Everybody, what is going on? You know what time it is. You're listening to join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma, daughter.

Thanks for joining. Today, we are reading Ezekiel 25 through 29, and I am in the podcast studio with faithful watermark member, Ryan Clark.

Hey, Emma. Thanks for having me. You're so welcome, Ryan. It's good to have you here and get to know you better. I feel like I know your wife. I know your wife's boss. Yep. But we haven't spent much time together. Yeah, naturally. So would you share a little bit about what God's done in your life and then what you're up to today? Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up in the church, but my view of the church pretty much up until the end of high school was very flawed.

I really just saw it as a place to practice morality rather than strengthening a personal

relationship with God. So really what it looked like to get to that point was the Lord taking

away comforts in my life, pretty much culminating with my parents getting divorced, which took away

my rock in the

midst of anxiety and trouble. So I feel like God really used that time to reveal himself to me

and just remind me that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and cares for me and that would

never leave or forsake me. I got saved prior to my senior year of high school, and after that,

I changed churches and began to

truly understand what it looked like to abide daily, spend time in God's Word, and surround

myself with Christian community that both encouraged and challenged me.

After being baptized just one month before, I walked into college on fire for the Lord,

where I quickly immersed myself in Christian organizations and spend some time at Pine

Cove as well. And where'd you go to college? I went to Texas A&M. Gigum. Yeah. Arguably the best,

the best university. I don't know if it's arguable. I think it is the best. So, yeah. And so I think those

four years really taught me a lot about what it means to have an audience of one, have my words be nothing but from God. And to just remind myself that every good thing that I have is not of my own doing, but of God's kindness at the end of the day. Amen. And then you fast forward the clock. You're married now. Yes. Yeah. We just had our first child as well. So one month into the dad life, that's been awesome. So exciting. And I also have the great opportunity to pour into the lives of middle schoolers through Wake. And I also get to serve the body of Watermark through being an auditorium host and front lines as well. Amazing. I love it. Well, Ryan, I'm excited for you to share with us from

Ezekiel, and we gave you a few prompts. So let's start with the first one. Yeah, let's do it. Which is,

based on chapter 25, would you explain why or how nations that were outside of God's covenant with Israel

are still accountable to God for their responses to his people.

Awesome. Yeah. So although Israel is uniquely God's own, the fate of every nation is still in God's hands.

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