This is Jimmy and Annette and of course Mr. Shavy is with us today.
We are Living Up In A Down World and this is podcast number 38. So we're rolling right along.
We want to welcome you to our show today and we are so glad that you're here and that you've
joined us and we just want you to listen and participate by going to our website,
Living Up In A Down World. You can always leave a review, you can write us a note,
leave a comment or you can find us on social media, Facebook. Facebook. Why did you say it that way?
Well, because we were talking about algorithms earlier today and it just got me in a bad mood
about Facebook. You mean the devil? Oh my gosh. We learned so much this week. We did. Talk a little
bit about what we got to do. I mean we had a lot going on, right? The first Sunday we left. After
church? After church. Well, church wasn't even over and you just handed the mic to someone else,
just another pastor and said, we got to go catch a plane. So we left. We went to San Antonio,
got on a plane to Dallas, went to a conference for a few days at Gateway and it was one of the
best conferences we've ever attended. So who was speaking? Because there were amazing speakers.
Christine Kane, Dr. Tony Evans, Joyce Meyer, Craig Groeschel and Robert Morris. It was a wow time,
honestly. And also in terms of leading worship, if you're familiar with Christian music world.
Martin Smith. Yeah, Martin Smith from Delirious in Brooke. I never can remember her. Legginwood.
She's from Hillsong and she's on her own stuff. But anyway, they participated with the Gateway
Worship Team, which those guys are phenomenal. It was powerful. It was so powerful. Okay.
Since our sabbatical, something's happened to me. I've become... I told you people weren't
going to recognize you. I'm a complete crybaby. I mean, when worship starts, whether it's at our
own church, which it did this Sunday and here they came, you know, or whether we're at a conference.
Oh, you were crying the moment they came out to lead worship. I was... Wow. I mean, God has really
done a work, a deep, deep, deep work in me. Yes, for sure. And I mean, I think the ripple effect of
that is going to just continue to go out. And I think I'm going to discover new things that He's
done in me. It's mind-bending. Yeah, it is. When I turned and looked at you, when they first came
out, you know, in the first five minutes of that conference and saw you weeping, it just... Wow.
I was just like, wow, the rest of the conference. I can't even imagine what's going to happen by
the time we leave. And it was powerful. It was a powerful conference. It was for pastors and leaders.
It was very much kind of... How would you describe the... I mean, the tone of it was...
The speakers, you mean? Yeah, what they were saying, the themes? It was all...
It was actually... It was calling pastors and leaders up and calling them out to say,
it's time to get back. COVID's over. Let's go. And some people would say COVID's really not over,
but... Right. You know what I'm saying though. I mean, the crisis, the pandemic. Let's go. We
got to get back on mission. And that's really what... I was already there in my own heart. In fact,
I preached a message last week on that very thing, let's get back on mission, talking about the Great
Commission and talking about the power of our words, even in the context of the Lord's prayer.
So all I got from them was confirmation of what God has been saying in me, really for months,
but all of a sudden I'm hearing it everywhere. But we're seeing so many pastors compromise their
faith to get accolades from people. And they want to please people, but we're supposed to please God,
number one. And I'm glad you've chosen not to go down that route. And that was... 51%. Yeah, 51%.
That's all it needs to like me. And in listening to all the speakers, it was... The theme was the
same. And I don't even know if that was planned. God usually always... Somehow it weaves into the
same theme, even if a pastor says, hey, do what God's putting on your heart. It's amazing what
happens in the middle of that. Yeah, the Holy Spirit moves in and begins to massage it and move
it towards something. And then these themes pop up. And so the themes were, it's time to shake off
the dust. It's time to brush off the dirt from your last fall. It's time to bandage the wounds
and get going, get back in the game. I'm always going to use athletics, but get back on the
playing field, get back in the ring, get back in the battleground. The message we want for our
church, not just our pastors, but our church. It's time to quit being complacent in our faith.
That's right. We need to be active and not so passive in our faith. We just jumped right in,
didn't we? We did. But that's okay. But it's true because we're passionate about this.
God is up to something. As we quote C.S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan is on the move.
God is on the move. And I don't want to miss anything. I mean, we've heard about the revivals
popping up all over America right now. And I'm like, well, why not here? And why not now?
Well, a revival is just waiting to happen. He's just waiting for someone to stand up and
say yes. That's all. Just say yes. Just give him your yes. The way I put it is,
we need to be a revival, looking for a place to break out. So show up and say, all right,
the revival's here because I'm being revived in my own heart, my own spirit.
Because that's what a revival is. It is. It's laying down everything and saying,
I'm here, God. Use me. Do what you want with me. And then hopefully, prayerfully, other people
will take note and do the same thing. And then you could have crowds of people. That's how a
revival begins. It reminds me of Isaiah in chapter six, as he's standing before the God. He has this
vision. He says, I saw the Lord seated on throne, high and lifted up. The train of his robe filled
the temple. I mean, what a vivid picture. And his response was, whoa, is me. I'm undone. I'm a man
of unclean lips and I live among the people of unclean lips. I mean, he literally is saying,
I can't even stand in your presence. And that's where we need to get to. That's it. Us starts
with us. Yeah. It starts with you. It starts with leaders. It starts with you. Yeah. I mean,
and then it trickles down. When Aaron poured the oil, you know, or when the oil was poured over
Aaron, the Psalm says it ran down his beard. It starts on the top. And so whatever level of
leadership you find yourself in, you need to say, you know what, if it's to be, it begins with me.
So I'll put myself on the altar and I'll let God light me on fire, so to speak, and let's go.
Let's get it in gear. And I think there's a lot of churches, and you can explain this as I say this,
that are compromising the word of God to please people. I think God will stamp Ichabod on those
churches. And you might explain what I just said. Yeah. Ichabod means the Lord is no longer here.
I mean, it's a stamp. It's a mark to say that God's presence has departed this place.
And I believe it will when you see these churches that are compromising. I was meeting with our
elders last night. I had a three-hour meeting with them. And what I was doing is rallying the troops,
just saying, guys, no more compromise. Straight on. We got to pray for revival. We got to believe in
God's given words and showing us things. And I mean, literally, I'm blown away about what's
happening right now. Our church is on the verge of a blow up in a good way. I totally believe that.
Revival. So I met with my elders, and I love these men. And of course, they're like all in.
And what I was saying was, you know, we can't quench a revival. God's going to bring revival.
We can't stop a revival, but God will, if we don't receive and participate and cooperate with Him,
He'll move it down the road to some other group of people that's crying out for revival.
So you can't stop a revival no more than you can stand in front of a wave in the ocean and stop it.
It'll just bowl you over. But it will go on. And you can either catch the wave and ride it,
or you can stand there and try to fight and resist it, and it'll just move on past you
after it knocks you over. Well, it's interesting because we're going to have a prayer knot,
prayer and worship knot. I'm so pumped about this. Usually when we have a knot of worship,
there's baptism, and we're just all worship and a little bit of prayer. This is more prayer
with a little bit of worship sprinkled in. And we're being very intentional about the worship.
Pastor Russ is coming up with some songs with the theme that goes along with the Lord's Prayer.
But it'll be interesting because we're doing this on October 15th to see how many people actually
show up. That's going to be very telling. Now I understand people have things they have to do
and everything. But typically when you have a prayer service, when you say, I have a knot of
worship, we have a good amount of people show up. But when you have a prayer service, it will be so
interesting how many people actually attend. It's going to be very telling. Well, on Sunday,
I challenged our church pretty directly. I mean, I just pretty straight up. And again, it's not to
be caustic or to be bold or audacious, but it is to say, God's given us courage and we need to walk
in courageous faith and we need to step up and stand up and say, here we are Lord, use us, send
us. So I challenged the church. I said the same number that are here today, we had what, 445
people in church on Sunday, close to 450. And I'm like, that's what we should have at the prayer
service. It should be us coming together to pray and ask God for spiritual awakening and revival.
I love reading about revivals, breaking out in other places.
But I want to be a part of one. Exactly. And I don't want to fly to another state to be a part
of one. I want it here because God's reviving our spirit. So that was a, going back to Gateway,
that was, it just, it ended on Tuesday evening. It was beautiful. We flew back Wednesday and,
wow. We had one day to turn around. One day to turn around. Wash our clothes.
And then we go to another conference. Yeah. Repack and be ready for the second conference,
which was Spark Media. Yes. You say it. Yeah. Spark Media Ignite. Ignite. Podcastor's Conference.
And it was put on by Misty Philip and her family. And they had about 150 attendees and it was,
it was excellent. It was. They did everything with excellence. And it was, I didn't know what to
expect. We've never been to a podcasters conference. Because it really went to a
conference. It was an awards. Right. But it had a lot of, there was breakout times where they had
speakers and they weren't long, which was really good. Just short 30 to 40 minute speakers to help
you develop your podcast. Some of them I was like, could he talk longer? That was really good. I know.
But it was very interesting and more spiritual. I mean, I know it's a Christian podcast event.
But it was ministry focused. But it was very ministry focused. Very impressed. Wonderful.
So we went with our dear friends, Adam and Tina Curry of Curry and the Keeper and No Agenda Fame.
And we flew together and man, what a, just what a sweet adventure it was. We had so much fun for one
thing because we all love each other and love hanging out. So we actually flew out of a municipal
airport. We were blessed to fly on a private plane. So that was my first gig to go on a private plane.
But you know, Adam Curry, he's the pot father. He's going to do a first class. So we jumped on a plane
in our little town, our little airport. We flew directly to Houston into another little airport.
And Misty picked us up at the airport and we were able to, I mean, within an hour and 10 minutes,
we were there and already at the venue. And there was a lot of good things that happened. First of
all, just never having attended a podcast conference, knowing not what to expect. So we walked in
just kind of like, okay, what's going on here? And of course, a lot of people recognized Adam
right off the bat. I mean, like they were fawning. It was hilarious. Well, people were excited that
he was going to be a keynote speaker. And I'll brag about him in just a minute. So, but we started
stopping at booths and saying hi to people. And then Adam said, said, Jimmy, I want you to come
over here. I want to, I want to introduce you to somebody. So we go over to a booth and on the booth,
it says focus on the family. I'm like, oh, I know this ministry. And then he introduced me to Rob
Kilpatrick. And Rob is just one of those gentle, strong souls, sharp. He's been working for Focus
on the Family for 37 years. And we just had a wonderful conversation. And I was shocked to
find out that he has listened to our podcast. So I was honored and blessed by that. But just,
wow. I mean, because sometimes, okay, there's a thing, okay, those of you that are listening,
if you're not a podcaster, you need to understand every speaker that got up that's a podcaster,
said this at one point during their presentation. I've often wondered if anyone is listening,
because there's not great feedback mechanisms in podcasting. If you're preaching live in a
church, people clap, yell, or shout you down. Or if you're on YouTube, you can hit the share button.
You can hit the likes, you can chat. It's totally different. In podcasting, it's just going out
there into the air, into the worldwide web. And you just wonder where it's landing. So you don't
always know. And so every one of them, even the ones that won awards and were rated top, they all
said the same thing. Sometimes we wonder if anyone's listening and if it's worth our time to do.
And I thought I was the only one who thought those things.
Yeah. Because how many times have we said, maybe we shouldn't do this? Because I don't know if it's...
Yeah. And here's the thing, we don't want to do anything that's not going to bring value to people.
That's right. That's right. Because it's got to be meaningful and bring value. And if we're going to
take the time and put the work into this, I want God to honor that. And it to be helpful. And so
everybody at that conference, they all feel the same way. And it's not about them, it's about
what can we do to get the gospel to people and help them, give them hope. It was beautiful.
All kinds of different podcasts, yet all with the central theme of Jesus is Lord.
I came away very inspired and very encouraged and feeling like we're not alone. Even though
Adam and Tina have just been come around us and they're coaching us and walking with us.
It's good to know there's others out there that feel the same way and struggle with some of the
same struggles. That a lack of confidence or can we really do this or does it really matter?
So it was good to have that. We felt like we were part of a community.
You feel this way a lot on Sundays wondering, because this is what the enemy does to you in
the morning. Oh, yeah. Did I hit the mark? Yeah, did I hit it? Or is anybody going to show up today?
Are we going to drive up to church? Of course, we go early, but...
I've had nightmares like that. I know, that's what I'm saying. And so it's really no different
than you being a preacher at the church. You're wondering if people are going to show up.
And then you're amazed that they do. So I added this stress, why?
I don't know. Why did you? Now, here's the bottom line, is we want to look at every possible channel
to get the good news of Jesus Christ out there. If you're listening today, that's our heart for you
that you would know Jesus. He already knows you, but we want you to know Him. And that's why we do
what we do. That's why we take our time. We spend our own money to get all this gear and put all this
together. And it is because we care about you and we want you to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.
And we want you to be able to live up in a down world because...
Absolutely. It's crazy out there. Yes. And we're not always up,
but we can get up pretty quick once we put our eyes on Jesus, period.
How do we do that? That's a good statement right there.
Well, we've talked about this today earlier on how... Talk about the storm. Talk about the storm,
because this is going to lead us right into what I was going to say.
Okay. About two and a half weeks ago, I mentioned this, I think, on one of the podcasts, but I want
you to hear this again because there's a point to this. I needed to drive into town. We live about
16 miles outside of our town. So we live out in beautiful Texas Hill country. So I needed to drive
into Fredericksburg. Our daughter lives and her husband live in an apartment there and she needed
a ride because he hit a deer. So his truck's out of commission for a bit. So no big deal, right?
I'm going to run to town, pick her up, run her over to the church for rehearsal, for worship,
even though I wasn't playing on the team that night. So I was just going to drop her off and
come home. And I was telling you, there's a big storm coming. Yeah. We had seen the storm clouds
building over Fredericksburg and we were like, those look pretty ominous. They look pretty dark.
So I start driving into town and I run into some of the most severe weather I've ever driven in.
And you and I have been in some serious weather. I would not have been able to handle it. No,
you would have lost your mind, literally. I mean, you would have been... You like tornadoes and
storms and all that. I'm not, that is not me. You would be a storm chaser if you weren't a preacher.
Come on. I could have been. Yes, you would. Absolutely. I love it. Newt twisters on my
famous all time favorite movies. So anyway, so I'm driving it and I mean, it gets so bad.
You know, everyone's got their flashers on, on the road. People are pulling off on the road.
Now I've learned something about storms. If you're in a storm, you can either sit there and get
pounded or you can drive through it and punch out on the other side. So I keep moving. And I've
learned that through the years of driving through several storms. But you're not afraid you're going
to hit someone in front of you? Everybody's got their blinkers on. You're driving three miles an
hour. I mean, at this point, so at one point it got so intense that, I mean, there was hail coming
down. I was like, Lord, and I was praying to Lord, don't let hail damage my car, break my windshields,
you know, and cause damage. And so I was praying and driving slowly. My, almost my forehead was up
to the windshield. I was just trying to see, cause it was so intense. You could barely see the road.
And at a couple of times you couldn't see the road. But what I could see by looking up on the
horizon, I could see the trees that are on the side of the road and they were bending
ridiculously. I knew there was rotation in the clouds because I'd spotted that. And I know how to,
how to read all that stuff. So I knew it was serious. You know, you get micro bursts,
you get gusts natos. I mean, there's a lot of things that can happen down bursts that can be
really, they can be as dangerous as a small tornado. So we were in that. That was what was happening.
Not we, you. Well, I mean, the other cars that were around me were all,
I'm like, I wasn't there. You all become kind of a weird community in that moment of crisis.
And like I said, many of them are pulling off the side of the road. And then what happened was
the wind stopped for a second and it completely switched directions. Wow. And the tree started
bending the opposite way. Now anybody's a storm chaser knows whether that's not a good sign. No,
no. That, that means there could be circulation that's now pulling the wind into it, like a funnel,
a tornado. So anyway, I'm looking for that, but you can't, there's no way you could see. So there
was a moment where I thought, okay, this could get really bad. And in the middle of all that,
finally I was able to punch through and got clear. And then the sun came out. It was the craziest
thing, you know, and then, you know, there's movement. And when I drove back through, back home,
there was debris everywhere. I mean, trees, branches and all that. But what I was really,
what was remarkable is that these trees were bent, but they weren't getting broken. And I thought,
what a reminder of us as followers of Jesus. I mean, the storms, the winds blow, the storms come,
sometimes life situations, circumstances, diagnoses just slam you. I sat with a man today who is
probably going to die tonight or tomorrow. That quick? Yeah, yeah. He's got stage four pancreatic
cancer. Just found out. Just found out a week or two ago, actually last Wednesday. And now he's
already going to pass. So another funeral. And so when I heard today that they had taken him home
for hospice care and it didn't look good, I just drove straight out to his house. He lives out in
the country. And I sat down with this precious man and held his hand. I prayed with him. I talked to
him about Jesus, make sure he's at peace. And he said, I know Jesus is my savior. I'm ready. He said,
I'm ready to go into his arms. And he would say that between falling asleep because his organs
are starting to shut down. So he's in hospice care. And of course his daughters were there and they
said, yeah, he could go, you know, anytime now. So I wanted to make sure I got there. I didn't want
to not go and then regret not getting out there. And sitting there, it's just so sobering to see
that life can hit you hard. It can come out of nowhere. I've got a friend tomorrow, my friend
Mark, who lives out in Arizona. He's having surgery. And recently he had a real cancer scare.
And they said they found it and then we prayed and then it was gone. But he's got a surgery
because they had to do some things to prep for the major surgery. Now they got to unprep him in a
sense. It all has to do with this colon and stuff. I don't understand all that. But anyway,
we have people that are close to us where life has caved in on them. And if you're listening to this
today, and I know there are many people that will hear this and you would say, I don't have cancer,
and maybe you do, but life has caved in on me. Things are not working. And I feel like I'm about
to break. I am definitely bent and I'm afraid I'm at the snapping point. We've used that language
before. I feel like I'm about to break. I'm about to snap or I'm at my breaking point.
That's a common word to use. And the thing that we know about God, Annette and I, we've always
tried to live what we call a but God life. Can you explain that? It's just knowing that
we have hope in the midst of the worst circumstances. That even though it looks bad on the surface,
but God, God can do anything. He can help us rise above those circumstances. It's like we were
talking earlier. We were bent. We have been bent, but we were never broken. He's such a good God.
He's going to see to it that we get through things. And that's what a good God does. It doesn't mean
he's going to keep us from those things happening because we live in a fallen world and things are
going to happen to us. How many times have we had diagnosis or relationship quarrels or sickness,
loss of jobs, different things? A beer runs out in front of your car.
Yeah, exactly. We all have things that happen, but we've got our whole goal as Christians. If
you're a Christian, our first thought should be, we've got to turn to God and look up to him
and know that he's going to take care of it somehow because he gives us hope. That's the God we know.
And he always does. And it's never in the timing that we want because we live on human time. He
lives on a whole different time, but he always gets us through. And he has. He's always gotten
us through, always. He has. He's faithful. And so to live a but God life means, yeah, this may be
difficult and this may be hard, but God. One of the things that I was talking to you about
earlier is how I've gotten through some of those challenges that we've had throughout our life.
And typically, when I'm having a really down day or I'm having a moment where the enemy's just
taken my thoughts and just twisted everything, or I've had a major challenge that we've had to get
through, the first thing I do is turn on worship music. Yeah. Now, why does that? What does that
do to you when you do that? Well, it raises my spirit because when you're putting your eyes on
the Creator, your Creator, there is something about worshiping the Creator that takes you. You're
putting your eyes on him and taking your eyes off of your circumstances. If you look at the book of
Psalms, a lot of the verses start with praise the Lord and a lot of them end with praise the Lord.
You look at the New Testament, the model prayer, the Lord's Prayer. It starts with a praise. It
ends with a praise. That is the model prayer for us as we are praying through challenges. But the
first thing we need to do is recognize God in this situation. People that don't know God,
they don't know. They don't have that hope. So they're trying to fix things on their own or they're
using drugs and alcohol or addiction, whatever, escapism to get through things. But as a Christian,
our number one should be to go to God, period. For me, music has always played a huge part in my life,
even as a young person. I loved the rock and roll stations as a young person. I remember turning on
songs that made me happy when I was in a bad place in my life. When I became a Christian and really
walked out my Christianity, not just being introduced and, yes, God, I know who you are,
but I've been putting you on a shelf. But when I began to really release my will to Him, it changed
drastically to where I have to turn on worship music so I can just worship Him and feel Him.
That's when I really feel Him. And it lifts my spirit. It lifts my spirit.
I love that. I remember hearing a message one time about a guy saying that he had this summer
where he had to get a summer job. His dad was all over him as a teenager.
I love this message.
He got employed by a dairy queen and they had this big ditch, like a big bar ditch,
in front of their dairy queen. It was really long and it faced a busy road in their little town.
And he spent half his summer with a yoyo. If anybody knows what a yoyo is, it's called a
weed whacker. And it's not one with a motor on it. It's hand. You swing, you swing, you swing.
And he had to do that for a summer. And all of his friends would drive by and laugh at him,
make fun of him. And here he was in that ditch. And he said, at one point, he was just ready to
just go tell the boss, forget it. I'm out. This is a dumb job. I'm smarter than this. I'm better.
And in the middle of that, he had committed his life to Christ and God began to speak to him.
And one of those hot days, I was either really sun stroking, like delirious, or God was speaking
to me. And he said, the Lord said, you need to praise your way out of this bar ditch.
And he was like, what? He said, praise your way out of this ditch. And he started
using that, the rhythm of that yoyo going back and forth, swinging it back and forth. And he
started singing songs that he knew and praising God and praying in rhythm to that yoyo. And he
said, literally, after a few days of this, then his, that cloud began to lift off of him. His
friends would drive by and he had a smile on his face instead of looking dejected and down. And he
literally said, I praised my way out of that bar ditch. We heard that, gosh, probably 25 years ago.
And I still remember that story. I will never forget that story. Because there are times when
you do feel stuck, you feel like you're down in the weeds and it's like, I can't even see because
the weeds are so high or the debris and the stuff of life. And that sermon comes back to me that,
I need to praise my way out of this bar ditch. I need to begin to praise God in the darkness.
The scripture talks in Psalm 23 about the valley of the shadow of death.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.
And that idea of even when you're down in that valley, you're down in that bar ditch, you're
down in those places, that's when you start to praise. But it's also the time when you don't
feel like it. And this is where we're called upon to walk by faith and not by sight. And so a lot
of times a signal for me to praise God and worship is when I don't feel like it. That's like an
autopilot. It's like a flag goes off in me and says, that's all the more reason to put on some
music that praises God and honors Him and enter into worship. And so a lot of times you come in
the opposite spirit of what you're feeling, what your flesh is telling you. And you're like, okay,
I don't want to, but I need to, I have to. And so in a way you're praising yourself out of your own
bar ditch or you're praising God out of your own bar ditch. Well, and I heard a preacher say one
time that people come in with their palms up or their palms down. And when their palms are up,
they're praising God. But when their palms are down, you know, they're not in a good place.
And I realized, gosh, I don't want to judge people that can't get there, but I do want to
pray that they can get there. That they can get to that point where their palms are up
and they're literally surrendering. They're surrendering their circumstances, their challenges
to the Lord and saying, I can't do this anymore. Because I think that thing so much of us think we
have to fix everything. And if we would just give it to God, and it's so hard because a lot of times
we'll give it to Him, then we'll take it back. And He's like, I was right there about to take that
from you and you took it back. How many times has that happened? And we've got to get to the
point of maturity to where we give it to Him and say, okay, it's all yours. And then you take your
hands off of it. And now your palms are looking at God. So back to our palm tree or our trees,
we didn't want to have palm trees here in the hill country. These trees that I saw,
this bent but not broken thing, that has become through the years a statement that I make. I say,
I'll even in my prayer time say, Lord, I may be bent today, but I am not broken. In the name of
Jesus, I am not broken. I don't agree with that. Christ in me is the hope of glory. I just use the
word of God to praise my way and preach my way, preach to myself sometimes. Sometimes you need to
preach to yourself and let the word of God do what the word of God does because it has power
and your words have power. And so sometimes when you're out, you and Tina left, y'all did
something on Monday, went to a doctor's appointment. It gave me an hour or two here
and I walked through the house and I preached to myself. I was preaching through the house and
praising God. Oh, totally crashed out on the couch wondering what I was up to, but he didn't care.
So you were preaching out loud.
Out loud. I walked through the house and preached and prayed through the house because
sometimes you need to say things out loud. You got to be declarative and use proclamation
to get your words into the atmosphere. And our words, when they're anointed with the word of God,
actually seed the atmosphere and change the atmosphere.
Yes, absolutely.
And I've believed that for many years and we've seen the power of that. But this idea,
there's some of you listening and you feel bent and you feel like you're on the verge of snapping.
And I would just give you this, maybe this encouragement to out loud say,
because this is easy to remember, I may be bent, but I am not broken. And you can tell that to God,
you can tell that to the devil and tell it to yourself. Tell it to your situation. I may be
bent, but I will not break. I am not done. This is not over. In Genesis chapter 50,
when Joseph was talking to his brothers after he got exalted to, it's a long story, but
Joseph says this to his brothers. He says, you intended to harm me. And then the next two words,
but God. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done,
the saving of many lives. That's a but God life right there.
Which he ended up turning around saving his own brothers who sold him into slavery.
Yes. And that's a but God mentality. That's living up in a down world. The idea of,
of you know what? This was, this came at me that the enemy meant it for harm, but God, but God,
you turned it into good. Romans 8 28, that's a, it's a but God kind of verse, even though it doesn't
say but God. And it just says that, you know, he causes all things to work together for the good of
those who love him and are the called according to his purpose. He, he doesn't cause all things to
happen. He causes things to work together for our good. He takes and touches and massages things
to where it now works for our good. It's just amazing. That's a but God mentality. And so
we want to encourage you in that to say it out loud. I may be bent, but I will not be broken
because I'm a but God, but God is on working on my behalf. That's good. That's good. Yeah.
Yeah. So we hope you're encouraged by this. And I just want to say some shout outs. I'm not going
to read these out loud today. I'm just going to say thank you to those of you that have boosted
us and have taken advantage of podcasting 2.0 on, on apps like Cast-O-Matic and Fountain. We really
love Fountain. We just kind of know some of those guys there and appreciate what they're doing.
And we appreciate you, the notes you've sent us, the letters you've written in,
just so appreciate Sir Brian with an I gave us a bump and just a nice note and so appreciate it.
Sir Bies Grace also sent some emails. He always sends encouraging emails. He loves Charles Stanley,
Pastor Charles Stanley. So he sends a little clips of these great messages from him. And so we so
appreciate that. And of course, my buddy, Adam, the Podfather Curry, you know, he did, he did give a
striper boost. So I'm just going to have to do that. He says you have to do that. I have to do that.
So he gave me that file. So I've got to play it for him, but I do want to say thank you.
Thank you, my friend. I do wait, I did want to brag on him. So, so, yes, we do need to, again,
I want to say thank you to everyone. Thank you for supporting us. Do go to our website,
livingupinadownworld.com and just leave a note, leave a comment, let us know you're there.
We are like those podcasters we were talking about. We sometimes wonder if this is landing
anywhere, but we're not going to give up because we believe God's called us to get the good news
of Jesus Christ. If it's only for one, it's worth it. That's right. That's exactly right. But we've
got to talk about Adam and what he did before we leave. We've got to brag on Adam, my friend. So
we go to the Spark Media podcasters award show and the night they had a gala where everybody dressed
up and except for Tina and I, well, y'all didn't know it was a formal. Well, I did. There was a
little communication breakdown. I said there was and Tina talked with Adam and he said, no,
they never do that in podcast world. And we get there and the women are all in long gowns and
they're, I mean, they're, some of them are to the nines. I've never seen anything like it.
Now, some of the dudes were wearing like jeans in a jacket. Well, that would be you and Adam.
I didn't see anybody else. Everybody else. No, no, I did. Oh, you didn't? Okay. Even Rob Kilpatrick
from Focus on the Family. I got to say one other guy I met from Focus on the Family. Oh yeah, it was
John. Yeah, John Fuller. He's actually on the Focus on the Family broadcast. He's one of the
presenters on that and he's got that golden voice. He's a radio personality. He came up and was
talking to us and we had a wonderful conversation. He knew everything about our lives because he too
has listened to our podcast. And he was, but when I heard his voice, I'm like, that voice is
butter. Adam's got that kind of voice too. They've got that broadcast voice and it's just
trained through the years of broadcast. And anyway, it was a pleasure to meet Rob Kilpatrick and
John Fuller, just great guys doing a great work. So, and I sat with Rob at the banquet.
Or the gala. So that night they did all these presentations and they brought Adam up. Of course,
they had a picture of him from MTV. That was hilarious. Headbangers Ball back in the day.
The classic hair picture. When people ask me about Adam or I let them know, you know,
who they are. That's famous. They want to see that. That's the picture. Yeah, that's the picture.
It's the hair. I'll never forget it. He had the hair. He had better hair than I did. He had better
hair than most women had. So yeah, he had it all teased out and probably three gallons of Aquanet
on it. Yeah, which he should have gotten some stock from. So he got up and spoke and he did a
masterful job of speaking about podcasting. Drove into the history of it and how it was
developed and how he and another guy, Dave, worked on that together. And those first rudimentary
meetings told about meeting Steve Jobs and Steve really coming behind him and supporting him and
saying, we want to support this. We see a future in this. Certainly was. He made that call, right?
But he also, he talked about the history, but he also talked about the present. And then he talked
about the future of podcasting. The future was really good. Delivery was spot on. And he used
the term RSS. Everybody knows if you're in podcasting, you know what RSS feeds are. And they've been
around a long time and he called it the rock solid signal. Yeah, rock solid signal. The rock
solid signal that will never go away. It will always be constant. And of course he linked that
to God, you know, the rock solid signal we get from Christ. And I love it when he said, I'm a new Christian.
It's only been within the last year and everybody just clapped. And he said, but I see that God's
been in my life all along because he's the one who brought the idea of podcasting to me. But I didn't
know it at the time. He didn't know it till now. Ah, that was so powerful. Yeah, it was so good.
It was interesting. I had another somebody, I won't use their name, but they made the comment
to me. They said, you know, I'm so glad that you've come alongside Adam and Tina and you're
discipling them and walking with them. And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa. Discipling and they said,
discipling. Discipling and walking. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa. I said, let me say this. I said,
this is a friendship and he's not a project. Because people do think, especially pastors,
they have projects. I don't have projects. I have friends and none of my friends and no one will
ever be a project to me. That's not what we're about. And so I cut the guy off a little bit just
to say, no, no, no, that's not how this is. This is a friendship. I'm learning things from him
and he's learning. That's what a friendship is about. Iron sharpens iron. It's interesting
to learn from someone that's a new Christian because we've been Christians for so long. You
kind of forget. Our perspective is different. Totally. Yes. What you're framing and what
informs you is different. Yes. So it's been really refreshing to walk with Adam and Tina
as they are on this really exponential growth trajectory. Unbelievable. Never seen anything
like it in all of my years of ministry. I've never seen a couple grow as quickly as they have.
God is doing things not only with them, but others that we are seeing coming into the faith.
They're having accelerated growth. And that's a signal to me that revival and spiritual awakening
is at hand. It's here. And so God's doing things quickly. And so I want to encourage you, if you've
not really stepped over the line to go all in with Jesus and you've thought about it, but you don't
really know where to start, I want to encourage you, find a church where you live. Find a Bible
teaching church that teaches Jesus and plug in and find community. But before you even do any of
that, just right now you can just say, Lord Jesus, I've messed it up. It's not working out for me.
And I'm a sinner and I need you. I need your help. Would you save me? Would you save me from the
inside out? Would you change me from the inside out? And just say this, say, I give you my past.
I give you my present. And I give you my future. And Lord Jesus, come in and save me. And here's
the beauty. He loves that when you invite him in, he comes in and he will save you. And now you're
what the Bible calls born again. And that means that you'll be in eternity in heaven with him and
with us together as family. And he wants you, he wants you to come to know him. And he already
knows you, but he wants you to know him. And so we just offer that out as an invitation to give
your life to Christ, give your life to Jesus. If you have questions about that, go to our website,
livingupinanddownworld.com and write me a note. And I'd be glad to encourage you to send you links
to resources, whatever we can do to help you in your walk with Jesus. That's what it's about.
Amen. Amen. Say amen, sister. Amen. Put your hands in the air. Oh my gosh.
I love you so much. Okay. So we need to let our listeners know. I was about to wax.
We're going to, we're going to, oh, thank you. I love you too, baby. The moment's gone.
Just want to let our listeners know that we're going to move to Tuesday nights rather than Monday
nights. Too many things keep coming up on Monday night. We have a day job.
So Tuesday night we'll be releasing our podcast from now on. And in terms of a rhythm that's
going to work a lot better for us at this point. So sorry for the one night off thing.
We had so much going on. You had a meeting. It was insane. And too, we really want to protect our
Sabbath day and our Sabbath for us, we take that on Monday. We want to guard that. Hey, we love you
guys. We're so glad that you're with us and we want you to live up in a down world. Reach out,
let us know and send us to a friend. Maybe this will encourage somebody you know. And if so,
man, get the word out. Have a great week, y'all.
you