In His Steps

00:00 All right, let's do it. Father, we honor you. We honor you in everything we do. We get to do this. And that's the truth. We thank you, Lord, that you have ordered our steps and you delight in the very details of our lives. Every detail down to the most minute thing. You're there and you care. Thank you for that. I pray today for our listeners, Adam and I together. We join our hearts together, our faith together. For those who are listening, Father, that they would be built up, encouraged, challenged, but also hungry for more. Lord, our heart is that all of us would be hungry for you. We give this to you in Jesus' name.

00:42 Amen. Amen. Next Wednesday, November 5th, 2025, we get to do this. This is episode number nine. This is the life we've been blessed with. This is a gift. We get to do this. This is the chance we dare not miss. This is the life we get to do this. Yo, yo, brother. Hello. Man, that jingle is really getting in my head. You know, what's funny is that I posted our share link on X.

01:20 That's the only social media I still have, and I really only post shows. And, you know, and then I look at the inbox because that's where people tag something. I don't really go through the timeline. And some guy, like, I had to forgive him right away. It was not easy. Come on, brother. Radical forgiveness. You know, that song, that sounds like really bad worship music before Hillsong came, was around. I'm like, really? Is that really? And by the way, of all the things you could say about our show, is that all you have to say? Wow. This is what I thought. I didn't. Oh, I think my reply was, I think I just heard Jeff Smith's heartbreak.

02:02 But otherwise, thank you very much for your response. I love it, man. Everybody's a critic. Anybody with a keyboard's a critic. Entitlement, autopilot. Well, we used to go to the, you know, we'd huddle around at church or at the bar or at the sports club and the water on the water cooler and we talk amongst ourselves. Yeah. And now it's I awoke this morning to nothing but hair on fire, pearl clutching. The Muslim socialists have taken over. It's the end of America. We're all going to die. I was praying for that one, brother. I was praying. It seems such an obvious, first of all,

02:47 I know through some hands-on boots on the ground that this is just like AOC, and they've done many more. I think it's, I'm pretty sure it's just the DSA, the Democrat Socialists of America, which really doesn't have a party. You know, this is a group. And they recruit actors. I mean, Mom Donnie literally is a theater kid. Wow. He literally. Oh, yeah. Literally. I'm not surprised, though. No, and he's really good. He's charismatic. He's friendly and fun. Everything you want in a leader who's going to give you free stuff.

03:25 Exactly. And first of all, I was very disappointed in myself because I fell down on the job so badly this week. We had voting yesterday and we had 17 mainly tax-related bills. Amendments, yeah. And yeah, amendments. 17 amendments. And I was driving in the car and I was listening to Bridge Church Radio, which is all the podcasts. It's in the Godcaster app. Give it a shot. And of course, Matt Long pops up. And, you know, with this Bridge Church radio, it's just podcasts, all the new episodes.

04:04 Yeah, the continuous play. Yeah. And so we kind of drop in the middle and he's talking about it. And, you know, Matt Long is a guy I would trust to give me the right things, you know, the insight, because a lot of these amendments are double negatives, tricky language. You think you're voting against something, but you're really voting for it to be something. So I really. I'm not intentional at all. No, I really appreciate it. And then I realized that I do not know what district I'm in. I really don't. And I'm like, okay, so I do an AI, actually. I asked Grok in expert mode, and it took about five minutes. He says, well, looks like you're in District 3.

04:42 So where can I vote for District 3? That's right over here by the airport. And it turns out the District 3 and District 10, how much sense does that make? That they are both very near each other. So you go into the same building. I go into the District 3. Oh, no, your driver's license says you're District 10. Oh. Okay, so thanks, AI. I'm glad. And then, how does it even work that we have district three and ten in the same building? I don't understand any of this. I can hear Matt Long groaning because he can explain it. And now, so I was prepared and I knew the things I wanted to vote yes on and want to vote no on. Turnout, of course, actually was a little higher than they expected, I saw.

05:24 But it's still, it's a very small amount. And I put some blame on myself because where were the promos on Hello Fred telling people to go vote, telling people to listen to Matt Wong's show? I agree. I dropped the ball and we dropped the ball. Yeah, I feel bad about that. Like, wow, I cannot believe that we missed that. This is the whole point. That hit me this morning when I got up and I didn't even look, but Annette did. So she's my news source now. Yeah. I said, she said, I can't believe this. She said, all 17. I said, you know why? Because nobody read them.

06:04 People went out and voted straight up. So much easier to click yes on every one of them than to actually dive in. We used, I like Texas scorecard. I like those guys. Yeah, there's a couple of good services like that. They're solid. And so I went on Texas Scorecard, and that's where I pulled, I think the Tea Party used that one as well. Likely. And so I voted according to that. I actually copied it off. Annette and I did. You took it with you. And we took it with us. Somebody asked me, Can you do that? I said, You're the voter. Hello. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Yeah, absolutely. So we're voting for things that are very complicated and convoluted and hidden.

06:44 But I only saw people our age and older, brother. I didn't see any young people. And I sat in the parking lot for a little bit just to see what was coming in. And, you know, older people, older than us, for sure. Although maybe we just look good for our age. I don't know. There it is. Yeah, thank you. There it is. But I was just like, what are we doing? This is screwed it up. I feel really, really dumb about this because it was staring me in the face. Let's not beat ourselves up about it. All right, I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. We will do a better job as things are coming up of relaying to our listeners: get out and vote, but here's a resource. Yeah, go here. Yeah, listen to this guy. Because I felt like that. I felt like on Sunday I dropped the ball because we had a guest speaker.

07:28 So my mind was in a different place. Yes. And Annette was like, you didn't even mention the election. I'm like, oh, man. So you had the same. I did. I really did. I felt terrible about it. Well, this brings me to our guest speaker because Dr. Rick Scarborough and his lovely wife, Tommy, they came and he spoke at two services. I actually pulled two clips, one relevant to our conversation right now. But the first clip I want to play is just, and we already discussed, going outside of our rules, we discussed this briefly just because we both were in so awe of it. You know, we both have been speaking publicly 40 years each, give or take.

08:07 You've been speaking publicly in front of actual people, which I find incredibly daunting. And I'm humbled by how good you are at that. I speak cowardly behind a microphone in a darkened room. So we have, we understand public speaking and we understand live public speaking. And Dr. Rick Scarborough gave us a master class in what to do when something that happens all the time, it happens to you, it happens to me. You lose your train of thought. You try to pretend you're doing Trump's weave. No, you just don't know where you're at.

08:48 And what he did was not only did it blow me away, I sat in awe in the front row going like, oh, wow. Thank you for this lesson because I'm going to do this too. I don't care where it happens to me. Listen to this. In fact, one of his pupils and a man who greatly enjoyed his work was a pastor who was also the only pastor who signed the Declaration of Independence, John Witherspoon. Lex Rex, among other things, stated that, well, I've got off track here. Forgive me. Father, I pray that you will calm my spirit, enable me to preach with fluence.

09:31 And also, Lord, stay on track as we seek to provide biblical evidence, very real historical evidence that this country was founded on the Bible and by people who are people of the Bible. And I thank you, Lord, for Samuel Rutherford and his disciple, who also became the first president of what was then called New Jersey. Jersey College, but later become known as Princeton. Help me, Lord, to share these truths and move on to the more important things that follow. But, beloved, here's the point: Boom. Our country was founded by men who loved God with all their heart. That was, I mean, yes. I tear up listening to that. Yeah, amazing.

10:15 Partly initially, the pain of it because we've all been there. We call it brain freeze or brain fart, if we're being honest. Everything is going through your mind like crap. You see people in the audience looking at you. The tension builds in that silence. That's the silence that screams, right? Dead air on a radio, dead air in a church, you know, in the middle of a message. Some of it's good. I love sound effect. It can be powerful. Yeah, but not like. But when it's unintentional, it's heartbreaking. And yet he pivoted and just went right to the source. Because he knew why he was there. And he's like, God, Lord, help me. And he literally said, I'm here, you know, to help these people understand what our country was built on.

11:00 And all of a sudden, you can just hear like the Holy Spirit went, whoo, and he had it. It kicks into another gear. Literally, I have goosebumps right now. Thank you for playing that. I shared that with our staff. I said, one of the most poignant moments for me was when Dr. Rick had a freeze moment. And they at first were like, that was powerful for you. I said, but what he did, and they got it. You could see it landing on all the team. They were like, oh, he prayed. Yes. He prayed. And a couple of them were out. They were doing other things in the building. But they were like, that was amazing.

11:35 They'd already forgot about it because it was Tuesday. We're moving on. Sure, sure. But I brought them all back to that moment because he gave, use the words, a masterclass in what to do when you stumble over your own thoughts. Yes. It happens to us all. Of course. It didn't matter. And it reminded me of more, like, when I can't find my glasses, when I can't find my car keys, just take a moment and pray. And man, it works. I have to say time and time again, like, thank you, Lord. Hey, I got here with the car, so I must have found the keys. It happened again. And, you know, just praying in the moment is something that I think is easy to forget to do.

12:19 Like, Tina almost got hit by a truck this morning on her walk. On her walk. Wow. And by the way, every single morning when she goes out, I say, be careful. And I say a quick prayer for her to be, because it's not her. It's the other people who are sleepy. And, you know, the guy just didn't see her. He came around the corner. She was on the crosswalk. Oh. And right, she texts me, like, almost hit by a truck. And right away, I'm like, thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you for having your angels there protecting her. And I'm just getting in the habit of doing this all. And I got an active prayer life. A lot of people emailing me too. Like, can you pray for this? Do you pray for this? Here's what's going on. I mean, I don't have to tell you.

12:59 This is, you know, you've been doing this for over 40 years. So getting back to Dr. Rick and the reason, and this was kind of his entire message. And we've talked about it, and it was so good. And, you know, there's some things he brought up, which I think we just expand a little bit on so people in our church know what's going on. And it was so salient what he's saying here, particularly in light of the hair on fire. Oh, no, a socialist got in, you know, Muslim. And by the way, this is the new talking point. Be on the lookout for it. Muslims are taking over America. Well, A, they're not. B, what are you doing about it? You know, what are you doing about it?

13:42 And that's the point. That's really what Dr. Rick. He's up in his, he's 75. 75. He's been doing this for a long time. And he gave in a minute 30, just gave a quick overview of what he's talking about, what is happening here in our own bridge church and around the country, and why. And he made kind of an altar call for it, which was just all beautiful, all in one go. Here it is. When John Thun was elected, our ministry mobilized a thousand pastors in South Dakota. We were seeing results everywhere we went. We never lost a race, and I never endorsed a candidate.

14:21 All I did was call the pastors to look at these, look at these men's records, and you tell your people which one to vote for. We are now freer than we've ever been. We can endorse candidates. We always could. I always did. But the government doesn't have the right to frighten us any longer because finally the law's been passed rectifying the Johnson Amendment, which should have never been enacted. And that's another story. Beloved, listen carefully. God has raised your pastor up. up to be one of the leaders of this effort to mobilize 25,000 churches by 2028. That's the guy with the hook. He's going to jerk me off. So, Cass, our keyboard player, comes up.

15:03 He always comes up around 10:15, and just that ad-lib was just so beautiful. I'll play it again and we'll continue. It's just that's the guy with the hook. That's the best. Do you realize today we have a chance to change America if Jesus carries? And if you don't, that's going to be better. I mean, folks, listen, we can't lose this thing. Let's be about the business of changing our culture. God's calling somebody to run for city council, some to run for school board. Quit cursing the darkness, change it. Yes, turn a light on, leave the light. Folks, I didn't have time to go in Isaiah chapter 3. In Isaiah chapter 3, you see what happens when a country turns its back on God.

15:46 You know what I mean? It happens in Isaiah chapter 5. God asked a couple of questions. He said, I was expecting you to blossom and be a fertile land, but instead, I see thorns and thistles. And that's exactly what I'm seeing now. Wow. Thorns and thistles. That's all we see, right? Yeah. What happened to we're in revival? What happened to people cheering what God is doing because they've gotten distracted and pulled back down the rabbit hole? And I think people enjoy being there. There's something about being spun up that's a total dopamine relief. There it is. It's the dopamine relief. Did you listen to this being all

16:30 righteously indignant? I've got a right to be angry about this. And people live in that space. And yet God has called us to peace. He's called us to sow peace. He even says, bring your peace and give your peace wherever you go. And so what should surround our lives is not chaos, not living spun up, not living afraid, chicken little, the sky's falling, the sky's falling. But there should be something, it's called the peace of God that passes all understanding. That supersedes everything. Reasoning, even what you see with your eyes.

17:10 If I spend five minutes on social media looking at a news feed, it immediately I can feel the triggers. And so I've just quit doing it. Annette's having to keep me informed on what's going on. I wake up in the morning, I go, Has there been another 911? No, okay. I'm going. I've go about my business. Now I want to be informed, but rightly informed. Let's take it one step further. And he may have said this later on or in the second service, which I did not hear. But the point is, in Fredericksburg, in Bridge Church, we can dominate city council, mayor, school board, probably parts of the Gillespie County

17:52 administrative unit. And this is, again, this comes back to how we fell down on the job. But when he made this kind of altar call, I think 10, 15 people showed up and said, yeah, I feel called to run for something. Both services. Yes. Over 20 people. Beautiful. And so these people need to be supported, need to be helped. We need to organize. I'm going to be having a conversation with Matt Long about this very thing because he wants to coach people in this. Yes. So I'm going to talk to him. We're going to get a little brainstorm going about what's the best way to do that.

18:33 We want to hold a seminar, call it a work, you know, just a working class. What do we want to do to create a space for that so that he can share the things he knows and what he's learned about being involved in politics for years? And then we've got others. We have another who stepped forward. I'll keep his name out of the hat yet, who's already been in office now, is called to run for a higher office. And he's already got that experience as well. So we can get this think tank going of people that have this, I don't know what I'm supposed to run for, but I think I'm supposed to do something. Well, let's come meet. Let's come talk about it. Let's have a conversation about that. And let's see what percolates.

19:15 Is this, can we do something with this, like a separate podcast or a broadcast of this? Or, I mean, I'd love to have whoever's going to run for anything. We need to get behind them. We need to start putting their message out. I mean, I'll produce whatever we need to do. Bring them on. He's a guest. We can have a spot in our show where we bring them in. Perfect. They don't have to dominate the whole podcast. We can have them in. Do we have a budget for a third microphone? Do we have that? He's got a third mic. Now we just need three headphones and a four. fourth. Well, let's do that because we have the roundtable right here with people. We can do that. And actually let them share in real time what they're experiencing.

19:56 Were you afraid to say yes to God? Yeah. I mean, because let's just talk about that because that's a big fear that people have. The biggest fear we have is we won't know what to do when we get there. That's the biggest fear. And I'm going to look foolish. Yeah. I'm going to look like an idiot. But everyone who's ever stepped into office other than the oligarchs who were raised in it, but the people, the real people that are moving the needle in the culture, went in. We've talked about this because of probably a pain, probably something happened, a trauma, something, an event. And they too were just as scared to step forward. But something compelled them to make a difference and make a change.

20:35 This is where I want to go next. This is about your calling. And I'm trying to navigate this myself. Here I am, 61, still navigating this. And why am I navigating it? Because some wonderful person from my past, long time ago, she actually used to work at production desk when I was 19 in Holland at the television and radio station. She sent me some Dutch licorice because I saw her at this big reunion. And, you know, she's 10 years old than I am. She's wheeling around oxygen tank and it's like, oh, how are you doing? Pretending like everything's the same. Like, holy moly, girl, I got to pray over you. And so she sent me all kinds of stuff and some book.

21:16 And he sent me this magazine, which is still priced in gilders, if you can believe it. So, you know, the Euro has been around for a long time, brother. So this is an old, old magazine. And it has a picture of me on the cover as a very young, innocent-looking 19-year-old. And inside of me at the radio station. Is that the picture? That's the black and white picture. Yeah, that's cool. I saw that yesterday. It looks like I'm inside of NASA 1960s. Everything's gray with meters and everything's very sterile, kind of odd-looking. And I said to Tina, I said, take this picture of me behind my rig right now. And you look at these two pictures. And of course, the chin is a little more saggy and

22:00 the equipment is much more modern. But I look at that. I'm like, this is what I am. This is who I have always been. This has somehow this communication, doing this radio podcasting, that has been my calling. And I've come back to it. I mean, I've never really stopped doing it. I've had some different, you know, went into corporate life and then came right after corporate life. God was like, no, I think you got to get back into this here. Invent podcasting. Boom. So this is, and here we are, and now I'm 61 and still doing this. And so I think it was on our Walking with Jesus discipleship.

22:43 I'm trying to think now. It was about getting right with God. And I just jot stuff down. So I'm not quite sure where I got all this from. And then I came across 1 John 5, 14 to 15. This is the ESV. And this is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we know that we have the request that we have asked of him. And what I take away from this is getting, so people always like, if I pray to, you know, the Bible says if I pray to God, then whatever I ask for will come to me.

23:23 And so, and you, and this is me stating what I think I've learned and kind of at the same time saying, Pastor, what do you think about this? The way I'm reading it now is that if I have found what God wants me to be, then naturally the things that I will want will be the things that he wants, and then they will happen. Is that an interpretation that makes sense? That's spot on. It's an identity thing. You're understanding who you are. I've said this for years. I think I actually, this may be the one original thing I've ever said that I didn't steal from somebody else and then claim it after I said it five times. But I've always said, and I literally continue to say it, when you know who you are, you'll know what to do.

24:07 So when you know who you are in Christ, things come. It's like you're not forcing it. You're not having to guess. You're not out there test driving 15 different things and go, oh, this one feels the best. Right. You just know. There's a knowing that happens when you know him, when you know who you are in him, you will know what to do. Yes. And it's interesting. Henry Blackaby back in 1979, 1980 came out. No, I'm sorry. 89 or 90 came out with a book and then a a workbook called Experiencing God. The premise of that book, and this is a line that he repeats over and over, is look to see where God is working.

24:49 When you recognize his activity, that is his invitation for you to join him in his work. How simple is that? Yes. You recognize, whoa, this is God. I see grace on this. I see God moving, working. That's now his invitation to you to join him in that work. So apply that same verse, apply that premise to what you're doing. It's like the runner. I can't remember from chariots of fire. The runner. Yeah. The marriage. Do we need to break into a prayer here? He's had a moment.

25:28 Lord, help us remember. It'll come to me in a minute. But I remember him saying, I feel God when I run. Yes. I feel the pleasure of God when I run. It's the same way. When you sit down in a chair with a mic and a headset on, whoo. Yeah, I'm home. You're there. Yeah. You're there. Strangely enough, me too. I love this because I love speaking. And not because I just want, I think I've got the greatest things to say. It's because I trust that God can say things through us to anyone who's yielded to him. Which bringing this back to when those people stood up in the first and second service, if you really felt it,

26:12 hear this conversation, then that may be the thing that God has called you to do. 1 Corinthians 7, 17. I did homework. Come on. Only let each person lead the life the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him. Yes, I love that. You see that like, boom, my head explodes. Funny because Annette gave me that verse on Monday morning. I used it for the DG on Monday. And that's probably why I wrote it down, brother. I just jumped out of it. I don't know where I collected it. That's exactly that verse because read it again. Read it again. That is so good. It is from the daily grind. You're right. I wrote it down. Read it again. That is so good. 1 Corinthians 7, 17. Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him.

26:57 Assignment and calling. Yes. Wow. It doesn't get any clearer than that. Do you happen to have the whole daily grind on your computer? This wouldn't be. That would be from Monday. Yes. In fact, I have it even in my system. And here's the title I wrote, My Purpose. And I put down that. This is my outline system. And I put down that daily grind, just a verse, and then the other things that I talked about earlier. What was the whole daily grind? All right. So it's this. It's called Know Your Assignment. Yeah. And it's very short. This one was a short one. God has called, anointed, and empowered you to live the life he has designed for you.

27:40 The details unfold as you walk with him in step, moment by moment. It's not complicated. Know him and you will know your purpose. When you know who you are in him, you will know what to do. Look for what God is doing throughout this day and join him in his work. This is Pastor Jimmy Pruitt. Had an amazing day on purpose. So, yeah, there's the DG for the day, right? So that's so autopilot now. But there's so many little points in there that I've taken what I've walked with for 40 plus years and threw them into about six five sentences there. And it's this, know him and you will know your purpose. Yes.

28:23 Everybody's asking that, what is God's will for my life? And I was just about to say, this is the hardest. I'm sure that lots of people listening are like, well, that's easy for you guys to say. You know, you've been doing this for 40 years. How do you, how does anyone find their purpose, what God wants them to do? How do you find it? So very simply, you start with what the Bible tells us to do. That's his purpose for our life. He gave it to us in black and white and red. If you get the red letter edition, all mine have red. So we've got that already. And he's very clear in scripture. You know, he even says this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

29:03 I mean, over and over, he gives us all these, they're not even Easter eggs. They're there in plain English. You start there with the written word of God, the revealed word of God. But then, and that's called the hologos. That's the written word, right? But then there's the Rhema word of God. That's the God-breathed word. That's the word that's not written down on paper. It's the one he speaks to your heart. But you will only know that by knowing him. So this is a. that goes back to James 4.8. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. What a promise. Yeah. I love those simple, short one-liners because I can remember them for one.

29:46 But also, it's so clear. If I will make the effort to initiate movement toward God, he will bring movement back to me. He will reciprocate. It's a promise. So I trust that as I'm drawing near to him, whatever that means, it may just mean reading my Bible every morning. It may mean screen, you know, scripture before screens. It may mean during the day, I put down my screens and pick up my Bible. But I'm spending time in God's Word. Therefore, I'm getting to know him. I'm learning about his character, his movement, his way, his will, the way he moves. So that's the first piece. Yeah, but Pastor Jimmy, I read my you version every single morning.

30:28 I don't feel it yet. First of all, it's good that someone does that. I'm just playing a role here. I'm just able to do that. And you need to check your box to feel better. That's fine. That's great. But there's a difference between reading the word and being still with God's Word and letting it read you. And so you have to spend time with it. And that time doesn't mean you're reading copious amounts of it. Frankly, if I read a whole, when I do the read through the Bible thing, that is a struggle for me because I'm too want to go. I want to go in the weeds on everything. It's like binging a house of David. You're like, are we still in Samuel? This is too much for me. Which, by the way, I'm loving that show. It's good. It's good.

31:12 It's good. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I'll easily go down the rabbit hole on that, how much I love that. But back to knowing his will, knowing his way, but you got to know him to know your purpose. And that means spending time with him daily. And it doesn't mean reading copious amounts of scripture. It may mean reading one verse and taking that verse, throwing it, speaking of screens, throw it on your notepad, on your notes, on your phone. So that anytime through the day, you can just pull it up. Sitting in a red light, pull it up. Oh, there it is. It used to be we'd write it down on a note card, right? And have it in strategic places. Well, now we've got something to use it for good, to use it for something that's life-giving.

31:53 Use your notepad on your phone and put that scripture on there. This is a really good point. And you can see what happened. And I have a lot of checkboxes like, I want to read this one, want to read that one. But these jumped out at me. I jotted them down. And as I was preparing for today's show, I'm just, it just all kind of came together like, oh, yes, this is, this makes so much sense. And what I find increasingly is that Bible, if you know, if you open up your Bible or your Bible app and it opens to something and you're like, huh, that's not by accident.

32:33 Sit on it. Just stay there. I mean, I was looking for something in Romans 12, 2, and I, by accident, quotation marks, went to Romans 2. And I'm like, whoa, this has, in fact, where's my? I actually, I highlighted it because I can't remember what it was. I got to come back to this. These are the things. Oh, it's great. I love that. Well, so I was going for Romans 12, 2, don't conform to the ways of the world, which is, man, if anything, do we, in fact, this is the NLT version. I don't like it as much. Don't copy the behavior and the custom of this world. I like the last part of this better.

33:16 Yes, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Brilliant. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Now, let me go to what I was actually looking for was Romans 2.12. And this is my point being that nothing is by accident. Nothing is by accident. And I think here it was, well, I guess I didn't mark it up. I was going to say, 12 is pretty intense. Yeah. There was something about 2.12 that popped out at me. Anyway, I marked up, maybe it was the other way around. I came up with 12 instead of 2.

33:59 And that just fit in so perfectly for me. And exactly today, this very day, don't copy what everyone else is doing. Don't copy the outrage about mom Dani and Islam is going to take over, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Hello. There it is. Hello. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. And so good. If anyone stood up. up and felt a calling, you know, please reach out.

34:37 Let's make sure this happens. We can conform our little town here to a Christian way of thinking and life. We're not even that far from it, actually. But we have a lot of groups like, no good. Let's get angry. And these are groups that can't even endorse a candidate by their own charter. Like, you're basically just a protest group. No, we can endorse people. We can, you know, give people a platform, give people a microphone. Absolutely. Even if it amplifies it to 10 people, let's do this because we get to do this and we can make Fredericksburg great again.

35:20 Come on, brother. Come on. Woo! I'm just trying to do the acronym. It doesn't work. But it sounds good. Just have to say it out loud. You're so on point here. It's actually interesting because I just read something from a New Zealand pastor. He's with Life Church New Zealand. He pastored his own church for 20 years. Now he's doing some things where he's just writing out some things he learned in those 20 years of being a lead pastor. Now he's an associate pastor, so he's got this margin to actually help others. He said this. He said, one of our missing pieces in discipleship, and you'll recognize this because me and Pastor Brian have been saying this for years, is that we do not see the world through a biblical worldview.

36:06 But he took it one step further that I haven't. And he defined that, a part of that, as learning to think like Jesus. That if we're going to actually make disciples, we're not going for behavior modification. That doesn't last. That's motivation and doesn't last. We're looking for inspiration, which is of the spirit and lasts, lasting heart change. And he said, the only way we can do that, a biblical worldview, subcategory, we have to teach people to think like Jesus, which reminded me of the Walking Wes discipleship journey. It's the whole point. And for those of you listening today on Wednesday, Tony Evans, you can get him in the Godcaster app just under program search for Tony Evans.

36:49 It's a classic from him. He was talking about this very thing. There's no coincidence in the kingdom. He was talking about this very thing, thinking like Jesus. What does following mean? And this goes back to, you know, are we ever going to put these WWD DJs out as a package or something? Because I understand that you really need to be there with the workbook to get it. But man, just to listen to it again, it's so powerful. I mean, I don't know why we couldn't. There's no law on this. It's our decision whether we want to package these and put them into the Godcaster as a category.

37:29 We can do that. We can do it as a channel. We're actually going to write a new lesson in block three about biblical worldview and culture and how to confront culture. Because I think that engage. The term biblical worldview is something that is not like a stop word. Like, oh, we've got a biblical worldview on this show. I wonder if people actually are even thinking about what that means anymore. So distill it down to thinking like Jesus. I mean, that's really where it is. Now, how do you get to, how do you, so for example, you and Tina have been together long enough, and it and I have been together long enough that we can sometimes complete each other's sentences. Sure. And they often do. There's your Easter egg, girls.

38:12 Oh, the Easter eggs are getting picked up. I got called out. I got called out. I heard that. But that's a gift, too. I mean, because they actually know what we become one. The scripture even says we become one. Why? Because we spend time together. We do life together. We are together. And I spend time with my wife, not because I want to get to know her. I spend time with her because I know her. Think about this for a second. Yes. The reason I want to spend time with God is not to get to know him. It's because I do know him. You know, when you love someone, you want to get time with them. Period. You just want to be in their orbit. You want to be in their.

38:58 And so what I found as a young Christian who knew zero when I came to God, zero. I didn't know. I didn't even know the code language, Christianese. Even in a church service, I was constantly confused because they had all this code words, especially in the Baptist church. They have their own language, their own culture. And I'm like, do I sit down here? Do I stand up? Just, okay, just watch everybody else and just do what they do. do. You know, I never knew what I was doing for the first year. I had to learn all that. But because when I gave my life to Jesus, something transformed in my heart, and I wanted to know him better.

39:39 But I also, as I got to know him, I wanted to be with him more. So it's a twofold. I want to get to know him initially because I don't. Therefore, I want to spend time with him. But then as I get to know him, the reason changes of why I want to spend time with him because I do know him. Does that make sense? It does to me. Therefore, I can't put the word of God down. It does to me. I'm sure many people are feeling like because, you know, Tina have only been saved for three years. So in the beginning, I didn't quite have that. And it's been dawning on me for the past year and a half, two years.

40:23 It's slowly coming into view. I pray for everyone to have that feeling. I'm sure there are people listening to us right now who are saying, I'm not sure I have that feeling. Which is understandable. So there comes a point where you have to step over a line of surrender. You have to surrender your life to his. This is the big sticking piece. We talked about this about Joe Rogan. Yep. About that's where that's where his sticking point is right now. He's not ready to surrender, right? Yes. Self-made man. Well, we're all that way at some level. You know, we're afraid if we surrender, will we be okay?

41:05 I saw Eddie Murphy in the 90s on the Arsenio Hall show. You just took me way back. Yeah. Woof, woof, woof. He's in the house. I mean, all of this comes from the Arsenio Hall show. Right. Who I always found to be a very delightful guy. He was good. I always liked him. And I don't recall ever meeting Eddie Murphy. But Eddie Murphy, and he's doing, he's doing his whole thing. He's great. He's cutting up. He's hilarious. And then, and this must have been, well, it was the 90s. So I forget who was running. Maybe Clinton was president. Bill Clinton was present at the time.

41:44 And Arsenio says, so you'll be voting this week. And Eddie Murphy goes, no. And Arsenio's flabbergasted. And Eddie Murphy, not that I'm saying what he said was right, but it always stuck with me. His conviction, he said, oh, no, no, God's got this figured out. It doesn't matter whether I vote or not. Now, I'm not saying that's true, but his conviction that God has a plan. I'm in my lane, brother. This is what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to entertain people. Sometimes I slip a little something in, like trading places. There's always a little message in his movies that may not be apparent.

42:24 And it always stuck with me. Like, there's a guy who's convicted so far that he doesn't even, he knows, he knows that for whatever reason, his vote doesn't matter. And God's already got this all figured out. And whoever's supposed to come is supposed to come. Not saying that's the right thing. Right. But I get what you're doing. The conviction always stuck with me. Like, wow, if you can really believe that. And so when things happen in my life, I am now starting to default to, well, that's God's will. So is it something he wants me to do? Or am I viewing something incorrectly? And I feel like more and more, it'll take me for the rest of my life on these earthly, on this earth.

43:09 More and more, I feel like I'm getting right with him because I feel him pushing me. No, no, no, you know, back on the center line over here. No, don't even think about that. You know, and it just, it becomes like second nature almost. Does that make sense? Absolutely. As we get to know his will, as we get to do what you're doing, you're discovering things, we do get those nudges. We get those God taps. Yes. Where it's like, no, no, no, no, over here. No, no, no, no, over here. And over time, I think the longer we walk with him, that gets more clear.

43:46 You know, almost to where you're not even thinking cognitively, you know, consciously about it, obviously or cognitively, but consciously. And to where you are entering into his steps. There's a great book written in the early 1900s called In His Steps by Sheldon was the last name. That's where the WWJD movement came from in the 80s. Somebody rediscovered that book. And it's a great story about a pastor teaching his church, and his church was not doing well. The town went. little town, wasn't doing well. And he just got this idea. Well, what would Jesus do?

44:24 Well, he turned into a Sunday night sermon and he did something. He said, anybody wants to hear more about this idea of what would Jesus do, and you would be willing to sell your life out to that to start doing what you think Jesus would do. I want you to come meet me in the fellowship hall after church. Place was packed. People were like, tell us more about this. Well, the book follows these stories. The shop owner, the lady who cuts hair, you know, the guy who runs, you know, who picks up your trash. What's this called again? It's called In His Steps by Sheldon is the last name.

45:03 Classic book. Great read, easy read, short read. But that principle, what would Jesus do is what comes alive. So I think about to, we're going very, very circular on this. We're actually staying on the same topic. We're just coming at it from different, kind of like my sermons. One sermon, 7,000 ways to say it. But it's all the same. And it comes back to thinking like Jesus. What would Jesus do here? And it's interesting because back in the 80s, that got very popular for a season. Bracelets, t-shirts, everything. And I still see those bracelets every once in a while. I'll see if you're in a celebrity or somebody.

45:44 I go, oh, a football player is wearing what would Jesus do? Bracelet, you know? And I think we need to bring it back. Well, it's interesting because people throw that in my face. You know, like, oh, what would Jesus do? You know, when they disagree with me on a negative on social media. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like, oh, I'll pray for you. Yeah. A person who, if you were actually in a real conversation, would never say that. You would never say that out loud. So, how can you check yourself when you think this is what Jesus would do? Obviously, that's like such an attack vector for the enemy. It is. How do you protect yourself?

46:25 Well, actually, the Bible says that we walk by faith and not by sight. And so you're in a relationship with him. You're in his steps. You use that. You're thinking, trying to think like he does. What would Jesus do? And then whatever that comes, you just have to take a step. This is where you step out in faith. This is where you take a step. By the way, experiencing God talks about that step of faith. You have to step out on it. And you use the, I love that. The Indiana Jones moment. Stepping out, the bridge appears, you know, but only as he stepped out and his perspective changed could he actually see it.

47:07 I've always loved that. But it's the same thing. We have to sooner or later, we're going to have to walk by faith and not by sight. And you won't always know. Right. But you trust. There's the difference. And that's what Eddie Murphy said. He's saying God's got this. Yeah, I disagree with his premise about not voting or not getting involved. I mean, we are his hands and feet and we interact and we co-operate with God. Yes. We co-labor with God. So we're involved in the process. But I like what you were saying, what you pulled out of it. It was typical Eddie Murphy shock value, I think, to get people to think. Yeah. It was good. It's amazing what's popping up.

47:53 Someone sent me a clip yesterday of David Bowie at a concert, must have been 80s, kneeling down on stage and saying the Lord's Prayer, King James Version. Wow. I'm like, I never knew that. I see that coming. I never knew that. And not like, you know, like he, you can tell when someone has recited the Lord's Prayer and it was just like flows out. And he says, God bless you all. And the place goes crazy. Yeah. Wow. What a cool clip. Yeah. I'll have to send it to you if I can find it again amidst all the muck and the mire. When I think of David Bowie, I think back with him doing that Christmas show. Oh, the little drummer boy and everything.

48:38 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that just goes to show you. Yes. I do miss him. I know. He predicted the craziness of the internet that we have today around the same time I was getting into it. Really? Yeah. Really? He says he saw that train coming. We don't know what this is. It could be a space alien from Mars. This thing is going to be amazing. It's going to change everything about life. And I'm sad he didn't get to witness everything that we're going through because he would have been a fun voice. Control to Major Tom. Well, that was a little earlier, I think. I'm not sure how into the Lord he was at the time. This is the only possible. podcast, my brother, that will bump Tucker Carlson twice because I had those clips again, and I'm just like, I'm just going to move them to the next show.

49:22 It's okay. This is how good it is. Speaking of Tucker, we don't have to go down the rabbit hole, but I know there's a lot of Christians that are pretty enraged at him because he's kind of sided with Candace, supposedly, on Israel. You know, a lot of people are upset about that. So, PB and I, Pastor Brian, we've decided we're going to do a podcast format sermon on Israel. Why Israel? We need to talk about it straight up. Excellent. Out of the Bible. Excellent. This isn't going to be opinions. This is going to be the word of God. That is good. We need that. We'll go back and forth. Because that's the collateral damage of what's going on.

50:04 Exactly. What's happening is there is, and I could tell you all the groups or forces that I think are making this happen. But ultimately, it is the enemy. It's the oldest one in the book, Divide and Conquer. This is about who comes after President Trump. That's all that this is about. Who is the next President Trump? Because people are like, well, MAGA was this and MAGA. No, MAGA is one, is Trump. Without Trump, no MAGA. Agreed. I mean, that's just the fact of it. And so this is an early fight. And in my mind, hey, why not abuse the Jews for it and Israel?

50:48 They're easy to use. And it is being used to drive a wedge primarily online without even, I don't think Tucker or Candace or Nick Fuentes or anybody really even knows. In fact, the more I hear Tucker talk about his faith, the more I think, brother, you got a ways to go. And I pray for him in that regard because he's like, you know, he's like, I got it all figured out. I'm a Christian. Okay, no, maybe not. That is all that this is about. So to have an actual straight up, this is about Israel. Yeah, we need that desperately because even

51:29 it's become such a whirlpool of doo-doo. Oh my God. Every pastor. I mean, I love Eric Metaxas. I love them all. They're all jumping on board and they're all yelling. You are falling for the devil's tricks, my brothers. You're falling for his tricks. This is the whole point. Stay out of it. Eventually, right now, the audiences are going, yeah, this is great. America first. Where I'm like, okay, so the amount of money America gives to Israel is two weeks of snap benefits. What is wrong with this picture? Why are you yelling about that while this is happening over here?

52:14 And by the way, go to Fredericksburg Food Pranter. I went the other day to give them free support because, and I saw the look on, her name is Janice. She runs the place. And it came at 2 o'clock. They open at 1 o'clock. She was like staggering. She says, oh, the rush is over. Said it was crazy today. Wow. My point being, what are you arguing about? If you want to defend Israel, thank you to you and Pastor Brian and one of the five Brians. This is what we need. Not jumping in and because you know what this is?

52:54 It's pride. It's now I'm in the fight. And literally, Dave Smith, you know, look at the numbers. Candace's numbers. Tucker's numbers. Everyone's numbers. This is not what God cares about. And you're going to get this little bump. People are going to grow tired of it. And then what? Then you're only going to have to get more extreme or whatever. It is to be stayed away from. Nailed it. We've always got a one-up. I remember as a young pastor getting into, we were doing just back in the 90s, we were using lots of props and stuff. And it got crazier and crazier to the point where I finally flew a remote control helicopter through the worship center.

53:38 I hit a plastic golf ball. I teed a golf ball up with a turf thing. Okay, I got to tell the story real quick. This is great. So I teed up a ball because this is what, you know, I brought a motorcycle into the worship center. Was this a thing? Was this like a trend at the time? I love it. And so I get this idea, you know, talking about teeing up a golf ball and how to hit a golf shot. And I compared it to biblical discipleship and stuff. Nice. There was a girl sitting on the front row. And I had a big, I made a big target on the back wall of the worship center, like a big target. People walking up and go, what's this target? Well, I was telling everybody, I'm going to hit the scoffball and I'm going to hit it right in the middle of the target. So everybody's out getting nervous because they think it's a real golf ball, but it's one of those exploding golf balls.

54:23 That explodes when you hit it. Yeah, when you hit it, just big power thing. Well, this is one of those things about props. You should always test them before you use them. Goodness. So I line up like I'm going to hit it and I fake swing a couple times. People are ducking and stuff. I think it's a real golf ball. This girl's sitting on the front row. She's military. She's Dice Air Force Base. And she's kind of like, whatever, you know, she's like laughing about it. I cranked that ball. I smashed it. I didn't calculate for the plastic shell around the golf ball. Which hit her right in the forehead. Oh, right. Right in the chest. I mean, like, boom, boom. And you could hear the slap when it hit her skin. I mean, it was like

55:09 left a mark. Painful passer moments. All that to say is, you know, every week we were one-upping ourselves. Another time, I had a guy ride a Kawasaka Kawasaki ninja into the worship center with Kickstart Your Heart by Motley Cruz. This is when this is starting to get out of hand in the 90s, right? It was like everything is bigger more. What we didn't account for again was the carbon monoxide. Yeah, people are like, oh, I don't feel so good. Well, I mean, he was a racing motorcycle. He rang. Ring, ring, ring, me. Oh, it was loud, but it also blew out blue smoke.

55:49 We had to open the doors and the worst of the song. Oh, goodness, brother. I could tell stories all day long on the stupid stories. These are good, by the way. Stories I haven't heard. Dumb things we did to try to get people's attention. I love that. But all that to say, I see that in podcast land right now. What's trending? What's going to get the most likes, comments? Ultimately, drive people to your sponsors so you can keep your job. And by the way, it's always the same sponsors who are sponsoring all these podcasts. Just a little, keep an eye on the wellness company. These are all interesting little advertisers that pop up on these things. And now everybody's on each other's podcast. So this is incestuous and it will end because I've seen this happen time and again.

56:32 But right now it's fun. Everyone's picking sides. I am a natural, I naturally go against the popular way. That's just who I am. Thank you, Lord. That's who you made me. And usually five years later, people go, you were right. You had the right idea. So I'm just seeing this. I'm like, just to our listeners, just let it go. Don't get because it's going to get a little wackier, a little crazier. Someone might get hurt. That's possible. That's the sad part. And even, you know, again, to pastors and faith-based broadcasters who I respect, I see them getting wrapped up in it.

57:17 I know. I'm like, don't. Just see my friends getting caught up in it. And I'm like, man, they're taking the bait. Yes. Talk the title of that book by John Bevera, The Bait of Satan. They just tear it. There it is. They're hooked. Hey, as we kind of land the plane, I want to take a moment just to thank the people that are actually listening to our podcast. Do you have any names? I don't. I don't specifically. I mean, we've got people who've reached out to us, said some nice things. I'm seeing about 1,500 at this point. Beautiful. I just want to say that, hey, we are appreciative of you being there, of you giving us time. And sending a word back to us. Oh, that's so helpful. I really love that. Super helpful. We've gotten some beautiful notes from people.

57:58 And like, wow, just the fact that you listened, you got something out of it and sent that back is encouraging. That means everything. And I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to our listeners. Thank you. And feel free, pass it along. If you think this is going to be encouraging for somebody, maybe inspirational, even motivational, we'll take it. But send it out to your friends and get the word out that there's this new podcast, number nine today. Number nine? Are we eight? I'm so excited. Oh, number nine. Yes, number nine. It's number nine, right? Hey, guess what? Next week, number 10. Come on. That's a milestone, brother. Brother, we get to do this. I love doing it with you. All right. You're having an awesome week, brother. You too, brother.

58:40 This is the life we've been blessed with. This is a gift for we get to do this. This is the chance we did not miss. This is the life to get to this night.