Get SHAKEN AWAKE with Matt Hardy!
September 5, 2021
Please join us in welcoming to the show a very special guest, a man of God, and a true example of God's glory and mercy as He has shaken awake and crated a great warrior for Christ in Matt Hardy. We learn a bit about how Matt's live was prior to being Shaken Awake by the Lord, how he lived life for himself, believing he was "saved" due to a number of alter calls and sinners prayers, but found out exactly what it means to serve God with all your heart, mind, soul, and body. You don't want to miss this episode and Matt's story - so strap yourself in for a very uplifting story about a great man of God and what he's doing for the Kingdom now.
[00:00:12.350] - Ben Lively
Thank you so much for tuning in and welcome everyone. I hope you're well, I'm your host, Ben Lively, and you're listening to Shaken Awake, episode number 28. I just wanted to thank you for tuning in wherever you are and whatever you're doing right this very moment. I wanted to thank some new listeners that started listening last week and made some comments and reached out to the show. I just wanted to welcome you aboard. We're glad to have you. And as always, I promise you another great show.
[00:00:43.240] - Ben Lively
But more than anything, my hope for you today and always is that you have an actual encounter with the Lord. He's always right there beside you. And I wanted to give a huge shout out for a moment to my brothers in Christ, Chris Miller West, both Admins and Tyler E, Jeremy Royer, Dakota Bridge and David Smith, all moderators along with myself of a very strong Christian men's group on Facebook known as Men who Follow Christ. And they're the official sponsors of this show. And I couldn't be prouder of them.
[00:01:18.060] - Ben Lively
And the selfless sacrifices they each make to make the spread the Christ and the gospel to men around the world. And if you're a man of God or you're striving to be one, join us today on the Facebook group Men Who Follow Christ. And this place is for men. But we do recognize that there is a need for women to have a place like this. So we support our sister page at www. Dot Facebook dot com groups Forward slash the weeping Women of Christ. So if you're a woman that would like to join that group, please do we invite you in.
[00:01:59.070] - Speaker 1
And so as I mentioned last week, I've had the fortunate honor to have met another spectacular man of God, Matt Hardy through another brother in Christ. In fact, it was Ethan Van Scoy, or shall I call him now? Pastor Ethan Van Scoy, that was live on this show, blessing us during episode number 14. So if you haven't listened to that episode, take a listen after this one, he's another awesome man of God, doing great things with his new home Church out there there in Oklahoma, right this very moment.
[00:02:34.340] - Ben Lively
And he introduced me to Matt and said, Bro, you've got to talk to this man of God. He is out of this world and has so much to offer us and your listeners. You just got to meet him. So thank you, Ethan, for introducing such a wonderful example of what Christ can do when he takes over and transforms the old to the new and produces such a strong man of God as mad is, it's been nothing short of a blessing and a new brother in Christ of mine.
[00:03:01.330] - Speaker 1
So without further Ado, let's get ready to invite God in with us right here right now and allow him to speak directly to your heart and mine. So here it goes. Let's get shaken awake with Matt Hardy of Henderson, Texas. Welcome aboard. Matt. How are you doing today, man? Glad to have you on the show.
[00:03:21.860] - Matt Hardy
I'm good. How are you doing, man?
[00:03:24.300] - Ben Lively
I'm doing great Saturday one of my favorite days of the week.
[00:03:28.200] - Matt Hardy
Yeah.
[00:03:30.170] - Ben Lively
So, Matt, I know we've spoken at length before, and just for the benefit of the listeners who haven't yet heard or had the pleasure of sharing in your story. You know, everyone has a story, right? What's yours?
[00:03:51.260] - Matt Hardy
Well, I guess like a lot of people grew up in charge when I was younger and I would attend and then leave. And of course, life comes and I get wrapped up in all the things of this world. So at a young age, I fell into alcoholism, I fell into drugs, I fell into chasing women. And I just I've always been what you would call a believer but develop some addictions early on in life. And they pretty much ran me the whole time. I've lived in my flesh.
[00:04:26.960] - Matt Hardy
And I guess I always knew what was right but steadily made horrible decisions and ended up in a place where I did not want to be. So I had to learn the hard way I've been in. I've been in prison. I did three and a half years in prison for DWI. Thankfully, I didn't hurt anyone during that. Never had a wreck. But I could never get anything right. And anytime that I would, anytime I would cry out to God, I heard someone else explaining this. The difference in worldly sorrow versus a Godly sorrow and the worldly sorrow I was experiencing was that things weren't going right for me.
[00:05:10.290] - Matt Hardy
I didn't have the right truck. I didn't have the right girlfriend. I didn't have the right job. And when I follow my face, I would go ask, God, please make these things right. But I was never willing to give myself to him would never. Well, I never opened my Bible up for one. So this just went on and on and on. And, you know, until finally, this last time, it was just too much. So yeah, he I guess with the state of the world, it four or five years ago.
[00:05:44.220] - Matt Hardy
I think everything on to see that things have really amplified. And during that time, that's when my journey began to him bringing me back into the fold. Yes.
[00:05:54.780] - Ben Lively
Okay. So five or six years ago, that was the point in your life that God shook you awake, if I may ask, how did He?
[00:06:03.270] - Matt Hardy
Well, I think a lot of people were starting to run through rabbit holes and starting to learn about different things that they didn't learn in school or they didn't learn in Church and in the midst of political idolatry, which I've never seen it before. With Trump coming on the scene, Obama and everything laying the groundwork for everyone to just fall into this stuff so deeply. And of course, I just got out of prison. I saw Clinton and Trump running for President, and I hit the rabbit holes.
[00:06:37.030] - Matt Hardy
And this was kind of I use this analogy. I learned that churches celebrate pagan holidays like Christmas and Easter. So I was ready to go kick Christmas trees over in the churches. But I was too hung over every Sunday morning. It was a process for me as far as the I I said with the process beginning of me hitting these rabbit holes, it was I guess the more I got deeper into learning all that stuff and that's an addiction to getting puffed up on knowledge and everything.
[00:07:11.300] - Matt Hardy
But I was he was working on me. That was the beginning of him working on me. And I guess the more I learned about then this was more recently in the last year, I guess, is when I decided because you can do all that learning and still live in the flesh. I mean, knowledge is still part of the flesh. But that's when I finally just hit me. You're telling everybody that we're getting close to end with a fig tree generation. You want to learn all this stuff about prophecy and all about the world.
[00:07:40.520] - Matt Hardy
But what are you going to do about it? And it was my sister in law who is a believer, and she was seeing the stuff saying. But she asked me. She said, what are you going to do about it? And then I finally got up one day and I was smoking marijuana at the time, and I walked out there and I dumped that sack out and cried out to God. And that's when I got in the scripture. And the more I was reading scripture, it was just things that I guess that it was kind of a culture in the churches that I've gone to, where you just see that
[00:08:18.420] - Matt Hardy
[00:08:21.310] - Ben Lively
I think I'm following you where you're finding out, because it's just strikingly familiar to me in the past two years where you're starting to read things in the Bible. And the way I describe it is as you're reading it, you come to many, many places where you stop and you think, wait a minute. Where was that my whole life. How come I never heard about that growing up in the Church? How come Church never spoke that to me? But it's been right here in my Bible the whole time.
[00:08:50.940] - Ben Lively
Is it kind of what you were feeling?
[00:08:54.040] - Matt Hardy
Yeah. I've made that centers walk up to the front of the Church, probably 15 or 20 different times. And I mean, this was a family member. Like I said, I would start talking about daughters seeking after God when things would go wrong. And I was talking to her. And she said, Well, Matt, you know, you're safe. You got baptized when you were five or six. You don't remember that. And that goes along with what I learned in Church once saved, always saved and you bury that in a box like you earn a College degree and you just move on with your life and that you read things in Scripture.
[00:09:33.230] - Matt Hardy
And it's just so not at all what we're supposed to be doing that's when I learned that it was an occupation year to take up and deny your flesh and to be a servant for Christ. And it's not at all what I was learning in Church. And I guess I started learning the difference between trying to appear to be a Godly man to the world and trying to be a Godly man to God and going and telling people about his son and where before would I need to watch my mouth?
[00:10:05.600] - Matt Hardy
And you know, when the Holy Spirit is working in you, when you have that sorrow, you don't have to watch your mouth, because if you don't watch it, you're going to have that sick feeling in your stomach. And if you go and you live like the world is, you're going to have that feeling that Spirit is going to convict you when you do that. And it was a learning process. But I praise God that he would chastise me and kept putting me back on the path.
[00:10:30.340] - Matt Hardy
And I mean, obviously He was calling me to him, but I just never answered that call until right here. I feel like it's the last day coming, and I'm thankful for that. Go ahead.
[00:10:44.900] - Ben Lively
Yeah. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I think one of the things you had mentioned a few moments ago was the rabbit holes. And just for the audience sake, the listeners sake, I think what you're talking about is the things you can get lost in. I'll name one of the biggest components of rabbit hole production is YouTube. Right. So you've got YouTube groups, you've got Facebook groups, and they have a theme, and they're pretty convincing. Many of them start and end with the enemy. They appear as he does as light, not something dark, and you get sucked into it.
[00:11:26.670] - Matt Hardy
And before you know it, you're involved and you're a believer of it rather than the word, because you have never studied the word. You've studied what the rabbit trails have had you down. Would that be a fair assessment?
[00:11:37.840] - Matt Hardy
Yes. And that's a big part of my testimony. And I thank the brothers and sisters who have been patient with me and teach me that. Of course, you don't always respond well to being rebuked right in the beginning. At least I didn't. But they stuck around with me. And the more I saw it in the Bible, the more I understood what they were trying to tell me. Cubing on, everybody start queuing on. And I don't. Now how you feel about people giving their this is what I learned from that.
[00:12:08.460] - Matt Hardy
I went all the way to the bottom of that rabbit hole. And of course, if you don't have the milk, the spiritual milk of Scripture and you run out there and you start trying to eat the meat. I mean, you're just going to get so lost. And people are trying to decipher in times eschatology from YouTube videos that are usually taught by New Agers, which you see a lot of the confusion in the Church and everything. But you get the studying UFOs and everything else, especially you do that as a believer and you're going to get lost if you can't make sense of it.
[00:12:43.150] - Matt Hardy
And so there was a long period of time where I was into the queue and on stuff and I've come to discover and come to believe that the Great awakening of Q and on darkness to light is the free Masonic end times plan to unbuild the anti cost. And I was lost in a lot of those ideas. But the beast Kingdom is going to be unveiled. Its just a miraculous light thing, and it caught a lot of people up in that snare. I don't do politics anymore.
[00:13:14.950] - Matt Hardy
I'm not pro Trump anti Trump anything else. We're going to see how all this stuff unfolds. But as far as the rabbit holes go, yes, sir. They're extremely dangerous to somebody who's not grounded in the word, and they're unnecessary to somebody that is grounded in the word. So well put.
[00:13:31.050] - Ben Lively
Very well put. Thank you for clearing that up. And that some great points. What would be Matt? One or maybe two recommendations that you'd give those that are Lukewarm or just not on fire for the Lord, like they won or need or should be in order to make a significant change in their life and to start living every day for the Lord.
[00:13:55.450] - Matt Hardy
Go to prayer and go to the Bible for your questions. Don't use the measuring stick that you get from society and from people, even in Church, because if you're hanging out with people in Church and you're going and drinking with them on the weekends, where to rebuke each other. And if you're not being rebuked and you know you're living in the flesh, you ought to question the people that you're around and were to be like Christ. So as far as being Lukewarm, I mean, that's what I would do.
[00:14:28.410] - Matt Hardy
[00:00:12.350] - Ben Lively
Thank you so much for tuning in and welcome everyone. I hope you're well, I'm your host, Ben Lively, and you're listening to Shaken Awake, episode number 28. I just wanted to thank you for tuning in wherever you are and whatever you're doing right this very moment. I wanted to thank some new listeners that started listening last week and made some comments and reached out to the show. I just wanted to welcome you aboard. We're glad to have you. And as always, I promise you another great show.
[00:00:43.240] - Ben Lively
But more than anything, my hope for you today and always is that you have an actual encounter with the Lord. He's always right there beside you. And I wanted to give a huge shout out for a moment to my brothers in Christ, Chris Miller West, both Admins and Tyler E, Jeremy Royer, Dakota Bridge and David Smith, all moderators along with myself of a very strong Christian men's group on Facebook known as Men who Follow Christ. And they're the official sponsors of this show. And I couldn't be prouder of them.
[00:01:18.060] - Ben Lively
And the selfless sacrifices they each make to make the spread the Christ and the gospel to men around the world. And if you're a man of God or you're striving to be one, join us today on the Facebook group Men Who Follow Christ. And this place is for men. But we do recognize that there is a need for women to have a place like this. So we support our sister page at www. Dot Facebook dot com groups Forward slash the weeping Women of Christ. So if you're a woman that would like to join that group, please do we invite you in.
[00:01:59.070] - Speaker 1
And so as I mentioned last week, I've had the fortunate honor to have met another spectacular man of God, Matt Hardy through another brother in Christ. In fact, it was Ethan Van Scoy, or shall I call him now? Pastor Ethan Van Scoy, that was live on this show, blessing us during episode number 14. So if you haven't listened to that episode, take a listen after this one, he's another awesome man of God, doing great things with his new home Church out there there in Oklahoma, right this very moment.
[00:02:34.340] - Ben Lively
And he introduced me to Matt and said, Bro, you've got to talk to this man of God. He is out of this world and has so much to offer us and your listeners. You just got to meet him. So thank you, Ethan, for introducing such a wonderful example of what Christ can do when he takes over and transforms the old to the new and produces such a strong man of God as mad is, it's been nothing short of a blessing and a new brother in Christ of mine.
[00:03:01.330] - Speaker 1
So without further Ado, let's get ready to invite God in with us right here right now and allow him to speak directly to your heart and mine. So here it goes. Let's get shaken awake with Matt Hardy of Henderson, Texas. Welcome aboard. Matt. How are you doing today, man? Glad to have you on the show.
[00:03:21.860] - Matt Hardy
I'm good. How are you doing, man?
[00:03:24.300] - Ben Lively
I'm doing great Saturday one of my favorite days of the week.
[00:03:28.200] - Matt Hardy
Yeah.
[00:03:30.170] - Ben Lively
So, Matt, I know we've spoken at length before, and just for the benefit of the listeners who haven't yet heard or had the pleasure of sharing in your story. You know, everyone has a story, right? What's yours?
[00:03:51.260] - Matt Hardy
Well, I guess like a lot of people grew up in charge when I was younger and I would attend and then leave. And of course, life comes and I get wrapped up in all the things of this world. So at a young age, I fell into alcoholism, I fell into drugs, I fell into chasing women. And I just I've always been what you would call a believer but develop some addictions early on in life. And they pretty much ran me the whole time. I've lived in my flesh.
[00:04:26.960] - Matt Hardy
And I guess I always knew what was right but steadily made horrible decisions and ended up in a place where I did not want to be. So I had to learn the hard way I've been in. I've been in prison. I did three and a half years in prison for DWI. Thankfully, I didn't hurt anyone during that. Never had a wreck. But I could never get anything right. And anytime that I would, anytime I would cry out to God, I heard someone else explaining this. The difference in worldly sorrow versus a Godly sorrow and the worldly sorrow I was experiencing was that things weren't going right for me.
[00:05:10.290] - Matt Hardy
I didn't have the right truck. I didn't have the right girlfriend. I didn't have the right job. And when I follow my face, I would go ask, God, please make these things right. But I was never willing to give myself to him would never. Well, I never opened my Bible up for one. So this just went on and on and on. And, you know, until finally, this last time, it was just too much. So yeah, he I guess with the state of the world, it four or five years ago.
[00:05:44.220] - Matt Hardy
I think everything on to see that things have really amplified. And during that time, that's when my journey began to him bringing me back into the fold. Yes.
[00:05:54.780] - Ben Lively
Okay. So five or six years ago, that was the point in your life that God shook you awake, if I may ask, how did He?
[00:06:03.270] - Matt Hardy
Well, I think a lot of people were starting to run through rabbit holes and starting to learn about different things that they didn't learn in school or they didn't learn in Church and in the midst of political idolatry, which I've never seen it before. With Trump coming on the scene, Obama and everything laying the groundwork for everyone to just fall into this stuff so deeply. And of course, I just got out of prison. I saw Clinton and Trump running for President, and I hit the rabbit holes.
[00:06:37.030] - Matt Hardy
And this was kind of I use this analogy. I learned that churches celebrate pagan holidays like Christmas and Easter. So I was ready to go kick Christmas trees over in the churches. But I was too hung over every Sunday morning. It was a process for me as far as the I I said with the process beginning of me hitting these rabbit holes, it was I guess the more I got deeper into learning all that stuff and that's an addiction to getting puffed up on knowledge and everything.
[00:07:11.300] - Matt Hardy
But I was he was working on me. That was the beginning of him working on me. And I guess the more I learned about then this was more recently in the last year, I guess, is when I decided because you can do all that learning and still live in the flesh. I mean, knowledge is still part of the flesh. But that's when I finally just hit me. You're telling everybody that we're getting close to end with a fig tree generation. You want to learn all this stuff about prophecy and all about the world.
[00:07:40.520] - Matt Hardy
But what are you going to do about it? And it was my sister in law who is a believer, and she was seeing the stuff saying. But she asked me. She said, what are you going to do about it? And then I finally got up one day and I was smoking marijuana at the time, and I walked out there and I dumped that sack out and cried out to God. And that's when I got in the scripture. And the more I was reading scripture, it was just things that I guess that it was kind of a culture in the churches that I've gone to, where you just see that
[00:08:18.420] - Matt Hardy
[00:08:21.310] - Ben Lively
I think I'm following you where you're finding out, because it's just strikingly familiar to me in the past two years where you're starting to read things in the Bible. And the way I describe it is as you're reading it, you come to many, many places where you stop and you think, wait a minute. Where was that my whole life. How come I never heard about that growing up in the Church? How come Church never spoke that to me? But it's been right here in my Bible the whole time.
[00:08:50.940] - Ben Lively
Is it kind of what you were feeling?
[00:08:54.040] - Matt Hardy
Yeah. I've made that centers walk up to the front of the Church, probably 15 or 20 different times. And I mean, this was a family member. Like I said, I would start talking about daughters seeking after God when things would go wrong. And I was talking to her. And she said, Well, Matt, you know, you're safe. You got baptized when you were five or six. You don't remember that. And that goes along with what I learned in Church once saved, always saved and you bury that in a box like you earn a College degree and you just move on with your life and that you read things in Scripture.
[00:09:33.230] - Matt Hardy
And it's just so not at all what we're supposed to be doing that's when I learned that it was an occupation year to take up and deny your flesh and to be a servant for Christ. And it's not at all what I was learning in Church. And I guess I started learning the difference between trying to appear to be a Godly man to the world and trying to be a Godly man to God and going and telling people about his son and where before would I need to watch my mouth?
[00:10:05.600] - Matt Hardy
And you know, when the Holy Spirit is working in you, when you have that sorrow, you don't have to watch your mouth, because if you don't watch it, you're going to have that sick feeling in your stomach. And if you go and you live like the world is, you're going to have that feeling that Spirit is going to convict you when you do that. And it was a learning process. But I praise God that he would chastise me and kept putting me back on the path.
[00:10:30.340] - Matt Hardy
And I mean, obviously He was calling me to him, but I just never answered that call until right here. I feel like it's the last day coming, and I'm thankful for that. Go ahead.
[00:10:44.900] - Ben Lively
Yeah. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I think one of the things you had mentioned a few moments ago was the rabbit holes. And just for the audience sake, the listeners sake, I think what you're talking about is the things you can get lost in. I'll name one of the biggest components of rabbit hole production is YouTube. Right. So you've got YouTube groups, you've got Facebook groups, and they have a theme, and they're pretty convincing. Many of them start and end with the enemy. They appear as he does as light, not something dark, and you get sucked into it.
[00:11:26.670] - Matt Hardy
And before you know it, you're involved and you're a believer of it rather than the word, because you have never studied the word. You've studied what the rabbit trails have had you down. Would that be a fair assessment?
[00:11:37.840] - Matt Hardy
Yes. And that's a big part of my testimony. And I thank the brothers and sisters who have been patient with me and teach me that. Of course, you don't always respond well to being rebuked right in the beginning. At least I didn't. But they stuck around with me. And the more I saw it in the Bible, the more I understood what they were trying to tell me. Cubing on, everybody start queuing on. And I don't. Now how you feel about people giving their this is what I learned from that.
[00:12:08.460] - Matt Hardy
I went all the way to the bottom of that rabbit hole. And of course, if you don't have the milk, the spiritual milk of Scripture and you run out there and you start trying to eat the meat. I mean, you're just going to get so lost. And people are trying to decipher in times eschatology from YouTube videos that are usually taught by New Agers, which you see a lot of the confusion in the Church and everything. But you get the studying UFOs and everything else, especially you do that as a believer and you're going to get lost if you can't make sense of it.
[00:12:43.150] - Matt Hardy
And so there was a long period of time where I was into the queue and on stuff and I've come to discover and come to believe that the Great awakening of Q and on darkness to light is the free Masonic end times plan to unbuild the anti cost. And I was lost in a lot of those ideas. But the beast Kingdom is going to be unveiled. Its just a miraculous light thing, and it caught a lot of people up in that snare. I don't do politics anymore.
[00:13:14.950] - Matt Hardy
I'm not pro Trump anti Trump anything else. We're going to see how all this stuff unfolds. But as far as the rabbit holes go, yes, sir. They're extremely dangerous to somebody who's not grounded in the word, and they're unnecessary to somebody that is grounded in the word. So well put.
[00:13:31.050] - Ben Lively
Very well put. Thank you for clearing that up. And that some great points. What would be Matt? One or maybe two recommendations that you'd give those that are Lukewarm or just not on fire for the Lord, like they won or need or should be in order to make a significant change in their life and to start living every day for the Lord.
[00:13:55.450] - Matt Hardy
Go to prayer and go to the Bible for your questions. Don't use the measuring stick that you get from society and from people, even in Church, because if you're hanging out with people in Church and you're going and drinking with them on the weekends, where to rebuke each other. And if you're not being rebuked and you know you're living in the flesh, you ought to question the people that you're around and were to be like Christ. So as far as being Lukewarm, I mean, that's what I would do.
[00:14:28.410] - Matt Hardy
I would look around and see well dressed men with their hands in the air, praise in God. That's all wonderful stuff. But you know, if people are really living that just go to the word, go to prayer. I mean, Paul told he said, I am the least of all you servants. He was just happy to be there. And he was humble. And it was all about Jesus Christ. And if you're not living your life, if Jesus Christ in your measuring stick and that should cause concern for you, it did me.
[00:15:02.110] - Matt Hardy
But like I said, I didn't come to the knowledge of this stuff until I was getting rebuke and accepting that rebuking from fellow Christians. And I never heard this in charge, you know? Yeah. Just go to the word, go to Scripture. I started off it was do we celebrate Saturday Sabbath? Can I eat pork? Because when I started, like, truly seeking after God these last several years, I was seeking a lot of the questions that I had. I was asking people on Facebook and joining different Christian groups, and you're going to come across all sorts of false doctrines.
[00:15:38.540] - Matt Hardy
Go to the Word. All the questions are in there. You know, we read Paul's writings, read the Gospels, and don't take Man's word for anything at all. So that cleared up a lot of my confusion. That's not the best device I could give. Someone is go to the word and go to prayer.
[00:15:57.120] - Ben Lively
Million dollar advice right there. Absolutely. It will always tell you the truth, and it will never comfort you with a lie.
[00:16:02.950] - Ben Lively
Right?
[00:16:03.160] - Ben Lively
Absolutely. The word is like they say the ultimate fact checker. And just like we've discussed prior as many of the things that you learn in the Bible for the very first time, whether you're 20, 30, 40, 60 years of age, because it's just not taught in the Church. But it's been right there in front of in God's living Word the entire time. So I know you've had some past mistakes. We all have some more than others. I've got dictionaries fold right there with you. But you've had some past mistakes come back to surface recently that I kind of like into the fiery furnace.
[00:16:42.480] - Ben Lively
Can you share a bit about that? But also where you see the silver lining in it all, being with what the Lord may have in store for you in all of this.
[00:16:54.320] - Matt Hardy
Yeah. I said before I've had six. Well, that last one came two years ago, and it was in the midst of doing all that research, which obviously it was while living in unrepentant lifestyle. But I got a six Wi, and it's been starting stopping because of this Corona of our stuff. But courts have opened back up, and I'm not real sure what's going to happen with that. But when it first came back up, I had a little panic attack. It's a scary thing to be to be going to jail in times like these.
[00:17:33.480] - Matt Hardy
I mean, you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I got to thinking about it and praying about it and reading Scripture. And that's like the story of Jonah. He didn't want to go where God told him to, and he ended up being there anyways. And I've learned that as long as I'm doing God's will that he's going to watch out for me. And if it's his will for me to go into prison and preach and try to teach and help 67 other men and a dorm, then that's what I'm going to do.
[00:18:04.110] - Matt Hardy
And if it's out here, if I catch a break and get probation or something else with everything going on, the that's what I'm going to do out here, too. And that goes back to me wanting to do my will versus do his will. I'm gonna take it. But I just have a fact that he's going to watch out for me.
[00:18:26.680] - Ben Lively
So yeah, what a powerful testimony. I think you had mentioned it would be up to seven years, and I can count on one finger how many people have said what they would do if that would happen. And I'll tell you, zero gave that answer. It would be to use that for the greater will of God and to be a Minister in the prison system to help bring people closer to Christ. I don't know of anyone that would use that and turn what the enemy would have for evil and use it for good.
[00:19:04.880] - Ben Lively
So my hat is off to you and you're a great blessing and a wonderful example of what Christ would have us be and how to live our life. It's classic right out of the Bible example of what Christ would do. And man, how amazing is that. Guys, I'll wrap up with this, Matt, because I like to ask this question and I often play this game with myself because it's a good exercise and it's a good time to reflect and learn. And it's the proverbial mirror. But if you could go back in time knowing the relationship that you have with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, what would you tell young Matt?
[00:20:00.010] - Matt Hardy
Well, you know, I'm not proud at all. I'm not proud of the things that I've done, and I know we're all going to face judgment, and but honestly, I think I'd probably just tell him to take it all in that's a big part of my testimony is God allowed me to roll around in that field for as long as I did, because, man, this is part of my rabbit whole part of my awakening. But I was looking at the music. I was listening to the books I was reading, and I was seeing it in part of the end times deception.
[00:20:34.560] - Matt Hardy
It's one thing for your parents to tell you that you're listening to devil music, but it's another thing to see it in the lyrics when you start opening your Bible up and it's such a big part of my testimony, I don't think that I would do that was part of God calling me back to him. He knew what I needed to see. I used to be puffed up on my pride, my knowledge and biology. I was a biology major. Well, we don't know what's out there, and I love getting in debates with Christians on and calling myself a Christian.
[00:21:06.130] - Matt Hardy
How insane is that? Well, but we just don't know. It's such a pride thing for people to just look out there and we just don't know. But that was a lot of I had to be humbled and God knew how to humble me, so I wouldn't change the thing I don't believe.
[00:21:26.070] - Ben Lively
Great answer. Great answer, Matt. Well, Matt, I can't thank you enough for allowing God to speak through you today and into the ears and hearts of our listeners. What a blessing. It's been just to hear your story and just see how the glory of God can take over and pull someone out of just the state of being lost and using again what the enemy meant for evil and using it for good and with such a great man of God like yourself. Matt, you're welcome back anytime. And I'm sure won't be the last time we hear for you.
[00:21:55.770] - Ben Lively
God's not done with you yet. And we love to see how you and the Lord are blessing others in the future. Would you be willing to come back on in the future?
[00:22:04.990] - Matt Hardy
Yes, sir.
[00:22:06.410] - Ben Lively
God bless you, Matt. Well, thank you again before we end today's show, I just wanted to thank you all again for tuning in. And I hope you were touched by God through today's show. And Matt's story. I'd like to ask you a favor. Only if you received any value out of today's show, would you tell at least one person you know, just call them, text them, email them, talk to them, tell them to give the show a listen and check out the show at www. Shaken awake.com
[00:22:37.840] - Ben Lively
You can email me at Ben at Shaken Awake dot com or just call or text me directly for any reason. I can be reached at 407-493-3208 again. The number is 407-493-3208. And if you have any ideas for the show, let me know. I'd love to hear your ideas and next week tune in next Sunday or whenever you're able as we dive into another important topic, which is, Where does your faith lie, God, or the governments of the world and COVID next week? This episode is another powerful and do not miss episode.
[00:23:23.430] - Ben Lively
Thank you all for joining until next week. Take great care of yourself in each other and God bless you all.
I would look around and see well dressed men with their hands in the air, praise in God. That's all wonderful stuff. But you know, if people are really living that just go to the word, go to prayer. I mean, Paul told he said, I am the least of all you servants. He was just happy to be there. And he was humble. And it was all about Jesus Christ. And if you're not living your life, if Jesus Christ in your measuring stick and that should cause concern for you, it did me.
[00:15:02.110] - Matt Hardy
But like I said, I didn't come to the knowledge of this stuff until I was getting rebuke and accepting that rebuking from fellow Christians. And I never heard this in charge, you know? Yeah. Just go to the word, go to Scripture. I started off it was do we celebrate Saturday Sabbath? Can I eat pork? Because when I started, like, truly seeking after God these last several years, I was seeking a lot of the questions that I had. I was asking people on Facebook and joining different Christian groups, and you're going to come across all sorts of false doctrines.
[00:15:38.540] - Matt Hardy
Go to the Word. All the questions are in there. You know, we read Paul's writings, read the Gospels, and don't take Man's word for anything at all. So that cleared up a lot of my confusion. That's not the best device I could give. Someone is go to the word and go to prayer.
[00:15:57.120] - Ben Lively
Million dollar advice right there. Absolutely. It will always tell you the truth, and it will never comfort you with a lie.
[00:16:02.950] - Ben Lively
Right?
[00:16:03.160] - Ben Lively
Absolutely. The word is like they say the ultimate fact checker. And just like we've discussed prior as many of the things that you learn in the Bible for the very first time, whether you're 20, 30, 40, 60 years of age, because it's just not taught in the Church. But it's been right there in front of in God's living Word the entire time. So I know you've had some past mistakes. We all have some more than others. I've got dictionaries fold right there with you. But you've had some past mistakes come back to surface recently that I kind of like into the fiery furnace.
[00:16:42.480] - Ben Lively
Can you share a bit about that? But also where you see the silver lining in it all, being with what the Lord may have in store for you in all of this.
[00:16:54.320] - Matt Hardy
Yeah. I said before I've had six. Well, that last one came two years ago, and it was in the midst of doing all that research, which obviously it was while living in unrepentant lifestyle. But I got a six Wi, and it's been starting stopping because of this Corona of our stuff. But courts have opened back up, and I'm not real sure what's going to happen with that. But when it first came back up, I had a little panic attack. It's a scary thing to be to be going to jail in times like these.
[00:17:33.480] - Matt Hardy
I mean, you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I got to thinking about it and praying about it and reading Scripture. And that's like the story of Jonah. He didn't want to go where God told him to, and he ended up being there anyways. And I've learned that as long as I'm doing God's will that he's going to watch out for me. And if it's his will for me to go into prison and preach and try to teach and help 67 other men and a dorm, then that's what I'm going to do.
[00:18:04.110] - Matt Hardy
And if it's out here, if I catch a break and get probation or something else with everything going on, the that's what I'm going to do out here, too. And that goes back to me wanting to do my will versus do his will. I'm gonna take it. But I just have a fact that he's going to watch out for me.
[00:18:26.680] - Ben Lively
So yeah, what a powerful testimony. I think you had mentioned it would be up to seven years, and I can count on one finger how many people have said what they would do if that would happen. And I'll tell you, zero gave that answer. It would be to use that for the greater will of God and to be a Minister in the prison system to help bring people closer to Christ. I don't know of anyone that would use that and turn what the enemy would have for evil and use it for good.
[00:19:04.880] - Ben Lively
So my hat is off to you and you're a great blessing and a wonderful example of what Christ would have us be and how to live our life. It's classic right out of the Bible example of what Christ would do. And man, how amazing is that. Guys, I'll wrap up with this, Matt, because I like to ask this question and I often play this game with myself because it's a good exercise and it's a good time to reflect and learn. And it's the proverbial mirror. But if you could go back in time knowing the relationship that you have with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, what would you tell young Matt?
[00:20:00.010] - Matt Hardy
Well, you know, I'm not proud at all. I'm not proud of the things that I've done, and I know we're all going to face judgment, and but honestly, I think I'd probably just tell him to take it all in that's a big part of my testimony is God allowed me to roll around in that field for as long as I did, because, man, this is part of my rabbit whole part of my awakening. But I was looking at the music. I was listening to the books I was reading, and I was seeing it in part of the end times deception.
[00:20:34.560] - Matt Hardy
It's one thing for your parents to tell you that you're listening to devil music, but it's another thing to see it in the lyrics when you start opening your Bible up and it's such a big part of my testimony, I don't think that I would do that was part of God calling me back to him. He knew what I needed to see. I used to be puffed up on my pride, my knowledge and biology. I was a biology major. Well, we don't know what's out there, and I love getting in debates with Christians on and calling myself a Christian.
[00:21:06.130] - Matt Hardy
How insane is that? Well, but we just don't know. It's such a pride thing for people to just look out there and we just don't know. But that was a lot of I had to be humbled and God knew how to humble me, so I wouldn't change the thing I don't believe.
[00:21:26.070] - Ben Lively
Great answer. Great answer, Matt. Well, Matt, I can't thank you enough for allowing God to speak through you today and into the ears and hearts of our listeners. What a blessing. It's been just to hear your story and just see how the glory of God can take over and pull someone out of just the state of being lost and using again what the enemy meant for evil and using it for good and with such a great man of God like yourself. Matt, you're welcome back anytime. And I'm sure won't be the last time we hear for you.
[00:21:55.770] - Ben Lively
God's not done with you yet. And we love to see how you and the Lord are blessing others in the future. Would you be willing to come back on in the future?
[00:22:04.990] - Matt Hardy
Yes, sir.
[00:22:06.410] - Ben Lively
God bless you, Matt. Well, thank you again before we end today's show, I just wanted to thank you all again for tuning in. And I hope you were touched by God through today's show. And Matt's story. I'd like to ask you a favor. Only if you received any value out of today's show, would you tell at least one person you know, just call them, text them, email them, talk to them, tell them to give the show a listen and check out the show at www. Shaken awake.com
[00:22:37.840] - Ben Lively
You can email me at Ben at Shaken Awake dot com or just call or text me directly for any reason. I can be reached at 407-493-3208 again. The number is 407-493-3208. And if you have any ideas for the show, let me know. I'd love to hear your ideas and next week tune in next Sunday or whenever you're able as we dive into another important topic, which is, Where does your faith lie, God, or the governments of the world and COVID next week? This episode is another powerful and do not miss episode.
[00:23:23.430] - Ben Lively
Thank you all for joining until next week. Take great care of yourself in each other and God bless you all.