment that it'll be tremendously difficult to out politic and even out church deficiencies that are in the home. But the reality is what do we do when we have those deficiencies and how can we respond? And so you did mention that you have lots of young people who refer to you from the juvenile justice system. Would you just explain a little bit as to how those referrals take place? Sure. So most of them, there are a couple of different programs in the juvenile court.

  10. 20:04

    And so one of them is called Fins. It's an acronym for Families in Need of Service. And so these aren't necessarily young people who may have committed a crime. Most of the time it's either through truancy and parents who are reaching out to the course as a last ditch effort to say, hey, I don't know what to do. I need some help and they are coming to the courts, even though this may possibly jeopardize their child's freedom or get them involved in this core system that they may not have otherwise been involved in but the parents feel like they're in danger of getting in further trouble so they go to the course or they're truant parents haven't been involved in kids or missing school there's something going on in the home and then there's of course like probation intensive probation where they have committed some offense and are being monitored and they look at hype as a way to help stop gap some of the behavior, the risky behaviors that they're participating in. And these are what we will call sometimes front-end kids where these young people are right at a crossroads, where they see potential, they're participating in a diversion program, where they're trying to divert. And that's not sure, that's what the juvenile justice system is supposed to be. At least here, that's the goal, is to divert them from getting further involved in the, as adults. And so, hype stands in the gap, trying to offer a different option and give them the resources so they don't go further involved. into the justice system. What are some of the, well, let me ask this question, this is something I think some listeners will be interested in learning. In terms of the children who referred to hype, are we talking predominantly young males, young men, or young ladies, or is it a mixture? What is the makeup there? Sure, so normally our target group are high school to middle school age, young people. We take them anywhere from between six and 22, but high school and middle school, I've done, but the majority of the referrals and the majority of them are young men from single parent homes or where it's a grandmother taken care of or a grandfather possibly, taking care of these young people.

  11. 22:09

    And the large majority of them here in our area are minorities, not all, but listen, but we also have people with the more public we've become, There are middle class folks, these, and we're in a load of moderate income, that's a very target, but there are people from all aspects of life now who are coming to participate because they see what we're doing and they want their child to be part of something good, which is awesome because now we have different perspectives and the kids who had never been exposed to young people who have this tenacity to wanna do great things and be godly, they see that there. And so, you know, raise the bar a little bit. Man, that's wonderful. Would you be able to share maybe some of the experiences you've had maybe a testimony or two with a young person or some young people that you've been to walk alongside with for some time working through the hype programs and to see them really experience a transformation in the process. Absolutely. There's two that come to mind immediately. One of them, it's when I first came home, I was doing this work and a young man who had He was the typical New Orleans teenager. And drinking, having a good time in New Orleans with people who don't know, there aren't a lot of recreational activities for teenagers. By the time you age out of the parks, which we play football or basketball and you aren't old enough to work, they kind of go to Berkman Street and they start doing these adult activities anyway. He was drinking and hanging out with his friends and he wrecked his mom's car and was working the dead end job as a construction site and I told me that he wanted to work with animals. And he kind of said it as if it wasn't something to be proud of. Little did he know that my dad loves animals and my brother is a veterinarian technician in the military. So anyway, we wound up talking to him, sitting down with him, creating a budget and creating a plan and helped him to clean up his record. And he is now a veterinarian technician in the military, just finished some school and got an award on side note.

  12. 24:12

    I note, and Mary and my sister had no idea he was gonna do that. So I'm glad that we were teaching him to be a good responsible young man. So he makes a good husband for my sister. And there's another young man who, right after COVID, he, his grandmother passed and went into like a state of depression and stayed in his room, dropped out of school, stopped going to school, stayed in his room for about two years. And his grandfather reached out to someone through my wife's organization, Casa, and said, Hey, I need help. And long story short, we talked to him. He was reluctant. And I kind of set some parameters with his grandfather. And the man comes to me this day every time he sees me, says, thank you. We saved his life. He ended up being one of the highest performing young people at his school, finished school, and two years passed up some of his peers and graduated just recently. And so he thinks to me now, but it's not me. It's the work that God has put in me and all the people we put around. But that's just two of them. And there's a whole lot more like that. Man, praise God for that. One of the major things I want to talk about, let me just ask this now, because people are listening. I know there are lots of people who would love to support the work that you're doing there in the New Orleans area. And there may be even people listening who might want to volunteer some of their time. How can people support hype and then how can people get in touch with you and the organization? Sure, so we're on the internet. Our website is hypenola.org. If you click on if you go to the website, you'll see the two icons to then you can find us on Facebook and Instagram. You can go there through the website or you can just go on Instagram and type in hypenola. and you can see the little logo there for Instagram or for Facebook. And you can just Google us. If you type in hype, no lamentoring in New Orleans, there'll be this school article that'll pop up and tell you all about who we are in Links Tower website.

  13. 26:13

    And if you wanna contact us, the phone number is 504-641-Hype, or 504-64-149-73. Mmm, that's good. Jeff, would you put that information in the show notes just to make sure people can find that information? That's wonderful. Now, you were mentioning, and we were talking a bit before we came on the air, but you mentioned here on the air a few moments ago about gap standards, because I see what you and what hype is doing as an application of the biblical, I would say, exhortation to have people of willing to stand in the gap. Do you see it that way? I do. I saw I'll just give you a little bit of context of history about who I am and my family. You can relate to this just because you're from the area. I watched on both sides of my family. My dad is from the place called a Magnolia Housing Project and my mother is from a place they call Gertown and they are hood certifiable as you did. I didn't grow up in the hood but my family's hood certified and because of it we have a lot of things that my family's experience from death, jail, drugs, you name it, we've seen pretty much everything, AIDS, anything that the world has to offer, my family's dabbled in it and I've seen the consequences of it. And my experience with going to Oral Roberts University on top of being raised in a home that was God-faring, I saw what a young person could do when they introduced a crisis and put it or put in an environment that is conducive for growth in their faith. And so I wanted to bring that back to my city. You talk about this all the time, lighting up the darkness. And this was my attempt to come home. I saw a gap. I'm a business management major. And I was a business management major in school. And one of the things that they taught us was all businesses is fine to need and fill it. And so I saw a need. Even as growing up in church, I saw, I didn't see young people who are on fire for God and living that way, in particular, young men.

  14. 28:17

    And so I wanted to show that you can bring. He wanted to, God wants to make his name known amongst the heathens. And I wanted to bring and make his name known in my city in a place that was known for Mardi Gras and Burmistry and a lot of other things. And so that's what we're trying to do here. What would you say to somebody who's listening now? Cause we looking at, we started out in the scripture in 2 Timothy 3, things are so bad in the world, things are this, things are that. What would you say to someone who may be wrestling with whether or not God would want to have them to respond to pick up his cause in their particular area in a particular Endeavor that God may have identified for them to respond to Here's what I would say the safest place in the whole world is in the in the will of God This is gonna sound interesting when in my ordination when that was going to get ordained as a minister someone asked me what was my name and I said, David McGee Jr. And they asked me, was Junior on my birth certificate? And for a moment I pause, I said, I'm not sure. So I never looked at my birth certificate to see if Junior was on my birth certificate. But I realized at that moment, my name and who I am and who I knew to be at that time was who my parents had told me. When I got called from God and what he told me to do and to come home and to do what I'm doing, I knew it and I was more confident in it And I was my own name. I knew my parents had said, but I said, you know, they could be lying to me. I could get down the road if I had something later. But what God was telling me to do was coming. Here's what I'm saying. If God tells you to do something, no matter where he's telling you to do it, do it to be a voice crying out in the wilderness, a lot of people don't wanna be in the wilderness. But, and I heard a pastor say this, conviction means being so thoroughly convinced that something is absolutely true, that you take a stand for it, regardless of the consequences. I had conviction from the Holy Spirit to do what I was called to do. And I knew that they may put me in some situations that are, um, may seem not safe or may seem, uh, may not make sense, but I'm married.

  15. 30:25

    My wife and told that this is what God called me to do. And she came alongside of me and I would tell anyone if you get that level of conviction to move on it because then all of heavens, resources are backing me. Now that is, uh, something that some people may say, well, yeah, you know, I hear what you're saying and something that often occurs is that people will look at somebody like you and say, well, yeah, that's great. I mean, sure he can do that, but they'll disqualify themselves from that. And I've been endeavoring to communicate to people that God isn't requiring you to become a clone of someone else. He simply wants you to respond to him and what he's requiring of you because in his body, he has, it's comprised of many different members, you know, just because you may be a thumb in his body and somebody else may be an index finger. It doesn't mean that you both don't have value. When in light of that kind of conversation, what would you say to someone who may have an improper estimation of what it would look like for them to respond to God's calling their lives because they're trying to compare themselves to someone else who they may respect or deem to be a great asset to the kingdom of God. Okay, so you give me really excited but I was just, stay calm here. Well, you can get excited but we only got about a minute until we get to the break right now. And then we can continue to excite What another side of the break. Go. Start up the gift that is in you is what the scripture says. And my wife wrote this book and there's this acronym we ran across says life, LIF, look inside for exceptional. Don't look at the exception that I led to you and other people and think that they have something that you don't because there's something that God is placed on the inside of you like you say all the time for this time at this moment to accomplish the thing that he's called you. And you mentioned this pride is not just saying that I can do anything. Pride is also saying that I can't do what God called me to do. The tree told Jesus, I can't, I can't produce figs. How can the creature tell the creator? It can't do what God created. It's not so. It's not so. Well, that's just the intro. Cause I want to pick up right from that on the other side of the break.

  16. 32:25

    Because one of the things we were talking about before we came on the air is that really wallowing and self condemnation, it may seem like it's a humble disposition, just because someone may feel negatively. But if someone is wallowing in condemnation And God has said he set them free. Who are we to not forgive ourselves if God has already forgiven us? And one of the major touchdowns of faith is not as much as what we say, but can we truly live as if we believe what God has revealed to us in his holy word. More with David McGee Jr. on the other side of the brain. The Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Bitted Common Terrets are available at eafr.net. Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio. Welcome back to the Hamilton corner we're already in the last segment before we went to the break I asked my guest Dave Amigee Jr. Executive Director of hype harnessing use potential and energy you can go to his website hype nola.org that is HYPE NOLA.org to support the work that he's doing in the New Orleans area to learn about the ministry and also if you're there and you would want to help out in some capacity, you can get all of the information right there at hypenola.org. But what we were talking before the break, Dave, we were alluded to an eye, alluded to in a question that I asked what the Apostle Paul articulates in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 14 it says, for the body is not one member but many. If the foot says, because I'm not a hand, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less part of the body and if the ear says because I'm not an eye, I'm not a part of the body. It's not for this reason any less part of the body, for if the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them in the body just as he desired. This is one of the major sources of scripture that indicates that the Lord doesn't want us to be clones of one another, but he does require each of us to respond to him uniquely and specifically as he's called us.

  17. 34:47

    And there are some who would disqualify themselves from responding because they've adopted kind of a perception of themselves or they responded to some of the life shaping issues they've encountered in life, many sometimes negative experiences or even positive experiences, but experiences that would move them away from relying upon the Lord. And I know you started responding in this, but I wanted to give an opportunity to just expound on what you said to encourage those who may find themselves in that position, hesitating at God's calling them to follow Him in a particular manner. Yeah, you just said something that kind of triggered something, Emi, when you said hesitating. I will say this to anyone who's listening. And this is me being totally transparent. I was one of those people and I still go through some of those situations where I'm in the room or I'm doing something, I'm pursuing something. And I think, man, how can I do this? How can I do that? How am I going? How do I get in this room? Do I belong here at the tagline? If anybody ever sends me an email at the end of my email, it says, believe you belong because I'm constantly speaking to that who's telling me. I'm not good enough for I don't deserve to be here. So I would say to anyone, one, I heard a pastor say faith is the actions of those who are fully persuaded. If you lack faith, then you need to get in God's Word and see what he says about you. And then take the step. There's a lot of stuff out there about doing it afraid. And in regards to what you said about everybody playing their part, I may have had this conversation with you one time we were together. And I remember reading and it was talking about it. It was Elijah and he was saying, telling God his resume, I did this, this, this, this, and all these things. And God comes to him and says, I got thousands who have not bowed a knee to bail. the Lord, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, you don't know their names. The only mention of them in the Bible is him saying thousands. And the Lord asked me, he said, are you willing to be one of the people who are doing the work of the Lord? But you may never get the recognition in your name in the Bible, but I see you. And so at the end of the day, I recognized if God called me to do it, then he's positioned me and given me everything I need to do it.

  18. 36:59

    And like we said earlier, to doubt that is to doubt the power of God. And so if you're lacking in faith and the way to build our faith is getting the premise of God, getting the word, find out who He is and what He says about us. Well said, very well said. So wild and weird that we're living in a time to where spirituality is encouraged but Christ following is rejected. and it's amazing that it is Christ that gives us unfettered liberty. And people often misconstrue liberty with autonomy. Adam and even a garden were free, but they were free to function according to what God had designed and ordained. Whereas the one who would seek autonomy is one that would want to determine what is true for themselves. That is the suggestion of the talking snake. did God surely say, you know, you won't die die, you won't surely die. And what we find, the Lord has told us very plainly that the wages of sin that often flows from this autonomy is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. And so what I'm driving toward is that there are many who are being deceived in thinking that being rogues, being rogues, straying from God's ordinance, rebelling against him is actually the way to true freedom and true liberty. Have you encountered things like that in your work with some of the young people as well? And then what do you think about that in general? Sure, so, listen, we live and I can say this, we live in a day and age and I get to talk to these young people and kind of get this uninformal survey when I asked them. I asked young people about, I asked the question not to long ago, Hey, do you, how many people, uh, plan on getting married? Almost none of them. And like I said, this is a room full of mostly males, teenagers. None of them raise their hands.

  19. 38:59

    And then I asked the question, well, how many of you want to, uh, have children? Almost all of them raise their hands. And I've realized at that moment that the institution of marriage and some of the things and the biblical principles that put, that they have some concept of God, but they don't, they don't know him. They don't know his ways. They don't know his standards. They don't, they, and listen, this is the sad part in the world. As I can't speak anywhere else, when someone dies, they put up this big old thing, a picture of you on the shirt or on the screen and the clouds. And I had the opportunity to speak in one of my relatives, you know, and one of that thing, things I said was, you cannot expect to get to heaven and not know the person who determines whether you get in and not and the rules that he said for you to get there. And we're deceiving ourselves and the truth of the matter is a lot of our young people here, the people in our city, have come to the place that they believe, they'll be there. And the people that have lived the way that they've lived will be there too without ever surrendering their life to Christ. I will also say this in regards to what you said about the ability, the freedom and the choice. One of the qualities we have here is honesty. And when you're honest and surrender your life to the Lord, you'll be free. And freedom means you have the ability to choose to do whatever it is that you want to do. But the real freedom is you choose what you will commit to. So you move from being free to surrender. But the freedom is in the ability to what will you surrender to as opposed to being forced to surrender to something. And so, hype talks to them about how do we take all of the gifts and the resources and things that God has placed on the inside of you. You're free now to choose that. We put you in an environment hopefully where you're free to choose and show you what you can choose. then commit to something where you start to limit those freedoms because you're voluntarily surrender everything to the purpose and call that God has for you. Now I'm often accused of lots of different things, but I say things like I'm excited to be alive right now.

  20. 41:01

    And when I say that people are like, what? Don't you know what's going on out here? I mean, you just see how the market crashed over the weekend and all this other kind of stuff. And I said, yeah, I see all of that. But I also know what the word of God says. I also know Act 17 when the Lord says that he determined before time the boundaries of our habitation and the times in which we would live. And so it is the Lord's ordained purpose for me to be alive in 21st century America, just as it was the Lord's ordained purpose for Moses to meet him atop Mount Sinai. This is the opportunity that God has placed me in and this time and I'm excited to be a part of what God would have me participate in in my lifetime. Working in the field that you work in and seeing what you see on a regular basis, many people would say you have great occasion to be discouraged. Are you discouraged, Dave? I will say this. I am not, but there are moments where I am tempted to entertain discouragement, but at the same time, I'm reminded of who God is. He put me here. And listen, I'll be honest, you've said this on your show before. I drive around my city and I go to other places and visit and I'm upset at the potential that we had. And matter of fact, one of the reasons, that the confirmation is that I came, the reason I came back to the city of New Orleans after leaving Oral Roberts was one of my good friends say, that they made, if all the good people leave. If all the good people leave, people is going to have their way. Matter of fact, evil only prevail when good men do nothing. That's kind of the quote he said. And so that was just the lynch pin for me to come back and come home. Who said that? I don't know who said that. The guy who actually moved away to the table though, but it's okay. But I remain, I remain encouraged man. And that's why, you know, Jesus Christ, the son, him crucified, is the light.

  21. 43:03

    He is the joy in my salvation. And I can be, listen, sitting on the island of Patmos and have a tour of heaven. And that's what I have to believe. And you know, I'm so grateful that you responded in a way that you responded. Because what you described and what I'm describing is not like a humanistic optimism, that being encouraged is not the feature of just, you know, self-help, mind of a matter type of phenomenon. And faith is not something that denies reality. So acknowledging the fact that we all have moments of discouragement, what you just shared is that the momentary discouragement is not the end of the story. And I think that's what people need to understand, that when we confront moments of discouragement, we shouldn't be content to just lay there, to sit there. But we should take whatever that indication of that invitation at that moment and then bring that again, refresh to the Lordship of Christ, submit that again to the Lord, and not to allow our feelings to overwhelm, because I often say, you heard me say before, that God has given us emotions, He's given us feelings, but not so that we can be led by them and controlled by them. They're horrible leaders, horrible generals, but they're tremendous foot soldiers. We can utilize them and directing them to war with God is requiring of us. And by doing so, enable them to serve the purpose of God, made them for, to give us the internal where we're thought, follow through once our hearts and minds are resolved, once our hearts and minds are set, then our emotions often catch up when we refuse to allow them to lead. And I'll say, listen, I know you've mentioned this before when I come on the show, but my dad says this scripture and it's, don't grow weary and well-doing for a due season. You'll reap if you faint not, and he says, son, it wouldn't have said don't grow weary if there wasn't going to be a point where you would become weary. Jesus is a great example and I love it. He called me the other day, he says, he's son, I just ran across the scriptures. Jesus called you, your dad called you.

  22. 45:04

    My dad called me through my dad. But he called me, he said, son, listen, you read the scripture where he says, and Jesus learned or increased in wisdom. And I've been, we were, he's like, man, you got to tell me, what do you think about that? And I'll say this is nothing else. This is a God who never experiences disappointment or deficiency in any way. And so if nothing else, experiencing the emotion of possible discouragement or pain or anything and the Bible talks about right before in the garden against somebody, how he was just the weight of the world was on him. And then he looks and he says, nevertheless, not my will, but I will be done. And so I have to have more faith in the calling of God than all of my emotions and what everything else is communicating to me. So I'm in this world, but I'm not of it. And sometimes this Earth's suit will try to take the driver's seat, but it will lie to you and tell you that you're at the end of your rope. And then I heard someone say, the old Christian song, reach beyond the break. And so I get to the end of the rope, they say, tie a knot. And reaching, I teach the young people that reaching is the epitome of humility. If I have everything within me, then I don't need to reach. But when we put our hands up a surrender to God and reach out, it says that I don't have it, I'm not sufficient. So that's when an Irish time of weakness, hysterent is made perfect. So actually Paul says, I like when I get to this point, when I get to the end and it looks like I'm at my extremity, that's God's opportunity. So what's coming in the future for hype? What are some of the things you're looking to in the future? What are some of the objectives you're looking to accomplish with this upcoming, I guess they would call it, the academic year? Yes. So here's the goal, what we'd like to do. We just recently expanded, bought the, running the space next to us, and we'd like to fill that space to do tutoring, after school enrichment, some STEM stuff there, and a little more recreational space.

  23. 47:06

    And ultimately, grow this space, grow out of this space until it's too small to do what we wanna do, but have we have a relationship with the Jefferson Parish School Board, where these young people are wanting to be a part of what we're doing. And so where there are gaps in their education in that home, when they come straight from school here, we feed them, tutor them, talk to them about life, and then we can send them on their way, because there's a lot of parents who are working. They don't have the time, the money, other resources, and we wanna just help them as they progress through middle school and high school. So right now we're trying to figure out how we can one, get them here, the transportation, two, get all of the computers and everything that we need to put into that space. So right now we're filling out a bunch of grants, shaking a lot of hands and going to a lot of meetings to put the word out there and see if we can make this happen. David McGee, Jr. Ladies and gentlemen, hypenola.org is the website, H-Y-P-E-N-O-L-A.org is the website. You have an opportunity to help in any capacity, even if it's praying, please understand that that is not a small contribution. Pray for the work, pray that the Lord glorify himself through hype, through Dave, through all of the people who are working, his wonderful family, and may God be glorified. And as you are listening to this program, I want to encourage you to see what the Lord would require of you in this time. Until next time, y'all have a great evening. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.

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