Philip Guay and Kyle Hebert

(upbeat music)

- Greetings and welcome to the Here We Stand

podcast,

right here in our studios at Providence

Baptist Church

on Hooper Road in the God's Country Central,

Louisiana,

actually in our four year right here

with our bookcase behind us.

I have here with me today my fellow elder

music leader,

all around IT man show producer, Roger Dale

Peters.

And also I have with me here today

my brother from another mother,

but the same father in heaven,

brother Kyle Abair.

Kyle, it's great to have you here with us

today

on the Here We Stand podcast.

Just to tell you a little bit about Kyle,

he is a bivocational minister, such as myself.

Kyle is the chaplain to the Livingston Parish

Prison.

Kyle also does the work release program at

Dell Tech,

out in Livingston Parish.

Kyle also does prison ministry at Angola and

Hunt,

soon to be a DCI.

Also, Kyle has now been called

to be the associate pastor of evangelism

at Salem Baptist Church.

And boy, we're excited about that Kyle,

to have you in the foxhole with us in that

capacity,

which is fantastic.

But before we get to Kyle,

I just wanna mention a few things, why a

podcast?

And I might've talked about this a little bit

last time,

but really, when you look at how many podcasts

there are out there on the internet,

and there are literally thousands,

maybe tens of thousands of podcasts,

what's important to us is that we can't have

enough podcast,

in our opinion, from a Christian worldview,

from a biblical worldview perspective,

from a sound doctrine perspective.

And that's something that we're trying to

accomplish

to the glory of God as one of our goals for

this podcast.

And you can watch our podcast by way of video

on Facebook and Twitter,

and by audio on Spotify, on YouTube, and on

Apple as well.

Now, to tell you just a little bit about our

conference,

before we get going, the Here We Stand

conference

is gonna be October the 25th and 26th

at First Baptist Church of Livingston.

There's going to be a Friday night,

the fellowship in between two sermons

with a dessert fellowship.

The sponsor churches that I'm gonna talk about

in just a minute are gonna bring desserts.

So you gotta eat supper before you get there.

And then Saturday morning, 10.30 a.m., October

the 26th,

there's gonna be a lunch fellowship in between

two sermons.

And those finger foods will be bought

by the sponsor eight churches.

And while I'm mentioning that,

I'd like to talk about our eight sponsored

churches.

There's Providence Baptist Church,

pastored by myself, Phillip Gaye,

Riverside Baptist Church, pastored by Larry

Hubbard,

Reformation Church, which is pastored by Rusty

Reed.

They're now meeting currently at Foster Road

because of a fire.

I'm gonna talk a little bit about that

towards the end of the podcast.

First Baptist Church of Livingston,

pastored by Brian Gunter.

First Baptist Church of Apollousis,

that is pastored newly by Kirk Alexander.

Salem Baptist Church,

which is pastored by Chad Chauvin,

where Kyle is fixing to begin his ministry

as associate pastor of evangelism.

Grace Covenant Baptist Church out of Monroe

with brother Rusty Grant.

And also Grace Bible Fellowship,

pastored by Mark Lacour.

All great sound doctrine churches.

And while I'm at it,

I wanna remind you about the distinctives that

we have

with, here we stand conference,

because this is what binds us together doctrin

ally.

We don't agree on everything.

We don't agree on secondary, third level

issues,

eschatology, different things like that.

But what we do agree on these things is very

important.

We all hold to a very high view of the

authority of scripture,

the inerrancy of scripture,

the infallibility of scripture.

Also, we all hold to all five points

of the doctrines of grace.

We also all hold to all five solas of the Re

formation.

And as I said on our last podcast,

when you do that doctrinally,

that gives you a very sound,

well-rounded, solid gospel understanding

of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And inside of that,

you talk about all the distinctives

of the person and work of Jesus Christ

in the gospel, the need for an absolute

perfect righteousness

and lifelong obedience to Christ

in order to be right with God,

which necessitates the imputation of Christ's

righteousness

by God to us.

We are counted righteous, reckoned as

righteous.

And of course, salvation being by grace alone,

through faith alone and Christ alone.

And all of those strong doctoral distinctives

that we have in the gospel,

we're all around that orb.

We also all hold to believers baptism.

We're also all cessationist

and all of us are verse by verse expository

preachers.

And so if you're looking for a sound church

in any of these areas,

whether it be in Livingston, in Monroe,

in East Baton Rouge Parish,

we invite you to come to any of our churches

as we're all in this boat,

rowing in the same direction together.

And let me say a word about our speakers at

our conference.

We're gonna have Brian Gunter, Chad Chauvan.

Dr. Joe Nesum is gonna be with us

from First Baptist Jackson.

I'm especially excited to have brother Joe

come.

He's so graciously accepted our invitation.

He's been around a long time up there

at First Baptist of Jackson.

And we're very excited to have him.

And also we have coming to us all the way

from Christ's church in Lafayette,

brother Brandon Neely.

Now Kyle, let me tell you a little bit

about how Brandon Neely got invited.

Brandon Neely is a Presbyterian.

And even though they don't hold to believers

baptism,

those guys hold to all the other distinctives

that we have.

And so what we wanted to do

is include them in the preaching schedule.

And how that came about is,

I went to the Tactics Conference

that they had at Christ's church last year.

And I've known Brandon for a long time.

And I first met Pastor Stuart Amidon,

who is pastor of Christ's church Apollousis.

And he led some Psalms at this conference

that really got me fired up.

Now they had beer and Psalms, Kyle,

over there at this Tactics Conference.

Now we're not gonna have beer and Psalms

at the Baptist Conference,

but we will have Stuart actually come with

Brandon.

And he's gonna help us to learn

one of those Psalms that I sung with those

guys over there,

which is kind of like going to battle,

get ready for war kind of Christian hymns

from the Psalms that I was really fired up

about singing.

And so I asked Brother Stuart to come over

and lead us in one of those.

Acapella, by the way,

which really, I mean, hear the voices, it's

really great.

But I wanna mention that Stuart

is having his second conference of the Tactics

.

You can go to TacticsCon.com.

This is gonna be January 24th and 25th.

He's gonna have Toby Sumter from CrossPolitik.

If you're familiar with that podcast,

he's gonna have George Grant.

And I may mess this name up, Urie Brito, or Br

ito.

I'm not sure how to say his name.

He's gonna be there.

They got some other speakers possibly planned

as well.

And you can also go to the TacticsCon podcast.

And kind of what I'm trying to do, Kyle,

is bridge the Eastern Front with the Western

Front

in sound doctrine churches

and inviting those guys that agree

with those distinctives with us to kind of get

them in.

They come over to our conference

and hopefully some of our guys will be able to

go over

to their conference as we can share together

because look, as we see right now in the world

,

what's coming?

What's coming for the church?

It's hard to get away from the thought

of possible persecution of the church

like we've never seen in America in our

lifetime.

And we need as many of us together,

binded together by the word of God

and these strong distinctives doctrinally

that we have together as we go through

whatever is coming up.

Now, also, let me explain just for a moment

about another goal with this podcast,

which is we want to interview everybody

that is a sponsor church pastor

as well as a preacher that preaches

at the Here We Stand conference.

Now, I can't remember, Kyle, 'cause my memory

's fading.

Did you preach last year or year before?

- It was year before.

- Year before last you preached at our

conference.

So he is one of our alumni

and he will be definitely preaching again.

But as we were talking earlier,

one of the reasons for giving these bios

is my people here at Providence know me

because I pastor the church.

But when you come to a Here We Stand

conference,

you don't know the other pastors

and the other preachers that are gonna be on

the podium.

And through this podcast,

when you come to the conference to hear them

preach,

you get to know them a little better.

And that's also one of the goals

that we have for our podcast.

Now, today, I'm gonna use this opportunity

to give my bio and Kyle's gonna give his bio.

And as we were talking earlier,

who would have thought, Kyle?

- It's a miracle.

- That us two would be together on a Christian

podcast.

Kyle said earlier, maybe a podcast from Angola

,

but not a Christian podcast.

And you're fixing to find out why in just a

moment.

One of the reasons why Kyle and I have a bond

is what you're fixing to hear.

I would venture to say, Kyle,

that you and I, amongst all of our preacher

friends,

have the kind of testimonies

that only you and I have.

- It's only us.

- It's just, we're-

- Me and you.

- Yeah, we are walking miracles that we're

even alive.

Much less preachers today and pastors.

And so what I would like to do,

and let me say this one thing before I go to

you, Kyle,

is this, when Kyle and I give our testimonies,

we're not doing it to bring glory to us.

We're not doing it to say,

hey, look at what we did and now we've changed

and we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps.

There's no bootstraps that we had to pull

ourselves up by.

I mean, everything about our testimony,

all of the glory goes to God.

All of the glory goes to Christ,

who plucked us as brands from the fire.

And what we hope though is that through our

testimony,

what will happen if anybody is out there

struggling

with drug addiction and the kind of life

that Kyle and I had before we came to Christ,

that we might be able to help you to see

that there is hope for you in the gospel of

Jesus Christ

to overcome drug addiction, alcohol addiction,

or whatever it is that you're addicted to.

So Kyle, let's start out

and you just kind of start from the beginning

and give us your bio where you were born

and take us through and then I'll take a turn

and then we'll talk about some other things.

- Well, I'm so grateful to be here

and it's a privilege and an honor

and just a sweet, sweet, sweet blessing

to be here with you, Philip.

And it's humbling in all glory to the Lord.

You know, I'm born and raised.

Y'all may be able to hear the accent.

I'm not from Livingston, Paris.

Blessed to be here, grateful to be here.

Y'all gonna really see why in a minute.

But I was born and raised in Chalmet,

a little town south of New Orleans, about five

miles.

And I was born to a very moral family, not a

Christian home.

My dad was an engineer, a man's man.

He taught me to be a man.

He taught me various vocational skills.

Mom, a school teacher, she was tough as nails

but loved really hard, but they was not

Christians.

And I had a brother 10 years older than me.

He was not close until later on.

But my dad and I was super close.

And you know, one Thanksgiving, 1970,

my mother wanted the house remodeled.

And my dad, being a good husband, listened to

his wife.

- Amen.

- And he proceeded to remodel the kitchen,

redoing the countertops and whatnot.

And I always wanted to be close with him.

Well, that remodeling time really turned

into a destructive atmosphere.

He left the pilot light on the gas stove

and the glue that, the adhesive for the Form

ica glue

was highly flammable.

And I'm five years old.

I'm sitting there just enjoying my dad's

company,

my mother's outside with my little chihuahua.

And thank God for that.

My brother was sleeping at a friend's house.

But air fume mixture with that flame did not

work well.

And the whole kitchen went off like an atomic

bomb.

And so that, that ordeal sent me to the

hospital

with third degree burns, three quarters of my

body.

And I had to have 46 major operations, a lot

of scrubbing.

My dad had to be in there about eight months.

Mom had, you know, cause she came in

and pulled me out the house while my dad ran

outside,

got the hose, came back in and put the house

out.

Well, let me tell you something that that

created a,

you know, I'm already born with a sin nature.

We're going to talk about that.

However, this, this ordeal caused me to be a

very angry

young man, five years old, going through all

of this,

you know, scrubbing and pain and,

and medications and whatnot.

And finally, when I would come out of the

hospital,

even worse now, I'm back in school.

And, you know, kids can be cruel, you know, I

'm burned up,

I'm scarred, I'm disfigured, I'm healing,

I can't be with the rest of the kids.

I'm sitting in the classroom by myself

where I'm not accessible to, you know, germs

and whatnot.

And that, that was for about eight, 10 months.

And the kids would look in the window and gawk

at me.

And I used to always sit there.

I'd get so angry.

I can remember to this day, Philip,

I would get so angry that I would actually

smell blood.

And I used to say to myself,

now this is a five, six year old kid say,

when I get out this room, the next time

one of these kids look at me,

I'm going to punch them in the face

and I'm gonna make them where they either look

like me

or they'll never talk and say anything to me.

And, you know what, guess what?

That just happened.

That's exactly what happened when I got out

the room.

So I'm fighting, you know, every day

and my mother being a school teacher.

And of course I'm at CF Raleigh School in Chal

mette.

You know, all these teachers are close with

one another.

Their answer, play sports.

But what I really needed was a savior.

What I really needed was the Bible,

but that was nowhere around in my family

or my father didn't understand

about being a prophet, priest and king of his

household.

I mean, he was dead in his trespasses, just

like I was.

So sports was it.

And guess what?

It did work for a while because--

- Some of that aggression.

- The aggression.

I could hit people without getting in trouble,

legally.

Something I didn't realize or even cared about

.

I just wanted to, you know, play the game and

hit people.

But it also caused me to, I had to make the

grade.

So in their mind, it was a win-win.

So, and I did.

- It is a benefit of football.

- It was a great benefit, but, you know, the

gospel.

So, but during that period,

it was about football and making the grade.

And I would do that all the way through high

school.

And my dad, I can never remember a time

my dad not being at a football game, at a

practice.

And, you know, just being there.

Really being the, you know, a father to me

in the sense of, in the king role,

taking care of, you know, his family

and providing, being the provider.

And so-- - Hard worker.

- Hard worker taught me a lot of vocational

skills.

That would benefit me later.

But, you know, I get to Chalmet and, you know,

I want to break in, you know,

the majority of the Russian records.

- Amazing.

- Running back.

- You running back.

I had a couple of thousand year old seasons.

- And they retired you, Jersey?

- They did, as a matter of fact,

we just recently took it out of retirement

'cause I don't want anything pointing to me.

Like you said in the beginning, this is not

about Kyle.

Anytime we start with me,

it becomes a man-centered theology.

And this is about Jesus Christ.

This is God the Father through God the Son

and the Holy Spirit.

And this is about him and his sovereignty

'cause he worked all this together for his--

- So you gave the Jersey back.

- Recently, 'cause I went down and spoke to my

high school.

You know, I was able to go back and, you know,

it was a time of, you know, being now

a minister of reconciliation, you know,

with Sheriff Jim Bo Poman, you know,

he invited me down there with one of my mente

es

from Angola when Joseph Landix, he's out now.

We both got, he's living down there,

but we both got to go speak at the school.

And I stood before my peers and was able to,

you know,

I had the DA on one side

and I had the sheriff on the other side

and we cleared, you know, we cleared

everything up.

- The air got clear.

- The air got brilliant, yeah.

So yeah, you know, the turning point, you know

,

I was, you know, carrying a 4.0 grade point

average,

UL was looking at me and everything.

And I was gonna go to UL, you know,

and I wanted to go to UL for forestry

and it's amazing how, you know,

the sovereignty of God worked and all of that.

But I wasn't big enough to play at LSU

and I didn't wanna ride the bench.

So I was gonna go to a smaller school.

So UL was perfect for me.

But I lost my dad my senior year.

The last game of the season, 1983

and my world flipped upside down 'cause he was

my idol.

I didn't understand, I didn't even know God,

wasn't looking for God, didn't care about God,

didn't understand him.

I was blind, I was dead in my trespasses.

I wasn't just dead, I was stinking dead.

Couldn't not see, couldn't not hear anything

spiritually.

So instead of seeking the word

because I didn't even know what the word was,

I saw everything in this world.

That's where I started drinking and drugging

in my life into a downward spiral.

My poor mom, she could not handle me.

And so I started, you know, running with the

wolves per se,

riding with motorcycle gangs and fighting

and, you know, just being in the world,

womanizing, drinking and drugging.

And between 1983, Phillip, and 1999,

I would accumulate 98 arrests.

And five felony convictions.

The last one in 1999, August 19th, 1999,

I would commit an attempt first degree murder

charge

on my family.

It started at layman's bar in Chalmet

and I brought the fight home.

And I pled guilty to that.

And, you know, my life, you know, was--

- So you were sentenced right then?

- Oh yeah, 'cause I had pled guilty.

But, you know, prior to that last conviction,

I'm gonna tell you, people were coming to me

and begging me, hey man, you know,

you really need to get involved in AA and NA.

Look, I didn't wanna hear, you know, 98

arrests

and five felony convictions.

I don't wanna hear nothing about no AA or NA.

Only thing I knew was the DA.

- Quite well.

- Quite, you know, he got tired of me, you

know?

So the 40 years was offered.

And what happened was that night of arrest on

all,

death was definitely arrested.

'Cause I went from fighting the police to

being arrested

and putting a backseat of a police car at

peace.

- At that final arrest?

- At that final arrest.

The Lord grabbed the hold of my heart.

And now, and not only did he grab my heart,

removing the heart of stone replacement

with a heart of flesh and giving me his holy

spirit,

I now had a desire to seek him through his

word.

- Everything changed.

- Everything changed.

I've never walked an aisle.

I wasn't looking for God.

Didn't know God.

- He was haunting you, though.

- Was he haunting me?

In his sovereignty, and me and Sheriff Pullman

just spoke about this.

I mean, that night, and he would,

this is what he just told me and I never

thought about this.

He said, Kyle, do you realize why I showed up

at all your arrests?

'Cause he was there.

We were close, me and Sheriff Pullman.

He played football for Promised Land

and I went to Chalamet.

I almost went to Promised Land.

They were trying to get me down there to play.

But I went to Chalamet 'cause I wanted to play

at a higher level, 11-quad-a-football.

And really, the colleges were looking at us

and it was all for self.

But he said, Kyle, the reason I showed up

was to make sure that nobody killed you.

So the Lord was using Sheriff Pullman

and such a man, even to this day.

- And you didn't even know that at some time?

- No, no, and he just told us--

- You were looking at him as the enemy.

- I did, but he was a friend.

I'm gonna tell you, I love Jimbo and Sheriff

Pullman,

but I'm close with him and he was that,

he's the boss, he runs the parish but very

humble.

Loves Jesus to have a Christian--

- We need a lot more of them in the Sheriff's

Club.

- And we do and I'm grateful for Jimbo

and we just had that talk.

But yeah, I'm grateful for him.

So I wound up with the 40 years deservingly

and lo and behold, eight months in the parish

jail

and then I went to hunt for two weeks.

It was maybe eight, 10 days.

And having a 40 year sentence

would not have necessarily sent me to Angola

because we know Angola is theoretically a lif

er's camp.

But lo and behold, in God's sovereignty,

he would put me on a precious journey

to the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

And as you enter the front gates,

anyone who's ever been to the Louisiana State

Penitentiary,

when you go right through the guard shack,

right in the front, those gates,

you look at about, I don't know, maybe one,

two o'clock,

you look that way and as a sign,

it says the land of new beginnings.

And Angola would become most certainly

the land of new beginnings.

- That is amazing.

- Yeah, to lo and behold, my heart death was

arrested

on August 19, 1999, not Kyle.

And so, and when I landed in the parish jail,

I now had eyes that were opened to the people

who were bringing me the Bible,

who wanted to teach me the word,

who were loving on me, praying for me.

Whereas before I was blinded to all of that,

I was blinded to sin in my trust.

- You didn't want to listen to it.

- No, I couldn't hear it.

But the Lord grabbed the hold of me

and set me on a trajectory

through the Louisiana State Penitentiary,

which will become the land of new beginnings.

And all those trades and all those vocational

skills

that my dad taught me would come to use

immediately

because straight off the bus,

Warden Brocane and Warden Darryl Vanoy needed,

they came to me and they was both in need of a

,

an air condition duck work mechanic.

One that could bend metal.

- So you go straight to trustee.

- I went straight to trustee.

- Tell us how unusual that is.

- It is very unusual.

It's a miracle.

There's another miracle.

God's sovereignty turned in the heart of the

king,

whichever way, like rivers of water.

It takes 10 years.

10 years.

- And you go straight in.

- I go straight in.

I get my trustee status.

And Warden Cain told me, and Warden Vanoy,

Warden Vanoy really became like a father to me

.

You know, I was close with Warden Cain too.

And, you know, the man gave me,

you know, where I'm here today

because that man utilized, you know,

his faith in that prison.

And his, the main gist of his message was this

,

the prison is not for nine old men, but for

predators.

And he knew the difference immediately.

And so gave me a life, you know?

And so I got my trustee status and I went and

bent metal.

And he said, when you finish this job,

I'll put you anywhere you want.

So, you know, the main prison, you know,

everybody's telling me it's like Jerusalem,

you know,

that's where all the programs are.

And, you know, the church and everything.

The church, you know, he's putting in every

camp.

The building that is, the church was flour

ishing already.

But they had a Bible college there

in the Wallens Baptist Theological Seminary

that was in the main prison.

And I wound up being, my first year there,

I wound up being the maintenance man in the

Bible college.

So here I am, I'm listening and seeing all

these professors

coming in and these students are bouncing

theology

off the wall and I'm studying the word.

I'm going through experiencing God.

And meanwhile, I get a letter in the mail

and it's from a girl that I don't even know

who she is.

I see the name Melissa.

I said, man, who's Melissa?

Well, come to find out.

It was a girl that I had met while at spring

break

right before I cut her.

- Hello.

- Hello.

- Panama City.

- Was it?

Panama City.

- Been there, done that.

- Oh, fill up.

And it was a one night stand and got her

pregnant

and came home and got arrested August 19th.

Well, Melissa, you know, not a Christian.

This is, you know, you're going to hear God's

sovereignty

through this old story.

- I'm hearing it constantly right here.

- Touched her heart and she allowed me to be a

part

of our son's life.

And the only thing I knew unlike my dad

was to raise my son in the word.

And so I did just that.

- From prison.

- From prison.

And was provided by a friend of mine, another

inmate.

His sister provided the funds.

She wanted to be a part of what I was doing

in my son's life where I could make phone

calls

because it's expensive.

- Oh yeah.

- But the Lord took care of that.

- Made it happen.

Kim, you know, she poured into my life, my son

's life

and made a way where I could visit with him

where, and he lived in Florida, you know?

And of course, you know, writing letters,

stamps,

and then of course the telephone calls,

but we stayed in the word.

And in May of this year, I am blessed to say

that Matthew just graduated from Wheaton

College

in Wheaton, Illinois.

- Wow.

- So, you know, anyone out there listening to

this

and, you know, my son, you know, God's in

control.

My son told me recently, he said, you know,

dad, you was in my life more,

even though you wasn't in the, under the same

roof,

but you was in my life more than my friends

whose dad lived under the same roof.

- What a testimony.

- Yeah, and it's all through Jesus Christ, you

know?

So, yeah, you know, I landed an angle.

I'm raising my son to Bible college.

You know, my second year in Angola, Dr. John

Robson,

you know, we got real close.

He's the director and, you know, we still,

I text him every morning.

It's like you get your little script.

Yeah, he gets that too.

And Dr. John Robson pulled into my life

and he saw something in me that I didn't see

in myself.

And first thing he told me, you got to get

over yourself.

And, but I was invited, you know?

I didn't even, you know, I didn't see myself

on a Bible college, but the Lord invited me in

.

And so I would go through the seminary four

years,

get my BA, and then five years later,

I would get my master of divinity.

- Wow.

- And so it's been an amazing journey.

I was not supposed to come home till 2034.

- Right.

- Under Governor Edwards, a law was passed

and a sweet lady by the name of Natalie LeBord

,

who is number two in Department of Corrections

and loves the Lord.

We was all, you know, talking about this act

and getting parole eligibility, you know,

she really didn't think, you know, it was

gonna work.

And she's an attorney, you know?

And she's a smart attorney, but she loves,

she loves the offenders and she is pro-off

ender.

And she wants to see people do right.

And let me tell you, she became really a

sister to me.

I'm just gonna be honest.

You know, Miss Natalie is family.

And lo and behold, the Act 122 passed

and I was on the first parole board.

And that was in December of 2021.

And I made parole, Miss Natalie, you know, was

right there.

- So out of 40 years, 23. - I served 23.

- Right at 23.

And along with her brother, Thomas,

those two really, you know, stepped up

and helped me with the transition.

And once I, you know, I went to parole project

, you know,

that's Andrew Huntley and Kerry Myers,

two blessed brothers of mine that, you know,

I was able to stay there while I was getting

my knees done.

But let me tell you, eight churches that you

mentioned,

each one of them poured into my life

for me to have a successful transition.

And of course, you know, Larry Hubbard's

church,

you know, Riverside was already in Angola.

So that's where the doctrines of grace was

introduced to me.

You know, we are, we're studying Dietrich Bon

hoeffer,

you know, Jonathan Edwards.

- Yeah, I'm sure Larry was telling you

about Jonathan Edwards.

- Oh, I already knew about the five souls of

16,

you know, the 16, and non-confession.

- Right, you getting drilled on that, huh?

- You know, I just laugh because of joy, you

know?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- And then here we stand.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- So yeah, and so I'm home and now, you know,

Sheriff Art, you know, comes in and Mark

Carroll,

and now it's, it used to be Warden Ben Ballard

,

now it's Chief Ben Ballard, you know?

Oh man, I love these guys.

They all invited me aboard

at the Livingston Powers Detention Center,

and, you know, wanted me to do the re-entry

program.

So we built, you know,

through Brother Mark Carroll, the FAIR program

,

you know, it's family approach to inmate re-

entry,

you know, and rehabilitation.

And so, you know, that's, I'm in my second

year with that.

We've had, those who have been,

went through the entire 16 weeks, that is, and

graduated.

We've had zero, zero percent recidivism.

- Wow. - Nobody's came back.

- Wow.

You're catching these guys before they get

to the point-- - Absolutely.

- To the bigger prisons.

- Absolutely, and we are addressing the faith

base,

we are addressing social skills,

and then, of course, the addictions, you know,

which we're gonna talk about,

and which it's not a disease, it's sin,

and there's only one cure of that, Jesus.

- Amen, that's right.

That's the only thing that works.

Now, I would be remiss, though,

if I didn't ask you about this,

because in the '90s, we had a reformed res

urgence,

and the internet played a large role in that.

And the big three pastors that had worldwide

ministries

that played a large role in that reformed res

urgence

as the internet was coming of age were John Mc

Arthur,

R.C. Sproul, and John Piper.

Now, tell me a little bit about your

interaction,

because sometimes when I see Kyle,

I don't know whether to shake his hand or ask

his autograph.

This man's been on 60 minutes,

but you had some, quite a bit of interaction

with these three men.

- I did, Phillip, you know, to this day.

I'm very close with Dr. McArthur.

I do FaceTime with Dr. John Piper.

They came to Angola, Warden Cain, you know,

invited them,

and I was a part of the Angolite,

which is the prison magazine.

And so I would get to cover these events,

but it became more personal

when Dr. McArthur heard me speak.

He's like, "Man, you've reformed."

And he, right away, I'm like, you know, I told

Larry,

"Well, man, McArthur told you, you're reformed

.

"You're reformed, man." (laughing)

So, yeah, personal, you know, I got to spend

time.

Matter of fact, I brought Larry and his crew

to have a personal time with an all glory to

the Lord.

I'm nothing.

It was just, it was the Lord connecting the

dots.

And then, you know, today, desiring God,

you know, pours into my ministry.

And, you know, Scott Anderson, you know, was

the CEO.

He's now moved on to heritage books now.

But Dr. Piper, you know, was there with all

his books

that he wrote and was sending them to my son,

you know.

So my son got a taste of desiring God, you

know,

and his teachings, and then R.C. Sproul.

We had both of them, the father and the son at

Angola.

So I got to meet both of them.

Now, of course, you know, I've got Mike DeWalt

,

who is the CEO of Ligonier, and Ligonier.

And he pours into my ministry was the Lord's.

It's not mine, you know, I'm not even gonna

use that word.

And so we get to do, you know, the granddaddy

of them all,

you know, the holiness of God.

And then, you know, and there's so many

teachings,

but he has opened, you know, his heart to give

me

whatever teachings that I'm the assurance of

salvation.

And these are things my guys in Livingston,

they go through and watch the DVDs and I got

the books.

And so they get the, you know, they get fed of

truth.

Doctrally sound truth, biblical truth.

And it's about, the only thing can change

is Jesus Christ's word, and it's the power.

The power's in this word.

We don't have to lower the bar.

I'll just give him the word.

- Exactly, and that's Romans 116.

For I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

For it, the gospel is the power of God and the

salvation.

And that's what changed you and I.

- Yes, sir.

- And so I want to give a little bit of my

testimony

because look, Kyle, now that was a gangster.

I was a wannabe gangster in my testimony.

But what we share in common is the culture

that we came out of before the Lord got ahold

of us.

I started out born and raised in North Baton

Rouge,

kind of the wrong side of the tracks here

in the Baton Rouge area right next to Howe

Park

for from fourth grade on the 12th grade.

My dad was a musician still to this day

is playing right here every Sunday

at Providence Baptist Church,

his bass, amazing bass player that he is.

And, but coming up, I went to Catholic school.

I was raised Roman Catholic, baptized,

confirmed the whole nine yards.

And as I got into those junior high years,

the same story you hear so often with so many

teenagers,

I wasn't fitting in, wasn't with the cool kids

and couldn't understand that.

You know, I thought I was pretty cool kid,

but it wasn't working.

But the neighborhood kids, man,

those are the guys that I grew up with

that I developed bonds with when we were

younger.

They have a big cement canal that runs through

Howe Park

and we would go through the tunnels in there

playing football every day, basketball, riding

bikes.

We would ride our bikes all the way

to downtown Baton Rouge, run around.

But at the age of 14, marijuana came into the

scene

and for all of us.

And, you know, that's the gateway drug, man.

And it really is a star smoking pot at 14.

And that progressed through junior high and

high school

into the time by the time I was in senior high

,

I was doing cocaine.

And really, just like you, living only for

self.

And people do drugs for a lot of different

reasons.

Some are trying to escape pain,

just get away from some kind of traumatic

event

they went through or different things.

But some people do drugs out of just pure

pleasure,

wanting pleasure, and that is a form of escap

ism as well.

But that was my deal.

I wanted to get high and party as much as

possible

every single day.

So that progressed for me to IV drug use,

which when you get to shoot and dope,

that is another level from just partying

and snorting coke and drinking and everything.

I was shooting dope, shooting,

they don't even have it anymore,

but they were called sets, tees and blues.

They were sold out of Edie Park.

And they used to steal the tall one in Benzed

rine

out of the charity hospital in New Orleans

and bring them up here to Baton Rouge.

And they would sell them on the street corner

for $10.

There was a yellow pill and a green pill

and you crush them, pills up, water them down,

heat them up a little bit,

pull the rig back to 99 CCs.

It was lime green in the rig.

And man, you shoot that and I always say,

when you got high on them sets,

it was kind of like a synthetic form of heroin

.

I mean, we would ride around in the cars

in the neighborhood doing like 10 miles an

hour.

A bullet could come through the window

and you'd be like, wow, man, look at that

bullet going by,

you know, that kind of thing.

He smoked weed on top of that, shooting coke,

LSD, ecstasy.

You and I talked about, we were in some

of the same clubs back in the day.

- In Lafayette.

- Yeah, in Lafayette and Bro Bridge at the

Kingfish,

which was a rave club, got into all of that.

- Ecstasy.

- Ecstasy, LSD, all of that stuff.

I amassed over the time period from 1986

to about 1992, six arrests and three different

parishes.

Two DWIs, one in the car, one in the boat.

Possession of cocaine with intent,

felony theft, simple burglary,

possession of controlled substances.

I went through that kind of living.

And it only progressively got worse.

I worked some at a window shop

and then there came a point

where I just wasn't even working anymore.

You know, just out hustling, living in an

apartment

with some guys.

And after living that kind of life,

and I had been to treatment three different

times,

drug rehab, none of that did any good for me.

As a matter of fact, I got kicked out twice.

I smoked weed in the treatment center

when the guy smuggled some in.

Was in a halfway house for 30 days by court

order.

The probation officer told me, son,

if you get kicked out of this deal,

I'm coming straight to Lafayette.

It was where I was at the gate house.

And I personally take you to do the five years

you have a suspended sentence over.

And yes, sir.

And so I managed not to get kicked out of that

halfway house

because I sure didn't want to go to prison.

'Cause I never did any prison time just,

and it would always be my mom and dad

who would come and bail me out.

They were the only ones.

And you know, by the time I got to my mid-20s,

they didn't know what to do with me.

They just had no idea.

I had been, I overdosed one time on six hits

of LSD

and wound up on a psych unit for a week.

Thought I lost my mind forever on that deal

at the Gremel Springs Hospital.

And of course, we're keeping things brief here

,

but they're, you understand, you're just

getting the gist.

We have tons and tons of these types of

stories

of the things that we put ourselves through.

- Oh, absolutely. - We put ourselves through.

There's nobody else. - It's the problem.

- You're right, we were the problem.

There's nobody, we don't blame, I had a great

childhood.

My parents were great.

They always took care of us, loving home,

whole nine yards.

But we were the issue for sure.

And so the last time I got arrested

was for a possession of cocaine

that I tend to distribute.

And my mom and dad, I stayed about five days

in Paris, prison.

I really didn't even want to call them.

I'm back on the line, just really dreading

making that call.

Because I knew that, man, what are they, you

know?

And so I did.

I mean, nobody wants to stay in jail for any

more time

than you have to if you can get out.

So I called them and they came and picked me

up.

And I'll never forget this.

They had a handy odyssey van when they,

the little electric door opened it up and got

in the car.

We start, I start all my lying and excuses,

what my stuff, I was just riding in the car.

And for the first time, I mean, I didn't hear

nothing.

And it got silent in the car.

And I had the sense enough to shut up.

And so we just rode in silence to the

apartment.

I was living on Fifth Street, downtown.

And we had like 10 stolen guns we were holding

for somebody up there.

And I did not know this then, Kyle,

but kind of like your situation,

the drawing of the Holy Spirit started in an

unusual way.

There wasn't a preacher standing there.

But when I got out of that car, my mom and dad

told me,

see you later, Philip, call us if you need us.

Car drove off.

And I looked up at that apartment building

and for the first time in my life, a thought

hit me,

and this is gonna sound crazy,

a thought hit me that never had hit me up to

that moment.

What are you doing with your life?

It ain't crazy to think about, you never

thought about that.

- Right.

- Because I'm so focused on partying and

running and doing

and women and drugs and alcohol and all of

that,

running the clubs and all of that.

And it hits me and I say, I gotta get away.

I gotta get away from this crowd.

And I immediately went up and said, hey, guys,

I gotta move out.

I moved out.

I got on my own.

And long story, real short,

I just, I went back to a place that I worked

before,

Wayne and Philip Leonard, great brothers

that had a window company.

They would kind of take us young street urch

ins in.

They had a heart for that in North Baton Rouge

.

And then they moved off to South Choctaw.

And if you were willing to work and sweat

in their window shop where we built storm

windows,

they would take you home.

But if you messed up, you're out the door.

So I think I did three tours in duty

when they would fire me and take me back.

But they took me in and I started going school

at night

just to give me something to do, just to get

away.

And long story, real short,

I began to, in that time period,

living by myself, not going out or doing

anything,

I started to have these bigger thoughts of

life,

a bigger picture.

I knew there was a God because of my Catholic

upbringing.

And but who is he, you know?

And so I meet my wife, my beautiful wife,

Christy at the Texas club on the Wednesday

night

before Thanksgiving, which is the traditional

night

that a lot of people go to the Texas club

for whatever reason, I don't know.

I was actually supposed to meet a girl, my mom

, a nurse

'cause I was starting to moralize.

I was starting to straighten up.

Hadn't got anywhere near Christianity yet,

I was starting to moralize.

And I told my mom, my mom's nurse was a nurse

for 35 years,

nurse administrator, great career at the Lady

of the Lake.

And I said, "Mom, maybe I need to meet a nice

girl

"and really think about like selling down with

one girl,"

which had really been a problem for me

all during those years.

And so she said, "Well, there is one."

And my dad was playing at a place on the other

side of town.

He said, "Well, look, we're gonna have the

nurses night.

"Why don't you come?"

And I go and she doesn't show up.

She has wisdom tooth or who knows what the

real deal was.

And mom says she's not here.

And so, Providence of God, cold night in Baton

Rouge.

And my friend said, "Well, look, it's tomorrow

's Thanksgiving.

"Everybody's gonna be at the Texas club."

So I was like, "Okay, I'll go."

And so I go and that's when I saw my wife.

Wow, all right, let me get them digits.

Had to get them through my friend.

I didn't have the courage to ask her directly.

And anyway, long story short, all that works

out.

We start dating and we're shacking up,

but I'm continually having these thoughts

about the God and the bigger picture.

I start reading these strange new age books,

the Celestial prophecy, anything that can

spiritual, right?

You know, because all I had, again,

was that Catholic upbringing.

And I actually started going to Mass every

morning

as Christy and I were living together

in a little apartment off of North Sherwood.

But it just wasn't doing it for me.

And I would literally go at like six o'clock

mass

in the morning before I'd go to work.

And it just wasn't getting it.

Now, here's where it gets really crazy.

My dad's still playing on the weekends.

And he would get off the gig at two o'clock

and then be riding home after they tore

everything down.

And so it's three o'clock in the morning.

He's riding home and he tells me one day,

"Man, you gotta listen to this radio program.

It's wild.

It comes on from like midnight to like four in

the morning.

It's called Coast to Coast with Art Bell."

He said, "Dude, they talk about flying saucers

and werewolves and Bigfoot and time travelers

."

And I was like, "Really?"

And the reason why that piqued my interest

was because it was something supernatural.

And because I was having those types of

thoughts.

And so I decided I was gonna give it a listen.

And man, I listened to it and I loved it.

They're talking about ghosts and all this kind

of stuff.

And I would actually record it at night

and listen to it in the morning.

And so my sister had gotten saved.

And she had been praying for me.

And she found out I was listening to that

program.

And so one day she says to me,

"Hey, Philip, there's a man coming to a church

on the other side of town.

And his name is Dave Hunt."

And he's not a preacher because she knew

that I had a disdain before Protestant

preaching

because when I was doing 30 days in Blue Wal

ters

in that drug rehab up at East state,

that's when Jimmy Swagger did his "I Have S

inned"

and he's crying and none of us bought it

'cause we could tell.

And I just didn't wanna hear anything

from a Protestant preacher.

So my sister was quick to say, "Not a preacher

.

He's a Christian author."

And he wrote a book about a Christian response

to UFOs.

And I said, "Well, I've been listening to that

program."

And I said, "UFOs, man, that sounds

interesting.

I think I will go."

So it was at First New Testament church

over in South Baton Rouge.

And I'm not exaggerating.

I got there late.

The last seat available was right in front of

the speaker.

I'm talking like from here to that wall.

I mean, he's right there.

- But God. - Man.

And so he gets up there

and he doesn't say a word about a UFO.

He gives the most intelligent, articulate

defense

of how you can trust that the Bible is the

word of God.

- Yes. - And I had never heard

anything like it.

He went through prophecy.

He went through archeology.

He went through all of those proofs of

scripture

that I didn't know existed.

I had that kind of view that the Bible's a

word of God,

but man had his hands in it all down past.

So there's good things in it.

And I never really even thought about it

to be that very deeply.

But he gave such a stunning defense.

And I'm telling you that there was that

drawing period

where I was going through all these wild,

spirituality thoughts, but I'm thinking bigger

picture.

But it was right there under the preaching of

the word of God

where the Holy Spirit really got ahold of me.

And I will never forget what he said at the

end.

He said, in Paul's missionary journeys,

he would go around to the different synagogues

first

in the towns and he would present Christ

from the Old Testament to the Jews.

And it says in Acts that when he got to Berea,

the Bereans were more noble than the rest

for they searched the scriptures daily

to see if these things are so.

And so he challenged us and he said,

"I don't want you to take my word

"for anything that I've said here tonight,

"but I want you to be like a Berean

"and go home and search the scriptures daily

"to see if these things are so."

And long story short, Kyle, that's what I did.

And I just poured into the Bible, reading it,

and I'm gonna try to shorten the story up here

.

I went home and told my wife,

"Look, I don't wanna go."

She was raised Mormon, I was raised Catholic.

I said, "I wanna go to a church

"where like this guy preached."

So I saw a friend in the Winn-Dixie

told him kind of the story a little bit.

He invited me to a Baptist church out here in

central

and Christy and I started attending that

church.

And that's where we met Rusty Reed,

pastor of Reformation Church,

who was the Sunday School teacher at that time

.

And Rusty started to explain to me

in the Sunday School class a concept

that I'm not kidding, I never heard before.

- Wow.

- Grace alone through faith alone in Christ

alone.

- Thank you Jesus. - And not by works.

Nobody had ever explained that to me.

And so that after a clear explanation of the

gospel

is where really I believe I was saved

because I can remember praying

about a couple of mornings in a row,

"Lord, I don't know if I'm doing this right."

If they would have knew who they had in the

church,

they probably would have, "Let's get this guy

out of here."

So I'm like a fish out of water, man, big time

sitting in this church.

But I pray, Lord, I'm a sinner

and I know I deserve to go to hell.

I've broken all of your laws many times over

and Christ is the only answer.

And so I'm surrendering to the Lordship of

Christ.

And I prayed that prayer.

And by about morning four, I figured he got it

.

And so that began just a deep desire to study

the word.

And then Rusty gets called to Brookstown

Baptist Church

to be an interim pastor.

And he said, "Hey, would you like to come help

me?"

Because I'm feeling the call to teach Christy

's grandfather

was Mormon and he had sent some Mormon mission

aries

to the house to try to convert me over that

way.

So I did a lot of study of Mormon theology

and actually learning that compared to the

Bible

is what really helped me learn sound doctrine.

And so I went over there to teach a class

on how to evangelize in that way.

And Rusty and I started together

and then he got called to Friendship Baptist

Church.

And I kept hearing Dr. MacArthur on the radio

and Martin Lloyd-Jones, they played on 89.7 FM

.

I listened to that at night.

And I kept hearing these calls from these,

we need men with spines to get in pulpits

and preach the word of God

as it's supposed to be preached line upon line

,

precept upon precept, expositional preaching.

And I'm feeling that call, I'm studying.

I don't feel I deserve to be a senior pastor

in any way.

I don't have any seminary or anything like

that.

But Rusty asked me to be his associate pastor

to go help out over at what was then Friends

hip Baptist Church.

And that was in 2001.

And I just felt an overwhelming desire

because of how grateful I was

that God had saved me out of that wretched

life

that I had, when I was left to live life for

myself,

what a mess I had made for myself

and a lot of people around me.

And out of gratitude, I just wanted to serve.

And I wanted to serve in whatever way

God put opportunity in front of me.

And so I served over there with Rusty

for three years as associate pastor.

And then I went to sit under Brother Huey Moke

,

who's now in heaven, he just recently passed

away.

And I spent four years with him learning.

I tell people, Foster Rowe was my seminary

and Brother Moke was my seminary professor,

godliest man I've ever known.

And he allowed me to preach in his pulpit on

Sunday nights.

He allowed me to teach Sunday school.

And I'll never forget I went to him and asked

him,

I said, Brother Moke, really,

I need you to be real honest with me

because people can be nice, older people,

especially when a young preacher's up there

trying his best to preach.

And they pat you on the back, oh, you did a

good job.

And I was like, but I really don't know.

And I said, I need you to level with me.

Do I have the ability to do this

or should I just do something else

or just teach Sunday school?

And I'll never forget what he said.

He said, ability, yes.

He said, opportunity, that's the question.

He said, now you've had some opportunity here

to preach and teach.

He said, but you pray for further opportunity.

And I did that.

And it was wild.

He would sometimes send me to different places

.

I actually did at a drug rehab church for a

little while,

like a little interim.

And then out of the blue,

a guy called me to do a, what do you call it?

Fill in supply, preach at it.

And I just went over there thinking

I was gonna fill in for the Sunday morning

service.

I had some material, I had sermon ready to go

and I preached.

And then they asked me to come back that night

.

And I said, okay, I'll come back that night.

And then shocker, I got down off the pulpit

and the people asked me, would I be their

pastor?

And I said, whoa, wait a minute, dude,

look here, we need to have a meeting.

Get your committee together.

And I sat in there and told them everything

about me.

And I was like, you need to know who I am.

No seminary training, basically self-taught,

sat under a very solid pastor for four years.

That was my training.

You need to know what you're getting.

I'm not your grandma's pastor, okay?

And lo and behold, they wanted to call me.

- Praise God.

- And I thought about what Brother Moe said,

opportunity.

And there it was.

And so I served there for two years, long

story, very short.

Out of that, there was some things that went

down

that really weren't great at that church.

And I won't get in all that 'cause we don't

have time.

But out of that ministry,

we planted Providence Baptist Church.

That was over 14 years ago.

- Thank you, Lord.

- And we've been in various locations

till we got in this beautiful building

that God has given us here on Hooper Road to

stay in.

And so like you, I was totally wrapped up in

self,

totally wrapped up in pleasure.

And then God, the hound of heaven, the Holy

Spirit,

came after us and arrested our thinking.

And then what's amazing, and if you're like me

,

I still haven't gotten over it yet, the desire

change.

- Absolutely.

- I'm still bewildered by it

because the things that I used to want to do

more than anything else,

I no longer have any desire to do.

- That's beautiful.

- And the things that I thought I would never

desire to do,

that's all I wanna do.

And I still, every Sunday when I drive here to

this church,

I promise you, I'm like, I can't believe I do

this.

- At all.

- I can't believe I'm doing this all the way

to this day.

And I realize, I don't deserve,

I heard MacArthur preach one time,

not only do we not deserve to have the

privilege

of preaching from pulpits every Sunday

and pastoring God's people, but it's a mercy

to us.

- It is a mercy, ministry is a mercy.

- It's a mercy to be able to serve the King of

Kings

with your life.

And the purpose and meaning that it gives you

is just so overwhelming,

especially when you come from our position.

- Absolutely.

- Of how much we know we don't deserve to be

here.

And yet, he's gotta have a preacher.

How will they hear if they don't have a

preacher, right?

- Thank you Lord.

- And that's what they do.

So before we close out though,

I wanna talk just a little bit about this.

Kyle and I have been in certain situations

with people where we have explained,

and this is a controversial for some,

but it's our position that really,

while AA and NA, which is Narcotics Anonymous,

it has helped people.

- It has.

- There's no question about that.

It has helped people to get off of drugs and

alcohol,

but the majority of time, the rate of return.

- Yeah, the relapse.

- The relapse is, I mean, you can just go look

at it

statistically, is unbelievable high percentage

.

- It is.

- And so from our position,

what we would like to say to you today,

if you're struggling with drug addiction,

or if you have a family member or a friend

that's struggling with drugs and alcohol

addiction,

our answer to that problem is only one.

And that is surrendering to the Lordship.

- Amen.

- In Christ, in saving faith by believing in

his gospel.

And then your desires change.

And he gives you, takes out, as the Bible says

,

the dead heart of stone,

and puts in that heart of flesh.

And makes you spiritually alive.

- Amen.

- And everything changes.

And Kyle, that's the answer.

- As that is the answer, and you said it

already, Phillip.

You know, I began when the Lord imputed

himself in me,

removing the heart of stone,

replacing it with a heart of flesh,

causing me to walk in His ordinances

and to obey His commands.

It was done out of delight, not duty now.

A, A, and N, A are all work-based.

It's out of duty.

I gotta do, do, do, do, do.

Our stance, through the righteousness of Jesus

Christ,

is a done deal.

- Amen.

- He comes in, and it is all Him.

The imputation of Himself.

I now hate the things that I used to love,

and I now love the things I used to hate.

- Isn't that crazy?

- Namely Him.

- Yes.

- So it's about Him.

So He comes in, and cleanses house,

and now we are now walking in the Spirit.

- And He gets all the glory.

- All the glory.

- 100% of all the glory.

- All the glory.

And so there is a work,

but it's the result of our faith, not the

cause.

- Yes.

- And when we do get off that path,

He will chastise us.

- Yes, He will.

- And thank the Lord for His chastise.

- You better believe it.

- We're now positionally perfect,

yet practically raggedy.

And that's where that great doctrine

of sanctification comes in.

- Amen.

- And He guides us, and He will use trials and

tribulations,

and He will cause us to be set apart wholly.

This is about holiness, set apart.

We're no longer running with the wolves.

We're no longer in the world, of the world.

We're in the world, but not of the world.

- Right, right.

- And so, but I could go on and on.

It's Him.

- Well, as Dr. MacArthur says,

it's not about sinless perfection.

- No.

- It's not about the perfection of our life.

It's about the direction.

- That's right.

- Christian, what's the little bumper-stickin'

slogan?

You know, Christians are not perfect, we're

just forgiven.

And I would add to that, we're imputed

with the righteousness of Christ.

- Amen.

- That is not ours.

- No, it's His perfection.

- And it's His that He attained while He was

here,

perfect obedience to the law.

- Amen.

- That actual perfection, and He lived the

perfect life,

that perfection is imputed to us.

- And that's the only thing that makes us

right with God.

- The only thing.

- And when we understand that,

that's what makes us so grateful.

- Absolutely.

- That's what drives me to serve to this very

day.

- That's right.

- And I know it does for you too.

- Absolutely.

- And so, we want to use our testimonies

to be able to reach out to people

and say, "There's a way to get out of that,"

as they say in Pilgrim's Progress,

one of my favorite books of all time,

that slew of despond that you're in,

that you feel you can't get out of,

that if you come to faith in Jesus Christ,

He'll give you new desires,

and you won't want to do those drugs anymore.

- You won't want that drink.

- It'll change your life forever.

And if you ever want to talk to Kyle and I

about that,

come to one of our churches.

As I said, Kyle is fixed to be called

as Associate Pastor over at Salem Baptist

Church.

Is it Denim Springs or is it, it's kind of in

the rural area.

- It's in Walker, it's on Highway 63.

- Okay, okay.

- Wies Road.

- On Wies Road, and Chad Show Band Senior

Pastor over there.

Or you can come here to Providence Baptist

Church

at 10440.

Providence is on Hooper Road in central,

right on the corner of Lovett and Hooper.

Our website is pbcbr.com.

You can join our Facebook page

at Providence Baptist Church of Baton Rouge.

We have video and audio sermons there.

You can follow me on X Twitter at b-r-o-g-u-a-

y.

I put Christian content out there.

We're doing this conference and Kyle,

it has just been a joy to,

I've heard your story multiple times,

but I always enjoy hearing everybody's story.

But especially yours because it's such an

incredible

testimony and we tried to be as brief as we

could,

but we got a lot of story to us.

And so it's hard to condense all of that for

us,

but we wanted to try today to do that

for the benefit of those who need it.

And I wanna say one more thing.

One of our, here we stand churches, Re

formation Church,

recently had a devastating fire

in which the building was, it wasn't burned to

the ground,

but it was burned to the point of total

destruction.

And in fact, I talked to Rusty last night,

we had a great men's meeting here last night

with Nicholas Brown, who did a talk on trans

humanism,

which was extremely fascinating.

Guys got together, we sang.

It's always great when we have those men's

meetings,

but he told us that the insurance company

has given the okay to tear the building down,

but there's stuff inside that building

that they wanna get out.

So Saturday, September the 28th at eight o'

clock

in the morning, any of you guys out there

that wanna come give a helping hand,

always some danger with Rusty,

whenever you get involved with him.

I know you worked with him like I did doing

glass block,

you never know what you might get into.

And so we're gonna try to go in there

and retrieve some of the things that are

retrievable

before the building comes to the ground.

And so that Saturday, September 28th at eight

a.m.,

Reformation Church, you can look them up,

Google them, go their website.

I can't remember their address.

They're right there on the corner of Black

water and Comey

is where they're located here in central,

right around the corner from here.

So Kyle, thank you, brother, so much.

- It was an honor, I love you too, Phillip,

privilege and just a humbling blessing.

Thank you for having me.

- Absolutely, and you will be being asked to

preach again,

but this time it won't be testimony.

It will be just straight word.

- Praise God.

- Kyle can bring the fire, so you wanna be

there

whenever he preaches next that here we stand.

We thank you for watching or listening today.

Until next time, God bless and have a great

Lord's day

coming up the next Lord's day.

God bless.

- God bless.

(orchestral music)