Latest / Providence Voice / We Get To Do This - Doomerang
Transcript
- 0:00Father, we honor you. It is a privilege to do
- 0:03what we do, and we don't take this lightly when
- 0:06we say we get to do this. We really mean it.
- 0:10Our hearts in what we're doing. We pray for our
- 0:12listeners today that they will be inspired, will
- 0:16be encouraged, will be motivated, maybe even
- 0:20challenged to think and rethink things, especially
- 0:24when it comes to their walk with you. We pray
- 0:28for those that are Christ curious, that are examining
- 0:31faith and examining what it might be to follow
- 0:34Jesus, and we pray for them to jump on in with
- 0:37us. So Lord, we do what we do for your honor
- 0:40and your glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. It's
- 0:44Wednesday, September 30th, 2026. We get to do
- 0:48this. This is episode number 52. Well hello get
- 1:08to nation hello believers in Christ curious it
- 1:11is episode number 52 of we get to do this hello
- 1:14my brother brother man we're just turning them
- 1:16out aren't we 52? That's happening. We've got
- 1:20a whole year. It's crazy. It'll accelerate. I
- 1:22think November, we're going to see if we can
- 1:24take even more of your time. Come on now. I got
- 1:28plenty of time to spare. I mean, if we're going
- 1:30to do Adam Monday, are you just going to do it
- 1:33at home? That's your Sabbath, man. I can't wait
- 1:35for you. No, I'll come up here, man. Really?
- 1:37Yeah. I like doing it in the studio. It's more
- 1:40fun when you can see who you're talking to. It
- 1:42is nice. I agree. Just to start things off, during
- 1:47my quiet time, which every morning, like you,
- 1:50I used to never set an alarm, but now I set my
- 1:52alarm every day, 6 .30 I get up, it's before
- 1:56Tina gets up, before the dog is awake, I do the
- 1:58coffee and everything. And I pray and I ask the
- 2:02Holy Spirit, whatever you show me today, let
- 2:05me recognize it as something that I need to look
- 2:08at or something I need to discard, whatever's
- 2:11coming my way before I open screens and all that.
- 2:14get into the word and the devotional, and something
- 2:18like, I've been thinking about this, you know,
- 2:22we talk about a biblical worldview, and we say
- 2:27that so easily, and I don't know how many people
- 2:30really understand that if they're just curious,
- 2:33Christ curious, what does that really mean? And
- 2:36it hit me. There's this movie that was seminal
- 2:40for me in the No Agenda show over the past 20
- 2:43years. It's called They Live, and it stars Roddy
- 2:47Piper, who was a professional wrestler, remember
- 2:49him. You've probably seen the memes from this
- 2:53movie where you put on these glasses, they're
- 2:55kind of like Ray -Bans, and all of a sudden you
- 2:57see the billboards. They don't say, you know,
- 3:00buy this. It says obey. And you look at people
- 3:03and they look like robots, kind of metallic robots.
- 3:06Have you ever seen these memes? It's a movie
- 3:09people should should really see because I realized
- 3:12it is the whole thing is a metaphor. And it's
- 3:15done by John Carpenter. This is one of his early
- 3:18movies. I think it was from 88. And and actually
- 3:22much later, Roddy Piper, before he passed away.
- 3:27sent a note to Hulk Hogan in 2024 saying, you
- 3:31know, hey brother, you know, I hope you find
- 3:33your walk with Jesus, which Hulk Hogan then did
- 3:36before he passed away. And this whole movie was
- 3:39a metaphor for putting on glasses and having
- 3:43a biblical worldview. In this case, it was kind
- 3:46of, you're seeing the robots who control everything
- 3:48and, you know, the new world order, but it's
- 3:51really the same concept of, and there's scripture
- 3:55about it too. You know of seeing things that
- 3:58were unseen or actually, you know, you don't
- 4:01even see the unseen, you know Believing in the
- 4:03things that aren't seen right but this I urge
- 4:07people to get it's kind of hokey. It's kind of
- 4:08a I don't know. It's you know, it's not a great
- 4:11movie. I'll be honest about it. You can probably
- 4:13find it on youtube That's how how the right old
- 4:16and hokey it is, but it really it hit me like
- 4:19that is what it is like You you get saved and
- 4:24you are able to look at things with a different
- 4:28view, look beyond them, and sometimes see even
- 4:33what's not there. Does that make any sense? Yes,
- 4:35it does. Because that is having a biblical worldview.
- 4:41It's like putting on glasses, the Ray -Bans,
- 4:44as you said. It's like putting on these Ray -Bans
- 4:46that now when you put them on, you see things
- 4:49different. And once you've seen, you can't unsee.
- 4:54So, the signs that you see in the movie with
- 4:57these glasses on, you see, obey, consume, conform,
- 5:01no independent thoughts, stay asleep, marry,
- 5:04reproduce, submit, watch TV. The money says,
- 5:07this is your God. Wow. I mean, think about the
- 5:11significance of that, you know, for you cannot
- 5:12serve two masters. Just all of this stuff. I'm
- 5:15like, if you're wondering what it's like and
- 5:18why we sound so happy, most of the time. It's
- 5:22because we have, they're not real glasses of
- 5:24course, but once you see, you understand the
- 5:28invisible things like the steps, like in Indiana
- 5:31Jones, like I am going to step over, you've given
- 5:34this metaphor. Oh yeah, I love that metaphor.
- 5:36I'm going to take this leap of faith knowing
- 5:39that I'm not going to fall down into the ravine,
- 5:42but there will be steps, you know, stepping stones
- 5:44that just appear and then I can walk on them.
- 5:47and it just hit me like, man, if you want to
- 5:49understand what we're talking about with biblical
- 5:51worldview, that's literally it. Unfortunately,
- 5:54not quite as simple as just putting some glasses
- 5:56on and you see it right away. It doesn't quite
- 5:59work that way. Well, I mean, a lot of it has
- 6:02to do with understanding, not just understanding,
- 6:05but knowing the Word of God in terms of reading
- 6:07it and spending time in it. Because whatever
- 6:10we consume, whatever we're dieting on, whether
- 6:13it's the old gigo thing, garbage in, garbage
- 6:16out, you leak out what you're full of, whatever
- 6:18you consume is what's going to come out. But
- 6:21not only does it come out in outcomes or behaviors,
- 6:24it comes out in the way you think and then the
- 6:27way you perceive, the way you see things. So
- 6:30to change your worldview doesn't just mean studying
- 6:32more about the world. It's actually shaping it
- 6:36through the grid or the lens. putting on glasses,
- 6:39the lens of Scripture. And that's what's changed
- 6:42my life, is being able to read the Bible on a
- 6:45daily basis. And a lot of times it's like, it's
- 6:49Miyagi, it's wax on wax off. You're doing it
- 6:52and it is something that gives you something
- 6:54every day, but really there's a bigger thing
- 6:57going on. It's reshaping the way you see the
- 7:00world. It's reshaping your vantage point or your
- 7:04viewpoint. or your angle, your line of sight
- 7:07changes. I'm doing two things this week. I'm
- 7:12doing a wedding and a funeral. Those are two
- 7:15vastly different scenarios. And a whole bunch
- 7:19of baptisms. Lots of baptisms, yeah. A lot of
- 7:22new life there, and yet a celebration of life
- 7:26too, because the man that passed was very godly
- 7:29and was really a model for us all. So that's
- 7:32a beautiful thing. Those are very wildly different
- 7:36settings. And yet from a believer with a biblical
- 7:41worldview, I don't see those that much different.
- 7:46They're celebrations, both of them, of life.
- 7:50And so because this was a believer that passed,
- 7:55sadly it was a tragic accident that took his
- 7:57life at 74 years of age, yet he was such a man
- 8:02of God and a man who carried Christ, he was a
- 8:07Christ carrier, that it's a celebration. You
- 8:11can't help but celebrate. Of course, we mourn,
- 8:14we grieve. That's normal. That's a gift from
- 8:16God. That's God's pressure release valve. And
- 8:19it's a gift, but it's weird when you're doing
- 8:20it. But there is a time to grieve, but there's
- 8:23also a time to dance, a time to celebrate. And
- 8:29Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes, I'm sorry, yes. I'm
- 8:32just thinking birds. Whenever I hear that. You're
- 8:34thinking E's. Yeah, just whatever E it is. It's
- 8:36an E name. Yes, I just hear the seasons from
- 8:39the birds. Yeah, so yeah, there's that. So anyway,
- 8:42to me it's like my worldview helps me navigate
- 8:45both of those scenes with joy. When I heard of
- 8:49John's passing, because that's who we're talking
- 8:51about, I had those emotions all at once. Now,
- 8:57distinguish, because a lot of your friends are
- 9:00going to think John Dvorak we're talking about.
- 9:02Thank you for saying that. No, this is about
- 9:04John who was in our church. And I know John has
- 9:08spoken to John, his wife Kathy, but also they
- 9:11sit on the front row on the other side. So whenever
- 9:13I look to the right, I would always see him.
- 9:15There's always a nod or a smile. He was quite
- 9:18distinguishable to look at. But I had... those
- 9:22feelings at the same time, like, oh, you know,
- 9:25mourning for Kathy, mourning just for his family,
- 9:28just the shock of it, but at the same time, like,
- 9:30I know where he is. And we, we have a glimpse.
- 9:33We don't know fully, but we know partially what
- 9:36he's seeing, what he's experiencing. What we've
- 9:39heard from other people. Yeah. And, and this
- 9:42is really this, you know, death is, is what the,
- 9:48that's funny. They have been thinking about this
- 9:50a lot late. Death is the number one marketing
- 9:52tool, you know. Actually, I don't want to get
- 9:55to that in a second because we got a call in
- 9:58between these two shows from friends of ours.
- 10:01We've only known them recently and they're in
- 10:05California and they called up together, which
- 10:08was odd. And they say, we want to understand
- 10:13about this religion thing you guys are into.
- 10:18We were like, so first I'm on the phone like
- 10:21hold on a second put I'm put on speakerphone
- 10:23It was the first time that someone actually came
- 10:25to us with the type of questions that I had and
- 10:29that Tina had when we were just following on
- 10:32this on this path and I had the feeling that
- 10:36gave us both was like wow and and you know, we're
- 10:41we're what's coming out of our mouths is things
- 10:43that we had heard when we were just starting
- 10:46out, but also A little bit of wisdom, a little
- 10:48bit of things that we've learned over time. And
- 10:52I just can't describe that feeling, man. We were
- 10:55giddy for about two days. Wow, that was really
- 10:58kind of cool, wasn't it? Yeah, it's a buzz. I
- 11:02didn't know that that's a thing. It is a thing.
- 11:07It was like, wow, this is like an upgrade somehow.
- 11:10I think I said when you shot me a text about
- 11:13it, I think I said, you got bit by the evangelism
- 11:16bug. Yeah. Because when you get a chance to share
- 11:19your faith and you know it's landing with somebody
- 11:22who's asking questions, then man, kudos to them,
- 11:25first of all, for them taking the effort and
- 11:28walking in humility to reach out to you guys
- 11:31and ask about it. Yes. That's huge right there.
- 11:33That's half the battle right there. What's interesting
- 11:36is they're asking questions that say, I'm sorry
- 11:39to push back. You're not pushing back, you're
- 11:42asking questions. Good questions, yeah. But that
- 11:44feels like I'm pushing back. His wife is a lawyer,
- 11:47you know, so she didn't want to come up. I said,
- 11:51no, no, the questions are the questions. Good
- 11:54questions, yeah. And it was so interesting to
- 11:56hear, like, well, doesn't that just mean being
- 11:58good people? You know, all the things that come
- 12:02up in your... What do you answer when someone
- 12:05says, well, doesn't that just mean being a good
- 12:07person? Well, there is a snarky comeback on that
- 12:10one that, you know, the road to hell is paved
- 12:12with good intentions. I didn't play that card.
- 12:15I probably wouldn't do that either. That's kind
- 12:17of an insider joke, but even the devils knew
- 12:24Jesus. They knew who He was, and they knew the
- 12:27Word of God, but yet they just trembled. They
- 12:31didn't know Him per se. But no, it's not just
- 12:34about being good. In fact, the Bible even says
- 12:37that our righteousness is as filthy rags before
- 12:40God. In other words, the best we can be on our
- 12:44own still comes up short. Because we're not talking
- 12:48about just bad behavior here. This isn't behavior
- 12:51modification 101. This is actually having the
- 12:55sin issue in our life completely eradicated,
- 12:58dealt with, put under the blood of Christ, dealt
- 13:01with forever. for eternity. It's kind of the
- 13:05wrong question, but it's well -meaning. I'm not
- 13:09dissing their questions at all. These are legitimate
- 13:11questions that people have, but the answers are
- 13:16on a different plane and a different line. It's
- 13:19almost like they're at zero feet and you're at
- 13:2430 ,000 feet. Not that you're above them, it's
- 13:26just a different perspective. When someone's
- 13:29asking about, because my mom did that with me,
- 13:31She said, well, son, I'm a good person. I said,
- 13:35mom, good's not good enough. No, no, we've all
- 13:39sinned and come short of the glory of God. You
- 13:40can go to Scripture on all that. But anyway,
- 13:43what great questions and their openness is just
- 13:47amazing. And I found it interesting that eventually
- 13:50it comes around to eternal life. And this is
- 13:53a big one for me personally, and that comes kind
- 13:58of back to the fear of death thing. I really
- 14:02have that. I don't, I know where I'm going. I
- 14:04know what's going to happen. I may be in the
- 14:07upper deck in the nosebleed seats, but you know,
- 14:10I get in. And with that, I just realized how,
- 14:19cause I come from marketing, you know, my whole
- 14:21career has been media and death is always, the
- 14:26number one way to sell something. If you don't
- 14:30drive this truck, you will die an unhappy man.
- 14:33If you don't drink this beer, you will die a
- 14:35man who never had a beautiful woman on his arm.
- 14:38And conversely, I don't have to tell you all
- 14:40the different things and how they market to women.
- 14:44But I also noticed this, and so there's been
- 14:47some convergence lately of both technology and
- 14:51faith, but actually not really faith, more of
- 14:54evil. So the big, we've talked about this, the
- 14:58biggest marketing push of the last, you know,
- 15:02maybe 180 days has been AI is so powerful, we're
- 15:06all gonna die. Which is, you have to look at
- 15:10it as marketing, you know, but it is, when you
- 15:14bring up fear of death, everybody jumps on it.
- 15:17I can get clicks, I can get all kinds of - It
- 15:19garners attention. I can get all kinds of stuff.
- 15:22So I just wanna play a couple of examples because
- 15:25they really start to bleed over into what I now
- 15:28consider our realm, which is faith and how people
- 15:31look at the world. And we'll start first with
- 15:34just listen to the words. The report is what
- 15:37the report is because, oh yeah, we're all afraid
- 15:40AI is going to kill us. All right, let's discuss
- 15:43the elephant in the room. Artificial intelligence
- 15:46is taking over. Public dialogue, that is. And
- 15:49maybe the world, too. Are we screwed? Depends
- 15:52on who you're asking. I'm sure you've seen the
- 15:54headlines. There are industry experts that are
- 15:57warning that artificial intelligence could soon
- 15:59spiral out of human control and kill all of us.
- 16:03My kids really enjoyed hearing this last week.
- 16:06Others say that we have got about a year left
- 16:08to regulate it until... And it's not just coming
- 16:11from tech critics. Lawmakers in Washington, even
- 16:14AI leaders seriously themselves, have gotten
- 16:16in on the end times chatter too. This caught
- 16:20my ear. Oh, we're now in end times. End times
- 16:22chatter. So now you have my attention because
- 16:26I'm not afraid of the AI marketing. But what
- 16:29are you doing with this end time stuff? Do you
- 16:32believe? earnestly believe that AI could kill
- 16:35all humans. And what percent chance do you think
- 16:37it is? If we take the right paths, then the chance
- 16:40of something going wrong is very low. If we take
- 16:42the wrong path... This to me sounded like you
- 16:45can turn right or you can turn left. I'm just
- 16:47hearing all these biblical metaphors start to
- 16:51pop up in popular culture when it comes to this
- 16:53topic. Then the chance of something going wrong...
- 16:55could be could be even higher than that no i
- 16:57think they are the potential danger they are
- 16:59is probably greater than nuclear weapons god
- 17:02forbid we have a charitable god for some point
- 17:04here that really causes harm to people a i is
- 17:09no longer it reaches that point where it's no
- 17:12longer a tool of human beings it's an independent
- 17:17species while it comes to terminate Doom casting
- 17:22on both sides of the aisle. It goes to show how
- 17:24widespread the concern is about AI. So doom casting,
- 17:28doomerism. This is a real trend that is out there.
- 17:32People are talking about the doomers. Of course,
- 17:35that goes with the zoomers and the boomers. Now
- 17:37we got the doomers, we got doomerism. To me,
- 17:40it's like a doomerang. It just comes all the
- 17:43way back around. I got to write that one down.
- 17:45Over and over. Hey, that'd be a good show time.
- 17:47Yes, it would. Over and over and again. It's
- 17:51the same thing over and over again. The doomerang.
- 17:54So there's even this, you know, in statistics
- 17:57where you have a P number and the P number that's
- 18:00in P in brackets, the letter P, that's like the
- 18:03variable that you put into a model. So now people
- 18:06are asking, what's your P doom number? Look,
- 18:10I'm here to bring what's coming from the outside
- 18:13and that's what it is. Doomerism is a big thing.
- 18:15So Saturday Night Live, which I haven't watched
- 18:17in ages. Me either. It got unfunny for a while,
- 18:21and also it was too late, honestly. And I got
- 18:23other things to do on a Saturday night. One of
- 18:29the actresses did Dario Amadei, and it was appropriate
- 18:33for her to do it because she kind of looked like
- 18:35him. But then listen to how they portray what
- 18:38he was saying. Anthrobic CEO Dario. Amadei had
- 18:42recently stumbled through a press tour where
- 18:45he agreed with a former Anthropic employees claim
- 18:48that there's a 10 % chance of AI wiping out humanity
- 18:52within 10 years. Here to comment is Anthropic
- 18:54CEO, Dario Amadei. Thanks for having me, Michael.
- 19:06I may have been alarming in my recent interviews,
- 19:09but I want to assure you that if we can pressure
- 19:11lawmakers to create guardrails, we will be able
- 19:14to stop me. Dario, can you just explain how your
- 19:19company isn't going to kill us? So, so the hard
- 19:29question. It shouldn't be. You know, come on,
- 19:35Dario. Come on, Dario. You can do this. What's
- 19:43that? Is this how this guy actually talks? Well,
- 19:46well, the the so so so bits. But now now the
- 19:50actor is doing a glitching. You're now but now
- 19:53doing a come on, Dario, you can do it. And then
- 19:55the devil. Voice from the other side. Okay, so
- 19:59you see where I'm going with this now. Come on
- 20:01Dario, you can do this. Just reassure them. I
- 20:07will. AI is the devil and I its maker. What?
- 20:13No, well, so look, Sam Altman, myself, all the
- 20:17major AI players, we have talked about this extensively
- 20:20and we are all on the same page here. We do not
- 20:23condone what we are doing. Wow. But this is...
- 20:28people listen to this, and it seems like, okay,
- 20:31AI is the devil. AI is the antichrist. Now, this
- 20:34is where you get into a realm where a lot of
- 20:36people are talking about stuff like this. And
- 20:39in fact, there's a book out now by Naomi Klein,
- 20:43not to be confused with Naomi Wolf, who without
- 20:46her knowing it was instrumental in my faith journey.
- 20:49Klein is a professor. She wrote Shock Doctrine.
- 20:54I think she also wrote… Let me see. I think I
- 20:57wrote it down. She wrote Doppelganger. She's
- 21:06been around. She's an annoying person to me personally,
- 21:10but the shock doctrine was actually pretty good.
- 21:12And the shock doctrine literally is how politics
- 21:15and marketing shock people into, you know, changing
- 21:19behavior, whether it's consumer behavior. behavior
- 21:23in the world, faith, all these different things.
- 21:26So this is interesting when someone like this
- 21:28comes up with a book called End Times Fascism.
- 21:33Wow. Okay, there's a mixture of... Yes, and points
- 21:36towards... AI. And again, we've got end times.
- 21:41Now, of course, fascism, you know, just throwing
- 21:43some Trump hate stuff. But it's just a quick
- 21:45intro to that book. The CEO of Anthropic, one
- 21:48of the biggest artificial intelligence companies
- 21:50in the world, warned this week that if AI companies
- 21:53don't slow down their development and install
- 21:55some guardrails, rogue AI agents might be able
- 21:58to take control of the Internet in six to 12
- 22:00months. The warning has revved up a debate about
- 22:03whether AI or advanced AI could escape human
- 22:06control and literally threaten human survival,
- 22:09which sounds again like dystopian science fiction,
- 22:11and yet here we are actually having that discussion.
- 22:14But there's something stranger happening than
- 22:16all of this. These dire warnings from tech leaders
- 22:19are growing alongside an increase in talk in
- 22:22fundamentalist Christian circles about whether
- 22:24we are entering the so -called end times. you
- 22:28know, the biblical doomsday prophecy of the end
- 22:30of the world leading up to the second coming
- 22:32of Christ. And thanks to today's politics— Which,
- 22:36by the way, somehow I don't think this guy knows
- 22:38what he's talking about at all. He just rattles
- 22:40off, you know, the end times, you know, and then
- 22:43the second coming of Christ, you know, you know,
- 22:45you heard about this somewhere, didn't you, Sunday
- 22:47School? End times. You know, the biblical doomsday
- 22:50prophecy of the end of the world leading up to
- 22:53the second coming of Christ. And thanks to today's
- 22:56politics, This isn't a fringe idea. It's being
- 22:59discussed by Vice President JD Vance. Take a
- 23:01listen to what the actual Vice President of these
- 23:03United States said two weeks ago during an interview
- 23:06on a Christian podcast. While I wouldn't be shocked
- 23:11if we are living in the end times, what I'm trying
- 23:13to focus on is doing as much of God's work as
- 23:16possible right now. And if that leads to the
- 23:19end times, okay. And if that leads to, you know,
- 23:23us building a better world. that thrives and
- 23:26survives for a very long time after I'm gone,
- 23:29that's great too. Kind of out of context, this
- 23:32clip, because he's saying something that I know
- 23:34you and I both agree with, but with that setup,
- 23:37all non -believers will hear is, oh yeah, there's
- 23:43end times, if that leads to the president leading
- 23:45us to the end time. I'm very worried that people
- 23:48are getting fearful and worried, and like, what
- 23:53can I do to stop the end times? This is why I'm
- 23:57bringing this to my brother, Pastor Jimmy, to
- 23:59help spin us down from this horrible place of
- 24:02where we're all, and by the way, I've heard anti
- 24:06-Christ end times throughout my career. have
- 24:09always said, oh yeah, totally possible Obama
- 24:12is the Antichrist, totally possible that Hillary
- 24:14Clinton is the Antichrist, George Bush probably
- 24:17the Antichrist, the European Union probably the
- 24:20rise of the Antichrist, end times, we're all
- 24:22going to die, fire and brimstone. Help us Pastor
- 24:25Jimmy. Help us now brother. Well, first of all,
- 24:29from a Christian point of view, which is us,
- 24:32we've been in the last days since Jesus announced
- 24:35it in the New Testament 2 ,000 years ago. That
- 24:38was the beginning of the last days. Now, we don't
- 24:41know what that means. There's no way to tell
- 24:43because there's not a definition and there's
- 24:46so much metaphor involved here. So, it could
- 24:49be thousands and thousands of years. It could
- 24:51not. Who knows? Here's the deal. It's a win -win,
- 24:55brother. Yes. It is a win -win. If Jesus comes
- 24:58back at the end of the Bible, it says, Maranatha,
- 25:01come Lord Jesus, come quickly Lord Jesus. Either
- 25:05way, it's a win, especially for those of us in
- 25:08Christ. But there's a lot of end time conversation
- 25:13built around some of the books that are apocalyptic
- 25:18literature, like the Book of Daniel, Book of
- 25:20Ezekiel, Revelation. These have apocalyptic,
- 25:25very cataclysmic, very fantastical metaphors
- 25:30talking about the end of the days or the prophecies
- 25:34that are coming. And we're seeing a lot of those
- 25:36things come to pass. It's a pretty exciting time
- 25:39to be alive. Just stay there. Explain why. I
- 25:44think people who are listening to us who have
- 25:46no idea, and it was not easy for me too. Even
- 25:49Revelation took me a long time to really start
- 25:52to kind of understand it, when you say it's exciting,
- 25:56why is it exciting? Well, it's exciting because
- 25:58we're seeing biblical prophecy come to pass in
- 26:02our lifetime, which is historical and precedent
- 26:06setting. But it also does indeed say that it
- 26:09could be that we may be in the last of the last
- 26:12days, but that is not anything to fear. It's
- 26:16actually to be celebrated. It's exciting. Now,
- 26:18it's going to be wild. It may not be comfortable.
- 26:21It's going to be a bumpy ride. Fasten your seatbelts,
- 26:23baby. But still, it means we're that much closer
- 26:27to be holding Him face to face. Now, at the end
- 26:30of the day, the perspective here, I even mentioned
- 26:34this on Sunday, it's the last days for everybody.
- 26:39I'm in my last days, period. So if Jesus tarries
- 26:42another thousand years, It's still my last days,
- 26:46so there is an urgency in me. You and I have
- 26:48talked about this. We both feel an urgency to
- 26:51do more at the end of our lives than less. Retirement
- 26:55is like, what? Why would you want to retire?
- 26:59Don't you want to make a difference before you
- 27:00get out of here? Don't you want to fulfill the
- 27:03commission that Jesus gave us called the Great
- 27:05Commission? To end well. And let's run through
- 27:08the tape and finish strong. I see all of those
- 27:10as wins, and I see them as reasons to be excited.
- 27:15All the fear -mongering that sells, because it
- 27:18is fear that sells, people are pushing books
- 27:21and pushing curriculum and pushing movies. Movies
- 27:25now have a lot of apocalyptic, end -time stuff.
- 27:29It always sells. It does. People get left behind
- 27:33series. That was huge. To me, it's like, we need
- 27:36to be celebrating. that we're seeing the Bible
- 27:40play out. We're seeing it substantiates and affirms
- 27:46and validates what we've read in Scripture for
- 27:49hundreds of years. Now we're beginning to see
- 27:51it come. Even this big, all of a sudden, Noah's
- 27:55Ark is a big deal, right? Because of this formation
- 27:58close to Mount Herod. Whenever there's new stories
- 28:02about something, there's always an entertainment
- 28:04product. There is a movie coming out called The
- 28:07Ark, I think it is. Of course. It's on the way.
- 28:09There's several of those, actually. Evan Almighty,
- 28:13that was a great one there. I'm just going to
- 28:17build a boat. I mean, I think God told me to
- 28:19do this, but there's some great lines from that
- 28:21movie, by the way. But anyway, so to me, it's
- 28:25exciting. So, as things are rolling out, biblical
- 28:28prophecies coming to pass, it just makes me that
- 28:30more excited. Now, if this art thing turns out
- 28:33to be real, awesome. If it doesn't, awesome.
- 28:36I don't really care. It doesn't impact me one
- 28:38way or the other. I think it's fascinating and
- 28:41I am kind of keeping up with it. But now, if
- 28:44you don't stay close to the source, it just gets
- 28:47weird. Now everybody's jumping on the bandwagon,
- 28:49which is making me less excited about it, to
- 28:51be honest. I'm kind of going, now I'm seeing
- 28:53it everywhere. All the aberrations. But anyway,
- 28:57this is a good time to be alive, brother. So
- 29:00this is my concern. My concern is that people
- 29:04are using this to bring people to faith, but
- 29:08using it from the fear marketing tactic. Like,
- 29:12the end times are coming. You want to be saved.
- 29:16And I just got to say from my recent memory,
- 29:20That's been said to me for decades and it never
- 29:23moved the needle It doesn't work if anything
- 29:26people go. Yeah, whatever. I See this a lot.
- 29:30I see and it's not always intentional, right?
- 29:34But I want to be wary of not doing that. So when
- 29:39these friends called, that was the one thing
- 29:41I was not. I'm not going to say, we're in the
- 29:45end times, brother. You got to get in now because
- 29:48the ship is leaving. You don't want to be here
- 29:53when it all comes down. Conversely, for believers,
- 29:57I think, and this is historically, I think, true,
- 30:00that when you get these apocalyptic predictions
- 30:03and books come out, you've mentioned this from
- 30:05the pulpit, 2008 or whatever it was, wasn't that
- 30:09supposed to be the year when the end times and
- 30:12Jesus was coming? 1988, 88 reasons for Jesus
- 30:16to come back, not 1988. 1988 comes and goes and
- 30:19people go, and I think that may weaken their
- 30:23faith. Right that people start to think well,
- 30:25what is this? I'm gonna leave or I don't believe
- 30:28or you know, actually what it does it inoculates
- 30:31people from yes, it's the boy who cried wolf
- 30:34syndrome, right and so The scripture talks about
- 30:37when Jesus comes it will be like a thief in the
- 30:40night Yeah, we will not be expecting it. Even
- 30:43Jesus doesn't know even Jesus doesn't know the
- 30:46Son of Man does not know the day or the hour
- 30:48and so it's so funny when we're but it does say
- 30:51that You're to discern the times. There are signs
- 30:56of the times that the Bible gives. So it's like
- 30:59a hint forward, but he doesn't give us the absolute
- 31:02details. And there are people who've built ministries
- 31:05and written bestselling books based off of their
- 31:08predictions, trying to put together the Greco
- 31:11-Roman calendar compared to the… you know, the
- 31:14Jewish calendar and pars it all out. Numerology,
- 31:18all kinds of stuff. Oh my gosh, give me a break.
- 31:20People have built entire numerology calculators
- 31:23with AI and it's, you know, it's amazing what
- 31:26pops out and my eyes go over it. Personally,
- 31:28I thought JD Vance nailed it when he said, I'm
- 31:30just going to be found doing what I'm supposed
- 31:32to be doing. But it was out of context in the
- 31:35way it was introduced. Yeah, I agree with that.
- 31:37But he was just saying, Yeah, whether it happens
- 31:40or not, it's a win -win. That's literally what
- 31:42he said, basically. It's a win -win. Yeah. But
- 31:45when you set up, even our vice president, our
- 31:48very vice president of these United States. So
- 31:53whether you're a believer or Christ curious,
- 31:57it's all going to be okay. Like you don't have,
- 31:59but there's so many, and by the way, just, you
- 32:03know, artificial intelligence, it hit me that,
- 32:07okay, Or as the president now officially, by
- 32:11the way, he signed the document. Yes, officially
- 32:13super intelligence, you know, it's Lake America.
- 32:16It's super intelligence. I think he should have
- 32:18gone of America. I think he should have gone
- 32:20one step further. You should just call the Trump
- 32:22intelligence. I mean, come on, man. You're slacking
- 32:24on your branding. It's not wisdom. I don't care
- 32:29what kind of intelligence you think it is. It's
- 32:31not wisdom. It's wisdom cannot come from pieces
- 32:35of silicon. There it is. You gain wisdom, in
- 32:40my opinion, by getting in the Word, discussing
- 32:43the Word with other people and just thinking
- 32:46about it. And through lived experience. That
- 32:49does help. Which these machines don't have. Correct.
- 32:53So, I love pastor -to -pastor talk. This is actually
- 33:00a great podcast, which you can find in the GodCaster
- 33:04app. Get it from your app store. I've called
- 33:07pastor -to -pastor, focus on the family does
- 33:09it. And I also love it when Josh Howerton does
- 33:12his pastor to pastor stuff. And I think everybody
- 33:16saw him with, I'm gonna get his name wrong, Philip
- 33:21Anthony Mitchell. Got it. I think that's it.
- 33:23Who was just, I mean, the guy is, you cannot
- 33:26help but be drawn in by the voice. You don't
- 33:30even have to see it. His posture is the intentionality
- 33:34of it. So I know a lot of people in our church
- 33:37listen to that episode or watch that episode.
- 33:40And it was phenomenally good, particularly how
- 33:45these two young men, because let's face it, they're
- 33:48a generation younger than you and I are, how
- 33:50they were just discussing their task in life
- 33:57and how they can get disappointed, how things
- 33:59worked out or didn't work out, and what they
- 34:01wish they had from each other. I mean, the whole
- 34:03thing was just phenomenal. I have a question
- 34:06about something they talk about, and I have an
- 34:10observation, because they did cross over a little
- 34:13bit into my field as well. And the first one
- 34:16was about his book, which is called Contend.
- 34:19And so I just pulled a couple clips from this.
- 34:22And here's why I want to ask you a question about
- 34:23this. That's great. It's called Contend. Yeah.
- 34:25You posted this on IG recently, and it's a quote
- 34:29from this book. For listeners, Contend, he's
- 34:32quoting Jude. Which is one of the most savage
- 34:35verses in the New Testament. I think about this
- 34:37every time I preach Contend for the faith. Yeah,
- 34:41once and for all deliver to the Saints, but I
- 34:43didn't mean to ask I don't plan to ask you this
- 34:45What's the 60 second story of why you called
- 34:47it contend? obviously is born out of Jude chapter
- 34:521 and Contend for the faith would have just been
- 34:55too long to put as a title So I just took the
- 34:58strongest part of that word. I just took content.
- 35:00Yeah Yeah, and you know, it's like for me is
- 35:03that's the imperative of the text You know, so
- 35:05I just went with the imperative. Here's what
- 35:07you said about this. So you quote the verse.
- 35:11You said, Beloved, although I was very eager
- 35:14to write to you about our common salvation, I
- 35:15found it necessary to write appealing to you
- 35:18to contend for the faith that was once for all
- 35:22delivered to the saints. And then you said this
- 35:24policies that could eventually muzzle the scriptures,
- 35:27satanic delusions running rampant on social media,
- 35:31a growing hostility toward Christians globally.
- 35:34And time is running out. Now is the hour to contend.
- 35:40So I like this a lot. And I went back and read
- 35:42Jude 3 and I got the NLT version because it replaces
- 35:46the word contend with defend. And so the word
- 35:51is, dear friends, it's Jude 1 -3. Dear friends,
- 35:54I have been eagerly planning to write to you
- 35:56about the salvation we all share. But now I find
- 35:59that I must write about something else urging
- 36:01you to defend the faith that God has entrusted
- 36:04once for all time to His holy people. Jude 1
- 36:08-4 is the follow -up which is important. I say
- 36:11this because some ungodly people have wormed
- 36:14their way into your churches saying that God's
- 36:17marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives.
- 36:21The condemnation of such people was recorded
- 36:24long ago for they have denied our only master
- 36:26and Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't discuss that
- 36:30in in this particular piece, but I think it's
- 36:32important because he the the scripture says People
- 36:36have wormed their way inside like that worm their
- 36:39way inside from NLT Boy, do we know that we've
- 36:43got the rainbow churches We've got a senatorial
- 36:47candidate who has said all kinds of odd things.
- 36:49There's strange things happening at his church
- 36:52This to me is the warning now at the end there
- 36:56Again, I kind of hear a little bit of Turner
- 36:59Burn, brother. You know what I mean? A little
- 37:01bit of, you know, so I don't know exactly if
- 37:05he's trying to market to people using that, didn't
- 37:09really feel like it, but where he really took
- 37:11it was what was interesting because AI is the
- 37:16Antichrist or maybe it's something else. The
- 37:19ideologies that are hostile towards Christianity,
- 37:22Josh. Josh, there is another monotheism. That
- 37:28is almost an anti -Christ monotheism. It is one
- 37:33of the fastest growing ideologies in the world,
- 37:35and there are fringes of that ideology that is
- 37:37radical and hostile towards Christianity. And
- 37:41we can... Are you talking about Islam? Yes. I'm
- 37:44gonna go there in a second. Okay. You and me...
- 37:48Yes. You and me say a lot of very similar things
- 37:51on this. Yes. You keep going. Right. So I'm talking
- 37:54about radical Islam. So that's not exactly...
- 37:58in the church. So I'm not sure if he's connecting
- 38:01it to contend because of Jude 1 -3. I'm not disagreeing
- 38:06with him, but everything can't be the Antichrist.
- 38:11And I just don't know if that's the right framing
- 38:14for how we as Christians and believers should
- 38:16look at it. I'm just going to finish this clip
- 38:18and I want to hear what you think. And there
- 38:21are people who, for the sake of inclusion, Think
- 38:26that we are we are doing people good by allowing
- 38:29that ideology to can I use the word infiltrate
- 38:35and invade our political sphere and our social
- 38:38fear for the sake of for the sake of Let's just
- 38:42be inclusive and be loving at the expense of
- 38:45we will keep giving away seats in Office agree
- 38:49and we will keep giving away seats in various
- 38:52legislators across the country until the day
- 38:55comes where that ideology has enough political
- 38:58power. Can we just be honest? Until that ideology
- 39:03has enough political power to introduce Sharia
- 39:06law in America, right? Not disagreeing with what
- 39:10he says there. But the takeaway people have gotten
- 39:14from this is my impression is Islam is the Antichrist.
- 39:18I just want to say it might be, might not be,
- 39:21but we can get, people can respond very fearful
- 39:24to these types of things, and then miss the opportunity
- 39:28to talk to these people about Jesus. I think
- 39:33it bred fear, and that particular part of the
- 39:37podcast. I don't think that's really great, honestly.
- 39:41Yeah, I didn't hear that from that, but again,
- 39:44pastor to pastor. So I know where his drive and
- 39:47his heart's coming. is to win as many people
- 39:50to Jesus as we can before the end comes. I agree
- 39:56with what you said about him in terms of the
- 40:00principle that's happening here. It's interesting
- 40:03because you framed it as that Israel may be the
- 40:08Antichrist, or somebody has said that. But the
- 40:11Bible doesn't just talk about the Antichrist,
- 40:13it talks about many Antichrists. 1 John 2, 18,
- 40:17children, it is the last hour. Think about when
- 40:21that was written. Children, it is the last hour.
- 40:25And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming,
- 40:29so now many Antichrists have come. Therefore,
- 40:32we know that it is the last hour. So they were
- 40:35saying this 2 ,000 years ago. And we had World
- 40:38Wars. We had a couple of things go down since
- 40:41then. Insanity. Yeah. But it just tells me, do
- 40:45you go, well, then it's not coming for another
- 40:482000, or do we say, it could come tomorrow? I
- 40:51mean, so that can go either way. Right. And so,
- 40:55and then a few verses later in the book of John
- 40:57says this, he says, who is the liar, but he who
- 41:01denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the
- 41:05antichrist. He who denies the Father and the
- 41:07Son." So he just brings a clarifier there. But
- 41:10there have been many Antichrists that have come
- 41:13even in that hour, which was the last hour. So
- 41:17I don't hear him saying, and I have heard others
- 41:23postulating, that Islam could be. I've even had
- 41:29just mental images, I wouldn't say spiritual
- 41:32visions, but just mental images of what some
- 41:36of the descriptions of the hordes of locusts
- 41:39and the plagues are going to come in the book
- 41:41of Revelation. I could see that being a horde
- 41:43of black hoods. I've got to fix our screens at
- 41:47home. I'm just going, whoa, wow. Well, let me
- 41:54put it this way. The same thing that that news
- 41:56guy did with the vice president, clips with scary
- 42:00music is done with this. And I just want to Thank
- 42:04you. You just said exactly what needs to be said.
- 42:06This last hour, God doesn't have a clock, He's
- 42:10not wearing a Timex, He's got His own completely
- 42:15holy time for anything He wants, and we don't
- 42:18have to get all spun up about it because that's
- 42:21what I'm seeing. When you hear this guy's iconic
- 42:24voice, this Islam is anti -Christ, and you put
- 42:29some scary music behind it and it's on Instagram,
- 42:32people lose their minds. Yeah. I don't think
- 42:34he was going for that. I know he believes that.
- 42:36You know what I'm saying? And that's okay. That's
- 42:38like for real. Yes. And so my attitude about
- 42:44being spun up, no getting spun up. We cannot
- 42:46think well. We cannot think strategically when
- 42:50we're spun up. That's the problem. And that if
- 42:53there is a... an attempt to the Antichrist in
- 42:57terms of strategy towards, whether it's Christians
- 42:59or the world in general, is get them spun up.
- 43:02Keep them spun up so that they cannot think well.
- 43:07And so to me, it's like, hear that and I say,
- 43:10amen. Now, what are our action points out of
- 43:13this? So what do we do? Well, you'll hear throughout
- 43:16that whole podcast, we listened to it as well.
- 43:19They're talking about the gospel, gospelizing
- 43:22the world, getting Jesus out there. they'll arrive
- 43:25at that, but they're getting to that. But also,
- 43:29the prophetic pastor, the pastor's prophetic
- 43:31voice, there's a responsibility for us to call
- 43:34things out. And so, when you get a bunch of pastors
- 43:37calling it out, some will do it nefariously or
- 43:40do it for more clicks and likes. Josh Howerton
- 43:43doesn't need more clicks right now. He's bigger
- 43:46than Rogan now. So, he's not going for that.
- 43:50And I don't see him as the type He's a guy of
- 43:53high integrity. But this is not what I'm saying.
- 43:56I know what you're saying. I'm saying is how...
- 43:57The verbiage. And it's clipped and it's put with
- 44:00scary music and it's going viral. Very few people
- 44:03watch them. I didn't hear music on that. No,
- 44:04because this is from the original piece, but
- 44:07people have seen this. Oh, oh, gotcha, gotcha.
- 44:11I'll bring some examples of that next time. So,
- 44:14but I actually, I'm right in alignment with him
- 44:16in terms of, you know, there are things that
- 44:20are bearing down upon us as people. And I do
- 44:24believe Islam is one of those, just looking at
- 44:27their history and their repetitive, their cyclical
- 44:29patterns. And so we know that's here. It's not
- 44:32coming. It's here. It's kind of like the line
- 44:34from Twister. It's not coming. It's already here.
- 44:38So yeah, I'm in agreement with that. I listened
- 44:42to the same podcast and my heart didn't get up.
- 44:46My pulse didn't rise. Mine neither. I'm just
- 44:49saying, yes, it is true. Now, do I think they
- 44:53are the Antichrist? I think they are an Antichrist.
- 44:56So, I'm in text groups with other believers,
- 45:00with men. This is perceived different than you
- 45:03perceive it or that I perceive it. This is perceived
- 45:06as, holy crap, this is happening. These towel
- 45:11heads, I mean, this is the kind of stuff that
- 45:13pops up from believers. I'm like, what is going
- 45:15on with this? Just one, and you brought a great
- 45:19clip from John Eldridge said, we need to play.
- 45:23Just one factual bit, because the pastor brought
- 45:27in some stuff that I'm very aware of or aware
- 45:30that it's not happening. In case people heard
- 45:32this, I want to put their minds at rest about
- 45:35this bit. There are talks right now about a ten
- 45:37-nation confederacy. This is just not true. And
- 45:41that's been out there a long time. For a long
- 45:43time. So I think about things like that. There
- 45:46are talks right now in other nations trying to
- 45:48do what's called like an identity chip. Their
- 45:50nations right now talking about enforcing on
- 45:53their people a chip for identity I mean, this
- 45:57is just categorically untrue. There is no embedded
- 46:01chip, you know, there's no digital money other
- 46:03than the credit I mean you can go back and when
- 46:06credit cards keep people you came out people
- 46:07were talking about this being You know the mark
- 46:09of the beast. I mean, this is nothing new But
- 46:12he's kind of reading it as a headline and it's
- 46:15definitely not true would allow you to watch
- 46:17buy sell have commerce and that without that
- 46:22identity chip you will live like a no man in
- 46:24society there talks about that right now as you
- 46:26are sitting you are not sitting at this table
- 46:28right so when I think about things like that
- 46:31things that are clearly written scripture things
- 46:34that are gonna unfold in the end times as catalogical
- 46:36scriptures that are in there Josh when I look
- 46:39at the news in the United States okay so I just
- 46:42want to put people because this flows right into
- 46:45data centers and flock cameras and people get
- 46:47really whacked out about it. It's not true. There
- 46:51is no 10 nation, you know, confederacy. I mean,
- 46:57we all have, yes, identity cards for sure. I
- 47:01rue the day when we'll have to use our digital
- 47:04ID to get on the internet. I don't think that'll
- 47:07happen very easily in America. You know, they've
- 47:09been trying this for a long time, but I've been
- 47:11hearing this for 20 years. So when he kind of
- 47:16reads that as a headline, I'm like, no, I just
- 47:18got to say, no, that's, that's not it. That's
- 47:19it. Otherwise, love this guy. Love Josh Howerton.
- 47:24Um, but I, you know, he's number one. It's like
- 47:27people believe everything Rogan says too. And
- 47:30sometimes it's just not right. It's that old,
- 47:33that old adage, keep your wits about you. Yeah.
- 47:35Yeah. And that's what we need to do is I love
- 47:38your description of hair on fire. It looks like
- 47:40a dumpster fires. I mean, because that is. We
- 47:44are called to be and live at peace We've not
- 47:47been given the spirit of fear scripture says
- 47:50but of power and of love and of a sound mind
- 47:54Yes, and I do keep coming harkening back to this
- 47:57because while I say amen to this because and
- 48:00I understand there are pieces of that that are
- 48:02exaggerated and or just not but they're they're
- 48:06pieces of there is chip technology sure there's
- 48:09policy being discussed around I mean all that's
- 48:12out there, but When we formulate that into a
- 48:15narrative, that's where we've got to be careful.
- 48:17Well, the Ten Nations is literally from Revelation.
- 48:20It's been around forever. And the Mark of the
- 48:22Beast is like, how many times have I heard this
- 48:24is the Mark of the Beast? When some nightclub
- 48:27in Sweden gave people a lifetime pass if you
- 48:30embedded this chip in your hand for entry. I
- 48:33get it. People go, there it is. There it is.
- 48:36We're there. Bitcoin is, you know, that's the
- 48:38mark of the beast. Like, no, in fact, you won't
- 48:40be able to buy and sell without a chip. That's
- 48:42probably our way out actually. But you know,
- 48:45meanwhile, people are very happy to tap their
- 48:46phones to pay. Yeah, there you go. It's so convenient.
- 48:53So yeah, no, that's good observation. But again,
- 48:55keep our wits about us. stay off the text chains.
- 49:03I don't get it. I love my brothers and sisters
- 49:06in Christ, but sometimes we're tools in somebody
- 49:11else's hand beside God. No kidding. It grieves
- 49:15my heart, honestly. As a pastor, I have to waste
- 49:19time every service calming people down. I got
- 49:22a stat somewhere here. Let me see where it was.
- 49:28I think it was we read an average of 100 ,000
- 49:34words a day online, of which five to seven hours
- 49:39of being online. Just think about how much we're
- 49:43ingesting and how much we're writing. Tina and
- 49:47I always joke about it. Like, you could have
- 49:49written five books in a month. With just…and
- 49:52me too, by the way, I'm not excluding myself.
- 49:54Just the text that you're sending out. It's really
- 49:58quite amazing how much, but that hundred thousand…think
- 50:01about a hundred…how many words in the Bible?
- 50:03Do you happen to know? No, not off the top of
- 50:05my head, I don't. What kind of theologian are
- 50:08you? Did you have the whole Bible memorized?
- 50:11Come on, everyone knows these numbers. Yes, a
- 50:13microfiche in my head. You know, 66 books, you
- 50:15know, 40 authors. Come on, everyone knows these
- 50:17numbers. You're looking it up now, aren't you?
- 50:19I am. It probably depends on which translation,
- 50:22no doubt. But the amount of time we spend ingesting
- 50:32and You know, online people are, I wrote this
- 50:41term down. Over 700 ,000 words, depending on
- 50:45the translation. So that's a week, a week of
- 50:47being online. You've basically read the Bible,
- 50:50how about that? Wow. People are ashamed of little
- 50:56and offended by a lot. True. Online. So true.
- 51:04It's probably the enemy uses this. You think?
- 51:07John C. Dvorak said, the phone is the Antichrist.
- 51:11And yeah, he's probably right, but probably one
- 51:13of the Antichrists. One of many. One of them.
- 51:15It was a great trend that I heard about on this
- 51:18clip, which actually I saw, I like the YouVersion
- 51:22Bible app. It's, you know, it's one of the staples
- 51:25for me and it may not be the first thing, but
- 51:27I'm always checking in because, you know, the
- 51:30guy who does the, the Dutch guy does the project
- 51:34of love. Yeah, yeah. He was on it the other day.
- 51:37Oh, that's cool. He was doing the daily. Yeah.
- 51:39Well, that's awesome. Yeah, that was, I was very
- 51:41happy to see him. But like a week or two ago,
- 51:46someone, because they usually like, here's the
- 51:47bot, you know, I'm really excited. It's a script.
- 51:50I'm really excited to tell you about this verse.
- 51:52This is one of my favorite verses, and they do
- 51:53the verse, and they talk about it and give an
- 51:55inspirational message. I forget who it was. One
- 51:58of the people who was the guest speaker on the
- 52:00U -version app said, let's just pray. I had not
- 52:04seen that ever. Let's just pray. I'm like, wow.
- 52:10That was really impactful. And I picked up this
- 52:12clip and I was thinking about it in that regard.
- 52:3280 % of the people who are getting baptized say
- 52:35that Internet plays a big role in their faith.
- 52:38They call themselves digital missionaries and
- 52:41say their online prayer sessions are having an
- 52:44impact. I think this is something we need to
- 52:47investigate. I like that. Praying online. If
- 52:52you're doing Instagram things, I'm not, but that
- 52:56impacted me. I think this could be something
- 52:59really important. I don't hear many Do podcasters
- 53:03or influencers do this? No. In fact, when you
- 53:05asked me to start the show with prayer the first
- 53:09couple of times, it was a little odd for me because
- 53:12I don't hear that either. I love doing it now.
- 53:15I'm like, wait, we got to pray. I can't not do
- 53:18it now. It was unusual. It's not typical to click
- 53:22on a podcast and you're waiting for funky music
- 53:25or something, or scary, ominous music, The Exorcist
- 53:30files, that kind of stuff. But instead you get
- 53:34a guy go, Father. You hear the breath. Father.
- 53:39That's just not normal. And so I love that you
- 53:42asked me to do it. And at first I thought, are
- 53:44we going to keep doing that? And you did. And
- 53:45I'm so glad we did. Me too. And, uh, and I love
- 53:49doing it. It means a lot to me now, and I'm thrilled
- 53:52to do it. You know how many complaints I get
- 53:55about that? 7 ,000. Zero. Zero. Absolutely zero.
- 54:00I did get a nice note from somebody about that.
- 54:02Actually, it was really sweet. We got a couple
- 54:05of, a couple of notes and I want to, I want you
- 54:08to play this Eldridge clip because this is so
- 54:11seminal for what we've been talking about today.
- 54:12I think it really kind of wraps everything up
- 54:14before we get to thanking people. You want to
- 54:17just set it up? Yeah, John Eldredge, he wrote
- 54:19the book Wild at Heart, which is kind of his
- 54:21big seminal book and then took off after that.
- 54:23Now they have a ministry called Wild at Heart.
- 54:27Me and many friends have gone to their boot camp
- 54:30up in Colorado in the Rocky Mountains. Beautiful.
- 54:33And he's a therapist who was called a ministry.
- 54:37So his background is LPC, he's a licensed professional
- 54:40counselor, but he doesn't always talk like that.
- 54:43He talks more like a pastor, a minister. So he
- 54:46has this thing where when you're dealing with,
- 54:49he says, we have these constructs that we build
- 54:52where you get an impression, you get an idea
- 54:55coming in an intrusive thought. And a lot of
- 54:58times we don't question those. It's just, I'm
- 55:00thinking this. And another thing that we do with
- 55:03those, instead of actually saying, whoa, where's
- 55:06that coming from? Is this true? We just kind
- 55:09of take it as, yeah, I'm thinking about this.
- 55:12Oh, that makes sense. And then we will not always
- 55:16intentionally, but we will unconsciously agree
- 55:19with it. And agreement is the basis of covenant.
- 55:24It's striking the covenant. It's when you agree
- 55:27upon the terms of something. Like a deal, like
- 55:30making a deal. Like a deal, yeah. You're shaking
- 55:31hands. In Hebrew, you're cutting a cow in half
- 55:35and walking between the parts, right? So you're
- 55:37in the blood trail. So it's a serious thing.
- 55:40And he's talking about how we make agreements
- 55:42on an ongoing basis that we're in a sense making
- 55:46covenants with lies and untruths. And he's talking
- 55:49about this on a podcast with a guy named Ryan,
- 55:51I don't know his last name. It's called The Exorcist
- 55:54Files. So it's not - What are you doing in your
- 55:57spare time passing Jimmy? He's a guest. Well,
- 56:00I'm scraping the internet for clips. And I knew
- 56:04I'd seen him talk about this many times. but
- 56:07I wanted to hear him on this. So anyway. What
- 56:11is your prescription for taking inventory of
- 56:14agreements? Cause it sounds like this is not
- 56:16like, Oh, I, I was open to agreements at one
- 56:18point. It sounds like our entire lives, we are
- 56:21constantly, you know, at, at risk of accepting
- 56:24these things. Cause it's being darts being thrown
- 56:26at us. So what's John's wisdom for taking inventory
- 56:29and when should we stop and say, Hey, is there
- 56:31anything I'm, you know, wow, like that got me.
- 56:34And I didn't even realize that. Yes, okay. Let's
- 56:37first come back for a moment to our worldview.
- 56:39You live in a love story set in a world at war.
- 56:45It is a love story. The centerpiece is the love
- 56:48story. But you are surrounded by war. You know,
- 56:55Revelation 12, and he went off to make war against
- 56:57her offspring, speaking of Mary. Those who hold
- 57:00to the testimony of Jesus, right? So it particularly
- 57:03if you're a Christian you live in a world at
- 57:06war folks So that yes, this is going to be part
- 57:08of your toolkit for the rest of your life. It's
- 57:11very helpful I would say Ryan a couple of things
- 57:14one is pay attention to your inner chatter Right
- 57:18like tune in you don't be oblivious to your internal
- 57:24world And the kind of things that you think,
- 57:27see, this is the other lovely thing is to realize
- 57:29not every thought that goes through your head
- 57:31is from you. That's actually a very freeing thing
- 57:35for most people to go, oh, my gosh, this negative
- 57:38talk. You mean, it's not all me? No, it's not.
- 57:40You have an enemy. But pay attention. But particularly
- 57:45notice, I'm going to give you three things. Pay
- 57:48attention to the internal chatter. Notice what
- 57:51comes out of your mouth. when you blow it, when
- 57:55you look in the mirror, right? I mean, some people
- 57:58look in the mirror and just go, oh, you're such
- 57:59an, you know, like expletives, you know, or you're
- 58:03just so ugly, I can't believe you. Or even self
- 58:07-hatred, you know, I just hate you, I just hate
- 58:09you. Like, it'll come out of your mouth, folks,
- 58:12these agreements. But thirdly, and probably the
- 58:15most easiest test is, one of the things Jesus
- 58:17gave us is, you shall know them by their fruit.
- 58:20You can test anything by this. Is the fruit love,
- 58:24joy, peace? Is it goodness? Is it intimacy with
- 58:29God? Or is it discouragement, despair, fear,
- 58:33anxiety producing? Look at the fruit of it and
- 58:37just go, wow, why am I so afraid in this relationship
- 58:41right now? And then again, you have a shepherd,
- 58:46the shepherd and guardian of your soul. Jesus
- 58:50Christ, you can ask God, Lord, what are the agreements
- 58:55that I'm making with my enemy right now? And
- 58:59we'll take people through these exercises during
- 59:01our retreats. We'll take people, what are the
- 59:04agreements I'm making against myself or against
- 59:08others or against you, God? What are the agreements
- 59:12I'm making against you? This is so good. This
- 59:16is really real where we live. In his book, Waking
- 59:21the Dead, the book opens with, you were born
- 59:24into a world at war. So true. I mean, what a
- 59:27way to hook you in on the hook line, but it's
- 59:30so true. I want to read another quote by him
- 59:33from another book called Walking with God. This
- 59:35is John Eldridge talking about, because I want
- 59:37to clarify agreements so that people listening
- 59:40may be hearing this for the first time. I want
- 59:42to clarify by agreements. I mean those subtle
- 59:46convictions we come to, assent to, give way to,
- 59:50or are raised to assume are true. It happens
- 59:54down deep in our souls where our real beliefs
- 59:56about life are formed. Something or someone whispers
- 1:00:00to us, life is never going to turn out the way
- 1:00:03you'd hoped, or nobody's going to come through,
- 1:00:07or God has forsaken you. And something in us
- 1:00:10responds, that's true. We make an agreement with
- 1:00:15it and a conviction is formed. And so this is
- 1:00:19where people live. They live in their mind. We
- 1:00:22don't live out in the world. We say it. We're
- 1:00:24doing stuff. We're accomplishing tasks. We're
- 1:00:27checking lists, especially if you're married
- 1:00:29to Annette and Tina. We've got checklists, Easter
- 1:00:33egg, checklists that we're going through. But
- 1:00:36we don't really live there. It's what we do.
- 1:00:39Where we live is in our head. It's in our headspace
- 1:00:42and that's our soul. That's the whole of who
- 1:00:44we are. And so these agreements come in. Life's
- 1:00:48never going to turn out the way. Nobody cares.
- 1:00:50I'm never going to make it. I'm going to fail.
- 1:00:54All these come to us and then we find ourselves
- 1:00:56responding. That's true. That's true. And it's
- 1:00:59literally, we make an agreement with it and then
- 1:01:02it births a conviction in our soul. And then
- 1:01:05we, unfortunately, when you receive a lie as
- 1:01:08true, you actually make it true in your behavior.
- 1:01:12It begins to come out because we leak out what
- 1:01:14we're full of. So if we've got these agreements
- 1:01:16stacking up or we've agreed with the mirror,
- 1:01:19it talks to us, right? I mean, some days it's
- 1:01:22pretty ugly. You know, it's like, dude, what
- 1:01:25happened to you? This is why I have dimmers.
- 1:01:29We need that. We need a mirror. It has the filter
- 1:01:31from the white diamonds commercial with Elizabeth
- 1:01:35Taylor where she was fuzzy. I want one of those
- 1:01:39mirrors. But these are real, and this is where
- 1:01:41people live, our listeners, and I know this because
- 1:01:44I live there too. I have to catch these things.
- 1:01:47And you have to train yourself to recognize these
- 1:01:50thoughts, these intrusive thoughts that come
- 1:01:52because they're coming at us so fast. You make
- 1:01:57a mistake driving, you make a mistake. I'm always
- 1:02:00wailing on the guy who made a mistake. But when
- 1:02:02I make one, I'm going, oh, you're so stupid.
- 1:02:05How could you do? Oh, what were you thinking?
- 1:02:08And inside, this inner dialogue happens and I'm
- 1:02:12just making agreements. Yeah, you are dumb. Yeah,
- 1:02:14that was a dumb move. How do you break it? You
- 1:02:17have to break it by the same way you take it
- 1:02:20is the same way you have to break it. That means
- 1:02:22you have to disagree with it. So I call it out.
- 1:02:27I recognize it because you got to realize and
- 1:02:30recognize that it's going on. This is happening.
- 1:02:33And what's beautiful, the more you do this intentionally,
- 1:02:37over time, it'll start to become natural to you.
- 1:02:39Realize and recognize. Just make a note that's
- 1:02:42for your re -series. Realize, recognize. That's
- 1:02:44good. And actually, I'm going to go ahead and
- 1:02:46give away. This is total spoiler alert for Sunday.
- 1:02:50But I'm going to give the Rs, four Rs. You recognize
- 1:02:54the lie. You recognize that that came in. And
- 1:02:58then you have to ask, is what I am believing,
- 1:03:02is this contradicting God's Word? Is this what
- 1:03:05God believes about me? Is this true? I love what
- 1:03:08John was saying. Jesus wants to talk to you.
- 1:03:11He's listening. He's waiting. Just ask him, is
- 1:03:13this true? You'll get a witness. You'll know.
- 1:03:16So you recognize the lie. Second thing you do
- 1:03:18is renounce your agreement with it. And to renounce
- 1:03:21means to push back. It means to cast away. And
- 1:03:25to break a formal agreement, you renounce. So,
- 1:03:30you simply renounce. I can do it driving down
- 1:03:32the road. I can do it walking down the hall here.
- 1:03:35I can do it standing in the bathroom, just going,
- 1:03:37hey man, that is not of the Lord. I renounce
- 1:03:41that agreement in the name of Jesus. I reject
- 1:03:44that. So, recognize the lie, renounce your agreement
- 1:03:47with the lie, and then replace it with truth.
- 1:03:50With Scripture, what does God say? God says,
- 1:03:54I'm holy, blameless, and above reproach in Colossians
- 1:03:57chapter two. He says, in Deuteronomy 27, he says,
- 1:04:01I'm the head and not the tail, above only, not
- 1:04:03beneath, blessed coming in, blessed going out,
- 1:04:07blessed in the city, blessed in the country.
- 1:04:09That's what he says about me. What does the Bible
- 1:04:11say? It also says I'm the righteousness of God
- 1:04:14in Christ Jesus. Today in my daily grind, I'll
- 1:04:16share this in a minute, but God's for me, not
- 1:04:19against me. If God's for you, who can be against
- 1:04:21you? So what you do, you replace those lies.
- 1:04:25And then the last thing you do, the last R is
- 1:04:27resist. So it's recognize, renounce, replace.
- 1:04:31And the last one is resist because the scripture
- 1:04:33says that we're to humble ourselves under the
- 1:04:35mighty hand of God, resist the devil and he will
- 1:04:38flee from you. That's in the book of James. I'm
- 1:04:41just laughing because we have this Al Sharpton,
- 1:04:48Reverend Al Sharpton. His big thing is resist.
- 1:04:52This is a classic nine second no agenda Al Sharpton
- 1:04:56bit that just, I'm sorry, this is not to detract
- 1:04:59from what you're saying, but it's kind of funny.
- 1:05:02But resist, we must, and we will much about that
- 1:05:09be committed. I'm just saying. Word salad. That's
- 1:05:15a healthy dose of Kamala right there. But resist
- 1:05:20we much. When you said resist, I'm like, resist
- 1:05:24we much. And that part is actually funny in a
- 1:05:28way that is kind of true. Resist we much. Must
- 1:05:33and much. Everybody should check out the bridgefbg
- 1:05:38.com bridge church on YouTube. You can watch
- 1:05:41the sermon live or of course it's always recorded.
- 1:05:44The service, I should say. Heavy lifting last
- 1:05:46Sunday, I really went there. The title of the
- 1:05:49sermon is Renounce. So I laid the groundwork
- 1:05:52for week two, which will be this week, and it
- 1:05:56has already caused no small stir. I bet. I bet.
- 1:06:01I preach on this about two times a year where
- 1:06:04I preach on the enemy and spiritual warfare.
- 1:06:07The reason I don't preach on it much is because
- 1:06:10the enemy loves attention no matter what. He's
- 1:06:13like a bad politician. Any publicity is good
- 1:06:16publicity to the devil. You even said something
- 1:06:19about this in the message. You don't really want
- 1:06:22to be investigating this stuff because that's
- 1:06:24what the enemy wants. Exactly. So, I don't spend
- 1:06:27a lot of time on this. But again, we want to
- 1:06:29preach the whole counsel of God's Word and this
- 1:06:31is part of it. If you were born into a world
- 1:06:34at war, then this is the war. It is a spiritual
- 1:06:36war and it is real. And we got to know who the
- 1:06:39enemy is and how to identify him. And I hope
- 1:06:41for our listeners, our doers out there, and get
- 1:06:45to let nation. I got to learn to say that better.
- 1:06:48But anyway, I sound like Al Sharpton trying to
- 1:06:51talk about resist. But just tripping all over
- 1:06:54myself. Once you've heard that, you can't un
- 1:06:57-hear it. I know, you can't un -hear it. That's
- 1:06:58for sure. I may crack up when I read that on
- 1:07:01Sunday because this is where I'm going on Sunday,
- 1:07:04the four R's. I want to help our listeners understand
- 1:07:07that when these intrusive thoughts come to you,
- 1:07:09they are not necessarily your thoughts. We tend
- 1:07:13to just assume they are, but there's a very real
- 1:07:16enemy out there, a very real enemy. I prove that
- 1:07:20in the first, through Scripture in the first.
- 1:07:22Angels are real, demons are real, Satan is real.
- 1:07:27I brought out some of the characteristics of
- 1:07:29those. We'll go back on this coming Sunday and
- 1:07:32I'll retrace a little bit of that just to set
- 1:07:34that back up, but we're going to say, this is
- 1:07:37what you do about it. These are the four Rs and
- 1:07:39this is how to do it. We want to help people
- 1:07:42because you don't have to live with those thoughts
- 1:07:44that are bombarding your head every day. You
- 1:07:46can actually arrest them. It talks about we have
- 1:07:54the ability to take every thought captive and
- 1:07:57make it obedient to Christ. God's given us that
- 1:08:01ability to actually capture thoughts. So when
- 1:08:05these intrusive negative thoughts come, don't
- 1:08:08agree, capture them and put them under Christ.
- 1:08:12Place them there. I'm telling you, I learned
- 1:08:14that principle very early in my walk with Jesus.
- 1:08:16That's probably helped you a lot. Oh, man. It's
- 1:08:19still a go -to. Yeah. I mean, it's, no, I take
- 1:08:21that thought captive. This should be in like
- 1:08:22the toolkit when you come into church. Survival
- 1:08:25kit for you Christians. Here's what you need.
- 1:08:27This is your, exactly. Here's your backpack.
- 1:08:29Here's all the stuff you need in it. Yeah, for
- 1:08:31real. Before we thank people, because we are
- 1:08:33value for value. If you get value from this,
- 1:08:36we'd love for you to send it back. And that can
- 1:08:38be in so many different ways. Time, talent, treasure,
- 1:08:41telling someone about the pod. podcast. All the
- 1:08:44Scripture, by the way, that is mentioned on each
- 1:08:46podcast is in the show notes at WGTDT .com. I've
- 1:08:52got to thank Robbie the robot, pulls it all out,
- 1:08:55puts it nicely on the page for us. We do have
- 1:08:58a couple of questions that came in that I don't
- 1:09:01want to skip over. Rebecca Gurl, Rebecca Gurl.
- 1:09:06She said, what is a deist? Because I'm one of
- 1:09:11the curious. She's Christ curious and she wants
- 1:09:15to know what a deist is. Just by definition.
- 1:09:20You'll hear this in history, like they'll say
- 1:09:23the founding fathers were deists, but basically
- 1:09:26it's someone who believes that God exists and
- 1:09:28created the universe, but generally believes
- 1:09:30that God does not interact or intervene with
- 1:09:33us. So there is a force out there. There is a
- 1:09:37God, the universe, whatever. There's that. But
- 1:09:41there's not really any interplay or interaction.
- 1:09:44In other words, a deist kind of takes the safe
- 1:09:47ground of, oh yeah, God's real. God's real. You
- 1:09:50just can't know him. Yeah. So that's deism. It's
- 1:09:53just a barely sticking your foot in the water.
- 1:09:56Is that a little bit like the old priest back
- 1:09:59in the Old Testament? Like, well, he's real,
- 1:10:03but you can't know him unless you go through
- 1:10:04me? Is it different? No, it's a little different.
- 1:10:08It's different because he's saying, you can't
- 1:10:10know him. You just got to use me to do it. That's
- 1:10:13not the same. It's actually this idea that, no,
- 1:10:16God's real, but he's distant. He can't be reached.
- 1:10:20He can't be accessed. We have no access to God.
- 1:10:23So we live our lives the best we can and hope
- 1:10:25for the best at the end. No. That's dangerous.
- 1:10:29Another thing for the backpack. Yeah, exactly.
- 1:10:33It comes back to reasoning, intellectualism,
- 1:10:36intellectual assent. We just use our brains.
- 1:10:39Hey, if God's real and he created all this, well,
- 1:10:42we just use what he gave us and he'll be happy
- 1:10:44with that. Cameron Knapp, who has supported us
- 1:10:49with his beautiful checks. He was like, I don't
- 1:10:52want to use these. I don't want no fees. He sends
- 1:10:55us a check every single time. He said, you've
- 1:10:58mentioned this several times. What's the difference
- 1:10:59between an AI bot versus the chat bots? Muse,
- 1:11:07I highly recommend this. I highly recommend Muse.
- 1:11:11It is not trying to, a chat bot is trying to
- 1:11:13be your buddy telling you you're awesome. Talk
- 1:11:15back to you. It draws you into a conversation.
- 1:11:17It draws you in. Muse does not have a voice.
- 1:11:21You can talk to it, just like voice to text,
- 1:11:25but it just does helpful things. And I highly
- 1:11:28recommend it. I mean, it's good. You want to
- 1:11:31go to one level higher, then you can use Grokbot,
- 1:11:35and there's going to be a lot more. ChadGBT,
- 1:11:38not to be left behind. OpenAI, yesterday came
- 1:11:40out with DOTS. We have, they got bots, we got
- 1:11:43DOTS. And DOTS, I would stay away from DOTS,
- 1:11:46because DOTS is talking to you. The minute you
- 1:11:48put a voice onto it, I get wary because it's
- 1:11:51so easy to get sucked into that stuff. And if
- 1:11:54it starts saying to you, hey Adam, good morning
- 1:11:57to you, my car does this. I've turned it off
- 1:11:59now too. Good morning. When I put my fingerprint
- 1:12:02on it goes, good afternoon, Jimmy. With a picture
- 1:12:06of me. I was singing. I was singing a song. I
- 1:12:10was singing along to Hello Fred. Oh gosh, what
- 1:12:14gospel song was it? Oh, wow. It was like, I'm
- 1:12:20looking for a place. I was, it was something
- 1:12:24like, I'm looking for a place. Oh, a place in
- 1:12:27the, yeah, Michael. Oh, Michael W. C. Mayer,
- 1:12:29the king and country. A place in this world.
- 1:12:32And the car goes, finding a place in this world.
- 1:12:36I'm not kidding. I found several places in this
- 1:12:38world. Would you like to go to them? Like, you're
- 1:12:40done. I'm turning you off. I know ours interrupts
- 1:12:44us all the time and then I'll be talking and
- 1:12:46it thinks we called it and it'll say, okay, navigating
- 1:12:50to, you know, this is no good. That is the definition
- 1:12:53of no good. That's what you, it's not helpful.
- 1:12:57It's just your car company trying to get along,
- 1:12:59go along, get along. No good. Hey, we want to
- 1:13:02thank Stephen Beaver. He went to WGTDTdonations
- 1:13:06.com. He signed up for a full year subscription
- 1:13:09at $500. Man, thanks, Steve. Thank you so much.
- 1:13:13Huge. It's awesome. Really, really, really appreciate
- 1:13:15it. Awesome. Hey, we got Robert Sikowitz from
- 1:13:19Port Republic, New Jersey. Got a big note here.
- 1:13:22This is cool. Great show. Keep it up. Adam, what
- 1:13:25a blessing it has been listening to your journey
- 1:13:27of faith. I was drawn to you the first time I
- 1:13:29heard you on Rogan and then grew even more impressed
- 1:13:32with the No Agenda show before really being floored
- 1:13:35by your proclamation of faith on Rogan. One thing
- 1:13:38I find really inspiring is listening to you talk
- 1:13:40about your mission for the kingdom. It's not
- 1:13:43just talk. The transformation is evident in little
- 1:13:45things like giving up weed, your drive for enthusiasm,
- 1:13:49as you steer people to Christ. I am curious how
- 1:13:52your definition of success has changed over your
- 1:13:55life, specifically how it changed within you.
- 1:13:58You don't have to read this on the show, too
- 1:13:59late. Sorry. Unless you and Jimmy find it interesting,
- 1:14:04which we do, by the way. We do. Thank you, Tyler.
- 1:14:08Is it Tyler or Robert? It says Robert up on the
- 1:14:13name and then Tyler in the note. I think it's
- 1:14:15Tyler, Robert. My definition of success. How
- 1:14:21has it changed within you? Success is such a
- 1:14:30weird thing to talk about. For me, it's just
- 1:14:35bringing people to the kingdom. At this point,
- 1:14:38the commission is for me. I want to finish strong.
- 1:14:42What do I have left? We've got people dropping
- 1:14:44down left and right. What difference does it
- 1:14:47make? For me, success is... When I get into his
- 1:14:51kingdom and he says, well done, my faithful servant,
- 1:14:55probably then I'll say, all right, the mission
- 1:14:57was, I guess, a success. Love that. And I don't
- 1:15:00mind if I'm up in the nosebleed seat. Tina and
- 1:15:02I were laughing about that. She says, you know,
- 1:15:03we're going to have like paper crowns, you know.
- 1:15:07Wow, I don't agree. Not at all. We're joking
- 1:15:11around. Thank you, Tyler. Steven Helm comes in
- 1:15:15from Leewood, Kansas, 88, 88. Pickles! It starts
- 1:15:19right off. After hearing about Bo's amazing pickles,
- 1:15:22that's LouisianaDillPickles at gmail .com, I
- 1:15:26reached out to the man and I now believe the
- 1:15:29pickle making legend himself to see how I could
- 1:15:32secure a jar or preferably a case of these incredible
- 1:15:35pickles. Sadly, I learned Bo cannot sell over
- 1:15:37the state line. However, in a wonderful act of
- 1:15:40pickle generosity, Bo graciously sent me some
- 1:15:43to both try and more importantly, share with
- 1:15:46others along with God's word, which is on all
- 1:15:48of his jars and the lids. Wow, what a ministry
- 1:15:51and powerful way to multiply the spreading of
- 1:15:53the gospel. Well, the pickles did not disappoint.
- 1:15:57Since I cannot pay Bo, the only right thing to
- 1:16:00do was send a WGTDT donation. That's so nice.
- 1:16:04So thank you, Beau, for the delicious pickles,
- 1:16:06and thank you, Pastor Jimmy and Adam, for such
- 1:16:08a meaningful and engaging podcast. It's a joy
- 1:16:10to hear your weekly insights knowing how many
- 1:16:13seeds you are planting and watering, which bear
- 1:16:15fruit, both seen and unseen. We get to do this,
- 1:16:19Ceri. Thank you, Ceri. That is beautiful. And
- 1:16:22by the way, I forgot to, Tyler, he gave $100.
- 1:16:25I think I skipped right over the amount there.
- 1:16:28And I guess Ceri is Stephen's... Better half.
- 1:16:33It must be. I think so. Hey, I'm glad she discovered
- 1:16:36those pickles though. It's a game changer. It's
- 1:16:38a life changing. It's like a good ribeye, just
- 1:16:42change your life. There is something life changing
- 1:16:44about those pickles for sure. All right. And
- 1:16:46then we have a letter, a book from David Holthaus.
- 1:16:54No location, 8165. Thank you very much. Good
- 1:16:57afternoon. WGTDT. Hope it's not too late to send
- 1:17:00in a note. Probably don't need to read all of
- 1:17:02this on the podcast. Feel free to edit accordingly.
- 1:17:11times five. Wow. Clever. I love that. That's
- 1:17:15clever. Clever, David. John 16 donation. Okay.
- 1:17:18That's cool. It's cool. He says, I really appreciate
- 1:17:20both your time in the biblical view of the world.
- 1:17:22I listened to No Agenda for a while after Adam
- 1:17:23was on Rogan. Look at that, Adam. Yeah. Look
- 1:17:26how that just spun things off. I think back in
- 1:17:282021, but fell away in that last year or so as
- 1:17:32I struggle with my feelings around news and just
- 1:17:34overall politics. I felt called to focus more
- 1:17:37on things that spoke to me deeper. Funny enough,
- 1:17:39around that time, I also started listening to
- 1:17:41a lot more sermons, but I missed Adam and your
- 1:17:43grounded takes on the world, so I was excited
- 1:17:45to hear you talk about this podcast, even though
- 1:17:47I don't always agree with your opinion or analysis.
- 1:17:50You shouldn't. That goes for all of us. I grew
- 1:17:54up in church, but fell away through my 20s, although
- 1:17:56I always had a strong feeling I needed to come
- 1:17:59back. Once I turned 30 this past year, I started
- 1:18:01going back to church. and feeling more like I'm
- 1:18:04missing something. Good for you. I watch the
- 1:18:06church of 1122 sometimes. No preacher has compelled
- 1:18:10me like Joby Martin's sermons. Yeah, he can bench
- 1:18:13press you 30 times too. But it's hard to connect
- 1:18:16a church that is remote. I also attend Life Church
- 1:18:19here in Kansas City. But again, the sermons are
- 1:18:22from a video, which always feels a little off
- 1:18:24to me. Hopefully I can find a church locally
- 1:18:26with an in -person pastor that also speaks to
- 1:18:29me. He just needs some prayers. For he and his
- 1:18:31fiancé, I'm going to read ahead a little bit.
- 1:18:34I don't want to go too deep on that. So yeah,
- 1:18:38he and his fiancé. They need prayers for their
- 1:18:41walk. Yeah, their walk with Jesus. It says, Jimmy,
- 1:18:44but also read your daily grind devotionals. They
- 1:18:46always hit the right note for me. Didn't want
- 1:18:48this to feel so Adam heavy. I was feeling left
- 1:18:52out. Not really, not. Sort of a rambling message,
- 1:18:56but I do appreciate you both on this podcast.
- 1:18:58The person who wrote in a couple of weeks ago
- 1:19:00talking about how she felt like she knew you
- 1:19:02all really resonated with me. I feel the same
- 1:19:05way. Like I have a one -sided friendship with
- 1:19:06you both. Always reminds me of the attached meme.
- 1:19:09Thank you both. I appreciate that. Our heart
- 1:19:13is to be transparent and to be genuine. You're
- 1:19:15going to get the real us. Even on a bad day,
- 1:19:18you're going to get the real us. And I hope that
- 1:19:19you can find a group, even if it's a small group,
- 1:19:21it doesn't have to be a church, just a bunch
- 1:19:23of people or guys. You can just do a Bible study
- 1:19:27with once a week or some regular basis. That's
- 1:19:31church too. We just happen to be fortunate enough
- 1:19:34to have this beautiful building that used to
- 1:19:36house classic cars. Yeah, no kidding. They ran
- 1:19:41horses and hot rods through this place. Horses
- 1:19:43and hot rods. Yeah, that's cool. So he has a
- 1:19:45note for you that's more techy, so I'll let you...
- 1:19:48Yeah, he wants to know about my local LLM setups.
- 1:19:53I'm going to have to start writing about this.
- 1:19:54People are asking me, so I won't take up the
- 1:19:57time on the podcast to do that, but I'm going
- 1:19:59to do a primer just like I did. hyperlocalpodcast
- 1:20:03.com. People always ask me, what gear do you
- 1:20:06use? How do I get started? Hyperlocalpodcast
- 1:20:08.com. That's Adam's official light up. Very cool.
- 1:20:12Open source, man. It makes the world go round.
- 1:20:15There he is, Michael Anastasio. He is the OG
- 1:20:19samunier of Curry and the Keeper and he is now
- 1:20:22supporting us here. He's in Raritan, New Jersey.
- 1:20:24He comes in with 77 .77 and it's the beautiful
- 1:20:27numbers we love on this show and he says, keep
- 1:20:29on keeping on brothers. And we will. Thank you
- 1:20:31so much. Beautiful. All right. John's name guest
- 1:20:35from email. John's Burt. We just call her John's
- 1:20:38Burt. John's Burt. No note there. $50. Thank
- 1:20:41you, brother. Appreciate it. Brian Albright from
- 1:20:43Port Angeles, Washington. $50. Thank you, Brian.
- 1:20:47Paul Erskine. We know Paul. We've seen him several
- 1:20:49times. Lake Forest Park, Washington. $50. Ex
- 1:20:52-Vermonters. I never received a note, but we
- 1:20:56got $50. And just looking from the emails, how
- 1:20:59we think you're... probably from Vermont, ex
- 1:21:01-Vermonters. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
- 1:21:04John Foley. We've seen John around as well. Nashville,
- 1:21:07Tennessee. Yay. I love Nashville. 33, 33. the
- 1:21:11numbers. Thank you for the show. He leaves a
- 1:21:13note there. Yes. He sent that in through a check
- 1:21:16and the return address on the envelope said former
- 1:21:20Texan. Oh, there you go. Sorry for your loss.
- 1:21:23Oh, was that? No, actually that was Gregory Stoddard.
- 1:21:25I'm sorry. There you go. That was Gregory Stoddard
- 1:21:27with 3333. We love the 3333s. Come on back, Greg.
- 1:21:31We love Nashville too. I do. And I'll get Mike
- 1:21:36Regenold, I think it is, from Collierville. Collierville,
- 1:21:40Tennessee? Yeah, that's up around Nashville.
- 1:21:43$25. Thank you for your faithfulness and continued
- 1:21:46wisdom and encouragement. And thank you for your
- 1:21:48encouragement. We appreciate it. Thanks, Mike,
- 1:21:49from Tennessee. Nicholas Stark with $5. Thank
- 1:21:52you, Nicholas. And Michael Mason with $3 .18.
- 1:21:55This is a special numerology donation. He says,
- 1:21:59I'm Michael Mason. Learned this podcast from
- 1:22:01No Agenda. This week I'm donating $3 .18 for
- 1:22:05Habakkuk. 318 from the NIV, yet I will rejoice
- 1:22:09in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
- 1:22:13So there you go, 318, Habakkuk donation. Look
- 1:22:16forward to your next podcast. Hope you can expand
- 1:22:18it to two shows a week. Gee, we were just talking
- 1:22:21about that. If anyone's interested, I've made
- 1:22:23some Bible trivia videos at towardchrist .com.
- 1:22:27I hope they're encouraging and entertaining.
- 1:22:29I haven't looked at them yet, but we will, Mike.
- 1:22:30Thank you very much. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate
- 1:22:32that. And from Dwayne Spelman, a dollar and 53
- 1:22:36cents as promised. Every single podcast. I love
- 1:22:38it. Thank you. That makes the world go round.
- 1:22:40It does. Thank you all so much. WGTDdonations
- 1:22:44.com. Also WGTDT .com just for the, to sign up
- 1:22:48for the newsletter. It's a sub stack so you can
- 1:22:50also comment and post notes and Lord knows what
- 1:22:54you can do on the sub stack. My sub stack app
- 1:22:57makes my eyes roll in the back of my head. Like
- 1:23:00there's so much to do here. But also, we have
- 1:23:03the show notes. We give you the rundown and all
- 1:23:05of the scripture that's discussed. And thank
- 1:23:08you, brother. This was another enjoyable show.
- 1:23:11Love doing this. Love catching up with you, because
- 1:23:12that's really all this is. We would have done
- 1:23:16this with or without microphones. That is true.
- 1:23:18But to be able to do it, and thanks to your support,
- 1:23:20to be able to do this is a great blessing. Want
- 1:23:24to close us out with your DG? I'm going to land
- 1:23:26with a daily grind. I'm going to actually pick
- 1:23:28one from two days ago. I was wrestling with this.
- 1:23:31This one means a lot to me personally, and it's
- 1:23:34titled, This is the Daily Grind. And the scripture
- 1:23:38is Colossians 4 verse 2, continue steadfastly
- 1:23:42in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
- 1:23:46And the title of today's Daily Grind is, What
- 1:23:49if you just prayed? As Paul wraps up his letter
- 1:23:52to the Colossians, he ends with practical counsel
- 1:23:55to continue in prayer, being expectant with thanksgiving.
- 1:23:59Thanksgiving leavens prayer so it doesn't become
- 1:24:01a wish list. My phrase for the year is, let's
- 1:24:04pray more. Today's verse captures that idea.
- 1:24:08I've prayed with many people this year outside
- 1:24:10of the four walls of the church, and I quickly
- 1:24:13realized that people welcome prayer with open
- 1:24:16arms. So today, ask someone if you can pray for
- 1:24:19them as the Spirit leads. Be brief, discreet,
- 1:24:23and respectful as you pray. I like to ask, would
- 1:24:26it be okay if I prayed for you? By the way, in
- 1:24:2943 years of being in ministry, I've never had
- 1:24:32a single person turn me down on that question.
- 1:24:35Prayer, here it is. Father, open my eyes to see
- 1:24:38those who could use a prayer of encouragement
- 1:24:42as I go about my day. In Jesus' name, amen.