"Giving Up The Right To Withhold Encouragement"

0:00 and I'll see you next time. Thank you. Don't get down when you're seeing the worst Cause the last will be the first What a day I'm telling you All things will be new Living up in a down world Yeah we're living Yeah we're living Living up in a down world Oh This is Jimmy and Annette And of course as always Mr. Chevy is Jimmy And as always Mr. Chevy is Joining us on the lap of Daymanette of course Taking his typical position and posture He is, he got really excited When I walked in the room I know he loves, loves doing the podcast It's odd, I don't understand Because he's so involved in it He's already out He gets comfortable and then he's done He did his part so to speak Well we want to welcome you to Living up in a down world Number 30 Number 30 Three decades Three decades That's crazy, I know that's funny It's just wild that we're already at number 30 Almost half way through the year It is half way through the year We've done it It is over half way through the year 52 weeks in a year So yeah we blew past that marker But anyway how are you doing today?

1:22 I'm good I'm happy to be joining by the way Oh you're so sweet, thank you I mean that, I really do Because I put makeup on I never put makeup on on Mondays Yes I am cooking, again You put makeup on to go to the gym today You just feel better when you do it right? I do, yes I needed to today I needed to I needed to look a little bit more lively So yeah So how are the contacts coming along? We made a decision a few months ago To get contacts After many years of not And it's been a challenge It has been because One is a reading and one is a distance So your eyes, your brain Has to conform That is wild To this new way of seeing And it takes its toll on me sometimes So what is your left?

2:16 My left is For distance and my right Is for reading So the idea there Is that your brain adjusts Your brain adjusts She said it takes a good couple of months How's it going so far? Well it's going well I thought I needed a stronger Right lens And so we tried it but it didn't work So I still can't read Very well They say nothing can be as good As your own glasses But that's okay I would rather not wear glasses if I can get away from it So there's a little bit of an unusual thing With you doing contacts And that involves me Right How so?

3:02 I can get them in Just like that Sorry I snapped This dog does not like snaps He just thinks that means we have to do He's funny But I cannot get them out And I even had My nails cut down That didn't help So how do you get them out of your eyes? You have to get them out So we can never be apart If we go away By ourself without the other I won't be able to wear them You'll be wearing glasses Well let me just say I'm glad to do that Sometimes you complain No I don't complain The first couple of times was just straight up weird And you pinched my eyeballs at first I know it was awful You don't do that anymore Now it's pretty easy to get them out I think you've got it down I've got it now I've had them in the past When I was young I had no trouble getting them out I don't know if it's because these are so thick Because even sometimes Sometimes when I get them It's like a suction cup I know it's crazy It feels when I try to get them out So there's the contact saga What else is going on?

4:18 We are 34 days into our Sabbatical 60 day sabbatical Mind bending isn't it? So a little over half way We did decide We made a deal if you'll remember Is that Chevy making all the noise over there? Ignore the noise It's Chevy Being restless We made a commitment When we stepped into the sabbatical For those of you who are new to the show First of all welcome to Living Up in a Down World I'm Jimmy and this is Annette We pastor Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas In the middle of the hill country And we decided to start doing a Podcast because Adam and Tina Curry Are dear dear friends Adam is considered The pod father He co-invented and developed Podcasting like 18, 19 years ago And so he's become one of my Best friends on the planet and He was like you guys and Tina too you should do a podcast We're like really? Cause I kind of thought about it No it was you should do A podcast Yes not I was not included in that Conversation Not originally And then I Just decided I didn't want to do it By myself we do everything together Have you ever noticed that? That's true And so I thought no I don't want to do it by myself You're good on the fly I appreciate that You really are When you do announcements if someone throws Something at you you're able to Talk about it I remember we Used to do do you remember when we did

5:48 Commercials I do remember that we did It for I think it was Hope for Tomorrow And they would just ask you questions Or say here just start Talking and you could just Rattle off anything and I'm out there With my eyes bulging A little star struck Yeah I can't yeah that's not One of my gifts Stage fright That's what it is camera fright Yes I don't know camera shock or something I do have That but if I'm speaking I'm nervous right before but then when I stand Up after a few seconds I'm done and I'm You snapped your fingers again I know I'm sorry But I can speak and I'm fine After that but for some reason I just Have a little bit of stage fright Not only you're fine you're amazing You're gifted Well I appreciate that I appreciate That And you're also a gifted Podcaster Aww Seriously you have the most soothing Comfortable voice Here we go with A voice again No you have a beautiful voice Well I appreciate that You're a beautiful person I'm just going to accept that Thank you Way to go I'm proud of you Power of your words So I Power of your thoughts There you go that's It's true Powerful words Powerful Thoughts So I deviate just A hair because I did want to mention Adam and Tina and just that Adam He's the executive producer of our show You've Right but you've Forgot to say what we were about to do We made a decision on our sabbatical Last minute Back to sabbatical Jumping around a little bit You are Well I know there are people listening who maybe Never heard this before Now I know what Tina means when she's talking about Adam jumping around and then he doesn't Get back to his original bar We may both Have ADD I think you do

7:18 Adult No it's AADD Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Anywho You do Squirrel Fly whatever So at the beginning of our sabbatical We are so blessed our church gifted This with us our board of directors Our elders Coming to us saying go Enjoy and do not feel guilty And I needed to hear that Which we don't We don't feel guilty And they can run it Because I trust them I'm not worried About anything And What teeny bits of things we've heard Have all been good So we're super proud Of our team Looking forward to seeing Them in what 3 plus weeks I mean we still Got some time but looking forward to That it will be like a family reunion when we get back So we're doing this it's a first time In 38 years I've ever done anything Like this to take 2 months To just rest Recover Restore and refill And I'm getting stir crazy I know you are So we had made a deal We said we're not going to make any Plans in terms of travel Because some people on their Sabbaticals will do like a study break That's not a sabbatical Let's just work Or plan a trip So we were like you know what we have a beautiful Home we love it we're in the hills Beautiful green here Except for the grass because we're in a drought And we have Mr. Chevy with us But we said If we wake up one day And we just say let's go to the beach Then we're going to go to the beach And we woke up today

8:48 And said let's go to the beach So we're planning it And you did you floated it by me I did and I prayed I was but I literally floated it By you because I got an email In my inbox That had to do with travel And I thought I'm just going to click on this Clicked on it I started doing research Of an area that we talked about Going to and then I Just subtly Brought it up to you as we were Driving to the gym And you didn't say much but yeah And then I prayed I said Lord okay if this is of you And you this is what we should Do have him bring it back up And you did you brought it back up As soon as I got in the car I said you know what You were talking about going to the beach Let's do it let's pull the trigger And I was shocked You were shocked and I was excited Because a few days ago you said I don't want to go Anywhere well we both were just talking In the pool we kind of said hey we're very Content here Quite frankly I can tell you're a little Stir crazy I am I know you very well I need beach water I don't need to Get in the water I'm not a big Beach bird but I want to hear it Whether if I'm in a place and I can just Open up the windows and just Feel the breeze hear The waves That's good enough for me and we can cook I mean it's going to be easy Well and because kids are back In school school started That's what I was waiting for So it worked Out timing wise where there's availability So hey we're doing it

10:18 We're going to miss Mr. Shebby But he's going to be kept by his sister Faith our daughter Our youngest daughter Faith Our podcast instrument So that we can continue that Taking our equipment it's easy to haul along I'm going to put it in the Kemper bag So it's perfect it's like a backpack And so we'll do our And carry it on Yeah I'll carry it on For sure I won't let it out of my sight But we'll do that and then we're going to Do our podcast from The beach Yes Not out in the water too loud but from The room so looking forward to that That'll be next week so just bringing you up to speed On how things are going I've had some epiphanies during this I mean amazing the Lord kind of broke it Down into three parts for me First was spirit and my first Three four weeks were very focused On the person the spirit And spiritual depth And then the next part was body And so we'd already started Eating well and doing well We thought gosh this is the best time to Really get our eating and You know diet act together so we've been Doing that and that's been amazing We've both lost some weight I hope when we get back to church They're going to go oh my gosh you're half The man you used to be I'm hoping I'm half The woman I'm working on it I'm working on it I've lost 10 pounds So I'm super excited about that even on vacation I feel like it because we're going to Go to the store we're going to cook Go out a couple of times for seafood You have to have seafood in Florida So you know

11:48 For sure I think We're going to be fine and we can Walk along the beach and that burns calories Absolutely So yeah this has been great The whole sabbatical has been Great couple of things That have really impacted me And I heard Bill Johnson say it and I've really Adopted this into my own life and he said This I've given up the right to be Offended and I've actually Preached on that right before we started The sabbatical like the same week we Were starting I really that was on My heart and it's really Caught on some people it's helped some people And had some good feedback on that But it's really helped me and just And I mean in the little things Like driving or walking through a grocery Store and somebody cutting you off at their basket You know the stuff that's tedious and annoying Or sometimes just rude I've just given up the right to be upset about it And that happens quite a lot these days People are angry Of course the heat Doesn't help anything here in Central Texas it is Burning up hot we're what 102 I think Oh it's ridiculous 101 here We have Record well I don't know if it's record but Over 100 degrees for Many many days coming and That's why I said let's just Of course Florida's not any Different it's pretty warm there too So I think I think it'll be good but I think the heat Is so hard on people that it Makes you angry you know every time

13:18 You get out to go into a place you're Just burning up hot yeah You park a car somewhere I don't know how Chris Does it in Houston oh I don't Either I don't either because when he was Here he said this is wonderful The heat y'all have is so Dry compared to The humidity in Houston And he this is our son Chris yeah he's a pastor in Houston And he said I can sit out in Your backyard and enjoy The morning but I can't do that at my House I thought that was pretty sad yeah he really enjoyed Being here with us and we enjoyed him So So another thing but okay Going off that same premise of I give up the right to be offended Well another thing came up And I really grabbed hold of it from My own heart and it's this I've given up the right to withhold Encouragement you know In fact I'll just say what happened last week so The week before not last week But the week before we did A podcast and For the first time since we started in And at that time 28 episodes It was the first time We got no feedback I mean Zero like crickets I even I even kind of said This is what we heard It was just crickets And we were like wow Did it even go out over the airwaves Did we say Did we offend people or did we say something We shouldn't have and I know we took a little Different route on that podcast we Had a little bit of a stronger

14:48 Slant on some things And I felt a little out of my lane in that Doing that because it's not typically my Mo at all I'm Mr. Living Up in a Down World right Living Up So I felt like I got a nudge From the Holy Spirit I felt like the Lord Was nudging me to say that's not your Lane let other people run in that Lane and cheer them on but it's Not yours so we took a step Back in and did exactly what we were Called to do we talked about the forgiveness factor Last week that was powerful And I have to tell you we Had a massive outpouring of support It made up for all The 27 Episodes before and I'll Share some of that towards the end of the program But so thankful To everybody who took the time To encourage us and it Came in in spades I'm just I'm blown away I'm literally Just blown away I mean you even made a comment It felt like should we even Continue maybe this isn't our thing And I wasn't feeling Quiet I was down but I wasn't that down But I understand what you're saying because I mean you Wonder okay if there's Are we making a difference or is this helping Anybody because I don't want to do this if we're not making a Difference me too because you and I can Talk anytime we want but if we're Going to talk on air and we're going to share You know personal stories we're Going to share about what God's doing And we say and we want to help People I mean that's the whole Point we want it to matter To people we want them to Have get some value out of

16:18 What we have to say And if we don't you know I just I want it It's got to be meaningful It's got to be meaningful to people And I think that's just super Important super important And well said there So I came up with this I've given up my right to be offended And I've given up the right to withhold Encouragement because what happened Was what I realized Is that we tend to Think about encouraging someone but we Don't do it we think about it Just by thinking about it we sort of Think we did it you know what I mean We feel good but we didn't release That and share that With the person that person That you're thinking About maybe they need It and you've missed an opportunity Like today At the gym I saw you Walk by a gentleman on the treadmill And you've seen him for Months and months but you Stopped him because you noticed he had lost A lot of weight and you Wanted to acknowledge that And it was beautiful because he was shocked That you even noticed And you don't know him he doesn't Know you well I know him now his name is Taylor And I've seen this Guy for months he came in he And I asked him I said man I've got to ask you How much weight did you lose he said 220 no I started at 220 I'm at 180 I went dude that's Amazing I'm so proud of you He was just lit up he's

17:48 Young and I said well how old are you And he said because he was saying I eat Everything I because I asked Are you doing any dieting or anything with that or He goes no I eat everything he said He said I know I shouldn't but and I over Eat sometimes I said well how old are you he goes I'm 31 I said oh you can eat everything He can get away with that I'm 61 I can't get away with it and so We just had a great conversation he Said well what's your name and we introduced Each other and I just man it felt so Good and I told him I said you know I Walked right by you a minute ago and I Turned around and came back because I made a decision and I've given up my right to withhold Encouragement from people so I just wanted to encourage you today and the dude Made his day the dude was lit up Like can you imagine how Many people in our lives That we walk by that We call that we talk to In person that We don't encourage at all And what could happen if we would All take the time to Encourage one another and really How much effort does it take I think as I walked Away from Taylor and I Put a thing in my memory so I remember his Name so the next time I see him I call him by name And I'm not a Gym socialite I go to work out I got my air pods on I'm in You know I'm just like her so It kind of broke me out of my Zone to actually pull him out of my ear and Stomp somebody and Talk to them but I'm just made up my mind

19:18 I'm not going to let it go I'm not going to I'm not going to withhold if Something comes to mind and too you Got to think in terms of appropriateness too Had he been lifting weights I wouldn't have stopped him I noticed He didn't have his air pods in So he wasn't listening to music And he could keep walking while I talked To him and so I'm being wise about that because I mean you just start suddenly going out And encouraging every human being because then it can Turn into just flattery Or just false compliments and that's Not what I'm talking about I'm talking about When the Holy Spirit nudges That's what I'm talking about And you know we all get them We just don't act on them How many times have you been Just driving you're driving into the Office and we're in different cars so you're by Yourself and maybe you've got music going maybe you Don't and somebody comes across Your mind and you think gosh I haven't talked to that Person well I should probably reach out to them I believe even Those kinds of things is a God Nudge it's a God tap I agree I agree it's a God moment where He's saying you need to reach out to that Person but if you're Like me and I know you are because we're human right We're human beings being human And we just withhold It because we get we get Distracted or we move on with our day And we don't and we forget And so I'm doing I'm trying to be very open and sensitive And say Lord train me Train my Spirit to hear those and And sense those God nudges

20:48 Because think about how powerful It would be I mean we mentioned In last week's podcast That words Matter that our words Are powerful so when we Take our words Of value and appreciation And encouragement In fact the word encourage means To inspire courage There it is you've got it to inspire Courage so when we encourage Someone we're actually inspiring Courage in them And name one Person on this planet that doesn't Need to be encouraged exactly Everyone needs to hear it There is the law of reciprocity It's kind of amazing because when you Give it it comes back to you right And scripture talks about that Give and it will be given to you Good measure and that's not about money By the way. Press down. Yeah shaking Together and running over when God put It in your lap and that That's the law of reciprocity It means when you sow when you Give when you extend something It will come back to you You don't do it so that it will That's the wrong motive you do it Because the Lord told you to do it So I want to encourage What got me thinking about that So strongly by the way we're not going to stay on our topic This is the topic today You're looking at the time going whoa We have another topic we'll say it for next week This is the topic Because there's nothing The issue of forgiveness which we talked about last week Is so critical and so powerful

22:18 But also the issue of encouragement Well if you think about what The word says it talks about We need to love one another And if You're not loving If you're not encouraging them you're not Loving them so it's It works together And so I think that you know we've been Listening to Bill Johnson Talking about Loving one another And how important that is I listen to A Teaching today by Robert Morse from years ago While I was at the gym and he was talking about Preferring people Putting people you know like you say Putting people over preferences It's this he was Basically saying the same thing He said that when he started his church 25 years ago He told the people That were involved in the plant We need to prefer People need to Come first and they all stopped and said No no no wait it needs to be God And he said what do you think God's purpose is who do you think What do you think his whole His whole Purpose for being God Is loving people So if we love people then We've served what God Set us here on This earth to do and so It really goes along with that Because I love that But too many people go oh you're putting People over the Holy Spirit

23:48 No You know what I'm saying The Holy Spirit is in that person And we've got to love that person Right Love God love people I mean that's what we do Listen to this scripture I just pulled up some scriptures as we're talking 1 Thessalonians 5 11 says this Therefore encourage one another And build each other up And he says just as in fact You're doing so apparently they were already doing that There in Thessalonica That little church that he was at But he's saying encourage one another And build each other up Hebrews chapter 10 24 and let us consider How we may spur one another on Toward love and good deeds Good works Isn't that beautiful It's the idea of we're here to inspire Courage in one another and I love that To spur one another on it's like cheering Somebody on right Beautiful beautiful scripture Listen to this out of Ephesians 4 Another good one Do not let any and wholesome talk come out of your mouths But only what is helpful For building others up According to their needs That it may benefit those who listen We're here to build People up to inspire Courage and to pour life Into others And it's hard to pour life into others and encourage When you're not encouraged yourself Well I think we're a negative culture so we're always About putting people down And I don't want to be Part of that camp

25:18 I want to be a part of the camp That people say oh my Goodness she's always Building me up I never hear Negative things about people From her I'm not there Yet but that is one of my Goals it's always been one of my goals In life that I always prefer People so one of the things about Preferring people is then you're not Selfish either If you put people First you're putting yourself Last and I think that's really Important beautiful we watched A movie last night it was not the best Movie we've ever seen but it Was about had a good message The message was this young Girl preferring others she Was always Doing for other people and People were drawn to her because Of her love her love For God and her love for people And I just wow as We were watching that even though it wasn't We didn't really care For the ending so much because it didn't Have the ending we prefer But the message was so strong And sometimes we can watch something Turn it off because maybe it's not going Where we want but we miss The idea Of what is trying To come across in a movie and to me I walked away going wow I need to be more like that And I think what's hard for me On this sabbatical is not being around people Yeah So what's happening to me Now the people that I am coming in contact

26:48 With I'm talking to them like the guy At the hardware store I noticed that He had this his arm in a Sling I said man what happened to your Arm he's so he tells me a story I'm like man I hope that gets better And wish you the best I mean I'm finding myself just enjoying Talking to people And see for me I want to talk to All of my friends from church And I want to you know Find out what's going on in their lives And I can't And so it's I think God is just ramping me up For when I do have That opportunity in three and a half Three four weeks to where I can I can utilize what I'm learning Now to be a better friend Because that's what I want is to be A better friend I am getting to be That friend with Tatina Which is great beautiful but We only allowed one Couple in our life at this point so That we could truly have A sabbatical so It'll be interesting to see what happens As time moves on From the sabbatical you know you just mentioned That movie about that girl serving listen This first Peter 410 each Of you should use whatever gift you have Received to serve Others as faithful stewards Of God's grace in its various forms And it's that idea So I'm focusing on Encouragement right now because And the reason I am is because of you who are Listening you inspired Me because once We said hey wow

28:18 We didn't hear anything are we Is everything okay did the Did everybody get you know raptured and we Got left behind I mean what happened it was Weird but you just Responded and I want to say thank you For that and I want you to know Not only did it encourage us it Inspired courage in us But it also at a deeper Level inspired me to Inspire others to encourage others And that's why I'm sharing the simple Principle and while we're talking About this is because I want to invite You to adopt the same principle The first principle is this I give Up the right to be offended The second principle is this I give up The right to withhold encouragement And so when you get that God tap that nudge You think oh I should write them oh I Should text them I should send a note I should Call I mean whatever that is Act on it Because if you procrastinate it that That immediate impulse Goes away because we get distracted And I guarantee you that person needed What you have at that moment I have to believe that I know it Because it's happened so many times in Our own lives where we've received Encouragement at the right time And vice versa We've had opportunities to share with others And they were like you have No idea how much I needed to hear that Yes we hear it all the time We know it because We both have lived that out So we mentioned the power of words Last week you mentioned the power of thoughts

29:48 As well and all that works together So when we're thinking About the person Of the Lord we're thinking about the person Of the Holy Spirit who walks with us He's our counselor our comforter Our advocate our friend Our intercessor he's all Those things when we're Thinking about him and keeping him in Mind then it opens The door for him to bring people To our mind I woke up This morning thinking about a lot of people Just individuals came through My mind and I was able to call Them by names about 5 o'clock I didn't really want to get up at 5 but I was awake so I Called just a handful of people Came to my mind and instead of Going I wonder why I'm thinking about I just prayed for them So I'm trying to train myself To act on those thoughts And not just let those Come and go because they will They will come and go Sorry I hit the desk So I hope we can encourage you to do that Speaking of mutual encouragement We had another night out With the Curry's We did It was so cool So there's this new restaurant in town It's an Italian restaurant they started Building it during COVID They had to re-furbish A whole building that was Just falling apart and we've been watching them Work on this building and seeing it going That thing is going to be nice 3 years 3 years they've been working On this so what's the name of the place?

31:16 Alla Campagna Now I may be saying it wrong I probably said it that way I think it's Alla Campagna So it is an Italian restaurant Amazing food Amazing service Of course The chef heard Adam's voice from afar And came over And just almost Drooled on himself talking to Adam Oh my gosh The food was great The fellowship was better It was It's always great when we get a chance To go out with them Going to a winery tomorrow And then they leave for Italy They head out and then we're going to head out So wonderful time One of the things I wanted to bring up Is that what I love about our relationship With Adam and Tina is that We've had this discovery stage Because relationships whether it's an individual A couple, you know, couples A group or a community Go through stages or phases Really begin to think about it What's happening is that we've gotten So close And so we've moved beyond The discovery stage So the discovery says, John did some notes down Tell me if this resonates with you And you think about as you're listening About your stages of a relationship I'll go quickly through these So the discovery stage Everything's new and exciting For example, we say things like

32:46 We have so much in common We're just alike And then we find out later We're not that much alike It's hilarious But it's a beautiful time because discovery stage is fun And when somebody falls in love, for example With another person That's the discovery stage That's the everything's amazing stage Honeymoon stage Discovery stage where everything's new and fresh But then you move past it And this is where most Individuals, couples, groups And communities stop They cease They never actually fully commit and connect And so the next stage Is the this is us stage So if you remember the show This is Us, it was just I loved that show It was drama upon drama upon We used to watch it and go, this is so dramatic But it's a drama It's ridiculously dramatic It was one of my favorite shows I know, and you have most of America So I called it the this is us stage And what that is Is that things can happen That are not quite as That are more normal You drop the mask You let your guard down And then you let more of yourself come out And so when we were at dinner the other night We had a couple of tense moments You and I didn't have tense moments With them, and they didn't have tense moments With us, but you and I had a couple Of minor disagreements You called me out on something Same thing happened with Adam and Eve

34:16 And I laughed about it all night Because I was like, this is beautiful We're finally past the discovery stage We're moving into the this is us Stage where now you're getting the Real us, you're getting the human You're getting the people And this is the part that most people Never allow to be seen Because they want to be seen as Perfect, and we Can't be perfect And this is where most relationships stop Because if I can't be perfect Then I know they're not going to love me anymore Or a new love relationship So a new, let's just say A boyfriend and girlfriend You both have masks on For God knows how long And then when you do A lot of times you have them on up until The engagement, then after the Engagement there's a switch That flips And you begin to let your guard Down, I remember a couple I will not say their names But I think you know who I'm talking About, and they were They had a good courtship, it was a great Dating relationship, as soon as they got Engaged all All the claws came out And it was Horrible, we didn't know if they would even make It to get to the marriage And then after the marriage And now they've been married for years and have several Kids, but it was Rocky, it was a rocky start That was the this is us stage Yes, but they I think it can be a dangerous place I remember the

35:46 Discovery stage with you 30 years ago, I remember Putting on this I think There were little blue birds flying around I was like Poor victim me But I'm all whole And healed and Ready to embark on A new relationship, no I was not anything like that I remember putting this mask on And I remember thinking I literally remember thinking to myself Oh no I'm going to have to take it off at some point And he's going to get to know the real me And it scared me It scares all of us All of us have that fear of being known And yet Only the relationships that are Played for the long game and last for the long Hall are They've overcome That stage and they've walked through it Navigated it and said I love you no matter what I don't love you because of that or I don't Not love you because of that to use a double negative You know, I love you Because of you and I'm good With that and so I love that we hit that And it's been fun to navigate Because I'm excited because what it means is That we're moving through, we're maturing Relationally. We have no Mask on anymore. No mask, nothing to hide Nothing to hold back Unless they don't like me anymore We're beyond that. So another stage I just, I jotted these down

37:16 I did a little research on this. Of course you did I know, it's fascinating to me I've been there a lot of times So the next stage is Steady as we grow Steady as we go, steady as we grow And that stage means that you're beginning To lay foundations for longevity In other words, you see The potential in a long term relationship This isn't just for a season Or they're going to be high and buy Or oh that was great, we did that together And now we've gone on Or they move out of town so you think I'll never talk to them again. No We're actually laying foundations for a long Life. The next stage Intertwined journeys I like that, your journeys start to Really intertwine. I'm actually seeing Elements of these in our relationship With Curry's right now and it's really exciting It is. But intertwined journeys That means you're doing real life Together. That means Things like taking a vacation Together. Which we are going on A trip next year. If you're going to test a relationship Going on a vacation together. Yeah, we're going on a trip Next month. Sorry, can't say it.

38:18 It's not a vacation, but it's a Needed thing. But it's a few day trip. Although And we're scheduled next year to go on a vacation At the Nashville. I'm not sure if Adam is Flying us or not. He's not, right? I'm not sure either. I don't know yet. That I'm a little nervous About. But anyway. You're going to see The real everybody when it's done. I know, exactly. Flying the plane. Exactly. And then Yeah, adventurous together. You're doing things together and I love That. That to me is what When it gets exciting. And again, each of these stages have Their precarious moments That can be make or break. And you've just Got to have this mentality Of commitment. This mentality of This is a God thing. And continue To work through it. The next stage, dancing In the rain. Now it sounds funny.

39:02 Where did you get that from? I pulled it up Somewhere. Some of these were mine. Some of these I borrowed. And they just fit For me as I fought through stages. And that's navigating the storms. I love that. That's dancing in the rain. Navigating the storms. Pain, suffering, Trauma of life. Because it's when that diagnosis Comes. Or when the ball Drops on something that you didn't see Coming. Or your best friend Makes a terrible moral Mistake or decision. You know, are you still going to be there for them? Are you still going to dance in the rain With them? And I love the picture Of that. Of course you think about the movie Dancing in the rain. That's exactly what was going through my mind.

39:42 But think about the joy. And yet it's pouring Down rain. And the dancers Are oblivious to the rain. You know, the umbrellas do no good. You know, they're using them to dance with. And so to me, that's a beautiful Stage where you get to walk Through the heavy stuff. And so The next one is beyond the horizon. And that's the idea of exploring God's endless possibilities Together. Wow. That's when you're Seeing destiny in your friend Or your group or your community. You're seeing purpose and you actually Join in cheering them on As they move into their destiny. That is something I love about Adam and his relationship is we cheer Each other on. We're cheerleaders For each other. I mean, man Everything he's doing with the boost scram ball And all the stuff with podcast 2.0 I'm just like cheering him on.

40:30 No agenda. Cheering him on. Because he's running in his lane And God's got his destiny. So I'm with him. Then the last one is Are you hearing an alarm or something? I'm making sure I do have an alarm. We have a roast on. We had a roast on Last week during the show. We're eating a lot of roasts right now. This is becoming a habit. No doubt. And then the last one is And it's really not the last. It's just the next one. I didn't make this into any tremendous Thing. And it's rooted together. Rooted together. I love that. And that means you are playing The long game. You know That you're meant to walk together For life. And if you start By Projecting that you're playing The long game, you will play the long game.

41:14 That's right. Again, it starts with Your mind. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So anyway, just some thoughts. Things I'm pinging around in my mind. And too, again, such a sweet time with our Friends. And we're excited for them Getting to take a little break and go do some Travel. Of which We would have traveled with them, but you Did not want to go overseas at this point. Which is fun. And I didn't want to use my sabbatical For an extended trip like that. Right. Right. So anyway, we'll go another time With them. So We've got some thank yous. Boy, do we. And I'm going to move This around so I can see it and read it. But we just Want to say thank you for the Great response from last week's show.

41:54 I mean, I already mentioned this. You know, we were discouraged. We were. We did Not have our Is it going? Okay. You go take care of the Roast. I'll take care of this. So, Friends, I just want to say thank you from the Bottom of our hearts. You came through with Notes. You showed up with Boost-o-grams and comments. Emails. It was so Encouraging. And Again, it was that lesson. I'm not I give up the right to Never hold on To an encouragement again. So thank You for inspiring me. And it's a good lesson for us. So here's some kudos And thanks. I'll just start here with Some donations. Trinity devil bis.

42:34 Thank you, Trinity. You donated Eleven dollars in 1776. Thank you for doing that. Every little bit matters. It all Adds up. And what it does, it allows us to Keep adding. We've got Always got new equipment that we want to increase And improve what we Do. We want to operate with excellence. And so All this goes into a fund to really take care Of the equipment that we're putting together For the podcast. So thank you for that. David Wicker. So appreciate you, Brother. Twenty dollar donation. And also appreciated your emails. Just some good back and forth encouragement Brother to brother. So thank you, David. Also want to say thanks to Peggy Laden. Peggy has become just such a Dear friend of ours.

43:14 And such a jewel. She helped us out At our church. Worked with our team. Led us through Strength Finders 2.0. Such a blessing to get That time with Peggy. And Donation of 25. So thank you, Peggy For encouraging us. Eric Kessler. Another great brother in the Lord. A hundred dollars. What? Thank you, Eric. So encouraging to us. We appreciate You, brother. Thank you for who you are And what you're doing, man. And then We have some boostograms. So I want to Start with this one. This is a boostogram. 77,700 Sats from Adam the Podfather Curry. That is a striper boost. There it is.

43:54 He's also our executive producer. And he has given up the right To be offended. That's what he wrote on his note. Coming in with 25,000 Sats. Another precious new Friend of ours. Julie Loftgarden. She says this. Loved our dinner and getting to know you both. You're such an encouragement to others. But let me encourage you. You both truly are Fishers of men. The spirit used you To catch Tina and Adam. And so many others for the kingdom. God bless and would love prayer As we embark on a trip with my Parents this week. So we really appreciate Julie and Ben too. We had such a sweet time meeting them Last week over in Dripping Springs With Currys and hanging out with them.

44:38 And it was a beautiful, beautiful time. Did you enjoy hearing her story? I did. Amazing. And then also We got a boostogram. 25,000 Sats from Tina the Keeper Curry. Of course. Thank you Tina. You're awesome. And she writes, love, love, love you too. Well we love, love, love you too. So thank you Tina. We so Appreciate you. And then another Boostogram. It's kind of a striper Boost from Sir T.J. 17,777 So we'll go with the Striper Boost for that. And he writes this. I could say a lot But I'll keep it short and just say I've received a lot of value. And wanted to send some.

45:18 Truly, thank you for your podcast. KTLD And FTCO. So KTLD. Remind people what that means. Alright, so Adam Curry has this Amazing, no this intense Obsession about Keeping the lid down on the toilet. Which we have. We're with him on that. We've been this way all my life. We're just as obsessed. He's more vocal about it. I'll just put it that way. Oh, he wants to have T-shirts made. Cups, who knows what else. And so, anyway I love Sir T.J. Thank you man. You just made me laugh when I read that. Keep the lid down and FTCO Flush the crap out. So man, we're totally with you my friend.

45:58 Both in the toilet and in Life my friend. So great. Thanks for the boost. I love it when you make me laugh. That's good. And then we've got another Boostogram For 1234 Sats from Scott ZC. He just wrote, bless you both with a Smiley face. So Scott, thank you So much and bless you too Brother. Another 1200 From Shelly Shelly C And she sent in 1200 Sats. She writes this, love your show The power of life and death is In the tongue. And you all Bring life to the podcast waves. I enjoy listening on my morning Walks. I particularly loved Hearing about your sabbatical as I am praying my own pastor is on his now.

46:42 Isn't that cool? I'm praying He experiences the same refreshing you are. Keep doing what you're doing and sharing You guys are great. Shelly, you're great too. And we want to say Thank you. That means a lot. Not only for the Sats but just for taking The time to write an encouraging note. You're doing it. You've given up your right To hold back, withhold encouragement. So thank you. It means a ton. We have another user, Boostogram For 100 Sats. He writes this She writes this I love the podcast. Today starts year 38 as a football coach's wife So I understand being offended. And I love the message of forgiveness And being unoffendable.

47:22 Does she ever understand? Being a pastor's wife is really Very similar. Thank you so much. There's not a name attached to her User handle. But thank you so much For writing in. And we feel you. We get it. But let's together, let's give up the right To be offended. And I think God will use us in Even greater ways. Also we got this note From Julie. Now these are emails That were written in to our website. So Julie Writes this. Thank you both for sharing Your lives with us. You are right. We are never too old or spiritually Mature to learn and grow.

48:02 I find the older I get, the less I know. And the more God has for me to learn. What a gift. Boy that is The truth. That's wisdom right there. Julie it's beautiful. Thank you for Taking the time to write. And we just want to bless you. Oh there's more. I forgot. But wait There's more. She says also I've noticed a marked difference in your voices. Especially in the last couple of weeks. Because we have our new road caster. Well we've got that. That was helpful Because Adam tuned our voices. He's the podcaster master. But she says you're relaxed. You are relaxed. She says what a gift The sabbatical is. I'm almost too relaxed. I know. I'm feeling super mellow. I am too. Especially today.

48:42 What a gift the sabbatical is for you both. I teach women weekly through Bible study Fellowship. September 3rd, May. It's a wonderful program for women. Absolutely. With a schedule similar to a pastor role. I really enjoy and treasure my June and July off. August Is planning for the new year as it gives me pause and perspective before I dive in again. She ends with this. Thank you again for your open and honest look at life through the lens of Christ. Blessings to you both. And blessings to you Julie. That just means so much. Peggy wrote us a note. Peggy Layden I mentioned her earlier. This is beautiful. She says love the message on forgiveness and surrendering the right to be offended.

49:22 Love you guys. That really has hit home with people. That's resonated. Thank you Pastor Bill Johnson. You might need to do a whole new series on that. I know. I hear you there. We love you guys and praying for you both to go deeper. Thank you because that's our heart. We want to go deeper. She says wish we lived closer. Sometimes I text Annette things but I'm realizing she may not be getting those texts during your sabbatical. No I'm getting the texts. I'm just. No I'm not. Not from her because we changed our phone numbers. She can email me. She can write us right through here. Or through there. I'm just not returning it. I'm not. Not right now. Sabbatical. Thank you Peggy. We love you.

50:02 You are a dear dear friend. And then the last thing this is from Sean Maguire. So Sean wrote this. He says hi Jimmy and Dame Annette. I've CC'd Curry and the Keeper on this too because I think they'd find this interesting as well. Given Adam's recent decision to give up on the right to be offended. You guys have been talking for a few weeks now about being offended and the scripture that always comes to mind is one my dad often brings up. Luke 17.1. Then said he unto the disciples it is impossible but that offenses will come but woe unto him through whom they come. And he says this the whole scripture is great but the most interesting part about this scripture is that Jesus says offenses will come. Not might come will come. And the interesting part about offenses will come is the word offenses. Strong Concordance. Way to do some study there brother.

50:54 Strong Concordance says that the root word in Greek it means this a trap stick or a bent sapling. Like a stick that you pull out from under. A snare. Literally what we've seen cartoon characters do for years. Bugs Bunny or some other character. The Road Runner. Yeah. Grabs a tree, bends it down, bends the top into a loop and waits for Elmer Fudd to step on it to the loop and suddenly the tree springs up and they get caught. Offenses are literally a trap. The devil sets and waits for you to step in too. It's true. So good Sean. Sean thank you for writing that. Thanks for it. Man I love that that prompted those thoughts for you.

51:36 And that you dove into that. Well and what I think about with offenses too is as Christians we need to look at where the origin of that offense is. It's not the person but there is a controlled being called Satan. There you go. That's who brings the trap. The person, he's just using the person to do that. And if we could get our eyes and our thoughts on that it would change how we respond to people. It comes back to seeing something we've talked about on here before and that's seeing people in 3D. Exactly. Realizing there's a look behind the obvious. Don't look behind what? Look behind, look beyond.

52:16 Because there's something driving that. And when we do that we can be unoffendable. Because we realize you know. It takes work. It does. There's effort and prayer. I mean it really learning to become dependent upon the Lord. And the scripture says this in Corinthians it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 it says, in bringing every thought into captivity of Christ. So you can actually take a thought and capture it. It's like putting it in jail. So that it's away from you. It's detached. It's separated. So bringing every thought in bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ. That's a powerful verse. That's a principle I've had to lean on many, many, many times. So guys the last thing I want to say to you is value for value.

53:08 That's what we're talking about. That's what this is. You guys are time, talents, treasure. You've given us value with your time by writing these encouragements in. Keep them coming. We want to dialogue. We want to connect. We want to hear from you and we want to talk to you because we're here to help you live up in a down world. And you're helping us do the same. We're all in this thing together. So thank you so much. Living uppers. That's what I've been calling folks. They're living uppers. And you guys are doing just that. Thank you for the Sats. For the donations and support. That's what value for value is all about. If you're getting value out of what we're bringing this is helping you. This is encouraging you. It's inspiring you.

53:50 It's motivating you. You're helping you navigate a difficult season. Then all we ask is that you give value back in whatever form that works for you. And we want you to know you are loved. You're valued. You're appreciated. And so we're going to land the plane with that because it's been a great time. We hope you're again encouraged today. And then any final word? We so appreciate you listening and just keep us on. Keep us on. We want to bring value to you and we pray that you receive something from every broadcast. We'll be coming from the beach next week so we're looking forward to it. God bless you. Have an amazing work week on purpose.