Screen Sabbath

And before I even pray, I just want to say what a privilege it is, brother, to do this with you. Likewise, brother. We get to do this. Father, in Jesus' name, it's our heart to be before you as open vessels. And we just say, Lord, fill us, use us, anything that comes through us. We want it to honor you. And so, Lord, we consecrate our thoughts. We consecrate our opinions, our ideas, even as we ideate about things that are happening in our culture and our world right

now. I'm asking God that you would direct and order the things we think, the things we say. We know that words matter, and we've seen that come to be true more today than any time. Words matter. What we say matters, and we want what we say to honor you and to advance the kingdom. And for all of our listeners, whether they're listening today, another day, or down the line, or months away, Lord, if this podcast lands in their player, Father, I pray that they will be

encouraged. They'll be lifted. They'll be not only motivated, but even more so inspired. We give this to you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. It's Wednesday, September 17th, 2025. We get to do this. This is episode number three. We get to do this. Hey, brother. How you doing? You know, the song is starting to land with me. I hear the promo on Hello Fred, and I'm like, you know, yeah, it's there. I like the last line more than

any of it. We get to do this. Being a musician, I can be a little snobby sometimes about music. You don't say. I can't be. I'm snobby about my own playing. So when you first ran it by me, I was like. I love Jeff, man. So appreciate Jeff. But I was like, yeah, it's kind of, but man, the last line gets me. It sticks. And when he sent them to me, and I didn't tell you that initially, he said, I think that this is meant for you to talk it up into the hook, into the vocals. Right.

That makes sense. And so you actually don't want too much of a logo or anything happening in that point. So it came with instructions. I was kind of thinking something like, you know, along the lines of the Hotel California. No, not Hotel Cal. The Life in the Fast Lane riff. He just rocks. You know what I mean? I'm old school. I'm old school. By the way, you got a donut. I'm not going to eat it. That's even worse than it sitting here in front of me. I'm sorry. It's

painful. We can split it and we can eat it while we're talking. I'm trying to block the view with my coffee cup. I came into the church and there's Naomi standing right there. Hi, how are you doing? And she's holding a donut. She says, I have this for you. I'm like, I said, I just ate, but don't give it to me. Just give it to me. I can add more. So the reason she has a lot of donuts right now is they had 290 kids this morning show up. Is that a record for Devo's and donuts? I think

we did over 300, but that had been going. This was the first kickoff of the year. Not only is it a new school year. But it's also a new school. I mean, we built a whole new school since last year. Big relocation. So they had to set up in a different place. But they do this thing called Devos and Donuts. And it's something that the Lord gave Naomi back when they lived in Nashville. They lived out in Tennessee, in Smyrna area. And they started doing it at their kids' schools.

And it just took off. So when she came here. The Lord just said, okay, you remember that thing I showed you, Devo's and Donuts? Try it here. And so they started it last year, and it just got bigger and bigger, over 350 kids. That is so good. Showing up to get totally pumped up on sugar, you know, before. You'd think the teachers would be like, don't do that. Reason number one.

Yeah, feed them, they'll come. But it actually, the school, one of the greatest reports we got back from the principal at the middle school, Fredericksburg here, public school. was that on the days that you guys come and do Devos and Donuts, we got a worship team, they got a stage, sound, everything. It's really cool, really well done. A lot of volunteers. But he said, every time y 'all come, we have the best days of the

year because y 'all are here. And I'm thinking, man, it would have been like these teachers going. Quit giving these kids donuts before class. And that means that they're really calm and pay attention in class. The best days they have. And one teacher said, could y 'all come every day? Okay. You know, we could teach you how to do this. We could show you how to do some worship music and get that going. I mean, I know teachers are busy,

but. It's pretty cool, though, when the public school, which gets a lot of bad press these days, especially from Christians. Yeah. And, you know, unfortunately, it's been earned in a lot of areas. But our school here in Fredericksburg, good things are happening here. We're seeing we have a superintendent who's already doing everything he can to get the Ten Commandments. He was a bit controversial in some of the school board meetings. A while

back he was. I think, you know, how you – the message, it matters how you say what you say. Of course it does. And I think sometimes things were said with so much strength and so much intensity that people who are administrators and leaders and stuff, they tend to take a step back. I've been in the public arena, the people business, so to speak, for 42 years. And it matters how people approach me. So if I see somebody come in and they've got a pitchfork in one hand. And

a torch in the other. This is a good point. It will literally cause me to shut down before they ever open their mouth. And it kind of flows into the obvious things we got to talk about today. Absolutely. With the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which was not great timing for our episode last week because we had already recorded it. I'll just put it out there. No, I'm glad you

did. Yeah, but it didn't feel appropriate to go like, hey, listen to our podcast because it has nothing to do with what you're talking about right now. Right, right. Although I encourage everybody to go back and listen to it because it was good. Actually, I don't usually go back and listen to things, but the week became a blur with everything that happened. So my mind was just all over the place. I thought, what do we

even talk about? So I went back and listened to it when I was doing some errands running around. And I'm like, wait, this is relevant, actually. It really is on point. And so even though we didn't directly address that because it was after the fact, it's still on point. The principles are still there. So anyway, I listened to it and I thought, wow, this is uncanny almost. So

anyway. So the thing that I'm most concerned about right now is, here's what came to mind as I was thinking about what we're going to talk about today on the show. And it's Corrie ten Boom. You know her story, Corrie ten Boom? She wrote a book. She was the other Anne Frank, if you will, in the Netherlands. She didn't live in Amsterdam, but she lived in Haarlem. And it's beautiful. She wrote a couple of books. But she actually went into the concentration camp with

her sister. Her sister died there. I think most of her father died there. She got out, and I mean, there's a whole bunch to her story and how she just became a missionary for God, came to the United States with no money, and just has traveled the world based upon the grace of the Lord. But at a certain point, I believe that was, maybe I'm confusing books, but she met one of the guards in a church. True, true story. Where she... had been in the concentration camp

and she was just paralyzed for a moment. She didn't know what to do. And then she just blessed him. Yes. And right now it feels like we are very far from that type of attitude. Right. Where we are exclusively talking about the woke left, the radical left, the left, left, left. Some even say Democrats. While this may be a generalization and not necessarily untrue, and we're not running around tar and feathering people, the hatred

is very real, and it concerns me. And it was actually something Charlie, because I've been watching a lot of his videos, and something he said, which comes back to Psalm 9710, you who love the Lord hate evil. or Proverbs 8 .13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. And people are using this, and I don't know if it's correct or incorrect, which is why, you know, even if we weren't doing a podcast, we'd be talking about this. Yeah, agreed. Hey, brother, tell me, how

do we handle this? Because all of the... you know, love your neighbor, love God, love your neighbor, like yourself. If your enemy is hungry, give him to eat. If he's thirsty, give him to drink. He'll be like pouring hot coals on his head, but it doesn't feel like that's where we are. And I just wanted to get your take on it, what your thoughts are, because I have it too. I'm like. you know, these, these crazy people,

finally, this is happening. And I have some other ideas as to why this is happening and where it's coming from, but just that at the top level, how do we deal with this without, I mean, and man, it's, it's triggering COVID trauma, you know, vax, no vax, lockdown, no lockdown and families have been split. Now we know Jesus said, I come with the sword, you know, I'm going to split families, but. How do we deal with this?

What's your thoughts about it? Well, initially, the word grace comes to mind, and that means having grace for one another, grace for ourselves. People, it's like a crater. It's like an impact of a meteor hitting the earth, right? There's always initial damage, initial impact. It's all very violent and chaotic in the beginning. And then, as we would say, the dust settles. What's happening right now, people are in a place of outrage because it was so public. It was a public

execution, basically. Yes. And whatever the theories abounding, and there's a billion of them out there already. It didn't take long for that to happen. Of who did it and why and all that. Put all that aside. At the end of the day, a godly man, a family man, got executed in front of a bunch of kids. And then, of course, the videos went viral on that. And then all the outrage, the outrage came on both sides, which is frightening, which is strange. Also good at the same time,

because there's a come together moment. And I don't want that to slip away. Exactly. We don't want to miss the silver lining and all of this. And there's a lot. There's a lot of good things happening in the hills of this. But again, after that initial impact, people are grieving. People are mourning. Yeah. And when you're in grief and when you're in mourning. There's nothing normal. And it's interesting because this is

like a cultural grieving. This is a whole massive, maybe even half to more than the United States, notwithstanding London, Madrid, all the different places where all these things are popping up everywhere. So there's a cultural grieving right now. And sadly, as a pastor. I meet with families on a very consistent base basis over 42 years. And one of my things that I say to them is it's okay to not be okay. Nothing's normal right now.

And it won't be for a while. And I say, if no one has told you this, I say this to every family. If no one has told you this permission to grieve and we need to grieve fully. So right now we're grieving a lot of people. And sadly, When you've got a large number and enough people grieving, there's a lot of bad things can happen. A lot of things get said. We're all very sensitive.

So when you're down and you're grieving and you're mourning this loss, and then you're doing something you shouldn't be, which is scrolling your phone 24 -7, and you're seeing video after video after video of people disparaging Charlie Kirk, disparaging. His family, Erica. Which is not a coincidence that this shows up on your phone, by the way. Interesting, isn't it? Not a coincidence. There is obviously some intent and agenda behind that to try. I mean, they're following Saul Alinsky's

playbook, almost note for note. Was it the Handbook for Radicals? That's it. Rules for Radicals. Rules for Radicals. The guy who dedicated the book to Lucifer, of course, in the front pages. He literally did. Yeah, I got a copy of it and I was like, oh. Okay. All right. Dedicated to

Satan. So all this is happening, but, but you add to somebody who's already in grief, you know, there's five to seven stages, depending on which psychologist you follow, you know, either way, we know there's a lot of stages and emotionally it comes at you so fast. It's like, it's like a hurricane where the waves are just coming. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Over time, they come less often. And then. Maybe once ever, ever a little bit. And then they diminish. But all

the intensity is up at front. So we are emotionally triggered right now. Everybody. Yeah. Everybody. Even those that didn't like him or hated him are triggered in another sense. Of course. So all this, of course, the enemy, and we're talking about Satan himself, strategically is like, what an opportunity here. It's a field day. Field day for him. Oh, it is. releases his hordes throughout the world, right? To say, all right, this is a good time to seek and destroy, stir it up,

amplify everything. And so that's what we've got. We've got that happening culturally. But what has to happen is we need some sane voices out there. And hopefully we'll be sane today as we say, this is not the time to clap back, snap back, you know, return a volley. That came over the fence at you online. And the best way to not do that is to not go looking for it. That is to do that. That is to turn my phone over. We don't have video, but yes, Pastor Jimmy just

flipped his phone on my Bible. Yeah. What's bigger? But, you know, people, I think we've talked about this. You know, the Internet is basically a big self -pity promotion machine. So people are taking their grief and sharing it. Which you really need, that is not the place to share it. You need to share it with your family, with your friends. Your church community. Yes, exactly. Anybody but out there on the network. I mean, that is, that it's, and we can say this with

blue in the face. I know. Blue in the face. I know. I don't know what it will take for people

to finally. realize that no this is just not really doing it for me so you great you gave a great line on no agenda last week and i went back and listened to that first part we caught it after you'd said that but went back and listened and uh say that line because this is this needs to be repeated often uh well i'll use your version because you changed it slightly but i liked it it was like it's time to put down our screens and pick up our bibles i initially said phones

Actually, you said screens. Did I really? I did. I took note of that. On purpose. Really? Because usually you talk about phones a lot. Yeah. You use the word screens. I use the word screens. And it even caught me off guard because I was expecting you to say phones. That's interesting. Go back and listen. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Because when you, and you repeated that in church, I'm like, oh, wow. And I thought, but I said phones. And I know that cause I had this written down.

Sometimes I write stuff down that I want. And when it's a 90 % never gets used. I'm like, and I, you believe me. So I said, screen like sermons. That's well, then that, that was a Holy spirit moment because it is so much. It's not. And it's all screens. It is. It's broader. It's big screens, little screens. Yep. I'm looking on our table everywhere. Yeah, I know that was a simple, but profound. And, um, Thank you for saying that. I said it several times on Sunday. I've said

it since then. I was visiting with Rick Green and Reagan and Faith out of the Patriot Academy. We were talking about that, and I brought that line back up. That is one of the solutions, because what we've got to do is cut off this flow, this input that we're getting. I caught myself a couple of nights ago in bed, and Ed conks out as soon as we lay down, and I'm like, I'm not ready to go to sleep yet. So what did I do? I had my phone out. I'm on Instagram and I'm seeing these disparaging.

It took me about five seconds to shut that down. And all I did was turn my phone off and went to sleep. I was like, I cannot let this get in my mind. A great way to honor Charlie is to emulate him and a few things he did. And I've learned now that once a week, I think it was Saturday, He would turn off his phone, put it in the drawer and just be with his family. I'm not good at this either. I am. I mean, and it should just

be. I think it's right. It should be screens, not the phone, because I'll go and sit in front of my computer. I'll do a little bit of programming or whatever it is. That would be a great way to really take a screen Sabbath. I just came up with a great word. He called it a fast. He called. Yes. He said, I think it's on Friday, maybe Friday night to Saturday. OK. Yeah. As I do a screen fast. OK. So that's not a whole Friday night. Yeah. I'm not good at it. So, no,

I would be good for me, too. And I think if everyone could just do that and what what a way it would be to honor him to just take that time. But what about FOMO? We might miss something. We may miss out on something. Well, no, here's the bottom line. Oh, yeah. You're missing out on all kinds of stuff. You better believe it. Stuff that will be there when you pick up the screen again. It's not going away. This is a G -rated show, but we're missing all kinds of stuff. Stuff. Yes,

it is. It's totally, it's stinky stuff. It is stinky stuff. And it comes at us at a thousand miles per hour. I like the way John Eldridge talks about it. He says it's an assault on your heart. It's not just on your mind. It's your heart, which is the center of your mind, will, and emotions. That's what the heart is. And it's an assault on your heart. And scripture talks about don't lose heart. Don't lose heart. Well, one of the quickest ways to lose heart is to

give it away to a screen. Wow. Giving it away to anybody. We give it away. We do that. We give it away to people. We give it away to stuff. But we really, these days, it's more screens than anything. And I'm the pot calling the kettle black here. So just true confession here. I mean, I'm as part of it because being a pastor, I always feel like I need to try to be in the know. I try to want to stay up on the curve. If you ever get behind the curve, you feel like you're, again,

fear of missing out. You feel like you're missing something. You know, I do these cultural briefings every Sunday morning, and I always feel like I got to keep the input going. But it is hard on my heart. Well, there's a couple of things I've learned. If you post less and send less email, surprisingly, you get less back. This is a lesson I learned a long time ago. I used to always be reply to an email, reply to an email. And I've had to pull back on that because I get

hundreds of emails a day. And there's always going to be one that's a gem that's important. So I'm reading them all. And I've kind of gotten into the habit of people who send me a lot. I'll answer every fifth one with, hey, thanks. Because when you answer, they're going to reply back. It's guaranteed. And that's all right, because people aren't thinking about your time and what kind of time it takes. But the less you send,

the less you receive. And ultimately, I've always experienced that as positive and productive. Yeah, it's good. So now we're also in this revenge mode. The prosecutor is called for the death penalty. And this is kind of like a two part track that I'm thinking a lot about. So one, if you know, everyone want like, yeah, we got to kill this guy. And let's just presume this guy did it. And man, there's a lot of written evidence that points to it, which, you know,

everyone's looking for. Right. For answers. Yeah. And so you can go down the. Second shooter came from the bottom, the grassy knoll, you know, 15 other people, the furries, the trans, you know, you can go down this entire route. Everybody wants reason. And I think for me, very quickly, I'm like, okay, this is evil. This is just Satan. And this is how this happens. And I can put that on the side and leave that for myself. But there's

such a distrust of government. which again is part of the trauma that we've lived through in the past five years. And also this almost insatiable, we've got to kill this guy. How do we approach that as believers? I'm totally feeling what you're feeling. I'm sensing that there's a part of my flesh that's angry and wants a head on a platter. I want evidence that. The justice has been served. Right. But I have to quickly tamp that down and go, no, no, stop. Stop it. And so on Sunday,

I called for us to pray for that young man. You did. I appreciate that. Nobody clapped. Well, it was quiet. Yeah. And I can feel a room. I mean, I've been doing this a long time. I feel the temperature of things. And I know that's not a popular thing to say. I mean, basically. It felt good to me, by the way. It felt, yeah, that's what we're supposed to do. A kid needs Jesus. He needs to be born again. He needs to be saved. And if I ever let myself go down the

path of, no, he needs to rot in hell. And I've read that statement a lot. I've seen people ranting about things like that. And mind you, again, grieving, you're not normal. Grieving, there's no. No boundaries. All your all your guards come down. The rails come down. You just go off the rails and you don't before you even realize it. So I'm trying to have patience to realizing a culture is hurting and grieving. And at what point do you stop? It's different for everybody.

But but at some point you got to make a choice. Go, OK, I'm done. I had my rant. I railed to my friend or I said some things to my wife about this situation that. I may not say out in public, but I need to be done with that. And now I need to refocus myself on something positive and redemptive. We think in terms of punitive and redemptive. So we want punishment or we want something to be redeemed for the good. As a follower of Jesus, everything in us should be about redemption.

Natural, you know, there's there's natural cause and effect, natural and logical consequences. There's all those pieces that happen. And he should if if it's if he is for sure the one and all that, he needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of law. But should Christians be yelling, demanding the death penalty? And where's that coming from? Yeah, I'm not anti death penalty, by the way. I think there are there are situations

and scenarios that justify. I don't want to go down that track too deep, but I'm just saying my thought on this before I cry out, murder him, you know, off with his head is how can his heart be turned? How can he be redeemed? Is anyone praying for him and for his family who are completely devastated by this? And two, we need to think through on a broader ripple effect or maybe a broader circle, expand our search, so to speak.

Why was he thinking that way? What led him down a track of growing up in a household one way and then apparently within a year or around a year's time getting what people are using the word radicalized? What I want to know more than just why he did it, because I don't think there will ever be a real answer for that. Why he just in that moment did it. But there will be answers of why did he start down a track of thinking and justifying murder? I have thoughts about

that. And I've thought about this for a long time because I tend to always look at all the options when things like this happen. OK, what are the possibilities? You've taught me to do that. And then sometimes when you say it out loud, it's it's hard because, you know, people be like, I can't believe you said that. So, you know, I go through an entire, you know, what was happening at the time. Is there could have been the Israeli government or Mossad? Well,

you know, the M word, right? There's everything's possible. So I go through all of these and I've actually come at a point which has been staring me in the face for a long time. I believe our country has been under attack for 250 years. And it never really ended when we declared our independence. And it's not just people. This is a cultural thing that has been around for a long, long time. And we've been under attack financially, how our financial markets work.

We've been under attack culturally. I think the drug epidemic is also an attack. And ultimately, it's all from the devil. But where is this coming from? And I'm now looking more towards very old networks, really bloodline networks like monarchies. You know, people always say, well, you know, the queen of England or the Netherlands or of Norway or of Sweden. They're just ceremonial. And I've never bought that. And I've met the Queen of England before she passed. And I looked

at you. You're not supposed to look her in the eyes when you say hi. And I did. And there was nothing there, brother. It was darkness. There was just dark, nothing in there. I've heard you say that before. Yeah. And so as I was listening to our vice president, J .D. Vance, he took over Charlie Kirk's podcast, which is kind of interesting. Very. He had Charlie's mic, which kind of brought it all home. But of course, it's not really Charlie's podcast. He just have one minute that I clipped

from it. Good. And he said something that to me, it can be interpreted different ways. But I, I feel it's well played. And I'll tell you what I think about it. Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk show. This is Vice President J .D. Vance. Joining me now is Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff. Dear friend of mine and

dear friend of Charlie Kirk's. And before I get into the nitty gritty of what I want to talk with Stephen about, you know, there's a lot of questions about the investigation, where we are in the investigation. I want to be respectful to the FBI's process, but just know that we are on top of this and the entire administration is trying to do as much as possible to find. everything that we can about what led to this, about how we got here, and of course, ultimately,

how an assassin took Charlie's life. I wanted to zoom out with Stephen a little bit and talk about all of the ways that we're trying to figure out how to prevent this festering violence that you see on the far left from becoming even more and more mainstream. A lot of people are very worried about how we got here in the first place. And you have the crazies on the far left who are saying, oh, Stephen Miller and J .D. Vance, they're going to go after constitutionally protected.

speech. No, no, no. We're going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence. So there's a couple of things he said here. I don't like that he said the crazies on the far left. And, you know, he's he's really dividing this. I think that's unhelpful. But what he said at the very end, which I've also heard President Trump say, is we want to figure out the networks that are fomenting this. And.

To me, that's a little bit of the turning the tables moment where, hold on a second, we've been under attack by networks that have been financed that speak into our medical and pharmaceutical communities, to our legal communities. It usually involves money. So there's no one I want to point to or no particular person, but I always follow the money. comes really from overseas, not from

here. And I'm thinking more European, which is, when you think about it, is not surprising that there's been a, you know, once we declared our independence, do you think that the, I'll just say the British, I'm talking about the British people. They just went, okay, you win, and they went away? I've actually wondered about that myself. So I'm doing a deep, deep, deep dive

and study on that. And I think that's really good because where this radicalization, this trans -Maoism, as I call it, It's it kind of came out of nowhere. It feels like it. You know, it just there was no coincidence that it accelerated during covid. I feel this is a direct attack from doesn't matter specifically who or what network. But if you can follow the money, then you can probably stop a lot of it. And it flows.

I mean, it is if you and I took a million dollars and dedicated our time for a year, we could. Turn so many people to Christ on the social media networks just by knowing what to do and how to do it. I mean, the governments around the world, they know military psyops. It is the best place. It is like if you really want to be programmed. Be in an emotional mood and get on a social media network and you will be programmed. I guarantee it. It's true. I guarantee it. And we're never

going to get people off of that. The best way is not to have your children go on it in the first place. I adore so many parents here at Bridge Church who have not given their kids any screens, any devices. You know, they give them the capability to text and that's it. And you know what? Are these kids deficient somehow? No. Are they really missing out on some incredible aspect of life? No. They're perfectly healthy, well -educated, well -rounded, well -formed,

intelligent, fun human beings. I'm working with a couple of them right now. So there's no need for it. But I do like that they're... That they see the president, the vice president, I'll say the president seemingly understands that we're under attack from something. Now, he says it, too. He's also going the radical left. We've got to stay. I don't like that. It bugs me. But it feels like there is a turning of the tables in front of the temple moment. We say, OK, let's.

And it was the money changers. You know, let's. Let's figure out where the real evil is being, how it's happening, how this flows in, how we can stop it at the root or at least cut the supply lines, which is always going to be finances. And we have to learn, and this is a tough one, to trust the people who our elected representatives have chosen. So I hear, well, you know, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, they're bought and sold for, you know. There's no coincidence how the Epstein

files and all these things flow into it. There's so much doubt and so much speculation. It's almost like you can see the board in someone's war room that says, OK, here's how we're going to pit the Americans against each other. We tried it with race. Didn't work that well. You know, the Black Lives Matter thing didn't work out. We tried. Didn't quite get there. We can do it with this. And whether that's physical people or in the spiritual realm and powers and principalities,

regardless, that's what we're dealing with. And that's what we have to fight against. I love it when you go looking for scripture. I can see you're doing it. I'm actually looking up Saul Alinsky's points because it's almost textbook, isn't it? This is like a playbook. for how to destroy, but really it's how to divide. Which then makes it simple. It's a divide and conquer kind of thing. And he has so many of these rules. Here's some of the rules. And again, he dedicated

his rule book for radicals to Lucifer. Yes, he did. Let's just be clear. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. So let's just ridicule. Let's name call. And this is like the schoolyard bullies did this stuff. We saw this in the fifth grade, right? We were kids on the block. And it's exactly the same MO. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. I mean, this stuff is like when you read

through these, it's really. to read through these, but you can literally check the box on everything. And it's not just the left. No, no. Exactly. This partisan life or identity politics is something that give him 15 Dutch sheets did a thing on Friday called. I was going to read it on Sunday, but I just completely ran out of the runway. I had to stop reading Dutch sheets because it got a little bit too much over the past couple of months. Like. Just give me some Jesus love,

man. It's always political. I had to take a break. He's a great guy. I love him. But he did a great job on identity politics and talking about how we fall in. It's kind of like you're going to buy a new house. He didn't say this. This is my example. And you can either build a house. And spec it out the way you want. This is my personality. This is what I want. Or you can go to the other end of the spectrum is to go

buy a prefabricated home. Yeah. There's four floor plans in the whole neighborhood and they all look the same. I think of those old movies, you know, that have like all the houses look exactly the same. Track home. Yeah. So what's easier? It's easier to buy a track home. Well, what's easier in life? It's easier not to think about anything. So I'm just going to pick this side. Because I agree with most of what they're

saying. But I'm never going to question what they're saying because I'm buying I'm swallowing the whole pill. Does that make sense? Well, this is what frightens me about identity politics, where I will never question or I won't I won't hold any of my elected representatives accountable because, you know, I swallowed the pill. I'm

identifying with that. What can we as believers practically say or use in everyday life when we're with friends, with family, and they're like, those crazy leftists, whatever it is, what can we practically use and say that will, if there is something, I'm praying there's something that can at least maybe stop people in their tracks and give them a thought without, Starting a whole argument, you know, is there any scripture?

Is there anything that Jesus said that I could say, well, I'm listening to Jesus right now. And here's what he said in this exact example. Give me a moment. I'll find something. I mean, because that's what people need. From a principle perspective, everything Jesus did. adds up into this amalgam of principles. Yes. It may not be a direct quote, but it's how you treat other

people. One of the things I always do when someone brings an accusation against somebody to me, my first question is, have you talked to them? Yeah. Go directly to the source. That's Matthew 18. Jesus said, you go to the person and you talk to them directly. I can pull that up. Because what happens is we get into these broad stroke modes and social media creates our tendency that way. It feeds our tendency. We have tendencies to do that. Those people, them and they. By the

way, that's not the place to do this. If you post anything of that nature on social media, you're just going to be answering people for the next three days. I'm not ashamed to say. I think this way or I'm treating the situation this way because I'm a believer and a follower of Jesus. If you want to ridicule me for that, that's fine. But that's why I choose not to do what you're doing or I choose not to participate

in this conversation in this manner. And I mean, if we can't stand on our Lord and Savior and say, and by the way, I have this problem myself with my own people I work with. It's like, well, I don't believe this because I'm a follower of Jesus. And you get a scoff. I'm okay with that. I'm really okay with that. So somehow I'd love to give the people in our church some of this

ammo, if you will. It's like defensive ammo, you know, just so you could say, well, I'm not going to participate in this because here's how I choose to address this situation because I'm a follower of Jesus. And then if that person scoffs and whatever, but I guarantee you it'll end that particular negative conversation. We

call that de -escalation. De -escalation. When I worked in the child care world, when I was a case manager, we would have to de -escalate a kid that was going off the rails emotionally. And once you get to that spot, you're not thinking clearly, right? You're clearly out of your mind. Out of control. It happens with adults every day online. You see this or, you know, somebody's got a phone up in somebody's face and they're ranting on something. There needs to be a de

-escalation. One of the ways you de -escalate is exactly what you did. You're coming in. You come with a different spirit. This is something that a pastor once told my staff. I had him in to kind of consult and visit with us. And he came and he said one of the greatest things he ever learned in terms of dealing with opposition was always come in a different spirit. So whatever someone comes at you with, return with a different

spirit. That's good. And that sounds simplistic, but if you stop and think about it for a minute, the Bible tells us a soft word turns away wrath. That's a proverb, isn't it? I'm thinking it is. I'll tell you in a few seconds. If it's not, it's something we say in the old country. There's probably a great Dutch saying for that. There always is. Soft word turns away. But I love when that pastor told us that we were like, that makes

sense. Come in a different spirit, because isn't that how Jesus, he didn't fight fire with fire. He know if somebody attacked him, which the Pharisees often did, he would come at them with a question. He'd come with a different spirit. And so it's the Proverbs 15, one, a soft word turns away wrath. Proverbs 15 .1. I love that. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. It's very commonsensical, right? Of course. A soft word turns away wrath, but a harsh

word stirs a different translation. It's like, what? There's gambling going on there? Yes, it's very, very simplistic, but so true. It is. And so come in a different spirit. And that's something I've had to learn through the years as a pastor. When people come at me, you tell them people how people are coming, you know, before they ever open their mouth, you know, if this is going to be a, quote, Karen moment or, you know, or whatever it is, you know, or, you know, somebody

is going to come. And I love it when someone comes and says to me. I'm not being critical here, but I've observed something. And I'm like, first of all, thank you. Well, thank you. I mean, you started well. The person who comes and says, let me tell you something. You are doing this wrong or whatever. It's like, I'm gone. Whenever I hear a but, I'm like, I love you, but. Love you, Pastor. But. But. Yeah, that always. Hey, I need to meet with you. I want to take you out

to lunch. But I have some concerns I need to share. It's like, gah. Before I was saved and I was clearly being influenced without even knowing it, my partner, Dave Jones, we had an initial partner. And this was years ago, not in Godcast, but in a different project. And this partner, it was not working out. And we had hour -long phone conversations. And I was always amazed. I was like, Dave. How did you how do you stay

so calm, man, at the middle of this? And this guy's saying horrible things and he's being recalcitrant and difficult. And and and Dave's answer would be, I'm just approaching him with love. And I always thought that was so admirable, so admirable that. It is a part of my my my faith journey is just I want to be like that guy. You know, so that's why every morning I Lord Jesus put me on as your earth suit. Let me let me feel it. Let me be kind and gentle and compassionate

and loving and above all patient. This is the biggest problem I have. I need patience, patience, patience. So I'm just I'm just always looking for a way that we can. Again, I don't mind if someone says, oh, you and your Jesus talk. I'm like, okay, well, you just ended the conversation. It must be the answer is the church. I heard that recently. Yeah. And I had no answer for that because I was so taken aback. I'm like, wow. I mean, I should have said, no, it's really

I follow my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But I don't mind it if people push back on me being a believer. Right. That's to be expected. I agree with that. It has been written. We know that's coming. I'm good with that. I just always want to try and do that. However, I will say online is not the place to do it because it just won't work. You're not on a playing field that has any, the odds are tilted against you. that that

will have a good outcome. And you are more likely to spend three days, you know, the old cartoon, honey, I'm coming to bed soon, but someone on the internet is wrong. You know, you're going to be, you're going to be sitting there forever. So that's just not the place that we got to turn that, that part off. But when it happens with our friends and our own family, this is where we have to be careful. And, you know, I, I don't have the scripture, the words, the answer, but

I, I, I do want to. Find ways to just say, well, I follow Jesus and here's how I'm approaching this. I love that, Adam. I think you're spot on with that. It goes back to what I said. Let's come in a different spirit. Whatever is delivered to you, do not react in the same spirit because that will escalate things. We're talking about de -escalation. Proverbs 15, I want to read it again, but I got a couple other verses here. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word

stirs up anger. That is the mantra of the Internet right there. I mean, that is social media there. James 119. This is one of your favorites. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. If that's not coming in a different spirit, I don't know what is. A person's wisdom yields patience. It is to one's glory to overlook an offense. Every morning, you know, I say the Lord's Prayer. The minute I wake up, good morning, Holy Spirit. Boom. I say it before

I even have my eyes open. That's just become a thing. And that's really kind of automatic. But then on my prayer walk, which I do with our dog Phoebe, I expand it. And so when I get to spots like... Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. I will think of a person who made me mad, who said something horrible. And I'm like, I'm forgiving this person. I'm forgiving this person right now for what they did. And you know what it does? I don't know if it does

anything for them, but man, it heals me. It really heals me. Can I give you one on that? Because I do the same thing you're talking about. I walk out on my deck at night, let Mr. Chevy do his business over there in the yard. Funny how dogs are a big part of our prayer life. I know, they sort of rule our life, don't they? No kidding. That's funny, isn't it? So as he's taking care, I'm staring up at this big cross on the hill across the highway from us, which is just an

amazing thing at night. But I say my own version of the Lord's Prayer. Sometimes I'll start with the 1600 version, 1611. I'll do the King James version. But then I do it my way. And when I get to that section, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. I say this, Father, forgive my offenses as I forgive those who offended me. Because that is like typically captures the essence of what the culture we live in. It's really about offense. I was offended by some words. It is.

Which, by the way, the word offend means you can think of a fence. Oh, fence. A fence. And tripping over it. The word offend means to stumble over. Like, so someone threw up a fence and you stumbled over it, like ran right into it, tripped right over yourself. So, so this one, it's to one's glory to overlook an offense. Here's another one. Do not, this is a Ecclesiastes seven, nine. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit for anger resides in the lap of fools. Boy, the wording

of that. Anger resides in the lap of fools. And that was written by Solomon, right? King Solomon, yeah. One of the richest men ever to live. Yeah, dear to his glory. He learned what really did and didn't matter. Yeah, for anger resides in the lap of fools. There's so many Ephesians 4. Get rid of bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling, and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.

Now, for the believer, that lands. It lands hard. I have to say to myself, what have I been forgiven for? So what can I not forgive others for? Do you have a minute? If I get one of those legal yellow pads, it's like I have 20 of them at least, line upon line. So many. Here's another one, Proverbs 29, 11, just kind of capturing what we're seeing right now. And this is a strong word of caution, I would say. Fools give full vent to their anger, but the wise bring calm

in the end. I mean, this is just the Bible is full of this. It just speaks. So another part of the Lord's Prayer kind of folds into this, which I was reading about this this morning in Oswald Chambers, my utmost for his highest. Another young man, another man who died young. Yes. Before his time, 44. And it was about temptation. And I think that. Because I pondered it, you know, there was a lot going on this morning. Tina's leaving, you know, we had a neighbor with a panic

thing I was trying to fix. I'm trying to get out and I'm reading through. It's like, I got to come back to this, the temptation, because we think of temptation as just one thing. Like I'm tempted to look at someone or I'm tempted to eat something I shouldn't. I'd love to just talk about temptation, how it applies, particularly. with how we respond in social settings, in person, and of course, you know, online. Wow. Okay. We just did a pivot. Well, because we recite this

thing, you know, all the time. And it just also like, yeah, temptation. Well, it's an interesting line. Lead us not into temptation. That's an interesting line. By the way, I changed that to a different form when I do my personal. I do the personalized one. I say, Father, thank you that you never lead us into temptation, but you do deliver us from evil and the evil one. That's how I say it. Whoa, that's good. It's a shift. It's a nuance, but it's a big nuance.

Thank you that you never lead us into temptation. Scripture says the Lord never tempts us in the book of James. I love James, too. He's very direct. Subtle as a brick. Pretty straightforward. Didn't write a lot. Well, what he wrote is good. Man, a few words, but they mattered. And so that's how I do that. He doesn't lead us into temptation. God doesn't. No, we do. The world does. And even James said we're tempted by our own flesh. Yes.

It's we have to. So you talk about it on a broad scale, but we have to go back to choice, freedom of choice, free will. This comes up a lot. Yeah. A lot of scenarios came up Sunday. But God gave us this amazing gift of choice. The upside is, wow, we get to choose to love because that makes it love. We get to choose. Annette and I chose to adopt a child. That child is precious and special because she was chosen. You know what I mean? But there's a flip side to the coin,

as there typically is. The downside is, I mean, it's kind of like acetaminophen. Taken right, it can help you with inflammation and relieve

a headache. taking too much it'll kill your kidneys right it'll damage you so so it's the same scenario here so the the flip side of uh i lost my thought temptation yeah i mean but the downside of free will our choice is that we can choose and this is what james was hitting on we can choose to be tempted our flesh leads us into it so we have to make a million micro choices a day yeah i mean Everything we do has an up and downside,

correct? Yes. I mean, everything we do. I can drive safely and I can be mindful of everybody else on the road, including our furry friends like deer and skunks and all kinds of stuff. Squirrels. Yeah, I mean, I can be mindful and drive safely. I can obey the speed limit, you know, and I'm more than likely I'm going to arrive safely at my destination or I can make some choices. I can be frustrated and in a hurry and I can

step on the gas. I can risk going 15 miles over the speed limit, creating a danger for myself and others. Also incurring the wrath of the law, getting a ticket, whatever. I can create all kinds of havoc just by a simple decision. So we have a million micro decisions a day to make. And unless we have submitted our will to the Lordship of Christ, we'll be talking about that tonight. The Lordship of Christ. Yes. Lordship. Our Wednesday evening here at Bridge Church.

Yes, that's tonight. And so we can either submit ourself to his will and say, even though I've got all these choices, my main choice, my first choice is going to be, I want to be led by the spirit. Right. Which means I now begin, I put a governor on my choices. Now I'm talking about not the governor of the state of Texas. I'm talking about the governor on an engine. I remember our yellow dog schooled up buses. You remember when the speed limit went from 70 to 55? Yeah. Everybody

lost their minds. They literally couldn't go faster. They put governors. They put governors on those engines so they could only go a certain speed. They did that with rental cars and vans and all kinds of stuff. So it's the same thing. We willfully choose to put a governor on our choices. And so when I do that, then temptation no longer has an empowered. It's not empowered to draw me away. But I can choose to take that

covenant off. This is good to discuss this because I don't think people, I certainly didn't, let me speak for myself. You know, I think of temptation like three things that I might be tempted by, but it's not. All day long there are temptations to snap back, to respond without thinking, without being quick to listen, slow to speak. Oh, man, I got to do that so many times. Quick to listen, slow to speak. And it really, really has benefited

my life. Thank you, James. Well, maybe this will help give people a new category for thinking. Micro decisions. Micro decisions. They seem small, but they actually have big effects, right? Yeah. It's kind of like James talks about the power of the tongue. It's a small thing, but it has massive consequences. Yes, it does. Same way with decisions. The little decisions we make. Can be the first domino tip that leads to something disastrous. It's the rudder of destiny for your

life, the tongue. And it's very uncontrollable. I guess that's probably a good example of temptation to use the tongue. Because, man, we do not have that thing under control. Now, these days, we use our fingertips, right? Because we've got a keyboard. We've got a screen. I'm fired up. I'm mad. I got baited. I love what one writer calls it, the bait of Satan. don't take the bait of Satan. He'll bait us with various things.

And now I have a choice as a fish, man, that looks good, but it sure looks like there's a hook through that thing, you know, but I'm hungry. I'm going to go anyway. You know, I'm going to take the risk and then we get caught, right? Trapped, entrapped, the scripture talks about. So this bait of Satan, we got to be careful because what happens is when we're typing, our boundaries tend to go away. There are no guide rails. Right. When we're typing, because there's no instant

repercussion. If I was standing in somebody's face and I called them something and then I get punched, I get a left hook or a right hook. Well, it's because we know there's natural and logical consequences when you're face to face. But when you're sitting behind a screen, the temptation is I'm just going to fire off what I'm feeling right now. I'll show them. And then you hit send. And then 30 minutes later, you're going, what

was I thinking? Why did I do that? You know, I've talked to Joe Rogan about this a couple of times and I say, Hey man, do you ever read the comments? He said, number one rule. I never, ever, ever read the comments. It will destroy your life. He said, I've seen so many celebrities and mainly comedians destroy. their lives, their reputation, their mental health by engaging. He says, I do not look at it. I do not. If you ever replied to a Joe Rogan Instagram, he did

not see it. I guarantee you he did not see it. Take some real discipline. But he knows a lot about discipline because, you know, the way he lives his life in general with professional training and UFC and, you know, taekwondo, whatever he was doing. And he has his other he has his temptations and his flaws. He's very he's well aware of them. But be like Joe. Don't just don't. It's amazing. I. I've been around for a long time. Before there was a web, we were using Gopher, man. This stuff

was text. We had an internet and we had dial -up modems. I had five at the house. And you had one font. And two colors. That's right. That was it. And we were happy. You were green and greener. And we didn't have a mouse. We were happy. Monochrome. And I don't engage with anything anymore. And on the off chance, sometimes like, I just got a fire back. Nine times out of 10, I'll wind up deleting it. I have to be very careful with email because, you know, people will just

in so insulting. And, and I've actually, there's a temptation I've actually had to stop doing because it was kind of funny to read those emails on the show with the voice that I heard them in. And it actually makes people very, very uncomfortable because like, Crap, I've done that. I've sent those emails. But I don't like it. I'm starting to stop, you know, shy away from that. But just don't. I mean, it's very possible. Just don't. You're not going to win any prize, anything.

So this leads us to something else. You just really just launched something in my head. What is this sociological need that we have, sociological, psychological, both? to fire something back or feel like we always have to comment on something. It's chemical. I mean, literally. Now, as a pastor, I feel like there are things that I need to say as a leader of a large group of people that people want to hear from their pastor on certain things. So like the Charlie Kirk thing, I wrote something

about it. I was not inflammatory. I wasn't calling names or anything like that. I just wrote about the impact of that. So I kept it in the boundaries and on the rails. In the guardrails. But why is it that every person feels like they have to say something about everything? Addiction. It's an addiction, pure and simple. It's got to be. I've had all kinds of addictions. I still have a nicotine addiction, although it's not like crippling if I don't vape my nicotine, but

I like it and I like what it does. And I'm well aware of it. Coffee, caffeine, you know, we're all very aware of what it does. These are minor, but we talk about it casually now because it's been mentioned so often, the dopamine. Being bored or having nothing to do is actually a good human condition. We don't do well with boredom. Because we have too many temptations at our fingertips. And I've taken to standing in line at HEB and just standing there, not reaching for my phone.

I do that too. It's really good. It's kind of fun seeing the cover of the National Enquirer and going, well, what is everybody talking about? And I look at the person in front of me. They're paying with a check. Oh, how cute is that? I'm not getting upset by it. I'm just observing what kind of, do they have printed checks? Do they have colorful checks? I'm looking at the cashier. I'm looking at the spelling of their name. That's an interesting spelling. I'm just trying to be

present aware. And yeah, bored. I'm actually bored. And it's a good condition. I got to say this out loud. And I absolutely agree with you, even though I fail at this often. Sure. Adam Curry, you are good for me. And I want to say that in the right way, because you constantly remind me of how unnecessary this really is. I mean, you do. And I appreciate it. I love that you do that. So how can we help other people who are finding themselves trapped in that temptation?

And that is to look at your phone. I forget what the stats are. It's a ridiculous number. Oh, eight hours a day. But what's funny, I'll laugh at a stat and go, that's ridiculous. But if I was to count how many times I pick my phone up and out of boredom, I'm not talking about if I'm actually getting a text from you or somebody else or Annette or my friends. I just do it because it's become this habit. And I would like, I'm just kidding. I'm joking. There's nothing there.

I promise. I promise there's nothing there. I was just thinking that's how we act though, right? And I notice it more when I make these attempts to stop doing it so much. It changes my filter because now I'm noticing everybody else. Well, that's, so I play this game. The game is. Look at the robots. This is helpful, I think. Yeah. Look at the robot. And I give points. So if someone is walking with a phone and has a phone in their

hand, that's a point. If they have a phone in either hand, you'll see some women actually have two different phones. Or business guys. It's more women than men. But yeah, that's three points. If someone is standing still on their phone in the middle of a public area, five points. If someone is on their phone while walking in public bonus, you're at 10 points and you tally those points up. You'll have well over 150 at the end

of the day. Oh yeah. Now the thing I do is I, you know, so these modern phones actually got a modern phone. It's pretty interesting. I like your phone, by the way. It folds. Well, it's tiny. It folds. It's little until you unfold it. So all these modern phones, you can put widgets on your screen. And so I have a, on the main screen, I have a widget with one thing here. So you see there's nothing else. There's nothing

else on that screen. Well, actually, there's a link there to talk to my friend who's in prison. And it is actually a daily grind from my brother, Pastor Jimmy. And it says, when fear rises, I pray. In Jesus' name, I break any and all agreements with the spirit of fear, and I receive your peace, courage, and freedom. In the name above all names,

amen. Enjoy his peace. Now, sometimes I'll switch this out for something else, but put a widget on your home screen, move all your apps to another screen, and whenever you pick up the phone, that's the first thing you see. And just let it sink in for a second. Wow, it's great. We can do this with phones. And I love the... Yeah, all this is customizable. I mean, I could literally... And so here in the middle of my other screen, I have... It's the widget for the U version.

Yeah, yeah. And it's the verse of the day. And it's in your face. Rewind your mind. Great. And when you do that, and then... I'm actually making this one up on the spot. Leave me not into temptation. Thank you, Lord, for leading me not into temptation. And then put it down. If we can do that, man, families are going to be better. You're going to have a better relationship with the people in your house. And by the way, working real hard on this myself. It's difficult. It's difficult.

In a culture that this has become the norm. You're a weirdo if you don't carry one. Another thing is. So Tina and I were always together for breakfast and Bible study. And, you know, I do a lot of that on my phone. There's different devotionals and the Bridge Men's devotional comes through. But when my wife speaks to me, I put my phone down. I try, at least. I'm getting better at it. I'm like, I'm putting my phone down and I'm looking at her. And making sure that I make eye

contact. I don't care what it is. I'm going to have that conversation. And it's not easy. But, you know, how many times have you spoken with someone who's answering you while answering a text? Drives me nuts. Happens all the time. And not Annette, because she's good about not. And may not finish their answer. Or, I mean, there's all kinds. And we're all guilty of it. But I think just being aware of it and really trying to solve some stuff. So Annette does have a habit

sometimes where. If she's talking to Tina, it's always Tina. She'll, I'll say something and she won't answer. Oh, it'll come five seconds later. And I'm going, hello. And I'm said, you're talking to Tina, right? She goes, yeah, I'm trying to finish. I'm trying to finish. Hang on just a second. So it doesn't make me mad at Tina. It makes me laugh, actually, because it's the dynamic. I'm fully aware of the dynamic. So the reason why I think this will help people is because

this leads to other things. We're talking about a very fundamental response. We've been trained like Pavlov's dog's ears, right? This is a Pavlov moment. For vibration, I need to pick my phone up. For almost 20 years, since 2007. Or if I haven't looked at my phone in five minutes, I feel the urge to check just in case something came through that I missed. I mean, what if I missed a call? I don't even use this thing as a phone anymore, hardly ever. I mean, it's not

even a phone. That's when I got a call this morning from someone who was in a panicked state. It was a phone call. I'm like, oh, my Lord. What's going on? Can you come and help me? This must be an emergency. It has to be. Yes, exactly. The reason why I think this will help people is because if you can fundamentally change a flesh response, you can fundamentally change

almost anything. Yes. I mean, because this is almost the worst eating, the worst addicts of the worst drugs, which, by the way, alcohol, number one, food, number two. And then you get all the heroin, et cetera. Right. Right. I know a lot of people who've been able to get over it and don't think that our addiction is any less addictive. Right. It has physical qualities. It has. chemical reaction qualities in our brains.

No doubt. And I'm thinking here like, wow, I sound like I'm really holier than thou, but I am not. Nor am I. But actually, this is just good just to talk about it. This is good because it will help people because if we can get control of our appetites, whatever that is, it's amazing how you can control other things in terms of your own self -discipline. And I think that's important, even as we're talking about the way

we respond. to the charlie kirk thing fundamentally you got to go back to the to the basics and go back to the foundations of why do i want to clap back because i saw somebody wrote write something or a video was disparaging of charlie kirk why do i feel the impulse to get on my computer and say something as though that would matter but there it is fundamentally the common denominator in every single issue that we have in our culture particularly when it comes to violence the common

denominator is online because i was talking to people and it's not like one just because someone can talk to you that they're radicalizing you per se it's the whole ball of wax it's the whole thing it's just the and it's not just discord or just x or just no it's the fact that you're interacting with sometimes non -human entities, you might not even know it, but you're just reacting, interacting, and you are building up a chemical reaction in your own brain that can lead to very

destructive things. And by the way, that's what addiction does. So we're fundamentally changing our neural pathways in very dangerous ways where they become auto responses. Jesus, come soon. We're screwed. Lord, Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus. That's the last verse of Revelation. Yes. This is an important conversation, even though people will not enjoy this conversation because we don't like to be called out on our addictions, whether it's food or phones. No,

of course not. We tend to want to. I know because I am. But I actually enjoy talking about it with you because it inspires me, not just motivates. It inspires me to go, I need to curb this. But here's the thing I notice. I know how addicted I am by how ineffective I am to curb it on my own. Yeah. So if I just make my decision, okay, I'm going to leave it in the car. I'm going to do this. I'll do it for a day. This is why we have Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous.

It's very hard to do it alone. It is. It's very, very hard. And I would say if any takeaway from this conversation that we're having, dare to be bored and take a, what did Charlie call it? A fast. A fast. Fast from your phone, fast from your screen. Technology fast. Even if it's just Friday night to Saturday morning. What could personally happen? I think his was Friday night, Saturday night, like a Sabbath. But I'll start easy. Let's do Friday night to Saturday morning.

Just nothing for that period of time. What could possibly happen work -wise or anything? And I'm not talking about your phone. I'm talking about the TV, everything. And if you're bored, if you're bored, pick up the Bible. Yeah. Put down your screens and pick up your Bibles. If we can't solve our boredom with some scripture, then maybe we need to figure out why the scripture is not hitting us. Wow. This is a challenge. Is it a big challenge? What am I doing? I'm sweating.

I'm getting drops of sweat on my forehead right now. We started with a podcast and now we're giving, we got homework. We're doing therapy with each other here. This is so powerful though, because this is going to help people at a fundamental level. where we are all missing the boat on this. I know for me, when I'm bored, I tend to start looking into nature. I tend to watch the clouds more. I tend to notice where the sun is in the sky and how the light's refracting off the grass.

I just start to notice textures in nature and textures in life. I just start to see what I haven't been seeing. I mentioned this at the Patriot Academy. They talked about level one through four. Yes, awareness. Level one is white. And they gave the example of a guy walking down a street looking at his phone. That to me is probably hard. You're the most vulnerable. Very. Yeah. You're a target right there. And a crook, a criminal, anyone who's nefarious will see you

and they'll go easy pickings right there. Even when you're at the airport at baggage claim. Oh, my God. You're just waiting to be pickpocketed. So I do notice this stuff because we fly a lot. We flew last week. We're flying out in the morning to Nashville. And I notice in airports how I was sitting there. You know, you go sit in the seats. You got, gosh, 30 minutes. We got a board. So what do we do? What does everybody in the airport do? Hop on the phone, baby. Immediately.

They're either on their computer, their tablet, or their phone. Very few people are having any kind of conversation. No eye contact. You're either people watching, but people don't even people watch anymore. They screen watch, especially in an airport. So the last couple of times we've flown, I've waited to get my phone out. I put it in my bag when I go through check, you know, TSA. I stick it in my bag and I wait for a while to pull it out. And when I do, it's amazing what

I start to notice. There's a great book by Andy Andrews called The Noticer. And it's a story. It's part of his life story, but it was a man that came into his life and he talked about what it means to become a noticer, where you begin to notice things in the world around you. It's fascinating. There's no way you can notice it. It's the opposite of boredom. It is. When you're a noticer. And a lot of talking heads on mainly cable news were saying, you know, so -and -so

said, go out and touch grass. That's the right thing. But I'm like, no. Go out and marvel at God's beauty, what he has created. Marvel at every little thing. Stop and listen for a second to the birds singing, to the dog barking, even to the car with the muffler leak going down, everything. But really, nature, smell, especially out here in Fredericksburg, you can just smell sometimes. You smell. Some cool smells. There's

good smells. I love doing that. But, of course, we're old dudes now, so we appreciate this stuff. It's like, the older we get. We have a homework assignment. Challenge. Challenge. Friday night to Saturday morning. Friday to Saturday morning. Start there. And let's dare to be bored. Yes. So you're going to a culture and Christianity conference? We fly out in the morning. We're going out to Nashville. The conference is in Murfreesboro at Alan Jackson's church. Oh, fantastic.

By the way, I was with Rick Green yesterday out at the Patriot Academy. He had just done. A podcast is in the Tavern podcast with Alan Jackson. Oh, wow. That'll be good. He loves Alan. So do we. I'm curious with this conversation we've just had taking that with you, how you will look at a lot of the things being said at this conference. I'll give a report. I'll give a report. And in my airport experience. Yes. Travel report. Absolutely. So we probably won't have a show next week because

you are traveling through the whole week. And, you know. In my mind, it's like that's God is telling us you could skip a show. We're going to be fine. People seem to enjoy what we're doing. Although Pastor Russ did say, instead of doing the podcast, could you come and learn how to run the board up here? Because we want a backup guy. Forget that podcasting thing, podfather. Forget that you invented that. I need you on the board. Brother, I love this. This is so good.

And we get to do this. Thank you, Lord. We get to do this. This is just, this is, this is like. picking up the cross in a whole different way. I'm really enjoying it. Have a great trip. Thank you, brother. I'll keep you posted and I'll take pictures. Yes, indeed. And we'll be back probably in about two weeks from now. We get to do this. We'll see you then, everybody. Bye -bye.