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In chains I was brown,

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I was a madman on the run.

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Through the hills

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I wandered.

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I was running from the sun.

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But truth found me there.

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It was in my darkest eye.

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I traded my black heart

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Welcome to Tell the Truth, a weekly podcast

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about faith, current events, and life in general,

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brought to you from Mountain View Baptist Church

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live every Monday night at 6PM

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central time.

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And welcome back this week. We are really

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glad that everybody is joining us. I know

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we've had a little bit of time off,

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had some sickness and other stuff going on,

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and, man, that's how it goes. We've been

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busy, busy, busy. So thank you for your

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time, and thank you for coming back.

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If you are joining us tonight and if

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you're tuning in, I do have,

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running this a little bit differently through Rumble,

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so I actually can see the chats or

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anything. If somebody comes in, has a question

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or anything, I I can actually see them

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live.

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So that's gonna be great.

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We'll try that for a little while and

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see how it goes. Brother Dennis, how is

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it this week? Going good so far, man.

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Awesome.

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That is a great start to the week.

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Brother Ryan, what about you? Man, it's,

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I don't know. You know, I've I've had

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to I've I've my

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youngest daughter got married

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Saturday

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and,

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then we went right into homecoming here at

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church on Sunday. And I'm just kinda just,

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you know, I'm here floating floating through.

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Don't I started to say, do you even

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know what to do with yourself and her

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out of the house? No. No. I'm just

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trying to figure it all out now. So

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I've got the doors on the the locks

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on the doors changed and everything. So it's

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gonna be Oh, well, good. That's that's always

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the first step. Yeah.

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And tonight, we have with us a special

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guest, brother Jonathan Bell.

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You're the pastor at Liberty Hill Baptist. Liberty

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Hill Baptist Church.

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Brother Jonathan has

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a very interesting life. You you've been an

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attorney, and now you're a judge for the

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area. So we're gonna have

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a lot of interesting questions for you. And

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and, you know, I'm sure you're gonna have

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the standard lawyer answer. Well, that depends. That's

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right. That's right. Or what do you what

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do you want the answer to, Ben?

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How much money you got? That's right. Yeah.

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That's right. Well, how are you doing tonight?

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I'm doing well, and I'm honored to be

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on the podcast. I've I've got to listen

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to it. And, of course, Brian and I

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are dear, dear friends. And Tyler, you and

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I went to church here when we were

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younger. Like, forever. Dennis, I I thought I

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knew him extremely well. And then he came

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in with a Georgia hat.

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No wonder.

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There's a reason we don't have cameras. This

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it's an embarrassment.

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Yeah. Yeah. These faces are made from radio.

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That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

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Oh, well, we'll just dive on in and

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get started.

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I don't have really too much this week.

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The only thing, from the interesting side of

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things that, I've been listening to this week

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and watching,

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of course, social media is constantly blowing up

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right now, and everybody is losing their minds.

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And, you know, every every single human being

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in The United States, we're just terrible people

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if y'all didn't know that.

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But, man, I have watched for years, you

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know, a lot of, you'll hear some some

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older guys will say that art is upstream

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of

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of, culture.

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And if you watch the TV shows and

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stuff, you can get an idea of where

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things are headed. By the way, movies and

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TV shows are presenting. Those are the things

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that are gonna be in the cultural conversation

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within the next few years.

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But I go even further than that because

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I'm as a software developer, I watch a

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lot of weird obscure

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chat rooms and stuff online where people talk

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and I mean developers are some of the

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most counterculture people on the planet.

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Especially the older guys because they grew up

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in the sixties and, you know, everything was

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get rid of get rid of anything to

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do with authority.

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And, man, I have watched as those guys

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were ten years ahead of the curve conversing

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about all the transgender stuff that got talked

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about. I've seen them be ten years ahead

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of the curve in a lot of the

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conversations that happened today.

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And the one that has blown my mind

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that has made its way into the less

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fringe areas is people now the same people

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that literally ten years ago

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were saying that it should be perfectly acceptable

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for 40 year olds to go hang out

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with 16 year olds, and that's a normal

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thing. And

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and you're not related to them. They're not

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a family member. Y'all just hang out together

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being friends like that that's normal. And everybody

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else was like, are are you insane? Do

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we need to do we need to call

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some help for you? There's something wrong.

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And literally making that argument, now they're those

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same people are arguing that it is really

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weird to see a friend group of people

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that spans more than about two years.

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And I'm like, so we went from wanting

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something absolutely disturbing to now we don't want

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young people to learn anything from the older

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guys. We don't want young people to learn

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anything. So, you know, make sure we're building

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those healthy relationships and as churches, make sure

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we're we're keeping that going where we have

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the younger folks are getting to mix with

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some of the older folks and hear them

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talk and listen to things from because I

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mean,

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age is not necessarily an an indicator of

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wisdom, but the one thing it's an indicator

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of is life experience. Yeah. And our young

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folks need that right now and they're craving

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it. And I'm I'm really fearful for where

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they're gonna end up getting a lot of

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that information and a lot of that life

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lessons. So, you know, really watch that. That's

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something that's starting to become a really huge

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conversation that where people are calling that out

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and saying that it's just weird and it

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just needs to stop and doesn't need to

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happen. And I'm like, you know, we're talking

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about friend groups of like 40 or 50

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people hanging out together. Yeah. I wanna see

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like 80 year olds in that group talking

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to them and saying now when I was

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a kid, you know, if I went out

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acting like you're acting right now, I'd have

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been smacked around so hard I wouldn't know

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what happened. You know? This is spiritual stuff,

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right? It's it's all headed toward the end.

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It really is. You see more and more

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of the stuff in the news. I sent

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you all an article, I don't know if

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you had a chance to read it, it's

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really long. I haven't had a chance to

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read it. It's really long. It's pretty tedious,

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but it's about transhumanism.

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Yeah. And this guy named Harari, he's a

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professor from, somewhere in Israel. The guy's he's

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like he's kind of like an Elon Musk

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but super liberal. Yeah. You know, and this

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guy's all about transhumanism,

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you know, just changing our DNA and changing

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our connecting our minds to the cloud and

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all this stuff. And it man, it's just

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revelation coming to life. Yeah. Yeah. Man, and

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that is that is a disturbing thought because

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that is that's where people want us to

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head us, not even to have human interactions.

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Yeah. And, you you know, as a as

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a tech guy,

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I'm not really a big fan of people

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in general.

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You know, I pick a job where I

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stay as far away from other people as

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possible.

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But, man, I couldn't live without having at

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least some people that I get to see

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every week and spend time with, you know.

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I'd go crazy. Not to get too far

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into this and chase a rabbit, but I

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mean, that's that's the problem with

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with most of our generation that's coming up

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today is they don't have any interaction with

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people. Yeah. And and it's all, if I

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can't text you or I can't, you know,

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Snapchat you or then I don't, I don't

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have any interaction with you. I don't wanna

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have any act interaction with you. No conversations

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can go on.

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I've seen that today when I went I

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went in a fast food restaurant and a

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young man was taking my order, and, the

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third time that I told him what I

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wanted.

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It's the third order or the third time

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you're in the first order? In the tenth

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time, he says.

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And then he then they still got the

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order. I mean, like

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But that's the thing. That's the thing. His

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DNA and mine are not the same. Yeah.

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A lot of these don't even follow-up.

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They don't they don't know what to do

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with being told something or being shown something.

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They expect to read it. Yeah. They expect

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to read it in the text message.

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And anything outside of that, they're just confused

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by it. And so let's let's as churches,

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encourage I encourage having family nights, having nights

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where you get people together. We do we

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do that sometimes here, and we did we

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did it for a while and kinda we've

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had a lot going on. But I I

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hope we get back to doing stuff like

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that because it's it's really good to have

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that. We we need that wisdom and put

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us there. Churches should be able to do

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that in safe environments, and I think churches

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are are seeing more and more how they

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need to do that and how that has

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to happen. But to make it a safe

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place and to make it a safe environment

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where people can interact with each other and

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gain some wisdom. One of the things I

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tell I tell every couple that I do,

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pre marriage counseling with,

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find yourself an older couple,

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that has been there and done that.

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A spiritually

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mature older couple and and talk to them

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and

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because you think that you've found something new,

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which we know the book of Ecclesiastes says

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there's nothing new under the sun,

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but you haven't, you know, and and so

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to gain some knowledge and wisdom from those

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older couples, I love sitting down and talking

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with with an older couple, especially we have.

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I I met one here, through my job

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not long ago and they've been married for

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seventy five years. Man. Seventy five years. Is

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that not amazing? And some of the story

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I just sat and just listened. Yeah. Some

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some of the things they're telling me. Man,

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talk about and talk about wisdom because if

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you've been married seventy five years and both

265
00:09:38,014 --> 00:09:39,839
of you are still alive. Yeah. Yeah. I

266
00:09:39,839 --> 00:09:41,919
mean that means that you that both both

267
00:09:41,919 --> 00:09:44,000
of you have at least been healthy enough

268
00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:45,839
to live long enough to do that. Yeah.

269
00:09:45,839 --> 00:09:47,600
And you haven't killed each other yet. So

270
00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:49,519
I mean they they definitely have some advice

271
00:09:49,519 --> 00:09:51,679
from any couple that's younger than that. Yeah.

272
00:09:51,679 --> 00:09:52,980
Yeah. Anyway, but

273
00:09:53,475 --> 00:09:54,995
that that's our that's our,

274
00:09:55,475 --> 00:09:57,475
our fun fact for the week, I guess.

275
00:09:57,475 --> 00:09:59,794
The the insanity going on. Let let's let's

276
00:09:59,794 --> 00:10:02,034
do. Let's come together as Christians, pass along

277
00:10:02,034 --> 00:10:03,714
the knowledge, pass along the wisdom, pass along

278
00:10:03,714 --> 00:10:05,334
that life experience to these kids.

279
00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:08,040
I promise they need it. Yeah. They need

280
00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:10,120
it bad. Yeah. So brother Brian, I think,

281
00:10:10,279 --> 00:10:12,120
I'll let you kick us off tonight. Well,

282
00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:13,820
you know, I called I called Jonathan,

283
00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:15,879
last week and,

284
00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:18,625
and or did that did I call you?

285
00:10:18,625 --> 00:10:20,304
Yeah. They called you. Yeah. Called text. I

286
00:10:20,304 --> 00:10:22,544
don't know. Sometimes we'll same converse back and

287
00:10:22,544 --> 00:10:23,764
forth. Yeah. Yeah.

288
00:10:24,225 --> 00:10:26,065
But anyway, and asked him if he would

289
00:10:26,065 --> 00:10:28,565
be free to come on, come on podcast

290
00:10:28,704 --> 00:10:29,204
tonight.

291
00:10:29,745 --> 00:10:31,985
I'd actually talked to him before we even

292
00:10:31,985 --> 00:10:34,389
started this thing a long time ago. I

293
00:10:34,389 --> 00:10:36,389
said, hey. We're thinking about starting a podcast,

294
00:10:36,389 --> 00:10:38,470
you know, and got some people that's that's

295
00:10:38,470 --> 00:10:40,470
on my mind to come on and and,

296
00:10:40,629 --> 00:10:42,070
and be a guest on here. And I

297
00:10:42,070 --> 00:10:44,889
know Seanthon stays pretty busy. He's involved,

298
00:10:45,990 --> 00:10:48,309
very much involved, of course, pastoring his church

299
00:10:48,309 --> 00:10:49,370
at Liberty Hill

300
00:10:50,044 --> 00:10:51,664
and his career as a judge,

301
00:10:52,684 --> 00:10:54,865
with with our local, Cornerstone

302
00:10:55,325 --> 00:10:56,924
School here. He's on the board there. I

303
00:10:56,924 --> 00:10:58,365
served on there with him for a little

304
00:10:58,365 --> 00:11:01,245
while. And, and so he's he's got his

305
00:11:01,245 --> 00:11:02,684
hands in a lot of things, you know,

306
00:11:02,684 --> 00:11:04,529
and and doing the lord's work. And,

307
00:11:05,090 --> 00:11:07,250
and and as he's already said, we're, he's

308
00:11:07,250 --> 00:11:08,610
a good friend of mine. And I I

309
00:11:08,610 --> 00:11:10,610
really appreciate you, Jonathan. I love you. So

310
00:11:10,690 --> 00:11:11,509
love you, brother.

311
00:11:12,769 --> 00:11:14,610
So I I told I I was hitting

312
00:11:14,610 --> 00:11:16,845
him with a few questions that because I

313
00:11:16,845 --> 00:11:18,444
I didn't wanna I didn't wanna put him

314
00:11:18,444 --> 00:11:19,184
on a spot

315
00:11:19,964 --> 00:11:21,644
right when we started, you know. So I

316
00:11:21,644 --> 00:11:23,324
was like, hey. I'm these are some things

317
00:11:23,324 --> 00:11:25,584
I'm gonna ask you along these lines. But,

318
00:11:26,125 --> 00:11:28,204
but I guess, first of all, just tell

319
00:11:28,204 --> 00:11:30,129
us, you know, how how'd you get where

320
00:11:30,129 --> 00:11:31,730
you are today? You know? I I mean,

321
00:11:31,730 --> 00:11:33,409
you don't have to start at infancy, but

322
00:11:33,409 --> 00:11:35,809
you can somewhere in there. Yes, sir. Yes,

323
00:11:35,809 --> 00:11:38,210
sir. Well, you know, I grew up in

324
00:11:38,210 --> 00:11:40,370
Charles and Angie Bell's home, and many of

325
00:11:40,370 --> 00:11:42,370
you listen to the podcast and y'all in

326
00:11:42,370 --> 00:11:44,634
here know them. In fact, I stopped in

327
00:11:44,634 --> 00:11:46,634
the pastor's office this afternoon and took a

328
00:11:46,634 --> 00:11:48,975
picture of them off the off the pastor's,

329
00:11:50,235 --> 00:11:52,014
bulletin board y'all got there. Yeah.

330
00:11:52,634 --> 00:11:54,875
And, you know, they raised me in church,

331
00:11:54,875 --> 00:11:56,875
and I was I'm so blessed to have

332
00:11:56,875 --> 00:11:59,339
a good foundation. Yeah. I I mean, they

333
00:11:59,339 --> 00:12:01,100
they raised my brother and I in church

334
00:12:01,100 --> 00:12:03,360
and saturated us with with the Lord.

335
00:12:04,299 --> 00:12:06,220
Of course, attended Moon Lake Elementary School when

336
00:12:06,220 --> 00:12:07,740
my dad was the principal. When your dad's

337
00:12:07,740 --> 00:12:09,500
the teacher and the principal, you can't get

338
00:12:09,500 --> 00:12:10,320
away with anything.

339
00:12:12,059 --> 00:12:13,659
My mother was a school teacher, but she

340
00:12:13,659 --> 00:12:15,634
was a valley head. And and so when

341
00:12:15,634 --> 00:12:17,314
I transferred to valley head in seventh grade,

342
00:12:17,314 --> 00:12:18,914
she was there. But we went on a

343
00:12:19,235 --> 00:12:20,754
dad was always one that would wanna go

344
00:12:20,754 --> 00:12:22,834
on vacation to a historical place. And so

345
00:12:22,834 --> 00:12:23,975
one place he went,

346
00:12:24,514 --> 00:12:27,574
was Washington DC that we went twice, and

347
00:12:27,634 --> 00:12:29,154
we got tour of the senate and the

348
00:12:29,154 --> 00:12:31,279
house and those sort of things. And so

349
00:12:31,279 --> 00:12:32,399
as I was sitting up there in the

350
00:12:32,399 --> 00:12:34,580
gallery watching US senate, deliberate

351
00:12:35,039 --> 00:12:36,580
or go through their process,

352
00:12:37,759 --> 00:12:39,200
I decided that I wanted to be a

353
00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:41,360
United States Senator One day. I was about

354
00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:42,254
12 years old.

355
00:12:42,735 --> 00:12:44,495
And, but I thought to be a US

356
00:12:44,495 --> 00:12:46,335
Senator, I had to be a lawyer. And

357
00:12:46,335 --> 00:12:48,674
so my parents never told me otherwise.

358
00:12:49,134 --> 00:12:52,014
They they let me they let me believe

359
00:12:52,014 --> 00:12:54,434
that. That you can get a lawyer. Sure.

360
00:12:55,250 --> 00:12:57,350
And so to make something of yourself.

361
00:12:59,490 --> 00:12:59,970
So as,

362
00:13:00,529 --> 00:13:02,769
as I, you know, went through high school

363
00:13:02,769 --> 00:13:05,250
and graduated from Valleyhead, and and I always

364
00:13:05,250 --> 00:13:07,329
tell people that, I know that y'all are,

365
00:13:07,649 --> 00:13:09,669
jealous that y'all didn't graduate from Valleyhead.

366
00:13:10,289 --> 00:13:10,370
But,

367
00:13:11,845 --> 00:13:14,245
but the 39 other people that graduated with

368
00:13:14,245 --> 00:13:15,524
me are great people. Yeah.

369
00:13:16,325 --> 00:13:17,705
So I was so,

370
00:13:18,245 --> 00:13:21,285
we, Exclusive. That's right. It's it's small club.

371
00:13:21,285 --> 00:13:22,345
Yeah. Small club.

372
00:13:22,884 --> 00:13:25,045
And so we we, I I went to

373
00:13:25,045 --> 00:13:27,950
Northeast. And and after northeast transferred to Alabama,

374
00:13:27,950 --> 00:13:29,870
got a four year degree, which is why

375
00:13:29,870 --> 00:13:32,190
the bulldog's hat threw me off there. Yeah.

376
00:13:32,190 --> 00:13:33,410
Yeah. Sorry about that.

377
00:13:35,470 --> 00:13:37,629
And and then I I prayed, and I

378
00:13:37,629 --> 00:13:38,769
really do thank God

379
00:13:39,565 --> 00:13:41,325
not only put me in as a judge,

380
00:13:41,325 --> 00:13:43,345
but guided me in the legal field

381
00:13:43,805 --> 00:13:44,305
because,

382
00:13:44,685 --> 00:13:46,285
you know, I had prayed about whether I

383
00:13:46,285 --> 00:13:47,404
should go to law school or not. And

384
00:13:47,404 --> 00:13:49,725
I wanted to go from age 12 to

385
00:13:49,725 --> 00:13:51,165
about my first or second year in college,

386
00:13:51,165 --> 00:13:53,440
and then I kinda let that, you know,

387
00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:55,220
dream fade or

388
00:13:55,679 --> 00:13:57,440
maybe that wouldn't what I supposed to do

389
00:13:57,440 --> 00:13:59,779
and other things were happening in life. And,

390
00:14:00,159 --> 00:14:02,000
I had not yet met my wife and

391
00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:03,459
at that time. And so,

392
00:14:03,919 --> 00:14:05,519
you know, I was thinking about those sort

393
00:14:05,519 --> 00:14:06,419
of things and

394
00:14:06,965 --> 00:14:08,884
I took the entrance exam, which is called

395
00:14:08,884 --> 00:14:09,625
the LSAT,

396
00:14:11,605 --> 00:14:13,365
that you take. And and at that time,

397
00:14:13,365 --> 00:14:15,205
you took it and then you applied you

398
00:14:15,205 --> 00:14:17,065
sent your scores to different law schools.

399
00:14:17,445 --> 00:14:20,009
And at that time, my LSAT score was

400
00:14:20,090 --> 00:14:22,590
was, was okay, but it wasn't

401
00:14:23,049 --> 00:14:24,110
great. And so

402
00:14:24,570 --> 00:14:26,330
I prayed about it, and I got wait

403
00:14:26,330 --> 00:14:28,889
listed at at Samford University, Cumberland School of

404
00:14:28,889 --> 00:14:30,029
Law at Samford University.

405
00:14:30,649 --> 00:14:32,490
And I talked to a local lawyer here,

406
00:14:32,490 --> 00:14:33,929
and the local lawyer said, well, you need

407
00:14:33,929 --> 00:14:35,834
to go down and interview with them. And

408
00:14:35,834 --> 00:14:38,634
I had prayed about it and and, and

409
00:14:38,634 --> 00:14:40,554
so I went down interviewed with the admissions

410
00:14:40,554 --> 00:14:42,475
office. And he had told me, when you

411
00:14:42,475 --> 00:14:44,074
talk to the admissions lady, you tell her

412
00:14:44,074 --> 00:14:44,574
that,

413
00:14:45,514 --> 00:14:47,194
you it doesn't matter if you have to

414
00:14:47,194 --> 00:14:48,634
stand up and take notes that you really

415
00:14:48,634 --> 00:14:49,740
wanna go to law school.

416
00:14:50,620 --> 00:14:52,620
And so I went down and had an

417
00:14:52,620 --> 00:14:54,620
interview with her. And as I sat and

418
00:14:54,620 --> 00:14:56,399
talked with her, I just

419
00:14:56,779 --> 00:14:58,940
we interacted well together and she got to

420
00:14:58,940 --> 00:15:00,299
the point where she said, look, you're on

421
00:15:00,299 --> 00:15:02,220
the wait list. I don't know that you

422
00:15:02,459 --> 00:15:04,940
that we're gonna have enough room to accept

423
00:15:04,940 --> 00:15:07,075
you. You know, that's not wait list is

424
00:15:07,075 --> 00:15:09,075
they haven't rejected you, but you didn't really

425
00:15:09,075 --> 00:15:11,075
score high enough to for them to say

426
00:15:11,075 --> 00:15:12,934
we want you at that point.

427
00:15:13,555 --> 00:15:14,295
And so

428
00:15:14,915 --> 00:15:15,154
I,

429
00:15:15,955 --> 00:15:18,434
I I talked with her and I prayed

430
00:15:18,434 --> 00:15:19,495
about it. And

431
00:15:19,820 --> 00:15:21,840
so I walked out with faith that

432
00:15:22,379 --> 00:15:24,559
I think God's gonna allow this to happen.

433
00:15:24,860 --> 00:15:26,700
And so and I told her, I said,

434
00:15:26,700 --> 00:15:27,740
look, I don't care if you got room

435
00:15:27,740 --> 00:15:29,440
or not. I'll stand up and take notes.

436
00:15:29,740 --> 00:15:31,580
And, she said, well, that's not really how

437
00:15:31,580 --> 00:15:32,559
it works. But

438
00:15:34,059 --> 00:15:36,684
but that's but, but I understand. So I

439
00:15:36,684 --> 00:15:39,084
I left and and, it's about a week

440
00:15:39,084 --> 00:15:40,764
later. I was on my driveway at the

441
00:15:40,764 --> 00:15:42,845
house, and that lady called me and said,

442
00:15:42,845 --> 00:15:44,125
do you still wanna go to law school

443
00:15:44,125 --> 00:15:46,125
at Sanford? And I said, yes, ma'am. I

444
00:15:46,125 --> 00:15:47,644
do. She said, well, you come down here.

445
00:15:47,644 --> 00:15:48,944
You've you've been accepted.

446
00:15:49,419 --> 00:15:50,240
And that was

447
00:15:51,179 --> 00:15:53,100
that very first moment, it was a god

448
00:15:53,100 --> 00:15:54,799
thing. Yeah. And and I can't

449
00:15:55,180 --> 00:15:57,600
I wasn't just like salvation,

450
00:15:57,980 --> 00:16:00,559
just like anything else, I wasn't good enough,

451
00:16:01,100 --> 00:16:02,879
you know, without him. Yeah.

452
00:16:03,524 --> 00:16:04,884
And and that's the way it you know,

453
00:16:04,884 --> 00:16:06,565
and I skipped over salvation. You know, I

454
00:16:06,565 --> 00:16:08,725
doubted salvation, and that's the most important thing

455
00:16:08,725 --> 00:16:10,324
that happened in my life or anybody's life

456
00:16:10,324 --> 00:16:10,824
was

457
00:16:11,204 --> 00:16:14,004
doubted my salvation for many years and and,

458
00:16:14,324 --> 00:16:16,565
you know, felt like God gave me assurance

459
00:16:16,565 --> 00:16:18,245
of that when I was 18 years old

460
00:16:18,245 --> 00:16:19,759
after I'd battled it for

461
00:16:20,300 --> 00:16:22,700
years. And, just trusted in the Lord, and

462
00:16:22,700 --> 00:16:23,279
the Lord

463
00:16:23,740 --> 00:16:26,220
distilled my soul. I I can't Yeah. I

464
00:16:26,220 --> 00:16:28,060
can't say it any other way. But in

465
00:16:28,060 --> 00:16:29,500
the legal career, I felt like from the

466
00:16:29,500 --> 00:16:30,639
very beginning, God

467
00:16:31,054 --> 00:16:33,294
placed me there. Now I'm not saying that

468
00:16:33,294 --> 00:16:35,214
I'm any better than anybody else, or I'm

469
00:16:35,214 --> 00:16:36,194
not saying that,

470
00:16:36,735 --> 00:16:38,894
I didn't I had made mistakes or lost

471
00:16:38,894 --> 00:16:41,214
cases or made the wrong decisions along the

472
00:16:41,214 --> 00:16:42,735
way, but I do believe God's put us

473
00:16:42,735 --> 00:16:44,815
in the places he wants to be. Sure.

474
00:16:44,815 --> 00:16:47,350
And then after I practiced law here,

475
00:16:48,210 --> 00:16:50,309
I went in first with a lady here

476
00:16:50,370 --> 00:16:52,450
named Sherry Dobbins. She and I practiced together

477
00:16:52,450 --> 00:16:54,129
from o three to o five, and then

478
00:16:54,129 --> 00:16:55,889
I went out on my own in o

479
00:16:55,889 --> 00:16:56,870
five and

480
00:16:57,410 --> 00:16:58,470
practiced until,

481
00:16:59,330 --> 00:17:01,225
02/2012

482
00:17:01,225 --> 00:17:04,164
when I got elected. But in 02/2011,

483
00:17:04,945 --> 00:17:06,464
I I really got to thinking, well, I

484
00:17:06,464 --> 00:17:08,464
wanna be a circuit judge. And I I

485
00:17:08,464 --> 00:17:09,204
really wanna

486
00:17:09,505 --> 00:17:11,025
run to be a circuit judge. And at

487
00:17:11,025 --> 00:17:13,505
that time, the circuit judge places were held

488
00:17:13,505 --> 00:17:15,184
by judge Cole who had been there forty

489
00:17:15,184 --> 00:17:16,850
four and a half. Well, he would he

490
00:17:16,850 --> 00:17:18,529
would retire forty four and a half years.

491
00:17:18,529 --> 00:17:21,330
At that time, he'd been in about '36,

492
00:17:21,330 --> 00:17:21,990
I think.

493
00:17:22,450 --> 00:17:24,450
And you had judge Raines who had been

494
00:17:24,450 --> 00:17:27,170
there '31 or '32, and you had judge

495
00:17:27,170 --> 00:17:29,830
Taylor who had just gotten elected in 2010,

496
00:17:31,085 --> 00:17:32,224
a year before that.

497
00:17:32,924 --> 00:17:33,424
And

498
00:17:33,805 --> 00:17:34,384
I, again,

499
00:17:35,164 --> 00:17:36,924
I prayed about it and I thought about

500
00:17:36,924 --> 00:17:37,744
it. And,

501
00:17:38,525 --> 00:17:40,125
you know, you gotta take a step out

502
00:17:40,125 --> 00:17:40,785
on faith

503
00:17:41,164 --> 00:17:42,924
to to god, do you want me to

504
00:17:42,924 --> 00:17:45,539
run for this office? And then you've gotta

505
00:17:45,539 --> 00:17:48,099
make a decision of, is this what really

506
00:17:48,099 --> 00:17:49,799
what he wants me to do? And

507
00:17:50,259 --> 00:17:51,720
I talked to a lot of people.

508
00:17:52,179 --> 00:17:54,179
And my brother-in-law, Chris Boggs, who's also a

509
00:17:54,179 --> 00:17:55,559
minister, he told me,

510
00:17:55,859 --> 00:17:57,059
at the time he and I were around

511
00:17:57,059 --> 00:17:58,419
each other a lot, still are. And he

512
00:17:58,419 --> 00:17:59,460
talked to me, and he said, well, you

513
00:17:59,460 --> 00:18:01,514
know, sometimes you gotta step out on faith.

514
00:18:01,514 --> 00:18:02,494
Yeah. And

515
00:18:03,034 --> 00:18:05,194
I thought about that, and I prayed about

516
00:18:05,194 --> 00:18:06,714
it. And God never said, you get in

517
00:18:06,714 --> 00:18:09,754
this in this campaign, you're gonna win. That's

518
00:18:09,754 --> 00:18:11,674
not what God Yeah. I can't tell you

519
00:18:11,674 --> 00:18:13,514
that's what God said. Because sometimes God may

520
00:18:13,514 --> 00:18:15,450
put you in those situations in for for

521
00:18:15,450 --> 00:18:16,730
you to lose. Teach you how to lose.

522
00:18:16,730 --> 00:18:18,730
Yeah. Teach you how to lose. Yeah. That's

523
00:18:18,730 --> 00:18:19,690
right. And so,

524
00:18:20,490 --> 00:18:22,329
I I I prayed about it not knowing,

525
00:18:22,329 --> 00:18:24,009
and I was running against judge Raines who

526
00:18:24,009 --> 00:18:25,309
was a thirty one year incumbent.

527
00:18:26,089 --> 00:18:28,250
I have nothing negative to say about him

528
00:18:28,250 --> 00:18:28,910
at all.

529
00:18:30,164 --> 00:18:31,284
It it it just I felt like that's

530
00:18:31,284 --> 00:18:32,825
where God was pushing me

531
00:18:33,284 --> 00:18:34,964
and but it was gonna be an uphill

532
00:18:34,964 --> 00:18:36,484
climb because he had been in the job

533
00:18:36,484 --> 00:18:37,464
thirty one years.

534
00:18:38,085 --> 00:18:39,224
He was very intelligent.

535
00:18:40,244 --> 00:18:41,924
I I've been practicing nine and a half

536
00:18:41,924 --> 00:18:43,704
years at that point, almost ten.

537
00:18:44,289 --> 00:18:46,690
And, you know, we had our strengths and

538
00:18:46,690 --> 00:18:49,009
weaknesses, both of us did, but he was

539
00:18:49,009 --> 00:18:51,809
he was very well connected. And and, and

540
00:18:51,809 --> 00:18:53,410
I was trying to get trying to get

541
00:18:53,410 --> 00:18:55,970
started. Yeah. You know, trying to, trying to

542
00:18:55,970 --> 00:18:57,944
campaign over two counties because we got DeKalb

543
00:18:57,944 --> 00:19:00,184
in Cherokee County in the night judicial circuit,

544
00:19:00,184 --> 00:19:01,565
and we campaign on both.

545
00:19:02,265 --> 00:19:04,024
So I prayed about it, and there were

546
00:19:04,024 --> 00:19:05,625
some real ups and downs. And I used

547
00:19:05,625 --> 00:19:07,065
to make the joke, if God says you

548
00:19:07,065 --> 00:19:09,224
got one year left to live, I would

549
00:19:09,224 --> 00:19:10,524
wanna spend it campaigning.

550
00:19:11,170 --> 00:19:14,049
Because god because god knows it's the longest

551
00:19:14,049 --> 00:19:14,869
year of your

552
00:19:15,170 --> 00:19:16,150
life. That's good.

553
00:19:16,849 --> 00:19:17,349
So

554
00:19:18,049 --> 00:19:20,289
it was a long Yeah. Long year. For

555
00:19:20,289 --> 00:19:23,430
you, your wife, your kids. Yeah. Yeah. And,

556
00:19:24,049 --> 00:19:25,570
you know, a lot of, you know, in

557
00:19:25,570 --> 00:19:26,630
the legal field,

558
00:19:26,984 --> 00:19:29,384
the people that I worked with, there was

559
00:19:29,384 --> 00:19:30,765
very, very few

560
00:19:31,384 --> 00:19:34,744
that, wanted it that were that would vocally

561
00:19:34,744 --> 00:19:35,964
support me. And then

562
00:19:36,664 --> 00:19:38,265
very few that would support me, then very

563
00:19:38,265 --> 00:19:39,704
few that would vocally do it. Yeah. It

564
00:19:39,704 --> 00:19:40,444
was a handful.

565
00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:42,259
And so,

566
00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:44,720
you know, I I prayed throughout the process

567
00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:46,799
and he kept me kept me through that.

568
00:19:46,799 --> 00:19:49,279
I I will say Amazing Grace, My Change

569
00:19:49,279 --> 00:19:51,200
Are Gone. I discovered that song during that

570
00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:52,640
campaign and that would bring me a lot

571
00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:54,340
of relief. Yeah. Friendships,

572
00:19:55,045 --> 00:19:56,484
would would bring me a lot of relief.

573
00:19:56,484 --> 00:19:59,125
And this Psalm, Psalm one twenty four, after

574
00:19:59,125 --> 00:19:59,945
it was over,

575
00:20:00,404 --> 00:20:02,085
it said, if it had not been for

576
00:20:02,085 --> 00:20:03,945
the Lord who was on our side,

577
00:20:04,644 --> 00:20:05,144
now

578
00:20:05,525 --> 00:20:07,285
may Israel say, if it had not been

579
00:20:07,285 --> 00:20:09,160
for the Lord, who was on our side

580
00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:10,700
when men rose up against us,

581
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:13,080
then they had swallowed us up quick when

582
00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:15,240
their wrath was kindled against us. And I'll

583
00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:17,320
skip on down to last. Our help is

584
00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:18,840
in the name of the Lord who made

585
00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:19,740
heaven and earth.

586
00:20:20,120 --> 00:20:20,620
God

587
00:20:21,704 --> 00:20:23,724
allowed me to win that race,

588
00:20:24,184 --> 00:20:25,944
and and I and I can't sit here

589
00:20:25,944 --> 00:20:27,544
and say I did it because I was

590
00:20:27,544 --> 00:20:30,025
some strategic genius, and I can't say that

591
00:20:30,025 --> 00:20:31,964
God loved me more than he loved David.

592
00:20:32,184 --> 00:20:33,164
That's not true.

593
00:20:33,599 --> 00:20:35,359
He loved both of us. He clearly had

594
00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:37,220
a plan for our each of our lives.

595
00:20:37,359 --> 00:20:37,859
Yeah.

596
00:20:38,559 --> 00:20:41,359
And and, but I can't take the credit

597
00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:43,440
for for getting the job. I have to

598
00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:44,880
say it was God that put me there.

599
00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:46,019
Yeah. Absolutely.

600
00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:48,924
But I'm not saying I'm better. No. But

601
00:20:48,924 --> 00:20:51,005
you you no. Well, God places us in

602
00:20:51,005 --> 00:20:54,044
positions and places of authority that that he

603
00:20:54,044 --> 00:20:56,044
wants us to be in. That's yeah. I

604
00:20:56,044 --> 00:20:56,524
mean, it's

605
00:20:57,404 --> 00:20:58,924
Yeah. And no. I was I was just

606
00:20:58,924 --> 00:21:00,684
thinking, you you know, you you made a

607
00:21:00,684 --> 00:21:03,519
comment about, God didn't just audibly tell you

608
00:21:03,519 --> 00:21:05,919
to do this. Yeah. And I struggle with

609
00:21:05,919 --> 00:21:07,200
that a lot and I think a lot

610
00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:08,960
of Christians do. It's like we pray about

611
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:10,480
something, should I go this way or should

612
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:12,240
I go that way? Yeah. And it's not

613
00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:14,480
always a real clear answer, is it? Sometimes

614
00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:16,419
just get out of the boat, sometimes it's,

615
00:21:17,204 --> 00:21:19,044
either way is fine. Right? There has to

616
00:21:19,044 --> 00:21:20,565
be a measure of faith there in it.

617
00:21:20,565 --> 00:21:22,804
Yeah. Every single time, you know, I've and

618
00:21:22,804 --> 00:21:25,444
I I can remember when I was, dealing

619
00:21:25,444 --> 00:21:27,304
with the calling preach and,

620
00:21:28,325 --> 00:21:30,244
you know, god dealt with me through my

621
00:21:30,244 --> 00:21:32,579
wife. He dealt with me through friends. He,

622
00:21:32,819 --> 00:21:35,399
you know, and and through his word. Circumstances.

623
00:21:36,019 --> 00:21:36,519
Circumstances.

624
00:21:36,819 --> 00:21:38,440
All these different things. And,

625
00:21:39,220 --> 00:21:42,259
of course, every person, whether it's your career

626
00:21:42,259 --> 00:21:43,859
field that you're gonna pick or whether it's

627
00:21:43,859 --> 00:21:45,559
a ministry that you're going into,

628
00:21:46,164 --> 00:21:48,085
you don't want it to be you. Right?

629
00:21:48,085 --> 00:21:49,684
You don't want it to be you.

630
00:21:50,005 --> 00:21:51,765
And so and so so I think sometimes

631
00:21:51,765 --> 00:21:54,244
you can talk yourself out of it. Sometimes

632
00:21:54,244 --> 00:21:56,085
you can talk yourself into it. But, but,

633
00:21:56,085 --> 00:21:58,200
yeah, we wanna we wanna know what's God's

634
00:21:58,279 --> 00:21:59,799
God's will for our Yeah. Yeah. And when

635
00:21:59,799 --> 00:22:01,639
you pray, I I get confused. Well, is

636
00:22:01,639 --> 00:22:02,919
is this God talking to me or is

637
00:22:02,919 --> 00:22:04,859
this me talking to me? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

638
00:22:05,159 --> 00:22:07,000
Because I want the job. Yeah. Yeah. And

639
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:08,440
so you wanna make sure, well, is this

640
00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:10,440
just my ambition? Yeah. Is this my desire

641
00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:12,519
that I've got or just is God's desire

642
00:22:12,519 --> 00:22:15,315
for my life? Amen. Yeah. Yeah. And and

643
00:22:15,315 --> 00:22:17,955
I think that that if we line up

644
00:22:17,955 --> 00:22:20,275
with god's desire for our life, then it

645
00:22:20,275 --> 00:22:22,994
can be our desire and god's desire. Amen.

646
00:22:22,994 --> 00:22:25,394
Right. Yeah. I think That's the ideal. That's

647
00:22:25,394 --> 00:22:28,839
the ideal place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Amen. So

648
00:22:29,539 --> 00:22:30,519
go from there.

649
00:22:30,900 --> 00:22:31,400
Well,

650
00:22:31,779 --> 00:22:33,320
in in throughout the process,

651
00:22:34,339 --> 00:22:35,700
God has got me. And I, you know,

652
00:22:35,700 --> 00:22:36,980
I always feel like I need to put

653
00:22:36,980 --> 00:22:39,079
a disclaimer. Maybe that's the lawyer in me.

654
00:22:39,140 --> 00:22:40,660
I'm not saying God's for me and he's

655
00:22:40,660 --> 00:22:41,559
not for others.

656
00:22:42,154 --> 00:22:43,914
You you know? Right. Right. Absolutely. Or that

657
00:22:43,914 --> 00:22:45,835
I'm somehow superior. And when you're in politics

658
00:22:45,835 --> 00:22:47,434
and you start saying, well, God called me

659
00:22:47,434 --> 00:22:48,954
to do this or God did it, then

660
00:22:48,954 --> 00:22:50,474
people think they're using that as a

661
00:22:51,275 --> 00:22:53,534
as some way to get votes. Yeah. But,

662
00:22:54,359 --> 00:22:56,119
in fact, I was campaigning over in Gillsville,

663
00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:57,720
and a man was sitting in a restaurant

664
00:22:57,720 --> 00:22:59,000
or a little gas station. I went over

665
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:00,359
and talked to him, and he said, I

666
00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:02,119
wanna know something. Are you a Christian? And

667
00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:03,720
I said, well, yes, sir. I am. I'm

668
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:05,480
a Christian. He said, a real one or

669
00:23:05,480 --> 00:23:07,180
just one during election year?

670
00:23:10,654 --> 00:23:11,154
Yeah.

671
00:23:13,454 --> 00:23:15,471
Yeah. That's that's a good question. Their their

672
00:23:15,471 --> 00:23:16,115
their their their their their their

673
00:23:23,519 --> 00:23:25,200
so many people who are pessimists and so

674
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:26,339
many people who are,

675
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,599
you know, the the old adage that, you

676
00:23:29,599 --> 00:23:31,119
know, how can you be a how can

677
00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:32,640
you be a preacher, an a lawyer, you

678
00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:34,000
know, all those things. And I know you

679
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:35,519
get I know you've got a hard time.

680
00:23:35,519 --> 00:23:37,460
I've heard it, you know. It's

681
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:39,785
been my friend for a long time.

682
00:23:40,725 --> 00:23:42,644
Years have given you a hard time, but

683
00:23:42,725 --> 00:23:44,404
and I know that we've talked about that

684
00:23:44,404 --> 00:23:44,904
before.

685
00:23:45,924 --> 00:23:46,744
What if

686
00:23:47,285 --> 00:23:49,684
what if men did not answer the call?

687
00:23:49,684 --> 00:23:51,285
And I'm when I say men, I mean

688
00:23:51,285 --> 00:23:54,549
godly men. What if godly men did not

689
00:23:54,549 --> 00:23:57,589
answer the call to be in in, in,

690
00:23:57,829 --> 00:24:00,650
the senate seat or or or a presidency

691
00:24:01,029 --> 00:24:02,410
position or a,

692
00:24:03,029 --> 00:24:05,349
or or or a law a law room

693
00:24:05,349 --> 00:24:07,190
or a courtroom or whatever or or a

694
00:24:07,190 --> 00:24:09,565
judge, you know what? We need men of

695
00:24:09,565 --> 00:24:11,964
God and and and women of God in

696
00:24:11,964 --> 00:24:13,265
in places and positions

697
00:24:13,724 --> 00:24:15,644
that he's called them into. We need that

698
00:24:15,644 --> 00:24:18,365
that Christian influence. Amen. And I know that

699
00:24:18,444 --> 00:24:19,724
and, of course, they'll get some of the

700
00:24:19,724 --> 00:24:21,329
questions that I that I'm gonna ask you,

701
00:24:21,329 --> 00:24:23,089
but I I I know that that's I

702
00:24:23,089 --> 00:24:25,569
know it's a difficult balance sometimes. I know

703
00:24:25,569 --> 00:24:27,890
that it's, you know, you you've got to

704
00:24:27,890 --> 00:24:30,130
abide by the law, and then you've you've

705
00:24:30,130 --> 00:24:31,990
got your you've got your your Christian,

706
00:24:33,170 --> 00:24:35,089
faith that that you've got to that you've

707
00:24:35,089 --> 00:24:37,065
got to lean on too. So how do

708
00:24:37,065 --> 00:24:39,865
you just just kind of, I guess, how

709
00:24:39,865 --> 00:24:40,365
do

710
00:24:40,744 --> 00:24:42,265
you how do you reason between the two

711
00:24:42,265 --> 00:24:43,384
of them? How do you bring the two

712
00:24:43,384 --> 00:24:44,284
of them together,

713
00:24:45,144 --> 00:24:47,784
in in in your career? Amy, thank you

714
00:24:47,784 --> 00:24:49,625
for that. And I was let me digress

715
00:24:49,625 --> 00:24:51,299
for a minute and go to my dad

716
00:24:51,299 --> 00:24:52,900
for a second. When I was getting ready

717
00:24:52,900 --> 00:24:54,279
to apply for law school,

718
00:24:54,660 --> 00:24:56,580
I I'd heard from a lot of people

719
00:24:56,580 --> 00:24:59,080
how how can you wanna go into law

720
00:24:59,299 --> 00:25:01,140
and and go to church and be a

721
00:25:01,140 --> 00:25:02,740
Christian. Yeah. That it was just before I

722
00:25:02,740 --> 00:25:04,420
announced my call to preach. I didn't announce

723
00:25:04,420 --> 00:25:06,224
my call to preach because I had been

724
00:25:06,224 --> 00:25:08,944
in law school for a little bit. And,

725
00:25:09,505 --> 00:25:10,944
so how can you do how can you

726
00:25:10,944 --> 00:25:12,484
do that? And so I went to him

727
00:25:12,545 --> 00:25:15,424
because he was my rock. Sure. And so

728
00:25:15,424 --> 00:25:16,464
I went to him and I said, well,

729
00:25:16,464 --> 00:25:18,224
dad, you know, they're saying I can't be

730
00:25:18,224 --> 00:25:19,779
honest, you know, that I can't be a

731
00:25:19,779 --> 00:25:21,779
Christian and be an orator. And I what

732
00:25:21,779 --> 00:25:24,180
do you think about that? And without much

733
00:25:24,180 --> 00:25:26,019
thought that he put in it, he just

734
00:25:26,019 --> 00:25:27,299
looked at me and dead in the eye

735
00:25:27,299 --> 00:25:28,900
and he said, well, my son, if you

736
00:25:28,900 --> 00:25:31,154
can't be an honest man, no matter what

737
00:25:31,315 --> 00:25:33,634
area of life you go into, then you're

738
00:25:33,634 --> 00:25:35,154
not really an honest person to begin with.

739
00:25:35,154 --> 00:25:36,515
Right. That's exactly right. If you can't be

740
00:25:36,515 --> 00:25:38,914
an honest cashier, an honest garbage man, an

741
00:25:38,914 --> 00:25:41,234
honest lawyer, honest doctor Yeah. Then you're really

742
00:25:41,234 --> 00:25:43,575
honest. That's right. Right. Amen. And and so

743
00:25:44,049 --> 00:25:44,869
and and that

744
00:25:45,809 --> 00:25:48,609
that has stuck with me in the,

745
00:25:49,329 --> 00:25:50,210
you know, you

746
00:25:50,769 --> 00:25:52,849
what god's put in there, he calls you

747
00:25:52,849 --> 00:25:55,009
in a different field. Yeah. Yeah. And,

748
00:25:55,570 --> 00:25:57,670
but then as as you progress,

749
00:25:58,345 --> 00:26:00,184
you know, I got asked that question similar

750
00:26:00,184 --> 00:26:01,245
question to that on,

751
00:26:02,025 --> 00:26:02,525
WFPA,

752
00:26:03,225 --> 00:26:04,745
when I first got elected. That and I

753
00:26:04,745 --> 00:26:06,164
know WFPA is,

754
00:26:06,585 --> 00:26:09,245
gone now, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

755
00:26:09,384 --> 00:26:09,705
But,

756
00:26:10,265 --> 00:26:12,265
and Mike Wallace asked me that question. I

757
00:26:12,265 --> 00:26:14,429
said, well, I don't carry the bible into

758
00:26:14,429 --> 00:26:16,589
the courtroom necessarily. I don't bring any in

759
00:26:16,589 --> 00:26:18,769
and read out of it. But hopefully,

760
00:26:19,470 --> 00:26:22,269
my Christian ethic shows out through what I

761
00:26:22,269 --> 00:26:24,029
say, what I do, and how I conduct

762
00:26:24,029 --> 00:26:25,569
myself, one. And two,

763
00:26:26,765 --> 00:26:29,325
everybody that comes into that courtroom, whether they're

764
00:26:29,325 --> 00:26:30,464
going through a divorce,

765
00:26:31,085 --> 00:26:33,265
whether they're going through a criminal case,

766
00:26:34,684 --> 00:26:37,325
whether they're going through a civil lawsuit, whatever

767
00:26:37,325 --> 00:26:38,625
it is they're going through,

768
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:41,279
every one of them are creating the image

769
00:26:41,279 --> 00:26:41,859
of God.

770
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:44,880
And some of them Absolutely. Some of them

771
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:46,420
have done wrong. Yeah.

772
00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:48,400
Some of them are on the right and

773
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:50,099
and maybe are needing compensation.

774
00:26:50,914 --> 00:26:53,794
But both both sides have been sinners or

775
00:26:53,794 --> 00:26:56,595
are sinners and and need somebody to to,

776
00:26:57,075 --> 00:26:59,315
in some cases be compassionate and in some

777
00:26:59,315 --> 00:27:01,494
cases be tough. Yeah. And

778
00:27:02,515 --> 00:27:04,294
that's where you get a lot of criticism.

779
00:27:04,434 --> 00:27:06,454
And the criminal defendants I deal with

780
00:27:07,340 --> 00:27:09,440
a lot. One my rule is for them

781
00:27:09,660 --> 00:27:11,420
is if they owe money to the court

782
00:27:11,420 --> 00:27:11,920
system,

783
00:27:12,220 --> 00:27:14,380
then they've got to come to court once

784
00:27:14,380 --> 00:27:16,700
a month and either keep paying what they're

785
00:27:16,700 --> 00:27:18,619
paying or the only way they can avoid

786
00:27:18,619 --> 00:27:20,220
coming back to court and reviewing their payment

787
00:27:20,220 --> 00:27:22,214
history is they gotta get a job and

788
00:27:22,214 --> 00:27:23,095
allow us to take it out of their

789
00:27:23,095 --> 00:27:23,595
paycheck

790
00:27:23,894 --> 00:27:25,595
or they've gotta pay everything off.

791
00:27:25,894 --> 00:27:29,414
And we'll have 80 folks a month in

792
00:27:29,414 --> 00:27:30,154
each county,

793
00:27:30,615 --> 00:27:31,515
give or take,

794
00:27:32,214 --> 00:27:34,714
in DeKalb and Cherokee County, in each

795
00:27:35,494 --> 00:27:36,794
in two different court dates.

796
00:27:37,159 --> 00:27:38,599
And we'll be doing payment review of those

797
00:27:38,599 --> 00:27:40,119
people. And over time, you get to know

798
00:27:40,119 --> 00:27:41,419
them. And and

799
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:43,399
you get to interact with them, and you

800
00:27:43,399 --> 00:27:46,200
get to see that addiction, for example, in

801
00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,919
our area is an epidemic problem. Addiction to

802
00:27:48,919 --> 00:27:51,480
all kinds of drugs. Yeah. Mhmm. And not

803
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:51,974
to get

804
00:27:52,535 --> 00:27:54,214
this is not a political statement. This is

805
00:27:54,214 --> 00:27:56,775
just truth. One thing that helps, I think,

806
00:27:56,775 --> 00:27:59,414
and will help is border control because fentanyl

807
00:27:59,414 --> 00:28:00,775
and those sort of things coming in over

808
00:28:00,775 --> 00:28:02,454
the border has been killing people in our

809
00:28:02,454 --> 00:28:05,035
community. Absolutely. Yeah. And and that's

810
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:06,960
no matter how you feel about who the

811
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,220
president is or whatever, and that's another topic.

812
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:11,759
I'm proud that we're at least taking steps

813
00:28:11,759 --> 00:28:13,380
on that. Yeah. Because

814
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:16,000
to see our young people, there's a young

815
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:17,920
man that's my age, born on the exact

816
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:20,259
same day as I I was born,

817
00:28:20,894 --> 00:28:21,394
who,

818
00:28:21,934 --> 00:28:24,355
died this week that that we know,

819
00:28:25,375 --> 00:28:26,355
who struggled

820
00:28:27,134 --> 00:28:30,414
and had been struggling with addiction. Yes. Yeah.

821
00:28:30,414 --> 00:28:31,134
And and,

822
00:28:32,575 --> 00:28:34,275
it's such an awful

823
00:28:34,599 --> 00:28:36,679
affliction. Yeah. And so how do I bring

824
00:28:36,679 --> 00:28:38,759
my Christian ethic into that? First of all,

825
00:28:38,759 --> 00:28:40,679
you gotta have first, you gotta be tough

826
00:28:40,679 --> 00:28:42,200
on them. Yeah. When they first come in

827
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:43,960
front of me, they think I'm probably think

828
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:46,200
I'm the biggest jerk they've made. Yeah. But

829
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:48,785
my point is to be as a solid

830
00:28:48,785 --> 00:28:51,184
wall that they can't manipulate That's right. As

831
00:28:51,184 --> 00:28:52,644
best as I can with them.

832
00:28:53,105 --> 00:28:54,484
And, and then

833
00:28:54,865 --> 00:28:56,944
try to guide them and push them sometimes

834
00:28:56,944 --> 00:28:58,964
with tough love and sometimes with compassion

835
00:28:59,505 --> 00:29:01,420
into a path that I got because God,

836
00:29:01,420 --> 00:29:03,019
as I've told some of them before, God

837
00:29:03,019 --> 00:29:04,940
didn't call you into this life. Yeah. This

838
00:29:04,940 --> 00:29:06,700
is not his purpose. Addiction is not his

839
00:29:06,700 --> 00:29:08,859
purpose. Oh, that's right. That's right. And so

840
00:29:09,580 --> 00:29:11,420
and I get to share the gospel sometimes

841
00:29:11,420 --> 00:29:12,320
with them Yeah.

842
00:29:13,420 --> 00:29:16,045
Overtly rather than just just talk to them

843
00:29:16,045 --> 00:29:17,744
because you get to know them over time.

844
00:29:18,525 --> 00:29:20,045
And then, you know, with the in the

845
00:29:20,045 --> 00:29:21,025
divorce area,

846
00:29:21,965 --> 00:29:23,744
it is you know, when you're balancing

847
00:29:24,125 --> 00:29:25,805
where to put this child and how often

848
00:29:25,805 --> 00:29:27,565
you give this child to this parent versus

849
00:29:27,565 --> 00:29:30,220
that parent Yeah. And trying to massage that

850
00:29:30,220 --> 00:29:33,099
family controversy into, hopefully, a time where they

851
00:29:33,099 --> 00:29:35,740
can at least settle on something. Yeah. Yeah.

852
00:29:36,460 --> 00:29:36,960
So

853
00:29:38,059 --> 00:29:39,980
the I think how do I bring my

854
00:29:39,980 --> 00:29:40,480
beliefs

855
00:29:40,779 --> 00:29:41,839
into the courtroom?

856
00:29:42,634 --> 00:29:44,315
I can't help but bring it in. You

857
00:29:44,315 --> 00:29:46,235
can't separate it. You can't separate. No. It's

858
00:29:46,235 --> 00:29:47,134
down. No.

859
00:29:47,434 --> 00:29:49,035
No. That's a big problem in the world

860
00:29:49,035 --> 00:29:51,035
today. It's people compartmentalize it. You know? Oh,

861
00:29:51,035 --> 00:29:52,715
yeah. This is my Christian me. This is

862
00:29:52,715 --> 00:29:54,634
my professional me. You know? And there's two

863
00:29:54,634 --> 00:29:57,275
different people. I've had a Christian person tell

864
00:29:57,275 --> 00:29:57,775
me

865
00:29:58,240 --> 00:29:58,740
that,

866
00:29:59,359 --> 00:30:01,759
well, when you go into when you go

867
00:30:01,759 --> 00:30:03,919
into a voting booth, you can live your

868
00:30:03,919 --> 00:30:06,079
leave your Christian beliefs outside of the voting.

869
00:30:06,079 --> 00:30:08,240
I'm like, are you crazy? I mean, how

870
00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:09,839
do you how do you justify that? It's

871
00:30:09,839 --> 00:30:11,759
not an asshole. Listen. If I if I've

872
00:30:11,759 --> 00:30:14,055
been saved and Christ lives within me,

873
00:30:14,535 --> 00:30:16,695
there's nowhere that I go that he's not

874
00:30:16,695 --> 00:30:18,015
going. Right? And I've taken him a lot

875
00:30:18,015 --> 00:30:19,414
of places he didn't need to be in

876
00:30:19,414 --> 00:30:21,035
my life. But but

877
00:30:21,414 --> 00:30:23,255
but, you know, but when when I go

878
00:30:23,255 --> 00:30:25,735
into a voting booth or whatever kind of

879
00:30:25,735 --> 00:30:28,055
decision that I'm making, whatever career that I'm

880
00:30:28,055 --> 00:30:28,555
in,

881
00:30:29,349 --> 00:30:32,710
then I cannot separate myself from him. I

882
00:30:32,710 --> 00:30:35,269
have been washed by him, cleaned by him.

883
00:30:35,269 --> 00:30:37,509
He lives inside of me, and there's no

884
00:30:37,509 --> 00:30:39,429
way that that you can separate that. So

885
00:30:39,429 --> 00:30:41,349
there's not a better answer than you can.

886
00:30:41,349 --> 00:30:43,724
Right? I I can't help it. I It

887
00:30:43,724 --> 00:30:44,605
just it just

888
00:30:45,244 --> 00:30:47,904
hopefully, it flows out. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

889
00:30:47,964 --> 00:30:48,204
I'm

890
00:30:49,244 --> 00:30:51,404
now let me again, another disclaimer. I'm a

891
00:30:51,404 --> 00:30:53,565
sinner. Yeah. I haven't made a % of

892
00:30:53,565 --> 00:30:55,565
the right decisions, you know Sure. Sure. Than

893
00:30:55,565 --> 00:30:57,730
in my job. And there's been times where

894
00:30:57,730 --> 00:30:59,890
I walk away and think, man, I don't

895
00:30:59,890 --> 00:31:01,410
know if I got that one right. Yeah.

896
00:31:01,410 --> 00:31:03,170
I think anytime you're in a decision like

897
00:31:03,170 --> 00:31:05,089
that, which you that's that's where you gotta

898
00:31:05,089 --> 00:31:07,730
trust God too. One of the hardest decisions

899
00:31:07,730 --> 00:31:09,509
I have I've had to make is,

900
00:31:10,195 --> 00:31:11,795
well, there's a lot of hard decisions, but

901
00:31:11,795 --> 00:31:13,555
one of the harder decisions that has stuck

902
00:31:13,555 --> 00:31:15,095
with me is a young man who went

903
00:31:15,154 --> 00:31:16,755
into a home here in the Blake community

904
00:31:16,755 --> 00:31:18,275
when he was 15 years old with a

905
00:31:18,275 --> 00:31:20,434
group of friends, and they robbed the family.

906
00:31:20,434 --> 00:31:22,115
It was a Hispanic man and his two

907
00:31:22,115 --> 00:31:24,549
sons, and and then this young man was

908
00:31:24,549 --> 00:31:26,490
said to have went back at age 15

909
00:31:27,110 --> 00:31:28,950
and shot three of them, all three of

910
00:31:28,950 --> 00:31:31,350
them, execution style, killing one and then wounding

911
00:31:31,350 --> 00:31:32,570
the other two. Mhmm.

912
00:31:32,950 --> 00:31:34,630
And at that time, he got sentenced to

913
00:31:34,630 --> 00:31:36,615
life without parole at age 15. And

914
00:31:37,095 --> 00:31:39,575
and, so and that's the only sentence he

915
00:31:39,575 --> 00:31:41,174
could get was life without parole if he

916
00:31:41,174 --> 00:31:42,934
tried the case. And and so he tried

917
00:31:42,934 --> 00:31:44,375
the case, he was found guilty, and they

918
00:31:44,375 --> 00:31:45,654
gave him life without parole. And he came

919
00:31:45,654 --> 00:31:46,714
up to me for resendencing

920
00:31:47,255 --> 00:31:49,734
twenty years later because the Supreme Court said

921
00:31:49,734 --> 00:31:51,815
he had to have an option of something

922
00:31:51,815 --> 00:31:52,315
less.

923
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:55,559
Life or life without parole. And so he

924
00:31:55,559 --> 00:31:57,799
came up for sentencing with me. And after

925
00:31:57,799 --> 00:32:00,039
the sentencing hearing, I I, again, sentenced him

926
00:32:00,039 --> 00:32:01,879
life without parole. And that's something that, you

927
00:32:01,879 --> 00:32:03,879
know, it it sticks with you. Sure. Because,

928
00:32:03,879 --> 00:32:05,319
you know, you're you acknowledge that he was

929
00:32:05,319 --> 00:32:07,555
15 at the time. Yeah. And I can't

930
00:32:07,555 --> 00:32:10,195
comment about my rationale than what I put

931
00:32:10,195 --> 00:32:12,295
in the order, and it's public record. But,

932
00:32:12,835 --> 00:32:14,994
those type of decisions when you're sentencing somebody

933
00:32:14,994 --> 00:32:16,674
to life or life without parole in prison,

934
00:32:16,674 --> 00:32:18,835
no matter how what they've done or where

935
00:32:18,835 --> 00:32:19,575
they're at,

936
00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:22,440
you can't help but think about them because

937
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:25,080
God loves them. Yeah. And and and he

938
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:26,680
don't love he don't love me anymore. He

939
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:28,440
loves him. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And so

940
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,799
helping them see that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and

941
00:32:31,799 --> 00:32:33,160
it's you know, at the end of the

942
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:34,619
day, our entire

943
00:32:35,684 --> 00:32:36,985
our entire society

944
00:32:37,845 --> 00:32:39,865
is set up so that if Christians would

945
00:32:40,085 --> 00:32:41,845
do the things we're supposed to do, even

946
00:32:41,845 --> 00:32:44,325
in situations like that, we're set up to

947
00:32:44,325 --> 00:32:46,325
operate in that situation. We're set up to

948
00:32:46,325 --> 00:32:49,045
run with everybody that walks into the courtroom

949
00:32:49,045 --> 00:32:51,309
is expected to be honest. Yes. And that's

950
00:32:51,309 --> 00:32:53,710
a that is a very much a Christian

951
00:32:53,710 --> 00:32:55,570
value. You don't leave that at the door.

952
00:32:55,710 --> 00:32:57,470
Just it don't matter if you're the person

953
00:32:57,470 --> 00:32:58,450
who pulled the trigger.

954
00:32:59,309 --> 00:33:01,309
You still have to be honest. And if

955
00:33:01,309 --> 00:33:03,869
you don't, you're just making the situation worse

956
00:33:03,869 --> 00:33:05,970
and you're just making things worse for everybody.

957
00:33:07,475 --> 00:33:09,414
And, you know, even our our our

958
00:33:10,995 --> 00:33:12,914
the the jail system and the prison system

959
00:33:12,914 --> 00:33:14,674
is all set up under that assumption that

960
00:33:14,674 --> 00:33:16,115
everybody is going to go in and there

961
00:33:16,115 --> 00:33:18,215
are these certain behaviors that are just expected.

962
00:33:18,919 --> 00:33:20,119
And we can't. We can't leave that at

963
00:33:20,119 --> 00:33:21,720
the door. I mean, because that is baked

964
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:24,039
into Christianity. All of those same exact behaviors

965
00:33:24,039 --> 00:33:25,640
are baked into our Christian walk and are

966
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:27,240
baked into our faith and are baked into

967
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:30,279
what we teach. And it's like to ask

968
00:33:30,279 --> 00:33:32,380
people to leave that and then make decisions

969
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:34,605
like that and say, okay. Yeah. Just you'll

970
00:33:34,605 --> 00:33:35,965
you'll be fine. You'll be fine. You can

971
00:33:35,965 --> 00:33:37,085
you can just make that decision and it

972
00:33:37,085 --> 00:33:38,545
doesn't bother you at all. It's like,

973
00:33:38,845 --> 00:33:40,285
man, if you walk away from that without

974
00:33:40,285 --> 00:33:42,225
wrestling a little bit, I I'm worried.

975
00:33:42,684 --> 00:33:44,225
That's right. Yeah.

976
00:33:45,630 --> 00:33:47,730
And, you know, as a as a judge,

977
00:33:48,269 --> 00:33:49,250
and as a Christian,

978
00:33:50,269 --> 00:33:52,190
you try to be a righteous judge and,

979
00:33:52,430 --> 00:33:54,109
and you know, that's who we serve, right?

980
00:33:54,109 --> 00:33:55,650
We serve a righteous judge.

981
00:33:56,349 --> 00:33:58,910
Of course, all his decisions are perfect, right?

982
00:33:58,910 --> 00:34:00,369
Because he doesn't make mistakes.

983
00:34:01,265 --> 00:34:03,825
But there's always consequences for sin. And I

984
00:34:03,825 --> 00:34:05,184
think that's what a lot of people out

985
00:34:05,184 --> 00:34:07,605
there today, they don't they don't want consequences

986
00:34:07,664 --> 00:34:09,664
for sin. Or how could we how could

987
00:34:09,664 --> 00:34:11,264
you do this? How could we not forgive

988
00:34:11,264 --> 00:34:12,625
them? How could we not just let them

989
00:34:12,625 --> 00:34:13,125
go?

990
00:34:13,829 --> 00:34:16,010
But there has to be consequences for sin

991
00:34:16,150 --> 00:34:18,170
and and that is that is a biblical

992
00:34:18,230 --> 00:34:20,070
thing, right? I mean, that is a biblical

993
00:34:20,070 --> 00:34:22,010
thing and and and ultimately,

994
00:34:22,309 --> 00:34:23,989
we know that Christ is gonna be our

995
00:34:23,989 --> 00:34:26,730
ultimate judge one day. Right? Revelation chapter 20,

996
00:34:27,264 --> 00:34:29,585
gives us a a courtroom scene. I believe

997
00:34:29,585 --> 00:34:31,184
I believe that's what it is. It's a

998
00:34:31,184 --> 00:34:33,184
courtroom scene of the great white throne of

999
00:34:33,184 --> 00:34:34,784
judgment and the lost of all ages will

1000
00:34:34,784 --> 00:34:36,005
stand before the Lord.

1001
00:34:36,625 --> 00:34:38,644
And and they're standing there

1002
00:34:39,119 --> 00:34:41,199
on their own merit. Right? Right. Blood has

1003
00:34:41,199 --> 00:34:43,039
not been applied. Christ did not take their

1004
00:34:43,039 --> 00:34:45,119
place. They didn't accept that. And so they're

1005
00:34:45,119 --> 00:34:46,880
standing there on their own merit. Are they

1006
00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:47,380
guilty,

1007
00:34:48,559 --> 00:34:49,940
of sin? Yes.

1008
00:34:50,319 --> 00:34:52,000
Is Christ there to take was Christ there

1009
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:53,359
to take their place? Sure he was, but

1010
00:34:53,359 --> 00:34:55,324
they didn't accept that. And so,

1011
00:34:55,704 --> 00:34:57,304
it all falls on them, right? And there's

1012
00:34:57,304 --> 00:34:58,905
a lot of this this liberalism that's going

1013
00:34:58,905 --> 00:35:00,505
through a lot of our major cities too

1014
00:35:00,505 --> 00:35:02,824
that, you know, just, just just kinda let

1015
00:35:02,824 --> 00:35:05,385
everything slide, right? Let if you're still less

1016
00:35:05,385 --> 00:35:07,144
than what is the dollar value in California,

1017
00:35:07,144 --> 00:35:09,065
dollars eight hundred, whatever they won't prosecute you

1018
00:35:09,065 --> 00:35:09,644
or whatever.

1019
00:35:10,170 --> 00:35:12,170
They've gone so soft on crime out of

1020
00:35:12,170 --> 00:35:12,670
this,

1021
00:35:13,449 --> 00:35:15,929
who's Alybeth Stuckey or somebody that wrote a

1022
00:35:15,929 --> 00:35:18,730
book called Toxic Empathy. Mhmm. Yeah. Where they

1023
00:35:18,730 --> 00:35:20,969
take empathy so far to the other side

1024
00:35:20,969 --> 00:35:22,969
that it's actually toxic. Oh, yeah. You know,

1025
00:35:22,969 --> 00:35:24,515
yeah. They're letting people do stuff that's that's

1026
00:35:24,515 --> 00:35:26,035
just out of hand. Well, I can tell

1027
00:35:26,035 --> 00:35:27,795
you this. I mean, I I I know

1028
00:35:27,795 --> 00:35:30,055
just in just in DeKalb County there,

1029
00:35:31,315 --> 00:35:33,474
at one point in time when especially when

1030
00:35:33,474 --> 00:35:35,815
COVID was was at it at its high,

1031
00:35:35,954 --> 00:35:38,114
our our jails there was COVID running through

1032
00:35:38,114 --> 00:35:39,974
our jails and all these different things.

1033
00:35:40,349 --> 00:35:42,349
And I mean, they were they were pulling

1034
00:35:42,349 --> 00:35:43,809
people over and and

1035
00:35:44,430 --> 00:35:46,430
and starting to arrest them, but didn't arrest

1036
00:35:46,430 --> 00:35:47,809
them and let them go because

1037
00:35:48,430 --> 00:35:49,710
they didn't wanna put them in a jail

1038
00:35:49,710 --> 00:35:51,890
somewhere. Yes. You know? Right. Yeah. There's criminals

1039
00:35:51,950 --> 00:35:54,244
that That's right. You know, slap on hand.

1040
00:35:54,304 --> 00:35:56,224
At some point, you gotta protect the people

1041
00:35:56,464 --> 00:35:59,025
That's right. Yeah. From those people. That's right.

1042
00:35:59,025 --> 00:36:00,224
Well, in in one of the rules I

1043
00:36:00,224 --> 00:36:01,664
have about pay per view, I'm liable I'll

1044
00:36:01,664 --> 00:36:03,025
send them for a drug screen. And a

1045
00:36:03,025 --> 00:36:04,944
lot there's a lot of because they're they

1046
00:36:04,944 --> 00:36:07,059
got a drug problem. And when they fail

1047
00:36:07,059 --> 00:36:08,779
the drug screen, they go to jail. Most

1048
00:36:08,980 --> 00:36:09,639
I mean,

1049
00:36:10,739 --> 00:36:12,420
and and they they find that to be

1050
00:36:12,420 --> 00:36:12,920
inflexible.

1051
00:36:13,300 --> 00:36:15,380
But if you don't if you're not solid

1052
00:36:15,380 --> 00:36:17,059
with them and and you don't give them

1053
00:36:17,059 --> 00:36:19,819
consequences, they don't learn. Right. That's exactly correct.

1054
00:36:19,940 --> 00:36:21,300
Get them to rehab. Yeah. And a lot

1055
00:36:21,300 --> 00:36:23,184
of a lot of my point is to

1056
00:36:23,184 --> 00:36:24,464
get them to drop bottom so they'll go

1057
00:36:24,464 --> 00:36:26,625
to rehab sometimes. That's what that is our

1058
00:36:26,625 --> 00:36:27,605
goal, a lot of them.

1059
00:36:28,625 --> 00:36:30,144
But, you know, you talk about the great

1060
00:36:30,144 --> 00:36:31,984
white throne judgment. I'm sure there'll be a

1061
00:36:31,984 --> 00:36:34,385
lot of irrelevant information that people will give

1062
00:36:34,385 --> 00:36:35,445
at that point. Oh, well.

1063
00:36:36,224 --> 00:36:38,760
Oh, yeah. Well, lord, you know, I gave

1064
00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:40,760
money to this person Mhmm. Or I did

1065
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:42,280
this for this person Yeah. Or I did

1066
00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:43,739
this for this person. Yeah.

1067
00:36:44,519 --> 00:36:46,519
And just like in my job, a lot

1068
00:36:46,519 --> 00:36:48,380
of people say, well, yeah, I

1069
00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:49,900
I I did that.

1070
00:36:50,235 --> 00:36:51,595
But you don't understand. I'm a good guy.

1071
00:36:51,595 --> 00:36:53,275
I'm a good guy, Norman. Yeah. Yeah. I'm

1072
00:36:53,275 --> 00:36:54,875
a good guy. I did this and I

1073
00:36:54,875 --> 00:36:56,575
do that. Yeah. And,

1074
00:36:57,595 --> 00:37:00,235
you know It's irrelevant to what you've what

1075
00:37:00,235 --> 00:37:02,155
you've done that got you here. That's right.

1076
00:37:02,155 --> 00:37:03,835
Yeah. And and in the and in Christ's

1077
00:37:03,835 --> 00:37:05,840
situation, it comes down to one question. What

1078
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:07,440
did you do with Jesus? That's right. Yeah.

1079
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:08,739
That's right. Yeah. So

1080
00:37:09,199 --> 00:37:10,340
there's a lot of intersection,

1081
00:37:11,599 --> 00:37:13,440
that I see play out in my job.

1082
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:14,900
Yeah. And and

1083
00:37:16,559 --> 00:37:18,625
and I give God the credit for for

1084
00:37:18,625 --> 00:37:20,385
giving me the wisdom not the wisdom, but

1085
00:37:20,385 --> 00:37:22,065
the enlightenment to see that it's the Holy

1086
00:37:22,065 --> 00:37:24,144
Spirit that guides us. Amen. Amen. Well, I

1087
00:37:24,144 --> 00:37:25,505
know what you said a minute ago. You

1088
00:37:25,505 --> 00:37:27,585
mentioned this. You said that, you know, sometimes

1089
00:37:27,585 --> 00:37:30,625
you sometimes you you approach them firmly, you

1090
00:37:30,625 --> 00:37:33,640
have to, and sometimes there's there's compassion there.

1091
00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:35,660
Maybe a little bit of both every time.

1092
00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:38,280
And I mean, that's just a that's just

1093
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:39,960
a normal thing in life for all of

1094
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:41,640
us, right? I mean, that's how we raise

1095
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:43,960
our kids. Sometimes I have to approach my

1096
00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:46,199
kids firmly or I did when I was

1097
00:37:46,199 --> 00:37:47,019
raising them.

1098
00:37:47,324 --> 00:37:48,545
And, and sometimes,

1099
00:37:48,925 --> 00:37:50,844
you know, it's it's compassion, you know, like,

1100
00:37:50,844 --> 00:37:52,684
they think, oh, I'm fixing to get in

1101
00:37:52,684 --> 00:37:54,925
some terrible trouble here and and we turned

1102
00:37:54,925 --> 00:37:56,864
it into a life lesson, you know, and,

1103
00:37:57,484 --> 00:37:59,405
and and and they learned from that. But

1104
00:37:59,405 --> 00:38:00,925
I mean, it is it it's it's a

1105
00:38:00,925 --> 00:38:04,109
mixture of compassion and sternness and knowing when

1106
00:38:04,109 --> 00:38:06,670
having the discernment to say. And I think

1107
00:38:06,670 --> 00:38:08,289
that I think that, Shonthen,

1108
00:38:08,670 --> 00:38:11,469
because you've got the biblical background, because you

1109
00:38:11,469 --> 00:38:13,869
got Christ in your heart, because he's called

1110
00:38:13,869 --> 00:38:14,929
you to this,

1111
00:38:15,405 --> 00:38:17,344
then you do have that discernment

1112
00:38:17,644 --> 00:38:20,364
inside of you through Christ to that I

1113
00:38:20,364 --> 00:38:22,864
mean, that's gotta help. It's gotta help. Amen.

1114
00:38:23,324 --> 00:38:25,965
Amen. You know, I've I've watched for years

1115
00:38:25,965 --> 00:38:26,364
a lot of,

1116
00:38:27,420 --> 00:38:29,359
older attorneys and former judges,

1117
00:38:29,739 --> 00:38:31,420
have gotten to where they'll actually talk a

1118
00:38:31,420 --> 00:38:32,400
little bit on,

1119
00:38:33,260 --> 00:38:33,760
various

1120
00:38:34,300 --> 00:38:36,139
YouTube streams and stuff like that where they're

1121
00:38:36,139 --> 00:38:38,059
just commenting on things and just commenting about

1122
00:38:38,059 --> 00:38:39,900
stuff. And and there's a judge out of

1123
00:38:39,900 --> 00:38:40,619
Texas that,

1124
00:38:41,275 --> 00:38:43,114
tends to do stuff. A little goofy looking

1125
00:38:43,114 --> 00:38:45,195
guy, got a bow tie and he's he's

1126
00:38:45,195 --> 00:38:47,594
he's pretty animate but I'll never forget one

1127
00:38:47,594 --> 00:38:48,795
time. I I thought I thought he was

1128
00:38:48,795 --> 00:38:50,474
gonna break down crying talking to this guy

1129
00:38:50,474 --> 00:38:52,494
that he had seen like 10 times.

1130
00:38:52,954 --> 00:38:54,155
And he was like, if you can just

1131
00:38:54,155 --> 00:38:56,280
get with the program. If you can just

1132
00:38:56,280 --> 00:38:58,440
get on the program, my goal is to

1133
00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:00,059
help you at the end of the day.

1134
00:39:00,519 --> 00:39:02,679
Please, please just do the pro just do

1135
00:39:02,679 --> 00:39:04,360
the steps. That's all I'm asking you to

1136
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:06,039
do. If you'll just do the and he

1137
00:39:06,039 --> 00:39:07,660
just begging the guy.

1138
00:39:08,364 --> 00:39:10,285
And one day they he had the camera

1139
00:39:10,285 --> 00:39:11,885
going when they were outside of court and

1140
00:39:11,885 --> 00:39:13,085
he just said, you know what? I don't

1141
00:39:13,085 --> 00:39:15,164
say this very often but I really do.

1142
00:39:15,164 --> 00:39:17,085
I just wanna help these people. There's not

1143
00:39:17,085 --> 00:39:18,525
a single one of them no matter what

1144
00:39:18,525 --> 00:39:20,684
they've done. I wanna do what's best for

1145
00:39:20,684 --> 00:39:22,699
them and what's best for everybody and I

1146
00:39:22,699 --> 00:39:24,139
can't let them go out and do something

1147
00:39:24,139 --> 00:39:25,339
bad. I can't let them go out and

1148
00:39:25,339 --> 00:39:26,159
kill somebody.

1149
00:39:26,619 --> 00:39:28,859
But I also, you know, I want them

1150
00:39:28,859 --> 00:39:30,460
to get better. I want them to do

1151
00:39:30,460 --> 00:39:32,380
whatever it takes to show me that they're

1152
00:39:32,380 --> 00:39:33,119
doing great.

1153
00:39:33,594 --> 00:39:35,114
And he's even had a couple of people

1154
00:39:35,114 --> 00:39:36,894
that have come in, you know,

1155
00:39:37,434 --> 00:39:38,974
like with their kid or something

1156
00:39:39,434 --> 00:39:41,035
that they had been in front of him

1157
00:39:41,035 --> 00:39:43,114
twenty years prior and they're just like, you

1158
00:39:43,114 --> 00:39:44,735
know, my whole my whole life

1159
00:39:45,114 --> 00:39:46,875
is because you you gave the right sentence

1160
00:39:46,875 --> 00:39:48,300
and you did the right thing and you

1161
00:39:48,380 --> 00:39:50,000
you set me on the right path.

1162
00:39:50,460 --> 00:39:52,219
And you know we need people like that.

1163
00:39:52,219 --> 00:39:54,219
We really do. Yeah. When you were talking

1164
00:39:54,219 --> 00:39:56,380
about the great white throne it just came

1165
00:39:56,380 --> 00:39:57,739
to my mind. You know what Jesus said

1166
00:39:57,739 --> 00:39:59,039
in Matthew seven, he said,

1167
00:39:59,420 --> 00:40:00,860
many will say to me in that day,

1168
00:40:00,860 --> 00:40:03,045
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your

1169
00:40:03,045 --> 00:40:04,804
name, cast out demons in your name, and

1170
00:40:04,804 --> 00:40:06,585
done many wonders in your name?

1171
00:40:06,885 --> 00:40:08,724
Then I will declare to them, I never

1172
00:40:08,724 --> 00:40:10,804
knew you. Depart from me you who practice

1173
00:40:10,804 --> 00:40:11,304
lawlessness.

1174
00:40:11,924 --> 00:40:14,264
And this is people that are

1175
00:40:14,565 --> 00:40:17,139
trying, maybe trying to do better. Yes. But

1176
00:40:17,139 --> 00:40:19,780
don't know how to change. Right? Because law

1177
00:40:19,780 --> 00:40:22,340
laws don't change people. That's right. No. Laws

1178
00:40:22,340 --> 00:40:25,000
punish people. Laws are meant to punish. Absolutely.

1179
00:40:25,059 --> 00:40:26,659
Right? And and it's only the power of

1180
00:40:26,659 --> 00:40:28,179
the Holy Spirit working inside of it that

1181
00:40:28,179 --> 00:40:30,179
can transform who who God wants you to

1182
00:40:30,179 --> 00:40:32,234
be. That's right. That's right. That's right. Well,

1183
00:40:32,234 --> 00:40:35,134
I mean, it's the law itself that condemned

1184
00:40:35,194 --> 00:40:37,434
us, right? Right. I mean, it's God's law

1185
00:40:37,434 --> 00:40:39,355
that condemned us. Amen. And when he said

1186
00:40:39,355 --> 00:40:41,114
he come to fulfill the law, what he

1187
00:40:41,114 --> 00:40:42,494
meant is through me,

1188
00:40:42,795 --> 00:40:44,315
I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give you

1189
00:40:44,315 --> 00:40:46,394
a way to live righteously. I'm gonna give

1190
00:40:46,394 --> 00:40:48,460
you the power of the Holy Spirit to

1191
00:40:48,460 --> 00:40:50,300
lead you and guide you and direct you

1192
00:40:50,300 --> 00:40:52,140
because what the law does, it is a

1193
00:40:52,219 --> 00:40:54,539
it's a measuring stick. Right? It's it's a

1194
00:40:54,539 --> 00:40:56,700
mirror that we look at ourselves and we

1195
00:40:56,700 --> 00:40:58,880
say, you know what? I don't measure up.

1196
00:40:58,940 --> 00:41:01,454
I'm I'm not good enough. I have I

1197
00:41:01,454 --> 00:41:03,695
have failed. I have sinned and come short

1198
00:41:03,695 --> 00:41:04,835
of the glory of God.

1199
00:41:05,295 --> 00:41:07,934
But because of his righteousness and because of

1200
00:41:07,934 --> 00:41:10,494
the sacrifice on Calvary's Cross and because he

1201
00:41:10,494 --> 00:41:12,094
didn't stay on the cross and he defeated

1202
00:41:12,094 --> 00:41:15,019
death, hell, and a grave, then we can

1203
00:41:15,079 --> 00:41:17,239
have victory over sin. We can have victory

1204
00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:18,679
over the law. Yeah. And there's there's some

1205
00:41:18,679 --> 00:41:20,280
deterrent in there. Right? I mean, I don't

1206
00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:22,119
wanna get caught because I'm too selfish. Yeah.

1207
00:41:22,119 --> 00:41:24,199
Right? That's the reason I don't wanna get

1208
00:41:24,199 --> 00:41:25,719
caught. Oh, that is. That's right. It's because

1209
00:41:25,719 --> 00:41:27,559
I don't wanna look bad. Yeah. Right. But

1210
00:41:27,559 --> 00:41:29,474
but what makes me want to do right?

1211
00:41:29,795 --> 00:41:31,635
Right. What makes me want to not steal

1212
00:41:31,635 --> 00:41:33,954
or want to not murder somebody or want

1213
00:41:33,954 --> 00:41:35,555
to I see it. It's it's a difference

1214
00:41:35,555 --> 00:41:37,315
between have to and want to. That's right.

1215
00:41:37,315 --> 00:41:38,375
Yeah. Amen. Yeah.

1216
00:41:38,675 --> 00:41:39,494
And I think

1217
00:41:39,795 --> 00:41:41,414
our whole law system today,

1218
00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:45,119
is is is liberal as as as so

1219
00:41:45,119 --> 00:41:47,619
many or so much of it has gone,

1220
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:49,219
through the years.

1221
00:41:50,079 --> 00:41:52,320
What they don't realize is is is the

1222
00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:55,219
whole system of law was built upon biblical

1223
00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:58,405
principle. Right? That's correct. Yeah. I mean, what

1224
00:41:58,405 --> 00:41:59,925
we have today is because of what we

1225
00:41:59,925 --> 00:42:01,684
had then. That's correct. Yeah. You know, the

1226
00:42:01,684 --> 00:42:03,204
right to cross examine. You know, when you

1227
00:42:03,204 --> 00:42:04,565
look at the Bill of Rights, a lot

1228
00:42:04,565 --> 00:42:06,324
of that stuff built into the Bill of

1229
00:42:06,324 --> 00:42:08,244
Rights, the right to confront and cross examine

1230
00:42:08,244 --> 00:42:08,984
your accusers,

1231
00:42:10,219 --> 00:42:12,059
innocent till proven guilty. A lot of that

1232
00:42:12,059 --> 00:42:15,019
stuff was in the Roman law. Sure. Yeah.

1233
00:42:15,019 --> 00:42:16,699
And when Jesus was tried, a lot of

1234
00:42:16,699 --> 00:42:18,480
that was violated. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

1235
00:42:18,940 --> 00:42:20,079
And so,

1236
00:42:20,859 --> 00:42:22,775
they they had a system set up to

1237
00:42:22,775 --> 00:42:24,535
try the Romans did. Now, you know, obviously,

1238
00:42:24,535 --> 00:42:25,894
he's tried by the Jews and a mix

1239
00:42:25,894 --> 00:42:26,635
of the Romans,

1240
00:42:27,015 --> 00:42:29,015
but, they you know, a lot of that

1241
00:42:29,015 --> 00:42:31,594
sprung out of what what we learned from

1242
00:42:31,735 --> 00:42:34,135
Judeo Christian values. That's right. Our whole love

1243
00:42:34,135 --> 00:42:34,635
for

1244
00:42:35,255 --> 00:42:37,114
knowing loving people

1245
00:42:37,739 --> 00:42:40,219
is because God created us and gave us

1246
00:42:40,219 --> 00:42:41,980
a purpose. That's right. And and it's the

1247
00:42:41,980 --> 00:42:43,980
Holy Spirit that teaches us that. Yeah. Yeah.

1248
00:42:43,980 --> 00:42:45,119
Amen. Amen.

1249
00:42:45,980 --> 00:42:48,139
Amen. Jesus boiled the whole thing down to

1250
00:42:48,139 --> 00:42:50,300
that. Right? Yeah. Love one another. That's my

1251
00:42:50,300 --> 00:42:52,065
my new command to you. I see it.

1252
00:42:52,224 --> 00:42:53,984
Right? And and then we're for loving other

1253
00:42:53,984 --> 00:42:56,144
people. We're loving him. Well, I heard I

1254
00:42:56,144 --> 00:42:57,444
heard a quote the other day,

1255
00:42:57,984 --> 00:43:00,385
from a preacher, and, it hit me it

1256
00:43:00,385 --> 00:43:02,625
hit me really hard. I'll be honest with

1257
00:43:02,625 --> 00:43:02,864
you.

1258
00:43:03,664 --> 00:43:04,804
And it said that

1259
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:05,900
Christ

1260
00:43:06,519 --> 00:43:08,059
loved in such a way

1261
00:43:08,679 --> 00:43:10,699
that nobody knew it was Judas.

1262
00:43:11,799 --> 00:43:14,539
Mhmm. Oh, wow. Thank you, Bob. Wow. Yeah.

1263
00:43:15,079 --> 00:43:15,579
Nobody

1264
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:19,485
nobody knew that it was Judas. I mean,

1265
00:43:19,724 --> 00:43:21,905
they they Was it me? He wasn't yeah.

1266
00:43:22,525 --> 00:43:25,244
He's talking about, right? Yeah. I mean, they

1267
00:43:25,244 --> 00:43:27,325
didn't even think about this. It's the scoundrel

1268
00:43:27,325 --> 00:43:29,005
over here that's been stealing money from us.

1269
00:43:29,005 --> 00:43:31,565
Right? Yeah. Yeah. But because Christ was loving

1270
00:43:31,565 --> 00:43:32,785
him in such a way

1271
00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:33,739
that,

1272
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:35,659
that no matter what,

1273
00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:38,199
you know, he he he loved him, and

1274
00:43:38,199 --> 00:43:40,039
he had an opportunity to make things right,

1275
00:43:40,039 --> 00:43:41,179
and he didn't. But

1276
00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:44,119
Yeah. That's right. So Yeah. That's right. But

1277
00:43:44,119 --> 00:43:45,739
I I I heard that, and I stuck.

1278
00:43:46,224 --> 00:43:47,204
Oh, man.

1279
00:43:47,664 --> 00:43:49,025
Yeah. Yeah. I'm reading I'm reading this book

1280
00:43:49,025 --> 00:43:51,184
right now. I think it's Colin Smith's his

1281
00:43:51,184 --> 00:43:53,184
name. It's a little short book, and it

1282
00:43:53,184 --> 00:43:55,585
kinda contrasts. It tells it tells Judas' story

1283
00:43:55,585 --> 00:43:58,385
from from Judas' perspective. Yeah. Right? He's going

1284
00:43:58,385 --> 00:44:00,239
through the whole gospels just saying this happened,

1285
00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:02,079
that happen, that happen, but he's given these

1286
00:44:02,079 --> 00:44:04,239
slight little twists like something selfish all the

1287
00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:06,000
time, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And that's just

1288
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:07,440
where he was, man. How could this guy

1289
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:09,679
go three and a half years Yeah. Living

1290
00:44:09,679 --> 00:44:11,760
with that and not get it? I know.

1291
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:13,335
But it wasn't that it wasn't like he

1292
00:44:13,335 --> 00:44:15,655
was just overflowing with evil. Yeah. He was

1293
00:44:15,655 --> 00:44:17,114
just a normal guy just

1294
00:44:17,414 --> 00:44:18,855
trying to get ahead. That's it. That's it.

1295
00:44:18,855 --> 00:44:19,734
But, you know, we got we got we

1296
00:44:19,734 --> 00:44:21,734
got we got people sitting on the pews

1297
00:44:21,734 --> 00:44:24,135
every Sunday That's scary, ain't it? With hell

1298
00:44:24,135 --> 00:44:25,859
wide open. Yeah. That's right. They will. I

1299
00:44:25,859 --> 00:44:27,380
mean And the more they hear the gospel

1300
00:44:27,380 --> 00:44:29,219
every Sunday, the the more callous they are,

1301
00:44:29,219 --> 00:44:30,739
you know. Hard their heart. Oh, yeah. I've

1302
00:44:30,739 --> 00:44:32,739
heard that before, you know. Oh. It it

1303
00:44:32,739 --> 00:44:34,819
doesn't change me, you know. It doesn't make

1304
00:44:34,819 --> 00:44:36,659
a difference. I've seen the crime before. I've

1305
00:44:36,659 --> 00:44:38,179
seen that. Yeah. Because it that's what it

1306
00:44:38,179 --> 00:44:40,579
got. That's people don't understand it. It's not

1307
00:44:40,579 --> 00:44:41,025
about

1308
00:44:41,664 --> 00:44:43,424
it's not about the laws and you being

1309
00:44:43,424 --> 00:44:45,105
good enough all the time and you keeping

1310
00:44:45,105 --> 00:44:46,545
all the rules and all the right ways

1311
00:44:46,545 --> 00:44:48,464
all the right times. It's it's about getting

1312
00:44:48,464 --> 00:44:50,464
transformed. I see it. I see it. Being

1313
00:44:50,464 --> 00:44:53,105
a new creature. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because I

1314
00:44:53,105 --> 00:44:53,605
definitely

1315
00:44:54,019 --> 00:44:56,579
I definitely was not good enough before, and

1316
00:44:56,579 --> 00:44:58,739
I'm still not good enough. But because of

1317
00:44:58,739 --> 00:45:00,579
Christ and what he's done in me Yeah.

1318
00:45:00,659 --> 00:45:03,219
I've actually been reborn. Right? I am the

1319
00:45:03,219 --> 00:45:04,839
same person that I used to have. Absolutely.

1320
00:45:04,900 --> 00:45:06,599
And I'm going through this whole sanctification

1321
00:45:06,900 --> 00:45:07,400
process

1322
00:45:07,905 --> 00:45:09,184
So that one day I get to that

1323
00:45:09,184 --> 00:45:09,684
glorification.

1324
00:45:10,545 --> 00:45:12,724
Still messing up. Messing up. Yeah. Amen.

1325
00:45:13,744 --> 00:45:14,244
Amen.

1326
00:45:15,184 --> 00:45:16,485
Well, so so,

1327
00:45:16,945 --> 00:45:18,864
you know, I I don't wanna I don't

1328
00:45:18,864 --> 00:45:20,864
wanna stay on on your on your whole

1329
00:45:20,864 --> 00:45:22,545
locker here the whole time of the but,

1330
00:45:23,010 --> 00:45:25,010
like I said, Shonton is is has been

1331
00:45:25,010 --> 00:45:28,130
pastoring now for twenty two Yeah. Twenty two

1332
00:45:28,130 --> 00:45:29,590
years. It's 02/2002.

1333
00:45:30,449 --> 00:45:30,949
So,

1334
00:45:31,730 --> 00:45:34,289
and and Shonton, I could probably tell a

1335
00:45:34,289 --> 00:45:36,934
whole lot of good funny stories tonight,

1336
00:45:37,555 --> 00:45:39,394
but there's probably some people that need to

1337
00:45:39,394 --> 00:45:40,454
pass away first.

1338
00:45:43,394 --> 00:45:44,914
Do a few more people on the Spanish

1339
00:45:44,914 --> 00:45:47,155
ship. I know he's got we've shared some

1340
00:45:47,155 --> 00:45:48,610
good ones before. I know he's got a

1341
00:45:48,610 --> 00:45:50,449
couple. I I really want him to tell

1342
00:45:50,449 --> 00:45:52,130
a couple tonight, but I'm not gonna I'm

1343
00:45:52,130 --> 00:45:53,750
not gonna put him on the spot.

1344
00:45:54,369 --> 00:45:55,489
That could get me in a lot of

1345
00:45:55,489 --> 00:45:55,989
trouble.

1346
00:45:57,250 --> 00:45:58,869
He's just the judge now.

1347
00:46:00,885 --> 00:46:03,704
He quit faster. He he he he decided

1348
00:46:03,764 --> 00:46:05,545
to narrow his career down.

1349
00:46:08,644 --> 00:46:11,045
Oh my goodness. I I I maybe one

1350
00:46:11,045 --> 00:46:12,244
day when I'm when I'm,

1351
00:46:13,460 --> 00:46:15,539
old and and can say what I wanna

1352
00:46:15,539 --> 00:46:17,460
say, I'll write a book. Yeah. Memoirs.

1353
00:46:17,859 --> 00:46:20,019
Some memoirs from Well, I'll tell you. I'll

1354
00:46:20,179 --> 00:46:21,779
I do have a question. I don't mind

1355
00:46:21,779 --> 00:46:24,039
throwing out at all. How do you handle

1356
00:46:24,420 --> 00:46:24,920
navigating

1357
00:46:25,539 --> 00:46:26,279
the times

1358
00:46:27,139 --> 00:46:27,639
when

1359
00:46:28,764 --> 00:46:30,945
your Christian faith tells you one thing,

1360
00:46:31,724 --> 00:46:34,704
but our law says something that's slightly different?

1361
00:46:34,844 --> 00:46:36,844
Because there I mean and granted, for the

1362
00:46:36,844 --> 00:46:38,445
most part, most of our laws are pretty

1363
00:46:38,445 --> 00:46:40,525
good, but that there are a few that

1364
00:46:40,525 --> 00:46:42,125
kinda run up against our faith a little

1365
00:46:42,125 --> 00:46:43,640
bit. Sure. How do you how do you

1366
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:45,880
handle that? Sure. Well, that that is that

1367
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:47,480
is a good question. You know, you you

1368
00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:48,140
get into

1369
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:49,900
first of all,

1370
00:46:50,360 --> 00:46:52,300
you try to you try your best

1371
00:46:52,599 --> 00:46:55,000
to have the Daniel moments when you need

1372
00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:56,599
to have your Daniel moments. You know, Daniel

1373
00:46:56,599 --> 00:46:57,980
was in a foreign society,

1374
00:46:58,815 --> 00:47:01,155
under a a foreign king,

1375
00:47:02,414 --> 00:47:02,815
and,

1376
00:47:03,375 --> 00:47:05,135
tried to be as faithful to his foreign

1377
00:47:05,135 --> 00:47:06,655
king as he could. In fact, he was

1378
00:47:06,655 --> 00:47:09,135
very trusted by him and and was his

1379
00:47:09,135 --> 00:47:10,275
most trusted adviser.

1380
00:47:10,655 --> 00:47:13,155
But if it if it conflicted with his

1381
00:47:14,030 --> 00:47:15,329
his godly principles,

1382
00:47:15,710 --> 00:47:16,989
then he had to take a stand for

1383
00:47:16,989 --> 00:47:18,210
God when he had to.

1384
00:47:18,670 --> 00:47:19,489
And so,

1385
00:47:20,349 --> 00:47:21,070
you know, I

1386
00:47:21,789 --> 00:47:24,289
in those situations, I have tried to,

1387
00:47:25,070 --> 00:47:26,750
stick with what God would have me to

1388
00:47:26,750 --> 00:47:27,809
do because ultimately,

1389
00:47:28,324 --> 00:47:30,164
this kingdom's gonna pass away and I'm gonna

1390
00:47:30,164 --> 00:47:31,144
stand before him.

1391
00:47:31,684 --> 00:47:33,045
I don't know that I have

1392
00:47:33,444 --> 00:47:35,224
there's obviously times that

1393
00:47:35,605 --> 00:47:36,744
that I have not

1394
00:47:37,364 --> 00:47:39,924
either not recognized that I'm sure or there's

1395
00:47:39,924 --> 00:47:40,644
times where,

1396
00:47:41,125 --> 00:47:41,940
maybe I

1397
00:47:42,339 --> 00:47:44,179
didn't stand like I should maybe, or there's

1398
00:47:44,179 --> 00:47:45,619
times that I have felt like I've done

1399
00:47:45,619 --> 00:47:47,159
what God asked me to do. So,

1400
00:47:47,460 --> 00:47:49,139
you know, those those are times that are

1401
00:47:49,139 --> 00:47:49,639
there.

1402
00:47:50,019 --> 00:47:51,880
Most of what I do every day,

1403
00:47:53,859 --> 00:47:54,519
you know,

1404
00:47:55,114 --> 00:47:56,094
God's not necessarily,

1405
00:47:56,795 --> 00:47:59,534
obviously, there's things that God's not for murder.

1406
00:47:59,914 --> 00:48:02,255
He's not for divorce. He's not for

1407
00:48:02,635 --> 00:48:03,914
a lot of the things that I have

1408
00:48:03,914 --> 00:48:05,454
to deal with. And so,

1409
00:48:05,994 --> 00:48:07,214
you know, so

1410
00:48:07,700 --> 00:48:09,539
so I I, you know, I I I

1411
00:48:09,539 --> 00:48:10,760
try to, apply

1412
00:48:11,539 --> 00:48:13,539
the Christian ethic to the best I can

1413
00:48:13,539 --> 00:48:15,059
with the decisions that are in front of

1414
00:48:15,059 --> 00:48:15,460
me,

1415
00:48:15,860 --> 00:48:17,860
and and and let the chips fall where

1416
00:48:17,860 --> 00:48:18,519
they may.

1417
00:48:19,539 --> 00:48:21,940
I mean, to me, just for an example,

1418
00:48:21,940 --> 00:48:23,240
you take somebody that's

1419
00:48:23,675 --> 00:48:25,355
that's come in and and that they want

1420
00:48:25,355 --> 00:48:26,734
a divorce. Right? Yes.

1421
00:48:28,554 --> 00:48:30,155
I know that you probably do what you

1422
00:48:30,155 --> 00:48:30,954
can and,

1423
00:48:31,275 --> 00:48:34,474
to to deter that. And and, you know,

1424
00:48:34,474 --> 00:48:36,074
can you work this out or can this

1425
00:48:36,074 --> 00:48:38,119
be worked out? But sometimes it's not gonna

1426
00:48:38,119 --> 00:48:39,719
be worked out and there's nothing you can

1427
00:48:39,719 --> 00:48:41,480
do about it. So what you got left

1428
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:43,160
to do is to do the best that

1429
00:48:43,160 --> 00:48:45,400
you can with what's left. Right. I mean,

1430
00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:47,500
I I have I have,

1431
00:48:48,519 --> 00:48:50,460
I've counseled with people that,

1432
00:48:51,545 --> 00:48:53,164
that I've done everything I could

1433
00:48:53,464 --> 00:48:53,964
to

1434
00:48:54,585 --> 00:48:56,984
to deter them getting a divorce and leaving

1435
00:48:56,984 --> 00:48:57,964
each other and,

1436
00:48:58,344 --> 00:48:59,864
you know, as well as I do sometimes

1437
00:48:59,864 --> 00:49:01,625
when soon when a certain when a person

1438
00:49:01,625 --> 00:49:03,144
gets to a certain point, they make up

1439
00:49:03,144 --> 00:49:05,590
their mind. It's over. It's done. I've seen

1440
00:49:05,590 --> 00:49:06,650
it a million times.

1441
00:49:07,030 --> 00:49:08,789
And a lot of times, you'll have one

1442
00:49:08,789 --> 00:49:09,289
one,

1443
00:49:09,750 --> 00:49:11,369
one of the one either spouse,

1444
00:49:11,829 --> 00:49:13,510
the husband or the wife at some point

1445
00:49:13,510 --> 00:49:15,670
in time, they're they've they've they've been fed

1446
00:49:15,670 --> 00:49:17,530
up, they've tried, and they're done,

1447
00:49:17,829 --> 00:49:20,329
and nothing's gonna change their mind. So,

1448
00:49:20,844 --> 00:49:23,085
you know, you just try to and and

1449
00:49:23,085 --> 00:49:24,765
as a pastor, you try to pick up

1450
00:49:24,765 --> 00:49:26,844
the pieces as a as a as a

1451
00:49:26,844 --> 00:49:27,344
judge,

1452
00:49:27,724 --> 00:49:29,164
you try to be as fair as you

1453
00:49:29,164 --> 00:49:31,485
can That's right. Parties. Yeah. That's right. And

1454
00:49:31,485 --> 00:49:33,244
that that's that's where you find yourself, and

1455
00:49:33,244 --> 00:49:34,619
you try to be fair with them.

1456
00:49:35,579 --> 00:49:37,579
And and, again, try to be compassionate. Yeah.

1457
00:49:37,579 --> 00:49:38,079
Yeah.

1458
00:49:39,180 --> 00:49:40,160
You know, I had a

1459
00:49:40,619 --> 00:49:41,900
a guy that I know that was going

1460
00:49:41,900 --> 00:49:43,599
through a divorce, and I said, you know,

1461
00:49:44,059 --> 00:49:45,420
I'm a wake up his name. I said,

1462
00:49:45,420 --> 00:49:47,280
Billy, I'd prefer you not get a divorce.

1463
00:49:47,660 --> 00:49:49,094
It's not his real name is not Billy,

1464
00:49:49,094 --> 00:49:50,074
so don't go

1465
00:49:50,375 --> 00:49:51,815
don't go to the next Billy. You know?

1466
00:49:51,815 --> 00:49:53,574
He said, Billy, I went through my contacts.

1467
00:49:53,574 --> 00:49:55,114
That's right. He

1468
00:49:56,534 --> 00:49:58,614
said he said, when I shout out, I

1469
00:49:58,614 --> 00:50:00,135
won't get a divorce if you'll come home

1470
00:50:00,135 --> 00:50:00,900
and live with us.

1471
00:50:01,619 --> 00:50:02,359
I said,

1472
00:50:03,940 --> 00:50:04,980
what do you mean come home and live

1473
00:50:04,980 --> 00:50:06,260
with? He said, well, if you can live

1474
00:50:06,260 --> 00:50:07,719
with her, I'll stay with her.

1475
00:50:14,695 --> 00:50:17,255
My counseling was over. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

1476
00:50:17,255 --> 00:50:18,635
Let's put this stuff up.

1477
00:50:21,494 --> 00:50:23,494
Yeah. You got the gold mine. You got

1478
00:50:23,494 --> 00:50:24,155
the shed.

1479
00:50:30,050 --> 00:50:31,650
Oh, well, it always makes me think of

1480
00:50:31,650 --> 00:50:33,890
that that couple on Andy Griffith. Oh, that's

1481
00:50:33,890 --> 00:50:35,250
exactly what they did. Come to my mind.

1482
00:50:35,250 --> 00:50:36,690
You know? They they try to get them

1483
00:50:36,690 --> 00:50:38,130
to be nice to each other and meet

1484
00:50:38,130 --> 00:50:40,309
everybody else. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

1485
00:50:41,650 --> 00:50:43,410
You get some of those situations, and there's

1486
00:50:43,410 --> 00:50:44,984
just not a lot not a lot you

1487
00:50:44,984 --> 00:50:47,065
can do about that. That is a good

1488
00:50:47,065 --> 00:50:48,744
question, and it's a question you you get

1489
00:50:48,744 --> 00:50:49,724
every now and then.

1490
00:50:50,344 --> 00:50:50,664
And,

1491
00:50:51,304 --> 00:50:53,704
you know, on the pastoring front, you know,

1492
00:50:53,704 --> 00:50:55,944
Liberty Hill has been a is going through,

1493
00:50:55,944 --> 00:50:58,045
I think, a period of last three,

1494
00:50:58,460 --> 00:51:01,019
two, three, four years where God God's blessed

1495
00:51:01,019 --> 00:51:02,380
us the whole time. Don't get me wrong.

1496
00:51:02,380 --> 00:51:03,900
But it has really been through a time

1497
00:51:03,900 --> 00:51:05,980
of blessing. We've got a baptizing set May,

1498
00:51:06,139 --> 00:51:08,699
this May 4 coming up Sunday of a

1499
00:51:08,699 --> 00:51:10,139
young lady that got saved at our youth

1500
00:51:10,139 --> 00:51:10,639
retreat.

1501
00:51:11,275 --> 00:51:12,875
Jalen Awesome. I don't care to call her

1502
00:51:12,875 --> 00:51:15,914
name. Jalen Earl. She's 14, and she's Fort

1503
00:51:15,914 --> 00:51:16,414
Payne,

1504
00:51:16,875 --> 00:51:18,875
a high school student. And she got saved

1505
00:51:18,875 --> 00:51:20,554
at her youth retreat about two years ago.

1506
00:51:20,554 --> 00:51:22,954
She'd been coming to church and was hoping

1507
00:51:22,954 --> 00:51:25,114
that she'd join back then. Yeah. And,

1508
00:51:25,780 --> 00:51:27,860
but her dad was not in church at

1509
00:51:27,860 --> 00:51:29,160
that point. And and,

1510
00:51:29,700 --> 00:51:32,579
since then, her dad, his current wife are

1511
00:51:32,579 --> 00:51:33,480
back in church.

1512
00:51:34,019 --> 00:51:35,160
He's gotten baptized.

1513
00:51:36,260 --> 00:51:38,740
He's one of his his other son has

1514
00:51:38,740 --> 00:51:39,640
gotten saved.

1515
00:51:40,484 --> 00:51:43,284
He comes and he's he's joined and and

1516
00:51:43,284 --> 00:51:45,204
she finally, we're in revival and Paul Long

1517
00:51:45,204 --> 00:51:47,045
was getting ready to preach on Sunday night

1518
00:51:47,045 --> 00:51:48,184
about two weeks ago,

1519
00:51:48,964 --> 00:51:50,884
and she stood up. I had a I

1520
00:51:50,884 --> 00:51:52,484
did something different at revival this year. I

1521
00:51:52,484 --> 00:51:54,005
feel like God was impressing me to do

1522
00:51:54,005 --> 00:51:54,984
family testimonies.

1523
00:51:55,530 --> 00:51:56,910
You know how we do devotions?

1524
00:51:57,369 --> 00:51:59,530
And sometimes in revival, we'll get brother Dennis,

1525
00:51:59,530 --> 00:52:01,230
you get up here and share your testimony,

1526
00:52:01,449 --> 00:52:03,369
and then we'll get the evangelist up. And

1527
00:52:03,369 --> 00:52:05,530
I've done that for years. Well, I felt

1528
00:52:05,530 --> 00:52:06,969
like God was putting on me to get

1529
00:52:06,969 --> 00:52:07,789
family testimonies.

1530
00:52:08,824 --> 00:52:10,105
So that'd be you and your wife. And

1531
00:52:10,105 --> 00:52:11,464
if you got and if you got kids,

1532
00:52:11,464 --> 00:52:13,065
now my rule was, look, if your kids

1533
00:52:13,065 --> 00:52:14,904
are too young and you're gonna have to

1534
00:52:14,904 --> 00:52:16,204
do goat roping and

1535
00:52:16,505 --> 00:52:18,505
Yeah. Little one pair and Yeah. We can

1536
00:52:18,505 --> 00:52:20,105
link. Don't worry about that. But if you

1537
00:52:20,105 --> 00:52:21,464
got kids that are old enough and want

1538
00:52:21,464 --> 00:52:22,824
to, get up there with you. Get up

1539
00:52:22,824 --> 00:52:23,324
there.

1540
00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:25,319
And, boy, that turned into a such a

1541
00:52:25,319 --> 00:52:27,079
blessing because you had I bet. You had

1542
00:52:27,079 --> 00:52:29,079
people get up that some had been married

1543
00:52:29,079 --> 00:52:31,079
to each other for years, some that had

1544
00:52:31,079 --> 00:52:33,400
been through other marriages and testified openly about

1545
00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:34,940
how God had brought them through things,

1546
00:52:35,559 --> 00:52:37,319
some who got saved young, some who had

1547
00:52:37,319 --> 00:52:39,695
good families, some who've come from terrible backgrounds,

1548
00:52:39,695 --> 00:52:41,375
you know, by their own testimony. You know?

1549
00:52:41,375 --> 00:52:44,094
Yeah. Yeah. And and Jalen got up with

1550
00:52:44,094 --> 00:52:46,574
her dad and stepmom and her brother, and

1551
00:52:46,574 --> 00:52:48,994
she's up there. And and, mom

1552
00:52:49,375 --> 00:52:51,315
stepmom testified, dad testified,

1553
00:52:52,679 --> 00:52:54,119
and it just got hurt. And she just

1554
00:52:54,119 --> 00:52:56,280
started crying and said, I just wanna join

1555
00:52:56,280 --> 00:52:58,559
the church. Yeah. Oh, man. I bet. I'm

1556
00:52:58,559 --> 00:52:59,420
like, I'm like,

1557
00:52:59,880 --> 00:53:01,800
god's put us here and god and you

1558
00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:04,119
and I just I said, well, we'll make

1559
00:53:04,119 --> 00:53:07,105
that happen. So Amen. Soon as testimony service

1560
00:53:07,105 --> 00:53:08,385
up before I turned over to Paul, I

1561
00:53:08,385 --> 00:53:09,985
said, hey. She wants to join church. What's

1562
00:53:09,985 --> 00:53:11,825
your promotion? And and so,

1563
00:53:12,305 --> 00:53:13,825
we didn't wait to open the doors or

1564
00:53:13,825 --> 00:53:15,425
do any of that. We we just went

1565
00:53:15,425 --> 00:53:17,265
ahead and took her. She'd been going for

1566
00:53:17,265 --> 00:53:18,644
two years. It wouldn't like

1567
00:53:18,950 --> 00:53:20,789
wouldn't like we didn't know Right. When she

1568
00:53:20,789 --> 00:53:22,950
got saved. So we got that baptized in

1569
00:53:22,950 --> 00:53:24,170
Sunday. We've had others,

1570
00:53:25,110 --> 00:53:27,829
others get saved, get baptized. Everybody from 34

1571
00:53:27,829 --> 00:53:29,369
year old god getting saved

1572
00:53:30,070 --> 00:53:31,910
to her 15, 16 year old brother to

1573
00:53:31,910 --> 00:53:33,510
when she was 12 when she got saved.

1574
00:53:33,510 --> 00:53:35,565
We had some younger kids. Just over the

1575
00:53:35,565 --> 00:53:37,164
last two to three years, and God has

1576
00:53:37,164 --> 00:53:38,764
just really, really blessed us. And when you

1577
00:53:38,764 --> 00:53:39,744
talked about the,

1578
00:53:40,364 --> 00:53:40,864
tech,

1579
00:53:41,565 --> 00:53:42,065
invasion,

1580
00:53:42,364 --> 00:53:43,644
you know, one thing we've done over the

1581
00:53:43,644 --> 00:53:44,844
last two or three years is doing a

1582
00:53:44,844 --> 00:53:46,625
youth retreat, and we call it unplugged.

1583
00:53:47,244 --> 00:53:49,244
We we take them to Mhmm. Camp up

1584
00:53:49,244 --> 00:53:49,744
and

1585
00:53:50,340 --> 00:53:52,660
or to cabins up on Lookout Mountain. They

1586
00:53:52,660 --> 00:53:54,039
gotta leave their cell phones,

1587
00:53:54,420 --> 00:53:56,180
and they just we just focus on the

1588
00:53:56,180 --> 00:53:59,140
Lord and activities and Yeah. And that's god's

1589
00:53:59,140 --> 00:54:01,619
really been blessing us through. Amen. Amen. I

1590
00:54:01,619 --> 00:54:03,764
just I gotta praise him. Well, and and

1591
00:54:03,764 --> 00:54:06,005
I know you don't wanna take credit for

1592
00:54:06,005 --> 00:54:08,405
growth and things like that, but, you know,

1593
00:54:08,405 --> 00:54:10,105
your faithfulness to that church,

1594
00:54:10,724 --> 00:54:13,224
through the years is it really means something.

1595
00:54:14,085 --> 00:54:15,065
I know statistically,

1596
00:54:17,119 --> 00:54:20,000
it takes the I've heard statistics that said

1597
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:22,500
that it takes four to five years,

1598
00:54:23,119 --> 00:54:24,579
for a pastor and a congregation

1599
00:54:25,599 --> 00:54:27,360
to really mesh. Right? To really get to

1600
00:54:27,360 --> 00:54:30,074
know each other, like, for the pastor to,

1601
00:54:30,234 --> 00:54:32,554
you know, he's got a vision, Lord's given

1602
00:54:32,554 --> 00:54:33,054
him,

1603
00:54:34,155 --> 00:54:36,155
of some direction. You know, this is where

1604
00:54:36,155 --> 00:54:37,514
I think the Lord wants the church to

1605
00:54:37,514 --> 00:54:39,214
go. This is where we need to go.

1606
00:54:39,514 --> 00:54:41,275
And then the church has got to trust

1607
00:54:41,275 --> 00:54:42,795
that vision, right? The church has got to

1608
00:54:42,795 --> 00:54:44,750
know this guy's real, this guy's gone, you

1609
00:54:44,750 --> 00:54:46,109
know, this guy's in here for the long

1610
00:54:46,109 --> 00:54:46,609
haul.

1611
00:54:46,909 --> 00:54:49,949
And and so you can't do that staying

1612
00:54:49,949 --> 00:54:50,449
somewhere

1613
00:54:50,750 --> 00:54:52,510
a year here, two years there, three years

1614
00:54:52,510 --> 00:54:54,670
there, four years, you know. And and so

1615
00:54:54,670 --> 00:54:57,469
I thank I thank your longevity there. I

1616
00:54:57,469 --> 00:54:58,929
I pray that the Lord,

1617
00:55:00,434 --> 00:55:02,515
gives us both the discernment to when we

1618
00:55:02,515 --> 00:55:03,974
need to go, we need to go.

1619
00:55:04,594 --> 00:55:07,235
But but that longevity, I think God's blessing

1620
00:55:07,235 --> 00:55:08,614
you there. I see it,

1621
00:55:09,235 --> 00:55:10,434
you know, I see it a lot of

1622
00:55:10,434 --> 00:55:10,934
churches,

1623
00:55:11,795 --> 00:55:14,355
around here. I think, brother David Smith's church,

1624
00:55:14,355 --> 00:55:16,609
David's been there for like, twenty

1625
00:55:16,989 --> 00:55:18,909
five, or more years. He might have been

1626
00:55:18,909 --> 00:55:20,829
thirty years now, but, you know, in the

1627
00:55:20,829 --> 00:55:21,329
last

1628
00:55:21,869 --> 00:55:24,369
few several years, that place has just exploded.

1629
00:55:24,509 --> 00:55:26,929
And and he's a bible preaching,

1630
00:55:28,349 --> 00:55:30,914
bible believing preacher who who who preaches the

1631
00:55:30,914 --> 00:55:33,074
truth and preaches the word, and and God's

1632
00:55:33,074 --> 00:55:34,275
blessed that, you know,

1633
00:55:34,914 --> 00:55:36,675
in just the last few years. So

1634
00:55:37,315 --> 00:55:39,074
Well, God's put a lot of people in

1635
00:55:39,074 --> 00:55:40,215
in my life. You,

1636
00:55:40,914 --> 00:55:41,655
for one,

1637
00:55:41,954 --> 00:55:43,715
watching how you've done things out here at

1638
00:55:43,715 --> 00:55:44,454
Mountain View,

1639
00:55:44,949 --> 00:55:46,789
getting us involved in help in the mission

1640
00:55:46,789 --> 00:55:49,449
trips. You know, one church, one mission,

1641
00:55:50,309 --> 00:55:51,050
one calling.

1642
00:55:52,710 --> 00:55:54,949
And and Dennis was such a great mediator.

1643
00:55:55,429 --> 00:55:56,630
You know, we got there we it was

1644
00:55:56,630 --> 00:55:58,295
on the football field in one Mission trip.

1645
00:55:58,295 --> 00:55:59,974
Boys got fired up with each other. You

1646
00:55:59,974 --> 00:56:01,974
remember those kids there and Man. Yeah. They

1647
00:56:01,974 --> 00:56:03,494
were about all about winning, man. They were

1648
00:56:03,494 --> 00:56:05,095
all about winning. Gotta win. Gotta win. Yeah.

1649
00:56:05,095 --> 00:56:07,095
And Dennis was, like, as good as any

1650
00:56:07,095 --> 00:56:08,775
mediator we've got in the legal field. He

1651
00:56:08,775 --> 00:56:10,375
got the point of force, mediated it, and

1652
00:56:10,375 --> 00:56:12,375
they calmed down. Because everybody on your knees,

1653
00:56:12,375 --> 00:56:15,340
we're gonna pray. Yeah. Yeah. Because they were

1654
00:56:15,340 --> 00:56:17,579
getting fired up by tag football. Yeah. Yeah.

1655
00:56:17,579 --> 00:56:19,179
Man, that'll that'll take the wind out of

1656
00:56:19,179 --> 00:56:21,340
your sails when you're mad. That's right. That's

1657
00:56:21,340 --> 00:56:23,579
right. Dennis did such a great job. But,

1658
00:56:23,579 --> 00:56:25,420
you know, you getting us involved and helping

1659
00:56:25,420 --> 00:56:26,860
us get involved and driving us in those

1660
00:56:26,860 --> 00:56:27,679
mission trips.

1661
00:56:28,025 --> 00:56:30,025
The I've got the church members that God

1662
00:56:30,025 --> 00:56:31,305
has put out there that,

1663
00:56:32,025 --> 00:56:34,344
have organized youth retreat Yeah. You got a

1664
00:56:34,425 --> 00:56:36,344
bible schools. You got some people out there

1665
00:56:36,344 --> 00:56:37,785
that's got a heart for the Lord that

1666
00:56:37,785 --> 00:56:39,704
really wants to work. Yeah. It's just

1667
00:56:40,744 --> 00:56:41,805
man, you can't

1668
00:56:42,344 --> 00:56:43,565
you can't do it without

1669
00:56:44,130 --> 00:56:46,289
each other. That's right. I mean, it takes

1670
00:56:46,289 --> 00:56:48,449
it takes each other. It does. Amen. And

1671
00:56:48,449 --> 00:56:50,529
we got to be we got to be

1672
00:56:50,529 --> 00:56:53,489
for each other's churches. Yeah. Amen. Right. Amen.

1673
00:56:53,489 --> 00:56:56,155
It's not it's not out of competition. It's

1674
00:56:56,155 --> 00:56:58,235
not Mountain View against the the world or

1675
00:56:58,235 --> 00:56:59,914
or Liberty Hill against the world or any

1676
00:56:59,914 --> 00:57:01,914
other church. But, man, if you're if you're

1677
00:57:01,914 --> 00:57:03,914
if you're a church who's preaching the word

1678
00:57:03,914 --> 00:57:04,974
and and teaching

1679
00:57:05,355 --> 00:57:07,855
biblical principles and and sound theology,

1680
00:57:08,409 --> 00:57:10,650
then I'm for you. Amen. I am for

1681
00:57:10,650 --> 00:57:12,809
you. I'm not against you, and I'm praying

1682
00:57:12,809 --> 00:57:14,030
for you to just

1683
00:57:14,650 --> 00:57:16,170
explode, man. If you

1684
00:57:17,210 --> 00:57:19,530
if if your church grows three times bigger

1685
00:57:19,530 --> 00:57:21,610
than than our church, I don't care. That's

1686
00:57:21,610 --> 00:57:23,755
what I want, right? Because we are the

1687
00:57:23,755 --> 00:57:26,394
church. We're one church. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well,

1688
00:57:26,394 --> 00:57:28,394
we're all one family. We're all one body.

1689
00:57:28,394 --> 00:57:30,394
We're all we we are all in this

1690
00:57:30,394 --> 00:57:32,155
together and that's what I've said several times.

1691
00:57:32,155 --> 00:57:34,655
We're not alone. Amen. And churches

1692
00:57:35,195 --> 00:57:37,389
work together. Yeah. Jump in there. Jump in

1693
00:57:37,389 --> 00:57:39,389
with your neighbor churches and and do stuff

1694
00:57:39,389 --> 00:57:40,989
with them like mission trips and stuff. That

1695
00:57:40,989 --> 00:57:43,150
that is Yeah. I love that. I love

1696
00:57:43,150 --> 00:57:44,829
I love when I found out that Mountain

1697
00:57:44,829 --> 00:57:46,750
View because that was that all kinda came

1698
00:57:46,750 --> 00:57:48,670
about while I was, away for a little

1699
00:57:48,670 --> 00:57:49,170
bit.

1700
00:57:49,469 --> 00:57:50,909
And I love finding that. I was like,

1701
00:57:50,909 --> 00:57:53,204
man, that's awesome. Yeah. Because that is the

1702
00:57:53,364 --> 00:57:55,944
that is one surefire way to ensure

1703
00:57:56,244 --> 00:57:57,224
that you're aligned

1704
00:57:57,684 --> 00:57:59,444
with what God wants for you is, are

1705
00:57:59,444 --> 00:58:01,125
you working with other churches or are you

1706
00:58:01,125 --> 00:58:01,944
working against

1707
00:58:02,244 --> 00:58:05,039
every other church? Yeah. And they all seem

1708
00:58:05,039 --> 00:58:06,880
to have sound biblical teachings, they're all doing

1709
00:58:06,880 --> 00:58:08,239
stuff, but you just can't get along with

1710
00:58:08,239 --> 00:58:10,079
them. Yeah. You might need to question some

1711
00:58:10,079 --> 00:58:11,920
things. Yeah. Where now, you know, and I'm

1712
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:13,200
not saying you should be getting along with

1713
00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:15,619
some churches out there teaching that, you know,

1714
00:58:15,840 --> 00:58:16,755
Jesus is an alien

1715
00:58:17,714 --> 00:58:19,603
and and we're it's all just we're we're

1716
00:58:19,603 --> 00:58:20,914
going tomorrow and we're gonna be called up

1717
00:58:20,914 --> 00:58:23,154
and Or he's Satan's brother. Yeah. And that

1718
00:58:23,234 --> 00:58:25,795
Yeah. Yeah. Not not stuff like that, but

1719
00:58:25,795 --> 00:58:28,034
sound biblical teachings and, you know, when you

1720
00:58:28,034 --> 00:58:29,394
when you make sure you can work together.

1721
00:58:29,394 --> 00:58:31,154
I mean We need we need to. We

1722
00:58:31,154 --> 00:58:31,815
got to.

1723
00:58:32,250 --> 00:58:34,730
Absolutely. Well, I mean, when your church went

1724
00:58:34,730 --> 00:58:37,210
with us and and, brother John May's church

1725
00:58:37,210 --> 00:58:38,590
at the time at at Gaston,

1726
00:58:39,210 --> 00:58:41,289
when when y'all went on, we we we

1727
00:58:41,289 --> 00:58:43,289
were able to put a team together that

1728
00:58:43,289 --> 00:58:45,844
was much bigger than than who Mountain View

1729
00:58:45,844 --> 00:58:48,085
is. Right? Because it is bigger than Mountain

1730
00:58:48,085 --> 00:58:49,144
View, a lot bigger.

1731
00:58:49,605 --> 00:58:51,204
And so we were able to come together

1732
00:58:51,204 --> 00:58:52,664
and do a whole lot more

1733
00:58:53,284 --> 00:58:55,525
by bringing other people in and and coming

1734
00:58:55,525 --> 00:58:57,809
together on those mission trips. And I've loved

1735
00:58:57,809 --> 00:58:59,970
it. I I I miss it. I hope

1736
00:58:59,970 --> 00:59:01,970
we may be able to do that again

1737
00:59:01,970 --> 00:59:03,910
sometime. And I know y'all had some things

1738
00:59:03,970 --> 00:59:05,650
that have spurred off of that as far

1739
00:59:05,650 --> 00:59:07,329
as, like, you've had some bible schools and

1740
00:59:07,329 --> 00:59:09,110
different things that y'all done and,

1741
00:59:09,410 --> 00:59:11,164
and and y'all borrowed our bus a couple

1742
00:59:11,164 --> 00:59:13,085
of times and Yes. And man, that's that's

1743
00:59:13,085 --> 00:59:15,005
great. I love it. I love it. It's

1744
00:59:15,005 --> 00:59:16,764
pretty cool too to make new friends. Right?

1745
00:59:16,764 --> 00:59:18,065
Yeah. It is. Congregations

1746
00:59:18,684 --> 00:59:19,965
kind of mingling and they get to know

1747
00:59:19,965 --> 00:59:22,045
each other. Amen. And get to worship together

1748
00:59:22,045 --> 00:59:23,369
and oh my goodness. The

1749
00:59:24,010 --> 00:59:25,769
the the service that we had at the

1750
00:59:25,769 --> 00:59:27,630
at the women's home. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

1751
00:59:28,170 --> 00:59:29,869
Oh my goodness. Yes. Oh, so

1752
00:59:31,130 --> 00:59:33,450
Oh my god. Right here. Wow. Yeah. But

1753
00:59:33,450 --> 00:59:36,190
Ellie Grace Cyrus got saved. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

1754
00:59:36,525 --> 00:59:38,144
One of our young ladies.

1755
00:59:38,525 --> 00:59:40,784
She prayed and prayed and prayed. Yes.

1756
00:59:41,164 --> 00:59:41,664
Everybody's

1757
00:59:41,964 --> 00:59:43,804
around. He meant for it to get done.

1758
00:59:43,804 --> 00:59:45,964
Yes. Buddy, yeah. I mean, it was that

1759
00:59:45,964 --> 00:59:46,464
was

1760
00:59:46,764 --> 00:59:48,764
I I tell you, it it was such

1761
00:59:48,764 --> 00:59:51,344
a blessing. Such a blessing how God just

1762
00:59:51,519 --> 00:59:53,519
just moved in a mighty way there, and

1763
00:59:53,519 --> 00:59:55,360
and, I'm just glad we I got to

1764
00:59:55,360 --> 00:59:56,880
be just a little part of it at

1765
00:59:56,880 --> 00:59:58,720
night. So And and there's fun now I

1766
00:59:58,720 --> 01:00:00,800
can't share this funny thing about being a

1767
01:00:00,800 --> 01:00:03,059
pastor. I I don't think that we expanding

1768
01:00:03,119 --> 01:00:04,800
off of that, we did do a bible

1769
01:00:04,800 --> 01:00:05,860
school down in Hammondville

1770
01:00:06,295 --> 01:00:07,594
where I live,

1771
01:00:08,135 --> 01:00:10,795
and we use Bethel Baptist Church as facility

1772
01:00:10,855 --> 01:00:12,954
to do a bible school. There's a Hispanic

1773
01:00:13,014 --> 01:00:15,835
community, largely Hispanic community right around that church.

1774
01:00:16,054 --> 01:00:18,215
And so and they usually they generally go

1775
01:00:18,215 --> 01:00:19,974
to Battlehead, those kids do, because that's where

1776
01:00:19,974 --> 01:00:22,440
the school district is. So there's about 30

1777
01:00:22,440 --> 01:00:24,359
of them that were there and,

1778
01:00:25,239 --> 01:00:27,579
you know, I I think the Hispanic population,

1779
01:00:28,199 --> 01:00:29,960
maybe High Point Church of God had reached

1780
01:00:29,960 --> 01:00:31,639
out to them a little bit, but only

1781
01:00:31,639 --> 01:00:33,000
a few of them maybe had went there

1782
01:00:33,000 --> 01:00:34,804
because High Point is not that far away.

1783
01:00:35,505 --> 01:00:37,425
But most of them, I think, have more

1784
01:00:37,425 --> 01:00:38,565
of a Catholic background

1785
01:00:39,105 --> 01:00:39,764
than anything.

1786
01:00:40,065 --> 01:00:41,744
Yeah. So as far as the Bible stories

1787
01:00:41,744 --> 01:00:43,105
and stuff, they didn't know a lot about

1788
01:00:43,105 --> 01:00:45,505
it. So you're you're we were up there.

1789
01:00:45,505 --> 01:00:47,780
I was up there teaching them. We you

1790
01:00:47,780 --> 01:00:49,219
know, getting them ready for what the teacher

1791
01:00:49,219 --> 01:00:50,420
was gonna tell them, and I was welcoming

1792
01:00:50,420 --> 01:00:52,099
them all. The first night we had talked

1793
01:00:52,099 --> 01:00:52,840
about Jesus,

1794
01:00:54,099 --> 01:00:55,699
or yeah. I think it was Jesus we

1795
01:00:55,699 --> 01:00:56,340
talked about,

1796
01:00:56,659 --> 01:00:59,219
that first night exclusively, you know, introducing them

1797
01:00:59,219 --> 01:01:00,914
to the creator and getting it to Jesus,

1798
01:01:00,914 --> 01:01:02,515
and that sort of thing. Right. He was

1799
01:01:02,515 --> 01:01:04,054
the focus. He's right.

1800
01:01:06,994 --> 01:01:08,535
I ain't like that in his novel.

1801
01:01:11,715 --> 01:01:13,715
So we I spent a whole time we

1802
01:01:13,715 --> 01:01:15,235
we spent our teachers spent a whole time

1803
01:01:15,235 --> 01:01:16,515
and we spent a whole time you know,

1804
01:01:16,515 --> 01:01:18,569
Jesus is this guy, and this is who

1805
01:01:18,569 --> 01:01:20,010
he is. And so the next night, we

1806
01:01:20,010 --> 01:01:21,449
get up. I get up and I said,

1807
01:01:21,449 --> 01:01:21,949
tonight,

1808
01:01:22,329 --> 01:01:23,949
we're gonna learn about Moses.

1809
01:01:24,489 --> 01:01:26,190
Have y'all ever heard of Moses?

1810
01:01:26,809 --> 01:01:28,329
And, yeah, and I've spent a little time

1811
01:01:28,329 --> 01:01:30,170
telling who Moses was, the 10 commandments, and

1812
01:01:30,170 --> 01:01:31,614
y'all know Moses. And I said, how many

1813
01:01:31,614 --> 01:01:33,855
of y'all know Moses? And there's 30 Hispanic

1814
01:01:33,855 --> 01:01:35,715
kids there, and there's probably

1815
01:01:36,175 --> 01:01:38,035
28 of them raised their hand.

1816
01:01:38,575 --> 01:01:40,735
And I was and my daughter who's now

1817
01:01:40,735 --> 01:01:42,815
19, she was at that time about 15

1818
01:01:42,815 --> 01:01:44,414
or 16. She was sitting in or she's

1819
01:01:44,414 --> 01:01:45,695
sitting in the back. She said, dad, you

1820
01:01:45,695 --> 01:01:47,769
should have seen your face. And I said,

1821
01:01:47,829 --> 01:01:49,589
you don't know who Moses is? I mean,

1822
01:01:49,589 --> 01:01:50,730
they barely knew who

1823
01:01:51,109 --> 01:01:52,630
Jesus was, not the form. You know what

1824
01:01:52,630 --> 01:01:54,550
I mean? They barely knew who Jesus was.

1825
01:01:54,550 --> 01:01:56,150
And so I was so surprised. I was

1826
01:01:56,150 --> 01:01:56,650
like,

1827
01:01:56,949 --> 01:01:59,130
what? If y'all don't mind me asking,

1828
01:01:59,510 --> 01:02:01,094
how in the world do y'all know Moses?

1829
01:02:01,175 --> 01:02:01,675
Moses?

1830
01:02:02,215 --> 01:02:04,934
And they said, we sitting right there, mister

1831
01:02:04,934 --> 01:02:05,434
Welch.

1832
01:02:10,614 --> 01:02:13,094
Yeah. That's and and if you had built

1833
01:02:13,094 --> 01:02:14,614
Jesus out there, they'd probably say he's sitting

1834
01:02:14,614 --> 01:02:16,085
right next to Agatha. He goes

1835
01:02:29,414 --> 01:02:29,914
And

1836
01:02:30,295 --> 01:02:31,782
she's still here. She's still on stage. Chloe,

1837
01:02:31,782 --> 01:02:33,094
my doctor said, if you can just leave

1838
01:02:33,094 --> 01:02:34,695
a let down on your face, and you're

1839
01:02:34,695 --> 01:02:35,094
like,

1840
01:02:38,535 --> 01:02:40,614
Oh my goodness. Out of the mouth, please.

1841
01:02:40,614 --> 01:02:42,409
I'm telling you. It's good stuff.

1842
01:02:43,030 --> 01:02:45,030
Oh, man. And kid kids do. They have

1843
01:02:45,030 --> 01:02:46,869
a way to really kinda keep us humble.

1844
01:02:46,869 --> 01:02:49,030
We go in. We we expect to we

1845
01:02:49,030 --> 01:02:51,109
expect that we know what answer they're gonna

1846
01:02:51,109 --> 01:02:52,230
give us, and then we find out that

1847
01:02:52,230 --> 01:02:53,630
we have no clue.

1848
01:02:54,069 --> 01:02:56,465
Out. Yeah. Oh, no. Yeah. We've got VBS

1849
01:02:56,465 --> 01:02:58,265
coming up. Yeah. They do. Starting to get

1850
01:02:58,265 --> 01:03:00,465
a little nervous already now. Yep. Yep. We

1851
01:03:00,465 --> 01:03:02,425
got 11, 12 year old boys Oh, yeah.

1852
01:03:02,545 --> 01:03:04,644
They're getting this year. Prayer time at VBS.

1853
01:03:04,785 --> 01:03:06,644
Is there anything you wanna pray for?

1854
01:03:06,945 --> 01:03:07,684
It's coming.

1855
01:03:11,660 --> 01:03:13,360
Yes, sir, mister Brown. My gerbil,

1856
01:03:14,460 --> 01:03:15,980
I haven't been acting right away. They beat

1857
01:03:15,980 --> 01:03:17,519
me on the phone the other day.

1858
01:03:17,900 --> 01:03:19,500
I've been I haven't been acting right since

1859
01:03:19,500 --> 01:03:20,320
it made me.

1860
01:03:20,940 --> 01:03:22,640
You pray for me and my gerbil.

1861
01:03:25,014 --> 01:03:26,875
Oh, yeah. You get some good ones.

1862
01:03:27,655 --> 01:03:29,894
You get some good ones. Or or they

1863
01:03:29,894 --> 01:03:31,974
tell all. Right? I think those kids will

1864
01:03:31,974 --> 01:03:33,655
tell all. Yeah. If you pray for my

1865
01:03:33,655 --> 01:03:35,894
mom and dad, they were really fighting before

1866
01:03:35,894 --> 01:03:37,335
I left. They had to throw the beer

1867
01:03:37,335 --> 01:03:39,094
puddle up against the wall and cracked it

1868
01:03:39,094 --> 01:03:41,929
right His head had barely missed her. Yes.

1869
01:03:44,710 --> 01:03:46,250
Oh, boy. Oh, lord.

1870
01:03:46,869 --> 01:03:48,710
Hey. Kid kids are great. They keep you

1871
01:03:48,710 --> 01:03:50,550
on your toes and, you know, Dennis just

1872
01:03:50,550 --> 01:03:52,230
a glutton for punishment. He keeps taking that

1873
01:03:52,230 --> 01:03:53,684
age group. And, hopefully, it's not one of

1874
01:03:53,684 --> 01:03:55,625
your Deacon's kids that asked that person.

1875
01:04:01,765 --> 01:04:03,445
Suddenly, we're needing to have we're needing to

1876
01:04:03,445 --> 01:04:04,585
have a meeting, boys.

1877
01:04:05,285 --> 01:04:05,785
Yeah.

1878
01:04:07,199 --> 01:04:10,159
Yeah. Emergency digging the meeting. So Oh. Oh,

1879
01:04:10,159 --> 01:04:12,480
man. Well, man, we could talk for hours.

1880
01:04:12,480 --> 01:04:14,159
We do. A lot of times, our wives

1881
01:04:14,159 --> 01:04:15,460
get really mad at us.

1882
01:04:16,480 --> 01:04:17,760
You told me when we went on shows,

1883
01:04:17,760 --> 01:04:18,960
I told you, you said, now we need

1884
01:04:18,960 --> 01:04:20,880
you to talk, about this and this. I

1885
01:04:20,880 --> 01:04:22,074
was like, you know, you're gonna have to

1886
01:04:22,074 --> 01:04:23,614
cut me off. I'll talk forever.

1887
01:04:24,394 --> 01:04:24,474
So,

1888
01:04:25,515 --> 01:04:27,594
I don't know how many hours y'all got

1889
01:04:27,594 --> 01:04:29,755
devoted to the podcast, but I could keep

1890
01:04:29,755 --> 01:04:32,175
going. There's a lot of landing. Yes. Yeah.

1891
01:04:32,795 --> 01:04:35,035
Absolutely. I got about I got about four

1892
01:04:35,035 --> 01:04:37,420
thousand hours of recording space here, so.

1893
01:04:38,920 --> 01:04:40,119
I'll tell you what we'll do, we'll get

1894
01:04:40,119 --> 01:04:41,500
you back on here. Yeah.

1895
01:04:41,960 --> 01:04:43,159
Yeah. Yeah. And we'll,

1896
01:04:43,719 --> 01:04:45,960
we usually try to tackle a subject. Sometimes,

1897
01:04:45,960 --> 01:04:47,799
we come up with it about fifteen minutes

1898
01:04:47,799 --> 01:04:49,179
before the podcast. Yeah.

1899
01:04:49,784 --> 01:04:51,625
Anyway, but, we know we're gonna chase a

1900
01:04:51,625 --> 01:04:53,704
rabbit that way. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh,

1901
01:04:53,704 --> 01:04:55,944
yeah. Yeah. One thing I wanna encourage pastors,

1902
01:04:55,944 --> 01:04:58,585
because you said it, Jesus loved Judas Iscariot

1903
01:04:58,585 --> 01:05:01,085
so much they didn't know. And and sometimes

1904
01:05:01,144 --> 01:05:03,964
pastors get discouraged, I know, and you know,

1905
01:05:04,150 --> 01:05:06,230
because we preach to people like Tyler and

1906
01:05:06,230 --> 01:05:07,130
he never changes.

1907
01:05:08,469 --> 01:05:10,010
I tell you, I'm a wise one.

1908
01:05:10,630 --> 01:05:12,230
He is. He is. He is. He preach

1909
01:05:12,230 --> 01:05:13,590
and you preach and you preach, and then

1910
01:05:13,590 --> 01:05:14,949
all of a sudden something happens and you

1911
01:05:14,949 --> 01:05:16,885
think, well, god, I I did I not

1912
01:05:16,885 --> 01:05:18,325
preach it good enough? Did I not say

1913
01:05:18,325 --> 01:05:19,605
it right enough? Did I not say it

1914
01:05:19,605 --> 01:05:22,005
clear enough? Did I condone what he was

1915
01:05:22,005 --> 01:05:24,045
doing and and didn't realize it? And Yeah.

1916
01:05:24,244 --> 01:05:26,265
And I think we beat ourselves up

1917
01:05:26,724 --> 01:05:28,164
when it's not God trying to give us

1918
01:05:28,164 --> 01:05:30,585
accountability, it's us kicking ourselves when

1919
01:05:30,900 --> 01:05:32,679
Judas heard the best preacher

1920
01:05:33,380 --> 01:05:35,460
ever. Right. Did not convert. And did not

1921
01:05:35,460 --> 01:05:38,339
convert. Just be faithful. Right? Amen. Just be

1922
01:05:38,339 --> 01:05:38,839
faithful.

1923
01:05:39,139 --> 01:05:41,139
Amen. And and then there's we do we

1924
01:05:41,139 --> 01:05:43,139
do get discouraged sometimes. I'm a tell you,

1925
01:05:43,139 --> 01:05:44,819
I'll be honest with you, Sunday was one

1926
01:05:44,819 --> 01:05:46,339
of those days. I I don't know. So

1927
01:05:46,339 --> 01:05:46,875
I was

1928
01:05:47,514 --> 01:05:48,875
I I just I just felt like I

1929
01:05:48,875 --> 01:05:51,034
wasn't keeping it together. I just said, Lord,

1930
01:05:51,034 --> 01:05:52,954
I'm not I'm not executing this message the

1931
01:05:52,954 --> 01:05:54,474
way you want me to. And the way

1932
01:05:54,474 --> 01:05:55,594
it was all put you know how it

1933
01:05:55,594 --> 01:05:56,875
plays out in your head and you're like,

1934
01:05:56,875 --> 01:05:58,414
this is gonna be good. You know?

1935
01:05:58,954 --> 01:06:00,780
And then I fumble it. And then Yeah.

1936
01:06:00,780 --> 01:06:02,860
Yeah. But I I felt like that someday,

1937
01:06:02,860 --> 01:06:05,099
but, you know, it it but you then

1938
01:06:05,099 --> 01:06:06,860
then you might have somebody come up to

1939
01:06:06,860 --> 01:06:08,460
you three weeks down the road and say,

1940
01:06:08,460 --> 01:06:10,239
hey. You know, thank you for that or

1941
01:06:10,539 --> 01:06:12,539
that message was for me or Well, it's

1942
01:06:12,539 --> 01:06:14,300
it's the holy spirit. Right? The holy spirit's

1943
01:06:14,300 --> 01:06:16,335
telling people maybe not exactly what you said.

1944
01:06:16,414 --> 01:06:17,855
But there's only they need to hear. That's

1945
01:06:17,855 --> 01:06:19,855
right. That's it. Amen. I see it. Yeah.

1946
01:06:19,855 --> 01:06:20,355
Yeah.

1947
01:06:21,054 --> 01:06:23,054
It's true. Well and I think that brings

1948
01:06:23,054 --> 01:06:24,335
us pretty much to the end of it

1949
01:06:24,335 --> 01:06:26,014
tonight, but, yes, we're gonna have to have

1950
01:06:26,014 --> 01:06:28,335
brother Jonathan back because Yeah. And we we

1951
01:06:28,335 --> 01:06:30,014
need to we definitely need to chase a

1952
01:06:30,014 --> 01:06:32,789
few rabbits. That's what I've loved it. This

1953
01:06:32,789 --> 01:06:34,949
is great. Yeah. I appreciate it. Yeah. We

1954
01:06:34,949 --> 01:06:37,069
we enjoy this. It's good, and we what

1955
01:06:37,069 --> 01:06:38,869
a great way to share the gospel. You

1956
01:06:38,869 --> 01:06:41,050
know? Yeah. And, so we've

1957
01:06:41,590 --> 01:06:43,829
we've we've grown in our audience a little

1958
01:06:43,829 --> 01:06:46,425
bit, anyway, over a little bit. Yeah. We've,

1959
01:06:46,744 --> 01:06:48,445
we've slowly gotten up,

1960
01:06:49,144 --> 01:06:50,744
several hundred. I I hadn't looked at the

1961
01:06:50,744 --> 01:06:52,285
numbers lately but I know

1962
01:06:52,585 --> 01:06:53,085
averaging

1963
01:06:53,465 --> 01:06:55,885
most shows are getting two, three hundred listens

1964
01:06:55,945 --> 01:06:56,744
every week,

1965
01:06:57,144 --> 01:06:59,224
just on the various platforms and then we're

1966
01:06:59,224 --> 01:07:00,389
starting to post on

1967
01:07:00,789 --> 01:07:03,029
Facebook the actual shows and we're getting lots

1968
01:07:03,029 --> 01:07:05,429
of views there. Yeah. So it's it's We

1969
01:07:05,429 --> 01:07:06,949
just wanna make a difference. We wanna make

1970
01:07:06,949 --> 01:07:08,869
a difference in many people's lives. That's what

1971
01:07:08,869 --> 01:07:10,969
it's that's what it's about. Not not,

1972
01:07:11,829 --> 01:07:13,909
not Dennis or Brian or Tyler or Shonton,

1973
01:07:13,909 --> 01:07:15,885
but but we wanna make a difference in

1974
01:07:15,885 --> 01:07:18,125
in your home and and people's lives that

1975
01:07:18,125 --> 01:07:20,364
are listening. We wanna we wanna share the

1976
01:07:20,364 --> 01:07:22,285
gospel with you and if and say something

1977
01:07:22,285 --> 01:07:24,045
that might help you along the way. It's

1978
01:07:24,045 --> 01:07:25,805
centered right on that. Amen. I centered right

1979
01:07:25,805 --> 01:07:27,485
on the bible, centered right on the gospel.

1980
01:07:27,485 --> 01:07:29,750
That's it. That's it. Yeah. Absolutely.

1981
01:07:30,210 --> 01:07:31,969
Well, brother Jonathan, if you would pray us

1982
01:07:31,969 --> 01:07:32,710
out. Yes.

1983
01:07:33,650 --> 01:07:35,570
God, we thank you for this podcast. We

1984
01:07:35,570 --> 01:07:37,090
thank you for its mission and its goal,

1985
01:07:37,090 --> 01:07:39,010
which is to spread the gospel of Jesus

1986
01:07:39,010 --> 01:07:41,505
Christ. God, we thank you for sending your

1987
01:07:41,505 --> 01:07:42,944
son to die on a cross for our

1988
01:07:42,944 --> 01:07:43,444
sin.

1989
01:07:43,824 --> 01:07:45,664
And, god, we thank you, lord, for creating

1990
01:07:45,664 --> 01:07:47,025
us, and we thank you for giving us

1991
01:07:47,025 --> 01:07:48,464
a purpose. And we thank you, lord, for

1992
01:07:48,464 --> 01:07:49,904
sending your son to die on a cross

1993
01:07:49,904 --> 01:07:51,824
and rise from the grave to give us

1994
01:07:51,824 --> 01:07:53,904
a hope beyond this world and to fix

1995
01:07:53,904 --> 01:07:56,039
our hope above above the things that are

1996
01:07:56,039 --> 01:07:57,660
in this under the sun. God,

1997
01:07:57,960 --> 01:07:59,800
thank you for for who you are. Thank

1998
01:07:59,800 --> 01:08:01,320
you for what you do. Thank you for

1999
01:08:01,320 --> 01:08:03,900
these gentlemen. Thank you for this church. God,

2000
01:08:04,039 --> 01:08:06,599
bless Mountain View. Bless Liberty Hill. Bless all

2001
01:08:06,599 --> 01:08:08,680
these bible believing churches out here, lord, that

2002
01:08:08,680 --> 01:08:10,675
is preaching the gospel and sweating and toiling

2003
01:08:10,675 --> 01:08:12,675
for you, and God help them. Forgive each

2004
01:08:12,675 --> 01:08:14,034
and every one of our sins. We know

2005
01:08:14,034 --> 01:08:15,875
there are many, but thank you for shedding

2006
01:08:15,875 --> 01:08:17,875
your blood to cover them all. In Jesus'

2007
01:08:17,875 --> 01:08:19,814
name, amen. Amen. Amen.

2008
01:08:21,489 --> 01:08:23,430
Special thank you to Carter Pridmore,

2009
01:08:23,810 --> 01:08:25,829
Brian Harris, Waverly Henderson,

2010
01:08:26,210 --> 01:08:29,329
Tatum Harris Spears, and Josie Bartain for our

2011
01:08:29,329 --> 01:08:32,050
theme song, Truth Set Me Free. I've been

2012
01:08:32,050 --> 01:08:33,989
Tyler Goza on production and audio.

2013
01:08:34,449 --> 01:08:36,465
We hope you can join us live next

2014
01:08:36,465 --> 01:08:38,085
Monday at 6PM central.

2015
01:08:38,385 --> 01:08:41,104
Thank you for listening. But truth found me

2016
01:08:41,104 --> 01:08:41,604
there.

2017
01:08:42,305 --> 01:08:44,645
It was in my darkest eye.

2018
01:08:45,104 --> 01:08:47,824
I traded my black heart for joy for

2019
01:08:47,824 --> 01:08:50,570
something real, something with power.

2020
01:08:52,789 --> 01:08:54,890
Truth set me free.

2021
01:08:55,829 --> 01:08:57,770
Truth came to me.

2022
01:08:58,229 --> 01:09:01,130
I once was blind and now I say,

2023
01:09:01,590 --> 01:09:03,704
truth set me free.