Aliens on the Artemis 2? | CRNRSTN Collective - Episode 30

In this episode, the host, J, and co-hosts Angus and Javan discuss the incredible instances of astronauts on the Artemis 2 and athletes across all different sports making a stand for the faith and Christian values against the voices of popular culture. Additionally, the trio talk about the impact of certain Christian martyrs such as the Nigerian Christians under attack present day and the Prime Minister of Pakistan that was ended for his faith in 2011. The three also directly tie this into the reports of more Bibles being bought worldwide that has been met with an attempt by Muslims in the UK to buy out churches. They also discuss lots of interesting news surrounding UFOs around the Artemis 2 as well as a potential CIA program to breed humans with government-captured aliens. The three of them are then joined by Gage and share their favorite moments of Easter weekend and the events their church had surrounding Holy Week. Finally, they close with a look at understanding the heart of the Father and how that looks within the daily life of the believer.

#faith #podcast #artemis2 #technology #christianity #sports #testimony #football #soccer #basketball #golf #aliens #ai #artificialintelligence #opinion #fyp #viral #trending

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Cornerstone Collective. My name is Jay Brown. Your host. With me today is Angus McLeod.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hey!

SPEAKER_06 0:06

As well as Javen Brown. Hello, hello. And we're jumping into this intersection of Christ and culture, talking about the seven C statements called the seven C's of Cornerstone Culture. Those are commitment, community, communication, competence, creativity, compassion, and celebration. We want to start out this morning or wherever time you're listening to this, but morning for us, actually early afternoon. We want to start out with uh scripture from Romans 6.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6, 9 through 11.

SPEAKER_06 0:55

Amen to that. Just say amen. Hey, we've been talking about this thing of us living this life for Christ and what it means to be sold out for him. One of the people that clearly has a relationship with Jesus is the NASA Artemis II mission astronaut Victor Glover. Do you guys have a chance to see this? Pretty powerful for Easter. As they the Artemis II mission is actually sent out by NASA. It's actually going around the backside of the moon and coming back to us. And so this is the first time in a long time that they've sent a mission to the moon. And he was out looking at the moon, looking back at the earth on Easter Sunday, and gave a really amazing quote talking about um Christ and talking about the value of people worldwide. I thought it was pretty powerful. What'd you think, I guess?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

I think that uh it's really neat when uh when people get that different perspective, you know, whether it be up on a mountain or looking from space, you know, uh to really appreciate God's creation. Uh it was really neat to see his uh just his reaction.

SPEAKER_06 1:52

Yeah, I thought it was great. Javin, did you get a chance to see this, see his uh his statements?

SPEAKER_02 1:56

No, I didn't get a chance to see him. But that's awesome that he that he made them. I mean, like it it's so funny because right now there's so much skepticism within like I think just the Christian community at large of like whether or not there's a firmament blocking people from going to space, like because of all the NASA drama, stuff like that. But having testimony from somebody like that that's said to have lived all these things is incredible because whether or not it is true, even if even if you're given a platform like that, and it truly is from a place where he's able to see the world at large and understand how minuscule we are, right? And how incredible God's creation is at large. And that's just like a small portion of what the expanded universe is. That it's like it just really makes you think like the the fact that we are able to approach God from a place where he would send his one and only son, uh, one and only son down to us as minuscule as we are, and as like essentially invaluable in comparison to everything else that he's made, it's like it really puts that into perspective for you. So I think him making that declaration is nothing short of incredible, but it's also just because he doesn't know what other words to kind of put that realization in new.

SPEAKER_06 3:03

So that was exactly what he started to share was that man, I don't really have the words, I don't have a prepared statement right now. It's you know, like so he started kind of sharing from his heart about um about Christ's words and about the about the heart for God for people and coming together as the world. And I thought that was really powerful. I was like, man, that's some really good statement there, especially in light of our whole world kind of on fire and threatening to kill everybody. So just like, you know, between our government and Iran and everybody else across the world, I'm like, okay, it's nice to have an encouragement. Um obviously I know all the skepticism that's starting to come in because so many things that were thought to be, you know, fringe concepts and conspiracy theory, very much like tinfoil hat conversations where we're like, come on, guy, are starting to come true, and all of them find having having valid validity, and then obviously people talking about the original moon landing and whether or not Kubrick actually shot it or what really happened, and so all these things. Let's say that all of it is real and that they uh that everything is as as we've obviously held on to for a long time, that they actually did these things. I think him being out there really powerful, really something to say, and that the pictures from it were beautiful. And I was like, man, what a cool perspective to have. You know, I saw the math that they were talking about on how far away they are from us, and it's like pretty amazing. Like this, the they were they showed like a distance of like the globe, like a basketball, and shown the moon, and they're like, Yeah, the distance like between the satellite or the the international space station in the world is like it's like four centimeters. It's like a pinky, and then this other distance is way over here, so it's so much further than we think. Yeah, and so it's pretty cool for them to be a part of that and be active and in that whole process and to have someone who's sharing his faith on the global stage. I thought was pretty powerful, especially at Easter. Absolutely pretty cool. Hey, one of the things that we were talking about recently is uh the NBA player Jaden Ivey. He was someone who is top-rated and was picked by the Bulls and connected to them and was released from the Bulls from playing because of his comments on Christian values regarding the LGBT community and saying, you know, I don't see this as an alignment with scripture and what we value. And he's saying this, and they they took real offense to him. They cut him from the squad. Now, there's not a lot of people on a basketball team, so for him to be cut actively after spending all his money on him, very, very interesting. You guys catch that at all, Javen?

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Yeah, I also saw his response to it. Um, I think he went either live on Instagram or posted a video right after it where people were asking him, Oh, what does this mean like for your future career? And he was like, It's not the end all be all. Like me playing basketball was just because God had given me the opportunity to do so. But me standing in the truth and standing in alignment with what the Lord has put on my heart is much more important to me because that has eternal value rather than whatever I'm doing now. So to see that he's so firmly standing in his faith is such an encouragement within the sports sphere, especially because we see all these other people doing the exact same. Um, but I mean, yeah, like we understand that even for him making a statement like that, like if it were a Muslim person saying something like that, they probably would have no problem with it whatsoever. But as soon as you mentioned the name Jesus, it's like people just start freaking out, man.

SPEAKER_06 6:09

So yeah, it's hard, it's hard to extrapolate what how they would respond to the other thing, but there is a different set of rules for how they handle these things, that's for sure. We've seen that a lot in how they've handled different religions, and it seems like no people have no problem. You know, we think about Tebow, we think about these other guys who've really stand for their faith and how it cost them. Cost them in career, cost them an opportunity. They were a good player, still had skill set, still had a lot to offer, and they were kind of cut short. So interesting. It looks like Jaden got picked up with a contract um since that time, um, is given opportunity for a contract anyway. So we'll see what happens with his playing versus you know him kind of being somebody who's standing for his faith. Interestingly, Patrick Williams, who also plays for the Bulls, is like, well, if you're gonna cut him, you might as well cut me because I'm in alignment with him. So they've made public statements about that, which is interesting. Daniel Gifford, who plays for the Mavericks, he's putting about his faith on his Instagram and his social. Uh, more statements about like, I love Jesus, I believe in Jesus is the answer for you. So their take has been more on the positivity of accepting Christ versus like statements against the LGBT community. Uh Jake Lavaria, he was putting his Bible verses on on IG. I know Jalen Wilson, who plays for uh Brooklyn, he's he's walking down the tunnel wearing his tunnel fit, is the I Love Jesus shirt. So he has this big shirt that obviously is a big guy. It's a big shirt. So it says I love Jesus on the front, and it's really powerful. It's uh I'm like, man, what a cool thing. And then we've been just went through the uh through March Madness, through all the everybody playing each other and Koa Pete, which uh he's one of the players for U of A. They were in the final four. Uh, he's given his testimony about hey, you know, yeah, I lost, but my identity is not tied to a win or lose. My identity is to tie to Christ and was like heavy in the paint. And I know Javen as a U of A guy, you're not for a U of A guy, you're not for a U of A guy, but Coa, let's say he doesn't play for them. Very cool moment. Yeah, absolutely. Super pretty cool, especially as a sports guy. I'm sure you you've had a chance to see some of these guys talking about this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Yeah, 100%. Um, and I mean it's it's awesome for college people to also make this initiative because I feel like the more and more that we start to see people get real serious about their faith, and like it if they do do the same thing that Jay Nive was doing, where like he's taking a stance against something that is actively against what the word of God says, um, then even going forward like into a pro career, their options are gonna be super limited. Now, I think for him just saying I love Jesus and expressing it like that, he'll probably do fine. But like the more and more that people start like putting a foot down, whenever stuff kind of starts to come their way, the more we're just gonna see pushback from like leagues and pushback from organizations supporting the leagues and stuff like that. Like, I mean, whenever everybody tries to cater to everyone, somebody's always gonna end up getting hurt in the process. So we just happen to be on the receiving end of that.

SPEAKER_06 8:50

Yeah, Angus, I know you're not necessarily a sports guy, but I think you can appreciate this. The they delineated a lot of people were making the delineation, like, okay, Jaden says this about his faith, but you have guys who are actively playing in the league with like felonies against them and like all this you know, like battery against women against them. Yeah, and they get suspensions and they're fine to play for their team.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:09

But Jaden, not so much.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Yeah, for the for the first time, I just kind of, as we were talking about it, I had this perspective of just all of these people, these very famous people, uh, just across the board, Katy Perry, you know, uh athletes and all that, when they stand before God and goes, Okay, so what did you do with that stage that I gave you? Wow, yep. You know, because um there are people, I you know, we know there's believers um in in all of these different facets and all of these different sports, but whether or not they're voicing their opinion, whether or not they're standing up for the gospel, right? You know, I I wonder what that looks like on you know, on Judgment Day.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

When he goes, look, I gave you this stage, and when everybody was talking about it, what did you do? Yeah, and go high in the corner. And so I think that uh it's very cool to see that uh see these people as they're using the the platform that the Lord has has given. Um and you know, I pray for those that have been given and are wasting their platform for the Lord. They're not being a good steward of what God has given them. Yeah. Um, but I think that it's uh it's wild that uh there's two, I I think we just kind of need to get comfortable with the idea that there's two different systems of uh justice, you know, whether it be social justice or you know, uh that Christians we just have to understand that we're gonna be treated differently. Um and so that's one of the reasons we act differently. Um, but uh if you expect it, then you're not surprised when it happens.

SPEAKER_06 10:43

Yeah, no, that's a great point. And and to that end, we talk about what it means to be a good steward of all God has given us. So we talk about our time, our talent, our testimony, and our treasury, and we talk about those things because it's part of who we are. And so what you do with your testimony is a big, big deal. And you know, recently we just had Easter Sunday, which is a pretty pretty pretty powerful day for us. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. But um, one of the people that a lot of people actually were giving their testimony on Easter or adjacent to Easter, one of those is the world number one at golf, Scotty Scheffler. Shout out Scotty, JVO. That's your that's your pick for the guy for winning the Masters Week. Are you? I mean, either him or Bryson. I think they're both on a tear, so we'll see. We're going into Master's Week for golf fans out there in the world. Uh, you might be hearing this after the win, or it's already announced. But uh, yeah, so we're about to head into it. So we're kind of cheering for these guys. But Scotty, he starts cheering on Easter, just talking about his faith in Christ and about who he is as his his values connected to Jesus and and really very clear, very clear on his faith. Others that have been putting out scripture and things like that. Steph Curry always is writing scripture on his shoes. In fact, a whole bunch of his shoes. He's a he's a free agent right now for footwear. So he used to be with Under Armour for a long, long time, was with Nike before them. And uh, so he's been wearing all sorts of different shoes. He's been wearing, you know, Nike Adidas, all sorts of different stuff, even like on cloud, basketball shoes, like all sorts of stuff he's been wearing. And he's always been writing these scriptures, and he's actually now auctioning those off for charity. But really cool because it's like all of them have like messages and stuff on his shoes, which is really neat. Um, another person is Neymar. Neymar's uh one of the top soccer players, the most um he's the highest earning soccer players that's ever existed. And in Neymar, he's a Brazilian uh player, has played for some of our favorite teams for Barcelona for PSG and others. And he is someone who puts scripture out. I know when they won the Champions League that year, back this is back some years ago in in uh in the mid teens. Yeah, he had the hundred percent Jesus headband on that he tied on and and different things. So he's been about that. Danny Alves, which is another player from from there, he's also been someone who's kind of come into his faith much long uh much later, but someone who's coming to his faith. Um, Antoine Samayo, he's plays for Man City, he's talking about his faith in an interview, really powerful. Uh Trayvon Henderson plays for the Patriots, American football. He's talking about it. Walk uh uh Jaquan Brisker, who plays for the Steelers, same, putting out scripture on their stuff. So I really love that. How they're using their testimony, using their platform. Exactly what you're saying. Using their platform to share their testimony about Christ. Really cool. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, one of the things we recently saw was um a report that said that 40% of Gen Z and millennials trust AI as much as their pastor. It ends up being like one in three. So, like one in three people when you consider everybody, uh, trust AI as much as their pastor. What do you think about that? It's interesting. One, it talks about character of a pastor, that we need to be people who are their character and you can trust. Two, they're saying that they trust AI in a big way. So that's interesting. Jay, what do you think, man? That's kind of your perspective. We got two pastors here.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Yeah. Um, I mean, I I think a lot of this probably stems from the fact that with such a wide like wave and kind of understanding of how Protestantism and evangelicalism works within like modern-day society, there's so many different interpretations of scripture that are being heard throughout basically any church you go to. Like, if I were to go, let's say like 20 minutes west and go to like some Baptist or some Presbyterian church, I'd hear one thing. If I were to go to like CCV, I'd hear another. And if I were to go here, I'd hear something else. But I think the problem with that is because you have so many different interpretations and there's not like one concrete system of like belief or like I guess there's no real other word than like dogmatic practice, then people kind of lose that structure and lose that sense of like unity under one understanding, like in the same way that the Nicene Creed kind of united everybody under one common belief, or like the Orthodox Church will still hold like to a system of, oh yeah, we believe this, this is our fundamental beliefs, and then you obviously have Catholic dogma that all of the churches that are um blessed by the Catholic Church will have to follow. It's if you have one concrete system of beliefs and everybody's taught from that, then people will tend to have the same response. But the problem is because there's so many different like spur-of-the-moment churches kind of like popping up all over the place now, I think people are losing that sense of unity or real, real like fundamental understanding of specific scriptures and what certain um translations or passages will mean. One pastor will tell you this, another pastor will tell you that. And I think that's the problem that a lot of what my generation is seeking is because even though there is this huge revival that's happening within everybody looking after Jesus, once you get to Jesus, they don't really understand what it means to follow him within like a common practice because everybody's telling you different things. So if you go to AI, AI, because of the amount of people that are asking it, will probably tell you more consistently the same thing if you went to like Chat GPT, Gemini, Claude, something like that, right, versus all these different pastors that would tell you otherwise.

SPEAKER_06 15:45

So I guess your your take would be that they don't trust pastors in the same way because they don't have the consistency from from uh Christian um approach to Christian approach is different, therefore it varies in the amount of trust that a person would have with the pastor naturally, or you think it's just they have way more interaction with AI?

SPEAKER_02 16:03

I mean, I I would say like I think it's more what gives validity to what this pastor is saying versus what the AI is saying, if the AI can like accumulate all these different perspectives and all these understanding of scriptural interpretations, like uh because once again, if I were to ask you something and then go to like a different church and ask somebody else, and I were to get two totally different interpretations of the same passage, like um uh like a common example would be like replacement theology for something like that.

SPEAKER_06 16:31

Like one pastor would say you this go all the way back down to Protestant Catholic, and I'd say, you know, upon this rock I build my church.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Well, that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_06 16:38

So but that's not replacement of theology. What I'm saying is like that's a pivotal one between Protestants and Catholics, yeah, in that we don't we hold that that God is saying, I'm gonna use Peter to be an implementation in this. And then Catholics would say, I'm using Peter the man, meaning the seat of Peter, as being the establishment of power for the church. Whereas from Protestant perspective, we see him as one of many, obviously, Paul and others that had just as much. Paul even going against Peter at one point, saying how you're doing this is not the right approach, brother. And this is a man who was walking and miracles were happening, so it's both guys' intention walking together. That's why Protestants we have a different approach than they do, but that's also their seat of power, is the lineage from that seat from Peter all the way forward. And that would be the argument with with with also all those that would be Orthodox. Yeah. So it's interesting because you know, taking even that out to out of out of place as far as who agrees with what. If you replace pastor with priest as a concept, I think that same terminology would translate. But I think it's interesting because this younger generation is just saying that they trust more the they trust AI more than they trust like a person, which is very interesting. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Uh I think uh I I agree with it that this is kind of where we're headed. And um, I think what Javen is saying is uh makes a good point is that AI basically has one, uh it's it's got one answer or it's got a united front, if you will, as far as that. So that when you say, How do I be a Christian? Um, you know, AI can give you a list, but you know, if you go to some AG people, assemblies of God versus the Baptists versus the Mormons versus you know, you're gonna start getting all sorts of uh different um answers and and ways to live. And then how do you determine which way is right and and the whole thing? Um but I think uh as far as the pastor part, uh that's what's good about it is that you will get different answers from other people. And that that's the way I see it is like seeing a specialist, right? If you if you have something inside you, you go and you check it with your pastor, and your pastor says, Well, I think this could be an issue, go to somebody else, you know, go to another pastor or you know, talk to talk to another brother or sister that you trust and get a second opinion and and those kinds of things, because that I think is the value of having a community where you're not gonna get the same compassionate and supportive answer from AI that you'll get from you know, from pastors. So uh you're gonna get different answers, a different take, and that's gonna be based on the the pastor's life experience and um and current experiences and all of those things. So it plays an interesting role. Uh, and I think that whatever combination of AI slash church you use, as long as you're getting closer to Jesus, that's really my what I what I think. I mean, if AI can answer a question for you that is scriptural and and uh doesn't lead you away from Christ, well, and but you can understand it, great. And if that takes you to a next further, deeper conversation with a pastor, awesome.

SPEAKER_06 19:38

Yeah, no, and to that point, we've we've kind of delved into this before, but I think to that end, you know, um John Piper was recently interviewed and he was talking about this very thing about AI and whether it's good or bad. And he's like, you know, AI is amoral. The AI is a tool that it's good, the information is is giving you is based on your prompts, it's based on your seeking out. So if you're using it to seek out things, that's great. But AI in itself cannot make a moral decision because it's not moral, it's not a person to make a decision. So you need to still make the decision on the content by which you are making decisions. And so if that's your only source, then you're gonna be limited. But to Javen's point, I agree that that would play into it, whether or not you see this person as having validity or having the ability to speak to you with truth, is goes to your point about the dis you know the disagreement between Catholics and Protestants, and then even within Protestantism itself, with other people that would kind of be adjacent to us that claim to be Christian, that we wouldn't hold as Christians. So I think there's a lot of mix there for sure. So I think that would make sense that it would weigh into you in that way. Any other thought, any other thought on that?

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Uh I will say this. I did interact with Chat GPT like as a prompt terminal, asking it questions about um uh like Marian theology because I was interested kind of like what the concrete thought process was. And when I would like ask questions like almost as like a rebuttal or like a back and forth explanation, it would give me the answers as if it was like essentially representing a Catholic priest. And I think that's interesting because if you cater your specific conversation to like revolve around like certain topics, it'll tend to take more of that approach where it'll give you like specific beliefs and interpretations of things. Um, so I think it also kind of to Angus's point will like cater towards the individual and like it'll it'll come at you from this perspective that it if it thinks that's what's gonna provide you the best understanding. Um, but at the same time, like obviously it's not perfect. It'll present the argument as best as it knows how those people would present it, but then it can't fill in all the answers for you, it just knows how to do what the other people do.

SPEAKER_06 21:41

So yeah, because if you're asking it about what does it mean to be a Christian, you know, from a Catholic perspective, you have to belong to the Catholic Church. So you have to take Catholic communion and go to catechism and do those things other than just making a decision for Christ in your heart by faith. And so, whereas a Protestant perspective is going to give you by faith, you make the decision, and that's how you walk forward. And then the other, even more removed version of It would be you know talking about Baptist versus like more of a Pentecostal perspective where we see in the security of the believer, meaning no one can steal your security of your of your faith from you, but you very much can walk away from your faith in God. Whereas from a Baptist perspective, kind of once saved, always save, you're good to go. And so those different things would be a different approach depending on where it pulls that information from, answering you with AI. So I think that's a good point of why this statistic would be, I think it's gonna probably go higher, not lower. Yeah, to Angus's point, and be something that you know is a thing that we have to walk in intention, understanding like, hey, most of our connection with people is gonna be our personal connection to them and how to walk that out and be in community with them. So an important take for us to think about. One of the things that we've seen recently is Romanian soccer match. Uh, we talked about uh Tifos and other soccer matches being something that they started to find, and we talked about that, and finding the fans, finding the club. Um, one of the things that recently just came out was that there was a Romanian soccer match, and the banner in the crowd had a Romanian flag and a Nigerian flag side by side, and then above it was a banner that said defend Nigerian Christians. And I was like, wow, man, that is a strong statement in a in a soccer match before Easter, and they're referencing all of the things that are happening. So they're referencing um the over 3,000 church members that were killed um by Islamists uh in Nigeria. The pastor is there doing a ceremony over a mass grave. If you've seen this video footage from you know, in other parts of the world, they don't pull punches like we do in America, where we don't show the graphic nature of this stuff. When we lived abroad, you would just see it. You'd see the dead bodies, you see the other things, and they're showing exactly what happened to these people, these innocent people that were mowed down by these people, heartbreaking, terrible, but amazing to see this Romanian uh crowd support them. These are people from a world away that don't really have a connection to them, but support them. I I thought that was really powerful.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

It is really powerful to see um, yeah. No, that's me.

SPEAKER_06 24:03

Okay, shout out to our homies from Paraguay.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Yeah. Um, I think what I see going on now is um I I just keep getting this image of a cell getting ready to divide. Oh, you know, uh, and all of the chromosomes and everything start coming to the center, and it it gets real, real weird, you know, and so that's and then it starts to divide. And I think that that's kind of what we're seeing is people are are lining up, uh deciding which way they're gonna go. Yeah, they're deciding whose team they're gonna be on, which uh which way, you know, if they're team Jesus or or team world. Um, and so that's kind of what I see going on, and it's uh it's really cool to see the body of Christ doing exactly what Christ called us to do, which is be a body all around the world, you know, and so we should be supporting and and all of that. And now um, you know, with so many of these public events and things that are happening, we're seeing it more often. Uh, I mean, stuff like this wasn't newsworthy back in back when we were uh it wasn't that big of a deal, but now I really do. I see that though those people on the stages, they're they're pulling uh their followers one way or another. And uh before the divide happens, which call that revelation, what whatever. I don't know. But that's kind of what I see. Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_06 25:24

It's good. JVO you've been to soccer matches. This would be a pretty powerful statement if you saw it in a TiFo before this match.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Yeah, absolutely. It's awesome to see that a lot of European teams I feel like are continuing to do this now, where they're taking more active stances within their faith, especially around um countries in Europe that have traditionally been more Catholic or have like a really big Catholic support base or really big Orthodox support base, um, much like Romania does, because of the the amount of influence that they have over there. So it's awesome to see that in these new generations, and you and you see people like in their 20s and 30s, so millennials as well, there's a really big resurgence about people being active and and taking a really active stance within their faith, understanding that the stage and the platform that they have, although be it they're just fans in the stands, they're still able to make an incredible claim and an incredible proclamation um that stands out to a lot of people because when they see that photo or when they see that pan shot of what's going on, then they themselves will be moved to do something as well. So I think that's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 26:25

And I think you're right. I think the awareness is a big piece of it. So making people aware, like, hey, this stuff is happening and people aren't saying enough about it. So I think that's a really good thing. Yeah. Uh one of the cool things we did see was that uh around Easter Sunday, it's actually Good Friday, and then even on Easter, the SC Corinthian Soccer Club at in Brazil was actually used by a church and it was completely packed out for for services. Man, such a cool thing to hear them singing in Portuguese and worshiping the Lord. They have this massive cross in the middle of the field, and they had obviously rented it out to take it over, but it was a really cool thing to see a stadium like that packed for worship. Pretty powerful. Yeah, 100%. Uh, you guys have been to stadiums and stuff like that before. What do you think it'd be like for it to be like, man, just all wrapped into worship? Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Well, so I was actually I worked at the Bank One ballpark the year we won the World Series. And so, like, I know the electricity that it just, man, that the feeling was uh incredible to be there with just every everybody cheering. Uh, but that was all pointed towards baseball. Right. Uh, and uh, and there was no Holy Spirit presence like felt or fallen or anything like that. And so I can only imagine what uh what that would be because we know that we're two or more gathered, you know, and uh and when you're praising the Lord, he draws close to you. So I can only imagine what it felt like, just the uh aside from the sounds, vibrations, all of that stuff spiritually, you know. I mean, it it would be really cool to see what that looked like in the spirit because I bet you there's there's probably some angels playing on the field. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:00

Yeah, it'd be pretty powerful, man. Pretty pretty pretty amazing, pretty amazing. I was thinking about uh Columbia this last summer, Jim, and you and I got a chance to be at a in a match uh with our friend who just gave me a call on the phone. Uh and we just you know, I just thought I got a chance to spend some time with Pastor Raul on Monday. Um, man, what would it have been like to be? You know, that place was live, man. It was raining, no one left, they were locked in.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Yeah, that was like 30,000 fans or something like that. And dude, just thinking about that in South America would be crazy, especially amongst Brazilians, because we saw their crowd. We saw like 70,000 of them in Qatar back in 2022. Right. That's where my mind instantly went, which is thinking about that Brazilian crowd transferred into something like a huge church service like that, it would just be like insane in there. Like, not only would it probably bring you to tears to hear like a collective like that join in to sing one song in Portuguese, but it's just like the amount of intentionality that they would have in uh like being genuine about the entire process and making sure that people are safe, making sure that is it is a safe space to worship and that the intentionality in the heart after Christ is really there. I have no doubt that they really, really sought after doing that correctly, and it's awesome to see that it paid off in that way. So also shout out to SC Corinthians because there's not a lot of teams doing that now.

SPEAKER_06 29:15

Yeah, that would that would rent out their space of church. That's true. Yeah, huge deal. Um, you know, we're talking about the persecuted church in Nigeria. We're talking about what how we even talked about in the past how it works for us here and how our own government in America has made rules and regulations against our own church, uh, meaning Christians. Um, and we'd be talking a little bit about what that looks like as people are starting to pass rules against the Bible and things like that, even in other places. We'll talk about that in in a in a little while. But one of the things that we saw that recently was very heartbreaking was that um established Christian communities within Israel, Palestine slash um up into Lebanon have recently been destroyed by Israel's forces. And this is something that was heartbreaking. I saw demolition of it active, like the video of these Christian towns. Um, we're people that we follow what the scripture says, and in being those that pray for the peace in Jerusalem, we want every person from whatever background, Jew, Arab, uh, Gentile, for every single person to come to know Jesus Christ. And that's our heart for the people that are there in that region. But we have Christian communities, and man, they're being that mean they don't have any power, they're very small in number, and they're just they got eradicated. Like their physical location got literally leveled this last uh two weeks ago. And it was just heartbreaking to see. Have you had a chance to see any of that stuff, Angus?

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Uh, I I actually haven't. I've had to back away from the news for a little bit. Um, but with with that, you know, it is uh it goes to the things that we've talked about before where you know you don't see people attacking the you know the name of of Mohammed or the names and and uh Buddha and all these other religions, but it it is Christianity that they're coming after. And why is that? Because there is power there. Yep. You know, and so in these, uh, you know, we pray for the the people who are in these in these places, but understanding like but their position there is incredibly important, um, you know, when we think about uh the spiritual war that's just going on across the world, that you know, we need to be praying up, uh we need to be praying prayers that go beyond our front door, beyond our, you know, yep, our day for sure.

SPEAKER_06 31:27

And I I you know, one of the things that's been heartbreaking from this perspective, um, obviously we've experienced this as the church. Um, we we saw it in Sudan, we've seen it in a number of other places where they will steal and take away all the Christians' items, what they had, not this, uh well, obviously they're going through a civil war, not their previous administration, but prior to that, um, they would just go in and take everything. And that happened in Egypt in the past as well, where they took all the things from the Christians, they took their land, they took the everything they had opportunity for, they kind of forced them into one area. Um, and so that's all stuff that we've seen happen um just in in my lifetime. And so seeing this happen for these guys who've been there literally 2,000 years in this community with constant community of Christians that have been been in the holy land so from that time, from the time of Jesus forward, man, heartbreaking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Javen, what do you think, man? Yeah, I mean, I think with news like this and just every single day, it kind of it kind of is a reminder as to the global initiative that we have behind the church. Um, I think a lot of the mentality that's been kind of instituted within people throughout the 1900s was like the nationalistic approach of like pushing forward a church behind like a political drive almost, um, especially within America, but also uh within other places at large that are like communally identified behind their race tied in with their uh with their religion is like almost a cultural staple. Um, but I think with initiatives like this, we really are reminded that as Christ followers, eventually we're gonna see that it's not gonna matter what nation you're a part of, as long as there's a force spiritually attacking a church that is our enemy. And over time, we as a church are gonna have to unite within that front until Christ may tarry. And it is crazy to kind of think about that we are kind of seeing this unfold in real time as conflicts tend to escalate as things are like going closer and closer and closer towards a a war within that region of the world, that it just it makes you think a lot about kind of what your stance is and really how important um not only uniting behind a global Christian front is, but also like almost the insignificance behind things like politics that we see because ultimately that's not where any of our real value eternally lies.

SPEAKER_06 33:39

And so yeah, it's our connection to Jesus Christ. I agree. I think that's the hard part is that people will substitute their um their political affiliation for their religion, and they're more tied to that and more die hard for that than they are for Jesus. And shame on that, because I can I'm very very much have political, strong political opinions, having lived around the world and seen all sorts of systems, including our own, which I still think our own is broken. Pray for our for our country, America, and pray for these other countries, which are making these decisions that I don't align with. I align with our brothers and sisters in faith. That's with the ones that are in China, the ones that are in Iran, the ones that are there in Lebanon and Palestine and Israel and all the other places. We want them to be able to live in peace and to be those who are not having their places stolen from them. You could understand um attacking places that are going to attack you. That's Hezbollah, that's um, that's Hamas, and so rocketing those places, I totally understand if that's who's controlling that, but that's not who was controlling these areas. And so it makes me um my natural you go through the the series of you know of a mourning. So it's like you get mad, you know what I mean? You get heartbroken, you feel like, oh, I can't do anything about it, because from our side we can't, but we can in being people of prayer, yeah. And so we can make a difference in being those that align our hearts with the with the with Christians around the world. And we've seen to Javen's point, every every government is gonna try to fight anything else that has power. So they're gonna fight against the real power, which is in Jesus Christ. And there's gonna be motivation that's spiritually evil that's gonna do these things to Christ followers. So we stand with them and are praying for them that they would understand the peace of God. One of the people that we saw that's recently gave their life as a martyr for Christ um was Shabazz Bat Batat Bati, I think, is a Christian cabinet minister from Pakistan. He was someone who was public with his faith in Jesus, very much an anomaly in Pakistan, and he was actually assassinated in his car. Um, and they they were able to attack him, and he was they they said they shot him over 20 times, but he had recently given made a video about his faith and about his faith in Jesus and said, I'm not gonna waver from my faith in Jesus. And unfortunately, it cost him his life. But man, what a powerful thing to say and to stand up for. Javen, you get a chance to see this.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

Uh, I I did not, but in that same regard, I mean it it's back to the thing that we talked about with the Coptic martyrs in remembering that around a month ago now, right? Was that when people are that active and that consistent in staying true to their faith and are willing to take that to the grave, serving as a martyr is probably the most powerful, powerful declaration of your faith that you can make because dying for Christ is not only the greatest act of demonstration of love that you have not only for Christ and his work in your life, but also for the chance that other people get get to have, because he could have done a whole bunch of things in like raising up an army or like hiring a squad to protect him and things like that, or I don't know, like actively seeking out these people and executing them themselves, but he didn't because he understood that the cost of walking with Christ carries that. Um, but it's also one of the greatest privileges to be able to do that is to die for the name of Christ, because in doing so, you get to understand a little bit of what they went through in the past and in understanding the weight of what the name of Jesus carries and and the cross that he bears us or that he calls us to bear. So, I mean, it's every time I see a Christian martyr, not only does it remind me of how much more active and how much more intentional I need to be within my faith, but also as to what truly the cost of of bearing that name is.

SPEAKER_06 37:04

Amen. Amen. We've seen lots of people give their life for Jesus. We have some colleagues that this happened to them in stories in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, as we see with this brother, uh, different ones that we know that have given their life for Christ. We had a missionary couple that we know um connected to and that gave their lives for Christ. They were assassinated very much like this. The the father was attacked and killed uh in in Iraq. And so these are people that we are we're friends with, their friends. I mean, like we don't know them necessarily personally, but we know their friends that walked right through this where their friend, their good friend, lost their life for Jesus. And so we hold them in high regard. We know there are brothers and sisters in faith that are right now in prison uh for their faith in Jesus. And so we just want to pray for them today, for them for the church and for the for the people that are going through that, that they would have the joy of the Lord be their strength and that they would be strong in living for Jesus, and that they, as Javen pointed out, would live to the high calling of Christ in their life. You know, one of the other things that we've seen is um the Muslim Brotherhood, which are been identified as uh an they've been identified by many Muslim countries as actually being a terrorist organization. I know they were ousted from power in Egypt and other other places, but people that are aligning with their movement in the UK and the US are actually buying up uh churches and they're turning them into mosques, which we've seen this be a popular thing in Europe where a lot of the churches were empty, so they were selling them off to other people and they could only be used for religious reasons, so they were selling them to these places and they were doing that. But these guys are going on social media and not just as a place to worship, but they're like really ranting about that and making a big deal about taking over a church and really um saying this is the power of the Muslim Brotherhood, which I thought was a shame. It was a shame that they would allow this to happen by people that they say are are like a terrorist organization. It's like these aren't just normal person trying to worship, you know, something that we didn't we don't agree with, but they they're actually going the other way. They're like trying to talk about death to America, death to the West, etc. etc. So terrifying. Yeah, I guess we think.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

I think it's it's absolutely horrible that uh that it's allowed to be going on. But the the thing is, is um it's it's not an active war, it's it's kind of a cold, cold war, yeah. You know, yeah, kind of behind the scenes. It's you know, what we've seen in in communities and things around the world is this is exactly what uh the what the strategy is, is you have a lot of people come in and uh seem to assimilate and then they rise to power and then they change the rules to to match what they want, and then uh then they start working out uh what their Quran says, yeah, you know, which is eliminating other people. Yeah. And um, and so you know, it's uh it's something that I think all of the countries need to be aware of, you know, in your own communities, and as you see it, um, you know, the only way things will happen is if everyone starts getting involved. You know, uh, I mean, somebody has to stand up at some point and say something. Yeah. Um, and so uh I hope that over there uh somebody does say something. And um, you know, because when when these Muslim uh communities um form, uh they're it can go south pretty quick in some of the stories that we've heard.

SPEAKER_06 40:27

Yeah, and we have friends that are Muslim and believe all sorts of other things that we don't we don't agree with those things, but we're still friends with them. We value them, they're great people, wonderful people. We pray that they would accept Jesus in the way that we have as well. Um, but we we hold that tension between ourselves that they we don't agree, but that's okay. We live in peace with each other. Um, it's not these people with that mindset I'm talking about. These are people that are very radicalized, that have a very much uh you know a thought process to for destruction, very much in alignment with other things we've seen in the past. So it is kind of a heartbreak. Javen, any take on that, on the thinking about the churches being taken over?

SPEAKER_02 40:58

I mean, yeah, I mean like Muslim immigrants themselves are are obviously not inherently a problem whatsoever. But once you see people kind of starting to understand where the roots of of Islam stem, and once you get a whole kind of political backing, but also radicalized institution like the Muslim Brotherhood that stems from people in the Middle East saying that we need to make a claim of what's happening within the Quran and understand that the call to kill the infidels or anybody that opposes what Allah has in the plan that He has is fundamentally what they're supporting. And I think over time, understanding that the more that you let people like that that sympathize into your country, the more problems that you're gonna have. So I think ultimately politically within the West, in both the UK, Europe, and the US, and Canada as well, we're also gonna we're gonna start to see that there's gonna be a necessity for all of the states to take a position on anybody that has sympathy for groups like this actively should become an enemy of the state because what they're fundamentally supporting is a killing of the people at large, exactly other than themselves. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 42:05

And so much so the UAE and other places have actually outlawed these groups from their exact Muslim countries. Exactly. That people go to Moscow on Friday and they pray and all the other things, but they don't have this attitude to kill other people. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

But it's because people feel like once they're given the freedom to do that, and because they have some sort of racial or cultural identification with them, then them supporting that isn't a big deal, even though fundamentally it's it's anti or freedoms of our country. Yeah, what exactly of any country, exactly? Yeah, exactly. So it's just, I mean, it's it's tragic. And I think the more that this becomes a problem in the future, the more issues we're gonna have politically with all of it. But uh, I mean, as for now, it's just a a reminder as to the importance that we need to address this issue. That's it.

SPEAKER_06 42:47

You know, one of the things we've been talking about is about how the proliferation of fake news and news that's kind of up in the air and accusatory, it makes you maybe crazy. And that's why Angus was saying he took a break from it because you're like, man, it can become overwhelming. Um, you know, everything's changing every minute, and you could be stressed out of your mind if you hold on to it too long. Uh Relevant Magazine, which has been a long staple of the Christian community in the culture in the States. Uh, they were talking about how fake news is actually sending people back to the scripture, and they were giving it a tie that people are actually looking to the scripture because they're so fed up of all this digital news, which changes all the time, and your scripture doesn't change. You buy a Bible, a paper Bible, it's the word of God. And so they were saying that they actually reported 19 million Bibles sold in 2025, which is one of the highest levels that we've ever been recorded in recent in recent years, which I thought was pretty powerful. Means that people are actively looking, specifically the younger generation, at the scripture, which ties back to Javen, what you were sharing sharing about before, where they're trying to figure out the stuff and try to navigate what they believe.

SPEAKER_02 43:43

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, uh it's awesome that we kind of see this resurgent, and I think that especially now with kind of all that's going on in the world, and there's a whole lot to unravel there, that w kind of exactly what you're talking about with the constancy and the consistency that we see. Stitched throughout the Word of God, people are turning to that and really understanding that the reasons why things are happening in the world is directly outlined within scripture. And the more that people understand that and that people can really get behind that concept, they start to see the legitimacy of why the church has existed for so long and why source documents have been preserved this long and the word of God and the lineage of God extends back all the way to the beginning of human existence. So it's just incredible that this is happening. And I'm glad that in an era where everything seems to be so like not claim-based, but science-based and like database and data backed, a lot of that's being challenged because not all of it's legitimate and not all of it comes from sources that are reliable, and everything's kind of being checked and checked and checked. And then over time, people just see the consistency of the word of God, see what's happening now, and realize, oh wait, these two directly correlate. And then so it's awesome that that's happening. Yeah, it's powerful. Yeah, it's powerful to see people, more people reading the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Well, for me, because I needed, you know, just with with all the things going on in my life, I needed to step back from it. And so um, there was one day in particular where I was just really wound up, and uh and I was I went to go put on some Christian music and I was like, you know what, that's not even doing it. Uh so I I actually just went to the book of Psalms and just had that start reading in the background. And I'll tell you that uh just as an encouragement to anybody who's discouraged by all the stuff that you're seeing in the news, uh, for you or if you want to uh allow the Lord to help you walk through this, I would recommend Psalms and Proverbs, as you know, just because it there's so much wisdom in there, yeah. And we can see how unwise people are being out there in the world, so you can recognize it. Uh, but those two have been uh, you know, if you're gonna replace uh with something, uh if you're gonna replace the news with something, I that's what I've been doing.

SPEAKER_06 45:53

Let it just read aloud, pray over you. Powerful, man. There is something about that. I know, like, you know, that's the approach that when we lived in the Middle East, that's an approach that lots of places that were um aligned in faith with with Islam, they would be playing, you know, the Hajj all the time on the TV. So you walk into a place and that's what's playing on them. All the TVs, that's what they played. And so why? Because there's a power to that, you know what I mean? And so us playing to your point, worship music or even the scripture, praying it out, playing it over, powerful. So something to it for sure. Yep. Hey, one of the things that we're talking about is creativity, it's one of the C's, and I'll give you a little caveat here that some of these things we're talking about um are a little bit tinfoil hat, they're a little bit with the conspiracy things here in the beginning. Uh, NASA's Artemis 2, we just were talking about that and the powerful message that one of the astronauts gave uh as it's flying around the planet, but they've been showing video of the outside of the craft and the inside of the craft, and so people are taking all those things and picking it apart. And is this real? Is it not real? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Um, and one of the things that they're seeing is that that the outside cameras of the aircraft are showing all these UAPs, these unidentified aerial phenomena that are like like orbs or whatever flying up close to the aircraft flying away, which makes no sense from like our perspective, like of what this stuff would be. Like, why would there be lights out there? Why is there gonna be anything that's moving around? So very interesting. I saw the videos myself. Could it be doctored? Of course. In the U in the age of Sora, even though they're taking it down, anything could be made. But you know, it's a very interesting take for sure. Jamie, what do you think, man? Interesting UAPs, the outside video.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

I mean, this is this stuff is all crazy because I've seen recently like a resurgence within the topic about like the word NASA itself, they think has Hebrew origins with uh it which stems from the word to deceive. So they think that like everything that they've talked about, like from the moon landing all the way back in like 1960, when I think 68, whenever it was, um, all the way to like now, and our understanding of the universe as it's taught is all like fake to some degree, or is all like kind of out of whack and hiding something. Yeah, exactly. So with all these kind of UAPs coming over, and obviously, like some of it could could be in theory like lens flare or just like camera issues that are happening, of course. But I mean, we understand that there is a very real presence of like demonic entities and things like that, and that being out of the realm of possibility with some of the most high-performing individuals in the world who are directly connected to the biggest operating understanding tied to the biggest government in the world that has the most influence in the world and make all the sense for why there'd be direct contact between like a spiritual entity and somebody that has that extensive knowledge or that platform to give to other people. So, I mean, I'm not exactly fully sold on the whole idea, but it is interesting to think about for sure.

SPEAKER_06 48:41

Yeah, and I think that's where we're talking about it today, is just more of like a oh, hey, this is out there, we're aware of it. Let's talk about it from a Christ perspective about like how that works. Angus, you've seen these kind of things that they would talk about. Did you see this recent one?

SPEAKER_01 48:52

Uh yeah, I uh I also just kind of uh I'm on the fence about NASA. Uh just I'll put that out there just in general. And um, but uh but with this, you know, if if they're seeing UAPs and all of that, I firmly believe from everything that I've heard um from from other various sources and other types of media that when when you see see or hear alien, you should think demon. Demon, yeah, yeah, spiritual entity. Yeah, and and because or spiritual, yeah, yeah, spirituality. Yeah, fallen fallen entity, yeah, that's right. Uh because they you know they have no problem with deceiving, they they can they can lie in whatever way they want. And so uh you can name an orange something else, but it's still orange. Right, sure. Yeah, and and so I think that that's that's the the whole thing with this is whether NASA's real or fake and whether they're seeing these or not, um there there is real spiritual implications to it.

SPEAKER_06 49:55

Yeah, no, I know exactly. Um I you know, obviously as a kid I loved space. I thought it was amazing. I was one of the things I wanted to be in life was an astronaut. I thought it was crazy and cool and amazing. Um, you know, uh all the people that we've seen, their trajectory of what they've done, you know, maybe a wrong terminology when you talk about NASA, but um all the people that have got it connected to it because it's like the apex of people doing things and then now kind of shifted over to SpaceX and kind of back and forth with the you know, the jet propulsion labs and all the other things that are connected to that, it is very insightful. Obviously, there would be a reason if you're going to try to trick people, this would be a way to trick people. Um, but at the same time, I think even if us like doing it on the face, if everything is real, real, real, and even if the video is real, I agree. I think it's spiritual entity of things that are happening that are interfacing with us. So one of the things that we recently came across was ex-Congressman Matt Gates. He's talking about how he was briefed by the government that the government is breeding humans with aliens. So keep your tinfold hats on, kids. We got to talk through this one. But uh, a very interesting thing. Uh saw him talk about it on a podcast. I saw him talking about it with other people. A very strong position to take as someone who is a congressman.

SPEAKER_02 51:09

What do you think, J Vow? Yeah, I mean, this is like kind of just reaffirmation that they essentially have a Nephilim breeding ground, which I think is kind of crazy. Um and it also does give more correlation, kind of the what we just talked about with NASA, where like the understanding that we would have is that fallen angels came down and mated with humans within that sense to produce the Nephilim, or or mythologically, what has been talked about as like superhumans or almost like a demi-god. Yeah, exactly, like a third of god, whatever people like Gilgamesh or like Hercules, stuff like that. Um, but yeah, it it is interesting. It makes you think like, are are they using this almost for like government secret weapon purposes? Are they hoping to breed like these giant humans that they just have in their arsenal? This is where they got Cooper Flood. And like, yeah, this is how he's putting us 50 points as a team. Where do you keep these people to? I don't know. Do you just have them walk about, do whatever? Shout out that guy, I don't think he's really that. Yeah, no. Cooper's awesome. Yeah, man. I don't know. This is this also kind of ties into uh uh what's the name of the people that made that reactor stir or is it CERN? Yeah, about how they had like contact with some other life and everybody just kind of like swoop past that. They're just like, oh yeah, well, at least we didn't explode. And everybody was like, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

SPEAKER_06 52:23

What did you just say? Yeah, hey, how come this whole thing, when we open this thing, how come you did a massive ceremony to like the goddess of death? What's that about? Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 52:31

So I don't know. I think we turn to it on there is all correlation on some level with like somebody being tied into this and that and that. Um, and it's just all coming out now, so it's pretty, pretty wild. I I mean I agree.

SPEAKER_06 52:44

I think from a Christian perspective, uh, you know, we have a creative God. So could there be other other beings and other things in other places? Of course. There's no limit on what God can do. He could do whatever he wants. However, we've never even seen that through scripture, we've never seen a validity. Our the narrative we understand from scripture would be that there are these other the spiritual beings that have come and interacted with us. And so I think that same narrative is the same narrative, is the same narrative. Like you said, if it's an orange, it's an orange. Yeah. I don't care if we call it, you know, something else. So to that end, I think that that's exactly what that, you know, obviously governments, probably not just ours, but lots of governments are interacting with these spiritual entities and having more of that, more of that interaction, probably under the guise of it being other other things. So that's a very interesting thing. It's also kind of kind of makes my head hurt because I'm like, if this is the case and if we're really doing this stuff, then why haven't our spacecraft got better? How come we haven't, you know what I'm saying? Like, why how come we haven't like cloned what they're doing and done it better? And and so there's an argument with that. Kind of, and that's me as a kid growing up with all the black women in black movies.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:46

So that's where it starts to make me think. Um, not that everyone on every corner is a an alien or and from our perspective a a half demon person, but you get what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 53:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:57

So what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 53:58

Well, so what I think coming from theater, you know, is a theater background when when the lights on and and everybody's looking over here, I like to look over here to see what's going on. Um, just because it's always interesting to see what it was not meant to be seen or and things like that. And I think that that's very much here. You've got all of you know, NASA saying, look up here, look up here, look up here. Yeah. While meanwhile, we're breeding down here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh and it I'm not saying that those two things are connected in any way, but what what it does say in the word is that as in the days of Noah, so and so what what we know is they were messing around with the with um interbreeding and and all that stuff. So to um to not think that to some degree that it's going on as we we hear about aliens breeding with humans. Again, if you hear alien, I think demon. But um, you know, it I th again to your point, what are they gonna do with it? Yeah. Um, you know, maybe they're they're just getting ready to they're gonna have the first seven so that each one of them gets a continent, or you know, who Who knows? Yeah, the enemy has a plan.

SPEAKER_06 55:10

Yeah, the enemy has a plan. There's there's no doubt about that. The enemy has a plan.

SPEAKER_01 55:13

But what we know is we win.

SPEAKER_06 55:16

Amen. We're victorious in Jesus Christ, so we don't need to worry about that from a fear perspective in the end of everything. That's very, very true. And I think to that end, that's why we can take a breath and be like, okay, this stuff, yeah, it might exist in the world. It's not having a direct impact on me and my life and what I'm doing through today, how I'm gonna care for my kids, what I'm gonna do at work, etc. But it is gonna be something that I'm aware of and be someone that's like, okay, I understand that there's some plot of the enemy that's out there. We're just gonna pray for for the Lord to help us be those that navigate well.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

And pray that the the plots will be foiled.

SPEAKER_06 55:48

Exactly right. Exactly. All right, ten foil hats off. We're talking about uh the Oxford uh there was a talk that was given at Oxford by professor of law Daniel Markovitz. He's from Yale, he's an American. He was talking to Oxford about them and about the people that attend their university. Very interesting. He said, listen, where I come from, you can actually have a legacy program to buy your way in. Meaning, if if you were if I was a billionaire, I could pay for Javen to go to Yale by me buying a building, and therefore he gets a spot to go to Yale. And so I I make I buy my way into the process. But Oxford doesn't have that, it's all based on merit. So you have to test your way in and score your way into something like Oxford. But he said that 80% of their students are from an economically privileged merit system, with over 40% of them having been privately educated versus the country where only 7% is educated privately. So he's saying a private education actually gives them advantage, and that these guys are from an economically privileged air situation. He's like, why is that? Is it because your richness allows you to have something? No. Does it mean because you're richer, smarter? Not necessarily. What he says is that per perfect practice makes perfect. So the idea is that people have seen their their children as something to be invested in that will have longevity of return. And so they have invested heavily into their education, heavily into um you know, systems of protection around them, et cetera, et cetera. And that's why these these set of groups of students have excelled so very well. That's why these that that 80% of of Oxford students are from rich families. We probably say higher percentage actually at Yale, but you see it from that perspective. Very interesting, isn't it? That is Javen, you just got you just got walked into that whole process about application and stuff. What do you what's your take?

SPEAKER_02 57:32

I mean, I think it's all still direct correlation, like whether or not you get in because daddy bought you a building is what they say all the time, right? Or whether or not you actually got in based off of merit, it's all gonna be mostly people that are like their parents make 400k or more, and especially within the UK, because they're like there, there are some rich folks out there. Sure. And Oxford has such like a crazy history as a university of like being that prestigious of an academic institution. For royals, yeah, exactly. But there's obviously gonna be uh a whole set of people within the UK that are basically just priming their kids to go to that university and then just go to like the best law firms, the best medical schools, the best whatever after they're done. Right. So, within that sense, it's like it obviously the people that are the richest are gonna set their kids up in systems that are gonna make sure that they carry on that legacy as well. But it's also because generally people that are at that level will institute their kids with the understanding and knowledge of what it takes to operate at that level, which is something that people that are like middle class to lower class will not understand, even if they have the same capabilities and understandings and like moldability as somebody else, they still won't have that that level of like firsthand experience with being around that set of people and therefore won't be the best equipped to like lead in the future, which is why Oxford would rather take or and so does often take the richer kid rather than the poor.

SPEAKER_06 58:56

Well, and I think because you know, I mean, they're saying that there's still 20% of people that are merit that don't come from wealth, but that's going to be a much smaller percentage than the larger percentage of those who come from parents that are being intentional. And I think perfect practice really ties to intentionality because you can go to practice but not give any any of your effort and it's not really valuable to you because you're not practicing at the level of which you want to excel. And that's why he's talking about perfect practice makes a difference in the way that you build their structure and build their life and give intentionality. If there are people that can do that when they're when they're students on the way up, they're gonna be the people that make it into a place like Oxford, which is like where the royals have gone and other people like that. So it's a big deal because who you who you rub shoulders with is a is an indicator of who you're gonna be connected to in business, relationship, all those things, commonality. That's why people do fraternities, sororities now, because the there's a statistic that talks about how they'll make 25% more than a person who was not part of the Greek fraternities because it's your connections, it's all connections and not about what you know, it's about who you know. Yeah, yeah. And so I think it has everything to do with this as well. Is that, oh yeah, no, our art we all run different businesses. Okay, great. Yeah, but we all went to Oxford together. Yeah, yeah. That you know, oh, you're a doctor, you're a lawyer, I'm a politician. Great. We own these other things, we run these businesses, but collectively we're commonality there, so our kids are gonna know each other that way.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:14

So all the different pieces get tied together. So it just shows you like about intentionality. So to parents out there, myself included, we want to be those that help our kids, guide our kids, give them guardrails and steps to get to where they need to go, and understand that if we can give them opportunity, it's still on them to make the decision, but we can give them an opportunity uh that will help set up them up for the rest of their life. And that's my heart for my kids, for my son, for my daughter, so that they would be those that have every opportunity to make that decision to excel in life. So praise the Lord. Some of the things we've been talking about with AI models and creativity has been interesting, is the shift is happening right now, guys. All these big, expensive, important jobs where they're getting paid these hundreds of thousands of dollars are getting wiped off the map. Recently, Oracle laid off 30,000 people with an email. Yeah, brutal. We had people that have worked there 20 years. I saw I read through a bunch of comments, a bunch of threads on this. Man, people that have been super loyal to them, like very important projects, including the project that replaced them with the AI side. And so we'll see what happens with that. I know Salesforce did this and they gutted their people last year. It's come back to bite them because a lot of their people they were trying to replace all their all their forward-facing stuff with AI, and it did not work. And so they were losing all sorts of clients over it. And so the very thing that enabled them to be really high efficiency is actually they thought was gonna be more efficient with AI, and it's not. So it'd be interesting to see. Oracle's a different operating system, it's a different place. So it'll see what happens with that. Similarly, Facebook also laid up, laid off up to 20% of their their sales force. They have like 80,000 people that work for them, something like that, 79,000. And so they they laid off 20% of their people connected to the metaverse that we talked about before, connected to some of these things that they replaced with AI. So some of it's monitoring, some of its other stuff of their platform. So very, very insightful that we're not gonna be able to talk to a person in the future about social at all. No, just gonna be whether or not we can get on the right side of the algorithm.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:18

JV, what do you think, man? Uh, it's it's kind of wild. We were talking about this the other day about like what jobs will probably get laid off within like a 10-year span. And it's interesting because I I wouldn't expect them to take these front office jobs like immediately. I would expect most of like the operative side to be replaced because I think that could be automated a lot easier if you implement AI systems in that way, versus like there's something about the interaction that people have with a human versus like an AI, um, where it's like people will always prefer talking to the human than they will the AI most of the time, as long as they don't come off as rude or anything like that. But especially within like a business context where everything's like garnered on trust, then I think I feel like that's like a really important thing. So for them to take all these front office people is really interesting, but it's also it also raises a question as to the point where do these companies think that they have AI models strong enough to emulate a human perfectly within that within that system? Yeah, and that's a good question because if it's just like cold call people or it's just people doing deals over the phone and things like that, and you get an AI model that can like replicate that voice and replicate like the intonation, the way that they structure their calls, uh, almost down to a T. Right. And it's kind of crazy because you don't know if you're talking to an AI anymore, which would be pretty wild. So if they are that confident, I think it also says a lot more about how quickly AI is advancing. So that's true.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:39

You know, we saw the middle step. We talked about it, how they took they took those kind of jobs where it'll be a call center in the US, they moved that overseas, they're having difficulty understanding them with their with maybe their accent or something like that in a place like India or or in Sri Lanka, Pakistan. And so they actually moved those jobs to the Philippines where they had a stronger English with a less of a accent, but they were kind of moving those jobs there now. To your point, they're moving them to AI and eliminating those people altogether, which is a really interesting thing. Angus, you have you interacted with the AI online? Have you talked to these things?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:08

Uh I don't I uh I have done a couple of prompts, but um just messing around. Um, but the uh people should get ready for the layoffs because I mean they're more of them are coming. Um and I I really do see AI replacing a lot more uh people's jobs and things than uh than ex uh than I think we are are expecting. Um one of the things I saw uh I can't remember which service it is, but they are they're having you film yourself doing dishes and and DoorDash. DoorDash, yeah. Uh you know, the filming you doing chores so that they can then train robots to do it. Absolutely. So I mean there's the you're not even gonna have a job to be able to clean somebody's house.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:56

Yeah, it's it's gonna be a tricky one for sure. That's that's right. Um, there are more of these things that are advancing, and so I just want to bring awareness to people. It's like, hey, be pay attention to these things that where your job is headed. If you can be replaced by an AI or a robot, you might want to retool now before it's too late and cross-train into something else. Um, yeah, very, very valid point. Yeah, hey, one of the things that we saw was they've been talking about this for a couple years, but Ryanair uh has said that you know they believe that if people will stand on a bus for an hour, they'd be willing to stand on a plane for an hour. And so a lot of their flights within the U, they're out of Ireland and out of the UK. Um, a lot of their flights are very, very short because Europe's pretty compact. And so they now have planes which are stand-up planes, which I think they're gonna be rolling out. Do you see this? Good.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:41

I have.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:42

It's so wild, but they're charging like nine pounds. I mean, like you know, 10, 12 euros. I mean, that's nothing to fly somewhere.

unknown 1:05:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:50

Yeah. As somebody who loves to travel, um, and I'm, you know, I fit places. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh You know, for me because uh you know, the the it doesn't really matter the size of the tube I'm standing in, uh it would be funny standing next to you if we fought flew somewhere. Um but I think uh you know, I think for those people who like to just get up and move, it's you know, if it's a cheaper flight, give it to me. Uh but I would I would travel more uh because I could afford it. Yeah, I don't mind standing.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:23

He uh he was also famous for saying this a couple years ago that they want to take out they want to take out the bathroom in the back. Like they want to take that out and only have one bathroom on the plane, because he said, Yeah, I'm gonna I can put two more rows back there. And he's like, that's six more people flying. He's like, Yeah, you go to bathroom at the other plot, which is crazy, dude. I'm like, dude, you're gonna have clean up on all the aisles, bro. Disaster.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:45

At which point are they start just putting out sawdust underneath these seats of this plane?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:51

Jamie, you traveled a little bit of the world, man. What do you think about standing up on a plane, man? I mean, it's a good idea. I just think it's really funny how Ryan Eyer are the first people to do this because they have like a reputation for having like the worst landings possible. And I'm just thinking, if you're not ready for it and you're not ready to like hit the ground, dude, people that are standing would just go flying to the back of the plane, or you see them like stumble into the aisle.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:12

The seat is a little different, so it's not standing. You you still have like a thing you're leaning against, and it has kind of a saddle, so you're kind of sit standing. So okay. It's yeah, but to your point, that's a way different thing sitting down and hitting a bump than sitting standing and then getting this in your in your nether region.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:28

If if I'm not mistaken though, I think that during the landing they just pop your feet out like the Flintstones, and you get to help them slow it down. That's hilarious. Which for those who don't know the Flintstones, look it up, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:39

You'll understand.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:39

That's how they ran their car was by their feet. That's awesome. That's very funny.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:43

Well, if it's Ryanair that's doing it, you know that you know EasyJet's not too far behind them, and that means Spirit Airlines in America is gonna be running it too. We live out here in the west part of Phoenix. Uh, we have Goodyear airports right by us, and so they have all these Spirit Airlines planes are sitting parked out here. So I was driving by it like two days ago, and it's like a hundred Spirit Airline planes out here, and I'm like, oh dude, they're just gonna revab those bad boys with these standing seats and send them back out. Yeah. So be interesting to see. So we'll see if that comes about in the in the near future. Um, here's the thing I think they're gonna keep it for a cheap price at first, and then it's gonna be a normal price ticket, just like normal. And I um I think we're gonna be not too far off from where you walk over, they give you X amount of pounds that you can have on the plane, meaning you and your suitcases. So it's gonna be like, oh, for 200 pounds, this is how much the ticket is. For 300 pounds, it's this much. And so you walk over, you sit down with your suitcase, yeah. You're gonna you could be able to travel wherever Angus is on there for 50 bucks. I'm paying like 400.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:41

Riding my own suitcase.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:44

Uh, but I think that's coming. You know what I mean? I think they're gonna you're gonna walk in, sit on a pressure plate, and set your bags down with you, and that's gonna be part of your deal. Pretty wild. Um, okay, uh, last little bits here. Um, as we shift. Uh California is requiring AI to generate AI generated content to be clearly labeled. They're trying to do this to fight deepfakes, especially in Hollywood and all the the pieces that are around there. They are they were very anti-Sora, but you guys remember Sora was making all the really dope videos of all these, like, you know, this IP that belonged to all Hollywood, you know, putting all these characters together and fighting each other was super cool. But they are trying to fight it left, right, and center. So they're trying to put like clearly labeled, not just at the end of the video, is Sora with the watermark, but the whole time. What do you guys think about that? You've been tricked by Deep Fix pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:31

Oh, I'm sure I've been tricked by them for sure. I just don't know it. Yeah, that's a good point. But um, I I think that it's good to be, you know, to have some some level of uh control somewhere around AI. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:46

Yeah. I'm not I'm not a huge fan of it being Newsom that introduces it. Correct. Uh you know, shout out California and all my California friends, which I have a ton because I went to school there, uh, for university. But yeah, dude, um, not a huge fan of the governance. So maybe need some uh help in that regard, but what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:03

California does know about all these things in our products that cause cancer that Arizona has no concept of in the rest of the country. So that's right. I guess that's true as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:16

Thoughts? Oh I I mean, this is just gonna, I feel like this is naturally where it's gonna progress. Um, and there's just that AI itself, because of the way that law is gonna work around it, it's gonna be very tricky. I think slowly we're gonna see systems implemented to where there's like a required tagging. What that looks like might vary depending on whether it's like a video or whether it's like an image or something, but I think it'll probably still look more like a watermark, but it's like required where it's like, oh, it has to show up like for this amount of time and it has to be like very clear. It can't be like transparent or like hidden in the background of a video or something. Um, but I I don't know. I think the reason why they're doing it is because they want to keep like the rights of a person and like what they can do safe, which I totally respect because I think within that regard, people obviously want to see authentic media for like films and TV shows and things like that. But to some degree, I mean it is kind of funny what you can do with with AI. So I I think like as far as internet videos and things like that, there's really no harm in like maybe removing the watermark, and then over time people will get better at it. But at the same time, AI has been getting really good at like making videos that look real. Like you've sent me some stuff a few times, it's like, oh yeah, check this out. And mom's done the exact same thing, and I'm like, you realize this is AI, right?

SPEAKER_06 1:11:33

Yeah, and some of it is AI, but it's like, oh, this is a crazy video.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:36

I know, but but sometimes you don't recognize it, and I'm like, oh, oh shoot. And I'm like, I'd be interested if there wasn't one that didn't. Honestly, but for me too, I've also done this, is like some videos will look like or it'll be like the way an animal's moving or something like that. Right, right. And you'll you'll think it's real at first, and then people in the comments are like AI slot, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you're like, oh shoot. I guess I didn't realize that. Maybe you're like thrown off your game, but yeah. So we'll we'll see. League legality for AI is gonna be like a huge thing within the next few years. So that's true.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:03

The unfortunate part is gonna be AI lawyers that are writing their scripts. So let's see what happens with all that jokes.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:08

Well, even with that, though, um, you know, there's um I sorry, two thoughts one time. Uh, I saw a guy who uh he had gotten fined by OSHA because of the stuff he was posting on Instagram. So uh he was doing some showing some work and things like that. And so that this lawyer was saying uh she was talking about AI and and this kind of thing that like you have to be aware of what you're posting because OSHA will go after you. So they watched a video of him where he wasn't he wasn't secured and up top, and so that opened an investigation where they just started watching his channel and things like that. And he got fined a couple hundred thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:50

Oh that's rough, man. Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:54

Um but then with these with these, um so that was this the first thought. The second thought is you know, it's kind of like with any law though, right? Only the lawbiders follow those. For sure. So I mean, we get the the things, so you have to watermark it or whatever, but the people who have bad intentions who are trying to subvert and do those things, they're not gonna necessarily follow it. So at the end of the day, what difference does it make? Do you just know what's a little more true or what's definitely not? I I mean it's it's one of those things that it's only as good as the paper it's written on, really.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:32

Yeah, that's a good point. It's a very good point. Uh, you know, spending a gajillion dollars, like you just said, for a fine like that. Uh, we recently saw that Uber paid $1.25 billion for 50,000 robo taxis from Rivian. So that's like a big deal. Rivian has a local place here that they're connected and making it in in uh in in Arizona, in greater in kind of the adjacent greater Phoenix area. Um so that's a big shot in the arm to those people working down there. Um, but man, what a big deal. I mean, they're really trying to get rid of drivers altogether. That's Uber, who lots of people drive Uber. Um, I know you've even driven Uber.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:06

Did it for a very short season?

SPEAKER_06 1:14:07

And so it's like you can imagine it's like, man, all these jobs that people rely on gone as they roll these robotaxis out. We already talked about how uh the new version of some of this like Zooks is coming out. We obviously already have Waymo in Arizona, and so we have these things already happening. Looks like Rivian's gonna be rolling out their new stuff with Uber. And so whenever you go pull up your Uber Black, it might be a Rivian truck that has no driver, and you just get in and roll. So very, very, very interesting. Um, most of the sales of like humanoid robots still have not really peaked at all in the states. I mean, very limited availability with anything in the states, but there's already been uh I think five to six thousand per brand of humanoid robots that's been sold in China, so they're starting to hit hit the hit the streets, hit people's houses, and do the things, man. So very, very interesting. And we have a special guest with us, Gage Lee. What's up? Hey, we want to jump back in with Gage and kind of jump back into this conversation, uh, talking about Easter and about the community events that happened at Easter. Gage, what was it like for you for this Easter? What was it like for you and your family?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:09

Oh, it was so encouraging, dude. It was I really appreciated the time that we had to reflect throughout the week, and there was there was a lot more intentionality this year in taking time and looking back on the sacrifice, what played out throughout the week. And it was so funny. I mean, even whenever we were talking, uh, I was having a conversation with somebody at work, and it was about um when Judas sold the you know, the location, or you know, basically sold out Christ for 30 pieces of silver, right? And him and I were having a conversation about it, and then I went to get into my word around lunchtime, and I was like, wait, that happened. Like today's the day where that would have happened, like in my reflections. It was crazy the way it all kind of played out, but it was it was awesome, man. It was such a great time for me and my family to be intentional about these things. Um, we went over to some neighbors' houses after uh Easter Sunday at church. Cool, got to hang out, barbecued for some people. Nice, yeah. It was a whole lot of fun, man. What'd you make? Uh just burgers. Nice burgers, and then some of the other neighbors made like cheese bacon wrapped asparagus with like melted mozzarella on top. Yeah, that was crazy. That was crazy. I made like a homemade dill pickle dip. Um, a handful of other small things were there, but it was it was a hoot. It was a hoot. The kids, so many kids, and they're all running around together in one house, which was big enough for everybody. That's cool. Yeah, it was it was a riot.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:36

That's fun, man. I love that. That's a really fun day for after Easter.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:40

Yeah, and then it was great too because we got to be home by like 3 30, 4 30. Oh, yeah. And then like the kids wanted to go outside and play at the park right next to our house. So like all the kids were outside playing, and me and my wife are like hanging out, laying in our massage bed, like doing nothing while the baby takes a nap. It was great. That sounds great. It was great. It sounds anointed. It was an anointed Sabbath.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:02

What was that? What was your perspective? We got a chance to talk about it. What was your perspective on Good Friday, like the event that we had here at the church?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:09

Um, Good Friday was really uh it was another one of those things where it was so intentional in the time of reflection that I went through each of the stations and really tried to position my heart posture to where I could receive what it was that the spirit wanted to do in me in that place, uh, in that perspective of reflection. And it there was a lot of shifts that happened that night. Really? Yeah, like going in excited to see people, and then like grieving, you know, like really grieving the things that had happened, and then like I had to battle this place of anger, knowing what was happening, you know, what happened to Christ at that time. And then like thinking like like Simon Peter, right, where he's like ready to chop off ears and just start lobbing people up for Christ. And then I'm thinking, like, Lord forgive me. Right, you sat on that cross broken and torn to pieces, and you cried out to the Father begging forgiveness for these people because they didn't know what they were doing. I know what they were doing and who you are, and I still want to hurt them, and that's not right. And so, like, I it was it was a roller coaster of emotions as I'm sitting there trying to like really understand what the spirit wants to do in me and and the changes he wants to make in my heart and in my spirit and in my life, and then just trying to put myself in a position to receive that. It was a roller coaster.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:40

It's really good, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:41

It was an amazing experience, man. I'm so grateful that you guys put that on the way that you did. It was beautiful.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:47

I'm glad you're a part of it. It was amazing. You know, your wife was part of uh singing and doing that stuff too. Um, I was sharing with um with a friend, uh, just saying, you know, we uh kind of in the middle of it, we had to shift gears, and and all the team was very cool about it. Jeremy and and uh Joel and the team on tech, which were running all this stuff behind the scenes, and obviously Heidi with worship and and your wife and the team that was up there. But I want to give them an opportunity to participate. And we had not scheduled that in, which was m was a fault of mine. And so I kind of made an audible and was like, hey, I want you to go and do the stations for 10 minutes and have a chance to go participate, because otherwise they would just sing for an hour. And it was huge. I mean, we just played a pad and just had them go and do the thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:29

That was such a blessing.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:30

I was so they were all like very excited that they got to be a part of it, and I didn't really think about that because they're pr they're prepping beforehand, they're doing practice and all this other stuff. So as we're setting up everything, even though it was ready before they got there, that's not what they're doing. It's not really open. And so for them to be able to participate was huge.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:45

It really was because I got to do I got to take communion, just me and my wife.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:50

Like we broke down crying, just weeping, uh praying over this communion with each other in this place, in this, in this setting, in this this uh this heart posture, and it it was so amazing that we got the chance to do that. So thank you for throwing that audible.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:05

No, man, I was great. I was gonna say, yeah, with the team, man, they were very flexible. We repeated a song and did some other stuff and went out with, you know, it's Friday, but Sunday's coming. Sun Sunday's coming. Exactly. So it's powerful. I was gonna say, Angus, I really appreciated you, man, running the um running the station with the water. We were talking a little bit about it before, but um what do you think was was as the person doing that for other people? How did that feel?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:28

I I love uh this is the second or third time that I've I've gotten to run the water station and we'll we'll switch out. So I switched out with Serena. Um and all we're doing is pouring just a little bit of water over somebody's hands. Um, but when when I do that, I pray uh just kind of as a spirit leads, but just a general prayer that you know the Lord would strengthen these hands. And man, it's it's really powerful when you see a really small set of hands come in that can barely reach over the bowl and you know, I don't care, we'll get the table wet, it's not a problem, you know. But praying over the future of those hands, you know, is uh it's an opportunity. Um, and so that's why I really like it because it's an opportunity that um as as people are there uh uh wanting to receive, you know, I just I pray a blessing over their hands because they touch so many things. That's okay, you know, and so just that they would they would be strong and that what they touch uh would be fruitful and would multiply. And that's that's really you know, praying that over your friends, over your family, over your pastor, over everybody. It's it's very powerful. You know, and especially when they already walk up crying and they don't expect to be prayed for, and then you just you pray for them and they break down even more and you get to be a part of that. That's great.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:51

Nah, I was it was powerful. Watching you pray for people was powerful. Um I I subbed out with you because you were like in the station and your wife came off stage because she was singing too, and then you guys were able to do that, so I kind of jumped in and switched spots with you. And I did the same. You guys had your hands together, which was really cool, man. And I kind of put my hand underneath you guys and it was kind of pouring. And I was like, man, this is just something special about this.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:12

You know, and that's that's one of the things that as husbands and wives came up and were willing to, I I would try and do that and wash their hands together um and and pray a blessing over them as a couple.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:23

Yeah, you know, that was an amazing moment, man. I I was very moved by it. I thought it was really powerful, and and then obviously you poured over my hands, and I was very thankful for that. Um huge moment.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:33

Yeah, I always end up crying when I do it. It's great.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:36

Yeah, yeah. I thought it was great. Uh you know, the other one that moved me a lot was um we did a newer one this year, which we've done with the rocks, we didn't you know, nailed things across. Um, and so we did a piece this year where we had canvases and we would write in a highlighter and like the sin or the thing we're dealing with, and then wipe it over with red with red paint, which signified the blood of Christ and wash it off our sin. Yeah. And I was like, man, this is I mean, this is I mean, there was something really powerful about that. I was the first one to do it because I was trying to give an example so other people saw what we were doing. And as I did it, I was like, Oh, this is there's something here. This is something really substantial.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:13

It really made you think too, whenever you're writing that down, like something that like you really needed uh help with. And then afterwards, when you did brush that that red paint across, like he he does this. Like I this isn't just symbolism, like he does this in my life, in my heart, in in generations. Yeah, amen. Yeah, it was really good.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:36

Um you know, we don't really do a lot with like candles and stuff in the Protestant church necessarily, but we were doing a station there. We light the candle as significant to take up the call to be a light of the gospel. And there was something powerful about that too, and in just the light of Christ, and man, just so many people took that very seriously. And we were watching it right there. We were trying to also navigate and move candles around so it made the most sense, and you're not you know trying to burn yourself, but um yeah, really powerful, super good. So what a blessing to be a part of it for Easter. I didn't get to hear Angus. What did you do afterwards, man? What did you for for Easter? Did you think with your family or did you collapse?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:11

We went and collapsed. It was a very long week leading up to that weekend. Yes, it was. It was uh yeah, so we went home. Uh the so we have one tradition that's without fail. Uh we got to go out and get the golden hour picture in the backyard. Oh, nice. So, like when we get home, you can wear whatever you want, but just know that once it hits golden hour, uh, this year I think was the least amount of complaining. Uh, usually I'm the one complaining. Uh because I'll be honest, I yeah, because when I get home, it's nap time. Totally, and waking up to take a picture is you know, waking up getting changed back into the church close just to take a picture has not been my favorite in past years. Uh the other golden hour, it's an early one. That one we're here setting up on. That's true. That's true, actually. Um, but this year uh was probably one of the fastest. It's great as the kids are getting older. Yeah, you know, um, and so we we take those pictures. And so that's the one thing that we always make sure that we do because that's that's Annie's thing that she wants to have happen.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:20

Such a nice picture. I liked it on Instagram, that was great.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:22

So we always do a serious one, and usually the silly ones get posted because that's more like what our family actually is like.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:29

Right.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:30

Yeah, that's true. Uh JB, we had a chance to go have a meal with family, and what was your fake favorite part of the meal? What do you think? Of the what do you mean? Like time together, was it the food?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:39

Was it the oh, I don't know. It was it was just kind of nice. Like I feel um, I feel like a lot of times we're with your family, everything's feels like very disjointed. Everybody's kind of doing like their own thing and they hang out with like very specific clicks of people. And that's why whenever we used to go to your problems, yeah. Whenever we used to go to your great grandmother's house, or I guess your grandmother's house, my great grandmother.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:00

Um, it would always kind of feel like I was just there, you know what I mean? Like whether it be for Thanksgiving, whether it be for Easter, I was just like, okay, well, we gotta get this done. Let's do it and then get out of here.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:10

Um, but no, but how do you feel about it?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:12

No, no, no. Well, that I'm saying that's how I did, that's how I did feel about it. But that's about it. This year was a lot better though. No, tell me how you really feel. Yeah. Um, no, but this this year was good. I I enjoyed uh just kind of kind of like the intimacy of a smaller group of people. I feel like everybody there was like very intentionally like set to be with that group of people. Like it was very nice for your um for your aunt to invite us over and things like that. Yeah, it was great. Or if I guess for your uncle to invite us over, but um yeah, it was great. I enjoyed um talking to uh Eric. I hadn't seen him in a minute or anything like that. I I didn't even know him and Mariah hadn't had another kid by that point. I thought it was only River. So to see to see them holding a second, yeah, Harper, their second baby, I was like, oh shoot, I didn't realize any of this had happened. Javen's had a very busy year, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:59

So yeah, nobody can blame you for not knowing that, by the way. Hey, I I don't even know.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:03

I don't even know. But um, very adorable. Yeah, absolutely. But it was great, it was great to be amongst them. Uh the meal was great, food was awesome. Yeah, smoked ribs, yeah. Never showed and then we had a ham with it, which is incredible. That's right. Um, but yeah, it was just it was very nice, like setting, uh, a lot different than previous Easters that we'd done where like I feel like we'd go to like a bigger event or we'd see a lot of people that I basically only see one time a year. So it was it was kind of nice to to be a little more laid back in that aspect.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:35

So no, it was good. I mean, I really enjoyed my time with my family too. I mean, I love you know, obviously, I love my aunt and uncle, my cousins, and um, you know, my cousin Phil, who's also part of the family, lives in Texas, so he they weren't in the picture, but it was good to be with Eric and Mariah and their daughters, and yeah, we had fun, man. It's it's crazy to be, you know, like Amelia's my youngest, and so um, you know, she's 12, she's in seventh grade, but like River was excited. To spend time with Amelia. She's like right beside her, and you know, she's lit, I mean, River's little, and she's so excited to be by Amelia, and she was just so sweet, man. We're like, oh man, this is I remember all this. When your girls were little like that, you know what I mean? You get both ends, you get the sweet and the princess version, you know, which is kind of you know, you're like, okay, okay. But that's every little girl like that. So you're like, okay, but it was fun to navigate. I thought my my girls did good. Um, you know, we as parents enticed the the teenagers to go and get eggs by using money for gas and for other things that they needed.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:33

So they made out like bandits because my mom put like 75 bucks worth of money inside the eggs, which I was like, am I included? Do I get to find eggs?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:41

Because I could do with a 20 right now. Dude, my neighbor put out $500 in different eggs throughout his backyard. What? I'm like, bro, these are these, he's like, yeah, these kids eat it up. Like one of his kids made out with like $75. Wow. I'm like, bro, why didn't I grow up in a neighborhood where you live? Like, where were you at, bro? Ghetto Easter bed.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:05

He only had one ear and half a tent.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:08

No money's. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:09

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:12

He wouldn't just take a nibble out of the carrot. He'd take the whole carrot. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_07 1:29:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:18

Dude, that's serious. 500 bucks.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:20

I'm like, dude. That is wild, bro.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:22

I was like, bro, I know you drive an EV, but chill out.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:25

It's crazy. It's crazy. Chill out. Good for him. Good for him. Good for the kids. Put it into the kingdom. Okay. That's a good way to get your kingdom builder's blitz. Kids, go find the gold eggs. Go get them.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:38

Oh man. Hey, you know what's amazing though? He did come to a service. So he had he he had been uh he grew up Catholic, raised in like a Catholic school, whatever. Yeah, completely disassociated whenever he grew up and started making his own decisions. Yeah. Always looked back with like a lot of distaste. So he came here for a service. And you know, it's just through communicating with them, building community in the neighborhood. That's awesome. And I was telling his wife, like, you know, all right, you guys are gonna come to church with us, right? And she's like, Well, you gotta convince him, not me. She's like, I've been asking him for years. No way. And so finally I sat him down. I was like, bro, we're yeah, like you want to do this on Sunday. I got plans on Sunday. You come do this with me on Sunday, you come to church with me. Afterwards, I'll go take care of you and we'll do this thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:20

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:20

And he goes, All right, whatever. And he came, and it was so funny because like I my wife, so a brand new house that my wife and I just bought. And so, like, we got different people trying to sell everything.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:30

Which congratulations on a crib officially so much congratulations, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:33

So, people are coming by, like, I got solar guys, I got like water guys, I got yard guys, landscape. Anyways, every single solar guy that has come by the house has gotten an invitation to church, and a lot of them have come. I've gotten three different solar guys to come to church. That's awesome. And to come and to come to young adult services. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:52

I saw the one in young adults, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:53

That's crazy. So this one dude was coming by last week or whatever, and he's like, Hey, is your husband home? She's like, Did he invite you to church? Like I said, man, you and Hang is good at this, man. That's what you're doing. So after church, my neighbor, who like hasn't been in forever, he goes up to the the solar guy who had come and dude's a whiz. Like, my neighbor, he's super intelligent and breaks things down really well. And I've been utilizing his skill set to price out solar for my house. Oh, yeah. And so, like, right after service ends, instead of like, you know, talking to people about you know, like service or whatever, he immediately goes over to the solar guy and he's like, All right, so Gage is gonna need 25 panels producing 18,000 kilowatts. Like the whole thing, he's like, What can you do? And he just tried to business breakdown, this guy right after church. I was like, bro, time in place, time in place.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:48

That's not normal, normal approach. If you're a solar guy, you're welcome. We're not gonna try and be rate you, but you're okay. Always welcome. I'm glad they're connected, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:55

I'm glad they're coming. That's fine. Yeah, one of them was gonna come to young adults tonight, but I told him, like, uh, we like we don't have it tonight, we have next week at the gathering. Yes, which I I'm speaking at the gathering. No, man, congratulations, by the way. I'm anxious. Oh, you're gonna do great. You're gonna do great.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:11

There it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:12

I'm trying to eat that up. I'm trying to eat that up. You know how it is, man. You know how it is. We battle.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:17

The flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing. Oh man. Uh, you know, you guys did a great job inviting people. I want to give you a shout out to J Bo too. Uh man, we hung out a ton of his boys from high school have been coming to church. Bunch of them making decisions for Christ. We're all hanging out after Easter. They didn't really have anywhere to go straight away. We're just chilling, man, like after service. What was that like to see your boys like hanging out and stuff?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:40

I mean, it's great because like for so long, especially overseas, you uh that would be like a foreign concept to me because most of the people we interacted with were like either Muslims, so they would never step foot inside a church, just culturally. Um, or they were French, so they're very unapologetic. Um, yeah, yeah, they just tell me to your face like you, and I'm not going to exactly um so it's really cool to be able to kind of have that influence with people that I've been around for like almost five years now, which is pretty crazy to think about. Um, but yeah, it's great, it's great that they themselves are also coming of their own uh volition. Like even when I wasn't here for that.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:17

Well, I'm saying like you weren't even coming and they were coming. Yeah, exactly. That's what I was crazy to do. Yeah, which is which is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:23

Yeah, which is awesome. I love that. That would be crazy. I mean they're good dudes, yeah. Yeah, 100%. And now that I'm back more, it's just it's awesome to be able to like see that in that in that process, especially because for a lot of them, they're working through things that like were pretty pivotal or like heavy within their own lives. Um, and it it's just great that that all that is redirected towards where the source is. So I just I just think it's great.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:45

Yeah, we've had a few that have they've lost um parents or they lost siblings or they've gone through their parents gotten divorced recently and like a lot of different things, different people, and it's just really heavy. And so we've been able to walk with them and just be an encouragement. And those guys come to hang out the house and different things from time to different time, and just love on them. You know what I mean? They're good dudes and they're trying to make decisions that are better. And you know, we've had pretty candid conversations about that bad decision making. Oh yeah, and uh and and that's good. You know, you need you need candid conversation about listen, give me in on this. I I don't think that was their wisest decision to make. What do you think? How do you feel today? Yeah, you know, just like reeling from bad decisions, but I I didn't need to like give them a shovel of shame either. No, yeah, yeah, 100%. Whereas like, you know, I mean it you could, but it was it didn't it wouldn't help it wasn't helpful, right? So I was like, listen, that's why we talk about making better decisions. You know, they're like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:38

Like when Jayva wasn't wearing his knee brace. Yeah, very similar to that. Very true.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:43

Very true.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:44

Throwback. That's the problem, man. You got all these uncles in your life speaking to you. I know, it's all right.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:51

Oh, amazing. Hey, um, I'm so very thankful that Gage is jumping in this part of the conversation and back to the show. One of the things we talk about here is competence and understanding and growing in our faith in God and our knowledge of God. One of the things that want to use a resource today is from a friend, uh, from our friend Jason Fren. He is um a missionary speaker, um, pastor, other things, and has done amazing things um as far as uh uh uh promoting the gospel and a lot of people that obviously is a prolific writer and an author in that way as well. Um we've seen Jason fill out soccer stadiums in Latin America. He's a he's a kind of a missionary at large to Latin America and to the world. And so he's done those kind of uh those kind of events, kind of like what we were talking about with Corinthians to big soccer stadiums like that. He's done that level of events um across Latin America, has a weekly podcast that we do in Spanish. Uh it's actually a radio show with Colin and all sorts of other things, but also has available as a podcast and really, really good. This book, Breaking the Barriers, uh, is really powerful. And he's come and actually shared it here at our church before. One of the things he talks about is having the heart of the father, and really about this idea of releasing the power of God in your life. I think there's something powerful about that. Angus, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 1:36:05

Absolutely. I I think that the more we understand the heart of the of the father uh as a father, it makes me a better father. That's good. Yeah, that's right. I I didn't mean for it to sound so uh broken out so much. But uh that's I think it's very important uh to understand what what that God has uh good plans for you, that he wants, you know, we've we've I grew up thinking that God was ready to to hit me with his magnifying glass and you know and just burn me. Um but it's it really is um once you understand how much he cares for you and how much authority he's given to you and the guidance that he sends alongside you, man, there's really no reason we shouldn't be using the power of Christ in our lives.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:56

So good, man. Very good. Javen, what do you think, man, the the power of God in your life?

SPEAKER_02 1:36:59

Yeah, I mean, it's so true. Uh just like in correlation with what Enges is saying, so many times we walk out and do things and we're like, oh yeah, I can do this on my own strength, I'll rely upon this. And then like once times get hard, you're like, Oh God, please, can you help me with this? And then he and then he looks at you and goes, Well, you should ask me to do that when you were when you were walking everything out and you thought you could. So I mean it it's just kind of funny that like that's like a continuous process within people, and obviously Christianity at large looks like walking that out every single day of your life. Um, but yeah, walking with the intentionality after the heart of the father, and we talk about it all the time at CCC. That's one of the things that we are reminded of. And I I like to call it the Pastor J liturgy because I think it's it's so funny, and you've used it forever now. But um after the the uh blessing prayer, you'll say, Know this. Uh we love you here at Cornerstone Christian Center. God bless you, have a great week. But you also say, or sorry, within your prayer, you also say, Um uh allow us to live the to live Christ or to live the love of Christ out to those around us and walk within that mercy. So I think that's just a continual reminder that we need to be the best example that we can be of of the intentionality and the real heart of what Christ was, which is to love everybody, but also within that regard is walk in forgiveness and not walk full of anger, full of anything like that, as we so often see people tend to do or revert back to. But and that's a really hard call to do. So walking with that intentionality of God and having that daily reminder is is so important. Amen. Embracing the heart of the Father will break the barriers in your life.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:32

We're encouraged to uh to be able to share with you guys today, man. Great time spending with you guys and talking about. Uh, one word to leave the podcast, Javen. We'll start with you. Awareness. All right. Angus. Legacy. And I'm gonna say power. God bless you. We love you so much. Thanks for being a part of the collective. Much love wherever you are.