Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Hey, what's up? Brian Phillips here with grace Ops. I'm sitting with a really good friend of mine for, I don't know, 1015 years or longer.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: No, longer.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Longer.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: You're getting old.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: He always corrects me. I'm getting old. Yeah, I am. I just don't realize it. But hey, it's good to have you here with us today on this episode. So I've got Bob Kopp, Doctor Bob Kopp, who's an author, pastor, prophet, motorcyclist, cigar aficionado.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: You know, that's really nice.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: The list just keeps going. The man of the beard.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Well, very nice. You've got kind of, I'm a non best selling author. I'm following about a trillion to one behind in sales of that. You told me to be feisty. That horror. Joel Osteen.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Well, yeah. I thought you were going to say the toothy guy from Texas.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: The toothy guy from Texas, you know.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: But you did get feisty. You there?
Okay, that's where we're at. Anyway, Bob cop here. We're going to be just talking about like, the culture where we're at, what's going on, and the wind chimes. Hopefully you're not getting nuts at one, honest.
But we're looking at just, we don't talk about Trump Kamala. Why pastors are weak in this hour, soreness. Thoughts on graduate Bonhoeffer. So, yeah, we're just going to dive into it here and have some fun.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Well, yeah, those are the wind chimes in the back of my yard. Brian's just taking it down. I hope it goes back up or my wife will do it on me or something.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, we're on your back deck.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: We're on the back deck in glorious. It's a great place where we smoke cigars and talk a lot about.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: So what's the, what's the deal nowadays? I mean, like, I'm talking like Trump Kamala. I mean, I mean, I don't know if there's ever been a more unprecedented opposite extreme. And I don't, and you know, I say this, I don't know, I don't think we don't live in the United States of America anymore. We live in the divided people. And I wouldn't say the states are divided as much as the people are.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: I had some pastor in town.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Keep talking. Fix his mic.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that's all right. Go ahead. I was talking to some pastors in town recently, and they were talking about they need to work through the polarization. They need to work through the division in our country. And I said in a christian kind of way, bologna. I mean, the reality is this has been a war. It's been a war since the garden when God said there would be a war between your seed and her seed. He's talking to the serpent Satanas. And I think what's happening, it increases and increases and increases and increases to this moment where I've been around a long time. I've been ordained since 19 Madden 5th, 1977. And I have never seen such a collision of light and darkness in America and in churches than I've ever seen before.
And really it crystallized for me the other night where I was sitting down with some judges, a sheriff, a bunch of law enforcement people, campaign managers for District 17 that are working on the race between the incumbent, the sodomite Eric Sorensen and Judge Joe McGraw, who really entered. And the reality is, you folks need to know this. Joel, remember that prayer occurred on this back porch. Judge Joe McGrAw, Brian Phillips and I sat here trying to discern the will of God for Joe should he run for office. After a stellar, faithful career as judge and chief judge of the 17th district. And it was like a bolt of lightning, 5000 watts of the Holy Spirit running through our body. It was very clear that Joe should run for office.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: One of the things to relate to your subject, Brian, is that.
So I'm at this meeting and there are some judges, there's some political candidates, I won't mention Judge McGraw by name, but he's there. And Judge McGraw said something, and I don't mind saying this and I don't get a clearance from him on this, but the reality is, he said his most disappointing conversations have been with pastors and he found that the pastors would say, well, Judge McGraw, I really agree with everything that you say. I know this is a critical hour. You got to save the republic, you ought to honor Jesus, you got to advance the kingdom. But you know, I got some people in my church that like Eric Sorensen.
And Joe says, well, so in other words, you're more concerned about offending people than the Lord. And then Judge McGraw said something, and I know you want to comment on this. He said several of these pastors, by the way, usually mainline pastors, but the reality is sideline pastors are as big a weenies as the mainliners these days. But what happened is he looks on their bookshelf right behind them, copies of Eberhard Bethke's biography of Bonhoeffer and Eric Metaxas Bonhoeffer biography. And you know, here you have a guy who says when Christ calls, a man, he bids, comes and die with me. Step out of the boat. Realize you're going to live with Jesus a lot longer than that. But they're so concerned about their perks, their pensions, their popularity, their prosperity, everything fixed in time that they forget that they're going to live a lot longer with Jesus than anybody else. So what happens is they say, well, I'm a concern that I may offend some people of my congregation by being for Joe McGraw, clearly a follower of Jesus by the book, as enlightened by the Holy Spirit, who never contradicts Jesus by the book. Instead, I'm going to satiate, pacify, suck up, to kiss their unholy, righteous butts because they're favoring Asada Mike, something like that.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: All right, tune in next week for we.
No, right on. I mean, pastors and leaders in the Sauer have failed. And if a pastor, I believe personally that if a pastor is not talking about the election, and I don't mean just telling you how to vote or, you know what, who you would be going to the ballot to vote for, I mean, that at least that should be like the bare bone minimum level that every church should be doing.
But I think this is the day and age. You know, when Darren Bailey was running for governor of Illinois, I had a Darren Bailey sign out front.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: I mean, I've made comments.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: We have a Trump sign up front here. We'll get to that.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Yeah, and I'll probably put a Trump sign up in front of my church. I don't. The government really doesn't have the power of the 501 c three s like everyone thinks they do. Because I asked Darren Bailey that when he was, you know, a year ago or so back, back in the day, I was like, well, what would they do to me? And he's like, well, what are they going to do to you? He was like, pritzker goes to all the democratic churches. And down in Chicago, you know, he's like, they do it, too. He's like, they're telling, when Pritzker goes to a church, don't you think they're telling that church, hey, vote for this guy. You know? So. But, yeah, the cowardice of the hour. Teacher Bonhoeffer talked about how the churches, we're the conscious voice. We're the voice of consciousness in a culture, and we bring the heart of God into the arenas. You know, psalm 127 talks about it, says, blesses the man who says he will not be put to shame. The man who fills his quiver with sons and daughters, spiritual sons and daughters, says he won't be put to shame when he stands, when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. And we're supposed to be in the gate, the places of influence. We're supposed to be there speaking. And what we're speaking is the consciousness of God. We're speaking, hey, that's not right. We're not supposed to do that way. And think about this. I thought about this in a different way in the last couple weeks. When the Bible says that sin is defined as the good we know, you know, he who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do its sins, well, we're born with that. Yeah, we're, we're born with it. We already know the good we ought to be doing.
No one has to really teach us that.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Well, one of the things that I've come very clearly about, if a person is nothing for Jesus, no matter who, what, where, when or why, consistently in and outside of the doors of their church, they're no heaven good to anybody. No heaven good to God. And one of the things that I remember, Oswald chambers my utmost for his highest and his January 7 devotional. It shook me to the core of who I am. He said that a person who is intimate with Jesus has strong, calm, courageous sanity in the face of anybody. And I find that again.
And I'd ask you folks out there, when you're listening to this, when you sit at a table with some moron, that's a euphemism for saying someone who's going to vote for Kamala Harris or Eric Sorensen, when you sit with them and they say, well, yeah, but when you sit with them and say, for example, oh, the reason I don't like, I don't like Trump because he's an insufferable, narcissist, historical misogynist, okay. A Kamala Harris will kill babies up to the point of delivery.
No one is pure and perfect in every way. Everybody needs Jesus, which is an ancient.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Spiritual battle of gods. And Molec and I, yeah, I mean, this is like, it's, it's ancient gods in our, in our current day.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: But I have a thing about this, and I don't, you know, you, you've heard me say this. I don't get into pissing contests with skunks. Trying to be rational with the irrational is illogical. So I'll give a person a chance to. So they have, show they have some critical thinking skills, that they have some Jesus Christ consciousness, but once I hear them trying to make excuses for, um, for Kamala Harris, I will go and I'll say, I will just want you to know, and because we're called to be the salt, not the honey of the earth, I'll say, I want you to know I love you, God loves you, but I'm praying for your soul, because I can't see how a Christian, a follower of Jesus, could ever vote for Kamala Harris or in the 17th congressional district. Eric Sorensen. I just don't see how it's possible you could vote. I don't find any rationalization for that. I am not telling you to vote. Well, I guess I am, but I'm not telling you you have to vote for someone who I think maybe wrong is going to honor Jesus a heaven a lot more than those people who don't even have God on their radar. I mean, for crying out loud, Kamala Harris refers to ecclesiastes as ecclesiasticus. Ben Shapiro went wild on that one recently. But if you are going to be voting for Kamala Harris or Eric Sorensen, don't even, I don't even want to talk to you about it. I'm going to pray for your soul, because obviously, you are not close enough with Jesus. You don't have enough biblical literacy to see the obvious difference and see how one is clearly trying to walk in the light, and one, the light is not even on her or his rainbow radar.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Well, I think since Trump's assassination attempt, so much, so many things have happened. I mean, that was a big event, but it was buried quick.
The, the rate of the world's, the hurricanes, like, just all of, you know, banking systems going down. I mean, it's insane to, you know, we live in unprecedented times. And, yeah, I, you know, I feel like Trump has changed since that day. Like, I sense it in his demeanor at the Republican National Convention. He had a different spirit about him, a more, golly spirit about him. And I'm not trying to build him up. God is my savior. You know, God is. Christ is my savior. God is the king. Right? Like, his kingdom is what I live for every day. Trump's not any type of, you know, hero or, like, savior to me, but I do believe that Kamala Harris is a lying marxist, communism, absolutely like, person. She's all, she's going to say anything she wants. She's even stole half of Trump's campaign just to try to make herself look good because she can say anything she wants because she's not going to do anything because she hasn't done anything anyway. So there's not going to be any energy behind what she's doing. But if you look at this from a deep, you know, look at. Just look at it from one single biblical viewpoint as the family, you know, Marxism, like Kamala Harris tears down the family.
They want government to basically replace the parents. You know, when they support cutting off the gender, you know, cutting off the genitals of our children, I mean, they support that stuff.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: They support it in a way where a five year old can make this decision without their parents involved. That's replacing the parent, that's government replacing the parenthood. Inflation is just to drive us crazy, drive us poor, drive us into control.
They're trying to divide the families, divide the households. And when you take away identity, when I can't identify as a man and my wife can't identify as a woman, like when that becomes offensive because we're supposed to use different types of pronouns. I mean, this all just nonsense. It's demonic nonsense. I have a guy in grace ops that I'm really proud of and a few nights ago he shared a story with me because he works at the BMO and he's kind of up in the upper leadership. And I guess a transgender person filed a complaint. You know, one person's trying to change the whole bmo now in the bathrooms and all this stuff. And they told this man to write policy to back this up and we were going to go that way or whatever. And he just said, no, I'm not doing it.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: And they said, yeah, you are. And he said, no, I'm not. He said, I'm not doing it. He said, I'm. He said, you can fire me if you want to, but I'm not. He goes, that's mental illness. I'm not writing a policy for somebody has mental illness. And he just stood his ground and then HQ got involved and actually supported his you and said, yeah, he doesn't have to write the policy or whatever. And so. And that's if you're not willing in this hour as a pastor. So when I talk about the bold, when I'm bold in front of people and I'm willing to lose people or gain people, however you look at it, amen. I'm looking. But what I'm really doing is trying to honor the heart of God. I'm trying to honor the biblical values because the constitution reinforces my biblical rights. It's not the other way around. It's not like the constitution gives me rights that the Bible gives us rights as unalienable rights that the constitution is actually a protection of.
And so when I, when I'm bold like that and I'm willing to lose everything when I'm saying things like this from a platform and from these platforms, I'm taking a high risk of being canceled, being cut out, being, you know, losing everybody in my church. And you know what my 100% faith is in the fact that God will take care of me. I don't doubt that I'm called of God. I don't doubt that I'm speaking on behalf of God. I'm not perfect, and I see, what is it like we see in a mirror? Vaguely, right? Right. I don't claim to have it all together, but what I do know of God, I'm going to stand on. And I know family is from God, and I know male and female is from God, and marriages between a man and a woman, all that is from God. And I'm not going to support a government that wants to come in and control us. Look at what Stalin did. Right? Like, that's the path that, that Harris is going to have our country on. It's going. I mean, they're already controlling the food anyway. I'll stop.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: No, that's great. Well, you were. You're referencing.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: I get a little pissed off about this stuff.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: We are. We both are. You know, I remember you were quoting one corinthians 13. You know, I see it in a mirror dimly. Now, one of the lines that when it ends, the apostle Paul says, when I was a child, I spoke like a child, reasoned like a child, thought like. But when I became a man, how about this? When I became a follower of Jesus, I decided to look up, stand up, speak up, and act up for Jesus by the book, as enlightened by the Holy Spirit, who never contradicts Jesus by the book. What you find today, again, is a lot of folks, and I don't know why they entered ministry, maybe to be a good humor man or something like that, but they entered the ministry really in a religiously cultural kind of way to basically pacify folks. To pacify folks in that, you know, God loves you just the way you are. Now, Fred Rogers, when he said that, I knew Fred Rogers personally. When you talk to him personally, he would say, God loves you just the way you are, but too much to leave you just the way you are. Folks out there, you got to stop thinking like Democrats. You got to stop thinking like Republicans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists. You got to start thinking like Jesus. You got to say, what, will this, will this honor Jesus? Will this advance his kingdom? If so, then pursue that. If not, then you've got to abandon yourself. When you enter that voting booth, you're going to say a lot about your relationship with Jesus. I'm going to tell you right now, if you vote for Kamala Harris or Erica Sorensen, you're going to make Jesus weep. It's going to be like Mel Gibson's passion of the Christ when he was crucified and that tear came down from heaven from the Father. And you better get one thing straight.
Everybody talks about, oh, you're talking works righteousness. You're talking works righteousness. Bologna. Read James. Whatever. Read Jesus. Read the whole Bible. And it's very clear how you behave.
What you do is an expression of what you believe. And what you believe, you better bet your soul on it. Determines your ultimate destiny. And so when you go in that voting booth this year, vote for Jesus.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: Vote for the person.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: If they go, I mean, if that's the big problem, you got to get out there. If you care, if you. I mean, that's why Joan McGraw sat on this back porch with Brian and me and prayed, because he said, we need to save the republic. And the only one who can save the Republic is Jesus.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: And I was at a rail the other night. Yeah, I know. You weren't. You weren't able to make that right.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Thank you for reminding everybody about that.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: Oh, well, no, you had things going.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: I did.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: I know you would have been there.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: I would have been there.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: And so Tom Devore spoke at the end, and he really did a great job, like painting the story of the numbers and who shows up for presidential elections versus midterms. And he really put it out there really well, and we really lose because in the midterms, even for the presidential stuff, we just have to have. It's as simple as people going to vote. And he pointed this out. He's like, we're the state because we all think Illinois is terrible. I mean, you know, we live in Illinois. You might be listening from another state, but we're. It's like Illinois. Cause Illinois is terrible right now. But he reminded me, and I never thought, I never didn't remember this way. And I know you remember this, but I was younger and I didn't really track it very well. But this is the state that got Reagan right. We were the red state that got Reagan going. So he's like, don't blame us being blue on Chicago. And that was a good correction to me, I needed to hear that.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: That is a good point. And it reminds me of something I said to those folks, just.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: And it all boils down to voting.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, one of the things that I, when Joe and some other folks were talking to me and very disappointed with clergy and pastors for being such weenies, agreeing with the last person they've talked to, like bad sentences ending in prepositions, I said to them something that. And it brought them some relief. And that is, don't blame Jesus for people who say they're Christians but don't follow Jesus.
So one of the things that I do is I'm trying to just pray for their souls, pray for the conversion, because if they're truly converted to Jesus, there's no way they're going to vote for Eric Sorensen. There's no way they're going to vote for Kamala Harris.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: And if you love Jesus, you're gonna vote absolutely. There's no such thing as, like, ignoring the political realm because you're some kind of king, kingdom minded person.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Don't you love that?
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Don't you love that?
[00:20:17] Speaker B: Oh, this hits. This hits a nerve with me. How many times have I met people, pastor, you shouldn't be talking about politics. You shouldn't be talking. Hello. Read the Bible. Hello.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: It's politics that got Jesus killed. It's got John Baptist killed.
[00:20:33] Speaker B: Prophetess, Nobby. It said, pay attention to God from top to bottom. So all you morons out there who are saying things, not you, because you're listening, very faithful, of course, but the folks that you're going to introduce this tape to is keep the tape. I'm old, but the point is, it's a cassette.
Is that a Christian is a Christian all the time, no matter who, what, where, when, or why. And a Christian is trying to transform things in ways that will honor Jesus. So we have always been heavily involved.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: We have called occupy till he comes. Occupy till he comes prophetic through the human heart. That's how the will of God is done, is through the human heart, through our actions. That's it.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: We have a friend, a dumb guy. Well, I guess he's not really.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: So I bring him on.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: No, I'm not.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: He's the name caller. Did you say Erica Sorenson earlier?
[00:21:30] Speaker B: I think you said Erica, but I'm sitting at this meeting once. I think Brian was at this meeting. Yeah, you were. And some guy says he tries to differentiate being a pastor from being a prophet. And I said, that's absurd. You cannot be a pastor unless you're a prophet. And if you're a prophet, you're a pastor. Because what the prophet does is prophetess. And Nabi says, pay attention to God. Pay attention to goddesse for the good of your soul and the good of those around you so.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: Well, hey, you know, we, we could go on and on about this, but our, you know, the real goal of why we're talking about this is to show you from our end because we are very bold in how we talk and we're bold from our church, you know, in our communities. And, you know, to be honest with this, why people come to my church, not the only reason, but it's one of them, you know, because they know that there's a strong representation of the biblical values and none of us are perfect at our church. And we're all trying and we're all being disciples together and we're learning and growing and, you know, aching together and doing all that beautiful kingdom stuff. But, hey, we just want to encourage you to, you know, first and foremost, keep your faith in God.
[00:22:42] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Keep your faith in God and trust in Christ. And, you know, if you are a pastor, you know, I don't even know how many pastors would listen to my, my messaging because I'm highly rejected by church culture. But if there is pastors out there and you're bold for God in these ways we're talking about, that's awesome. We applaud you and I'd love to connect with you more if you're just a man out there and you're looking for a church and you can't find one, because I know that's a real thing in this hour. It's hard for men to find a church today.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: So I would love to have you connect more and more to grace ops. Reach out. To me personally, I've got some personal discipleship ramps that we're building right now where I'd love to pour into your life. But nonetheless, the most important thing is we do have a responsibility to take action in voting. Voting still a thing. Whether you believe in it or not or you think it's corrupt or not, it's still something that I believe God will hold us accountable to and that's not in the Bible. But I do believe that, you know, for us to do the right thing is in the Bible and to go vote is the right thing to do. So, you know, in a way, a little bit away out there, you know, stretching it out there. I think God does value these things. And, you know, the cool thing is we see all the, especially this day and age, a lot of technology and you know, how fast things move. We get to see governments from a distance and far speeds and we know a lot of things right now. We have a lot of knowledge in this day and age.
It's kind of neat that when God comes, he's going to show us the ultimate government.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: His government and his kingdom. Government's already here. So you want to pray as we close out? Let's pray for our country.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: Both of us or me?
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Just you. Okay, let you pray.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: Father, I give thanks today for the privilege to be with Brian.
Brian, who I've known for a long time. And Brian is dedicated to looking up, standing up, speaking up and acting up for you. And so I pray that you'll continue to bless his ministry, place hedges of protection around him as he is a target for evil. And sometimes that evil shows up as wolves in sheep clothing. I pray for everyone who listens to this podcast and forwards this podcast on others to encourage them, to salt them.
And I pray, o Lord, that you'll bless this broadcast, that it'll nudge people by your holy spirit, nudge them to get involved, to bring a smile for Jesus, for the advancement of his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. We pray this in the great name of Jesus. Amen.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Amen. Hey, remember at graceops we believe that men have a higher calling and we're here to resource you, equip you. This calling takes discipline, takes integrity, and it takes values that are supposed to be lived out in action. So. Well, God bless all of you. Until next time, live upright.
