Dungeons & Disciples

Josh Shaw 0:20
Welcome back to dungeons and disciples. It's so good to be back.

Tony Benda 0:27
It's good to hear your voice again.

Josh Shaw 0:30
And so thankful. I will say though, it was a really good experience to not be able to speak for a whole episode I

Tony Benda 0:37
can imagine. I was glad you're able to again,

Josh Shaw 0:42
it was so encouraging to listen to you and to Aaron, just like back and forth dialogue. And like in a really intense, intentful way, because I felt like in that moment, the Lord was like, I need you to hear what they're saying rather than speak. So for those who were encouraged or haven't listened to our previous episode, bro with a voice, we have a very special guest host Tony's brother, Aaron Bender, and an incredible episode of leaning into the voice of God. hearing the voice of God and using your voice to spread the love of God. A content those two men provided, it's like I can just I can just I miss him.

Tony Benda 1:28
He's I see him out of the corner of my eye just sitting here in my mind's eye. That was a it was a fun episode. Very interesting doing a podcast with your brother. I know that McElroy is understand what it's like to do podcasts like a family. They do the adventure zone. And then they also have a podcast, my brother, my brother in me. So they literally are just family doing podcasting. It's pretty great. But yeah, the adventure zone is another actual play show. So it's the McElroy is with their dad. They play d&d together. Wow. And Griff, I think is the DM I haven't I've literally just started that journey of the adventure side. I'm like five episodes in. But it's good. It's there started with lost minds of fan delver I believe. Oh, so it's pretty fun.

Josh Shaw 2:20
Oh, that's fun.

Tony Benda 2:21
Yeah, one of the most common, you know, starting points for any d&d adventure. Oh, my goodness. But yeah, it's cool. It was nice doing a podcast with my brother. I don't know. It's just one of those things that I didn't expect to ever do in my life. But it's kind of cool that it happened. And, you know, here's two more episodes ahead.

Josh Shaw 2:41
And more guest hosts.

Tony Benda 2:43
That's right.

Josh Shaw 2:44
We're telling you,

Tony Benda 2:45
we're gonna have a lot of people on here. So yes, sir. Yeah, um, I've been, I've been dreaming up some stuff. And I know, you've been dreaming up some stuff that we've talked about, you know, future guests and stuff that it'll just be fun. See, I

Josh Shaw 2:58
just leave it there. The fun part about that is, is that I share my dreams a lot like Tony had to do this. But when Tony dreams, all my, what I get in response, when I hear Tony's dreams about this podcast, it blows. It blows my mind.

Tony Benda 3:15
Yeah, it can be. It can be fun, sometimes. It is fun. This

Josh Shaw 3:20
is a fun experience. I will say though, while this is still an amazing experience, Tony and I both had to get up very, very early. And please hear me, viewers, listeners. And I'm actually going to praise you for a moment because if you consistently get up at five o'clock or earlier, you are champions. Amen. Because getting up at 5am This morning, I was like, I haven't gotten up at 5am. Since the military. It's been a long time. And I woke up this morning. And actually even earlier in the military. I woke up this morning. I was like, am I about to go for a PT run? Like where's my PT gear?

Tony Benda 4:06
I heard the drill sergeants echoing

Josh Shaw 4:09
I was like, Well, I was like I was like ready to drive to to base my green on green and just be like, alright, prep myself for a workout, I guess, hearing reveling in the background. Now I'm not to record a podcast on my best friend. So

Tony Benda 4:27
that was fun. Hey, six o'clock recording time isn't worth it. Amen. And it's not due to lack of preparation. No there because Absolutely not. It's just you prep as much as you can. And then sometimes life just gets in the way in terms of timing and or a baby or a baby. Yeah, she's amazing. This little girl she's already three weeks old and my goodness. It's it's just a blast. Like three weeks. Yeah. So recording. We're recording this on a Tuesday morning. Work. Wow, it's Tuesday, folks. So we're recording this on a Tuesday at six o'clock in the morning. If you didn't catch that the first time, my brain is still turning on. Coffee for the one. Yes. So good. Yesterday was three weeks. Charlie. Charlie was three weeks yesterday. Already. She's not the exact newborn that we brought into the world, but she's this little, just bundle of joy with these big bright eyes. And you know, she's starting to like, look at me a little bit. And I'm like, this is the best feeling ever. So like, when she's sleeping on my chest, it's so sweet. And I just, I can't move because I don't want to disturb her and doesn't matter if you know, my foot itches or something. I can't move. It's all good. This baby's sleeping is more important than my creature comforts sometimes, and

Josh Shaw 5:56
see it gets crazier, because you will realize how fast it flies. Peter turns six tomorrow. Oh

Tony Benda 6:03
my lord, a six.

Josh Shaw 6:07
Big Big Dog is like almost like a six year old kid gets like 15 Legos for his birthday. And I mean, I love building myself some Legos. Buy yourself a nice pair of slippers. But I just I've never seen a kid like him just absolutely ravaged out some Lego sets. All day, He spent all day building Legos. And next he has this 1000 piece RTD to figure and he's like, that's the best. He's like, Daddy.

Just like that, by the way. Daddy. I can't do it all myself. I'm gonna need some help. I was like, You got it? He's like, No, daddy. It's big. I was like, alright. I love you.

But, Tony, we have an incredible episode today. Talk Talk to us a little bit about it. Well,

Tony Benda 7:09
since it's Peters birthday tomorrow, I would I would almost use the term that he's like what leveling up who's going from level five to level six? Right? That's a great level jump on. It is like in in d&d, you gain quite a few new feats and abilities and stuff when you're bouncing between level five and six, depending on your class. And that folks is actually our topic for today. Leveling up. In our episode,

Josh Shaw 7:39
say it.

Tony Benda 7:40
I love leveling.

Josh Shaw 7:41
Yes, we all love leveling up there. So

Tony Benda 7:46
it's one of those two main questions that we asked a few weeks ago.

Josh Shaw 7:51
To be long rest. Did we level up?

Tony Benda 7:55
And without fail? So we played a session of our normal home campaign Sunday night. And without fail the next morning cherrick Our wonderful, wonderful without fail friend Jared, like who plays? You know, he texts the group chat. And he's like, did we long rest? In typical generic fashion, I was expecting the next question this morning, he'd mentioned he might be getting ready for work right now. So we might get a text saying, Hey, do we level up? I'm just expecting it.

Josh Shaw 8:31
And I don't think we can discuss Stephens responses mostly on the podcast. But I do remember him vividly saying I should have TP kid the party when I have the chance. It's true.

Tony Benda 8:40
It's true. He threatens us with a good time like that. And is that what that's

is that a good job? But you

guys are saying you don't have two other characters role ready to go? No, it's cool. But leveling up. I don't even know where to start. Like there's so much to talk about with leveling up. So I

Josh Shaw 9:03
think a really good place to start is just like, it's just kind of an overview of like level up mechanics. So when we level up in d&d, and I would encourage if, for me personally, I know when I started my d&d journey, I tried leveling up without the use of technology. It was very complicated. I mean, straight up I've started my d&d Play me like and if this is you do props because that is incredible, like whipping out Player's Handbook and a paper and paper physical sheet leveling up props to your nose. But when I discovered d&d beyond it made it so much easier for me, especially making decisions, yes, but when we level up it introduces a variety of things to include, like basic hit point increases, proficiency increases, and really just prepares you to tackle on the next set of fights that you have. Yeah, and no matter what character you have we tween a lot of the classes or races that you choose there's going to be a lot of features as you progress in levels right so like there's gonna be there can be class specific upgrades ability score improvements, multiclassing feats. Some characters include, like the ability to provide extra attacks. Yeah, there's there's a lot that we can dive into nerd wise and we will not all that I want to do some of it we're gonna do some of it, I will preface with we're gonna dive into a lot of nerdy stuff with it. Because I told Tony, I was like we we've been doing great and nothing that we've done is bad. But I want to get really, really nerdy this up time to deep dive, it's time to deep dive,

Tony Benda 10:46
get that tape on your glasses folks are going to be diving in.

Josh Shaw 10:49
Or if you work in an eye clinic, you get fresh, fresh new ones, like myself, the only reason I do and I will say this with leveling up. There's two ways you can level up exp. Experience points or milestones. That is if you're a DM that's honestly up to you. It's player player discretion. I know when I early play d&d, when I killed it, when I killed a character or a non playable character and enemy. I was just like, how much XP did I get for that just now. And I was like, hardcore, keeping track of what my next level up is? which there can be satisfaction to that? Yeah,

Tony Benda 11:26
I remember the times I was I pretty much do the same thing. You know, first couple of games you're going through and you're like, Okay, we just killed seven goblins. Wait, that's only like 125 XP per person. That's it,

Josh Shaw 11:43
it break your heart. Because when you look at the EXP limits per level, it's, it can be incredible. Yeah.

Tony Benda 11:50
But it is true. When you're splitting XP over goblins, you know, over a party, all that kind of stuff, it does tend to break your heart, which is why I've recently liked the milestone progression a lot better. Especially if you're running a module that it'll be, it'll be clear in the module when it wouldn't, allows your folks to level up. So like you're going you're, you're doing this one thing, and this one town, and you beat all these people or you adventure your heart out. And then you go to the next place. And after you do this next thing, it says here at the very beginning characters level up or something to that effect. It's a very good thing for a DM to reward your players with that level up. It also helps with the gameplay in advance the story and all that kind of cool stuff. Because as you know, human beings, we're going through life, and we're constantly learning things and gaining knowledge through different, you know, experiences that we have and different life lessons that we learn. So it kind of makes sense that we in our own lives level up a bit too. But I do want to read a little bit out of the basic rules for Dungeons and Dragons, on d&d beyond. So for those who have not actually like played yet, but are still like looking to play. There's basic rule sets on d&d Beyond that you guys can read for free. There's other stuff you guys could purchase, like the player's handbook and the dungeon, master's guide. All of these things are out there and available. There is the 2014 stuff that's there now. So I will be reading from the 2014. As at this moment, the new ones are not out yet. And I don't know if I'll be getting them either. Because I like what we're doing. Oh,

Josh Shaw 13:40
let Oh side sidebar. Let us know your opinions on those. Yeah.

Tony Benda 13:44
Are you guys gonna be getting the new 2024 players handbook and DM guide? It's, it's interesting. So I'll be I'll be going to Gen Con in a couple of weeks at the beginning of August in at Gen Con, they're going to have early access books available, really off the player's handbook in the DM guide. Wow.

Josh Shaw 14:05
Take pictures.

Tony Benda 14:06
I will and I'm had may pick one up, I don't know, early access at Gen Con. It's happening. So I'll take a look. You know, I might I might splurge and get one.

Josh Shaw 14:18
There's nothing wrong with getting it. No, because you know,

Tony Benda 14:22
I like what we got though. Yeah,

Josh Shaw 14:24
I'm a huge fan what we got, I'd be interested to see the changes that are made and how it affects gameplay.

Tony Benda 14:30
Yeah, I know that there are a lot of game mechanics that have been fixed. From what I've been able to read online in the different forums and stuff. And people have been saying that five E is a good system, except some of it is just there's certain decisions that like kind of don't make sense or certain things like I don't know, different you can come across different situations and you'll hear other people talk about it that kind of just don't make sense in the world of physics or what you would expect them d&d reality to be That That's it kind

Josh Shaw 15:01
of blows my mind the same way that biblical scholars go through like ancient Hebrew to decipher biblical text is the same way that I envisioned like Wizards of the Coast. Like sitting around a table and just being like,

Tony Benda 15:16
Thus saith the wizard thus

Josh Shaw 15:19
this. That's funny

Tony Benda 15:21
that that is true. I could, man. Now I'm just picturing like King Arthur's round table, but with wizards and Orcs and Goblins around us sitting in discussing the races in the class features and all these things. Last I'll

Josh Shaw 15:35
make sense to hit a tree like this.

Tony Benda 15:40
That's tree aggression.

Josh Shaw 15:42
Can you physically kick a tree with your foot?

Tony Benda 15:46
Yeah, roll that D 20. For me and let's find out if he can or not.

Josh Shaw 15:50
rolls a D 20. And absolutely demolish his tree.

Tony Benda 15:53
Yeah,

Josh Shaw 15:54
it's that'd be fun site like if you sidebar that. Can you imagine if a DM was just like that crazy like you roll that to one and you're like, all this tree is fallen, but he actually kicks the tree so hard, it explodes. Some of you make like a DC between like a 10 and a 16. Dude rolls a 20 and he's just like, this tree is coming down like it does it explodes actually try again,

Tony Benda 16:16
there's some liberties taken but DMS can definitely take but sidetrack anyway. Sorry, folks, we're gonna hop back into the basic rule set for leveling up. So yeah, this is again found in d&d beyond. This is the basic rules 2014 edition. And I'm gonna read starting at beyond first level, I'm not gonna read all of this just because I don't want to bore you guys out there. But to start just to give you guys an idea, if you're not familiar with leveling up yet, if you really want to, you can press that skip ahead button another 30 seconds. But don't, don't this is your conscious speaking quality. That's right. So beyond first level, as your character goes on adventures and overcomes challenges, he or she gains experience represented by experience points, a character who reaches a specified experience point total advances in capability. This advancement is called gaining a level. And like we already mentioned, there's two different ways you can typically level up in d&d, it's through XP, or through milestones, and again, the milestone just kind of forsakes the XP so if you kill a goblin, it's, you know, worth so many points, and you're not tracking those points anymore. But instead, you're going based off a situation and making sure your character is ready for the next area of play. And to skip ahead a little bit in that those few paragraphs. When your character gains a level, his or her class often grants additional features as detailed in the class description. Some of these features allow you to increase your ability scores, either increasing two scores by one each or increasing one score by two, you can't increase an ability score above 20, which is also important. So when you're building your characters, think about that. Sometimes, you may max out something too early in your mind. And I don't know maybe it's not too early. But who knows. It's nice to get 20 strength of your barbarian, amen. So I should know. So

Josh Shaw 18:16
I think this is an important thing to discuss when leveling up, though. So as we as you level up, and this is why I love d&d Beyond to be honest with you, because if you build a character on there, you click that level of button. It shows you everything about your class that you can navigate through again, I'd encourage every d&d player to or even Diem, whatever, wherever you're at in your journey to visit that and look. But there's one thing that we can discuss about when leveling up. No matter what class you do, there are always going to be specific things. But when you do get to that ability score increase, you have a choice to make, at times, yeah, between the ability score improvement, and a feat. Oh, yes.

Tony Benda 19:01
FEATFE

Josh Shaw 19:03
A not growing another foot. I'm sorry, this is wild. So let's talk about that a little bit. What's what a Tony how do we what are the different define both? What are the differences and what would you choose?

Tony Benda 19:21
So a feat according to rule 20 is a feat represents a talent or an area of expertise that gives a character special abilities. It embodies training experience and abilities beyond what a class provides. at certain levels. Your class gives you the ability score improvement feature. So a feat is like a bonus skill you're learning along the way based off of again, either experience or milestone. And what's cool is there are things like so I'm I'm a wizard in our normal home campaign, hiring He was a I'm a hairy wizard or a hairy wizard.

Josh Shaw 20:04
Oh, my wizard Harry.

Tony Benda 20:07
Sorry, I am a wizard in our in our campaign. And there, I'm flipping to my features and traits thing here, which is cool because there are some things that I can do as a wizard that I'm growing in. Like, Oh, that's right one. Okay, so Zurich is a level five wizard and a level five monk. Why did I multiclass like that? I don't know, I thought it would be cool, and I'm trying things out. It's fun.

Josh Shaw 20:35
Oh, come on multiclass That's right.

Tony Benda 20:37
So when I became that level five wizard, Zook gained the ability to be what's called a war caster. So there's, there's certain parameters which with which I can cast a spell in a normal situation or in a combat or whatever. War caster allows me to take that spell casting in, kind of kick it up a notch, so to speak. So like, there's limitations, like you can only cast one spell per action, which is typically one spell pay per turn, depending on like what level it is. But with the word caster ability, which is a feat that I took, allows me to have advantage on constitution saving throws, to maintain like my concentration on a spell that I've cast in that time period, or whatever. So like which bolt for example, which bolt has a concentration spell, so that's something I can maintain over multiple turns in a combat situation. But if I get hit, as that's being cast, I have to roll a concentration check to make sure that I can maintain the concentration on that spell. So I get advantage on that, now that I have the work caster ability, which is really cool, because that gives me that, that little bit of extra edge to possibly succeed on that role.

Josh Shaw 22:05
Which helps maximize your character. Yeah. And the build of your character. Yeah,

Tony Benda 22:10
sorry, my brain was thinking that's okay. So that's,

Josh Shaw 22:13
that's a really cool part about like spellcasters for example, sorcerers, wizards, a lot of those people like that. Now, on the on this side of that perspective, I've always played a lot of physical brute characters. Yeah, you have, and I think I do pretty okay.

Tony Benda 22:31
I think you'd agree with it.

Josh Shaw 22:32
So one thing that we talk about when you want to pick a fee or picking abilities, score improvement, sometimes it's great to pick the ability score improvement, because let's say, let's say when you built your character, we've talked about this some times like your roles were not the greatest right? You know, you have a physical brute let's say a barbarian for example. You just your the dice, just were not in your favor at that time. And you're like, Okay, I have a barbarian but my constitution is not where a barbarian needs to be. Sometimes it's really valuable to raise the ability score, which in constitution or if you're trying to increase proficiencies, with a specific class that would help and that's one instance I would do an ability score improvement. Now, when you begin to understand feats, though, again, why love d&d beyond you can get a huge list of different feats. Personally, if we want to talk about favorite feats. The tough feat is incredible. Y'all Yeah, it is the so the feet tough is is basically defined as your hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to twice your level. When you gain this feat. Whenever you gain a level there after your hit point maximum increases by an additional two hit points. So easy I took I don't remember when I took when I took tough at that point. Either way. Now when I increase level, I'm just getting so much more HP so I'm getting the additional HP increase that your character is allotted Yeah, per per level up. But then I'm getting additional HP like my my blood 100 character shelter critical role that character class is so good it is they did so good. My like Ezra has 113 HB he's a beefy boy. I'm beef man. I literally I just get hit Stephen just like you get like a you know, you get hit for 26 points. And I'm like yeah, no

Tony Benda 24:41
problem. Sometimes things are have some. So that's the beautiful part

Josh Shaw 24:45
is that I have so much resistances Yeah, insanity. So

Tony Benda 24:50
like fire damage. What like what is one of your resistances one?

Josh Shaw 24:57
Do you have like a poison resist when I do a hybrid transformation I don't have any elemental risk. Okay. necrotic and radiant radiant resistance. So

Tony Benda 25:06
that's, that's pretty good. I

Josh Shaw 25:07
also have resistances to bludgeoning piercing and slashing damage, which is why I always asked Stephen, what damage are you doing? Because sometimes when he rolls a big ol net 20 And it's just like, Yeah, I just felt 30 points of slashing damage. I'm like, Yeah, that's 15 Thanks, which, again, resistance is is not immunity, therefore resistance in the world is the end. Basically take if I if I, if my DM dealt me 30 points of damage, you just take it by half. And then a lot of games play, let's say you do a weird number. Let's say you do 29 points of damage. You're rounding down to the, to the to the nearest even number. Yeah, that would divide the either way. But that's, that's a prime example of

Tony Benda 25:49
that. And this is a very good reason. Players and DMS are like to make sure you're going through and when damage is done, it's important to kind of say what kind of damage so if I'm casting lightning bolt, obviously that's going to be lightning damage. So some of that can be implied. But if you're using an unfamiliar weapon or some kind of weird spell that your DM may not be 100% familiar with. It is okay to say this is necrotic damage or, you know, psychic damage or something

Josh Shaw 26:17
that's also a really good reason like in your d&d communities to build different characters of different varieties. Oh, yeah, because when you build when you face characters of like legendary status, they'll have legendary resistances or immunities. And if y'all are just hitting with war hammers, and you're just like, hey, man, they've got immunity of resistance to bludgeoning your life is going to be so much harder. Yeah,

Tony Benda 26:39
you got to find those alternative routes to defeat so I mean harder.

Josh Shaw 26:43
But the next thing I want to talk about and Tony I want you to elaborate a little bit more on it because you already touched you already touched on it is multi classing. I've never done it. I've never multi class I've almost I've always been kind of too scared to multi class online. But you went hard in the paint some people multi class like a couple levels just to get like this burg particular thing. Absolutely not. You multiclass equal.

Tony Benda 27:10
Yeah.

Josh Shaw 27:10
What would you do have fun? You did 505 months?

Tony Benda 27:14
Yeah. It is. It is very fun, playing Zurich in this manner. So he started as a divination wizard. And then from there, along our journey, we met some cool people. Zach wanted to figure out how to find a little bit more balance in his life after he had just received this letter from his mother across the continent, and then found out that when we went to go visit her as she was sick, we got there a day late, and she had already died. So in my character's story arc, in his, I don't know, just his development, it, it felt right to want to find a way for his character to remain calm or balanced or something to that effect, because his personality, the way I play him, his personality always had a level head going into situations. Zach has become a little bit more erratic as of late a little, just because, and this is part of the character development. So like, as, as things are happening in our campaign, and I'm not going to go too deep, because some people might be playing with this campaign or similar campaigns. But as certain things are happening to my character, specifically, and how much and how our DM has wonderfully and brilliantly tied in our backstories into this module that we're playing, called another deep. It's very cool to see you know, how my bloodline has been affected, like, my species bloodline has been affected by certain things that are happening in our world. And yeah, it's just really cool how he did it. So like, as I'm learning these new things about my character and our history, it's just, it makes sense that he's become a little bit more frustrated, and he's having a hard time maintaining control over his emotions and decisions and things like that. All the more reason why Zack wanted to multiclass as a monk, because originally he was trying to figure out how to remain balanced and calm and level headed and he's had too much time away from his master is monk master, so I think he's lost some of that. I don't know just just level headedness and has more developed the physical side of the monk world to kind of help balance that spellcasting component as a wizard. So Zurich is becoming a little bit more Physical, obviously not strong, but more dexterous and more. I don't know just, yeah, he's becoming more well rounded as a as a Verdun creature that he is. So to talk a little bit about like multiclass. And going back to the basic rule set for 2014 multiclassing is just is defined as this multiclassing allows you to gain levels in multiple classes. So again, for example, I'm a wizard and a monk. So that's multiclassing. You could be a ranger Bard if you want, or a what you're actually that'd be kind of interesting to be fun. Another character I played in a one shot, I was a circle of the moon druid with a barbarian. So I was able to at level four, I was able to wild shape and be enraged at the same time, which was a blast and kind of a broken character a little bit, but it was really cool.

Josh Shaw 30:55
Deep backstory there. Yes.

Tony Benda 30:56
So yeah, multiclassing allows you to gain levels in multiple classes doing so lets you mix the abilities of those classes to realize a character concept that might not be reflected in one of the standard class options. With this rule, you have the option of gaining a level in a new class, whenever you advance and level instead of gaining a level in your current class like me, how I was doing a few levels of wizard, your levels in all your classes are added together to determine your character level. For example, if you have three levels in wizard and two, and fighter, you're a fifth level character. So that was me with my monkey addition. As you advance in levels, you might primarily remain a member of your original class with just a few levels in another class, or you might change course entirely, never looking back at the class you left behind. You might even start progressing into third or fourth class, which I think Emily expert has done on dimension 20 a couple of times as she's doing fantasy high season three, she's talking about doing Paladin and Warlock and Bard and all of these things that she's not. So she's started as one thing. And then she's added these other really fun things. Yeah, so you might change course entirely, never looking back on the class you left behind. You might even start progressing on third or fourth class. Compared to a single class character of the same level, you'll sacrifice some focus in exchange for versatility. So what that says in a nutshell, it does provide enough versatility to be a very well rounded character or honestly, whatever you're trying to be in d&d, there's really no limitation. Except for your imagination in that sense. So it's, it's pretty cool with what you could become in Dungeons and Dragons, five e especially. Have

Josh Shaw 32:46
you ever multiclass for a one shot? Yes. Wow. Really?

Tony Benda 32:51
Yeah, that I just mentioned that. Wait, that was in a one shot? Yes. I'm multiclass as that I must serve that circle the moon druid with the barbarian. Oh, that

Josh Shaw 33:02
was in a one shot. That was oh, I was like, I knew you said that. I didn't know that was a one shot. Yeah,

Tony Benda 33:08
it was a really interesting one shot Jeric our friend Eric actually led that one shot. Okay, who plays Korean? That was fun. Well, excuse me. That was more of a two shot. So this was this was early on in his DMing DMing life and he was grown so Oh, my goodness. He's awesome and amazing. DM. But yeah, so this one shot, turned it into a two shot just because we were getting up to shenanigans in the night was going on. And so that's we're like, Yeah, let's just schedule a second round and finish. So he did and it was a lot of fun. But yeah, this this character was super fun. He was a he was a Lightfoot halfling that was a circle, the moon druid and a barbarian. So that

Josh Shaw 33:47
is like four realms that I didn't think you could combine. And that's the lovely part about d&d You can make. You can do so much fun stuff with a character that wouldn't make any sense and just make them like a bard. That's just crazy. So Tony, there's something interesting, though, that we, when we come to leveling up, I think we also need to talk about the challenges at higher levels. Yes. Right. So obviously, when it's like playing a video game or anything, when you level up, your encounters are going to become more challenging. Oh, yeah, that's just a fact. So one nerdy thing that I think we can just touch very briefly on. Now this can be if you're even just running a one shot with your friends or if you're 49 sessions into a campaign like we are resource management and strategic planning. Now we've kind of mentioned it before very subtly, in a joking manner of like, if you've got four barbarians in a party, and you have to take on an enemy that is has a lot of resistances. There can be a lot of trouble with that. Oh, yes. So for one, I wouldn't. I'm not going to discourage that kind of gameplay. However, it's a lot more fun when you have a lot more Chaos and your group do a variety of things. But one of these things that we can talk about when it comes to strategic planning as you begin your campaigns with your friends and how you build characters, and a lot of times, it's kind of naturally happens. But one thing is like action economy. So meaning and Tony, you're kind of you can expand upon this as well. But as a character, as you level up new things will happen. So like physical fighters, for example, you haven't you gain the ability of an extra attack to attack twice, sometimes three times even three, you know, and that's every character is different. So action economy can look like a lot of different things for one of them. Like, when we think about it, what do you do with your actions and bonus actions and even reactions? So I actually thought about doing this I was, as a spoiler, when we fought that enemy in our last campaign. I was going to do it, I was going to hold an action for final blow. I had thought about it. So I hit him. And before I got off the floor, I got off to answer a phone call. I was like, I'm thinking about hitting this creature once and I'm gonna hold hold an action for final blow, and it's a move. And I miss my opportunity. I can do that again. But you can do things like that. If you have an extra attack, you know, you attack one time, maybe you provide some movement, conduct a bonus action to do something a lot of and then say like, damn, can I hold an action? If this creature does this kind of kind of movement? I would challenge you I challenge your DM and give you an advantage on on the actual battlefield. And even how you spread out even to action economy, like as a party, how do you spread out to take things to your strongest advantage. So like spellcasters, you all can spell cast from a long way away, being safe. Erin's character used wall of fire from like 30 feet away, used a very strategic spell to his advantage. Yes, while physical fighters or unlike suck, who plows through a wall of fire to achieve his objective. Good job montco. I achieved it. Good job monk.

Tony Benda 37:10
It also helped that Kreon took half my damage. That's true. He

Josh Shaw 37:13
literally as an end, he

Tony Benda 37:15
went down for it. And I'm sorry for you. I thank you for your sacrifice. But I wanted that prize at the end.

Josh Shaw 37:21
That's true. But we were as a party, you can spread out to make things to your advantage. You got to think on that, Tony?

Tony Benda 37:28
About action economy. Yeah, absolutely.

Josh Shaw 37:32
This is the real nerdy stuff. So I've got my

Tony Benda 37:35
character sheet pulled up. And this This is typically on every single character sheet that's out there. I'm just looking at actions in combat alone. So there's different things you can do. And I'll just read them off real quick attack, cast a spell, dash, disengage, dodge, grapple, help, hide improvised ready, search, shove or use an object. And each person based off of their character is able to do at least one of these different things in regards to one action, one bonus action and one reaction per turn. And that's kind of starting at, you know, base levels, one or three or whatever level you're starting at based off of your gameplay at the time. And each person just needs to be aware of their action economy, because there have been times where I realized that I actually now in my new level, as as a level five monk, level five wizard, this monk, this latest level of monk allowed me to take a second attack and I was like, Oh, my goodness, this could have changed something. Took you a couple sessions, it took me like two sessions to realize that I had a second attack as a monk. But there's like even a loophole with it because I can't cast a spell and then take a second action based off of what we looked up and, you know, discussion with our DM. So, in a typical round of combat, you can take one attack, or I'm sorry, one action, which is usually an attack for most people, you could cast a spell as an attack. But casting a spell is not necessarily an attack, which doesn't allow me to take my second attack. And you can use your bonus action. So like, there have been times where I've, you know, smack someone with my, you know, some guitar or something, whatever I have out, I'm doing a physical attack and then like, I want a bonus action away with a misty step. And I've done that before, too. So like I've already been cast, Thunder Thunder Wave. So yeah, there's there's been that other situation where I've been able to, this is early on, we remember I don't know, it was this youth that I was on horseback with at the time. Horseback, okay, remember, we were surrounded by these dudes and they were close enough that I was able to catch Thunder Wave and knocked out like five. Yes. Okay, so I was riding

Josh Shaw 39:53
a horse and you're like, I can't even do your voice, but you were just like you Just like Canaan, would you mind letting me get on your horse? And I was like, yeah. This is the days of Canaan literally hopped on and Thunder Wave. I was like, Well,

Tony Benda 40:11
yeah, so I got, I don't remember if I missed you stepped onto your horse, or if I jumped onto your PC stepped onto the horse. Okay, so I missed you stepped onto the horse. I did a Thunder Wave knocked out like five of these dudes that were surrounding us with this one spell, and yes, Kanan took a little damage, but he was also a beefy boy. So he was he sustained I had ADHD at level four at level three, which just just blew my mind and drove me nuts because I was this little squishy boy that just felt like a sneeze. You guys

Josh Shaw 40:47
had like 30, HB and I was like level three, because I had rolled in I had rolled an 18 on on my diet when I rolled Canaan. And then I'd had a proficiency increase. And so I went up to an almost, I went up to 19 and my constitution, and then I took the tough feat very early on. Yeah, I Yeah. Wow, what a character still died. Anyway.

Tony Benda 41:14
So getting back to action economy. You have an action, a bonus action and a reaction. And these things do change over time as you level up. So be aware of your character sheet. Don't forget to make highlights or notes. If you're using paper copies or keep flipping through on d&d Beyond make sure you have it up. So you can see what you're able to do each round. Because it is important, it's good to help each other out. And this even goes into not just action economy, but also like the resources that Josh mentioned a little bit ago. resources such as, like potions, or different tools you're using during a certain situation. So like, I don't know, thieves tools, for example, to unlock a door, or rocks or anything. Yeah, these are your resources. These are gold as a resource. So you have to make sure you're constantly managing your things well, but obviously, don't focus on the nitty gritty of stuff, enjoy the roleplay enjoy the story that's being developed. But just make sure you know what your know who you are and what you're doing in the process. Speaking

Josh Shaw 42:17
of knowing who you are, knowing what you're doing in the process, Tony, comes our part two of this episode of leveling up. Yes. And it's, there's a particular thing that we level up in, in my, in my opinion, now we do this in the world of the world of the Lord and our lives. But when I when I think about leveling up, and when I think about Jesus and I talk to his disciples, I really believe we need to talk about the concept of faith. I think we're called to level up our faith. Especially in a world of today, when we are called to step out, advanced the gospel and not remain in this season of being in level one. One like even the book of Hebrews talks about like, Y'all are y'all are supposed to be eating the solid food, but you're you're still drinking that spiritual milk. Yeah,

Tony Benda 43:20
that's exactly what I was just thinking that same verse,

Josh Shaw 43:22
I'm glad I was the Holy Spirit drop. So I think it's important, we're gonna we're gonna break this down a little bit. And I want if I mean, you're sticking with us this far, so I know you're engaging. But through these next couple of sub points, we're going to talk about a little, we're gonna talk about faith in a kind of an in depth way, mostly because we've been impacted by it significantly. I want you to just try to open your mind, open your heart to what faith is analyzing where your faith is. We're gonna talk about the struggles of faith, challenges of faith, how to level up in that, so hang on tight, y'all. Because as we just went nerdy with the beginning portions of d&d, it's about to get real nerdy from the biblical perspective. Tony, but first, we have to ask the question, What is faith?

Tony Benda 44:21
What is it? That's a very good question. I know the book of Hebrews mentions what faith is faith is a substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. It's something that you can't physically see, obviously, it's this concept that just I guess, defines our whole our whole Christian religion or background because without faith or nothing was good. So I want to hear what you think. Faith is When

Josh Shaw 45:00
I think about faith, I look at that just because we have a written down here. It says, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen. On the way here as listening to a podcast. And the gentleman I was listening to was talking about, I think, just overall belief in God and some people struggle. And he's talking about this concept of like, the problem is that people are waiting for people are waiting for this concept of hope. But they're not realizing that hope has already been bestowed. Yep. So like, I think there's a lot of times we focus on like the return of Jesus, or the promise of Jesus returning like, oh, Jesus is coming back soon. But we don't live in this fact of Jesus has already died for our sins, that the the promise has already been delivered. Yeah. The promises here is the assurance of things that's been hoped for in the Hebrew in the context of Hebrews has already been fulfilled by the coming of Jesus Christ. Now, we still do wait for him to come back. But we need to live in to the assurance that the promise of Christ has already been here is here amongst us, and the conviction of things not seen. I would, I would really go by, I really go by my definition of faith, what I mean, which I'm a man, so don't, don't take anything I don't, don't take that for what it is. The Bible has defined faith. But I see faith as walking, walking in step with the Lord, side by side, trusting his way, and hours. Even though we don't know the outcome, that's good. Because that's like a control thing. If we try to step ahead of the Lord, and say, I'm going to do it, I can go this way. I think this is the way to go. We don't consult him, we don't do anything. And we don't put our faith in Him. We start walking, we start walking by sight and not by faith which the Scriptures teach. Count really says to walk by faith, and not by sight. But one thing as we define it, how do we, how do we, the big question is how do we grow our faith? And I think it's important to talk about this from that same chapter of Hebrews where it defines faith. And it's kind of a heart venture. But I think it's important to discuss Hebrews 11. Six says, And without faith, it is impossible to please him. What do you think about that?

Tony Benda 47:57
I mean, I'm not gonna argue with the Bible. I'm not. It isn't hard to it is it is hard to please the Lord without faith. But

Josh Shaw 48:07
that's what that scripture can rock you. Yeah. And I truly believe because I believe that faith and love are intertwined. I believe it's important without faith, it's impossible to please God, because faith is the movement into him, because we love him. You know, faith, when you break it down, faith is not about our ability, by our own ability. It's by his, his by his ability, we do these things. In fact, Preston Morrison, a preacher I really respect follow in. Very wise words actually says, faith grows and shrinks to the level you most consistently use it. Don't expect God to do anything when you don't do anything. Oh, that's good. And that rocked me because faith really is an we just talked about an action. Faith is an action. Faith is taking our sword, taking our spill from the DND perspective, and saying, How can I apply? How can I apply faith? How can I apply? A lot of people think that faith is passive? I don't believe faith is passive. No. I believe that faith is an action, how we move into the Lord. And I'm not talking about good deeds. I'm not talking about those things. And we'll dive more into this. But faith and works are intertwined. And I believe the way faith works is by walking in step in alignment with the fruit of his spirit with who he is, with how we seek Him and how we move in him. And I believe our faith can shrink if we don't use it, but I believe our faith can grow if we use it effectively. Yeah. Nothing at all, Tony.

Tony Benda 49:52
I've just loving observing all this. Nothing at all. So whatever. So this is good stuff. What

Josh Shaw 49:59
are probably takeaways we can let's talk about that love. What are practical ways we can grow our faith? If we, if we have identified that faith is an action, it's not passive? What are these action ways action steps we can do to grow our faith?

Tony Benda 50:13
Definitely one is by being in the Word. And that's not just a Christianese answer to all the situations of life. You know, whenever you have a problem, folks, just go on and pray and read your Bible in love Jesus, and everything's gonna be grand, false. The world still comes at you. And life is not easy sometimes. But the reality is, we've talked about being intimate with the Father and previous episodes. And one of the ways you could do that is truly by being in the word. Because that is, like we said, last episode. The Bible is the voice of God in a physical, tangible take home version. So if we're not learning his voice, or hearing his voice through His Word, we don't know him, and we can't have faith in Him. So, Romans 10 says, So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So that's one of the ways that we could practically grow in our faith. And I mean, we have here private fellowship as well.

Josh Shaw 51:29
So when you the way I view private fellowships, I believe there's private and public fellowship, yeah. Public fellowship is a great resource, but anything to do, but God lays a a heavy, a heavy word on intimacy with Him. Matthew chapter six, verses five through six, as when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners, and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private, then your Father who sees everything will reward you. Now, I don't believe that. I believe at the time the the Jews were doing it, doing it in this public fashion, to say to self glorify who they were. And to say it was very religious, it was very much yeah, I'm holier than thou. God is the only person that can help your sins, but really then saying, like, I have no sin, which was completely false. So don't hear don't hear My Word saying, private fellowship and public fellowship are good. And then me read the scriptures and say, Well, the Bible says to that, it's, it's a heresy to do public fellowship. No, it's a heresy to do public fellowship like that. Because that's not growing intimately with the Father. Because that's our goal. Our goal is to get closer to the Father through private fellowship, he is inviting you into private time. Why? Because he is the God of the universe. He is the one where you walk your problems out with him. So how can you grow with someone you don't know? How will you it's good. How will you ever get into communion with somebody and deep fellowship? If you never spend intimate time with them? First John, chapter two verses 15 through 17 says, do not love this world, nor the things that offers you. For when you love the world. You do not have the love of the Father in you That's That's strong. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, ah, that guy, oh, I got me and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live for other forever. A craving for everything we see. Even though faith is the conviction of things not seen, yeah.

That's powerful. Tony wrote this one, and I like it a lot.

One of the ways we can grow in our faith is walking and talking in the fruit of the Spirit. Yeah. Talk to me, Tony. good

Tony Benda 54:36
fruit, bad fruit. Walking with Jesus. Yeah. So in Galatians, in Galatians, chapter five, it says, But I say walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the spirit or against the flesh for these are opposed to each other. So Galatians is pretty much talking about how you Good and bad cannot be living together in in other verses, it goes on to say, light and dark cannot coexist in the same space like those kinds of things. So we have to root out the bad fruit in our lives and we have to live out good fruit and, and I think that is another way it bolsters our faith is by living out these different fruits of the Spirit, which a lot of people know this from growing up, if they've grown up in the church, there's different songs about it. There's different ways that kids can memorize things,

Josh Shaw 55:32
like fruit of the Spirit is a watermelon. Sorry, yeah,

Tony Benda 55:37
there's different foods, the spirits, and it's not a watermelon and it's not the apple that Eve apparently ate in the garden, who's to say it was an apple, folks, I think it was probably more of a mango because when I went to Tanzania, mangoes, they were delicious. So it must have been him. That is biblical justification. Now, but the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. And I have here highlighted faithfulness. Because, you know that being part of our topic for today, it's it's crucial that we walk in, in the fruit of the Spirit. And if we're not coexisting with the Spirit, if we're not communing, and becoming intimate with the Spirit, how can we? How could fruit grow from something that doesn't thrive? That's good. So like, we look at, you know, different orchards or, you know, fruit bearing trees, so to speak. If a tree is not healthy, in its in its daily cycles of food, and water, and sunlight, and all of these things that it needs to grow and sustain. The fruit that that tree is going to produce is not going to be a great fruit. Not a great fruit, a great fruit. dad joke right? Now, so like, we need, we need health, we need growth, we need all of these things to provide good fruits and talking about our faithfulness here. We need communion with the spirit to then grow and be healthy and walk out these different fruits that we're talking about here.

Josh Shaw 57:10
And I think it's important to know that I feel like in church culture, we talk about the fruits of the Spirit. And I think we just undermine it because it's so heavily talked about that we just say love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, like and we just, and we just move past it like, but I would encourage, I would encourage you to go back and read Galatians five, chapter six, I'm sorry, chapter five, verses 16 through 25. It literally outlines for you. The fight between the spirit and the flesh, what bad fruit is what good fruit is, and then Galatians 525. So as we live by the Spirit shall we should walk by the Spirit. But Jesus himself says this in Matthew chapter seven, starting in verse 15. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Watch this, you will recognize them by their fruits are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles. So every healthy tree bears good fruit. But the disease tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit. Nor can a disease tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. This fruit of the Spirit is not just something you graze over. The fruit of the Spirit is something we're called to live by. It's something we're called to have. Yeah. And don't be afraid of the pruning process. If you have a fruit, a bad fruit that needs to be removed, let Jesus take that fruit. Because the beautiful thing and I know this because I tend to my own garden. The beautiful thing about pruning a plant you think was healthy, is that over time, it was actually the healthiest thing to remove. Which goes into a fun thing when we take out some things. Tony, we should talk about what happens when our faith feels like it's lacking. Yes. Now I will say this. There's a lot of different subjects that we can get into with this. A lot of them Yeah. And if we don't touch on a subject, please feel free to reach us out. We'll provide our email at the end for it to talk about some of these things because I've been through the faith walk and I'm very passionate about it. But I believe will Tony and I both believe that it both boils down that why we lack faith boils down to this point. We walk by sight and trust our own ways. Yeah. Tony, talk about a time. Let's both talk about a time just for a brief moment of seasons, we've trusted in our own ability, our own resources, our own strength and how that negatively impacted us. Well.

Tony Benda 1:00:21
There are too many divers to really discuss on one podcast. But I think, for me, I will, I will even say there have been times where I tried doing school by myself. And that's quite evident with my track record of college. I started attending Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois, shout out to the LSU Tigers, right after high school. And I think that was the place for me, because it was a comfortable place my sister attended there, my cousin's attended there, I knew that I knew the facility. I had other friends going there, all these things, it was the one place I decided to apply. And I was like, Cool, got in great. And they gave me some scholarships. And I called it a day. For me, I think, after a while, I got a little bit burnt out with some of the schooling stuff, maybe I got distracted with, you know, working full time still. I don't know what it was. But my goals in college shifted. My desires for majors had shifted. So I decided to do Army National Guard at the same time that I was going to college. And so this was like, I'm stacking things on things on things, thinking that I can, you know, build my future, build my career, whatever I wanted to do post college, starting then, and here I am trying to do it in my own strength. And lo and behold, let's just let's just fast forward to six and a half years, four schools later, three different major changes, at least. And here I am trying to do schooling and figuring all my life out in my own strength. When the Lord had something totally different for me. He knew that eventually I was going to come down to North Carolina and meet my wife and get married and have a beautiful baby girl. And I had no idea back in the day when I'm when I'm being stupid in college and making all these dumb decisions for myself and not focusing on him as much as I should have been, or could have been. Or would have been had I been, in my word intimate with the Father hearing his voice. Because he called me for something greater than what I was looking for. Amen. So here I am wasting, not wasting six and a half years of my life. But I developed incredible relationships with, you know, some people that I still talk to today, I learned so much about, you know, production, in music, and all these things that I utilized now. So To God be the glory for that, because some of these skill sets are, you know, being utilized in my normal day to day job here at the church, where I work as now the production, the director of production. And I'm a, they call me the Minister of production and creative director. And it's cool, because that's really the stuff that I learned in that, you know, six and a half years, I didn't focus on a major, you know, 120 credits later, I still don't have a degree, but I have knowledge and skill set and experience. And God turned that around to where I can, you know, now be sitting here with you during this podcast, because I have the production experience. And I got, you know, eight years of podcasting under my belt through different people through these connections that never would have come to pass that I've not gone to four different schools and changed my major so many times, but I don't even know what the original question was. You're answering, I guess I am now it's just it's just cool to see what God has done. And I have total faith now that that that whole situation, that growing phase, so to speak, was was happening because I don't know. I know I was in the right place the right time. Was it where God called me? I don't know. But it's where he had me in the in the moment and he utilized my foolishness. Again, thank the Lord for that. I felt like Jonah at times running from that calling because I feel like there were there were times that I knew what I was called to do, but may have run from it. And I think I finally landed where I was supposed to be doing, you know, full time ministry. But here we are, folks, and

Josh Shaw 1:04:41
we're happy to have you.

Tony Benda 1:04:42
Thank you.

Josh Shaw 1:04:43
I literally could not do this.

Tony Benda 1:04:44
It'd be to be here.

Josh Shaw 1:04:49
In a very brief synopsis, I was actually gonna bring up the military and I feel like I shouldn't my moment of lack of faith I was in the middle of pursuing my degree In biblical minutes in Biblical Studies, believe it or not, you get so consumed by your study that you don't even really touch base on Yeah. How to apply it. I've taken classes on faith is an eight week course about what faith is how to walk in faith, how to evangelize, I've done all these introductory classes on just about every book of the Bible, Wisdom literature, all this stuff. And yet I had no idea how to walk in it. Ever. It's hard. I, I literally started learning about how to very in very deeply walk in faith a couple of weeks ago, believe it or not, and I'm being honest about that. Because I really didn't understand it. You know, I trusted in my own knowledge in, in the Bible, I trusted in my own knowledge and what I was doing, yeah, and in turn, I just I started to crumble. And now that I'm out of school, I'm thankful for the experience. But I'm realizing what faith really is and praise the Lord for that. And we look at it but truly we look at Jesus spent a lot of time commenting about the lack of faith in people. Yep, you know, and you can look at it through Luke chapter eight, verse 25. Mark, chapter four, verse 40. But why did he comment so much about it? Well, Jesus was working and they continue to ignore. Jesus taught about this thing, and they ignored it. Jesus showed his glory, yet they totally look past it. And these were his own disciples. But what caught my attention was in Matthew chapter eight, verse five through eight, he talks about faith, about a man who showed more faith in Jesus had seen in any man in the land that's so good. It was a Centurion. And he says, When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion Kingdom asking for help, Lord, He said, My servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly. Jesus said to him, shall I come and heal them? Like, he couldn't are? Quiet, Jesus like shotkam. He said, The Cinterion replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant would be healed. The conviction of things not seen. He's like, you don't even have to come to do it for me to believe that you can heal my son. Say it. It's done. Because and he goes on and talks about like, I'm a man under authority. If I say it, it's done. If I point they go, and he's like, Jesus, if you say it, your will be your will, will be done. If you point I will go. And Jesus goes, like I didn't he let us says, I have not seen faith of this kind in anywhere that I've been, your servant is healed. But various issues cause a lack of faith, like, we get so used to our own power, we lose sight of our ability that God has given us. Yeah, it's not our own ability. Other things like we worship idols. You can't love God and money at the same time. Don't feel like I should I feel like I needed to say, preach that or preach. You can't love God and money at the same time you want to people like, what are idols. there's anything new in your life that you're worshipping above God, it's an idol. I have to say that. But we have to understand. And as we talked about it with d&d, as we level up, we will face challenges, but we need to learn how to how to navigate those challenges in the right way. So Tony, what are some of these challenges of spiritual growth are growing in our faith?

Tony Benda 1:08:48
Well, some of the challenges are, I don't know, spiritual warfare, I think is a challenge. And we had mentioned Well, I had mentioned that I had run from or felt like I was running from my calling a little bit. That's, that's definitely a challenge of spiritual growth. Because if I'm not, again, being intimate with the Father, if I'm not living in my calling, that I'm not growing, and if I'm not growing, then I'm not producing fruit, if I'm not producing fruit, that fruit can't be shared. And, you know, I guess replicated in other people's lives. So then we're not a disciple making disciples making disciples. So which is I think what the church is called the bees were supposed to, you know, the making disciples is one of Jesus's last commands to us. But yeah, there's there's there are different challenges to spiritual growth.

Josh Shaw 1:09:40
I agree. Like weapons of warfare, especially like which tune into next episode if you want to hear about weapons of warfare. They're how we can use those weapons of warfare but the for those but I want to encourage you guys with this, even if there are challenges, you need to hear this and again, I heard it from another podcast, by Add circumstances are where a good God loves to show he is a big God. Yes. You can't be afraid of these challenges. You can't wait for the storm to calm to step out in faith. Everyone gives everyone talks about oh, well Peter sank when he was walking on water. Yeah, at least he walked out on the water. That's right. At least he stepped out in faith. Because he knew who God was everyone else like, Oh, he's a ghost. And Peter's like, if your God told me to step out on the water, and Jesus simply said, Come. And he knew the voice of the Lord knew when. I mean, truly, if you're in a season of struggle, ask God why you're there. Ask him what you can learn, ask him how you need to grow. Listen, I've grown in responsibility. I had to really be honest, and say My problem is faith. Because I'm seeing the storms of life and I'm choosing not to step out of the boat, and walk Thompson. I leveled up in so much responsibility, but I didn't level up in my faith. And once he revealed that, to me, my worship change, my praise changed, my confidence changed. In fact, Benjamin William Hastings, who came to Temple who came to the church a couple months ago, absolutely powerful, so good. He says this in a song. He said, I've learned faith isn't fearless. It's just trusting when you fear the most. I've learned faith isn't fearless. I've, I've, it's trusting when you fear the most as good. I would say to our listeners, it's time to level up. It's time to level up because you can't be afraid of this, of leveling up anymore. Yeah, you have to step out in faith, you have to learn you have to exercise your faith, you have to take you have to take your extra attack and level up in faith. Because if you don't, the enemy is going to bring that faith down. And he's going to try to rock you. Yeah. And you need to understand this. God is going to lead us to some places that demand an ever increasing increasing measure of faith in you. The more faith you need in God, the closer you will stay to him faith as you walk, Faith shouldn't deter you from God, it should, it should pull you closer. And we've talked about that, in fact, a convicting word from Luke chapter 12, verse 3048, but the one who did not know I think it was the addressing the parable, this point, but the one who did not know and did what he deserved a beating will will receive a light beating. everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required. You need to hear that everyone to whom much was given of him, much will be required. And it says and James 226, four is the body apart from the spirit is dead. So also faith apart from works is dead. It's not about good deeds. That's not what we're trying to say. Everyone's like, Oh, I gotta do these good deeds. I gotta do that. Listen, there's nothing wrong with serving. There's nothing wrong with doing that. But I believe the works of our life are the fruits of the Spirit. If you want to walk in faith, walk in the fruit of his Spirit, because you will be seen by your fruit. That is the works of faith. There's nothing wrong with serving. There's nothing wrong with moving in your calling. But faith looks like moving in his spirit. Tony, I want to want to do one last thing as we start to kind of slowly conclude our time. I want to share some personal stories you may have or even just biblical stories of navigating through difficult and abundant times. And your thoughts on this? Well,

Tony Benda 1:14:18
I think one of the so everyone everyone kind of goes through difficult times. That's that's humanity. That's that's the human condition.

Josh Shaw 1:14:30
We all

Tony Benda 1:14:32
there's a common phrase out there that these two things are absolute death and taxes. Bless. So every tax season folks, we go through difficult times some people some people are fine, great, amazing. I now get a new ride off on my taxes this year.

Josh Shaw 1:14:49
Amen. Look at that baby, baby.

Tony Benda 1:14:52
No but the other the other thing unfortunately that is assured us is death because humanity has not I in a way to be immortal and praise the Lord for that, because that would just keep us from eternity with Him. So, oh, oh, I'm glad or we're not there. That will freak. Yeah. So as everyone has probably experienced loss in their life, I'll I'll refer back to 20, February of 2016. My grandmother, my grandmother was, you know, the matriarch of our family, she was the, I don't know, the gentle, the sweet lady, you know, church lady her whole life, after meeting my grandfather, when they were teenagers, and, and all that stuff. So we grew up in the church, and we grew up. I don't know, just always going to family, family parties. And these are all Christ centered events just because of who they were as people. And it was amazing. So my grandmother was a wonderful woman. And then when she passed, it took a lot of faith in that season, to get through that faith to understand that there was so much more than just, you know, what we have here on this earth. And it still takes a lot of faith, a large level of faith to understand that there is eternity after, after we're gone here. Same thing when my nephew passed in December of 2019. So he had stage four liver cancer, called hepatoblastoma, which is a very rare form of liver cancer only, I think, affects children under three years old. So he was two and a half when he passed. But that took a huge level of faith to just kind of make it through that situation as well. So that was, that was a big, you know, pivotal role in my life. Because after that happened, actually, I think, because because of his funeral service, is how I met a good friend of mine, Ed Ledford, who worked at the church here before I did, and he said, Hey, we've got openings. That's good. He's like, you know, if you're ever looking for a job, keep us in mind. And then COVID hit, and I was looking for a job. So it took a huge level of faith to even go through that situation. Because moving from Chicago down to North Carolina, that's a huge culture shock, in one of the best ways ever, and it took a lot of faith, just, you know, even do that. And to just move to North Carolina, I was the last one in my family to move down here. And I said, I would never move to North Carolina. And the Lord is just like, watch this. He's like, he's like, hold my coffee. Just yeah, the Lord had different plans for my life than I ever would have imagined. And I'm so grateful for

Josh Shaw 1:17:39
that. Give me a deception check.

Tony Benda 1:17:43
So that was those are those are two kind of like critical experiences. And unfortunately, they're centered around really, really sad times. But out of you know, out of out of the valleys we you know, we have to start in the valley sometimes to climb so, oh, oh.

Josh Shaw 1:17:59
Can somebody can somebody we don't we don't read tweet or nothing, or I'm sorry, we I don't know what that's called. But somebody somebody posts that. Yeah. But that's, that's so true. When you look at like biblical stories. Paul and Silas in prison. Yep. They were stoned, beaten, all sorts of stuff in the book of Acts. They get thrown in prison. And the first thing to do is start praying and praising. You know, Paul and Silas, his faith was so strong that not even a prison cell could get them to see God differently. So that's why I say like, even in those seasons of hurt and turmoil, look for the purpose in it. That's what faith is. Yeah. Peter stepping out of the boat. He didn't step if he didn't know it was God. He's like, if your God called me to come and walk on the water, if you're not, I'm not coming. And Jesus said, Come. No, Jesus, he was a boy with a demon. And the disciples couldn't cast him out. And like, Why could we do it? And he said, Because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith, like the grain of a mustard seed, you will say to the mountain move from here to there, and it will move. Yeah. You know, sometimes we just need to shout, if Joshua can obey can live in obedience to the Lord and shout on a walk and fall down. Sometimes I think we just need to live in obedience to God and shout in the mountain will move. Yes, you know, I just want to get preachy. Listen, if you want to apply this, apply it this way, prays when you feel like you're in prison, he will break shackles and there is something in that present for you. And the most important part is the redemptive purpose. You step out of it. Yeah. Have trust in the middle of turmoil. Having faith in the middle of the storms isn't convenient and y'all it will never be convenient. There is never a quote unquote good time to step out in faith. You will be called to step out your faith in the middle of the storm. The question is, is when Jesus says come Will you actually walk luck. When God calls you to do something, it won't be comfortable. But just do it anyway. Work by His power, not your own. If something doesn't happen for you don't get discouraged and don't move on your own strength and power, believe that he will work, but be willing to be an obedient vessel for his work. You will never move where God needs you to go. If you keep your character at a level four when he's calling you to be a level 14. That's right. You will never ever move. And I texted Tony this yesterday, and I'm gonna read it because this would be my word of encouragement to you. I'm not even turned there, Tony, why am I not turned there? There it is, praise the Lord. First John, chapter five, verse four, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, catch this. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith, the victory that has overcome the world is our faith in the promise. That is all ready, here. Jesus Christ is the promise. He lives in us. He breeds upon us, we do wait for him to come back. And that will be a glorious day, and the establishment of a new kingdom. But don't get so caught in the future promise that you missed the promise. That's right now. step out in faith, move in faith. Because the victory that has overcome the world is our faith in him where Hebrews says he is the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Tony Benda 1:21:49
That's good. That's really good. Sorry,

Josh Shaw 1:21:52
I had a preach for a moment.

Tony Benda 1:21:55
This congregation over here it's getting, it's getting get lit. I just

Josh Shaw 1:22:02
we're drawing that time to close. And as always, Tony, you have any lasting encouragement for the listeners, I'm already I'm preaching to

Tony Benda 1:22:09
you, you You preached value preached. Now it's it's just really cool topic today. Face. A lot of people struggle with faith. And that's okay. Don't let the struggle keep you from actually learning how to grow in your faith. Don't let the struggle keep you from having faith in the One who made us and in the one who is the author and perfecter of our faith. So continue to level up your faith continue to level up in your camp campaigns and your spiritual campaigns folks, there's there's many good things ahead. Because like I said before, this is this is not our eternal home. So that's something I have faith and I was so excited for. Amen. You know, the next the next phase after humanity.

Josh Shaw 1:23:02
That spiritual walk on street to Golden That's right. Well, we just wanted to thank you as always, for tuning in. Yes, for listening. It is. We are so blessed. by so many people that are impacted. Please continue to email us reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram you can tag us at add dungeons and disciples against at dungeons and disciples. Our

Tony Benda 1:23:27
email is dungeons disciples@gmail.com No. And in that one dungeons disciples@gmail.com for our email. And like Josh that Facebook and Instagram at dungeons and disciples,

Josh Shaw 1:23:38
and before we go, I want to provide a really cool teaser for him. Ooh, cool teaser. Our main man Tony is going to Gen Con 2024. Yep. Next week. And that's an Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indianapolis. So

Tony Benda 1:23:56
excited folks,

Josh Shaw 1:23:57
I want you all to message us on Facebook, Instagram, shoot us an email if you're going to GenCon because if you are, connect with Tony wise,

Tony Benda 1:24:06
please, I'd love to meet some of you guys and I'd love to meet all of you if I can. I don't even know who's going to GenCon but please, like Josh said, reach out. I will be looking at our feeds, Instagrams, all the things and I would love to connect with you people. Take some pictures, do a little recording. I'd love to record some of your testimonies. If anyone is going to be there. Believe me, I will have gear at different points with me so yeah, come meet me. It'd be blast. I'll be walking around the convention center last year. My buddy Chuck and I talk will be with me again there. He's gonna be a future guest on our show. Oh, yes, he is. That was Stephen and yeah, it's gonna be great. Our our DM or normal DM Steven is going to be there my brother in law. But yeah, we're just gonna be so much fun. I'm excited. I can't I just can't wait.

Josh Shaw 1:24:59
I'm excited for you. that's gonna be good.

Tony Benda 1:25:01
Oh, Aaron's go into Yep. Our guest from last week is going to be a Gen Con this year. I'm just so excited, folks. Anyway, come meet the crew. It'll be awesome. And yeah, just I'm looking forward to the next episode too. So we'll anything else?

Josh Shaw 1:25:17
I have none. Okay. But I will say again, I'll spoil it. If you're struggling, growing in faith, and you need to know some weapons. To combat the enemy who is trying to destroy your faith. Tune in. Listen, because we want to teach you about those weapons of warfare.

Tony Benda 1:25:39
That's right. One of those weapons of warfare is prayer. So let's pray out, ooh, oh, oh, no, here we go, folks. Let's pray. Father, God, thank you for such a fun time with Josh, and just, you know, being able to sit here and talk about our faith and these different experiences we've had and how to grow in our faith and what good fruit looks like and what that fruit looks like. And I just pray that as we go through our week, we just continue to meditate on your word and ruminate on these different things. And just be with us Father, as we traveled to gedcom, some of us as we continue to normal to go about our normal ministries, Father, just be with us, be a light in us and help us to shine brighter in this community. Father, we thank you. We praise you your name, amen. Amen. We'll see you guys next time. Peace.