Don't get down when you're seeing the worst, cause the last will be the first. What a day I'm telling you, all things will be new. Living up in a down world. Yeah we're living, yeah we're living, living up in a down world. Oh! This is Jimmy DeNette and we are excited that you are here with us today on living up in a down world. And we just want to welcome you to episode number 75. How are you doing over there? Gorgeous? I'm doing great. How are you? Oh you look amazing with your new glasses.
You got new specs. I know. Yeah, they look fantastic. You look smart. I didn't think I would ever buy any glasses and wear them, but this is kind of a, I don't know, Tina says they're sassy. So I decided I want to be sassy this week. But I am going to wear my contacts a lot too. But I'm going to be outside some this afternoon and these are transitions, which I like. I like that too. In fact, I'm going to order some too.
I did have to go get my glasses redone because they actually messed up on the width of my eyes. Which is weird. Well when I talk to them, you know how it is, they tell you, okay, you need to wear these for a week because you've got to get used to them. It was giving me a literal splitting headache because my eyes, I kept thinking, okay, I'm going to get used to these. You never could. I'd stumble over things because everything was real warbly. That's the best word.
That's what was wrong with you. Literally, I would just drag my feet on the carpet because I had no perception of depth because my eyes, anyway, took them back. I put them in a drawer out of frustration. For months. I paid a lot of money for these. I put them in five months later. They were like, yeah. They re-measured. They said, oh, yeah, these are off. I'm like, thanks. They said, hey, no charge. We got you covered. Anyway, should get them back maybe today. Tomorrow we'll see.
Then you ordered another pair. Warby Parker. How many pairs are you going to have now? I have a bunch because I've got one from six years ago. I only have two now. Which is good. It's a transition thing because that's in and out of the sun. We travel. We're in car a lot. Our son-in-law and Adam both have transitions. I didn't even realize Adam's were transitioned until they were in our house. I was like, maybe I should try that. He loves them. Brandon loves them. You're liking yours so far.
You've had them a few days. By the way, they just look fantastic on you. I know they're different. I like them though. You said they make me look smart. Smart. You go, girl. Do I want to look smart or do I want to look sexy? You said smart is sexy. My glasses have just arrived. I just got a text. Oh, wow. As we're talking. Yay me. I'm super stoked. Hey, we've got to get this over with. Oh, so you can run to them. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Welcome to our podcast.
We're glad you joined us today. You didn't hear what I just said either. No, say it again. I said I... Sorry. I know. You got so excited. I was off to the races. Off to the races. You cannot do two things at once. That's true. No, I said you said they made me look smart. I said, well, I don't know if I want to look smart. You said, well, smart is sexy. I'm like, oh, okay. If smart is sexy, then I want to look smart. Oh, absolutely. Isn't that funny? I know. I know. Anyway, yeah, I'm stoked.
I'm super shy. I'll run over there after this. I cannot believe that you've got to text the minute we go on. Literally, while we're talking about it, what are the odds? Because usually you have to call them. Yeah, a lot of times they're not good about calling. They'll be in for a week and then go, oh, yeah, they just came in. Yeah, right, they've been in for a week. Totally pumped. Yeah, it gives me something to look forward to besides just having a great day.
Then we can check your prescription and send it to Warby and get you some transition. Super pumped about that. You're high maintenance. Wait, we are high maintenance? No, you're high. Wow. Like I said, four, I think four pairs of glasses. My mom used to say that's the pot calling the kettle black. Oh, wow. That was her saying. I'm as high maintenance as you are. My parents had lots of isms and I picked up on a lot of them. Yeah. Living up in a down world, that's what we're doing here today.
In terms of developments of a week, the only weird thing that I would say is kind of newsworthy this week is what happened last night, which was the debate between Kamala and Trina. I did not watch because I knew we would get enough information on Facebook from our friends. I couldn't watch because the cringe factor for both of them is so high. I was like, I can't stand an hour, hour and a half of cringe. Well, it's not going to change who I'm voting for anyway. Not at all.
I read a post from a friend. I won't name her name, but she wrote, okay, after watching the debate, who are you going to vote for now? I'm like, why would that have – why would that change? I don't want to call your friend dumb, but that's not a great question. No, it wasn't because I'm like, why would it change who you're voting for? At the end of the day, we're not voting for a person. We're voting for a platform and the 5,000 to 8,000 appointments that will happen.
So, you're voting for a whole spectrum of platform that's most aligned with biblical and godly values. Well, I wanted to write back and say, why would that change who I vote for? Because I'm not voting because they were good at debating. Because for one, Kamala Harris is a politician. She knows how to debate. She was very well rehearsed. She was trying to be coached. Yeah, rehearsed. Whereas Trump is a businessman, probably – and we know he's not good at debating.
And he's a straight shooter. He's a straight shooter. He's not even playing around. So, yeah, it's going to be different. And he's so busy always defending himself. Yeah. Well, he's so busy doing 44 interviews since Kamala came out to say she's running for office. And she's not done – She's spoken to the press seven times total. Oh, okay. I didn't thought it was zero. No, not even interviews. Just little – Somebody caught her walking somewhere seven times, 44 times because he's so engaged.
And he's actually campaigning. He's actually out on the campaign trail, packing arenas without having to bus and ship people in to make it look like everybody's for you. So, it's true. Okay, so all I'm going to say on that. Let's keep moving forward. I want to get bogged down on this because I'm really excited about our topic today. And it's this. Well, first of all, a couple of things. We're going to ask you to go to our website, livingupinadownworld.com.
We've had some emails come in this week. Super encouraging. Some of our personal nature. So, I don't want to – you know, I mean, we appreciate that. We're here for you. We want to encourage you and pray for you. Every time you write us, it's a reminder to pray for you by name. So, keep them coming. We want to hear from you. And we've had some great donations come in. Yeah, oh, praise God. From several people. Cole, he just gave again.
Thank you, Cole. And Julie's given and Martha's given and several are giving. And it's just – it's blessing us. It really is. And we know that we are blessed to be a blessing. And so, they will be blessed because they were a blessing to us. Absolutely. It's just beautiful and we want to thank you so much for all of your kind – kind givings. And then, of course, we always have a Straper Boost from Adam. Not yet. Not yet. He's slow on a draw. He didn't do it last week.
It's because they traveled and been in Mexico. Yeah, that's true. So, he hasn't been thinking. We can't even do the Straper Boost. I can't even do the Straper Boost. Adam, you're too slow. Yeah, I'm too slow. Slow to the party. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No Straper Boost for Adam Curry. So, I'm going to do a pre… No. Okay, I won't do. A pre-stra – I'm going to do a pre-strapper. No, don't do it. No. Because I know he's going to hear this and lose his mind. No, you got to wait until next week.
Okay, you heard that Adam. Mama A, Damonette has spoken. Yeah. Nose dropper boost for you. Nose dropper boost. So, go to our website, livingupinadoworld.com. By the way, go to the blog section. It's listed across the top. You just click on blog. I do have a daily post there. And it's just a little short, about five to six sentences, encouragement from the Word of God. And it's just my way of encouraging you on your journey. And, so go check those out. They're up there every day.
You can go back in the archives. Read today's because it's important. Thank you. Because of what today is. Thank you, thank you. Now, that's different. I didn't post that. That's not my blog. That's just one thing I did. Okay. I did two things. I did my actual – it's called the daily grind or the morning grind. I saw the one about what today represents. You saw the one. Okay. So, let's talk a little bit about that because I think that's really important. Yes, it is.
Today is called Patriot Day, not Patriot's Day because Patriot's Day is another federal holiday. Patriot Day is not a federal holiday. Which should be, really. But it was a day – George W. back in 2002 declared this day, September 11th, Patriot Day, to remember those who lost their lives at 9-11, ground zero. And that was – that day will always go down in history. It's just a marker for my generation. Well, and last week we watched the Netflix series on 9-11 and in depth. Powerful.
And it really – for those of you who don't really know what happened, it's a great series to go watch on Netflix because it will enlighten you. It's good. This new generation doesn't know about 9-11. I remember – For our generation it's a reminder. For the next generation it's this is what happened and why you have to go through TSA at the airport. I remember talking to a – A lot of different things have changed.
I remember talking to a family member and they told me that another family member was married to someone who was home schooled their whole life. But that was never brought up, that event, which marked why we have extra security at the airport, why you have to take off your shoes, why you have to take out your computer. If you were raised post-9-11, it's normal for you to go through TSA security and all that. Yes. But our generation is like, really? We've got to do this again?
Yes. But it's because of 9-11. It is. I think it's important for people to know our history and what's happened. So yes, for sure. Let me let – Adam, that is not our noise gate. That's our producer I'm talking to, our executive producer. That's Annette's phone. My phone just went off. Right next to her microphone. Yeah. Last week he said, you need to cut your threshold on your noise gate. You're popping a little bit. I'm popping a little bit. And I did that by the way.
Because we're at work, people at work are needing me and I'm like, podcast. Podcast, podcast. We actually have an on-air sign outside of our office, but nobody ever looks at it. Our intercom, because our offices are all spread out throughout the building, or our phones, so people call. That's true. And so I have some podcasts. So 9-11 was very enlightening. So let's go back to that day, because we both remember where we are. And today is the anniversary.
Today is the anniversary, so we call it Patriot Day. We were in Midland. We had just come to Midland to work as you were running a foster care agency. Kind of took a hiatus from, you've taken a couple hiatus from ministry, but did ministry. From church ministry. From church ministry. But your ministry never changed. Right. It just, who you minister to changed. Whether it was a church or being employed by a faith-based organization.
I think it's important that pastors have an interest in business, and realize that that is ministry, not always. Real-world experience, not just church. Yeah, you can relate to people. Wow, that's so helpful. That are not in ministry, because you've lived it. And so I think a lot of pastors just go from school right to that, and they don't know how to relate to the business world, because they don't understand how taxing their life is. And for me, that was really good for us.
But we took about a year and worked in Midland, and I remember, I don't know if someone told us to turn the TV on. No, I think I was... We were probably... No, remember, okay, in my office, because I worked out of my home at that point, we had not reopened the new office. So I actually had the luxury of being at home with my baby daughter, which was amazing for that first year. And I was home with you, because I worked with you. So Faith, who's 24 now, was a year old. A year old.
So I had a little tiny TV, little black and white TV that was in my office, and I didn't always keep it on, but for whatever reason, it was on. Or maybe I was online and somebody texted me or something, or I saw it. But I turned the TV on. The first plane had hit Building 1, and we were watching it horrified. And the media was thinking this was just a twin-engine plane, so we were like... At first.
But then when we heard what was actually happening, we turned our big TV on, went in the living room, and I think we were in there for 12 hours watching. All day long. All day long. All day long, glued to the TV. I don't know what Faith was doing. I mean, she was a year old. What were we doing with her? I'm sure we were taking turns, but... Oh my gosh. It was one of those days where it just marks your life. It does.
You just know in that moment, because we watched the second plane fly in live, we saw that. We were just in shock. We were in Building 2. And then we heard about there's another something going on in Pennsylvania. Oh no, a building's hit the Pentagon. And we thought, uh-oh, we're having World War III. We thought full-scale invasion. War, War III invasion. It felt like... Remember the movie with Patrick Swayze, Red Dawn?
You may not remember that movie, but it was about an invasion, Chinese invasion. I know. I want to watch that again, because it's been so long. It was one of those movies where you always wonder in the back of your mind, we've had it so good in America for so long. Our shores have been quite secure until they opened the borders up during the last presidential administration and put us all in danger. Now we're living with an invasion from within.
And listen, that may not be your issue where you live, but we live three hours from the border of Mexico. So let me tell you something. It's an issue here. It is an invasion. It is. I was in the parking lot, just caveat here for a moment, to drop off those products at Goodwill. And there were two guys walking and they were looking in cars in the parking lot. They were just going by cars, glancing down. I watched them. I'm certain they were illegal aliens. Oh my gosh.
Aliens, because of the clothes they were wearing and the look they had. And they were carrying their phones. They were walking from Walmart over to the AT&T store. And in Texas, they're probably looking for guns because people... Or anything, just an open car. But they... Stuff, anything. But people do keep their guns there. So I watched them and I didn't get out of my car until they had gone past because I'm like, my car's running. I'm dropping this stuff off at Goodwill.
And you don't know if you... I'm not leaving my car. Yeah. Isn't that weird though? Because we've never had to think like that before. I've never had to be, live so self-aware and have situational awareness like I do now. And for those of you who, again, don't live around the border, maybe you're not seeing this, or maybe you live in another country that's listening to this, but I'm telling you, we're being invaded from the inside out. Which is why I don't even go get gas for my car anymore.
I won't even let you do that. I won't let you go to a gas station by yourself. It's like, you hardly drive by yourself anymore. Because thankfully, we work together so we can do that. But it is a different world. And listen, this is all post 9-11. So back to that, 9-11 has marked us. And what it did, an interesting thing. We were talking about this yesterday, because we were talking about revival and spiritual awakening. And we talked about how after 9-11 for about a month. Oh my goodness.
The whole country was in unity. The world was crying out for Jesus. Yes. The nation was unified. Even all the countries, because of what was happening, they were unified with us. It was interesting, because remember they would say, you know, the Prime Minister of England called, or whoever, and they're praying for you. Yes. I don't think I've ever heard God in prayer mentioned more than in that first month. And then it just went away. Went silent.
It was like when everything kind of, okay, we're not really under attack. We're not under invasion. When everybody felt like it was okay, things went back to normal. And it was not good normal. Other than the airlines. That's the only thing that changed. Yeah, other than those kinds of things. But I'm just saying in terms of people's awareness of God, and desire for God, and need for God. I really thought this could really begin the third great awakening.
That we would see God move in amazing ways. And we did for a short time. And then the window closed. I think our response was... And now you think most people don't even remember today. Or they don't, they haven't kept it in the forefront of their mind. I think the further away we get from it, the more distractions we have with current events and what's going on in our world today. I think it just becomes a little blip on the screen as opposed to... This changed.
This fundamentally changed America. It did. It did. And the world too. Because people have always thought America is so secure. And then boom, we weren't. Which tells us that with our borders open, and we know what happened at 9-1-1 with these people, these evil people coming in from another country. It's like, why would you even consider having your borders open? It's like our administration has forgotten. It's like, do you not realize what happened? It was just another day for them.
And so it's just unbelievable. The Constitution of the United States guarantees our right to protect our borders. And we've in Texas have had to fight for the right. We've had to fight our own federal government for a constitutional right to secure our borders. It has been the most... It's like the Constitution of the United States, we are a constitutional republic. We are not a democracy. Let me clarify that for anybody listening.
When you hear people say, they're a danger against a threat to our democracy. We're not a democracy. Never have been. We are a representative, a constitutional republic. We operate by the rule of law. And our rule is based out of the Constitution of the United States, which by the way is based 34% of the Word of God. So those are facts. Which the administration and the DOJ, they're like dismissing all that. They're ignoring it.
A friend of mine that was testifying in a DOJ trial against a J6 person was told, and he's a constitutional expert. Lawyer. And he was told he could not quote the Bill of Rights, he could not quote the declaration, he could not quote the Constitution. As a witness on the stand, they objected to him and shut him down. He could not even refer to our original documents. Which to me is against the law for them to even say that.
How can a court of law tell you, you cannot go back to our original documents, which that court of law by default is based upon? So anyway, I get real fired up talking about this because there's a lot of insanity happening. But 9-1-1 was a trigger that started this freefall of strange events. Mind you, things were happening before that. But this attack on our shores in the seat of our nation, which at the time in terms of business and economy was New York City, the World Trade Center.
All of that just was a massive wake-up call. Life went sort of back to normal for a lot of people. And now I look up all these years later and I'm like, we are no better off now than we were. Did we learn anything? No, we're actually worse off now than we were. I think we are too. Yeah. I think we are too. Yeah. I think we're back in the days of Noah, where every man did what was right in his own eyes, the Scripture says. But on another note, last night, as we were... Don't wait, there's more.
Well, as we were... I got to have a sip of my JB, my Just Black Riffle coffee. While we were looking at YouTube trying to figure out... Because we usually listen or watch a preaching or a small clip from a preacher because we love hearing from other preachers. But I saw, I think you were outside getting our burgers grilled. Getting the grill ready. Our pit boss, which is amazing, and getting our burgers grilled. And I saw... Someone had told us about Russell Brand being on Tucker Carlson.
I've seen little clips here and there. Tucker Carlson is doing a 2024 tour. He's touring and he brought Russell Brand and apparently they're really good friends. And I thought, somebody said something about him praying there and getting on his knees. And I thought, well, I want to see this and I want to hear this because a lot of times when people just become a Christian and we elevate them as a Christian and we put them in the media and ask them to do all that, they're not ready.
Oh my goodness. So I was skeptical. Pretty skeptical of where Russell Brand is. And the things that came out of his mouth, the Word of God that came out of his mouth was so... It reminded us obviously of Adam and Tina and their... Accelerated growth. Acceleration. But Russell was quite impressive. And even, he spoke for a good 45 minutes and then at the end, Tucker said, I'd never do this, but would you end us with prayer?
Of course, the whole room, the whole time he was preaching, he was preaching. He was an evangelist. No doubt. Straight up. But the whole time, every time he would bring up our relationship with Jesus Christ or Scripture, the whole place, and I don't know exactly where they were. I don't recall. Do you recall? They said where they were. We'll have to look it up. It'll hit me when I'm not thinking about it. But the whole place would just erupt.
And it was like, are all these people Christians that are coming to hear Tucker and Russell? But his prayer, oh my gosh. I was like... And he got on his knees and he's so sincere. He's passionate. And I know he's a comedian and actor and all that, but I felt like he was totally genuine. And he is transformed because the things that were coming out of his mouth before the prayer were just... I was like, Jimmy, he is preaching the Gospel. Oh, strong.
He's a better preacher than a lot of preachers out there in churches. And I was quite impressed because I always get skeptical when they put someone on a platform that is brand new. We've seen it before. We've seen it before. Even Adam Curry when he was on Joe Rogan, he felt compelled to bring up his faith. But he was even in his interview said, I'm new to this. I still have a lot to learn. That transparency was powerful. And I love that because too many people get up and they try to say...
And it's off. It's not even the Gospel. Russell Brand, I got saved yesterday. I'll just say, just watching him. It's about time. I've been praying for you. I would suggest people go and watch that interview. It was quite enlightening. But it really showed me, he might've got saved recently, but you could tell he was studied for a long time before he made the commitment. Much like Jordan Peterson. He is very studied in the Word.
And Jordan's not making a step to say I'm a full on believer in Jesus Christ until he knows that he will never go back. Part of me respects that. Part of it means, yeah, but sometimes you got to take a leap of faith. But he studied and once he does, because I heard Jordan Peterson's wife did step over the line. But once Jordan does, it's going to be even more powerful. But I love the fact that he's really studied many years before he comes out as a...
But Jordan Peterson had Russell Brand on there too. So I have to watch that. I have to watch that. Because it was so refreshing. Because this is my take on this. When celebrities come to know Christ and it's real and it's not just superficial, they're going to be so influential in this world as people who look up to them. And instead of these people like Taylor Swift and others that people look up to, but they're living their life for Satan, Russell Brand. What are you doing? I'm looking at you.
I'm hearing you just on fire. And I want to say to every wife who listens to this podcast, you want to be hot for your husband. Just get in and be on fire for Jesus. And just straight up saying it. That gets two hearts today. I don't have my earbuds on so I didn't know what you were doing. I was like, what are you doing? Oh my gosh. I'm like, no. Now you interrupted my thought. I'm so good. I had to do that.
No, but what I'm saying is the influence that celebrities like Adam Curry, like Russell Brand and others that have a large base of influence, they're the ones who are going to help lead people to Christ. And then hopefully those people will come to our churches, the churches that preach Jesus and get disciple. And so I get excited. We watched Dennis Quaid. He was on TBN apparently it was a few weeks ago right before the movie Reagan came out.
And that was beautiful watching him tell the story of that movie and how this is the best movie he's ever done and how it was Reagan's faith that stood out to him the most about Reagan. Which I loved what Matt and Lori did because Matt said, that's great. We want to hear about Reagan, but our listeners want to know more about you. And he shared about his faith and how his mother has played such a role in his faith journey because she's a praying mama and strong.
And it was just beautiful to hear Dennis Quaid talk about his faith, his walk. He says a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's the key. That's the key. I don't like it when people say I'm religious. No. They mean well. Religious means you follow these rules and rules of law. No, it's a relationship.
I really do believe, I think we as Christians need to start looking up to people of faith that are willing to put it out there and not these celebrities that are all about Satan and they're bringing in what they believe. Do you see that it's getting more extreme? Yes. You've got people that are all in with Jesus. Let me just give a list. I wrote down some of these names.
I'm thinking about people like Mark Wahlberg, Rob Schneider, the comedian, Chris Pratt, John Snyder, the actor, John Rich Country, our own Adam Curry. You've got all these athletes coming out. Sorbo, Kevin Sorbo and his wife. Kevin Sorbo. I mean the list can go really long because there are a lot of actors and actresses and people that are in the celebrity and entertainment world who are just straight up saying I'm in with Jesus. Kirk Cameron. Oh, I love Kirk. He gave up.
And his sister, Candice Cameron- They gave up or Kirk did. Were willing to lose. Doing any movies or dramas that aren't Christian oriented which I appreciate because now I know when they're in a movie and I know it's going to be solid. It's not going to be something that I'm... We're not going to have to get up and walk out of the theater which we've done. And lately every time we try to watch a movie we're like, nope. We tried one show on the other day. Within five minutes we were out.
We turned it off. We were out. We both looked at each other and said, no way. We're not going down this track. But all this to say is that one of our conversations was... And by the way the third one we watched was Alice Cooper. That was so good. Man, Alice Cooper being interviewed by Pastor Greg Laurie. Who was one of the best interviewer I've ever heard. He's a phenomenal interviewer. Great questions. Set him up.
And to hear Alice- It was neat to hear Alice's story because I knew he was a Christian but to hear how God healed him from drugs and alcohol. He says, I was not cured of alcoholism. I was healed of alcoholism. Because Jesus did it, he said. Even his own doctor said, you were so severe. You're such an addict. And it was alcohol more than drugs for him. He said, you'll be back here and it will kill you. It will kill you. You will die. You'll die like Kurt Cobain and others.
He said within a month, he said you're not going to make it. He started throwing up blood. This was back during his hardcore days. And he knew Jesus before that. He was raised in church. He was raised in Texas down in Houston. Yeah, in Houston. And what he does on the stage is total performance, total acting. It's a character. He said that he even... Is this something I should step away from? And God told him no. I've called you to do this. You're going to be a light in a dark place.
You're going to be a voice. But he said that one part of his lyrics of every song always has to... He always, even going further back, he said some of the songs that people think are the rowdiest and wild have elements of the gospel in them. And that his character, Alice Cooper, that he plays on stage, because it's theatrical rock, always ends with redemption. Always. And I never thought about that. His show basically is this. Alice is dark evil. Evil versus good.
All the songs are about macabre and all that. It's all theater. And then the shows always have where he gets his head cut off in a guillotine. And everybody's like, oh my gosh, rock and roll. But he comes back in a white tux with a top hat. And the ending song, the end of concert always ends with redemption. Which I never thought about. He said, I've done that on purpose for years. Not everybody catches it, but a lot have.
But the cool thing, it's not something we're going to go watch because we're not into that. Oh, I don't know. I might take that one. Take that one. Alice Cooper concert. Okay, well you can do that. But the thing is, there's people that are dark. That love this kind of stuff. Drawn to it. And they're drawn to it. But now there's a twist. And he said many people have come to Christ because of his song. And I'm like, wow. I know. That is impressive.
But to me, when I'm looking for authentic revival, I'm looking at the fruit. I'm like, I don't care what you say. I don't care what you look like. I don't care what you do. I don't care what kind of ministry you have or how large your church is. I'm looking at the fruit of your life. Are people in your orbit, people in your circle of influence, your sphere, are they coming closer to Christ? Are they drawn to Jesus? Or they just want to be your friend? They just want to be your buddy?
They're riding your coattails. And I look for that. And so you and I have had a lot of conversations about authentic revival lately. And I've got something I want to throw out and we'll end with this. And a lot of times, and I've been praying for a long time for revival, spiritual awakening. A lot of people are, right? And we keep hearing about all these outbreaks of small revivals like a college or a seminary like Ohio State.
Ohio State University football team recently passing out 10,000 Bibles on campus. They're wearing t-shirts around campus called, say, Jesus Strong on it. They're leading people to Christ. They're baptizing. So you've got this. We had an outbreak down in Corpus Christi, Texas at Texas A&M Corpus where nearly 100 students baptized and they're passing out Bibles on campus. It's unbelievable. So we've got these outbreaks happening all over.
Football teams, not just colleges, but actual NFL teams that are on fire for Jesus or refusing to bend like the Texas Rangers say, no, we're not going to celebrate homosexual day or transsexual day. We're not going to celebrate that and taking a stand. But then you've got also all kinds of businesses, churches having these revival outbreaks all over America. They're popping up everywhere and you're getting reports. I just got a couple more last night.
Let me see if I clip those for my thing because I wanted to keep it. One of them is, oh, where was that? It was a revival that happened. Oh, I don't have it. I thought I captured that, but it's not there. Oh, there it is. A revival in Brazil's Amazon in the Amazon jungle. Listen to this, 14,500 people baptized recently in Northwestern Brazil in the Amazon. That is moving all over the world right now. Oh, look at Iran. It has surpassed China. Iran is on fire for Jesus.
Listen to this, the scripture says we're sin abounds, grace abounds, all the more. It's like the darker things get, the more the gospel spreads. I've always said it, you've heard me say it this way. I told a couple yesterday, a ministry couple we met with, when I was in high school, I took a whole little container of mercury and poured it out on one of those slate lab class tables, thinking it would just... I didn't know what it would do, and it went everywhere.
You made a huge mess for yourself. I made a terrible toxic... That stuff's toxic too. That's what's wrong. I created a hazard, no doubt. It wasn't the first time in lab class, but I poured that out. I just remember seeing it scattered into a billion pieces. The picture for me now when I think about revival is that the harder something hits, the more it scatters.
The harder things get, and the more difficult... Listen, we have people who listen to our podcasts in Nepal, in Indonesia, Malaysia, all over the world in hard places. I was looking at where our podcasts are being listened to and downloaded from. You know what number one download lately is? Nepal. Nepal. Which is unbelievable. It's harder, hard, hard, hard situations. That's where the gospel's exploding.
Here in America, my prayer has been, Lord, I see all these outbreaks, but like a Texas thunderstorm, you can have scattered showers, but when those storm systems come together, they converge, they come together, that's when they get powerful. I've been praying for a long time, Lord, bring them together, bring them together. I feel like... I didn't hear an audible voice. I don't hear that. I wish I did, but I don't.
I don't get that level of clarity, but I feel like, I think, and I'm saying it this way, and I'm beginning to believe this, that God is not letting it all coalesce into one big movement because in the past, when revivals have coalesced, man has gotten in and they've monetized it. They start writing songs about it and selling CDs, and the music industry gets involved. They start packaging sermons and sending them out.
People in Pensacola, Florida, here's the sermon series, and all of a sudden, it turns into an industry. I mean, even at Asbury, as it began to grow, people began to flock there by the thousands, and the young people at Asbury and some of the... had the presence of mind to tell celebrities to stay away. Stay away. Even the big celebrity preachers like others who were actually asked to come said, I'm not going to come because it's just a grassroots movement. It's happening with young people.
We're old. We'd mess it up. And so, there is a sense where I believe that God is staying His hand in terms of converging all these movements. I think- Well, we have thought that it was never going to look like it used to. Exactly. I've said this for years. I believe we're in the third great awakening right now. Because you read, and we actually heard Tim Barton- Tim Barton from Wall Builders. He was talking to Rick Green on his show, and he said, no. He was talking to Alan- Pastor Alan Jackson.
Pastor Alan Jackson on his show, and he said, the people that were in the first and second great awakenings didn't even know it was a great awakening until later. Didn't even know. Didn't even know. So, we're probably in it and don't know. I think we are. I really believe that. And only as few people do recognize it. Well, when I share this with people, they have an aha moment. They go, oh my gosh, I see it.
But unless somebody kind of says it, unless you have a template for it, I was thinking that before I heard Tim Barton say it. For me, that was confirmation. It was confirmation. Right. I'm like, I so agree. He was saying it from a historical perspective. I'm saying it from a spiritual practical perspective.
So, wherever you are in the world right now, I want you to open your eyes because there is a great awakening happening across the globe right now, and we need to celebrate it and be thankful for what God's doing. Let me interject this. I believe Dallas Jenkins with the Chosen is part of this because of- Oh, catalytic for sure. He's bringing, he's getting the gospel out to where people can actually see it instead of just read it. Movies like The Forge, we went to see The Forge last Friday.
Powerful. Amazing movie. Powerful. Nobody in there, but maybe what, six of us in the- Yeah, the whole theater. Of course, it was a Friday at 2.30. Right. But it was a powerful movie. We were actually going to see Reagan, which we haven't got to see. Go see The Forge. And it was sold out, and I said, let's see The Forge. It should have been sold out because it was phenomenal. It was phenomenal. So I would encourage you, but I love that the Kendrick Brothers, Dallas Jenkins and
others, Kevin Sorbo and others, D.R. White are making movies that are really quality, good movies, and hopefully they're drawing the non-Christians in to show, hey, being a cross follower is a good thing. Yes. It's a fun thing. It's a game changer. It's not rigid with laws and do's and don'ts. It's about living a fully devoted life that is, yeah, we have our heartaches just like everybody else because he said we would have tribulation, but we can overcome because he's overcome.
But I love the fact that there's some good movies out there, really good. Our message to you today is take a pause today, start to look around. A good source for this news is go to CBNnews.com. I think it's dot com. CBN News. You can Google that. And they are tracking these outbreaks all over the place. These football teams, these colleges. That's where I get most of my information. This was a CBN article on revival gripping the Amazon, Brazil's Amazon, 14,500 people.
I mean, they're just getting started. These are happening all over the place. So celebrate what God's doing. Instead of being, oh no, the sky's falling. Oh no, what if my candidate doesn't get elected? I'm done with that. I mean, I'm going to participate. I'm going to push. I'm going to charge everybody to go vote, especially here in America. Participate in the process. Do your part. Do your due diligence. But at the end of the day, I'm more excited about revival.
I'm more excited about spiritual awakening that people are coming to Jesus Christ. Not just celebrities, everywhere, everybody. Everywhere. God is on the move. So we're going to end with that. That's a good note to end on. That's a good note. And we want to thank you for being with us today. We are. Living up. Shipping internet for a living up. Say it. We are. Living up in a down world. We are. We want you to do the same. Be sure to reach out to us, livingupinadownworld.com.
We want to hear from you. We are out of here.