Stay The Course

00:00 Father, thank you for the privilege of being here today to be able to get on these mics and not just do a show, but to present life. That's our heart. We get to do this. Pray for our listeners today and whenever they're listening and wherever they're from, we pray that they'll find something that brings hope to them, adds some lift underneath their wings, and blesses them and encourages them. So, Father, we give this to you. We consecrate everything we talk about today for your honor, for your glory, and for the advancement of your kingdom in our time. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. It's Wednesday, July 8th, 2026.

00:37 We get to do this. This is episode number 40. This is the life we've been blessed with. This is a kid's first food. We get to do this. This is the chance we dare not miss. This is the life we get to do this. And we get to do this via Transatlantic Link once again. It's unbelievable any of this stuff works at all. How you doing, brother? Brother, I'm doing so good. I'm so grateful that I get to do this and I get to be here today talking to you while you're in Amsterdam. I'm in the heart of the Texas Hill country. How cool is technology? When it works, it's fantastic.

01:21 It's really good. We are here in our, I'm in the hotel room where we've been for, let's see, since last Thursday. And we're actually leaving this hotel tomorrow morning because when we checked in, they said, yeah, we didn't tell you, but as of, I think this was Saturday, Disney is doing a dating show in the hotel. We're like, what? First of all, Disney dating show? Okay, what exactly is going on here? But don't worry, it won't be too disruptive. You just have to come in through the side door. And, well, turns out it's, you know, these are television people.

02:04 Television people are always disruptive. So it's just gotten so bad that, you know, the experience of the hotel, which is this beautiful boutique hotel called the College Hotel, which originally was a college. And in fact, all the personnel here, except for management, all go to the hotel and restaurant school. So this is kind of their internship, which means they really try extremely hard. And it's cute. Once in a while, once in a while, you might get two omelets instead of one, but otherwise it's pretty good. But we're just like, nah, nah, we're going to go. We're going to go somewhere else. I mean, TV people are so disruptive.

02:45 It's unbelievable. Wow. Yeah. So where are you going? Have you already got someplace already lined out? Well, yeah, I had a special something arranged for Tina's birthday, which is this Saturday. So we're just going to extend that by two days. So we're going to go there a little bit earlier. So it's going to be good. Nice. But yeah, I mean, it's funny because we've also been helping out our daughter Christina and Kevin with their reality TV show, which again kind of shows you how fake television is. It's unbelievable. Oh, man. But it's been really good over here.

03:28 The weather, up until today, today it's the perfect Dutch gray skies. It has been phenomenal, just beautiful, 75 to 78 degrees. Tina and I have been walking all over the city. I've been showing her all of the all of the places I used to either live or, you know, here's where the pirate radio station was. And I've been sending you pictures because now I don't know if that's just because I'm Adam 2.0. I'm sure it has something to do with it. But I'm seeing Bible stuff everywhere. And I've been sending you pictures of it too. That is so cool. I've been fascinated with things that are on buildings and street corners.

04:10 And, you know, maybe you didn't have a filter for it before, or maybe there's some new things going on around the world right now. Well, so this one building has, and the building is, I think it's, I think it's a restaurant underneath. I had no idea what the building was. And big white letters, the Bible, read the Bible, the book for you. And then there was this guy. And I've heard, I think I've seen that building before. But then right near our hotel, this guy has a little stand, very similar to where they might sell French fries or would sell raw fish or something like that. And he's selling Bibles. And this is kind of amazing.

04:54 It still is a rather, I'd say, secular country. It's been. been in steady decline for decades and decades and decades, but it's just so good to see that. Yeah, you know, where sin abounds, grace abounds more, the scripture says. And so, in these dark places, there's these shining lights, and the darker it is, the brighter those little lights shine. Oh, amen. That's what you're seeing. You're just like, and it just, what does it do for you when you see that? I mean, when you first glanced up and saw that, of course, not written in English, written in Dutch. Dutch, Dutch, yes. Written in that. And so, what did that do for you? You're just sitting there and you notice that. Well, I would say it's exactly like that.

05:37 It gave me, oh, there's someone calling on the hotel phone. No, I'll have to wait, unfortunately. Of course. Hasn't rung throughout the entire stay here, but now they're calling us. It shines like a light. It really does. It's just illuminating. Now, what's cool is my dad, I think about four years before he passed, he got saved. And he went to a church about eight miles south of Amsterdam, kind of in the suburbs, called Crossroads. And I don't know, I don't know, we probably haven't talked about it on this show, but a year or maybe a year and a half ago, we had a big No Agenda meetup in Amsterdam.

06:22 Tina wasn't with me during that trip. And maybe 100 people from No Agenda were there. And someone came up to me and said, Hey, I just want you to know I attend the Crossroads Church, and your dad always prayed for you. And I'm not quite sure what your show is about, but I just wanted to let you know that. And that's why I came today. And it was a great feeling. Yeah. It was like, wow, okay, messenger, I got you. Yes. Yes. That's powerful. So Tina and I said, you know, because of course we're missing our church family, our spiritual family back home. We decided, well, let's go to church on Sunday. And they have two services, one at 9:30 and one at 11. I said, well, let's go to the 11.

07:05 We're still kind of jet lagged. Let's go to the 11 service. And they have, and so they do have an office in Umselfein, which is south of Amsterdam, but they don't have a church building. So they use the auditorium at the school at the Hermon Vesseling Koleische. So it's a high school. And funny enough, it's the school that my sister went to when she was young. And it was the coolest thing. And everything was so recognizable in kind of a format that we have.

07:42 You know, they have a worship team. And it was all in English. I think a lot of the people running it are from South Africa, just listening to their accents. But there were expats there. There were Dutch people there. A lot of people with younger children. When I say younger, like in their early teens, all different races and colors. It was so cool just to be there. And the pastor did, I guess they were in a series. So he did the fourth and the final in a series of Revelation. And it was, I mean, they had, it was right down to the elements, the cups that we have with the juice in it and the bread on the top.

08:27 Wow. Although their juice was darker and a little sour, I have to admit, it wasn't quite the juice that I expected. But it was so cool. I try to keep it fresh. Who knows? They do go sour. And, you know, I could, I could pinpoint, okay, that's Pastor Russ. Okay, that's the worship pastor. And they had a female vocalist. She played acoustic guitar, had a guy on bass, and I think the worship pastor on keyboards. And they sang songs that we knew. They had the words on the screen. The funny thing was, they had a drummer, and he may have been visiting because he was sitting earlier. And this guy, he must be playing in some band. And

09:13 he was so loud, you could barely hear. But he was pom pom all the fills and everything. I'm like, wow, this guy's going to town. But, you know, hands in the air, everybody worshiping. It was so amazing to see that and to witness that in this country. And, you know, it just told me that God is here. You know, the spirit is here and people are worshiping. The church was not empty. In fact, that 9:30 service was probably 200 people. It was chock full. It was just so fantastic. Adam, that is so cool. And it's so neat to see that God's doing this all over the world right now.

09:50 This is, it's, you know, God is not limited to time or space or. or, or whether you're socialism or you're, you know, capitalism. He's not limited to any of that. That's right. He's, he's, he's far above all of those things. He transcends those things so that you felt right at home. Yes. In the flow and the feel and everything there. And yet, there used to be people from South Africa in Amsterdam, I guess. Yeah. Proper. Yeah. Amsterdam proper. Yep. That is so awesome, brother. I love that. Man, that makes me happy. It was now just between you and I, just you know, no one else is listening while we're talking here.

10:31 So the format, it was just, you know, because at Bridge Church, we start with four worship songs. Then we have the promotional videos. Then we have our communion and what I call our giving segment, talk about what we're doing with the church and what we're doing with finances. And then we go into the message and, you know, the whole, that's kind of the format, if you will, of Bridge Church. So here they did open with a worship song. Then I think the woman came on. I don't know if she was clear like a financial person.

11:13 And, you know, she, but she kind of welcomed everybody. Then they did the videos. They had their promotional video, then three songs. Then the pastor came and he did the sermon and he led into communion at the end. Oh, like. And communion came with the. And then the last, then they had a final worship song, which was actually a song that connected to his message. It was, it was really interesting. Like, this is good. Unfortunately, after that, the woman came back on and she said, you know, I really, I'm sad to have to say this, but we are coming up short 10,000 euros every single month. And, you know, so they're clearly in some kind of financial trouble. And that kind of broke my heart.

11:58 You know, like, oh, man. It's so tough. It's so tough to see that. A vibrant church. And like, you know, so they had an appeal. They had, I think it was 100 euros from 100 people for six months so they can figure out what the, because they have to make some decisions, I guess. Oh, that's hard. Oh, it broke my heart. That's tough. That breaks your heart. Yeah, I know. Man, it's hard all over the world right now. You know, I mean, you know, of course, we saw what happened with Trump announcing that, hey, we're still in a war, you know, treaty, you know, the truce is off or whatever, and, and, uh, or the ceasefire. Yeah. And, you know, that just puts people in a place of fear and they begin to, they don't even do it consciously, I think, but they begin to hold on to things that normally they would have released.

12:42 And generosity, sadly, to say generosity is usually the first thing to suffer in these things. Yeah, that's that's a good point, actually. I mean, there's a lot, there's more fear here than you than we even realize because of the Ukraine-Russia war. And right. I mean, we don't hear about that much right now because our president hasn't involved himself in that, but he's going to, I'm sure he's going to get involved again. But the people here are just being told every single day, oh, no, Russia, they're going to come for us. It's Ukraine and then for us. We have to do everything for Ukraine. And otherwise, Russia is going to come for us. And that's crazy. This is like Cold War tactics that we haven't seen for all this.

13:24 And sadly, I think it's being used to control the people here. It's like, we're going to give you a freedom tax, which is literally an extra tax to protect your freedom so we can buy. I've never heard one. So while we are here, it's been great hanging out with Christina and with Kevin, and she is at the top. She's ready. She is so ready. Baby Cleo has not presented herself yet. So we're just waiting and praying. And it'd be great if she came while we're here. Yeah, it's, you know, you don't know. I mean, it could be two more weeks. You know, only God knows.

14:08 That's right. So that's been really nice. But of course, we completely missed all of the 250 4th of July celebration. So I'd love to hear how things went back at home in Fredericksburg. Brother, I love what we had Rick Green from the Patriot Academy preach on Sunday morning here at the bridge, and he brought it. I mean, he crushed it over the center fields fence with the bases loaded. I mean, he was in true form, and yet he was on the tail end of three days back-to-back nonstop work. I mean, he I told him, I apologize. I said, I didn't even realize, you know, all that you would have to be involved in even before you got.

14:49 got here this morning. And he holds his big old 32-ounce mug up. He said, It's full, brother. I'm caffeined up. I'm ready to go. And he just did such a great job. But what he just reminded us of is, first of all, that we're not in a political war. We're in a spiritual war. I mean, he really was clear with that message. And also the message of, you know, we have responsibility to continue, not for us. This is what I appreciated. This whole celebration of 250, yes, it's looking back, it's celebrating our past. It's celebrating the heroes, you know, those who laid down in the mud so the next generation could cross over the path.

15:31 And, you know, all of that is there. And yet he focused not just on the past, but on the future and how what we do today, you know, the old cliche, what you do today echoes for eternity. Oh, there's truth to that. What we do today matters. And I love what he was saying about the next generation: that we're not doing what we're doing right now. This activism, this being involved, this showing up, this speaking up, starting at the local level and then the county, state, and nation. We're not doing this for us. We're doing it for the next generation and the next, for our kids and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.

16:11 And that's something people need to continue to realize. This isn't all about us. It's not just about our gas prices. It's not just about, you know, if property taxes go up again. It's not about that. It's about what are we going to hand off to the next generation. And when we stand before God, how are we going to answer the call? What did you do for them? What did you do for your heritage? What did you do for your, you know, those who came behind you? And I want to be, frankly, I want to be like one of the founding fathers who said, you know what, I'm going to give my life. I'm going to give my

16:50 recent and my sacred honor for the, not just for us, but for the next generation. And that's why I'm excited about preaching tonight to our students here at the bridge. Oh, yes. You join the youth group. Yeah, they're two weeks coming off of youth camp and they're fired up and they had the theme. I found out what the theme was. They were taught a lot about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. And so I'm going to come in more with some stories than just teaching. They get sermons all the time. It's going to be more storytelling tonight of just things that I've experienced when I was a youth pastor working with students who were impacted by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

17:32 You know, there's something that happened on July 4th, which I don't know if everyone heard about it because there was just so much going on. And it's been a ramp up that's been happening for the past couple of months. And it's the Trump accounts. And I just wanted to play two clips here just with a quick explainer of I think this is Scott Besant, our Treasury Secretary, speaking of our youth. The other thing I wanted to mention briefly before I get to the point of this is Larry Kudlow is the Trump savings accounts, which I think really is a game changer. That is a major, major piece of legislation.

18:10 I think that this is the most important government benefit for young people since the GI Bill. And 38% of Americans have no exposure to our great equity market. They don't participate in the innovation, the dynamic U.S. economy, great managements, many the managements who I see here today. And for them, it is just a foreign concept. So with the Trump accounts, any child born during President Trump's term, they get $1,000 seed investment from Treasury for these. And they're going to go into low-cost index funds. And

18:56 they will be able to see every day on their phone what the account's doing. Folks with children under 18, families with children under 18, can open a Trump account and they can put up to $5,000 in there that will compound tax-free until age 18. At age 18, they can roll it into a traditional retirement plan or take it out to start a business for education, down payment on a home. And the other thing we're seeing with these Trump accounts is that we are seeing some of our great philanthropists, Michael and Susan Dell, $6.25 billion to American children.

19:40 So it's going to be about $250 for 80%. the American children. Blowing a piece of the rock. They never thought possible. They might even learn a little bit about capitalism and business along the way. Well, I think we're creating a whole new class of shareholders rather than giving a toy for someone's birthday. You cut the price of the toy in half and give the toy and then put $20 into that account. So you can constantly top it up. It's worth a lot more than a welfare check. This is something that just hasn't been explained that well, I feel, you know, just because there's so much other news.

20:20 But if you look at the compounded function of these Trump accounts, and again, any child born within President Trump's, I presume this will be continued after President Trump's presidency, gets $1,000 to start off with. It really is true that all of these great companies and philanthropists are putting money into it. Some are putting stock into it from their companies. I think Star, SpaceX, putting stock into it. The calculation is that if you have a child who has a Trump account that starts now, when they're 18, it could be over $200,000. By the time they're 30, it could be over $1 million. Wow. Will they be able to add anything to it?

21:03 Yes, no, you can continuously add to it. Grandparents can add to it. Anybody can put more money in. And it's based on. And if you look at the index funds, like the S ⁇ P 500, most people who mess around in the stock market, if they just put their money into the S ⁇ P 500, would have made the same or more than trading every day and moving stuff around. I mean, it continuously goes up. And it's such a uniquely American idea. And I just love it so much. And my granddaughter will be eligible as well. It's wonderful. Yeah, I just think it's so awesome that we're doing this. And it's probably better than Social Security in the long run, which, as we know, is probably going to run out of money at some point.

21:49 It's tenuous. I've been hearing my whole life it's going to run out of money the next year. So, I mean, it's kick the can down the road. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. No, you're right. This is great. Again, we're talking about the next generation and what does it mean to build for them? What does it mean to build into them? And I love it that our president, our country is saying, no, the next generation is important. It's not just about us. Yes. You know, our generation, you know, I'm a boomer. So the boomer generation tended to have this, it's all about me. Yes. Yeah. You know, mentality. I'm going to get mine while I can. And we just handed screens, iPods, and phones off to our kids and said, entertain yourself. We got work to do, and we're paying the price for that.

22:34 Yes. Well, Generation X didn't do much better. And we're pretty close in age, brother. Just because I'm technically a boomer by three. Two rounds. By three months. Three months on the cusp. By three months, but I was the face of Generation X, so I'm going to hold on to that. For sure. But I see, you know, Tina and I, we pray every single day, every night for our girls, for them to be saved, for them to see who's really in control. And so we were at Kevin and Christina's house. Now, this is, you know, we're doing the reality show. So Tina cooked, which was hilarious, and one of those perfect television moments, the rice caught on fire. You know, could not have been any better. The cameras rushing into the kitchen. Like, yeah, the smoke. This is bird.

23:17 This is drama. Show material. Show material for sure. Hilarious. So we sit down and I say, well, I'm just going to pray. And I do that anyway with the kids. But I also really like that this would be on camera. And I can tell that the production crew is like, oh, yes, we want to get praying. Lots of praying because they're crazy Christians. I know that that's kind of the feel they have. And so I launch into one of my prayers, one of those where at a certain point I'm like, we pray for the governments of the Netherlands and America. Tina starts squeezing my hand like, before you start thanking the sanitation workers.

23:56 But then after that, Christina says, just spontaneously, you know, Kevin and I, we pray at dinner now. I'm like, oh, I love that so much. So seeds are being planted. Seeds are growing. And just by, because we're not forcing anything on them. We're not telling them what to do. We're just leading by example. And to see that happen, you know, she's like, and, you know, our daughter is going to go to a Christian school. I'm not quite sure which one, but there's, you know, they want to go to, they want to send her to a school that is more biblically based. No, no screen. So, you know, it says, just like we see where we live, a lot of the parents will give their.

24:39 kids like an Apple Watch, which can only do phone calls and text messaging. And, you know, I guess you could call an Uber if you needed one. You know, so it's like, no, no, no, not going to have any screens. It's just so good to see the influence. It matters. It matters what you do. It matters how your example matters without even having to do anything or say anything. They just start to pick it up. And that's so, that's so heartwarming. Man, I love that, Adam. And I love that you guys, you're not forcing anything on your kids. You're just being yourself. And we call it leaking, you know, leaky buckets. You're just leaking out the life that's in you.

25:18 And it's catching. It's so much. And you know this as far as raising kids and instructing the next generation. There are things that we can teach, but most is more caught than taught. Yes. It's what they see. It's what they hear. It's them walking into a room instead of catching their dad on a computer on porn. They catch him on his knees praying with an open Bible. You know, that's the kind of stuff that impacts the psyche, the development of a child so that they become all that they're called to be and destined to be in God. We give them that platform to do it because we don't want to be the ceiling that caps them off.

25:58 We want to be the launching pad for them. Yes. Amen to that. I got a very joyous text from my buddy Diederich, who wrote the screenplay for Young Washington. Oh, very cool. This is the movie that was produced by Wonder, The Wonder Project, who did House of David. And this is the brand new, I guess you could call it studio that has been started to become the Christian HBO, but really just making movies for people who just want a nice story and a movie. And yes, please put some God in there, which is part of our tradition anyway.

26:43 And Angel Studios was doing the distribution, the theatrical distribution. They opened the biggest opening that Angel Studios has ever had: $22 million opening weekend, Saturday and Sunday, equally strong, at least $5 million more than they expected over their top predictions, their top expectations, the projections. And what's so good about this is this solidifies the model, the audience, the product for, for all intents and purposes, Hollywood, for the filmmaking industry, that this is legit.

27:23 You can get people to put their butts in seats. They will go to the theater. And there was some stark competition. I mean, they had, what are those minions, the little widget people? Oh, yeah. The minions opened up the same weekend. This is just fantastic. So, and I'm just so happy that we'll be able to see more of this in the future. Boy, I'm finding myself really encouraged. And that and I just had a conversation last night. You know, we, we, as you know, we, we're, we're, we've become hearties. You know, we follow the, we've watched every episode of Wind Calls the Heart.

28:01 And so here's how much we're into it. We started over. We went right back to the, and there are so many details we missed in the beginning. Watching it the second time is actually more fun to us right now. But also because we have this expectation because there's so many redemptive story arcs in that show of all the various characters, you know, where they start off rough or in a bad place. But as the show progresses, you see this redemptive story arc. And that's what people are looking for. I think people in movies, they want some good news. They don't want to, not everybody wants to go to the movies and be left with a mystery that's dark and negative and the worst possible outcome.

28:42 I mean, there's times to be intellectually challenged in movies and things, but there's also, I think, the human experience. We desire redemptive, life-giving story arcs. We want to see the hero win. We want to see the good people come out on top. We want to see those that are dark and nefarious rescued and become good people. And so we were talking about it last night as we turned off the TV and getting ready to hit the sack and go lights out. We were saying, watching these kinds of shows make me want to be not only a better person, a better citizen, but a better Christian. Yes. Yes. How do we do that?

29:29 How do we be better Christians? Well, it's simple. I mean, it literally is to just do exactly. exactly the simple things, the everyday things. We think being a Christian, you know, is some epic thing where there's all these mountaintop experiences and you're just sort of sailing over life above the line, above the cloud line. But at the end of the day, it's actually the daily things. It's the daily decisions. It's being on an airplane and seeing an older lady or a lady, any lady who can barely lift her carry-on above her head. And you jump up and you grab it and put it up for her.

30:06 And then when you leave, you say, Can I get that down for you? Those are the little things. That may be being a good person, a good citizen, but it's driven with a biblical worldview. It's a game changer for people. We had an experience on the airplane, and I don't even think about this stuff. I just do it. There were three older ladies getting on the plane together, and you could tell they were together and having a big time. I was already seated, already had my earbuds on. I mean, I'm ready for the flight. And I see all three of them come in, and they're dragging these fairly large, you know, carry-ons, and they're bumping the edges. They're hitting things. You can tell they're awkward. And I just jumped up. I didn't say a word.

30:48 I said, Ma'am, do you mind? Can I put that over? They were right behind us. And those ladies were so shocked. And they said to Annette, they said, You are so lucky to have a good man for a husband. And she turned around and said, I absolutely am. And that's not about a big pat on the back for me. This is simply doing what a Christian does. You ask, what does it mean to be a good Christian? It means the little things. It means the not getting bent out of shape on the interstate when somebody cuts you off because they got into your space. They made you take your foot off the accelerator. How dare they? That's a tough one. It's a tough one for a lot of people. I'm getting better. I am getting better. That's an Easter egg for Annette. We'll see. She may call me out on that one.

31:33 But it's the little things. The epic things will, those opportunities come along, you know, once or twice in a lifetime where you get to do something epic like help somebody at a car wreck or go into a burning house. But at the end of the day, it's the dailies. It's what we do every day, just making good decisions. You know, what's been interesting over here is in the last couple of days, I think I've received five or maybe six emails from people who I've met before or I know from a couple of years ago, and they all have the same message. It's like, hey, you know, I've been listening to We Get To Do This, and it's affecting me.

32:15 I'm feeling like I want to go back to church, or I'm very interested in what you're experiencing. How can I experience that? Which is actually, before I read any of these, how can people experience what we feel as Christians once we're saved? It seems like there's a path, you know, and people say, I really want to feel it, but what am I supposed to feel? Am I feeling the right thing? Well, I would say, I mean, the first word that came to my mind when you said this, kind of a hot take here: surrender. Give up. Wave the white flag.

32:53 Tell God and don't tell him in a fancy way. Don't speak in Elizabethan English or think you've got to put together a very beautifully crafted prayer. Just be real with him. God, I have made horrible mistakes. I have messed up. I've missed the mark. I need you. I'm desperate. I need you. Talk to me. Help me. Show me. I mean, just tell him what you need. Tell him and ask him. You know, the scripture says, you know, if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does the father want to give good things to you?

33:31 I mean, he's talking about how in his goodness as a good father, he wants to do things for you with you, be a part. He wants to participate in life with you. It's why he created you, was for relationship. And so what does it mean? James 4:8 is always just one that comes to me. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Yes. So he simply says, make the first move. Jesus has already issued the challenge: come unto me, all who are weary and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. He's already issued the invitation, but now just make a move.

34:10 Take a step. I think the word surrender is the right one because that's what I have to remind myself of constantly: I'm not in control. I surrender control to you, Lord. And just show me the way. Show me what I have to do. Show me how I have. Actually, this was a note we got from JJ. I love this. He says, I went back and started episode one because this podcast you're doing with your pastor. Well, it's my friend, but okay. Yes, also my pastor is so wonderful. Each time I listen, I feel less anxious and more full of faith in Jesus. I forgot how wonderful it is to be reminded of the core truths that build us up and feed our spirits.

34:53 I mean, like, wow. I love that. Wow. I could not have said that better. You know, one thing I would say to JJ is stay the course. You know, once you start down this path, I mean, I've mentioned this before, I think, even on this show that I've heard, you know, maybe once or twice, for sure, once, I think twice, the audible voice of God. And it wasn't so audible that, you know, it reverberated in my car and sounded like, you know, Darth Vader, the guy who plays Darth Vader. No, it's simply James Earl Jones. No, it was just simply three words driving down the highway in a really dark season where I just, frankly, I'd been betrayed by who I thought was one of my dearest friends.

35:39 And it turned out it was a sham. And he was just using me to get what he could, you know, out of the church and stuff. And I just, man, just shattered me. But also, I was angry. I was mad. I was hitting my steering wheel. I was ticked off. And I was, and I just said, say, God, I don't get it. I mean, how did I not see this coming? And, and, and what do I do? And the Lord, I just heard these three words: stay the course. Yes. No fanfare, no angels, nothing. Just stay the course. I have leaned on that for years now. We had a, so we had a memorial for my mom.

36:17 It's 20 years ago that she passed. We actually did that on 4th of July with a family. My sister came in with her family and my nephews from, my nephew and niece from Italy and my sister here. I mean, it was, but also Hans. Now, Hans, I grew up with him in the Netherlands. He was my next door neighbor. He said, I think he's two or three years older than I am, but we grew up together. We made, you know, like super eight millimeter cowboy movies together. We had the walkie-talkies from one house to the next. We had, you know, the wired intercom, every, all this stuff. We did all this crazy stuff together. And I think it was now three years ago when I got a, you know, a nudge, like, check in on Hans.

36:59 And I called him and said, Hunt, and he lives in Spain. I said, Hans, how are you doing? I'm dying. He said, I'm dying. I said, what? See, I'm dying. And now he was a friend of the family. So not just, you know, my boyhood friend, but my sister's known, et cetera. And I said, okay, we're going to come to see you on our summer vacation. So a couple of months later, we went, and he wasn't just, he looked almost dead. I mean, he suffered from alcoholism, psoriasis of the liver. He couldn't walk. He had a scooter, like a three-wheeler that he rode on. He was shaking. He was just, you know, skin over pulled over bones.

37:40 His skin was so thin that if he rubbed the wall, it started to bleed. Wow. And I mean, it was so bad. And Tina and I just prayed over him, prayed over him when we saw him the first time. I met him again the next day, third day, prayed over him again. And the next thing I know, I heard from him as he said, you know, I went to AA, which is very faith-based. And, you know, he says, I'm praying. I've reconnected with the father. And he came. Wow. He came to this reunion. He was literally skipping. He's like, hey, guys, how are you doing? And I mean,

38:21 it was a whole different man. I'm like, holy crap, Hans. And he had flown in for it. And he was just skipping along. Everything's great. Wow. Same old, you know, his humor was back. And I was like, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. And I say this because I got a note from one of our listeners. And he says, you know, he sent me an email. I said, hey, could you pray over me? Because I'm an alcoholic and I can't seem to get out of this. And, you know, I gave him, and I did, of course. And I emailed him back and I said, hey, man, you can do this. He said, yeah, but I'm afraid about my wife and my job.

39:04 You got to surrender to this. You got to surrender. You got to bring your wife into your struggle. Don't try to white knuckle this. And so I don't want to give his name out. We'll just call him Pete. Pete for reasons of anonymity. I just want people to pray for him because he's going through a real rough patch. But I just love the fact that he reached out, that he felt. He got it. that he could just talk and say, hey, man, I need to bring this up. Man, that is what this is about. You know, we had Charles reach out to us about his daughter, Viola, and just was asking for prayer, you know, and that's what it is our privilege to pray for people. And when we know a little bit about what we're praying for, it helps to pray more specific. I like having a prayer target.

39:49 And so, man, for your friend Pete, we'll call him. You know, Lord God, do what you need to do, Lord. He's opening his heart. He's becoming vulnerable. I'm asking you that you'd give him courage to face this demon and courage to face these fears. And Father, as he steps through these fears, Lord, it'll be like he stepped through a mist or smokescreen. It was fake. The enemy just was trying to shut him down with fear. So, Lord, break that spirit of fear over his life and give him the courage to take the next step. And Lord, your word says, as you draw, as he draws near to you, you will draw near to him. But even as he makes a step in life, Father, meet him there and help him along in Jesus' name.

40:30 Amen. Yes. It works, people. It really works. Come on. Yeah. Come on. It was just so awesome to see Hans. I'm like, this is exactly. And I got this email the next day. And I'm like, I was just shown how it works, how well it can work. Wow. And AA is really good. I mean, it's, they really, the program is not for everybody, maybe, but I've just, I just saw this work so well. And I'm like, man, find a meeting, find a sponsor. It can be done. It really can be. I think a lot of people struggle with just struggle. Just struggle so much. Of course. No doubt. No doubt. You know, you're familiar with Andrew Huberman, right? He has Huberman Lab.

41:12 He's a neuroscientist. Yes. He's real big on, you know, he's a sharp guy. Well, he recently came out and said, I had learned to pray. God has met me in prayer. I mean, this guy's had a complete, massive turnaround where he is now talking about, you know, he's a neuroscientist and he's one of the, you know, very well-known, very popular. And he's coming back and saying, man, God already taught through the Bible what we're just now figuring out in terms of neuroscience. And he's talking about the power of prayer in his life. And, you know, just, I just want to focus on this just for a minute for JJ, for Charles, for your friend Pete, for others, for Hans, man, what a great story there.

41:56 And all of this started with and continues to be maintained by prayer. And prayer is simply a conversation with God. It's not just a monologue, although we kind of start there. You know, it's a good place to start, you know, talk to him. But it's also a dialogue in the sense of learning to be still and quiet and listen. Yes. Scripture talks about, you know, a still small voice that God didn't come in the earthquake. He didn't come in the thunder. He didn't come in the lightning, but he came in a still small voice. And sometimes through all the noise and chatter, if we're the only ones talking, then we can't hear. That's why I know you quote James a lot, you know, be slow to speak, quick to hear. Quick to listen, slow to speak.

42:41 Yeah, there it is. You know, and that's so true. You know, you got two ears and one mouth, and there's a reason, there's a ratio there that God built into this thing that we need to listen twice as much as we're speaking. And it's something I try to do in prayer where I'm not just not prayer for me is not just talking all the time. You know, it's sometimes it's just listening. It's interesting. I was reading about, are you familiar with the term aptonym? No. Or sometimes. I will be in a second. Yes, sometimes known as nominative determinism. Oh, you've mentioned this before. We heard this somewhere. Someone brought it, we may have briefly talked about it on the last show. I can't remember, but I went researching for it because I literally had to ask the robot when someone's name is kind of like their character.

43:30 Yes, yeah, yeah. We heard this on a clip, I think, the last week. That might have been it. Usain Bolt, you know, he's he's a he's a sprinter. So, of course, you may know a butcher named Jules Chop, you know, a firefighter named Les McBurney, you know, this kind of stuff. And I was thinking like, and I was thinking, like, well, Jimmy, can we presume that that comes from James? Yes, yes. So you literally, as I, because I see you, especially when in the studio together, you are quick to listen. You hear someone first and you've gotten so good at it that within, I'd say, 0.7, six seconds, you've processed.

44:12 But you are not one who immediately responds. You process for a moment. I'm like, yeah, the aptonym Jimmy works. I'm not quite sure how Adam works. I mean, you might be able to analyze that for me. But when I hear you mentioning James, one of my favorites, I'm like, yeah, your name is an aptonym of who you are. Wow. That word aptonym, I need to nail that down because I see that. You know, you've known people all your life. You know, you'll meet somebody whose name is Fred. Yeah. You know, and then you grow up around Fred, and Fred has these characteristics and, you know, just his way of life, you know, his idiosyncrasies and all.

44:53 And then you meet a Fred later in life, and it's almost the same as you can. You can put a template over him. It's like, I've noticed that. I never, I didn't know if there was anything really to it, but I've noticed things like that, like certain names, and sometimes they can have a negative connotation as well. Could be. But yeah, I think that's a fascinating study. It makes me want to study a little on that and just dive in. It does. I just brought that up because especially there's a lot of biblical names here in the Netherlands, a lot of people whose names are from the Bible. And it's just something to look out for. It's just, I find it interesting, and I'm kind of getting into it.

45:32 Like, what's your name? Okay, let me see. That's fascinating. Let me see if this fits exactly. So this is interesting. I just looked this up, and actually, the name James, Jimmy's a derivative, but the name James is also in the Hebrew the name Jacob. Oh, really? And there are some negative connotations to that name. We'll skip over those. He's a supplanter, one who takes the place of another. A heal grabber. You know, there's all that. But here's the thing. That's funny. The thing is, is that because of that intentionality, he actually got the blessing.

46:12 He got the inheritance. So yeah, I mean, I am pretty intentional. I'm pretty all that. So anyway, interesting. Got me thinking. So we're going to be here through Monday. We pray that baby Cleo will arrive before we have to leave. Yes, that'd be beautiful. Christina's like, can't you stay longer? Like, you know, we could stay a week and she still may not be here. It says, we'll come back. You know, we'll come back as soon as she's born. We're going to be booking a flight somewhere. I get it. Tina mentioned that to Ned about Christina saying, can you stay another week just in case? And I felt the angst in that. Yes. Because everything in you wants to say, yeah, sure.

46:54 But gosh, three weeks being gone is a long time. I mean, we have, yeah, we have Phoebe staying at Jill and Mike's place. We want to get back to our home. Right. You know, Tina has her birthday this Saturday. I have some celebrations here for her. But, you know, she has a birthday party, I think, that someone's throwing for her. I have customers for Godcaster who we need to talk to, and I can't do it at three in the morning. I'm doing no agenda until midnight. It's like, baby girl, your brother and your brother Jimmy misses your face. So, you know, there's that. Yeah, yeah.

47:34 I love our catch-up, but we really need to face-to-face. There's nothing quite beats it. Although, I know, man, it's as if you're sitting right here next to me. It's crazy. Isn't it crazy? Technology, and your buddy who made the pod mobile. Wow. I can't say enough good things about this because Annette was like, she had to, you know, we're almost finished with her office. You know, the attention's laying the carpet this week. Yep. And so that'll be done. But she's in the studio today, and she had a meeting, and she said, I'll be glad to take your office. You can take the studio. I said, baby, I got the pod mobile. I'm good to go. I got a pod mob right there. I can go do this anywhere. And anyway, big kudos to that young man who developed this.

48:17 Yes. And if anyone wants to start a podcast for your community, for your church, go to hyperlocalpodcasts.com. And I have a whole setup there. I've written that. I wrote that out two years ago, probably. It tells you where to get the pod mobile, what very inexpensive microphone to get, just an instant starter kit. And don't ask anything other than how soon can I start? And just start. Just do it. That's great. You don't need to be a professional. Just if you've got something to talk about, your community, your church,

48:54 your city council, anything, there is a huge demand for hyperlocal information and just people love hearing about their town, hearing about their home. Radio has left. Everything is left. All that you have is Facebook rants and raves about your town. That is not a positive place to be about your town. All right, brother, you want to land this? Yeah, I'll land it. Let me just land it by saying big thanks to Bo. Man, I'm telling you, so enjoying those pickles. Geez, I can't say enough about his amazing pickles. Yes. So, man, I just love all of our guys. We have so many amazing people listening to the show now. We've got some new Substack folks on there, like

49:36 Brett Hahn, great writer about the American Revolution. Chad Logan, also bringing some great things about the Black Robe Regiment. Just some great guys that I'm connecting with there through Substack. And if anybody wants to connect, find me on Substack. I love to chat and visit and encourage anything we can do to be a blessing to you. That's why we're here because we get to do this. And we have our website coming. Tina's working on the newsletter and the website. You could email us now, adam at wgtdt.com or PSJimmy. That stands for pastor at wgtdt.com.

50:16 We'd love to hear from you. So feel free to send an email. Awesome. All right, brother. Well, thank you for being there once again. I look forward to coming home and doing the next one in the studio. We'll see you soon, brother. Okay. And we get to do this. We'll be back next Wednesday from home base. See you then, everybody. Thanks for listening. This is the life we've been blessed with. This is a gift for you. We get to do this. This is the chance we dare not miss. This is the life we get to do this.