The Topher Brown Show

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• Topher Brown - Nick Smith • Episode 22

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OUR GREAT FRIEND CHRIS JAMES SITS DOWN WITH US ONE MORE TIME TO TALK ABOUT ALL THE THINGS WE'VE MISSED IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS. LETS DISCUSS THAT

SPEAKER_04

Well, we haven't recorded a podcast in two weeks, and wouldn't you know it? So many things have happened in that time. So let's discuss that. This is the Topher Brown Show. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Topher Brown Show. Appreciate you tuning in, listening wherever you're listening from, watching wherever you're watching from. It's been a minute since we've seen you, and boy, are we glad to be back. It's been like two weeks since we've been in the studio, uh or maybe even longer than that. I don't even know. It's hard to keep track these days. But we are back, and uh, we really appreciate you hanging in there with us. It's been a heck of a couple of weeks, so we're gonna talk a little bit about that today. And uh before we do, I'm gonna throw it over to my co-host and one of my best friends on this planet, Mr. Nick Smith. Hey, buddy. Hey, buddy. Howdy, howdy, America. How have your past three weeks been? As though I need to ask.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. It's been three weeks, man. That's what it's been. Uh man, it's been rough. It's uh just nonstop work. I'm working myself to the bone. My brain is it's done for a while. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So in case you guys thought that we were just out here vacationing it up, we were absolutely not. We have been the the hits just keep on coming, as they say. Uh, we have been working tirelessly on individual projects, Nick and I. And uh man, we just haven't had time to get in here and record any episodes. So we really appreciate you you guys' patience with us in that regard. Absolutely. We had a a couple of uh big events that we were preparing for. One was the United in Song, America's 250th birthday, right here in in Mississippi at the Mississippi Coliseum. That was a a fun uh project to work on, but boy, did it take up some time.

SPEAKER_03

Man, it it took up some time, it took up a lot of energy, but what a show.

SPEAKER_04

Man, it was so good. It was really great. It was one of those things where um, you know, we we didn't do just a whole heck of a lot of songs, but the amount of preparation we had to do for that material was pretty significant. And then you kind of got um you got uh brought in to do some extra work that you didn't know you were gonna be brought in to do.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I got commandeered, uh, which thanks for reminding me. I need to work up an invoice for that.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, a man needs to get paid for his efforts. That's exactly right. So what did you have to so just uh uh in case people don't know, there was like a 50-person orchestra, would you say it was? Yeah, something like that. It was like a 200-person choir as well. And uh they requested the services of Nick in that regard. What what exactly was it that you had to do?

SPEAKER_03

Uh they they had some tracks and stuff that they were performing with, and it all had to be synced up just right and split out in different outputs so different people could hear different things. Uh it was, I mean, not a huge request, but something that you know I would have liked to have known a month ahead of time, maybe. Right.

SPEAKER_04

And but not only that, you actually you were in charge of firing those tracks during the performance. So yeah, you had to play bass for our set, which was you know, we played some rock and roll songs, uh, but you also had to stay up there and work with the orchestra.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, which uh I mean that that was probably the least hard part of it. Just uh pushing markers and hitting play, a lot of space bar work.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

But you had to do it for a live television program as well, so no pressure really.

SPEAKER_03

Well, you know, that what's crazy is like I I didn't even think about that part through the whole show. I I didn't think about cameras. I thought about cameras way more during the dress rehearsal. Right because old dude was running around like getting close-ups of my face and my my fingers and stuff. Uh, but during showtime, I I don't even feel like I saw him. Yeah, I just zoned in.

SPEAKER_04

You know, that's that's actually true. And maybe, maybe he didn't, maybe he wasn't as active during showtime because I noticed that too. There was a couple times where he was the camera guy was like slipping in behind me to get some shots of the saxophone player, and uh almost knocked him over. Yeah, he almost knocked me over a couple of times, and I was like, what is the point of all of this, really?

SPEAKER_03

My wife did tell me she was like, I saw you look at the screens from time to time. She was like, Every time the hat the camera hit you, like I just cheesed. Just went from dead face to just, yay, it's me. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_04

Well, uh, I don't know when that's gonna air. It might have already aired by the time this episode is out.

SPEAKER_01

August 2nd, MPB television. Where did that voice where did that voice come from?

SPEAKER_04

Who just said that? I have no idea who that was. Uh okay, August 2nd, that mysterious voice says. So there you go. And you can watch it on MPB. I had no idea when it was gonna air. Um, so there you go. Go go watch it. I will say this. Um it was a lot of work, and it was like one of those things where it's easy to get overwhelmed in the preparation for it, but what an honor it was uh to be asked to do it. Absolutely. Um so I I just want to say uh thank you to the state of Mississippi, to the governor's office for allowing us to come in and be a part of that. Um, you know, the the governor did not ask for Topher Brown and Nick Smith by name, but the the um the person that organized it is one of our very dear friends, and um want to a big special shout out to Gary Watts for organizing and allowing us to be a part of it. It was uh it was wonderful. We also got to sing um a worship song uh called called The Blessing. Best part of the night. Best part of the night, man. We got to do that. Uh Skyler James led it, and we sang a blessing over the state of Mississippi, over the legislature and uh governor and first lady and all that, and all the people that were in in attendance, and it was just a really special moment. Um, there was worship happening right there in the Coliseum. It's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, uh true worship too. I mean, I I saw some of the pictures and man, people standing up with their their hands raised and just in the moment. Uh I was even back there in the back. I I did the whole uh let me help you move the TV hands. Yeah. Uh I was trying not to just like oh go all out on TV and look like a doofus. Uh I should have, because I mean it's it's all for the glory of God.

SPEAKER_04

Look like a doofus for the Lord.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I love it, man.

SPEAKER_04

It was just it was great. It was a great experience. I I I don't think that it's disrespectful to say that I'm glad that it's over, but but I'm certainly glad to have been a part of it. But I am glad that it's over. It um it was a kind of a uh a deep breath that I was able to take after that show was over.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, there's there's definitely some there was definitely a lot of feelings of relief of this is at least off the plate. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Exactly. Well, um we're this the really no agenda for this episode today. We're just catching up on some things. Uh, but we had to invite a friend of ours on the show because he's a uh regular on this program, if that's what we want to call it. Uh and he's about to leave us for a few months, and so we had to get him on here one more time just to shoot the breeze, talk about the Lord a little bit, and some other things that are going on right now. So uh back again for the like 11th time. This is Mr. Chris James. What's up, brother? Hey man, thank you for having me again. Thank you for coming on, man. Yeah. Um well, so for those of our listeners who don't know, you're about to be deployed. Uh Chris is a chaplain in the army, and he's about to be deployed for how long is it?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it's gonna be four months. It's supposed to have been eight months. And then uh when I got the call, they told me, and I was like, Um, all this sounds good, guys, but I'm just wondering if if you truly enjoy my life, do not let me go back to my wife and tell her I'm about to leave for eight months again. Yeah, uh, and they were like, All right, Chapman, we'll we'll work with you. I said, Okay, how about four months? I said, you know, the JAG gets four months, the doctors get four months rotation. This is a conus, which is in state. Yeah, I said it's two-hour flight. I said, let's let's get some of these younger chaplains rotated in, let them get some experience in state, that kind of stuff. Yeah, and so they uh thank goodness our um our state chaplain uh agreed to it. If not, it'd been eight months, and it'd been a different story right now.

SPEAKER_04

But um Is that was that the the length of your last appointment? Was it eight months or um with training and everything?

SPEAKER_01

It was about eleven. Eleven months. It was a little over eleven, so yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Which was how many years ago? Three, two?

SPEAKER_01

Well, two. It was it was um yeah, so a little over two, just just a tad bit over two. Yeah. Um, which everyone knows you're supposed to get three years. So um I didn't, but it's okay. Yeah, you know, the Lord is sovereign, he's over everything. If he calls us to do it, we're gonna do it. Yeah, it's the way it is.

SPEAKER_04

Amen to that, man. Um, but this last deployment, you were overseas, and you uh actually your wife had your youngest child during that time.

SPEAKER_01

Sure did. And um I got in country, Kuwait, um, which was a everyone knows if you're military listening, it's like, oh, Kuwait deployment, really. But yeah, it Kuwait was a great area to be in. Um, you know, uh we were well taken care of, well fed, and then Tel Aviv happened and everything changed. And so it's everything changed. And um, but yes, I got there a month in and she had our baby, Christopher Madden. And uh the phone call I got was hey, we're headed to the hospital. I'm like, all right, outstanding. And I thought it was gonna be like all the other births where you know she's just standing there talking to me, you know, there all the uh you know, the the stuff done took effect. She can't feel anything, run the waist down, the epidural and all that. Yeah, and I got a FaceTime, and she was like, I'm so sorry, I couldn't wait. And I was like, excuse me. It was like he's here. I mean, it was like like within and less than an hour, like it was just traumatic for her. Um she couldn't get epidural, it was horrendous. And here I am sitting. I have a rock star wife like in life, and I'm I'm I am beyond blessed. And if anyone has a godly wife who really takes care of the family like like she does, you understand what I'm saying. For her to endure, now a lot of stuff happened. She graduated nursing school pregnant, and then I left the next month. It was huge, and then she had the baby a month after that, had her baby. Um, she had to come home after giving birth without any epidural pain medicine, nothing, endured that, and take care of four other children while she took care of a newborn. Yeah, I mean I'm talking about look when we deploy our family. Sometimes I think they have it worse. Because I'm sitting over here, my days I know look, I know I'm in a war zone, all that kind of stuff. That's you know, that's just beside the point. Everywhere really is a war zone. But you know, I'm sitting over there, and I know when I'm gonna eat breakfast, lunch, and supper, I know when I'm gonna get to work, when I'm gonna leave work, and I know every single day is gonna be exactly the same. Yeah, but over the where they are, uh the story is a lot different. And just to see the Lord work his relationship with her out during that process, showing how he can sustain you through anything, yeah, has been amazing to see. You talked about that 250. I don't want to jump the gun real quick, but we talked about it, and I really want to put this in. Um because I saw y'all work this. Like I saw from behind the scenes, you know, Skylar's the one that's saying the blessing as y'all was leading it, and you sang it too. Um number six, God specifically told them verbatim per word, what to pray over the children. Like he said, This is how you pray over the children for them to find favor. That is what y'all saying over the state of Mississippi. I told somebody the other day, I said, I wouldn't be surprised if next year we're number one in every I told you this, yeah, number one in everything, top, top, every single thing, and that our tomatoes and crops grow the size of basketballs. Like I wouldn't be surprised if every single bit of soul in the state of Mississippi is fertile. I wouldn't be surprised if we started having everybody started having babies. Right. All these Christian couples having all these babies. I wouldn't be surprised if our uh youth culture changed, if our homeless populace just disappeared, and everybody like, what happened? Well, at the 250th, this prayer that God said, pray, if you want my favor over the children, yeah, y'all said it, and y'all's hearts, and you know, that's the thing. I uh when I go back to that, all that she's been through, not just in that instance when I deployed last year, but all the years of the things that she's been through and you have been through, and Nick has been through, and you know, and Nathan was there, and and um all the things y'all have been through to get to that point, and I'm like, no wonder. Like, no wonder. I mean, I even thought back when in in 2003, you're sitting over there in your Hollister playing the guitar in a BSU, just trying to figure everything out.

SPEAKER_04

You had to throw Hollister.

SPEAKER_01

I did, I had to throw it because that's what everybody smelled like Hollister, everybody looked like Hollister, and then you know, and um you just trying to hit that uh uh facade, is that how you say it?

SPEAKER_04

Falsetto.

SPEAKER_01

That's it. That word right there is what you're trying to do, and you're trying to push your range. I was like, where's that whistle coming from? What is it? And I could just remember everything the Lord got y'all to, and I remember just sitting out there, I was in the back and I got to watch it. I was like, wow, he works all things for good, like he truly does. But the precedence of seeing I don't know any other state that had their closing at the 250th with that song.

SPEAKER_04

I don't either. And let me just tell you real quick how that came to be, because uh obviously it was the Lord that orchestrated it, but Skylar had a lot to do with that. Uh Skylar's probably directly responsible from a uh earthly standpoint of that taking place because uh rewind back to um one of the covered events that we did where it was just female vocalists. Uh Gary, who organized this particular event we're talking about, also organizes our covered events, and he he uh called on Skylar to sing and gave her an option of what to sing. And she said, I want to do the blessing. Wow. And so we did it at that covered event, and it was so impactful and made such a huge impact on the on the audience there. But there was another person that it made an impact on, and that was Gary. Wow. And Gary said, I know how we've got to close this event, and that's that's how it came to be. That's how it came to be.

SPEAKER_01

And the Lord orchestrated it all together so perfectly, so beautifully. All the years you're working with them, built the relationships, all the things, you know, and also um whenever whenever these things happen, like you know, when I get deployed, when I got deployed and we you know, in that time during Kuwait and all that, the enemy will attack when God is moving. And the week of that, I mean, all the attacks were crazy. I mean, even me, the enemy was coming after me to get to her, and I didn't really realize it until the end of it. And I'll talk to you extensively about those things. But anytime that we we are going to do something for the Lord, the enemy will attack. And that's what he's that's what he's do what he did. But he's not gonna succeed. Right. And uh just to see um that happening all and August 2nd, I cannot wait. I I'll be in Washington, DC at this time, but I can't wait to see it. Like to see MPB and the the playing of it and what homes it's gonna hit and you know, all that kind of stuff, and who's gonna actually receive a blessing from it. It's gonna be amazing. Yeah, it's a it's a it was an amazing journey to watch. And um it was amazing thing to see.

SPEAKER_04

It was it was great to be a part of, and I and I too am looking forward to seeing what the Lord does with it. Um so let's talk about what you're what you're gonna be doing on this latest deployment. As of the recording of of this episode, this is June the 29th. You ship out on the 5th of July. So you get to celebrate Independence Day and you go on.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and so with Obsect, you know, uh operational security, this will be posted after that. So ha ha ha. Right. Um, so I can't release too much information, but I can give you overall um kind of logistics of what we're gonna be doing, not detailed uh information, but um the state of Mississippi was tasked um by SecWar uh to cover an area of Washington, D.C. that I can't mention, but it's a good area um that is highly populated. And so there's gonna be many, many of us. I can't say a number. Yeah, there's gonna be many of us that's gonna be there. My job is to provide religious religious support, and also with that religious support, uh moral and ethical counseling and direction. Yeah. Um my intent when I go is three things to be clean, close, and clear. That's my three things. Um, I told my uh my um um religious affairs specialist, basically the chaplain's bodyguard, like he's gotta learn how to shoot a pistol and he'll be depotized and all that kind of stuff. And he's over six foot, which is great for me. Right. Because I can actually hide behind this guy. But um I told him, I said, hey, uh, I know you like alcohol. I like to have uh a drink every now and then, but none of it. I said, we gotta be clean, close, and clear at any second, of any moment, of any time. We were 24-7. It's called UMT United uh uh it's uh uh military, excuse me. It is the uh ministry team. So the ministry team is 24-7, um, and we provide uh everything from Bible studies, counseling sessions, um, small groups. Uh we do uh Sunday morning worship, we do Sunday evening worship, and we do do that for uh for a course because I'm a Christian, I do that for the Christian populace. But if we have Muslims, if we have well, that's basically all we got now. Second war kind of took all that out, a lot of stuff out. Um they narrowed that uh religious preference down very, very small. Um, but we gotta provide a space for them. So I would say, okay, here's here's a space for you on this time, this date to do what you want to do. And then I task a uh basically uh a religious affair person over that group that will report to me the numbers, what they did, all that kind of stuff. And so way I see that, because I'm a Christian, is now you gotta listen to me. Like, okay, I'll provide you this area. Okay now you're gonna hear the gospel. You hear it from you, I hear it from you, you're gonna also hear it from me. Yeah. That kind of thing. Um and you know, it's a it's an outreach that is only a few that that can, you know, because you you you gotta go into uh your conscience and really evaluate yourself because you're gonna be around them. But the thing is, nobody's around them. You know, um you can't be a light in the darkness unless you go in the dark. So I'm able to do that. Not only um with those, but those that have no faith at all, they don't want nothing to do with Jesus Christ. But when crap hits the fan at home, they call the chaplain. Yeah, and I get to talk to them um through solution focused counseling. Um and in that counseling, they'll nine times out of ten ask me how I would deal with it. And I'm like, I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you about this man named Jesus. And I get to talk to them about these things, yeah. And so um it is a fruitful ministry. Yeah. And um, so while I'm there, um I'll be patrolling with the guys, um, 12-hour days, which is good for us men. We don't have time to think. Right. You know, and you still have a few hours, do whatever you want to do. Yeah, and at the end of the night, I'm gonna my I'm I'm gonna read through the Bible again. Um, I'm gonna get a lot of things personally just cleaned up. Um, I asked the Lord to clean my mind up, to clean my heart up. Um, there's a lot of things the past couple of months that has been revealed to me personally that I just like I gotta make sure that he cleans me up on this four months that I'm gone. Um, or ask him to at least, and I know I know he will because it's already started. Um, and the enemy already doesn't want me to go. He's attacking my health, you know, he's he's my mindsets and my thinking, uh, my heart, all these things, but hey, that's what we go through. You know, we we are we don't fight against flesh and blood. Right. You know. Um Um and my wife is dealing with the trauma of me leaving because last time I left, as you said, uh she had a baby and had to do everything herself. Things are a little bit different now. Everybody can take care of themselves, you know. Um, and we're not pregnant yet. Right. We're praying for it. For those of you who pray, pray for me too. Um we want babies, babies, babies.

SPEAKER_04

And uh I think it's it's um there's there's something going on in the spiritual realm right now um where the enemy is attacking men of faith. Yeah. Uh because Nick and I have both like we've been talking uh we've both been attacked on several fronts uh across the last month, I would say. Yeah. Uh for me personally, man. Like my my uh fuse has been short, my my plate has been full to the point of overflowing, uh, and my family life has suffered because of it. Yes, and I'm coming to a place uh now where I can finally see the other side of that and I can see, okay, let's get back to some sense of normalcy. But man, the enemy has been on the prowl for the last month.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. He um and I, you know, I I shared this with you in the church and everything just uh just uh a couple of weeks ago. I went through one of the worst despairs in my entire life. I've never been through something like this. Um you know how you have racing thoughts and that's anxiety and all that, all of a sudden mine just stopped. And it was like pushing a ball under water, and you know, you you release it and the ball just pops up and bobs. That's kind of how my thoughts were, and they're singular. And I said, Oh no. I like I knew something was really, really wrong. Um, because I've never felt this way before. I couldn't feel anything, I was numb. I was I couldn't feel anything. And uh I went to bed at 8 30 that night, never happens. I didn't say goodnight to anybody. I just laid down and said, I just prayed. I was like, I hope this is gone in the morning, whatever this is. I had no clue even what it was. No, I could not analyze myself, I couldn't articulate it. Like my wife would be like, what's wrong? I'm like, I don't know, I don't know. Like, I don't know. And even the way I'm expressing it right now, I couldn't express it that way. Like it was just like like just bland, just like, you know, straight up no chicken with a sauce, baby. You know what I'm saying? No chicken, chicken with no seasoning. It was just bowled chicken, walking around is bland, you know, and and um I remember uh my blood pressure shot up. It went up to 156 over 104 after taking blood pressure medicine. And my wife was like, Aren't you not are you not worried? And I'm like, if I could feel anything, I'd probably say it'd be worry. Like it was dark death, and um I was begging God every single day to take me out of it. Um and um, but guess what was coming up? 250th. Yeah, guess what's coming up? Deploying to Washington, the minister to who knows? Yeah, um uh there are gonna be Muslims that come to Christianity, it's gonna happen. It happens every time. There's gonna be atheists that turn to Christ because this is the first time they've ever been away from home, and they get to see how they get to feel the calling and pulling of the Lord, and we get to lead them in that direction. We get to be a light in the darkness, it's gotta happen. The enemy don't want that, right? So he's gonna stop it any way he can. But um, that's why you know three, four strands of rope tied together are stronger. I had people like you, I had people like Nelson Timms, I had people like Nick, I had people like Ryan. I had I had my mint, Kevin. Kevin, your your stepdaddy came over to my house and was like, you know, I I saw so much out of him. Like would grab me by my hand and look at me, and just you know, and he prayed over me. He's prayed over me. And I was sitting there thinking, I'm about to take his button to the nursing homes. He would be perfect for nursing home ministry.

SPEAKER_04

And you're a scary thought to me.

SPEAKER_01

It is very scary. I never thought, I never would picture it. I was like, hmm, he would be great because he, I mean, I just saw a side out of him. So even in the darkest times, God pulls out the good and everybody else to bring you back up. Yeah. And um finally, Nelson Timms uh says something to me, and you says something on this podcast before. Which he has been. Um he's a retired, he is a Marine that has been retired, I gotta say that correctly. He is also an army soldier, he's a medic. I've seen him do so many things. He's been to so much, he was in an intelligence, and um he knew how to speak to me, and just like you did, and how to speak to me. Um basically a lot of it is hey, this is life. We gotta suck it up. Make sure you treat your wife well while you're s while you're suffering. Don't pour down on her. Make sure you pay attention to your your children. They'd have to call me three times while standing in my face. I couldn't concentrate. Like it was horrible. And um, but finally the Lord started slowly releasing me from all these things. And it it it happened right at and after the 250th. He was trying to get to my wife through me. Yeah, I know he's trying to do. Like I have no doubt in that. And uh because as men, we carry the load of the house, right? We're the high priest. The way we feel is how the house feels, right? You know, and she looked at me crying, saying, You've got to do something. I can't take this. Like, and I was trying my hardest. I I couldn't even smile. Um, but I knew the answer was not to be put on medicine, do all that. Not saying I'm not against that, I'm not against it. Um, for people, I've seen that work wonders. I'm saying I knew for me in that time period that's not what he wanted me to do. He wanted me to press in closer to him and wait. Yeah, you know, and that's where I came with Psalm 23, and you know, Lord's my shepherd, uh, Psalms 139. The dark is light to you. Like even the darkest depth is still light to you. And, you know, um riding staff shall comfort me. His protection, his guidance, his provision will comfort me. But I couldn't feel comfort. So when I look back, I saw that actually it was sustainment, and that sustainment is comfort because he'll sustain you when you can't sustain yourself. Right. And so even with this, we don't know where we're going. We have no clue in our life where we're going. If if I would have gone back to Topher Brown 10 years ago and said, hey, I know you're not thinking about this, but the 250th is happening in 10 years. Yeah, and you're gonna be basically leading it.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, no, no, no chance, right? And then you're gonna close it out with a blessing, you know. It's a song that Carrie Joe wrote, and blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, you just couldn't fathom it. You have no clue. No. But every single trial we go through and testing, because that's what temptation is, is testing, has a purpose and a plan, and every single aspect of that is to bring him glory for his good counsel and for his good will, which is nothing but good for us. Amen. You know, it's nothing but good for us. And so we can take comfort even though we're suffering. Like, I pray and I hope the next time that comes upon me, I get excited when I feel it. Like, all right, I know something's happening. Like, I hope I can have that kind of, but it was death to me in that moment. Like, I I was ready to go home. I was ready to go home. I hear you. But um, these four months, uh, the Lord has got you stepping up.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that's terrifying. Yeah. To be the teaching pastor. That should be terrifying for all parties involved.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it's gonna be glorious.

SPEAKER_04

It's gonna be it's gonna be great, man. You know, I'm I'm really looking forward to it. And we've got a good friend who's stepping into the worship pastor role. He may or may not be in the live room, in the uh producer room with Nick. Um, but uh I I'm really excited about it. I also think that that's a reason that the enemy has been attacking. Uh you you have the Lord's gonna do something through you in your ministry in DC. The Lord's planning on doing something here at our church in your absence. Yes. And I think that's all the reason for the enemy, all the reason the enemy needs to go. I gotta stop this. And uh going back to the America 250 thing, um, I had a moment we we had a rehearsal for it on a Friday. Also had a gig that Friday. And so I my plan, I had a gig, a gig in Vicksburg. So my plan was all right, get up Friday morning, load the trailer up, head to Vicksburg, set up for the gig, head to Jackson for the rehearsal, do the rehearsal, jump back in the truck, head back to Vicksburg, play the gig. Right. So I had a very uh you know specific window of time that I had to do this in if I was gonna be able to do it. Um so I get out on Highway 27, headed to Vicksburg, and they've decided today, on a Friday at 10 o'clock in the morning, is a good day to run a street sweeper down this two-lane major highway that everybody, if you're going from Kapaya or Lincoln County to Vicksburg, you must take this highway. Yeah, that's it. No back road. You and and the only back road that I could have taken was like 10 miles away, and I'm stuck in basically standstill traffic uh for about I was probably there for about 30 minutes. But the Lord kind of revealed something to me in that moment because I felt the um the temptation of uh being overwhelmed and anger rising up in me. And the Lord kind of uh reminded me in that moment of like, hmm, wonder what it is that uh is gonna get accomplished that the enemy is trying to stop you from. And I and I felt uh you know, kind of compelled in that moment to share that with the rest of the team. That hey, we must be embarking on something pretty legendary because the enemy is, I mean, pulling out all the stops to get this thing derailed. Yes, he is. Uh like he's been doing that individually in our lives, in our marriages. He's been trying to trying to put roadblocks in in our personal ministries, in our occupations. He's been trying to put roadblocks in our way and has been successful. He's put roadblocks there. But we keep sidestepping them or climbing over them and just kind of making our way. Not not to say that it hasn't been suffering in in the midst of all that, but we've been making our way. We've been, you know, you mentioned Psalm 23. The thing that that sticks out to me in that is that uh it never says, you know, it says, Yeah, though I'll walk through the valley of the shadow of death, or feel fear no evil. But it never says that you're gonna rescue me from the valley of the shadow of death. Nope. It says I'm just I'm in it, I'm walking through it. But even though I'm in it, I'm not gonna fear because I know that your rod and your staff comfort me. Um that's key. Yes. I think that's key because the Lord, as we as you mentioned earlier, is sovereign. We trust in his plan. We know that if we're in the valley of the shadow of death, it's because we're supposed to be.

SPEAKER_01

We're supposed to be.

SPEAKER_04

I think that's what what people maybe don't take from that passage a lot. Is that hey, uh the valley of the shadow of death, you're you're there for a reason, yeah, but you're not meant to stay there.

SPEAKER_01

I I remember the words of Paul. Um so that I can identify with his suffering. You know, that I may identify with his suffering. May I take part in a resurrection of death, um life, you know, and if you want to see what walking through the valley of shallow death looks like, look at Jesus. He was asleep on a cushion during a thunderstorm with no covering. Yeah. That felt like a sleep perfectly still. He just know he knew they had to wake him up. Right. He was like, okay, peace be still, and everything calmed down. He was like, why'd you why'd you have a little faith? Right. And in Chris James' version, he went back to bed on the cushion. Right. You know, how do you think that's true? But but the thing is that I I see from all this is sometimes, yes, the Lord can calm the storm, and that's what we pray for. Yeah. Get me out of this. But sometimes he calms his child in the storm.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And a lot of times that's how he does it. He won't calm the storm, but he'll calm you in the storm.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And that's where you hold on, and that's where you find out what you worship, yeah. And what you love.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Worshiping and love. Um, worshiping is is what my identity is out of. Yeah. And I'm placing my whole being and identity in this thing that I'm worshiping. Who I love is that's the ones I'm patient, kind, gentle, compassionate with, all that good stuff. First Corinthians 13. But when I went through my suffering, I found out that I'm worshiping a lot of things I shouldn't be worshiping. Yeah. Like my wife. Um, I'm not supposed to worship my wife. I'm supposed to love my wife and guide her to Jesus, right? Yeah. Those my marriage, I worship my marriage. Um, I worship my identity. Why am I worshiping my identity? Who cares who sees that I'm suffering? I'm suffering right now, right? Um, you'll find out those things. And what that is, is God revealing into you the things that He is removing. He was like, All right, uh, like in Psalms 23, make you lie down in green pastures, right? We talked about that extensively. Like you have no choice. You're about to take a stinking nap. Oh, you're not gonna do it? Watch this. And he makes it happen. Um, and sometimes he does by taking away our plants and placing his in there. Yeah. And um, but yeah, I mean, that's what he's doing. He's been trying to do that extensively. Um, you know, we and as the enemy is moving as well, he's pushing those that are his children, because Jesus even said to those who are not of him, he's like, Your father, the devil, right? He's pushing his children uh into a you can see the the terror and the um enemy rising in people, and just the vulgarness and the hatred and the anger that a lot of people have in this world, and you see the complete contrast between the light and the dark. You see it. The things that are wrong they're saying is right, and the things are right they're saying is wrong. Right. Uh Romans 1, which you will, those of you who go and tune in to Center Point, you will hear very shortly, right? Um and so you see that, and you know, as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, I step back and I go, wow, like everything is happening. Um, an earthquake that went around the whole Middle East. Yep. I mean, uh tens of thousands dead. Tens of thousands. Just watch birthing pains. If you want to see the timeline of the planet, watch the Middle East, watch Israel, watch all that. And you read your Bible and you see how God's gonna take everything. Yeah. And do you and the Lord said this there'll be earthquakes, there'll be famines, there'll be floods, there'll be things happening in the sky. Oh, wait a minute. We're UAPs, we don't know what they are. Disclosure. You always knew what they were. Y'all even changed the name of it so we wouldn't freak out.

SPEAKER_04

Steven Spielberg thought I saw uh I saw uh an interview snippet of his that he he said that this movie that he's released has the potential to upend people's faith. And I think it had the exact opposite effect, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_01

It's kind of crazy. I believe that too. I when I heard I saw that too, I was like, part of me was like, oh Steven. You don't know. Like, I so love your movies. Like I saw I name my daughter Indiana off of Indiana Jones, you know. Like I so loved his work, I love his artistry, I love his cinematography, the way he he'll push a camera right up to a person's face and how he'll pan from a shadow to the it is beautiful to watch his movies. It is a flowing art.

SPEAKER_04

You mean his theology isn't as good as his movies?

SPEAKER_01

And then I heard the junk that I was like, how can you be so smart but yet be so dumb? So dumb. You know, like I'm saying, like that shows me you know nothing about the Christian faith. Right. Nothing at all. Yeah. The Bible, if you even read the Bible, you see, look, there are people that passed out at the sight of heavenly creatures. Right. All of a sudden, where did they go? Like, oh, they just disappeared. Right. You know, I mean, beings coming from the sky. Read your Bible, it's there. Oh, there was beings that came from the sky and took somebody up to the sky who didn't die. It's a fire. You know what I'm saying? Like uh it's all in there.

SPEAKER_04

Um we've done an episode on that.

SPEAKER_01

And you did, and I love that episode because it makes sense. If you read your Bible, it makes sense. And the problem is Christians don't read their Bible, they just don't read it. Um, they listen to people talk about it. If you read it, you will not have a fear because you'll see, okay, everything that Jesus said would happen is happening.

SPEAKER_04

You said something uh in your sermon this past Sunday that I think ties in with this. Um and it kind of when you said it for the first time, it kind of struck me and I went, Yeah. And you said you said something effect of I think the number one addiction that we face today is not drugs, alcohol, anything like that. It's problems. Yeah, we're addicted to problems.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

I think this is very evident in stuff like what we're talking about right now. We we need for there to be issues. Why? Why do why do we need for there to be issues? What's your perspective on that?

SPEAKER_01

I am so glad you asked that because I've been waiting to talk to somebody about that. Um, the reason why I said that is because I saw it myself.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And I've talked to you some about this, but um I think the reason is that the enemy places trauma in our timeline.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And as he places trauma, when he places temptations, which are thoughts that we have, remember, we're supposed to hold every thought captive to the word of God, which means our thoughts are not our own and our thoughts are sinful. Remember, the Bible says the heart of man is very, very evil and deceitful. I'd say there's nothing good in man at all. So not every thought is mine, and I have to weigh it against scripture. I think he puts trauma in our timeline for for us to live that trauma and the state of mind of that trauma in some facet, some form, some way, with our thought themes, like the theme that we're thinking in. Yeah, like our theme is supposed to be a positive hope in the future. That's what it's supposed to be, right? Which which produces um um joy and peace and patience and understanding and gentleness because that's what Jesus gave us. Yeah, my peace I give to you, right? That should be our thought theme. Yeah, he's been telling us this is the things you think on, right? Um, but the enemy will place those things, and he's very, very sneaky. He crawls under rocks. So you'll think that you're past a trauma, but something will happen. He'll throw in your head, hey, wait a minute, don't you remember this? I bet they're doing this. And then all of a sudden you you go back, you're you don't think about the trauma, but your nervous system and your brain and the reaction of your body goes back to trauma. Because your your flesh is fallen, but the spirit is alive, and the spirit is renewed, everything's renewed, and we don't know what we are going to be, but eventually all this is gonna be resurrection 2.0, and it's gonna be everything's gonna be put together perfectly. But right now, your flesh is dying, but your spirit is soaring. So it's a constant war, not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities that are constantly bombarding you. I'll tell you what happened and how I came to this and my perspective on this and why we do this is um partially because of that, the enemy is tempting us. We see it all throughout scripture, he's going to tempt, um, and that's a testing from the Lord, because the Lord tempts nobody. Read James 1. He can't be tempted, which is a such a great, oh, great thing that he cannot be tempted. Right. But um, and he tempts no man, and so but he allows you to be tested, and so that testing is pulling out all these impurities, and what he revealed to me is that operate out of my trauma. And I thought I I thought I didn't. I thought I didn't. I was I was operating from the lens of Christ, but also through the lens of my trauma. And so he was wanting to remove all that. And I'll tell you what happened. Uh, my wife uh she worked the night before, she did some cleaning, and uh she was uh going to go to uh uh do the um the practice rehearsal for uh unlocked conference. Could you tell that she was pretty upset when she went to that conference? She was a little aggravated. She was she was a little quiet. Yeah, that was me. That's me. That's my fault. That was that was husband's fault. That's my thing. And that's how I came to that fact that I think the greatest addiction is the addiction to problems. Because um before she left, um I wanted to ring the bell on our intimacy, not physical intimacy. Sex does not equal intimacy, it's the byproduct of intimacy, yeah, right? Um, you know, you you can have a great love life, making love life, but not have that intimacy. And I feel I felt us pulling away. And I'm fisting to leave, everything like this is happening, and I said, What is going on? And she was like, What are you talking about? I'm like, Okay, let me ask this again. What is going on? And I just kept bugging her and bugging her about this, like, hey, ring. The bell, ring a ding a ling-ling. Hey, something's going on. Like, we are pulling away. We're not talking like we used to. The conversations are not as deep as it used to be. Um, you're not resting in me and your emotions, your feelings. And then she started, then she said this to me. She was like, I was so peaceful. I was resting, and you had to do this. And it clicked on me. Like, I was like, Uh-oh. I'm addicted to like why? And I had to start analyzing myself, and I started looking back, I'm like, where did that thought come from? Where did this thought come from? Why did I think this this way? And I had a trauma in my life where somebody pulled away from me and abandoned me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And I went, that's why I'm freaking out. If I didn't operate through trauma, I would say, My wife's just been tired. It's been a busy couple of weeks, all this kind of stuff. Stop acting like you're the female, start acting like the male, that kind of thing. I would have talked it to myself. Stop being over-emotional. I would have I should have gone down and got on my face, closed the door, and prayed for 10 minutes, and then let me and the Lord handle this and let him bring it up in me that it's not what I'm perceiving it to be. Right? But then my thoughts went, you know, you called us to be one, we need to be one, you know, that kind of stuff. But the enemy pulled up in me. Hey, you remember last time this happened, you got abandoned. You see what I'm saying? So which one are you gonna follow? You're gonna follow what the enemy says, or you're gonna follow what the scripture says. Let's go and that hey, if I loved her, I would have been patient with her. Guess what, guess what Chris was operating out of? Not of love, even though I do love her. It wasn't out of love, it was out of selfishness. You're not paying me attention.

SPEAKER_04

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

You see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But I mixed all this in with good because I got two filters I'm filtering it through. And that's where all that came from. I said, I'm addicted to problems.

SPEAKER_04

That's good because we can we can do that, can't we? We can we can look at things through two different lenses at the same time. It it kind of reminds me of those old uh kaleidoscopes things where you put the colors down and then the one goes in front of the other and so on and so forth. Uh that's absolutely true. That's a perspective I've never even, that's a an approach I've never even looked at that from. Now we can we can filter the way that we think through the lens of scripture, which is a good thing, but we can also we can stick our trauma lens right in front of that or behind it and distort it. Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_01

And the scripture tells us everything to do.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Everything to do. Be still and know that I'm God is one of them. Okay, He's sovereign over everything, even your marriage.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It's going if you if you persevere, it is going to look like Christ in church. It is going to, in the end. Yeah. It's going to. If you persevere. Um, someone was like asking me the other day where I was dealing with someone, they're like, What if my wife uh cheats on me? What if she's because you know all this stuff's going to? I said, Well, I said you got two options. Forgive her or leave her.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Christian, which one are you gonna do? What did Jesus what did Jesus do for you every single day?

SPEAKER_04

Well, he didn't leave you.

SPEAKER_01

He didn't leave you. He never leaves you. He never he says, I'll never leave you or forsaken you. And how depth of the of nastiness have we been in with our sin? Right. He never left us and abandoned us. That's right. Um be still and know that I'm God's one of them. Uh be uh be slow to speak, quick to listen, and do not get angry. So you get angry. Don't get angry, right? Because anger does not produce the righteousness of God. Man's anger doesn't.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, I needed I needed to hear that just now. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and so it's it's stuff like that. It's all there. Which one are you going to choose to listen to?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And which one are you going to choose partially to listen to or holistically to listen to? Yeah. Right? And that's where I pray the Lord changes me these next couple of months. Because it it's got to go away. Um, it has to go away in myself. Yeah. And I think everyone needs to, you know, just analyze themselves. Why are you doing what you're doing? Like, really, why are you doing what you're doing? Um, and why does everybody else not see the world like you do? You may be living in a false reality that you conquered up in your head that then you placed all these traumas in your place, and now you think everybody's against you, everybody's um wanting to out for you, wanting to hurt you, wanting to steal from you, wanting to take from you, wanting to abandon you. And none of that's true. And you're wasting your life. Yeah. Like you are wasting your life. And I'm thinking of like Philippians 2, where Paul said, you know, um he told me, he said, watch out for those dolls, those workers of the flesh, for we are the true circumcised, and we worship in spirit and truth. He says, If you think you got room to boast, I have more. Circumcise the eighth day, the nation of Israel, tribe of Benjamin, the Hebrew of the Hebrews, as to the law, blameless, as to you know, the acts of the works of the law, righteousness, like he was righteous. He says, But all that that was gained to me, I consider it all to be rubbish, dung, trash, compared to the insurmountable gift of knowing Jesus Christ as my Lord. Yeah, like he had to take everything that he knows about reality and himself and what he's accomplished and have a complete change of mind. Yeah. That's true repentance. No doubt. Like this dude was on his way to kill Christians, all of a sudden he saw Jesus, everything about him changed. Even his view of the world changed, even his view of himself changed.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And that's gotta be us. Amen. And but yet then he says, he was like, All right, I'm a chief of sinners. You know, who's gonna save me from this body of sin and death? The things I want to do, I don't do. The things I uh I want to do, I don't do. The things I don't want to do, that which I do. Oh, who's gonna save me from this body of sin and death? And then he went back, and then he went to the scriptures. But Jesus raised from the dead. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Glory be to God through Christ, those kind of things. That's what's gotta push forward. He said, uh, in Colossians 2, he said in Colossians 2, be built up, be rooted, be grounded, yeah, which means stable. That wasn't me the other day when she got mad at me. Right. Because I'm addicted to problems.

SPEAKER_04

Wow. That's good, man. That's that's it's so kind of indicative of where we are as a just as a culture in general, but but it but we can even experience with it within the church. And um, as believers, we gotta break free from that cycle because it's gonna drag us in places that we don't want to go. We got like five minutes left. I gotta get I got to get your perspective on something. Okay. And I need to hear from Nick on this too, because this is a all right, this is a a man, a man discussion, right now. Yes, it is. I know you're going to, too. All right. A couple weeks ago, I don't well, I don't remember when it happened. That that pastor whooped that boy. Yeah, he whooped him. He whooped that dude. All right. Okay. Let me let me throw this let me throw this out here. I was thinking about this earlier. I think there are two different perspectives that you look at this from. Yes. Right? You look at it as from a Christian perspective, from a what would Jesus do perspective, right? And then you also look at it from a husband and father type perspective. Absolutely. Um, so I think when when I first saw this, first of all, when it came out, the story was not uh what was the truth. Right. The story was a pastor beat up an innocent bystander.

SPEAKER_00

Correct.

SPEAKER_04

That was the story. Yeah. Then it came out uh that the the the so-called innocent bystander was uh shouting horrible things about this pastor's wife and children, talking about doing unspeakable things to them. Um and so, you know, there there's a lot of different takes that I've seen on this. Um I want to throw out there and say that you know, would Jesus go over there and whoop this guy? So of course Jesus would not go over and whoop this guy. That's my that's my personal perspective. I think that um, of course, we know that Jesus possessed righteous indignation, he flipped tables in the temple and so on and so forth. Um, can we not skip the part where he fashioned a whip? He did he did fashion a whip, he whipped some folks. That's that's right. Um, however, uh context. Context. Yes, yes, and I cannot I cannot imagine as a husband and a father hearing those things and not reacting exactly the same way.

SPEAKER_01

All right, here's my perspective we forget that demon possession is real, it's real. So, what did Jesus do? He cast out the demons. Yeah, listen to the profanities, and you're not gonna mention it here, but listen to what he was saying. Yeah, that's demonic. Horrible thing. That's demonic. Yeah. All right, and we have some reason, some way made the spiritual aspects of demon possession like not real in America. But you go overseas, they believe in it, and it is real. Go to Africa, I promise you, you're gonna see witchcraft, you're gonna see real demon possession over there. Um, I have encountered these things before, and I I have even seen a releasing of an oppression spirit before. I've I've sit there and ministered to a guy, and he kept telling me the things that he hears in his head that, and people call it schizophrenia, all that kind of stuff, right? Which you know I'm not again saying I'm not in a miracle professional, I'm a spiritual professional, right? Yeah, so but you sit there and and reveal that things hand, you know, and he said, Yeah, he's telling me to rip your head off your shoulders right now. And I said, Okay. I said, let's pray. Because we forget we have heavenly authority as well as earthly authority here. Yeah, we shouldn't be that man. If you looked at it through a spiritual eyes, he's demon possessed. I acknowledge it right then and there, he's demon possessed. Okay. I'm not speaking to him anymore.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_01

I'm speaking to the thing that's possessing him, and we're about to handle some real business, and then it gets flesh and blood. Yeah. And I've seen a guy get released. I had an intercessor place, which we don't even talk about that anymore either, her hands over the back of his neck because he feels like it was gripping him, because he was oppressed. He wasn't he was oppressed, he wasn't possessed. It's two different things gripping the back of his neck. So she put her hands on the back of his neck, and it was like he said it was like liquid love just fell from his head to his feet. I could see his body swelling because he was growing so bad. All of a sudden he just released as we were praying to the Lord for him to be released of this sexual problem that he had. And he stood up. I said, I've I've never he went from complete wanting to kill me feeling to absolutely thank you for releasing me of this type deal, right? My question to that pastor would be How much time did you in your congregation spend specifically praying for that individual? Yeah, how many intercessors did you put in place to pray for him at their homes? Yeah, like how many people do you have do you have intercessory ministry? Do you have prayer ministry? What I would have done is called up Miss Renee and say, Hey, gather up all your ladies and go to war.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And it'll change. I promise you it will change. It changes every time.

SPEAKER_02

No doubt.

SPEAKER_01

And then the door will be open to ministers at him because the Lord died for him too.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You know what I'm saying? Uh for whoever, whosoever. He may or may not. That's the Lord's work. Yeah. But it's not our decision. Right. It's the Lord's work. So would Jesus do that? No, Jesus would cast out demons. No. Whipping the tables and flipping the tables, what were they doing?

SPEAKER_04

Desecrating the temple.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And which was built and was called this would be a house of prayer and worship. That's what it was built for. Right? And so these people were doing this so that the Gentiles could not come in to pray.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And so he cleaned house. That's a little bit different. If somebody came up in our church and started doing these things so we couldn't worship, it would be different. Oh, it'll be Uncle Phil and people. You know what I'm saying? DJ, Jazzy, Jip, it'll be different. No, go in context, right? Yeah. He was on his side of the street, supposedly on the sidewalk, his property, I don't know. And the pastor came all the way over. Yeah. Going out of emotion, things like that. I I didn't care for that at all. Right. You you people have words. All right. When they step into action stuff, that's a little bit different. If a man enters my property, it's over. You know what I'm saying? For me. Right. If he enters my property after making threats against my family, and I've done everything I'm supposed to do legally, restraining order, reported, everything like that. If he steps foot on my property, it's over.

SPEAKER_04

Sure.

SPEAKER_01

You know, those are different things.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I mean, and I can um condemn the actions of someone but still support them. Yeah. Does that make sense? It does. Um I do not condone taking physical violence out on this individual. I will say the individual swung first, that's clear from the the video. Um however, as a husband and a father, I can certainly understand the the need, the the the feeling of the need to do to to act. Absolutely to do something. Um I felt that I I didn't necessarily when I saw the video, I didn't necessarily immediately feel that from a Christian perspective. Does that make sense? It does make sense. I felt that from a husband and a dad perspective. Um it was kind of interesting. So I will say the the comments. Hilarious. Yeah. Oh man. Uh first and second chronicles.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, chronic chronicles. Oh my gosh, dude. Make him laugh down in green pastures.

SPEAKER_04

Make makes him lie down in green pastures. Oh, dude. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_00

Laying holy hands.

SPEAKER_04

What what did you what was your reaction, uh Nick, when you when you saw it for the first time? Because it it was all it was all over everything.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, that there's definitely a duality that was going through my mind of like I my my immediate reaction was uh man, the church lost today. Um my second reaction was the same as yours. Like, yeah, once I found out that the guy was screaming these obscenities and making threats, I was like, well, maybe he deserved it. But I also, as I kind of calmed down through it, I started thinking about the fact that it felt like he went looking for that trouble.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You know, I mean, there's always a time to defend yourself when it's needed, yeah, but it really felt like he stepped into a space where he didn't have to defend himself. He could have stayed on his own side of the street. Um, like Chris said, he could have gone into intercessory prayer for that man rather than uh attacking him. Because I mean, once he got over there, yeah, the guy swung the first swing for sure. Yeah, but if you watch that whole video, he didn't stop with subduing. He uh he grabbed the back of his head and started punching him in the face. I mean, it was it was pretty rough.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it was overboard. And I and I'm kind of like like you, you use the the word duality. That's the perfect word for it because there's a part of me that goes, Go for it, dude. Whoop that dude's rear end. He deserves it. And you know what? He does deserve it. Yeah, he deserved to have his butt whooped. It is pretty evident that he didn't have his butt whooped enough when he was a child.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it shows he only know how to throw a punch. That's a poor thing.

SPEAKER_04

That's a story for a different day.

SPEAKER_01

Uh but I like to see where his daddy is, actually.

SPEAKER_04

Right. I think his dad was actually one of the parties involved in all this craziness going on in that church, but um but you're absolutely right. Like, uh let me let me just throw let me just say this. Like, I don't I don't blame the pastor, and I also don't condone his actions. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01

It does make sense.

SPEAKER_04

Uh it's it's weird to be on this side of it. It's understanding because as a man, you just you feel like you want to you gotta do something, you've got to act.

SPEAKER_01

You want to help him. Yeah, yeah. Uh it's understanding. Yeah um absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

And I've also heard, you know, some some comments that I halfway agree with, halfway disagree with, like, as Christians, we gotta learn to go on the off offensive, not the defensive, and stuff like that. I'm like, yeah, maybe, but not that way. That's why offensive with prayer and evangelism.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Well, you you also got to think about the fact that you know, we're we are fruit inspectors, and what I inspected was a lack of uh self-control.

SPEAKER_01

No doubt about it. Enjoy.

SPEAKER_04

Um But again, I I will say I don't I don't necessarily blame the man because he, you know, he he was not I would say that he was probably not acting out of righteous indignation, he was acting out of quick impulse anger, right? And I get it because I often act out of quick impulse anger.

SPEAKER_01

And then his uh response got me. He said, I just came back from laying of hands. He he uh disrespected prayer, he disrespected that. Yeah, he wanted to look cool in front of his congregation. Yeah, um watch out for those types. Yeah, just he that showed me right there his heart. If I I I would like to believe if it's was any one of us, we'd automatically go into repentiveness. Yeah, like I shouldn't have responded this way, but as a man I chose to. Yeah, and I pray the best for him. He he hasn't said one good thing about I pray that he comes to know Christ. Yeah, what has he mentioned about Christ actually?

SPEAKER_04

That's very true.

SPEAKER_01

All all I've heard about the Bible and Jesus is I laid I laid some hands that you talking yourself up, yeah, so your congregation can cheer you on.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, and all the all the media attention that he's gotten.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Shame for sure.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that's that's uh that's a good perspective. Yeah, for sure. Well, there you go. There you have it, folks. There's our perspective on all of the things, all of the world's issues. Now, now you know. Chris, brother, thank you so much for being on the show. Um many prayers for you as you're over there, uh up there, over there, across there, over up there doing uh doing the Lord's work, uh, not only the Lord's work, but uh serving our country, and we really appreciate that. Thank you for your support. Absolutely. And as soon as you get back, we'll have a debrief of our own. Oh, it'd be great. And uh we'll we'll have you back on the show and we'll talk all things um what the Lord's been doing in the past four months. It's gonna be great, you know. I I um I think probably if if uh if I could be so bold as to say it's probably gonna be good for you to be up there and and um even though you're working, it's gonna be a bit of a uh decompress, yeah, probably for you. And um it's gonna be a good opportunity for those of us who are still at home to step up and uh do ministry work. So it's gonna be awesome. Love you, man. Thank you for being on the channel. Thank you, brother.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you for your friendship. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

Nick Smith, love you, brother. Love you too, brother. Thank you for your friendship and all you do, and praying for you uh and all of your endeavors that you've got coming up. You're you're still uh putting your nose to the grindstone. You're still pushing forward with all the projects and rehearsals and and all that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and a deployment of my own.

SPEAKER_04

Yep, that's right.

SPEAKER_03

I gotta drive those uh stinking youth kids up to youth camp next week. Yep.

SPEAKER_04

Well, don't don't get any uh speeding violations. We might find you in the in the jailhouse.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I'm gonna have to work on my own self-control.

SPEAKER_04

There you go. No doubt about it. Well, we'll pray for you just as diligently as we will for Chris in that regard.

SPEAKER_03

I'm just kidding. I love this kid. It's gonna be a good time. It's gonna be a great time.

SPEAKER_04

It's gonna be great. Uh to all of you guys listening and watching, thank you so much for your support. Um, we you can, if you feel like supporting us financially, every penny you spend uh on Patreon goes toward making this show happen. Uh because all this stuff, the studio and all this cost money, as you know. Uh so uh thank you for that. You can you can support us at uh patreon.com slash tofer brown. And until next time, God bless you and uh keep safe. We'll love you. See ya.