What If Your Gift Is Someone Else’s Lifeline

You can love God and still feel crushed by the weight of what He’s asking you to do. I open up about that tension, the moments I want to stay quiet, and the real struggle of letting “the cares of this world” drown out obedience. Stewardship is not only about what you own. It’s about what you’ve been entrusted with: your gift, your voice, your assignment, and the people your obedience is meant to reach.

I walk through Scripture that makes the point unavoidable. Moses, Abraham, David, Mary, and the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 all show the same pattern: God gives purpose that is bigger than the person, and He gives according to ability even when we cannot see it. We talk about the carnal mind, how fear turns into excuses, and why affirmation is meant to strengthen perseverance rather than feed pride. I also share personal stories from music and ministry that expose how often I knew what God was saying, but still hesitated.

The message gets very real as I describe a terrifying dream that felt like a warning about walking away from my calling, and I explain why launching this podcast took more out of me than most people realize. If you’ve been searching for Christian encouragement, guidance on spiritual gifts, or a wake-up call about obedience and purpose, this is a direct invitation to stop running and step into what God put in your hands. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review with the one line that challenged you most.

Transcript

Welcome And Mission

SPEAKER_02 1:07

God is awesome, yes he is. You're listening to the storage program on Fortune One Show. A lot of men and women alive to bring you the word of God. You know, God tells us to take the gospel into the highways and into the byways. You know, and he also says the word will be preached in the entire world in these last days. For more information, you can visit our website at HOR421 Show.bustcrout.com for all your latest content and information. Email HOR411istries.com. Welcome to Stewardship as we bring you the word of God. Is not God awesome? Yes he is. It's your host, Eddie. You're listening again to the 421 show. This is Stewardship. And God is good all the time. Yes, he is, folks. And I thank God for being in the studio today. It is wonderfully, wonderfully great. I thank God for tasking me with this enormous, enormous responsibility. And trust me, folks, it is a enormous responsibility. There is times that I don't mind coming in here and doing this. It's just sometimes we allow the cares of this world, we allow our flesh to kind of override what God wants us to do. And I'm telling you, folks, it is a struggle sometimes. And as much as I enjoy doing it, it is a struggle. It's heaviness. And I thank God for tasking me. But I do know though, if I if I press on, I persevere and I keep going, you know, I can go on one more day. I thank God for it. And see, it's just not it's it's for you guys. It's for the men and women and the children of this world. It's what God has called me to do. And I thank God for it. I really do. Praise the Lord. I love this song. God is good. I guess I'll go ahead and key it down. But you know,

God Equips Every Assignment

SPEAKER_02 3:17

God will never give you an assignment that you are not equipped to handle. Think about it. Really, really think about it. You know, the giants of faith in this word, in this uh word, they was not given an easy path, but they were given a massive territory. Moses was tasked with leading the entire nation out of the hands of Pharaoh, and Abraham was given an assignment to birth the entire nations. Just not a nation, nations. David was anointed to govern God's people, but before he could rule, he was tasked with facing and killing a literal giant. Mary was handed the responsibility of birthing and raising the Savior, Jesus Christ of this world. And this is just a few of the faux uh men and women, folks, written about in the Word of God. No matter what God hands you, it always serves a purpose far greater than yourself. It's all about his will and not our own. Christ gives us a demonstration of it. When he was praying in the garden before his death, Father, your will, not mine.

The Parable Of The Talents

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We look at the parable and the talents in Matthew 25, 14 through 30. You know, the man uh the master distributes the talents to three servants. To one he gives five and the other two, and another one one. But notice the key detail He gave them, he gave to each according to their ability. See, God sees something in you, he sees something in me, or he wouldn't be able to do this today in you, and he sees this in you and that you can't see in yourself. If we are left to our own devices, we only see through the lens of our carnal fleshly nature, that is why his thoughts are not our thoughts, his ways are not our ways. If we can just grasp the fraction of it, we we can realize his ways is indefinitely higher. You know, um I got you know, overcoming the uh the carnal mind.

When Fear Says You Cannot

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You know, I I see this truth play out in my own life all the time throughout my music career. There have been so many moments where I I looked at a piece of music or a lineup of musicians and I told myself there's absolutely no way I can play that. How can I even share the stage with people? It's on a different level than I than I than I am. But every single time I would muster up the strength, step out on faith, and just do it. And every single time I'd get to the end, look back and think, okay, James, that wasn't too bad. Then the crowd or the other players would come up and tell me, Man, you did great. When God affirms us or tells us we're doing good, a good job, it's not to puff up our pride. It is to give us the encouragement we need to keep moving. I believe the reason so many of us in the church hold back and refuse to step into our calling is that we are listening to the enemy's whispers. Or just being or you're just being vain or you're operating in your own ego. Scriptures

Knowing God’s Voice And Resisting Excuses

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show us both sides of the coin. Look at David when he faced Goliath or when he danced before the Lord with all his might. He didn't care about looking foolish or arrogant. He was consumed by his call. On the flip side, we we see what's happened, what happens when he holds back out of fear. Look at Moses at the burning bush, throwing up excuses after excuses, as why he wasn't able he wasn't the right guy. Look at Gideon constantly putting out fleeces to test God. Now hear me clearly. There is nothing wrong with trying the spirits to see if they're of God. In fact, that's what we are commanded to do that. You know, Jesus said, My sheep know my voice. I'm being completely honest with you. I can say with total confidence that I know when God is instructing me. I know exactly who is speaking. The issue isn't that I don't recognize his voice, the issue is my carnal nature kicks in and I start making excuses. You know, growing up, my mom would drill something into me. James something that I never forget, and she goes, James, James, James, there's no such thing as an excuse. There's only reasons why we choose to do what we do. When people tell me I just don't know if God is telling me to do something, I kinda tend to be a little skeptical. Most of the time, fear is the real reason why manufactured excuses or claims we don't understand the assignment. We have to recognize the reality of Romans 11 29.

Gifts And Callings Are Not Revoked

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The gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. God doesn't take them back. He doesn't accept our excuses. When you stand before God on judgment day, you won't be able to look at him in the eye and say, Lord, I just didn't know it what you was talking about. I didn't know if it was you. God, I didn't understand. God has called me to deliver his word and his testimony. When he tells me to say something or to say it in a specific way, I have to do it. It doesn't matter what I think the outcome will be or how I would think it's going to sound in your guys' ears or anybody else's ears. I am simply a vessel pouring out exactly what he has instructed me to say. It is the exact same way when I play music. I am gifted to play music. I am called to preach his holy word. And and and tell you, folks, that is something hard for me to say. Because I don't feel that I am up to where most preacher standards should be. If I don't do what he has telling me to do, then I will stand before

A Dream Warning About Disobedience

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Christ Jesus with blood on my hands. Years ago, during the season where I was backslidden and running from God, he gave me a vivid, terrifying dream. And in this dream I was standing with a group of people and suddenly I looked down at myself. I was covered in blood from head to toe. I looked at my hands and blood was just literally dripping from my fingers. Even though I wasn't serving God at the time, the moment I woke up, I exactly knew what the dreaming meant. I had blood of men and women on my hands because I had walked away from the gifts and the callings of God that He has required of me. It was a sir it was a severe warning from God. Even knowing all of this, I struggled with it. I still struggle with it today. I allow the cares of this world and the spirit of fear to wreak havoc on me. When it comes to launching this podcast, this very podcast, trust me, folks, it took a lot out of me, and still today it takes a lot out of me. Look at me. I'm not a trained minister or ordained by some organization or some or some seminar. I'm just a blue-collar guy working a nine to five job, just trying

A Blue Collar Call To Preach

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to make my mark. But when I start this podcast, one of the very first things God showed me and instructed me in detail was that I was to operate in the spirit of John the Baptist. I am called to preach Christ's second coming. He has promised me that these messages will go all over the world. That is a heavy platform for a man with no formal biblical education. I get emotional just thinking about it. Most preachers never minister outside their hometown, yet God has called a blue-collar worker to reach the entire world. But it's not the magnitude of the assignment where the instructions are big or small. It is a part of God's sovereign plan. Our ways are not his ways. And I will say again, God will not give you more than you can handle. I promise you folks. If you can't handle it, God's not going to give it to you. Apparently you can handle it. It's really that simple. It's just we just have a we just have to be a willing vessel. So have you asked? You have this my tongue twisted, I'm so sorry.

Repent And Step Into Your Gift

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I had to ask you today, are you running from God's calling or the gift that He's placed in your life? If you are, I urge you to repent today. The fear that you're feeling right now is incredibly small comparison to the greatness of God. The fear of God is so much bigger, and it's not what you think it is. Don't sweat the small stuff. Jesus shows us and told and told us through him it can be done. If if I can do it, you can do it. I promise you. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Is not God good? Even if you don't know him at all, his love for you is real. Seek him while you may be found. Stop running. Please. Step into your calling and watch what he can do. Be a willing vessel. God is so much bigger and greater than we are. And I know that today was shortest, but you know it's it's not the length or the

The Weight Of Buried Talents

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the shortness of the message. It's it's uh it's the weight of the message, it's uh it's the heaviness of it, it's the severity of it. And it it is true. There's going to be so many that stand before God, and that's the only thing that's gonna keep them out of the heaven, is that one or two talent or five talents that he's placed in our hands. And and that's the truth. You might have been a good person your whole life, and you've helped so many people, but there's that one thing that God has called you to do and you're not doing it, that you're fighting it. You're running from it. I ran from it. Being a musician is a hard life. It's a humbling life. Uh if I have any fellow musicians out there, you know what the struggle is. It's not one that you make a million dollars off of. I would love to. But I'm not part of that one percent crowd. You know, and in a way I thank God that I'm not part of that one percent crowd. Because most of those one percent crowds carry a bigger weight than I can ever imagine. And they struggle probably just as hard as I do. But God has placed this podcast and placed other things in my life that that are are pretty significant when it comes to me. There, you know, the weight of it is pretty great. And uh He's put me in a leadership way with this podcast. I've got people under me. Uh I've got people that I manage, you know, their podcast. I got to uh I've got a guest on the show. I've got to manage the guest, I've got to manage, like I said, the other shows. But I thank God for everything that He has done for me. I thank Him, and I I just be frank with you guys, be honest with you. You know,

Carrying The Cross With Christ

SPEAKER_02 16:10

I I I stayed off the air as far as preaching anything or just speaking about anything is because I struggled with it. I fought with it, you know. I'm I'm human, you know. Um, but it it's the truth, you know. The messages were there, the words were there, and it's just I was like, I'm just not feeling it, I'm not feeling it today, and then one thing I led, like I'll take off today, I'll not do it today, and then tomorrow comes around, I'm not gonna do it today, I'll wait till the next day, and then before you know it, weeks have passed, months has passed, whole year has passed. I went pretty quite a about a month or so with not doing anything. And uh I paid severely for it, you know, God whooped me. Truth is, you know, and also the Lord tells us to confess our thoughts one to another. And I'm confessing to you as a brother in the Lord that you know we're we're not all perfect. You might think that we are, you might think that your pastor up there's perfect and got it all together. He's not, he's just like you. The only one that is perfect and was able to carry all of the weight was Christ Jesus, and that's why he did it. Because he knew that we can't. We can carry a little bit of it, that's why we're to pack our own cross. But it comes, God'll pack the rest of it away, you know, the rest of it away. That's where uh the man that packed Christ's cross comes into play. Now the row is turned. As we pack our cross to the death, Christ then turns around and helps us with the cross when it is time for him to pack it. But see, we gotta pack it until it is his time. I thank everybody for listening to the show. This has been wonderful. God is good, yes, he is. And again, you've been listening to the stewardship program on the 421 Show.