Pastor Bronson Stewart:
Amazing morning. I’ll tell you this, it’s already been an incredible, incredible time and I am so excited. This is an interview that’s very different than anyone that we’ve done here. And I’ll just tell you right now, you’re gonna be blessed by what God does with our time. Patrick Nicks, you already know, he has blessed our church. He’s been here a number of times, and, and as a friend for a number of years, I’ve been able to just really see how he has used his influence to faithfully point people to Jesus. But lemme tell you, you’re in for a special treat. My friend Tes Johnson today TES actually played for Coach Nixon in high school. You’ll get to hear a lot of that story today. And then went on to have an unbelievable college career that wrapped up at the University of Oregon and then landed him getting drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL. He’s got a phenomenal story that is so much more than just football. But that I think, will encourage you a story of faith and perseverance and and pressing on. But I’m gonna need your help this morning because I left before my family got dressed, and in the middle of the chapel service, my family walked in in Bo Nick’s gear instead of Tez Johnson gear. What are we doing? How disrespectful, right? So we need to fix that right here with a warm welcome for my friends, Patrick Nicks Tez Johnson. Come on now.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
My deepest apologies. Tez <laugh>. What am I raising? I don’t even know what we’re doing here. We will get some Tez Johnson gear, but man, it is a joy to have you guys here. Colorado Tez lives full-time in Tampa, so he loved the weather this morning. <Laugh>. Okay. Needless to say, it’s been great, but just would love for us maybe people know your story, maybe they don’t. Certainly we’ve coach and I have had a number of these where we’ve gotten to unpack just how God has worked in the Nick family. But why don’t you share a little bit about yourself, your childhood, your upbringing, kind of what was life like prior to meeting the Knicks family?

Tez Johnson:
Really hard, really tough, really battle early in my younger days. Really saw a lot from violence to just bad things all the time. I grew up in a town called Woodland, Alabama. Projects just not much there at the at the time it’s not even there anymore. It kind of tore down. I try to go by when I visit and try to go by and see it. It’s not even there anymore, which is crazy. But I, I was always the kid that was around. Everyone knew me ’cause I liked to fight. I love to fight. I, that’s just what I do. But I was always, I was around the football at the end of the day. I went from being the worst kid on the block to, everyone picked me first because I was faster than everybody, so they just gimme the ball and just let me run.

Tez Johnson:
So that’s kind of how my days of football just kind of got started. But elementary school, I was always in and out. More out than in, than most people would say. Very much out, I kind of say. But I was always at school fighting because of what was happening at home. I was just always took the anger to school and pick fight with the other kids. It was not much that they did anything to me. It was just more of me being angry and just wanting to get the anger out in some kind of way. So my mom at the time, she moved us from Woodland, Alabama to Piston Valley, Alabama. And I was, I started off at Rudd. It kind of transferred over, like the being in trouble, hanging around the wrong people. It was, it kind of transferred over, but I was kind of smart with it to where like, I can do this, but I can kind of get away with it sometimes, but not all the time. So that carried on and I got a year into high school, got into one altercation, and the principal, Mr. Turner at the time told me like, Hey, we know your history of fighting. We know what you do. Like, you, you always outta school. So we not doing that here in high school. So that’s really much prior until my 10th grade year when dad came.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
So talk about that. How, how, how do you meet Tess? How, how is it the first time that you get to know him? You hear his story, you’re, you’re exposed to him. What, what was that, what was that encounter like? We had,

Patrick Nix:
I’d been coaching up in north Alabama and had just taken the job at Penson. Fortes was a ninth grader at the school. So I, I came down in January, left the family Bo and Caleb, Sarah Krista. They all stayed in Scottsboro while and then Grace was finishing up. I I, I came to to Penson to start being the head coach, you know, run the place, all that kinda stuff that left them there. And so I was there, I was a lot more concerned with hiring coaches and the older guys and, and didn’t really know all the ninth graders. So I’m sure Tez and I met, but didn’t really know him at all at the time. And then so Bo was finishing up basketball season at the school that we were leaving from and got beat in the playoffs.

Patrick Nix:
And literally the next day he’s with me in Penson. He couldn’t wait to get there and get around his new teammates and see what the, the, the new toys and the guys. And we knew we had some very good players that, that we’d moved into a place that was talented. And so he was excited to get out there. So the first day, it was probably, I wanna say it was like a Wednesday or Thursday. It’s the middle of the week for his first day in school. And so he’s the new kid there. The supposed this good quarterback. And so everybody wanted to see, so he gets to footballs and they’re gonna go out and throw after school there. And so he’s got a group going out there. Well, that group became very big ’cause everybody thought they were a football player at the time, and everybody wanted to come out there and throw with Bo and, and c and all this kinda stuff.

Patrick Nix:
And didn’t take long for the, the older guys, the guys that, that you knew were good. They, it was pretty obvious. They’re good. And they were running around. But as we were standing there, there, there comes this little bitty kid bebopping out, just bouncing around and everything off the track. And, and you know, one of the coaches is sitting there and he just bouncing around. I said, who is that? He said, it’s it that, that’s Tez Johnson. And talked to, he said, very talented, but always in trouble, you know, don’t know. And you know, of course he’s a ninth grader and a lot of ninth graders are in trouble, you know, that’s just part of it. <Laugh>. And so, so he goes out there and, and, and starts running around and everything. Well, the next thing you know, he starts running routes and starts catching passes.

Patrick Nix:
And it’s like, wow, that little kid’s really good. And so it was not hard to, to pick him out and all, you know, and you know him immediately. Well, Bo comes walking off the field and the very first thing he said when he walked in, he said, dad, I don’t know who that kid is, but he’s really good. And he was talking about Teez. It was the first time he’d ever met him. And so, yes. And so, so that was the first time that that that I ever like that my first memory of Teez, obviously the first time Bo ever met Teez, and the first time that I really sort of knew who he was.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
Yeah, that’s what we call good coaching.

Patrick Nix:
Good. There’s no doubt. Yeah. Excellent coaching. Yeah. Part of it’s you gotta, you gotta, you know, it’s like Barry, you gotta find the right person, right? You gotta find the talent, you know? So found talent. It’s not hard to find talent.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
It does help. And so, Tess, talk about kind of those early days. You meet Bo, you’re throwing around you, you meet coach. What, what was, what was different about just kind of getting to meet those guys that was maybe different than, than how life was going at the time?

Tez Johnson:
Like, he, like dad said, he was, he was already, Bo was already the talk of the town at the time. Yeah. So I was the kid that was like, okay, I just want to impress him. I was already terrified of him. I was, the way, if you look at Bo if you don’t know him, you’ll think like, this dude’s serious. There’s something wrong with him, <laugh>. But I go out on the field and I go, I just, I catch everything. I made sure I caught everything, how he wanted it. I rented that way and I didn’t think much of it. I just, I didn’t think I was gonna play. I just wanted to catch footballs. But Caleb used to go up to the high school, like go, always go up there with his backpack. I always just say, what’s up, Caleb? Never thought, none of it just said, what’s up to him? He was up at the time. He had braces, so he had like a little slur in his talk. So it was like, what’s up? Like, it was, it was funny, but, and he swerving down. He didn’t have braces where he met me and I remember vividly, but I used to always say, what’s up to him and do the same thing. It was just routinely. And I, I think that’s kind of the, the start of like, me just getting to know like, more Caleb than bold than anything. So, yeah.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
Yeah. So coach talk about then he, there’s a moment that he goes from just this potential player to, Hey, we’re gonna have to intervene in this situation as more than just a coach talk. Talk about how that came to be and then halt ends up with you guys.

Patrick Nix:
Ted obviously explained he his upbringing was, was rough, you know, with between his mom and his two siblings. And at the, you know, at that point it was, he had a little sister too. And but it was, it was rough. It was rough in the household, a lot of argument, a lot of fighting, a lot of, you know, that kinda stuff. And so it was a Monday morning in April I’m right before spring practice. I’m really busy trying to get things done. And our principal very good friend of of both of ours now love him to death. And he called and said, Hey, I need you to go get teez outta class and talk to him and find out what’s going on at home. His mom’s here in the office with me and she’s ready to pull him and, and send him on to a, a juvenile detention center.

Patrick Nix:
She’s done with him. And I was like, God, there’s no way we can’t let that happen. ’cause Obviously, you know, we’d seen potential in him, you know, as a player. But we also knew that he was doing much better academically. I was getting called to go get him outta class. Not ’cause he was in trouble or something, but to go and try to help him. So he had, he was doing good, he was taking good steps. And so my mind immediately went, okay, what can we do to, to help him, to, to keep him, you know, here and, and have a good situation. And so I go get Tez and, you know, and we talk and I find out a little bit what’s going on, and his mom’s in office. So we go and we sit down with her in the office, and sure enough, they’re, it’s, it’s even in there.

Patrick Nix:
It’s, they’re going back and forth at each other and times, you know, I’m having to look at Tez and say, be quiet. Don’t say another words. Just sit there. And he’s angry. She’s angry. And Mr. Turner and I are trying to find solutions. And no, no joke. It started at like eight o’clock and by this time it’s like 12 o’clock that we’ve just been going round and round. And I’m just like, okay, you’ve warned me out. I’m done. I’m hungry, I’m tired. You know, if I felt like I’ve, you know, you hear the interrogations Yeah. Where people just confess to something, <laugh>, can I just get outta here? So I felt like that, can I just get outta here, please? What, what do I need to confess to, you know, can I just get out? And so finally we had exhausted about everything. And I just asked her, I said, well, yo, can he come and stay with me for a couple days?

Patrick Nix:
You know, let’s let things calm down at home. He can just come stay with me and then we will. And I was totally expecting her to say no. ’cause She had said no to everything else and, and was already sort of thinking, well, what’s our next step? And so, but she said, yes. She said, you know, okay, I’ll, I’ll let him go to y’all your house. And so I was like, okay, you know, let’s, let’s go. And so I told Teez, we walked out, I told him, I said, look, you go back to class. Come straight to my office after school and we’ll go get your stuff and go to the go home. Well, I’m walking out, I called Krista and said, Hey, got somebody coming home, gonna spend the night with us tonight, <laugh>, you know go be there. And she’s like, okay.

Patrick Nix:
You know, no big deal. And, you know, and, and it, EZ was not the first player that, that we had helped out and come to the house. He’s just the first one that never left. And so <laugh> and thankfully for that, thankful for that. And so but we, you know, I go, and the long story is he comes and I, you know, being a coach, stay around after school. And so finally he and I get in my car and we go to his house, to to, to get his stuff. And the whole way I’m really thinking on the way over there. I don’t know what’s about to happen. I really don’t. You know, he had a, he had a stepdad, he had siblings, he had a mom that I knew was angry with him, didn’t know how everybody else was feeling. Did anybody even at this house even know that he’s coming with me?

Patrick Nix:
Does that, what am I walking into? And so when we got there, walked up the door, there was nobody there. And no doubt in my mind, it was a God thing. Tez just walked in, got his stuff started coming out, and I cry every time at this point. But he, he walks out with a, with an organ hoodie. And, and you don’t understand that God is writing our story. Yeah. God was, God writes our stories and, and he gives us the desires of our heart. And here this, you know, kid comes walking out that I didn’t know great. In an organ, sweat hoodie didn’t, Oregon was not even on our radar in our family at this time. You know, I knew they had football and they had the crazy uniforms, and that’s about it. And so Erie comes walking out and sure enough, we, you know, go get in the car and we head to the house. Right?

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
So you show em to the house. What’s that like,

Tez Johnson:
<Laugh>? It was, well, they was all eating at the table. Me and dad walked in. Dad was already tight. He had his hat on. He a gray shirt. He, he’s done for the day. So I walk in and mom meets me at the door and say, before you leave the house and before you go to sleep, make sure you tell me. You let me and tell me where you’re going. I never had that happen to me. Like no one ever told me that I could have left and came back as I pleased. Like before then, I didn’t really care. But for mom to say that to me, I was like, okay. That was like the first like, rule set. It was so simple that could have been easily, like, I could have easily rebelled and been like, okay, whatever she’s talking about. You know what I mean?

Tez Johnson:
But I kind of just like, okay. And since then, it is been the same. They was eating at the table and I knew right then and there, like they had something that I was looking for. Like I wanted to be love. I saw love at the table, sitting down, having a conversation amongst each other. Like back then, I just take my plate, go to my room, sit on the floor and play the game and eat. Like me and my brothers, we would probably argue who won in WWE or something like that. And then pretty much that’s it. But that was what I needed at the time. That’s what I saw. And like walking into, they didn’t, they don’t know me from a can of paint. Like Bo just threw to me one time, Caleb, we say, what’s up every day? I haven’t even met Sarah until that day. So like, yeah, that was pretty much it. It’s so real. I wouldn’t change it for the world. Right.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
What, what was the process like then of those, those early couple days? Like your, are we brothers now? Like what was, what is that? I mean, what is that process? And, and now, I mean, how did it play out for you guys?

Tez Johnson:
Well, mom was always my mom. I had no problem with calling other like, guys, mom, mom. It was always my mom. Dad became dad a little bit later through like <laugh>, like he was always my coach. But dad came when we, he corrected me on something and it got bad to where we got into a argument. And the next day I’m like, where’s dad? Mm-Hmm. Like, I knew then, like I was loved and he was doing it out of love. He was correcting me out of love. Bo and Caleb, they became my brother. Like me and Caleb talked every night when we, like, I, I shared a bed a room with him. And that top bunk was Sarah’s at the time. Sarah gave up her top bunk for me to sleep in front of a door in a blue tent with stuffed animals, pillows, comforters, whatever she can find, you know?

Tez Johnson:
And that shows the, the love and the, the heart she had at that young of age. What, how old was she at the time? Like, I don’t, I don’t even fourth grade. Yeah. Like young. And to see that, and I was like, wow. Like, it takes a lot. But she’s in fourth grade doing that. And if you know Sarah, she’s the most, she’s the light. Like if she step on the stage runner, she’ll be the light of this whole room. Like that’s who Sarah is. Like when you see Sarah, you know, she’s a great person and a loving person and doing that for me, like, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Like that’s my little sister. Me and Caleb talked every night. Our bond grew as, I scared him every night. Like I walked up and I faked, like I was going to the top bunk and crawl on the floor and just to scare him, like I was one, like, I was one of those kid, like I was the kid that I can ignore everybody in the house.

Tez Johnson:
And like, I loved it. It was kind of like, what, how I showed my love. Me and Bo got in, like, me and dad actually got into it at practice, yelled at me really bad. I was being, I was being stubborn. I was being stubborn. Practice was not like going the way I was. I was dropping balls. I was running the wrong route. Dad yelled at me, he’s done. I get home and Bo actually come to me like, we on the back porch. Like, I’m furious. Like I’m, I’m done. Like, I’m ready to, at this point now I’m ready to fight. But me and Bo is nose to nose, Caleb and Sarah looking through the blinds, like <laugh>, making sure, like we don’t get into like an altercation. And Bo tells me like, if you wanna stay in our house with us, you gonna have to do it this way.

Tez Johnson:
You can’t go back to what you was normally used to. And I remember looking at him and I just shed tears. He was like, your dad is my dad. And I’m, it didn’t, it didn’t hit me. Like it hit me like a ton of bricks. Like he sees me as a brother. He never said it, but I always walked in his footsteps farther. Like whatever he did, I tried to mimic how he treated others. How he talked to his elders. Yes, sir. No sir. Yes ma’am. No ma’am. I, for me, it was always yes or yeah or no or nah. Like, it was always that. But putting a man behind something shows that you have a res like a certain level of respect for a person that’s older than you. And seeing that in both, he was always about his business. Everybody’s scared of him.

Tez Johnson:
Like, you see him on a normal day, basically. He looking like he don’t wanna be bothered, which is, which is crazy, but he doesn’t mean any harm. He, when he told me like, your dad is my dad and you have to do it this way, you can’t go back. And he’s not let, like, he was adamant of not letting me go back. I was already ready to leave and go back. Like I was, I was done. But that’s when Bo, I saw him as a brother. He’s not just my teammate, he’s my brother. He’s my oldest brother. So, wow.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
That’s, that’s really cool. What, what I love is that, you know, you shared, you shared earlier that decision that, hey, Tez is gonna, he’s not gonna leave there. There comes a point where he can’t go back. We, we have this opportunity. What I love is that there wasn’t ever, I, I think about from our own standpoint, maybe your own homes. Like if, hey honey, there’s a kid moving in today. There’s probably a conversation that should be had there. What I love is there was no conversation for you guys just talk about why you felt like you and Christ were like, this is, this is how Christ calls us to live. And, and kind of how it was decided. He’s, he’s not leaving.

Patrick Nix:
Well, when you go into coaching, that’s why you go into coaching, you know, and, and you go in to, to kind of be that father figure to, to be somebody they can look up to, to impact lives. That’s why you go into coaching. And, and, and so I knew, and and our kids had seen, like I said, they had had multiple players come through. Whether it be when we were in Charleston, we had a receiver that couldn’t, didn’t have a place to stay for the first two weeks of the summer. So he just came and lived with us. First two keeps weeks of the summer. And the boys loved it and loved playing video games with him and all that. And we just had multiple players in and out the house. And that was just, you know God calls us to love people.

Patrick Nix:
That’s, that’s what what you do, you know? And part of the way you love is you help ’em meet their needs. You help wherever they are. You help meet those needs. If, if you, if I have something I can give to somebody to help them, then, then I’m going do it. And so I think that our, it sort of had already been established in our family that, that we love people, that we’re going to help people no matter who they are, where they’re from, whatever, it doesn’t matter. And so it was just one of those matter of fact that this is, this is who we are, and so he needs help. He’s gonna come in and we’re going to help him. And it was a, I mean, obviously when it was not a, you know, instantaneous just snap the fingers and hey, we’re wanting to be a happy family, everything’s great.

Patrick Nix:
You know, I mean, there was some adjustments to be made. We were living in a very small in the state of Alabama for the boys to be eligible, we had to move into the city limits of that school. Well, we hadn’t sold our house, so we had to just find us a house. We found a very small house to rent. We moved in there. The, you know, kids, we were all sort of on top of each other and really didn’t have a whole lot of room to begin with. And then all of of a sudden, you know, we’ve got another one. So Sarah, unfortunately, sorry honey, you’re <laugh> your only other option to sleep on the floor, you know, on a mattress on the floor. At least we had a mattress, you know? And so, but she did it happily and it was part of it.

Patrick Nix:
And and Bo and Caleb both, you know, took him in like, you know, like you said, like a brother. And we took him in. We loved to have him, you know, him being there. And once again, at the very beginning, you didn’t know how long it was gonna last. My greatest fear was he was going to run, you know, that, you know, and, and so we were on hide alert, you know, that, that Caleb, you can’t really do a whole lot physically. You can now. Caleb’s grown up a lot since those days. He can now, but then can’t do a whole lot, you know, but you can yell, tell us, Hey, he’s, he’s gone. And so and then Bo gets your hands on him quick, you know? ’cause If we don’t confine him, if you’re not, we’re not gonna get him. And so get a hold of him.

Patrick Nix:
I’m with you. And we just gotta keep him here. I don’t know how we do it. But we can’t let him get, we can’t let him get out. ’cause You don’t know where he is going to go. And I knew the end of the story. If he left, I knew that end of that story. Yeah, I’d seen that. And that’s not good. And so I don’t know the end of this story, but we gotta keep him around until we get things settled. And so he slept in his clothes, full clothes, those, and we didn’t realize, you know, until later, he was more scared than we were, you know? And, and we didn’t, I didn’t even shame on me. I didn’t even necessarily look at his thoughts and feelings when he came in. I’m thinking about the other, you know, the rest of the family and everything. Now I’m thinking about his wellbeing and how I’m going to take care of him. But I wasn’t necessarily thinking of his feelings and how scared he was and him, you know, here he is in a lily white family that, you know, eats at a table and he had never eaten at a table before like that. And just all the change that he went through. But it, it helped us to see people a lot better, you know, by know, knowing what te went through, especially early on with us.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
That’d been a great storyline though. Bronco’s quarterback holds brother hostage. Yeah. <Laugh> been,

Patrick Nix:
Yes. Well, you know, the good thing before the end,

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
I mean, the media is so impartial with Bo too.

Patrick Nix:
Nobody knew anything about, you know, Bo Ortez. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. So, you know, you know

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
Tess, what I love about your story though, that I think re is so tough, right? When we’re, when we’re trying to connect those two and, and now they see NFL wide receiver that they, they didn’t see the stories will impact shortly. The get just trying to get to Oregon and how, how that played out and then being drafted. And I think it’s easy to see it on the back end. What I, what I love is you never quit. Even when there were so many moments where I think all of us would look at and say, man, that that’d been the easiest moment to walk away, right there. You, you didn’t need that. You didn’t need them. They, they didn’t need you. The rules I mean, just talk through that of, of how the Lord was working and saying it would’ve been so easy to quit. And now kind of on the backside of it, how God was working that of not giving up,

Tez Johnson:
Up. Well, any time in my life I could have quit it. I could have just gave up and said, forget it. The day, was it April 23rd, the day I walked in the house in that organ hoodie, that meeting before, probably I could’ve quit then I, I was, I was done. I was over it. I was, I was just completely out of answers. I was mad at myself. I was mad at others. But I always had a voice that just said, never give up. And I always spent time with my grandmother. I feel like my, you know, like I know what my grandmother was the only person that I can go to her house and just sit there like all day. And out of nowhere, my grandma just, you hear over there talking, next thing you know, you hear Amen. Like, grandma going through something.

Tez Johnson:
I don’t know what, like, who she talking to. I’m thinking grandma seeing people in here, <laugh>. But I just knew like, she’ll take us to church if I’m, if I’m there with her, I’m the, I’m sitting next to her in church in the front row. And she used to sing. And I never knew like the, the what was going into Christ. Like at the time I didn’t know like, what it was. I just knew my grandma always prayed and sometimes I’d go to church with her, never knew anything of it, but praying. I used to pray sometimes and just be like, I just wish it was just brighter days or just days to where like, I don’t have to worry about this anymore.

Tez Johnson:
And little did I know, like God was working the whole entire time, like the entire time. Who know? I didn’t, I always wanted to go to Oregon. I didn’t think I was gonna end up at Oregon. I mean, I mean, Bo first game in Armin, I couldn’t even go watch him play ’cause he played organ. Yeah, I was gonna cheer at, for Oregon, I’m gonna be honest, I was gonna cheer for organ, but I wanted Bo to do good. Like I stayed at home. I literally stayed at home for that. They made me stay at home, a whole different story. But I, I didn’t know what he was doing. Nobody did, nobody knew what was God, what God was doing. But I ended up at Oregon playing with my brother. We played together in high school. We played together in Oregon and broke records at both places.

Tez Johnson:
But that’s God, that’s not just us. Him like God giving me a dad. My, my bio dad is deceased, giving me a dad to learn from to look up to, not just to call on him. I can also call my dad and be like, Hey dad, I need help with this. Talk, like teaching me things like who you choose as friends is the right, like, is a, is a decision that you have to make your daily lives. Proverbs 1320 says, walk with the wise, become wise, associate with fool, get in trouble. My dad always tells me like, is he a wise person? And I tell him like, all right, he’s a wise, or I can tell him like, he’s, he’s not as much of a wise, but, and more partly the wise now in my life, more is wise than back then. And like, those are things that I’d never seen God working on in my life. And when it happens, I always be like, oh, thank you God. Like, like I just praise him and thank him so much because he’s done things in my life that I can’t explain to others. And, and I’m very thankful and grateful for everything.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
Yeah. What, what I love is that through, you know, I, I think about the last time you were here, you were training for the combine. And, and me and Patrick were maybe out to eat or whatever and he’s worried sick about you. And it’s just so funny to see this. And, and even just as we were prepping, you know, just how proud he is of you, what, what is it about Tez when you look at that story, few of the things that make you most proud of, of him in that journey?

Patrick Nix:
I think you hit the nail of the head that he could have quit many a times. He didn’t have to. He could have quit as a kid ’cause he wasn’t dealt the best home life. Dad passed when he forever even he never knew his dad.

Patrick Nix:
Cards were definitely stacked against him. He didn’t have a, a shot in most people’s eyes. In the world’s eyes could have ran from us easy, you know, didn’t have to follow our rules, didn’t have to live the way we were telling him to live. Could have done what he wanted to do but even to this point, could have gotten to college and done what he wanted to do. Instead, you know, spring breaks, he’s back at the house, you know, vacations, he’s with us. You know, and he doesn’t have to, you know, and so I, I think that, you know, for me, I don’t know if I’d have done that. Yeah. I don’t know if tough enough. I don’t know if I’m brave enough. But for him to do what he, to be willing to just keep taking the next step,

Patrick Nix:
Just keep, he didn’t even know what it was, what it was to have faith at the time. He didn’t know what faith was. But that’s what faith is. When you just, God, I don’t have a clue. Don’t know how you’re about to provide, don’t know what you’re about to do, but I’m just gonna keep taking my next breath and my next step. He didn’t know that’s what he was doing, but that’s what he was doing. And what an example it is for us now the perseverance that he’s had to go through. And like you said, people see an NFL player and they just have no idea of what really took place to get there and how difficult it was to get there. Even on draft day, he thought he was gonna go in that bill, maybe the, the fourth round.

Patrick Nix:
All of a sudden it’s the seventh round, he’s still sitting there. And once again, he’s like, I’m done. I don’t even wanna go to the NFL. And I was like, are you kidding me? Yes, you wanna go to the NFL? It’s been your dream your whole life. So who cares if you’re draft your goal as a free agent? Doesn’t matter. Just get there. You know? And so life is not easy. And I tell the boys it’s all, life is very hard, but you just gotta live it. You just gotta, you just gotta keep living it. You just gotta keep doing what’s right. Just keep taking the next step. And so I would say, you know, to me, I’m, I’m constantly amazed at how God pursues us and God’s mercy and his grace for us. And the, the, the way God pursued teez just such a great example for us of his love for us.

Patrick Nix:
And ’cause teez, like I said, he had many chances to, to, to, to veer off the path. But God just continued to pursue him, continued to pursue him between us crossing paths to, you know, his mom getting ready to kick him out. All of a sudden he’s with us to, I’m ready to kick him out. Next thing you know, Bo’s there to intervene. You know, to all the way to, he’s not even gonna make it to college. You know, he’s not going to be eligible because, you know, he’s very smart. But he’d never really done much in school until he realized he was important. Then he started doing better in school. But there’s this thing called the a CT, that’s his standardized test that’s written by a guy like me and a guy like that don’t even understand. And it’s like, you know, he’s not gonna do good on the test.

Patrick Nix:
And so we’re battling like crazy his senior year. And it’s end of March, April of 2020, and most of us, if you, you know, everybody with a pulse knows what happens happened. In April of 2020, we shut down, COVID hit. And I tell people all the time, and I’m not joking when I say it, COVID was for Tez Johnson, there’s no doubt. ’cause Without COVID, Tez doesn’t go to college, can’t, Tez would not have been eligible. But when COVID hit, you couldn’t take the a CT anymore. So all of a sudden NCAA said, well, we’ll throw the a CT out. All you gotta do is just be able to graduate.

Speaker 5:
Really? Are you kidding? All we gotta do is graduate. We can do that. And so

Patrick Nix:
It was like, thank you, God. I mean, and we really, we had a party, I think matter of fact, I think I grilled steaks that night and we were like, yes, you made it. You know, because I mean, it just, it goes back. God pursues us and loves us. Matter of fact, he loves us so much that he sent his own son to die for us. And he’s not going to do that. And then just say, ah, if you wanna choose me, can, no, he’s going to pursue us. Like we’re the one sheep out of the ni outta the hundred, you know, he’ll come and find us. He, he. And so just watching his pursuit in TE’s life and our life and his mercy and his grace, and just the, the like, you don’t have a clue what he’s doing. You know, in John 13, you don’t understand right now, but later you will. And there’s so many of those moments in our lives that in our personal lives that we just, like Tess said, we didn’t know what God was doing, but now we look back and it’s like, wow. Yeah, he’s incredible. And we, we tried to mess it up as many times as we could.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
That’s

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
That’s so good. Teez and I are both starving, and so we were joking, we were gonna take off and just leave Patrick to preach. I think that will preach right there. So we, you’d have been fine. But teez, just as, as you think about just kind of wrapping things up, you’re, when, when you look back on what God kind of taught you through that, not football, but, but how God used your story, this journey where you are today, when, when you look back, is there one thing that you’re like, man, God taught through, coach through, through that encounter, had nothing to do with football, but you’re like, man, God taught me that. Just, it was just an unbelievable lesson to see his faithfulness right there.

Tez Johnson:
I think when I want people to see my story, that I want them to think that it’s still hope out there. Like even when all eyes are stacked up against you, you’re going to make it through. ’cause God give his toughest battles to the strongest soldiers. Like you’re going to make it through. You just gotta believe in him and walk in his faith in the entire time. If you have some sort of faith in him, he’s going to have you come out on top no matter what. Like back then I had the, the littlest faith, just pray. I just prayed just a little. Like, I didn’t know how to pray. I just, all I said was, God, I just pray for better days. And this is better days. I mean, <laugh>, I’m on a stage right now talking to people that come on like, God, don’t write a better story than any like, than this.

Tez Johnson:
Like, I’ve, I’m so grateful, I’m so thankful in this. He gave me a dad. He gave me another mom. I got seven siblings. I got brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews coming from every witch way. Like, I mean, and I’m thankful because I’m the, I’m the kid in the family. I’m cracking jokes on everybody and I kind of get away with certain things that <laugh> that boy. And Caleb at the time, they couldn’t because I crack jokes on anybody, but I’m the annoying kid that everyone loves. And I feel like I bring a sense of joy that God knew that I had in me the whole entire time that just needed to be brought out. And I’m so thankful for the Nick’s family to be able to do that for me. So well

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
I, I think my encouragement and, and I’m gonna let coach close here with a thought is, is that I, I would encourage you, there’s a tendency here, some of you see yourself in the story right away. And, and some of you say, well this, this is an adoption story, and that’s not for me. That’s not what this is. This is a, this is a when God puts people in your path, are you ready? Not a matter of if God will put people in your path. There’s people for some of you in your path already. You’re just not ready. And so to me, the challenge is that, that are you sensitive to those people that God is sending your way? And so whether you are a dad or a mom or whatever grandparent, whatever you think, there, there is nobody in my path. They, they’re there. Coach as we, as we wrap, what would your encouragement be just to this room, to, to be in that situation where when it puts in your path, you don’t need a conversation because you’ve long prayed ahead of time? Lord, when it shows up, I will be ready.

Patrick Nix:
I think, you know, I would encourage you, it’s a daily battle. It’s a daily fight. It’s not just a, a one time thing to where you know, I prayed a prayer back, you know, at some youth camp when I was 13 years old. So everything’s good. It’s exactly what Satan wants us to think. You know, Satan wants us to think that everything’s good, that I’ve got this good job, you know I’ve got, you know, my head coach at this new school. Now, I don’t have time for that. I, I get so distracted with all these other things. But the truth of life the truth of the Christian life, it is a daily battle, a daily fight. Nehemiah four 14, in the middle of building the wall, Nehemiah brings everybody together and he tells ’em, remember the Lord, remember, remember who you serve and fight.

Patrick Nix:
And he wasn’t saying, Hey, you know I just need you to fight here for just this fourth quarter right here, type of thing. No, it’s a, every, every single second that we face is fourth quarter. ’cause It’s life and death. It’s eternity. You know that everybody, we beat everything that we do. It’s a, it’s a battle. And, and Satan is real. Satan is doing everything he can. And John, it tells us he’s coming to kill still and destroy. And and every morning I wake up, I’m 54 years old now, and I’m rebuilding a whole nother wall. Now I’ve got grandkids and life has completely changed. My kids are going to heaven. I know that. I know they’ve accepted Christ, but my three grandkids, they’re not old enough yet. And so now the battle has become Satan. You’re not getting your hands on them. And so now the battle has become every day to battle for them.

Patrick Nix:
So I just encourage y’all, you’ve got this, this coming Wednesday for three Wednesdays. Let’s quit being comfortable men and letting our lives do it. Letting the women do it. And, and, and just sitting back and, no, no, let’s actually engage in the battle. Yeah, let’s put on the armor of God and let’s let, let’s fight. ’cause If you don’t fight, you’re gonna lose your son. You’re gonna lose your daughter, you’re gonna lose your marriage. You’re gonna lose your grandkids. You’re gonna lose those to Satan. He might let you have all those other things that don’t matter, but he will take their souls. And so I just encourage you, yo, I I love an inbounds quote, inbounds. So I’ve, I’ve told her, if you haven’t written anything down, take your phone out, write in your notes, the name, EM Bounds, go home, Google him, buy his books and start reading them.

Patrick Nix:
They’ll change your life. He wrote volumes on prayer. Change your life. But he had a statement, he had a quote in one of his books that says, men are looking for better methods. God is looking for better men. So we constantly, as men, we try to find these easier ways to do things, better ways of doing things. Well, Wednesday night’s just not a not comfortable for me. So I have to do, I just can’t do it on a Wednesday night. Why not? You know, because we’re comfortable. So I just didn’t challenge, challenge us as men. Let’s be matter of men. Just don’t look for different ways. There’s this, there’s the thing that was written a long time ago called the Bible. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. It’s got all the methods you need. Don’t change from it one way or the other, and you’ll be prosperous and successful. Tells me over and over in there, if you wanna be prosperous, successful, just do what the Bible tells me. Don’t go right, don’t go left. Just stay on it and you’ll be prosperous and successful. And so I just encourage you to fight. Just fight, fight for God’s word, fight for your families, but you gotta get in the battle and you gotta engage in the fight.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
Yeah. And I, and I would just say, you know, as being blessed to get to be around high school athletes every week like I am, I, I I will tell you the crisis isn’t their athleticism. We’ve, they are specialized coach beyond measure. The, the, the issue is relational. And, and you have a chance as a mentor, as a teach something. There’s someone in your life. The question is, what will you do with coach’s challenge? You wanna stay on the sideline or do we want to be, to me, of all the places that should take on this crisis, how about the church should be on the front lines of saying, are we ready to lead? Are we ready to love? Are we ready to serve? Are we ready to do what it takes when God puts someone in our path? It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. And so church, can I just ask you, have you been blessed this morning by these two right here?

Speaker 6:
Yeah.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
Tes is ready to go eat. And so he would like to be he coach you grab him, I’ll hold him down. <Laugh>

Patrick Nix:
He needs to.

Pastor Bronson Stewart:
But hey, here’s, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna go to the Lord in prayer, and then I’ll wrap up with a few announcements and give away our Blackstone. Father, thank you for these two. Father, thank you just for how you worked in their story, Lord, how you used our time, father, how you used just a testimony of faithfulness. Father, I just pray. I pray for the person in this room who, who, who sees themself in this story. Lord, I pray for the person who just sees themself in, in, in in te, in in Patrick and Krista and the next family, Lord, wherever they are, the the tendency to give up, to give in. Father, I just pray that they would just keep fighting for the person that says, well, that, that’s, that’s not me. I’m not in that story. Or that you would just open some eyes today that says maybe they are the one that needs help. Or maybe there’s someone right along their path. They just need eyes to see. Father, we just pray, Lord, that in a, in a mighty, mighty way, you would work in this space today. It’s in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.