Don't get down when you're seeing the worst,
cause the last will be first.
What a day I'm telling you,
all things will be new.
Living up in a down world.
Yeah we're living, yeah we're living,
living up in a down world.
Oh!
Hey friends, it's Dream Internet
and we are here to hang out with you today.
This is Living Up in a Down World.
Thanks for joining us.
We so appreciate you listening to the program
and participating with us, interacting with us,
especially on our website,
livingupinadownworld.com.
Keep them coming. We added several new folks.
Hey Annette.
Hey.
How are you doing?
A lot better than I was yesterday.
You are stunning by the way.
Honey.
If only we were on video.
No.
A vlog, a vlog cast.
No, no, no, no.
A vlog cast.
I'm sitting here in a tank top and shorts and no makeup.
That's what I'm saying.
My hair is dry from the pool cause we swam this morning.
But I, no.
You are beautiful inside and out.
I appreciate that.
Let's get to our show.
What episode are we on?
What episode?
Number 28.
Wow.
Okay.
That means 28 weeks of doing, living up in a down world.
That's good.
That's really.
We've hung in there.
I know.
We had a little misfire yesterday.
We tried this yesterday and we said no.
It did not go well.
We weren't feeling it.
We weren't having a good day yesterday.
This is one of those, there are days when they're, you know, you and I have a rhythm,
right?
We do.
We didn't have that rhythm yesterday.
It's funny cause people comment, it's like you guys finished each other's sentences and
yesterday we were just off.
Well, the weather was really dreary.
I mean we had rain off and on.
And it just was dark in the house and it just felt, I don't know, it kind of gives you this
state of depression.
Even though we weren't depressed, it was just not a good day.
You're a sunshine kind of girl.
Oh, I do.
I love the sun.
You love the sun.
I love the sun.
Everybody else is whining.
Which is why I have.
It's 100 degrees and you're like, oh, let's go out.
Well, and I have two skin cancer spots, but they're gone.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm just taking care of, take care of myself in the sun, but sometimes it just happens.
But I do, I need the sunshine.
It brings my mood up.
I couldn't live in Seattle.
I couldn't either.
First of all, for many reasons, not just the sun, just because that Seattle, yeah.
Any.
Well, we have a friend who lives in Washington state.
Yeah.
He lives in Washington right across the, the what's it called the, the, the river Gorge.
Yes.
River Gorge.
Anyway, he lives right across from Portland and yeah, Portland's and he, it's really hard
on him because he's depressed a lot.
That's true.
He does.
He goes through really bad.
Texas.
You're not going to have that.
You're going to have sunshine.
I say Florida is the sunshine state.
Texas is the sunshine state.
Florida probably is too.
It is.
And I love Florida as well.
So get me thinking about Destin.
I know we could still go.
We could still go.
White beaches.
We could, we should.
Oh, by the way, the reason why we can just pick up and go is because we are on a two
month sabbatical.
Can we make it three?
No, I'm really liking this.
I know.
I think we should try to find someone for four more weeks, three months is, is that's
the sweet spot.
I'm thinking is, is this what retirement's like?
Because if it is, it's not going to happen.
I know you're right.
It's not going to happen.
It's not going to happen for us.
We, we literally, we can enjoy this, but I think we would just, we wouldn't have enough
purpose.
We need purpose.
We're purpose.
And we love people too much.
I remember that book by Rick Warren, the purpose driven life.
We're that.
I mean, really are.
Yes.
We're driven by the purpose and the purpose is the mission and the great commission, which
is to go there for make disciples of all the nations.
So what we're called to do.
Exactly.
So you're right.
Yeah, this is nice.
So we're enjoying it.
We started week three today, actually.
This is day 21 of what?
60 days, 60 ish, a little 60, 60 or something like that.
60.
So yeah, a little over 60 days.
And it has been such a blessing.
I've told several people who've asked who said, Hey, so how's it going?
I'm like, this is the greatest gift in ministry that I've ever been given.
Exactly.
Somebody could give me a car.
I could be excited about that.
They could give me a piece of equipment.
I could be cool.
Guitars.
I've had guitars given to me.
Nothing compares to this.
No, it's really a nice gift of time.
Yes, I was going to say it's a nice gift of time and rest.
Lots of rest.
Although we had company for a little while and it was heavy dealing with some family
that's going through some challenges in life from from past issues.
And we were dealing with that with one of our family members.
But I'm so glad they came to stay with us.
Yes.
I love what I'm not going to use a name.
But I love what was said.
Oh, FedEx is here.
Don't say it out loud.
I'll start barking.
So if the doorbell rings, it's because we've got like a ton of stuff coming today.
When you live in the country like we live between Fredericksburg and Comfort or San
Antonio, so we live out in the country.
So Amazon Prime, everything online is our friend.
Well, today's like Christmas.
I know we were like, how did it?
It's like a convergence.
It's a prime.
There it goes.
Is it Amazon Prime Day where you get all your stuff at one time?
I did.
Oh, because I wanted less boxes.
We don't.
Thank you.
Yes.
Oh, my God.
I did that on purpose because usually we go to the church and drop them off.
But we haven't done that.
Oh, good.
Let's get back to.
Yes.
So great week last week.
What was so beautiful is that two things that really stood out to me.
One, we felt like the Lord gave us the privilege of with one of our kids of sitting and letting
them process and unpack some trauma from the past and some things that have happened over
the years.
Didn't have anything to do with us personally.
It was things that happened to to them as a child and as an adult.
Some as an adult as well.
And so we the Lord gave us the privilege of hosting them for the week and not being here
to talk, but being here to listen.
Exactly.
And that is what we did.
We spent the whole week listening and helping them process what they were going through
in major breakthroughs.
I'm so honestly, I mean, I wrote him.
I'm journaling a lot right now because of the sabbatical.
I've got this time and I love journaling.
I've really picked it back up.
I kind of let it go through the years getting busy with church and ministry and all that.
You kind of just ends up being second, third, fourth, fifth down the line.
And now I've been able to make that a primary thing.
But I've been able to journal things about last week that I'm just so grateful, grateful
that as parents, but also as peers kind of because our kids are grown now.
They're not children anymore.
They still.
Sometimes we think of them that way, but now they're in a different season of life.
But I love that they trust us with challenges in their life.
Isn't that the greatest way to honor your parents is to trust them?
Yes, trust.
Scripture says that we're to honor our parents and obey them in the Lord.
And the fact that all three of our kids trust us to tell us what's going on or to unpack
things and offload things.
We're here in this season of our lives, we're here for that.
Yeah, right.
To help them.
And but the second thing that was really encouraging to me, people have always said about our home
that there's such peace.
We keep hearing that even from our own children, which is pretty incredible.
That encouraged me so much because that is what we desire is to have a home of peace
or the Hebrew word is shalom.
And it simply means complete, whole, nothing missing, nothing broken, beautiful.
Not that we don't have broken things in our house, but we we really bathe our home in
peace.
Yeah, unless we come off sounding super spiritual, we have crap just like everybody else.
It's just life happens and shift happens.
I'll say it that way.
You better be careful.
I'll be very careful.
I remember one time in church.
One time in the pulpit, I did say the word.
Yes, you did.
And it was and the whole church erupted.
I think we had a bigger Sunday the next week because I were hoping you would do it again.
I remember just after it happened, I stood there totally red faced.
I just dropped the word and I said, come back to me, people.
Come back.
It was over.
We just it's time to say a prayer and laugh and go home and love on each other.
And do you remember?
Do you remember the one time we had someone come in and preach who who hasn't preached
at our church in years and he came in, he didn't tell us everything he was going to
say.
And he flipped the bird.
Oh, my God.
I'll never forget in church.
Shock and awe.
We were like, we're not going to have you back.
I could not believe he did that.
It was we should write a book on crazy stuff that's happened in church because we got a
ton of stories.
And he wasn't flipping the bird at people he was using.
He was giving an illustration of something that happened to him.
But I'm like, yeah, you can go too far.
You can go too far with a metaphor or illustration.
Yes.
He went a little far with a little far.
And I love him.
I love him.
But that was one of our little unsettling.
That was uncool.
I don't even remember how the church responded.
I think I felt the I felt the bare pressure in the room change.
I was like all the oxygens went out of the room.
I think it was just a shock.
Just total shock.
I'm glad I think that you don't do that from you and me.
I probably.
What did you just do?
So if you're a pastor or thinking about being in ministry, don't ever use the bird as an
illustration.
Exactly.
That's how you kill a mood.
I know.
We're going to start laughing.
Oh, man.
We have had some funny things happen.
Freaking funny.
So this week, Pastor Eddie spoke yesterday.
Jimmy, it was so hard for me because I wanted to get on and just listen to him.
I did talk to Tina this morning and she said he was excellent.
Can I set this up a little?
Yeah, go ahead.
Because not everybody who's listening knows what's going on.
That's true.
If you tuned in, it's like when you jump in the middle of a show or a series, we're on
our sabbatical and we're going by a rule book, a playbook, I'm calling it.
We're running the play.
So just use an athletic metaphor.
Of course you're going to do that.
So we're running the play and the playbook was we're to completely separate from work,
which that's what a sabbatical is or a Sabbath.
If you do a weekly Sabbath, which you should be doing if you're a follower of Jesus.
But the sabbatical is once every five to seven years, you actually take an extended period.
So it's an extended Sabbath.
And the idea there is you unplug, you decompress, you rest, you disconnect, which is very hard
for me being a pastoral pastor.
Oh, and it's hard for me doing the business of the church.
Right.
So we both have our struggles that we're having to navigate.
Me, FOMO, hashtag FOMO, fear of missing out, which is a real thing.
It's an actual condition.
I looked it up out of curiosity because I was feeling that when we first, like the week
that we were about to start, I started feeling things.
But you don't feel that now.
You're actually doing better than I anticipated.
I thought you were going to say better than you are.
Well, that's true.
You are a little bit.
Maybe.
Yeah.
It's been harder.
It has.
I've kind of just settled into it.
Like I've crawled into it into a metaphorical hammock and I'm drinking sweet tea on a summer
day.
I mean, that's how I saw a big word came to me while I was journaling the other day.
And it's the word receive.
I had not thought about it.
I used a lot of our words to express what a sabbatical is.
Why our words?
Rest, restoration, recovery, rejuvenation, refilling.
And then I was writing in my journal, like the first week and the word receive.
And I sort of wrote it not thinking.
I was kind of free writing and I was like, that's it.
That's the essence because the nature of being in pastoral ministry is we give out nonstop
almost to a fault sometimes.
We give away so much.
In the scripture, Jesus made this comment or it says about Jesus in the book of John
that Jesus did not give himself to them or to man because he knew what was in man.
And there's a principle of balance and a healthy detachment, attachment.
Well, he would go away for a short amount or long amounts of time.
He went away for 40 days on one shot.
Just so that he could receive from the Lord.
Because if you think about everything he's giving out and you have to have a time of
receiving so that then you'll have enough to give out.
And so he had many reprieves.
Yeah, it says that he withdrew often to barren places.
But we don't do that.
To be with God.
We go, go, go.
And then we go on vacation and we go, go, go.
I don't even, vacations don't excite me.
No, but the beach kind of still does me.
Only because I love to hear the roar of the beach.
If we wake up one morning and we are feeling it, let's just pack a very tiny bag.
Hopefully Southwest miles will be kind to us.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, exactly.
And so we may end up doing a little beach trip just to do something on this.
I didn't want to plan anything.
No, and I don't.
Right.
I don't either.
Not planning it.
So anyway, that's what we're in the middle of.
Well, I say in the middle, not even in the middle.
So we're three weeks in.
It has been for me, I feel like I'm breathing air, fresh air, clean air.
I'm seeing God do some amazing things in you though that I haven't, I don't think I've ever witnessed to this extent.
Thank you.
Because you're more excited about the Word than I've ever seen you.
Not that you weren't before, but there is a...
Oh, the Word of God is coming alive.
It's so coming alive.
And you're already like, okay, I want to do this series, I want to do this series, I want to do this.
And I'm like, okay, don't even talk about it till the very end because you're going to...
So much.
It's going to culminate into something really beautiful by the time you're done.
Thank you for saying that because that really is what's happening right now.
The Word of God has come alive to me.
Now, I'm activating something called Lectio Divina.
I'm stepping into a process of where you read, you meditate, you pray, and then you contemplate.
Not a long passage, but a short, like a one verse or even a phrase or a sentence like,
He leads me beside still waters, and instead of going on and reading the rest of Psalm 23, you stop.
And you meditate, you pray, and then you contemplate that.
And then you journal about it, you write about it.
It's a good way to express it.
Then you start the cycle all over again with the next verse.
So I'm slow reading the Bible.
In fact, I had these ambitions when we started this.
I was going to read some books.
But what I'm finding is that the Lord has slowed me down and said,
why do you think you've got to somehow check off a list of books to read?
How about reading two verses?
So I'm focusing on Psalm 23 right now.
That's good.
That's really good.
The 23rd Psalm has...
It's so packed with nuggets and wisdom.
What I will say about it is that years ago, I always kind of relegated that to,
oh yeah, that's a nice, sweet sentiment.
I don't know why.
Maybe because it seemed overused in some context.
As I've grown and gotten older and into this season,
I'm beginning to see the power in that verse.
You're making it personal.
There you go.
That's the difference.
When you make Scripture personal to you, it really does change everything.
Speaking of personal,
we got to go hang out with Adam and Tina Curry.
I had a little segue there.
Yes.
Because we went to see a movie.
What was the name of the movie?
Sound of Freedom.
Tell us your take on that movie because it blew my mind.
Well, I saw it a couple of years ago.
Jim Caviezel came to Fredericksburg and showed it at a restaurant
of some owners that come go to our church.
We were invited and you weren't able to go.
I was able to attend and I was blown away by Jim's...
Gosh.
He is so...
I mean, this movie is not just about doing a movie.
It's in his heart.
It's in his soul.
It's his being.
He was in the passion of Christ,
but there's more passion in just him talking about this movie
and the impact it's made on his life.
It's a story of Tim Ballard and he's amazing.
Amazing man of God who chose to step down from his career
in law enforcement and take on the challenge of finding
pedophiles but also finding the kids that these pedophiles
are trafficking across the nation.
It's amazing.
In fact, I got on...
When I told you I was online, I was researching something.
I was looking.
It's called Operation Railroad.
Underground Railroad.
Yeah.
Which is O-U-R.
I was looking at all their merchandise going,
gosh, what can I do to help support?
Because that's how you support them.
Other ways to just sending money.
They have merchandise.
I was just looking at it going, Lord,
what is it that you want us to do as a church,
as a couple to alleviate this horrific, horrific...
What?
I'll just say this.
Okay, go ahead.
For one, we can't go ourselves.
No, no.
That's not our call.
It's not our lane.
It's not our expertise.
Right.
But we can, through finances and through resources,
we can support those who are doing the work.
Yes.
And my heart, after seeing that movie again for the second time,
because two years had passed...
And they edited it.
And they added a couple of things to it.
I came home and I was researching on YouTube some of the shorts
and documentaries.
I was mesmerized by it.
I just continued to watch.
I know they're working on another movie.
Jim Caviezel said we watched.
Jordan Peterson interviewed him and Tim Ballard.
He expressed that he was working on the next movie,
which is actually the first operative they did,
which was in Haiti, which is going to be in the second movie.
And I'm just...
I guess I'm so enamored by people who have a call on their life
that isn't that strong, that they're willing to make a difference
and give up their own life for kids.
He quit his job.
He was a federal agent, a border patrol agent who dealt with
pedophiles, but as he stepped into that job, he did that for
10 or 12 years.
Yes, and he gave up his pension.
Who does that?
He was what, a few months away from getting his full pension
from retirement.
He said around $12 million is what he...
It would have been ridiculous.
And his wife said no.
I mean, what wife says this is more important than our retirement?
Go save the kids.
Save these children.
We can't wait.
It was so impactful.
So why do you think, though, there's been massive pushback
from the media?
Well, because I believe that the media has something to do with it.
I think there's people...
I mean, Tim alluded to that in the documentary.
There are people benefiting in high places in our nation who are
benefiting from this child sex trafficking industry.
And their executives, he said their clergymen, their judges,
their law enforcement.
It's unbelievable that our world is so corrupt.
But it always has been.
It's never changed.
My adrenaline just gets up where I just want to go.
I want to go country boy, let's go out behind the barn and deal
with this.
This is the stuff that fires me up because it is the atrocities
that are happening to children.
Can you imagine having one of your children or all of your children
stolen, taken, kidnapped for the sole purpose of sex trafficking them
to a bunch of freaking perverts?
No, I was reading a news document on my iPhone the other day and
there was a girl, a 13-year-old girl that was, I think she was
just walking home from school or walking home in San Antonio,
which is 30 miles from here, and a gentleman, not gentleman,
a monster freak picked her up, sexually molested her.
She ended up putting a sign, they took her all the way to
California.
She put a sign up while he was in the laundromat washing clothes
that says, please help me.
And they were able to call the police and get this monster.
First of all, praise God that she had the mindset and was aware
of what to do to get rescued.
But now knowing the damage that's done to her psyche and her
heart and her spirit.
Is she going to trust men again?
I know, it's like Lord Jesus, help us.
And there's so many more stories out there.
I know, thousands, hundreds of thousands, unfortunately.
Because I said there's probably over a million pedophiles,
a million.
And guess who, guess what nation is the biggest purchaser and
serve what he called the biggest who purchases the most,
so to speak?
The US.
The United States of America.
What?
Because we're so privileged, but we don't, we can't.
There needs to be a death blow to this industry.
We always need something else.
We're not satisfied with anything.
We always want the bigger, better thing.
The fact though that all the major news outlets have literally
ghosted this organization.
Exactly.
And this movie, which has already made over $100 million,
flew past.
Is it still on?
I hope it is.
I think they had to extend it because so many people are going
to see it now.
But I think the enemy, the devil, always overplays his hand.
Always.
And I think the massive public resistance, not from people,
but from a handful of news outlets against this,
Rolling Stone Magazine, New York Times.
They claim that it's not really happening.
Yeah.
They're like, oh, those people are delusional.
This stuff's not real.
This isn't real in the US.
The only person, the only kind of people that would say something
like that are pedophiles.
I'm just going to say it out loud.
Is because they're protecting something.
Why would you ghost something?
I cannot believe someone who could be so inhumane as to think
that it's okay to rape.
And some of the descriptions that have happened to these children
remind me of these.
Or use these kids for organs.
And they videotape them.
Yes.
And they send it out on the dark web and all these freaks and
perverts are getting off on watching these kids being raped.
Are getting off on watching these kids getting their bones broken.
Right.
I mean, it gets me really angry.
Well, this is probably an area that gets you more angry than
anything since I've known you.
Well, because I worked in the children in a foster care agency.
I did too.
Two foster care agencies.
But you worked directly with the kids.
I worked in foster care with children who had been so horrifically abused.
And the things you read to me.
I've seen the damage.
Yes.
And have walked with children through this.
So, yeah, this is near and dear to my heart.
But I believe it's more so near and dear to Jesus' heart.
It sure is.
And people would say, why didn't God just intervene?
Because He gave us a will.
Gave us a free will.
Love isn't love unless it's freedom.
And so unfortunately, freedom works both ways.
Freedom works in you're free to and you're free not to.
Right.
You're free to surrender and you're free to resist.
And so for those who have resisted God and resisted God's willing
and God's call on their life, they fall.
I mean, when you're in sin, you're insane.
Right.
I'll never forget someone saying that to us years ago.
And it sure makes sense.
You're insane.
Right.
So those that have rejected God and rejected righteousness
and rejected right living and rejected Jesus,
they fall into that category.
They literally lose all sense of there's no moral compass.
There's no true north.
There's no absolutes.
And they fall into, and they become, I mean, the Bible is just real straight.
They become reprobates.
And I know I'm going strong here, but it's family.
Those listening, there are children today,
thousands and thousands of them being abused.
One of the things Tim Ballard said in one of the interviews we watched
is that these kids, these freak pedophiles and these pimps,
they'll have these children have sex five and ten times a night.
They can make more money off of a child than they can a drug deal.
Exactly.
Because a drug deal is one time.
So they're like, forget drugs.
We're going to human trafficked.
This is a better way.
So anyway, underground, what's it?
Tim Ballard.
Oh gosh.
Operation Underground Railroad.
I had to go.
Oh, you are.
Look it up. Google it.
And go see the movie.
Go see the movie.
We went to support the movie.
And we want movies like this in the theater.
We want awareness.
But we also want people to make a difference.
Do something.
Don't just be aware.
Ask God, what is it that I can do in this situation?
If it's buy merchandise, if it's send money to them, if it's praying.
I mean, whatever it is, do something.
Don't just, let's just don't just sit here and think, well, it's not in our backyard.
It's in our backyard.
And I would say this as an encouragement.
Don't go see the movie to be entertained.
It's not an entertainment.
But go to be informed.
Go to learn.
Go to be made aware of what is happening.
Don't just go and just see it as a movie movie where you're just trying to be entertained.
That's not the point.
The point is awareness.
And we've got to make people aware of these atrocities that are happening.
And so, yeah, I'm fired up about it.
I'm angry about it.
But also I'm saying, Holy Spirit, lead me and guide me into what we're how to channel this energy
into something that makes a difference.
And he will.
I totally already see it coming.
I'm not going to say it out loud, but I already know there'll be some some action involved with this.
So go see the movie.
So thankful that our dearest friends on the planet, Adam and Tina Curry, went with us and we were all able to be.
And when we were walking out of the movie, it was real quiet.
Do you notice?
It was very quiet.
So here's what's really interesting.
Right next door to the movie we were in watching this incredible alarming sound, the car sound, the alarm right next to us,
literally two feet away.
The door was to the Barbie movie, which a lot of people I've seen on Facebook who love this.
The heck that is going on in our world.
I know.
I don't know what to say.
I don't even know what to say.
We don't watch TV much because we don't have we don't even have cable or anything anymore.
But there's some kind of draw, but I don't know what it is.
Maybe someone can enlighten me what that is.
But honestly, maybe it's just pure entertainment.
So I'll walk out because, you know, I got teeny bladder syndrome.
Right.
I wanted to twice.
So I had to walk because the movie's three hours long.
You get your money's worth three hours long.
So I had to get a go out a couple of times.
I go out in the hallway.
There's these two girls standing outside the theater to go into the Barbie movie and they're taking selfies.
And they're doing video probably.
Everybody's wearing pink and they're wearing pink and high heels.
And I'm like, I just walked out of seeing a child gets two children get stolen, thrown into a van, abused, taken to South America.
So I come out and I'm just like, my world's been rocked and I'm seeing these girls.
The juxtaposition of the Barbie movie and that's good entertainment for people.
But I mean, I just don't know because we don't know.
I'm going to calm down right now because that can fire.
There are there are things to consider.
I mean, as as humans, we need to know what's going on and we need to get we need to find a cause that we can get.
I wrap our mind around and do something about a difference.
Which right now, one of our causes is what I love Adam Curry doing on with no agenda is deconstructing the media.
Yes. Sorry, I said it, but it is what it is.
It is. There's so much misinformation, you know, propaganda is the word.
And because of Adam's background and understanding into various agencies of the government,
turns out his parents were employed and he didn't find out till he was 17.
He has seen from the inside, not just he's not the outside looking in.
He's not reading, you know, watching YouTube videos to get his information.
He's literally lived this and realized that the propaganda machine that's out there that is generating false information
for various purposes that are nefarious and dark and.
It's mind bending. It is really.
I love Adam fact, he and I have a bro date. I know to happen in tonight.
Super excited. What are you going to do if you run into 10 people from the church?
No, not on Monday night, not in town on Monday night.
So anyway, so we're going to go out to eat together.
He and I, we're just going to continue to unpack what God's up to in our lives.
But but I just so appreciate what he's doing.
He and John Dvorak with no agenda where they are literally deconstructing what's going on in this world,
which is that issue with sex trafficking, sound of freedom, also the trends.
Oh, my gosh.
Don't get me going. Go listen to no agenda.
I know this is not no agenda. We have an agenda.
I know. But hearing hearing our.
Leaders say it's OK to have.
These dancing. This is not the drag show I grew up in.
I grew up in America. It's an abomination to the Lord is what it is.
It's an abomination to the Lord.
Why in the world would any body with any sense say this is OK?
I'm sorry. No, no, no. I'm having a I'm pulling up Romans chapter one right now.
Oh, you're going there, aren't you? We need to go there.
I mean, we need to quit being so passive about things.
Romans chapter one. So clear, so strong.
The whole chapter, the whole chapter.
But but I want to I want to go into one place in particular here.
And it's talking about God's wrath on unrighteousness.
This is for the wrath of God is refilled from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them
for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal powers, divine nature,
have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world
and the things that have been made so that they are without excuse.
Wow. The world is without excuse.
God has shown himself in the clouds, in the mountain, in beauty, in aesthetics, in art.
I mean, I listen to what's what's interesting to me as a follower of Christ.
When I was young, I burned all my you know, I got trashed all my records.
CD or no, it would have been eight tracks and albums back in the day.
I trashed all those thinking I was doing something for God.
But missing the fact that the Imago Dei, the creative nature of God's in all of man,
we are been created in the image of God.
And so whether it's a song by John Coltrane or a song by Journey or whatever,
there is the element and the grace of God in the midst of this genius, musical genius and an art genius.
So listen to this. This is what was really scary.
It says for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him,
but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened,
claiming to be wise. They became fools.
Wow. That's what I see going on with the World Economic Forum and all these things.
Listen to that phrase, claiming to be wise. They became fools.
That's Romans 1 22 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
In other words, we've exchanged the glory of God for stuff, right? For other things.
Then look what it says in verse 24. Is he is Mr. Chevy falling? Yes.
Again, he tends to fall through that chair. Listen to this in Romans 1 24.
Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.
That reeks of the trans issue to me. They're giving up and dishonoring their bodies.
Because in verse 25, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator.
Wow. That's man worshiping man. Who is blessed forever.
And it says for this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.
Right. What? Exactly. Let's just say it for what it is.
This is the gay trans issue and they gave up their their passions that God gave them.
They gave them up for dishonorable passions and the men, verse 27, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.
Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
You can't get any more clear than that goes on. I'm going to stop there, but it just goes on.
And this is, you know, when something comes up in your face and you're informed, you go, wait a minute, I've heard this before.
This is not new. It feels new because it's current and relevant happening right now under our nose.
But this is something that was spoken about the first century. Exactly.
This is not new. Nothing's new under the sun. Everything comes. Solomon said that there's nothing new under the sun.
So anyway, you know, to watch our world go through this in our lifetime.
I mean, I'm glad my mom passed away a few years ago because I honestly I don't know how she would have handled it.
Couldn't have it. I know it couldn't have. It's.
So disheartening, but God, there it is.
You know, every generation has its challenges, right? I mean, we all every generation has a new thing, a new hurdle to overcome.
But but new levels of debauchery and new new levels of darkness that arise, you know, one generation, it's getting you're growing your hair out long.
All of a sudden, that's the worst thing ever. The next generation, it's cutting yourself down.
This generation, it's sex trafficking and human trafficking and child trafficking.
It's it's like, where does this end?
And at some point, the world is spinning up.
We were listening and watching a video on YouTube with Jimmy Evans, Pastor Jimmy Evans, tipping point Trinity Church.
Boy, was he talking about the end days, the end of time.
And he's like, he's convinced that we're there.
Close. Yeah, he says we're there.
We're there because of the debauchery, because of how dark it's always darkest before the dawn.
Right. What I as hard as all this is to take and stomach and navigate and process,
there's also this idea and hope and belief that there's going to be an end time harvest of people coming to know Christ and turning to Jesus like we've never seen.
Well, it's it's like what we're seeing in Southern California right now.
I mean, think about all California off. Right.
What have I been saying? I know. Don't write California off.
Now, politically, write them off.
Spiritually, don't because God has had his hand on that state for decades since 1901 with the Azusa Street revivals and Pastor William Seymour.
Most of the revivals came out of California and those revivals, by the way, started in Wales.
They were the Welsh revivals and they came over to the United States and they landed in of all places, a little black church.
Call the on a zoos on the corner of Azusa Street and God showed up in miraculous ways.
My attitude right now is God do it again. Yes. God do it again.
And as believers, we need to be praying that we don't need to stick our head in the sand.
We need to be praying for revival and we don't need to get on social media and just peck out on a keyboard, you know, all of our anger.
You know, we've released some frustration today.
But but it's just real. It's it's heartfelt.
And it's I'm not mad at anyone. I'm mad. There's a real enemy out there.
They're wanting to destroy. I'm mad at the devil.
I'm mad at his cohorts and this host. Yes. Dark host of the demonic realm.
I'm mad at that. I'm mad at them. I'm not mad at people.
People are being used as pawns in this.
And so our heart is to see redemption for all and people to turn totally turn from all this wickedness and turn to God.
That's the only peace they're ever going to receive.
There you go. Did we just solve all the problems of the world?
I think so. So anyway, just so so grateful to Adam, Tina.
We were able to go together about the I remember walking out the doors of that theater in San Antonio and just there was a lot of silence.
It was hard to talk. It's hard to express your heart.
You know, there's time to be silent. You know, and that was that was that time.
And just love those guys and such a sweet time with them.
You're looking at the time.
So one thing I wanted to talk about is we we were so blessed.
One of the things we're doing during our sabbatical, just so you know, we were instructed and we're following the playbook not to go to church anywhere, which is really hard.
It's strange for us. It's because churches are life.
I mean, that's for 38 years. It's been my life longer than that.
Yeah. Yeah. Longer than that.
So so we've been honoring that.
But we so we've been going online and listening to different messages and we're part of the Gateway Church's network or network of churches.
They call it Gateway Network of Churches.
We're part of that. And so we've been watching what's going on at Gateway.
So Charlotte Gamble, she's from England and she spoke at Gateway this last weekend.
And we watched that message, which I've never heard her before. Oh, man.
Wow. We were blown. We were blown away.
We were blown away. I don't think I've ever heard.
She she preached on the passage of Zacchaeus in Great Leary, which I don't know if I've ever heard anyone preach on Zacchaeus the way she did.
The way she did. No, I'm not really really good. Yeah.
She extricated some things that were amazing. Amazing.
Yes. So I'll give you the short version. I'd love for you to share your your feelings on this.
Seek, stay, stand. Talk about that for a minute.
What did you get out of it? Well, I love the fact that Zacchaeus, he wanted to see Jesus.
And he because he heard he was there in the city he was part of and he had heard about all these miracles.
And so he was he had tried to he went to like let's just call it like a little revival.
If we were going to put it in our crowd, there's a crowd there, but he's a short person, much like me.
And so he decides that he is going to he knows that Jesus is going to leave that revival and the revival,
the crowd and be walking to the to go to the next area.
And he decides to climb a tree. OK, for one, I would not think about climbing a tree so I could see.
See, I would would probably just give up and say, you know what?
I can't see, which is what happens to me a lot of times when I go to a concert or something, I just can't see.
And I'll just sometimes I'll just sit down. I don't pay attention to the people around me.
And so what I'll do is I'll just sit there and I'll miss out on what maybe God wants me to hear or see.
But Zacchaeus decided to climb a tree.
And it just so happens that Jesus was walking by that tree and it says he stopped at a spot.
And I love the fact that she said this a spot like like he had if you if you think about Jesus,
he he could have had security around if you if you look at today, let's put him in today's terms.
You would have security around him. And they're like, OK, there's a guy that wants to see you.
He's on tree number three. You know, the way she described him, it was hilarious.
But I believe this is what I love about Jesus is he knew that there was someone that needed what he had.
And so what he did, which which is what I love is is Zacchaeus.
He called him by his name.
That was so powerful to me to read it the way she told the story, because it says that in the word of God, he knew his name.
Why? Because if you think about that, Jesus knows our name.
He knows all of our needs. He knows where we are.
He knows our struggles. He knows when we're celebrating.
But he he looked up where Zacchaeus was in the tree and he called him and.
He knew his name that that was the first thing that stood out to me.
So powerful, which I what I love about Zacchaeus is he was seeking the Lord.
Yes. In fact, the way Charlotte put it, I want to say these points because they're so powerful.
Three points seek to see. Think about that. Seek to see.
And what are you seeking to see? What are you seeking to see?
I mean, what a question to ask myself.
What am I seeking to see? Am I seeking to see him?
Or am I seeking to see something else that to fill a void or to fill an empty space in my life?
Am I seeking other things? But am I seeking to see him?
And that's what Zacchaeus said.
He was seeking because he heard him do all these miraculous things and people, you know, in the city just enamored by what they're seeing.
He's like, wait, I've got to go see what they're seeing.
And that's exactly what he did. He climbed a tree.
I just think of how I mean, think about it when we seek to see something that we really will do whatever we will.
We'll board a plane and fly to Nashville to go see Journey in Toto.
Right. Oh, no, let me give you a better example.
We went to Utah. We were part of the set on The Chosen.
And we could see this where they were doing having a scene.
And so what did we do? The tour guide that was with us and we were the only ones who showed up.
They were supposed to have a busload of people show up for this tour guide and for the tour.
And something happened. Somebody had told. So it just happens to be you and I.
And he says, let's climb up. We climbed. I'll never forget it.
We climbed up on the roof. Yeah. Movie set. Yes. We're up on the roof in the catwalk.
Yes. And we're looking down and we're we have a bird's eye view.
That was crazy. It was amazing. But yeah, I have to see.
I have not climbed a tree, but we did climb the catwalk. We went through some crazy things.
I was thinking OSHA would not appreciate this. No, no.
This is dangerous. Yeah. At one point, I think and they let us take pictures.
And finally, they said, OK, you all need to you all need to move.
Like the producer came up there and said, hey, you guys are kind of in the shot.
You're distracting. You're photobombing the movie. I know. It's kind of funny.
It was fun. But you know what? We were seeking to see. We wanted to see.
I wanted to be a part of it. I totally forgot about that.
So the second point is seek to see is the first great metaphor.
The second one is seek to stay. Yes. Seek to stay because Jesus, when he saw Zach, he is he stopped and he said,
I'm staying at your place, which is I'm staying.
I can't even imagine Jesus saying something like that. He didn't even know him, but he called him by name.
He already said yes. So he calls him by name and says, I'm staying at your place.
Yes. Whoa. I would be like, wait, what am I?
I got to fix dinner. I've got to I've got to clean up the house.
I would have gone into Martha mode and I'm Mary.
You're Martha. That's for sure. But I love that because I think of also when Jesus.
When when we acknowledge him, he seeks to stay in our life.
He wants to stay with us at all times.
He doesn't he's never going to leave.
He's never going to forsake us or we can recognize that he is staying with us at all times.
And what that should provoke in us and inspire in us is our desire to stay in him.
Him stay where he's called us to be.
Yes. And that's the sad part is that so many people will bail and leave or quit.
Yes. Before the blessing ever comes.
How many people do that? I mean, we we see people do that all the time or they'll be in a church
and they'll be like, yeah, I'm not getting anything out of this, which usually it's because they're not seeking to stay.
They're already looking elsewhere and then they'll just bail on the first, you know, the first thing that comes up.
Oh, yeah, I knew I was supposed to go. So think about it this way.
There are some things that you will never see unless you choose to stay. Exactly.
There's a book out right now. I'm trying to remember the author to a new book called Raise to Stay.
And she she's has gone through and she's part of that millennial generation.
She was on staff at Life Church out in Colorado Springs.
We love to have high value for that church.
Pastor Grady Boyd, wonderful, wonderful church.
She's one of the worship leaders out there.
And she said that as a millennial, she had many times, many opportunities to be offended through the years
doing church life and being on staff at a church.
But she believed that God raised her to stay.
And so she wrote a book about it, about the power of staying.
Wow. Power of not quitting. I see a power of not giving up. Sermon series there.
Raise to stay. Isn't that great?
But really think about it. There's something you'll never see unless you choose to stay.
Here's another way to say it. When you leave before God's timing,
you'll miss what God wanted you to see in that season and in that place. Right.
Oh, my gosh. How many stories do we have about that of people who came to us or didn't come to us?
They just quit and left the church or they came to this pastor, I just feel led to go somewhere else,
not getting fed here. I'm going to end. I'm like, wow.
Most of the time they're telling that to someone else, not us. That's true. That's true. Very few times.
And it's like, well, what if God was causing calling you to not just be fed, but you to feed? Exactly.
Give me a break. It's like, come on, you've got something to contribute. Exactly.
But so many people because we're in a consumeristic, we are consumers. We're consumers. This is America.
I just buy what I want when I want. We we got FedEx showing up during the show.
We'll probably have UPS. We'll probably mail mailman will be coming anytime.
I mean, my phone, my thing just went off. Anyway, all this stuff's going on.
And it's because we're consumeristic. But we take that into our faith life and we go to a church.
God never meant that to have churches. Oh, my gosh.
Maybe maybe God has called you to stay.
Maybe God has raised you to stay. Jesus came to stay with Zacchaeus.
But Zacchaeus also had to take a step and say, I'm going to stay with you.
I'm not going to let go. What's the third? The third one is seek to stand and seek to stand.
In Luke 19 eight, we read that Zacchaeus stood up.
So listen to this. Verse seven, all the people saw this and we get to munder.
And he has gone to be with a guest of a sinner because Jesus said, I'm going to come stay with you.
So they left together. Right. So here's the Pharisees are so upset that he's going to a sinner's house.
Oh, my goodness. First of all, Zacchaeus would have been considered.
Yeah, he's the sinner. Yeah, he says because he's the Jew who turned his back on them.
He was a fraud. Yeah, because Rome hired him to collect taxes for Caesar.
And so it says this. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor.
I mean, God rocked through Jesus because he was wealthy.
He was a very he didn't have need for God because he was so wealthy.
Look what he says. And if I've cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.
What compound interest, baby.
Jesus said this to him. Today, salvation has come to this house because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
For the son of man came to seek and save that which was lost.
So three things simple. Seek to see, seek to stay and seek to stand.
Because here's the deal. If you see you come to see and you see Jesus, if you come to stay and you stay with him and stay in his will, then you will stay.
You will stand. You'll have the power, the motivation, the inspiration, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to stand where you live, where you work.
And where you play rock and roll, baby. I just love it. That was a great message.
It was so good. Such a great word of God. And Pastor Eddie, get back to our very first conversation. Super excited.
He came to our church and preached on honor. Tina said it was amazing.
She got some insight, but we're going to wait. She was sharing with me some of her insight. Cool.
Anything you want to share? No, I mean, nothing that I need to share online. But it was really good.
It was really, really good. And I can't wait to go back and listen. It's very hard not to.
I know you asked me, can I go? Can we watch Pastor Eddie? And you're like, no, we're following his playbook.
No, it was his playbook. I know. So we're following it.
Well, listen, we want to say thank you for listening today. Thank you for being with us.
Get fired up with us just like everybody else is. No, not like everybody else, but like believers should be.
We need to take a stand. We need to take a stand for truth. Take a stand for righteousness.
Yes. And not be bullied and pushed around by the powers that be. And so we want to encourage you.
Greater is he that is in us than he that's in the world. Come on, girl.
But we've got to use the power that Christ gives us. And never forget who the real enemy is.
It's not a person. It's not a human being. No, they sometimes look like human beings, but they're not our enemy.
The enemy is our enemy. Right. The devil himself. But we have been given victory over him.
We overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. We love you guys. Have an amazing week.
Thanks for being with us. Yes. And thank you to everybody who's writing in, who's giving.
We so appreciate everything you're doing. Keep it coming. We love you. Goodbye.
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