Watching the World Without Losing Your Soul

Father, we honor you today and with everything we do,

everything we say, Father, we know that we become

what we behold, so we want to continue to behold you,

hold your face, behold your word, and behold your works,

the things that you do, your works that honor you,

glorify you and reveal you to a world that needs hope

and needs Jesus.

And so Lord, we pray for our friends

that will be joining us today,

and as they listen to this podcast,

wherever and from whenever, when they do it,

we bless them.

Lord, we speak life and blessing over all.

In Jesus' name, we get to do this.

Amen.

Amen.

And next Wednesday, March 25th, 2026, we get to do this.

This is episode number 26.

This is a life we've been blessed with.

This is a gift for me, this is a gift for me, this is a gift for me,

this is a chance we've done a lot of this.

This is a life we get to do this.

Hey, brother.

That never gets old for me.

Where were you?

Did you hear me?

You were distant.

I was coming through your echo.

I was coming through your microphone.

You really were.

I'd muted myself.

I'd muted myself.

You do that to hurt sometimes.

That's a self affliction.

I can't believe that I actually came through.

Where's this coming from?

I don't care.

We prayed.

He left the room.

We prayed Holy Spirit's got this.

I'll figure it out as soon as we're done.

I know.

Well, I mean, we're a little out of sorts.

We're not in our normal place.

Everything is out of sorts.

I know.

It's been...

I mean, not that people would care that much, but we had a garage door problem, so, you know,

we had a garage door problem, so, you know, first world problems, tried to fix it myself

with a chat GPT and YouTube and called in the big guns.

Oh, man.

Had to finally give in.

It was so nice, though, that you recommended this guy to me.

Well, Mark, who owns the company, he goes to our church.

He's a brother and a friend.

Oh, there it is.

Good guy.

Yeah, perfect.

Good folks.

I guess they have two employees, one is Alejandro, who came by today, and his son who works

after lunch, after school.

But it was so refreshing to have something that could be repaired.

And not like, you need a new unit.

We can't just toss it out.

Well, I got a new unit.

Well, no, but I needed it.

You had a real old one, but I was like, this is so surprising.

This is...

I love this.

This is good.

It's totally good.

It's good people.

And so, no sooner have we talked about everybody, I know the lamps in the way, the lamps

in the way.

Have we talked about everybody calming down about Iran?

I think it was literally two days later, the president's like, oh, I think we got this

kind of sorted.

They're talking...

Oh, no.

The Trump algo means we have to go up or down a couple more times.

No kidding.

And you know, Iran's going, what's he talking about?

Well, that's what's being said.

There's a lot of...

Who is...

And this is really the point.

There's a lot of stuff.

Being said.

Breaking news.

Nobody knows anything.

Everything is information.

It doesn't mean it's good information.

Exactly.

It could be misinformation.

It could be disinformation.

And I have started to rely less and less on what we call news feeds because, let's

be honest, it's not.

It's mind pollution feed.

It's just feeling...

And I can't take it anymore.

I just can't.

And then I...

So I got to play this clip.

It's the only clip.

I didn't bring much today.

Yeah, I know.

Go for it.

I've never seen Fox News with his name, Jesse Waters.

He took over what used to be the Bill O'Reilly slot and then I think was the Tucker slot.

And he's okay.

I mean, I haven't watched Fox News in years, but he has this one segment where he sends

Johnny out and Johnny goes out on the street and asks people stuff.

And it's always funny.

And man on the street stuff is one of my favorite ways to do television because you can select

whatever you want and make it super funny and make it sound like everybody's an idiot

or nobody knows what they're talking about.

And so he did one of those, a spring break on the beach and I just got 34 seconds of it.

Oh, well.

But it made me think in two different ways.

So I'll play this and then we shall discuss.

I'm very happy.

Yeah, your toll is dead.

I'm so...

What?

Who?

Who the f*** is Ayotola?

I've never heard that word in my life.

Lewis, what's Ayotola?

I haven't heard.

I had found out about Chuck Norse yesterday.

That was more devastating to me.

He was the supreme leader of Iran.

He's dead?

Oh, yeah.

We killed him.

You did?

You killed him?

What have you heard about Venezuela?

Venezuela?

Nothing.

I'm not sure.

I barely know what we'll be going on in Tennessee where I'm from.

That they beat us in the world, baseball, classic.

Have you heard anything else?

No.

Nothing.

I haven't heard nothing about Venezuela.

Okay.

So obviously funny.

First of all, spring break.

So I would say there's a deal of beverages that they can suit.

Yes.

I pulled some of those quotes out which contained F words and drunk.

But as I'm...

So the intent of this, of course, is like, ah, worse, the kids are stupid and these are

college kids.

Right.

They're idiots.

They don't know anything.

The extended point of this as this gets around globally is Americans are stupid.

And so I had, of course, I had those thoughts like, oh, that's funny, you know, I've made

these myself and produced them for television.

But then I thought we could do with a little more of this and let me explain.

As I was driving away from the church the other day, was it the last, maybe it was the

last show we did?

And I pull out, I turn left onto whatever that is at 87.

That's a tiny deal lane.

Yeah.

That's what that's all about.

We come out the big street.

Yeah.

We're Hildes.

Right there.

Yeah.

No, no.

Go past Hildes left.

And then that's...

That's how I 16.

Yes.

I have a GPS.

I just turn right.

Turn left when it tells me to.

Yes.

Tina's left.

Well, I know how to get home.

And I see across the street, I see a vote for Riley.

Are guy.

Okay.

Yeah.

Right.

Randy.

Randy Briley.

Thank you.

See, this is how bad it is.

Randy Briley.

Future mayor.

Right.

And I see a sign and it's the only sign I've seen.

I don't get out much.

And I thought if I were to go down Main Street in Fredericksburg and ask people about Venezuela

or about Iran, I think most people would have an opinion.

But they may not know that Randy Briley is running.

They may not even know there's a mayor or election.

And true.

And so this is what social media has done, even to me, I can't remember Randy Briley's

name.

He goes to our church.

Is it removes us from what is truly important from our local, the business of our town,

the business of our community?

We keep getting sucked up into these global national.

And hey, I'm part of that system to be honest about it, but we get sucked up into that

and does it really matter?

I mean, yeah.

Okay.

We saw a small, not even, but we saw a change of gas prices.

That would be the main thing that we saw, but that fluctuates, you know, but that's

really it.

There's not that much else, but that's, that dominates the entire online culture and

arguments.

And I don't know, just, I felt like, yeah, and you have to ask, sorry, I just interrupt.

No, no, please go for it.

You need to do that more to me.

I feel a buster.

Well, it gives you a chance to drink your coffee.

Yes, sir.

By the way, thanks for the black rock.

That's the best.

That's the best.

And now we're talking about we're walking today, we're going to walk this morning.

And I was saying, I literally said, does this, how, how is this affecting us?

You know, this, this war.

Yeah, we're frustrated about, yeah, we want to see it come to an end.

Yes, we have interests in what's happening, but where we live, and we say it like this,

where we live, where we work and where we play.

So that's just where you do your life.

And, and she said, it really doesn't other than, I paid $62 for, oh, no, I know.

But it didn't like ruin my day, it didn't like put me in, you know, I'm saying, it wasn't

a high impact, not, not that there won't be other ripple effects, but I think what happens

is there's a cultural mood, a cultural milieu, if you will, ethos.

And I think it impacts that more than it impacts most of our real world situations.

Now there are other things going on in the government, DHS.

That's tragic for these P, these TSA people who, that's their job, their livelihood.

And man, they're taking a beating right now.

And that is affecting people.

That is truly on the ground where they live.

And, and of course, that is a political game.

And I think most people recognize it.

And some people would say it's the Republicans, all of a sudden Democrats, but that should

tell you right there, it's a political game.

And we should be disappointed in our elected representatives in general for that kind of

politics.

But yes, that, that is, but even that has nothing to do with, well, I guess that is another,

that is another main topic.

Yeah.

It affected impacts things.

So I agree with you.

I mean, as far as how the only way it places it really affects me other than the gas pump

at this point is in my mindset, my mentality and I always default back to first Samuel

that says that, you know, these were the, were David's mighty men, the sons of Issacar,

the men of Issacar, who discerned the times, understood the times and knew what to do.

I keep going back to that.

That's one of those things I can't shake over and over, that as we're engaging, whether

it's social media or you're listening to podcasts by your favorite podcasters, hopefully

us, but others.

And as you're doing that, though, you're listening with discernment, you're listening with, with

wisdom, you're listening with the idea that I'm going to respond, but I'm not going

to react.

And that, that means you take a mental pause when you hear these things.

So that what they're calling news doesn't land hard all the time, because how it lands,

how it impacts you.

And so anyway, I'm just totally in alignment with what you're saying here, because in a

sense, what stirring us up is our own need to think we've got to be in the know.

That's it.

And that's it.

You'll fear missing out.

Right.

Where does that fundamentally come from?

The scripture say anything about this.

I know.

I'm like, Pastor, don't think you roll that out.

You know, text you last night.

What are we doing?

This just came up.

It could be ready.

Jimmy JPT.

A GPT.

So while while you're looking something up, I mean, well, go ahead.

No, no, no.

Go ahead.

I want you to clarify a little bit, because give me a little more on that because I'm

always looking now to scripture, that is my default.

I'm starting to figure this out in a way for myself, like, okay, I get it.

I'm not running the show.

I have to listen and try to do God's will.

I kind of have an idea of what my contribution is to the kingdom.

He's been showing me my whole life.

He's been creating opportunities for me my whole life.

I've strayed from time to time, or it may have been adjacent.

And so I'm 61, you know, so what have I got to lose then to always try and look at everything

through a world view that is based on scripture.

So, you know, the thing that keeps, this is one of my favorites, what keeps coming back

and back and back is when the disciples say, hey, yo, Jay, when is this all going to come

to a pass?

What will be the end of the age?

And the first thing Jesus says in Matthew 244 is, see that no one deceives you.

And there's a lot of that going on.

Maybe not intentionally.

And then this is my favorite.

You will hear of wars and reports of wars.

See that you are not alarmed for these things must happen.

But it will not yet be the end, nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.

There'll be famines and earthquakes from place to place.

All of these are the beginning of labor of the labor pains.

So this is it.

But this could just been going on for 2000 years.

It could be longer than that.

But everyone gets so spun up and I was like, everyone was born into war.

This is what it is.

It's not great.

I wish it was different, but that's not going to happen until Jesus comes back.

That's right.

So that's how I'm starting to look at things.

So when I see, and we all have it, this incessant need to be in the know and when you have

that need to be in the know, it's like your mind is wide open saying, shovel any manure

in here that you want to because I'm ready.

And you chase it down these roads and these paths and you're right.

You're like wide open, like a big antenna.

Remember the old satellite?

Yes.

You'll see one of those every once in a while.

They're huge.

Big fiberglass.

Yeah.

And we become that.

I mean, we're literally we're taking in everything and you know, I did a daily grind.

You had the day about guarding your heart, you know, because out of it come the well springs

of life.

And so as your heart goes, that's how everything's going to go.

Your mindset, your mentality into the scriptures, clear guard that you've got to get a fight

for that.

You've got you've got to contend for that.

So that may mean sometimes not just pushing totally away from what you're seeing because

I mean, we do, but realistically, we don't we can say it all day long, but at the end

of the day, we're going to find ourselves screwing and doing it.

But listening with a different mentality, you know, guarding your heart, keeping your

heart.

And literally have this running conversation, Jesus, is this true?

Why not go to the source, the real source, sounds easy, Jesus, is this true?

Is this real?

Is this really happening?

I heard something today that alarm me this morning and I was like, is this true?

I mean, literally just came out like, is this true?

You want to share what that was trying to remember what it was or so much and just was

this morning, oh, okay, this is going to sound dumb now on this, but I'm going to say

it anyway.

I saw where the New Zealand government was forcing beekeepers to destroy their hives.

It's classic.

This is the world will collapse on the beast.

I know it's like these are the most important and I was really going, oh, no, because I love

New Zealand honey because Mark Harman addicted me to it, he got me hooked on it, Mark and

Pam are good.

God, they're amazing people, but he, everyone's why he slips me a bottle of this, this

just say very expensive honey.

Excuse me.

I have not been put into Mark, he had more in the same age category we work out.

We talk about health and peptides and all that stuff, right.

So he goes, I know you're a carnivore and I'm like, well, I'm like more like a ketovore

and he said, but this is like raw unfiltered and it's like, I got some of the highest ratings,

you know?

So it's like putting something really amazing.

So then I find out this morning, what they're getting rid of my, my favorite honey.

Oh no, I mean, literally had a little panic moment literally and I had to go, Lord, is

this true?

I'm getting worked up over this.

They're killing the bees, you know, and what that's what I'm talking about.

Where came back?

Uh, I went and got me some honey out of the closet and made me hungry for it.

And I just let it go.

I'm like, you know what?

That's probably just not even true.

It's just some weird random thing.

It may be.

I don't know.

The number of times the, the bee collapse was upon us.

And you know, without bees, the whole world goes to hell in a hand basket.

I mean, it's probably in the 18 years I've been doing no agenda, at least 30, 40 times

really.

It's always in the bees and you get all the YouTube videos.

And of course, once you watch that, you can't help but see all the other stuff that comes

up.

Oh, yeah.

Watch it in the guy was saying these bees are perfectly healthy.

Yeah.

Why?

Why?

You know, so that hits on everything.

It's a heartstrings.

We're killing these innocent bees and they produce the best food in the world.

And without them pollinizing everything, the world collapses, brother.

Here we go, dystopian future is upon us.

It always, it's wild though.

I had to step myself down because it bothered me because I'm, man, it's Mark Harman's fault

for getting me addicted.

Well, no, of course we blame, we blame Mark Pam is faultless and we blame Mark.

But isn't that also just another version of End Times talk?

Isn't everything ultimately for non-believers?

It doesn't matter who you are, everything you read will ultimately come down to and we're

all going to die.

Oh, yeah.

Every single time and that, that's the thing that we have to guard our hearts for because

it works fear is the best emotion.

You can sell people anything, certainly information of a friend.

I had lunch with last week.

I'm not going to say his name to protect the guilty.

And if he listens to this, he'll know, but he was telling me, he said, you know, past

doing me, I've never thought about needing to have anything prepared for survival until

now.

And I said, what do you mean by that?

He said, man, I've got a generator out of my shed, no gasoline.

It's still in the box.

I said, yeah, that could be a problem that would not help you.

And he said, and I've been thinking, do I need to stock up on ammo?

Do I need to, how do I even have extra water around?

So I mean, he's going down this track.

And I said, what's making that happen?

He's, you know, stuff.

He's reading stuff.

He's hearing about people that are around him that are caught up in that.

That's interesting that you say that because I still have in my closet a one acre crisis

garden, which comes in a tube.

Oh my goodness.

It sees.

That in 2012, listening to Alex Jones, and so, you know, and I had to think of this yesterday,

I was listening to Victor Davis Hanson, who was an intellectual guy.

You know, he's out there at the Stanford, I want to say, but he has his own institute.

And you know, he's a conservative guy, but a very, very intelligent voice.

I'm pretty sure he's a believer.

He understands Greek and old, you know, old languages, classic languages.

And he's doing this podcast and he's, he's deconstructing, you know, the anti-Israel stuff

and all that.

And then he has an ad for survival food.

I'm like, this is nuts because I mean, I have the, I have a box.

Full of MREs, meals ready to eat, you know, I know where to come in good for 30 years.

Brother, in 30 years, we'll be looking at those things.

God, they're finally spoiled.

And we didn't.

We're still here.

They're actually an expiration date.

I mean, we had that blackout in Austin, the snow pockless.

We had no power for five days and I told myself I'm going to make sure I get a generator.

Well, here we are.

We've been here for almost six years.

You know, have we had a blackout and maybe a blip, maybe an hour, you know, or the power

company was doing an upgrade?

No.

Yeah.

So the thing is, you know, and I'm not saying that you shouldn't do some things to be prepared

and just to for anything, for another, you know, white out or an ice out like we had

ice pock lips, you know, for something like that, but at some point, in fact, the guy

that was telling me this, I was, I was really surprised he was saying this because he's

probably one of the godliest men I've been around at the time and yet I could see fear

taking him down a path and I kind of laughed it off with him, you know, we ended up joking

about it, you know, but I just, I thought, wow, you know, something has caught him and

it's causing him now to rethink his whole way of life.

Yeah.

Am I missing something?

Am I going to be in trouble?

I said, well, I live four miles from Patriot Academy, so I can walk there.

So I'm good.

And I already got permission to do not be deceived if it goes down.

I know.

And to listen to this out of James 1.5, if any of you keep hitting this mic, because it's

not mine.

You want me to reposition it?

No, it's perfect.

I'm sorry for the bumping.

Oh, no, sorry.

So James 1.5, I love this.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach

and it will be given him.

So as we're talking about fear, mongering, alert, alert, you know, breaking news, all

this stuff that gets us so spun up, there's, there are biblical.

Answers to these things and biblical wisdom that we can draw from.

For example, it says this, if you lack wisdom, ask God and he'll give it to you.

Wow.

Concepts.

I mean, it's so common sense, though.

And the things that are simple, you know, all comes a razor, the things that are simple,

we tend to bypass.

And they're typically the best answer to cultural, that's cultural.

So Ephesians 5, listen to this, look carefully, then how you walk, not as unwise, but as

wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Those are written 2,000 years ago and the days were evil then.

Yes.

And they still are.

And so we, and we got air conditioning.

Oh my gosh.

You're still good, by the way.

Yeah.

This is nice right here.

It's a net had me power walking today.

So here's another one that some will recognize this more popular verse, Proverbs 35 and

6.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding and all

your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your past.

Yeah.

And I could go on and on because there's so many scriptures on this about trusting God,

walking in wisdom and what is wisdom at the base?

Well, this is a good question because people, I'm sure a lot of people would like to know,

what is wisdom?

Well, wisdom is the application of acquired knowledge.

That's it.

It's that, it's, it's the heart that distills all this incoming information into something

that produces life.

To me, that's just a simple, simple way of looking at wisdom.

There is a lot of difference between someone who's just intelligent and spewing information

content.

A lot of people out there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And there's a difference between that and people who walk in wisdom.

When you're in the presence of someone who carries that, you just know it.

And you know, it's going to be okay, because, and I've got a handful of people like that

in my life.

I can't, you're one of those and others who, when I'm in their presence and we're talking

about, this guy's falling, you know, chicken little language, it's like, oh, no, no, no,

okay, take, take a pause, take a step back.

So I love to surround myself with people who are not spun up right on it or walking

in wisdom and they are doing what Proverbs 3 says, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

This morning, John 738 popped up for me, which I had to, I got it in the, there might have

been on you version.

I can't remember, but someone read the older version, this is the new living translation.

Anyone who believes in me may come and drink.

I'm sorry.

It's exclamation mark.

Anyone who believes in me may come and drink.

I'm reading Ephesians out loud at night at Tina and I will read two or three chapters

of, of scripture before we go to sleep.

And I'm really trying to, you know, to read it with, you know, like, oh, there's exclamation

mark.

Hold on.

Oh, there's a comma there.

I'm really, I'm really working on my annunciation.

Anyway, anyone who believes in me may come and drink for the scriptures declare rivers

of living water will flow from his heart.

So if you drink from, from Jesus, rivers of living water of healing, you know, light

and whatever will flow from your heart, that's the way I read that.

And man, I want to be that.

I want to be that so much for everybody.

I really, I strive towards that.

Well, I've been thinking about our podcast too.

I mean, because when you, it's hard not to compare yourself to others, right?

I mean, all these podcasts, you know, you listen to a bunch.

I do.

And then at times, I kind of go into that little, wow, so what are they doing?

You know, what's, what are they doing this working?

What are they doing this not?

And you get into that comparison thing, but, but we, and we mentioned this last week,

but I think this bears an ongoing conversation, at least touching on it, is that it, it feels

like it seems like podcasters are just constantly bringing things down.

They're constantly critical.

It's, it's all about being critical.

I mean, Sassam and Cal back in the day.

He seems a lot nicer now, but back with young, like, the good guy, yeah, he's the good guy.

Now back in the day, he was locked to meaning, you know, and he was, and it really,

it kind of, it's sort of disciple to generation into being critical.

Oh, this is a great observation.

I, I, you know, people are pushing back on me, and Tina rightly said the other night,

I said, darling, for as long as I've known you, people have pushed back on you,

have hated you online, have said horrible things, said, I guess you're right.

But this is new and the thing, because, you know, on no agenda, we deconstruct media,

which is an overall term, you know, but we do we do more than that.

But what I hear constantly is, you should criticize Trump more.

And this is, and so it's just hitting me now that you say this, people want criticism.

No, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not for that.

That feeds something, some weird, fleshly need in it.

You know, it's, it's the old school is so common sense.

You know, back when we were kids, right, junior high early, you know, we would put others down

because it somehow lifted us up. It was our default mechanism to guard against our own

insecurity in our own sense of inferiority. So if I can press everybody down around me,

that puts me heads above. Wow, we're back in middle school.

Yeah, hey, but we're still doing it. Yeah.

You know, we don't really grow up. We just grow older.

And we hide things better. I mean, nobody, do we really ever grow out of this stuff?

It's got to be the ongoing battle of the flesh and the spirit that Galatians 5 talks about.

As you always say, it's a spiritual problem. It is brother.

Tell me about Galatians 5. Galatians 5, it talks about that's the fruit of the spirit,

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

gentleness, faithful, self-control, against such, there is no law.

I mean, those are like, this is the fruit of the spirit, not the fruit of the flesh.

Yeah, the spirit. It even says right before that, that the, that the mind, the flesh sets

itself against the spirit and the spirit sets itself against the flesh.

And these two are in opposition.

We don't want another war.

So that's the flesh, war, mind, war, spirit, war that we live every day,

just driving down the road. I mean, this is how just being real,

I can see a beat up car and I'll start judging the person driving it.

Oh, really? Well, I mean, not like, not, I'll just, I'll just think, you know,

why don't they take care of the car? Why don't, oh, maybe they don't have money.

Maybe they're broken. Maybe they're, I mean, you can have a runaway on stuff real

swaying and human right here. And it's not like I run around doing that with everybody.

But every once in a while, I'll just catch myself or somebody pulls out in front of me

and I dissect the man's life on the, because he pulled out in front of me and made me mad.

So I start to think, God, dude, must be a jerk, man. You know, how can you do that? I mean,

he must be selfish. I mean, just start down this road. That's great. But that's the part of

the mind war and then the Holy Spirit screaming stop. That's it. Okay. So let's deconstruct this

because you are, you're a very thoughtful person. You know, I've mentioned this before.

You will think, you do it very quickly, but you'll think for a split second before you answer

anybody about anything. I'm, I'm trying to be better. I'm, you know, my, my boy James,

quick to be listened, slow to speak and much, much, much slower before you vomit words out of your

mouth. But slow to be angry. But there's something about driving that is cutting off that part of

your, of your consciousness or something. And I'd love to know what that is because the pre-occupation

with driving, I mean, is it, what could that be? You know, when we're behind the wheel of the car,

that's our space, right? Yeah. I remember my space. Yeah, there it is. So, so when you're in your car,

you're sort of like, this is my space. And you expect other people to be courteous in driving.

And when they're not, it's just a let down. It's just frustrating like, I wouldn't do that. You

know, I try to think, okay, how can I make this a better experience for everybody involved? I

mean, I think that when I'm driving down the road, you know, so I'll try not to get up on somebody's

bumper. If they're going slow, I'll try not to, you know, raise my hand up like I'm frustrated.

And hopefully they'll move out of my way. I did that back in the day, but, you know, how do you

drive in the spirit of supposed to the flesh? And I'm telling you can. Well, that's a good place to

practice it for sure. Absolutely. That's a, that's a great place. Especially around the 87 and the

I10. I'm talking to Tina now. Do you and Tina are the same person in the car? Actually,

I'm doing so much better. I'm really leaning into what does it matter anyway?

Yeah. What does it matter at the end of the day? What does it matter?

We see, I have my grandfather, my grandmother and me in both places. And I thought about my

grandmother just about before we started the podcast. So my grandfather, you know, when he was in his

80s, he lived to be 98, but maybe late 80s still on Sunday and Saturdays, he will go out and he

drive around to the home for the old ladies and then bring everybody flowers. And whenever there was,

you know, an intersection or any type of who goes first, he'd be like, beep, beep, and he'd be waving

every beyond, well, let this good, this good person go for. He was always like that. And I,

and I took over all of that from him. That's gracious. And, and too much to Tina, she grim because

she says, sometimes you're, you're confusing traffic because you should be going and you're

confusing traffic by doing that. You know that if you wave somebody in an intersection where you

have the rod of way and there's a wreck, it's my fault. Yeah. She waved him through. And I'll say,

but Jesus. And my grandfather and my grandmother. And as, you know, Tina said, so, so I can't believe

you're going to have Jimmy come into that studio. It is disgusting. It's so messy. I'm like,

I think you'll be okay. He's a dude. And, and then my grandmother,

she had a sign in her kitchen called it said, bless this mess. The whole family and always talked

about it was a disaster, just like my studio, but they all would follow by say, but great food comes

out of it. I'm like, okay. Yeah. So bless this mess. I do want to clean it up, but bless this mess,

man. Bless this mess. My grandparents. I know they're looking down on me. I'm sure they're very happy.

We have a note. Oh, yeah. Which is important for us to share. And I have something to say about

bow and the pickles. So this is my note. Oh, it's from bow. Go for it. Let's do it. You get a note

from bow as well. I did get an email. I emailed him first. I said, how can I get more of these

pickles? I think I may, I probably share it. Anyway, I want to read this because it's such a good

note. And we've been talking about these Louisiana sweet and sour pickles. He says,

Adam and Pastor Jimmy, this is Bo LaCost, the guy that sent you the pickles, aka Seafius of

Ratchet City. Thank you and Pastor Jimmy so much for your overwhelmingly complimentary marks about

the pickles. I'm thrilled that you guys enjoyed the value for value. I certainly enjoyed the

new we get to do this podcast just as much if not more. Jody White, we've been crediting with

these pickles and I've been friends and work colleagues for over 20 years. We're both enjoyed

laughing about you guys giving Jody so much credit for the pickles, especially since she has

absolutely no involvement in the pickle ministry at all before now. It's a pickle minister. I

know. I didn't realize this. I obviously created confusion when I asked Jody to email you to ensure

the pickles I emailed you received. I only asked her to email because she had your address and

you guys had already been corresponded. Perhaps the mix up has been God's way of keeping me humble.

He says, yeah, I probably needed that. But my concern and my reason for this letter is that you

guys may have missed the main point of the pickles altogether. So I wanted to share this.

This is good. One more paragraph. When I started making these pickles a few years ago,

everyone who tasted them told me how good they were. So I decided to dedicate them to the Lord.

I'm not great at a lot of things, but people sure seem to enjoy these pickles. Amen.

What better way to glorify God, right? I'm not sure if you impassaging me, notice the label on

the jars I did, but the scriptures listed on the can on there can be a useful witnessing tool.

The concept of my pickles is that I sell them for a set price per jar. The price is only

enough to cover ingredients costs for two jars. Then for my Christian friends, I offer them

as a bogo deal by one get one where they get a second jar for free as long as they promise to use

the second jar to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. I don't make pickles for profit, in fact,

and make them out of loss. I actually invest all my labor for free and that's why it's so important

that we'd be clear about the reason I make these pickles. And it keeps on going. It says,

I'm overjoyed. You guys like the pickles. I don't mind if you give out my name or email address.

So it's Louisiana Dill Pickles at gmail.com. That's Louisiana Dill Pickles at gmail.com. I don't

even care if Jodi officially gets crowned pickle princess and becomes the public spokesperson for the

ministry. However, if anyone gets credit with regards to the pickles, please, please, please,

make sure that it's Jesus who is ultimately glorified. May God continue to bless you and your

work, your friend and Christ, Bo. That's so cool. Love this. And we completely messed everything up.

We're enjoying the pickles and we kind of missed the whole backstory. So I really wanted people

to know about that. He wrote me. I wrote him saying, how can I get more of these pickles?

He's not, you know, he didn't have like a shipping department. He doesn't, but I didn't know that.

I didn't know if it was a company or what. So he wrote me back and gave me a good heads up

about why he does it and all that wonderful, wonderful guy. And you know, it's just interesting how

just a simple act of kindness can just lift. Yeah. You know, I mean, the fact that you and I are

laughing about it. Yeah, right there. Now we're desperate for them. Yeah, cut to the chase.

Can we get more of these pickles? Man, I'll pay for him. I tell him I said, whatever you need,

so he's, I'm going to get back with him. He told me what, you know, what, what it costs,

you know, to do it. And he said, we'll figure it out. Let's, let's, let's chip in. Man,

let's get a real case or something. I know I was handed out to be 10 jars at least.

Easy. So let's you know, yeah, we'll do that. I'd love to do that. We'll reach out to him.

It's getting order. So good. Oh my gosh. So good. I tried to rash them. They barely lasted.

Oh, God, I'm doing about six days, I think. And then a net caught me. She's like, what are you doing?

Because she hears me. She's like Chevy with, he, he, move the cheese wrapper. He's there.

What, what, what 528 come through? He's not. What are you doing? Who are you texting? What are you

thinking? Where are you walking? She's, what are you eating? I said, uh, pickle. And then I,

and I emphasize the last pickle. I said, but there's a jalapeno left if you want. Oh, man,

brother. Yeah. Anyway, we laugh about it. It's all good. It, man, this is good stuff. We have

some of the best listeners, Jeremy Ryan Slate. I don't know if you've ever heard of him. He has a

podcast, but he is, uh, he's, I think he's, I, he may have a, a degree in it, but he is a certified

Roman Empire expert. Oh, nice. And, uh, I should, I should put this in the show notes, but,

you know, we're talking about Constantine and Constantine. I kind of casually say, well,

Constantine made, uh, you know, made Christianity official religion. No, you got a letter on that.

I got a letter on that. Yes. He says, you talk about this. I wanted to mention because people say

the books of the Bible were written at the Council of Nicaea incorrect. He goes into this whole thing.

But he, he, at least, um, Constantine did live his life as a Christian. Wasn't baptized

until his death. Hmm. I didn't realize that. And Christianity became the official religion of

the Empire in 3080 after the Dosey is the great. So Constantine, like stolen valor. I just,

I just love this stuff. I love hearing and fascinating. It really is. It's so incredibly good.

Well, we do appreciate our listeners and give it, just given us some time. But what our hope is,

is that that it will, it will lift them. The whole point of this, you know, your pilot, you get it.

Yes, I want to put lift under them. You know, we want, we want to put lift under their wings

and encourage them. And hopefully maybe laugh every once in a while, even if it's at our expense.

Better me. Better me. Yeah, please. But, you know, some levity in this world. And, and also looking at

the things that are happening in culture from a different world view, a different view point

through a scriptural lens. It's not all doom and gloom. I mean, it's, there's good news out there

and good people like, oh, and others. Uh, the guy you just mentioned. I mean, they're just Joe,

you know, who schooled me on some stuff, you know, it's awesome though. And by the way, Joe,

we're hosting tonight. Yes. An organization called the Caleb company. It's Caleb global. And

they're coming in and we're doing a whole evening on Israel. We've got over 200 people signed up

already. Yeah, we're going. And there'll be more that'll show up, uh, thanks to Matt Long,

having me on the radio. Good appearance, by the way. I listened to the whole thing. It was

fantastic. It was interrupted a little bit by our, by Felicitas who was so happy. She got her

paperwork in order. You know, so I'm like, listening with one ear, like, I got a song. I got

waiting for the podcast to come up. But it was good. I mean, yeah. Thank you. You guys both did a

really good job. And I think, yeah, there's no kidding. There'll be 200. Maybe more. Can people

just walk up before? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. We put it out. So we'll see what happens. But

even if it's that 200 that signed up, it's going to be great. And it's going to give a biblical

response. You know, what should be a Christian's response to what's happening in Israel? You know,

there's so much confusion out there. And it's really not that confusing. You know,

won't you boil it down to the basics? So, and, and I have good news of my own, just,

you know, because I'm tracking the trends. There is a blowback happening against this Israel

was the blame for everything in the podcasting space and online. Please don't go looking for it.

Don't worry. I've got the trend lines. And also when I really look at the actual numbers,

going back to the opening of the show, you'd be surprised to find that a lot of people are not

preoccupied with these things. They really have lives and are doing other things. It's a much smaller

number than we think. We are information people, you know, I think most people just go to work,

come home, just maybe want to crack a beer, sit down, hang out with a family, have dinner,

aren't too involved in this. And every morning I remind myself, you know, I have all these,

we talk about this all, all these little translations of the Lord's Prayer, you know, daily bread,

guidance and provision and lead us not into temptation is like, don't look at it. Just don't look

at it. It's not worth it. And I got to say, I know a lot of men who are recovering from porn

addiction. This is not that did much, much different. It really, it's, it's a different type of

pornography. Exactly. Because it's that dopamine bump that we did it is in that it is. That's why I've

turned off. That's why I leave my phone now and we go to a restaurant. I leave it in my pocket.

So good. I love stretchy jeans, man. You know, you couldn't do that before stretchy jeans.

I have a little life hack that you may want to employ. It only works for guys like us

because we have the magic HAs hearing aid. So I have set up a separate notification sound

that only comes through when you're on do not disturb. So I know if that's you texting me

or Tina texting me or any of our daughters texting me, everything else is muted. So I do not,

you know, that bloop, you know, that's. I have logs. I got to look at it. No, that's nothing.

I tried to rig it. So I would actually say, this is pastored. You may text it. Can't get us to

do that. But a different side, you put it on do not disturb. You put the people you care about,

in favorites, you assign a different thing to them and your life changes overnight because you

still want to know, like, is everything okay? Is that the kids are okay? Yeah. And it's pretty much

quiet. Well, I turned on my hearing aids. I turned off the notifications. The only notification I

get is a phone call, which is rare. We don't use these as phones anymore. So that hardly ever

happens. So that's the only notification. Right. It's just a little beep. And that's truly it,

man. The notifications that that is what does it all. That's what it does at all. And then you

still got to be strong because Tina has notifications off. But then any pause in whatever we're doing,

she'll like, okay, just let me check everything. And then the 15th because women, I don't know,

I'm sorry. It's a women thing. They got a lot of text messages. They do. They talk. Yeah.

conversation. Got a lot. So last night, we watched, I can only imagine two.

Oh, I know. Right. So good. So good. I didn't know this story about this about the mercy me,

but really more about Bart Miller and also Tim Timments. Yeah. I didn't know that back story.

Right back story. Man, powerful show. And for for a band tour movie, very well done. Although I

thought the real guys are mercy me are much handsomer than the actors. And they made Nathan look

like some kind of, I know, cookie dope. I feel a little offended by Nathan. Well, so Barry,

all they had about Barry was, how old are you, Barry? Yeah. We came from another band,

audio, adrenaline, which I didn't know. That was good. I didn't love that band. I didn't know that.

I did know that. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, there was, there was cracking on Barry being much older

than everybody else. I'm like, come on, man. Yeah. It doesn't have hair. That's it. Well,

what a great. I'm not going to say anything about Mike. Great.

What was there to say about? We love these guys. That's what we got to say. We do. We love these guys.

Have you seen Mike's mustache? No, he's got a full mustache. He's got a sad really. Oh, man.

Sporting the mustache. You got to see it. Where did you see it? Instagram. I saw it on something.

Probably. Nice book, whatever. Another reason not to be on these social media things.

My brother, I think, oh, the only other thing I want to just tell you before I forget,

because I wrote it down Sunday. Great message. By the way, everybody should go to bridgefbg.com.

Look at the message from Sunday or listen to it in the Godcaster. It was just so good. And

as you were talking about, and you have to remind me, if you can recall, about standing above,

you are above all of it. Can you can you remind me what? Yeah, the Bible says that in Ephesians 2,

that we've been raised up together. It's the resurrection of Christ. We've been raised up together

in Christ and seated in heavenly realms or heavenly places. Ephesians chapter 1 says Paul's praying.

One of his great prayers. And he says that Jesus Christ has taken the seat at the right hand of God,

which is the place of honor. It's the place of authority, the place of favor. But it says,

we're seated in Christ in heavenly realms. Jesus is sitting at the right hand. It's the logic train.

That's it. That's the logic train. That means that that's where we are. And that puts us in places

in Christ far above. I'm just going to quote it all power, my and dominion, all of that stuff.

And that's all demonic stuff. That's all dark, dark stuff. So why I wrote this down is because

that I'm always looking for Dutch sayings. Dutch sayings that, you know, I love the old sayings.

Most classic is, you know, when you turn 50, you see Abraham or you see Sarah, but they have all

these different sayings. And there's the one that finally I understood the origin of well,

because it's very, these all come from scripture. All these Dutch sayings come from scripture. And

it is star or both. Be above all of that. And the way it's the translation is very literal. The

people will say, X star or both, I'm above all that can often be interpreted. If you take it literally

like, you know, I'm better than you, but that's not where it comes from. It comes from be above,

be above that battlefield, be above at the right hand of Christ. And I wrote that down like, I'm so

excited to tell Pastor Jimmy about this. It hit me. We're going to dissect the whole Dutch language.

I love those things. You know, hopefully in October, you're going to be with us in Amsterdam.

You're going to be speaking Dutch. You'll be careful. You'll be. Come on. It's such an easy language to learn.

Just one more. One more hairball. He'll be fine. He'll be fine. All right, brother,

you got anything else for for today's ketchup? Well, I just appreciate so much that we get to do

this. And I know I keep saying it because that before it was a title of a podcast, it just

came out of my mouth naturally. Yes. It's living a grateful life is what that comes down to.

Honestly, we get to do it means we're grateful that we are even privileged to do these things.

And so I'm really grateful for people that are listening. I hope if it's helping and encouraging,

you'll get the word out to friends and family and let us know email us. Let us know we like to

get feedback. We do. We love that a lot. And you're right. We get to do this. Can you imagine?

It's a Wednesday late morning. We get to do a podcast in my home. I know, right? Thank you, Jesus.

This is the best ever. Love it, brother. All right, everybody. We'll be back next Wednesday with another

episode. Thank you for joining us. We get to do this next week again.