Welcome to the Excel Stillmore podcast. I'm your host, Chris Emerson, and I'm thrilled to introduce once again a great sponsor for the program, Tyler Kane, a close friend and fellow believer. He serves as the senior loan officer at statewide mortgage, based in Louisville, Kentucky.

Statewide mortgage is a company founded by a brother in Christ.

Tyler brings 20 years of expertise to the table, making him a trusted advisor for numerous families navigating the complexities of the mortgage industry.

Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, considering refinancing,

or dreaming about future homeownership goals, Tyler and his team stand ready to assist you

every step of the way. For more information, you can find a link to their website in our show

notes or feel free to reach out directly to Tyler at 813-380-8487. And on his behalf and mine, thanks for listening.

I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for listening in. I hope you get a lot out of this two-part series

that I want to present to you based upon a small book I'm holding in my hand right now called the core

eight essentials to strengthening your faith. If everything goes well for us, I will introduce

four of those eight things to you today. And then if the good Lord allows it next Monday,

we'll finish up by looking at the last four things. I'd like to first tell you how I came to own this particular

book that I've been enjoying today. It's associated with a foundation called the Fellowship of

Christian Athletes. Maybe that is self-explanatory, but it is a group of people who seek to work on

college campuses with athletes as well as coaches to talk to them about the Lord, to encourage them

to have prayer meetings and Bible studies. And the first time I heard about this group, of course,

is through my son Luke, who is now a junior at UT Tyler, and he plays golf for them. And it was

really cool. The year before he even joined the team, he met them for a media day and a fellowship of Christian athlete spoke to them. And it was really cool. The year before he even joined the team, he met them for a

media day and a fellowship of Christian athlete spokesman was there, and they started a nice

relationship. That actually led to a really cool event in December of Luke's freshman year, so two years

ago, where he went to Dallas for a couple of nights with a bunch of different athletes from around Texas

and got to play games with and listen to Bible studies by some professional athletes,

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