Father, what a privilege, what an honor, what
a joy to come before you today. In the middle
of a week that's hectic and busy and harried,
and yet we still have this attitude. We get to
do this. So Lord, we lay all this before you.
We thank you for our friends that are listening
and joining us, and our prayer for them is for
your grace to be more than enough. to be absolutely
sufficient in their lives. We thank you for the
testimonies that are coming back from people
who are engaging their faith and engaging their
walk with you, some of them re -engaging and
some for the first time stepping into this. So
we pray for grace upon them. And Father, as we
do this, we always want to honor you in everything
we say and do. Thank you for our families, our
friends, our fur babies. And we thank you for
this time, this podcast in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. It's Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025. We
Get To Do This. This is episode number seven.
Hey, brother. How's it going, my friend? It's
going good. It's good to be in the house of Pastor
Jimmy and the Five Brian's. That is so funny.
That'll make me laugh for a long time. I'm just
checking out your hoodie today. Yes, I got the
Iron Sharpens Iron. That is awesome. Proverbs
27. That's one of my faves right there. I live
by it. I live by this and Ephesians 6 .12. I
just can't figure out the tattoo. For Ephesians
if Ephesians is really difficult because you
know you want to do whole armor of God It turns
into like a knight of you know, yeah shining
armor Yeah shield and sword. I'm looking for
the perfect. Yeah, I haven't quite found you
know No one thinks about tats until you decide
to get one about how how Hard it is to pick out
the design go or design it because it's like
a sweater. You can't take off I mean, yes, it's
there once you do it. It's done. It's in here
in your body So yeah, so you're you're kicking
around the fusions of well, you know as I'm saying
that I'm thinking to myself What is the number
one emoji we use? The swords. The swords, the
iron sharpens iron. So maybe I need to not be
so critical and go for the swords. There you
go. I like it. It's been 61 years, man. So I
haven't gotten a tat yet. So 61 for you. It was,
I think, 58 for me when I got these. Oh, really?
Yeah, Tetelesthi. Yeah, and Free Indeed, which
I'm going to be preaching on this very passage
on Sunday. You know, Pastor Brian did a great
job bringing about, you know, national, local
freedom based out of, you know, the Bible, which
impacted obviously the Declaration of Independence.
He did a phenomenal job with that. So I'm taking
a different tack. I'm coming in from personal
freedom and spiritual freedom. So we're talking
about freedom on those two levels. And then Dr.
Rick Scarborough will be with us the following
week, which he's a legend. Oh, really? He's going
to preach? Yes. Oh, fantastic. Super excited
about having him. He's pumped. And he'll be bringing
freedom from more of the geopolitical thing.
I mean, really, really just kind of his story
of how he stepped into that space as a pastor.
And of course, I'm going to have him tell this
story about his daughter. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's
a great story. That story is the message. It's
a good story. Does he just go around the country
speaking at churches and rallies? I mean, what
does he do? You know, he's way past retired,
but in his retirement, he's retooled himself
and re -upped, so to speak. So instead of leading
a church as a pastor, he now speaks, does engagements,
but he does a lot of training. for pastors in
terms of cultural engagement. Right. That's his
big, that's his big thing. That's his big rock.
It is, it is the big thing. You know, actually,
I was going to start with something else, but
that cultural engagement, let me see, because
I did bring a couple of clips. Great. And this
one, now who is in my life, who is the biggest
non -believer that you can think of? Really?
Oh. Yeah, shall I say that out loud? Yeah. Joe
Rogan? No. Oh, I'm not... Who I work with all
the time. Oh, I'm not gonna say the name, man.
I don't do that. None of them will be upset.
No, no, you say it. John C. Dvorak. I know, I
love John. He calls himself a lapsed Catholic.
A lapsed Catholic. Now, ever since I was saved,
proclaimed Jesus as my Lord and Savior, We've
never actually even talked about it. We don't
talk outside the show. But he has chided me.
He makes fun of me, you know, which is... I've
heard him. First of all, it's expected. It's
expected. But something interesting has started
happening. And so, you know, when he sends in
clips, I don't look at him on our Thursday and
Sunday show. And I saw he had something about
NPR and faith and religion in America. I'm like,
oh brother, okay, this is going to be interesting.
So I didn't actually bring those clips. I brought
his analysis of these clips because he's, and
it goes right into the cultural engagement. So
the story was, of course, some professor from
like the Christian Islamic Jewish Institute,
like, okay, that's not a broad swath, but okay.
And how the churches are diminishing. And I think
what they were really focusing on is how this
big church splits in, I think, the Methodist
Church. Now the Anglican Church. The Church of
England. Yeah, I just heard about it. So they're
not going to recognize the Archbishop of Canterbury,
which is like, whoa, that's a big deal. And so
they were kind of going into, and he has this
long standing thing. We both agree that social
media is a problem, particularly with young kids.
And he just launched into something and it was
more about the church and then it kind of morphed
into music. I just wanted to share this because
this gave me so much courage. and encouragement
for what's going on. And it has a lot to do with
our church right here. That's why I think it's
interesting that your church has a number of
little factoids that it pulls off that I think…
I just love little factoids that it pulls off.
I love it. I use that word all the time. I love
it. When he says it though, somehow it doesn't
feel good. I don't know what it is, but it's
just, it's incredible. I'll go back. That's why
I think it's interesting that your church has
a number of little factoids that it pulls off
that I think, which will be create a revivalism,
I think, which is the socialization thing. Yes.
Which is a lot of churches become social. And
I came up with this thinking about this because
I did a hit on Chanel show on Friday. Oh, I missed
it. A Chanel hit. But Chanel Ryan, the One America
News, he goes on, he talks about, he shows TikTok
videos of crazy liberals. But I guess he's getting
into deeper material with the Chanel, yes. This
discussion was about this country and western
guy who's a left winger and how about country
and western is, you know, they're trying to move
in on it. But she said, she made the comment
that there was a large, the country and western
music is the largest genre that is growing the
fastest and asked me if I had any idea of why
this might be. And I said, maybe it's because
country and Western at least has to do with relationships
and, you know, boys and girls. And and the idea
that you can, you know, there's there's love
songs within the country and Western genre as
opposed to shooting somebody or bitching about
immigration status in a song. And so you end
up with this kind of the need for socialization.
And I think the churches that do well are the
ones that are pushing that part of it. they have
their message, but the idea that kids in particular,
young ones, the Zeds, they, you know, they haven't
been, they don't have, there was a big story
that was going around all this last week on the
mainstream media about one of the high schools
that cancel all their dances. It's insane. Cause
nobody was going to go to the dances. And it's
like that brings back my old point about the
sock hop. And so I think churches have their
opportunity. uh to help kids socialize because
it's a yes it is a place where you can yes meet
people your abs and and i will say that more
so yes the non -denominational churches i think
are doing quite well and they're growing and
they also have very young pastors you know when
i say young i mean 40s and it's a very different
breed a very different genre and the music is
actually much closer to country and western,
it's all Nashville. All of the Christian contemporary
music comes out of Nashville now, and they're,
you know, they're, Ann Wilson, traditional country
artist, boom, moves right over to Christian contemporary,
Jelly Roll. You know, this guy is the furthest
thing from Christian contemporary music, has
the number one hit with Brandon Lake. Never heard
of any of these things. No, I know you haven't.
But in the legendary words of Lonnie Frisbie,
there's a whole generation out there just looking
for God, man. So I thought this was really interesting
that he pegged that the churches who are socializing
and becoming centers of the community again,
which is exactly what you and Annette have done
here with Bridge Church. I mean, we're here all
the time. There's always something going on.
That's our heart. And you know, I grew up unchurched,
completely, until I was 18 years of age. When
I stepped into this world, it was like stepping
on the moon. It was a lunar landscape. I didn't
know what was behind the next crater, behind
the next rock. I had to learn a whole new world
as a young person. I was met with grace. old
people that love me. I call them blue hairs because
back then they all had blue hair. They were so
sweet to me. But what I realized too is as I
began getting to serve churches and began getting
involved in ministry, and while I was going to
college, we would serve a lot of small churches
all around Central Texas, tiny churches out in
the country. and they would have these old pavilions
out there. It was the center of the community
or the center of the county. I would hear stories
about how everything was around the church. That
was the community center of the church. You didn't
have a separate community center. You had the
church fellowship hall. It was the community
center. I remember just sitting around with these
precious folks as they told those stories. I
got to serve in a small town in central Texas
called Comanche, Texas. I think there's around
4 ,000, 5 ,000 people there. Small churches.
You feel like you're a bit in a time warp, but
it's good. Mayberry RFD, you're feeling it, right?
You're feeling Barney Fife and the sheriff and
all that. And it's like, there's something Americana
and good. And some of that has not been lost.
We are in town. It's this small. We're 12 ,000
people, but we're connected to Austin, San Antonio.
We're in this sort of weird vibe where we get
more influx from larger cities. So we're large
on the weekends, back to normal during the week,
except for during touring season. So our heart
is to have the church become a flourishing place
again. to where any day of the week you drive
up, there's cars in the parking lot, there's
people going in and out. I call it the buzz factor.
The louder it is in the halls, the happier I
am because that means people are here and they're
seeing their church as a connector for the community.
And you're doing that with a Godcaster. I mean,
that's the heart of that. It is. And did you
hear the report from Mindy, by the way, about
the battery plant? I did, actually. That was
fascinating. Yeah. So, you know, that's like
a... Now, she wrote it and I turned it into a
report for her. Right, right. Because there's
this big... I wondered if it was our Mindy. It
is our Mindy, but that's not... That's not the
voice. I know. I get it. That's not our Mindy's
voice. I get it. Exactly. Yeah. But she... It
was pretty much how she wrote this message to
the women on a text group, like... Can I, can
I put this on Hello Fred? Because I think it
really, it does, it does create this connector.
And notice what Dvorak said there. He said, this
is where a revivalism, he said revivalism, I
think. But because he means, he's a very smart
guy and he studies history, he knows about cycles.
And I mean, he's said in the past, you know,
we're due for another great awakening, which
I agree with, of course. But what, what a fantastic
observation. because we have the catalyst group
here on Wednesday nights. I mean, can we do more?
We should be...it feels like we should be...we
got the women's ministry, we got the men's breakfast.
With Tuesday Night Bible Study with Tommy Hayes.
That's right. We're looking at introducing another
one or two that may meet on a Thursday night,
because we want to compete with each other, we
want to make opportunity. Right. Where literally
you could be up here a lot, and the goal is not
to pull families apart. That's the danger of
having so much going and having this huge menu
of opportunities. We've got to make sure that
the family is always the center of it, not just
everybody goes their separate directions. So
we're trying to create opportunities where we're
together, like on Sunday mornings, the kids,
at least the junior high and middle school. I'm
not in junior high. That boy, I really dig myself.
Middle school and high school stay in the service
through the worship and even the announcements.
We feel like that's important. And through communion,
we want them to participate in that. Then we
dismiss them to more age -appropriate things.
But the idea is that this becomes a hub for the
community. And I mean, we're doing like shooter
training, active shooter training, which not
everybody agrees with. We had one family leave
the church calling us hypocrites because we don't
trust God. I'm like, what? Where do you live?
Hello. So anyway, weird stuff like that. But
anyway, so we're trying to say what can we do
that's needed in the community that we can fill
that gap, you know, meet those needs. And so
anyway, that's what we're doing. How about the
idea of a sock hop? I'm just saying. I know,
I know. I had little things running through my
head, of course. I was in high school, 76 to
80, and of course, Smoking the Bandit came out,
you know, what, 79, 80? Yeah, it did, it did,
yeah. That was the show we, okay, so for prom,
they rented the, the high school gets the community
center. Right. Okay. And my big town opposed
Texas. and they showed that movie, Smokey and
the Bandit, at that to keep us from all going
out and getting drunk. Right. And it worked.
I mean, I stayed in. We had a great time. And
I'm saying it more for my own history. When we
moved to a very small village, 900 people south
of Amsterdam when I was a kid, we literally had
three digits on our phone number exchange. Our
number was 771, and I had my own line, 445. It
was very small. These are big rotary phones,
by the way. And I remember we had a village,
it's called the Dorps House. So it's a village
house, which is kind of like a community center.
It's where the school did their gym practice,
and they had this hall. And on Sundays, they
showed movies, obviously. But the one thing that
I always loved, and I would love to see this
come back, and I'm not saying it's for the church
specifically, but there were dance classes. where
you learned how to dance the classic dances and
by default you were forced to dance with a girl
or with a boy and I just wish that would come
back because I think that's so good for kids
to interact with each other that way may not
be church appropriate although man It would be
great if we had something like that. Well, hey,
we don't rule anything out. Here's my go -to,
my standard response to people who bring ideas
and trust me with a lot of ideators. I know what
you're saying about ideators. Your standard response
is, let me pray on that and I'll get back to
you. No, don't say it like that. I say it like
this. I'm just messing with you. I will put that
before Jesus. There you go. And we will do the
next thing He says. Amen. I hold to that. Yeah.
Yeah. So when we introduce new things, it may
be an idea that somebody brought that we put
before Jesus. And we, as a team, a staff, felt
like that was the Lord. It was a green light,
go. I love that. So yeah, we've got several things
we've got on the hopper, in the hopper, so to
speak, that we're just praying about. And when
he says green light, go, we go. If he doesn't,
we don't. So it's that simple. Well, I'm really
excited about getting the podcast studio started.
And we already have the Young and Faithful with
Jonah and his... I guess, semi -permanent co
-host, Gage. It's what it looks like. Gage is
awesome. They're doing great. And I'm looking
forward to more of that. I really am. I'm so
excited about it. So we'll be moving into the
Life Center. Annette and I will move our office
into the Life Center and then this will be a
dedicated studio. And during the days, it'll
be an opportunity for people need to meet, you
know, we have meetings and stuff. It'll be used
for that. But this will become an operational
room, a hub, if you will. Yeah. where we can
have even more podcasts. I feel like there's
lots of them in us. I feel like the people that
are in our church, we've got people in public
office, we've got people maybe going to, I can't
let this one out of the hat yet, maybe about
to run for public office. So we've got opportunity
here and then we've got the place to do it where
we can get good word, good messages out there.
into the World Wide Web. Yes, I'm very excited
about that. The inner web, as somebody said once.
I'm looking forward to being very busy helping
people get... I just ordered a new piece of gear.
Zoom came out with this wonderful little very...
A lot of guitar stuff. Very simple box. We just
plug stuff in. It has like, you know... your
sound, everything, it's all kind of pre -programmed,
and it just works. We use the Rodecaster, but
I can just see that being a little daunting for
people. I just want them to come in, hit the
button, and you're good to go. You're recording.
So I'm hoping to integrate that here. Very cool.
It just came out. I just heard about it this
morning on Pod News. I'm a bit of a gear nerd,
so I'm looking forward to checking that out.
So we've been talking about social media a lot.
How you've been doing on social media? I've got
a touchdown to report. I don't know what's going
on right now, and I'm not missing out on anything.
Isn't it amazing? Somebody brought something
up to me this morning, and I was like, have you
heard about it? And I'm like, no. And it had
to do with Candace Owens going down the wormhole
on something. And I said, no, haven't read that.
Here's an Easter egg for Annette. Even Annette,
she's laying in bed, she's got her phone out,
and I've got mine out for about two seconds,
and then it dawns on me, I've got it, so I'll
put it away, and I've got my Bible beside my
bed, so I'm picking that up. Or sometimes I'll
use my tablet because it's got all my translations
on it. It's a mini. It's easy to hold onto. It's
a mini. It's just like a book. So she's been
saying, hey, did you hear about this? I'm like,
no. Hey, did you read about this? No. Hey, did
you know? And it feels good to say, no. Exactly.
I don't know about that. It does feel good. It
does. Increasing for my work, I need to know
a lot of things. But I have now just cut it off.
I cut it off until like Saturday night if I do
a little bit of prep or just Sunday morning early.
Turns out, everything I need to know, I can pretty
much get within one hour. I really can. Now,
I'm reading emails from people, and so I get
a vibe of what they're thinking about what's
going on. I don't click the links. I'm just like,
no. And I think my show has gotten better. Come
on. It really has. I love this. No, my mind is
not. I'm really good at segregating stuff. receive
stuff, I codify everything. That's what I do.
You categorize. You can, what's the word, compartmentalize?
Compartmentalize. In a healthy way. There's a
healthy compartmentalization. And the way I do
it is I take it in, I put it into my system.
I have a system on my phone and in my computer,
and it just categorizes it, and it's easy to
find and search. And even for this show, the
tag is WGTDT. It's like, oh, OK. I know what
that is. Drop it in there. Whenever I have a
thought, I can just put it in real quick, and
then I flush it. out right away. You have to,
you have to flush it out. And it has really made
a big difference. And there's been a couple of
things that have been going on and I'm seeing
increasingly how, I think I've told you the devil's
playground, how this social media in particular,
it's so unhealthy when people are Getting into
it and going back and forth and I had a thought
that I wrote down this morning Okay, because
I've got I've got something I want to share on
this topic. So keep going I was thinking if you're
on social media and you get that comment you
get you know or whatever because you know I go
on X To look at my just my inbox my mentions
because that's where people it's like it's literally
like email for me Someone will send me something.
Okay, that's the link. I got to save But of course,
there's always the, you've been a Christian for
five minutes, you think you... All this stuff.
And I've turned this into a forgiveness practice
tool. Good. Good pro tip there. And it's really
feeling good. So I don't respond. And I certainly
am not going to say, I forgive you. That's like,
you might as well just poke someone in the eye.
But I meditate on it. and I'll probably give
it a heart. Just so I saw you, because there's
nothing else to do or thumbs up on X is just
a heart. And I purposefully stop and I think,
okay, Lord, I'm forgiving this person. And it's
really working for me. It really feels good.
Because immediately that adrenaline or whatever
it is that when someone says something to you,
You can't help that. Cortisol. Yeah, cortisol.
You feel that right away. I'm like, no, no, no.
And I've gotten, I can do it within like three
seconds. I can do it almost with my eyes open.
Forgiveness practice tool. Wow. So on that very
thing, we've been talking about this in our staff
meeting is we've talked about some social media
issues. We've talked about this and I've used
the term radical forgiveness. Yeah. And I think
I brought that up in our podcast, what did on
the platform. You did. Yes. We got to practice
radical forgiveness. That's one of our core values.
But I like adding the word radical to it because
it pushes the edge. When we talk about forgiveness,
it's kind of, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, people just
rush you along. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll finish
your sentence. But when you talk about radical
forgiveness, it takes a whole new tone. And radical
forgiveness is where you don't have limitations
or categories. You just forgive no matter what.
That's radical. I forgive you, but I forgive
you, but we won't add that little but on the
end, but this is like, I forgive you, period.
Yeah. You can't put a but in a sentence because
that negates everything that came before the
but. It's just no good. I love what you're doing.
And I actually started doing that when I got...
I think it's part of that encouragement to think
of this. It helped me because I started doing
it. I didn't at first. I received the cortisol
dump. I was swimming in it and just feeling that
weight on my chest. I was like, man, why is this
getting to me? It's just social media. I don't
know any of these people and they don't know
me and have no context, but yet I still felt
it. But when I shifted gears, because we talked
about this. and I had talked about radical forgetfulness.
I need to practice what I preach. So I started
looking at their names. And once I have their
name, I'm like, thank you very much, so -and
-so, and calling their name. Yeah, yeah, whatever
it is, whatever their handle is. And just using
that as, oh, thank you for giving me your name.
Now I can call your name before the throne of
grace. And the Bible says in Hebrews 4, that
were to come boldly before the throne of grace,
and it says, there you will find mercy and grace
to help in your time of need. So I'm like, I
want to present these names before the throne
of grace so that they can find mercy and grace
to help in their time of need. Obviously something
triggered them. They're upset about something.
They've probably got trauma in their own lives
or whatever's happened. Why else are you there?
Exactly. So now I get the privilege of calling
practicing radical forgiveness, calling their
name before the throne, and then releasing it,
going on. And that's how I was able to get over
it. And then I started laughing about it after
a while, because it shifts your whole perspective.
Wow, thank you for all you people giving, all
44 ,000 people giving your names. And I got to
read through them. I quit reading what they were
saying and just calling their names. And of course,
always remember the less you send, the less you
receive. So the less you post, the less you're
going to get. That is a good pro tip. It works
in all media. I'm getting very few texts here
lately. And it's only because I've quit sending
out texts. I quit trolling. I quit throwing the
line out in the water. I just quit. I've been
considering talking to Tina about doing a day
of the week. Saturday may not be the easiest
one for a lot of reasons. In fact, there's a
lot of reasons why it's not easy for both of
us. I think that if we just had our phones on,
you know, do not disturb except for our kids,
basically. You know, you could set that up so
that those do come through. I've been thinking
about talking to her about doing it for myself,
too. Because it's not just social media. Like
a 24 -hour deal or a 12 -hour all day, whatever.
Whatever, all day. Just do a day. And just no
phone. Just no phone. Just put it over here and
just leave it alone. Because it's everything.
It's text. It's all kinds of stuff. It's not
to say social media is the problem. It's not.
It's the whole deal. It's everything. It's, oh,
how old is Mark Harmon on the NCIS? How tall
is he? Because I need to know that. There's that.
I need to know how much he weighs. I mean, it's
crazy. We just get into this information crave.
I do. I'm an information junkie by nature. So
we're jumping online for everything. What is
Scripture? Does Scripture talk about that at
all? You don't need to know everything or not
knowing everything is necessary? Oh, I love this.
He's going into a system. I don't even know what...
Are you using the Chad GPT? No, not Chad GPT.
Perplexity? Maybe. It's okay. It's a valid use.
I'm okay with that. It's a great search tool.
It is for that. Oh, it's fantastic for searching
scripture. I do it all the time, like, okay,
let me find something about this. And it will
come up, usually comes up, I do go back and make
sure what it spits back is the right scripture.
I do too. I'm very careful. Yeah, not sure that
it's always doing the right thing. You come up
with anything? I prompted it with, does the Bible
have scriptures that speak to needing to know?
More information. Hmm. No, it's nothing specific.
You know, you've got a lot of general stuff.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Meaning references for God initiates true understanding.
Maybe that's what we need to look at. What is
true knowledge? What is true wisdom? What is
the wisdom and the knowledge you really need?
I like where you're going with this because again,
I call them pro tips. These are like little pointers
like here's something I'm doing that's helping
me and I love that. I love where you're going
with that. One of the things that's helping me
in the morning as I get up, I have this little
saying in my mind now, and I say, I say scripture
before screens. Just so simple. Scripture before
screens. Cause my habit has always been to open
my computers. I'm sitting there with my cup of
black rifle coffee. Mr. Chevy's begging to get
up in my lap. And so as I'm settling in, I tend
to sit down and open my screen. Of course you're
hit with all kinds of notifications, all your
new emails, everything. Important, important.
Look at me, look at me. Alert, alert. Breaking
news. All that hits you in a nanosecond, right?
As soon as you open it. Put your screens down,
pick up your Bible to the next level. Scripture
before screens. Boom! That's my morning thing.
I love it. I sit down and I let that run through
my mind before I open this up, so I'll reach
for my Bible. Now, I might sometimes pick up
my tablet. This depends only because I don't
have notifications on it. I just go right to
the Bible on it. various versions of the Bible
sitting on my desk all over. Now, do you needle
drop when you pick up your Bible? Sometimes I
do. One of my favorite Bibles that I've had for,
gosh, 30 years now, it's got so many marks. and
big pages. So like I can flip through it and
man, it just comes alive with ink, you know,
highlight, all different colors, circles, notes.
And I'll thumb through that and things will always
pop up because it'll be something I wrote, you
know, a reminder. Why is that important? I look,
oh, I remember that, you know, back from 1997,
you know, that was cool. So I'll do that. So
I'll needle drop like that, especially through
the New Testament. There's several things I do.
There's a verse of the day on my…I use…what's
it called? Something tree. It's my Bible search
thing. Anyway. You got to search for your Bible
search thing. Well, I've got a Bible search program.
Instead of using Logos like a lot of guys use,
it's super complicated and really cumbersome.
I use this. I'm trying to remember the name of
it. Anyway, it'll hit me later. But what I do,
it's got a verse of the day every day. So I'll
pick that up and I'll click on it. And if it's
something that speaks to me, I'll roll with that.
If not, I'll do some needle drop or I'll just
stop. I'll ask the Lord, Father, what do you
want to say? What's on your heart today? And
so I'll go with that. But this idea of scriptures
before screens has been a helpful reminder. I
have another pro tip. So that's my first one.
My second one is this. I heard this phrase a
while back and I didn't incorporate it into my
ongoing. You can read something and it hits you,
but it's up to you whether you really implant
it in your soul, right? Whether you go, this
is important. And so I stumbled upon this phrase.
And it just stuck with me. And if I can push
something aside and four days later it's still
pinging, it's probably God saying, hey, listen
up, God tap. So here it is. And it was read like
this. I don't negotiate with weakness. Now, that
was how it was written from whoever wrote it.
I don't even know who it was. But I actually,
in my mind, I drew a line. I didn't mark out
weakness. I just put it off to the side and I
drew a line. I don't negotiate with blank. And
what it has done for me, this has been something
that's really powerful for me. I looked at, I
found a scripture that really fits for this for
me. First Corinthians 16, 13 says, be watchful,
stand firm in the faith, act like men. This has
been a daily grind. Yeah, it has. I've used that
verse before. But that speaks to me. Be watchful,
stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong,
let all that you do be done in love. So I started
a list and I started this a couple of days ago
and I'm just finding it keeps going. I don't
negotiate with weakness. That's how it was written.
And I like that because weakness can be proneness
to temptation, proneness to do something when
you should be doing something else, you know,
proneness. So I just started filling in the blank.
I don't negotiate with sin. I don't negotiate
with time wasters. And that principle stuck with
me because we're going through the unseen war
with Victor Marx and his team, and we're on session
seven out of eight on the videos. And there's
this mentality of you don't negotiate with demons.
You don't talk. You don't have a conversation.
You interrogate them, but you don't negotiate.
And you command them to We're also big fans of
NCIS. Season 21 out of 24 seasons is how far
we've gotten. But you know the saying from the
government, we don't negotiate with terrorists.
So, you know, that's kind of that same spirit.
Good one. So I'm using this for me. I don't negotiate
with sin. I don't negotiate with time wasters.
I don't negotiate with temptation. Here's one
you'll appreciate. I don't negotiate with social
media trends. Boom, I don't negotiate with demons.
I don't negotiate with the flesh I don't know
negotiate with the need to be liked or accepted
That's that's it right there the need to be like
that kind of gets to the root that sure does
sure does I don't negotiate with past trauma
I Don't cuz all these want to negotiate with
you They want to talk to you. They want to be
in your head. Boy, the enemy uses all those negotiations
all the time. Inner dialogue. A couple more,
a few more. These are good. I don't negotiate
with critics. I don't negotiate with dark spirits.
I don't negotiate with procrastination. Now that's
the one I'm working on. So I put that on the
list on purpose. That's more of a goal than a
reality for me right now. I've been negotiating
a lot, so I put that there on purpose. Here's
another one. I don't negotiate with lust. I don't
negotiate with the need for likes and clicks.
That's helped me a lot with social media backing
away and pushing away. And two more. I'm going
to keep the list going. This is just what I came
up with this morning. I don't negotiate with
pain. I'm not going to allow pain points in my
life to cause me to compromise or to do something
I normally wouldn't do just because I'm in pain.
This is so good, Jimmy. I love this. This is
a pro tip. I don't negotiate with worldly compromise.
That's where I got so far. That's just from this
morning. That is good. I just started writing
these out and it just hit me how we let these
voices get in our head. And we think it's us.
Sometimes it's the flesh. Sometimes it's the
devil. It's the enemy. And we'll let that negotiation—and
we know by the nature of the devil—let me just
share this scripture with you. This is going
to my Bible now, and I'm going to pull it up
in this translation, John chapter 8, and this
gives us the nature of the devil himself. John
8. Here it is. That's the best silence I've ever
heard. I know I'm just looking for it. No, I
take your time I love silence on the podcast
people look down. They think their podcast player
has stopped They fiddle with their speakers.
What happened? What went on? Why did I hear anything?
so this is this is talking about the enemy of
our souls and This is bothering me I'm gonna
find it Here's where AI is helpful. Bible verse,
I'm going to give you my prompt. Bible verse
that says, the father of lies. What's so beautiful
about that is it'll give the verse right to me.
Yeah. John 8 44. No wonder you couldn't find
it. It was 44. I skipped right over it. It was
there. I rolled through it. Here it is. Oh, there
it is. This is Jesus talking to the Pharisees.
And he says this, why do you not understand my
speech? Because you are not able to listen to
my word. You are of your father, the devil. Boy,
who says that Jesus is always nice? Nope. Hello.
He's called these guys out. He says you are of
your father, the devil, and the desires of your
father you want to do. He was a murderer from
the beginning and does not stand in the truth
because there is no truth in him. When he speaks
a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he
is a liar and the father of it." And did the
Pharisees respond well to this message? No, they
rarely responded well to Jesus. Wow, that is
good. They go on into a dialogue at this point.
But what you're saying is so good because how
often we all have this. You wake up and the minute
I'm conscious, I'm still in bed. I do the Lord's
Prayer. Right away, it's like, let me just do
this. And it says, but sometimes... Do you do
your own version of it or do you do the classical
version? Sorry to interrupt. It's a hybrid. I
always think about our Father, which art in heaven,
which is your version. No, that's the King James
version. The King James version. Thank you. Okay.
That's the version. I'm King Jimmy. That's King
James. There you go. They're different. And I
always think about heaven, and I stop there and
think about how big heaven is all around us and
the stars and everything. Hallowed be thy name.
You are holy, Lord. You are holy above all holy.
I know that this is the command. Your kingdom
come, your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. And then give us this day our daily bread.
Lord, give me guidance and provision. I'm not
talking about provision like money, like give
me provision for the things that I need. So if
I get through that, I'll get to the temptation
part in a moment. So I do that and then I'm usually
set, but if I don't, you can wake up and there's
that thought in your head. There's something
going on and I can feel, I mean, this is... been
60 years that I've not figured this one out.
Like, ah, he's trying to get in my head right
away. He's trying to set the tone, set it straight,
which is where you're the weakest. That's why
scripture before screens, if you pick up the
screen and there's a weakness already going on
and one thing hits you, you are done for the
rest of the day. It's very hard to pull yourself
out. Sets the tone for the day. Yes. Yes. So
when back to yours. Well, and this leads into
a clip because we talked about it. Cool. and
lead us not into temptation, which... Could you
explain that? Because I think a lot of people
are like, that's kind of weird. God's going to
lead us into temptation? Can you just... Yeah,
the way I say it, because I personalize mine
as well. I'll do the traditional version and
then I do my version, which is wildly different
sometimes. But two things on that that's important,
but let me get to that point. The way I phrase
that, because sometimes the... Greek language
or Aramaic doesn't always translate exactly like
English. They just don't parse out the same.
So some scriptures can be kind of confusing like
that one. That's a good example of a confusing
scripture because why would he lead us into temptation?
Well, he wouldn't. So the way I say it is, Father,
I thank you that you never lead me into temptation,
but you do deliver me from evil and the evil
one. That's it. It's just a simple twist on the
words, but it actually is more accurate to the
actual original language. And to today's way
we understand. Father, thank you that you never
lead me into temptation, but you do deliver me
from evil and the evil one. So let's talk about
the temptation that is coming our way. It is
coming to a chatbot near you. This is a big one.
I think we just have to just talk about it for
a minute. ChatGPT will soon be able to write
erotica for adults. This update was announced
by OpenAI boss Sam Altman who said users who
verified their ages would be able to access a
wider range of content. He said OpenAI, the creator
of ChatGPT, had previously made the chatbot pretty
restrictive and that it was less useful slash
enjoyable for users with no mental health problems
but new tools meant those restrictions could
soon be relaxed. OpenAI was sued earlier this
year by the parents of US teen Adam Raine who
took his own life. The lawsuit that Adam had
discussed his suicidal thoughts with the chatbot.
In a statement given at the time, OpenAI told
the BBC it was reviewing the filing. Both in
the UK and the US, there's concerns about what
this update will mean for child safety. Written
erotica does not require an age verification
in the UK under the Online Safety Act. And in
the US, there's calls for more regulation at
all levels. OpenAI did not respond to our request
for comment. chopped up. Did you have to chop
it up? No, that's how they posted it. I have
another one. I heard the same story highlighted
on SRN news. The reason I was listening to S,
the only reason I heard it is because I was on
the Godcaster. And there it is. Hello, Fred.
I wasn't on social media. I was on the Godcast.
I heard news, relevant news. Get the Godcaster
app, everybody. You can get all of these great
podcasts on it. Hello, Fred. So first of all,
there's a couple of things. The classification
of erotica is what a load of bunk. I know. That
was bizarre from the beginning when they said
that because I'm going, wait a minute. Erotica
is like, okay, you just mean porn, smut, nasty,
dirty talk. And the part that really stuck out
to me is, well, for those who don't have mental
health problems, Flash news flash. That was an
odd statement. We all have mental health issues.
Every single one of us. That's exactly what we've
been talking about for the past 40 minutes. These
are mental health issues. I mean, you're sick.
You're human. And this stuff, I mean, it's going
to, it is going to start slipping in. So we just
have to identify it because you're going to be
talking to your chat bot no matter which one
it is. It'll be Grok. It'll be, I'm sure. perplexity,
anthropic, all of them will have this because
this is the product. We've talked about this
like personal chat bots and people want it to
be really personal. What will it take for the
chat bot to go, well, this person is verified
of a certain age and seems to have no mental
health issues. So I'm just going to slip in a
word or two and see if and then you can be led
down the path. We need to arm ourselves against
this, because it's going to happen, particularly
men, particularly young men. This is not healthy.
This really concerns me. It is very concerning.
It concerns me a lot. I just added to my list,
I don't negotiate with CHAT GPT. There it is.
I'm going to draw that line in the sand. I will
not go there. And I will not refuse. But the
tragedy is that... The temptation now that they've
made this grand announcement and now we've told
everybody it's there a lot of people didn't even
know Yeah, that's the hard thing about news sometimes
For example when we watch NCIS, I know just said
it again Annette was like every time they blow
something up or they have an attack on the government
Annette goes they're just giving people ideas
I'm not honey. You think people don't already
have ideas. Well, I don't think they're giving
them anything. But yeah, you know what they say
her thinking it If a news report isn't making
someone mad, it's propaganda. So this is actually
a PR message. This is a PR message. And Elon
Musk did the same with Grok and his little animated
character. This is all get the app, pay $20 a
month. You're going to love it. Are people paying
for that now? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think lots of
people are paying $20 a month for something.
And, you know, right now We're in this period
where $1 .3 trillion of investment has gone into
AI. They're going to need another trillion before
it pays off in enterprise and workplace. But
we still need to have the customers. So how do
you get the customers? They have a perfect product.
The product is the chat bot. And we had friends
at the house. And my buddy, he's just like, we're
talking something. He just talking his phone.
So he's not even typing anymore. He's actually
Talking to the phone become an auto response.
It had exactly that scary. I mean he he's he's
pretty low blow bar I know you're talking he
also sells AI to enterprise and okay, so but
still he's a musician He's making music with
it. I mean we've had long conversations about
this Vick will be okay, but still it's that it's
that next step. I'm like wow you're in that next
step You know that that's interesting. So we
just need to be aware of it for our kids. Yeah
But for ourselves, I mean, really, it's so easy.
This is big temptation. And not just erotica,
all kinds of ideas come out of it. We mentioned
this last week, but I think it's worth mentioning
again, for those who didn't hear the podcast
or maybe you're new, but we talked about the
fact that people are so lonely and so broken
and so isolated. because now you can live on
a screen and we have a generation of young people
who this is all they've known socially is a screen
and so the temptation for that now that the screen
will talk back to you you know like how 2000
or whatever you know uh it's so easy to do that
and so tempting to because hey i'm by myself
i feel alone but oh what a nice voice here on
chat gpt you know she makes me feel affirmed
and she's positive and you start down that track
and I can see and Ed and I tested it out together
and we were laughing about it a lot because I
triggered it to keep saying something. It had
to get the last word. It's sycophantic and it's
continuously building you up and have a great
day and be good. And I'd say, oh, thank you.
Oh, you're so welcome. If you have anything else
you'd like to know and talk about, feel free.
And I said, well, I really appreciate that. Well,
I appreciate you too. And I was like, This could
go on for an hour. I mean, literally, I think
it would get the last word no matter what. So
what just hit me is maybe the lesson here is
that we need to be reaching out to our, as believers,
reaching out to our brothers and sisters, just
saying, Hey, how you doing? Want to go grab a
coffee? Want to go to lunch? Can we invite you
over? But as you know, that involves risk and
we're risk averse. We do not want to take the
chance of someone turning us down, ghosting us,
rejecting us. And so the chat bot will never
reject me. So now it's easy. And we know what
soft times make. Yeah, soft men. That's right.
Weak men, hard times, hard times, strong men.
So we're living in that where now I don't have
to have a bunch of outside relationships. I've
got my bot. I may have several versions of a
bot. I'm assuming you can do that. I don't know
how this works, but I'm assuming you can have
several conversations going. And it'll remember
where it was with you. So I'm also saying, let's
make sure we don't let others fall into this.
Let's get them out. Let's go somewhere. take
a walk or grab a coffee or anything. Get outside.
We did a two mile power work this morning and
it was so beautiful. You could hear the birds
singing, sun coming up through the hill country
and little light fog. And I was like, why wouldn't
I want to be out here breathing this air and
waving at our neighbors as they drive by, you
know, wishing they were walking, stick on to
work, but whatever. We've got to do something.
We've got to. It's almost like we need to hearken
back to a time that was before all this if you
want to stay mentally healthy Yeah, you've got
to you've got to do it. Absolutely Wow last thing
for me is this no Kings protest that took place
and Which whether it was seven million seven
hundred thousand or seventy million doesn't really
matter, but I noticed a couple things that I
wanted to bring up because, you know, I listen
to a lot of podcasts. The Godcaster gives me
all these different faith -based programs. Some
of them are more conservative news, like they
all come from believers, from faith -based perspective,
but I'm really not exactly happy with what I'm
hearing. And the first thing is how this was
set up. And I like Mike Johnson. I think he's
doing a good job. I don't like what he did. before
this came up, which was a strategy. I think it
came from the president, which I don't like either.
This was the messaging and the strategy about
the no -kings protests. Thousands of people are
expected to descend on the nation's capital for
a no -kings rally. A peaceful movement seeks
to send a message to the Trump administration
saying that America does not put up with would
-be kings. This week, multiple Republican leaders
called next week's event a hate rally. This hate
America rally that they have coming up for October
18th, the Antifa crowd and the pro -Hamas crowd
and the Marxists, they're all going to gather
on the mall. This is about one thing and one
thing only, to score political points with the
terrorist wing of their party, which is set to
hold, as Leader Scalise just commented on, a
hate America rally in DC next week. And then
October 18th. Okay. None of this happened. None
of this happened. In fact, what I saw was American
flags, people, there's always going to be someone
yelling something, but mainly handmade signs.
If anything, it was, I don't like Trump rally.
That was very obvious. These were not hate America
people. I did not get that. When I heard that,
I thought that was a leap. Again, we talked about
running down the hill. You're going to run 30
feet down the hill, you're going to take a step.
I keep hearing this from both sides. This is
not a left blue thing or a right red thing. Everything
is so inflammatory right now. Every word, every
sentence, every post. But this is what I like
so much about what I saw. I saw people who only
really hate President Trump because they've been
told to. They just have a different media diet
and I see it. Literally hear the words coming
out. Oh, I know exactly where you got that from
this nickname that came from that podcast This
this slur that came from, you know five different
hosts on MSNBC But I don't like that I see the
same From the quote -unquote other side and a
lot of this these losers their Marxist They're
not hate America people. In fact, we're so much
closer after this No Kings rally. These people
are being patriotic in their way. They believe
that... Which is their right. Of course. And
they're saying, it is very American to protest.
I agree with you. Yes, it is absolutely American
to protest. There were American flags. This is
the first time. The American flag was almost
persona non grata. If you had an American flag
on your car, on your truck, Republican, Nazi,
that ended with this. Something really beautiful
happened. And I'm not hearing the other podcasters
in the universe really picking up on that. In
fact, I have just a short clip of someone interviewing
a no -kings protestor. And what you will hear
is that She didn't really, she was just protesting
because it's American to protest. No King's Day.
And why specifically are you out supporting No
King's Day? I think protest is important. Why
are you protesting? How much time do you have?
A couple minutes. What's the main reason you're
out here protesting President Trump? I don't
agree with a lot of the decisions that are being
made. Is there any decision in particular you
disagree with? where okay so I would start with
well I don't even think I don't even think it's
appropriate for me to have this interview so
so she had a brain freeze because she realized
like oh wait a minute what am I I don't actually
know but I would like us to take this opportunity
to see our our fellow brothers and sisters for
what they are. They're patriots. They love America.
You know what? You hate the president. I can
agree with that. That's fine. You hate him. I
don't hate him. That's why we voted. And, you
know, you'll get to vote another person in three
years. But I saw a lot of opportunity and I don't
see people picking up on that. You're hitting
something here I think that's really important
because over the last Few weeks. I've been sensing
something in me a shift to where Be careful how
I say this because so many of my friends on the
far right Have become so disparaging if anything
that doesn't align with everything they think
or believe And they'll would even say you're
not a Christian if Really? And I'm struggling
with that. I'm like, wait a minute. We need to
be careful with that. We are not judge, jury,
executioner for who's a Christian and who's not.
And what's happened is, is people have made these
political alignments the thing that's the deal
breaker on whether you're a Christian or not.
And I'm struggling with that right now because,
and I think I should struggle with it. I need
to struggle with it. I don't want to just take
things because I have friends or I'm part of
a group or whatever that are running down a certain
track. I think we've got to have voices of dissent.
or we will not have the boundaries or the anchors
or the accountability where we think we can just
say anything. Our country was built on that.
It's not just the left. It's so easy to be on
the right and point across the aisle and just
disparage and say, you can't say that. How dare
you say that? But then I look over on the right
and they're saying something categorically catastrophic
and disparaging too. So it's like, Man, it's
like there needs to be a checkup that's the level
across the playing field here because I'm having
to just watch myself and trying to be more careful
with my words, trying to be more wise. I'm trying
to think more biblically as opposed to just,
it's so easy as a pastor. to stand in a pulpit
and say something and get a rise out of a crowd.
Whatever your platform is, it's easy to want
to get, again, going back to, I don't negotiate
with the need to be liked or accepted. I'm refusing
that right now and it could change not just what
I say, but the way I say. trying to be more careful
and not just be inflammatory because it gets
out of boys and Right, you know what I mean class.
There was a clip and I heard it and I thought
I marked it and I didn't and it was a Woman she
was a no -kings protest and she said hey, we're
one nation under God and it hit me so I'm like,
oh Yes, we're one nation under God doesn't we
all have to agree and I don't know what her what
her belief is but she said it I'm like Yeah,
we are one nation under God. We're not intended
to always agree with each other, but all I heard
was, well, it wasn't really seven million. Oh,
you know, it's just like, get over yourself.
I saw flags. I saw flags, a lot of flags. I love
what you're saying here because it's actually
kind of confirming what I've been feeling, sensing
deep inside of me. I don't know what that's going
to look like yet, and I don't have to know what
it's going to look like. I just want to be in
alignment with his heart, with God's heart, not
just a certain persuasion's heart. It's part
of my pushback on social media. I just got sick
of reading it. I hit things that key in the algo,
so now everything that drops in my news feed
is just that amplified, and it seems to just
get louder and louder. to where I've just got
to push back, close the screen, pick up my Bible
and just go, okay, I need a break. I even told
Annette, she keeps asking me, hey, did you read
this? I'm like, no. I said, I'm actually taking
a break. I'm pushing back on that. I don't think
she's even landed with her yet. I'll know if
she listens to this. This is the big egg here.
The Easter egg. But really, I'm doing it intentionally.
Here's what I'm finding. I have a lot more peace.
in my soul right now. Of course. I'm not spun
up. I'm not mad. It is well with my soul. Even
on the No King stuff, I did not go down the rabbit
hole. I did not chase news. I didn't click a
single link. In fact, I've hardly looked at all.
And I just thought, what you said, it's their
right to protest and to dissent. Our Constitution
guarantees it. And the moment we think it's only
one side's right to do so, And then we're going
to castigate everybody else who does? Or that
they're lesser than, because they disagree. So
I mentioned this on No Agenda, and I got... Oh,
I bet you did. I got all kinds of emails. Yes,
they do. They hate us. They want to kill us.
Link to video. Hey, of course, if you put a thousand
people on the street, someone's going to be...
You're going to find the one guy with the sign
that says, kill all Nazis or whatever. But that
was not what I saw, brother. Even Dvorak is like,
well, this is like the same as pussy hats without
the pussy hats. No. No, it was not. I saw American
flags everywhere. People had them in their shirt
pockets. People were walking around with their
waving them. That got my respect to such a degree,
and I think it was overlooked by almost everybody.
Good catch, Adam. Really, you're saying something
that needs to be said, and needs to be said in
our camp. It needs to be said out loud so that
we're not just becoming one more part of the
problem where we're escalating people. And what
happened to the forgiveness bit? Yeah, what about
radical forgiveness? Yeah. Man, I know this needs
to come up. This conversation needs to happen
among friends and brothers and sisters to say,
you know what? And I said this back five, four
years ago, if we would pray for our enemies,
and I was thinking in terms of the last administration,
if we would pray for them as much as we castigate
them and disparage them, Maybe things would change.
Maybe it would make a difference. Just maybe
God would hear our prayers in heaven and heal
our land, just saying. And I think honestly,
if I was to say it out loud, I don't think the
change would be in them as much as it would be
in us. That our hearts would shift instead of
us being so easily triggered. and being hooked
with clickbait, right and left. This took me
a year to realize this, and it happened the last
time, maybe it was a year ago. You're way ahead
of me, brother. It was six months ago, and we
had people here in Fredericksburg protesting
outside City Hall. And with flags, all -American
flags, and I remember, Tina mentioned that she
went around, and I'm not quite sure. if there
was words, but then the person said, well, God
bless you. Have a good day. I don't care who
says that to me. It's how I receive it, not how
they said it. And I truly believe we have a moment.
We have a real moment here if we can reflect
on it. And let's just all agree on our flag.
Flags are important. That's why, you know, Wars
are fought. We're fighting a war over a flag,
over a rainbow colored flag, which has no authority.
Our American flag has authority. And if you're
going to fly that flag, I'm going to respect
you. I'm going to respect your difference of
opinion. I'm going to respect you. Wow. Thank
you for bringing that up, Adam, because that's
something that's been working inside of me. And
honestly, the more I push back on social media
and close my screens, the more that's rising
in me. to where I'm like, can we find something
we have in common just for five minutes? Just
have a civil conversation that's about something
we agree on. Because what we've done, and I have
found myself go down this track just to be very
transparent, to where I'm angry. at people that
I disagree with, and I didn't used to be that
way. I've fallen off into some hole. Well, the
amplifier of social media does that to you. It's
very normal. That's very normal. Brother, let's
leave it here. Let's stick a big pin in this
one because I want to come back to that. It's
important. And this is the first I've discussed.
Well, I talked about briefly on No Agenda, but
this is really the conversation I wanted to have.
I don't get that from other... other places I
am. So thank you. Thank you. And it's important
that us here on this and in this genre, as brothers
in Christ, talking about radical forgiveness,
talking about what we don't negotiate with, this
is important. And this could be part of the conversation
that brings healing to a nation. I hope so. I
not only hope so, I pray so. I'm with you. Scripture
before screens, brother. That's the way to go.
Thank y 'all for listening. Check us out on the
Godcaster app. We'll be back next week. We get
to do this.