We'll be right back.
Don't get down when you're seeing the worst.
Because 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 DeNette and we are
living up in a down world.
We are living up in a down world.
We want to welcome you to today's show.
And hey beautiful over there.
It's been a minute.
Oh my goodness.
More than a minute.
Like a month.
It's been about a month.
We've taken the time off which was really good.
And we needed to.
And yeah, it's kind of fun to be back.
Talk about our month.
Did some things happen in this world?
Last year we took
two months off for a sabbatical.
This time it was more of a
you call it a sabbatical refresh.
I just call it a vacation. All I said
was every year in July
we're taking the whole month off as
vacation. There's nothing Sabbath
about it because we were busier
than we were for our Sabbath.
So I wouldn't even use the word Sabbath.
But it was good.
I mean we were able to go to Colorado
for a week. We went to Naples Florida
for a week. And I had a million things around the house
to do. Things to fix.
We had people working in our home.
Faucets and lawn mowers.
It was not a vacation.
Except for the time we left.
Not that I'm complaining.
You sound like you're complaining.
I do. I know.
I've only had one cup of coffee.
I'm working on number two.
I just took a sip of mine
for the first time.
Why are we even doing this podcast?
Turn it off. Let's start over.
We probably need to.
But the thing is,
if you think about it, you've got to think
about what a vacation is. It's not just
to rest. It's to do the things
that you can't get done
because of work.
Who made that?
Where did you get that definition of a vacation?
Honey, because that's the thing.
I thought a vacation was for rest and relaxation.
It was not always. And to do some fun things.
No, it's to work around the
house. I didn't force
you to work around the house.
When I get halfway through this cup, I'll mellow out a little bit.
I'm kidding. I'm totally kidding.
I enjoyed working
in the lawnmower in 100 degree weather.
You only had to do that for one day
out of...
Oh my gosh!
A whole month off.
I paid the dude for it.
And one day you had to work
hard. Not that I'm bitter.
You sound bitter.
But you know what?
The lawnmower got
worked on. We actually sold it.
Yay!
We made enough money
for our next vacation.
It's not just some little dinky lawnmower.
This is like a 54 inch
zero turn craftsman.
It has not been used in two years.
It's like a dragster on the rock.
You had to make sure that it was
in perfect condition for
the new owners.
And it is in perfect condition.
So what? You used a couple of days
of your time. I know.
And we wanted it to be a blessing to them.
We did. First of all, he's a veteran.
So that's a big deal to me
to make sure that what we give him
is excellent and is a blessing
to him and his family. And better than the way we got it.
Even though we got it new, it looked
brand new. It's unbelievable.
So you did good.
Thank you. You did good.
It was worth it.
I didn't like doing it on my vacation.
I know. But that was just
a day or two. Having the house
worked on for a week
while we were...that was a little bit
harder. But I mean somebody...
I wasn't able to flip the switch. Yeah, but somebody
still has to be there and we still have
work that we're doing.
It is what it is.
But we did Colorado.
We finally got to rest.
I felt...well, Colorado...
That was right before. Was right before.
And we've talked about it. We already talked
about that. And we didn't
really unwind until we
went to Naples though.
Totally agree. And that was what?
Three weeks into this thing? Three weeks in.
And that was the best
trip ever. We've never been to
Naples, Florida before. Never even...
But I want to go back. I never
thought that...I mean that wasn't even in my...
I never
thought about it. Because it's usually Destin
or Panama City. Right, right. We like the beach.
It was phenomenal.
It was amazing.
Naomi worked her magic with
all of our points. So we got to...
Who's Naomi? You just say that like people know.
Naomi is Brian's
Mandale...Pastor Brian Mandale's
wife. She's my assistant.
Our assistant. Our assistant. But she
works more for me than you. Because I
still end up having to do your stuff.
But she's so
amazing with
juggling points on
credit cards. Because we have a couple of
credit cards that we use and pay them off. We use
them as debit cards. But we
play the game of points. Points game.
And we got to stay at the Ritz-Carlton
for what? Nine days?
Eight days? Eight days. It was amazing.
For free. I mean it didn't cost us.
Other than the resort
fees and
whatever food we ate. So...and then our
flights were free
because we had points on that. So
we try to find ways
to go to really neat places
and not have to
pay much out of our pocket. And so...
The points game now is like what our parents
used to do with SNH green
stamps and gold bond stamps. Exactly.
But now the stakes are a lot
higher. They are. And we
hardly ever
pay for any airline tickets. Because
we have a Southwest card. So
it helps. Did your mom
do the stamps thing? My mother
did do the stamps. There was an SNH
stamp store in public Texas
where I grew up. Piggly Wiggly too
would take stamps or whatever.
Or give you stamps. You get stamp books.
Boy I haven't thought about this
in decades. But they would be these
little booklets and you'd get stamps every time
you bought groceries and you'd fill up your
books and then you'd cash them in for
value. You're really aging us. At a store.
It's real.
Hey I'm cool. I'm relevant.
Oh is that right? Yeah. Oh okay.
I can wear skinny jeans.
You're so skinny you have
to wear skinny jeans. All of your jeans
are skinny jeans. No kidding.
No. But yeah it was
a lot of fun. I think
we so enjoyed it that
I talked to Naomi
on our last...
It was our last night there and I was like
we're not ready to go home. And she said
then stay. I've got some points
I'll share with you and then you can just
share them back. And I was like oh
okay I knew you'd think about that. So we stayed what? Three more
days. We stayed three more days. Two more nights.
Three days. Three more nights. Three days.
But we weren't ready and that
I was kind of surprised when I told you
that I wasn't ready to go and you said
then let's stay.
I was like really? I really
had to go restful. One of the most
restful vacations for me personally
I've ever been on. And you got
treated like royalty there.
We did. It was which I never...
Hence restful. Yeah.
Because they really take care of you.
And you really get to rest
and enjoy
the beach. It was
just phenomenal. Of course the beaches,
the Florida beaches on the golf side
are just the white sand. They're gorgeous.
The water's blue. You get to stay on a private beach
so you're not in the milieu of
hundreds of people.
Sharkfest.
Where the shark frenzy happens. It was just so relaxing.
And I love the fact that
you said let's figure it out.
So I actually looked it up to see how much
it would say it would have cost us $2,500
to stay. Yay for points.
And I was like I don't think
we're going to do that. I like this points game.
And so yeah.
It was great.
What was great,
it's always great when you and I
get to go away together.
And we do. We do everything
together. I always say this.
I wear it out. I know it's not Jimmy and
Annette. It's not Jimmy or
Annette. It's Jimmy and Annette.
And I mean that. And so
when we get to go away together
alone by ourselves,
something amazing happens in our marriage
and our dynamic. Because we work together
all the time. But we're
in a different mindset.
When you're working together, you're working.
I mean there's different. I remember
Jean Haig said to me Sunday,
she said I'm so glad y'all got to get away
and got to. And I said you know
it's really interesting because people think
because we work together, you know,
we have this wonderful
marriage and relationship.
The problem with it, there is a challenge
with it. The problem with it is
that all we talk about is work
24-7. So we have
to literally go out
of town. We can't even just be at our home.
Really. We go,
when we go step out of town,
it's like
we lay off
work. I mean we literally, that's the
only time I did not
work. You didn't
work at all, thank goodness. But for
me, I don't take my computer
with me. I don't do
any of the work that I normally
do. But when I'm at home, even
if we're on vacation,
I'm working. I can't stop.
So for two full weeks,
one in Avon
and Vail, Colorado,
and then the other time
in Naples, I didn't do
any work. So I really
had two weeks vacation. It is literally the most rest
that I ever see yous when we do
that. So we both have
to unplug. It's easier on me because I
always do my daily devotions.
That's a part of my own journaling and my own
devotional. So to me, that doesn't feel
like work. It's pleasure
and it's life-giving to me.
You didn't do it during
our vacation. I actually took a week
off, a little over a week.
And you did the whole sabbatical last
year. You literally didn't do it. Yeah,
I remember. You decided to
unplug the whole time. I thought I did that.
No, you unplugged the whole time because
you said you needed to. I don't remember.
But anyway, yeah, you're right.
But what I was getting to
is that when we can get
away, it's literally,
I used to say this years ago, and I
don't know if I've said it recently, but it's
like driving off the battlefield.
Because
here's what people don't understand about
ministry and ministers,
pastors, being pastors of a church.
It all looks good because
we always have our Sunday bests on, right?
We're always smiling. When we're in
the church, we're greeting people, we're
connecting, and it's a perpetual
party. And I love that.
That's not fake. It's genuine.
But when
we're not with people and in that
environment, which is most of the time,
it's warfare.
We're fighting demonic
and satanic forces. And more so
now than we have in a long time.
Because of what's happening. And it's because
the enemy wants to take us out.
And if
a pastor and his family is healthy,
that's a powerful force in today's
world. It doesn't take much to
stand above the crowd these days.
Just be healthy and functional.
But when you are that,
and when you walk with Jesus as on point,
and God's working and
moving, the enemy just comes
out full force.
And it's not always through
people. There's a tendency to think,
oh, that means you're getting attacked by people.
No, it's not. It's mindset.
It's mental. It's emotional.
It's dreams. You said you had some horrible dreams.
I had horrific dreams all night
last night. I don't even want to share them because they're that
bad. Yeah, you didn't even tell me what they're
about. No, I didn't. And I
it was
it's such spiritual warfare.
And
I literally, I woke up
and then ended up going back to sleep.
And then going, oh my gosh,
that was the worst dream. And then
a different dream in a different
type of spiritual warfare. I'm like,
so now we're being fought
in our dreams. I mean, like really
heavy. Because it's been happening a lot
lately. And I'm like, golly,
it's, we're
in really perilous times.
Really perilous times
in this world. Now, there's a good side
to that. The good news
to that, or the good thing about that
is that's how we know
we're over the target. Yes. That's
how we know that we're moving the needle
in the things of God and the things of
the kingdom is when we
are under this barrage of mostly
mental, emotional,
spiritual attack. It can be physical
too. I mean, because sometimes your health
drops down. You're going, wait, this is
inexplicable. I'm doing great. I'm
eating right and taking care of myself.
And then I pull a hamstring or
whatever. You know, there's things that happen.
It's not always spiritual. Sometimes it's
just you stepped off the edge of
something, off the pool or the stairs
or something. But
I know
when we're really in the zone,
when we're
getting flack. And when I say
flack, I mean mental, emotional,
spiritual. Sometimes it's through
folks, but that's very rare. That's
not even the main thing.
So anyway, we're definitely over the
target right now. And you know, spiritual warfare,
it can happen. It can happen
with people, but it can definitely happen
in your dreams. It can happen
in your thought. Oh, your thought.
The battlefield of the mind. The battlefield of the mind.
You can start going
down places that you used
to go down maybe before you were
saved. And it can
just be a barrage
of thoughts on your mind and just take
you over. That's uncanny. I was
actually thinking of the word barrage. Really?
Well, we're watching
some series on World War II
right now that are fascinating.
We're documentary nerds.
And we're relearning our history
and we're going back in.
But that word barrage
is such a
clear word.
It's a defining word. And that is exactly
what it is. It's like the Luftwaffe
of Germany. You know,
they were the kings of the skies.
And they would just bombard.
I mean, they were intense.
It's called the Blitzkrieg where they
would come in and just give everything
they had on a certain point.
And that's how spiritual warfare
is. The enemy doesn't fight fair.
I mean, Hitler didn't get his ideas
from Jesus on how to fight
war. He got them from the enemy
for sure. I mean, he was demonic and
satanic. And there was all kinds of occult stuff
surrounding him and his inner
circle. Particularly
Himmler and who was that other guy?
Gorring? Gorring was dark.
There's several.
Very into dark, satanic, occult
stuff. But you know, if you don't
study what happened in the past,
we're destined to repeat it,
which we are right now.
So I think it's really good that
you and I both are on the same page
and feel like let's go back.
Let's see. Let's read.
Let's watch these documentaries
and read books and get
familiarized with what
has happened because
we need to know
so that when we see
any kind of
resemblance of that going on
in history, we'll know where it came from.
And it's really, it's all
enemy based.
And if you think about it, we were saying this last night as we
were watching a documentary on Robert
Bobby
Kennedy. Bobby Kennedy for President
is the name of the documentary. Fascinating.
Like four parts. Four or five.
But what I, what was
interesting, I kept thinking as we were, as
I show the footage from the 60s,
particularly the 60s and
early 70s, you know, the riots
in the streets, the burning of buildings,
the campuses
going nuts over the Vietnam War.
And I thought, I told Annette, I said,
I told you, I said, it hasn't
changed a bit. We've not
progressed. We've not grown from.
We've not learned from history.
I wrote this to, I actually
posted this, but I also sent it to Steve
Maxwell and another pastor.
May we never forget
the original intent
of our founding fathers.
If we forget, revise
or erase our history,
we are doomed to repeat it.
And that's spinning off of a narrative that
others have used that, you know, if
we forget our history, we're doomed to repeat it.
So I spun off of that because
we got to get back to the original
intent of our founding fathers.
And let me give you
this quote from Patrick Henry. This has become
one of my favorite quotes.
It cannot be emphasized too strongly
or too often that this
great nation was founded not by
religionists, but by Christians,
not on religion,
but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That was Patrick Henry.
One of my favorite quotes from our founding
fathers, bringing that clarifying
and defining word of this is
what this is founded upon.
And what I'm finding
and you're finding that as we
move back toward that and try
to direct others back toward it,
that's where the fire comes. That's when
the enemy says, oh, no, you don't.
No, you don't.
No, no. This country has
progressed beyond those ancient teachings.
That's old
news, old history.
Those are days gone by.
And we're like, oh, no, we're going back.
I said this to Tommy
who works with us. He's part of our
staff. Just a few minutes ago
when we were talking about, he was talking about the sermon from yesterday
or from Sunday.
And I said, you know, here's what happened
to me. The revelation I got was
that America was not a good
idea that God blessed.
America was a God idea that
we have a responsibility to steward.
And we've not stewarded it
well, at least in our generation.
So those of us that are waking up to this
are saying, we got to get
back to the original intent.
We've become more evil-minded.
Oh, my goodness.
The world has spun out.
If you think about it, back in the days
of Abraham, Noah, and all, I mean,
back in the Old Testament,
those kings were evil.
I mean,
Like I said, nothing's changed.
It's the same. It goes back
to the same things. The pride of
life. Yes.
The lust for power.
The lust for money and
prestige and position.
Greed. All of
those things are still so
at play, which tells
me humanity is not
advancing, which tells me we need a Savior.
We need a real king,
not an earthly king. We need a heavenly
king. We need our heavenly Father.
And so let me just run
quickly through what's happened in the last
few months since we kind of leaned into this.
On Thursday, June
27, President Biden and ex-President
Donald Trump,
former President Donald Trump, met
for their first scheduled debate.
As expected, it was a disaster
for Biden. Which I think we talked about
on our last show. Yeah, we may have touched on that.
On July 13th, so things
started to progress. On July 13th,
former President of the
United States, Donald Trump, survived an assassination
attempt while addressing
a crowd at a campaign rally
near Butler, Pennsylvania.
Now, I'm not going to go into detail. Everybody's
seen the footage on that.
I think the thing that's
interesting to note is how Google
throttled anybody who was trying
I don't know if they're doing it now because they got outed on
it because I noticed there was a shift
in it because I've been testing it.
That if you were to Google Trump
assassination attempt or, you know,
Butler, Pennsylvania is Trump,
the first three things
that came up on Google when I
Googled it,
I put in, this is literally what I
put in, attempted
Trump
assassination attempt.
Those three. Yeah. And the
first three articles, first things
that came up were all about
Kamala Harris. Had nothing
to do with Trump. Nothing to do with what
I just Googled. And that got
discovered. It got outed on social media.
Everyone's talking about it.
I think they shifted that because
I went back and did it again after all
that happened and sure enough all the Trump stuff
came up. So I think they got busted.
They got caught. But that's what's happening
are these big tech companies
that are woke, that are far
radical leftists. They're
operating off of Marxist and Socialist
ideology. They're throttling
stuff. Yeah, they are. And, you know,
when Elon Musk took
over, you know, bought Twitter and then it became
X, you know, I had my questions about
is this a good move? But you
know what? Right now,
that's one of the only main
platforms where you can still say what you
want to say. And he's
saying some stuff too. He
has become a Trump backer because he
sees what's happening and he sees where
things are going. Which is interesting. I think
he grew up...
He's South African.
Elon is? Yeah, that's
his background. Didn't he say something about
or his parents
Christian? I'm not sure about that.
I was wondering where he's getting...where his values
came from. Right. Because he's got
the right values.
Well, he's articulating some things.
Recently in an interview with Jordan
Peterson, he talked about
how he's kind of a
cultural Christian. Peterson was
pressing him actually. I'm proud of
Jordan. I go Jordan. It was good.
Pressing him in a good way, not a bad way, but a good way
to think through what he believes and
try to get him to articulate his beliefs.
It was a great interview. Check it out on YouTube.
Just put in...it's
everywhere. Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson, it's there.
We watched it. It was fascinating.
But he used this...
I'm kind of a cultural Christian.
But hey, you know what? He's making strides.
It's kind of like Joe Rogan would say something
similar to that where he's
Christian-ish.
But that's still not going to get you in heaven.
That's the thing. People think
because I'm good.
Because I do the right things.
I vote for the right person.
I even read my Bible
over now and then. I know
some stories in the Bible.
But that's enough. I've been to church on occasion.
Or I've been to church my whole life.
Yeah, that's true too.
People think that's enough. And it's not.
It's about a true relationship
with God. You've heard this.
I even seared this on Sunday that
in the average human
there's a space between
the middle of your brain and the middle of your heart is 18 inches.
I've heard that forever.
But there are people who miss
heaven, who miss eternity,
who miss salvation
and knowing God on a personal basis
by 18 inches.
Can you imagine getting to the
end of all of this and realizing
in your head
you were like, yeah, I believe God's good guy.
I believe Jesus was a real person.
That's awesome. Yay. Yay. Go church.
But you never
actually embrace the free gift of
salvation that He offered. My gosh.
By 18 inches. That's going to
be a wake up call. And we hear that all the time.
Well, I'm a good person. Oh, I know.
So God's not going to let a good person.
What's not about that? No.
No. It's just not. And it's not about
being nice.
So that was on
July 13th, assassination attempt.
That was a good little springboard and some other things.
But these are important things. And then
under pressure from top Democratic party figures
President Joe Biden announced his
call from the 2024 presidential race
on July 21st,
2024.
And I said this
comment, if you read the definition of a
political coup, this was
textbook. Yeah. And then
in the wake of that he endorsed Kamala
Harris. And the media
who has
butchered Kamala Harris from the
I mean, because she's a joke. She's a
meme waiting to happen every time she
opens her mouth. They did a
complete 180. Yeah.
And all of a sudden she's a rock star.
I know. That's what's... I mean, the people
that were... And there's video
of newscasters
and what not saying these disparaging
things about her. And now
they're just, oh, she's the greatest thing
since sliced bread. All that is
is the media machine. All
that is is the political industrial complex
going into work, kicking into
high gear to get their girl
elected. And don't buy
it. Don't believe it.
Don't believe what you see. Right.
Or what you hear. Let me just say this
just as a caveat. I tell my church
this all the time. I'll tell anybody I'm
talking to. You do not vote
for a
party and you do not vote
for an individual. Right. Who
cares? You know, I'm
not electing my next elder
here. I'm not voting for my next elder.
I'm not voting for a pastor for a church.
I'm voting for a leader
who has proven and shown
that they will stand up and fight.
That they will, that they are
strong enough to
convince the Soviet Union
to back off.
To shut down the war in
Ukraine. Right. To
secure the borders of
our nation, particularly our southern borders
right now, which we're the
number of sick, demented,
evil
criminals that are coming over our border
because of the Biden administration
right now is insane.
It's insanity.
The fentanyl problem right now in
Arizona is killing. Last year over
100,000 people died
from fentanyl overdoses.
It's unreal.
100,000.
There's not that many cities
over 100,000 people.
So full city of people died
because of fentanyl. That's coming over
particularly Arizona.
Thank God, Governor Abbott
in Texas is beginning to shut things
down. They just want a court case where
we're able to keep up the border,
these border barriers that
it turned, the Biden administration
sued. And by the way,
has anyone still said why they're doing
this? I know. I told you, you should just
write Chip Roy and find out
what is his take on that.
Tell me the bottom line. Why?
And we know it's votes. We know
that. But why
are they not saying that
on the news? Why are they not saying
this is why
we are
pivoting?
I mean, they're not.
No one is saying it out loud. That's what I'm
frustrated about is like, would somebody
just tell me why and how legally
he can do this? You know,
I thought the president didn't have that kind
of power, you know, the
executive branch. So anyway,
a lot of questions obviously,
you know, and who knows, the world's
insane. Remember what our
friend said years ago, when you're in
sin, you're insane.
When you're in sin, you're
insane. And right now the world
is in sin, and so it is insanity.
It's crazy down there.
So next one, Kamala Harris
officially accepted the Democratic nomination
for president on Friday, August 2nd.
Boo. The Democratic
National Committee, the DNC,
held a virtual roll call.
This is interesting. A virtual
roll call vote
to select their presidential nominee,
which began on August 1st.
On August 2nd, she secured enough
delegate votes to become the Democratic
presidential nominee.
No party, no convention,
no vote.
From people. The people had already
nominated Joe
Biden and said, you know,
millions of votes. We want Joe Biden as our next
nominee. And their own
party betrayed
them, went behind their back,
and without the people's
approval did this.
This is the party that
is saying, you know, talking about how
everybody is a threat to democracy.
Parents that care about their children's
education in public school are a
threat to democracy. Police
officers, you know, who
have in God we trust on their car, are a
threat to democracy. People who read
the Bible are a threat to democracy.
People who believe that
God gave
the rights, the equal rights to
this country and is
the governing, they're a
threat to democracy. Well, you
bet we're a threat to democracy because
this country isn't a democracy.
I'm about to get on my soap box.
I'm about to put my black robe on from
the Black Robe Regiment.
In the spirit of John Peter
Mueller. But this
country was never a democracy.
Democracy is mob rule.
Democracy means the majority
rules. That's not, this is a
constitutional republic. We
are represented by the Electoral
College and by representatives.
We're a representative government.
And so when you hear
people say they're a threat
to democracy you should say, yes,
indeed they are and they need to be because
a democracy is a dangerous
government. Our founding fathers
understood that and that's why
they set it up as a constitution. We
operate under the rule of law by
the constitution and the bill of
rights. And that's, that
is our guide.
And anybody tells you anything
different, they don't know their history
or they're lying through their teeth.
Most people don't know. I was going to say
most people just don't know because
we have been
so far removed from it that we have
to go back and review
our history because
you just forget. You forget
because you're about the day to day
in the future and you don't think back.
One of the best
things I've done recently is
go back and reread the Declaration of
Independence. When I read
that it lit me up and I,
there has been several times when I've been
reading it and I start to weep. I mean
it gets on me because I realize
I've played a role
in my complacency
and my apathy and my indifference.
This is on me.
I don't want to take responsibility
for my part. Anybody running for office
should memorize it.
Oh my gosh. Anybody. Or at least
have it in front of them so that they're
constantly looking at it.
We hold these truths to be self
evident. I mean we've been given
these rights from our
nature's God and the God of nature.
I mean we're going to give our
lives, our fortunes, and
our sacred honor. I mean these are
things, these ought to be phrases that
we know by heart.
Just like we know scripture
because they're reminders that
God is in charge.
And this is, we get our
rights from Him. But
it was said on
the MSNBC commentator
made this big bold declaration
and she said, you mean to tell
me these Christians,
these people think that God
gave them the right
to the government for this
country? If that's you, then you're
a threat to democracy. Well you know
what? I am a threat to democracy.
Because democracy is
demonic and will not work.
It'll be mob rule and it can be
even more
manipulated than the system we have
which is being manipulated right now.
So I'm not even going to go into
the Olympics lunacy
from the sick opening
ceremony celebration of debauchery
and evil.
From that to the approval of a new
category sports. Again it just shows you how far
we've gone.
We're not on a slippery
slope. We have fallen off the cliff. And if
Christians think that's okay,
that's a big problem. I have a big
problem with any church or any
pastor or any individual who thinks
it's okay. And
I would question, I would question
their faith. I would too. Because
we've got to be real. We've got to
stop being nice. And we've got to
begin to call out what's going
on in the spirit of the prophets
who would speak into culture
and say this is wrong.
We've moved away from God
and we've got to get back. And I
would take it a step further and say we've got to get back
to God's word as
the basis for everything we do.
And if we don't, we
will go over the cliff and we'll look
like Europe. We're already
dangerously there. Again it's the Christians.
We have capitulated
to the world and we're not any
different. We don't look any different
than the world and that's where we have
a problem. That's why people don't
take us seriously. This is why people
aren't coming to Christ. It's on our
watch. It's on our watch. But we,
so many Christians believe
that that's the pastor's
job. It's not the pastor, it's the
pastor's job to equip but it's our job
to be the salt and light in the
world. Along with the pastors
we're all in it together. The
pastors are
to
help you divide the word
of God. Help you understand
the word of God. To inspire, to motivate,
to encourage. To encourage you to
get in the word for yourself.
They're not the end all. No. They're
the ones saying, check me up
on what I'm saying. You do
the research. People don't want to do that.
But don't
take my word for it. Read for yourself.
Ask God to give you
revelation of the word
and then let's go win the world.
But we've just,
I don't know what's happened.
I literally don't know what's happened. Well we got complacent.
You know, I mean
we have a whole gap generation
where digital technology
just came in
right on the heels of the last war
and our generation
didn't have to fight for this.
And so we got lazy. We got complacent.
We became indifferent.
And we lost our voice in the public
square. And so now
we're paying the price.
But here's the thing. We have to ask ourselves,
is it hopeless? And I say, no
it is not. It may look daunting.
But you know what?
Everything in history
that was won for the good
costs something.
And so to have
hope and believe that change can come
is going to cost the price.
And this is where we have to get off
of our, as I say, our Blessed Assurance
and get moving again
and get involved in the processes.
Starting with
voting. We got to, if you're
not registered to vote and you're listening to
this podcast. And you're a Christian.
My gosh. Specifically. Get off
your Blessed Assurance and go register
to vote. It's so simple.
You can go online at gov.org.
I mean it's
or.gov. I mean government, I forget
what it is. Just Google.
I hate even saying
Google at this point. But anyway
look up how to register to vote.
It's so simple. You can do it
easily online.
We're doing our voter registration drive
in our church. I think starting this next
week. Every church should be doing that.
Every church should be doing that. We should be registering
believers who will
get out and vote for the platform
that is most aligned with biblical values.
And so get out and vote.
There's other things that can be done
as well. First of all we want you to vote.
But we also want you to
I got a few things here.
To suit up and show up. I love what
Colby Wilt said. He's the
Texas
director of Citizens
Defending Freedom. He said
suit up and show up.
Pastor Ron Lewis out in North Carolina
says it this way. He says live
holy and show up. And I say let's put those two
together. Live holy.
Suit up and show up.
Live holy.
Suit up and show up.
What does that mean show up? That means
attention. Why not go
to a city council meeting and just listen?
And while you're listening pray
that the Holy Spirit will invade
that space. And that a spirit
of revival will come on those public
servants. We call them leaders.
But they're really public servants.
And we need a spirit of revival to fall on our
public servants. Our elected officials.
So go show up.
Suit up. Live holy. Suit up.
Show up. And I always say this.
Leave your
torch and your pitchfork
at home.
Don't go in
fighting half cocked. Not knowing
what's going on. Not really understanding
the issues. You go in
in a different spirit.
And you bring the presence of God
into those spaces.
Show up at a school board
meeting. Again not to fight.
But to see
really get a sense of what's going on.
How about having a conversation
with a school board member instead of
cutting their head off.
How about finding out what they're about.
How about praying for them by
name on a regular basis.
This goes for every arena.
Another one is
volunteer to serve at the Patriot Academy.
That's local to us obviously.
Volunteer to work as an election official.
You can become an election officer.
It's a simple training
where you can help
out with elections.
And we have
the president of our
local Republican
party goes to
our church. Bruce
Coleman. Wonderful, wonderful guy.
Bruce Campbell. Great guy.
And you can
sign up and get involved in that.
And I always say this. Educate yourself
and question everything
you see and hear on
mainstream legacy media.
And then here's the last one.
Don't think someone else will do it.
Someone else will step up.
This is on us.
This is our time.
So anyway I want to give one quote.
Enter the risk arena.
Totally trusting in God because of our love
for Him. This is the grind.
The Bible calls it being
conformed to the image of his son.
Steve Maxwell who is the co-founder
of Citizens Defending Freedom.
Well we've had an amazing time.
I mean I hope you've gotten something
out of this today.
One of the things I want to leave with you
is just a scripture
and it's this.
In Mark chapter 8 verse 27
Now Jesus and his disciples
went out to the towns of Caesarea, Philippi
that's just north of the
Sea of Galilee.
And on the road he
asked his disciples saying to them,
Who do men say that I am?
So they answered John the
Baptist but some say Elijah and others
one of the prophets. He said to
them and this is the question I would pose
but who do you say that I
am? I love that.
Why is that profound?
Why do you think that question hits and lands
so hard? Because I think that's a question that we all
need to ask ourselves.
Who is he really?
Who is he really? Is he just a
teacher? Is he someone
that's historical?
That someone you've read about or heard
about but that's
all. You don't know anything
about him. Most people don't.
Most people really don't know a lot
about him.
Unless you've really studied
the word and what I love right
now is we're, I'm
reading, I'm almost through with every
one of the gospels. I'm reading
Luke
right now. I'm in Luke
too. Not Luke chapter 2
but I'm in Luke as well. I am too.
Luke chapter 2. I love Luke.
But I've already read all the other ones and
I'm so enjoying
reading the gospels
and understanding more
who Jesus is through the gospels.
Through the lens of the
apostles. I'm
reading them over and over and over and
it's just
what I love about the chosen
two.
You see Matthew
and John and
you,
when I'm reading those
books I see them.
Even though it's not real
but it gives me context.
I am so
enjoying reading it because
every time I read it I get
something else out of it. I get
a nugget that I haven't received
before. That's what I love about the word of God
is you can read the same thing over
and over and over and receive something
new every time.
But yes I think
that we all need to
know who Jesus is. We need to ask
ourselves that question. Who
is Jesus to us?
If we can't answer that
in a
way that shows relationship
then we need to question
who He really is. We need
to question do I really
have that relationship with Him?
Do I really have it?
Or is it just someone I
know of?
There's a big difference between
a husband and a friend.
A big difference.
When you were my friend
before you were my husband
I knew bits and pieces
about you.
When you became my husband
I know everything
about you. I know the most
intimate areas
of your life because you've shared
those with me.
I've shared those with you. There's an
intimacy that you and I have now
that we did not have when we
were boyfriend and girlfriend.
That's a difference. Is He your boyfriend
or is He your husband?
Think about that.
That just came off the top
of my head.
It's the intimate
knowledge that you can only have with someone
that is your husband,
that is your wife,
that is your
soulmate that you're spending
the rest of your life with, that you've
intertwined everything. We've intertwined
every area of our life.
That's what Jesus wants
of us.
I love that you day lighted that question, who is
Jesus to you?
That really is the question of the day.
I posed that question to both
services on Sunday.
I've changed the way I do altar calls.
I used to do it secret, man, like secret
ballot. You can just pull out a card
and check the box.
But what I'm finding
is that if we will not stand
in a room full of people who care
about you and who are cheering you on
and who are for you,
when it's the safest, there is
no way we'll stand
out there.
In the Baptist Church where I came up as a young,
I was 18 years of age,
the preacher
would have you come forward.
You'd walk the aisle.
Man, so many churches have done
away with that. There's no cost.
The cost for me when I walk
the aisle, the
last week of my senior year of high
school was all the students that knew
me. They knew
how wild I was. They knew
that wild kid. They watched
me from the back of the church get up
and walk all the way down
and tell Pastor Reese
that I wanted to be saved. I want Jesus
in my life. I think people are afraid
that they're going to blow it or mess up so they don't
want to stand up because they don't want
to look bad if they do. Because
it is a process. Spoiler
alert, we are going to blow it. We are
because we're human.
But our goal
is to live the best
we can and to always keep
Him as Lord so that we
don't blow it. And that's the
power of the Holy Spirit
is to empower us
not to blow it.
He empowers us.
But we have to do
our part. We don't just become robots.
Oh, we're Christians. That's why it's called
a walk. Exactly.
You walk with Him. It's a process.
And it is a learning curve.
Hey baby, stop bumping
the table. Oh, sorry. I believe
that if we
You're preaching. I know. Sorry.
If we would see
and help people see
that when they're standing up they're not saying
their perfection. They're saying
now I'm going to do my best
through God's help to become
the person He's called me to be.
That's what being a Christian is.
And on Sunday when I made that call
and I made it hard I said
I want you to stand to your feet. If you prayed the prayer
to say I want Jesus to be the
center of my life. I've given my heart. I want
to be saved. I want to be born again. I want you to stand
to your feet. People stood.
First service one person.
Talk about courageous.
And she wasn't a young. She was
an adult. One adult stood.
And I thought
my good Lord bless her.
Oh Lord bless her.
I went over and said something to her
at the end. And then
in the second service a lot of people
stood. And I just thought
you know what? If they'll stand in here
and be seen
then they're going to stand out there.
So kudos to everybody who gave
their heart to Christ who said yes.
They answered the question who
is Jesus to me. They answered
the question. He's now my Lord. He's
now my Savior. It was a beautiful
time. Well
it's been a minute since we've done a
podcast. I think the one thing
I would want to say is if you do appreciate
we invite you to go to our website
livingupinadownworld.com
Go there and check it out. I write a daily blog
slash devotional. It's on there.
They're all listed. You can just click
on it. It says blog. Go there.
And it's just a very short two
to three sentences or
small paragraphs. And daily
word and it will encourage you
and we want you to get in the word. And this is
one way you can get in the word.
Also we have all of our archives.
This is number 70 by the way.
Wow. Yeah. Episode 70.
And that will be
on there as you're hearing
this. Of course it's on there but all the archives
are there too. So go to our and leave a review.
Write us a note. We'd love to
hear from you. Where you're from. What you're up to.
If you have any questions spiritually speaking
we're here to encourage you on the
journey and help you to fight the good
fight of faith for God's glory.
Anything to wrap it up baby? No I think
that's good. I would just
pose the question. Who
is Jesus to you?
And really ponder that. Ponder
that question over the week.
And decide
is he enough? I love you
girl. When you're
spiritual hubba hubba. I'm always
spiritual what are you saying?
Alright folks
we're out. We are living up in the
down world. Would you do the same?
God bless you. We love you.