the words that will honor
you because we want to make
sure that people hear you and not us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Hello, my friends.
We had a few foo paws.
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It's my fault.
We've been in Tennessee time
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Yes.
We'll talk a little bit
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Man, when we take a couple days off,
it's just hard to get back
into the swing of things.
It is.
Why is that?
It is.
I don't know.
It should be like riding a bike.
I feel like we gain a couple
pounds because we eat a
bunch of junk and get a little bit lazy.
Even though we got 10,000,
at least the first day, 14,000 steps.
14,000 steps.
Yes.
Wow.
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second timothy four one
through five second timothy
four one through five
that's what we're going to
be reading a little bit
later on after we read the
devotional and it is uh
tozer for the christian
leader for march 11th and
it's entitled the economic squeeze
did we how did how did he
know all the way back then
that we were going to be in
an economic squeeze today
interesting um tozer
references second tempathy
four five that says but
watch thou in all things
endure afflictions do the
work of an evangelist make
full proof of thy ministry
A number of factors
contribute to bad spiritual leadership.
The economic squeeze.
The Protestant ministry is
notoriously underpaid and
the pastor's family is often large.
But these two factors
together and you have a
situation ready-made to
bring trouble and
temptation to the man of God.
The ability of the
congregation to turn off
the flow of money to the
church when the man in the
pulpit gets on their toes is well known.
The average pastor lives from year to year,
barely making ends meet.
To give vigorous moral
leadership to the church is
often to invite economic strangulation.
So such leadership is withheld.
But the evil thing is that
leadership withheld is in
fact a kind of inverted leadership.
The man who will not lead
his flock up from the
mountainside leads it down
without knowing it.
Lord, again,
I pray for any pastor who may
be facing this economic squeeze today.
Help them to be faithful and
give strong leadership no
matter what the cost.
Then, Lord,
I pray that even today you
would grant one of your special,
generous provisions as a
powerful reminder of your
great faithfulness.
Amen.
You know,
a couple of the churches that
I've gone to, I know that
the church which I guess
it's the elders or whoever
the owner of the church is
they also own residential
properties and that's where
um the pastors sometimes
live with their families
that kind of stuff and so
that even allows them to
give them less of a stipend
Of a wage, because really.
So.
Because they can own that tax free.
Oh, wow.
So that's going to be rough.
I mean,
I know some of the pastors that I
have become friendly with.
You know,
I have gone to their houses and
things like that.
I mean, they're there.
somewhat comfortable but I i
can tell that they are
struggling right especially
in this area here where we
live it just so happens
that some of the area
around us is fairly
expensive and and affluent
right california southern
california in special
california yeah so it's got
to be particularly tough
when you're when you're
living in a community where
prices are pretty high
Well, I mean,
I think just balancing a
budget of a church must be
so difficult because, as it says,
you rely on the goodwill of
people that it could be fickle.
And you step on people's toes and,
you know,
your your congregation departs
and then you're worried
about paying all the bills.
You got families that depend
on you because it's not just the pastor,
right?
There's all kinds of stuff
that depend on you.
And it must be so difficult
and stressful to manage all of that.
And as a consequence,
and we've heard this a lot
from a variety of pastors
that it ends up affecting
what they preach.
But when they have a really good pastor,
that seems to be it sounds
bad but if they are
preaching the word and the
people are coming there
because of how um you know
they're being uh taught
god's word and it grows
right is there not isn't
wouldn't it be important to
pay the pastor a a salary
that would keep them there
then from going out to another
They do, but for example,
when a pastor is super successful,
like look at Pastor Jack,
and we have no idea, folks,
what he gets paid or how their incentives,
but in any other corporate structure,
you do that kind of growth
and there's a bonus.
But do they give him a bonus?
I don't know.
You know what I mean?
Unfortunately, it's of course,
we know it's not supposed
to be tied to money.
But if the church is able to
grow exponentially,
shouldn't the pastor be
rewarded for that growth?
Like,
is it so wrong to let him buy a
bigger house?
I don't have a problem with that.
Pastor Jack says he lives in
the same house as he did
when he first started the church.
Right.
Which was a Bible study.
Where they held the Bible
study was in the house that
he still owns today.
Right.
Which he probably bought
when he was in the healthcare.
Yeah.
So, I don't know.
It's an interesting problem.
Because then we hear about
or see other pastors who
have private planes.
The flip side.
And have a driver that drives them to the
to the church.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
Jesus is so generous.
They have nice cars.
I mean,
is that what was also happening in
the church in New York?
Carl Lentz with his Gucci shoes.
The clothes that he was
wearing and hanging out with movie stars.
Justin Bieber.
Yeah, Justin Bieber.
Gotta dress a certain way to
hang out with Justin Bieber.
Pastor to the stars.
I
I feel like they should, I mean,
if they are doing the work of God,
then at least they should
be paid to the standard of
the community that they're living within.
Meaning to pay the cost of
living of where they're living?
Yeah, it would seem nice.
But I swear, I mean, I don't mean to swear,
but I mean,
I know of some pastors that
they're struggling.
Of course,
there's tons of pastors who are
struggling.
But because they live here,
they just aren't getting
enough to survive.
So I don't know.
I mean, it's tricky.
It's a little bit tricky.
Absolutely.
I mean,
what incentive do they have to grow
the church at the salary is
not going to change.
Yeah, to show up every day and do this.
I mean,
do they also do they earn extra
money by doing weddings?
I think so.
On the side,
it depends whether
everything's ran through
the church or not, right?
A lot of people like Furtick
always said in interviews and stuff,
he made a lot of money on
speaking engagements.
Well, yeah.
And on music.
So Elevation makes tons of money on music.
Well, you can be like Pastor Chan.
Francis Chan.
Sometimes I have nicknames
for other people and I want
to use the nicknames.
But then you would have no
idea who I'm talking about.
But Francis Chan, he would write books,
but then give all the money away.
He would give it either, I think,
to the church or to other
organizations that he thought was worthy.
Then he wouldn't even accept
the money from the sales of books.
And he wrote a bike.
I remember watching a
particular marriage series,
and it always started with
him writing his son, even a bike.
It was what they call a
Vespa or something like that,
like a Vespa.
That's what he wrote.
He didn't have a car with seven kids.
I don't know,
but that's all it showed them going.
So I don't know if they all like,
but didn't they have
Congress people who did that too,
that they would get the
bike out from the back?
Yeah.
Well, yeah, that was a,
that's a different
politicians are paid to lie.
Pastors are paid to tell the truth.
There you go.
Two different things.
Important distinction.
Real quick, let's say hi to Cindy.
How you doing, Cindy?
Hi, Cindy.
She has church growth,
but it's people that don't
speak the language.
Kelly, hello.
Hi, Kelly.
Kathy.
Spirit Windview.
uh and she says here second
timothy chapter four I've
been dealing with that
chapter with my friend
who's not wanting to accept
or even acknowledge the
truth that's so fascinating
let's read that and hi jen
oops hi jan sorry I clicked on
jan and now that's why you
do this because you're much
better at clicking on these
than I am what does cindy
have to say I have
retirement um and my airbnb
had some consulting to
supplement my churches pay
what they can god provides
amen yeah I know there's
tons of pastors who find
other ways to supplement
their income hello it's so
important hi kate nice to
see you let's go ahead and
read the scripture because
I want to address what yes
I love this passage
So, of course,
this is the Apostle Paul
talking to Timothy,
encouraging him and advising him.
I charge you, therefore,
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will judge the living
and the dead at his
appearing in his kingdom,
preach the word.
Be ready in season and out of season.
Convince, rebuke,
exhort with all
longsuffering and teaching.
For the time will come when
they will not endure sound doctrine,
but according to their desires,
because they have itching ears,
they will heap up for themselves teachers,
and they will turn their
ears away from the truth
and be turned aside to fables.
But you be watchful in all things,
endure afflictions,
do the work of an evangelist,
fulfill your ministry.
So clear.
Paul's.
know what he's warning him
about and what he's telling
him that he has to abide by
and this is you know paul
towards the ends of end of
his life and all that he
has suffered through and
all that he's seen and
witnessed and all that he
did um and all that he gave
up for the book for the
gospel and he's giving an
oath basically I charge you
therefore I'm giving an oath
before God and the Lord who
has that rank of judging
the living and the dead
when he returns in his
second coming and in the
millennial kingdom,
that this is what you must do.
And when people say that our
religion is easy or it's
like soft Christianity, I mean,
look what he's telling you.
Convince, rebuke, exhort.
With long suffering, be patient and teach.
And then be watchful in all
things and endure inflictions.
This is not supposed to be
an easy religion.
No.
They never said it was going to be easy.
No.
If you actually read the Bible,
nowhere does it say it's
going to be easy.
Yeah, I'm suddenly reminded of, I remember,
I don't remember which pastor or husband,
wife team it was.
The names are escaping right now.
It's not the tip of my tongue.
I can't think of it.
But I remember that they
would say on the television,
they're televangelists.
They would say, you know,
send us money and we'll,
and we will pray for you
type of situation.
Yikes.
And back then,
it just seemed like that was normal.
Because it costs us money to
be on television and to
have this huge church with
thousands of people in it.
So you need to send us some money.
And then when you do that,
and we'll pray for you.
That's not the way.
No.
I don't think that that's in there.
No.
And actually,
I believe it's either in Thessalonians.
I believe it's Thessalonians
where Paul gives an
important description about
how they must not be lazy.
They must work.
But the ministry has a right to wages.
They have a right to be paid
their fair wages.
But
when they have jobs,
when they're not in the ministry,
when they're not the pastor,
they should be working and
they shouldn't be lazy
waiting around for the
second coming of Christ.
Right.
And saying the Lord is
returning soon and we're
just going to sit around and do nothing.
One other thing that I found
interesting was that it was
talking about the pastors
that are in these
Protestant ministries are
notoriously underpaid and
the pastor's family is often large.
that you know if you're
going to be a pastor one
thing you got to understand
how much you're going to
get paid before you decide
that you're going to have
15 to 20 kids don't you
think wouldn't that be
important did you think
about that when you were
having kids yeah I never
could not afford them no
but did you ever think oh I
don't know if I can afford
another one I think if I
didn't have money I would
say I think one's enough
I don't think people do that
for the most part.
Really?
Especially not faithful people.
I don't know.
What do you guys think?
I don't think faithful
people usually think about
money and having kids.
Because they're going to
depend on the government to
give them the... No, no.
Faithful, I said,
is because they just
believe God provides.
That is true.
Again, if I come out into this community,
when my kids were being homeschooled,
there were some families in there.
They had a bus.
of kids literally a bus see
that they would drive the
kids around because they'd
have so many kids and you
can tell that you know they
don't eat well no they're a
little bit famished and a
little bit their feet are
dirty yeah they can't
afford soup or not soup
soap oh yeah or shampoo
apparently but they were
happy they seemed happy
that's really weird that
you say that because now
now I don't know why I
didn't think about them
But people do.
They have kids without thinking about.
Even my dad used to say all the time,
don't ever think about money.
Each kid comes with its own provision.
Really?
Yeah.
Money should never be a
reason why you don't have kids.
What do you guys think?
That is interesting.
I don't know.
Oh, wait.
Somebody is referring to me as Aunt John.
Are you referring to me?
Valerie Gilpin.
I don't recognize the name.
Am I your auntie?
Please tell me.
That little,
the children's book that I
used to read when I was a kid.
Like, are you my mommy?
One of my churches is online at this time.
That's the only place anybody can.
Oh, auntie Jen.
Oh my God, this is all making sense now,
Jan.
One of my churches is online at a time.
Anybody can tithe.
I've been mentioning people can tithe,
but it feels uncomfortable online.
I'm not sure how to do it correctly.
Oh, interesting.
It's kind of like us too,
that part where you hit the
donate button and then if you,
that'd be great.
I mean,
it would help for us to do this on
a more regular basis
because I got to work.
Well, I got to explain this, Val.
I got to explain this whole thing.
Val is Jan's niece.
And she said her aunt told
us about her and that's about us.
And that's where she came.
So, um, Jan and Valerie,
there's a term of
endearment in Farsi for
Persians and it's John, it means dear.
Um, and so my, uh,
nieces and nephews say to me, auntie John,
you know,
like that would be a common
expression that they would say to me,
of course,
unfortunately I've not heard it
in a very long time.
Um,
But that's where I made that mistake.
So I think that that's really cute.
I didn't think of anything
either because I always
hear people end John with... In my family,
right?
In your family, yeah.
Yeah.
Or when they're calling, hey,
did you talk to John?
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
It always ends in John.
I go, do people have to go to John a lot?
I'm not understanding what John is.
So that's a really funny coincidence.
Nice to meet you, Valerie.
Welcome.
I like her little avatar.
How's it spelled?
Same J a n?
Yeah.
Yes, interesting.
Yeah, well, anyway,
I think that's all I
thought I was gonna say I
was gonna talk about there
was a was it enduring word
that he was talking about,
about being careful about
how you use stories about yourself.
There's this really cool
passage and enduring word where he says,
um that sometimes about
being uh preaching the word
not everyone who opens a
bible and starts talking is
preaching the word many
well-intentioned preachers
are actually preaching
themselves instead of the
word if the focus is on the
funny stories or their
touching life experiences
of being the preacher he
may be preaching himself
that's a good that's a word
right there yeah
So you can use a story to make a point,
but the message can't be
about you and your stories.
That's why people accuse Stephen Furtick.
They say that he's engaged in Narcissus,
where he's obsessed with
thinking that he's close to
Jesus and his characters.
The analogy...
is a fair one so in other
words talking about myself
is like talking about god
that's the analogy I put
the link for the uh portion
of enduring word that we're
reading so you guys that
are watching live can um to
click on it if you want to
and see what we're what is
we're referring to but uh
that is cute now valerie
says wow my john john yes
exactly jan john um
Yeah.
I, you know,
sometimes when I'm hearing a pastor,
other than a joke, like Bob pastor, Bob,
uh, you know,
tells funny jokes that are clearly jokes.
Then you have other pastors that will say,
tell a story about themselves.
Right.
And sometimes it's a little, little wild,
not, not always, but not,
I wouldn't say Mark or any,
or even pastor Jack,
but sometimes you wonder.
Remember we were hanging out
with somebody and they told us a story.
And I thought, I think that that's true.
In your game, it's not.
It's not true.
We were with a friend.
And what did they say about themselves?
It was exaggerated, I thought.
Yeah, it was about how they met, I think.
I can't go into too much detail.
Okay, you have to tell me that after.
It was not too long ago.
But somebody was telling a story about...
Well, when you go to Bible college,
they teach you how to write a sermon,
right?
And so they're like,
break up the intensity of
the subject matter with a light joke,
a story, and you know what I mean?
So now every pastor does
that kind of format.
But just make sure if you're
going to tell a story and
you say it's a story about yourself,
you just want to make sure
that it's true.
Well, if you say it's about yourself,
it should be true.
I know, but that.
I'll remind you later.
But yeah, but I. Yeah,
I think that obviously is important,
but sometimes they tell
stories and you're going.
Really?
It was like the there's a story,
a famous story going around
with Facebook where this
pastor's daughter wanted to
do something silly.
And they went,
they did a handstand instead
of a convenience store.
And the guy was considering
committing suicide.
And he said before she walked in, he goes,
if you don't want me to commit suicide,
just send somebody in here
and have them do a handstand.
Oh, right.
Sometimes they can tell that
story as if it really did happen.
You can't do stuff like that.
You can,
but that takes us into the itching
ears territory.
Just a little bit of trouble
because as soon as I
started talking about it,
I realized I can't really
say what I was talking
about because I'm afraid
that the person may know
what I'm talking about.
You just want to be careful.
I watched this podcast
called Trim Healthy Mama,
which is two Christian
sisters and they're into
fitness and health care.
And they were talking about
their comments that they
get on the podcast.
And she said it was like one
of the sisters was like, oh, my God,
some people can be so ruthless.
They're saying.
like one of the comments
that she's reading so she's
reading true comments right
was like they have great
health information but I
cannot tolerate all of the
rabbit trails they talk
about so much nonsense I
can't endure it in order to
get to the content
and I'm thinking to myself
oh my god can you imagine
if people say that like I
like the little bible
insight but everything else
they talk about is complete
nonsense like dog analogies
is that what you're trying
to tell me I'm not I didn't
mention it actually I think
the majority of this
audience really likes the
dog training all right all
right I'll stick with the
dog training stuff yeah
because it does relate
But the random stories about
your friends that you can't name.
I know.
I didn't mean to.
I thought there was a way I
was going to be able to.
That's what triggered the analogy.
Yeah.
I thought I was going to be
able to finagle it.
But sometimes you're not
ever done that where you
start telling a story and you realize, oh,
I probably shouldn't go there.
Yes.
Occasionally.
That's kind of what happened here.
Live on the Internet.
Right.
To our millions of viewers.
So we were,
I was in Detroit for a few days
working and then I went
from Detroit and met Hedia
and Zara in Nashville,
Tennessee for a cheerleading competition.
Yes.
A couple of things.
One of them is all my
friends who live in that
area of Tennessee that are, have
know either messaged me or
said how come you didn't
tell me we could have met
the the problem was we
didn't know what the
schedule was number one the
cheerleading and and it was
long days at the
cheerleading events mixed
in with moments to be able
to eat yes and where we
were we were all the way in
what's it called green
something green hills green
hills that kind of stuff so
I apologize um because that
happens all the time even
like even in detroit with
our friend kevin
I never know how long my
court cases are going to be,
or if I need to meet with the attorneys,
that kind of stuff.
So it really is hard.
And I'm only there for like two days.
And so it's hard.
So those are people that
have messaged me saying,
how come you didn't tell me
you were coming?
Or those of you who didn't
message me that I know that you saw.
I just,
I don't want to make it a
commitment to see you and then say, oh,
then we got to cancel.
Oh yeah.
You didn't make time for one friend.
It was at a restaurant two
miles away from the hotel.
Yes.
And how long did we stay there?
Yeah.
Half an hour.
Uh, Kyle, um,
Merson was playing guitar Mercer.
We met him.
I met him some years ago
playing in Nashville and we
just stayed friends.
And, uh, he was playing at a, uh, a little,
was that, was it a restaurant?
What'd you call that?
A restaurant?
A little brunch place.
Yeah.
A little place.
And then the mic wasn't working.
So he sang two songs and he was done.
And then we just
chit-chatted the rest of the time.
Yeah, then we gave us time to chit-chat.
So Kyle, it was nice seeing you.
But yeah,
so those of you that are in that area.
But the second thing is
there is a church every 10
feet in that area of Tennessee.
Yes.
God bless America.
I don't see enough people.
In those towns, really?
I mean,
there's a lot of visitors in the
Broadway area.
I bet you if you go in some of them,
there are very few people.
Really?
Yeah.
But they're so big, a couple of them.
Because they used to be very congregated.
I think it's just dropped
off tremendously.
We were going to try to go to church,
but again,
we said we were going to go to church,
but because of the schedule,
it didn't allow us to do that.
So we didn't get to see if
there were people.
We just watched Pastor Jack.
Yeah.
So true.
Cured me on my Calvinism actually.
What's Cindy saying about my stories?
Why don't you click on it?
Well, because I don't want to do your job.
You already did.
She says what?
I like your stories and I
tell stories in my sermons
to relate to the point.
Well,
that's actually like sermon writing 101.
As I was saying earlier,
that you're supposed to
break up the content with
stories so people's brains can relax.
If not,
then then it would you're at a
Catholic church.
Or you just overload people,
especially now everybody's
got ADHD and nobody can pay
attention for more than 2
minutes at a time.
That was my experience at
the Catholic church is it
was just all this hominous
dominant stuff and then.
most of it was in latin
right and then you're on
your you know standing
sitting kneeling standing
sitting kneeling it was um
that's about it but it was
the same routine yeah it's
all in the same places
doing the same thing on
occasion I remember there
being like a five minute
little story that they
would tell her nice you
know do this don't do that
and you know that kind of stuff
Um,
and then did we get a chance to share
Jesus with you?
You're talking about the elevator.
Yes.
So there was a conference for this guy.
I wanted to remember the name.
He was like a motivational speaker.
Um, what the lady said,
the way she described it to me, she says,
um, that his motto,
what he's trying to teach
you is that you are.
enough, your truth is truth.
And oh, man, did I want to rip that apart?
Yeah.
But they pay a lot of money
for somebody to tell them
your truth is truth.
And I asked them,
but every time I wanted to say, Oh, well,
Jesus changed my life, and it was free.
They would leave the elevator.
So I'd only get the chance
to ask the first part.
And by the time I wanted to evangelize,
they will go.
Yeah.
But I had a big intention to.
One girl in particular I prayed for,
but I missed the boat.
I didn't talk fast enough.
We were riding all over the place.
How was the flight there?
I didn't experience the
flight that you had.
It was crazy.
There was people drunk at 11
o'clock in the morning and
they were just loud and rowdy and
And I just don't, I'm sorry,
I love a lot of these people.
I just, I don't know, I'm really,
I'm very concerned with our
next generation of kids who
witness intoxicated,
overly intoxicated parents repeatedly.
Maybe that'll turn them off
of substance abuse.
You know, maybe it'll do the opposite.
But it's made it so commonplace.
I really worry about how
that's going to affect this
next generation.
Yeah.
You know?
Actually, I want to ask you guys.
I mentioned it to Hedia that
while we were out uh at one
of the honky tonks uh very
crowded busy place and uh
we sit down with with a
bunch of people kids and
the parents and heady and I
were the only ones not
drinking I think yes uh and
I'm sitting there I got my
water I'm drinking water and um
Eddie leaves,
and I'm not sure why one of
the dads decided to ask me
while you were gone,
but that's what it was.
Well, he knows my story.
That was the move.
And you left.
We go to the bathroom,
and then he comes up to me and goes,
do you want me to get you a drink?
And I said, no, I'm good.
He goes, so you don't drink at all.
And I said, no.
And I started to say,
we made that decision for a
number of reasons, but,
and it was going to come
out that we just want the kids.
We don't want to drink in
front of the kids.
We want to show a good example of that.
And it started to come out.
and but he was there with
his kids kids and was
getting a little sauced a
little uh and I stopped myself now
for a couple of days now, since we've been,
I go, maybe I should have said something.
Maybe that was God's prompting to say,
well, tell him why you're doing it.
And I think I just, I could have,
and your suggestion was to
say it in a way that wasn't
attacking him.
Just say it as why it is
that I don't do it.
And I wish I would have been
faster on my feet because
your suggestion was really good.
That I wish I would have had
that opportunity.
Because the more that they drank,
the more you could see
things going on that I
don't think that they would
do if they hadn't been drinking.
Yes.
A lot of handsy stuff.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
It was going on.
So, yeah.
What do you guys think?
Well,
and Zara told me one of the girls
afterwards came up to her and said,
at the airport, was like,
I got to go get this spray to my mom.
She's really hungover.
It doesn't feel well.
And so just kind of like, I don't know.
Yeah.
And I know that you guys, I mean,
there's some of you who
watch that have a drink now and again,
that kind of stuff.
And that's, and that's fine.
I don't always want to come off as that.
We're telling people that
they have to do something,
but we also want to say
that I think that the best
part of our life has been,
that's one of the things
has given up any participation.
And we went shopping and we
spent a lot of money and I told him,
I said, listen,
we would have spent this on partying.
Yeah.
if we were drinking,
because what happens when you're drinking,
right?
You go and you spend a whole
bunch of money on not just drinks,
but entry fees and food.
And you start buying other
people's stuff before, you know,
you've spent just about the
same amount of money that
we spent shopping, you know,
but we was like, and we had such fun.
We spent like six hours at this cute hat.
Yeah.
So we just find other uses for it.
Yeah.
I kind of kick in myself.
I wish I would have come up with, um,
Whatever it was that you said.
Just tell my story.
Yeah.
I used to get X and I don't
want to do that anymore.
Right.
You always actually,
it's something you say on
the devotionals.
I used to constantly tell my
kids to get me a beer out of the fridge.
And it got to the point
where I just didn't want to
do that anymore.
Yeah.
It's not a great example.
You know,
it's so funny because I used to
mix martinis for my parents
when I was a kid.
See?
And so, yeah.
I actually developed my
drinking problem from
drinking at a young age with my kids.
I was drinking since I was 13.
With my parents.
Yeah.
First of all,
I want to say what Lisa Hernando says.
We are looking great.
Why, thank you, Lisa.
That is super kind of you.
Valerie says,
I did not have a drink until
my daughter turned 21.
And when she was adult,
I had a half a glass of
wine and she asked, why are you drinking?
Did someone die?
I felt so bad.
That is so funny.
Yeah.
I think just a little bit of
an expansion on it.
It's just that I had an
older daughter who's 29.
Oh, you should hear the stories.
You should hear the stories
she tells about Andy.
Oh, my God.
At the time,
they seemed funny and interesting.
Not funny.
We went to Vegas.
Yeah, her stories of Vegas.
She was 22 at the time.
That doesn't make it all right,
but it was just wow.
She had to carry him home.
All kinds of crazy.
That carried me home.
to make sure that I got home
um and um and then as I had
my second round of kids yes
um and started you know
they're early in their life
I was still drinking and um
you know that was
occasionally I would say
hey can you grab me a a
blue moon out of the
refrigerator or whatever
that kind of stuff but the
comparison now I now I can
look at both sides this
this side is is fantastic
I mean,
because you wake up early with them
because they like to wake
up early and we go and do stuff,
whatever.
Sometimes we go to the gym
or we hang out or whatever.
Go to church.
Didn't Kelly say something
very profound to you once
about you're so much different now?
Why don't you drink?
You're so much different now.
And then had a comment.
I can't remember what it is.
Do you remember he said it
to you recently?
Yeah, I can't remember what that was.
You can't either.
Okay.
I thought maybe it was stuck
in your head more than me.
No, but I just think so much of it is...
is that example that you're setting.
because it would be really hard for us,
especially with some of the
things that some of the
kids are telling us now, like Ray,
she's thinking, hey,
can I just have a drink?
Or even Kelly,
when he was out with the in-laws,
he's not married,
but I call them in-laws.
And they were all drinking.
He's texting me, hey, dad,
do you mind if I have a beer?
He's 17.
And I didn't text him back
on purpose because I wanted
to see what he would decide
to do on his own.
And it turns out he decided
not to do it because he
knew when I didn't text him
that that was my test.
But how much better is it, right?
How much easier is it for me to say, hey,
listen, I know what I used to do,
but I'm telling you right
now that that road leads
always to something bad.
At least that's my...
My experience and your experience.
Yes.
And so it just is so much
better at this stage when they're,
you know, 10, 13, 16,
17 that we're saying no.
And they can't get, well, you guys, right.
They can't come back.
No,
but you guys got to have fun when you
were young.
And I was like, yeah, but it wasn't fun.
I promise.
That's why we're not doing it now.
But it does make it a lot
easier to hold that ground
without that coming and
hitting you back in the face.
Yes.
Like a baseball bat.
Yes.
Remember last night when I
had to clean up your puke?
You mean that's what they can say to you?
I had to bring you fried
eggs to hang over?
I had to go get menudo for
you at the grocery store.
Menudo is the cure for hangover.
Denise.
Hello, Denise.
I replied to a question
about drinking that I could
not think of Jesus if I drank alcohol.
I have to have my wits about me.
And that doesn't come just from you.
That's also from Peter.
Be sober-minded.
Be watchful in all things.
Constantly.
Hey, Carrie.
Hi, Carrie.
I texted you.
Yeah.
And I originally scheduled based on
Tennessee time,
Tennessee time and I messed
up the whole thing.
Um, so I had to reschedule it.
So it was up for 1 at a time
and then I changed it.
So if you guys said, Hey,
I thought he was going to
be on at 9 o'clock.
I had to change it,
but I'm glad you're here.
Carrie.
Yes, we missed you.
Um, anything else about Tennessee that,
um.
The food's amazing.
I just told Andy that I just
couldn't believe at how
great the food was because
really fresh ingredients,
vegetables and fruits that
taste like fruits and vegetables.
I don't know if anybody
knows the wisdom behind that,
but I told Andy maybe it's
because it doesn't all come
from Mexico because all of
our fruits and vegetables
in California come from Mexico.
and so things lack flavor
not that there's anything
wrong with mexico but I
just think that they're
they're over farmed nothing
has the right color nothing
has the right texture um so
yeah I mean I know
natural's uh famous for
food but that was amazing
It was definitely a
highlight the place we go
with the frothy monkey, the frothy monkey,
the frothy monkey,
make sure and go to the frothy monkey.
If we have 1 near you,
but the bacon was outstanding.
The sausage you had the
other day was amazing.
The eggs, the eggs are like,
almost a fluorescent orange.
Yeah, not not not nuclear.
Right?
Just healthy in appearance.
The yolk looked healthy in appearance.
And they didn't give you a
mound of it because it was
cheap and you just thought
you'd love the restaurant
because of the volume.
It was just tasty.
You didn't have to eat a ton of it.
Yeah.
So it was so good.
Oh, Priscilla!
Look at that!
Priscilla, where you been?
We're so happy to see you.
So nice to see you, Priscilla.
I see Priscilla a lot because her and I,
we trade...
graphics on Facebook often.
Memes.
That's what they're called.
Nice.
Kathy's asking,
where was the competition
held and where did you stay?
Nashville has great food.
Yeah, it's just amazing.
Hey, Kevin.
Hello from Michigan.
Hello.
We stayed at the Hilton
Nashville Green Hills.
So we were right next door
to the mall at Green Hills,
which was amazing.
Fabulous experience there too.
And we just ate everywhere.
The competition was at Belmont University.
Belmont was beautiful.
And Belmont was beautiful.
Yeah.
I think I might go there
when I become college age.
I might go there.
It seemed like a good,
I wonder if it is a good
Christian college.
I know.
Not like Biola Christian.
I want it to be better.
Well, I think Belmont's not,
it's not a Bible college.
It's a Christian school like,
like Cal Baptist.
It is Christian.
I know, but is it?
No, Biola is a Christian college.
No, Biola is a Bible college.
Oh, what's the difference?
Oh, huge difference.
What?
Oh yeah.
Arizona Christian.
They're secular.
They're regular universities
teaching liberal arts
founded by Christians with
a Christian ethos.
So some of them require you
to go to chapel, some don't.
Like Arizona Christian is an
evangelical Christian,
so they require a statement
of faith to go to the school.
Others, like Concordia, don't.
So you don't have to be a Christian.
Vanguard requires you to
have a statement of faith,
requires you to go to chapel.
but it's still um secular
classes like you don't have
um you do have like bible
studies as a degree but for
the most part it's liberal
arts and sciences and how
is it that from a I was a
christian for for now going
on 25 to 30 years you just
became a christian yesterday
How do you know the
difference between a Bible
college and a Christian university?
I think Yale and Harvard
used to be faith-based universities.
Isn't it the Harvard logo?
Yes, it's a Bible, I believe.
Priscilla says she missed talking to us.
We missed talking to you, too.
And now we don't even see her, you know,
once a month over at
Calvary Chapel Chena Hills
because we go there less than we used to.
Southern cooking is the best.
I had no affinity for southern cooking,
Carrie, because I don't like greasy,
creamy things.
But this was amazing.
It was like healthy version.
They even had gluten-free stuff.
Because I still don't eat anything fried,
really, other than French fries.
But I had the most amazing
piece of salmon.
It was just delicate.
Delicate.
The salmon last night we had,
you had a wedge salad with beef belly,
wagyu belly, little bite thingies.
Little squares.
I, again, had salmon.
It was fantastic.
And he's just grabbing these eggs for you.
The eggs were amazing.
It was just really good.
And then we went to Jason
Aldean's Honky Tonk place,
and I had the most amazing
glazed chicken breast.
It was just this very simple thing,
but the chicken breast
actually tasted like an
organic fresh chicken.
I don't,
I can't remember the last time I
tasted chicken that tasted like that.
So good.
Yeah.
I should have taken a bite,
but I was full for my steak.
Yeah.
Steak salad.
Um, I want to talk about something, uh,
that also happened while, um,
just before we left, I think, and that is,
uh,
pastor Jack asked you about some
things that were happening
in the Chino Valley school
district about some Muslims, Palestinians,
sorry, but there were Muslims.
I mean, so.
yeah I can't say that either
that palestinians were
coming to protest at the
school board meeting
pro-palestinian and so
they're not palestinian or
muslim so in case there's
other people that are
having this issue because
uh it is strange that
especially the group of
people that are coming to
to be pro-palestinian it's
the end of the world folks
what was um the
conversation if you don't
mind sharing not
necessarily with pastor jack but with uh
Well, in general,
what is important is the
left Islamist alliance.
We call it the green Islamist alliance,
which is the left aligning
with the Islamist.
First of all,
a lot of people have heard
about that in different sectors,
like the squad.
Um,
it's absolutely ridiculous when you
think about it,
because Muslims and
especially Islamists are
extremely conservative.
And in most Arab countries, uh,
homosexual being thrown off a bridge,
you know, I mean, there's,
it's actually illegal to be gay.
So the fact that they would
align on LGBTQ issues is very,
very bizarre.
Uh,
So apparently in some school districts now,
as this kind of,
this wave of the pro-Palestinian support,
which you've seen on college campuses,
right?
The pro-Palestinian rallies,
you see a bunch of people with green hair,
you see a bunch of gay
rights activists also saying,
holding pro-Palestinian
flags and stop the genocide.
We should, we should,
we don't want anyone to die
on either side.
That's a separate story, but yeah.
So the important thing that
I was trying to advise some
people was don't, as Christians,
you don't want to earn the ire.
You don't want to be at the
tip of the spear,
at the center of the
bullseye of the Islamists.
They are brutal.
They fight very dirty.
And it's a horribly
difficult battle to fight.
It's a well-funded machine.
They don't fight fair,
and neither do the left.
But yeah, it's just a very brutal fight.
So my advice to this person was,
if you can avoid it,
don't engage on that front.
It's bad enough right now.
They're competing, not competing.
We're battling against the
teachers unions.
Which don't confuse teachers
unions being that we're
battling against teachers, right?
2 different things.
So teachers unions are evil,
socialist cabals and then
we have Planned Parenthood
who is very active in the schools.
And then you don't want to add.
care or muslim brotherhood
muslim brotherhood to um to
that list the list of
enemies yeah and I mean and
there's no need actually
because my advice then was
that as christians we want
everybody to meet jesus we
don't care whether they're
israeli or they're
palestinians the solution is jesus
No matter what.
So we don't want babies to die.
We don't want people killed by terrorism.
We we pray for both sides to
come to saving faith in Christ.
Israel has a right to defend itself.
It has a right to get to
want its hostages back.
It has a right to attack its
enemy for invading its land.
all of the normal foreign
policy principles apply and
that's not our fight.
It's basically,
and the reason he was
asking me about it was
because I have been engaged
in that fight for over two
decades when I was working
for the government and I
was on the other side of
the Muslim spectrum to the Islamists.
I think Sonya Shah was the
president of the Chino
Valley Unified School
District School Board did a
really good job.
Yes,
because it was a large number of them
at large in the sense it
was 10 to 10 of them or so.
would come up to the mic and
try to talk about you know
funding uh and how it
related to israel you know
uh funding israeli causes
some obscure yeah
apparently maybe the city
council gave a grant or
something I don't know we
don't even know where it
came from so sonia was was
smart and just said okay
that's not school business
education business and so
she would warn them and then
if they continued uh
talking about something
that wasn't related to the
school she'd shut off their
mic and I thought she did a
really good job so um very
gracious it was awesome hi
fifi we see you fifi panda
fifi panda from syria from sierra leone
Um, and we're saying, hi,
I need to tell you guys my story.
It's more scary.
Trust me.
I just need advice from you.
Okay.
Give it a shot and we'll see.
Do the best we can.
Lisa says, I agree with Lydia.
Thank you so much.
They're following, um,
the Lord's order to be
fruitful and multiply.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah.
Uh,
Yes, they are.
I'm a teacher and they put a
tampon machine in our
elementary school boys bathroom.
The boys were freaked.
No four to sixth grade child
should deal with this.
My girls got scared there'd
be urinals in the girls bathroom.
We all had a great talk.
Yeah, absolutely.
You're so right, Valerie.
It's such a.
I mean,
even when they started to create in
public restaurants, um, and places, uh,
male and female bathrooms.
We're in Southern California.
They have bathrooms that are
more than one stall where
men and women could go at the same time.
And, um, me and my cousin,
we had two are two little girls.
My daughter was 10 at the
time and we wouldn't let
them go to the bathroom.
Um, and then they really had to go.
So what we did was we put
them inside the bathroom
and then stood at the door
and didn't let anyone in.
Um,
because we didn't want men going in
there when they were in a
stall and scare the girls, you know,
it's just nuts.
Yeah.
We, um,
are very fortunate where we're at
right now in the Placentia
herbal and unified school district that,
uh,
we have a majority conservative school
board.
we have a fantastic
superintendent who has
brought in some really cool
um assistant
superintendents executive
staff is what they call
them but uh so we're very
lucky we have growth I
think that and we added
like 300 students because
of everything that we have
going for us right now so
fifi says that our country
does fgm yes I've heard
that before I'm very sorry
to hear that what does that
say uh female genital mutilation
Um, so I lost my nine months of FGM.
So you mean a nine month old baby?
Um, I can't do it anymore.
What should I do?
The rate of FGM is so much.
Yeah.
It's absolutely horrific.
Uh,
and when you say you can't do it anymore,
does that mean that you are
like a technician, uh, Fifi?
My goodness, I'm so sorry to hear that.
It must be very, very difficult.
Yes, lost a child.
Oh, goodness.
We are very, very sorry for your loss,
Fifi.
It's absolutely horrible.
I know a couple of people
that have undergone that,
and it's extremely, it's horrific.
That's what should go on our prayer list.
Yes, absolutely.
Valerie said,
I had to say in an archaeological sense,
your realisms will only
show male or female.
Call yourself what you want,
but you are one or the
other based on the physical parts.
That's what I used to tell
my daughter all the time.
I'm like, it's biological,
one part or the other.
That's it.
You can call yourself whatever you want,
but
My logical didn't matter how
old the body is when it's been buried.
You can tell whether it's a
male or female by the shape
of the hips and the groin
area immediately.
So it's just one or the other.
It isn't zero,
whatever those other things are,
one of those other genders.
And Fifi says,
I was part of them and she bled to death.
I have pictures to prove it.
Oh, gosh.
I didn't realize they did it so young.
Are you part of the groups
that are lobbying the State
Department and other
countries to stop FGM?
Because I know,
especially when I was in the government,
I heard a lot of civil
rights groups and women's
rights groups lobbying the
State Department to punish countries,
diplomatic pressure,
financial pressure for engaging in FGM.
But yeah,
we definitely have to pray for that.
All right.
any other prayers uh we're
happy to pray we'll
definitely be praying for
fifi and sierra leone and
the people that are
suffering from that that
there'll be an end to that
hopefully jesus will come
back soon like tomorrow just come quickly
I just want to sleep on my
bed one night because it
seems like it's been
forever since I slept in my own bed.
Aw, Phoebe says they stole her from me.
That's terrible.
And yes,
we will definitely pray for the country.
Sure.
Okay.
Thank you all so much.
Thank you for engaging with us.
We love you.
Dear Lord, it is such a
Such a sad tale,
the depravity of humanity
and what they're capable of, Lord.
We ask that you put a hedge
of protection on the young women,
the beautiful young babies
in Sierra Leone, Lord,
that you protect them from
the knife that seeks to
destroy them and mutilate them, Lord.
We ask that you put in the
minds of the people who are
engaged in this practice
that they should stop.
put in their hearts, Lord,
that it is not a good
practice and that they
would be inclined to stop on their own,
Lord.
And whatever we could do,
Western countries and the
United States and others to
put pressure on countries
like Sierra Leone that's
still engaged in this behavior,
to stop whatever diplomatic
or financial pressure,
provide alternatives to the
women that allow it to happen, Lord.
But we just ask for your
hedge of protection and for
your grace and for your
love on these countries and
these people that are suffering.
We also ask you to bless and
restore health to Jan and
her eyes and her other
conditions that she's suffering from,
Lord.
And our dear friend that's
recovering from cancer surgery, Lord,
please bless her and keep
her and give her your peace
as she goes through a whole
series of restorative procedures, Lord.
Thank you for all of our
friends that are watching
and bless them and protect them.
Give them the peace and joy
that comes from your presence,
from being...
your sons and daughters that are loved,
Lord,
and all those in our family and
around us who do not yet know you, Lord,
may they meet you in a supernatural way,
in a radical way,
whether it's randomly from
a social media post, Lord,
or a neighbor that invites
them to church.
We ask you to move powerfully on the earth,
and most importantly, in this country.
We ask for a radical move of God, Lord,
a revival,
a restoring of our hearts to
obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We love you.
We offer ourselves as a living sacrifice,
Lord.
We ask all things in the
mighty name of Jesus.
Amen.
Love you guys too.
All right, my friends.
We love you.
Glad we're back.
And we will see you.
Soon.
Hopefully tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
Maybe a lunch and learn.
Yes.
All right, friends.
Love you.
God bless.
Take care.