Father, what a joy it is to be before you today.
It's our honor, our privilege, and we really
do get to do this. We pray for our listeners
today that they'll be encouraged, they'll be
lifted up, perhaps inspired, Lord. That's our
heart, to put some lift under their wings. We
bless them even as we do this and have this conversation,
Lord. And we ask Holy Spirit, you would literally
guide this conversation today. and give us solutions
and answers, or at least even greater questions.
So, we honor you in everything we do in Saturday,
in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. It's Wednesday, June
3rd, 2026. We get to do this. This is episode
number 35. You know you're a real podcaster when
you're doing a podcast on your vacation. I'm
in brother. I am all in with what we're doing.
That is when you are a true podcaster. You watch
before you know it. OK, we're going to the beach.
Honey, I got to bring my rig because I got to
do a podcast. I will be bringing my rig. Are
you bringing it? Oh, you guys are going to the
beach, right? I put it all together. Yeah, I've
got my microphone, my cords. I've got my mini,
what do you call it? The pod mobile? Yeah, pod
mobile. I've got that all in one bag. That'll
fit either in my suitcase or right in there.
You got the little stand for the mic? I do, yeah.
Those are perfect for a trip. Yeah, it's a little
bitty one. How's the vacation been, brother?
Must be so weird. As a pastor to not be at your
church and the machine keeps on running. It's
good odd though. It's odd or different, but it's
good different. I stay busy because I love what
I do and I love interacting and engaging with
people, so I continue to do that online easily.
I'm reading some great guys on Substack right
now. I've been encouraging and just studying.
Annette and I started a study called Rooted.
Which is, I didn't name our series after, it
just happens to be called Rooted. And it's a
fantastic 10 -week discipleship journey. So we're
sort of screening it to see if this is something
we want to implement for our church. Sounds like
work, but it's what we love to do is get in the
Word and study and read. And so far it's been
fantastic. People have no idea what the life
of a pastor is or pastors because you're pastors
together. They think it's like, Oh man, what
a gig that is. You show up on Sunday. Okay, you
got to do two messages. But the work that goes
on in between is really... Well, we tend to look
happy most of the time. We're with people. Well,
there's that. It's the world we're in. And truly
we are. We love what we do. I've been doing this
43 years now, 42, 43 years. And I'm just as excited
about what I do today as I was the day I started.
It shows, brother. It's joyful. It really does.
One of my long -term thinking philosophies, if
you would, has been play the long game. Play
the long game. Finish strong. We used to say
in golf, it's not how you drive, it's how you
arrive. Because sometimes you can whack one out
in the weeds and then you have a couple of good
shots and you're back in the game. So you don't
ever just panic over a bad drive. You just try
to, okay, all right, it's not how you drive,
it's how you arrive. It's the same in life. My
attitude is I want to finish strong. I want to
run through the tape. I want to be in a sprint
over the finish line, not crawling or coming
up short. So many guys that I went to school
with because I did my undergrad in theology and
then I did my graduate work in ministry as well
and what's called Christian education and so
I did a lot of years of school around church.
I mean my whole bachelor's and master's degree
and there's quite honestly very few of those
guys still in the game. It's a tough game. It's
such a false equivalency, but it is a bit like
being a podcaster. Apparently, I am one now.
They're very similar. It's like people give up.
It's very hard to... So when you're on vacation,
and actually, Pastor Brian, he's also, I believe,
on vacation. Yeah, they did their second week.
Right. So you have an interesting task of filling...
the pulpit with somebody. Correct. Because church
doesn't stop. That's right. So what is the process
for fillings? I mean, how does that even work?
It's relational. These are guys, people I know,
people I trust. I don't just call anybody out
of the blue and go, hey, you know, and we plan
this out for months in advance. So we had Krish
Dunham this last weekend, but that's been planned
for months when we hosted Reagan. you know, in
the pulpit. We'd plan that months ahead. So we
do that way out front. So we know who's going
to, Tommy is going to be with us. One of these
weeks. Tommy Hayes. We love Tommy. He compresses
a thousand pounds of TNT into 30 minutes and
we get out early and you're like, what just happened?
And he smiles the whole time. I mean, he's so
excited to do it. I love this one. So these are
men I know. These are people I walk with and
have had, you know, relationship with. I rarely
will put somebody in my pulpit that I don't know.
Rare. Victor Marx was one of those. Another great
example. I didn't know Victor personally, but
I knew people around him personally. I liked
what I'd heard. I'd been listening to some podcasts
with him and read his book. By the time he got
here, I felt like I knew him. We ended up hitting
it off like brothers from another mother kind
of thing. That's a rare thing. We'll be hosting
Todd out of Nashville. His last name skates me
off the top of my head, so I don't know him that
well, but I know about him and I've known around
him. When I was in Nashville 12 years ago, I
knew him then, but it wasn't like best friends,
but I knew who he worked for and who he worked
with. Big surprise, we've got the Caleb Global
coming to do a weekend seminar. Big surprise
is Papa Don Finto is coming. Coming himself?
He's coming. He wanted to. He said, I want to
come. I'm going to be there. I'm mad. We're going
to be out of the country. I'm just sad we're
not going to be there for that one. He literally
is one of my heroes in the faith. I mean, he
discipled Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant. I mean,
all these people that we love and know on the
Godcaster, he's been one of the spiritual advisors
over most of those artists. In one way or another,
they know Papa Don. So, Chris Dunham, Dean of...
He's at the Patriot Academy, his actual title
is Dean of Patriot Academy… Scholars? Scholars?
I think so, yeah. I mean, that's what they call
their students, scholars. And he's preached before,
and he is one of my favorite apologetics guys.
Is that the term? Apologetic guy. Yeah, he does
apologetics. He's an apologist. Which is always
confusing for new Christians. Like, why are you
apologizing, man? What are you apologizing for?
There's nothing to be sorry about on here. And
he came, he did some things, and by the way,
he's so much one of my favorite guys. I wish
I could get him on Rogan. I'm afraid that Rogan
might not be able to keep up with him. It would
work. And I'm going to suggest it. Wow. Absolutely.
He is, and he's funny, and he has a great story.
And he spoke, and it's a two -part series, he
spoke on Sunday, and it's about Islam. And what
he was doing, as I've listened to both services,
is he was kind of waking everybody up in service
one, and then this coming Sunday, he's going
to dive deep. This hit me so hard because I have
been, I have literally been talking about this
for 20 years. Two things really. One, growing
up in the Netherlands when I moved there when
I was seven, it's really odd what people accuse
me of because really it's Isaac and Ishmael that
I've grown up with. On one hand, I had kids that
I played with whose grandmothers had numbers
tattooed on their arm from concentration camps
and I learned a lot. A lot, a lot right. More
than most Americans would ever learn just by
the fact that so much happened there. But also
growing up, I played with a lot of Muslim kids.
But we didn't know them as Muslims. In the 70s,
they were Indonesians because that was a Dutch
colony. So the Indonesians had a citizenship,
actually, right to be in the Netherlands. In
the 80s, we got a new group of Muslims, but we
didn't call them Muslims. We called them Turks
because there was a guest worker program and
it was specifically open to Turkish people to
come with their families and work because the
country was being constructed and we just didn't
have enough labor. And then later what happened
is the liberal world government of Europe as
the European Union start to drop borders and
create one form of money and all kinds of interesting.
They tried to become the United States of Europe,
really, which was not a great idea. They shipped
in Moroccans. Never said Muslims, they just shipped
in Moroccans. And they didn't ship them in with
jobs. No, here's a house that you get and a Dutch
person doesn't get. Here's money that you get.
And when the houses were... It sounds like the
last administration here. We're going to get
to that, bingo. And when the houses ran out,
there's a huge shortage of houses, they started
something called asylum seeker centers. And these
are like not a detention center, but a camp where
they would put them in and give them money, but
no job. And they were on the outskirts of the
country, kind of in the rural areas until they
ran out of that. and now they're in everybody's
backyard. And so now, at this point, we've got
prayer calls five days a week everywhere. We've
got the whole—they call it the street picture,
Stratbelt. The street picture has changed from
originally people in wooden shoes to kind of
modern, modern Western people to burkas, literal
burkas. The part that is unique to me is I went
back to the Netherlands in 99 and I saw, whoa,
what just happened here? And there were two guys
that I knew and met and interacted with who were
saying, we have to stop the Islamification of
the Netherlands. And that doesn't mean we need
to stop people from being Muslims, but the Islamification,
which is a political issue. One is a guy named
Pim Fortin. And he was a professor of economics
and history and openly gay, larger -than -life
guy. And he's like, I'm running for political
office. He won posthumously. And I say posthumously
because the establishment hated him so much that
he was assassinated two weeks before the election
right outside the radio station where I worked,
killed not by a Muslim. by a radical leftist
member of the animal party or something like
that. And his party won the election. Of course,
that fell apart because their leader was gone.
But I remember distinctly seeing the whole country
from Amsterdam to The Hague, his funeral procession
went, this is like 40 miles. The whole highway
was filled with people, slow claps, and you never
heard anything about Islamification again. The
message was, don't say anything, we're going
to kill you, except for one guy. Theo van Gogh,
direct descendant of the painter. I knew him
because he was in television. He was a columnist.
He wrote. He was a huge leftist until he met
Ayaan Hirsi Ali. You've probably heard of her.
She was a politician in the Netherlands. She's
from Somalia. And she said, hey, what's going
on here in Holland is no good. And the female
genital mutilation, that was one of her big...
one of her big talking points, but they teamed
up together and made a movie. He was also a filmmaker.
And he got killed on his bike going shopping
in Amsterdam by a radicalized Islamist with an
AK -47, which you can't even get guns anywhere
in Holland. And just to accentuate the point,
stuck a knife in his chest with a note on it
of who would be next. Wow. And so I knew these
people. And so I've seen firsthand what happens
if you let the political Islamification take
over your country. And I think, yeah, there's
something going on with the construction. We'll
just pretend we're not hearing it. OK. And so
Krish was talking about this. And we've talked
on the show a lot about what people are getting
really spun up and fearful of. And so I really
wanted to sharpen iron with him today. because
he was coming at it from such a knowledgeable
background of the Quran and And and you're really
Indian culture as well a lot of people don't
know that the most Muslims in the world live
it Here's here's the order of countries Indonesia
India Pakistan Bangladesh It's a long time before
you hit Iraq Iran and Somalia and all those others
But he's right. He's right that we cannot let
this is that that? Is that outside? Yeah, it
is okay. We'll just we'll just ignore. We're
under construction. We have been for sorry about
that We're gonna five years stop talking about
it people won't hear it in a minute And he's
so right about what he was saying he did two
services I attended the first when I heard the
second one like oh, man You're really you're
really firing on all single cylinders, but I
needed to talk to him and sharpen some ire about
what I call bazookas I Said we have these bazookas
that we create online And the problem with the
bazooka online is anybody can fire it. So you
may build something you want to fire. For example,
if you say, we're funding our own demise with
$4 billion given to Muslim nonprofits, which
is, I think, a number that has been created.
It's got legs somewhere. It got a lot of legs.
It grew. It grew. What happens is if you fire
this, so the bazooka is meant to say, we got
to stop funding Muslim nonprofits. But what happens
is you fire that bazooka, and the first thing
my wife, Tina, said is, we got to get Abbott
out. I'm like, hold on, let's slow down for a
second. And why not, right? It makes sense that
you say, wait a minute, if Abbott is doing this,
then we've got to get another governor. So you
have to be very careful. The other thing is how
many mosques are in the Dallas Metro, Fort Worth
area. There's a number that's out there 245 in
the last five years and there's a map that pops
up on Facebook and all this stuff happens and
Krish actually got to be true. It's got to be
true It's actually only one has been built in
the last two years. One has been expanded There
are a few other small ones, but most of these
mosques were built in 79 in the 80s The most
recent big one was built in 2018 and I agree
that we should not have this epic center or the
Meadow as it's called. It is now, yeah. But when
you fire bazookas, what good American Christian
people do is they go put up signs and hammer
pieces of pork to it. This is not the way we're
going to stop this. No, you stop that by getting
on the zoning committee, by being on your city
council, by being... part of the school board.
This is how we do it, which has been such a driver
of Bridge Church. And look what we got. We got
our Mayor Briley. So I really wanted to talk
to him about the bazookas. And man, it was so
wonderful because he said, yeah, you know, you're
right. I agree. I got to temper that a little
bit because I'm just firing off stuff. And what
happens is the message gets lost. And so it was
so wonderful. to sit here, because man, this
guy is knowledgeable. He is beyond, beyond sharp.
There are real dangers. Muslim Brotherhood, which
was started in the 50s by British intelligence,
funny enough, because they hated Egyptian President
Nasser because he was taking over the Suez Canal.
This is all history, which were not taught in
America ever, but they have been. truly the funding,
the basis of all terrorism, all Islamic terrorism
around the world. You might remember President
Obama came into office. You remember the first
thing he did in his first term? No, not offhand.
He went to Egypt on an apology tour and apologized
to the Muslim Brotherhood for being racist. I'm
paraphrasing a lot there. That was the first
thing he did. So one other bazooka that we fire
is, hey man, they are procreating like rabbits.
Everyone of them has got four wives. That means
they're going to have four kids at 16 before
you know it. So this is factually didn't happen
in Holland, didn't happen in the UK, didn't happen
in Sweden. Yes, no doubt. It looked like 2 .6
kids from what I read. It's 2 .6 versus 1 .5.
And that is a problem. Even 1 .5 will be dead
in a hundred years. Nobody left. We need to make
more babies for sure. But immigration and the
biggest pop in the Dallas -Fort Worth metro area
of Muslim immigrants by about a hundred thousand
extra ones was during the 2000 -2024 Biden administration.
This is what Minneapolis is. Minneapolis is filled
with Somalians. Somalians came in because there
was a temporary protected status because of the
state of their country. When you hear President
Trump saying, go back to your country, it's horrible.
The only business they got there is killing people.
That's why they were brought in. They're brought
into a particular area. to work for particular
companies who need cheap labor. But then you,
in essence, let them overrun an area. Same thing
happened with Haitians. Remember we had there
eating the dogs? Those Haitians were brought
there for the factories. So this is a political
issue that we need to solve spiritually. There
you go. Thank you. And that is really what was
on my heart. And Krish completely agrees. I gotta
tell you, I was a little anxious about saying
to him, hey man, I think you need to tone some
things down because I'm out there on a different
battlefield than you are and I'm seeing what
the result is. And if what we're saying is making
people hammer pieces of pork to signs outside
of a mosque, we're not really winning the war.
That's not how we're gonna do it. There's a lady,
Don't take it from Adam, please. There's a lady,
Susan Kokinda. She's part of Promethean Action.
I think I've played a clip of hers before on
our show. She lives right outside of Dearborn,
Michigan. And she's a little older than we are.
She's, I think, 68, 69. I remember that clip.
Have you seen this clip? No, I don't know. I
remember one you played. Oh, on our show? Yeah,
yeah. That's what I'm saying. This is a new one.
I don't know this one. OK. And she's been with
the Lyndon LaRouche organization when it still
existed. I think she actually had a falling out
with them. But she has been a political strategist
and in the game since the 70s, so longer than
I've been doing it. And she and her partner,
Barbara, I forget her name, and when I say partner,
business partner. Yeah, I know you got to qualify
that these days. They do three 15 minute reports
every single week on YouTube. So I can't really
call it a podcast, but and she says something
the other day, which mirrored exactly what I
feel is happening. Remember Dearborn. So if you
talk about Dearborn, it's lost the Muslim. Dearborn,
by the way, has been a big attractor for Arab
Americans since the 70s. I mean, this is You
know, we have places where Indians live. We have
places where Chinese live. We have places where
Hasidic Jews live. I mean, this is America. You
know, look at Fredericksburg. What are we? You
know, how many black people do we have here?
We're just not attracting many of them. Luckily,
we're seeing more and more. You know, we are
we are diversifying a bit in freight. So listen
to what she has to say about Dearborn, Michigan.
Clearly, people look at what is happening in
Europe from the standpoint of the complete open
borders. and flooding these societies with Muslim
immigrants, many of whom are being deliberately
deployed to carry out a cultural warfare against
the civilizations of these European nations.
That is a world economic forum globalist deployment.
You see a certain reflection of that here in
Minnesota with the Somali population. and the
way that it has essentially been weaponized.
In other words, certain layers who are being
weaponized by the global elite. But that is not
a Muslim question. That is the global elite using
this to try and destroy cultures, to create terrorist
capabilities, something that we've documented.
So people have that legitimate concern, and it's
especially acute when you look at the European
countries. And it would have been especially
acute if we hadn't got Donald Trump back in and
we've now closed our borders to that. Then there
is the question of God fearing people from Muslim
countries who want to emigrate to the United
States and have emigrated to the United States
because they want a better life. And they are
not trying to change our culture. And I'm living
like seven miles away from Dearborn. Newsflash
people, there is no Sharia law in Dearborn, okay?
This is one of the rabbit holes that everybody
wants to be driven down. Now, are there problems
in Dearborn? Yeah, it's because you have a layer
of the Muslim and Arab American population, which
is bat shit crazy liberals. And that's their
problem. And then you have many other people,
many of whom voted for Donald Trump and in fact
delivered the victory for Trump in Michigan because
of the vote. from the Muslim community in Wayne
County here was one of the absolutely critical
margins for President Trump winning. I can't
speak for what is going on in other states, but
given the fact that we have the largest Muslim
Arab -American population in the Western hemisphere,
about six miles away from me, you know, the majority
of people in Dearborn are not trying to Islamify
the United States. They are part of our society
and our culture, and they practice their religion.
shoulder to shoulder with Jews and Christians.
This is a psi war operation. It's taking a legitimate
danger that the global elites themselves are
deploying these populations and especially radicalized
and criminal populations for their purposes.
And then trying to do one of these broad brush,
everywhere you have a mosque, you have Sharia
law. Again, I've got news for you. It's not true.
So this is what we're really up against, a psi
war, psi op. And I love how she describes what's
happening in Dearborn. I got a lot of people
telling me in Dearborn like, well, yeah, it's
been this way forever. But yes, Muslim Brotherhood
Council on American -Islamic Relations and its
intent is to divide and conquer. Divide and conquer
the population and then you can take them over.
Right back to Sal Alinsky's. rules for radicals
exactly spot on and the more we get all spun
up and mad and post stuff online the more we're
playing right into their hands bingo right into
their hands and bingo was his name and and that's
what i love about where Chris is taking this
and man i i mean I think he has like a two or
three day seminar. We should probably think about
having him do that here at the church. Well,
this would be a good feeder into that. Yeah,
we need a lot more knowledge about it. We do.
Because it's true. Quran and Islam, it's not
compatible with our Western values. But that
doesn't mean that every brown person is out here
to kill us. Exactly. And that's also not who
we are as Americans and not who we are as Christians
and believers. Thank you for saying that because
let's start with Christians and then we can talk
about Americans. But I did some research. I did
a little deep dive. I've been really... Why does
that not surprise me, my brother? Well, I...
I posed the question, and of course I used AI
for this. I've got Logos, and then I've got a
sermon AI, which is another Bible study program
that's all internal unless you tell it to go
external. It's a robot. It works. It's a robot.
Actually, it's good though. I asked the question,
what are the top... Actually, I'm going to look
it up. What are the top... biblical virtues that
are the most forgotten or overlooked. And I felt
like I was prompted to do this because a young
man who's a church planter reached out to me
and said, you know, value your experience and
your story and listen to some of your sermons.
And he said, what would you tell a young new
pastor starting out, someone starting in ministry,
what's the one thing? I'm like, one thing? No,
sorry. Can't do that. And so he got me thinking
and I was going to see if I had this locked in
on here. Here it is. By the way, there's nothing
I love more in a podcast than silence. I really
mean that. It's a beautiful thing. Dead air.
You never have dead air anymore. Everyone has
to fill it up all the time. Boy, no kidding.
We're going for the phone. I have it here. The
reason I wanted to look this up is because I've
been struggling with a lot of the bravado I see
in the Christian world, whether it's pastors
showing themselves at the gym pumping iron, I'm
all about temple care, mind, body, spirit, but
we don't need to see you flex to this bravado,
proud, loud, railing against... said, a rage
against the machine, they're raging against Islam,
they're raging against Mormons, they're raging
against whoever they are, not them. And I'm going,
this is not the Jesus way. And it's been really
just on my heart. And so I did a little query
this morning on... I got to find out which one
I used. I've got... Here it is. And it's called
underrated. biblical virtues, and here's the
top five that are underappreciated in our culture,
underrated. Humility is number one. This comes
back to your daily grind from today. Yeah, I
can see where that got informed. And I was thinking,
because I had written down off the top of my
head before I even looked this up, when that
young man asked me the question, he didn't ask
me in real time, so I get to formulate my answer
a little bit. And I grabbed my little pad here
and I wrote down, Humility, the greatest and
least appreciated virtue. I wrote that down in
real time after I was thinking about his question.
I wrote down some other things, but humility
is number one. Number two is meekness. Number
three, patience. Number four, contentment. Number
five, forgiveness. Think about how Christ has
tried to teach us to respond to our enemies.
Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who
persecute you. If they compel you to go one mile,
go two. I mean, we have so jacked this around,
and it's really been bothering me lately because
I have a lot of dear friends that are beating
a lot of drums right now. And listen, I'm all
about speaking up. our constitution has given
us the right and privilege to push back. And
so I think we should do that, but I think we
should do it always. And Chris actually read
this scripture respectfully, respectfully with
respect, with honor, not this torches and pitchforks
mentality, hair on fire as you use it, my new
favorite term, hair on fire. And so as I was
reading, thinking about addressing the issues
that are at hand, it's like, how do we address
this as not just a Bible -believing Christian,
but how do we believe it as one who says, I am
intentionally conforming in my life to Christ?
What would Jesus do? This is interesting because
as Chris and I were talking this morning, we
had this meeting. He says, why is it, he posed
the question, why is it that and I think some
of this is true and some of it is rehashed social
media images, that Muslims can stop traffic around
Times Square, you can't even drive near Times
Square, but Times Square to do prayer five times
a day, but we're afraid to go out and sing carols
and stop traffic because we're praising our God,
our Jesus. And part of his message is, We're
not even showing our brand let alone. Do we even
know what it is? I would say if that's true,
and I'm saying if because I know a lot of a lot
of believers who are bold with their faith I
Think we can make these broad sweeping generalizations
Where one size fits all you know I hear it all
the time well pastors just aren't speaking up
about culture, and I'm going What am I, chopped
liver over here? I've done it for the last number
of years and will continue. We just got our mayor
elected and we will get more involved and connected.
And there'll be some appointments coming with
that election from our church. So, no, we're
in the game. But when I hear these broad generalizations,
it really, I have to take a step back and go,
okay, let me think through what they're trying
to say. Not what they just said. What's the message
behind what they just said? Because there's more
to it. You got to see it in 3D. And so I'm concerned
about my brothers, my sisters, getting on social
media, raging against the machine, whatever the
machine of the day is, because it's not always
the same. It changes. And my ask for believers
is to is to understand the sky is not falling.
Jesus, unlike Elvis, it says Elvis has left the
building. Jesus has not left the building. And
we as Christians need to get our faith back on
track. If we're jumping on our phones in the
morning and our screens and we're getting our
news before we're getting in the scripture, We
are already off -center. We're already fighting
an unfair fight. And so, my appeal, my cry, my
exhortation, my ask is, could we get back to
the scripture and get grounded in God's Word
before we get versed in all these other fields?
I'm okay with going outside my house. I'm okay
with stepping into another ballpark and playing
the game. You know what I mean? Somebody say,
well, this is our ball field. No, no, it's all
of ours. It's the grounds level. But I want to
make sure that I am prayed up, that I'm worded
up, that I've been walking with Jesus, not just
from a distance, but up close, so that when I
do speak into culture or into a situation, I'm
doing it mindfully, not mindlessly. Scripture
says we have the mind of Christ. We need to tap
into that and then respond accordingly, not react,
but respond. And what I'm seeing from a lot of
my brothers and sisters, especially on social
media and platforms, podcasting, is reaction,
reaction, reaction, reaction. And then they go
back and either clean up the mess or they don't,
which is even worse, to come back and say, I
miss that. I was wrong. Swing and a miss. I told
you a story one time, a couple came to me in
church after a Wednesday night, it was about
six years ago, and I'd been talking about, I
was thinking dispensationalism, but I was saying
cessationalism. Two very different things. But
I didn't realize it. And so I just got the terms
mixed up and they came to me very kind of upset,
not mad, but just, you know, that's not right.
We're dispensationalists. You're talking about,
and I said, what do you mean? And when we talked
about it, and they brought me an article, and
I sat down, I read it, and I went, oh my gosh,
I totally flipped that. And I got up the next
Wednesday night, and I apologized and repented
to the church. and said, and I did it with a
smile. I messed up. I made a mistake. I know,
shock and awe, everybody. Human. But I'm a human,
and I made a mistake, and I want to apologize
for that. I want to clarify, so I kind of went
back into it and retaught it accurately. And
it was an honest mistake. It wasn't a big deal.
But I remember after that service, people coming
to me and thanking me for, they said, I've never
heard a pastor say he was sorry for something
he said in a pulpit. Really? And I'm like, what?
Well, get ready because there'll be more. You
speak several hundred thousand words every month.
You're going to have some misses. Oh, wait until
you get going as a podcaster, brother. Oh, I'm
just quite dribbling my chances to stick my foot
in my mouth. But you know what? We got to be
willing to go, you know what? I was wrong. I
missed that. I didn't have the right information.
Why can't we just... Be good people and good
Christians and back up and say I'm so sorry.
I miss that You talked about praying up, you
know, and so I and I shared some of this list
with you the other day I just have a list of
when I when I think of oh, oh, wow Here's the
fear. This is all the things that are happening
as a new Christian I have such a benefit because
these things are so fresh on my heart. This is
part of the reason why I took it from a conspiracy
theory to conspiracy therapy. Timothy 1 .7, right
off the top, for God has not given us a spirit
of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound
mind. Like that was a big one for me when I was
just starting to… So let me define sound mind.
Please. It literally means the ability to think
well. Perfect. It's that simple. Chronicles 32
.7. This kind of goes back to the actual Muslim
fear thing. Be strong and courageous. Do not
be afraid or discouraged because the King of
Assyria and the vast army with him. For there
is a greater power with us than with him. With
him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is
the Lord our God to help us and to fight our
battles. It's how this country was born, man.
We prayed to God and this little ragtag group
of guys defeated the British. This is true. Mind
-bending, miraculous. Ephesians 6 .12, this is
the one that, for me, you know this, this is
one of my, I'm still looking to get something
tattooed for this. I don't know how to do it
yet. for our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, this is the truth, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the powers of
this dark world and principalities, etc. And
then one that I'm always, I always have this
kind of, when I talk about Eddie Murphy, who
doesn't vote, he says, God's got this, not that
I'm saying he shouldn't vote, but Daniel 2 .21,
he removes kings and he raises up kings. And,
you know, so when I really, When I really just
want to pray up, I think of these scriptures.
I'm like, what am I worried about? It doesn't
mean I don't have to take action. It doesn't
mean we don't have things to do. But even when
the disciples wanted to replace Judas, they prayed
and then they cast lots. The way I read that
is, okay, Lord, I'm praying and now I'm going
to vote. And you've always said, like, pray over
who you're going to vote for. Don't just vote
because of a letter in front of their name or
whatever. Vote, pray about it. And this has changed
my life so much. I probably would have been spun
up out there slinging pork. So let me give another
scripture. It's right in line here, and you'll
recognize this immediately. 2 Corinthians 10
.3, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not
war according to the flesh. I mean, we don't
have to take another step. Just do that. Because
that is what we're talking about. You've heard
me for the last few years stand and say, we do
not have a political problem in America. We have
a spiritual problem. And I will continue to beat
that drum because it's true. And when I see my
brothers and sisters get so spun up that they're
no longer tapping into the mind of Christ. They're
no longer thinking well in that spirit they've
been given. sound mind. They're not operating
in a sound mind. And it's just like kings and
rulers, you know, we're told in Romans that we're
to submit to them. But it says, because they
have your good in mind, it's because they, and
they will reward the good and punish the bad.
But what that doesn't say, but it is saying,
is that if those rulers are wrong, they need
to be deposed. And that is a biblical precedent.
And God will turn them into a donkey and make
them eat grass out on the hillside. Didn't end
well. So that's the thing is at what level, there's
always going to be a tension. In fact, when I
was writing this young man, I haven't given it
to him yet. One of the things is you have to
learn to embrace tension because we're talking
about tension here. At what point do you stand
and fight? Do you stand and stand? Do you, when
you push back, when you show up, when you protest,
the things that we're allowed to do, peaceful
protest, of course, not seeing a lot of those
right now. And I saw Senator Mullen cracking
down on that before the Senate hearing. It's
pretty interesting. But tension, embrace it.
be afraid of it if it goes away. I had a professor,
Dr. Wallace Roark, philosophy professor, godly
man, called me into his office one day, scared
the bejeebies out of me. He was very intimidating
because he was so smart. We all kind of revered
him, you know, and he said, Mr. Perutt, could
you come into my office, please? And I'm like,
oh, what did I do? You know, I'm going down the
list. I think I'm okay. And I go in there, I
sit down. I mean, I feel, he's behind this big
desk and his room looks like an F5 tornado just
went through there. That's how you know he's
smart. There's books and papers and shelves and
it's, it is chaos. It wasn't to him, but it was
to me. I sat down. He says, I need to ask you
a question, Mr. Pruitt. And I said, okay. He
goes, do you have a knot in your stomach? I never
would have expected that. I said, yes, I do.
He said, be afraid if it ever goes away. Wow.
What he was doing was following up on a challenge
I issued in a class, one of his philosophy classes,
where we were talking about, it came down to,
he didn't identify it, but it was the tension
that we live in as believers who believe Scripture
and stand in the world in which we have to navigate.
There will always be tension in that. And he
said, be afraid if it goes away. If it goes away,
that's so good. I was like, whoa. Yeah. I walked
out, wrote that down. What's your list again?
You had five. You can go through that again because
I really like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was
a very good. I love the meekness one because
I immediately I think because the meek shall
inherit the earth. And there's nothing weak about
me. Meek is not weak. Meek is literally power
under control. It's like having a car that's
fast, but it doesn't show but it doesn't show
it You don't have to you don't have to you've
got it, but that doesn't mean you're using you
know I'm saying right and meekness is that strength
under control. That's what it literally means
You know the Greek word for it. I don't know
okay top of my head, but I believe because you
know man We so we know so little we don't learn
anything anymore, but I love that. I'm gonna
have to look that up meek Does not mean weak
it does not very good So humility was the first,
meekness the second, patience. I love that King
James really did it right when they identified
the word patience as long -suffering, because
patience means to suffer long. Wow. That's what
it literally means. The scripture talks about
God is patient with us. He's suffering long time.
He's suffering long with us. Isn't that beautiful?
Number four is contentment. Break that one down.
Oh, contentment simply means being satisfied
with what you have. Yes. Not this living with
this striving, this consumer mentality. More,
more, more, more. More me, me, me. More clicks,
more likes. More everything. More followers.
More influence. Yes. No, contentment is, and
these all work together. You can see how they're
like fingers on a hand, right? They all work
together. I think it was Paul who said, You know,
I've been, I've had a lot, I've had little, I've
always been, and by the way, that's me. I've
had millions, I've had nothing, and I'm kind
of okay, but I am okay. I am okay. I don't care.
I'm good. Okay, so Annette and I, we've said
the same thing. We may not have had millions,
but we were fine. We've done well, we've not
done well. And here's the deal. We never lost
our joy through the journey. Amen. That's right.
We never got bitter. We never, started to look
at other people and go, well, why do they have
something and why don't? Why am I suffering?
Well, that's the covetousness, of course. It
is. So this idea of contentment, Paul says this,
godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness
with contentment is great gain. And that was
in that passage you were just quoting, where
I've been debased, I've had nothing, I've had
it all. Godliness with contentment is great gain.
That's true riches and true wealth. Amen to that.
Isn't that beautiful? Because I'll tell you,
when I had millions and millions, unhappiest
time of my life. I get it, brother. And I'm not
the first one to say that. When I saw that little
BBC clip of you and saw you in your gold lace
clip and then your posturing, I was going...
That is all BS, man, dude. Just because I know
your heart. Because you know me, yeah. I know
deep underneath all that facade. Look at me,
look at me. This kid's trying to go, man, I just
want to make a difference somehow, some way.
And you're chasing something. The last one was
forgiveness. Yes. And then it lists honorable
mentions that almost made the list. Purity. Purity.
Self -control. Well, that's right up there with
patience. The top two for me of the fruit of
the Spirit. Yeah. Hospitality, opening your home
and life to others. We have some friends that
are very gifted in that area. Do we ever? Oh
my God, you know what I'm talking about, Andrea.
To the point where I'm like... We got to do something
back because we're not doing enough. It does.
It does. For sure. But that's a gift. And when
they're in their gift, they're full of joy. Yes.
You're so right. We always tell Andrea, no, we
don't want it. We're not going to come there
for Thanksgiving. You've doing so much. She's
like, I love to do this. She does. She does.
Thank the Lord. Amen. Submission. Submission
in its proper context, not abuse, but willing
order and trust. Yes. So that word submit is
such a... Americans struggle with that. Anybody
in the West struggles with that because we default
to the dark stuff. But there's submission to
healthy leadership and healthy bosses, healthy
supervisors, healthy CEOs. There are a lot of
good people out there doing good things. And
I learned the hard way. I can rage against the
machine and stay down here, or I can make a hand.
and get up here. Every job I ever had outside
of ministry, I got promotions all the time. Because
I went in there and my dad taught me well on
this, go make a hand. Go make a hand. Your job
is to make him or her successful. And when I
operated that way, there was blessing that came
with that. I didn't even realize I was operating
in a spiritual biblical principle, but it worked.
Say that, go make a hand, explain that again,
because I think I interrupted you earlier when
you were about to do that. The submission piece,
submitting, the idea to go make a hand means
you go do your best for them. They're paying
you fair, you know, sometimes, most of the time,
fair. You're for hire. And you said yes to the
job. So now you have a responsibility to make
them successful. Yes. Because if you will make
them successful, Nine times out of ten, they'll
make you successful. What a lesson that is for
our younger generation right now. It's kind of
gotten lost. Oh, it's kind of gotten lost. Yeah.
Like I just got a job, you know, just doing this
for now, you know, biding my time. But the whole,
that's part of America is making your company
successful. Isn't it interesting when you meet
somebody who's found joy in what they're doing
and in your mind, you're thinking, God, that's
not like what I'd consider a great job, but they
make it amazing. That's right. There's this girl
who works at Planet Fitness in Bernie. I don't
even know her name. I see her every couple of
days, me and Annette. That girl has got life.
And Annette asked her, are you the manager here?
And she goes, no, I'm just one of them. She acts
like a manager. She'll be a manager. Absolutely.
In fact, she should have got promoted along.
She should be running that place. Because whenever
all of the other kids are over there on their
phones, ignoring you when you walk in, she's
out there cleaning machines, cleaning the bathrooms.
Straight up, man. She's doing it. And what will
happen, somebody will see that. There'll be somebody
who goes to that gym and says, I'm going to hire
her. I don't even know what her skill set is.
But if she'll apply that to anything, she'll
be successful. As someone who has hired over
800 people in my life, and you've hired a lot
yourself. And fired a lot. Oh, absolutely. That
is truly the secret to success, man. You're looking
for the people who've got that. You don't even
have to have all the skill set for the job, but
you got that. You're in like Flynn. You know
what was important to me, and you're so right,
when I was looking at this list, and the reason
I am is because I've seen how our culture has
so moved away from this and where we value, I
even wrote this down, things that we value now.
See if I put that into something. I wrote, I'm
writing this young man, this young guy going
into ministry. Choose the forgotten biblical
virtues, humility, contentment, forgiveness,
meekness, patience, purity, over likes, clicks,
views, followers, popularity, and influence culture.
Because that seems to be what's garnering the
attention now. And it is. But it's a short game.
It is a very short game. Can you imagine being
an influencer and you're just killing it? And
then one bad bauble, and it's over. Immediately.
You're done. Immediately. I've seen it happen
over and over and over again. I've watched it,
and these people are destroyed. This is the reason
why I never even want to do video for podcasts.
Okay, explain that. That's interesting. This
would look really cool. People listening want
to know. Because, well, I'm a big theater of
the mind guy, and that's why I love ears to hear.
When listening to a podcast, you are building
an image. You're using your brain. Your brain
is building an image of what we're wearing, what
we're looking like, whatever. Maybe it's more
subconscious than anything. You're not looking
at us. You're not looking at this sign on the
wall. You're not looking at the lighting. All
of that distracts completely from what is being
said. The subtleness of the human voice is, this
is what I've done my entire life since I was
13 years old, to be able to, even the way I process
our sound is meant for you listening in earbuds
above anything else. It works pretty well in
the car too. This is how you can really communicate.
We are so bad at listening. Our listening experience
is so bad that 95, myself included, 95 % of people
watch a movie with captions on. We went to that
screening of Young Washington, it didn't have
captions. I'm like, uh -oh. It's like watching
The Chosen without captions. Yes, and you know
what happened? We got dialed in. We got focused.
Not for a second was I distracted by someone
rustling with a candy wrap or anything. I was
like, I was in it. I was completely focused.
That's the long game. That is the long game.
Video, the YouTube pastors, they got a lot of...
There was a lot more good looking. It's fun to
watch them. Then they edit. And by the way, it's
very dishonest when you see like a short and
it jumps from left to right, from left to right,
because they're cutting stuff out. What I just
said, I love silence on a podcast. Give me three,
four seconds of silence. You know what happens?
People go, what? What's happening? You know,
one of my favorite moments in Korea and the Keeper
is when the Amazon guy showed up. And Phoebe
goes into a wild bark. To me, that's life, man.
You just invited us into your house. As a listener,
I'm now in your home laughing because Phoebe's
losing her mind over the prime guy. That's why
I never edit anything. I never edit anything
out. There's no penalty against it. I was talking
to one of our people at church, who, Damonette
had said, oh, Adam will do it. Like she wants
to do a podcast. Adam will do it. Go talk to
Adam. That's my girl. Wendy, lovely woman. And
she has a really good idea. Oh, I know what you're
talking about. Yeah. And I said, do you think
in video? She says, no, I don't think so. I said,
good. And I took her down the path. And she's
a storyteller. She wants to tell stories. And
I'm so excited about helping her, getting her
set up. Oh, clearly. These are the things that
when podcasting started, This was the appeal.
The appeal was not slickness. The appeal was,
it was, hey, that's just some dude who's talking
into a microphone. Doesn't even really sound
all that great, but he's just telling his story,
which some would call a soliloquy. It was the
Don and Drew, the young couple who lives in a
farmhouse in Minnesota. It was Michael Butler,
the rock and roll geek who was drinking three
long necks after a bad gig where nobody showed
up. I mean, that's what it was. And of course
money came in and everyone thinks they have to
professionalize, but it's not. That's why. I
mean, you and I are both like, cause we're audio
freaks, like what am I hearing? What does that
sound? But at the same time it's like, oh, that's
just life. That's just, hey, we're in a church.
We could have done this at your house. We might've
got a bark out of Phoebe, but other than that,
you're going to get pure studio sound. I like
the mess because life is messy. Amen. It is.
Embrace it. And video is... Yeah, I like watching
Joe Rogan, and then I can see President Trump
sitting there. That's interesting. But newsflash,
90 % of what people are watching on YouTube happens
with the screen off in their pocket. They're
listening to it. I was going to say, it's usually
me driving down the road. Exactly. Doing something
else. Exactly. And too, isn't it different when
you're watching? It turns. I'm not saying this
for everybody, but sometimes when Annette and
I watch a podcast, it feels like we're just watching
TV again. It's almost entertainment as opposed
to, am I deeply thinking about this? Is this
going into me without distractions? So I don't
know, just thinking in terms of just the dynamic
of it. We bought cameras, we were going to do,
and we did like three of them and I hated them.
And Annette was like, it was torture for her.
She's a girl. Because all the distractions. How
do I look? What is the shot like? And then I
got to have a producer in here. We can't just
do what we're doing in the middle of construction
and just go, hey, just hit record, man. Let's
just do it. So thank you for sharing that. I
think that's important for people to hear. Yeah.
There may be people listening going, man, I've
wanted to do a podcast, but I can't afford cameras
in a studio and don't need it. Closets are great.
There's a website I set up, hyperlocalpodcast
.com, hyperlocalpodcast .com. You go there and
there's my list of how you get started. You can
get started for about, you know, 75 bucks. Man,
that's great. Yeah. I've had that for a long
time. You know, I'm looking forward to in the
near future saying, we'll put that in the show
notes. Oh, this is coming. This is coming. I
know. Tell a little bit, because we're getting
there. We're making steps. We're getting ready.
We're actually going to have a website. We're
gonna have a little newsletter that reminds people
that we're gonna do something. We're gonna have
proper show notes. We're gonna have an actual
way for you to send us feedback because this
right here, this is a long -term project and
I see it going beyond once a week. I agree. I'm
with you. I see it happening. I feel the progress
and I feel the taps. I feel the God taps saying
something's good here. Yeah, I'm in bro. I love
that brother. Whatever we need to do to help
people and that's our hearts. to lift up and
encourage people and inspire them to grab hold
of more than what they're enjoying right now.
Because there's such a, even though the world's
insane and there's chaos, there's so much good.
And we want people to hear that. We want people
to know that. And we will do that again next
week. We get to do this. We'll see you on Wednesday,
everybody. This, this is a chance we did not
miss This is life, we get to do this