The End of Self-Help: When Better Isn't Better

0:26 This is Jimmy Pruitt, Pastor Jimmy Pruitt, and I have a special guest today. It is Pastor Brian Mandel. Hello, everybody. Man, we're excited. We're pumped up. We just came out of, this is going to sound weird. We just came out of a staff meeting and we're fired up. I know that sounds bizarre. Our board meetings are the same way. It's like being in a revival sometimes. It is not normal, but you know, I've never done anything normal. Why be normal? Right? Well, when you've done a bad staff meeting, it's nice to have a good one. You know what I mean? We don't hardly ever have bad staff meetings, but sometimes there's... just a lot to be celebrated and a lot because God's moving on so many levels right now that basically it turned into, all right, tell us what God did with you, Leslie. Okay, Brian, what did God do? Is he okay? Brian Haley, our youth pastor. Annette, tell that story. I mean, it was like... Just testimony after testimony. Naomi, what's going on in the schools there here in Fredericksburg? So we want to say thank you to our folks that are listening. We are happy to have you, excited to have you. And we're excited to come here with kind of a special edition living up. You know, we've talked to Annette and I are going to start this back again. We're trying to target every other week. And but also we want to do some special edition type things like what we're going to do today, which is a little bit different. But we want to highlight Just a couple of messages that that God put on my heart a while

1:56 back I begin to realize as I look out across our country, but also the landscape of the church That we talk a lot about salvation being born again We throw those terms around you got to be saved And we and when you've been in it as long as we have it's easy to forget or make assumptions that everyone knows what that means and it really dawned on me because what you folks that are listening don't know, or maybe you do, but our church is a non -denominational and probably more accurate inter -denominational church. So we're made up of Catholics, we're made up of Southern Baptists, we're made up churches of Christ. Lutheran. Lutheran. We're in a German town, so we have a Lutheran church on every corner.

2:41 So we've just got this wide variety and mishmash of people that come together who although we're all loving Jesus, we're all praying to God, all welcoming the Holy Spirit, but we have different code language for doing those things and lots of different nuances of beliefs within those different denominations and or non -denominations. So I just thought we need to get down to some brass tacks on things and make sure we're all on the same page, we're rowing our boat in the same direction. So I came up with Reborn and I had on my heart, I don't even know where this popped up in my mind, but re -words, you know, like rebuild, reshape, reform. I mean, you can go a long ways on that. So as we were looking into the fall, we were trying to go a different direction and looking at 1st and 2nd Thessalonians as a series and talk a little bit about end times, eschatology, things like that, but I couldn't shake this. It kept... getting on me, and I'm not even sure why. Maybe it was a conversation I had with someone. You never know. God speaks through so many different things. But anyway, I landed on Reborn as kicking this thing off.

3:54 I had Faith do a video about it, and she just crushed it. And I just realized, we're going to stay on this for a while. I've developed a three -part sermon, which was three points, and it's turned into three full sermons. So I got two under my belt. Welcome to the show, brother. Thanks for having me back. It's so good to be here again. I love doing this. This is fun. And you're so good at this, brother. You should have your own podcast. Maybe someday someday. Well, you got the studio and you got the people around you to do it. So when you get ready to pull the trigger on it, we will we will get you set up. All right. So as far as the way this has been going. So I started out with reborn. Why? Because in John chapter three, Nicodemus has a meeting with Jesus and he kind of comes undercover because he's one of the Sanhedrin. He's one of the big leaders in the movement. He's supposed to have all the answers already. Exactly. The Sanhedrin is interesting because it's made up of 70 people, mostly religious. There were others that were civic leaders, but it's pretty much the Pharisees, Sadducees, the different groups that make up all of that. So they had both civil government and religious government on their shoulders.

5:08 So they were extremely powerful, quite feared, but they were also under the thumb of Rome. So it was a real two -tiered thing. So not only did you have to answer to these religious leaders, you also had to answer to Rome. And either one of them could be bad, bad news. And so it was an interesting dynamic. So for someone, a member of the Sanhedrin, who is, as Jesus called him, a teacher of teachers, a teacher of Israel, he called him. Man, he had to come undercover. But some things happened that got him interested in that. And so do you have anything to add to that? But as far as why would he even want to meet with Jesus? Well, you know, it's really depicted well in The Chosen as you mentioned in the service. they depict, you know, where Mary Magdalene is delivered from seven demons and has a radical life changing experience. She was one person and on the other side of meeting with Jesus was a completely different person.

6:12 Yeah. And Nicodemus gets to see her in both conditions and recognizes this is not possible unless God is at work in this woman. And so he wants to know what happened to you. And Mary Magdalene didn't have some like just outrageous theological dissertation to give to Nicodemus about this. It was just real simple. She said, all I know is I was one way and now I'm a completely different way and what was in between was him, was Jesus. That is like one of the most powerful lines in the movie and the whole series. I mean, when she said that it rocked my world, when I watched the TV series, The Chosen, because this is in the first season, And Nicodemus, remember, he tried to cast demons out of her. Right. And he fell short and it shook him. Yeah. Because he didn't have the power and the authority that he thought he did. Exactly. That, which was a game changer for him, but what it did, it launched him in a panic search for truth stage. You know, he just was like, I'm not sure about anything right now. Well, there's a lot of things that look good on paper or in theory until you put them into practice and you find that Maybe it's not what you thought it was. And I think that was what this really comes down to for Nicodemus is he knew everything in his head, but experientially, he didn't know God personally. And that's, I think, what this whole meeting with Jesus ended

7:43 up being about. Exactly. You know, in his understanding, and this would have been the understanding in the first century from the Pharisees and all the religious leaders and the people who attended synagogue, the Jewish people, was that a messiah was coming back and he was going to rescue them. But their understanding of it, he's going to rescue them from Rome. Jesus sat down with Nicodemus and just flipped the script. and help Nicodemus understand, you're not being rescued from Rome, you're being rescued from sin. And that was a game changer for Nicodemus. But what set the meeting up was this encounter with Mary. Now the chosen, I love the way they depict it, they use a term called plausible. So like when they're building the TV series, this could have happened, might have happened, or it would be a great way to illustrate. But for whatever reason, Nicodemus, the real Nicodemus and the real Jesus got together for a meeting and Nicodemus had questions. And I love the way Jesus handled him in John chapter 3. He even said at one point, he said, you're a teacher of Israel and you still don't understand these things. Because Jesus used this line on him in John chapter 3, verse 3. He said, you must be born again. And Nicodemus tripped all over that. He's like, wait a minute. Took him very literally. Yeah, exactly. He says, can a man return to his mother's womb a second time?

9:10 His mind was spinning out anyway because he's sitting there with the Messiah and he's starting to have this realization this is not a normal man. Something's different here. And so, and that's not just in the TV show, that's in the scripture. in John chapter 3. So when Jesus tells him that, it sends him into this thought process of which way is up. I mean, he's literally like, he's got vertigo, spiritual vertigo. Well, you know what's interesting about that is it illustrates that Nicodemus didn't seem to have much of a conception between the difference between, you know, your flesh and your body, and then the spiritual part of who you are, your spirit, and that those are two distinct parts of who you are. And that's really kind of what Jesus has to explain to him. Like, yeah, you were born naturally, but there's more than that. There's another part of you that needs to be born. Yeah.

10:04 I love that. That's so good. It's so true because he thought, like any religious ruler or person would think in the first century, that it was your good deeds. It was your obedience to the law, which were the old Levitical laws that were given back in the Old Testament, Old Covenant. And not only did they have the Levitical laws originally as God gave them, but then they had added on top of those laws upon laws. They had layers of laws, over 600 and something laws. But then they had all these nuanced laws. It was sort of, you had the written laws and you had the unwritten laws, kind of like going into a new job. They give you a manual and yet they don't give you the invisible manual. That's the one that matters. That's the one that matters.

10:48 It's the culture. It's the culture manual, but that's never written down. It's always just assumed and it's a part of the culture and you've got to learn it. Well, it's the same kind of thing with this. So they had all these laws that they were putting on people. It was weighing people down. There was no way they could live up to it. So, people lived in discouragement and defeat, but their hope was a Savior, a Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah. They didn't know it was Jesus, they just knew a Messiah was coming to rescue them. And Orthodox Jews today, you know, in Israel and around the world still think Messiah is coming, but we know Him as Jesus. And that was the game changer for us, who are Gentiles, non -Jews. So, they're having this discussion. Nicodemus is like starting to freak out, like I don't get what's going on here. And what I did, I just walked through that and extrapolated some things out. I'm going to pull my notes up from that. Just extrapolated some things out because there's so many layers. You know, when you read scripture, if you don't have any context, it can just be flat confusing. You know, like without context all kinds of terrible things can happen like cults and various bad things show up. So we called this Reborn. It was out of John 3. But I want to start with one of the big ideas of the message was you don't need a better version of your old life. You need a brand new life in Christ. What does that mean to you?

12:19 Why don't you just hear that statement? Well, I mean, the picture all throughout the New Testament, is of your old self passing away, of death. Even the picture of baptism is that you're buried in the waters of baptism and that you emerge from that into new life. Not just a refinement, not a refurbishment of some things that needed to be polished or whatever. It's not just you living your best life. Right. It's that there's this whole part of you that God made to be in communion with Him that's not even alive at all until this experience, until this moment of surrender to Jesus. And then there is a birth, a new life that's created. You become a new creation in Christ Jesus. And it's not poetic language. It's very tangible and real and impacts your entire life, the way you think, the way you talk, the decisions you make, your plans. who you are is not who you were. And it's like in 2nd Corinthians 517, it says all things are made new. All things.

13:28 All things. Your heart, your mentality, everything. But here's the thing, when you grow up a certain way, you just grow up, period, you're imprinted and informed by everything around you, plus genetics. I mean, there's a lot of things involved in that. He's saying now you need to die to that and be born again, reborn. and you're going to be raised in Romans 6, raised to walk in newness of life, raised to walk out a new life is what that means. And so here you are, for me it was, I was 18. When did you make the pledge? I was 19. You were 19. So we're about the same age. So yeah, we get it. And we felt like we'd lived a lifetime before that because we were sinners and we were good at it. So sadly. And so Brian and I some parallel tracks in terms of our behaviors and things we got into as young people that were very anti -Christ life. Professional center, right? Yeah, exactly. Good at it. So when I gave my life to Christ, I invited him to take over my life and surrender to that. I wanted to be born again. I knew I needed that because I knew it wasn't working out well for me. And so when that happened, I did, I literally, it was as though when I was baptized, at First Baptist Church, post Texas, I mean, small church, beautiful pastor, amazing, amazing, Pastor Reese was wonderful.

15:01 But when I was baptized, I was taught that this is a symbol, this is an outward expression of an inward reality. You gave your heart to Christ, therefore you're buried with him in baptism. Raised to walk in newness of life. That's that Roman six piece and that's exactly what it was I was the old me 1 .0 Went down in the waters and 2 .0 came out and I began a new journey and it was no joke I mean you were a different person after that totally Oh, man, it flipped my world upside down and it's not different like a different person in the sense that now you're perfect Oh, no, it's that your desires your motivations your what you're focused on, all of it just shifts, and it's unexplainable except for the work of God in your heart. Everything changed. I mean, my mindset changed, what drove me, what motivated me, all those things changed. Now, let me just say this, that doesn't mean my behavior changed immediately. I was in a complete state of confusion because like Mary said in The Chosen, I was this way. I was one way. Yeah. And now I'm this way.

16:14 I'm different. And as if you were born fresh, it's almost like I got to learn to walk again. I got to learn to speak again. I got to learn to think again. I got to learn to comprehend again. I mean, it's like you're starting over in a lot of literally everything gets reframed everything. Yeah. And when about the time you think you've got that figured out about three months later, then you get curve ball after curve ball after curve ball of wow I never thought right about that or I had bad my perception was wrong and this goes into every area of your life so we're not just talking about a few things like like I decided to quit drinking or quit partying it's not that those are my those are nothing those are just little things it's the deeper rooted motivations and drivers your core values shift who am i and why am i here boy what am i here for That's, of course, every 18, 19 -year -old asking that question anyway, right?

17:07 But now it's like we're getting the answers though, because Christ begins to define our purpose. And if you're listening and you haven't taken that step, I want to encourage you in this because it literally redefined my purpose. I know that did that for you, Brian, as well, where we woke up on Tuesday morning with something on our mind as opposed to, oh Lord, it's Tuesday. Now I wake up TGIT, thank God it's Tuesday. I did, I woke up and it was like, what is wrong with you? I mean, I was so buzzing this morning. I got up at 5 .45, so excited. I wrote my daily grind devotional, something I do every day as part of my quiet time. And I was just so buzzing with just excitement, even about coming to work today.

17:53 I couldn't wait to see everybody. It was like, man, we get to do this. And that's what... Following Jesus puts that spirit in you that we get to do this. I'm thankful. I'm grateful for every day I have. Sure, I want to go to heaven, but I want to do some stuff before I go. I want to make a difference. I want to come before my King when I finally do Passover, when I'm promoted into heaven and say, Lord, what a privilege it was to serve you and to serve your body, your church. And I'm so thankful I get to do that. Not so I'll get rewarded, but just so I can say, this is what I got to do. I didn't have to do it. I got to do it. It's a different motivation.

18:41 Once I was born again was some of the first experiences I've ever had in my life of having those moments where you feel like I was made for this. I was made to do this. And as I began to figure out what It was that God put me on this planet for and who he made me to be. You for the first time, you have that experience of like, this is it. This is what I was made for. And yeah, I have a ton to learn and I'm not even good at it yet, but I know I was made for this. Like when I. when I first started working for you all those years ago, and you brought me on the team to be a youth pastor, which is the one thing I had told God, I was like, God, I'll do anything to serve you except be a youth pastor, anything but. And then you're like, I need you to be my youth pastor. And so went into that feeling very inadequate and insecure, even though I was born again. But also sensing that prompting of like, I think I'm supposed to do this. I don't know how I'm going to do this. I have no, I don't think I'm going to be good at this, but I think God wants me to do this. And then every step of the way, grace met me, right? Because that's part of what comes in this package of being born again is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So you're never alone in anything God calls you to do. He says, I'm literally going to be with you and I'm going to be in you. And if you're walking with him, if you're following his voice, there's always power, there's always grace, and there's always ability for anything you're called to do. And it's always beyond you. It's always

20:12 beyond anything you would have naturally thought, I can do this. You remember playing sports and you would say to yourself, or you'd be in a situation, you go, man, I'm really in over my head. Oh, yeah. I mean, these guys are all better than me. I got to play out of my head. I got to play out of my mind. I got to, I got to elevate to that. When you, when you're walking with Jesus and you, he shows you something that leads you into something you know you're supposed to do it. You just know, you know when you're nowhere. I mean, I'm supposed to get involved in that. But then you look at it and go, but I can't do that. That's not my strength. That's not my natural gift. That's not my gifting. And what I found very quickly, because I did, the thing that happened for me, and it didn't happen for everybody, but I just had this big time heart for the Word of God. the Bible. I couldn't put it down. I took it with me to work at the time I was working for an electric company, doing electrical construction.

21:10 I'd take my Bible in the truck, four guys, three or four guys in a truck, going out to the job site. In my 15 -minute break, then my 30 -minute lunch, my 15 -minute break in the afternoon, I'd run to the cab of the pickup and I'd start reading scripture just as much as I could get. Before that, I was working for my dad right when I got saved. So I had more time in the shop. I was welding, doing stuff. He owned a fence company as well as being a firefighter. So I did all of his welding for him. So I had time alone all day long. I could listen to a Christian radio station that had all these different preachers. I mean like J. Vernon McGee, John McArthur, Chuck Swindoll, even Kenneth Copeland. And I didn't know the difference between any of them. I just knew they all love Jesus, so I love them. I didn't care who they were. Just teach me the Bible.

22:01 And so I listened to hours and hours of teaching every day, all day long. Because this Christian radio station called KJAK stands for Keeping Jesus as King. Go figure. They played talk radio all day long. So all these different preachers and teachers, I got to hear them all day long. A lot of stuff got deposited in me very quickly and that changed everything for me. It gave me a love for God's Word. So I took this Bible everywhere. I mean, I tore that thing up. It sat on the dash of the truck in West Texas heat. the cover curled on it. I didn't care. I just, man, I couldn't get enough of it. Especially in those early days and you start devouring the Bible like that.

22:43 I mean, what do you think the percentage is that you actually even understood as you're reading it? For me, it was like, I think I get 10 % of this and the other 90%. I don't even know what this means, but I know I need to be reading this. I didn't care. It was like, I can't even explain it. I just knew. Jeremiah says, I read your words and I did eat them. And it's exactly the same. It's like you're eating something and you can't get enough, even though you don't understand what it is. I don't know what those calories are doing inside my body when I eat food, but they're doing something. We went to the Philippines back in the day on a trip and we were eating in this hotel. And I'm like, I don't know what any of this food is, but I'm hungry and it's good. There's no telling what it was. I don't even want to know what it was. But it didn't matter because I was hungry. Because when you're hungry, you'll devour. Everything tastes good.

23:34 And somebody listening needs to really hear that for yourself today. Maybe the reason you're not reading the Bible is you're like, I don't understand this. That will come later. Like, just get it in you. Just make a deposit. and then let God bring it to life. Let God remind you of things you read a month ago in a key moment in your life. That's what always happens, right? You end up in a situation and something that you read at the time that didn't hit all of a sudden hits a month later. Well, for example, at our staff meeting, my wife Annette was telling about us talking to this lady we met at the store, Neiman Marcus. We had to go take some stuff back and And she had a beautiful accent. And Annette first said, where are you from? And I said, you have a beautiful accent. So we double teamed.

24:21 And she said, she looked at us and she said, and she kind of joked with us for a minute. And then she said, I'm from Iran. And you know, right now in the United States, that could land a lot of ways. She was not ashamed of it. She was not ashamed, but she wasn't boastful. She was just matter of fact, I'm from Iran. And I said, I love your accent. It's beautiful." And then we just both begin to talk to her and then begin to say, oh, we pray for the people of Iran at our church. We pray for you. We pray. And then I said, do you have family there? She says, I have a lot of family. Then she went into telling us about that. Broken hearted, the tears came. She's stressing over them. But while she's saying this, the phrase popped into my mind where Jesus said, I am the Prince of Peace. And she was saying, I go to bed with my phone and the last thing I see is what's happening over there on the news.

25:15 I wake up and the first thing I do is check to make sure there hasn't been new bombings. And she said, I'm so afraid for my family. And I said, do you mind if I pray for you? And she said, oh, wonderful. And I said, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. And that's what you need right now. And she was beautiful. I don't know if she was a Christian. I get a feeling she was. I think she's a believer. And she didn't say it specifically, but. We know God's been moving the Iranian people. God's been working there for sure. And we talked about 1979 when that regime came in, the evil regime came in and dominated and destroyed a beautiful country. There was a beautiful country before that. Oh, you see film footage or pictures from before that? Very modern. It looked like the West. And then they were going to school, they were enjoying life, they were making, they had jobs and they were free market in the sense of able to make a living. Now that it's been devastated and destroyed women have been treated like trash. I mean worse than that sometimes So anyway, and she was saying through tears.

26:21 She's saying it's so evil there. It's so evil But when I grew up, it wasn't it was a beautiful country and Annette said the people of Iran are beautiful people and we pray for you all the time So we prayed for her right there in the store. But the thing is I haven't set and memorized a verse talking about Jesus being the Prince of Peace. It just came out of nowhere. In fact, I don't even think of that phrase, hardly ever. It just came when she said that. It was there. And that's sort of like when you plant a seed into the ground, you don't always know what that plant's going to look like. Sometimes, I've planted seeds as a kid and I didn't know what the plant was. I didn't know what was going to happen. I'd always get surprised, but it would come up.

27:02 It would bring a harvest. It would grow. And so when you're putting the Word of God in, you're reading it and you're thinking, I really don't understand all this stuff. I mean, I'm looking down here at John 3, Pharisees, Nicodemus, the Jewish ruling council. What is all that? Rabbi, I mean, all the language. I could go down there and go, there was a time I didn't know what any of that meant, but I read it and I stayed in. And what it did, it was like depositing or planting seeds in the soil. And then it began to grow over time. the Holy Spirit, the water of the refreshing of the water of the Word. This one of the scriptures says, so somewhere along the line, I had read about the Prince of Peace, and that was exactly what she needed to hear in that moment. And it came up as a random thought, but it wasn't random. It was the Lord. You know, you made a statement in both of these last two Sundays that I thought was so good and maybe you can kind of expound on it for a moment, but you said both weeks, religion can't do what rebirth can. Religion can't do what rebirth can. What does that mean? Yeah, I mean, because what happens, religion can be couched in a negative light, right? Like religion becomes code word for the do's and don'ts of scripture or the do's and don'ts of a denomination or a church movement.

28:19 particular type. So it can be very negative, and it's usually used in a negative context for the most part, these days especially. So religion can't do what rebirth can. In other words, what rebirth does, it puts you in a relationship with God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father except through me. but he doesn't say, I am a way, a truth, and a life, and anybody can come to the Father in any way, you know what I mean? He makes it very exclusive, very narrow, like this is how you get to God, and that's what rebirth does.

29:00 Whereas religion is you're trying to do better, you're trying to, I use these simple points because this might help you understand. you can attend church and still miss Jesus. Christianity isn't self -improvement, it's spiritual transformation. That's why Nicodemus said, you must be born again. And Jesus reserves some of his harshest criticism for religious people. I think, well, my observation, and I'm somewhat a product of this, is that the people that it is hardest for to wrap their minds around the idea of I need to be reborn, are not the people that are far from God, you know, out of church, living like wild and crazy people, taking it to the max in their sin. It's usually the quote unquote good people, the religious people, the people that have been in church but don't have a relationship with Jesus, the people who have inherited their faith rather than embracing it in their own heart and approaching Jesus themselves.

30:05 It's hardest for them, especially for people who are in a place where they go, man, I'm a pretty good person. Yeah, I need God to tweak a few things in my life. I need Him to round off a few rough edges for me and refine me a little bit. But to have this idea like, no, no, no, no, you need to start over. Like you need a reset and to be reborn, made a new creation completely not just tweaked. It's the difference. That's so good, Brian. It's the difference between believing in Jesus and believing into Jesus. Now, there's a very real distinction in the Greek language. We see the N as a primary participle, so we see that as, oh yeah, I believe in the Easter Bunny. Or if you have a chair sitting there and you say, I believe in that chair, and I'm looking at it going, yeah, I do too. I can see it. But if you never go sit in the chair, You've not believed into it. You just believe that it's there as a fact, but you haven't believed into it in terms of experience. So to believe into goes back to the word trust, back to the word faith, which means to put all or the whole of your weight upon it or in it. So when we say we believe in Jesus, we're not saying we just believe in Him like we believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, some myth or fairy tale.

31:24 We're saying we believe into Him. I'm putting the whole of my weight. I'm giving my entire life. I'm betting everything on this. You're going all in, as you said, 20 something years ago in a sermon. And I still remember you're going all in. You're pushing all your chips to the middle of the table. And you're saying, I'm all in, period. And if this thing goes down, I go down. That's right. And that's what faith is, saving faith, coming to be reborn. You got to have that level of faith. And it's not like you got to have it in its fullest sense. It's just a sense of, I am surrendering. And I don't even know exactly what I'm surrendering to. I just know I need Him. So whatever that looks like, that's where I'm going. One way to distinguish this in your mind is, you know, the difference between saying, I believe that versus I believe in. In other words, I could say, I believe that Jesus is the son of God. I believe that Jesus died for our sins. But to believe in him means.

32:27 I am personalizing that for me, for my life, for every moment, for everything that I am, I'm putting myself into Him. And that Greek word, in, when it says to believe in Jesus, it literally means into, correct? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I'm believing into Him where now I'm becoming one with Him. Yeah. I mean, that's putting the whole of everything. So, That was a great distinction. And so I want to say something too, because this may help people in terms of what being religious means. I just jotted these down, rules without relationship. In other words, don't do this, don't do that, do that, don't do that, more don'ts than dos, but there's no relationship. That's believing that or believing in as opposed to in to. Ritual without reality. How many churches have we been to over the years in different scenarios where there's a lot of amazing rituals and ceremonies?

33:23 Most of them we're going, I don't even know what that means. I don't even know what's going on here. But it's not reality. It's not a reality in your life personally. There's the difference. Another one is performance without transformation. I've got the bracelet, the What Would Jesus Do bracelet. I've got the Lord's Gym t -shirt. I've got all the stuff, the accoutrements. I've got a Bridge Church sticker on the back of my car on my window. Please don't if you're driving bad. So, anyway, represent well. But I've got all the accoutrements. I've got the code language down. I can speak the lingo, but I have not been transformed. I've not been born again, reborn.

34:04 I'm the same. I'm no different than I was before. I just look different. Well, and Jesus went out of his way to try to highlight this even in using very, very strong terms at times, you know, he would address some of these religious people and he described them at one point as like whitewashed tombs. In other words, they were power washed on the outside, glistening, but they were full of dead men's bones is what he said on the inside. He compared them to a dung heap. That's a bunch of crap. A crap heap. I mean, it's like, I'm not going to say the S word, but you don't have to be a genius to figure that out. He said it straight up. It's hardcore. Here's another one. Why don't you comment on this one? Knowledge without intimacy. Knowledge without intimacy, which is a way to describe a relationship with God, can actually be destructive. You know, the more you know without putting it into practice, it tends to harden you versus soften you. It tends to create separation between you and the people, the very people that God means for you to have influence and impact on because what it does, knowledge will puff up, the scripture says. But you know, what we're supposed to do is be edified by our relationship with God, which means built up and then to build up others. And when all you have is knowledge, what you see is yourself is better than other people. We're

35:35 knowing more than other people. Another dynamic of that, or at least a facet of it, is that knowledge without intimacy means you know about something, but you don't know them by intimacy. You don't know them by experience. And really the word gnosko, which is a Greek word, that means to know by experience. So, you know, we know our wives because we've lived with them. We know what they look like when they get up. They know what we look like when we get up. They've seen us in our worst. They've seen us on our worst day, our bad moods, and they've seen us at our best and they love us the same. So that's knowing. And so here's another one, duty without delight.

36:15 This is a big deal for me. Man, if you don't have joy in the journey, man, what are you doing? to me following Jesus and walking with Him, it's led me into some hard things, but there was always joy in the midst of it. There was always good in the midst of it. I mean, when Annette and I went through our desert season, which ended up being about four years, there were so many good things that happened in that, yet it was a desert. It was a hard time. It was a hard season, but we found joy in that journey. what happens when you get the cart before the horse. There you go. It's not that we have no duty or that we have no responsibility in Christ or for what He's blessed us with or given us or the assignments that we have. I mean, the Bible is clear. We have assignments. We have a calling. We have all of these things. But if that comes before the delight of your relationship with God, it will crush you and kill you. And it will suck all of the life out of everything. And it made me think of the scripture. This is one of those examples of the Holy Spirit prompting you, right?

37:22 It says the scripture say to delight yourself in the Lord. And then it says, and he will give you the desires of your heart. And what that means isn't that he will... fulfill your wish list. It means he will redefine your wish. Exactly. He will. He will form in you desires that you've never had so that you will desire things that are your duty rather than them feeling like a religious duty. I know that's why I say we get to do this. That has been become one of my things that I say it 50 times a day and I mean it every time we get to do this. Also say it sarcastically when I don't want to do something I'll say I get to do this Yeah, I'm trying to talk myself into it, but I really mean that in that sense of where This is a privilege to do this why because he's changed my desires Yeah, I want to do things that I never wanted to do before man. No kidding examples You and I both standing before a group of people talking for 30 40 50 minutes I was the opposite of what I used to what I wanted to do. I would have never Dreamed I would be a preacher ever ever neither would my friends in high school. They're still like scratching their heads all these years later Here's another no, go ahead. Yeah. No, it's good man You know the the scripture talks about how you know We have natural giftings and we have spiritual giftings and this idea of being born again Jesus describes it as you know, you were born of water ie naturally It says, but you're also, you will be born of

38:54 the Spirit. And as your Spirit comes to life and into relationship with God, there are gifts of the Spirit. In other words, there are things that you will become good at that you were not good at before. That's right. And they're not natural gifts. They're supernatural gifts. Supernatural. That's why when somebody says, I'm sorry, that's not in my gifting, I'm going, doesn't matter. Yet. If God calls you to it, He'll prepare you and equip you for it. That's right. And so I quit saying a long time ago, no, I don't do that. Even Annette, she jokes, you're no good with numbers. I'm like, I've been good with numbers before when I needed to be. I mean, God had an argument with Moses about this, didn't he? He said, I called you to go speak to Pharaoh. And he says, I can't even talk. What are you talking about? You know, like speak to Pharaoh. Yeah, yeah. Paul telling Timothy, hey, don't worry about your youthfulness. Don't say you're a youth and your words don't matter. Right. You know?

39:50 God will give you what you need when you need it. Here's another key thought. God didn't come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive. I see dead people. I mean, you remember that line. That's a great way to say what we've been saying. Yeah. He came to make dead people alive because at the end of the day, we're spiritually dead until we are born again, because we're born into sin. And some of that, man, I don't have anything to do with that. That's not my fault. Well, I'm sorry. It started that way with the fall of man in the beginning. So we inherited this sin nature from birth. Just ask any parent, what's the first word we learn? Mine? Mine? Me? No? I mean, even our language as children comes out that way, and you're having to teach them and correct them right away. You know, mine, mine, give me that. You know, it's mine. That's part of that sin nature that's innate.

40:47 It's in us. So we have to be born again spiritually, not naturally, spiritually. And that can come at various times in a person's life. And why do we need to be born spiritually? Because the Bible says God is spirit. You know, when Jesus was speaking with the woman at the well, he told her, he said, the days are coming. When those who worship me, he said, they're going to worship me in spirit and in truth. And now is from that point forward, he was right there. Yeah. And what he was saying to her is he said, Hey, you know, it's great externally, you know, to sing songs to me and worship me and acknowledge me and all that. He says, but I'm going to give you a capacity to commune with me, to worship God, to interact with God, to hear from God.

41:34 that's only possible when your spirit is alive because God is spirit. That's right. So how do we help someone listening today who's maybe exploring or examining Christianity, they haven't taken the step, you know, the plunge as we say, you know, how do we help them understand just in the very most simplest words of what they need to do? If they're looking at really you know, I think I want to do this. I think I want to step into this. I'm exploring it. I've been thinking about it. What do I do now?" Yeah. Well, luckily, you know, God doesn't make these things complicated. It's very real. And there are things to consider.

42:17 I mean, Jesus flat out told people, He said, you should count the cost before you come follow Me. Why? Because it'll cost everything. You have to look at your life as it is. And then you got to look at him and go, I want you more than anything else in my life. I want you more than my own way. I want you more even than my own family or my plans or any of it. I want you, God. I want to know you, God. I want to be born again. And it's that asking from a heart that's willing to accept whatever that looks like, knowing full well that he's not going to show you in advance everything that that looks like. There's gonna be a lot of surprises along the way. And let me help you listening because you're thinking, well, I don't know, I don't think I'm there yet.

43:07 But here's something that's interesting. In Romans chapter 10 verse 17, it says that faith, because what do we need to do this? We need faith, right? To enter into that relationship, to embrace Him, to be born again. We need faith. So it says this, that faith comes by hearing, and hearing... It's translated by the word of God, but the actual word means the message of Christ. In other words, the gospel, that's code word for the good news. So when you hear the word gospel, preaching the gospel, all that means is the good news. And the good news is the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord, he's savior. He wants to have a relationship with you. That's the good news. He lived the life we couldn't live. died the death we couldn't die and he did it in our place. So he took, he was a great exchange that happened. So I want to encourage you in that because faith comes by hearing, by hearing what? The message of Christ.

44:05 What we're talking about today is the message of Christ. And it's, somebody's listening and it's stirring something in you. You're thinking, I really do need this. I have thought about this. I've pondered this. I do need this. Because, I mean, I don't want to just do spoiler alerts here, but there are some benefits to this. Massive benefits. And one is what I talked about earlier and I shared with that precious lady from Iran, the Prince of Peace. Who doesn't need peace in this crazy world right now? Who doesn't need hope? That's another piece. now remains these three, faith, hope and love. The greatest of these is love, but they're all great and they all actually are one part of the other. So I want to encourage you that if you think you don't have the right kind of faith or enough, Jesus made this simple statement. All it takes is faith the size of a mustard seed. And if you've ever held one in your hand, they're tiny. Little dabble, do you? It's like, that's a seed. I mean, I thought it was a speck. And he says, that's all the faith you need. And all you do is you turn your heart to him. Right where you are listening to this program, you can say, Jesus, I want this. I want you. Yeah. Come into my heart. Come into my life.

45:27 Take over. Remember the song, Carrie Underwood, Jesus Take the Wheel? It's another way of saying it. I mean, you're saying, here you go, I've been driving, I let go, now you take the wheel, you take my life. So here's another piece of this that just I want to touch on. The new birth is a work of the Holy Spirit. So you have to understand the fact that you're even thinking like this, leaning toward this, wondering about this, that in and of itself is a work of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Spirit of Christ, that's what the Holy Spirit is, it's His Spirit, it's Holy, is working in you to bring you into a relationship with Jesus. That's the thing.

46:11 So, you're not alone. He's helping you already. In fact, His name is even defined as helper. Comforter counselor friend advocate intercessor all these amazing things. That's who he is He's helping you right now Even the fact that you're listening to this and you're still with us still hanging in That's because the Holy Spirit's at work and I want to encourage you in that listen to this You can't earn it You can't work for this this whole thing. We call salvation or being saved or being reborn You can't manufacture it. You can't buy it You can't get it by being good or doing good deeds, and that's a huge misnomer in the world. I remember when I was sharing my faith with my mom, and she said, well, Jimmy Dale, I'm a good person. And you know what? She was a really good person. She was known for that.

47:00 And I said, Mom, that doesn't matter. That's not it. I had to tell my mother, which was really hard to do. Yeah, I'm a new Christian trying to help her understand. Yeah, you are amazing. You're my mom. But that's not enough. It was really interesting. But the world thinks that way. People think that way. Well, the Bible uses words like yield and surrender and receive. Yeah. Those are hard words. That's an R word. There's an R word. It's a hard word for people to go, okay, I can't make this happen. I have to allow God to do it. There it is. You know, you can't receive something unless you open your hands, open your arms. The whole act of hugging somebody is receiving somebody. And this is what you're doing with Jesus. You're doing with this truth.

47:45 You're saying, I want this. And you're literally wrapping. But to do that, you're exposing your heart. You're exposing your organs. You're exposing everything. It's the most non -defensive position a human being can be in. is to open your arms. And that's what you do in a very real way. If you've ever watched people worship in a church or you've seen this on TV and they've got their hands up to the Lord and their arms are open, they're in a place of surrender. That's all that is. It's not, look at me, look at me, wave my arms. It's, I'm surrendered. I'm open, I'm wide open and I'm as, I have no defense. Come in and it's that invitation. Well, you know, I like the word surrender because it has this implication of admitting defeat. And I think before you can win and who God made you to be, you got to first admit defeat and who you've tried to be on your own. Another way to say that in a churchy way is you have to confess your sins. Confess not your sins, but confess that you're a sinner.

48:51 That's really what you're doing. And to repent, you probably heard that word, that simply means you do an about face and you face Him. You know what a lot of us do, what I used to do, is what happens to a gambler who's on a losing streak at the casino and the deeper they get in the hole, the deeper they just keep on digging because they keep imagining that somehow they're going to make those losses back. They're going to, if I just keep betting, if I just keep, I'm going to eventually, I'm going to hit it and people wipe themselves out and get into massive debt thinking that's going to work. It's the same thing that we do. So true. Trying to make our own lives work apart from the help of the Holy Spirit, apart from being born again. Here's another one. You can't obtain it because your parents were born again. And that's another misnomer.

49:43 Well, my family have been Christians. They're third, fourth generation in the Catholic Church. I was born Christian. In the Lutheran Church, the Baptist Church. Yeah, I was born into this. You're not born into this. You have to be born again into it. Reborn. Here's another one. And this is not a can't. This is what you do. You receive it as a gift by faith. Just what you were saying, Brian. We throw our arms open. We say, Lord, I need your help. I can't do this. So Jesus, I receive what you did for me into my life right now. Just open my arms. I'm defenseless. I'm wide open. It's just, it's humbling yourself before God. But he promised, he said, anyone who humbles himself before me, he says, I'll lift them up. I'll exalt them. Beautiful. Beautiful.

50:34 So here's another key thought. We're going to land the plane pretty quick though. Religion says do more. Jesus says, believe in what I've done. I've got tattooed on my arm here. You can't see it because we're not on video, but it's the word to Telestai in ink and I have a cross running through it, a blue cross. And that word to Telestai, you know what it is, what is it? It is finished. Those are the last words that Jesus uttered on the cross before he bowed his head and died physically. and then was resurrected spiritually and physically. But that word, I put that on my arm because I live out of the finished work of Christ. He did it, which means I don't have to. Now I receive His life and I walk with Him. And now I don't have to do anything. I get to do things. I get to do this life. And you get to do it with Him.

51:32 Yeah, you're not on your own. I think I started the service saying that one of the I said you are not on your own You're not alone. You'll never be alone because he's with you and he says I'll never leave you I'll never forsake you so good man What does that mean to believe in what he's already done? Well for me, I mean that I Think it just means recognizing that I already in Christ have everything I need to do and be everything He wants me to do and be. It's already there. If He really lives on the inside of me, if I believe that, and I believe that His grace is enough for me, His grace is sufficient, like the apostle Paul said, then even if I don't have the answer, even if I, man, I've done the same stupid thing for the 150th time, It's this rehumbling of myself and coming back and saying, all right, God, you promised that what you did is enough.

52:40 You promised that your grace is enough and it was poured out for me because of your shed blood on the cross and because you rose from the dead, proving that you're the son of God. Then whatever I need, you've already given it to me. And just just reminding your own heart and spirit and mind of that. brings you into the presence of God and allows that grace to begin to activate and flow, I believe. Yeah. And there's a beautiful picture of that. It's a story that Pastor Josh Howerton told. I'm going to play that story. And he was on an interview or on a podcast with Sean Ryan, which is… getting right up there with Joe Rogan these days. I mean, he's gone big and he invited Josh Howerton onto the show. Pastor Josh, he's a young pastor in Rockwall, Texas, East Dallas area, across the lake there at a great church who has, it's a small church. He has around 30 ,000 people coming every weekend.

53:37 Yeah, a little church there. Actually a lot, what, three times bigger than our city here. So anyway, and that's just every Sunday. I've followed Josh for years. In fact, we named this church Bridge Church after Josh's church when he lived in Franklin, Tennessee. Our Spring Hill, Tennessee, called the Bridge. And so when we needed to come up with a name in 2019, that was the first thing that came to my mind, Bridge Church. So he's had an impact on us seven years ago. So Josh moved from Tennessee. He's a Kentucky boy. grew that church, the bridge in Spring Hill, huge, overflowing. And then he gets called to come and take over a great church, Lake Point Church in Rockwall, Texas. It was Church on the Rock. Yeah, years ago, 80s. We're talking 80s.

54:26 Yeah, way back in the day. And there was a huge move of God back then. So that building, that property has actually some pretty significant, you know, just grace on it. You know, some good things happened there in the kingdom. He ends up on this podcast. I'm going to play it through here, so it's not going to be the best in the world. We'll see. But Sean Ryan asks him the question, why did Jesus have to die on the cross? And Josh Howerton has a great story to tell about that. Why did he have to do it? I don't fully understand why it had to happen if he is God.

55:08 Why couldn't he just forgive? Exactly. Yeah. My favorite way to illustrate this is by a story. It's the best illustration of why Jesus had died on the cross I've ever heard. It goes like this. Once upon a time, in a far -off kingdom, there was a king who was known by everyone in the kingdom to be the most just and loving king who had ever lived. But then it was discovered that somebody was stealing from the king's treasure. and so the king being a just king, he sent out an edict that whenever it was discovered, he was stealing from the king's treasury, that that person would receive 10 lashes. Well, the theft continued, and so he issued another decree. When it's discovered who's stealing from the king's treasury, it'll be 20 lashes. The theft continued, 30 lashes.

55:49 Until finally, the king issued a final decree, and he said, when it's discovered who's stealing from the king's treasury, it will be a sentence of 40 lashes. Now, the problem with that was that 40 lashes was a death sentence. And so the theft continued until eventually it was discovered that none other than the king's daughter was the one who was stealing from the treasury. So then a question began to ripple through the kingdom. What would the king do? Some thought he would forgive her, but then how would he be just? Some thought that he would issue the sentence, but then how would he be loving? The king sat down and decided, you know what? The sentence is just. The punishment must fall. And so the decree stands. And so one day the entire kingdom was gathered.

56:29 In front of everybody, the king's own daughter was marched up to the podium in front of the entire kingdom, and she was bent over the podium, and the back of her shirt was ripped open, and the executioner stood there, and he began to... raise his whip to land the first lash and as soon as he did the king yelled stop and there was a silence that fell and the king strode forward and he took off his own shirt and he bent over and he wrapped his body around his own daughter and looked back up over his shoulder and he said now hit her and the executioner objected and he said the king those lashes they'll fall on you and he said the sentence must stand it's just hit her and so 40 lashes fell the body of the king that protected the body of his daughter and the king died in the stead of his daughter.

57:18 What happens in that story is the king was both just because payment for the sin had to be made and the king was the justifier of the ungodly. She went free because he took the penalty. See the reason Jesus had to die on the cross is because God is just and so payment for sin has to be made. Like if somebody walked into a courtroom and a judge just went, you know what, man? You raped that girl when she was young, but you're real sorry and I have the power to do it. You're forgiven. Nobody would think that was a just judge. So penalty for sin had to be made, but God is love. So he made the payment himself.

57:59 Why did you? Wow, that's so good. Man, when I played that for the church on Sunday, I was wrecked. because I was like, now I've got to come up and say something. I looked out across the congregation. We had a full house, both services this weekend. We were packed. And there were tears. There were people crying everywhere, weeping because it finally dawned on them through a story, the power of story that Jesus did for them, for each of us, what that King, because Jesus is the King of Kings. He wrapped His body around ours and took the blows. The church is his bride Like a daughter in a way. Oh, man. He did it out of love. He did it for love and he did it for us and it just It drove the point home and even for me I've been a Christian four plus decades and yet when I hear that Just my heart breaks that he was willing to do that for me. I've never forgotten How powerful that is to understand that Jesus actually gave his life for me. He's willing to die for me You know that the verse he referenced there is out of Romans chapter 3 in verse 26 and it says that he Jesus might be just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in there. It is Jesus into into the primary preposition. Yeah, yeah, he's Perfectly just

59:34 like His very nature requires a full accounting for all things both good and bad. Yeah a Price had to be paid price had to be paid for everything But he loves us so much That he's the justifier. He said I'm also gonna be the fix for this. Yeah for anybody who is in me anyone Wow, I mean that's so cool that it wasn't a invitation to the elite few, but it was an invitation to anyone. There it is. You're an anyone, I'm an anyone. Whoever's listening, you're an anyone. Yeah. In Romans chapter 10, it says, for whosoever or who or anyone or everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And so if you're listening to this today and you just heard that story and you've heard what we've been talking about, we've got good news for you today. We've got gospel for you today. And that is that Jesus died for you. He took the penalty. He took the consequences of our sin. He took the consequences of your sin on His own body and He died. And the Scripture even says that in one moment God turned His face away from Jesus on the cross because God can't look upon sin. Jesus when He took that on Him for a moment God could not even look at him.

1:00:59 I mean, I can't even imagine. I'm a daddy. You're a daddy. You can't even imagine being willing to let your son take on the sins of one person and lose his life for that, much less billions. And he did, and he did that for you, for you who are listening. And if this is stirring something in your heart, that's because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the message of Christ. That's because God's working in your heart and drawing you to Him. And as we land the plane, I just, man, I want to encourage you right now, wherever you're listening to this, you may be driving down the road during, you know, commute time, you know, or you may be listening while you're doing something, but I want to invite you to pause right now where you are. And I'm just gonna lead you through something very simple, very short, very to the point of really moving into that posture of receiving and accepting and surrendering to Christ. Not just believing about Him, but believing into Him. And the scripture says this, when you do this, you can be saved.

1:02:13 In Romans 10, where I quoted that verse a minute ago, up just before that, it says that, If you'll believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead and you'll confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. That's believing into. And so I want to invite you wherever you are, if you can, if it's even possible to close your eyes or if it's possible just to, even if you're driving, you can do this wherever you are. But pause for a minute and just put these words into your words. But here's how I did it, leaning over the hood of a 71 Ford pickup back in May of 1980, just outside of Post, Texas, right outside my granddad's cabinet shop. I leaned over that pickup. I could feel the heat from the day earlier in the day. I remember everything about that moment. And a youth pastor had me say this prayer, and here it is. Today I confess to you that I have sinned. I am a sinner and I need you in my life. I need you to change my life. I need to be saved. I've been trying to do this by myself on my own. It's not working and I know I need a Savior. I need help. I need rescue. So Jesus, I want you to know I believe.

1:03:47 I don't know everything I believe. I don't understand it all. But like Mary said in that show, The Chosen, I want to be where I used to be this way. And now I'm here. And in between was Him, Christ. So Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my past. I give you my present. And I give you my future. I repent of my sin and my sins. I turn away from them and I turn to you. Jesus, save me. Change me from the inside out. Transform me. I will live the rest of my life honoring you, learning about you, glorifying you, getting to know you. I receive you as my Savior. and the Lord of my life in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

1:04:51 Wow. First thing I'd say is if you're driving down the road, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Don't just be introduced to Him and then go about your business. You want to find a church. You want to find something. where you can get helped, where you can get taught, where you can get—we use the word, discipled. You know, we become a learner. The word, disciple, simply means learner or student. And one of the ways you can do that is you can tune into The Bridge. We do this every Sunday morning, Central Standard Time, 9 a .m. and 11 a .m. And myself or Pastor Brian or sometimes we'll have a guest, but we're doing this every Sunday. helping you learn how to worship, helping you learn what it means to walk with Jesus and to live this life. We want to help you do that.

1:05:41 And it's easy. You simply tune in. You can catch us on YouTube, Facebook, or on our website. Our website is bridgefbg, as in Fredericksburg, bridgefbg .com. And on that front landing page, You can go down and see, we do it live or you can go up to the top and click on sermons and you can find our sermons there, find our messages. We video those so you can get the whole thing there. You can get it on YouTube as well. We have a YouTube channel under Bridge Church, Fredericksburg, Texas. Make sure you put Texas in there or you'll end up in Virginia. So anyway, those are ways you can find us and every Sunday we're doing this. And if you did give your heart to Jesus, I want to ask you to do something I'm going to ask you to go to livingupinadownworld .com. That's super simple, livingupinadownworld .com. Subscribe, but you can also write a note on there. You can write a review. You can subscribe. I would love to hear from you that if you did this, you gave your heart to Jesus. We want to celebrate with you and we want to pray for you and help you do that and help you walk that walk out. What do you got to add to that, PB? Wow. I'm just, man, congratulations to anybody. who joined us in that prayer and raise your expectation. Go about your day today expecting for moments where you encounter the presence of God, the voice of God, the interactivity of God in your life.

1:07:13 You'll begin to notice and see things that never stuck out to you before. So pay attention. Amen. Amen. Hey, another web, another podcast I'd love for you to check out. We get to do this. Adam Curry and myself started this podcast 45 episodes ago, 44, 45 episodes ago, and it is rolling and catching traction and steam and growing and come check that out. He and I, we talk about really the crossroads or intersection between Christianity and culture. looking at what's happening in the world around us right now, currently, everything, and then we unpack that through the biblical lens or what's called a biblical worldview. Like what does the Bible have to say about, you know, the Strait of Hormuz? What does the Bible have to say about Iran, you know, and what's going on in the war there, or all these different things?

1:08:09 We unpack those, but look at them. What does the Bible have to say about Dr. Fauci? I mean, we go there, we go there on everything and Adam brings the culture. I bring the worldview and we have an amazing meeting at that crossroad. So you can find us on the Godcaster. It's an app, easy to download or you can go to Godcaster .fm. You can find the Godcaster on bridgefbg .com as well and go to our Godcaster. You can find it right there in the menu at the top over towards the right. and click on that and you can listen to those episodes or you can listen to streaming music 24 -7 there. But the name of the podcast is We Get To Do This, God, The World, and Other Things with Pastor Jimmy Pruitt and Adam Curry. So check that out. That'll be a way we can encourage you. And again, thanks for being with us. Pastor Brian, thanks so much for hanging out today. It's a great conversation.

1:09:01 Man, we just love talking about Jesus. Man, stick a mic in front of us or not. It doesn't matter. We would have had this conversation whether these mics were here or not. But it's fun to have that. And hopefully our folks that are at Bridge Church that'll tune into this will find themselves encouraged, reviewing material. I don't know about you, I need to hear things repetitively. I'm not that smart to hear one thing. Yeah, to hear something once. And that's why we're doing this special edition of Living Up and Down World. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks brother for joining us today. You guys have an amazing week on purpose.