This is Jimmy Nanette and we are coming to you from the heart, the soul, the spirit,
the center, the bulls eye of the Texas Hill Country where it is what we thought was,
it started off as a beautiful day, did it not?
No, it was foggy, remember?
Wait, oh yeah it was.
That was today.
But then it got warm this afternoon, lots of sunshine.
But it was foggy as we were going to church.
It was really foggy.
We've actually had a very cool week in the Texas Hill Country, lots of rain which we
need.
I think winter and spring got mixed up.
Totally confused.
I mean like everything's green and coming alive and yet I'm looking out the window
right now, it looks like it could rain any second.
Exactly.
I mean we need the rain, that's great, thank you Jesus.
However, oh Chevy just fell out of his chair introducing Chevy in a very clumsy moment.
He literally fell.
Are you alright there good buddy?
Poor baby, are you okay?
He's so unfazed by anything.
He's like looking me like, thank you for picking me up.
Our other dog that now lives with our daughter Faith, because Faith has her own apartment
now, she would be like traumatized for a day and a half if she just slipped out of her
chair.
She's very neurotic.
Chevy's like, oh who cares.
Chevy's like, yeah whatever, just pet me.
Make you back up in your lap.
So it's been really weird weather.
This last week is actually cool.
I mean we're wearing sweaters again and we're like, hey what happened to spring?
It was teasing us.
It really was.
I'm ready.
I've got spring fever I think.
I know, I do too.
I need some time off.
Can I have some time off?
Yeah, sure.
Go ahead, whatever.
You're the executive pastor.
You order yourself.
Last night I was just like, Lord it's time.
I need some down time.
This week.
Why are we tired?
Well this week has been, I mean holy week.
Getting ready for Easter.
Yeah.
Praying for not just the people to come into church, but the people to come to a saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And so it's heavy.
It is.
It's emotional.
I heard someone say this is the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl for Christians.
It's Holy Week and of course Easter weekend.
I'm like, yeah I don't really buy into the hype of that.
We have no Budweiser or Coors commercials happening in our church.
So it's not like to us, it's not hype.
It's more about every day's Easter, every day's Christmas when you're a follower of
Christ and you're engaged in an ongoing relationship.
Would you agree?
Right.
And for Easter, for churches, that's typically when you could double your attendance.
And you're not wanting to double so that you'll have more people.
At least we aren't.
I want people that are on fire for God or want to grow in their relationship with God.
And so I could care less how many people we have on an Easter Sunday.
The next Sunday could be a lot lower.
I want to see people growing in their faith or coming to know Him for the first time.
That is so important.
So much more important than the numbers you have.
Right.
We're very thankful.
We ended up doing three services.
We typically, we always do two services, but on I think Christmas did we do three this
year or did we do two on Christmas?
We did a, I don't know.
I'm so tired honey.
I can't even think.
This Easter was tough.
By the way, this is Easter Sunday when we're doing the broadcast.
So I mean, that's so we're a little bit out of it because it was.
It was a very long morning.
We did three services back to back.
I preached three times and played guitar in all three services.
And why am I so tired?
I just sat there because you're worried about me.
Is he going to say something stupid today?
Exactly.
Or yeah, our job.
No, I'm kidding.
Well, I mean, you do worry though.
I mean, you do.
I for one, you're, you're a pastor too.
I mean, I'd just get that out there.
I mean, you, you're an executive pastor.
So you have as much heart investment and call investment into the church as any of our team.
And so, yeah, I mean, but when I'm the voice up there, you're like, you know, I know him
pretty well.
That's why I want a microphone.
Adam Curry, please encourage Jimmy to let me have a microphone so I can correct you.
In the words of Adam Curry, if we give Dame Annette a microphone, I'll never preach again.
So because we know how you are.
In fact, by the way, for our listeners, no, listen to this.
You're always like, whatever you do, don't put me up front.
Whatever you do, don't, don't hand me a mic.
I just don't want to be taken off guard.
That's it.
Right.
I don't mind if you prepare me the one time you prepared me and then you forgot.
Oh, I thought you brought that up two episodes ago.
I did.
I brought it up.
They're a heart issue.
Right.
All right.
Well, Jesus heals the broken hearts, which is kind of what the message was about today.
I needed that message.
It's not.
Me too.
So let me just say this.
I'll get it out there.
Yesterday.
That's what we're here for.
We had a wonderful time with Adam and Tina.
We went and saw the movie, His Only Son.
Yes, which was good.
Not great, but it was good.
But it was good.
And we want to support those who are doing Christian movies.
We want to invest in them.
Because we want more.
Yes, absolutely.
And the more funds that they receive, the better actors and so forth they'll have.
Well, we went and we had a great time with them.
It was lovely.
We had dinner with them.
They came over for drinks and dessert.
We had dessert already.
And then they leave.
We had some vino.
We did.
It was good.
Well, yes, it was good.
Grape Creek.
Yes.
But as soon as I left, I had a meltdown.
I know.
I saw it on your face.
And I couldn't understand what was going on.
But I just started to feel, you know, when we were talking a few weeks ago, a couple
weeks ago about what plays in your mind, the records that play.
The tapes.
The records.
I'm aging myself.
But the tapes, the DVDs or whatever you want to say that play in your mind.
And that started going through my mind so bad.
And I mean, it was bad.
I was crying.
All these things were coming out of my mouth that, well, I don't know if I actually saw
it.
More in your mind.
More in my mind.
Because you weren't saying anything out loud.
You asked me what was wrong.
And I just briefly shared because I didn't want to.
Because husbands know.
Right.
But you didn't know fully.
No, I didn't know what was going on.
Something was buzzing in your head.
And I knew that.
It was.
I think what's hard for me is every, and I hate saying this because it sounds like,
well, then now it's going to happen every year.
But every year in the past, I've had depression try to hit me around my birthday.
Right.
I think it has to do with something that happened with my ex-husband back in the day.
But I can't pinpoint it.
All I know is the aging process is very hard on me.
And I just turn that age that I don't even want to say.
I wish I had.
It's hard.
Well, I'll keep it to myself.
OK.
Keep it to yourself.
I'm not going to say it.
I'm going to be nice.
It's OK.
I'm in a good mood.
I'm having a hard time.
And so it hit me last night after they left.
And I laid in bed.
And I literally, I could have had a cry fest.
I started to cry.
I heard it.
I could tell.
And I decided.
I was eavesdropping.
I know.
But there was one thing I've never done ever when this has happened.
I was laying down in bed when it happened.
And I got the version Bible out.
And I just started reading scripture after scripture after scripture.
Because I really felt like, and what I did was I took one of my devotions.
I'm doing the devotion.
What's it called?
Let's see.
You're doing several.
Well, I am.
But this one particular this week is called Easter Explained.
And it's eight day guide to celebrating the Holy Week.
So I went through.
I'm really shocked that I did this.
I'm really proud of myself that I did this.
But I went through every scripture for six days, which was a lot.
I mean, there were some that was a whole chapters were.
And so for about an hour, I made myself read every scripture because you can't cry and
read at the same time.
I kept looking over at you.
So this is a guy.
This is a husband wife thing.
And those of you that are married, get this.
You always know when your spouse is struggling, you know, there's something going on.
They won't talk about it.
Of course, as a dude, I'm like, what I do, what I do.
And I said, this doesn't have anything to do with you.
Independent Jimmy's like, did I do something?
Did I mess up?
Did I not say something?
Did I say something?
Did I?
And so that's so me centric.
So codependent, very pathetic.
But it's there's a flip side of that.
And really is because I genuinely care about what's going on in your heart and in your
mind.
It's what a husband does.
We care.
So as you're over there, I was like, are you okay?
What are you reading?
Because you were man, whatever you're reading, you were into.
So I was because scripture was a Bible.
And I couldn't tell you what I was reading because I literally was reading through different
chapters, different books.
And I realized when I started reading, I was really crying.
But as I started going through the scriptures, after a few minutes, I couldn't cry anymore.
All I could do is read.
And I was reading so much about what happened with Jesus on the holy at the holy week.
And my I went from this feeling sorry for myself to compassion for Jesus.
And I totally turned I did not go to sleep crying like I have in the past.
So all right, there's a couple of things there.
Because when you bring that up, that just my mind just goes off in several things.
But first of all, to the ladies that are listening to the podcast, I want you can you address
them because they get what you're saying?
They've I mean, we go through these emotions.
You know, it's triggered.
They do.
We have triggers for some reason my birthday.
But you know what was interesting?
My birthday was a week ago.
And usually it's on my birthday or the week before.
This time it was a week after.
So I thought we were through that.
I did too.
We made it.
And when those recordings started to play crazy, it's not crazy.
It's well, it's the enemy.
I think you get around people like Adam and Tina, who I just think are the best, literally
the best people I've ever met in my life.
I had never met anybody like them.
And they're beautiful and they're tall and they're gorgeous.
So much Adam.
Tina is pretty.
Sorry, Adam.
I had to throw a shot in there, brother.
I literally just I think I just went inward.
You know, I went into a bad place like, well, you'll never, you know, amount to anything.
You won't you don't look like them.
You'll never, you know, you don't have to.
Are you kidding?
I know.
Can you believe that?
I'm looking at you across the desk.
Oh, my gosh.
Stop.
But it.
Wow.
I think the enemy just loves to play those tapes that are so I mean, we're talking from
years and years in the past.
Nothing that has happened in in the present.
It's all from the past.
OK, but this is what I love, Jimmy.
So I share with you last night.
Yes, I'm having a hard time.
I'm having a woman moment.
I feel this, this, this.
Get in the word.
But you didn't say all that.
No.
I did say a little bit.
You left me guessing.
I did say a little bit.
I get it.
I didn't need to say much because I literally didn't want it out in the air.
The dude would like to hear more.
But that's OK.
No, seriously.
I appreciate it.
Also, I didn't want to continue crying.
I knew I'd be all puffy.
I'd be tired this morning.
I had a long day.
I know it's a woman thing.
So but, you know, I get up, I go to church and I'm thinking, OK, I'm good.
At least I got the word in me.
I feel good.
And then you switched the sermon and it was for me.
And you didn't tell me.
You told me and you mentioned to Adam and Tina that you totally switched gears, that
on Saturday morning you woke up at 4, 430 in the morning and you felt like the Lord told
you don't preach this, preach this.
You totally changed it.
And I asked you when we were with Tina and Adam and you said, I'm not telling you, you
need to wait till tomorrow.
I couldn't believe it.
When you preached the message on, we see our brokenness, God sees our mending.
Yeah, it's a line from a song.
We see broken, God sees mended.
I literally lost it inside.
That's wild.
I just was like.
Because I literally did not know what was going on.
No, because it was last night and what happened was the night before.
You wouldn't talk about it because you didn't want to mess up.
No, I wanted you to be.
I was getting ready to preach and you were being gentle.
I still knew you were a little bit off, but you seemed better.
But I had no idea what you were struggling with in your heart.
The Lord woke me up and I say the Lord because I don't normally wake up early.
Well, you don't wake up to change a message that you had prepared for weeks.
I mean literally weeks.
I've been working on this, doing some deep dive study about the crucifixion.
I had some great Lee Strobel quotes about the crucifixion and the reality of it.
I wanted it to be a full on Easter while it's celebrate.
We had been seeing movies about Easter.
We watched Risen, we watched His Only Son.
There was another one, we watched The Thieves on the Cross with Jonathan Rumi.
So we had watched a bunch of movies that really fed into you.
Really want to talk about the crucifixion.
And some documentaries that were just amazing.
And the resurrection.
We were doing a lot of study to prepare for this Sunday and then all of a sudden God says,
nope, I don't even want you to preach on that.
I was wrestling.
When I went to bed on Friday night, I was wrestling with it.
I'm really glad now that you didn't tell me because I think my mouth was probably open
the whole time you were preaching first service.
Of course, I heard it first, second and third service.
Three times.
Maybe it takes that much for me to get it.
Three times or what do they say?
Is it charm?
But I literally felt like you said God told me to do this and this is for someone out
there and I thought, wow, for your own wife?
Really?
Because I literally needed to hear what you said.
Even though I know it intuitively, there's just something about hearing it in that setting.
There's just areas that we believe that God has healed but sometimes there's just a little
crack, a little open door that happens.
I call that residue.
The issue's not there in your face all the time like it was in the past because you've
gotten healed.
But there's still scars.
There's still residue.
I had a scar on the bottom of my arm where I got cut badly.
And for years, even though the scar healed over, if I ever accidentally bumped that spot
like on the edge of a desk or anything, I'd just put my arm down on the table ronk, it
would remind me that there was a wound.
It would bleed again.
It wouldn't bleed.
It was just hurt.
Sometimes.
No, no, no.
This is the one that was completely healed over.
Not the scar.
It was gone.
It was just a scar.
But it was sensitive.
Now, it's not anymore.
All these years, low these many years, it's not now.
But it reminded me and it was like, I'm still here.
And I think sometimes some of the things that we get healed from spiritually and emotionally,
you bump the wrong thing.
That's like a trigger.
And it reminds you, wait, I'm still here.
And you're like, well, you're still here, but you're not as strong as you used to be.
And I'm not who I used to be.
So I'm beginning to heal.
It is a process.
Wouldn't you love it if God just, we prayed, snap our fingers.
Sorry, I got Chevy all.
When I snap my fingers, the signal for Chevy.
So he just jumps up like, okay, let's go.
Where are we going?
But anyway, wouldn't it be great if when we prayed and we said, Lord, we need you to heal
this broken piece in my life or this memory or this trauma, wouldn't it be cool in a perfect
world if God just snapped his fingers and we were instantly healed and never felt another
never felt a trigger or residue or echo of the past.
But for those of you listening, I understand.
Well, I think, you know, Paul had a thorn in his flesh that he had to live with.
And I almost feel like this is the thorn in my flesh that I have to overcome though.
I can't allow it to take root in my life and render me unable, you know, helpless because
it's it.
This is serious.
It really is serious when it gets to the point to where you just, you know, you're like,
Lord, you really need to intervene because I don't know how much more I can take.
So I have a verse for that.
Okay.
I read this verse this morning in the sermon.
And again, this was a late edition.
This is an edition this morning.
No late late last night, you'd finally fell asleep and my mind was still pinging because
I knew this wasn't fully developed because God just gave it to me hot off the press.
So my mind was a little bit like going, uh, I hope I know where I'm going with this because
I really felt led by the Lord to go.
And this first came to my mind.
Listen to this in second Corinthians 12 nine, Paul is talking about what you just brought
up the thorn in the flesh.
And he's saying, I want to do this, but then I do that.
He's going back and forth.
Well, that was actually Romans, but it's still the same spirit of what he's talking about.
He's wrestling.
Listen to what he says.
And this is Paul speaking.
He says, but he, God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you or my grace is enough
for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.
Therefore, this is Paul again.
I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ's power may rest on
me.
Whoa.
He's in other words, when the Lord just didn't snap his fingers and remove the thorn and
we don't even know what the thorn was.
The Bible never clarifies.
I think that's genius because it's almost like insert, insert your thorn in this blank,
right?
Because everybody has something different they're dealing with.
We all have brokenness in our lives.
And so I love that.
The Lord said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you.
My power is made perfect.
The word perfect there means whole, complete or total.
My power is made perfect, whole, complete, total in weakness.
It's like, so God shows off and shows out through Paul's weaknesses, which is speaking
to us as well.
So yeah, it's like you have to wrestle through this thing.
You have to walk through the valley of the shadow.
And I think people, you keep walking, people look at pastors and think, oh, well, y'all
have got it all together, you know the word, you know how to handle life in a better manner.
You don't have a care in the world and they don't understand.
Sometimes it's worse.
Introduce me to these said pastors.
I would love to meet them.
Exactly.
Well, we've heard of some of those who've actually talked about that in the pulpit,
but we know they're not perfect.
We know that's not true.
But man, it's hard.
I think that the more ground we take from the enemy, the more he pushes us.
Right.
You know what I'm saying?
Well, he's trying to keep a hold.
He doesn't want to let go.
He is.
It's a stronghold.
Stronghold.
And he doesn't want to let go.
And his job is to kill, steal, and destroy.
And he might not can kill, steal, and destroy my body, but he can kill, steal, destroy my
mind, my thoughts, my heart.
I'm telling you, it's a battle.
Well, first of all, yes, let's acknowledge it is a war.
It's a fight.
Everybody listening to the show right now can identify with having these mind wars.
We brought that up a couple of weeks in a row because it is.
At the battlefield, the mind's real.
And in fact, you ordered that Bible from Joyce Meyer.
It's great.
I've been thumbing through it and looking at all the highlights.
Fantastic.
So it's real for us.
This battle, this war.
So let's acknowledge that it's real.
So in order to heal it, I love what Tommy Hayes says, in order to heal it, you need
to reveal it.
So let's reveal that and acknowledge.
It is what it is.
However, we don't have to stay stuck in that.
So let's get on to, because I want to help those that are listening, because we know
what to do, even though sometimes in the middle of it, you don't want to do it.
But what did you do?
You mentioned it a minute ago.
I got in the scriptures and I just read and read and read.
And I found it interesting that the more I read, I was reading a lot of Psalms of what
David was going through when Saul was after him and was wanting to kill him and destroy
him.
I didn't know what you were reading.
You didn't tell me.
Well, that was part of the devotion.
And I'm sitting there thinking, here I am, upset about aging.
Hello.
Not looking the way I did when I was 30, not feeling the way I did when I was 30, not feeling
attractive, all these things.
And he's running for his life because a king wants to kill him.
I literally...
Out of jealousy.
Yes.
And I just sat there and I was just, how ridiculous is this?
Literally, I literally felt the Lord say, do you not see how stupid this is?
Wow.
I don't see how stupid, but those thoughts are not for me because I see you as a masterpiece.
A masterpiece.
Come on, girl.
And so if he sees me as that, why can't I see that?
I was talking with Tina.
We've talked quite a lot about body dysmorphia.
So common.
We both.
So common.
You've told me for years I had that issue.
I didn't know there was a word for it.
Yes, dysmorphia.
And then Tina, as we have gotten to know each other, we've talked about it quite a bit,
how we struggle with that.
So tell people, for those who maybe don't, like me, I didn't know there was a term for
it, but what is it?
Well, it's just you don't see your body as it truly is.
You look in the mirror and you see one thing and I look at you and I'm seeing a completely
different thing.
See, I look in the mirror and so many times, this is something I have to work on, I feel
like I'm 300 pounds.
I know.
It doesn't even make sense.
You're a tiny person.
But in my mind, I'm not.
When I see with my eyes, I mean, it's obvious that I'm not, but somehow in my mind, my mind
tells me I am.
So I have to overcome this constantly.
Every time I eat, every time I put on clothes, but I have to eat and I have to dress, but
it is something I have to, I'm not exactly sure where the origin is.
Well, for one, I mean, I'm a dude.
You're a female in the magazines, entertainment industry, culture.
I mean, everything screams, not just at women, it screams at all of us that we're not enough,
we're not pretty enough and yet they're airbrushed and fixed up and photoshopped.
And yet we still somehow in our mind think we should be able to live up to these images.
Well, I remember when I was 107 pounds and my ex-husband told me I was fat.
So how do you get over that?
107 pounds, I look at someone I could only wish, actually I don't wish to be 107, I would
look horrible.
But the problem is, is that the enemy puts those lies in your head from past statements
that have been made about you and it just plays and plays and plays.
So true.
I thought I was doing fine and then I don't know, it just came out of nowhere.
That's what's so crazy.
Which to me is a signal.
When a thought just comes out of nowhere, you have to realize there's an origin to that
thought.
So obviously something triggered it, but it came from a source other than you.
Well, and I also realized I'm extremely tired.
And think about it, we kind of let everything go.
We kind of let our mind just kind of go wherever when we're tired.
We don't think about our thoughts, which I think is important.
And I just feel like I'm just gearing up for Easter and just all the things we've been
doing in the last few weeks.
I mean, we were sick for a long time and then we had all the funerals and weddings and now
we have another wedding, our own daughter.
And so I feel like I am just exhausted.
And when you're exhausted, you just kind of allow, the enemy can be allowed to get in
there and speak those things that bring death and not life.
And I think that's what happened.
I think, I don't know, we've been counseling a lot of people.
I mean, it's been...
We've been meeting with a lot of people who are struggling.
We've done a lot of funerals where we're dealing with a lot of death and grief and heavy things.
And the residue of that, well, you can't help but take that on or you can't be empathetic
and compassionate unless you are feeling some of those things.
Right.
Because you do.
And if you turn it off, we wouldn't be worth anything if we turned it off.
We wouldn't be any good to anybody.
So we do tend to take those things on and we do it out of love.
It is a love thing, but you don't often get four or five funerals and a wedding in a couple
of months.
Exactly.
It's a real heightened season of a lot of emotional weight and gravity.
It just feels like you've been saying it in your lips.
So I think I need...
That's why I said I need some time off.
I literally was praying to the Lord last night.
I was just like, I really do need some time just...
Yes, to restore myself.
I mean, spiritually, I feel stronger than I've ever been, honestly.
Because on the other hand, so here's the flip side, it's been a great season.
We're seeing the church is growing, it's thriving, people are thriving.
We're making great friends and we're doing this podcast as a new thing.
We're engaging a lot of things.
We're not allowing things to come into our mind.
Yes, it's just been amazing.
Isn't that when the devil comes?
Go figure.
Always.
Hello.
It's kind of like, get a clue here.
So interesting because we were just talking about this and you made a comment.
You said, and again, for our listeners, we really want you to drill down in this with
us.
The Bible calls the devil a liar and the father of lies.
And Jesus says he's been a liar from the beginning because that's his nature.
It's his nature to lie.
So these things that come back at us, these echoes from the past are really from the enemy.
It's a strategic assault on our heart and on our mind.
Because if you believe a lie, you will act on it as though it's true, correct?
It's true.
So if I'm told this, and when I was in the childcare industry with these children that
were so abused, much of what they were up against wasn't real.
And it was real to them because a lie becomes real to the person.
You say it long enough and often enough, it becomes a reality and you begin to think it's
true.
And then once you think it's true, you act as though it is.
So when a child is told they're ugly, they were never wanted, they're not going to ever
turn out to be anything.
They'll never make it.
And they're told that over and over for the first one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, ten years of their life.
Well what do you think?
They start to actually act as though that's true and that it becomes a self-fulfilling
prophecy, correct?
Exactly.
And so what a lot of all of us, and I say us, those of us, those that are listening,
you and me sitting here, I don't know about Chevy, he's pretty clueless.
But other than that, we are constantly battling some of these thoughts and some of these lies
that were implanted like a tree gets transplanted into your soul and it grows roots.
And once it takes root, it's difficult to get out.
Like if you pull a tree up out in the yard right now, we won't go out with the right
kind of equipment and pull that thing up.
There'd still be a root system in the ground that could cause problems.
And so the same thing happens.
So we receive Jesus Christ, we accept his goodness in our lives, and then we begin to
say we're free indeed.
We're free in Christ.
And then something triggers a thought and it's like, whoa, I thought I was over that.
I thought Jesus healed that.
Here's what we've learned.
The real way and maybe the hard way is that healing is a process.
That's for sure.
A miracle is instantaneous, but a miracle can also be a process.
And so I've quit begging God for the instantaneous miracle and I now ask God and request that
he walk with me through these healing things.
So for those listening, the enemy is a liar and there's a strategy, a scheme on your life.
There's a strategy against you to do well, to make it, to overcome.
And even though already in Christ you are free, already in Christ you are healed, already
in Christ you are an overcomer, if the enemy can convince you that you're not, then you
will act like you're not even though you are.
And that's the enemy's goal because what he's trying to do is cancel you.
He wants to marginalize you.
He wants to ghost you.
He wants to do everything he can to make sure you are ineffective for the kingdom of God.
And so he does these surprise attacks, which is what happened to you.
Although you pinpointed it and realized, wait, about this time of year I get triggered.
That's insightful.
Hey, and that's a victory that you recognize.
Well, it's just interesting that it was a week later.
Yeah.
So that tells me, hmm, okay, maybe, you know, who knows?
Maybe it's maybe next year it'll be a month later.
Eventually it will be nothing.
I need it to go away.
I know.
But it's, I'm just glad I had the word to go to.
Let me applaud you for how you handled it.
Yes.
I could not have gotten through the night if I did not read the word.
Because here's the interesting thing.
So the timing of it, it's the night before I'm going to preach what would some would
say is the Super Bowl of Sundays for a pastor and a Christian.
So I'm, and I've already had a switcheroo.
So I was a little not sure footed about it because I hadn't studied all that.
It was, God totally threw me a different direction.
And then I'm, instead of focusing on that, all I can do is think about, is she okay?
Is she okay?
What a distraction that the enemy wants for you.
I know.
And we get that.
And it's not that you did anything wrong.
It's just the timing of this wave, this attack hitting you, this residue coming back up was
the night before one of our biggest days of the year.
And it turned out it was, it was a record setter.
It was a huge day for us.
And a lot of people minister too.
A lot of good things happened today.
And if you ever want to watch our messages or find out more about our church, it's called
Bridge Church Fredericksburg.
You can go to bridgefbg.com.
FBG stands for Fredericksburg.
Bridgefbg.com.
You can find all of our sermons there.
I put our daily posts there.
I mean, you can do that and you can actually watch the messages from this weekend because
here's the switcheroo that came.
Can I just share this?
Because it really fits right in with what we're talking about.
So at four something on Saturday morning, Friday morning, Friday morning, Saturday morning.
So Saturday morning I put the final polish on the message.
I send it over to Pastor Brian who's over our production so that he can load in the
scriptures into our system so that they'll show up on the screen, a pro presenter.
So he'll have everything we need so that I've got slides and all that.
He does the final build out on Saturday morning, runs up there, or early Sunday sometimes.
But anyway, so I knew I needed to get up and get him the final and I'd already put together
a bunch of stuff.
I was going to have to edit a lot of his way too much information.
Gosh, it's daunting when you start looking at Holy Week.
And so about four something I woke up.
I had this very uneasy feeling and I knew what it was.
I knew I was getting a curve ball.
It doesn't happen that often, but it does happen some.
But when it does, and then I go into these, oh, Annette thought I was going to do this.
If I do a switch and she doesn't like it, then I'm going to feel bad about it.
But these things happen.
I always like everything.
Well, there are times when you kind of get that questioning thing like, are you sure
about that?
And I go, trust me.
And then you preach and it's amazing.
It's the right thing.
Yes, exactly.
And I do hear his voice, not literally, but I get these impressions and leanings.
And so I do know when it's him trying to give me a signal.
And so I was trying to listen to that.
So I get up Saturday morning, I rebuild the whole message in a completely different direction,
totally different.
And I thought, wow, well, this will be an unusual Easter message.
But here's what happened.
I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I've did all this research and work on a message
that's going to scientifically wow people.
They're going to go, oh my gosh, the crucifixion was horrible to the human body.
Oh, I'm going to quote Lee Strobel, who I love as an apologist and a thinker about the
validity of the resurrection.
And it dawned on me, and I know this was the Holy Spirit, my helper, my comforter, my counselor,
my friend, waking me up to say, that's great, Jimmy, but you're going to miss a lot of the
people that I'm going to bring to the Bridge Church, literally nearly 300 more people,
over 300 more people than a regular Sunday.
Plus internet.
Plus the internet, you know, people that are watching online.
And the Lord just, again, he didn't speak literal.
This is my mind interpreting my feelings that he was giving me was, who's your audience?
And I realized, and I heard this in my heart.
I even said it out loud the other day, that Easter is about when Jesus told Peter and
the guys to cast their net on the other side of the boat.
They had been fishing all night and hadn't caught anything.
Jesus shows up and says, cast your net on the other side of the boat.
The impression I had was Jesus was saying to me, cast your net on the other side of
the boat.
And the way I interpreted that was, you're not going to preach what you thought you were.
It's going to be a completely different thing.
You think you need to do it over here.
I'm telling you, put it over here and there'll be a great catch of fish.
So we show up, church is packed.
I mean, it's crazy.
I mean, like, don't tell the fire department.
There was a lot of people there.
It was jammed.
And praise the Lord for that.
But I realized as I looked out in the Congress, and I went out and met a lot of people before
the first and second services started.
And as I was meeting, I knew, I knew we're from Ohio.
We were visiting town.
Or these are my friends or these are my family from another town.
And the Lord was saying, see, the people that are here, they need to hear.
They don't need another crucifix, crucifixion story that they hear every, every year.
They need to hear that God loves them no matter what it is.
I got up there.
On their worst day, God loves them.
Exactly.
I got up there with basically no story in mind.
Nothing.
I mean, it was bare.
That's why you typically, I mean, you get up and you tell a story off the cuff.
I don't know how you do that.
But I think because that was such a different direction, I cast my net on the other side
of the boat that I did not exactly know where it was going for service.
And I just stepped up and trusted the Lord.
He's going to give me what I need to say.
And he did right off the bat.
And the word says my sheep hear my voice.
They know my voice.
So I trust God in you that he's going to lead you to preach what you need to preach.
I trust him to lean on me.
Please don't put that pressure on me.
I love you and I want to please you.
I know, but I would rather you please God than me.
I get that.
Yeah.
So that's what I did.
And I'd switch the whole thrust of the message to the brokenhearted.
And I did something I've never done.
I said, Humpty Dumpty.
And then I let the congregations finish it.
That was funny.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
Do kids these days even know that story?
All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again.
So I talked about Mr. Humpty.
Mr. and Mrs. Dumpty and Mrs. Dumpty.
Because there's male and female.
And I said, we're all broken.
We all have shards.
We're like shards of glass, shards of ceramic pottery.
And then I told a story about an ancient Japanese.
That was powerful.
This is how God works.
I read a random, very random news article.
And I live randomly.
So it's actually not that abnormal for me.
But I pulled up this news article.
I clicked on it.
It was like three things that the Japanese culture do to find peace.
I thought, well, that's interesting randomly.
What do they do?
And one of them was this art form called kintsugi.
It's hard for me to say, kintsugi.
And so I did some research.
And on that, it was fascinating.
What they do is they take, instead of throwing away, let's say a bowl falls off the table
and breaks.
Well, normally, what would we do?
We would throw it in the trash if it's not salvageable.
Get the broom.
Right.
Get the scoop thing.
The Dyson.
We'd go grab the Dyson and we'd just vacuum that thing up, throw it in the trash, right?
And never think about it again.
But not them.
They actually value the usefulness of a product or something that's made to do something.
They value its purpose.
And so centuries ago, an emperor, a Japanese emperor, had a very valuable rare pot.
It fell over.
It broke.
And so he sent out throughout the land wanting to get another one because it was rare, but
there were others made and they could not find one.
And so some artisans and those who worked in ceramics and pottery came and said, let
us take it.
Let us see what we can do.
So he did.
And when they brought it back, it was stunning because what they did is they took lacquer
and gold dust and they meticulously reassembled this vase or this piece of pottery.
And it actually was more beautiful when they returned it.
And it was more beautiful.
More valuable.
It was more valuable because of the gold dust.
But it meant more to the emperor afterwards because he could see the cracks and the scars
and the imperfections.
But they made those imperfections beautiful.
And that began a trend where other people began to do that.
And now you walk into any Japanese restaurant or you're in a museum, you'll see these beautiful
works and they're beautiful.
But they're actually birthed out of brokenness.
And so then the article I read had nothing to do with Jesus.
It was all about the Japanese culture.
But I thought to myself, this is exactly what God has done in my life.
This is what Jesus does for us.
He takes these broken pieces and instead of discarding them, he actually scoops them up
and he puts them back together again.
And they're better and more valuable afterwards.
They become works of art.
I want to just share a scripture.
In fact, you even mentioned you got right there and I thought, oh, this is that.
So let me just share this.
For those of you who maybe feel like you're broken, maybe you feel like you're shards
of pottery on the ground and somebody's about to come scoop you up and toss you out, this
scripture came to my mind, Ephesians chapter two, verses eight through 10.
For it is by grace.
I love that word.
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this not from yourselves.
It is the gift of God, God's gift of grace.
And it says this, not by works so that no one can boast.
Now listen to this, verse 10.
This is where that metaphor collided with my theology.
For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared
in advance for us to do.
In other words, God designed us to do these amazing things, but we are broken.
Oh my God.
Everyone is broken.
Everyone.
Everyone listening to this podcast is broken.
There are chinks in our armor.
Or Home Depot or something.
It got the scratch and dent section.
It's a bunch of stuff that got beat up in shipping and it's dented and it's lost value
according to the consumer.
And yet when we put it back to work, it works.
But I love the whole idea of Kitsumi that God can take these broken things and put them
back together with gold, with grace, with mercy, with his love.
Put us back together again to where now we become what the scripture says.
So that we are God's workmanship and that word workmanship means a work in progress.
It's what a craftsman or an artisan does with beautiful things.
They work with things and create something that's a work of art and that's beautiful.
And that's what we are in Christ.
And I share that message and that's the message the Lord gave me.
Of course, I use Peter as a great example of how three times he denied Christ and then
Christ three times restored him.
And just a beautiful moment there.
And then we called for people to come forward and give their hearts to Christ.
And we had a lot of people to front.
It was just a beautiful, beautiful day.
But I've learned something new and Kitsumi will always be an image in my mind of something
that was broken that God made beautiful.
And then that line of the song came to me.
What people or what we call broken, what we see is broken, God sees beautiful.
We see broken, God sees beautiful.
And so anyway, that was the thrust of it all.
So Annette, what did that speak to you?
You said that that really hit you because that wasn't where you thought it was going
with the message.
Do you remember that song we used to sing about being refined as gold?
Oh yeah.
What was it called?
Refiners Fire, I think.
That was a classic.
Oh, it's called Gold.
Gold, it sure was.
It's called Gold.
It was a beautiful song.
Beautiful worship song.
I wish we had that song playing.
It's powerful.
In Zechariah 13, he says, I will refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold
is tested.
They will call on my name and I will answer them.
I will say, this is my people.
And each one will say, the Lord is my God.
Wow.
See, he refines us.
He refines us.
It purifies like the finest gold.
And so that was going through my mind.
I was like, wow, he's just refining us.
And we're always going to be refined until we meet him face to face, in person.
And then it will be complete.
I think we live in a fallen world.
So we sort of sometimes have this fairy tale that one day I'm going to reach a place in
life where there'll be no more pain, where there'll be no more discomfort.
That means I need to work harder, make more money, invest more, have a bigger retirement.
So we think we try to build in all these safeguards just in case.
And at some point you have to realize we live in a broken world and broken things break
other things.
We always say broken people break people, hurt people hurt people.
But broken, when you live in a broken world, the broken world is going to break people.
It's going to break us.
It's going to chip things off and dent us and hit us and hurt us.
It's not a fatalistic viewpoint.
It's not like I live thinking, oh yeah, well, just waiting for the next shoe to drop.
But there is a sense in which we realize that life is not fair and that we live in a broken
world and things happen.
And we do.
But the beauty of it is, is that we now have, you used the word of God when you were struggling
in your brokenness yesterday, last night.
You went to the source of life.
You went to the word of God.
You went to the Bible and you read the scripture.
What did it do?
It built me up, gave me peace, gave me rest.
I was able to go to sleep and sleep well.
It put you back together again like lacquer and gold.
Exactly.
Well, I think you're beautiful.
Thank you.
Yeah.
You're a beautiful work of art.
You're His workmanship.
And so are you.
Those of you that are listening, you are God's workmanship.
You're God's masterpiece that He's working on and building.
And we want you to be encouraged.
We call this podcast, Living Up in a Down World for a Reason, because it is a broken
world and we're trying to learn and grow and get tools in our tool belt that will help
us live this life as we should.
And so any final thoughts Annette before we sign off today?
No, I think I've said quite a bit.
I'm excited to see what God's going to do through this and how He's going to continue
to lead me through this because it's not over.
It's a journey.
Because we're still living on this fallen earth.
It's a journey.
And so it is not over.
Always think of the show, the movie, What About Bob?
Oh my goodness, you would think of that one.
Baby steps to the door, baby steps to the street.
Baby steps.
Listen, we love you guys.
I got to give a shout out and a big thanks to Adam Curry and Tina.
Super excited for Adam.
We got to talk about this for a minute.
Oh, he's getting baptized on Wednesday.
He's getting baptized on Wednesday night.
Oh, Tina was a mess today.
She said his baptism is affecting her more than her own.
Oh, wow.
And she is really looking forward to it.
It's going to be beautiful.
He's so excited.
I mean, we were out to the movie and dinner with them yesterday and then they stopped.
We hung out here at the house and his excitement, his exuberance just is so life giving.
It's going to be a beautiful, beautiful thing.
And I have the honor of getting to baptize my brother in Christ.
And so we talked that through a little bit and we're having a night of worship, which
is going to be super awesome.
It's all streamed so you can watch.
Yeah.
So if you want to watch Adam Curry get baptized and several other, we got lots of folks getting
baptized, you can go to, well, you can go to our website, which is bridgefbg.com and
it'll be live streamed there.
It's also live streamed on YouTube.
And that's you just go to YouTube and you do a search for Fredericksburg Bridge Church,
Fredericksburg, Texas.
There's a bridge church in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
That's not us.
So yeah, we have our own channel there.
So you can find that.
It'll be live streamed there.
It's also live streamed on Facebook, but Facebook is just being nerdy about some things.
They messed our live stream up today because of a, what they call it, some kind of a new
update they sent out and totally jacked us up.
But yeah, we keep having a little...
Not a fan.
So anyway, go, so watch Adam.
And what's the night of worship?
It's going to, our worship team, we're going to be cranking it up and playing and just
worshiping God and freedom.
It's just a wonderful night of celebration, kind of an Easter afterglow.
And the baptism waters will be warm.
We're going to see people get baptized.
It's going to be a sweet time.
And also just always want to say big thanks to you that have been checking out our website.
Several of you have been writing in, sharing your testimonies, asking questions.
And we always encourage that.
You can find us at livingupinadownworld.com.
And you can write us.
You can do comments on the show.
You can listen to the show there.
But we also would encourage you to check out Fountain.
Fountain is a great platform where you can participate in value for value.
And when you hear something you like, you can actually encourage us by bumping us, boosting
us, they call it boostograms and send us satoshis.
Even by listening to the app, you actually make money.
You make Bitcoin.
You can earn it literally just by listening.
And so anyway, we appreciate your help in that.
And those of you that have been boosting us and encouraging us on Fountain and Cast-O-Matic
and other value for value platforms, Podcast 2.0, thank you so much.
And we just love you.
We're doing this as a labor of love.
We're doing it because we care about you, about what you're going through.
But we care about you because we want to see you grow in your faith life and on your faith
journey.
So do write us.
Let us know you're listening.
Send questions.
Send comments.
We love hearing from you.
We'll always get back with you.
Annette, any final word?
Well, I just want to make sure that everybody knows.
Please listen to Curry and the Keeper if you want a good laugh.
There you go.
I'm excited that they're going to have their podcast this week because I need a really
good laugh.
There you go.
And that, it's just, it's beautiful.
It's funny.
It's enlightening.
It's just, it's a great, great show.
Fantastic.
curryandthekeeper.com.
You can also get Find Among Fountains as well.
Same platform.
All right.
Much love to all of you.
We want you to live up in a down world.
That is our challenge.
That's our excitement.
And that is our glory.
And for you, we are pulling for you.
You can do this.
You've got this.
Better yet, God's got you.
God bless.
Until next week.