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.
Oh!
This is Jimmy and Annette,
and we are so excited to be with you today.
We sure are.
It's been a long time.
Okay, it's been a month for me, a month.
Oh my goodness.
I was ready, I was ready now.
It's been hard on me.
I have missed you.
Well, you know, I was sick,
and so I knew, well, you know,
you told the church I was coughing up a lung.
I did not appreciate that.
That's the old youth pastor.
You even said do not text me if you're hearing this and that
while I'm preaching, and I...
And then you text me in the middle of a sermon,
I get a text on my iPad,
cause I preach from my iPad,
and there it was, it was like,
Annette just text me, I told the whole church.
And now, okay,
one of our pastors got an email,
I believe it was an email from someone,
he's going to read it at our staff meeting next week,
and it was an email from a visitor who said,
next time I come back,
I've got to meet this Annette who was coughing up a lung.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, I...
Well, whoever this visitor was,
they knew how to get me in trouble,
keep me in trouble.
Boy, they did.
You are in trouble.
You have to understand,
I was a youth minister,
youth pastor.
You're not a youth anymore,
you're 62 almost.
I still am.
No, no, no.
It never goes away.
Leopard cannot change its spots.
Well, that's true.
You do act like you're 17.
I'm sorry.
So I do tend to say things
that are maybe a little more on the adolescent level.
That was kind of crude.
Coughing up a lung?
Well, you kind of were.
Well, you don't have to tell the world.
I'm a truth teller.
This is what I do.
Oh, Lord.
Yeah, we are raw and real, aren't we?
We are.
Hey, what episode are we on?
Can you believe it?
49.
Number 49.
Here we are.
That's...
Wait, this is like a year anniversary.
It would be our 52nd if we didn't skip a few weeks.
Right, we had a few,
then we went to a two-week thing.
I did a solo podcast last time.
I did not have fun doing that.
I mean, I love, love, love talking about Jesus.
It's too hard.
By myself, I do that in the pulpit.
I'd rather have, I need you.
Well, I appreciate that.
I mean that.
It was hard for me to listen to, honestly.
You complete me.
Oh, my gosh.
That's from what movie?
Tom Cruise.
Oh, that one.
That movie, yeah.
Yeah, what was that?
I don't know, but everybody was using that line for years,
and it was like, no, no person completes anybody.
That's right, only Jesus completes us, right?
Exactly.
That sounded very Sunday school, but it's true.
It is absolutely true.
Where are we broadcasting from today?
Oh, my gosh, we're in our studio.
We are in our new studio.
And every time we say it's ready, it's not.
We add things.
Oh, my gosh.
Now we have more, more things coming.
We had to get two more cameras.
We've got three cameras now.
We've got more lighting coming,
and all kinds of gizmos and gadgets.
There's a lot to this video thing.
Well, it's because we're doing video.
We're going to actually have these podcasts videoed as well as audio.
Yes.
Eventually, we're working on, we've got some more acoustic panels coming in.
Right, yeah, for sound.
We're trying to get everything set up for sound to take away any distractions
that could be out there, and there's a lot.
Our heart is to do it with excellence.
Yes.
We don't want to do cheesy.
We want to do it well.
We do that with our church.
We do that with our personal life.
Absolutely.
We do it with the podcast.
You know, we do that with our friends, too.
Speaking of Adam and Tina Curry, Adam is our executive producer.
I mean, he's my sound guy.
He'll bounce off things.
He'll say, hey, the room sounded live or the room sounds really good.
He talked about when I did the solo podcast that the room sounded really good.
So I'm encouraged by that.
We do have more sound panels coming because really on the video piece,
we need a little bit better sound.
But we went on a major learning curve yesterday.
Let's talk a little bit about that.
We got to go to a studio yesterday and film our stories.
You filmed one big story, and I filmed three stories.
So the name of the ministry is Israel Media Ministries,
and they do these amazing video series, and you do it in a studio.
It's very professional.
And you start off by saying, I'm Jimmy, and this is my story.
And then you tell your story, and you tell your testimony.
The good, the bad, the ugly, the glorious, all of it in between.
And then they do a bunch of B-roll shots afterwards.
For me, it was like tattoos.
They had a guitar, and I was playing the guitar
because I talk about being a guitar player and Bible,
you know, looking at a particular Bible verse.
It was really a great experience.
It was one of the best experiences I've ever had.
But it cost us a lot of money because we came back home
after seeing their studio and said, okay, let's buy this and this and this
because we want to up our game.
It's kind of like watching HDTV.
You're like, oh, I want that for the kitchen.
Which is why we're about to do some kitchen stuff.
Let's not go there yet. Let's finish this conversation on the studio.
So it's called Witt Studio in San Antonio.
It's off days of all life here in this area, in the Hill Country, in I-10.
It is a phenomenal facility, and the production tech there,
the audio, video tech there, EJ was so professional, so easy to work with.
He was phenomenal.
He really was. I enjoyed it.
So I told him, I said, EJ, I'm going to school on you.
We just built a studio slash office in our church,
and we're gearing up right now.
And he said, man, any questions you have, just ask.
So I asked a lot of questions. I took a lot of pictures.
His lighting setup was so awesome.
So ours is going to be so awesome now, too.
I'm pumped. I'm so pumped.
Because really, this is such a learning curve when you get into this world
of not just podcasting. That was a learning curve and still is.
But also video. That's a whole other machine.
And so we're learning. We're growing in it.
And he said, look, you told the story of us adopting Faith.
And then we talked about how she's on our staff at the church.
She does all of our production, audio, video, everything.
And I said, man, she would love your studio.
He said, why don't you bring her? I want to meet her.
He said, why don't you bring her over.
I'll give you the tour of the studio, and then I'll answer any questions.
I'll share any information, anything I can do to help you guys.
So he gave me his number, and we're going to hook up.
And Faith feels like she's a kid getting to go to a candy store
and pick out all the candy she wants.
This is why she went to college. It was for production.
It's why we paid all that money for her to go to college.
She's getting to use it. Thank the Lord.
She's using it, putting it to work.
She's doing such a great job for us and just love what she's doing.
So are you getting cool yet?
I'm starting to get really cold, but I'm drinking coffee right now.
If I make references to various things like this during the podcast,
because this is a brand new room.
So we're still figuring out all the ins and outs.
And we have our own air conditioning, and it's kind of like Arctic in here.
I'm feeling it. Yeah, it's working.
That's why I'm drinking my coffee.
We've got an air conditioner going, and it is January.
This weather's crazy. It is 71 degrees here in the Texas Hill Country.
But then in a few days, it's going to be 18 and 12.
So we need to enjoy this while we have it, although there's no windows in our office.
Here's one sad thing today. I'm a morning.
Mr. Chevy is not with us today.
I know. We had a podcast listener come in and talk with us today,
and she's like, where's Chevy? How are you going to do it?
You have to have Chevy.
Well, we're going to have to bring him.
Jill, you are a bright light. Yes, you are.
You're a million watt light bulb in a world of 60 watt light bulbs.
She's one of my new favorite people.
I love her. She's on fire.
Jill Holbrook, we love you.
We're going to have to think about how to bring Chevy next week or the next time we do one.
We will figure this out. We will figure this out.
Yes, it'll be done. And so Mr. Chevy will not miss another episode.
But we had a really jam packed week, and that's why we're just we've been flying this week.
It's a miracle we could get this done today.
I was first time and to do this January 11th.
And I literally thought we're not going to be able to do it today because our day kept getting packed.
Yeah, but we decided no, this is so important.
So worth it. And we love you guys and we want you to be encouraged.
Our heart is so to encourage you. And we I can't go.
I'm not really liking the ever every other week thing.
Well, just beyond until we can get our legs. I know.
I know we've had a lot going on.
And next week we have a holiday again.
So it's going to put make us have a short work week again.
And it's really hard to happen. Yeah, we'll figure it out.
So one of the reasons why we've had a lot of moving parts lately and spinning a lot of plates is that we started a third service at the bridge at our church this last Sunday.
How did that go? Well, it was pretty interesting because we thought we were asking people to come to the third service,
because that's the main one that we're trying to get people to move to so that when visitors come, guests come, they'll come to the second service.
So we thought, oh, well, maybe five people will show up the third service.
And we were quite surprised. We increased in attendance what I would say 20 percent.
Just least just on the first Sunday of the year, the third service.
So I really am anxious to see what's going to happen over time.
So I was worried about you. You you didn't tell me how nervous you were until after the service.
Here's why I was nervous. You don't seem. How can I even tell, though? I never saw it.
Well, that's good. You know, it's that old commercial. Remember the old it says never let them see you sweat.
What was that? That was like an underarm deal.
A commercial. Never let them see you sweat. And being a musician, that's another thing.
Be careful setting it down. Folks, if you hear noise, we're using a new mic set up and a table.
So it's not I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
And even during the video, you kept slapping your hands.
I know. You talk with your whole body. That's for sure. So do you.
I know. No, no doubt. So anyway, what I was saying is you were worried about me doing the third service.
I actually had a mind glitch. I mean, it's like I glitched at one point. You did.
But then you recovered. Oh, I was fine after that.
But the thing is, it's the first time we've done three back to back services.
Have you ever done three at one in one day? I don't think so.
I think you've done a Saturday night and two Sundays before. That's the most.
But you've never done three back to back. That was a new thing for me.
Actually, there's a lot that I like about it, though. I like my mind and my thoughts get really going.
But I'll be fine next time. We also realized we had not eaten any breakfast or anything.
Because we're on a fast, a church-wide fast. Well, we weren't starting until Monday.
We'll talk about the fast in a minute. I have it on the list.
But we never eat Sunday mornings, but I'm going to start making a full pound of bacon every Sunday morning.
I'm going to need some jet fuel to get me through, not just coffee.
So yeah, I had just a momentary glitch. My mind just went blank.
I was worried. The reason why I was worried is because I thought, for sure,
how are you going to remember what you said in first and second? Are you going to go, wait?
I already said that in this. To me, I don't know how. It's got to be a God thing, honestly.
It is a God thing. And true, there's grace for things. When God calls you to do something,
He gives you the grace for it. Well, you had the grace. It was pretty remarkable.
I'm confident that God told us to do this. We had some detractors.
We had folks in the church, not terrible, but some saying, why are we doing this?
Why do we need three services? And some of those were our elders who were going,
I am so glad we did this because we see the benefit day one.
We had 145 in the last service and I was hoping we'd have 10.
I didn't think we'd have more than five, besides our staff.
Well, I had a little more faith than you. I had twice as much faith as you did
because I thought 10 would be here. You always do because your cup is half full
and I'm more half empty. No, my cup is overflowing. Well, that's true.
So you had enough faith, but apparently you were so nervous that afterwards you said,
I didn't tell you. Well, I wasn't just nervous about the attendance.
I was nervous about we changed everything. We started with the video.
We changed up the order service. There was a timing.
It's a brand new year. There was a lot of things to navigate going into this thing.
But you know what? Everybody was awesome. We received some beautiful thank yous.
One guy said, man, you guys, this is like you all did it.
This is like your 100th time. So we were so encouraged.
And just, yeah. So thank you, George, for that encouraging note.
We really appreciate it. I went up to him at church and said, thank you.
George Kirschner is like one of the coolest guys.
He'll give us constructive criticism. I don't even like to say the word criticism
because nothing is good. He's a helper. He's constructive advice.
Let me put it that way. And I told him, I said, I appreciate what you say.
He's sharp. Yeah, he's wise. And he listens to our podcast.
So hey, kudos to my friend, George. We need to do coffee or lunch again
because man, I love that time we went out. I want to be included.
It may be a boys thing, but I don't know. I bet we can get everybody,
his wife involved too. Karen, yes.
So what else we got going on? We've got a fast going on.
Churchwide fast. Started Monday, ends Friday. I'm having a nice dinner Friday night.
We are. Although we did say, this is really to start off the new year.
Let's start off on the right foot. Let's fast. You can fast food, electronics,
anything that gets in the way of you spending time with the Lord
and maybe spending more time, not just your normal every day,
but really giving him more time, putting him in the forefront
instead of whatever that is that takes up your attention.
So we have a lot of people doing different types of fasts.
Because the whole point isn't to go on a hunger strike to get God to do something.
It's really a realignment of your focus. It's like a reset.
I like the word reset. Yeah, I like it. There's some political implications.
There is, but I'm not talking that. I'm talking a spiritual reset.
But I like the idea of you're resetting, you're rebooting your computer.
It's all clean and fresh again. And again, realigning your affections
back to God. And it's just getting your attention back on him.
So the idea is the time you would have spent prepping a meal or eating a meal
or going out to eat, you take that time to reassign that, realign during the fast,
however long you're going to do it, to God. And it's getting your attention
and your focus back and perspective back. And we're in, what, day four right now.
It has been so good for me. It has been.
We've had a crazy busy week, but because we're focused,
we've been able to navigate everything, just the busy schedule and all that
really well. I haven't had the fatigue I thought I would have.
I feel fantastic, actually. I think because it's been such a busy week,
it's kept us... And let everybody know how we're fasting,
because everybody does it different. Well, what we're doing is we're only
eating one meal, and it's typically between three and four, which today
will be more like between five and six. Yeah, it's going to be a little later today.
One meal, we can only eat within an hour, and then we stop.
No snacks or anything, just our meat. And we're not gorging or anything.
It's just we eat our typical what we would normally eat for a carnivore diet,
which is a steak. Yeah, that's what we're eating.
And so, or a bacon, which I had yesterday too.
But yeah, it's the only reason why I didn't want to do the full on...
I wanted to do a liquid fast. I was really thinking I could do beef broth,
chicken broth, water, electrolyte. But because I do take some vitamins
and stuff that need some kind of food on me, I was a little bit nervous
about doing that because I don't want to make myself sick.
So everybody has to do what's best for them. Plus, I am, and I'm going to say this on air...
Wait, what are you going to say? I know. I am fasting.
You need to run that by me first. I'm fasting shopping. Not for the house.
Could you repeat that? I know. I know. Fasting shopping clothes.
I was taking a picture of you because you look amazing.
I just had to take a picture. I'm capturing the moment.
You're funny. I wish you didn't do that. Production moment.
Please don't put that on Facebook. It's the behind the scenes thing.
You like to put things on Facebook. So anyway, I am fasting shopping for myself,
unless I absolutely have to, because for one, I've lost so much weight
that I have had to give away a whole bunch of new clothes.
You are a girl on fire, and yes, we are making people happy with the clothing collection.
But I don't want to lose anymore, which is another reason why I didn't want to just go on a liquid fast.
I would look like a POW, and I don't want to look like that
because it shows your wrinkles when you lose it in your face.
I already got an estimate on a facelift, and that was way out of our budget.
So I'm not doing that. My son was like, please don't do that.
When you do, you might look like a clown or something.
I know. We've seen that stuff go bad.
We have. We're the Joker. We know one person who kind of has that Joker look.
So I'm not going to do that, but I am fasting from shopping for clothes.
I'm not only doing it for five days, though. I'm actually doing it.
This year is going to be my year of only getting what I need. I'm dedicated.
It's kind of like last year when I said, okay, no TV.
Well, I don't want to say no TV. No normal TV that we were watching.
We can watch wholesome, good stuff, but it can't overtake our lives.
So we watch Pure Flix or some Amazon movies or Christmas movies and stuff like that.
But I'm kind of doing the same thing with shopping.
It needs to be something I just have to have.
If I get invited to something, I have to have a certain item of clothing.
Or I can't get into anything because I've lost, which like I said, I'm hoping I'm not.
But I really want to curb that. It's an addiction.
And I would rather spend the money on the house.
Or steak.
Oh my gosh. You've got steak on the brain.
I do, actually. It's because we're normally grilling right now.
And it's 3.30 and we're not going to be eating anytime soon.
Anyway, unless we just hurry up with this podcast.
No, we're not going to do that.
Tell me spiritually how this has worked for you.
Because I mean, those are good things.
Well, I wanted to bring that up because I think it's important that...
I mean, someone came up to us in between services last week and said when she would go on
Churchwide Fast, she felt like the Lord told her to fast complaining.
And so in the next two services, I shared that with the church and there was an audible groan.
I mean, people were like, oh, I'll just do the food.
You know, I'd rather fast food than grumbling and complaining.
So there are a lot of things we can fast.
And so I just wanted to bring that that's what I'm doing.
But honestly, spiritually, I think to just go into the studio yesterday and telling my story,
it literally increased my faith more.
It gave me...
It was good.
It helped me.
You were good, by the way.
You were so pro.
I thought I was going to be so nervous.
So I said, just let me go first and tell my story.
And then how did you cry on cue?
That was powerful.
It was...
You were making me, the tech and Zae Ev, who's the founder of Israel Media Ministries.
I really hope that we can get the recording and be able to maybe even play it here.
Well, I don't know if we can play it.
No, no, no.
Wait, don't get ahead of yourself, technology wise.
So that...
We'll see.
We'll see how that works.
Well, all you'd have to do is once I get it on the website, maybe play it.
But anyway, I think it was really...
Hearing it again, just telling it the way I did, man, it moved me.
What it did was it built my faith up more.
It helped me see how much I don't live with regrets because I wouldn't be here if I didn't have those challenges in my life.
But it also...
It just gave me such gratitude for what God's done.
Oh, my goodness, He's done so much in our lives.
And if I don't keep that in the forefront, I could tend to go in a deep place.
And I don't want to go there.
I want to...you know, when things happen, like our health issues, which everybody ends up having some kind of health issues, especially as we age.
But when things happen, you could tend to go into place and just stay there.
And after hearing, re-hearing the telling of your story and my story, it just built me up so much.
And it just...
I'm so grateful.
God is good and He is faithful.
And His timing is not always our timing.
And sometimes we have to, again, like we said, with the fast, realign ourselves.
Talk about for a minute, because when you were telling your testimony, you brought this up, and I love that you went here.
And I think it's something that's very helpful.
We've talked about on the show, but we're going to repeat things because I never learned anything the first time I hear it.
That's true.
Or the tenth sometimes.
But you talked about connecting the dots and not living a life of regret.
Talk a little bit about that.
That's powerful.
Well, I made a lot of poor choices when I was young.
You know, I got pregnant when I was 15 years old.
And that was a poor choice.
It wasn't good.
At 15, what do you know?
And I did it on purpose, thinking I could get out of my bad home situation by having a baby with my boyfriend,
getting married, and living happily ever after.
And that didn't work out because three months after,
I told him I was pregnant, he ran away and left me with being pregnant with a child, with his child.
And the only support I had was of my mother because my dad was so angry that I was pregnant.
He didn't want anything to do with me.
And so, you know, I think about that.
I think about, you know, getting married to someone else and staying in a bad situation for so long
because I went from the frying pan to the fire with my first marriage.
And I think, gosh, I could look back and go, oh, my gosh, I am so shameful of all these things I've done wrong.
Not that I did wrong marrying this guy, but staying married and allowing the abuse to continue.
But I could live with such regret of all those decisions that were made.
And or I could say, you know what?
I wouldn't be here today.
I wouldn't be married to you today.
I wouldn't have have we wouldn't have this ministry that we have if we didn't have challenges
because, hello, challenges help us bring people to their knees with their challenges and give them hope to overcome those.
And so, yeah, I don't live with regrets.
Now, sometimes I wish things didn't happen, obviously, because I'm human.
True, true, true.
But looking back now, oh, my goodness, it's almost like if if if regret was a was a sea or an ocean, you don't swim in it.
You can see it there. It's there. It's tangible. It's real.
But you don't go in it. You don't go get in the water.
It's like we don't live like that. That's true. Yes.
There's a sea, but I'm not going to go swim in it or get in it.
It's like looking at a rearview mirror. But if you keep your eyes on that, you'll never go forward.
But the only reason why I could get through what I did is because I literally turned my life around, asked God to come in.
There you go. And take over and help me to live my life for him.
And I couldn't do that without him, without the Holy Spirit.
Literally, I could not do because I tried it on my own.
It didn't work. It did not work.
And I tried. There was a time and you did the same thing for a few months in our single life where we said, you know, I'm angry.
I'm angry at God because I deserve to go be stupid. Yeah.
Because, you know, I finally did what he told me to do.
And yet, why did I have to go through that anyway?
And then you go through this time where you go, you know what?
I'm just going to you know what I did because I didn't date because I got married so young.
I didn't get to go on dates and enjoy, you know, spending time with a date and getting to know them and having a courtship.
So how did going back and trying dating you and how did that work out for you?
Oh, it was horrible. I hated it.
So I thought, OK, well, I'll put God, you know, on a pedestal.
Sorry. I'll put God on a pedestal and I won't go to church.
I'll go to the lake every weekend with my friends because, you know, going to the lake is a lot more fun.
And I did that for a few weeks, kind of like you did when you went to the bars with your friends.
Three weeks of stupid.
But I was miserable. Me too.
I mean, sin's fun at the time.
But then when you get like when I would get back home from my trip, it's like, gosh, I'm missing out on something.
There's still a void that didn't fill it. Right.
And so when I finally made the decision that, no, you know what, I'm not going to go back to the lake. Y'all, let's don't do that.
Let's go to church. It changed my life.
And the girls that I was going to the lake with started coming to church with me.
Yeah, they did.
Just like the guys who you were going to the bars with came and worked out.
Came to the church with you.
And then we met a few weeks later. It was just amazing.
So all that ties back to we don't live with regret because we see that even those mistakes were part of the journey.
Yes. And they're part of connecting the dots.
You know, the whole connect the dots thing, the ship, you know, or whatever the horse you're drawing.
But when you connect the dots and realize that happened, which positioned me here for this,
and then it removes the sting of regret again, not that it's not there.
The ocean is still there, but it doesn't have mastery over you.
It doesn't constantly inform your thinking. It doesn't cause you to, to use Jill's word today,
it doesn't cause you to frame everything around regret.
Instead, you become grateful to say, first of all, God delivered me out of that.
God got me out of that. I'm not there anymore.
And one more thing, I'm not that person anymore.
Well, we lost the desire to do those things because that didn't fill the void.
So why would we keep doing something that hoping for a different result, which is the definition of insanity.
We kept doing the same thing, hoping for a different result, never did.
So we put that aside and said, let's go do what we know is going to give us, you know, that
fill that void. And so we, you and I separately go back to church and that's where we met.
And it wasn't even that I was going back to church. I went back to God.
Right. That's what I was about to say. Exactly.
It started with going to that place first. And then you hear the word.
This is what I love. What is it? Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
So you hear the word and then faith comes. And what do you want to do?
You want to hear more. So you go back and then you go, wait, okay, now I need to get in the word.
Now, what does the Bible say about this situation?
And you go to your concordance or you ask a pastor, you do whatever you have to do to say,
how is this pertained to my situation? Right.
How does it give me hope to get out of this situation?
And boy, did he ever do that. And he brought you.
And then he brought you to that gym with that jerk of a guy.
Well, you didn't know him. I didn't know him either. He was training me.
Anyway, that almost was a deal breaker for me.
Because when you saw him with me, you thought he was with me.
I don't want to rehearse all that. Let me move in there.
Here we go down the rabbit trail.
All this is going back to the idea of connecting the dots to your past and realize,
I can't live in regret in that sea. I can't go back in that water because had that not have happened,
I would be somewhere else right now. Not that that wouldn't be any worse or better.
I mean, because you are where you are. Right.
But remember the Where's Waldo thing. You are here. You know, where's Waldo? You are here.
You got to start somewhere. And so I think that the us living a life of gratitude and I call them living a but God life.
So living about God life means, yeah, this this happened.
This was bad or this was traumatic or I made a poor choice. But God, right.
I messed up. Yes. But God, I made a mistake. But God, I failed.
But God, I I feel like I'm not going to make it. But God, there's always hope. Right. Yes.
And so that's that's what I loved when you went there in your testimony.
Really, that was that was one of the things that really hit me in your testimony of just that remembering.
We remember the we remember the potential for regret.
And we see the sea, but we don't go there. Right.
And it's OK to remember it because that helps you continue to learn not to repeat.
And I think we always need to remember those things.
And to me, you know, if you're listening to this podcast, it's because God had you listen to it.
Because there is a reason for you to listen to it. Absolutely.
And it's so that you can go back and go, wow, this is where I am with God now.
Or why am I listening to this? Well, maybe because God's nudging you to get closer to him.
And that's the whole point of this podcast is not just to hear our stories and just so that we can rant.
But really, it's for you to to get to draw closer, draw nearer to God, because as you draw near to him, he draws near to you.
Yeah. Can I say something here? Yes. I think this is important.
I love that you said that, Damonette. Amazing.
We get so many letters and emails through our website or sometimes we'll get comments on social media of people who found us on social media.
And they say a lot of similar things. And it was this has become a real common thing.
I was a Christian when I was a kid or I grew up going to church and then life happened and I spent years away from God.
And now listening to your podcast or getting to know Adam and Tina through Curry and the Keeper, which is another fantastic podcast, through all of this, I have found my way back to God.
And I'm growing again. That's the whole point of what we're doing. That is what we're living for with this podcast.
That's the whole point that we bought this equipment and we did this office and we did all of that because we want you to know there's hope.
And we want you to know that if you at one point in your life, you felt like you were a Christian, you felt like you were after God, but life has happened.
Things have happened. Now you feel like you don't qualify. You feel like maybe you've blown it and you've gone too far away from God.
If your heart is still beating, if you still have a pulse, you've not run too far away from God. You cannot outrun His grace.
Well, let me say this because yesterday with your story, you talked about being introduced to God, that when you were in fifth, sixth grade, you were introduced.
You actually went up, signed the card, asked for prayer for salvation, but nothing happened. You described it this way.
I was introduced, but a relationship really didn't start because I didn't do anything with it.
There are people out there who get introduced to God and they think, okay, well, I'm saved because I know him.
But you know, the demons know him too. Demons, according to the book of John, know the book of James.
But I'm thinking about what you preached on on John, how they know the word.
Remember when Satan was talking to Jesus when he was in the wilderness and he was spouting the word.
So he knows the word. But does he know Jesus? Does he have a relationship?
There is such a difference. And I think that was the difference with me as well when I was young at 10 years of age.
When I came, when I walked down the aisle, said that I was saved, that I was ready for a relationship, but I didn't do much with that relationship.
And would I have gone to heaven? I don't know. I really don't know. But I do know now because he's the Lord of my life.
There's a big difference in being introduced, even getting baptized.
We've talked about this with Jill today because she's going to get baptized on Sunday.
Oh, it's going to be so beautiful.
Her story in listening to her talk was so much like Tina and Adam.
The trajectory of their lives have changed so much and everything has changed with their spiritual life with God.
Yet she was introduced and even went to church on a regular basis when she was young.
But there is a difference now. And to me, the difference is when you truly make him Lord of your life.
Does it mean you're perfect and everything goes perfect? No.
Of course not.
I think too many people have this misnomer that once you become a Christian, everything is perfect. You have no issues.
God's with you. He's answering every prayer and everything is perfect every day.
No, because there's a real devil. And now you know there's a real devil. You didn't know that before.
You just thought, well, the universe caused this is what I hear a lot.
No, there's a real devil that hates you and now you're more aware of your sin.
You're more aware of when things aren't going well, but you have a God to take it to.
There's the difference right there.
But living for God is so much more than just going to church, reading a U version devotion every day.
It's living your life for Him, giving your life to Him and telling others, which is what we're doing right here.
I love what you just said because we now have a place to take our pain.
We now have a place to take our suffering. We now have a place to take our trauma.
We have a place to take our bad decisions. The mistakes we made, the sin we committed.
God, we didn't really consult you on this. I'm sorry.
We now have a place, a person, not a place, but a person to take that to.
That's what I love. Jesus says, come to me. If you're weary and heavy laden, come to me.
Bring your stuff to me.
I love Eugene Peterson in the message Bible says, I'll show you how to take a real rest.
I love the wording on that. I will show you how to take a real rest.
That's really the heart of God for you that are listening.
The reason why we're passionate about this and we get on here and we just get going because
this has marked mine and Annette's life where we live a but God life.
We live a grateful life because Jesus has done so much for us.
The Bible calls, use the word gospel and you'll hear this word in churches and Christian language,
the gospel of Jesus Christ. All that word means is good news.
This is good news. It's not bad news. It's not okay news. It's not so-so news.
It truly is the greatest news.
And scripture you quoted earlier in Romans 10-17, it actually means and literally says in the actual language,
it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the message of Christ, which is the gospel, the good news.
What that does when you hear the gospel, it stirs up faith in your life.
So what we're wanting to share with you is good news, the good news of Jesus Christ.
He's here for you. He's got your back. He's got your situation.
Better yet, he's got you. And that's our heart for you.
Absolutely. I love it. That was great. So who are we going to thank?
We got some great thank yous. David Wicker has become my email pen pal buddy.
This T-shirt. Wait. What are the T-shirts about that he's sending us?
He didn't tell me. I'm not sure what the shirts are. So he says this,
I listened to Pastor Jimmy Pruitt's December 17th sermon, very hopeful message of young people seeking Christ.
I've noticed an interest when I work with some young people. They are asking me questions and I wondered about the recent interest.
I like the sermon. It does give me hope in the future and for our nation.
By the way, that wasn't David Wicker that wrote that. That was a flight attendant on American Airlines.
He was listening to a podcast or sermon when she walked up and she I don't know how they got in a conversation about it.
And so he started talking to her. Her name is Jennifer. And so he told her about the message.
And so she went and listened to the message later and sent this text back to David.
She listened to the message and this is what she's happening. And anyway, just very cool and appreciate.
Never know. David, thank you for sharing that just by you listening to a podcast,
having a conversation with a flight attendant and who boy we all know they've got a tough job right now.
Right. They're not want to literally remind me of police officers, firemen, EMA. They're like first responders.
They are. They're on the line. It's a different world out there.
So we need to pray for them just like we do firefighters and police. Here's another one.
And this is from Julie. So appreciate this. She says, Pastor Jimmy and Damon that I've written before,
but wanted to write again to give you encouragement. I'm from California and I teach for Bible study fellowship.
I've been enjoying your podcast since the beginning and appreciate your willingness to continue even with the church growing.
A new YouTube channel and sickness praying for Annette to heal quickly, which, by the way, she did.
Thank you very much for the prayers in praying about what word I might have for the year.
God kept saying trust. That's a big word. That is a big word. That's a tough word.
That's a big one. And she says, thank you for following God's call on your life and engaging, which is my word.
Engage. God bless our word. Our word is engage.
And it means to throw oneself into. I love that. I think we are doing that already.
January 11th. We so are. Is it only the 11th? God bless Julie.
So, Julie, thank you for sending that in. Another part to that was really cool.
But so appreciate you, Julie, and bless you as you lead that Bible study for Bible study fellowship.
That's a great organization. BSF. And we had so many people contact Curry and the Keeper and say,
what's happened to living up in a down world? They're having to make excuses for us.
Sorry about that, Adam and Tina. Thank you, Adam and Tina, for covering for us.
Thank you for bringing us up on your show last night. I hope you did. They were supposed to.
We haven't had a chance. I got part of the way through. I started listening today. So far so good.
They said that they were going to bring us up and say, hey, they're going to have the podcast tomorrow.
So here it is. By the way, just a little caveat in the middle of these thank yous.
We did have New Year's dinner with them. New Year's Day. New Year's Day dinner.
We all stayed in on New Year's Eve because it's craziness out there. I don't like to be out at night.
I don't either. But we had such a great time. Every time we get together with them.
Of course, me and Adam, it's God, the world and other things. That's our topic.
And you don't think it's that way for Tina and I? You always say me and Adam.
Well, we're talking politics and media. I mean, we talk female stuff too.
Deconstruction. We're talking about all that stuff. But it's always fun to get to be with them.
It's fun. And we had a great time. We love those guys.
We never want to leave. And we finally have to say, oh, we have to go.
Well, they feed us meat. So that's how you keep us there.
That's right. That's right. And now we're trying to find time in their schedule to come to our house.
I know. They're busy as we are. They're so busy.
Their social calendar is insanity. Yes. So hopefully we can make it work soon.
Yes, soon because I'm already missing them. So here's another one. This is from London in the UK.
I wanted to tell you my word is gratitude. I really love it.
That's my word for life. I can't make it my word for the year.
I'm so with you on that. She says, or he says, I'm not sure.
I really love the idea. And you're right. It kicks in straight away.
Talking about when I said in November, October, November, when I came up with Engage, I just started doing it.
Same thing. She says, I hope Annette is returning to health. Happy New Year from London, UK.
I do love me some London. I know. We've got to go back. Every time I hear Coldplay, my mind goes back to London.
We want to go back to London, Paris and Ireland. London was awesome. Yeah, I loved it. I liked it.
So and then we've got some Boostergrams too. So I want to share that.
Guess who our executive producer and literal executive producer, Mr. Adam Curry, in with a Striper Boost.
I've got to go Striper.
He says this lifting up Dayman that in healing prayer. Remember, this has been two weeks ago.
I know this is throwing everything on now because you're like you're well, you're well now, but I wasn't well ish.
So yes, he says, lift up Dayman and healing prayer. Thank you, Adam. He is my prayer partner for sure.
Great job flying the plane solo, brother. Thank you for being nice. You're never doing that again.
I don't like it. I can't. Well, it's weird. I'm so codependent on you. Podcasts really should be with other people.
I know. I mean, there's life in it. He says, see you Sunday, which we did. Of course, we had a blast.
Tina and Adam also. Hey, it's been a while, but Sir Brian with an eye is the one that we've wondered if he really has a girlfriend or not.
I had to throw that in there. It was so good to hear from. I have missed him.
OK, calm down, guys. I miss him. I really do. I just love him.
So anyway, we did get to see him at the meet up last two months ago, whenever that was.
That was a long time ago. We've slept since then. Yes.
But anyway, Sir Brian with an eye in with 3000 sats says, Pastor Jimmy, I loved your solo project, but I love the duet even more.
Me too, bro. Dayman that is feeling much better. I hope Dayman is feeling much better.
May the new year bring you many prayers and plenty of vitamin C.
Sorry for the low boost amount. It's all I had left. I'll get my wallet funded and get you some more sats next week.
OK, I'm you hold him to it, bro.
Also, for anyone in Austin, check out ninety two point five FM.
Excellent worship music to help you. K.Y.B.O. keep the buckets overflowing.
I haven't downloaded that. Oh, why not? We have a cool, slightly busy.
Yeah, we have a new jingle, which I'm super. Sir T.J. The Wrathful put that together.
I can't wait to play that. Thank you, Sir Brian with an eye.
You're one of my favorite peeps, especially one of my favorite peeps from Austin.
And we love you, man. So thanks for the sats and thank you more for just the encouragement.
Shelly C with a thousand sats says this, a small boost, but simply wanted to send you a note and say thank you for your podcast.
You're welcome. And thank you for saying thanks.
Something I realized recently was that whenever I listen, I'm always encouraged and realize how much God is at work despite the evil in the world.
Amen and amen. That's why we're here to help you live up in a down world.
So thank you for that. I know life is full for you both right now.
And I am praying for Annette to return to full health.
Isn't that beautiful? And for continued energy and wisdom as you lead your church.
Blessings to you both. Thank you, Shelly C.
That's sweet. Again, the word gratitude just comes back up.
I'm grateful for people taking time to write and say thank you.
It means so much to us. We also did receive a PayPal donation from David.
Sir, what's it called? Oh, David Wicker. Yes.
Yeah. Yes. So we definitely want to thank him for that.
It's Sir by His Grace. Sir by His Grace. Thank you, David, for that.
Thank you for that. Really appreciate that. And we have others that do some ongoing things.
So appreciate it. One last boost a gram from Maxi Peach at 500 Sats.
Thank you for your courage. I really enjoy your podcast.
You're helping me as a new believer to grow my faith. My word is gratitude.
There it is again. That word keeps coming up. I'm certainly grateful to you both.
I hope Annette is returning to good health and she is.
Yay, God. Happy New Year and Happy New Year to you, Maxi Peach.
We so appreciate it. Beautiful. Beautiful.
And I just want to say if you want something that will help you on a daily basis,
I write a daily devotional. I've written it for 20 years.
Every day it's fresh. It's hot off the press. I rarely repeat one.
I literally every morning get up, get in the Word and listen for God.
And I write a daily devote. It is on our website, Living Up with a Down World.
Every morning you'll see it. Living Up in a Down World.
What did I say? With a Down World. Did I say that?
You did. Ooh, okay.
I know. Thinking too far ahead. LivingUpInADownWorld.com.
It's also on BridgeFBG.com. There's a way to look at it there.
It's also on social media, Facebook. It's everywhere.
But I'm just saying for our listeners, LivingUpInADownWorld.com.
Go there and just click on blog and you'll see the daily post.
It's there every day and it's there to encourage you.
It's just another way that we want to speak into your life.
Are you okay? I know the homilic.
Oh my gosh. I'm certified. I had a small cough.
Okay, you're alright.
So anyway, thank you again and do check out our website.
All of our podcasts and all of our archives are there.
Or if you are into Podcasting 2.0, by the way, David Wicker,
we are working on the video version of this podcast
and even getting my sermons on Podcasting 2.0 as well.
So you've asked about that and you've asked for it.
You've even gone through Adam and Tina to ask about it.
So we're getting the message.
So we're going to be having conversations about how to get that video on Podcasting 2.0.
Now, if you listen on Fountain or Cast-O-Matic or any of the Podcast 2.0 platforms,
you can boost us.
And that's one of the ways we call it value for value.
It's something Adam Curry came up with. It's brilliant.
And what it is basically, if you like what you're hearing,
if what we're doing is helping you, if it's encouraging you,
if it's adding value to your life, then our simple ask is this.
You can show value back to us and give value back to us by going to,
by subscribing to our newsletter, by passing our links along to others
because you may listen to something.
We cover a topic that could help somebody.
And that's really our biggest part of our heart is to help people.
And so share the podcast with others.
Or you can contribute through Boostergrams or through PayPal on our website.
So there's just ways you can add value.
And we love you guys and we're so thankful for you.
Any last words in there?
No, that's good.
Well, then we're going to go ahead and land the plane today because this boy is getting hungry.
We've hit our 23-hour window on our fast.
We sure have.
And I'm looking forward to getting some meat, some jet fuel.
I love you, baby.
You look amazing, by the way.
Thank you.
When you're on fire for Jesus, that is when you're the most beautiful to me.
I know.
You always say that.
You got it.
You're on fire.
Love you, folks.
Thank you.