Real Struggles And Real Hope

Announcer 0:01

It's time now to get the Hell Out of Your Life, a weekly broadcast with real people, sharing real struggles and offering real hope. Today's show will encourage, inspire, and empower you to face life's challenges with a bold confidence and renewed hope now. Let's join our host, Ron Myers, the promoter.

Ron Meyers 0:22

Hello, my friends. It is so good to be with you. Today I want to take you on a little different journey. I recently had the privilege of sitting on the other side of the microphone with my good friend John Martin on his podcast, Road to Redemption. Usually I'm the one chasing the stories. This time John asked me to tell mine. We talked about the good, the bad, the mistakes, the miracles, and those moments when Jesus reminded me that he wasn't finished with me yet. And maybe that's what somebody listening today needs to hear. God isn't finished with you either. Here's my conversation with John Martin on the Road to Redemption.

John Martin 1:11

Welcome,

Katrina Roots And A New Story

John Martin 1:12

friends, to Road to Redemption. I'm John Martin, your host, and excited to be back with a good friend from Mississippi, Ron Myers.

Ron Meyers 1:22

Ron, it's so good to be over here, John. I've heard so many good things about the Road to Redemption. I was honored when you asked me to come and visit with you for your podcast.

John Martin 1:33

So you were a big part of this, you know. We we got to know each other after Hurricane Katrina doing radio on the Gulf Coast. And you you told me somewhere along the way, man, you should start a a show, you know. And yeah, so you you were a part of this, and thank you for for encouraging me.

Ron Meyers 1:54

Well, you're welcome. Iron sharpens iron. We encourage each other. And you know, God had when God has a plan, it's a perfect plan.

John Martin 2:00

Yeah. And we can't mess it up unless we just quit and we don't quit. Well, well, I know Ron, you're with your show, you're always interviewing people, but I want to hear, and I know a lot of our listeners would like to hear, how did you come to know Jesus? Give us your story.

The Night An 11-Year-Old Heard Jesus

Ron Meyers 2:15

Well, I grew up in Iowa, Catholic family. I was the only one of seven children that went to a Catholic school. So I knew a little bit about Jesus, but I was also the odd one in the family. I was the black sheep of the family. And about 11 years old, I wanted to end my life. I was in my bedroom in the closet, and I just felt I don't want to live anymore. I'd be better off I wasn't here. And I put this old belt around my neck and put it up on the little clothes rack, and then I jumped off this little stool, and of course, the clothes rack fell on my head. And back in those days, it was bell bottom pants and those loud psychedelic shirts. But I heard the most beautiful voice, the most beautiful voice said, Ron, don't hurt yourself. I've got a plan for you. And the only reason I knew that was Jesus, because Sister Mary Catherine at the Catholic school told me that when Jesus speaks, you'll know his voice. And I knew, and something happened that day. I said, Wow, I have a plan. And that's been my driving force through all the adversity. Married at 18, leaving Iowa, going to the Air Force. My girlfriend got pregnant in an Iowa U Miriam. So I married her, went on, Mississippi, Biloxi, Keysler Air Force Base. Well, three years into our marriage, we had two children, but she seemed to like the next-door neighbor a little more than me. So she ran off at the neighbor and left me in a two-year-old and a one-year-old. And I'll never forget that night, it was a Friday night of the 13th. A two-year-old on the living room floor. I'm a one-year-old. And I looked up to the sky and said, Lord, what am I gonna do? And that same voice took me back to 11 years old. It's gonna be okay. So then I just knew I had a plan. But then again, I loved promoting things. I got out of the Air Force and I wanted to liven up the Gulf Coast. It was kind of a boring place. So I had God, but yet I had my own ambition. So I'm doing this, and everything's going well, you know. Festivals, mud wrestling, bikini contests, selling lots of beer, concerts, and then about the 17th year of business, I said, Lord, I was in a hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia. I just finished smoking a little joint. I looked up. I got oh, Charles, who's the Baptist preacher? Charles Stanton. Yeah, he was on the air, and I looked up and I said, Lord, why do I feel like this? I'm doing well. I'm always in the you know, press and stuff, but I'm miserable. And I heard that beautiful voice again. Now that I have your attention, let me show you what you were created for. And I always tell people, I thank God I was in Atlanta because Atlanta is a six-hour drive to the coast in six hours. Already had my production company, how I was gonna be disassembling it, opening up Braun Meyer's ministries, didn't know what to do. All I wanted to do is find out more about Jesus and tell other people. So that was in 1999, and I never looked back. People thought I should go see a shrink, a psychiatrist, because I was gonna walk away from everything, but I was so happy. And then I felt the Lord say, He showed me this empty warehouse building. It was

Leaving Ambition For A Calling

Ron Meyers 5:22

an empty warehouse building that I had been using for my sets for the beer, the beer booths and all the cosmetics, look for an event, but I couldn't afford it anymore. And I heard him say, make a church. So make church. And then I had this vision. So within seven days, I took all that material, unassembled, built a little church, and then I felt the Lord say, Now go to feed my sheep and the salvation army and invite people to come here on a Tuesday night. And I felt him say, make sure it's a Tuesday night because churches are gonna think you're a competitor if you go Sunday or Wednesday. So I did a Tuesday night, and I also felt the voice say, Don't tell people, don't tell people you they're gonna come on your own, on their own. And they did. They started coming and coming and coming for two years. We were in that church. But this has said something and so important that the listeners need to know there's sometimes in life that we're on a straight path. We know we're doing God's work, and then an opportunity may come your way that sure sounds good, sounds godly. Well, I had a church, Pastor Baptist Church. They came to me and they said, Listen, we love what you're doing in the warehouse, but I had no heat, no air. You could see rats up on the steel beams, you could hear people tinkle when they went to the restroom, but nobody cared because we were there for Jesus. They said, We have a church, an empty church across the street. We will let you use it, we'll pay all the bills. You have AC, you'll have heat, you'll have everything, a kitchen. So everybody's, hey man, thank you, Jesus. So we did that, and that's when I had an opportunity to begin getting into Christian radio. And as a volunteer, I had an afternoon radio show. And one day I put a song on and I said, Lord, because my shirt, that little church was I was losing attendance. Lord, why am I losing these people? And he said, Ron, I told you to build a church that it look like a church, act like a church, and smell like a church. And you, what do you do? You move into a church. And that lesson changed everything. I realized for me, my platform was the streets, was outside, the people that are gonna step foot into a church. They see the they get the heebie-jeebies, they see the church, but they'll come to an empty, abandoned warehouse or a street corner or something like that. So that's really and that's a long answer for a question when you meet Jesus. But it's a lot of us may have met Jesus our early in our life, but we kind of put it on the back side because we're still following our dreams. But I believe there's a time in everyone's life we've had to finally come and say this, and something's not right with my story. I'm not happy. And then Jesus comes in, he intervenes. And that's how I met you at the Christian radio station. You were coming in through Hurricane Katrina, updating our listeners on reports. And God has a plan. And I've just learned now by myself. I usually carry a rock, I don't have one here, but I will tell people by myself, I'm as dumb as this rock. But man, with Jesus, it's amazing the things that he does and what the ideas that he gives us. And you're the same thing, John. You want to reach out and speak life into people. You want people to understand that the worst is sometimes the best thing in their life because the messier your life is, the bigger the message when Jesus begins to

Hope For Anxiety And Depression

Ron Meyers 8:42

sort it out.

John Martin 8:42

Yeah. A big part of what our mission with Road to Redemption is to give people hope. This we're we're in a dying world and the US, the Western world, we were talking about this earlier. Very walks around and kind of says things are great, but things really aren't great. I mean, people have serious trials and things they're walking through, and they need hope. And there's a lot of depression, anxiety, thoughts of suicide, and everybody's walking around. Oh, everything, you know. And we want to provide people hope. And I know you do too. So talk to our listeners a little bit about that, Ron.

Ron Meyers 9:17

I'll say to your listeners that I've interviewed hundreds and hundreds of people. I chase God stories, and I've I've interviewed the worst of the worst, the worst, that if you they thought there was no hope until they called upon the name of Jesus. And that sometimes, as I told a friend of yours outside, some people aren't ready to meet Jesus because they haven't had enough hell in their life. But once we get at the end of our rope, once we say we can't look at the world, we can't look at the politicians, we can't look at the denominations, we have to look at our life and say, I don't like what I'm doing. I don't like how I feel. And then you go and say, you go to your niece or however you do, there's not a formula. You just say, Lord, I can't do this anymore. I need you, I need you change my life, change my heart, and that's when it will take place. I have the proof, I have the evidence, I have the stories. 99% of hundreds, 300 guests I've interviewed never met Jesus at church. They met Jesus at the end of themselves. Did some of them stumble in that? Oh, yeah, we all make mistakes and we stumble, but it just makes us more determined that we can't get through this world on our own. And thank God for grace, because God does never, he's not walking around with a clipboard trying to grade our behavior every day. He wants us to trust in the spirit, lives in us and be led by the spirit and walk by faith, not by sight. See, this is what a lot of the listeners, and you probably are like this like me. I tell a lot of my listeners, I believe in them more than they believe in themselves. And if people really understood that they're wonderfully, fearfully made you just are so awesome in the eyes of God and Jesus that you have something that nobody else has in your hand. See that fingerprint? There's only one fingerprint. All of us have one. It proves we're an original, we're not a copy, we're a one of a kind, and all of us have something to give to this world. And my question to a lot of people if you don't become you, who will? See, a lot of reason a lot of people need hope because they're not themselves. They're trying to be who their parents told them to be, or they're trying to be who the boss told them to be. And Jesus says, No, come to me as you are. See, Jesus wants us to be ourselves, bring out the gifts and the talents and the skills that He's placed inside of us. You know, I could say that I want to be a uh a singer. I could take all the singing lessons from the greatest voice teachers in the world and I'll never sing. I'll scare people away. But when I can use encouragement or love and hope, God just magnifies that. You know, they told John Wesley said one time, how do you draw these crowds? And he says, I set myself on fire and people come watch me burn. See, Jesus wants to put this fire in us of because when we understand our purpose and we understand that no matter how many stupid things we've done with our life, we're not disqualified. We can't lose our salvation. I don't I don't book, I don't see anywhere. We are there, we make mistakes, but thank God we're still loved. In fact, the more mistakes we've made, the Bible says where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. He's with the ones, you know. Someone said the other day, well, asked me, they said, Well, what about these people that go to church and then all of a sudden they get back on drugs or they do this? You can't say God is happy with that. I said, God's gonna discard us because we have a trouble or we have an addiction. No, he's never with us more. He's gonna be, he's holding us even closer than he was before because he knows he hurts when we hurt. And that's why we need to walk with the Spirit and just let him lead us. You know, and when when you're by yourself, listeners, I have every day my coffee with Jesus. Be open, be honest, be transparent, and then just let Jesus do what he does best. Minister to you and love the hell out of your life. That's the name of your show. Get the hell out of your life. Get the hell out of your life. It's a funny, it's a funny name, but it is so true. Yeah. Because you it's the plan words, because when Christ comes in, you literally get the hell out of your life. You are safe. But when you can get the hell, the the anger, the bitterness, the unforgiveness, and when you can eliminate that, you know, I tell people with Jesus, everything I thought I was gonna do in my life, I'm not doing. And everything I'm doing in life I never knew I could do, I'm doing. And it's so fun. See, that's what really what they want, John. They want to tune into you, they want to tune into me and all these other people because they want hope again. They want to know they're gonna be okay. Well, you have God's word on that, you will be okay.

A Church Big Enough For Everyone

John Martin 14:04

We do, and I I think too, um, we were talking about this earlier. What people need is is human connection. Yeah, I really see a revival coming, you know, in this nation. Uh, people want to connect with others, connect, they're gonna connect with Jesus. And it's gonna be a great revival.

Ron Meyers 14:21

I think we're seeing the beginning of that right now, all over the place. Yeah, and I was having a wedding in New Orleans, I walked in, and it was a young couple, and every type of person was in that audience: black, white, gay, and straight, transgender, and I felt the Lord say, This is what my church should look like. See, we qualify people before they can come in the door, but people need to hear about Jesus, they don't need to hear it. But if you know Jesus, he can take care of the rest. Sometimes, well, you can't come into my church, you know, you you wear tattoos, or you might stay in our carpet, it's brand new carpeting, you don't have shoes. But man, uh, we have to see the souls just like somebody in my life somewhere, I don't know who it was, but told me sometimes that you know, God loves you, and no matter how many times you wanted to hurt yourself, he had a plan for you. And that's what we have to remember. This is a messy world, it is messy, and people don't like us of a political party or something like that. And another advice is I tell people is a lot of you people that have a heart for hurting people, take a break from inviting these people to church because they're tired of hearing these invitations. Share your story, tell them what Jesus did for you. You know, we used to call it in network marketing third-party validation. I just want to know what Jesus did with you, Ron. I don't want to know the history lesson. See, a lot of people know Jesus, but I've experienced Jesus two totally different things. Yes, that's why nobody can argue with me about when you come about Jesus. Hey, I've experienced, and don't you tell me some things that he's gonna do or he's not gonna do. He is for us, he's not against us. He wants you to get where, again, going back to the talents, skills, and abilities. Somebody out there like you, look at this. You you you've been a successful realtor, but you've also had that personal connection with people. You're you're a happy guy, you're you're very cordial, and people want to talk to you. There's a lot of people that out there right now, they just need a friend.

John Martin 16:33

Yeah, and the best friend is Jesus. They just want someone to be their friend and listen to them. And I I just found just offering to pray for people has been so impactful, and and that's a big part of what we're doing, just praying for people out and about.

Ron Meyers 16:49

And see, and I think that the important thing to when people like us, what we do like this. People listening, we did not go to school to do this, we didn't go to college, we don't carry a degree with us, we don't have all these seminaries, we're not ordained, or maybe we are ordained. Jesus is working in us and through us. If you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice, right? You squeeze a lemon, you get lemonade. Well, when we get squeezed, Jesus should come out, but sometimes everything else comes out but Jesus.

John Martin 17:22

Yeah, that's good.

Ron Meyers 17:24

He is the truth, the way, the life, and no one can come to the Father without him.

Revival Encounters And A New Tackle Box

John Martin 17:28

I wanted to ask you before we move on a little bit, because I was looking on your website earlier about we were talking about revival. I saw that video I'd never seen before where you were at the Brownsville Revival 2000, and the Pastor Kilpatrick, I guess he interviewed you up there. That was really cool to watch. But you you were there in that part of that revival for like five years.

Ron Meyers 17:51

I was going every Friday night. I drove over every Friday night for two hours from Gulfport. Wow. And I I saw, I saw with my own eyes the power of God and how that moved in the thousands of people. I didn't I and I said then, I said, This is incredible. I remember the first night I went to that revival. And see, when you have an experience like this, that's what we need to experience. Jesus, the first night I went there, I remember looking at my watch, and it was one o'clock in the morning, and I got there at seven. And I said, What's wrong with my watch? But when you get in the presence of Jesus and in the and in the worshiping, you know Jesus is there because he needed a minister. He was that was just that was the time I was just changing my whole life. And I said, This is the real deal. This is incredible. Yeah, he called me up. He said, Well, all the ministers stand up. So probably 2,000 ministers, because the church was packed, 1,500 stood up, and he only called eight to the stage. And he said, You, you, and then he pointed right to me. And he said, You come up here. And what he whispered in my ear at the end, he said, I have a word for you. And this is just before I was getting ready to get into the radio business. You are a fisher of men, and God is getting ready to give you a brand new tackle box with brand new lures. And I said, Thank you, thank you, Jesus. And so if God was finished with us, you could be listening to this because you'd already be gone. But we're here because he's not finished with any of this. I have no idea what I'm doing tomorrow, let alone next year. But I don't need to know because he knows. Yeah, and I'm willing to do that. And I'm willing, I'm willing to make mistakes. I'm willing to fail. I'm willing not to get the answers to the prayer, because after all, it's his will, not mine. And I'm open, I come to God open-handed, Lord, this is what I pray for, this is what I want. But I also accept that I may not get this because I want you to lead me where I need to be. And just like that radio state, the building I have, you know, the the company that you would come to that own that building when I would interview you through Katrina, they I leased it when they closed the radio station to go to a national signal. There was no more local radio, so they leased it to me for my office. Well, they called me last year and they said, we're getting rid of all of our buildings across the country. And I've said, Oh my goodness, what am I gonna do? I don't have a place to go. No, Ron, we know what you're doing, we love what you're doing. Send us $100, and that building is yours, the land is yours, the tower is yours. And it wasn't because for a hundred bucks, because they knew God knew that maybe moving to a new office and new things, maybe I don't know, maybe maybe the podcast would have ended. Maybe I wouldn't have done it. Maybe I would have just retired on the sand destined island of happiness, but it wasn't. And you know, when you when God comes, he's never late, he's never early, but he's always on time. And all that did is make me want to charge hell with a water pill spel even more.

John Martin 21:06

We always like my little chatter. No, I love it. I love it. That's what we wanted.

A Simple Prayer And Next Steps

John Martin 21:10

But we always like to, as we get towards the end, share, you know, as Ryan talked to you about you can give your life to Jesus right now. Amen. You just right now just call out to him and crowd to Jesus and say, Father, I'm a sinner, I'm in need of a savior. I love you. I just I give my life to you. I surrender to you right now. Come into my heart. And amen. God will do that right now as you pray. Right now, and it's that simple. And you are saved, and and he wants a personal relationship with you, and we believe many people will will give their life to Jesus right now. And then once you've done that, it's just the beginning for you. He doesn't You do this alone. The primary way that He he talks to you and He He teaches you and builds that relationship is through the Bible. He gave us this book. This is our His manual for us. And we encourage you to read this every day. To get a Bible and read it. Spend time with the Lord in the morning when you get up. Read His Word. We promise He'll speak to you. And then you're not supposed to do this alone. Get into a Christ-centered Bible-believing church and just go. You're never going to find a perfect church. You know, your church might even be something like Ron was doing on Tuesday night. It just just go. Get in that church and then get into a small group within the church, a group that you can do life with and make yourself vulnerable, make yourself accountable. And we promise God is going to bless your life. You're going to it's not going to be easy. You'll still have trials, but you will have joy and peace in your relationship with the Lord. Well, Ron, before we go, is there anything else that you would want to say that's on your heart?

Ron Meyers 23:11

Well, just to add on what to you said, so many people know their past and they know the things they've done, and they're not pretty. But remember this the thief on the cross, he had like a what a two-minute confession, and Jesus says, Tonight you'll be with me in paradise. See, God isn't waiting for people that are all polished and perfect, because first of all, there are none in the there are none. But always remember, if you think that, man, I don't know, I'm too far gone, think about that thief on the cross, and then to put icing on top of the cake is the last words of Jesus to telesty. It is finished, the finished works of Christ. He did it all so we don't have to do anything. And even, even, even if circumstances, if you live in the jungle, you're out there in the sea doing offshore work. Even if you can't, and I agree with what you said, if you can't make it to church, you can't read that Bible every day. He will never leave you, he will never forsake you, he will never disown you. Go back to when I was 11. He knows your voice. You like you said, John, begin that dialogue. I tell people to start reading even the book of Proverbs. There's 31 Proverbs, one for every day. Read and then tell Jesus be open, be honest, transparent, don't hold anything back. And then one day at a time, and you'll be absolutely because you know we say that people want hope, but what goes along with that hope? But they people just want some peace in their mind. They want to be able to sleep, they want to quit taking the medication, they want to quit hiding from the world, they just want some peace. In Jesus, with Jesus, it's going to be okay. It really is.

John Martin 25:05

He will provide that peace and just surrender your life to Jesus and trust in him, take it day by day. Get some people around you, godly people to do life with. You will be blessed. We promise you.

Your Past Does Not Disqualify You

Ron Meyers 25:21

I hope something in that conversation spoke directly to you today. Life has taught me that redemption doesn't mean you have a perfect story. It means you have a savior who can take the broken pieces of your story and do something with them you never imagined. I've made mistakes, I've taken wrong turns, I've chased things I thought would make me happy. But through every season, Jesus kept reminding me, Ron, I have a plan for you. And friend, he has a plan for you too. Don't let your past convince you that your best days are behind you. Don't disqualify yourself because of what you have done or where you have been. Your mess may become the very message somebody else needs to hear. So here's Ron's next step. Tomorrow morning, before the noise of the world gets hold of you, have a conversation with Jesus. Be open, be honest, be transparent, and simply ask, Jesus, what do you want me to do with the rest of my story? And then listen. Remember, you were created on purpose for a purpose by a God who loves you more than you can imagine. Now go live like you believe it. And if God has brought you down your own road to redemption, I'd love to hear your story. Visit my website, thepromoter.org. In the meantime, remember this. I love you, Jesus loves you, and when you give Jesus your heart, you not only get the hell out of your life, but life begins to make sense.

Announcer 27:26

Today's show is produced by Ron Myers Ministries, a listener-supported ministry. For a copy of today's broadcast, please visit our website, thepromoter.org. And would you prayerfully consider making a tax-deductible donation so that we may continue to share stories of God's amazing grace with the world? And join us next week for another broadcast of Get the Hell Out of Your Life. Real people, sharing real struggles, and offering real hope.