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, but not Annette.
Today I have my special guest, Pastor Brian Mandel from Bridge Church.
Hello, hello.
Executive Pastor extraordinaire.
Hey brother, it's good to have you today.
Hey, thanks for bringing me on. It's good to be back.
And thanks for just kind of pivoting,
cause I know you probably are studying and getting ready for Sunday,
as you'll be bringing the Word this Sunday at Bridge Church.
I'm excited about that.
No, I'm happy for the diversion here, you know.
It'll probably give me a chance to leak out a few things.
Sometimes that's good, right? You get to process some things out loud.
We'll just process for all 15 people who listen to our podcast or whatever,
whatever happens.
But hey, we want to welcome you to living up in a down world.
And Annette is home. We're doing some kitchen renovation stuff.
And if you've ever done that, you know how joyful that can be.
So we had some stuff that had to be overseen.
And so she's there doing that and could not get her on the microphone this week.
So I hit up PB and I knew he was studying.
I knew you were getting ready for your sermon this weekend.
I know it's a big process for you.
And so I didn't want to take you away too long.
So we'll keep it to the point. But we got some things to talk about.
Yeah, we do. There's lots going on.
You know, last couple of times you've been on the podcast,
we've talked a lot about culture, what's going on,
because there was a lot to talk about.
And there still is. We may go there a little bit, man, just in the aftermath
and in the wake of what I would say is a massively important election.
I think the last time, did we do one after the election?
Yeah, we did.
We did. I remember just right after the election.
Well, we've had some time now between that.
So I'd like to kind of just touch base on that.
And before we get started, I want to remind you,
go to our website, livingupinadownworld.com,
sign up for our newsletter. It comes out.
That way you get a heads up whenever we're releasing a podcast.
We've missed a couple lately simply because of this kitchen remodel
and holidays and all that.
So we're excited to be back with you.
But that way you'll get a notice letting you know
that we're about to drop another podcast.
So go there, livingupinadownworld.com.
Also go to bridgechurchfbg.com where you can get all things Bridge Church,
especially on that landing page. It's got a lot contained,
but we have added now with the help of Adam Curry
and the guidance and tutelage and mentorship of my bestie.
It's called The Godcaster.
You can go about halfway down that first page
and click on Living Up in a Down World.
Our podcast is there as well.
Or you can click on Hello Fred,
and that is 24 hours of streaming music
and little tidbits of encouragement
through Pastor Brian and myself.
We're here to encourage you.
We're here to help you live up in a down world
and really become a disciple of Jesus.
And so that's just our way of equipping you.
So check it out, bridgefbg.com, about halfway down the page.
Look for The Godcaster.
Alright, so back to culture,
back to what's going on in our world today.
I mean, it has been like watching the NFL Draft
ever since the moment Donald Trump was elected.
I mean...
Every day is a new pick.
Wow. I mean, literally,
if you've ever watched the NFL Draft,
I've never watched the whole thing, but I've caught bits and pieces.
And man, the energy in that room,
I mean, and all these hopefuls, you know.
I feel like this has eclipsed that in terms of excitement.
No kidding. And it's just gone on and on and on.
I mean, every day, you know, there's one...
I noticed he brought Carrie Lake on,
which I was kind of excited.
Oh yeah, I saw that this morning.
I like Carrie. She's a firebrand for God,
firebrand for our country,
and has been a firebrand for Donald Trump as well.
And so I was disappointed in the election there in Arizona.
That was sad.
I would dare say, and I'll just say it publicly,
because I can. It's my podcast.
It was probably...
There was probably some nefarious things going on there.
Most likely.
Yeah, most likely.
So, because I really thought she would win this time.
But anyway...
You know what I like about what I'm seeing through all this
is just the fervor and the passion and the intentionality
that's coming out of the incoming administration,
not just to position themselves,
but I mean, you just get the sense that they want to accomplish things.
They want to do what they've been saying this whole time,
and they're anxious to get started with it.
And that's what I'm looking forward to.
I so agree with you.
I mean, really, I like what you said.
They're positioning themselves.
And it's a whole different Trump that we're seeing this time.
You know, the first time he came in,
he didn't know what he was doing.
He had no clue what he was stepping into.
And I mean, he just came in.
He took a lot of suggestions from career politicians
on who to have around him,
who his cabinet picks would be,
and he made some bad picks.
He was forced to trust a lot of people he didn't know.
Exactly, which really goes against his business sense.
So he was a bit of a fish out of water.
But this time coming in, he already was ready to go.
The day he hit the ground running.
Right. You know, it's been something I saw yesterday
that was really telling about the tone of all this
was actually an interview with Jeff Bezos.
You may have caught clips of this.
I didn't catch it, no.
I don't know who he was being interviewed by,
but he was really shocking the interviewer
because he was being asked about kind of his take on
what's happening with this incoming administration,
what Trump's doing, these people that are being appointed.
And I think the interview was trying to get Jeff
to go negative on it and, you know,
talk about how fearful we should all be
and how it's the end of the world and all this kind of stuff.
But Jeff's perspective on the whole thing was basically like,
he's like, you know what?
I'm kind of feeling optimistic about this.
And I see the potential for a lot of good things
to happen for the country.
And he said, I wouldn't have said that before.
He said, but, you know, if you take things that face value,
like if you take what's actually being said and talked about,
if those are the things that actually happen,
it's going to be really good for the country.
Wow. Well, the thing we do know about Trump
and watching him in his first administration,
his first go-around, he will do what he says he's going to do.
I believe that.
I mean, he's that guy.
If there's any, he's not a politician.
I start to say if there's any politician, he's not a politician.
He's a businessman.
And he will do and execute what he says he's going to do.
So I have no doubt that he is going to position posture.
There's already, obviously, there's work going on behind the scenes,
strategic things happening to try to,
that will try to thwart that as much as possible,
because there are guys covering their own rear ends to be nice about it.
They're covering their tails. They're covering their tracks.
There's going to be some discovery.
I think this season of reveal that Adam Curry keeps mentioning
and has been for the last year is going to continue.
I think we haven't seen the last.
I mean, you've got what happened with Epstein, the Epstein files,
the Epstein list, you've got what's gone on with P. Diddy and all that.
I mean, I think those things are going to be exposed,
and I think it's going to blow some stuff out of the water,
but it needs to happen.
And I think guys like Bezos, if you think about it,
these guys that are really quite genius,
they wouldn't be where they are.
They're smart enough to know that a guy like Trump is going to do everything,
and it's going to work in their favor.
I mean, if you're a businessman, you should be wildly excited about this.
I think if you got caught up in the woke-ism
and got caught up in the ideological things,
I think at first, and many of them did,
but I think they're seeing now how this is turning already.
And I think you can't help but notice what's happened across the world
with global leaders as well.
Well, and my sense, it's just a sense,
but it seems like across the board, across the aisle even,
there's just a sense of people calming down.
I don't think everybody's spun up like they were now.
And even those who maybe were opposed to the way this all went down
and what the incoming administration is going to be,
even for those folks, a lot of them, I think,
except for the reporters and the newscasters out there,
are saying, you know, let's just wait and see.
Maybe this will be okay.
And I just think it's a great Christmas gift, honestly.
I feel like as we're coming into the Christmas season here,
people are actually kind of breathing out for a moment,
enjoying the moment and just sort of maybe not worrying as much.
I would say that for sure.
I mean, I've been downtown a lot.
We went to this wonderful event, and we'll talk a little more about that.
And that was on our town square called Mark Plots.
And there was such a great spirit in the air.
I mean, just people are genuinely happier.
And, you know, right after the election, talking to people in our church,
they were saying, my gosh, I went to this store,
I went to this establishment, or I was in this meeting.
People are in a good mood.
It's like something is lifted off of our nation.
I think there was a real sense of an ominous...
The heaviness.
Yeah, just kind of a fear of, you know,
is this Ukraine thing going to go on forever?
Is Russia going to really jump in on the world stage?
Is China going to blow up?
I mean, what's going on?
I mean, I think there was so much fear in the air.
And because we had warmongers who were driving the nation at this point,
because that's in their mind, you know, and it's been said in political science.
I remember when I was in college, I was part of a program that was a poli-sci program.
I remember our professor saying that everyone knows that in order to kick start,
you just need a good war to kick start the economy.
And so we know a lot of this is for economics, it's for optics, it's for money.
Most wars are just fancy money laundering schemes.
And we've seen that with Ukraine.
And so I'm very optimistic as people are tired of it and exhausted with all this craziness.
There's this feeling that maybe some of the bullies in the world are stepping back for a moment now
and recognizing that, OK, you know, we're not just going to stand by
and let people take what they want, do what they want, have what they want, you know,
and just be the quiet kid who had his lunch stolen in the corner.
You know, it kind of feels like almost like the American people stood up and said, no.
And the world is backing off and going, OK.
I recently saw one of those maps, you know, that there's so much stuff coming out.
And it was a map of the nation in 2016, 2020, 2024.
And it was a red and blue map.
So you got the United States and it showed red states, blue states and how they voted.
2016, many had a smattering of everything, but more red, obviously, because Trump won that year.
2020, a lot of blue showed up.
This year, almost all red. Shocking.
I mean, and when you compare them side by side, you compare and contrast, right?
Like they used to tell us at school, compare and contrast.
When you compare and contrast the two, it's shocking the difference
and the swing that has happened towards people.
And to me, that's America saying, you know, that's a mandate to Washington.
And that has less in my mind that has less to do with, you know, Republicans versus Democrats more.
Really, it has it makes a bigger statement about whatever the current talking points are of the two platforms at that time.
You can see where people are falling because those talking points are always changing.
The emphasis points for the Democrats and Republicans are always fluctuating.
They're always in motion.
It's not like it's the same from one election cycle to another.
And it just happened to be at this time, you know, what the Republican Party is emphasizing is resounding with the American people.
And I totally agree with that. You talk to people just in general and in our positions and what we do for a living, what we do for our life career.
We talk to people all the time. I mean, we live, we make a living with our mouths.
I mean, that's what we do. So we're in constant conversations.
I had a great conversation over coffee this morning with a brother.
And of course, this came up, you know, we're talking about what's going on right now.
Most people are not they're not touting a Republican flag.
They're touting a desire to be a part of something that has a more from a more biblical worldview, a more conservative, a more values driven worldview.
And even if you're not a Christian, you still see the value of values of good values.
You know, do not steal, do not kill, do not commit adultery.
I mean, you don't have to be a Christian to agree with those things.
I mean, obviously more do, but not everybody is.
And sometimes I make we do make these assumptions sometimes.
And so the Republican Party isn't any more Christian than the Democratic Party, especially here in Texas.
We've got a ton of rhinos here in Texas that need to be out.
You know, I hope there's a seek, kill and destroy mission, you know, to get those voted out of office and get get real Republicans in there who are actually conservative, not fakes.
But, you know, I just learned what a rhino was.
I've heard that term for a long time, but it's a Republican in name only.
That's what it stands for. And we see a lot of that.
So but it's interesting to me, though, it's it really is not a red or blue thing.
But it just so happens that the red this time, this go around fell more in the in the sense of closer alignment to a biblical world.
They're better capturing where the hearts of the American people are to say we want to go back to some things that we know work and that we know have value that are values.
Absolutely. They're recognizing, you know, we do have a biblical heritage in this nation that is unlike any other country.
And it's not something we want to flush down the toilet. Exactly.
You know, it's OK. So I used to golf a lot.
I don't ever anymore, but I used to a lot.
And we always have silly sayings and golf, you know, little little maxims, you know, that kind of guide you.
And one of them is this. You say you get into 16th, 17th hole you have in the game of your life and then all of a sudden you lose your mind.
You just blow it. Well, why?
Well, the saying in golf is you dance with the one that brought you.
So if you're 16 holes in your swing and it's worked, don't you know, don't fix it if it ain't broke.
You know, and so a lot of times in was in sports or in life, we will tend to get something will get us where we need to be.
And then suddenly, suddenly we change.
Suddenly we shift, we change our strategy or we try to get creative or we get cocky and we try to do something different thinking I can maximize this.
But I love what Steve Murrell says.
Pastor Steve Murrell has founded one of the largest churches in the world.
It's Victory Church in Manila in the Philippines.
And through that amazing work, I make sure my computer's off.
I don't make sure I don't make too much noise here.
But but so he started church.
It's over 100,000 attendants on a given weekend now in Manila in the Philippines.
And he has the same called Sobs in the same old boring strokes.
In other words, dance with the one that brought you.
Stay the course. Stay steady and keep hitting the same old boring strokes.
He uses a tennis analogy from a world class tennis coach who who coached one of his sons, who was a national contender in the Philippines in tennis as a high school student.
And he hired this coach and for the first weeks, weeks and weeks in a row, hitting across the net with his son, this this very famous coach just kept hitting groundstrokes for his full hour and 10 minutes, however much he paid for.
And finally, Steve got a little frustrated. I could do that.
I could stand back there and hit groundstrokes with my son.
So he talked to the coach and the coach said Sobs.
And he said, What does that mean?
He said same old boring strokes. He said that's what wins championships.
It's good. And it's it's not the fancy shots.
It's not the gimmicks. It's not the behind the back stuff.
It's not the trying to get all creative.
It literally is having a great fundamentals game. Repetition of the right things. Exactly.
Which is exactly what brought our country to where it should be.
Right. And when we started messing with the formula or what Rick Green of the Patriot Academy calls the secret sauce, we started messing with the secret sauce.
We jacked the recipe up. Yeah. We started getting creative.
And what's like new Coca Cola? You remember that? Oh, my gosh.
That was a terrible disaster. New Coke, New Coke.
It was horrible. We don't need New America. My gosh.
You talk about I mean, we think the Bud Light thing was a fiasco.
Right, man. The new Coke thing outpaced that by miles because people lost their minds.
It almost tanked the brand. It almost almost did them in.
It was terrible. But, you know, that that idea of, you know, we think we always have to be tinkering with something, always have to build a better mousetrap, always can improve.
But there are some things that you can't improve upon. Yeah. And God's Word is one of those.
Well, that's such a principle for people who desire to to live a godly life, to know the Lord is to resist the urge to add to reinvent
or so personalized or contextualized truth to your own experience that you end up distorting and getting away from the very things that God does and has been doing all along.
You know, one of my favorite things about God is he doesn't change. He doesn't lie. He doesn't change.
The way he did things before is the way he does them now.
And that's that's anchoring to your soul. That's a rock on which you can stand.
And it's something that we all need in a world where everything's fluctuating and changing all the time.
If we don't have a truth point that we go, I know this doesn't change. I know this is always true.
Then we're just a drift at sea. Wow. People, you know that, P.B., as we've been going through our study, we've been doing this series on acts called Mission Possible.
And we're in now Acts chapter eight. And as we've been going through this, the thing that keeps lifting off the page to me as I get into the weeds of it is the relevance of it.
This is so relevant. Mankind, humankind, human nature has not changed since the beginning.
We're doing the same things we've always done. The only thing that's changed is our surroundings, our externals, our the things that are a part of our outer world, whether it's technology developments, the Industrial Revolution.
So, in the industry, technology, all that stuff has changed. But at the end of the day, the core, the inner drivings, the inner motivators, the heart has not changed.
And so, when I read scripture and I read these timeless truths, which our nation was founded upon in our original founding documents, starting with the Mayfell Hour Compact,
which was signed before they ever put their feet on the shore. It was out in the harbor actually where they made these agreements. And one of the main focuses of the Mayfell Hour Compact is we're here for the propagation of the Kingdom of God on the earth.
I mean, we're here to do that. And that was exactly what Jesus said to do at the end of Matthew chapter 28. He said, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
They were taking a mandate from centuries and centuries before and saying, we're going to do this in this new land.
We're going to apply this to our current context. Exactly.
This thing that never changed, we're going to implement it where we are and what's going on.
And here we are in 2024, right on the cusp of 2025, and those same principles still hold.
They do.
And it's been one of my greatest delights in the last year and a half has been diving into and restudying.
You know, I did some study through the years. I was in a polysouth program in college.
So I did some study then, but really intentional focus study on our founding documents, our founding fathers, who they were, their background, what impacted and influenced them.
And I realized in this last year and a half that even back in the 60s, 70s, 60s and 70s, we were already getting taught revised history.
Revisionism had already happened. Things were being left out.
Now, not in college so much. I went to a Christian University, had a great polysouth director, dean over our school.
And they were quite quite upfront about who these men were.
So I got a little different version then, but you know, that was after high school.
And so, but I remember never being taught about the faith of our founding fathers.
Then you hear this through the years and people will still say it unfounded, but they'll say, oh, they were all deists.
They weren't really Christians. I heard that all growing up. I did too.
And so, and here's the sad thing. I believed it. Yeah.
I just thought, well, I know they weren't really Christians. And then I start reading about George Washington.
I start reading George Washington's diaries. He was deep. Oh, my gosh. His diaries were all about his walk with the Lord.
This was a man that was found praying on his knees in the snow while his men are dying and begging God to save them.
If they were shallow believers, then that's an indictment on all of us today. No kidding.
Because they were far deeper than most pastors that you'll find anywhere today. And they were self-taught.
Most of them were self-educated like Thomas Jefferson and others, but they were brilliant individuals.
Their education was a school of hard knocks. Oh, my gosh.
But yet they were studied and well-read and they prided themselves on their libraries and building.
These men were amazing. All without the Internet. No kidding. Right? Wasn't at their fingertips.
What do we do without AI? Perplexity. I mean, what do we do without chat GPT?
I mean, and I do love the tools. I'm thankful for those.
But at the end of the day, it's when I pick up an actual book that I still get there's something about it.
You know, I was digital for so long, even on my Bible. And I realized I felt like I was missing context.
Because in a digital context, I have to read a physical Bible. It's hard to have good context.
I like going back to the Bible that I've marked up. And there's reasons why I've overmarked some,
lesser marked some or not marked. There's reasons for that.
And as I read back through them, I see my little notes in there. I go, Oh, I remember why I wrote that.
It's because of this. And so there's something about visceral learning where you're actually touching tangible kinetic.
You're involved in something. And so they read books and they studied and they read poetry.
I mean, this it was a different world. And when you read their words, some of them,
I can hardly understand what they're saying. They're so above my head. Yeah.
Because we live in a texting world, right? They had large vocabularies. And we talk in emojis.
It's like, OK, so we've lost the love of language and all.
And that's that's running off on a tangent. But yeah, well, I mean, it's true.
There's only there's two big things I can point to that helped me to become established in some of the truth of the way our nation was founded.
Grown up. One was I had a lot of military members in my family and that tended to help bring into focus some of these principles that interesting,
especially, you know, in decades past were really being passed on through the military and the training.
It's part of what built the pride for our nation is passing on some of those things. All about honor. All about honor.
And then also organizations like wall builders, you know, Tim and David Barton and those guys and and how we dove into some of that 20 years ago in Abilene together.
That was eye opening for me because they've done such a good job to meticulously document the real deal history that happened and go back to original source documents.
They even have a library of them that they've maintained from hundreds of years ago.
Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing, man. You're so right. And, you know, we did dive into this 20 us together 20 years ago is is God stirred some things in me and is probably
I'm thinking back about some of the elections, you know, you had Obama era back then, you know, you know, change, you know, all that.
And yet Clinton and I'm just thinking back on presidents that we were in Abilene that Bush was there, I think, at the time.
George W. Yeah, we thought he was for us. Found out later he's a he's a he's a rhino.
And and gosh, you know, so and then, of course, 9 11 happened, you know, all that all those things happened in some of those those times.
And they caused us to to sort of like we need to get back to to what started this whole thing.
So that's been in you and I and others for a long time.
And then it sort of went dormant for a while because you're off building empires in the business world. I'm off trying to survive.
You know, the things we went through in our journey was very distracting.
And then and then for such a time as this, you know, you've heard me say this a jillion times.
I know you can repeat it in your sleep, but the right thing at the wrong time is still the wrong thing.
Not that it's inherently wrong. It's just in the wrong time.
That means it won't have its production. It won't have its stage. And so I think there were things we were saying back then that were that we're saying now that it's the right time.
And the difference is the fruit it bears. Yeah. And you look around our church and you see I met with a new guy in our church and he said, I've never been a part of a church that was so energized.
He said there is such an energy. He said not only the bridge, the church, but also the community.
He said there is something happening in Fredericksburg, Texas. And we're like, oh, we know we're in the middle of it.
And he said it's like an epicenter. Yeah. I said, you're not the first person to say that.
So there's something happening because it's the right thing at the right time and in the right place, which, you know, and we were talking about this before the podcast started here.
But, you know, this really goes back to the role that the Holy Spirit plays in the church, you know, timing really comes down to being in alignment with what God's doing and what he's saying in a given season, in a given place, in a given moment.
And the only way that we get in alignment with that is through a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
That's absolutely true. And what the Holy Spirit does is he highlights, or I like the way John Eldridge says it, he daylights. It's like dawning.
The dawn comes up. He daylights things in the scripture at a certain season.
Because haven't you done this where you've read a passage of scripture and it spoke to you one way, but then you come back into it in another season of your life and you read that same scripture and it's almost like you're reading it for the first time.
It hits you completely differently. Exactly. That's the Holy Spirit daylighting or emphasizing a certain part that you didn't see before.
And I love the work that he does in that. We were talking, like you said, as a great segue, by the way, ended what we were talking about before the podcast.
And that is the role of the Holy Spirit, the ministry, the person, the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
That was another part of the conversation I had with Chris when I met with him earlier.
He's come from a more traditional background. And yet he's starting to actually experience, see, and learn about the person of the Holy Spirit.
And he doesn't have any guards against that or there's no guard rails or anything blocking him. He just doesn't know.
So he's excited about learning and he sees our church has a healthy view of that.
Because there are churches that at least you could say, maybe in your experience in mind, that I've walked into that weren't so healthy.
There's a lot more flesh than spirit, you know.
And one of the things we would love for people who are listening to this podcast and joined us to understand the role of the Holy Spirit in the person.
So it's kind of let's go on that just for a moment. I want to share something with you out of John chapter.
If you want to get to know a little bit about the Holy Spirit, read John chapter 13 through 15 and 16,
because that is where Jesus sitting at the Last Supper, what we call the Last Supper, all of that happened around that one meal.
That was a lot of conversation going on. That was a long meal.
He had a big download for his guys at that point.
I'm sure they went through several courses and several jugs of wine too back then, you know, as he was really opening things,
because it was kind of his last big teaching before in Course John 17, the Great Prayer.
But that was kind of his last like, let me give you the rest of the story now.
And he laid it out and a large part of that was about the role of the Holy Spirit in the person, the Holy Spirit.
So there's a couple of things in here I'll share with you.
One is this, he says this, if I can find it now, I had it earlier.
He's talking about the Holy Spirit and he says this, where did it go?
He says this, he's talking to his disciples around the table.
I mean, in the middle of this is also when Judas was outed and discovered as the one who's going to be the betrayer.
I mean, so much happening here and in the middle of all of that movement, he says this, he says,
truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I'm going to the Father.
Now, he had just introduced the Holy Spirit.
He just talked about, I'm going to bring this comforter to you, another counselor.
Other words for that are intercessor, friend, the paracletos or paraclete, which means the one called alongside the help.
So you may see it in your Bible as the helper.
So the helper, the counselor, the comforter, the friend, the intercessor, all of that comes in the person of the Holy Spirit who indwells us and empowers us.
Yeah. And he, you know, he says that, you know, we're going to do greater works, which had to be a mind blowing thing for his disciples to hear in that moment.
Like, what are you talking about? Right.
Because they've seen everything that Jesus has done raising people from the dead, healing people.
I mean, you know, making wine appear out of water.
I mean, everything that he's done and they're thinking how in the world could it possibly get greater than what we're already experiencing here?
And I think what they didn't understand yet that the church would come to understand later is that when the Holy Spirit was sent to the church, it was as good as though Jesus was physically present with every believer everywhere at the same time across the whole earth.
So now he was decentralized.
Decentralized.
So instead of him being only with one person at a time like he could, like you and I are sitting here together, now decentralization happens and the Holy Spirit is with all who believe and receive.
If we were back in that time and you wanted to talk to Jesus, you'd have to fly over to Jerusalem and track him down, you know, go through the crowds, get his attention, try to get a moment, you know, but then when the Holy Spirit was sent, there he is.
24-7 available. The veil's torn. We have access to his presence at any moment.
If we have a backstage pass, man, it's like we've got that lanyard on our neck and we get to go back and be with him.
That's right.
You know, where others may not be able to go.
Listen to this. He's talking about the Holy Spirit.
He said, if you love me, you'll keep my commands and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper. That's the Paraclete, comforter, counselor, all those. To be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Wow.
Wow. We get a download from the Throne Central.
Yeah. I mean, you can't get a closer relationship than that, right? That's as close as it gets.
And you know what? Then you get into the book of Acts and you see that the main character of the book of Acts is the Holy Spirit.
In every chapter, dripping off of every story and every encounter is the presence and the activity and the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through the church, God's people.
Which is the Spirit of Jesus with us all.
That's right.
And sometimes people get confused and they want to over separate the Trinity, Triunity. The word Trinity is the word Triunity put together. Trinity, it's three in one.
And so, you have to be careful with that because now when Jesus was the Son of Man, at that point He was separate from the Father because He was the Son of Man, which is the Son of Flesh.
That's right.
So, He was here for a short time, I don't know, 30ish years, 33, however long it was, but He returned to the Father. And the scripture describes it because it's hard sometimes in human terms to describe eternal principles.
That's right.
So, the best they could do was He sat down at the right hand of the Father.
Well, you know, and the Holy Spirit didn't show up for the first time in the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit had been present all throughout the Old Testament scriptures and everything that God had been doing in the earth.
Let's just go to Genesis 1 and we will see the first mention of the Spirit of God in Genesis 1. Man, I have turned all the way back there. It's a long ways back.
It's on the first page.
I know. Well, it's not on my first page because I have contents and all kinds of stuff here. So, here it is.
Let's see this Genesis 1, 1. Let's just go back to the beginning. It says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep.
Listen to this, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
There He is.
There He is. From chapter 1 verse 2, the Holy Spirit was their presence.
That's right.
And now, I mean, the same Holy Spirit that was hovering over this void, the waters of the earth, this formless thing is now alive in us.
That's right.
That's mind blowing.
Well, and so what that meant was the unique thing that Jesus was saying about the Holy Spirit wasn't that He would show up and be present all of a sudden.
The unique relationship that He would take up with the church, those who are born again, would have Him without measure and perpetually constantly.
The Holy Spirit would kind of come and go through the Old Testament. He would show up in key moments to help accomplish specific things.
I mean, He empowered Samson, right, to have supernatural strength. All kinds of different moments throughout the Old Testament.
Daniel in the lines, Dan. You bet the Holy Spirit was there.
But He was there and then He would be gone.
But now He is perpetually with us.
And the beauty of that is we now have a relationship with Him.
That's right.
Of course we have a relationship with Jesus. That's easy. We have a relationship with God. That's even easier.
I mean, even the world says, oh, bless you. God bless you. I mean, the world will say that. That don't even know Him will say that.
But to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit is like another level. It's another depth.
I wouldn't say it's a higher level. It's a deeper level. It's an intimacy.
Yeah, very, very well said. So, so how does that apply to, I mean, we were talking about some things that happened this week.
We had a really eventful week at the bridge on Saturday night. We were, we participated.
What was so beautiful about this is one of our church members had this vision, this idea, a God idea to actually rent the town square in Fredericksburg, Texas.
We talk about taking Jesus into the public square, you know, not letting the church, you know, not pulling the church out of public square, being in the public square.
So, so Trey Blocker took this literally and said, I'm going to rent the public square. It's called Mark Plots, which is our central park, central square.
And he rented the pavilion there, which is huge. It's like a concert venue. It's really amazing outdoor. And it's just amazing venue.
He rents this and then he brings in a band that's made up of worship leaders from Austin, Texas. Super cool musicians.
They call themselves the Revelation 12-11 Orchestra. They've got mandolins and banjos and electric guitars and acoustic and keys, pedal steel and these singers.
And they sit around this on this hay, on these hay bales and got a light in the middle. It looks like a fire and it's 47 degrees or however, 45, whatever it was that night.
It was cool and mist falling and hot coffees being served and hundreds of people come to the town square on Saturday night.
And the title of the program was the greatest story ever told. So awesome.
And they did multimedia as well because they had a screen behind them and they showed clips from The Chosen.
Well, what Dallas Jenkins produced, the Christmas story that Dallas Jenkins did, kind of got his start in the Christian realm.
And it was one of those magical nights. I was talking to somebody there. There was no wind blowing. It was cold, but no wind.
And I was standing there with a couple from Lubbock, Texas and I just met them right then that night as I was hanging out with people.
And we were trying to describe it. And I just said, I'm just going to use this word. This is magical.
This is like almost unreal how cool this is.
It felt like Christmas.
It did. I mean, it was like you take Stars Hollow from the Gilmore Girls.
You take Mayberry RFD and you take Green Acres and you put them all together. You had what we had that night.
It was one of those nights where the community came out to be together, to hear this presentation of Jesus and to sing Christmas songs together as a community.
And it was in the middle of the town square and it was the church alive.
You know what I love about it is because of the Holy Spirit at work, not in the pastors of Bridge Church, but in one of our members, just one of our people who's a businessman.
The Holy Spirit saw fit to inspire him. And he on his own initiated the activity, had the faith to put up money for this without knowing if it would get funded or not,
and come to us and involve the broader body of Christ, which is just the way the Holy Spirit loves to work.
And then what happened was, you know, we were able to elevate all of the best things about a small town like Fredericksburg in a moment like that and show that it all connects back to Jesus at the end of the day.
Because a town like Fredericksburg, depending on who you're talking to or what event it is, you know, we could be known for completely different things around here.
But in that moment, it's like our identity actually emerged as no, no, no, we are a town full of people who are rooted and founded in faith.
And Jesus and that tone took over the city and the public square through that event.
We weren't in that moment known for hundreds of wineries or, you know, bachelorette parties or all the other things.
Do all those things happen? Yes. But in that moment, something deeper about what's at our core emerged through the Holy Spirit working in one of God's people.
Man, I think that will go down as one of my favorite memories in Fredericksburg, Texas.
Wow.
Since I've been here, I've been here nine years in January, it'll be nine years, so almost nine years.
And we've had a lot of wonderful, amazing moments where you can look back and go, wow, that was a marker.
That was, you know, that's where you build a tabernacle, right? You build, take what they call rocks of, you know, altar of remembrance.
Where when something happened at a particular place, they would build a little, called it a tabernacle, just be rocks piled up basically.
And just to say so that when they pass back through there and they saw it, they would be reminded.
Now we just take pictures on our phones. You know, we have our pictures.
And that night is going to be one of those markers for me.
You know, however long God allows me to live, however long God allows me to be a pastor like I am now in this capacity,
it'll always be that one of those moments I'll go back to and say, this was when the church was most beautiful.
Wow.
Because it wasn't driven by the staff of the church. It was driven by the people of the church.
It was driven by the church.
Yes.
And that made me so happy.
Another thing that happened that I would say was Holy Spirit inspired was something that our youth ministry put together.
And they did this a few weeks ago and it was called, Devo's and Donuts.
I always get it backwards. I always go donuts first because I think food.
But Devo's and Donuts, which was an idea that the Holy Spirit gave your wife, Naomi, back when you all lived in Tennessee.
So tell us a little bit about how that happened in Tennessee.
Then I'll share a little bit about how that happened here.
Well, it began as just a desire to see our oldest son.
His name is Jonah. He's 13. He's in eighth grade right now.
At the time when this began, he was in seventh grade.
It was a desire to help him connect how he could be salt and light in the daily context of being in a public school and to not be afraid to do so.
And so, you know, my wife was inspired to kind of come alongside him and come up with an idea for creating a before school mini event where we would just bless all the students.
Anybody who'd come out would get free donuts, some, you know, some drinks to start out the day.
And we'd have a song or two and, you know, a seven minute presentation of who Jesus is just to bless them and just to bring the presence of God and the spirit of God into the school.
And to really show our son Jonah, like, you can do this and you don't need to be afraid.
And so it began there and it kind of took off a little bit in Smyrna, Tennessee, where we were at the time.
And God really blessed it. And so she wanted to try it again now that we're here in Fredericksburg.
And God just took it to a whole nother level.
I mean, I think we had 50 kids participate in this back in Tennessee when we did this a month ago when they did this.
A hundred and sixty middle school kids showed up the first time and to hear the gospel and eat donuts together.
And the reports that we got afterward, not just of people enjoying the event, but the way that it changed the tone and the atmosphere of the day at the school and the way that it began to create connections that began to bring students to Jesus.
I mean, we've even had, I'd say, 10, 12 new students come into Catalyst on Wednesday nights now.
As a result of that and some who have given their lives to Christ as a result of it.
I mean, just amazing things. And so we just did round two.
And my wife was believing for big things. Our youth pastor, Pastor Brian Haley, was praying for big things.
And we had 260 middle school students show up the other day for this for round two.
Which I have to interject here, which was insane because it was 31 degrees.
It was 31 degrees, the coldest day of the year so far, Bradley.
And thankfully no wind. That would have been brutal. That would have been probably a game changer.
But the fact that these kids and what was cool is that, again, you think about how does the Holy Spirit lead us?
How does he work with us? Sometimes he prompts us to do things that make no sense whatsoever.
So Naomi's at a store and she notices these blankets are like a buck apiece, like little throws.
And she has this, hey, it's probably going to be cold the next time we're doing this.
Well, if we gave the kids blankets, thank goodness that she listened to the Holy Spirit.
And how many did she purchase when she was there?
300 blankets. Like a whole pallet.
I remember. And that was like, what is this for blankets?
I mean, it was hilarious as we're processing not knowing the whole story.
And then I'm there on Wednesday morning with you and 30 adults from our church showed up.
Again, watching the church be the church is like the highlight of my world. I didn't do anything.
Our people were coming out of the woodwork. You couldn't have kept them away.
And these are people that you wouldn't normally think would come to something like this.
I mean, we're talking amazing people, wealthy people, different people from different strata, sociologically, spiritually,
and all showing up just to be a blessing to a bunch of kids.
And not even just the kids, but they were able, because of the generosity of some of our people
who began to get involved in this and say, hey, we want to fund this. What do you need?
They were also able to give personal Christmas gifts to 80 staff and administrators who worked at the middle school that morning.
They got donuts. They got a personal gift. I mean, it was awesome.
And the kids got blankets on a morning when they really needed them.
And as many donuts as they wanted.
But what's amazing is that 260 kids came out in 31 degree weather.
I was shocked. I mean, driving there, I was like, because I walk out to my car.
I typically park in the garage because we're having our kitchen redone.
So my garage is wrecked with cabinets and stuff.
So I parked outside when thinking that morning, I got up to go out to my car and I realized, oh, my car's outside covered in ice.
It looked like it was an iceberg.
And I'm like, I have some of those inflatable light things in our front yard and they like wouldn't even like be inflated because they were in sheets of ice.
I was like, oh, boy.
They were covered in ice.
They were our first big freeze this year and it got down to like 27 that night, I think.
So anyway, I walk out and I'm like, Tex, I'm going to be late.
Fortunately, it cleared off pretty quickly. I was able to get there right on time.
But what was beautiful again is going back to the person of the Holy Spirit.
A lot of times we accidentally refer to the Holy Spirit as an it.
You know, it, the Holy Spirit and yet, but he is and he is a person.
He's a person.
And I think for me with what happened Saturday night and then Sunday morning was amazing here at the bridge.
It was just it was the overflow.
It was the after party.
It was kind of just that celebratory.
There was a spirit of evangelism in the house.
And God showed up that way.
But all of this put together, you can connect it all with one thread.
And that thread is a person.
It is obviously the person of Jesus.
But in the personality and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
So Jesus in the person, the Holy Spirit was here.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, in all Jesus on the earth, the scripture says was filled with the Holy Spirit.
He was baptized by the spirit.
And then look in the book of Acts.
I just read this the last time I preached out of Acts talking about Stephen the martyr.
He selected him because he was a man filled with the Holy Spirit.
That's right.
And so there's something about being full, being filled with the presence of God, the presence of the Spirit, which is the presence of Jesus.
That's right.
And when we are, when we're, when we're intentional in that, God says, I'm going to, I'm going to use you for something.
Well, I love how you always talk about us being leaky buckets.
You know, that to be full is not a given.
Right.
That's something that the scripture literally says that we need to be continually filled.
You know, so there's this I'm constantly going back to the spigot for a fresh filling.
There you go.
You know, it's because we need it.
I mean, we we leak out things happen.
We get our minds get off on the wrong tracks.
Our hearts get diverted, you know, sometimes from our choices, sometimes from things that come at us.
And we just need this constant reorientation and this constant refill of all that he is.
And the good thing is it's a it's an unending flow if we'll just stand underneath it.
Yeah. He talks about when you believe that out of us, out of our person will flow rivers of living water.
Right. And for those who believe.
And so we realize it's exactly right.
It's a continuous we become a conduit.
We become like a water trough, you know, that just water is running through into through and out of on the other side.
And the Holy Spirit works that way.
He flows into us.
He flows through us and he flows out of us.
That's right. To those around us, which means when you're walking under the leadership and you're led by the Spirit,
that's one thing to be spirit filled.
Woohoo. You know, great.
But you need to be spirit led.
And when we're led by the Spirit, he will lead us into things that are fruitful.
Yeah. Where we see we look back on whether it's an event or a moment or a conversation or church service or whatever it may be.
It can be a million things.
And evening with your family and you go, that was the Holy Spirit.
Well, one of the phrases that you use a lot is to go with the grace and follow the favor.
And I think that's part of that's a way of saying be led by the Spirit is wherever the Spirit leads you.
There will be grace.
There will be favor.
It's one of the it's one of his it's his fingerprint, if you will tell, you know, he's there and he's the one leading the show is because there'll be a supernatural grace to it that kind of goes beyond what makes sense.
You know, it's it's how does an event work like that in 31 degree weather?
Because there was grace and favor on it.
You know, how did that that event in Market Plots on Saturday?
I came together and with no more than three weeks of planning while on a whim on the fly.
And it was perfect.
Oh, my gosh. Amazing.
So how do so let's let's land the plane with this.
So someone's joining our program today is listening.
He she listening.
And they're like, well, I want more of that.
I'm a Christian or I want to be a Christian.
I want the Holy Spirit.
So what would you say to them on how to how to get their buckets filled up to put it in just regular terms?
How do you get filled with the Holy Spirit?
Well, there's two big things I see in scripture.
You know, in Acts, Chapter five, it talks about how the Holy Spirit is given to those who are obedient to the Lord.
You know, so there's a there's this place you got to come to where you say, you know what?
I am choosing and purposing in my heart to obey the Lord, whatever that means, whatever that looks like, wherever that takes me.
And that heart posture towards the Lord invites the Holy Spirit to come because he's not going to come and contend with you.
He's not going to contend with you for control.
He's not going to contend with you for whose idea is better.
You know, he's there to lead.
He's available.
But it starts with a heart that says, I'm willing to follow.
I'm willing to obey.
And then the other thing is, is that we have to ask, you know, he's not going to force himself upon you or anyone.
You know, he's I've always I've heard of him as referred to as a gentleman.
He's available.
He's ready.
You know, he he wants to fellowship with you, but you got to invite him.
Yeah, love that.
Listen to this in Luke 11 13.
Jesus gives a real clear.
He was talking about parenting and how we take care of our families.
He says, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, he said, if you're screwed up, you're one big dysfunctional nut.
And you know how to give good gifts to your children.
How much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
There it is.
It's that simple.
We we make it so complicated, but I love the kiss thing.
You know, keep it simple, Saint.
People say, keep it simple, stupid, stupid.
But I don't say that we're not stupid.
We're saints.
So keep it simple, Saint.
And so here it is letting us know that if we'll just ask.
And so that's how about we just pray a prayer on the way out and give people a chance to be in agreement with that prayer.
Something I do when I'm agreeing with somebody in prayer, you've heard me do it out loud.
I say, yes, Lord.
Yes, Lord.
Amen, Lord.
Yes, Lord.
It's like I'm cheering the person who's praying on.
But what it does, it keeps me focused and it keeps me in alignment because my brain tends to follow my mouth.
And sometimes my brain leads my mouth, hopefully not all the time.
But when things are good, it does.
And so when someone's praying, I intentionally out loud.
I learned this many years ago.
Well, when I was in Southern California, great church.
But agreement by doing it verbally and responding viscerally and verbally, it keeps my mind in alignment.
I do the same thing.
Yeah, I do it.
When I get around people who don't, it's weird because I'm like, hey, why aren't you too quiet?
We're teaching.
They're getting better.
They are getting better.
And so how about I just lead us, whoever's listening right now.
Listen, if you're listening, I just want to say this to you.
God wants you to have the fullness of His presence in the Holy Spirit.
He wants you. Jesus died so that He could be literally decentralized.
He could be spread out across the world for that very reason so that you can have the person of the Holy Spirit living in, dwelling in, and working in you.
And all you have to do is ask.
Any last word before we pray?
Well, you know, I'd just say the Holy Spirit's not weird.
The Holy Spirit's wonderful.
Beautiful.
He's who you need.
The way I say it, I'm a little more to the point.
I say the Holy Spirit's not weird.
People are weird.
That's right.
And the people that were are weird with the Holy Spirit were weird before the Holy Spirit came.
So quit blaming the Holy Spirit for your weirdness.
So so this isn't about being weird or outlandish.
It's about being able to hear clearly and be obedient to the will and work of God in the moment.
So let's pray.
Father, thank you for Pastor Brian.
Thank you for the privilege of having this conversation.
And we've covered God, the world, and other things as we do and riffing on just what's going on in our hearts.
And so thank you.
I pray you would bless it.
Father, for those that are listening right now, those who have heard what we've said about the person and work of the Holy Spirit,
and they want help, they want to be empowered, they want to be able to to step into the grace that you give for us to bear fruit
and make a difference in this world for them right now.
Let this be for them.
If you're listening, just be in agreement with this.
Dear Jesus, thank you for giving your life for me.
And thank you for the promise of the Holy Spirit to all of those who believe.
Thank you for letting us know that even even as maybe imperfect parents that we still give good gifts to our children.
But yet you as a heavenly father, you God, want to give the Holy Spirit to those who will ask.
And you're good.
So, Lord, we lean into and we ask the simple question right here, right now.
Will you fill me to full and overflowing with a person, the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit?
I, by faith, receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
And I, by faith, will step out to as I listen, I will also obey.
Even as Pastor Brian talked about, I will obey what you tell me to do.
I'll obey what I read in your word.
I'll obey what you speak into my heart.
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for filling me up.
And now I take this leaky bucket.
I go out into my world and I choose by faith to make beautiful messes everywhere I go.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen and Amen.
Well, how's that?
It's great.
Thanks for having me.
Hey, thanks for being on, brother.
Always appreciate our times.
It's fun riffing and see where God takes these conversations.
It is obviously unscripted, but it's alive with him.
So thanks again, Pastor Brian.
Thanks again.
Always happy to be here.
We'll do it again soon, my friend.
All right.
Everyone, keep living up in the down world and take your leaky buckets and go make some
messes.