Don't get down when you're seeing the worst,
Cause the last will be the first.
What a day I'm telling you,
All things will be new.
Living up in a down world.
Yeah we're living, yeah we're living,
Living up in a down world.
This is Jimmy and Annette,
And we are excited to be here.
Welcome to Living Up in a Down World.
We also have Mr. Chevy with us,
Doing what he always does.
What did he do?
He just heard his name.
He actually moved.
He moved.
He doesn't move very much.
He's been waiting for a while.
We've been preparing for a little while.
I know.
He's been sitting here waiting.
He got excited when I got the chair out.
I know.
He has his thing.
For those of you,
First of all, welcome to episode number 39,
To Living Up in a Down World.
We're thrilled that you're here with us today.
If you've ever been with us before,
We talk about Mr. Chevy typically
At the beginning of the show.
Our little poodle.
Now he's a bichon.
Bichon?
No.
Havachon.
Havanese bichon, per se, mix.
Poodle mix.
He's a poodle.
You know, it's just a poodle.
He's a poodle.
He's a foo foo.
He's a foo foo dog.
He knows we're talking about him.
He is.
He's moving around.
Hey Mr. Chevy.
Up from your nap?
Well, this is our new time to record.
We normally record on Mondays,
But that is also our day that we take as our Sabbath.
That's our rest day because our weekends are pretty heavy for us on Sundays.
So, we, last week we decided let's move it to Tuesday
Because we only have half as busy a day on Tuesday.
We start with a full staff meeting.
And then I had an event at 4 o'clock and so now we are.
So it is 7.37.
7.40.
And that's our bedtime.
We have to quit at 8 because that's our bedtime.
I told Tina yesterday when we went to see the blind
And while we were in the car I said,
Yeah, about 8 o'clock I start winding down.
She's like, so you're in bed at 8?
I said, well, in bed around 9-ish.
But you know, sometimes I stay up until about 10 but I'm in bed.
But we start thinking about it at 8.
Who does that?
We're old.
Old people.
I told myself I was never going to become that kind of person.
I would say, well, we're not old because we get up at 5.
Wait, that's what old people do.
Okay, never mind.
We are.
Yeah, we are.
Oh, well.
Hey, we have a big day tomorrow.
A celebration day.
100 days.
Oh, gosh.
You're looking at me like, did I forget something?
What is going on?
You didn't get me a card?
You're funny.
Yeah, 100 days of...
100 days.
Ketivor.
So the way that fleshes out, we're like day 77 or 8.
Full-on carnivore.
And then ketivor is when you're doing some vegetables and stuff, but meat heavy.
And so, yeah, tomorrow's 100 days.
100 days.
It's been remarkable.
We won't go into a lot of details on it other than wow.
And I am looking at doing this YouTube channel.
It's really percolating in me.
I've been able to meet a couple of guys, Adam and Sean, who have carnivore channels.
And these guys are big in that culture.
And so I've been connecting with them.
I'll share some things they wrote later to us.
They've been listening to our podcast.
That's awesome.
Which is really cool.
Because we've been listening to their podcast.
Exactly.
Which is theirs is video.
So it's like on a YouTube channel.
So it's not technically a podcast.
But yeah, we've been watching them and learning and growing from their experiences.
They have great experiences.
So anyway, we're feeling pretty good, wouldn't you say?
Oh, yeah.
After the weekend we had, because we had our annual board meeting.
And I told the church this on Sunday.
I said, it's funny how people say, I'll say, oh, yeah, our board of directors is coming in in town.
They give me that sad look like, oh, I'm so sorry.
I'll pray for you.
And I'm like, no, no, no, you don't understand.
We love, this is one of our favorite weekends of the year when our board of directors comes and spends the weekend with us.
Most people just think meetings sound boring to begin with.
But our meetings aren't.
I mean, they're very productive.
But I think because we have so many exciting things going on at the church.
Right.
And it's growing and there's a lot of excitement.
So for those who may be listening for the first time, tell a little bit about our church.
Well, our church is Bridge Church, Fredericksburg.
It's a church plant in Texas.
It's a church plant from Oak Hills Church in San Antonio.
And we planted Bridge Church four and a half years ago.
And it's been one of the most amazing church experiences we've ever had.
We've planted churches in the past.
This is our last one.
Right, Lord?
We're not going anywhere.
We're home.
We're rooted.
But this four years has been a wild ride.
I mean, we started in September of 2019.
Six months later, COVID hit.
Yeah. What a way to kick off a church plant.
But it really, you know.
Wasn't bad, was it, for us?
The reason why it wasn't so bad is because when we planted it, it took us, we had almost a two year transition.
And it was so much work driving back and forth to San Antonio consistently, several days a week.
All the legal documents, everything that we had to do to separate ourselves from Oak Hills.
And then we, then it happens, it's like, but there's no change because it's not like we change gears in any way.
I mean, it's just a, it's the same church.
It's just a different name.
Same leadership because we've been there for many years.
We'd already been there for years.
But when COVID hit, it literally gave us a chance to rest.
Yes.
I think it was, it was, I know this sounds weird, but it was really a gift to us to have the opportunity to be at home.
Even though we had, because we had to be at home, but to just rest because we were so exhausted from the transition.
And we were able to really plan for the upcoming years.
And it's been, it's been a wonderful, this has been the best church plant we've ever been a part of.
We've been in, we've had solid growth.
We've had ongoing, amazing miracles and things that God's doing in our midst and given us influence in our community.
And it has been a wild and glorious ride.
And I feel like we're just getting started in many ways.
Not without its challenges.
Oh, that's any church, anywhere.
Any.
It's any organization.
Anywhere.
In your family.
Anywhere there's people, there's going to be challenges.
And so there's always going to be that.
Read the Bible.
Read the Bible, most of the letters that Paul wrote, except for one, we're all correcting and helping churches that were in crisis.
And so that's, that's normal.
And that's part of how God uses the church body to shape us and teach us and train us.
It's just part of it.
And so you take the bad with the good and the good way, way, way outweighs the bad.
And so you just run and gun and stay the course and be faithful and then you say, God, what's next?
And then you do the next right thing.
The next thing he tells you to do.
So we've been here now almost eight years coming up on eight years in January.
Yeah.
So that's neat.
That's a we're getting close to a decade here.
I'm loving it.
And so happy to be here.
So that's what we do.
That's we're spending our life for this.
And we know our board members.
Yeah.
Thank you.
When we have an opportunity to have our annual meeting, which we talk with them throughout the year, because we a lot of times we have to do things through email or zoom or whatever because of geographic reasons.
It's when we do have our meeting, it's just so it's so it's just fun.
Who says you have a meeting that's fun?
We do.
In fact, Pastor Rich wrote me today and you I don't know if you saw that.
I didn't.
Well, he's I sent a report to him that I sent to our board and elders every week.
And he said that this was just like his second home.
He loves being here and he loves us.
And that's just you know, that just says a lot about our relationship with our elders and our board.
And that's just it's beautiful.
He is family.
And so we had that great weekend with them.
But it is tiring because, you know, you're with people Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night doing two services.
I played guitar in both services and preached.
So I did double.
And you weren't tired after church.
I was shocked.
Hey, it's a hundred days of carnivore.
I'm telling you, it's working.
Yes.
More energy than I've ever had in my life.
Yes.
And so that's where I can really tell when I've got long fatigue oriented things and now I'm not fatigued anymore.
Yes.
Now, eight o'clock at night, I'm ready to go to bed.
But all day long.
But then you're raring to go first thing in the morning.
Oh, yeah.
Wake up ready to rock.
Lock and load.
But we had a great evening last night.
We went to see the movie The Blind.
If you haven't seen that movie, go see it.
And who did we go with?
We went with, of course, the Currys, Tina and Adam Curry.
And that was so much fun.
It was.
It's hilarious because I remember the first time we asked them to go to a movie and it was a Christian movie.
And Adam made the comment to me.
He said, I don't go to movies.
I just because he would rather be in the comfort of his own home, which he wouldn't.
Right.
And he said, so this is kind of a feat for me to go with the autumn movie.
Well, now we've gone to like five movies.
We've gone to a bunch of movies.
It's like that's all we do.
We drag him along every time.
But it's been fun.
We have a wonderful time.
And we want to support the good Christian producers and directors that are bringing these movies that are meaningful and aren't full of filth and trash.
And so it's really been wonderful to go see these movies with them.
And this is all new for them.
Yeah.
And this movie in particular, The Blind, is about the Duck Dynasty dynasty.
It's you know, they had the show that's such a hit, big viral show about the Roberson family.
And it started with Phil Roberson, who developed these duck calls that were unique and different.
And they just took off, which I didn't know because I never watched Duck Dynasty, but I followed them as they have been speaking in churches and so forth.
But I didn't know the I don't even know the premise of the movie.
It's good to know.
I mean, they're rock stars in the hunting world, you know, apparently so they are.
They're a big deal.
But he had to go through a lot of adversity, a horrible childhood won't give away the movie.
You need to go see that.
It's his true life story.
And at the end, he's he's sharing a message from his heart of why they did it and his why.
Yes, big why.
And so go see The Blind and to do it not only to see a good movie because you can always wait and watch it later on TV, but at home.
But we're intentionally going to support good, wholesome, life giving Christian because they'll make more movies the more we see them.
And they see that there is an audience for these movies.
They'll make more support them.
And that's why we're going to do a YouTube channel.
We want to support the carnivore, the beef initiative.
I mean, support farmers.
I mean, there are things we can do to help other people.
And so maybe go into a movie.
It sounds fun.
I'm just going to move.
It's a big deal.
And then doing our own YouTube channel in terms of our wholeness, wealth, wealth, wellness is what I mean.
Wholeness and wellness in our health journey.
That's again to support others on their journey and help them.
And then this podcast is about helping people live up in a down while.
Sounds like that's all we want to do in life is help people.
Oh, and we pastor a church.
Isn't that what we're called to do as human beings?
That's why we're here.
Yeah, we're supposed to be helping people to spend our lives for the good of others.
And if you've got good news, why wouldn't you want to share it?
Oh, my goodness.
Don't we though?
Yes.
We have so much good news.
Our buckets aren't leaking.
They're bursting.
Yes, they are.
And so it's joyful.
So thank you for being with us today.
We have had a barrage of wonderful notes, emails, letters, reviews.
Oh, my goodness.
It's been a great week.
Which we'll talk about at the end of the show.
And I'll share later.
But man, it's been amazing.
I just can't.
Before we even get there, I just want to say thanks to everyone who has taken a moment to write in, to boost us, or to send a boost a gram, to do a review on our website, livingupinadownworld.com.
You have no idea how much that means to us.
It's such an encouragement, and it just lets us know you're there, and we are here for you.
Yes.
And if I haven't written you back, I'm getting to emails as soon as I possibly can.
It's just with our board in town, we've had a busy, busy, busy, busy few days.
So you asked me, what do you want to talk about tonight?
I know.
We did.
And you said, what is on your heart?
There it is.
The number one thing that's been on my heart for the last few days is Israel.
Yeah.
It is.
I have literally wept over this.
Oh my goodness.
I've cried over this.
Yes.
Two-eye cry.
Yeah.
I mean, just sitting here early in the morning before you were up.
I get up very early and spend time always praying.
I was up.
I was just laying in bed.
Okay.
Yeah.
Always praying.
Then I do a devotional or write a devotional.
I write a devotional every day.
I'm just getting overwhelmed at what's happened.
What is it that has so hit your heart about this?
Well, when you hear just the heinous acts that are happening, like you told me that
you heard that they're even going in, they're kidnapping women and children, but they're
also decapitating heads.
If this is all, we don't know what's all true.
Right.
But we have seen that people are in the streets excited about this violence.
It's like they're animals.
It's mind-bending.
It's so evil.
Yeah.
Of course, I was listening to Pastor Steve Berger from Nashville.
Nashville.
He was talking about why should we support Israel?
I love what he said.
Yeah.
This is really good.
He said we should support Israel because Israel gave us the Scriptures.
There you go.
Israel gave us the Scriptures.
I mean, think about it.
I know.
Everything started.
Everything I'm basing my whole adult life on.
Yes.
It was given to us through the Israelites.
Through the Israelites.
Number two, Israel gave us our Messiah, Jesus.
Man, right there.
Jesus was a Jew.
That's enough reason right there.
I love what he said.
If we love Jesus, we have to love Jews.
If we love Jews, we have to love Jesus.
To me, I was telling you earlier, I'm always drawn to Holocaust movies or documentaries.
You are.
I love.
We watch a lot of them.
We've been to the Holocaust.
We cry every time we watch one.
We went to the one in Israel and the one in Washington, D.C.
I've been to the one in Dallas.
You've been to the one in Dallas with faith.
It's dark when you walk into the...
I remember the first time we went to the one in Washington.
Yeah, you feel the way.
You feel the darkness.
Those people are my people.
Exactly.
They're my people.
They are just because they're part of the human race.
Exactly.
When another human being, a soul for whom Christ died, is decimated, murdered, raped,
all the terrible things that we're now seeing in these attacks, but also what's happened
over the years, it should break our hearts.
It should.
We should weep over it.
The typical reaction is anger and rage, and that's exactly what terrorism...
That's one of their objectives.
They can get the world to rage and to spin up, then no one thinks anymore.
We don't operate out of wisdom.
We operate out of emotions, and that's a dangerous place to live.
It is.
We do things we regret.
What's the third one?
The third one is Israel gave us instructions on how to live a blessed life.
That's right.
The covenant.
If you look at Genesis 12.3, which I love.
Steve Berger said, look at...
It's a 1, 2, 3.
Genesis 12.3, which I love.
Read what that says.
Do you have that?
I don't, but it's the covenant.
I can quote...
I can paraphrase that.
It's the covenant that God gave to Abraham.
So through Abraham, through the Jewish people, he gave a covenant.
He said that'll be an everlasting covenant.
In other words, some covenants have an ending.
This one doesn't.
And we're grafted into the fine, according to Romans 10.
So we're a part of that now.
We're an afterthought, but we are a part.
And we're in now that we're under that covenant.
And it literally says this, that in you, he says, through you, all the families in the
earth shall be blessed, and you shall be a blessing.
In other words, another way to say it is we are blessed in order to be a blessing.
And so they gave us the instructions through the Jewish people on how to live a truly blessed
life.
And so gave us the scriptures, gave us our Messiah Jesus, and how to live a blessed life.
And there's many more, but those are three that are just really in our heart and reasons
why we should honor and turn right around and bless Israel.
I've prayed so much for them, and I'm praying in the spirit of Psalms 122 verses 6, 7, and
8.
Listen to this.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls.
Prosperity within your palaces.
For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, peace be with you.
Anywhere you see peace in the Old Testament, it's the word shalom.
And it means nothing missing, nothing broken, whole or integrated.
In other words, it's whole and good and wholesome, and it's good.
And that's what we're praying for the peace of Jerusalem, the peace of Israel for the
nation.
Yeah.
So it's heavier on our heart.
And what it has also done, it's so interesting enough, timing is interesting because even
before all this happened, God has already been doing a work through you and me and in
you and me, really started back in February.
We started on what would be similar to an elimination diet when you came back from Pink
Impact and you said, I'm ready to get rid of TV.
I feel like the Lord has been speaking that to me.
And I said, that's turned into, I'm good.
Let's do it.
I had no problem with that.
And it wasn't all TV.
It was just cable, TV shows.
Mainstream TV.
Mainstream.
Yeah, the junk.
Yeah.
Let's see.
And so we got rid of it.
And that was our first step in kind of an elimination.
And now we've been through what an elimination diet is.
You start eliminating foods and then you figure out which ones were causing, you know,
allergic reactions or causing problems with your body.
Inflammation, whatever.
But we're doing this in life.
God has us.
We are doing it.
We're doing it in food too.
We're doing that as well, since we're doing the carnivore diet.
But we're doing it in life too, and God has been just slowly, one by one, removing things
from us and showing us things that are not really adding value.
They're not helping us.
Right.
And so it's been really a season of simplifying and eliminating and concentrating.
Do you agree with that?
Totally.
So I think what's happened is, and so in the context of that, we enter into a sabbatical.
God begins to speak to me about revival and spiritual awakening, which has always been
hot on my heart for years.
But for some reason, coming through and out of the sabbatical by eliminating other things
and little micro habits and things and establishing sound practices in our daily rhythms, it's
like God has infused us with a passion for spiritual awakening and revival.
And prayer.
Of course, prayer is an integral part of that.
It is.
So what have we got going this next Sunday night?
Well, on Sunday night, we are having a prayer night, the first one that we've ever called
the church to.
Not that we don't pray.
We pray all the time.
But we made the decision that we needed to call our people and the people of Fredericksburg.
This is not limited to Bridge Church, obviously.
But anyone who wants to come, we're having a prayer and worship night with the emphasis
on prayer, with just infusing a little bit of worship in there.
Because to me, you can't work...
When you're putting God right there, number one, and He is your soul...
What's the word that I'm trying to think?
He's the one that you're pointing everything to that person.
You can't help but praise Him and worship Him.
So to me, prayer and worship is synonymous with each other.
So I'm really excited because we're calling the church to this.
Most of the time when people have prayer meetings, you have a handful of people show up.
I'm hearing smatterings of a lot of people coming.
I went to an event tonight and every one of the women that were in this event said, oh,
we can't wait, we're coming.
I'm excited about that.
I had a dream about that last night.
I woke up and I remember...
I don't remember my dreams, I'm like you.
But this one I remember.
We had walked in the church and it was like a choir risers, where you have a choir on
a riser.
And it was the church there for prayer and they were on these risers.
And of course, that's not the way we're going to have prayer.
But it was packed.
We walked in and we're just like, wow, that's what I want to see.
Now God will bring who He wants to there.
We aren't having childcare, so that is a challenge for any family that has small children.
But I really foresee this being the beginning of an awakening that's going to take place
in this town.
I really do believe that.
I did a study, an extended study years ago in a sermon series on classic historical revivals.
Right.
Azusa Street, obviously, the Great Awakenings with William Seymour, Evan Roberts and the
Welsh revivals.
I went through several of these revivals and the one common denominator between them all
is that what preceded revival and the outpouring of God's Spirit upon a people and spiritual
awakening was not only turmoil and tumult and disruption and chaos in the economy and
in the political science.
Sounds like what's happening right now.
That's what I'm saying.
I'm reading the signs.
Yeah.
But all of that preceded the revival.
But then all of them also had this in common is that people begin to cry out to God.
They begin to organize prayer meetings and cry out to God.
And really in the spirit of 2 Chronicles 7, 14.
I want to read this.
I want to start in verse 12.
So I want you to listen to this.
And by the way, we're going to have this online.
So it's going to be live.
It'll be a live stream.
And you can find us on Facebook at our Bridge Church Fredericksburg page.
You can just type in the search feature, Bridge Church Fredericksburg.
You can pull it up.
So it'll be live there at 6 p.m. on the 15th.
Boy, we'd love for you to join us live.
That's what I'm saying.
I'm inviting everybody listening to join us.
And we have a chat box, by the way, on Facebook.
So you can actually interact with my daughter, Faith.
She always mans the computer and loves to chat back and forth.
And it's interactive in nature.
So you can join us.
You can watch.
You can participate at home to pray for your region, where you live.
I know we have a lot of people listen to our podcasts from other nations.
And we're so thankful for that.
We have friends in Amsterdam.
So it'll be 6 o'clock Central time.
Yes.
So it'll be Central Standard time on the map.
I don't know what that would be for you.
You'll have to check that out.
But you can also watch it later.
But if you could watch it live, I think it'd be really powerful.
And so you can engage that way.
You can also watch on our website at bridgefbg.com.
Bridgefbg.com.
And we don't know what it's going to look like.
Well, yeah, I'm just.
Because we're really going to allow the Holy Spirit.
We're going to go with it.
We're going to let the Holy Spirit lead.
Yes.
And there will be extended times of praying, and I'll have some specific themes, which
I'm doing tomorrow, working on.
So I'm really, really excited about this.
So I want to read this out of 2 Chronicles, because this really captures the essence and
the spirit of revival.
2 Chronicles 7-12, it happened during the dedication of the temple that Solomon built.
And it was a glorious temple, like one of the big wonders of the world in its time.
And then it says this, then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I have
heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.
When I shut up heaven and there is no rain or command the locusts to devour the land
or send pestilence among my people.
And here's the key verse, if, and that's a big word right there, if my people who are
called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their
wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their
land.
And then he says this, now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to prayer made
in this place.
For now I have chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be there forever.
And my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.
Now he's talking about the temple that was dedicated.
Now here's the interesting thing in the New Testament.
So where's the temple now?
We are the temple, the Holy Spirit now.
Isn't that beautiful?
We are now that temple.
And I believe the principle holds that even in the physical temple, he was talking about
people who are called by his name humble themselves.
That's number one, pray, number two, seek his face, number three, turn from their wicked
ways, that's repentance.
Number four, he says, then if you do this, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive
their sin and heal their land.
First of all, we need God to hear from heaven.
And that means we need to cry out to him in the spirit of this.
And we need to humble ourselves.
We need to pray, seek his face and repent.
And he will hear the second thing he'll do.
He will forgive our sin.
The third thing he will do is he will heal our land.
The very most important thing here is repentance, which means we need to change the way we think.
We need to start thinking the way God thinks.
And that means we need to start getting rid of things in our life that are idols that
have become idols that we put God up on a shelf and forget about him until Sunday morning.
You know what I'm saying?
It's time.
That's why God really, really convicted me for so long about TV because it had become
an idol for me.
And not that it is for everyone, but for you.
So he spoke to you about that thing.
Exactly.
That you're wasting a lot of time on TV that doesn't matter.
That's actually bringing fear into your life because of the things that I enjoyed watching,
which is just mind boggling to me now for so many years.
And it produced fear, which I, you know, I don't want to walk.
Who wants to be fearful all the time?
As a child, I wanted to be in fear, which is weird.
I wanted to watch crazy, scary movies.
Why don't now?
I don't need to have that in my life.
I need the peace of God that surpasses all understanding to guard my heart and my mind.
So he loves you so much that he came to you and said, I want you to lay this down.
Lay this down.
I want you to.
And it took me a year to do it.
Which I didn't have any idea that was going on.
No, because if I told you.
And then I would have said, I would have made me accountable today.
You would have.
I wasn't a huge TV fan.
I mean, I did it, but.
But that was the beginning of the purity God was calling us to walk in.
And it just continued.
I mean, it was like a domino effect.
And we continued to look at every area of our life.
Yeah.
Then it morphed over into our physical bodies of saying, okay, what are we ingesting into
our body that is not serving us well?
That's not adding any value to our life.
In fact, it's detrimental.
Right.
And of course, that was, that didn't take long to figure out.
It's not beginning to show us.
And for everybody, it's different.
Right.
But for some, it may be that, you know, there's a lot of people out there that have top two
diabetes.
They're taking insulin, but they're continuing to eat the way they used to.
That is something they should bring to the Lord.
And say, Lord, is this good for me and let him tell you.
Because those are things that we need to, I mean, that's to me, that's not taking care
of your body.
Exactly.
And if we're, you know, our body is the temple, then we need to take care of it.
Take care of God's temple, God's house, God's dwelling place.
And we increased our exercise routine.
Yes.
We've done a lot of things and changed our lifestyle.
We changed a whole lot.
And we're.
We used to enjoy wine pretty often.
I mean, it became a, we live in a town, we live in wine country.
So it's real easy to kind of fall in and enjoy wine.
And I remember us on occasion would say, is this too much?
Should we?
And we go, no, this is great.
It's Fredericksburg.
And but the Lord really spoke to us both and said, I want you to, I want you to take a
step back.
Yeah.
It wasn't like a, like it's a bad thing.
I mean, my goodness, it's biblical.
But for us in what our goal is fun, right?
But it's very little, very little right now.
So yeah, because it's just, it's, it's inhibits what we're trying to do.
It really does affect.
That's not calling people out because you've got to do what the Lord speaks to you.
We're just saying what God spoke to us, not what he's speaking to everything, everybody.
And so on the heels of all of that, as, as you can imagine, then this Israel thing happens
and it's like, okay, for such a time as this do we needed revival before, but even now
I see the pain on people's faces and I see it in their posts on social media.
I hear it in their hearts in conversation.
People are distraught and they're fearful, which is what terrorism's objective is.
That's the devil doing his work, the devil incarnate and the timing of our prayer, not
being this week on the heels of this war is just, it's such a God thing.
And that was reiterated to me this, this evening with these women that were saying God just
knew the timing.
And we chose the right time.
Well to you, to our friends here, you who are listening, we want to invite you into
this prayer circle.
We want to invite you to come before the Lord, if you don't know what to pray, I want to
help you with that and go to Matthew, the book of Matthew, the first book of the New
Testament and go to chapter six.
Matthew chapter six is where you will find what's called the Lord's prayer.
And you can literally read that prayer sentence by sentence, our father in heaven, hallowed
be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for yours is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever.
That's in Matthew chapter six and you can literally pray through that prayer.
I really loved you breaking down deliver us from evil or lead us not to temptation.
Can you break that down?
You broke it down Sunday and I think that was an aha moment for most people.
Just break that down because people, let me just say this, in the word it says God tempts
no one so that doesn't make sense.
So that makes sense.
So that line, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil almost sounds rhetorically
like he might lead us into temptation.
But all that is is a Hebrew, it's a Hebrew prayer form.
You see it all throughout, you'll see it in the Psalms especially where it'll say,
Lord do not do this.
He'll say, Lord do not allow my enemy to overtake me.
Do not lead, and then it'll say, you will give me victory over my enemy.
So it's a do not like a negative and then it ends with a positive and the two together
form a statement that, and another way to say it is this.
Here's how I say it when I pray it to the Lord which I pray probably a dozen times a
day.
I stepped out on the back porch and did it this evening.
As I say, Lord I thank you that you will never lead me into temptation but you do deliver
me from evil.
But for the average person who's reading that does not understand that.
You really have to dive in.
It's a Hebrew form of prayer and so those are just little jewels that you have to mine
out and that's why we have pastors and teachers.
We can do the work for you and help you with that.
But what it does, it makes that line in that prayer make sense.
Father you will never lead us into temptation but you do and you will deliver us from evil.
And so even in terms of what's going on in the world right now, you can pray that Father
thank you that you don't lead me into temptation but you do and you are and you have and you
will deliver me.
You will rescue me.
And that brings to question what about those people that know God, something bad happens
to them and you say but God you didn't deliver them from evil but he did because if something
happened and someone passed away they didn't go to hell, they went to heaven so they were
delivered.
But a lot of people they question that.
They have issue with that and they think God forsook it.
And he doesn't forsake us at all.
When you read the history of the Bible, when you read it in terms of the whole book, not
just spot reading and what we call isogeating, that means taking a verse out of context.
When you read it we say around here context is king.
You want to know the historical context before you just start quoting individual scriptures
that fit.
Like if I'm going to go to the gym, I thank God that he gives me the strength and I can
do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
That's not what that verse means.
That's a whole different context but we'll do that.
We'll rip verses out of their context.
And so knowing scripture, knowing history is so important and not everybody can just
do that but you can study, you can learn.
But when you read through the whole of the Bible you see that there was a lot of pain.
There was a lot of suffering.
There was a lot of brutality.
Whole things have happened and the reason that has happened is that we live in a fallen
world.
This thing started bad.
Started good and then it turned bad when the enemy came in and deceived and deception
and manipulation created a fall.
And so we live in, the terminology we use is we live in a fallen world where there is
pain, there is suffering, there are bad diagnoses, there are car wrecks happen, tragedies, airplanes
fall from the sky, wars and rumors of war.
All these things happen and they're brutal.
The thing is that when we lean into God, He gets us through these things.
He doesn't always instantly eradicate them but He gets us through to the other side of
them.
If He doesn't and there's a different plan then we're in the presence of Jesus.
We're face to face with Him.
But He gets us through things.
The scripture says in Psalm 23, Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.
And it's this idea that even if it's dark, even if it's bad, even if it's the valley
of the shadow of death, God you're with me so I will not fear.
And it's amazing.
You hear stories, you hear missionary stories, you hear stories of people who have been under
tremendous persecution and brutality and how there was a peace.
There was something inside of them that rose up in the face of these horrific acts.
That's not to diminish the pain or the suffering that people go through.
So the way I look at that is that in terms of my own life, no matter what happens or
comes my way, He's with me.
No matter what, He will rescue me one way or the other.
It may be the long game where I have to go through something for a long period of time
or it may be the short game where I see Him face to face.
But He will deliver.
He will rescue.
I think that's important to let our listeners know because so many people have asked, have
really, they thought God had left them, doesn't care about them.
They went through this because of God's judgment on them.
That is not God.
No, it is not.
It is not.
It's a fallen world that we live in.
In order for God to be love, and the scripture says God is love in 1 John, He literally is
love.
The first fruit of the Spirit is love.
So it is about love.
And yet, if we were just robots running out a program down here, prefabricated, predestined
to the point of we really aren't, we're just playing a game or running a computer software
program, that would not be love.
So God, in order for it to be love, there must be free will and there must be choice.
Exactly.
And so that means you have the choice to obey Him and follow His will, His command, His
purposes, His ways.
But you also have the choice, the freedom to make the wrong choices and to do dark and
horrible things.
And the enemy leverages our humanity and leverages our flesh to get us to do horrible, heinous
things that to the outside we would say that's animalistic.
That's not even human.
Like what's going on in Israel right now.
It's mind-bending to us to see how a people group can get so off the rails that they lose
complete perspective on the value of life, of all human life.
So here's the challenge for all of us, that as much as we're praying for Israel, we need
to be praying for Hamas.
Exactly.
We need to be praying that God would literally, and He is doing this in Muslim nations where
He is, Jesus Himself is appearing to people.
And we have testimony after testimony of people who were Muslim who came out of that life
because Jesus appeared to them.
Because sometimes that's the only way the good news, the gospel is going to get to them.
And we need to be praying for miracles that God will show up, that the armies of God will
surround Israel and protect them.
And we need to be praying that God will get the good news of the gospel to them and they
will be born again, saved and redeemed and be in heaven someday.
There are great stories of great miracles, not only in the Muslim nations but all around
the world of miracles where Jesus supernaturally inserted Himself in situations and people's
lives were changed.
Because He loves everyone.
He loves them in spite of them.
And just like He loves me in spite of me.
It's heavy stuff.
It is.
It's very heavy.
And that is why we want to invite you into prayer with us, not only for Israel but for
spiritual awakening and revival wherever you live, wherever you work, wherever you play.
That's your sphere of influence.
And so we invite you again October 15th, 6 p.m. Central Standard Time.
And it will be live.
It will be available after the fact.
The only thing we didn't tell them is it's also on YouTube.
So you can find us on YouTube.
It will be the same broadcast on all three of those platforms.
And on YouTube you look up Bridge Church, Fredericksburg, Texas.
Make sure you put in Texas because there is a Fredericksburg, Virginia and a Bridge Church
there.
So that's happened before.
So Bridge Church, Fredericksburg, Texas.
We invite you to come and I'll be leading out.
We'll have some worship but it's going to be real low key.
Intentionally we have a full band and all that but for this night we're going to keep
the worship more low key and focus on prayer.
And we'll have movements of prayer where it'll be sections where we'll be praying together
corporately and then we'll be also breaking off into groups within our church family.
And wherever you are, if you're by yourself you can just continue to pray with us and
join us.
And then if you're with somebody you can pray with them as well, both individually and together.
So we invite you to do that because we believe that our world is ripe for revival.
Jesus said it this way.
He said that the harvest is already here.
The harvest is here.
But now pray that God will send laborers into the harvest.
And at the end of the day, you're a laborer, I'm a laborer.
We are the answer to that prayer that we are the laborers.
That means we tell our story.
We share our faith and we invite people to come to know Jesus.
So we love you.
We're so thankful for you.
And speaking of Thanksgiving, I want to share some cool stuff.
So I'm going to start with this is a…
So Peggy Layden has become just a dear friend of ours.
She is a ray of sunshine.
So she writes…
I'm not going to read her whole letter but I'm going to read part of it.
She says, hey guys, that's typical Peggy.
Hey guys, it's better…
Is it better to comment here or on…
No, she's good.
She commented on our sub stack.
And she said this.
She said, love you guys.
God bless you.
During your sabbatical, I asked the Bridge Church prayer team to cover my preparations
and delivery of this work she had just started in Boston, this new big work.
And she's happy to share that God answered her prayer and it couldn't have gone any
better.
Yay, Jesus, you're too good to us.
More fun updates to come your way.
I just want to share my leaky bucket.
Just love her.
God is so cool and all over her and her family.
Beautiful.
And I just want to say to everybody, we appreciate the outpouring of encouragement, the support
that's coming from you.
You're the inspiration for Living Up and Down.
You're why we do what we do.
You are our why.
And so here's some things that can be done.
First of all, I want to invite you to participate by subscribing to our newsletter.
We put it out now every Monday.
We were doing it on Sundays.
Now we do it on Monday.
And you can go to livingupandadownworld.com and you can subscribe.
It's simple.
It's free.
It doesn't cost a dime.
You can subscribe and you'll be on our mailing list.
So we'll be...
We just send out a weekly reminder to let you know when the next show is and just give
you a little heads up on what's coming.
And then another thing you can do, and we talk about this thing, beautiful thing called
Value for Value.
And if what we are doing is bringing and are adding value to your life, if what we're doing
means something to you, then you can return the value.
And one of the ways you can do that is there's opportunity for a PayPal for a donation on
livingupandadownworld.com.
Or if you listen on Fountain app or Cast-O-Matic, any of the podcasts 2.0, you can boost.
And boosts are just...they're appreciated and just lets us know you're there.
And what are really fun are to get boost-o-grams.
And so I'm going to share a couple.
But here's another...here's some more shout outs and thank yous.
First of all, this is from Adam Lacey.
Adam Lacey has a YouTube channel and it's called Carnivore Today.
And he's a great guy.
He's on the carnivore journey.
But he's also...he says, hey, Jimmy, listen to a couple of podcast episodes.
You guys are great.
Looking forward to more Adam Lacey Carnivore Today.
And then another guy that I've connected with is Sean White.
And his carnivore channel is called...our YouTube channel is called Intentional Carnivore.
He has an amazing story of massive weight loss.
He lost like 290 something pounds.
I think...whatever it was, it was close to 200 pounds.
No, I thought it was 290s.
He was in like suicidal depression and all that.
And then when he embraced the carnivore journey, changed his life.
And he is full of Jesus.
He's excited.
And he wrote this.
Definitely keep doing the podcast.
God opened the door for that.
Never stop.
So many hurting people looking for answers.
I like the podcast.
It's good.
I'm Sean White, the Intentional Carnivore.
Love you, Sean.
Good to meet you.
Looking forward to getting to know you and spend more time with you.
In fact, I'm going to be doing an interview with Adam on his YouTube channel.
Adam Lacey.
With Adam Lacey.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
This is from Francis Schaff.
Greetings, Jimmy and Annette.
Wanted to tell you your podcast is not just going out on the airwaves to a vast nothingness.
You are being heard and appreciated.
As a listener, also of No Agenda and Curry and the Keeper, of course, that's Adam and
Tina Curry, our dear friends.
Great podcasts.
I've heard this in a couple of places and was hoping you could explain in a little more
detail.
So she had a question.
Adam often refers to giving up his right to be offended.
And then recently I heard you talk about giving up your right to withhold encouragement.
Could you elaborate a little bit on what you mean by that?
What does that look like and how does someone recognize they do that?
And how do they change?
I so appreciate both of you.
I donated via PayPal.
I hope it worked.
Francis Schaff.
Francis, I did write Francis back and just gave some thoughts on that.
But Adam and I, we say this a lot that we've given up our right to be offended or to stay
offended.
And basically that means this.
The world will tell you, oh, you have a right to be mad.
You have a right to be upset.
You have a right to be angry because of what they did to you.
But when you give up your right, that means you lay yourself down because you value your
relationship over your rights.
And you realize, you know what?
It's not worth it.
I don't need the weight on my life.
And it's not on me.
It's on them.
And they're going to have to deal with it.
And so giving up the right to be offended means you just literally lay yourself down.
You say, you know what?
It's not worth it.
And what it does, it keeps you from being tore up, spun up, angry, frustrated, upset.
And you can literally forgive people.
You know, part of the Lord's Prayer I was talking about a minute ago says this, forgive
my sins, forgive my offenses as I forgive those who offend me.
And then, so thank you, Francis.
Good to hear from you.
And then from Ed and Amy Coughlin.
They're members of our church, fairly new members.
And they wrote, hi, Amy and I were able to listen to number 38 episode while driving
back to Texas on Friday.
We had already been profoundly impacted by the Teach Us to Pray series, bought the 21
Seconds book, started incorporating it into our devotion time, and sent copies to family
members along with a link to the second Sunday sermon video.
We look forward to being there on Sunday night.
They're coming to prayer night.
Oh, good.
Thank you for standing in the Gap for Israel.
You are welcome, Ed and Amy.
We also want you to know that your podcast is awesome.
This means so much.
This is so sweet.
Its purpose is clear and very relevant for believers who need to elevate their faith
to overcome the increasing adversity in our world, but God.
The show has a very valuable benefit of hearing how God is working in you both, individually,
and as a couple in ministry.
We know it's hard work and appreciate your devotion and heart for God and the kingdom,
Ed and Amy Coughlin.
Ed and Amy, thank you so much.
That just means so much to us and really, really encourages us.
Then we have a new review on our website, and this is from Iris.
Iris lives, I believe, in Amsterdam.
So listen to this.
In fact, Adam knows Iris and her husband.
He knows them.
I was going to say, just got back from there.
Yeah.
I think her husband has been involved with Adam for years, 15 years.
She wrote this, This podcast is very inspiring.
It supports me in my development in my newfound faith.
A few times I started to doubt, and then I heard something in this podcast that totally
resonated with me and helped me see things in a new light, and I got back on track.
When I saw a new episode had come out this afternoon, I called out, yes, and put it on.
In short, I love it, and it has given me a lot already.
I hope many more episodes will follow.
Iris.
Oh, that's beautiful.
Is that not just beautiful?
That makes this worth it, right here.
Iris, we don't know you, but we love you already.
You're a friend and you're already family to us.
You're our sister in Christ, all the way across in the other side of the world.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write a beautiful review.
She also wrote a note besides that that I got from her.
Just wonderful.
We got some boostograms, too.
I have to start with the big one here.
Of course, this would be from Mr. Adam the Podfather Curry.
It is what we call a striper set.
77,777 satoshis.
He says, thank you for sharing your Ignite Conference experience, because we talked about
going to the Spark Media Ignite Conference.
Supporting podcasters with value keeps them motivated.
Keeps them motivated, people.
Boosting is loving.
Amen, my brother.
Much love to you.
We also got a boostogram of 35,313 sats from Iris.
Here's her note.
Loved your past episodes.
You two really helped me with my faith journey.
I feel very inspired.
And a few times when I prayed after listening to you and to Bill Johnson, who I found through
you, I got these really beautiful and helpful insights.
I also started listening to your sermons.
So thank you both for being real and relatable and inspiring.
Greetings from a small village in the north of the Netherlands.
Oh, so it's not Amsterdam.
Oh, she even writes this.
So definitely not Amsterdam.
Oh, how funny.
That's a beautiful Iris.
I'm telling you, we love you already.
We need to come see you and hug your neck.
So thank you for the beautiful and thank you for the boostogram.
Sir Brian with an I showed back up.
Wow.
Hey, Sir Brian with an I.
Yeah, we haven't heard from him in a while.
Brother, we love you.
And I know you probably thought I ghosted you because my number changed.
It's only because we went on sabbatical.
So we changed our phone number.
That's why I did not diss you.
It's not personal.
A lot of people think I dissed them because we changed our phone numbers, but we had to
do that.
So he sent a boostogram of 10,000 sats and he said this, I've always wanted to be a storm
chaser too.
Remember we talking about being in that storm?
But I'm glad God called you to minister to us instead.
But if you ever decide to do sermons by video, let's hit the road.
So all right, brother, if I ever decided to go video, we go chase the storms.
You could do that.
Oh my gosh.
Did you hear I said you, not us.
You could do that.
Oh, I would love that.
Awesome.
Thank you, Sir Brian with an I.
Love you, my friend.
Julie Herbert, she just sent a heart emoji and hands raised in that boost of a thousand
sats.
Thank you, Julie.
You're a blessing to us.
And then we got also some, some, some boost, not boostograms, but just boost from Cast-O-Matic
from Dave Jackson, who has the school of podcasting.
We got to meet him at the spark ignite conference.
Great guy.
He's been doing podcasting for almost the same amount of time that Adam has.
And he has taught many, many, many people how to do podcasting.
So thank you, Dave Jackson.
It was a blessing to meet you and get some hang time with you.
And then we got another boost from Gilligan and there's no note with that, just Gilligan.
So thank you, Gilligan, for the boost.
I don't think I've ever heard of that name other than the TV show.
I know Gilligan's Island.
That was the first thought that popped in my head.
And then one boost from John S. SBRT.
So thank you, John.
Thank you to everyone for listening and being a part of this.
You know, what we want to leave you with is, is I want to leave you with this verse out
of Isaiah chapter 6.
The Bible says that Isaiah had a vision and he saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high
and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
It's very majestic.
It's very glorious and powerful.
And it says this, above it stood Seraphim.
These are like creatures.
Each one had six wings with two he covered his face, two he covered his feet, with two
he flew.
And one cried to another.
So picture this scene.
He saw the Lord sitting on a throne, train of his robe filled the temple, high and lifted
up, and then these creatures are over him and they're singing and saying, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts.
Different one, different verse.
That's out of Revelation.
This is out of Isaiah.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
And it says this, and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried
out and the house was filled with smoke.
The smoke often represented the presence of God.
So you can, what a scene is unfolding before Isaiah.
So Isaiah, the first word out of his mouth, he says, so I said, whoa.
Whoa is me for I am undone because I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of
a people of, in other words, I have spoken things.
I have blasphemed of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
And at the end, what happens is one of these seraphim, flat goes over to this flies over
to this, this pit of coals, hot coals with a tongue takes it, touches it to Isaiah.
I know it sounds like sizzle, right?
But what he does, he touches it to his mouth and it to his lips and it purifies him.
That's all symbolic, obviously, but he purifies him so that now he's clean.
It says he touched my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched your lips.
Your iniquity has taken away your sin purged, which is what Jesus did for us.
Exactly what Jesus is such a type and shadow of Jesus.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?
And by the way, God continues that that call continues to go out.
This is the call that we're answering right now.
We want to invite you to answer this call.
Follow the call.
Whom shall I send and who will go for us?
It's going out to us.
That's why we're saying yes, Lord, to revival.
We're willing to be an epicenter.
We're willing to host and contend for revival.
Then I said, and this is what we want you to say, here am I, send me.
That's going to be really the crux of our prayers.
We're going to be crying out to God, here we are, send us.
Use us, use us, use us.
Yeah, send us.
Where will we go?
Where we live?
Where we work?
Where we play?
Go and tell this people.
Go and tell.
Which is Matthew 28.
It's the great commission.
Go and tell.
Go therefore and tell.
Go tell your story.
Go tell your good news story.
Family, we love you guys.
We hope you will have an amazing week.
It's been a pleasure to be here today and hang out with you guys.
Hey, we love you.
Keep living up in a down world.
Keep your buckets overflowing.
Have an amazing week on purpose.
God bless.