This is Jimmy and Annette and we are Living Up in a Down World.
We are at episode number 35. We want to welcome you to the show today and Mr.
Chevy is sitting here looking at me. Are you petting him or something? He's got a
look on his face like I am so comfortable right now. Of course he's in
your lap as usual. He usually lays down and he's sitting up like he's commanding attention.
He can barely keep his eyes open. Are you gonna like fall asleep sitting up?
He's really being strange. He is a mellow. Mr. mellow. He's a good boy.
He's okay. Well Mr. Chevy says hi to everybody. I know what's wrong.
It's an off day. He's confused. Yesterday we started to do the show.
He was in our lap. I wasn't feeling it yet. You weren't feeling it. Hey we all have days.
I just had a day and I needed... You weren't living up in a down world.
You were just living in a down world. I was just living. He's just like,
wait are y'all gonna do what he did yesterday? He's confused. He's really confused.
Yesterday when we got the chair... The way this works y'all is that I set up
my little studio. I'm trying to call it a studio because it's my study and my studio.
My studio, not that I'm a stud or anything, but my studio.
Oh my gosh. When I start setting it up and getting ready for the show,
he just loses his mind. He gets so excited because he knows it's time for him to jump up in your chair.
You go get my chair. I'll bring a chair in here. He goes nuts.
I know. It's hilarious. Right now he's just like, oh I'm in my happy place even though it's a day off.
Now he did lay down. He's like, okay they're gonna do it this time.
Yeah, yeah. It's for real. We want to welcome you to today's podcast and we're excited.
We really are living up in a down world even though the world can be down sometimes. It can be difficult.
We had quite a re-entry into real life from being two months of a... I'm going to use a word that
maybe not everybody likes, but we had a magical, a magical sabbatical.
It was extremely peaceful even though we had some drama with things that happened.
Right, right. Normal stuff, but as it progressed it became even more peaceful. It was amazing.
I wasn't ready to go back to work. I was made to go back to work. I went back to work and we...
Oh my goodness. Okay, do you remember the opening scene from the show, The Six Million Dollar Man?
Okay, you may not remember. You're really aging yourself. I know, I'm totally aging myself.
It's a handful of people that go, oh I remember that. So Six Million Dollar Man, Lee Majors.
Okay, it's been too long. Hello. But the opening scene where he crashes this vehicle or the ship
or this space thing. I don't even remember. He was like a land speed car or something and it's like
this... it's real footage from an actual crash and then he so shreds his body they have to put
him all back together and he's like half robot. That's me right now. That's the Six Million Dollar
Man. In today's economy he'd be the Six Billion Dollar Man. Exactly. But anyway, that's kind of
what our re-entry felt like. Yeah. I mean it's like, whoa we're back and it was... yeah, it was
intense. Yeah, to say the least. I don't even know what to say honestly. Right. Well, I'm going to
talk a little bit... today's topic for those of you that are interested in this, we're going to
talk about spiritual warfare. For sure. And the fact that we... We can define it hugely. Oh my gosh.
I mean it's happening right in this. But I had a... not that I expected it, but I had my antennas up
thinking that when we come out of this bliss, this season of this is so amazing being with God
every day, no distractions. I want to go back there. I asked for one next year too. We'll see if that
gets any room. You know, we came back so strong y'all. Love you. What happened? But then if this
is what happens every time we go on one... I know. I don't ever want to go on another one. Well, I mean
it's like when someone takes a vacation, right? So they take a week or two and most people when
they're working, they take a vacation and in their mind they're thinking, I know what's going to
happen when I get back to the job. You know, there's going to be stuff piled up. There's going to be
things that got left undone. There's going to be things waiting. So we all kind of live with that.
That's just normal flow of life. But imagine being gone for two months and then stepping back into
your job. And you hear all these things that happen starting the day after we left. I mean, unbelievable.
And they're normal churchy stuff. That's true. Yeah. People stuff. That's true. But it all happened
in two months. It all happened at once. It all happened right when we left so that when we got back,
we were, it reminded me of when you tried to homeschool our youngest faith. Oh, don't even
remind me. No, no, this is what happened. So Annette was going to homeschool Faith because we were
in this transitional time. I used to be a teacher. No big deal. You're a teacher. You know what to do,
but Faith was not having it. She needed structure and I thought, oh, this will be great. Oh, she's
going to love this. Kind of got some freedom. She could sleep in. That way she can be more fresh.
Pressure. No social pressure. She hated it. She did not do well. She said, I never want to ever do that again.
Take me to school. Well, the thing I remember is there were times when I had to go places or be
gone and then I would come back and it would literally be like you meet me at the door with her
and basically say, she's yours. She's yours. I mean, you were done. We would have yelling matches.
And I'm like, what happened while I was gone? What is wrong with you?
She, we didn't understand her personality and how much she needed structure, which she works for us.
She needs structure in her job. That's why we moved her into position with Pastor Russ. Russ
loves structure. So he set it up perfectly for her. Our executive pastor. Yes. And so I'm telling you
we now know what to do, but I will. Yeah. But what I'm saying is that's what it felt like coming back
from sabbaticals. Like everybody met us at the door and said, excuse me, can I throw up on you
right now? Cause I've had a hard time. And oh my gosh, it was rough. I mean, like, whoa, wow.
This all happened while we were gone and very little of it had to do with us directly. This
was more like just people stuff, sheep life, church life. But then it continued last week.
Yeah. We thought, okay, maybe we got through this. No, I get an email today and I'm just like,
stuff all weekend. Oh my gosh, is this ever going to stop? It's like, okay people, let's take a time
out. But we recognize it. We know where it's coming from. We know exactly where it's coming from. We
know who the real enemy is. Well, and our son told us to prepare for this. That's right. So we had
talked about Pastor Chris, our son. It's funny to call him Pastor Chris. Pastor Chris, our son. He
took his sabbatical. He took his sabbatical like just a few weeks before we did. So there's a little
overlay. He spent a little time with us. We talked about it on a few shows ago and a great, great time.
But when he got back, I mean, all, all. And I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry that won't happen to us.
Oh, it was rough. We were thinking, man, that I feel we felt bad for him. We felt sorry for him.
Like, oh, that's a terrible way to return and have all this drama. But not everybody should experience
that. So no, it's not going to happen. We're not going to experience that. Our team is capable. And they are. And they absolutely are. And they handled things. And they did. But we had to
hear about the things they handled. It's like what? Oh my goodness. They did what? You know, it was like, wow.
So we're sort of in this weird recovery mode. Here's what I, and I told our team, we had a great
staff meeting today and I had to just be real. And I just said, Annette and I are fighting. We're having to contend for our peace.
Because we believe that the enemy is trying to steal, kill and destroy, John 10 10, what we accomplished and what God did in us through our sabbatical.
I waited 38 years to have this sabbatical. Finally get it. And it's literally everything I dreamed it would be and more.
And sure enough, the moment we're off, it's like, it's like all hell breaks loose. And we're like, whoa. So we've had to sort of be in this recovery mode,
triage mode, fix things, talk to people, set up meetings, console our staff and just walk through some stuff, some hard stuff.
And but it was very clear to me as this was unfolding, what was going on. I knew the source immediately.
I knew the source. It wasn't the sheep that are acting up. It wasn't people getting offended for whatever reason people get offended for in life.
They're not the enemy. No, they're actually pawns in a much bigger game. And so let's talk a little bit more about that.
I think you're going to need to do a series on spiritual warfare. No kidding. Well, we'll talk a little bit about it today and just because everybody is in it, whether they know it or not.
I'll read a little. Most people just get offended with other people. True. Not realizing who the real enemy is.
That's exactly right. That's why when you when you make this commitment, which I have done, and that is I give up my right to be offended, then there will be ample opportunity to be offended.
That's how that works. And yet it's not like God's. It's like praying for patience.
It's real life. Yes, you're going to have to have something to be. I don't even think it's God doing it. I think it's just life.
But it is life. It is. And so you are going to get what you pray for. Yeah. But the thing we have to realize and for you listening today, there is a real enemy out there who wants to destroy you.
John chapter 10 verse 10 says the key the thief comes only except to steal, kill and destroy. Fortunately, the verse doesn't end there because Jesus turned right around and flips the script on it and says, but I came that you might have life and life more abundantly or life to the full.
And that's that's the the interplay that we live in and the tension we live in in this world. There there are forces at work.
I'm going to read an excerpt, really, really unique excerpt. It's from I mean, this is from like it's called a book called The Apocalypse by Albrecht Dürer.
And it's St. Michael fighting the dragon, which is a beautiful painting picture from hundreds of years ago.
And it shows the saint in the middle of all these demons and whatnot. And the title of the of the of the post that I got this from is called Wading Through Angels.
And it talks about this idea that that we are not on our own.
I mean, there is more going on all around us in an unseen realm, a different dimension, so to speak, of angels, but also of demons.
You know, they're fallen angels. And all of this is happening around us.
And I love the way this this this person wrote this in terms of we are literally wading through angels.
I mean, as we go, it makes me want to say, excuse me, excuse me, because I'm walking on. Sorry, that was your toe or that was your wing. I'm bad. I feel bad.
But, you know, we're wading through angel. In other words, he's just saying you have to understand how thick the atmosphere is with warfare,
how thick the atmosphere is with activity that is otherworldly.
And yet we are we are citizens of another world, of another kingdom, as followers of Jesus, who are born again and born of the Spirit.
And so I just I've never heard that terminology wading through angels really gripped me.
I shared it on Sunday during the message, and there was an audible gasp from people.
They'd never thought of it in those terms that the atmosphere is thick, thick with action.
This world is not static. There's things happening all around us.
And so, anyway, it's really powerful. And that's something that I love the way this person says one of the most one of the dangerous assumptions we modern Christians often make is that we are more advanced than believers who lived before us.
And to be sure, we have advanced beyond them if we're talking about technology, health care and the like.
Exactly. But in other ways, in more substantial ways, we have regressed.
We suffer from living solely by sight. Ours is a visual world full of facts, things, empirical evidence, stuff we can count and measure and touch.
But our fathers and mothers in the faith who have gone before us were more keenly aware of this fact.
All around us are realities beyond our visual capacity.
Demons waiting to ensnare and woo us into false belief and despair and vice, angels guarding and directing and serving us.
We wade through spirits as we go about our daily tasks.
As the poet Francis Thompson says, we disturb an angel's wing every time we turn a stone.
A whole world unseen stands and flies all around us.
I mean, that is so graphic. That's from Chad Bird, who's a great theologian and just a great writer.
And he's this phenomenal guy. I really enjoyed reading some of his stuff.
But that idea that there is so much going on around us.
That's it's mind boggling to think about that and that there's something bigger out there than what you're just seeing right here.
It's easy to ignore because we get busy and distracted and we're not thinking about, you know,
the scripture says in Matthew 6 33, seek first the kingdom of God.
We're not seeking the kingdom. We're busy and we're distracted and we got things to do and deadlines and people to meet with and fires to put out.
We're so busy that we forget. But I heard someone say this recently.
I'm trying to think who it was. Oh, it was Pastor Bill Johnson.
He said that during the day, you need to stop and just speak out loud to the Lord and say, Father, I reset my affection upon you.
I turn my affection to you. I've been I've added that as a practice into my daily life.
Part of practicing this presence where I'm finding myself when I get stressed or or I get news like we did all last week and even today.
Some, you know, you just pause.
Sometimes I excuse myself like I did. I'll be back in a second. I walked down the hall and as I walk down the hall.
Well, I did have to go to the bathroom to you, but as part of that, I was multitasking, right?
There you go. Spiritual multitasking.
So but what I did is as I was alone, I said, Father, I reset my affection upon you.
You're all that matters. I seek first the kingdom of God and your righteousness.
And I know that everything else will be brought into order according to your plan.
And so you have to you have to become active and engaging and resetting your affection.
And that right there is a lot of the battle is realizing, OK, there's more going on here.
I need to get my my eyes back on Jesus.
The scripture in Colossians three says that we're to set our minds on things above and not on things on the earth.
Speaking of that, because this happened last week and as soon as we left work last Tuesday,
we were just kind of distraught because that was our first day back.
Monday was a holiday. Went back Tuesday, got all the news from everything that's happened.
And it was just overwhelming. We decided to go to the gym.
Yes. And we said we need to go throw some weights.
That's right. And we had heard another I don't know, it was a podcaster or somebody that said,
you know, when you get stressed, I could think it was a doctor said or you have some stressful news.
Start doing jumping jacks, do push ups, do something.
Well, you and I, because we're gym rats, we drove from Fredericksburg all the way to Bernie to go to the gym.
And I turned on a sermon that I just kind of was randomly looking for something on YouTube from Robert Morris,
which I always do. And there was one on He's My Refuge. Remember this?
Yes. As I was listening to it, he was talking about when we're going through times like this, what are you going to do?
Are you going to go to God who says, I am your refuge?
So he said, what do you run to as your refuge?
And some people, alcohol, some people, drugs, some people, what would you say is another?
Pornography. Pornography. Some kind of vice.
Shopping, power shopping. Yes. And he said, we've got to as Christians, turn that around and go straight to God because he is the only one.
And I remember listening to that going, this is what I'm doing. Oh, he mentioned exercise too.
But I thought, no, exercise is good as long as I'm listening to the Word of God.
Not that it's not if you don't. But at this point, when I needed God as my refuge, because I was so down,
I was overwhelmed that even our staff had to deal with things. It wasn't about us.
We love them. This is hard on them.
I hate that they had to go through things. They were living down in a down world.
I mean, they were really having to navigate. They didn't have us to bounce it off of and to help and to alleviate the pain from things.
They had to deal with things themselves, which is good. Which is good on one hand.
It is. But it was hard for us to hear. It caused them to rise up, which is actually a good thing.
But I'm listening to him, to Pastor Robert, and he's saying, you know, do these things.
And I thought, I actually patted myself on the back and said, you know what? I didn't turn to alcohol.
Right. I didn't turn to advice.
One of the things we used to do is just veg and the TV. Oh, yeah.
Just something that's just mindless. We didn't do that. We went straight to God.
Because you turned our TV off. Well, I did. I got rid of cable.
Which was a great decision back in February. Exactly. And now we're happy.
Oh, so glad. So to me, it was really a timely word that it just happened to come up on my YouTube.
Happened to. Yeah. When you pulled your homepage up, it just pulled up. And I saw that and I went,
so then this is what's so strange. I'm listening to it and it ends. And the next thing that comes
on through my ears, because I'm not looking at it on my phone. It's just coming through.
YouTube was a Bill Johnson message. And he was talking about something that happened recently.
And then I hit the wrong button. I think I hit my phone or did something as I was working out.
And it went to the next message. And it was when in war, create. Wow. And I told you about it.
And you and I were both listening to it at the same time. In the gym. We were both going, wow.
This is so bad. And then we came home and turned it on TV. Or we put it on. We just threw it up,
cast it on the TV and watched it again. I took so many notes. Oh, copious notes. It took us almost
three hours to get through it because I kept stop pausing. Like a 35 minute. I've got to write this
down. I've got to write this down. It was a long message. I think it was an hour and a half. Oh,
that was the long one? Okay. He was just, this pastor Bill Johnson. And that was so profound
and so impactful to me. It got me thinking about Adam, our friend, friends Adam and Tina. You know,
Curry and the keeper, no agenda, mo facts, all the stuff that, that Adam Curry is into, by the way,
we have a bro date tomorrow night. I know fired up about that. We've been texting each other.
We're excited, making sure we're wearing the same clothes, you know, like a couple of girls,
a hamburger or something. I don't know, but you'll have Mr. Chevy. Oh, okay. So anyway,
but I sent it to Adam because we always send stuff to each other and to encourage each other and pray
and stay, stay focused in this crazy world. And, and I sent that to him. He wrote back. Wow. I mean,
that was a mind blower. If you are interested in hearing something and that is really profound,
deeply profound, got to be a little bit of a brainiac to follow this one. It is so good.
It's by pastor Bill Johnson. You can just YouTube that pastor Bill Johnson,
when in war create. That's the title. And what it, what it did for us, I mean, it was such a timely
message as you're saying, we were like, yeah, it was a fluke, right? Yeah. Like there's a
coincidences in the kingdom. There are none. God's in control. And so the Holy Spirit needed you to
hear that. Of course you sent it to me. I think you sent me a, we're in the, okay, we're in a big gym.
It's planet fitness. It's very large. So we see each other, but we're doing different things. And
so we're texting each other half the time. And I sent you a picture of, sent me a picture and I
started listening to it and I was hooked. I was like all in so encouraged. The power of,
what he was talking about is the power of creativity and how much we've lost and how much
we've lost as we age and what it's done, it's dumbed us down. And I won't go into the details.
You should just say, go listen to it. But it was what, but the Holy Spirit, what we're finding is
that even in the middle of war or feeling like we're in under attack or war with, like I said,
wasn't specific to us, but we were ones having to bear the weight. We were having to do triage for
everybody around us. In the middle of that, the Holy Spirit comes alongside. He becomes our
counselor, our comforter, our helper, our intercessor, our advocate, our friend, our teacher.
He comes alongside and he gets to us what we need in those times. And I'm at a point in my life,
and I know you are too in it, because we talk about this all the time, is that we expect that
to happen now. It used to be a hope God shows up. I hope we hear from him. I hope we get a word of
wisdom so we'll know how to. Now we just know we will. There's a knowing and a confidence and a
trust that has been tried and true over decades. Well, and when you, it's not that he's never
talking. He's always talking. But are we listening? Do we have our antenna up? Yeah.
Are our ears open to hear what he wants to say to us? And he does it through many, many different
avenues. So when someone says, well, how do you recognize the voice of God? And I said, well,
let me just say he doesn't ever do it the same. I mean, he can talk through anything, a picture,
a song, a lyric, a poem, a post on social media. Yes, God can even use social media.
His, the Bible. Open his word. I've got mine sitting in front of me right now, which I want
to read some scripture, just a couple of scriptures here, talking about the spiritual warfare. He
speaks in so many ways. There are some people that say they hear the voice of God. I've never heard
like the audible. I've heard very close to, but it was really more in my mind and spirit, my mentality.
But some people do that. But I do hear him in my heart, so to speak. I get impressions
that I would think are him. And if you're having an impression that's negative, that is not from
God because he's never going to contradict who he is and who his character is. No. That's what
people will say, well, I heard this. It's got to be God telling me to go do this. I'm like, no,
especially if it's something that's going to cause harm or not be good for the person.
And so God is a good God. So he's never going to compromise. A good shepherd, a good father.
Exactly. So it's going to be a voice of a shepherd and a father, not a voice of an accuser.
Exactly. Who's pointing their finger down your throat saying, you did this, you did that.
Exactly. That is not God at all. That's demonic. But again, that's how some people see God. We've
talked about this before on the show based on how they've seen their own father. Yeah,
their own negative experiences and traumas. They think God is up there. Just waiting. Just waiting
to zap you. Waiting for us to trip up. So luckily we have enough experience behind us to recognize
that what we're dealing with and what our team dealt with is spiritual warfare. It's ongoing.
Doesn't happen apart from movement though. Oh, that's right. It's almost like Newton's third law.
For every action, there's an opposite and equal reaction. It's like if you stand up in the back
of a pickup going 60 miles an hour, there will be an equal and opposite reaction. That wind will
hit you in the face and every bug and bird in sight. I mean, you're getting pelted and it's
because you're moving. You created the movement. I mean, it's so interesting how this parallels.
But when you start moving the kingdom ball down the field, so to speak, when you're advancing
the kingdom, you're seeing things happen. Good things are happening. God's working.
You've got this vitality about your life. I mean, the scripture says we look to Him and our faces
are radiant. And as you're doing that, you're creating movement and the enemy's like, I need
to stop that. I need to shut that down. He'll pull out all the stops. He'll do everything to resist.
He knows where your hot buttons are. And so he's going to do everything he can to get to you,
to where you falter in your faith, where you feel like I can't go on anymore.
So the enemy knows he can't kill you. He knows he can't, he more than likely cannot ruin your
relationship with God, but he will do everything he can to break your fellowship with God.
Exactly.
That peace, that passes all understanding, that joy and vitality you have as a believer.
You know, when you were young and Lord, you might have, the word of God was alive and living to you.
And now after getting beat down for years by the enemy, you just can barely open the book and get
anything out of it, or you're bored at church, or you have a difficult time worshiping. You know,
all of that's just road wear. That's the fog of war. And when we recognize it, we can do something
about it. But you do, you've got to identify that and go, wait a minute, this isn't right. This isn't,
this isn't how my inner child wants to be. That young person in me that found Christ,
found Christ was alive and playful and joyful. And now I'm, I'm a curmudgeon. I know I'm, I'm
sour curmudgeon.
What is that?
It's an unhappy person.
Oh, I've never heard that word come out of your mouth before.
Let's look it up.
Oh gosh, we can move on.
ChatGBT.
Look it up.
Oh my gosh.
Anyway, so yeah, I mean, you're like, yeah, you're like, you know, yeah, you're like Shrek,
you know, you're just, you're mean, you're angry, you're all of those things. And it's like,
wait a minute, that shouldn't be my nature as a child of God. Well, it's because the fog of war
has just cluttered our life and we've got to learn to identify that. And then how do we get rid of it?
How do we shake it off? I want to share a scripture here. Listen to this out of second Corinthians,
chapter 10. And even the subtitle of my Bible says the spiritual war. And I won't read the whole
thing. I'll just read this part. Verse three, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war
according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that's fleshly,
but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Stronghold is when the enemy gets a hold of
something in you. He can leverage it. It can be a habit, it can be an issue, it can be a sin,
it can be a behavior, it can be a thought. A stronghold is like when the enemy has a
hook in you that he can just grab hold of. Something that you can't shake off. You can't.
It's like a besetting sin and it just, no matter what you do, you can't stop. I always think of
mountain climbers when they're going up there hammering those hooks into the side of a granite
wall. That's what that is. It's a stronghold and they can attach something to it, you know,
their rope and whatever, all their gear. And that's how they were able to scale a wall. Well,
the enemy attaches these things attached to us and it's like he literally has leverage now
in our lives and to harass and oppress us. He says, I want to read that verse again,
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or fleshly, but mighty in God. Our weapons are
mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Everything that would exalt itself against you
knowing God can be cast down. It can literally, because your weapons of your warfare are mighty
in God. The problem is, is we don't teach this and we don't talk about it enough. And we think in our
modern civilized world that this is just ancient stuff. Well, it's not because most of the populated
world knows this and understand it. We Americans who think we've intellectually ascended and
are so civilized. Yeah, we're real civilized. Just look back a couple years ago with the riots.
Yeah, that was civilized. And look at all the smash and grab robberies that are happening right
now and carjackings and random street beatings and stuff. Yeah, we're so civilized. No, we're
not any different. So listen to this. Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God. And then this one stuck out to me. I learned this many,
many years ago. Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. God has
given us the ability to capture thoughts. In other words, to capture a thought, it's like hunting.
You can't shoot something you can't see. If there's not a target, you're just shooting into the woods
hoping to hit something, right? What are the odds? But you've got to be able to see a target. And so
I see it like that. That the ability to captivate a thought means you can see what it is. There's a
target. Wait a minute. It's like when you recognize a counterfeit bill in a stack of 20s going,
wait a minute, this doesn't feel right. This doesn't even feel like real money. Something's
not right here. You just know something's off. And so when our minds go down these tracks,
I'll bless you. I'm sorry. No, I'm not boring you. No, you're not. I'm just kidding. I'm sorry. It's
been a day. It is late too. We never do this, this late seven o'clock here. We're usually like two
in the afternoon. But we are able to identify these thoughts and recognize, okay, something's
not right. That didn't originate with me. I don't think those kinds of thoughts. And so when we
recognize it, we can now capture it and we make it obedient to Christ. We subject that thought to
Christ. Does that make sense? Right. Which means you have to change the way you think.
Big time. Literally be transformed by the renewing of your mind or the changing of the way you think.
Romans 12, 1. Yep. 12, 1 and 2. Yeah. So good. So I don't know if any of you are relating to that.
I'm sure you are. We all know that we're under this something's going on that's bigger than us.
And the beauty of it is there's hope in Jesus Christ. I don't know what people do without the
hope of Jesus. We were just talking about that recently. With what we've had to deal with this week,
I just, I don't know. I really don't know what people would do. I just, thank God we have a
savior to go to and say, help, help us. You said that you give us help in our time of need and we
are in need of help. We need wisdom. We need to do what is right, not what our flesh wants to do,
but what you want us to do in this situation. You know, freedom in Christ doesn't mean that you get
to do what you want to do. It means that you now have the ability to do what's right. Exactly.
People don't get that though. Yeah. They think freedom means, oh, I just go do this, go party,
and go act like a fool. I'm going to heaven. Yeah. No big deal. Grace covers it. No. That's not what
it means. Freedom in Christ doesn't mean you do whatever you want. It means you now are empowered
to do the right things. You have power to do that. That's freedom. Freedom is having power over
thoughts, power over your flesh and over those base things about us and primal things that we
want to do, these fleshly things. And God gives us that power, gives us authority.
The word grace is an interesting word because people think it's soft. Oh grace. Yeah, it's grace.
Yeah, there's grace for that. It's actually a very powerful word and it literally, when you break it
down in the Greek into its various parts and parse it down, it literally means this, God's power,
God's strength, God's ability, God's authority, and God's favor to do what you cannot in and of
yourself do. That's grace. That's not passive. That's powerful. Right. And so we have been given
grace to stand and oppose the enemy who comes and opposes us. We sure have. I'm preaching now. You
are. I'm excited. You are. I'm fired up. That's my bedtime though. I'm getting really sleepy.
I know. I'm fired up. So I want to land the plane on that, but I also just want to bring up a couple
of cool things that happened. One is we had another, yet another birthday celebration.
Well, Adam gets several because- Yeah, most people get a day, right?
I get a whole month. If I'm lucky, I get a day. No, I get a whole month. You get a month. I get a day.
If I'm lucky. You get a day because your birthday's on the next to the last day of the month. Yeah,
that's true. It's boring. But not Adam. He gets multiple outings. So we took him out and we talked
about that last week. We brought him here. Well, we took him out and then we brought him here.
We brought him over here. I wanted to show off my new pellet grill.
Of which he said, oh my gosh, I got to go get one now.
So he begged Tina, can I get this for my birthday? And she's like, I already got you a birthday.
All right. Well, Christmas. Well, because Tina's doing carnivore. So for those of you who don't
know, last week we talked, we talked about this last few weeks where we're doing the carnivore diet.
We are on day number 72 of eating nothing but meat. Lots of meat. And a little bit of fruit.
Tiny bit of fruit. A little tiny bit. Just here and there. But that's it. Only watermelon
because it's about to go out of season. Yeah. And then Dr. Paul Saladino says watermelon's okay
in moderation. Yeah, I like him. I like to find the doctors who say it's okay.
Oh, he says honey's okay too. I know, but I won't do that. I'm too afraid it'll spot my insulin.
It will. It will for sure. So Tina has joined us on this carnivore journey because first of all,
she saw the impact it made on us. I mean, we started losing weight. We're in shape. It's like
got energy. We feel good. I'm so thankful we were doing this when we hit all this mess.
It's like all this turbulence. Or we would have gone and had a box of brownie mix. Or a box of
wine or something stupid. Well, and that too. That's another thing we gave up. That was our normal
go-to before. Yeah, it's so easy to get trapped into that. Like, oh, well, we deserve a drink
tonight because we're tired and we're stressed. And we just completely turned our back on all of
that and said, no, no, no more. Our refuge is Christ. We will run to Him only. And that's a
commitment that you and I have made to each other. And so we're checking each other up.
You know, so I'm drinking a cup of chocolate salt. I know it sounds crazy. So there's this
cool. So part of the carnivore journey and the health side of this, we call it mind, body,
spirit, total life victory. We're trying to get the three-legged stool all in the right order.
So we returned on to element as a, it's a thousand milligrams of sodium,
it's like 600 milligrams of magnesium or potassium. I don't remember. Yeah. So it's magnesium,
sodium, potassium, and it's very flavorful. But they also have a chocolate salt. It's very salty
because of the sodium. Which you can put in your coffee or you can put hot water. I'm drinking it
with butter. Do you put sugar? I mean, any kind of? No, no. No sweetener or anything. Element. It's
great. It's LMNT. So anyway, we're all in this journey together. We're learning all these things.
We've been studying and researching. And so we brought them over for a meat night.
What did we make? What was that called? That huge thing, a bavette? A bavette. Did I get that right?
Never have made that in our life. And we got a bavette in our meat stock that we ordered.
From KNC Cattle. It was really good. It's a top of flank steak. Good. It was amazing. I've never
cooked anything like that. So we had to work around it, but we got it figured out and it was so good.
But we had such a sweet evening. But I felt sorry for Adam. He's not doing the carnivore. He doesn't
want to join the gang. So all we talk about at dinner and he's just like, I feel left out. I saw
the look on his face. I'm like, man, we got to bring Adam back into the conversation. He's feeling
left out. Well, I did. I talked about Noah Jinda, his podcast and how. I know. Because we listened
to Noah Jinda and we were getting a lot out of it actually. Yeah, it was really good. So if you want
to listen to a podcast that will really inform you and get you thinking about what's going on,
deconstructing media, especially the mainstream media, then Adam Curry, John Devorax called
Noah Jinda. It's only like three and a half hours long. That was the longest podcast I've ever seen.
And they do it twice a week. They do it on Sunday and they do it on Thursday. So we don't always
get to. Yeah, it's a lot. I mean, sorry, Adam, a lot of hours. We have jobs too that we keep us really
busy, but we do try. But what we do is we ask Adam, we're together all the time. Tell us what you
talked about. Tell us what's going on. What did y'all deconstruct and all that. And it's just always
very informative. But if you want to really listen to a podcast that will give you some
good information, go with that. Or their podcast, Curry and the Keeper, which that's really how we
got to know them. Initially, we listened to their podcast. They didn't have one this week. They took a week off.
They took a week off. Yeah. Have we ever done that? Yes, we did. We did one time early on when we were kind of
figuring all this out. This is their first time to take a week off. We're not late, but hey, better late than
never. She needed a break. That's right. That's right. Leaving early in the morning. So yeah.
So anyway, we had a sweet time with them. We always have an amazing time when we hang out with our
best friends. And that's just, we're thankful for them. Lots of God conversations. Oh man.
We're all learning. We're all on a journey. You and I have known the Lord many years. They're new to Christ.
But what's so fun is sharing all of our learnings. Because they're learning things that
we're just going, wow, that's insightful. Of course, Adam's brilliant and Tina is too.
So they have a lot of great insights. They do. So it's fun to watch their journey and watch them
growing in Christ and for us to get to just be with them on that journey and encourage them along
the way. That's what I'm most excited about is getting to be with someone on that journey
on a daily basis like we are. We don't, that rarely happens with us. So it's really amazing.
But yesterday we had a very interesting thing happen at the gym and at the restaurant. I was just about to bring that up
because I was thinking in terms of when you're, we call it leaky buckets. You get so full,
so full. Our buckets aren't leaky anymore. They're just running over. And we are going to the gym
every day right now because of the stress. Well, and because we're in shape. We're wanting to do it.
You know, we're staying in it. Right. But it helps. Oh, it does help. It keeps me out of the psychiatrist office.
So we haven't done pictures and all that stuff, but we've had a pretty massive transformation
in our physiques and our bodies. Not that we were terribly out of shape because we stayed,
we were in the gym the whole time. But once we got on first, we got into ketosis through keto,
the ketogenic diet, which we're very familiar with and did that for years. But then we wanted to
up our game and we embraced the carnivore journey because my friend Michael Schuser from the band
Mercy Me, he's one of the guitar players, he's been on it. So he's a little further down on the road.
So I was watching his journey. So I started talking to him about his keto journey, start sending me
pictures of what he's eating, you know, just steaks and, you know, it was man food, you know, like
primitive. And we just said, you know, let's do this. We didn't. Well, I think we should do this.
And I'm like, I don't know if I can eat meat every day. I did because I was ready for a change. I
was ready to get this under control. I was nervous. But I thought, I'll give it a try. I didn't feel good though.
I wasn't feeling great. So you were, you needed a change. I knew I needed something that would,
that was more hardcore in a sense. Well, it is. And it's been wonderful. It's been transformative for us.
The first two and a half weeks were really tough. Oh yeah. After that. But anyway, yesterday,
oh my goodness, we're at the gym. Okay. So we've been going to the same gym for four and a half years.
I told this to Tina today. It was just, it was just so beautiful. And I couldn't wait to tell
her when I saw her, she was volunteering at the church. But there was this woman there that we see
every time we go. She's there every, I've wondered if she lives there. I mean, literally,
every time we go, we could go early in the morning, she's there. We could go late in the
afternoon, she's there. And I'm just like, cause we have to go at varied times because of our work.
And I, you know, you've talked about not withholding encouragement. Yeah. We've given up the right to
withhold encouragement. And we talked about that on our last podcast. Well, because I see her all
the time, I thought, you know, I want to go encourage her and say, cause she's an older lady. I knew she
was older. I wasn't for sure. But I didn't know how old. I didn't know either cause we're old. She
could be 40 and look like 80 or she could be 80 and look like 40. You know, you just don't know.
And so I, I, uh, so you felt prompted to talk to her and I was going to try to make eye contact
with her and you know, like with a smile and then walk over there. Well, I tried and she wasn't
looking at me. She was like looking behind me or something. I was like, okay, there's a timing.
Cause there is a gym etiquette and I appreciate gym etiquette myself. And so I go and I work out,
finally I get to the AB room, which is my, my last thing that I work out and she stops me. Okay.
We've seen her four and a half years, never stopped me. And yet the Lord told me I needed to
talk to her, never said a word to her, never said a word. And I know it was the Lord prompted me
cause I'm not one to go talk to someone in a gym at all. At all. I'm very focused. She stops me.
I take out my earbuds and she asked me if I'm an athlete in training. Like, are you an athlete?
Cause you're training the way you look. And I said, Jimmy, don't do that. You make
the dog move. Sorry, Chevy. He thinks you're caught. When I snap my fingers, he loses his mind.
He does. It's weird. So anyway, I said, well, I was an athlete. I was a gymnast in school and she
goes, I knew it. That's what it is. I said, that was elementary. And she started laughing. So you're
not an athlete at all. I said, no, I just come to the gym. It made me feel really, so can I tell
my version? So I had a different, no, I had a different vantage point. I look over cause I
always look for you. And we usually end up at the abs. So we ended up kind of at the same time. We
end up, you know, you're right. That's where we know we're about done. We know we're done. Yeah.
About 50 minutes to an hour. We know. Okay. So I walk into the AB area and they're at Planet
Fitness and I see y'all talking and you're engaged and I'm going, they're smiling. And I literally
real, I thought, this is a God moment that's happening. This is, this is leaky bucket territory.
Something happened that precipitated a conversation. And I've always been curious.
And you didn't know if it was me or her. I didn't know, but I just. Cause I hadn't told you what the
Lord had showed me. And I had my, I had my Bose earbuds on and so, and they have great silencing.
That's what I love about them. But I could hear y'all laughing even with the silence on, you know,
the, the noise cancellation. Cause I was in the same little room with you and I was actually
prayed for y'all. I didn't know who, I don't know her name. I don't know anything about her. I found
out her name and I prayed for y'all talking for your conversation that God would be in the middle
of it. Well, it was, it was really interesting because I literally felt like the Lord told me
to go and encourage her. And then she approaches me and encourages me. But then I was able to do
what the Lord told me to do. And I said, how old are you? And she said, I'll be 71 in November.
And I was like, what? Wow. Had no idea. And she works out on a StairMaster for an hour. Okay. I
can't go past six minutes on a StairMaster. She works out for like three or four hours at every
other day. 71, she's thin and trim. I mean, I was just like, what? And she said her husband's 81
and he's even in better shape than she is. Which I'm like, what? He said, he can, he can beat out
anyone in this gym and looks better than anyone in this gym. And I said, wait a minute, my husband's
right over there. But it was, it was really good because I got to say, listen, I have been wanting
to come and talk to you and just tell you how much I admire you and how I admire your discipline.
Because most people don't have that. I mean, it takes a lot of discipline to do what she's doing
for sure. And so then I realized, God, you really were in this, but you were wanting me to get to
her because she was going to do something for me that I needed. And I needed to hear that.
I needed to hear that affirmation. Are you an athlete? Yeah. You're on this transformative
journey right now. And it's nice when someone says something. Yeah. Because you know, you wonder,
okay, nobody. It's creepy when a dude does, but it's nice when someone of the same sex says,
you know, I can see you. You're, man, what are you doing? You don't look the same. Yeah. And it was
really, it was very flattering, but it was also humbling. And it was just, I'm just so in awe of
God and how he wanted me to get something to her so that she could, or get to her so she could get
something to me first. And it was amazing. Well, it's an exchange. It's a beautiful exchange.
Y'all were encouraging one another, which is what scripture talks about. We should do,
we should live that way. And I do have to say, Tina has been complimenting me every time she sees
me. She's like, oh my God. I'm like, you see me all the time. Well, not all every day, but she's
been wonderful. She's beautiful. Our daughter thinks she's a supermodel. I know. And I'm just,
I keep telling her I'm just trying to look like her. She looks like a supermodel. But yesterday,
we leave, I have to tell the other story. Okay. The other side. It's a little embarrassing. I know,
but for you, but we leave and go straight to Bill Miller's barbecue. It's a new barbecue place.
We can have a pound of brisket. That's right. Not each. We split it. And, which is so weird,
we go up to order. We're like, we don't want a sandwich or anything. Can we just have a pound
of brisket? She's like, sure. Yeah, this is easy. Do you want it moist? Do you want it? I'm just
like, wow. Okay. So we, we do that. We sit down. We're in our gym clothes. We just came from the
gym and you leave to go get some butter. I said, go get some butter, which turned out to be margarine.
And we said, no, no, no, no, no. Thank you. We don't do that stuff. It's poison. But while you're
over there, a gentleman is sitting there with, I didn't know if it was his granddaughter or his
daughter, little, little, like four year old, five, five or six year old. And he turns to me and he
said, is that your husband? And I said, yes. Like, are you okay? I mean, I was like, kind of scary.
It's kind of an odd question. Like, yes. And he said, he looks amazing. I'm just like, what is
going on, Lord? That's crazy. We're, we've had a really crazy week and we have two people on the same day
compliment us. And he said, he looks amazing. I wish I could look like that. And I know you're
about our age, but man, he just looked, he just wouldn't stop. Well, the shock was when I told him
we were 61 and he thought we were about the same age. He's probably younger. He's younger than us.
But we, he turns around when you get there and he asks you questions and you're sharing with him.
And he wanted to know what we were doing. And it was really amazing. But it turned into this really
interesting conversation because I sense more was going on. And he even said at one point, he said,
you two are really cool people. There's something about y'all. And I always think of that scripture.
It says, they look to him and their faces are radiant. And that's what we endeavor to do.
Minding our own business. Eating a bunch of meat. And we were eating a big pile of meat. We were
hungry. I've almost gotten to the point where I eat it with my hands. You've turned into a primal carnivore.
Give it to me with my hands. I don't even need it for. You did that the other day. I did. I was like,
you're such a Philistine. What can I say? It's so good. But I love it. It's hot. I'm not going to lie.
So anyway, those were two really amazing things. He turned out to be this big entrepreneur guy who's
building this new amazing place in town and showing us pictures. And it was his granddaughter. Inviting
us to come and inviting us to come. We can't really eat there. But we can, maybe you can modify some
force. We'll do whatever we have to do. Yeah. Make us a bowl of cheese and pepperonis and sausages.
That's about all we can eat there. But it was a God thing. And that was, again, it was that leaking
life. It was that faces radiant. And that is, that's our heart. When we, you know, living up in a down
world, the title came from a paper I wrote in college when our teacher said, you can write a
paper, you know, it has to be this long, whatever topic you want. And for some reason, this phrase
popped into my mind. I was young, new Christian, excited. I was studying for the ministry. And I
was just thinking, I was God minded all the time, God inside minded. And that title popped in. I'm
living up in a down world because I'm a follower of Jesus. So that's what launched that. So that has
stuck with me from college. Wow. Just not exactly yesterday or last year. No, it wasn't. So all those
years ago. And so, but I've never been able to use that title for anything until we started this
podcast. And I felt like the Lord's, this is what we want to help people do because this is what
we're doing. And we could have sat there with a snarl on our face and talked about, you know,
how bad things are. And we, you know, people can sense that kind of stuff too. So it was really
good that we came in, we were energetic. That exchange had just happened with that woman.
We, I listened to some good messages because I always, yeah, we were grateful. We were in a
grateful place. Came in and then he was just, it was just, it was amazing. His name was Michael.
Yeah. Oh, you caught his name. Yeah. I don't remember his name. Super cool guy. Yeah. It was very
uplifting. We will go see him again. We'll circle back around as soon as his new restaurant opens in January.
We should go the first day. That would be cool. Come to the opening, go, remember us from Bill Miller.
We were eating a pile of meat. It has to be meat. Right. Anyway, that was a beautiful exchange.
Leaky bucket moments. And we're so grateful that we get to do these kinds of things.
Even though we had had a really bad week, even though we were like, eh, you know, just kind of
crawling out from under the rubble of our return, within a very short time, we were able to flip that
and be gracious and have gratitude and be thankful and to say, well, you know, this is just temporary.
This will pass. This stuff, we've been in this for a long time, three decades together and me,
four decades. You know, we have history in God. We know these things turn. We know these things
come kind of in waves and then they go away. And so, you know, we have a perspective of having a
long walk with God, you know, long obedience in one direction, as one writer put it.
And so we know it's going to pass and we'll wake up in a couple of days and go, oh, wow, that wasn't
what it is. And usually what happens, in hindsight, we say things like, that wasn't as big a deal as
we made it. Right. Or I wish I hadn't reacted at that. I wish I hadn't gotten so dramatic over that
because it really wasn't that big a deal. Right. And that's the value of experience. And so
we were sort of in that mode that day. It was actually on Monday and we were just in a good
place and even coming off of all that. And God brings these two people to just encourage us and
create these beautiful exchanges. But I was still so taxed with everything. I was so tired. I was
like, I can't do the show because my mind is mush. Are you in? And you had to work on our Sabbath.
I did. I don't get a Sabbath like you. And it's because we have a board meeting coming up. It's
our annual meeting. So there's a lot to do. I've got a lot on my plate. You do. You do. And so
I was like, no, it's okay. We can wait a day or not even do it this week if we don't have to.
The sun will come up tomorrow. The moon will shine. Isn't that a song? The sun will come up tomorrow.
Okay, let's thank some people. Thanks some folks. Hey, gosh, okay. Let me scroll down here. First
of all, we want you to know the way we do the show, we don't have sponsorships. We don't have
sponsorships. We don't have people sponsoring us to do a podcast. All we have is a lot of encouragement
from Adam and Tina Curry, the pod father and the pod couple. But we participate in something called
value for value. And what that is is when, and really this is such a life principle that Adam
really felt like was a God thing that he gave him a few years ago. Value for value is this, is when
you see value in what something's doing, it's kind of like when you have a good server at a restaurant
and they're chipper and they're alive and it adds value to your experience. You want to bless them.
You want to pay it forward. And so you give them a good tip. And I call it sometimes giving an
offering instead of a tip, you know, because we want to bless people who are doing something
that's meaningful and it adds value to your life. So if what we're doing on this show is encouraging
you and adding any level of value, we don't get paid to do this. This is something we do out of
love. It's a love thing, but it's nice when people show value. And so we have the opportunity for
that on our website. It's called livingupinadownworld.com. Very simple, livingupinadownworld.com.
And we have a feature there where you can donate and encourage and help and just show value for
what we're doing if you're getting value. And we want to say thank you for those that are. Karen Young
blessed us with a gift this last week. We love David and Karen. They go to our church. He's an
ER doctor and they're just cool people. And he came up to me on Sunday. Now he's a big boy. He
looks like a linebacker. And when he gives a hug, I mean, I have to brace myself because I know it's
coming strong. ER doc, he's strong, he's intense. And I love David. And he comes up and gives me a
bro hug, you know, and crushes a couple of my ribs. And he said, man, what are you? He said,
because people haven't seen us in two months. So we've had a transformation in two months.
And he's like, dude, what are you doing? He said, I don't even, you look totally different. You're
in great shape. And I said, I looked at him, I said, carnivore. He goes, we need to talk. So we're
going to, we're going to talk. So David and Karen, two of our just precious people from our church.
And so thank you, Karen, for blessing us. Yes, really appreciate it. And then we've got
boostograms that I want to share. I'm going to start at the top with one, believe it or not,
Mr. Adam Curry. In fact, you know, no, I kind of like this one.
He's all about keeping the lid down at the house. And so one of the guys watching the show did that
for him. I love that. So he sent me that. So, and it is actually a Straper boost. So I kind of have
to give it a little Straper moment there, but so appreciate, so appreciate him. Let me just give
you the note he said, he says, boosting for my super model keeper. She is 55% of this power couple
because I'm talking about them being a power couple. And I just said, I said, love it. We both married
up my friend and so appreciate Adam. He's just a dear friend looking forward to our bro date.
Also the keeper, believe it or not, Tina Curry. She also boosted us. She's mad that I'm not,
but you give enough for both of us now. That's true. That's true. That's true. We back and forth
because we love each other. She quoted me, asked the Lord for wisdom. Fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom. So good. Another thought provoking, inspiring podcast. Love you too,
so much. Tina, we love you too much as well. We're praying for your trip and it's going to be a
blessed time. And then it got, oh, this is cool. We did get another Striper donation, Striper Boost
from Sir T.J. The Wrathful. Man, that's a wild handle. He says, thank you for the weekly
encouragement. My brother Ben Dorffle has some worship songs on value for value. I think you
might really like, oh, he gave me a link to this. This is on apparently Adam on Boostagram Ball,
which is a completely value for value based radio internet podcast that Adam has developed
and has put together where people that he plays their songs. And if people are boosting with
Satoshis and Bitcoin, it actually goes to the artists. And so artists who've never been signed
are on a label, which is a joke these years, these days. Music industry is just as broken as anything.
Now they can actually play their songs and be heard and be blessed. And if you like what you're
hearing, you can boost them and send them value for value. And that thing is taken off. So it's
called Boostagram Ball. If you want to check out Adam and his element as a DJ, because that's,
that was what it cut his teeth. How do you get on it? Through Fountain? You can find it on Fountain.
You can just Google Boostagram Ball and it'll take you to the right podcast. There's several
platforms that it's on. And so podcastindex.com, you can look that up and actually find it on there
as well. And then he just, man, there's some great music out there that people never get signed.
There's so much talent that, you know, and maybe some producer will hear them. Exactly. Well,
and it goes not always to be, I think, I think this thing's going to take off. It's going to be
a whole new wave of music in the future. Awesome. So Adam, man, just the entrepreneur he is. So
thank you, Sir Brian, Sir TJ, the raffle. We really appreciate that. Appreciate your boost
and your encouragement. And then Julie Herbert, friend of ours from church. We love Julie.
And I'm proud of her. She's figured out how to do boostograms. That's huge. It is. That's so proud
of her. She says, probably my favorite yet. That was last week's episode number 34. She says,
as Pastor Bobby V, that's Pastor Bobby Vitek at our church here in town, a friend of ours,
Holy Ghost Lutheran. Have you ever heard of a Lutheran church called Holy Ghost? Very different
name. But it is what it is. It's one of our great churches here in our community. He's a great
pastor. And he says, got some good nuggets there. So sweet. But we love our friends and we love you.
Thank you for listening. And Chevy, thank you for being with us today. He's just looking at me like,
I'm having a blast here. Hey, we love you guys again. Go to our website, we love you. We love
you. Go to our website, Living Up in a Down World. Feel free to leave a review. We'd love to hear
from you or if you want to write us and let us know of anything, we would love to hear from you.
So we would encourage you to have a great week, an amazing week on purpose,
and keep living up in a down world.
you