Father, we honor You. What a privilege that we
get to do this. We get to come together and we
get to talk about You and talk about what's going
on in our world and our culture. Father, we pray
for our country. We pray for the world, the globe,
Lord, that You would continue to pour out Your
justice, Your truth, and Your righteousness upon
the nations. And Father, that even upon America,
Lord, for revival and spiritual awakening, in
America, but all across the globe. And for our
listeners who are in other countries, other nations,
Father, we bless them. We thank you for them.
And we pray that they can relate to us in our
heart for our own country, just like they have
the heart for their own. So Lord, we give this
to you. We consecrate all that we do and say
today. And Lord, we give everyone and everything
to you in Jesus' name. Amen. It's Wednesday,
May 6, 2026. We get to do this. This is episode
number 31. We get to do this. And once again,
we get to do this. A day early. I like it. I'm
pretending that it's Wednesday. I know. It feels
like Wednesday to me. I mean, because we're sitting
here, it feels like a Wednesday to me. It is.
We're in the Curry Compound studio because the
church studio, just a little too noisy. It's
a noise factory over there. You know, the feedback
I got was, you know it didn't bother us that
much but you guys were talking about it so much
that bothered us like oh i'm sorry we brought
too much attention to it i know it's kind of
like that it's like don't think about that noise
don't think about that noise it just gets louder
but look at how clean the studio is man just
brother i'm i feel honored that the pod father
cleaned up his studio for me i have nothing to
lay my elbow on Yeah, I'm sorry. It was never
built for that. You got your own bell, though.
You got your own bell. That's the keeper's bell.
You got a bell. That's beautiful. Tina's bell.
Yeah. Do you have a different tone for sure?
Well, of course. You have that one. Ring your
bell. Ring your bell. Yeah. That's there's this
one. There's a digital one. There it is. I like
your old one the best. It's old school. Yeah.
I like it. Right off the bat, I want to say hello.
A big we get to do this. to the air traffic controllers
of Indianapolis, who sent us a note, but the
anonymous controller, the anonymous controller
and his wife are both air traffic controllers.
I'm already excited. That's cool. Here's what
he said, Adam, I want to write to you and Pastor
Jimmy. We get to do this is a topic of discussion
at times between believing controllers here in
Indy. Singing the intro song between transmissions
randomly always gets a laugh and changes the
tone of the day for the better. Oh, that is hilarious.
Can you imagine that? Yeah, Southwest 1375. We
get to do this. That is so cool. We need recordings
is what we need. I want them to keep their...
Attention on what they're doing though. Oh, they
know what they're doing. These guys are pros.
They know what they're doing. They are pros.
That is so cool. Well, hello guys and brothers.
That's awesome. And sisters maybe? Yes. Oh, yeah.
No, his wife is in control. Oh, there's lots
of female controllers. That's awesome. Absolutely.
They're very good, too. Love it. Listening to
the latest episode and the clip on Theo Von was
divine timing. I currently am in the Gospel of
John and just gone through John 5 and the Pool
of Bethesda the day before. I thought you might
enjoy that. So we appreciate it. I like this
so much. I'm nerding out right now. The air traffic
controllers are doing that in between transmissions.
That's fantastic. That's so funny. And then last
week somebody wrote us wanting to know where
they could get the song, the theme song. Yes.
Is it on Spotify? No. No, it's not. We do have
longer versions, though. I could probably dig
that up. You do, yeah. I remember when we got
that. I didn't get this file. I got the one for
living up in a down world. And there was a longer
version. Yeah, I got the original from the Jeff
Smith in Nashville. Cool guy. So just for a moment,
man, my bride with her testimony at the church
during the women's ministry, how about that?
She crushed it. I was so proud of her. And I
was like, no one recorded that, did they? That's
never recorded. They usually don't, yeah. I don't
know. I don't know if it got recorded. I could
ask faith if anything was done, but I don't think
so. Probably not, no. And I didn't really think
about it. Yeah, I recorded the opening montage
just because I knew she'd like to have that.
But I wanted to be present. I wanted to be there.
I know, yeah. You don't want to be handling your
phone. No, not at all. Well, I got to say, she
did such a good job. I mean, all those ladies,
I mean, those ladies work together. They're like
a well -oiled machine. They are, yeah. And Annette
leads the charge on that. And they're just...
You get Annette and Tina in the same room, working
on the same project, it's going to be a well
-oiled machine, period. You get me in together,
who knows? Me and you, brother. From the hip.
Everyone has sheets with like, run of show, and
this is the exact time in 1238, and we'll be
done here, and we'll do that. I'm like, holy
crap. And they were nailing it, too. All of it.
So I don't typically go to the flourish women's
luncheon. No, that's not for us. But I was going
to be there for Tina, man. I had to support my
friend. my brother and my friend, Tina, and I'm
so proud of her. There were things she shared
in her testimony that I did not know. Annette
knew from the beginning. They were always transparent,
but we don't get into the dark deep stuff. As
friends, we're sitting around a table, but it
was powerful. I'm so happy because we didn't
know any of this stuff from each other really
about the brokenness when we first got together
and married and you know there were always signs
about you know baggage that we carry the course
stuff that would trip or trigger or whatever
or offense offense you know as you explain so
so i'd always Whenever you explain that from
the pulpit, it's like a fence. It's like one
of those fences that is about two feet tall,
the kind that you don't see. Like a tripwire.
Basically a tripwire. Exactly. That's what a
fence is. And just to see, because it was good
for me too. I'm like, yeah, this is just so true.
What Jesus has done for us and changed our lives
in such beautiful ways. I couldn't help but think
about you while she's sharing her story. and
just opening herself up to 105 ladies that were
there and how much this must make you love her
so much more. I know that because I'm that same
way within that. Whenever she's sharing her heart,
it just makes me love her more. It's like, yeah,
this is why we do, but we do. We do get to do
this. We do get to do this. Yeah. So proud of
her. Yeah, me too. And both of you actually,
because it's a testimony for both of you too.
Well, it was... Annette did admit she had a crush
on you in the 80s. We could have done without
the intro. She did that publicly. We could have
done without that. Like, okay, Annette, please.
And all the ladies were like... They were fawning
into you. That's hilarious. I don't look like
that anymore. I don't have that hair. I'm not
quite the same. I actually liked your hair in
the 90s. The clip from the BBC? That was good,
bro. That was your look, man. That was a look
for a while. That was a good look. But if you
saw me like now, you'd be like, no, no. You know,
it's like we have... You still got good hair.
Well, yeah. No, I got good hair. Absolutely.
Just not a lot of it. Well, it's cut off, you
know. I know. And you have to understand... Pretty
high in titles. Being captured and held hostage
by your hair for half your, you know... Yeah,
you're done with it, right. For the course of
your adult life, it's like, no, I just... I don't
even have to, I can't even use the hairdryer.
It's dried before I even get to that. I'm shaving
like, oh, my hair's dry. No, no, no, no, no.
But I never wanted to be one of those guys who
had the ponytail, the long gray ponytail, like
you couldn't quite give it up or I'm not quite
sure what that is, but. Kind of the deadhead
look. For some guys it's a look, you know, but
like, no. Great for the dead generation. Yeah.
Yeah. Actually, some guys can wear it cool. Some
can. Yeah. Some of those older guys look sharp
that way. Some don't. So, man, you sent a clip
to me the other morning from Greg Laurie. And
Greg Laurie, just by himself, is such an impressive
dude. He is the he's the pastor in the Jesus
revolution He was a part of the whole, you know,
the real thing the real deal. Where is he now
Greg Laurie? What what church is he at? He's
a Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa. Okay, so in California.
Oh, yeah Yeah, yeah long time generational California
guy and and this clip was good and I wanted to
share it and I will say that It did not go unnoticed
to me that he probably recorded this sent it
through some Instagram robot that added music.
And then I took it and gave it to my robot and
said, take the music away because it bothers
me. Let's listen to this and we'll talk about
it. You know, it seems like we're a culture completely
obsessed with ourselves. The Bible tells us one
of the signs of the last days would be people
would love themselves. I mean, isn't that what
you see in social media, the very platform I'm
on right now, spend five minutes on TikTok or
Instagram, and you see people chronicling every
event of their life. Here's what I had for breakfast.
Here's my latte in the afternoon. Here's my new
outfit. A complete obsession with self. Do you
know that they've come up with actually a name
for this? It's called main character syndrome.
And so the idea is, my life is a movie, I'm the
star of my own movie, and everybody else is a
supporting actor. I am the main thing, the main
character syndrome. How did we get to this place?
I think we built this. You could trace it back
to the 80s and 90s, where instead of correcting
children, we felt we should constantly be affirming
them, you know, helicopter parenting, as it's
called, giving participation trophies away. Everyone's
a winner. And this kind of mentality morphed
into a complete obsession with self. And it culminated
with The selfie is the most popular kind of photography
out there right now. So where did that get us?
Studies show that despite being the most affirmed
generation in history, Gen Z reports the highest
rates of anxiety, loneliness and depression.
ever recorded of any generation. Listen, Jesus
dealt with this 2000 years ago before there were
social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok
or X or any of the others. He said, if any man
wants to follow me, let him take up his cross
and follow whoever will seek to save his life.
We'll lose it. And if you lose your life for
my sake, you'll find it. What does that mean?
To lose your life means to recognize God's plan
for you is better than your plan for yourself.
Stop being so obsessed with self. Lose the main
character syndrome mentality and realize that
the main character is Christ. You and I, we're
in supporting roles. If we'll understand that
and put God first in our life, we will find the
life we're looking for. Get your priorities in
order. It can change everything. There's a lot
there. That's so good. There's a lot there. I
read that to our staff this morning, the short
form version of it. He compressed it into three
sentences on the X. Yeah, we got to fill an hour
or so. We go as long as we want. The whole thing.
Hey, maybe we'll be up to three and a half like
you and JDC. Well, there's a fast forward button
for a reason that people don't like it. Yeah,
so you read that to staff this morning? Yeah,
because we were talking about that great term,
main character syndrome. It's a term that's out
there, main character. There's another word.
Well, I actually looked it up to see if there
was a clinical description, which there's not,
but there's a recognition of it, but it kind
of crosses over into narcissistic personality
disorder. That's the consequence of it. Main
character, a self -focus. validation dependence.
This is another big one because it's not just
the act of it, it's the validation of it. And
actually, why don't you tell the story about
the staff and then I'll follow up on that. Yeah,
so I shared the short form with the staff and
they were like, wow, this is so accurate. This
is what we see. We have our two youth pastors
there in the room. Naomi helps out with youth,
of course, Pastor Brian, and then his wife Leslie
does our children's ministry. Of course, they're
seeing it all. I love the way Greg starts. He
says, we gave every kid a trophy, built platforms
around the selfie, created a culture of main
character syndrome. And that's happening, but
it's not the kids that have done this. It's the
parents that did not want to put They wanted
their kids' lives. I think it started off as
a good thing. We want our kids to not have to
suffer and go through the pain that we've gone
through. Which is exactly what the cycle is.
You know, weak times make weak men. Exactly.
Et cetera, et cetera. Yes, exactly. So, the thing
I wanted to point out is that we are all talking
about the kids, the kids, the kids. Brother,
this is adults. This is... 30, 40, 50 -year -olds.
I know them. You know them. Yes, I do. They go
to our church. We're susceptible to it ourselves.
Our church? They're in our church? I'm sorry.
I know. Backbenchers. Backbenchers. You don't
really see them. Yes, of course. This is our
friends. This is our family. We all do this from
time to time. We all are doing versions of it.
And really, this started out because I I know
how this evolved with Facebook initially started.
The whole idea was a picture. You could find
other people. It didn't have a newsfeed. It didn't
have a timeline. That didn't exist. And it was
college students mostly in the beginning. Well,
originally you had to have a .edu address even
to get on it. But it was a great way to take
a picture of the grandkids or grandma and grandpa.
And your discovery mechanism was Oh, there's
so -and -so from college. Let me see who's who
that person's following So he kind of jumped
around and it was a good way to catch up on people
It became something completely different and
then absolutely the selfie cam that did it and
and that has triggered something in us and Greg
Laurie at the beginning of that he talked about
the last days which he kind of got away from
in the end. So, I pulled this to Timothy 3, 1
-4. I got the King James Version, brother. This
know also that in the last days perilous time
shall come for men shall be lovers of their own
selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without
natural affection. truce breakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce despisers of those that are
good, traitors, heady, high -minded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God. And this hits
because we did a survey at the church. And I
love this survey when we said, hey, what are
the topics y 'all would like us to talk about
and cover in a multitude of platforms? And do
you remember the top three? Yes, I'm looking.
Yeah, the top three. Number one was how to hear
the voice of God. Yeah. Just how do I hear God?
Yeah, I think that's a big one for everybody.
The third one was prayer. How can I pray better?
The second one was spiritual warfare. So those
were the top three. And then right after that,
end times. Yes, number four was end times. You're
right. People want to know about end times. And
I think it would be good because people are getting
end times all over the internet, and they're
getting all kinds of versions of it, and I find
it personally to be confusing enough that I stay
away from it. Like, you know… Well, just so you
know, we are actually going… Pastor Brian and
I have been meeting together, and we're planning
a whole series on eschatology in the end times.
We're over the Wednesdays? No, we're going to
do it for Sundays, but we're going to do it after
we get back from vacation because, you know,
summer gets a little bit weird. stepping more
into the fall. That's where we're going. Because
you look at that. Now, of course, I'm sure people
in World War II thought, dude, this is it. End
times. We've got to be here now. And you never
know. As you would always say, we're one day
closer than yesterday. But this is a very interesting
one. And again, I'm going to say we talk about
the kids all the time, but this is us, brothers
and sisters. This is us doing this. We are in
this. I did pick up two more clips about this.
I really went looking. The best way to combat
a problem is first recognize it and admit that
you have it. This is Dr. Romani Durvasula. She's
a clinical psychologist and she has an interesting
take on this phenomenon. And wait for it at the
end, she comes around to the real issue. This
idea of main character energy is also about...
She calls it main character energy. That's the
term I was talking about. Main character energy.
This idea of main character energy is also about
making yourself the center of attention, the
center of the story. It's as though all of the
lights and the cameras are trained on you and
everyone else in the scene is a secondary player
or an extra. Some folks who embrace this main
character concept almost view everything in their
life as sort of a short film. Whether it's going
for their morning run, getting their groceries,
going out to dinner, cleaning the house, going
on vacation. It's the cameras trained on you.
You're imagining the soundtrack, here I am, single
gal, buying the makings for my pasta dinner on
my movie night alone, or look at me dressing
up and making a grand entrance at dinner with
my friends. That's the main character -ness of
it all, right? In the more sort of ostensible
way. Now, main character energy needs an audience.
And that's where we see sort of the incessant
posting of moments in a life. hundreds of millions
of little films about people's lives every day
on social media with them as the main characters.
They're the central characters in their vacations,
going to school, going to work, driving next
to the ocean at a concert. It's a stream of consciousness
broadcasting, and there they are, the star of
their own lives. So, okay, as a shrink, and not
a young one, I love the idea. I got to tell you,
I do love the idea of people grabbing the bull
by the horns, viewing themselves as key players
in their own lives, setting goals, putting themselves
out there, honoring their voices. I think that's
all great, especially young people. My generation
carries different burdens than this young generation
does. And I have to tell you, I love seeing empowerment
at younger ages and living life on your terms.
That part I think is great. Where this main character
-ness runs the risk of veering into narcissistic
territory is when it becomes about needing the
audience. So my question is, can a main character
-driven person who has posted the quirky little,
look at me buying the ingredients to make my
sourdough bread, or being the central character
in their various vacation pictures, would it
be okay if there wasn't a lot of validation?
or if there weren't a lot of likes and comments.
Because if the main character energy person gets
upset that nobody is tuning into their life,
that's when I think it has taken a left turn
onto narcissism lane. And there it is. And that's
really the critical point. It really is. I like
how Greg Laurie gave us the answer to this, you
know, by saying, hey, look, this is Mark 834.
And when he called the people unto him with his
disciples, also King James, he said unto them,
Whoever will come after me, let him deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me." Now, how do
we apply that in our daily life to this specific—I
mean, how do we apply that? Well, there's another
passage of Scripture that talks about, think
of others better than yourself, and people go,
oh, well, then I need to put myself down in order
to elevate others. That's actually not the issue.
The issue is we elevate those around us, but
it doesn't mean we self -depreciate ourselves.
And that tends to be the thing. And so the flip
side of the coin is what we see is that where
it's easier to put people down so that it somehow
lifts us up. This is like the format of social
media. It is. And yet if you can fight that and
resist it by saying, wait, I'm not going to put
myself down, but I'm not going to put down others
either. In fact, I want to lift others up. You've
heard me use this. We even talked about it an
episode or two ago about putting lift underneath
people. How do we lift others? Good leadership
lifts those around. They elevate those around
them. I always intentionally brag on our staff
to the church. Boy, didn't Pastor Brian do a
great job last week? Let's give Pastor Brian
a big hand. Our production team, if they weren't
there, you wouldn't hear us. this constant elevating
others, but I'm not putting myself down. Is that
elevating or validating? Yes. It's both. It's
both, yeah. Because when you do it publicly,
it's very much validating, right? And when you
do it personally, it can be that as well, but
it's really elevating them to build them up.
That's what we're supposed to be about. How can
we remember to do this? When we're on social
media, we're looking at that one person and you're
ready to just go, cynical because that's the
currency now. Was it you that said cesspool of
cynicism? Yeah, I like that. I wrote that down,
cesspool of cynicism. What can we do to remind
ourselves, like stop, stop, stop, stop, stop,
don't do that? First of all, practice, practice,
practice. Practice does not make perfect. Practice
makes permanent. There's a jimmyism, if I ever
heard it. There it is. I've said that for a long
time. Practice does not make perfect, it makes
permanent. And so the more I do it, the more
it gets, obviously, from a physical standpoint,
I'm producing deeper grooves in my gray matter,
right? The record grooves get deeper. They get
entrenched. So the more I do it, the more natural
it becomes. And it's okay to start doing a new
discipline. and it has to be work in the beginning
because anything is new. But you also need to
place reminders around you. I mean, even if you
have to put on your phone, make it work for you
instead of against you, put an alarm that says,
who have you encouraged today at three o 'clock?
Oh man, I'm way behind it. I got two hours of
work. I'm going to go find somebody and build
them up. This sounds elementary, but I'm telling
you, when you become the person who builds others
up, you become the person people come to and
people want to be around. You become a life giver.
I just found out, by the way, that Don Finto
from Caleb Global is going to come when the team
comes back this summer. Oh, excellent. He wanted
to come hang out with us, which is amazing because
he's literally one of my heroes in life. Didn't
you work with him? I didn't work with him. I've
just been around him. I used to attend a meeting
at his house in Nashville. People can hear his
entire Session that he did on the Godcaster,
if you go back into Bridge Church sermons, I
think we put that on there. No, that was Todd.
Don Finto is the 96 -year -old giant. Todd's
coming too, but Don is coming. He's bringing
his daughter. Todd, Don, Bob, these three are
these guys. I know, right? Don Finto is like
one of those heroes of the faith. He's a general,
but the reason I bring him up is because when
I think about people who lift up others, who
build up others, I think about a guy like Don
Finto. He elevates everybody around him, but
he doesn't put himself down. That's the thing
is, this whole self -validation, this need for
validation, I get enough validation when I see
Pastor Brian succeed. When he hits a sermon out
of the park and everybody's cheering him, I get
something out of that because as a father, I
get to see my son grow. That is the most difficult
thing for people to do. Because it's our life
as we've been trained to be in competition. That's
true. We've been trained in all these ways. I
like the practice makes permanent because that's
your that's the brain scientists in you talking,
you know, because it was it a habit creates character.
I think if you put that into the whole line of
different things, right, right. One leads to
the other. I mean, But it is true. When you do
that, it changes your own life. It does. It really
does. So how do we apply that to what Jesus is
saying? Pick up your cross, deny everything else.
Well, first of all, I love the way that Greg
Lowery, Pastor Greg, put it. He said, we're in
a support role. That was the term he used in
terms of filmmaking. We are in a support role
of Jesus. He's the main character. We make Him
the hero of the story. If you notice, whenever
we talk about ourselves, we make ourselves the
center, we make ourselves the hero of the story.
One practice I learned, and I can't even remember
where I got it, but I remember it changed the
way I talk to people. And I catch myself, even
in church, even preaching a sermon, I'm careful
about how many stories I tell where I make myself
the hero. So you'll notice I'll tell stories
that sort of make fun of me or mistakes I made.
I do that because it takes me out of the hero
position and it puts me in the sub supporting
role. But when you're talking to people, if you
make them the hero of the story, it switches
the whole conversation. So in terms of laying
down my life and picking up my cross, that means
if I spend more time validating others, I'm honoring
God in that because I'm honoring His heart for
people. But I'm also positioning myself in a
support role instead of the main character, the
energy role that she talked about. That sounds
a little convoluted. I hope that made sense.
No, it made total sense. But again, it's not
about beating yourself up or making... That's
a mistake a lot of Christians well -meaning do
and it's even... implicitly taught sometimes
in churches. People have come up through mainline,
you know, well, we got to be humble, brother.
Don't get all puffed up. And I mean, over time,
those things are used and they actually begin
to beat people down. Right. And then you start
living that way and talking that way and projecting
that way. And you become very bent. Because you're
afraid of having any form of self -confidence.
So Bill Loveless, our mutual friend who passed
away, God bless his soul, he's with Jesus now,
he used to say, we don't need to have a self
-confidence, we need to have a Christ confidence.
So we're confident in him, but we're also confident
in what Christ is doing in and through us. We
co -labor with him. We co -operate with him.
So we get to be a part of the equation. But that
doesn't mean that we're like all that in a bag
of chips. Yeah, and I'd say that— There's a balance
in that tension. Probably social media is not
a good place to practice this because it probably
just won't work out very well. No, you're just
going to end up in an argument with somebody
who wants to debate your position on women in
ministry or something. I get that crap all the
time. I don't even give a tip to it. I had somebody
get all over me for promoting Randy Briley to
be mayor. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. And by the way,
hello. He made it. Congratulations, Mayor -elect.
Yeah. So, our church got to play a role in that.
I did what churches have been doing all along,
but been told they can't. and that is I promoted
him because he's from our church. He's one of
our own. I didn't disparage any other people
running, but I said, look, he's us. We know him.
We know his character. Don't we want him? But
I did that on social media and several people
came after me on that. Church should not be promoting
a candidate. Or I'm on the hook for a podcast
with him now. I know. I saw you floated that
out too in our little test chain. I'm going to
do it. It's great. Can I be a part of that? Of
course. I want to be in. We want the podcast
with the mayor. It doesn't have to be every week,
but periodically on some regular basis. What
a way to learn about what's going on in our community.
Every small town, every city, everyone should
be doing this. The one thing I did say is that
with these people that were disparaging me for
supporting a candidate, and here's what I said.
So I said, I hope the other candidate that's
running, I hope her pastor is lifting her up
in front of her congregation. I hope he's telling
them to go vote and to go and support her. I
said, if he's not, he's making a mistake. Amen.
He's missing. Amen. Yeah. Back to the main character,
energy. Although we inherently know this, I think
it's always good to be reminded that this is
by design and this is something that is in your
hand and is drawing you in every single day.
The guy who literally has written the book on
this, the books is Jonathan Haidt, H -A -I -D
-T. He wrote The Anxious Generation, he wrote
Coddling Our Kids, Coddling of the American Mind,
I think it's titled. pulled one clip from him
from CBS where he talks about the design of this
main character energy and what it does. Again,
he's going to talk about kids, but think about
yourself. Now, one of the catalysts for the social
media addiction debate was a 2024 book called
The Anxious Generation by social psychologist
Jonathan Haidt. He argued children's addiction
to social media was literally engineered by the
platforms. His new book, The Amazing Generation,
tries to help parents and kids break free of
screens. Jonathan Haidt joins us now to talk
more about this. Jonathan, thank you so much
for your time. Excited to talk to you about this
topic. You have argued for years that social
media companies are responsible for causing children
to become addicted. But then Mark Zuckerberg,
he testified there saying there is no scientific
proof that... social media causes mental health
problems. So what is your take on the testimony
and about this trial? Yeah, so he just keeps
saying that and it's just completely flat -out
not true. I had dinner with him in January of
2020. We had a long conversation. I said, Mark,
there's actually a lot of evidence now. He said,
no, it's just correlational. I said, no, it's
not. Well, here we are four years later, six
years later rather. It turns out Metta has done
dozens of studies and those have only come to
light because the attorneys in these lawsuits
are able to do some document discovery and so
for example meta itself had conducted a very
good experiment in 2018 where they asked people
to get off of social media for a week and here's
what they found quote we found that those who
stopped using facebook for a week reported lower
feelings of depression anxiety loneliness and
social comparison That's just one experiment.
There are 20 or 30 other experiments that we
found done by academics. So there's a lot of
experimental evidence of harm. There are self
-reports from the kids. If 25 % of teen girls
say that it's damaged their mental health, that's
not a correlation. That's direct testimony from
victims. They designed this. They designed it.
They knew it. Their internal documents show it.
They're in some... Actual legal trouble 375 million
dollars in in one state alone There's thousands
of these lawsuits from people that they're talking
about addiction The addiction is just a part
of the whole system and we get addicted to it.
We get addicted to that's the narcissistic part
You get addicted to the likes the validation
being the center of your own universe your own
movie Put put down your screens pick up your
Bible scripture before screens. Yes um and there's
more that is going on and this is this is in
a weird way because like any tool it can be used
for good for bad indifferent right so greg lori
actually was the target of a geofencing campaign
Yeah, I know. That's the look I had when I first
heard this term, because I know geofencing is
like, well, so my dog can't leave the yard, he
gets zapped, which Phoebe does not have a collar.
You can geofence your car so it won't start somewhere,
et cetera. But geofencing is an advertising strategy
that you can buy on all the big social networks.
And I first heard about this term in this context
of advertising. at the Heart of the Hills Gala
that we went to. Do you remember? I do now that
you brought this up. So the Heart of the Hills,
which is a fantastic organization here, they
give young, well, they give all women, doesn't
have to be that young, actually, the opportunity
to come talk to them about alternatives to abortion.
And they don't force anyone down a path. They
don't do abortions, but they certainly will try
and bring you into a more godly frame of mind
about it, and they've had great success. And
the thing that hit me there is the executive
director, she said, we have had a great success
with geofencing, where people, and so it is based
on geographic location, we're searching for Planned
Parenthood and they pop up. So, and when I heard
that, I'm like, wow, that's really smart. I heard
that. Now that you mentioned that we looked at
each other and I went, whoa. Yeah. Like, wow.
And so, you know, this is not a cheap system.
You know, we talk about CPMs cost per mil or
cost per thousand. So for mobile and desktop,
that can be $15 per thousand impressions. You
know, it can run in the tens of thousands or
hundreds of thousands of dollars. Every time
I drive by the wellness center, my app pops up.
I get a notification while driving down the street.
That's probably geofencing. So Greg Laurie was
a target of geofencing in California. And again,
I'm a little on the fence about this, but there
was, so this has become big news on social media
because Israel, the Israeli government hired
a company in the United States to geofence thousands
of churches. Mainly on the West Coast. So that's
why Greg Laurie was targeted as well. Some in
Texas as well, particularly Austin. Bridge Church
was not on the list that I could see, but who
knows how accurate the list is. And they were
doing two things. One was, so if you were just
on social media and you were within this geo
-fencing area, it would pop up messages showing
how Israel is important to be a Christian. I'm
paraphrasing, but also a lot of anti -Palestinian
messaging. And so I'm kind of on the fence about
what I think about that. But it's more, I say
it more for people to understand that this is
taking place and you are being targeted. And
if you're being targeted for good, trust me,
the enemy's out there targeting you for something
else. How do they call the information for their
demographic target? Well, in this case they were
doing it. purely by church. So within a geographic
area of a church, what that church represents,
there's a lot of data on Bridge Church. I mean,
you don't have to go over it. You can just look
at the website and know what we're about. You
can find out the demographics of who's going
there. Just having your phone on you is already
telling the data brokers who you are. They know
what Uber you take. If you take the Uber Black
or if you take the cheapo one, they know everything.
They know everything. And for the same reason
you're getting a pop -up when you pass the wellness
center. I was telling people about this stupid
bot on my phone called Bixby, and it literally
would pop up and say, do you want to install
me? So it's listening full -time. So it's important
to understand that there are actors out there.
And again, I gave you two examples that I'm not
against. Per se right but it can be used for
all different reasons and we have to be cognizant
that this is happening people this is happening
and just Be aware of what is what is going on
and always thinking why why did this show up?
Why you know or better yet? Just use it for phone
Just use it to text. It's been a long time since
I've had a phone call on this thing. I've got
two I need to make this afternoon. It's going
to be odd. It feels weird to do it now. I get
a lot of scam calls, you know, whenever there's
elections going on, like, oh, okay, New Jersey
calling me. Yeah, no, I don't think so. Oh, I've
been called by Trump before. Oh, of course. Yeah.
What did he say? I didn't take it. I thought
he could leave a message. It's just something
that I wasn't really even aware of. I've seen
how effective it is because literally the executive
director of the Heart of the Hills, she told
us how effective it was. I'm like, that's really
amazing. In small town America. And save unborn
children through this, which is great, but it
can be used for all kinds of things. And I'm
always a little worried. Make sure that when
you feel like all of Texas is being taken over
by Muslim and Islam is on your roof, just know
that there are all kinds of actors, political
mainly, I'm not even saying it's a nation state,
political mainly, who may even be friendly to
you, who are just trying to do stuff to mold
your mind. It's just the warning shot I'm throwing
out there. Over the bow, brother. It bugged me
when I heard that. It needs to be a shot heard
around the world. We talk about that in Lexington,
obviously. It's like this net that gets cast
out, and you can get caught in the net very easily.
I think when we choose and learn how to respond
as opposed to react to everything, and again,
practice makes permanent not perfect. The more
you resist, what those things are trying to lure
you into. Because sure enough, if you hit, the
notification pops up, hey, wellness center. I
haven't been a member there for two years. Oh,
okay. And I'm still getting them. And now it
pops up as a text message? Comes on on my phone,
like it comes up as a banner on my phone. Do
you have an app? Probably. Okay. All right. Probably
still have the app on my phone. I guarantee you
that's why. Because you know how it is. always
going, okay, what apps do I not use anymore because
I have so many now. Advertising used to be so
simple. Do you want these girls to like you?
Buy this car. You know, it just used to be simple.
It was the easiest way. Hey, you want to be liked?
Drink my beer. I mean, that's how we used to
do it. It's gotten so sophisticated and it's
not good. It's not good. I agree. Do you have
anything that you want to bring up today in particular?
Not specifically. I mean, I did I wanted to mention
that we're going to be going to the Caleb Awards
and I'm really excited about that. This is a
way different turn from what we just talked about,
but I mean, hard right. But I was talking to
some of our staff about that. This will be our
fourth year to go. And our third, I think. I
think so. The reason we like it so much is that
it's the power of context. and the power of story.
I'm saying this for a reason because this matters
in everything we've been talking about. When
I know the story behind something that someone's
trying to give to me, like a song, if I know
the story behind that song, I have now a massive
appreciation for it. When I hear the story behind
a particular song that our church is singing
from Brandon Lake or from whoever, Sunday. That
was so great. I know the story behind it. Why?
Because context is king, but that translates
even into what we're talking about with social
media. You get a sound bite from somebody. You
don't know what the context is. You don't know
what the story is. I think that's why when someone
disparages me online, because I make a comment
about my faith and then I just get blasted, it
hurts only because I care about people. I'm not
so jaded that I just write in the world off.
I even said this on Sunday. I said, guys, I'm
going to blow your myth bubble right here. I'm
going to be a myth buster. There are actually
good people in the world who want to do good
things, who have good hearts, and who are trying
to make a difference, a good difference in this
world. I know it's shocking. Because since COVID,
we've gone down this track of just being suspicious
of everybody and everything. Especially government,
authority, all of that. Cynicism, Simon Cowell
syndrome. Yep. 1 .0, 2 .0, Simon Cowell's a lot
nicer. He's gotten older and softer. Friendlier.
He's passed it off to others. Yeah, that's exactly
right. Well, he created a whole generation of
Simon Cowell. It's weird seeing Lionel Richie
doing a Simon Cowell. I don't know if you've
ever seen him. He's on it. It's like, wow, Lionel,
no, no, no, no. I know, I know. cute. But all
I have to say is that when we learn the context
and story around things, we see things different.
And in terms of social media, this is why I'm
so wary of social media. I like using the internet.
I like information research. I love reading.
I'm becoming a big fan of Substack because there's
not a lot of drama on there. Yes. These are just
people for now. In my experience with it, limited,
as I'm getting deeper into it, I'm just finding
good writers. It's also people who are appreciating
writing and not pictures and selfies and news
articles. I think that's why it feels different.
Yeah. I haven't seen any vacation pictures on
there. Not that there probably are some who do
that, but I'm not even going to disparage that.
I'm just saying it's a community built around
somebody wanting to better their craft. and finding
supportive people to do it. I think that's awesome.
It's fantastic. So that's a different kind of
social media, but what's happening with Metta,
Instagram, and I am susceptible to it as anybody.
You get me on a run of surfing videos on Instagram,
and an hour can go by and I've watched some of
the biggest waves in the world going, how do
they do that? Or flying, I love it. Airplane
stuff. This is why this influencer crashed and
burned away. I don't want to see those videos.
It always turns. There's always a turn. But all
I'm saying is that the power of story, the power
of getting to know things is why I like going
to something like this, what we're about to get
to. We're going to get to enjoy ourselves. We're
getting around a lot of positive people who love
God, who are good people. just coming together
to enjoy something and learn stories. But the
power of story translates into our life. I mean,
you pause long enough with the people that work
around you and you begin to learn their backstory.
It'll change the way you talk to them. It'll
change the way you react to them. You learn their
algorithm because we all have one. And we need
to do that. We got to take time to do that. And
with K -Love in particular, what's nice about
that is they have these Writers round tables
and so they're all sitting on stage eight sometimes
ten of them and they're talking about the song
and how the song came to be that's why I appreciate
Nick so much who does the Band kind on hello
Fred. Yeah, Sunday night at 7 and she's great
in depth with the artist talking about the the
songs it and you're absolutely right that is
and the two things I love about Caleb is it is
the worship just pure worship with a thousand
people or two thousand people. That's crazy.
But really hearing the artists talk about that,
we don't have enough of that. We need to do more.
It needs to be more. When we lived in Nashville,
some of the venues would host writer's rounds
with some of the top guys like Dean Dillon, Phil
Robertson, some of the big Bernie Nelson, the
big writers. Bernie Nelson lives in Fredericksburg,
by the way, and goes to our church. They're due
to our church and amazing, but he's got a long
history, goes up and does writing sessions with
these guys. And just sitting, hearing the backstories
of a George Strait song that you've heard on
the radio a billion times, number one hit, and
Dean Dillon's talking about writing it on a napkin
in a bar over a beer. That's how the biggest
ones are written. That's how the biggest hits
get made. But what it does, it makes you value
and appreciate things. And if we can do that
with each other and learn - Amen. to be able
to default, again, practice makes permanent,
to default to, you know, I don't like what that
person just wrote or said, but I don't know their
story. I don't know their con. I have no context
for this. You know, even if it's Tucker Carlson,
Candace, oh, I mean, just these people losing
their minds. And I'm like, there's a story there.
I wonder what the story is. Something Has created
a domino effect in them that's turned them dark
and I would love to know the story behind that
and it really is for me it's the most difficult
part of the model prayer is Forgive us of our
deaths as we forgive our debtors and as we as
we key two words Yes, as we forgive explain.
Yeah, so I always say it when I'd say my version
of it because it all is legitimate I say Father
forgive me for my offenses as I forgive those
who fit who offend me as I forgive those at that
very moment It's if and if I'm not willing to
forgive why would I expect someone to forgive
me? I always say Lord. This is the hardest one.
I trip up on this every single time Practice
makes permanent. That's it brother gotten better,
but it's just like Social media is like, why
don't you just go out there without a shield
on and say, shoot me. That's kind of what it
is when you're doing that. Well, we throw something
out and then we get shocked when people, dog
pile us. I don't give opinions ever on social
media because I don't work for Elon Musk. I work
for the no agenda nation and for the we get to
do this ecclesia. You know, these are the people
that, that I'm doing this for. And so I'll give
my opinions to them. Um, but I do use it to promote.
Right. And then it's always disheartening when
someone says, Oh, Well, you're still this boomer.
The boomer thing doesn't bother me because I
am boomer adjacent. But you know, but it's just
like, wow, you know, and that and that's when
I'm like, you always say put a mark on that person,
pray for him. But there it is. It's still hard.
It's still hard. So we're leaving for the Netherlands
tomorrow. Yes. I was hoping that because, you
know, we're on this Filming schedule for the
kids. They got a reality show and you know It's
like we're helping them out to give them a good
start in life with with a with a new human resource
but maybe we can record Tuesday and I'll do it
Tuesday night from there because I really I Do
not like skipping a show. I know I don't want
to skip. So yeah. Yeah, you just figure it out
Yeah, we'll do show. Yeah, we'll make it work.
Yeah, I really want to because I love doing this
and we get to do this, brother. I love it so
much. And I got to tell you, I love the people
that are listening to our show and are writing
to us, whether it's, and sometimes it's on social
media where somebody will write. Yeah. Had a
great, can I share this? This came via, let me
see, which one was it? Gosh, I think this one
was, yeah, this was, okay, this is somebody named
Karen. And this is on X. So check this out. She
writes and says, just watched. What did she just
watch? She was responding to me promoting our
church's worship services for Sunday. She wrote,
just watch. Amazing and lovely. I live in a very
small town. She's in Canada. Less than 300 people.
And this gave me a feeling of belonging to your
church. Thank you so much. The references to
Adam made me smile because I called you out on
Sunday. For whatever I did. About the car? No.
No, it was about the car, right, and the testosterone
and all that. So, yeah, we were having fun with
that. The references to Adam made me smile. God,
through him, brought me here. So, man, be encouraged,
but just thank you to Karen for taking a moment
to actually encourage us. I'm just so appreciative.
There's a whole group of folks now that I'm starting
to connect with on X that watch our show, listen
to our show. And that usually leads to them watching
a service or whatever. And so always makes me
happy just to see people showing up. And I will
say thanks to all of them. Yes. And thanks to
Bola Cost. Louisiana Dill Pickles, who has been
selected as one of the vendors for the 2026 Texarkana
Pickle Fest in October. Come on. Yes. Yay for
him. He's going to need a bigger building, a
bigger factory. He'll be teaming up and sharing
a booth with his friends at Dream Hunt Foundation,
a Louisiana based nonprofit providing guided
hunting and fishing experiences. For special
needs children. All right. Wow. So, louisianadillpickles
.gmail .net, it says here. Really gmail .net,
not dot com. I don't know. No, I think it's dot
com. louisianadillpickles .gmail .com. Very cool.
Yes. Brother, we did it again. We did it. We
done. We just landed the plane. We just talked
like we normally do when we hit record and a
show drops out the bottom. One last story here.
So, Sunday, you and I are at the women's event,
right? Saturday. Saturday. 105 women show up
to this event, and several of them are coming
over, you and me, sometimes together, sometimes
different, saying, we love the podcast. We love
listening. We're like… Wow. Thank you so much.
That means so much to us. People have no idea
how much that means. I know. It's powerful. It's
nice to know that people are out there. We don't
look at stats. I just love when people show up
and say, I heard it. I can't look at stats. No,
you don't have access. I don't have access. Probably
better for me. We get to do this and we're glad
that you are doing it with us. We'll see you
next week, everybody. Thank you, brother. Amen.
This, this is a chance we did not miss This is
the life we get to do this