We Get To Do This - Crowns Down

0:00 Father, we honor you. What a privilege it is to be before you. And we truly get to do this. And even as we do, we consecrate it to you, Lord, that all that we do, all that we say would bring life, would bring hope, would bring inspiration and encouragement to our listeners. And we pray for them and bless them in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. It's Wednesday, July 1st, 2026. We get to do this. This is episode number 39. Last days of the vacation, my brother. I know. It's weird, but it's good because I'm so back in my heart and my mind. I had an opportunity this week and got a phone call from the hospital that one of our church members will go unnamed. went into the hospitals, had some complications, and she specifically requested that Annette and I come.

1:06 She didn't know we're on vacation or whatever, and Annette said, let's go right now. We're in our gym clothes. We're getting ready to go to the gym. And Annette's like, we got to go. I was going to bring this up a little bit later in the podcast because I wanted people to know that you guys are first responders. I mean you really are and and I know that you were on your way because we got the same phone call as what was going on we're like and we're praying here and you know you're like well we're turning around we're going right over there and that is I don't know if people appreciate that if they ever think about that but man That was pretty awesome. You truly are first responders. I so appreciate that.

1:46 But it's really our privilege to do it. And she was so gracious and just shocked that we showed up. And then when she found out we're on vacation, she's like, oh no, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is what we do. And then Annette said, no, this is who we are. And I just said, absolutely, babe. This is it. We get to do this. But what it did it. it rekindled because I've been in vacation mode. Our church and our staff are so good about when we're gone, they know not to... I mean, they're just so gracious. There's no phone calls, no emails, no nothing. Here and there, they're tiny friends. But also we're that way with our team. When we know they're gone, we don't send them stuff. We don't loop them in unless it's like an emergency or something. So anyway, She was so sweet and so gracious and she was just so shocked that we showed up on our vacay. We're like, it doesn't matter. But for me, it reignited my heart. I was like, I'm so ready to be back.

2:48 It was a privilege and a pleasure. I'm glad that you had a little bit of sun on the vacation because, man, if she saw your leg, she might go into cardiac arrest. Frightening. Frightening. I'm like, man, I'm glad I didn't have to show up in my shorts. That would have been no good. I just think that's so amazing. Thank you, brother. You want to move that wire? Is that in the way for you? It's bugging me. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. We're in the Curry Compound studio today. Tina and I are getting ready. That would mean Tina has packed everything up. as we're leaving here in about, what about two and a half hours. We're off to Rotterdam. Yeah, man.

3:30 I'm excited for you guys Yeah, well, we're hoping that the baby will have the grandbaby will arrive when we're there. That would be so nice gift This is OCD brother. I'm seeing Sorry, I need this one. I'm a musician some chords stage chords Actually had to put the other mic arm on there because the other one broke Oh, it has like a little wire on the inside and it snapped The little coil or whatever, the spring? Yeah, that's a spring mechanism. That's odd. It's a design flaw. Is this a new one? It's an old one. I'll catch you. I think it's actually better. You've got a few spares, so I know. I've got all kinds.

4:11 Don't open that closet. No, no, no. Talking about the closet. No, it has not been cleaned up. So we're going over there and I don't know if we've talked about it on the show, but Christina, my daughter, and Kevin, who are expecting the granddaughter, they've been doing a reality show for Dutch television. And in 2003, for a whole bunch of reasons, I did a reality show with our family called Adam's Family, and Christina was nine or 10 at the time. And it really was, there was like a huge legal issue with cash, and so I literally could not get money out of the ATM. It was a tax IRS in Holland and they later had to apologize, which showed up on page 23 of the newspapers. The Curry's in trouble is page one. So they literally, they can do this in Holland. They can freeze everything, all your accounts. It goes back to the shipping days where they could block everything if a ship hadn't paid its dues or whatever. So it's kind of an interesting law. So I literally could not get anything out of the ATM. Well, this is a problem. But any new money, any new money would be okay. And I just seen the Osbournes, which an old producer of mine at MTV had done, Greg Johnson, and he, he literally had one camera, some extra camera guy time. And he decided to

5:41 do this with the Osbournes. Of course, that became a big hit said, well, we can do that. And so we ate 13 episodes. And, you know, I locked it up. It's, you know, that's it. No one can ever do any re -airs of it. You know, I have all the rights. And so that's why it was just a one time thing. And it was actually quite, I thought kind of, it was fun to do because I produced it with two other people. We did it all ourselves. So after that came a lot of family reality shows, every singer family, everyone had a reality show. And now 25 years later, they're doing. you know, fill in the family name 2025, 2026, 25 years later. And so they offered Kevin and Christina to do this reality show. And I'm like, you know, it's not that much of a hassle. It's kind of, it's annoying, but it would be a great start, you know, cause you, you know, you have a little extra cash, you got the baby on the way and Tina and I will happily participate, which we have done. Now, as a part of that, We gave them some rights to some of the old footage, which I have.

6:48 Now, to say I have that means I have all the original tapes, which is useless. You can't give that to anybody because it's just all raw material. But I have five DVD sets. And so I needed to bring those. And for the whole week, I was anxious because I knew that eventually I'd have to go locate these five DVD sets. Which is it in the closet from hell? Is it in a box in the garage one of the many box? I mean there must be 25 boxes and I was the archives I was yes, and I was like, oh man, and I did something that usually I do during the moment of frustration For a whole day yesterday before I started to search. I said, holy spirit Would you please help me find this and dude? It is crazy. I didn't even open the, I really thought that would be in the hell closet.

7:42 I didn't even open it up. The spirit actually sent me to a box, which I don't even remember. And the box, it wasn't the box, but it was a box filled with photos. I can't even recall from when Christina was a baby and just great. I'm always looking for something for her birthday or father's day or something to put, you know, to send to her. I'm like, oh, this is a great, my social security card, my birth certificate. This is a good box. The next box I opened right there, it almost jumped out at me. I'm like, thank you, Holy Spirit. I just completely believe in this stuff, man. That was so helpful. The helper came through. The helper helped. That's what he does. And he delights in doing so. And can you imagine, I mean, think about this, you're a father. And if your child would reach out to you to say, I need help doing this. This is important.

8:39 Would you help me find my keys? What would you do? You knock everything down and everybody over to get to her house to help her find her keys. I mean, that's the father. And when you ask the helper, that's his name. He's ready to help. I mean, it's crazy because this happens all the time and Annette and I, of course, our little running thing now is, have you asked the Holy Spirit? It's a joke with us because it's like, oh no, okay, hold on. Just do it right now because you know how it is when you're looking for something. You're just not thinking about the big cosmic things. You're just thinking about, I need my keys or my DVDs, whatever. It's so nice when you just pause for a second and it just settles you because you go, okay, he knows where it is and he will guide me to it. I've done that, but this was the first time I did it upfront before I went searching. I have to find this and it's really important. I was anxious. The whole day I'm doing things, I got this pain in my stomach, you know, like, oh man, and I know it's hot in the garage and I'm going to be sweating, it's going to be dripping from me. No, not only did I get the DVDs, I got this great bonus of this great archive. It was phenomenal. Beautiful.

9:59 Just phenomenal. Love it, brother. He's good that way. So do you have the football fever? No, I'm much well actually being hanging out in airports for hours and hours. We did a lot of, you know, they're on all the TVs. So you catch yourself watching it. And I count myself going, yeah, you know, and that goes, I didn't know you liked soccer. I said, I really don't, but I'm kind of getting into it. And then laughing at all the fake falls, you know, the drama, the theater, I laughed my head off. I'm like, that guy needs to play some rugby and take a real hit. Cause man, that was, he didn't even touch that guy. but it's so fun and it's fun to watch people in the airport get into it. Everybody's watching. Well, I've been watching it because I'm the guy who watches. I'll watch the NBA finals.

10:48 I'll watch the Superbowl. I'll watch the World Series. Stanley Cup, not so much. I just can't follow the puck. It's like that's not for me. But I have a couple of teams to root for when it comes to the football. So Holland, of course, Italy for my sister, both of them have been knocked out. I think the USA played last night. I don't expect, but the Germans were knocked out surprised because Dermanshaft as they're known, they usually get into the final. So it's probably going to be France. But they played a game against a new team from Curaçao and Curaçao is a Dutch protectorate. And they qualified amazing above anyone's expectations. It's a little island. Oh, wow. Right off. Actually, it's north of what I think Venezuela. Only a couple of hours from here to fly and very small island. I've been there. I don't like going there because everyone's Dutch and they know me. It's like I don't look at my legs. But they're in the World Cup. Now they were beaten by Germany, like severely beaten. But what happened was something glorious. And I have a clip. Giving the glory

12:22 to God any glory that they receive. They're giving it back to God. So That's what I'm seeing and I want everybody to be looking for that as well So two things one, you know when they scored, you know, we spiked the ball. We do a little dance. No, they are Throwing their crowns down on the pitch which is which is football for field right on the pitch and after the game the teams are coming together and praying after the game. And so the Germans came and prayed with the Even the Germans beat him 7 to 1, I mean it was a sl - I know. Listen to what it sounded like.

13:25 Isn't that awesome? I got goosebumps, bro. That fired me up. Isn't that fantastic? I love this. It takes me back to sports days, man. There's just some adrenaline rush that happens, but to have that prayer prayed over you, just passionate and fiery. It changes the tone of the game. I mean, you're still going to have your idiots out there who are cocky and narcissistic, but there's a bunch more. gentlemen beginning to rise up, and you're seeing sportsmanship, and you're seeing camaraderie, and you're seeing them even after a bloodbath on the field, whether it's football, basketball, whatever it is, and they're meeting out in center field, out in the middle. to pray and end it off. Is that starting the game or after? That I think is from starting the game. Wow. It sounds like everybody. I had a German player talk about it, but it was all in German, so I wasn't going to play that. But a couple of German players actually went over and prayed after the game. So we've got not spiking the ball, but laying down the crowns. That is so cool. As with all good sports, we have a ministry in football. A guy who I actually met, Jesse Bradley, have you ever heard of him? I think he's in Los Angeles. I think he has a church.

14:45 He certainly has a ministry and he was a professional soccer player and I got a quick clip from him. There's so much happening on many different levels, but at the center of it all, it's not really about soccer, it's about Jesus. And soccer can unite the world, and in the world, attention is on the game, but really it's about how God transformed lives. And last World Cup, well, four years ago, we had an online outreach and shared about Jesus and hope, the gospel. The good news is that Jesus died first, sins is risen, it's not religion, it's relationship. And we saw 480 ,000 people. start a relationship with Jesus, make a first -time decision to follow the Lord, and then lead them into discipleship as well. We're still celebrating what God did four years ago, but now God is moving in this World Cup. God does beyond what we could ask or think, and he gets all the glory. Amen. That's so awesome. Football, who thought? Man, that's beautiful. Of course, you and I both have laughed and enjoyed how listening to those who are visiting our country get overwhelmed, just whelmed over by everything like Costco. Ranch dressing. All of that. It's made me take a step back and appreciate our nation. What a time to think that way, right as we're stepping into the 250th and to say, Lord, thank you for our blessings. It's so easy

16:18 to get caught up. I'm so pushed back from social media right now. I've enjoyed not writing a daily grind, even though I do love doing it. I started it back today, but I've just been posting scripture as opposed to writing. It's been very refreshing for me and it brought me back strong. I just love what's happening where people are seeing things in a sense of, I don't know that we're at what I would call full -blown revival by definition, but we are definitely at an awakening. You know, it's interesting. I hadn't even prepared this, but regarding that, because there's two ways you can look at it. You know, the the cynical way is all they care about is, you know, our fast food and, you know, stuff like that. But it's just like you said, it's doing something to us. It's doing something inside of us. I'm just trying to see if I can find this because Bill Maher, of all people. Interesting, because I was actually thinking about that, his little spot there, because that's who reminded me to really think about this, of all people. Let's listen to this. There actually are some good things about us. There's a whole, he has a whole setup about, actually the setup is kind of worth playing, I think. Go ahead, man. And finally, let's all give it up for soccer being the greatest sport. No. Not the game itself. That sucks. I

17:48 mean, there's more scoring at a Star Trek convention. But I am loving that the World Cup has brought to our shores all these people who are doing Americans the service of Reminding us just when we needed it on our big 250 birthday But actually this place is kind of awesome. Yeah Yes, I know how dare I how privileged when there are so many problems and threats and people left behind all true I could give you the statistics where we are not good enough and have done so many times.

18:32 Infant mortality rate, 54th in the world. Women in government, 85th. Overdose deaths, lack of health insurance. Yes, many problems. But that's because the name of our country is America, not utopia. That was actually a really good line. I thought it was good. What everyone has done, what even I did, although it was for early identification purposes, is look at all these people and what they're saying. He kind of turned it around and said, look how happy we should be. How happy we should be about our country. There actually are some good things about us. Even with all the ICE nonsense, we have more immigrants than the next four countries combined. We have to fight for it, but still have freedom of speech.

19:17 assembly and trial by jury and even if you're found guilty you can still ask a Kardashian to get you a pardon other countries struggle just to have water here we make it put on a show in the desert We have drive -throughs for both church and... Yeah, I'm gonna skip a couple of these. It gets a little launchy. I can't imagine. But he basically says, hey, you know, this is a great country. Yeah, we have our problems. But it's so true. And it kind of comes back to what we were talking about on the last show. You get so myopic and so focused on a screen and you forget everything that's around you. It's so good. That's what it's doing for me. Beautiful.

20:16 For me too. And I get so encouraged by it because I'm like, if a guy from France, and we visited France in 2019 and they didn't seem to like us very much. I'm just straight up, especially the waiters and waitresses. you know, I was like, hey, could you bring me my check? They don't like each other. They don't like each other. Don't worry about it. Well, okay. So I don't feel bad. I didn't feel bad. But anyway, to hear a French guy saying, you know, Costco, I'll give my right arm for Costco. Revolution. Yeah. Revolution. I'll start a revolution for Costco. I just, I'm like, wow. we need to step back and put our screens down and pick up our Bibles and say, thank you, God, that we get to live in the most amazing country in America and forgive those of us who have complained and who have put this nation down and who have tried to destroy this nation.

21:10 and Father, let us stand up straight again, upright, righteous before you." And so, that's what it's doing for me. It's bringing me back to my foundations as a believer of gratitude and thanksgiving, which is, the scripture says, is the will of God. It is the will of God to give thanks. And so, that's what it's doing for me. And I'm excited not only about that, but another thing that makes me thankful is seeing All the sports teams praying. I mean, these poor commentators, especially down on the field, they know what's going to happen when they hand the mic to a football player. I think Jesus Christ, the gospel, it changes my life. I mean, it is just happening. It's really steamrolling right now. Did you see the guy with the three nails? No, no. I just ordered my first three nails. Workout shorts. He had like three long, long nails and he was doing an after show comp. Gosh, I wish I knew who that was. The American guy. And he says, you know, these three nails and he went into the whole story of the crucifixion, but in graphic detail, passion of the Christ Mel Gibson movie level detail. Wow. And I just sat like. And there was, you could have heard a pin drop in the press room. And he says, and that's, and that's why I'm grateful. And you know, just so good. It was, it was like, whoa.

22:35 So can I share something from Jeremy Camp? You don't have to ask me to share anything, brother. You go for it. It's right in line with all of this. I love Jeremy Camp because he's a contemporary Christian music artist. I hear him all the time. And hello friend. Phenomenal. Yes. And he's got big guns too. The dude is pumped. He's juiced. But he's just a great guy. When we lived in Nashville, they attended our church and his wife, Addie was on the worship team. He wasn't because I'm sure he's got clauses where he can't do that. But she was on the worship team regularly and it'd be nothing to look down the row and say, oh, there's Jeremy Camp and his kids. So, really cool family. But listen to what he writes about revival. He just wrote a song called Revival. And he says, throughout scripture, revival begins with God's people humbling themselves, repenting, and allowing him to transform their hearts. It's not simply about counting decisions, it's about seeing lives changed. It's about forgiveness replacing bitterness, purity replacing compromise, humility replacing pride, and the fruit of repentance becoming evident in everyday life. Real revival doesn't stop at the altar, it follows us home.

23:45 It changes the way we love our spouses, raise our children, treat our neighbors, serve our communities and represent Christ in our schools and workplace. Because revival is not merely measured by how many people gather, it's ultimately revealed by how many people are changed. Isn't that rich? This folds right into our brother, Rick Green, who spoke at the men's breakfast on Saturday. I hated to miss that. You would have loved being there. I'm so glad that we're expanding the space because it was a hundred and thirty four men pretty much study room only one thirty one thirty seven and Crazy and Rick's message was not dissimilar to Jeremy But he was saying as men we have an obligation. We can start this at home Pray with our wives with our children, you know He actually he did something we've talked about that you preach from the pulpit going through the Lord's Prayer and stopping at each piece and how can I um, you know, what can I pray specifically about, you know, uh, daily bread or forgive us of our debts or even our father art in heaven.

24:55 And it was so motivating. And it was, and there was a lot of young men, like eight, nine years old. And I just have to say Jonah Mandel, pastor Brian's son, who just turned 15. He was still 14 and he had something to say about something that he had. learned at the camp because they were all at camp this past week. So Pastor Brian invited him to come up there and talk and then also invited him to do the closing prayer. And brother, I got to tell you, we got a couple of generations lined up in our church. but he had the Mandel shuffle, man. It was awesome. He was doing left and right and back and forth. And they say, Ms. Adam, Ms. Adam, I think I'm ready to get the podcast going again. I'm like, oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. be able to do it solo without relying on anybody. He has to get to that barrier of, I'm talking into a microphone, into a void.

25:51 There's no one in the pews. Oh, he can do it. He's solid. He's so good. I know he can. I know he can, so I'm excited. Actually, I did a pilot yesterday for another podcast that will come out of our church from Windy. Are you familiar with Windy? It's also with a W. Yeah, Windy Witzhead. I think you're right. Winstead. Winstead. Winstead. She's sharp. Winstead, yes. She is sharp. So she had this idea, which I think she talked to pastor to Annette about it and to you. And I think Dame Annette said, Oh yeah, Adam will do that. Just call him. Here's his number. She was right. That was, that was a move by the spirit.

26:34 And I talked to her on the phone and said, come on, we'll do a pilot and we'll see how it goes. It's called, I know a woman and it's essentially each episode is maybe a 12 to 17 minute nice testimonial of someone who either can't or doesn't want to do it herself and so she's written it out I mean I was choked up man I'm just gonna all I had to do was just record and it was one take she said she has a beautiful voice just went straight through not a single stop not a single pick up I'm like I'm stunned. I'm like, all I have to do is just put some stuff at the beginning and the end and this is a show. I'm excited to get it on our Godcaster station. Of course, it'll be everywhere as a podcast, but oh man, this is so good. She's funny too. She's great. We sat down with her a while back and we left that meeting just lifted and encouraged by her story and just what God's doing in her life and in and through her, but also others.

27:38 But I'm so happy. One of the big wins for me was that we got to use our studios for somebody in the church. This is why we built that studio, as I've told Annette. This is why we did this, not just for us. It's just to get more voices out there, more people getting bold, staying the course. stepping up to the plate and saying, you know what? I have a voice and I have something to say. Yeah. Well, we actually have a studio. You can do that in. We have a studio. We have a platform. We want that to be a blessing. And then Doug, Doug, also from our church, Doug, Doug Brand, Doug Fire, Doug. Spredo? Flames.

28:21 We have several Dougs. I love this. Hold on a second. Let me see. It was Doug. Oh, man. Doug Burns. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's done radio. Yeah. And he's like, because I was talking to Matt Long after the breakfast and he says, Oh, I want you to meet Doug. You know, Doug's been in radio, rock and roll radio and doesn't look like anything like the rock and roll radio guy you'd expect, but typical also. I said, yeah, I've got this interview podcast and I've got everything all set up and I've got the gear and everything good to go. But I need a host. I said, you need a host. So what do you mean? Like someone to host it? He says, no, no, I'm going to do it. I need, how do I get it into a podcast? I said, oh, hello.

29:03 This is exactly what we want to do here at Bridge Charge. We'll get you up on rss .com because we have a partnership with them and we'll get this rolling. So, I mean - He's sharp. I did an interview with him like nine years ago when we first came here and when he found out I played guitar and stuff. he started talking about contemporary Christian music and he had a show on one of the local radio stations here where he would do this, he'd do like old hits like 70s, 80s, 90s Christian music. It was so good. and he's a great voice. And so, yeah, he'll be good. So that's another one. So we're just becoming like a podcast ministry, man. I'm excited by this. Well, I told you a while back, I said, you know, every church has a lane. Yeah. And I feel like our lane is something that was spoken to me back in the 1990s. And of all places, Hesperia, California, with an evangelist named Jojo Sanchez, who stopped me.

30:04 And he said, I remember it was the mid -90s. He says, He says, I want to say something to you by the spirit. And he said, if you're ready. I said, yeah. He said, have you ever done anything with multimedia? Remember multimedia, stacked projectors? CD -ROMs. Kodak. I mean like thousands and thousands of slides. And I said, no, but I'm fascinated. He said, get ready. You're going to speak to millions. through multimedia. Now, he had mentioned the internet because I was just starting to get some traction. Yeah. I mean, mid -90s. Sure. Yeah. Wow. I mean, I had Juno at that time, I think, or America Online, one of those. Prodigy. Prodigy. I've had all of those.

30:46 I was an early adopter. Yeah. And so doing what we're doing right now is so natural to me because I know this is what the Lord said was going to happen back in the 90s. So here we are, brother. And here we are, sitting in the studio. I love it. So we have a praise report. Come on. Oh, yes. Which now on the last show, we actually stopped in the middle of the show and prayed for Viola. She's Charles's daughter, Charles, and trying to think what his wife's name is. I can't remember. Sorry. but they were on their way and he was keeping us updated on email. And I just read a little bit of this. I mean, it's a lot of detail, but the bottom line is, he says, our God is so good, praise report incoming, Tracy is her name. And she came out of surgery fine, a little touch and go with fluids and they had to intubate her, but then they took her off, they got her on the CPAP, then the CPAP could come off. and hoping to move out of the cardiac ICU today or tomorrow. So, praying for healing and protection against infection. And I just love what he says here. Trace and I are so grateful for our Lord's grace and all the prayers we've been receiving nationwide. And remember, this could have gone completely the opposite direction.

32:15 And they were more concerned about even deciding to do the operation to give the go ahead. That was the big decision. Yeah. Viola is on prayer list from Virginia to California. Our home church, New Hope Assembly of God in Urbandale, Iowa has circled around us with support. Our pastor Brian even offered to fly to Boston for the surgery. It's so humbling to be surrounded by such loving people. I don't know how people go through life without God's church," says Charles. Wow. And so thank you all for praying and don't stop. Don't stop praying for Viola and Charles and Trace. And I think they have another daughter as well. Beautiful. So happy to hear that. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Thank you for our friends here on our podcast who may be paused and prayed with us when we prayed for her. Maybe when you listen to this podcast. Pray again.

33:03 Through her name up. Yeah. She's a fireball. I mean, she is Spitfire. Can you imagine what this kid's going through? What a destiny though. What a destiny on her life. Right. And Charles even made a comment. This is a story, a testimony being built. And so, man, it's a hard way to build a testimony, but I'm telling you, it's going to honor God and be a blessing to a lot of people. I'm always excited when I hear these stories, kind of like Seamus, who was a kid I was praying for. I'm excited to see what the Lord's going to do with these kids, because when you go through that... What can stop you from doing anything you need to do? Everything else is butter after that. Exactly. It's beautiful.

33:44 We're so blessed. There's a lot of talk in social media about the church. The church hurt me. I'm traumatized from the church. I've been triggered by going to church. It's kind of like America. There's so many people saying terrible things and yet when you peel away the handful of people that are being critical, judgmental, and negative, and that's not to say bad things haven't happened. I would never say that because unfortunately, there's bad apples everywhere because where there's people, there's going to be sin, there's going to be issues. But by and large, Man, the Church of Jesus Christ doesn't hurt people. People hurt people. People hurt people. It's the same thing when I say the Holy Spirit's not weird, people are weird. Quit blaming the Holy Spirit for the weirdness of people. Well, quit blaming the Church for the weirdness of people as well, sadly. There are people in the church who represent the church who've made terrible, gross mistakes. Because they're people and they're, hello, humans. And God will deal with that. He will have the ultimate say. But when I hear something like this from Charles, I'm just so thankful for what he said there that, thank God for the church. They're so blessed. And I love our church. I see how people come around our people. All the time.

35:06 Funny thing, and this is a good thing. I'm one of the last people to get a call when somebody goes down, sick or whatever. It used to be where, call the pastor, call the pastor, you've got to call, you know, that's old school. And one pastor can't serve us a thousand people. That's not even, Jesus could only handle 12 and he lost one. So, he's down to 11, right? So, what makes us think we can handle more than that realistically? That's why when the church becomes the church, I'm the last one to get the call. Their life group, their connect group leader gets a call. Their brother they met at the men's breakfast gets the call. The lady they met, the sister that she met at the women's ministry luncheon or breakfast, brunch, they get the call. the person they sit around in church kind of see each other on a red, they get the call. That's the church when the church is healthy and firing on all eight cylinders and doing what it's supposed to be doing because we are the church, the people are the church, not the pastor, the people. And just like presidents, pastors will come and go.

36:14 I'm not announcing my departure. I can't wait to get back in the saddle. But what I'm saying is that leadership and pastors and presidents and cabinets and All these things come and go, but at the end of the day, it's the people you do life with every day. That's your family. That's your church. That's your community. And you're right. We have a very strong one. I mean, just the other day, Tina's like, oh, we got to go bring dinner over to Larry and Jeannie. So what happened? Jeannie had an operation. Back surgery. They're 70, I think, close to it. So we're just making it easy for them. Like, oh, that's so cool. That's what the church does. But in order to do that, and you've heard me say this a million times, connection is protection. You've got to be connected. And that takes some effort on your part. To have friends, you have to be a friend.

37:07 And to be connected, you have to connect too. So it's not just waiting for people to come connect with you. It's you having the heart And the courage to step out and meet and greet and connect with other people. So I connected with someone at the men's breakfast, Cody Sharp. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Cody. Oh, he is sharp. I love Cody. And so I'm sitting there, he has his son Jackson, great kid, eight years old. And I'm looking at him and I'm like, this guy has some funky hearing aids. So let me see, hey man, what's up with the hearing aids? Those are pretty cool. So I got these, he says, well, they're actually a cochlear implants. I said, oh, okay. He says, I pretty much couldn't hear anything up until two years ago. And so now you have my attention. I'm like, oh, this is cool. And we're talking and he said, what's it like to hear?

37:59 He said, well, I can hear him. His speaking was almost undetectable that he had a hearing issue. He says, Well, birds are kind of a problem for me because I'd never heard them before and they're loud and they're kind of freaky. And, you know, I have three kids at home, two, five and eight. And it's kind of chaotic. And I hear everything. He said, I've never heard cymbals before in my life, only drums. And then I said, Hey man, so, you know, do you have the Godcast rap? Do you listen? He says, yeah, I do. I said, well, do you listen to, so we get to do this? He says, Two voices is still a problem. Wow. Yeah, two voices is he's trying to, you know, I guess it just takes a while. He has to train his brain to separate. That's exactly right. Yeah, to separate that. And he says, but music wise, you really don't, you know, I'm really not playing what I like or what do you like? He says, death metal.

38:55 I'm like death metal. He said, yeah. And he shows, he gives me a playlist and this is all, these are Christians. Christian, hardcore, death metal. It's like vertical worship. I mean, and I'm just like, holy moly, I never… Brother, send more to me. I just want to get into this. It's great for working out. Maybe we'll make a whole different channel of this stuff. Cody, if you're listening, bro, stay the course. Keep listening. Your brain will adjust. Neuroscience tells us it will. So, be encouraged, brother, and just glad you're listening. He's a good guy, man. He is a good guy. Really, really enjoy. that a lot. So, have you prepared for your next messages? I mean, have you gotten any… So, here's the deal. I'm coming back this weekend. I'm on the worship team and I'm going to introduce Rick. That's all I get to do. Oh, no. Oh, right. Because he's going through 4th of July, right? Of course.

39:45 Yeah, 4th of July, 250th. You know, it's a big deal. I thought, gosh, a year ago I asked him to do this because I thought… How could we not be more appropriate time to have Rick Green in the pulpit? Because he's going to be on fire. And if people don't know Rick Green, you can listen to Wall Builders on the Godcaster app, Flashpoint USA, and Patriot Academy. Just go look at the Patriot Academy. You'll get a good idea of who Rick Green is. And then the following week, we have Todd McDowell in the pulpit from Caleb Global now. It used to be Caleb Company, but I knew them back in Nashville. and he's a phenomenal teacher. So, we'll have him on Saturday for a conference, just an all -day conference or seminar. Yeah, I'm sad we're missing that because I really wanted to be a part of that.

40:31 And then he'll be in the pulpit. I'll be up on the guitar again to introduce him. But one treat we have is Don Finto, Papa Don Finto, who is just a legend in the Christian world, particularly missions and ministry to Israel. will be with us as well. He doesn't usually travel with them to churches, but he wanted to come meet us. We stepped in and supported them and brought them on. We adopted them as one of the ministries we support, so Don wanted to come and meet us and get to know us. I think it was the title of it, What About Israel? It's very clear. This is not political. This is not anything. It's really just biblical scripture. It's a whole day and I really wish I could be there. It's going to be rich. Yeah, I bet it will be. Yeah.

41:19 So that's happening. We need that at this moment. So I'm not preaching for another three weeks. I'm about to bust. Nice work if you can get it, pastor. I know, right? But at least I get to play guitar and I'm just happy to see our people. Really looking forward to that. Can I land the plane with a daily grind? I would love for you to do that. So today I wrote my first daily grind in nine days because I took a break and I've never done that in 22 years. It's the first time I've ever done it. First of all, you deserve it. Thank you. Second of all, I love that you kept it going. I just called it Just Jesus. I went through the Beatitudes and all I did was make a slide graphic with those and that's it. No commentary. I'm a big fan of just doing something.

42:02 You know what's crazy? I got more likes and just as much as I would have ever if I just was writing. So I got, wow, maybe I should stick with this. Never take it personally. No, I don't. I actually appreciated it. So here's today's daily grind, Just Jesus day nine, because I did the ninth last. There is a, let me just read that to you because it's the scripture, let me pull it up, the graphic. It's in Matthew chapter 5. There we go. All right. It's Matthew 5, 11, and 12. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

42:49 And then the actual daily grind is simply this. There's a cost to committing your life to following Jesus. We here in the States have become accustomed to comfort that real persecution is strange, so accustomed to comfort, sorry, that Real persecution is strange and unfamiliar to us. While we should be thankful, this has also served to soften us when it comes to going against the grain of culture, friendships, media, and entertainment. It's easier to just go with the flow. What if walking in deeper places with Jesus really does cost us? Would we still follow, still speak up, still refuse to go along with the crowd? Jesus bids us, come and follow me. Now, I want to give a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer out of his book, The Cost of Discipleship, which was published in 1937, where he was dealing with the Nazi regime in Germany as Hitler was rising to power. And he wrote this book called The Cost of Discipleship.

43:53 In it, he says this, the cross is laid on every Christian. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. I mean, this was a man that was heading towards his death because he was going against the grain of culture, of government, of the evil Nazi regime. In Luke 9 .23, I'll end with this, then he said to them all, this is Jesus speaking, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. My heart on writing this is that while I'm thrilled and I'm cheering on the crowds that are coming to Christ, I want to see real revival. We'll know real revival is here, not just awakening. When we see those people that are showing up in masses now at events and stadiums all around the world, when we see their lives changed and them willing to stay the course in the midst of persecution and pain, and we'll see that's when revival will show up.

44:56 And boy, we need each other in order to do that because it is real. The persecution is real and it can hurt. Even if it's on social media. It's like, oh man, that kind of stings. That's beautiful, brother. Thank you. Thank you so much. So I'm going to be in Holland next week, but we'll do the show, obviously. Yes. We're going to do it. We'll work out the details on the timing of that. Another transatlantic call. For a few hours difference, right? It's six or seven. Yeah, seven hours. I am looking forward to it, man. Thank you, brother. Have a great trip. Be blessed till Kevin and Christina plus one. Yes. Send our love from Jimmy and Annette. Well, if everything goes according to plan, they'll be here maybe September, October.

45:39 Beautiful. And they're bringing the grandbaby with them. It's going to be beautiful. Very excited. So would you have a fantastic week and we'll be back next week because we get to do this. We get to do this This is a chance we did not miss This is life We get to do this