Let's pray. Let's pray more. Yes, father in Jesus
name It's always a joy and a privilege to be
before you on these microphones having a conversation
with my best friend Thank you for Adam. Thank
you that we get to do this. It's not just another
cute saying it is a mantra It is a motto of life.
It's a maxim So thank you Lord that we have the
privilege of serving you but we also get the
privilege of serving one another and serving
people So we pray for our listeners today anyone
who will stumble on this, maybe even by accident,
which shall not be by accident, we ask that you
would lead and guide people to this, and that
what we say would do something in terms of putting
lift under their wings. And Lord, we do it in
the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. It's Wednesday,
April 8th. We get to do this. This is episode
number 27. We get to do this. Well, hello, brother.
I'm just adjusting my ears. Old man talk. Might
as well start with what's happening. You're doing
it right there on the phone. Yes, the ears are
the most important part of the show. You know,
technology is so fun. It's just cool. I mean,
I can adjust my hearing on my phone. It's the
coolest thing ever. There's really good things.
There are good things. There's upsides and downsides
to all of it. You preach the truth. And we're
actually going to talk about some of the downside
of technology, which thwarted the show last week.
No kidding. I got to say, I love it. It's good
and bad at the same time, but I love it when
I walk in Sunday morning. It was a special morning,
of course, because it's Easter. And people come
up to me and say, what happened to the show?
What happened to the show, man? What happened?
I got a couple of emails too. Even Pastor Brian
had people in his distant family saying, what
will happen, man? Yeah, it's good. Yeah. So we
had a little technology issue that we're dealing
with. So we bought a new car. I bought Annette
her dream car. I'd made her promise years ago
when we were in a really... poor situation and
we had to sell her car, her favorite car. And
I did one of those commitments. I said, Hey,
one day when we can, I'm going to get you the
car of your dreams. And when we ended up doing
that, it's a Lexus. Nice car. I was ready for
a Bentley, but I know this is what she wanted.
And we, we actually had the car built. I mean,
we, we chose all the features and a, so it's
got about 10 ,000 miles on it about a week and
a half ago. I'm driving, pulling up to an intersection.
Cargo's in full tilt forward mode. I mean the
engine just full on. You're braking? I'm braking.
I'm pulling up. I'm probably doing 10 miles an
hour, 12. Just about to stop. Had enough room
in front of me that I was able to pump the brake
three times to cut the whatever was going on.
It took three pumps to stop it. And then the
engine died back down. Then it was acting normal.
And we were on our way to see you guys at Calavance.
Right. That's what happened. Oh, really? But
you didn't even mention it then. Because I didn't
think anything about it. We're guys. We're guys.
It's an anomaly. Whatever. It's just a car thing.
I literally never thought about it again until
last Wednesday. Annette's just pulling into our
parking spot up to our new building, our life
center. Which hasn't even officially been opened
yet. We had people in the building getting it
ready for our grand opening and going to do a
little open thing. So she's pulling up, five
miles an hour, maybe not even that. Foot on the
brake, because I actually tested it this morning.
You can't pull into that parking space without
riding the brake. No, you have to, yeah. Because
you got to make a right turn and a left turn.
She gets up almost to that little concrete bumper.
The car does it again, full tilt forward. She
jams on the brakes, her foot was already on the
brakes. She just goes to the floor with it. And
the car lurches over the concrete barrier into
the building. Made a massive dent, but it also
moved an interior wall, which damaged everything
in two rooms, the ceiling, ceiling tiles fell
out, cabinets broken. It was just unbelievable.
Now, it wasn't quite like the cartoon where she
was in the building, you know, looking at everybody
on the other side. Thank goodness. Because she
hit the wall square on the interior wall. Had
she hit on either side of that, she would have
gone into the building. Man. So, so she backed
it up and was able to get the car and then she
turned it off. Of course, fluids running out
from under it. The front ends smashed. Did the
airbag deploy? Did not, no warning lights. Here's
what's weird about that. That's why I know this
is an issue, a safety issue. If I'm pulling the
car in the garage and it thinks, this car just
thinks too much for one. I like to drive my car.
It doesn't, it doesn't even let you look away
too long. Oh no, it'll actually tell me, I was
on the road. It tells me, sit up constantly.
Sit up. I'm like, are you my mom? This is my
mama here. Sit up. This car tells me, are you,
are you're. driver driver and attention. If I'm
like looking at a cow or something, you know.
So anyway, when I'm pulling to my garage, if
I'm like within a certain distance to the side,
the car slams on its brakes and stops. I mean,
it'll even pull up a big sign on the dashboard,
which is all digital danger, danger. Yeah. Brake
and big orange lights. Right. And so this car
has all kinds of safety features. None of them.
Airbag didn't deploy. Safety features didn't
engage. Nothing. straight into the building.
And so I actually texted you at that moment,
said, hey, we on? Is the studio good? You're
like, that's right. It was right before the show.
It took you a few moments. I'm like, it's taking
a while to get it. He says, no, Annette had an
accident. It was happening. And Tina's standing
over my shoulder. We're all flipping out. Like,
what's going on? What do we need to do? And you
said, no, it's OK. And then as we got the story
and then, you know, there was just so much that
you had to do and phone calls, insurance, everything
just so. I've been on the phone this morning.
You even wanted to come out on Friday morning.
I wanted to, brother. Because it was Holy Week
and everything. I know. I know. I got to say
something about this Lexus slash Toyota issue.
And I actually want to bring in the constitutional
lawyer. Rob Carty and Boots and Suits and I'll
tell you why because amazing this has been an
ongoing issue with Toyota and Lexus since 2008
and Because I know that some people here look
stuff up and so I sent my robot out to go and
find some stuff I got two clips which will first
the first one is alarming you'll probably remember
this when this happened this was 2009 and the
sound bite is a little bit alarming but this
is what it could have been you know so I'm really
I'm deadly serious about how bad this is Toyota,
which built its reputation on safety and quality,
now says it knows how to fix the problem behind
the biggest recall in its history. Yeah, this
is actually, the scary clip is the other one,
but this is the idea. The automaker will redesign
accelerator pedals in four million Toyotas and
Lexuses, including the Camry, America's top -selling
car, 436 ,000 sold in 2008, and the Prius, the
best -selling hybrid. The trouble is, in Toyota
vehicles like this 2009 Tacoma pickup truck,
the gas pedal can get tangled up in the floor
mat, causing the vehicle to speed up, even if
the driver pumps the brakes. It's not enough
to stop. Five deaths have been blamed on this
unintended acceleration, and the recall was prompted
by a crash outside San Diego last summer that
killed four family members. The family's horrifying
last moments captured in this 911 call. The redesigned
pedals will be ready for installation beginning
next April. In the meantime, Toyota will recall
the cars and shorten the accelerator three quarters
of an inch, perhaps as early as January, so the
mat can slide under it without trapping it. Simply
put, Toyota's engineers weren't up to the job
on this one. While Toyota says it's very, very
confident the problem's been addressed, safety
expert Clarence Ditlow says Toyota still has
more work to do on the electronic connection
between the throttle and accelerator pedal. Some
of this is clearly... So, in 2008, 2009, this
was called an electronic connection. You know,
we weren't really thinking about computers at
the time. The electronic controls in the vehicle.
In fact, Toyota is doing more work. planning
to install a system sometime next year so that
if the brake and gas pedals are pushed at the
same time, the brake wins. Jim Axelrod, CBS News.
So what they're really not saying here, and we
really didn't have that much knowledge at the
time, is both the accelerator pedal and the brake
pedal are not actually physically connected to
anything. You're not hitting hydraulics. You're
not hitting wires. It's all electronic sensors.
Exactly. So this went on and of course the news
was very different in 2008, 2009. We remember
this, I remember the podcast and it was blamed
on the accelerator getting stuck under the mat
was the biggest lie in automotive history. Here's
the second clip and then I have some interesting
follow up to it. An emotional Akio Toyota assured
thousands of workers in Japan today that his
company has changed. But how much is debatable?
Because over the last two weeks, more than 60
Toyota owners in this country have complained
of unintended acceleration even after their cars
were recalled and supposedly fixed. Carolyn Kimbrell
of Whitesville, Kentucky says her Avalon shot
past her driveway mail box on its own and headed
for the street before she turned off the engine.
Exactly the same thing. That was February 28th,
eight days after the prescribed fix. A metal
shim was inserted into the pedal assembly to
keep it from sticking near the floorboard. Golly,
if I'd have been at a busy intersection or something,
I could have went halfway through it before I
got the car stopped. or ran over someone or something
like that. So now I'm really scared to even drive
it. In a statement, Toyota said it's taking such
complaints seriously and has sent technical SWAT
teams to investigate a handful of cases. All
along, the company has insisted that despite
what a growing number of critics claim, its computer
-controlled throttle system is not to blame.
Today, Congress said company documents fail to
show that Toyota rigorously investigated that
possibility. So there was a guy who investigated
this on behalf of the court. And he found that
in the computer system, which was running the
accelerator and the brake at the time, there
were 11 ,000 global variables, which is anyone
who knows computer code will go, I know. He called
it spaghetti code. And ultimately, Toyota wound
up paying $1 .2 billion in 2010 dollars to avoid
prosecution for misleading and deceptive statements
to regulators. Now, what I believe has happened
here is, first of all, praise God that this happened
where it did happen and it could have been so,
so, so much more severe. But when you start with
a code base that has 11 ,000 variables and you've
got spaghetti code, unless you really go back
to the drawing board, stop your production for
at least a year, two, maybe three years, you're
living with that legacy. It's what we call technical
debt. Wow. And it's still in there. The crazy
thing is that it could also be at this point
the type of chip that they're using. This recently
happened on an aircraft. Do you remember when
both engines shut off at the same time and the
plane crashed? This is because they were using
lower grade chips, which can, there's a bit can
flip inside the chip based upon a cosmic ray.
So literally, Sun radiation, which happens everywhere.
And most of these systems are shielded, protected,
certainly in aircraft, so that this can't happen.
But they need to do that in their vehicles as
well. And I got to be honest with you, brother.
Like, I'm afraid for all kinds of stuff like
this. I am too, at this point. Particularly the
bit flip. The bit flip is just cheap. It's cutting
corners. And you can sit there and go, well,
you know, we had all the software right, but
you know, the chip failed. Well, this has to
be protected. So I think there's more work to
be done on this. And no doubt. And, you know,
I know that you're all going through a lot now
with Toyota and insurance and all that. But we
may want to investigate what can be done, not
for for money or anything, but so that this doesn't
happen to other people. This is just frightening.
Well, I did a little research before I started
making calls because, you know, there's code
language. in this one of them, unintended acceleration
is a code word. When I use that, my customer
service rep just got very serious, but it was
good because, and also, you know, that this is
a, you know, it's a safety event. This is a catastrophic
safety event. Had she been, you know, when I
explained to the guy I was talking to that she
was in a church parking lot and there could have
been people, there could have been people in
front of the car. I mean, so many things could
have gone wrong. And this is why in the middle
of this insanity, I'm praising God because the
book of James tells us we're to count it all
joy, my brother, when you fall into various trials.
So I'm like, okay, we're in a trial right now.
I've been on the phone and in the middle of the
Superbowl weekend, which we call Easter, we call
it the Superbowl weekend for churches, insanity,
crazy busy. huge services, three services back
to back. Then I get an emergency call. I run
to Austin. I'm supposed to testify before the
Texas State Board of Education. I was so far
down the list, they didn't get to it yesterday.
I would have had to stay overnight again tonight
even to get on. But we were there for six hours
listening to testimony about social studies and
not having religion and Christian influences
in our curriculum. That's another conversation.
But there's some good things on the horizon for
Texas in that regard, even though it was hard
to listen to some of those testimony by people
posing as pastors. Oh, really? Oh, the amount
of woke pastors. I call them imposters. They're
not pastors. They're imposters. They're not pastors.
They're imposters. And they're, they're saying,
we don't want anybody teaching our kids religion.
We don't want anybody in schools. Yeah. School
is not the place for, I mean, you know, in separation.
I heard that term 15 or 20 times. And finally,
a couple of people schooled them on that, which
was amazing. Rick Green being one of them. Could
you point to that in the Constitution, please?
Oh, well, actually one of the board members,
state board, fired back. Again, great conversation.
And I learned a lot through this process. Good
for us to be there. But in the middle of that,
my phone's ringing from Houston, from Indiana,
South Carolina. because we're trying to get this
all taken care of, but it's just, man, it's just
been a crazy few days of just travel, being in
an environment that I can't answer a phone call,
you know. So anyway, that's where we're at. I'm
not whining. I'm counting at joy because it could
have been so much worse. Exactly. Now after my
joy counting, I'm saying now we need to do something
about this. So that's where I'm at now of getting
serious about getting this taken care of and
our building taken care of. Because that delays
our opening. Oh, huge. And, you know, the first
thing, well, after, not the first thing went
through my mind, after we know everything's okay
and everybody's good. I'm like, you know, this
Life Center, which is meant for children, basically,
who are challenged. What is the term we're using?
What is it? Now you threw me a curveball. I had
it. I've been saying this for days. So it's for
children with special needs. Special needs, there
we go. And families that can't come to church
because there's no one to help their children.
And most churches aren't qualified to do that.
We've got the qualifications. We've got the people.
Now we have the building, but now it's being
delayed in terms of what has to be fixed. And
Leslie, who's been running a lot of this, Pastor
Brian, other Pastor Brian, one of the five Pastor
Brian's wife, she talked about this at church
a couple of weeks ago, and she said, you know,
this is the largest unreached group for faith,
the largest. And so when I see this happen, all
I can think is, Oh, the enemy's like, what, you're
going to bring 10, 20, 30 kids to Christ? No,
no, I got to stop this. And their families. And
their families. Who can't come to church. Yes.
Yes. So I'm like, wow, OK, not today, Satan.
Not today at all. And that, honestly, that's
been motivating me. That's that has energized
me to not just get frustrated on these phone
calls. I will say this about Toyota Lexus. They've
been very congenial, very cooperative. They have
returned calls. They set me up on a guest portal.
You know how these are. It's like a little board,
a little white board. And I'm actually documenting
everything as we go. And I'm documenting it on
the portal. Called, no answer. Called, returned
call. I'm being generous and I want to work with
them. I want to get this done. And so far, so
good. Right. But there's other things that we,
this is much bigger. This is what me and Annette
are worried about. Other people driving a car.
that is having similar issues. We're also going
to send a letter to the Federal Traffic Administration.
The Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Thank
you. I can never remember the title. It's got
a bunch of initials. So I've got that letter
drafted and ready to fire off. And I told them
I was sending it and that got their attention
as well. Of course, yes. Of course, it's within
your rights to do so, you know, reading off the
script. But anyway, it's interesting. We're going
to be fine. Everybody's going to be okay. Cars
can be fixed, but she won't be. She does not
want that car. No, I wouldn't either. I'm done.
Yeah, I'm done. So I don't know. We'll do something
different. Back to the Bentley, brother. There
we go. Right now we're driving the beater. The
beater is on the case. My beater. Just because
everyone always wants to know what's our view
on the world and what's happening in Iran. I
pulled the clip. This is an old clip that represents
the situation. President's f -bomb tie rate.
Let me play this clip and maybe it fits right
in with your theory. World Wrestling Federation
Heavyweight Champion, Hulk Hogan, against the
Iron Sheik. What? That's your surprise to me?
Yes. Well, I'll tell you something. You show
the match. You go ahead, Jack. And don't you
ever pull no surprise on me again or I'll tighten
your tie. Good for you, boy. We are going to
go up to the ring right now. The introductions
to our championship ball with the World Wrestling
Federation Heavyweight Champion. So this was
1984 Madison Square Garden, the Eye of the Tiger,
Hulk Hogan, Rest in Peace, and the Iron Sheik
from Iran. And when I saw what happened, that's
all I could think of. I'm looking forward to
your analysis of it. Oh, my absolute thought
was, this is a power play. This is a calculated
He did not just sit down and peck that out in
30 seconds and send it off. This is calculated
to say, I'm a nutcase. You better believe I'll
do what I said I'm going to do. It's him going
freaky on purpose. We already know this. Donald
Trump does not care what anybody thinks about
him. He doesn't care if a bunch of Christians
are going to lose their mind because he's suddenly
not walking in the boundaries. You know what
I'm saying? And we need to get over all that
stuff. This is a man who's trying to protect
the globe right now. So give the guy some grace
and cheer him on a little bit instead of getting
upset because he used the F -bomb or threatened
to annihilate a race of people. I read it and
I went, whoa. At first I was like, this has got
to be AI. So I actually fact -checked it with
AI, of course, using ChatGBT. And it said the
one I sent them was not the original, so they
couldn't give a... accurate. So then I looked
on Truth Social, which I actually still have
an account with him. I've never used it, but
I looked it up and sure enough, there it was.
Find out it is true. But I know this is called
strategic propaganda, where he literally throws
something out there that sounds so crazy that
it's going to make crazy people think he'll do
it. And it worked. This is his algo. I actually
think that he already had the deal in the pocket.
I think that's part of it. He said they'd already
been meeting. And we have two weeks. May I just
say, I guarantee you there will be another event.
Like this is going to happen. That's the algorithm.
That's how it works We kind of forget the crazy
rocket man. Hey little rocket man. The button
on my desk works I don't mind pushing it, you
know, we've forgotten about that. We forget so
many things Yeah, but I truly believe he has
he has figured it out the straight of four mooses
today This is Wednesday, April 8th. The stock
market opened 1300. That's okay, whatever but
oil went down below 96 It takes time. It's going
to be okay. And I've said this from the beginning.
Now, is it a real war? Absolutely. Is war ugly?
Do people die? Yeah, absolutely. This is actually
something I wanted to talk about. We have our
Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, who has been
I like him, I have to say. I like Heg Seth, but
he's been really laying it on pretty thick with
the Scripture, etc. And I just want to play a
few clips and discuss it because as a new Christian,
and I'm sure others have this feeling, it's hard
to... Put war and faith and God all into the
same bucket, you know, and I and I see how the
mainstream media Have actually posted lies which
will say well, you know Trump's pastor said that
he's fighting for Jesus and then she didn't say
that nobody said that but here's I think this
is the the Good Friday message from our Secretary
of War He sent a message, God is good. Hegseth
drew a parallel between his journey and the weekend
holiday. You see, shot down on a Friday, Good
Friday, hidden in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday,
and rescued on Sunday. Flown out of Iran as the
sun was rising on Easter Sunday. Like it, but
you know, it felt it feels a little cringy to
me. It's cringy. Okay. It's not just me, right?
It's like and there was some more here Secretary
of War Pete hexes posted God is good. This is
not something you you write on the back of an
envelope These are contingencies that have to
be prepared ahead of time and activated when
something goes wrong so what went wrong is we
had a pilot shot down right and the And the account
that I have heard from my military contacts is
pretty much what you've heard about the C -130s
and how they flew in, how they got this pilot.
The pilot was injured. And again, here's Hegseth
recount of the communications with this F -15
fighter pilot. When he was finally able to activate
his emergency transponder, his first message
was simple and it was powerful. He sent a message,
God is good. In that moment of isolation and
danger, his faith and fighting spirit shone through.
You see, shot down on a Friday. Good Friday.
Hidden in a cave, a crevice all of Saturday and
rescued on Sunday. Flown out of Iran as the sun
was rising on Easter Sunday. A pilot reborn.
all home and accounted for a nation rejoicing.
God is good. Pretty dramatic, but very good sermon.
I mean, that's like sermon stuff right there.
Sermon level. Sermon story. I may use that. But
it just feels harsh. It is a little cringing.
Because a lot of people will be... reaching out
or saying stuff or slinging stuff. Well, of course,
you know, this is your godly president and your
secretary of war. Oh, I've already got stuff,
to me. So as Christians, how do we respond to
this? Help me even think how I feel about it,
because war is in the Bible everywhere, and David
prays to God, like, help me whoop my enemy's
butt. And he does. How does it all fit together?
Without getting too deep in the weeds on this,
I'm going to read a scripture that you may have
heard this before, especially if you were listening
to music in the 60s and 70s. This is from Ecclesiastes
chapter three. Are we doing some birds? We're
doing some birds. Here we go. Here it is. It's
one of those things we need to hearken back to
and remember that the Old Testament was the New
Testament concealed. The New Testament is the
Old Testament revealed. They're not separate
books. God and his storyline and his story arc
made them work in harmony. So you don't say,
well, now that Jesus has come, we throw away
the Old Testament. When you do that, that turns
into replacement theology real quick. And so
it turns into a lot of bad things real quick,
selective theology. So let's just read, I'm just
going to read this. This is out of... the NIV
1984 version before they went woke. So here it
is. Before they got, we got to take all the pro
downs out. Here we are. There's a time for everything
and a season for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die. A time to
plant and a time to uproot. A time to kill and
a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time
to build. A time to weep and a time to laugh.
a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to
scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time
to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search
and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time
to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak. And
it ends with this verse, a time to love and a
time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
I let the Scripture stand. You know, we can get
into the weeds and start parsing out theology
and nuances and phrases. And if we need to do
that, we can do that as well. But at the end
of the day, we live in a fallen world. It is
not redeemed yet. And it means that there will
always be love and hate, good and evil, peace
and war. it's going to be that way. Well, there
will always be wars and rumors of wars. Kingdom
will rise against kingdom, nation against nation.
That's Matthew 24. And that's kind of what's
happening is there's people who say this have
probably not read the Bible. Also, even if you
read the Bible, you're not going to remember
anything. We're on the third go -through now
and like, oh, I don't remember that. What? I
look at this differently now. Yeah. I mean, just
in the New Testament, I mentioned this on Sunday,
how many actual... Oh, prophecies have come true.
Yeah. No, how many actual verses there are in
the New Testament. Just in the New Testament,
7 ,957 verses. Yeah. Memorize that. It's hard
to stay on top of it, just like it's hard to
step on top of the laws in our land and all that.
So yeah, you got to go back. So there's another
thing, and you brought this up in the Resurrection
Day sermon, which I think is a better description
of the day, but okay, Easter. Yeah, Rez Day,
absolutely. Rez Day. You know what Rezing is?
No. Oh, it's like in a video game where you die
and then you come back, your resolution back
is called Rezing. Interesting. Well, another
term that's used for Rez is a band. Christian,
one of the early Christian rock bands called
the Resurrection Band. Then their name went to
Rez Band. How come this is not on Hello Fred?
I got to find these guys. Oh, brother, they rocked.
I'll get the Rez Band. I can hook you up with
some Rez Band, brother. Excellent. You brought
up, say, you were talking about eschatology in
the end times and how in 1988, you know, the
book came out like Jesus is coming back in 1988
and He didn't. And I find you always cautious
about end times and talking about prophecy coming
through, but coming true. But obviously we're
one closer, one day closer to Jesus coming back
today than we were yesterday. But it kind of
hit me. that when you see what's going on in
Iran and Elam and all the different prophecies
that are in Scripture, and there's a lot of YouTube
pastors, a lot of them, who really go all in
like, this is it, we're getting close. I have
a problem with this because to me that's like
1988 book. And the whole point is we have to
be ready. And you did this beautiful piece about
the ten brides and the oil and the lamp, and
half of them didn't have oil in the lamp. And
the analogy is, you know, or the parable is clear.
We have to be ready for Jesus' return. But if
we keep watching YouTube people who are telling
us that it's here, it's here, it's almost here,
we're in these times, aren't we setting ourselves
up to actually fail and not be prepared? Or is
this something that keeps people repaired as
long as you keep watching it. I mean, I don't
know. I got problems today, Pastor Jimmy. I got
issues with what's happening. Please, this is
why I'm here, brother. So, first of all, you
have to embrace the tension of how we live. You
know, we're living towards something that we
know is inevitable. It's going to come if we
believe the Bible, if we believe what He said
is true. We have some substantiation and some
solid ground. You know, there were over 300 biblical
prophecies. of Jesus' birth, of His first coming,
right? The Messiah's coming. And they were all
fulfilled in Jesus. In hundreds of years of time.
Right, over time. Exactly. Exactly. They waited
a long time. There are also 2 ,400 biblical prophecies
of Jesus' second coming. So think about the disparity
there. 300 for His birth, 2 ,400 for His return.
Now, some of these weren't specific prophecies.
It's how it's mentioned in Scripture. So, saying
it's going to happen, but it might not have been
a prophet saying it's going to happen. You know
what I'm saying? It's mentioned by Paul. It's
mentioned by Timothy. It's mentioned by, I mean,
you go through the New Testament book of Revelation.
So, 2 ,400 mentions of Jesus' second coming.
That's a pretty big disparity. 324, which says
to me, this is not just inevitable. It is not
probable. It is inevitable. It's happening. It's
coming. Now, when it's coming, Jesus doesn't
even know. He even said, the reason is because
he's the son of the father and in the Hebrew
wedding tradition, the son didn't know when it
was time to go get the bride until the father
told him. That's why Jesus used that analogy
several times and even talking to his disciples
at the Last Supper, he says, not even the son
of man knows. He said, but my father, he said,
I go away to prepare a place for you. In my father's
house are many rooms, not mansions. We're not
getting a six story Elon Musk house. We know
when we get there. So I know, sorry. You're getting
a bridal chamber because that's exactly what
he's talking about. And all of course, they knew
what he was talking about. We have to figure,
you have to get context and we got to learn it.
Right. So, so he goes away to build this house.
And in the Jewish tradition, it could be up to
a year, which that's a long time after you've
proposed and now you're betrothed and legally
married. Do you know, even during the betrothal
period, if they decided to split, they had to
get a legal divorce. They could not by law, they
were legally bound just through their commitment
to that. And they drank a cup of wine over it
to literally solidify the covenant. Yeah, probably.
Theirs is pretty good. So anyway, we see the
setup here. What can we do to protect our hearts
from disappointment? Okay. All right. I got that.
Again, you got to live in tension. You got to
live with an element of mystery. Jesus said we
walk by faith, not Jesus. Paul said we walk by
faith and not by what? Sight. Sight. But we live
with expectation toward the future. but we trust
God with it and its timing. If Jesus Himself
doesn't know the timing, only the Father, then
Jesus Himself is waiting to hear, get the call.
He's on call. I mean, it's going to happen. This
beeper is going to go off, right? Old school.
It's going to go off. It's going to happen. Oh
wait, I got a 911 on my beeper. I got to make
the call. It's time. Hello old people who are
listening. You know what we're talking about.
Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to
go off. It's going to happen. So here's the deal
though. When you live with expectation, You can
get into a weird place where now it's gonna be
today or it's gonna be tomorrow or I've looked
through the Gregorian calendar I've looked through
the Jewish calendar the Roman calendar blah blah
blah, and I've calculated it I mean come on if
Jesus didn't know you think you're gonna get
it figured out you're not you're gonna solve
the puzzle That's where I struggle with a lot
of these guys and gals that are just constantly
saying well according to this it's gonna line
up and I'm like That's way above my pay grade
and frankly, it's above theirs too. Now he did
say, you'll know the seasons. In other words,
there's a sense where we begin to see world events
and we can go, it's closer. And that's as far
as I'm going to postulate. It's closer. Can you
imagine? World War I, American Revolution. I
mean, can you imagine you start going back through
history? The Crusades, I mean, you go back through
all that and you start to, or the war between
Islam and the Christian. Sure, all that back,
the historic wars, people had to be saying, this
is it. I'm glad you brought that up. We got a
note from one of our newer listeners who lives
in Bahrain. Wow. His name is Mohammed. And I've
been in touch with him for quite a while. Very
cool. He lives there with his family, and he
knows a lot of what's happening in the region.
And he's been listening to the show. He's Muslim,
and I wanted to share what he said. Brother,
I enjoy your conversation with Pastor Jim. You
find it fascinating how much we share in common,
unlike the nonsense you hear from the mainstream
media. We as Muslims believe in Jesus's message
and his teachings. I personally find Christianity
the closest religion to Islam and Jesus as one
of the most beloved figures we have. I always
saw true conservative American values as some
of the most realistic representations of what
Muslims should become. Greeting strangers with
a smile, close families supporting each other
in need. My mother used to have a view of American
people as immoral and indecent aggressors. Her
whole worldview changed when she visited Florida
and was thrilled by all the cheerful and good
Americans asking how she's doing. I'm a big fan,
but you don't know how happy I am to see you
following Christ, hearing about your experience
and your newfound relationship with God brightened
my life. I worry a lot about abundance, which
rots the soul. I see this wherever someone orders
a meal with a side of salad he doesn't even eat,
but when a fast food restaurant throws 12 packs
of ketchup in my bag. Whenever we are vacationing
in the US, my wife and I always pack the rest
of our food whenever we eat outside. We give
this to random Latino workers, homeless guys
or park attendees. The response we get is wild.
And then he sent me a Hadith, which is peace
from the Quran. It's a verse from the Quran.
Cool. And, you know, I always say to be understood,
you first must seek to understand and vice versa.
And this is just a few lines. You're smiling
in the face of your brother is charity. You're
commanding what is right and forbidding what
is wrong is charity. You're guiding a man in
a land of misguidance is charity. You're helping
a man with a weak eyesight is charity. You're
removing a stone, a thorn or bone from the road
is charity. You're pouring from your bucket into
the bucket of your brother's is charity. And
I like that last one, of course, because of leaky
buckets. All this to say, I really, I love this
guy. I appreciate that he sent that. There's
a lot going on in Texas right now. You can find
Christians who are insane. You can find followers
of Islam who are insane. Absolutely. Just beware
of the person who's actually talking to you.
It's not all one group. Totally agree. And when
I read this, it's like, I just want, I want to
share that. I appreciate Mohamed sent that to
us. I do too, Mohamed. Thank you for, for connecting.
Feel free to write me. Love to, love to engage
with you, brother. Oh, we definitely want to
bring him to Jesus Christ. I mean, well, I'm
on a mission and he's not getting off that. Speaking
of cool people, Beau wrote me, and Beau, I just
want to say I've not written you back because
my last five to seven days have been insane.
So he reminded me that some pickles, came your
way. Oh, I have not received pickles yet. Oh
no, I have not seen them. He did. And he said
to make sure until Adam and Tina that those pickles
are for all of us. Oh, okay. Like I would be
hoarding them and like, pickles? I didn't see
any pickles. I'm not going to lie. I would be
tempted, brother. They're that good. And also
he wants us to be sure and share some of those,
apparently several, with others. give the good
news of Jesus. Thank you, Bo. And I'm so sorry
I didn't write you back, brother. In fact, it's
been like a weight on me. I've got to get back
with him because he's such a neat guy. And I
love his heart and what he's doing with this.
Who would have thought it? Pickle ministry. I
mean, that's something. I love that. It's like
Devo's and Donuts, you know, there's got to be
a way that we can help him distribute some of
these pickles, you know, pay him fairly for it
because I think he deserves it and I want to
bless him. Yeah, absolutely. And they're also
extremely tasty. Unbelievable. I think there's
something in them that creates something, some
massive dopamine release or something, because
you take a bite and you're like, I can't just
eat once. It's like eating Pringles, man. You
can't eat just one. Very different in quality.
I'm talking about the addiction. The addiction
level. The addiction is real. Hey, thanks for
bringing all this up. I want to kind of maybe
close the loop on this. Yeah, please. It's so
easy to jump on the YouTube, you know, jump on
YouTube and start getting caught up. And then
once you watch one, your whole feed is going
to fill with this stuff, right? The algos kick
in. I just want to share with all of our friends,
be careful. There's a great scripture in 1 Samuel
that talks about David's mighty man. You know
where I'm going with this. And he says, they
were like the men of Issachar who understood
the times and knew what to do. And by the way,
it was one of the smallest group of men, of David's
mighty men, but they were the ones he went to
the most because of their knowledge. and their
wisdom. It's not just knowledge that'll get you
through, it's wisdom, which is the ability to
take knowledge and apply it practically to life.
And so we want to be of those who are wise, not
just knowledgeable, but wise. I've met a lot
of brainiacs that couldn't put together a ballpoint
pen if it fell apart. I mean, they had a lot
of information, a lot of knowledge, but if you
have no practical wisdom and we... For me, faith
works in real life. In fact, our little magnet
that we made for cars, I came up with that little
thing where faith meets life. It's on the side
of my car, brother. I'm rocking it. Actually,
it's on a net sitting out there with a big dent
on the back of it, but I've got to put it on
the side of my car because I got the same issue.
I can't put it on the back. It's plastic, apparently.
I just took it on there and I let go and it fell
to the ground. I'm like, what just happened?
My car is not metal? Anyway, but I just want
say we have to walk with wisdom, not just knowledge.
We call it discernment. That's the ability to
kind of parse out the bad and the good and to
weigh it out. That's another way to say that
is to put it in the balance. As you're watching
these YouTube videos, just know there are people
who want Jesus to come back so badly right now
that they're going to say things and it's going
to cause them to go over the line, I would call
it. where they sort of lose. And we've seen people
through the years, as a Christian of 40 plus
years, I've seen people literally go into debt
and let their debt go and they quit paying on
it because they literally thought he was coming
back. People who've moved up into a commune or
a mountain, you know, just, I want to be that
much closer. I'm getting rid of everything. And
that's not wisdom. No. Now wisdom says this,
we know Jesus is coming back. We know we're one
day closer than we were yesterday. Yeah. And
it could be today. Cause I will say this, I believe
biblically the stage is set. I think we're there,
but it could be another century. Yeah. You know,
for God a blink. Yeah. I mean, come on, what
could that be? Right. Yep. Uh, so I was talking
about this. Somebody, somebody gave me a prophetic
word. You know, everybody sees these things differently,
but back when I lived in California, Our worship
pastor was walking through our chapel where I
was setting up to have 200 youth in our youth
group that night. I was setting up the band and
he walks through and he stops and looks at me.
We already planned to move to Texas and plan
a church. And he goes, Jimmy, he goes, can I
give you a word from God? I said, man, lay it
on me, brother. Hold on. Can you let me just
hit record? Yes. I said, yeah, go ahead. And
he said, he said, I was praying for you and Annette
as y 'all moved back to Texas. He said, I see
1200 people. in your church. And I actually saw
the building and inside it, you had stands going
up in the back. No way. For real. He said that.
Wow. And I said, thanks bro. Appreciate it. And
he went on about his business. I thought about
that this weekend when we saw, you know, over
1200 people in church on Sunday. And the seats
go up in the back here. And the seats go up in
the back. And it was like, And we were talking
about in the staff meeting, because Brian remembered
that word. I'd shared that before years ago.
And he said, I couldn't help but think about
that word that you got in California back in
the 90s. And it took this much time. And I said,
that was less than a blink for God. We think
it takes so long, but for God, that was nothing,
right? So just in terms of when he's coming back,
don't get so caught up in the wind. Just be ready
now. Be found doing what He's called you to do,
what He's led you to do, walking with Him. Be
found doing that. That's what we mean by get
ready. And the way I see it, I'm going to meet
Him no matter what. It's a win -win. You live
a good life. I know where I'm going. I know I'm
going to see Him. You're not living on this with
this guilt and shame saying, gosh, I've got to
get my act together. I mean, what if He does
come back? Well, Maybe tomorrow, I'm going to
eat and drink and be merry right now. Like I
told the story about being in a pickup with my
friends with a whole case of Lone Star beer.
And we're all talking about God with a dash on
the Bible. I mean, a Bible on the dash. Yeah.
It's kind of comical to think these four boys
in high school, right around getting drunk after
a financial, no, it was an FCA meeting, Fellowship
of Christian Athletes. And we're talking about
Jesus. And we're all saying, yeah, someday we're
going to get right with God. One of them. Ran
his motorcycle underneath a parked semi Wow,
and there was three instead of four and Suddenly,
I mean that kid that that young man did not wake
up that morning thinking I'm gonna die tonight.
No You know, nobody does no very few do so Okay,
you just took me on a downer there, Pastor Jimmy.
Hey, but the upper hits, the other three in that
truck, we're all with Jesus. Even that, that
was a wake -up call for us, you know. So, be
ready. You know, on the Godcaster, we have every
digital station. So we have Bridge Church and
Hello Fred, and we have all these different podcasts
and they're promoted. And so all of these promos
come through on my screen every morning and I
have to approve them. And if I don't like how,
honestly, the AI wrote the script and voice it,
I'll either go remix it or delete it, whatever.
We also have focus on the family. The daily focus
on the family with Jim Daly, which is... It's
a good it's a good show and and and I'll just
want to finish because we we've gone a little
long today But I want to finish with this because
we've talked so much about AI and how And how
to deal with it and how to look at it and how
to talk about it and how to use it And he had
a really interesting interview with a guy in
Abdul Murray Who is he's an evangelist? He is
the author of fake ID how AI and identity idolat
ideology are collapsing reality. And he had some
really solid advice and solid things to say.
And I wanted to share that because I thought,
you know, everyone is kind of struggling with
how do we even you and I talked about all the
time. It's like, well, I use AI for this. But
I but I but I did it this way. You know, it's
like I didn't actually let it take over my life.
I mean, I find myself making these excuses all
the time. I hear you. I do the same thing. You're
like, butta, butta, butta, butta, butta. But,
yeah. So here he is. This is the first kind of
but thing, which is interesting. And this is
the fundamental distinction I think we should
make, is that AI doesn't create. AI generates.
And there's a fundamental difference between
creation and generation, is that when you look
at what an AI does, and you can create a painting.
And in fact, one of the things that got me interested
in this topic in the first place was a guy named
Jason Allen. It was big news about a few years
ago, I should say, he won first prize in an art
contest. In the digital art category, he won
first prize with a painting that was remarkable.
Turns out, he used Mid Journey, which is an AI
-generated software to make it. He just typed
in prompts, didn't put pen to paper, brush to
canvas, none of that stuff, just created this.
And the artist got upset about it and said he
shouldn't win first prize, but he kept his first
prize. And when I saw the painting, I thought,
well, that's remarkable. What does that say about
what it means to be human? And then you realize
these things don't work by creating a painting.
The AI wasn't inspired. He had to prompt it.
That's the first thing. It didn't do it by itself.
He had to prompt it. The second thing was it
took samples of millions if not billions of paintings
that human beings did. Right, the whole inventory
it would look at. Exactly. And then cobble that
stuff together using a sophisticated algorithm
and put an output out. So it didn't create. It
used people who did create and it generated.
So no matter how sophisticated and how impressive
this thing looks, it's not actually creating
anything. It still doesn't do what you and I
do. That made me feel good. Solid distinction
there. You know, it doesn't create, it generates.
I like that. And we're actually part of the creation
process by prompting. So that is where that comes
from. Now he has some other, he has some cool
little phrases we can stick into our arsenal
as well. AI can do that very, very easily because
we use it for efficiency sake. Okay, I wrote
something and I got to get it down from 1 ,500
words to 1 ,300 words. Hey, can you help me pick,
suggest, words to remove and it does that you're
like great that was so great i would have spent
two hours editing this thing now i spent a half
an hour i got 90 minutes back and uh that's wonderful
and thank goodness for that but then you're busy
again, and then you use AI to say, hey, I have
an outline for an essay I created. Can you write
this thing? I'll edit that. And then, hey, I
need an outline for an essay. And then it creates
the essay for you. And before you know it, you've
seductively engaged in the same kind of thing,
the tyranny of small decisions you were using
with fast food, now you're using with AI. So
the issue is AI can be very, very beneficial,
but it's like digital fast food. Before you know
it, you've used it to do everything for you.
And what's interesting as well is the research
that's coming out from OpenAI, from MIT, from
Microsoft itself. These are the people who are
making this stuff. They have put out research,
and it's all in its nasancy. It's kind of early.
But it shows you that the more you use AI for
original content, for original thinking, the
more you use it, the more cognitive debt you
incur. And cognitive debt is just a fancy way
to say, essentially, that our critical thinking
goes down, our memory actually is impaired. Our
sense of judgment is impaired. And what's interesting
is the more you use the voice features, the lonelier
you get. They were reporting that a high number
between one in four and one in five people under
the age of 25 were reporting an inability to
make any decision at all without first asking
an LLM like chat, GPT, what should I do? Where
should I go? So that dependency is there. It
creates a tremendous dependency. Digital fast
food. Wow, great verbiage there. This is a good
way to look at it. Yeah. Because we all like
a burger, but you can't eat burgers and Chick
-fil -A all your life. Okay, did I just make
you feel real bad now? No, no, I'm fully aware
of everything he said. I'm in agreement with
that. Yeah. Which is a real caution for us. I've
told you that I like to pray before I use it.
I don't go into like a 15 minute diatribe. I
just like, Lord, you know, as I, and I don't
do that for the little things. Like if I'm looking
up, you know, who's the dog on Hudson and Rex
and who trained it? To me, that's Google stuff.
But when I'm actually using it in terms of helping
me with research or whatever, I do pray. And
I just, it's a very quick, just Lord guide me
through this Lord. Because I don't want to get
so dependent on it. It's a great tool. And so
as with any good tool, there's a tendency to
where, man, that Crescent wrench doesn't just
do this. It can do this too. You know what I
mean? You find a thousand uses for a Crescent
wrench, right? Or vice grips, as we've talked
about. You like the vice grips. That's the all
around tool, right? You can take off any screw
with that. It may not get you back on, but you
can get it off. It nurls everything up. But you
know, that's the idea there. I so agree with
that and great. Yeah, digital fast food and cognitive
debt. Yeah, that was really good. That's a big
one because that's exactly. Tyranny of small
decisions was another one I like. He's got one
more zinger for us as the last one. I'm so happy
that Jim Daly had this. And I met Jim Daly the
other day in a meeting. I'm like, he's a great
guy. He's sharp, man. Very, very sharp. So anyway,
here we go. You make a distinction. You talk
about AI mania. Bioclasm. It's a great word,
bioclasm. It sounds like something out of Star
Trek. But what is bioclasm? Yeah, and I have
some Star Trek references in the book. There
are some good illustrations there. So, bioclasm.
is a slightly different, it's got the same effect,
but a slightly different topic than the AI mania,
but there's a confluence of these two things
at the same time. So you have this word iconoclasm.
So an iconoclast is someone who takes the icons
of tradition that uphold a certain cultural way
we look at things. So for example, the icon of
New York City was the yellow cab. You know, they
were everywhere. They were more numerous than
the regular cars. Before Uber. Before Uber. Uber
came and it was an iconoclast because it destroyed
the image of New York by removing the yellow
cabs and replacing them with everybody's cars.
So that was an iconoclastic thing. It destroyed
the icon of what New York is and made a new thing.
Bioclasm is iconoclasm with biology. It takes
biological givenness, the thing that makes human
beings, male and female, created an image of
God, smashes that, and says, you are your own
God, and your biology is not a given thing. Your
body's not a prison, it's a plaything, and you
can do what you want with it. And I think that
does take advantage of the very vulnerable in
our society, those who have various, whether
it's underlying comorbidities, a mental illness,
or gender dysphoria, and says, don't worry about
that, that's not a problem, that's actually a
gift, and you can become this God -like being
who can... dictate what reality actually is.
That's bioclasm and it's become an ideology.
It's not just an option. It's an ideology that's
enforced. This is where the danger lies. Another
level right there. That's where the danger lies.
So we just, we got to be aware of this all the
time. And brother, I got to tell you, I mean,
I have really found some incredible tool -like
uses for AI. As have I. I'm a lot less anti -AI
than I was, but I have really pushed myself past
any barrier of having any kind of conversation.
I just do this, do that. I don't say thank you.
I don't say please, because that's when you get
into a relationship without even knowing it.
And it's dangerous. It's not good. So I just
say, do this, do that and boom. So I told my
daughter Faith, she does all of our digital production,
manages our website. It's real easy to get a
blurb or throw something in there and she's really
good at it. But I told her, I said, treat this
thing like it could go away tomorrow. Don't become
dependent on it to where you can't write a blurb
or you can't write a script or whatever for a,
or you can't generate an idea. create an idea.
It's a good distinction between create and generate.
So you can't create an idea for a video that
you're depending on it to lead you down that
track. And she said, no, that's the way I think.
And I've told her what you've said, enjoy it
while we have it. It may not go away, but it
may get so expensive that you can't afford it.
I mean, it may move into that. That was my biggest
fear because I put together a whole production
workflow. And I'll tell you what it really does,
which is great. because I have some large, powerful
machines that can do this for me. I run everything
at home pretty much, so I'm not dependent on
anybody, but I still am to some degree. So like,
go get a transcript from this podcast that I
don't have two hours to listen to, make a summary,
tell me what's in it. Okay, pull that clip. And
it's actually doing clips. I mean, it's amazing.
This is great. But my first immediate fear was,
Wow, what if all of a sudden this stuff that
is only 20 bucks a month is gonna be $2 ,000
I would still pay for it because that would be
worth it in my job Right. What if the company
just goes away because I'm bankrupt. Yeah, and
I don't think either of those will happen But
there's bumpy times ahead and there's we should
we should treat it as though it's a tool Yeah,
and it could go away. It's something that could
not be there tomorrow and could you still function?
It's like the vice grip. You'll get the bolt
off. Come on. You may not get it back on. All
around tool. Hey, brother, it's good to be back
on the mic radius. Always. Always. May we love
our people, don't we? We do. See you next week,
everybody.