Father, we're before you and Lord, Adam and I are just real guys and we sometimes come to your throne tired like the warrior's a child sometimes. And so today we come before you bringing everything we are, what we have and even what we don't have to you to lay at your feet. Father, we pray that these conversations will be meaningful. not only for us, but for those who hear, those who listen. Father, our heart is to help people on this journey of faith, navigate the complexities of culture
and the world. It feels like sometimes things are aligned against us and against our faith in this world, and yet, Jesus, you said it was going to be that way. Even as John Eldridge wrote in one of his books, we were born into a world at war. So Lord, we thank you that we get to do this. And so today we commit our hearts, our lives, everything we are for your glory in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. It's Wednesday, October 29th, 2025. We get to do this. This is number eight.
We get to do this. Yo brother, how you doing? Sleepy this morning. Really? I woke up at like 3 o 'clock. Oh no, this is no good. I got a god tap. Oh, that is? Well, between 3 and 5 a .m. That's his time, right? Well, it came in the form of I need to go to the bathroom. You know, typical dude stuff when you're my age. This is God speaking, you need to pee. Your bladder's expanding. Your bladder's exploding. So I get up and, you know, you don't take it as a gut.
It's like, okay, you go do what you do. And then you come back to bed and then you're like, wide awake. And that does not happen to me often. So when it happens, I've learned to say, okay, what's up, Lord? And so it just launched me into a probably 45 minute time of prayer and fellowship with Him. Wow. All over the map. I'm sort of a little in and out. I'm praying and then I was like, wait, what was I saying? I was running down some track. That's very scriptural, by the
way. David talks about talking to God in the night watches. I think one of the reasons why the Lord taps us in the middle of the night sometimes is because it's when we're not fully distracted by what we're doing in the moment. I mean, you're just laying there, right? You're listening to Mr. Chevy, my dog, snore, you know? And that's it. I mean, there's nothing else going on. Got the whir of the sound machine, you know? And that's it. And so I think we're more open to
hear his voice. And probably our prayers are different at that time. Oh, I totally agree. It's more authentic. You know, again, we're not on the run. There's no distractions. It's dark. It's quiet. Absolutely. Yeah. No rush. You know, it's good. You wrote a daily grind this morning, which was about intentionality. I think you've been on this for a couple of days. And that was my first thing. I'm like, I want to ask Pastor Jimmy about this. I want to ask about this intentionality.
The way I took it is doing everything intentionally for God and thinking about that continuously, which in today's world is one of the hardest things you can imagine to do because of all the distractions and noise and everything. So I just wanted to open it up to you and just hear what you had to say, because I think it's important to share this. I appreciate that. I found this great scripture in Ephesians 5 .17 in the New Living Translation, which kind of breaks it down
to a little more casual conversation. It says, don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. So I've re -engaged Sabbath on Mondays. It's not just a day to play. It's really a day to rest my soul. The word restoration, to restore, the root of that is rest. You restore and you experience restoration through rest. The Lord commands a Sabbath. There are people who interpret that differently. Well, we're in New Testament times. Do a little here, do a little
there. That's what I used to do. I did that. Truly, it always got put on the back burner. It always got usurped by something else more important than spending time with God and resting. And I let it go for a season because church is growing and kind of all hands on deck. So I quite literally, and I'm just gonna be very transparent. I felt guilty for being at home, resting in the Lord, reading a book, writing in my journal,
playing some music, my worship time. While the team was up here working and I just I let that get over on me and truly I believe it was the enemy and intrusive thought That began to get in my head that oh man, you're not pulling your weight, you know There's teams up there working and you're at home. You know that I think is something Very of the modern age and very of the competitive age and ever since we started working from home I think, you know, rest has
really left us in so many different ways. Having started and run companies small to big, man, I know that feeling. And especially when your employees are working, you feel like, ah, am I being even a good leader in not being there every single minute of the day when they're there? We know the enemy is an opportunist. He leverages. Pain, trauma, he leverages moments. He leverages
even the tiniest thing. So if you feel a little bit of that guilt, like, man, here I am, enjoying just being with the Lord and being restored. Never mind that I did two meetups, two shows, two sermons, two services back to back, got up there, played on the worship team and preached. I mean, it's a lot. It's a full day's work in about eight and a half, nine hours. So you come home totally toasted. But it's not just physical work. It's emotional and spiritual. There is
spiritual warfare. And unless you've really experienced that, it's hard to explain to people the toll that takes on your soul. But any pastor that ever takes a moment to listen to what we're doing would go, totally get you, brother. Totally understand. Yes, I know exactly what that is. So I don't actually try to talk about that a lot because I understand there's not a category for that unless you've walked in the shoes. Well, pastors and podcasters, it's very similar, brother. It's
very similar. We do the same thing. We do meetups, we do shows, we cue the mic, we record. A lot of emails, a lot of people talking to you, a lot of people who want information or have advice. A lot of advice. Yeah, a better way to do it. Build a better mousetrap. So anyway, I reinstituted, just re -engaged. Sabbath and I actually repented to the Lord. I said, I'm so sorry. I was disobedient. I thought I was doing it for noble reasons, but what I realized is I started getting super tired.
I began to just wind, run down and we were traveling a lot. We had a lot of things going on. We've dialed all that back and I just repented. I said, Lord, I'm so sorry. You've given this to me as a gift and I pushed it back. I can't imagine how that feels. I mean, I can't imagine if I was to do something for somebody that was for their good, a win for them, and they just push it back to me and say, no, I'm too busy. So how do we even manage that? Because weekends, we've
got activities with the kids. I don't anymore, but we've got all kinds of stuff. And should it be, from what I understand, how Charlie Kirk literally put his phone away, I've not been successful at that. Tina and I haven't even really discussed it, probably because our wives don't listen to the podcast. Otherwise, it would have come up. There's an Easter egg. We're dropping them all the time, which is not a slight. It's very normal. How do we do that and what should it constitute?
Should you just be in the Word all day? Should you just be thinking, meditating? Can you do things that Bring you joy You know, how do you see that for? And again is I think it's very difficult for people it is at this time aside it is but is it really Well, if it really that difficult if you look at what we're spending on time There you go. Yeah, the truth is and this is this just get to the truth and we can reverse near that back to Just in compassion.
Yeah. So the truth is is that we all do what we want to do we can find time and prioritize time for anything we want to do. Maybe I'm just talking about myself, but anything that's important to me, I'll figure out a way to do it. Priority. It's about prioritization of time. And so, if you believe God's Word and believe He's called us to this and believe that it's a gift for us, then you have to say, I'm going to prioritize this. And when I didn't, it didn't go well for
me. I found myself fatigued, exhausted, tired, living for a day that didn't come, a day of rest. Funerals popped up in the middle on days I thought I had margined. It was gone. Emergencies, crises. I was on the phone last night with a crisis and I thought I had a nice evening and it turned into having to deal with some really serious heavy stuff. And that's just the life that we live. And it's not just a pastor's life, it's everybody's life. We all have very little margin
in our lives. So back to my statement about truth, we all do what we really want to do and what we believe is worthwhile. We'll push everything away for it. So really it comes down to, do we believe God has given this to us as a gift? And if we do, then what are we gonna do to prioritize that? And the interesting thing is he doesn't give it to us for himself. He gives it to us for us. And I think that's hard for us to accept
sometimes. We're all about, as leaders especially, or whether you're a dad or a mom, you're leading your home. You may be a boss, you're leading in a workplace, whatever. We lead at different levels. But all of us, feel the weight and responsibility of leadership, so much so that that will prioritize everybody else's well -being over ours. So then we do something for us, we feel guilty, or we feel like we've run off into the other bar ditch
where it's all about us. And that's the thing is you've got to realize God gave us something. It's a gift from Him. The best thing I can do for Him is bless Him by receiving that gift. When you do something for somebody and they're just like, yeah, whatever, it's just kind of like, whoa, okay. I really did that for you. I did it. It would have been nice to just some acknowledgement there. By the way, thanks for the probes, the amazing gift for Pastor Appreciation
Month. I got to highlight this for a moment. I knew you would. The meter? The meter. The meter duo pro. Brother. And I'll tell you, it's amazing. I was gifted this by a friend. Yeah. Right away I'm like, oh man, oh man, this is too good. And Tina's like, you got to give that to Pastor Jimmy for his birthday. When's his birthday? January? No, that's not going to work. He's going to see him. This is no good. So I was looking for an
excuse. I'm like, I don't need an excuse to give my friend something, but it is Pastor Appreciation Month. So let me say it like this. So you gave that gift to me. I received it and I got excited about it. Oh my gosh, this is making. This is such a great analogy. I go home and pack it. You know, I read the very bad instructions, by the way. Not clear. No, it's not clear. I mean, it's a great product. It took me a while to figure out you had to have the block of wood next to
the probes. Because you had mentioned that to me. I did that. That was my trick. Yeah. You got a Bluetooth, you got to get them on Wi -Fi. I mean, there's some little steps, but it was fun because I was excited about it, right? So something you're excited about, you put energy into, right? You prioritize it. Wow. It was a great one. Hey, you need to get that. thing fired up because we were getting ready to cook some
steaks at K &C. And so all that to say is that because it meant something to me and it was something that I saw value in, man, I tore that box open. I'm getting it all ready. I'm reading the bad instructions, you know, because it's going, okay, what's going on? But it was actually easy to figure out and man was able to get it fired up. And then I enjoyed the benefit of the gift. But here's the deal. I didn't want to just enjoy it. I wanted you to enjoy the benefit of you
knowing how blessed I was to get it. So what do I do? I screenshot the settings and send them over to you. Then you screenshot yours and send them back. All that to say there was this cool exchange of blessing. You were blessed to give it to me. I was blessed to receive it. And then I wanted to bless you back by saying, this is amazing. So that's the value of the gift. Okay, hold on right there because of course I got a
lot of joy out of that. I'm not sure, I'm trying to feel this now, I'm not sure if I always get that same joyous feeling from my Sabbath and the gift that God has given me and back and forth. It's different. I kind of want it to be like that though. I get it. You know what I mean? Here's why it's different is because we have a very real enemy, and it's the devil, Satan, Lucifer, whatever. I talked about this on Sunday
in the message. But we have a very real enemy who wants to undermine anything that we're doing in terms of our relationship with God. So where we're finding joy in some gift he's giving us, we get email bombs, some stupid email of somebody who's angry or critical or mad, and all of a sudden you make the mistake, Good. Oh, I got it. Okay. I got outlook. I've got several notifications I'll just check these real quick and then you
go why did I get that? Yeah, because what does it do it steals your attention Wow, so maybe the intentionality has to first come from Realizing that the enemy is trying to thwart you continuously throughout Your Sabbath time with God bingo. Oh, that's good case in point. So Sabbath technically If you're going to do it in Jewish style, you start it at Friday. You have the evening before. And so I do mine on Monday because that just for work schedule, that works the best and I'm
the most tired after Sunday. So that works good for me. So, so technically if I would have been thinking and been more thoughtful and intentional, it would start Sunday night, Sunday evening while we're watching NCIS, you know, episode 20, whatever. Season 21. No, we're in 22 now. So we're about to catch up. So anyway, we're, you know, doing our thing. Just, just kind of, you know, brain, you know, just resting, resting, enjoying it
and enjoying the evening. I noticed a couple of pop -ups on my phone that's sitting over there. It lights up. Big mistake. Should have had it laying like this, but I didn't add it. And I saw, I said, Oh, got a couple. Oh, I got a text from a friend. I look it up and it's, it's not good. It's not terrible, but it's just like, it's a little bit of drama. And I'm just like, why did I look at that? Here I am starting into my, and sure enough, I knew it was the enemy.
I knew it in the moment. It's not that friend. It's not that person who needed some attention or needed, you know, some stuff, needed something. It's not that it's the enemy leveraging the timing of that. Cause I mean, we need to deal with stuff. I mean, things happen. You can't just avoid, you know, life drama. It's, it's like, I told you this morning, it's job security for me. I mean, come on, this is why I have a job, right? Cause we have, cause of life drama. It was one
of the funniest texts. It is what it is. You know, these, you boil some of this stuff down. You go, man, let's just be real. So I can laugh about it and it helps me deal with it too. But I didn't have to look at it on Sunday night when we're just resting, we're tired. We've had a great week, long weekend. This immediacy of life is, of course, when all of this was written and when Jesus walked the earth, guess what they didn't have? internet, cell phones, you know,
there was a lot of time. But there was a very real devil who was doing the same stuff. Of course, of course. Just not with the phone. But it would be so much more obvious, like you're sitting out there in the middle of the night in the, you know, tending to your sheep and then, you know, a lion comes along like, okay, you know, this is obvious, whereas every... every notification can be a line for you that's coming to get you. Or it can be a positive. It could be a very life
-giving, wonderful thing. That's the trickery of it. Yes. Is for the one bad thing you get, you get 20 good things. So you just sort of like a fish, you know, with the bait dangling in front of you, you take it. And there was a great title to a book called The Bait of Satan. Yes. By John Bevere. It's that it's just you took the bait when nine times out of ten. It's a positive Okay, so some are summarizing right now in the middle of this. Yeah, the problem is the phone This
is our biggest problem. I mean seriously, I know and is it really a phone? No, it's a computer. I mean this thing is like Unbelievable. It's it's the enemy's portal into your head is what it is and And of course, the thing that is in our minds all the time is, well, what if it's my kids? What if it's this? What if it's that? Which is also the enemy working, of course. I'm just repeating what I'm thinking. I just got to trust God that everything's going to be okay,
that He's got it and His will is His will. Nothing I can really change anyway. And this kind of goes back, I remember before phones, my mom would always say, no news is good news. So you don't care if you don't hear, no news is good news. And maybe that's true. There's some truth to that. Yeah, but we just didn't have that. Man, it's just making me, I have not been good at keeping my phone away. Well, here's why I'm glad
you brought this up. Because I want to always be open and honest when we're doing podcasting. I want people to know, man, I'm dealing with stuff too. I mean, sometimes people look at pastors or they'll look at you with your life and your background and think, man, everything's great. This guy's got it all together. They're podcasting, they're moving and shaking in the world. But at the end of the day, you know, We just got
stuff like everybody else. You know, we put our pants on like everybody else, one leg at a time, right? Except then we make hit records more cowbell. Sorry, couldn't help myself. Exactly. So I like that we talk about things that are hard too and things that are real because those intrusive things, it starts me down a line where I get into a mind war. Because then I start thinking, man, it's bad. And then it just morphs into,
it's horrible. And then it's catastrophic. And then you get to the actual situation, which I did, and it was no big deal. And it was like, I let that, and I had to fight it all Monday long. And here's the bad thing. I'm self -aware enough to know it's happening. And it's almost worse, because it's like, why can't I push this over? And I did. I had a wonderful day. Actually, I told the debt, this is one of my better Sabbaths I've ever had. So in that sense, it was good.
But then just when I was in a really good place, I just get this intrusive, yeah, but you need to take care of this thing. I'm pushing it off to the next day. When you're taking a Sabbath day, can you play guitar? Is that okay? Can I code something on the Godcaster that I just got an idea? Because I always feel that's one of the most fun activities I have. Like, oh, I'm going to make this thing work or that thing work. I don't consider it to be work. Right. Exactly.
And that is the thing is when we went to the Sunscape retreat center out in Woodland Park, Colorado, I've been, we've been twice. We did it once and we did it one time. Then we did it 11 years later as kind of a reboot. And they teach you about Sabbath. They teach you about being quiet. They teach you about being still and resting and restorative. So it's all being contemplative. It's all very good. It was life
-saving for us. And one of the things they, they turned us onto a great book by Mark Buchanan. I can't remember maybe God's Chosen Rest or something like that or something like that. I could get the title because it's worth it. And it's about how to take a Sabbath. He's a busy pastor and he writes on these things. Great book. And so one of the things he said is do things that give
you joy. Do things that bring you joy that maybe you wouldn't do on a regular work day because you're thinking, no, that's a luxury or that's I'm being I'm being extravagant, or I'm being, there's another word for it I was looking for, but anyway, I'm being indulgent. That's the word I was looking for. I'm being indulgent because
this is just frivolous and fun. So when I pick up one of my guitars, one of my nine guitars hanging in my room at home, and I plug in the amp and I turn it up and I put on some backing tracks that are like just, Some ACGC pastor? No, not really, but I used to do that. More, it's just this music, this backing tracks designed for this jam tracks. And I may play for an hour or two straight and not even blink. Right. And I look up and go, whoa, two hours have passed.
I've been playing and playing and playing. That brings me joy. It's cathartic. It's therapeutic for me. It restores my soul. And I always think of that line out of the 23rd Psalm. He restores my soul. And to me, Sabbath is about the restoration of your soul. So you find those things. And here's the beauty of it, to use a well -known phrase, no agenda. You really lean into the day with no agenda. And sometimes I know it'll go, so what are you going to do today on your Sabbath?
I don't know yet. I haven't thought about it. I'm trying not to think about it. The thing I'm going to do the most is stay off my screens. I'm going to put down my screens and pick up my Bible. I'm going to go scripture before screens. And boy, I've been leaning into that. It's been life -giving. So for people who've maybe never even tried to take a Sabbath or whatever, first of all, the trick, the hardest part is carving out the time. Let's be real. Everybody's busy.
Everybody has rhythms and routines that are established. Some of it just by necessity. You work five days a week, eight, nine hours a day. When do you have a time to even do this? And that's where you got to get creative. And I think that's where Sabbath moments are possible, where you just carve out, all right, I've got an hour and a half right here. Sabbath moments. I like that.
Sabbath moments. That's a good one. You have to, especially if your job, your situation doesn't allow for a full day that you can literally take away. And some people are hardcore on this stuff. Like, oh no, you got to do it anyway. You got to figure it. And I'm like, yeah, I think we're being too legalistic sometimes. So before I learned and actually sat down with my staff and told my board of directors, I would really like to take off a day of the week to have Sabbath. I
need that restoration. Nobody batted an eye. They're like, yeah, you should be doing that. I'm, oh, okay. Felt guilty for nothing. So I get that luxury, but that's part of my part and parcel with being a pastor. And there's an expectation there. But for folks that don't have my job, they've got to find it. And it may be finding it in blocks of time and moments, but you've got to build it in on purpose. If you keep a schedule, which most people do. Maybe that's
the way to do it. Like set a block of time and I'm going to do Sabbath. Put it on your schedule. Just like I would do a call or clean the grill, which I think could be part of my Sabbath. Because it does bring me joy. This is what I've gone back to. He picks up his Bible, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, his agenda. There you go. There it is. There it is. I've gone back to this because... And
just put it in there. Now, it's going to be on there because my wife's going to make sure it's in there electronically so that it's beeping and loading. So you're on paper now. I feel better. I've always felt better writing my schedule down. Wow. Because too, you can write notes and different things, but... That's hardcore, brother. That's very analog of you. What can I say? I love it. Yeah. I love it. Tina's like that too. I'm not. I mean, I can't do to -do lists, all this stuff.
My to -do list winds up being 8 ,000 pages long. I'm like, well, I'll put it on the to -do list. And of course, it never... Everybody's different. And you got to do what works for you. So for me, and most people do this, whether it's electronically or not, you know, I wrote in, what does that say? I don't have my glasses on. That's Monday, Sabbath. Sabbath, I see it. Yeah. I wrote it for the whole day, Sabbath, all the way down.
All the way down the page. Yeah. And because if I don't schedule it, Something else will get scheduled. Yeah, if I don't take care of my schedule somebody else will so I have to Put it in my schedule. This is what I'm doing Wow, I don't want to take the whole show for this, but I just feel like it No, hopefully it's helpful. This was really this was really good. It's good for me too because yeah Yeah, the Sabbath moment and scheduling that time and doing what bring
what what's life -giving? What is really restorative for you? Mm -hmm. You know, you like to fish go fishing you like to hike Be outdoors, that's another thing. I love to get outdoors. And so it's good for me to get out in the sun. So I'll do that. I got a prayer flare here for a good friend of mine. Well, good friend, a friend of mine. Everyone's passing this clip around. Everyone's talking about it. Everybody's excited. I want to play it. And then I wanted to discuss how
we can pray. for this man because everyone's like, Joe Rogan's going to church. This is fantastic. But if we really listen to what he's saying, I think we need to focus a lot of prayer towards Joe because I'll be real honest, I want Joe in heaven because that would be fun. And Samson's waiting for him there to work out and stuff. So here's the clip that everyone's passing around. I haven't got there, but I have started going to church every now and again. Yeah. Yeah. Do
you enjoy it? I love it. Yeah. It's about I do too. It's a bunch of people that are going to try to make their lives better They're trying to be a better person and they're trying to I mean for me at least the place that I go to they you know, they read and Analyze passages in the Bible. I'm really interested in what these people were trying to say because I don't think it's nothing There's a lot of like atheists and secular people that just like to dismiss Christianity
is being foolish. You know, it's just fairy tales. I hear that amongst, you know, self -professed, intelligent people. Like, it's a fairy tale. I don't know if that's true. I think there's more to it. I think it's history. But I think
it's a confusing history. It's a confusing history because it was a long... time ago and it's people telling things in an oral tradition and writing things down in a language that you don't understand in the context of a culture that you don't understand and I think there's something to what they're saying I don't think it's nothing no no I think there's something to it and there's a reason why it resonates with people and Christianity in particular is the most fascinating to me because
there's this one person that everybody agrees existed that somehow or another had the best plan for how a human being should interact with each other and behave and was the best example of it and even died in a non -violent way, didn't even protest, died on the cross supposedly for our sins. Like it's a fascinating story. What does it represent though? That's the real thing. What was that? Like what happened? Who was Jesus Christ if it was a human being? What was that?
So Joe was very analytical. And I think at the core, what I'm hearing, and this is consistent with him, when I professed my faith to him three years ago now. You said, I'm a Jesus freak? Pretty much. It's always the same. He is not convinced that the Word in the Bible is the Word of God and set, and that that is it. He has huge distrust of that. And then I think that's where all of
his analytical paths come from. It's like, well, let me just say that that was probably passed from an oral form, and then someone wrote it down, that was translated, he always comes up with Constantine, and the Bible was changed,
and stuff was left out, and all of this. And that's actually not an atypical thought even for believers when you're out there on the internet and you know things pop up like well This this was translated wrong and the book of Enoch should have been in and you know So I and I preface this by saying I want us to pray for Joe But maybe you can just give your your thoughts on what you hear him saying here Well, I mean, it's obvious that Joe's been on a journey for a long
time. I mean, I remember when Wesley Huff was on there, somebody put together a, it was actually fascinating. I mean, when you were on there. It was a series of all the people have been on. Well, it was a series of who come on, but also sort of his evolution to use that word, you know, his transformation is morphing. And it really is significant. I mean, he's made huge strides. to where it wasn't that long ago when he would not have said anything he just said. I mean,
this is fairly recent. And to me, the way I look at it is, I don't look at Joe as a project, like, oh, we got to get Joe Rogan saved. Because if we do, I don't look at him as a means to an end and getting the gospel out with somebody who has a huge following like he does. Which right there, I'm sorry to interrupt, that's a big one. Because everyone's like, If Joe Rogan comes to Christ, then this will be the best thing for the faith. It's like, no, no, no, no. You're
missing the point. Yes. God is not impressed with mass crowds. In fact, tonight... It reminds me what I'm going to talk about. I'm actually doing a Fields of Faith in For Comfort, Texas. I'm speaker, the guest speaker. So I get to preach a sermon to a bunch of teenagers tonight. Excellent. Nothing more intimidating on the planet than talking to teenagers, right? You'll be seeing some looking at their phones. Oh yeah, totally. But I'm talking about Jesus, fan or follower.
Are you a fan? Are you a follower? I like it. There's a lot of fans in the world right now. And even as with the Charlie Kirk thing, with all this stuff, you know, I am Charlie Kirk, which I can't stand that phrase. But anyway, that's just a personal thing. I'm not Charlie Kirk. I'm Jimmy Pruitt, Jesus follower, Jesus freak, whatever. So Jesus is very popular right now. Man, a year ago. He's trending. A year ago, it was looking bad for Jesus. His numbers were
way down. We've seen a massive shift. I get excited about that, but let's be real about it. That does not impress God. He's not looking for likes and clicks. He's not looking for fans. And even the word follower, we're talking about biblical version of that, not the social media version of that, right? Which has always been a problem for me, even as a non -believer. I'm like, follow? That sounds weird. It is weird, yeah. So to follow
Jesus, that's what he's looking for. And so listen to this scripture in terms of that, because I think about Joe. Right now, Joe is becoming a fan. He's not a follower. But he's beginning to acknowledge there's something to this. There's more than I thought there was. I mean, even in his language, you can hear him leaning. It feels a little bit like he's looking at it as, although not a bad analog, the instruction manual to his
car. It's like, well, Jesus, he had these concepts, and if I live my life this way, it'll be better. Exactly. You nailed that. That's really... That's really what I heard too. But I'm also happy for him that he's on the journey, that he's asking questions. He's asking good questions. He's asking questions. That's number one. The tricky part for Joe and people like Joe who are so analytical and linear in their thinking is that they're going to struggle with the concept of faith and
trust. Faith, trust, belief. They're all rooted in the same thing. They're going to struggle with that. And so it's interesting to me that I had a guy in my church. He became a lieutenant colonel. He became a colonel. I mean, this guy was like rising the ranks in the military, B -1 bomber pilot, one of the most Harvard graduate school of war. I mean, this guy was General Petraeus' right -hand man in the desert, in the sandbox. I mean, called me from a helicopter one time.
I'm like, I can barely hear you. And you're on the other side of the world, somewhere hovering around one of the palaces of Hussein or whatever. So that guy had a, even though he was so brilliant, so analytical, the one thing he didn't have an issue with was trust, belief and faith. He loved God. He trusted God. Still does to this day, by the way. He has a ministry now. He retired out of the military, career military. Now he
has a ministry. So there are people who are brilliant, intellectual, analytical, linear in their thinking who have no issue because this isn't an intelligence issue. Oh, absolutely not. But yes, some people would think it is. that the more intelligent you are, the harder time you're going to have with faith, trust, belief. No, that's not an intelligent issue. That's a heart issue. It's not a brain issue. It's a heart issue. And whether it's Joe Rogan or anybody else, they all have
to come the same way everybody comes. That's through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And those who come to the Father must come by or through me. But he's not a way, a truth, he's the way, period. It is very exclusive. People say, so is Christianity exclusive? Absolutely. There is a way to get there and it's through Jesus and it's the way, not a, it's the. There's not multiple ways. And gosh, that just sounds very exclusive. It is.
I didn't write the book. I didn't create the world. You know, oh man, that's so good because you're right. And I remember, because I also, I went, I approached my faith analytically. And, you know, for me, it was like, well, once I read, what was the? Oh, Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Evidence that Demands a Verdict. And from there went into Beautiful Outlaw and all these other, you know, I think just having, and by the way, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, like a third
of that book is footnotes. you know, um, uh, location data, you know, this is exactly where this happened. That happened. Um, wow. I can just see a guy like Joe trust being one of the trusting, having faith in something that is not his own doing because he worked out because he ate this in a way that's going to be really hard for him because that his whole persona is kind of based on that. And Additionally, Joe has a photographic memory. People don't realize this.
So he has to replace some of those pictures with new pictures. And that's what I'm praying for, actually. Well said. Well said. Somebody like Joe, who's a self -made man, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. The hardest thing to surrender is yourself. And that's the first thing Jesus asked for. He literally says this. Listen to how he says it. He says, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way. There it is. Take up your cross and follow
me. It's Matthew 16, 24 and then LT. So Jesus said, you have to give up your own way. And that's the tipping point for everybody. And whether some people think, well, all the Jews will be saved because they're God's people. No, they have to come to Jesus. They have to come to God through Jesus, just like you and me. They don't get a past. They don't get special preference. God wants them. He woos them. He sent Jesus to the Jews first, and the scripture even says to
the Jew first, then the Gentile. So he came to them first, and he's still there for them. even though initially they rejected him, but over a million Jewish people have professed Jesus Christ as Savior. Now across the earth, it's the most in history ever. So God's on the move. As the land's moving, Jesus is showing up and it's happening. But every one of them, so the ground is level at the foot of the cross. There's no... Passes? No. I love that. The ground is
level at the foot of the cross. That's good. Nobody gets a special pass because you're popular or because you have 12 million followers or whatever. At the end of the day, it comes down to the same thing. Like a child, you come to God and say, I can't do this. I got to repent. I need you in my life. I give up. Max Lucado was his devotional this morning, which I heard on Hello Fred available in the Godcast to get the Godcast rap for Android
and iOS. He was saying, I wish I could recall it precisely, but that it's really in the hard times that God loves you the most and where you can really, that's where your faith really comes out. By the way, that has a flip side. But I always remind myself, thank you God, thank you Jesus for this wonderful thing that just happened. We also have to rejoice in that. Although I didn't, I think, but going through a crisis is probably the way a lot of people come to faith. I don't
know. Is that true? No doubt. If you think about it, a lot of people go into Congress because of a crisis, right? The pain of staying the same has to outweigh the pain of change, my old boss used to say, Dave Ramsey. So think about it. The pain of staying the same has to outweigh the pain of change. We don't like change, and we don't usually change on purpose. We change because something happens. It's usually a result. Sadly, it's usually not the result of a good
thing. It's usually the result of pain. So the pain of staying the same has to outweigh the pain of change. So change is painful to people. And so a lot of times, the people that end up in Congress, unless they were born and raised into that world, and there are those elitist oligarchs, we've got those. But a lot of people that are serving in Congress, when you get behind the suit or the dress, They have a story. It's usually tragic. That's a good point. Yes, many
do. It drove them to do something they never thought they would do to get beyond their comfort zone. A lot of people that are like that in Congress, those are the ones I really got my eye on. Kind of like the old Will Rogers quote, I don't trust anyone who doesn't walk with a limp. I don't trust a man who doesn't walk with a limp. They're walking with a limp and those are the ones who I think move the needle. at the end of the day, because they're not playing the political games.
They're there for a reason, for a purpose. Same way with coming to Christ. A lot of times, we kind of have to hit the bottom a lot of times before we can really look up and go, I need help. I can't do this anymore. That is interesting because it's still fresh enough for me. I'm reflecting on my own faith journey. I don't think Tina and I came to our faith or came to Jesus through any any crisis per se. It was curiosity. It was maybe it was looking to fill something that we
both felt we were missing. Not crisis though. And I don't know if that's atypical. No, I don't think it is because I didn't come through crisis either. I came because I thought to myself, there's got to be more to life than what I'm seeing. I always think of the song, is that all there is my friend? And I think of the one by Stephen Curry's Chapman, more to this life, there's more to this life than living and dying, more than just trying to make it through another day. I
love the lines in that song. Also available on Hello Fred on the Godcaster app. Download it today. IOS or Android. And you know, it's like, I'm hesitating because, and that's kind of why I wanted to do this, you know, maybe someone will send this to Joe so he can hear it. I don't want to be telling him what to do. Exactly. You know, and this is probably the worst thing because I know people are like, yeah, man, you know, we're ready for you. Jesus is ready. No. Like
it's a touchdown. Yeah. We're not trying to score a touchdown. We're trying to see a life transformed. Yeah. So that he will spend eternity with Jesus, with God, with us. Yes. And so I learned very young not to make people projects. First of all, I learned that I can't talk anybody into coming to God. If I do, that means somebody else can talk them out of it. It's got to be a real transformation of the heart, and I have nothing to do with that.
So as a pastor, I'm more a facilitator than anything. Even apologists, who that's kind of their thing. They're brilliant. They're smart. They can talk you like a Wesley Huff, who can really just break it all down for you. But at the end of the day, he can break it down for Joe, and Joe can go, yeah, those facts, that's interesting. Yeah, yeah, that Dead Sea Scroll thing and then the scenes and all that. Yeah, that makes sense.
But at the end of the day, he still has to take what everybody has to take, and it's a leap of faith. Just like Indiana Jones stepping out over that cliff and not knowing if there's going to be a stepping stone there or not. Yeah. Wow. That's good, brother. That's good. That's the real stuff. Yeah. Well, I'm praying for Joe that way. Yes. Because I really, I really, I really don't like the, as you say, like, yeah, we're scoring a touchdown. A notch in your Bible. Let
me notch my Bible. Joe's at the 20 yard line. You know, it's like, no, no, no, no. Wow. That's good. So man, I had a whole bunch of clips that we're not going to get to today. It was about Tucker Carlson at Turning Point USA. But Charlie Kirk has been kind of a theme throughout our episode here. And I wanted to play one clip. It's about two and a half minutes long. But this is from one of our friends, Laura Logan. She went to Moscow to interview Kirill Dmitriev.
And Kirill Dmitriev, when you hear him, you might recognize his voice. the counterpart to Steve Witkoff. So a serious guy, he runs the Sovereign Wealth Fund or investment fund, I think it's called, of Russia. And it's funny because Laura went to Moscow and he's been in the US for like two weeks doing interviews everywhere. I'm not quite sure. I'm sure she's trying to set up something with Putin, which would be on brand for her. And I hope that works out. But it was such an
interesting thing that he discussed. because I know this is coming and I want our people, and when I say our people, our spiritual family here in Fredericksburg and anyone else who listens to this podcast, I'm most interested in them because they're our friends and our spiritual family. What's coming next is we're going to
ramp up more Russia hate. We've already, you might have noticed that... from the river to the sea has kind of disappeared and things are, you know, not the president Trump or his team will get any credit for that. I don't think they care either. They just want to make the world a better place. I truly believe that. So that's dying down a little bit. Now we're going to, you know, president Trump is really going to
start working on Russia, Ukraine. And I myself went to Moscow in 1988 and found immediately These people are a lot like us. They have a lot of the same thinking and values, etc. It's true. And so I wanted to fortify our people here with some of the thinking, which I believe to be true, what Dmitriev is saying here. uh, about how similar
we are. And so, and to recognize some of the things that to this day, many members of Congress and, you know, the house representatives and the Senate and leaders will be trying to convince you that this is the evil, evil Russia. And again, my mind was blown when I went there. So, you know, when we talk about Russia. You know, I've got in my mind that if I step off the plane, it's going to be in black and white. I mean, that's how the narrative runs and that they're
all. waiting in lines at grocery stores for a sack of potatoes. It's powerful imagery, brother. Powerful. And that's what I've seen for decades about it. But then the more I've gotten older and realized it's very westernized. Very colorful, in fact. Very much so. And just to kind of accentuate that, when I went, it was still the USSR, but the wall had not come down. It was for the Moscow
Music Peace Festival. And there was a very black and white part to it when So we had our big camera trucks and 24 cameras and this big wire had to go into the KGB bus, which was literally a gray bus with curtains. And it was completely black and white. That's your black and white vision. But then at 3 a .m. when we were hanging out in front of the hotel, because there was a bunch of Western rock guys, and the Moscow Hells Angels showed up. That was colorful, man. That was like
they're on Java motorcycles. They're popping wheelies there. And so, you know, that contrast is so incredibly real, but it's colorful. So just listen to what and this goes all the way through what we're just coming out of, of the Biden administration really. also going back to Obama and even further back when you think about it. I think it's just really informative to listen to this. Let me go back to how traditional
values and other things unite us. Because President Putin has started talking about focus on traditional values, not this year, not five years ago, but when he really became president. So for more than 20 years ago, he's been focused on really making sure that, you know, it's not a woke world, it's a world where there is a man and a woman, the focus on the family. and Christian values, and I think that is very, very important. And he was calling out the fakeness of the Vogue
narrative for a long time. And by the way, I love - Just like President Trump. Just as President Trump. And by the way, I loved, I reposted one of your posts where you had this Vogue vocabulary. Yes. What people saying what they really mean. And what they really mean. Yeah. So I think the honesty and be straightforward, you know, not political correctness, but calling things the way they are is important. I would give another, I think, very poignant example. of Charlie Kirk.
So Charlie Kirk really resonated with the Russian people. Isn't this fantastic? I really love that he brought this up. I did not expect to hear that. I know you'd like it. And when this horrible tragedy happened, not only President Putin gave condolences, but Russian church actually did an article recognizing Charlie Kirk's contributions
to Christianity. So they see him not only as somebody who is an advocate of family, not only advocate on campuses, but really as a religious sort of thinker, a contemporary religious thinker. Okay, but that's interesting because, of course, under Marxism, there is no room for religion. I mean, Karl Marx was an nihilist when it came to God. I love that Lara does this. She's so good. Yeah, but Russia is actually quite a religious
country. Yes. So if you go, and I hope you can go to our Orthodox churches, et cetera, it's a very religious country and very much focused on values. So in reality, we see view of the world very similarly, where we see, for example, immigration in Europe and what Biden tried to do in the U .S. is crazy. You know, I actually have a theory about this. I believe that Biden wanted Democrats to stay in power forever. So what he did, he figured out immigrants, criminals
and transgender, they were Democrats. So then he increased the number of criminals, he increased the number of immigrants, and there was a huge transgender spike, which is, by the way, now coming down, to turn to normalcy during his era. Turn to reality. All of that was to stay in power. All of those things that Russia is tough on and Europe is not tough on. So I think another thing we see is, for example, Europe was allowing illegal immigration, was allowing lots of vote policy.
J .D. Vance said it's basically a suicide of European civilization. And we also see it very similarly. But to summarize, I think we all care about our families. We all care about education of our children. We all care about having good economy, good growth, and we are much more similar. And what happened during Biden administration and actually started with Obama, Russiagate, is that Russiagate tried to vilify President
Trump, tried to vilify Russia. And from that time, Russia became like really bad, bad, bad in the people's minds in the U .S. But more and more conservatives understand that those were fake, not true narratives. So I brought this clip because I wanted everyone to hear this because when the messaging comes, which is going to come about how evil, it's going to be more focused on Putin, but I'm convinced, I have to say I'm pretty convinced that President Trump and his
team are working on something I call ARC. ARC, America, Russia, China. Notice that these are not countries with monarchies. And I truly believe, and this whole interview, it's on the Godcaster, at Bridge Church on the Godcaster, you can, and hello, Fred, as well, you can listen. It's 45 minutes is well worth it. That we are going to wind up working together. and leaving each other in our own values. Like China, you want to be like that, that's fine, but we can still, but
we do a lot of trade. I mean, that's our biggest trade partner. I mean, this is ridiculous not to recognize that. And Russia has a lot of what we need when it comes to resources. But just listening to that, I'm like, listen, when the Russian church is thinking about Charlie Kirk, that blows my mind. So when the messaging comes, I want people to think about this, that we are much more similar than the media, the control, it is completely controlled media, would have
you believe. Man, I'm so glad you brought this up. You know, I've been doing a pushback on news, like almost to the point of, wait, did anything happen today? What's going on? What's going on? I'm FOMOing a little bit because not even fear though, it's not fear anymore. I'm just missing out because I want to. I'm choosing to fear, choosing. I got to come up with a new thing. Cho Mo. Cho Mo. Choosing of missing. No, that
didn't work. We'll figure something out. But you know, I'm choosing to not swim in the cesspool of media right now. And it has been hugely refreshing, but it also shifts your perspective. When you're not being fed this narrative constantly, these breadcrumbs of a narrative that start to add up and accumulate. And the algos start to throw in your face. Exactly. It's like a cumulative GPA, you know, it just accumulates. And before you know it, you're toxic and you don't even
know it. It's just a frog in the kettle syndrome, right? So because I've been pushing back on that and not swimming in it, the stuff that's coming my way is almost laughable at this point. But it's stuff that A few weeks ago, I would have been like taking the bait. I would have been going, oh my gosh, did you hear about this? So when I hear this, I'm not hearing it through a grid of a narrative that I've been swimming in. I'm hearing it fresh. where I'm going, I
completely see that. And I've heard that about Putin, good things. People lose their mind if you say that. Like you said, this is going to spin up. For sure. We always need a nemesis. We need an antagonist. Let the true nemesis be our nemesis. Come on, there you go. Let the enemy be our enemy and not this. How can we teach the church The public, I mean, I can say it till I'm blue in the face in the pulpit and they all nod and say, amen, but then they come back next
week full of this narrative. It's like every week, I feel like I have to deprogram some of our people in our church. These are people I love and care about, but they're swimming in this. How can we help? I'm trying to lead the way by putting my screens down, picking up my Bible and talking about it. I think that's it. I mean, you're doing it. you are doing it. And
how do people learn? Repetition. You just keep repeating it, and you're very good at coming up with creative ways of saying the same thing over and over again. That's pretty much the life of a pastor. I'm sure that that's what you do for a living. We have about one message. You just say it 7 ,000 different ways creatively. But our friends listening to this, even you and I are talking, but we're aware that there are
other ears that this is going to land on. How can we encourage them, Adam Curry, to put down their screens, as you say, and pick up their Bibles, so that when these narratives come down the pike, and they are going to come, we go, I call BS. This doesn't align with what I think I know. Well, my rule of thumb is everything that media brings me, and that means mainstream media, but also social media, is just by definition BS. I agree. 99 % of it is going to be that you're
not, there is no benefit. There's also no loss. We got to come up with a, you're right, we got to come up with a new acronym for FOMO. Choosing to miss out. I do this for a living, and I choose to miss out five of the seven days a week. And when I jump into it, I'm so fresh because I'm like, oh, this is all bull crap. I can see all of it. And a fresh heart. Yes. Because you've been picking up your Bible, so your heart's getting
re -attuned to that. And it's almost... Well, I think this podcast maybe, you know, because we didn't... do a business plan. We didn't sketch anything out. We said, it's time for us to do this because we get to do this. And so I think this is a part of it. And, and I don't think long and hard and, you know, it comes to me, you know, the Holy Spirit guides me. I'm like, oh, this is probably a tag it like, this is probably good for the podcast. You have your own method.
So I think it's just keep on rejecting the the corridor to your brain, which is the notifications, etc. That screens, put down your screens, pick up your Bible, which is easy to say. I know it's not the easiest thing. And that in combination with booking your Sabbath time. And yeah, maybe it's just an hour. Start with an hour, then do another hour. I'm saying this for myself, by the way, because I think it's a really good idea to put it on your calendar. And then just see
how, just try, it's like, just try it. Try not looking at your phone for an hour, then try two hours, then try three. This is the easiest. This I can do. I can literally not look at my phone for X amount of time. You'll see the improvement and just maybe take stock at the end of the day. Was this really something that was so outrageous I needed to know this? You know, write down all the things you learned that are super important.
I guarantee you, you can't forget. You don't even know all the important things that got y 'all worked up. It's not going to be there. And ask why. Why do I need to look at it? But also, why do I need to post? Oh, yeah. This has been a huge thing for me. And you've helped me with it. I told Annette, I said, I'm so thankful for Adam, our friendship. Because you've beat this drum for a long time with me, not like trying to get me to do anything. It's just we've been
talking out loud. We just happened to hit record today, but this conversation would have happened anyway. It's an ongoing conversation. Dialogue is here. They're just letting people listen in. But we've talked about this before and it's helped me because it got me thinking, why am I posting this? Am I posting this to be seen? Now, here's the thing that happens. And anyone who starts down this road is going to realize it. It changes
your filter. It changes your lens. So you're going to start noticing friends that they're posting because they're wanting people to pay attention to them. That's it. And it's this need to be seen, need to be noticed, need to be recognized. And that includes commenting. It even includes hitting the like button. All of that is... is narcissism. You know what I found out? When I just, when I put my screen down and I'm gaining about an hour a morning right now, because usually
I'll post that I'm just being transparent. And then I wait to see who, and I've just stopped doing that. Cause now, because I'm not posting anything else. I'm not posting my picture of my steak, picture of my new awesome thermometer, the meter. Normally, I was thinking about this. The other day, I'm out there with my meter using it for the first time and I thought, I should take a picture of that. And I thought, why? Why? Why? It's because I want people to go, that's
cool. Yeah. And listen, I know not all of it's nefarious. I mean, let's just be real. We want to communicate and be a community with people. So it's not all bad. Sometimes I think I come off sounding that way, but it's not. Sometimes I think it's cool to post your kid's first day going to school or your kid got an A on a paper. Because you've got grandparents looking at, you've got aunts and uncles and cousins looking at your
account. So I don't think it's all bad when it's actually social media, but it's turned into something else. It's turned into what I call performance media. And so I think that's, I love what you just said there because it really resonated with me as I'm just starting to ask why am I doing this? And that stopped about 99 % of me posting honestly, straight up. And I'm glad you brought that up because it does your journey. to weaning off of this starts with not posting. Exactly.
That's really where it starts. And yeah, if you just ask, why am I actually doing this? And why am I looking at this newsfeed? I don't know most of these people, but I'm scrolling, right? Yeah. Like I said, that gif of the guy scrolling. And that was one of the big, you know, when we started news feeds, which actually comes from the blogging world, RSS. And it was really beautiful, because you would subscribe to 10, 20. People had Google Reader. I don't know if you remember Google Reader.
That was basically the early version. That was podcasting before we had audio files. You subscribed, and then you would get the updates. And at a certain point, you'd reach the bottom. And that would be the end. And there was nothing else new. That was amazing because then you like put it down like okay, I'm bored because I've read everything You're done. I remember that and then they came up with infinite scroll. Yes, and that's where the algos start feeding your scroll Exactly
based on what you just did. Yep. So instead of infinite scroll think of infinite Scripture. I'm just trying to come up with stuff. What's interesting, you and I, this is episode eight, right? Yes, it is. We end up at the same place. Every single time. We come back to this because we see that it's such a big issue right now with people. I think it's stealing. Listen to this. I stated this on Sunday, if we're ready to land the plane. There is a spiritual war for the control
of your soul. It's an assault. of the heart, and it can often manifest in the natural. This is what's happening. The enemy is like, I can't kill you. You're a Christian, but I can certainly control you. I can manipulate you. I can deceive you. I can take you off your God assignment because I could get you scrolling for hours, wasting time, killing time. One of the things I said I don't negotiate with is wasting time. And so I'm getting better as I continue to state this
over my life. It's a process. It doesn't happen overnight. You just make decision after decision. Brother, you didn't just land the plane. You put three wheels on the numbers, right there on the numbers. Can I end on a good scripture? This is helpful. Please. It's very common, but most folks have heard this probably. John 10, 10, the thief comes only to steal, kill, and
destroy. I'm glad it doesn't end there. The next one, Jesus flips the script, I came, Jesus came, that they may have life and have it abundantly. That's the heart of God for us, to have an abundant, full life, not full of this, you know, I'm touching my phone, but a full life that's life giving. And when we're all doing that together, it's amazing how community just happens. Brother, perfect way to land the plane. Thank you. See you next week. We get to do this again next week.