Games People Play

0:00 This is Jimmy Internet and we are coming to you living up in a down world. Right from the middle of the Texas Hill Country where we have enjoyed an amazing spring day. Things are greening up. The blue bonnets are in full bloom. Texas is looking beautiful right now but more beautiful than Texas is the girl sitting right across the table from me or the studio desk. My little studio desk.

0:52 I'm excited to say that it is kind of small. You know when you order things on Amazon we might as well dive right into this. It always looks bigger. Yeah it looks like massive. Then we ordered it and it's like oh it's cute. I actually like it though. Was it a video podcast we saw with Greg Lowry and that? Yeah yeah I can't remember his name but yeah it was a vodcast, a video podcast. They were sitting well they did a couple things. One time they were sitting in these big cushy chairs. That's what I want. Big cushy chairs. I mean they were like chilling back having a latte. I think we should consider that. I'm wide open to that but I do like my little Amazon desk. It's an electric desk. It goes up and down. But you never do it. You never use it. What's the point?

1:39 I adjusted a few inches here and there depending on my mood that day. I'm feeling especially work in the workflow. I'll raise it up a little bit. Really? But aren't you supposed to be able to stand? Yes I can. It'll go very tall. I never see you stand. Well you know I just work so hard. Lazy. And by the way Chevy's with us today. Chevy you want to say hi? He did look at me. Oh my gosh. Chevy is our... Tell me again. He is a... Have a Sean. Just have a Sean. Just let it go. He's like a white poodle type and he is like... He's kind of got separation anxieties, codependent. I mean he's got a lot of issues but we love him because he's our buddy and he's right now totally chilling in Annette's lap. He gets so excited when you start setting up. I know. He literally knows what's about to happen.

2:29 He gets all excited. He gets... He's ready to jump up in our lap. Yours. He's a mama's boy during this thing. He's daddy's boy in the mornings. He comes into my lap. But he's just like so excited because he knows he's about to get some some petting and some loving and so he's totally chilling out. So hey well welcome to our podcast today. We are on number 12. Wow. Time flies when you're having fun. Right. Right. Number 12 and hey we made top 10 on Fountain again. We've been able to do that a few times thanks to some amazing people like Adam Curry and Sir Brian with an I and Deb Scott and we've got some just cool people who've been supporting us and encouraging us and and that has really helped and so to make top 10s exciting for us. So we want to get started today. We want to pick up on a couple of things. First of all let's do an update. How is the Purge coming? Wow.

3:27 Well we looked it up and it's been four weeks. Cheers by the way. Four weeks. Just FYI. I'm curious if I can move. To us. We're having aloe vera juice. We're having aloe vera juice. Vintage 2023 from Walmart and it is it looks like wine and it's in a wine glass. It is in a wine glass. I remember my son-in-law came into town. That's what I did when I was a Baptist. And I tried to get him to drink this because I said this is good for your gut. Somebody told us it's good for your gut. If it's good for sores and cuts why would it be good for your stomach? Exactly. So we drink it every day. We're addicted to it. It's it tastes like what hydrogen peroxide. No there's a smell that goes with it. Like when you walk into a pool supply store and you smell all those chemicals. Which we did this morning. You smell all those chemicals like chlorine and muratic acid and all that. There's a there's a smell that goes along with that. And that's what this smells like. It tastes like that smells. It's but we are addicted to it. Well cheers baby. I'm telling you. Wow. Okay.

4:30 Let's get back to me. Oh Pershing. Yeah back to back to mama. Well we looked it up and it's been four weeks one month since I have turned off the TV. And we're reading. We're talking. Now we're watching good stuff. I mean we did get on Pure Flix. And there's some we saw an amazing movie last night. What was the name of that movie? Wings of Ingles. Eagles. Wings and it was about Eric Liddell. Liddell. They say Liddell. Yeah the guy who won the Olympics in the 30s. Runner. They made the movie Chariots of Fire about him. Well this is another version that shows his life after the Olympics. Yes it was so. He became a missionary to China and was a school teacher to Chinese and got caught up in the war. And we're not going to give it away. It is a great movie on Wings of Ingles. You can see it on Pure Flix. It's from 2017. Never heard of it. Phenomenal. And I just happened to turn on Pure Flix and that came up. Who cried the most? We both did. We were both crying. There were two eye cries. It was so good. So we're not we're not keeping ourselves from TV but we're not watching. We're being selective. Right. We're not watching those TV shows that I was so addicted to. Like it was it's like being addicted to a soap opera which I was. Or Aloe Vera juice. I remember I was talking to Tina and Tina said oh my gosh when you were talking about soap opera. Tina Curry. Oh Tina Curry. She

6:06 and I were both talking about how she was addicted to some of the same soap operas that I was. But you know evening TV you can get addicted to those dramas and I felt like I was more into their dramas than our own. And I don't know. I just feel I feel it very much at peace what you've been watching things without me. No I was when I was in college I was addicted to The Young and the Restless. I thought it was All My Children. Erica Kane. It was that one too. There was actually a couple of them. I know. I'd go home at lunch from college from school and make sure. And that was All My Children at lunch at noon. I know. For me it was about four different soap operas and I would record them on my VCR if anybody knows what VCRs are. Wait we had a beta before that. I don't think I ever had the beta. You didn't have a beta? I don't remember that. They had those big discs. Those big large ones. I probably did. So addiction to TV. You know what was interesting. I don't know if this happens to anybody else but I would notice that in the evenings like if we were cooking in the chicken. If we were in the kitchen. Boy I might mix up some words on Sunday at church too. That's not even going to do that. Adam Curry thought that was really funny. So anyway. When we were cooking. When we were cooking you would just go turn the TV on. Just for noise. Because that's what my parents did. Guess what was on all the time. Wheel of Fortune. Yeah that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Never a fan. But you know what I don't know. It's not a bad show. Well anyway. But it was just to have background just because

7:44 it was a habit. Yeah. And I would sometimes go mute it while you were doing stuff. At least mute it. Because I wasn't even. It literally was just noise. And sometimes we would just turn on music. But still. Right. I would turn on music. That's me. No I like having it throughout the house during the day. I'd always. One of the things I had changed many many years ago was not watching anything during the day. Right. If we were home. I would wait till the evening. So I kind of did this slowly. But it wasn't intentional. Right. To stop altogether. So this is. To me I feel like I have overcome an addiction. Yeah. Because when you check to see how long it had been. I thought oh two weeks. I know. I was shocked.

8:31 Four weeks. It's been four weeks and we haven't even noticed. No. That it's been gone. I literally thought in my mind I'm going to have withdrawals. Because I'm such a TV addict that I'm going to want to know what happened on our shows. And now I want even if I turn it on so I could get to YouTube to watch a video or whatever. You know I just don't know if Stabler and Olivia will ever get together. Oh my God. On SVU. And that's why I don't want to watch it. Because they're not going to until the very end and then it'll be over. It's not even real. Right. I think that's why. But I've watched it with you for years because I was taking one for the team. Yeah. Because I love you. That was what we had.

9:11 Yeah. You know together at night. So then we're like what are we going to do with this 21 plus hours that we're gaining back. I did the math. Oh my gosh. And I'm not good at math. I used to calculate. We had 21 hours. 21 hours minimum. That's just a bare minimum that we gained back. And we've been listening to music. I love YouTube. So I'll put on this great cafe. French cafe. And they play jazz music in the background. But it's a huge beautiful screensaver that's got butterflies and the Eiffel Tower in the background. And they've got croissants on the table. It's making me want to drink a lot of coffee. But I'm on keto so croissants aren't. I know. Yeah. Don't say that word. Coffee, lattes, espressos.

9:52 I mean there are. Anyway. So I love that kind of stuff. And then we're reading scripture. We're reading books. We're watching. We're watching sermons on YouTube. We are total Bible nerds. We're preaching nerds. We love the Word of God. We love. We both of us have said this. Remember our friend Kathy from years ago. Yes. Say what she said and then what you told me. Well she just said that she has to have teaching on or music or something because she will get horribly depressed. That her whole life depends on what she puts in her mind every single day. Because she has had depression in the past and it changed her life. And you know I thought wow wonder what that's like. But that's all I did was think about it. But I never put it to practice until now. What a difference. The peace. Not just that we've always had peace in our home because people have always come over and said your house is very peaceful. That's true. But there's a peace in my heart now that is quite evident. A lot more so than it was before. I mean I've always had a you know a little bit of peace. Just knowing Jesus you're going to have peace. But this is different. This is just I'm not anxious or concerned about the things of the world. Now we did have a tragic thing happen today that we saw on the news. The school shooting. School shooting

11:25 in Nashville. Nashville is our second home. We resorted to our second home. And so I saw that while we were at the gym. Yeah and that's just a shout out. I mean a word of prayer. I mean we need to pray. Yes. I know of six that three children three adults. And it was a the last thing I saw was a 28 year old that could change with the news. I read that it was a 28 year old former student. But this school was only up to sixth grade. Wow. Weird. Weird. But such a tragedy. And so our heart our prayers our tears go out to Nashville because I know that Nashville is a big small town. So there's a real community spirit about Nashville. It's what we loved about living there. And so we have a lot of dear friends that are there. We have a lot of family that's there. Yes. And so not at that school obviously but still it's a heartbreaker when it's your community. And so our heart our prayers go out to that. Yes it sure does. So I saw that while we were at the gym. We were at the gym and they have the TVs up. So on Mondays just FYI we take we take our Sabbath. We take a day. It's not taking a day off. It's taking a day intentionally and spending time with the Lord. It's the purifying the cleansing. It's staying focused on him. It's recovering and resting. That's a gift that God's given us. And so for years we have not taken it.

12:50 And then just this last about a year. Yes. We've been doing that. And we're coming out of Covid. We just we were like we have to. This is a command from God and it's a gift. Well and then we had another death this morning of a really dear friend. We found out just went into the hospital on Monday last Monday and today he's gone and he's in his 60s I think. It's shocking. But he's a young I mean he's young minded. He's young spirited. I never saw him that old and just a great God a great lover of Jesus and his wife Rhonda. This love goes out to Larry to Rhonda Fisk and their family. And we got a video from a friend of ours that was up there and out there in California thousand area. And they sent us this video and it was all of their family standing around Larry's bed. Larry's got this massive mask on and just he's laying there. I thought he was in there at first like he wasn't even moving. And they start singing worship. They've got it like on somebody's phone and the whole family singing and Larry's hand goes up in worship. It's like oh and that was last night. I just started crying. And so our man again more prayers. I mean this is heavy stuff. So here's the thing. These are things that are realities that are happening. But that now add to that everything that comes in on all of our screens. Right.

14:20 Whether it's your phone a tablet or the TV. Our hearts were not designed by God to handle this amount of stress and pain. And you know what did we do. I always hear people say what did we do before. You know cell phones. I'm like well we had a lot more peace. We sure did. We didn't have the stuff coming into our phones in real time. And then of course these days it's like is it even true. I mean I don't even know what's real anymore. Unfortunately it's hard to trust everything that's out there. But it's just our hearts can't bear the weight of that. So the purging thing for us just to help anybody who's listening if you're thinking about doing it just try it like a fast. I'm going to fast TV for a week or for 21 days. You know it says 21 days breakers or make a habit if that's true. We did. We did. I mean we believe our passage. I didn't even realize. And I even thought. I even said has it been two weeks. You said two weeks. I thought this was just it could be just a season. But I actually don't want it to be just a season because I. Exactly. Peace is so strong that I don't I don't need it. So what we've gained has been already so worth it. And so yeah we're looking at ending our contract with Dish. Yeah. Oh my gosh I'm so excited. I know it's like when do I get here. I think it is June or July. We're done. So moving right along. So we gain peace we gain time and we're just not spun up over everything now because it's not inundating us. And it's really crazy to get spun up over a TV show.

15:56 Oh I know. It's not even real. Or the ID channel the ID network. Oh gosh. That just had you at some point it had you so scared. You were living paranoid. I was like we have to shut every. Make sure every door is locked. Every window is shut. I think I can see through that crack in the blind. No wonder I didn't have peace. I know that was really spinning you up and it spins us all up. Anyway great forward momentum on that. Just want to give an update on that. Travel update. A little trip coming up. It's a real short. You get to go meet with Robert Morris. Pastor Robert Morris from Gateway. So this is a cool thing. Our church we've always had our hearts and that I've always been very aligned with Gateway Church in South Lake Texas and we've been there often on over the years many many times we've had friends that are on staff there and known people on staff there and so we've had a lot of interaction there. So when we became the Bridge Church we were no longer affiliated with Oak Hills other than just relationships. Great relationships. We felt like we needed to connect with something larger than us. A network. We didn't want to be out here by ourselves as a church doing its own thing. We wanted to have not only accountability that's always part of it but camaraderie friendship relationship. But we wanted to find who we could align with. We looked at several and once we really looked at the Gateway Church network it was a no-brainer for us. It's about 168 churches, 165 churches and what I didn't

17:30 realize is you have to apply then they interview you. I didn't read the fine print. No apparently not. So I get double teamed. Two of the pastors called me from Gateway Church and they're interviewing me and I didn't know they were interviewing me. We're just having a great chat. Turns out we know a lot of the same people. We've had a lot of the same history and ministry so we're just having a great time practically high-fiving over the phone. And then later I find out it was actually an interview and then I got an approval letter that you've been in accepted. And they only accept about 20% is what I was told. 20% of the churches that apply. That's right. That was pretty remarkable. So we hit the ground running. We started attending some conferences out there. Some pastor conferences where they do equip type things. Where they train us, equip us, help us, teach us. It's just a lot of things that we really need constant input. You can imagine people who are pastors are constantly giving out, giving out, giving out. And if you're not refilling your buckets, not just with the presence of God and the Holy Spirit, all that's critical, but also with information, content, growth. I mean I want to be ever living, ever growing. And so Annette and I and our staff, we have taken advantage of so many things they've offered.

18:43 So one of my favorite preachers on the planet for years has been Pastor Robert Morris. We listen to him every single week. Every week. Multiple times. We go back in the archives. And the reason is because there's just an alignment there, a spiritual alignment where I'm just in locked sync with where he's at in his life, in his heart, in his season of life, and his own journey as well. We have the same background, denominations speaking. And she both got saved at 19 years of age, 18, 19. So there's a lot of history there. We were both kind of wild kids. Not kind of. We were both wild kids. You were both very wild kids. Okay. We were crazy. So, and yet God rocked our world and then called us into ministry. So we've tracked a lot of the same tracks along the way. So let's have a high respect. So we have pastors we relate to and connect to. And I got asked to attend a roundtable meeting with about 20 pastors out of the network that are going to get to sit down with Pastor Robert for a full day. I'm really looking forward to that. Even though I'm not going to be there in the meeting, I'm going with you, but I'm not going to be in the meeting.

19:52 But I'm really looking forward to what kind of wisdom he's going to impart to you and what are you going to come out with? And I believe there's, I believe in spiritual impartation. It's not just content. It's actually there's something deeper. There's something in the spirit, a kinship in the spirit. So I'm really going with an expectation and an open heart. I'm looking forward to meeting other pastors. Every time we go to these events, we get to meet more people. But also it's just an honor to get to sit and be and have that input into my life. So I'm just super excited about that. So that's this week. So we take off tomorrow. We'll make that trip. It'll be kind of a quick turnaround, but it's going to be really a really neat time. And then we're going to have dinner with my regional pastor. He represents he's my connect guy and his wife on Wednesday night there in South Lake. So we're looking forward to that. It's going to be a sweet time. Moving right along. I had a moment last week. I had a weird moment. I had a moment just confession time right here, transparent.

20:52 Wait, should you have told me first before you tell everybody? Don't panic. It's not about you. It's me. So anyway, I've heard that before. No, what it was, I actually had a doubting moment about the podcast about should we be doing this? I mean, you know, we're putting a lot of energy into it time and it's part of our now it's a regular part of our routine and had doubts. It's like I got, why do you think you had doubt? I think the devil is ticked off is what I think. And it just, it was just, I was getting attacked in my mind over it. I know it's crazy. I was, and it was such a weird thing because I had just read a bunch of beautiful comments people wrote and had gotten some encouragement and, and people on fountain are continuing to support us financially through given Satoshi's and Bitcoin. And so I was like, this is going great. Why am I feeling all this? And then I began to realize there's a very real enemy who wants to anything that we're doing for the kingdom of God and that which will help and benefit other people in the name of Christ is going to come under attack. Because he said he's here to kill, steal and destroy.

21:59 Is he ever, is he ever, but thank God that Jesus turned, flipped the script on that and said, but I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly. That's John 10 10. We've got that one committed to memory because we've had to, but it really describes this life. So yeah, I had a moment where I thought, you know what, I just, I don't know if it's worth it. Get over that moment. Well, first of all, realizing we had just talked about and did an episode last week called mind wars. We're going to kind of continue that that track today, but, but having that, those thoughts, uh, I realized I was getting bombarded by the very things we were talking about those negative thoughts, what Zig Ziegler used to call stink and thinking, stink and thinking that comes in your head that tells you you're not good enough. You're not worthy. Nobody really cares. This isn't going to go anywhere. I mean, I could go on and on because my mind never stops. Those tapes play constantly, constantly. Oh, they do. There. It's just, the devil doesn't fight fair. He's a street fighter. And so a couple of things happen. First of all, I began to realize what was going on. I don't even think I articulated to you right away. I was just kind of wrestling with it, doing what a dude tip guys just go into their shells, right? They go into their main cave and tries to fight it out. So I was wrestling there a little bit. And then, I began to just think through, wait a minute, this is not right. This is not coming from God. This is, this is not even coming from my own past. This is not a trauma informed response because I didn't have a whole lot of trauma in my background. So that's not,

23:31 this isn't that. And then I began to realize it was the voice of the enemy, the accuser of the brethren. And then where we're sitting in what I guess we were getting ready for a staff meeting on Tuesday. And this wonderful woman who was going into the sewing, I think the sewing ministry area that we have, and she saw us and she started to walk by and then she picked her head back in there and said, I just have to tell you how much your podcast means to me. You think that had something to do with it? Just hearing that from someone you'd never met. Yeah, yeah. And she'll probably be hearing this. So ma'am, please tell us your name next time. I'm so sorry we didn't get your name. But I cannot tell you the power of an encouraging word. The scripture talks about that there are words that are sweet. They're like honey.

24:25 And they actually, it even says that, you know, a word kindly spoken is like apples of gold and settings of silver. Isn't that a beautiful scripture? Yes. Well, and your number one language of love is words of affirmation. Go figure. Words of that's why I live up in a down world, you know. But you know, to me that would be very hard to be a pastor and need words of affirmation because you're going to get that, but you're also going to get people with that critical spirit come against you for saying things that they don't believe. I could write books on things they said to me. So you can have 10 words of affirmation and one person come up to you and say something where they're judging you and you just. It'll take you out. Takes you out. It'll decimate your heart. My recovery period is much faster than it was 20 years ago.

25:17 Because you're getting older and wiser. And I begin to see people in 3D and realize, okay, there's something behind what was said. Talk about 3D because I love that. All right. So my friend Bill Loveless, who's a great minister, his own right. He's one of our equipped teachers at the bridge, the church we pastor. He shared this with me. I don't know if he came up with it originally. You know, I don't know. I don't think any of us have an original thought at the end of the day. Solomon wrote in the Book of Solomon, the Song of Solomon, the Wisdom Book, he said, there's nothing new under the sun. And that is the truth. So anyway, I'm aware I heard it or where he heard it. We talk about seeing people in 3D. In other words, if I just judge you on what I know about your saying to me, but I don't know anything about you.

26:06 Or just the way you look. Yeah, the way you look, car you drive, whatever. How you carry yourself. Do you have social acumen? I mean, all the things that we notice about people. Seeing them in 3D means you take the time to see the full 360, the full...all the way around them, which means taking the time to listen, ask questions, get to know them. We had an incident happen here in our community. I won't go into details to protect both the innocent and the guilty, but it's a city-wide thing, an issue that's going on. It's turned into kind of a war between certain folks. And I've had the privilege of being able to speak to...

26:48 I like the way you said privilege. The privilege, the opportunity to speak to people on both sides of that issue in our community. And as the president of our local ministerial association, we had a meeting last week and sure enough, that was the elephant in the room. And I just outed the elephant. I do that a lot. I said, let's just talk about the elephant in the room. And I brought the issue up, you know, and the barometric pressure in the room, sucked the air out of the room. And so I'm sitting with a group of pastors and leaders in our community, all who I love and adore. However, they are all on different places of the theological spectrum, which means an issue like this in our community can really pull things to the surface and cause division.

27:33 Cause division. So I had to address that. And when I did, my biggest challenge to that group was to see others in 3D. And I said, if you've got a problem with somebody across the room or someone on the other side of the aisle, politically speaking, then you need to take them out for lunch or coffee. And get to know where they're coming from. Cause you never know. Everybody has a story. And what trauma has informed. There is a story behind everything that we say and do. And if you don't take time to get to know their story, then you will judge them. Exactly. And you will marginalize them and you will objectify them. And what you do when you marginalize and objectify somebody is they might as well be a piece of trash on the ground that with your little electric blower, you're blowing them off the sidewalk because it's just a piece of trash.

28:22 Well, that's what's happening in our culture. As you look out today, people, if people don't agree, then you just, instead of agreeing to disagree. It used to be that. Right. That's how we would live. You conversate. You lived with people like that. You'd meet with people and have conversations and talk things through. Not today. Doesn't seem that way. If you disagree with me, you must hate me. Yeah. So I'm going to go on social media and blast you out of the universe. Oh my goodness. This world has just. And so what happens is you get people in a room over a hot topic and it can get hot in that room real quick. I was like, when you turn air conditioner down this room? I mean, it was, we're meeting at our church and there's about 15, 20 of us.

29:03 But I appreciated it because once I laid a foundation, everybody as a kind of, it was a devotional, it was disguised as devotional, but I was literally like saying, we need to talk. And so what was really beautiful is to watch how that unfolded. Because it did get a little tense and terse a couple of times. But for the most part, everyone cooperated. Do you hear that word? Yes. They co-operated. Co-operate. They operated together. They cooperated. That's the way it should be. And at the end. Especially pastors. Oh, we cannot afford to allow the enemy to divide us. Especially pastors from different denominations. Oh, yeah. Because of course you have different views on God, on the world.

29:46 It's the tapestry of the body of Christ, right? So what was neat is at the end, I saw people exchanging phone numbers. I had three of my friends all from various places on the spectrum, all went to lunch together. That's beautiful. And then I got a beautiful report back from a dear friend of mine who knows and who'll be listening to this, who said, man, I got to see people in 3D today. That's beautiful. I've heard their stories. That's beautiful, Jimmy. Man, that just made me weak. Because you were really dreading this meeting. Because you didn't know what was going to be the outcome. Well, I'm a heart guy. I lead from the heart, which is good and bad. The good is I lead from the heart. And I'll weep with you and cry with you and hurt with you.

30:27 But the hard part is it hurts me deeply when things are out of whack. Well, and you know the enemy's wanting to cause such division. If he can cause division with all of these pastors, oh my gosh. No kidding. And you know he can cause havoc in the city of Fredericksburg. No kidding. I mean, you take out the shepherds, it scatters the sheep, right? Yes, it sure does. So praise God. I mean, we saw God working that. And what we do every week, we pray for the churches. We do. Every week. We pray for other. A different church every week. Every single week. And then we pray for all of them together. So of course this would happen. Yeah. Of course. Well, in a way, it was a great test. Yes. And so looking back on it and really processing it, I would say that was the best thing that could have happened, even though it was hard.

31:12 And I don't know that we're changing each other's minds on where we stand on certain issues. But at least we understand why we're standing on those issues. And that's what I saw. And I don't think it's up to us to change people's minds. No. No. I trust the Holy Spirit. Exactly. Whether I'm the one who needs to be corrected. And usually, here's what I learned a long time ago. And I tell people this all the time. So listeners, this is a good one to perk up on. There's always three opinions on a topic. There's never two. Always at least three. Your opinion, my opinion, and God's opinion. And there's only one out of those three that matters at the end of the day. Exactly. And so we're always complicit when there's conflict.

31:53 And there's always more to learn. But one way to do that is by seeing people in 3D. I hope that helps somebody today. One thing I want to share. We talked about mind wars last week. And we really got into this whole thing. Kind of an idea of the battlefield of the mind. So you got online. And what did you order that came in today? The Battlefield of the Mind Bible. There's a Bible around there. Joyce Meyer. Well, I have the book. And the book is amazing. But I was looking online. And she has an actual Bible that has her notes from her teaching. I'm so going to steal that from you. It is so good. I just started. I thumbed through it already. It's a huge book, Bible. Because it's the Amplified Bible, which amplifies.

32:36 So it's a bigger Bible than your normal Bible. Yes. Because it's amplified. But it's really good. Because it has a lot of PowerPoints in there. She calls them PowerPoints, where she's making a point that's very powerful. She has some prayers in there that you can pray when you're reading certain scriptures. That minister to you. And you want to have that as part of your life. And she gives you a prayer to be able to pray. Because not everybody knows how to pray. A prayer that's based on scripture. It's like praying the Word of God, which is so powerful. Yes. So it's really good. I just got it today. And I'm really anxious to get in it.

33:19 But she's one of those Bible teachers that have ministered to me since, gosh, I was in my probably early 30s. Maybe in 20s even. Yeah. Years ago, we started listening to Joyce. And we've watched her trajectory. She's about to be 80 years old. No. And as strong as ever. I mean, you talk about a fountain of wisdom. Not everybody likes her. I mean, she is definitely has. She's got her critics. She's got her critics. But she was sexually abused by her father. Oh, yeah. For years as a child. Horrible. And so trauma informed actions.

34:02 It impacted her life for years. But it also caused her to turn to the Lord. And he healed that. And she's got a great story. So the book we're recommending is not just that Bible. We're recommending her book, Battlefield of the Mind. If you struggle with crazy thoughts and accusatory thoughts or tapes that just run from your past, and you feel like you can't get free from that, which I just said 99.9% of humans on the planet, get that book. Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. You will not regret it. And it will help you fight and battle those crazy thoughts like just what happened to me last week. So scripture that I lean upon heavily when these kinds of things come, when we're talking about the mind game or mind wars, is Romans chapter 12, verse 2.

34:52 And I really like the New Living translation. It says this, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. That is so powerful. The way you transform, that means to change your form, trans, to change form. The way you transform, change your form, is by changing the way you think and what you think about. And so what are ways that we're changing our form right now? Well, just by taking the television out. Some of it's taking things away. Taking things away and adding things in.

35:34 Adding things in that are going to bring us joy and life. Nailed it. Yes. Yeah. So that's what I had to do when I was struggling with those thoughts, those negative thoughts, stinking thinking. I had to get back and go, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Where's this coming from? I recognize a source. Sometimes you've got to reveal it in order to heal it. And so I recognize a source. I revealed the source and said, I know where this is coming from. And I'm going to break my agreement with that. I'm not going to make a covenant with these awful thoughts. And so I was able to walk out of that unscathed. And you know what? Hey, podcast goes on. This is number 12, and we're not quitting. So we're going after it. So I wrote down, I jotted down some things.

36:14 We don't have a lot of time, so I'm not going to go too deep yet. But we'll keep this going. And I thought about this title, Games People Play. I mean, games people play. It's the things we do in this life is what I'm referencing. The games that we play in life. Because life is, I mean, I grew up an athlete, played football my whole life, baseball my whole life, basketball, tennis, and then picked up golf. I mean, it's just like I've played sports, lifted weights. You and I met in a gym. And we were in the gym today all 30 years of a while later. So for me, sports really speaks to me.

36:55 So when I speak in terms of the game of life, I mean, I immediately go to a football game, or a tennis match, or a golf game, or a basketball. So the games people play are the things we do to be in the game, to play the game of life. And so what are the games? What are the rules? What are the things that we do in order to play these games? And so I wrote down a bunch of just random thoughts. And one of is the mind game. And the reason I did that is because we talked about mind wars. And that got me thinking about the mind games, and then with me having my moment last week about wanting to just walk away from the podcast, go, OK, well, it was a good try.

37:43 It was fun. But man, I realized where that was coming from. And now I'm out of it. So I wrote down several things. I want to talk about another one. And we'll do this. I call it the name game. The name game. What does that mean? So the name game means this. If you don't agree with me, then I'm going to name you something else. And if you don't agree with me, you must hate me. And so I'm just going to name you. I'm going to label you. I'm going to label you a conservative. I'm going to label you a fundamentalist. I'm going to label you a liberal. I'm going to label you a progressive.

38:25 I mean, we can go down the list on the name games and how we label people. And we put names on them so that we can create. Very degrading. It's degrading. It's limiting. If I name you something, then I only see you through that lens of that name, which means I put you in a box. And I put a piece of tape on it. And I wrote that name on you. And that is what I meant when I talked earlier about when we objectify another human being. When we objectify them, now we can do anything we want with them because they don't matter to us anymore. And you talk about demonic, evil, dark. You want to say that something is satanic in nature.

39:05 It's this objectifying another human being. That's what happens in the porn issue is that when people watch porn, they objectify those people. And in their minds, they say, well, it must be OK because it's just a picture or it's just whatever. So when we objectify, we do that in arguments. We do it in conflict. We do it in marriages sometimes. All kinds of relationships and connections, when we step into objectification, the next thing we do is we marginalize that individual. Think of a book with all the words and blank margins. We take them out of the content of the page and move them to the side of the page.

39:47 They're no longer in our view. We stick them over here in the margin. That's marginalizing a person. So we objectify them, which means they're no longer human to us. And then we marginalize them, which means we put them out of our thoughts. In the culture, it's been called cancel culture. And you can define that in several ways. But I've always thought that's just a trick word that's going to go away eventually. What we're actually doing is we're putting them in the margin, which means I don't do anything in the margins. It's a blank white on a white page. It's just blank. And so we're going to stick them over there so I don't have to deal with them. And that is one of the darkest things. It's a name game that we play.

40:27 And we do it by putting labels on people. Have you ever noticed that or seen that? The reality in the world is put more labels. I've heard more labels now in this last five years than I've ever heard in my lifetime. For real. I mean, the media, I mean, everybody's just label, label, label, category, category. In the brainwashing assault. So what happens is instead of seeing someone in 3D, which means I go, oh, wow, they're more than that theological thought. They're more than that political position. This is kind of what I said with the guys the other day and the girls. I said, we've got to look past what we just know about somebody and get to know their story and get to know what makes them who they are, the why behind the what.

41:13 And so in terms of this, I found a- That's why you've been thinking about this so much. Oh, no doubt. Yeah, I mean, because life presses things to the surface that you have to deal with. And now you've got to reconcile that. So yeah, that's what I've been reconciling in my mind. So I want to just close out with this today. On the name game, James, no, I'm sorry, Book of John, chapter 13, verses 34, 35. Listen to this. A new command, a new commandment I give to you. This is Jesus speaking. That you love one another as I have loved you. That you also love one another. And by this, all will know that you are my disciples.

41:57 That's John, chapter 13, verses 34 and 35. What I think is interesting about that verse, and you and I were talking about it earlier, is most everybody knows the Ten Commandments or knows there are Ten Commandments. Not everybody remembers all of them. They'll just remember, do not murder, do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Right. But this is a new commandment I give to you. New. Fresh. Wow. He's not canceling the old. No. But what he's saying is, if you want to summarize all of it into one, it's this. That you love one another. Notice he's saying it in John, chapter 13.

42:37 Know what they were doing in John, chapter 13? What do I say every Sunday when I do communion? Well, I don't know. They were at the supper table. Right, but this particular Sunday, you kind of messed communion up and said. Oh, let's not go into that. I know. I'm sorry. I had to do that. Totally buffooned my words. Yeah, I got things slipped anyway. So it happened around the last supper. They were around the dinner table when Jesus said, let me just boil it all down to the basics here. Love one another. That's how the world's going to know who you are, is by the love you have for one another. Not the love you have for me. Not the love you have for me, Jesus. You have for people who are just like you.

43:17 Ooh. Now you're meddling, girl. Well, that's the problem. We have got to be set apart from others. As Christians, we need to be set apart. How do I love past a disagreement? How do I love through a wall? And agree to disagree. What is wrong with agreeing? In my past, I could have an argument or a discussion with a friend or a family member, and I could say, you know what? I disagree, but let's agree to disagree and just go on our ways. Disagreement to me is an invitation to learn. Right, that's true. Think about it. That's what it is. If I disagree, that means we don't see things the same way. So now help me see from your vantage point.

43:59 Help me see what you see, and I'll help you see what I see. And then we may even come into agreement. Maybe, maybe not. But if we don't, that's okay. I'm still going to love you, and there's nothing you can do about it. Exactly. So the name game, that's what I want to end with today, because I feel like it's important in this world right now that we stop labeling. Put away your labeling gun. Remember those labeling guns, the tape in them? Put it away and start getting to know the people that you're struggling with, the opposition, the resistance. But there's also boundaries that have to be set with people that are not always the best for you, because they'll bring you down.

44:41 No doubt, no doubt. So we covered a lot of territory today, and we're going to keep this thought going all through the week. So we hope this will give you something to think about and pray about and lean into. And we just always want to give a shout out to Adam and Tina Curry, who helped us get this podcast going. So we love you guys, and thank you for your help with us. We hope that you guys will have a fantastic week living up in a down world. God bless. app.