Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Hey, welcome to 2025. Happy New Year. Brian Phillips here with you today, Grace Ops podcast. It's great to be here. I'm just going to do some vision casting, talk about my trip to DC. It was great to be in Washington D.C.
[00:00:23] and you know, hey, January, we start January. January is kind of like a month that I dedicate to God. Like it, I, I shut everything down mostly. I don't, I don't meet with a lot of people. I, I run a, some of you know, I run a church, my church community. We, we do 21 days of fasting and prayer. So I'm fasting a meal or two a day and then doing a stretch of like trying to do a couple of three day stretches there of, of no food and just in. Why is that important to us? Because just helps us to recenter and refocus on God. So I'm going to share a little bit about some of the things I'm focused on. Really excited about life in general. Just kind of like renewal, re. Centering, rebuking myself is a good, Just being like, man, dude, I've got, I need to get more time with God. It's just been great to ramp up my time in the Word and just get up early and go first thing to prayer and spend hours just hanging out with God worshiping, Bible reading. It's been, it's been amazing. But we do that just about every January, I think for as long as I can remember, for a really long time. So kind of shut down and then I don't work out during January, let my body rest. I'm not really in like content creation mode and I'm not as detailed as Zach would like me to be yet with getting things, you know, done maybe like in fourth quarter so we can launch them in first quarter. But we're getting there. We're getting there, right?
[00:01:48] I'm a visionary. I'm excited about what God's called us to do here at Grace Tops. I'm excited about the purpose and the destiny of Great Stops too.
[00:01:55] Well, hey, I'm going to start with just my trip to D.C. so the last time I was in Washington D.C. was in, I believe it was 2020 in this whole J6 scam that I was there firsthand. And I'll just kind of give you a snapshot of that experience. I was there for Trump's last speech out on the National Mall and it was cold. Okay. So it was cold. We got to remember that. And I'm only going to say that because they, I went to the inauguration, and they moved it indoors. And I was like, come on, homies. Like, we want to be outside. And I don't know, it might have been related to security and all that kind of stuff. You know, everybody's trying to kill Trump or whatever, so. Well, not everybody, but he's had enough attempts to where. If that was a security issue, I totally, totally understand and would support that. But nonetheless, I was in D.C. for 48 hours with my friend Phil Young, who's also on the board of Grace Ops and helps. As you know, he was actually going to film this with me in Washington, D.C. by one of the monuments, but we just never got a chance to.
[00:02:56] The one time we stopped at the Bible museum and we were going to film a episode, it was like, the microphones wouldn't work. I've never had that happen. And it's just crazy because while Phil was with me in Washington, D.C. he was like, the amount of, like, spiritual warfare that is around you is crazy, you know, And I'm sure. I know he has his own fair share of it, too, but it's. It just was. It just was. It's crazy, man. And I'm like, yeah, I guess that's just my typical life. I'm just used to it or whatever. Or maybe guys was trying to teach me a lot of stuff. And it's probably a combination of both. So we're in. I'm in D.C. four years ago, and you might have heard this story in the podcast. If you're newer to the podcast, I'll just share it briefly here. So we go to the Trump speech. There's nothing angry about it. It was just basically, you know, and there was literally hundreds of thousands of people at the National Mall. And. And so it was. Covid had hit, so people, you know, businesses were closed. Well, there was this cigar shop not too far off the National Mall, and there was a. They sold sandwiches and stuff like that, but you couldn't go inside, right? So they had. They were. They were genius. They had these outdoor heaters. And so there's probably 60, 70 or more people just stuffed around the outside of this business. And we're eating lunch and enjoying a cigar hanging out. And then my wife calls, and she's like, hey, what's going on at the Capitol building? I'm like, I have no idea what's going on at the Capitol building. And she's like, well, the news. And she just. And I was like, well, I guess I better get down there. So by the time I wrapped up at the place I was at and got down there, a good 30 minutes had passed. It took me another 20 minutes just to walk down there. So it's. Let's just say easy 40, 45 minutes. So I get out to the front where you remember the epic pictures of people, the scaffolding and flags hanging and people.
[00:04:37] You know, I was in that crowd, and people were singing things like, you know, worship songs, the national anthem. I mean, it was. It was actually pretty cool. It's pretty patriotic. And, yeah, there had been some people that gone in and did crazy stuff or whatever, but for the most part, people outside were. Were very peaceful people. So we eventually make our way around to the back of the Capitol, where there's, like, you know, 800 steps in every. I don't know, every 10 yards, it seemed like there was a police officer. So there's probably at least 50 police officers. And I'm in the back. And so now we're easily an hour past, like, my wife's phone call, maybe an hour, 15, 20 minutes. And then out the back door of the National Capitol building pops the. The guy who had, like, the horns the next day in the news and the face paint and all that. Why didn't. I have no idea that he's going to be in the news the next day? He comes stumbling down the stairs, literally walks right in front of my face, and he's, like, complaining about being cold. And if I just would have taken a picture right, maybe I'd be retired right now. I even. Not that I'm gonna retire, but, you know, I could use the money to advance the kingdom.
[00:05:44] It's like that happened. And I see all this and I'm like, how did the guy. How did that guy. The next day in the news is like, oh, my gosh, that's the guy that passed right in front of my face. Like, how does that guy stay inside the. One of the most secure buildings in the world for an hour plus, and then walk out the back door past all of the police officers, and just right on down the road like nothing ever happened. So I got to see all that firsthand how much of a scam that was. And then obviously, we saw all the leaked videos and footage of people. Police officers letting people in, and it just was. It was crazy. So that was the last time I was in Washington, D.C. and I got an opportunity to go this last week. So we flew out Sunday.
[00:06:24] Long day on my end. I got up and spoke at our church and had a great time of worship and then just got on a plane in the afternoon and landed late and didn't get to bed till one or two in the morning that night. And so we're in D.C.
[00:06:37] and we stayed in Arlington, Virginia on the other side of the Potomac. And just a beautiful area. It really was beautiful and it felt great being there. It really did feel good. I mean, we went to the inauguration, which what that meant was I didn't go stand in lines and try to get inside the arena or. Not like that. I just went out on the National Mall and in. I made a video actually be posting on some of our social media, but just went there and stood there and I wanted to pray, I wanted to make some declarations, I wanted to. I stood there and watched the inauguration on my phone with, you know, many thousands of people around me, hundreds and thousands of people walking around the Mall. And it's just peaceful. It was good to be there. It felt good. The sun was shining. It was a cold day. It was probably 20, 25, high wind blowing. But with the sun out, it, it had to have added, you know, five degrees of warmth to your body. So it's. So if it wasn't security related, it's like, dude, come on, suck it up, do it outside. That's what we want as Americans. But anyway, I'll stop whining about where the inauguration was held.
[00:07:41] But yeah, being in, being in D.C. i really, it was really great, great 48 hours. So the first day, it's all dedicated to the inauguration. Hit another cigar shop later that night. Phil and I just kind of sat there and hung out, watched the national championship game and watched, you know, obviously Ohio dominate Notre Dame and college football. That's, that's a whole crazy subject, right? Like, why are these guys making so much money playing college football? Anyway, we won't talk about that on this episode, but the next day we woke up on Tuesday and we had time because we didn't fly till that evening. And we spent about five hours at the Bible Museum. And I've done a lot of the monuments out in Washington D.C. and it's really just, it's, it's powerful the way it helps you kind of grasp the, the strength and the character of our country and the great people who, who are from America and help shape America. And it just, I don't know, it makes you pro, it makes you proud and, and it makes you want to be a person that wants to live with character and, and, and honor the land in which we live and honor God. And so it was really neat to go to the Bible Museum. It's five levels, and if you can get out to Washington, dc, I would encourage you to check out as many monuments as you feel drawn to check out. But definitely put it on your list to check out the Bible Museum. Five levels of everything about the Bible and man. What a remarkable, impactful day that was. To just be like, man, God's book is mighty and it's global, and it's affecting every culture on the globe, every person, every tribe, every people group. It's really cool to go there and to just kind of immerse yourself in the undeniable power that the Bible actually has among us. And may we be men who live according to the Bible. So I came home from Washington, D.C. to frigid temperatures. It was super crazy cold. When we got back off the plane to Chicago, like, It was like 20, 30 in D.C. but here it was like, literally, like 20 below with the wind. And thank God, the next day it warmed up to 20 degrees, you know, but there was three days of just frigid cold, frigid cold temperatures. And so I was really thankful to be able to go to Washington, D.C. and be on the ground for 48 hours. It felt very hopeful. Uber drivers and different people that you would come across that worked and lived in D.C. man, they were so excited about Trump. And I that felt that to be very refreshing. You know, there was all different colors, races, background people, different backgrounds. Just whoever you talk to, they were just. They're really excited about the days ahead and about Trump and all that stuff. So during the inauguration and that first day and those executive orders, it's pretty, pretty amazing. I wanted to just highlight some of those, right? Like, so I'm standing in front. I'm standing in the National Mall, and this guy with this red coat on and these pink, reddish gold trim glasses, he has this kind of, like, big gold chain, and he's holding these Donald Trump signs. And he's an older guy. He's 60, 70. He's like, I. Ladies and gentlemen of the United States, I'm just announcing the. The golden age of prosperity. It started today, you know, and it was just. It was pretty wild, you know, it's pretty epic. And, you know, see some of the executive orders that were signed, like, there's two genders in our country. I mean, on the one hand, that's awesome, right? It's awesome to hear that some of that madness is getting quieted down and tamed. On the other hand, it's crazy that we'd even have to say that there's only two genders recognized by the national, by our American government.
[00:11:13] But evil's at bay. Evil's not going away. That woke culture that got exposed through the red wave and all that kind of stuff. It's not like, it's like, oh, darn, we tried. No, it's regrouping, it's reshaping, and it's going to look for another way to attack.
[00:11:30] So I'm excited about executive orders because that's awesome. It's refreshing, but that's. We've got to do the work of endurance. We have to run the race, we have to work, we have to endure as men, as women. We have to turn our hearts back to God, not just depend on political reform. So, yeah, I want reform and I want all this stuff to be changed and set right and set back. And I'd love to see there be an executive order that would outlaw pornography. I think that would be awesome. But I'm just bringing that up because that's always been a deep want of mine. It's like, hey, let's just end it. Let's just. It's ridiculous. It's stupid. It's, it's, it's just sexual morality and it's, you know, it's something that I had to overcome and it's things. That's the number one thing I've had to fight most of my whole life is that type of thing, spiritual, you know, lust and all that kind of stuff. So to be open with you a little bit there and be vulnerable. But I loved the fact that, you know, there was an executive order signed about 2 genders, free speech, the J6 pardons. I think there was 1500 people pardoned from the last time I was there. Somewhere in between there, 1500 plus people got incarcerated, put in jail.
[00:12:46] Imagine if Trump wouldn't have won. I mean, it's just the crazy path our country was on.
[00:12:52] Ah, I mean, this is cool. The red wave thing was cool. Getting Trump back in the office is very refreshing and it's amazing. But God is opening a window for us. This is a window of opportunity. It's a window for us to advance the kingdom, to stay focused on why I hope God prospers. You. I want God to prosper. My bank account, I would love that. But I want to stay focused, not to just go buy more stuff and just live the blessed American life. I want to say, God, I want to take these funds and I want to funnel them into your kingdom. Want to funnel them into, like the book of Hebrews, chapter 10 says that Christ brought many sons to glory. And I may we do that. May we do that. May grace ops be like a culture of warriors, advancing the kingdom of God by living upright, by embracing a values driven lifestyle, and by bringing change where we go, by impacting people, by challenging culture and calling them out of darkness into light.
[00:13:50] All right, so there's a return. You could feel a sense of return of national pride in a good way. You know, we're proud to be Americans again.
[00:14:02] Drill, baby, drill. I can't wait till we start seeing the fruits of that and how that's going to help the economy and. And then the rebuilding of the wall around our borders. And there's a ton of executive orders. My. My main goal wasn't to go over all that. I just wanted to highlight some of the stuff from my DC trip. It was just so refreshing. It was like, oh, this is really cool. Like, all the things that you pray about. And then I'm still pre hardcore.
[00:14:22] We've got to go after wokeism in our local schools. That's. I don't. That's not just Trump's job. And then in the government moms and dads need to make, every time it raises its head, we need to go in with kindness and love and have conversations and be like, why is this here? Like, I'm asking my daughter's school, why is there an LGBTQ display? I've been asking them this for many months, but, like, why is there a display on the walls? Like, it's. This is not a civil rights type thing. It's been compared to that type of stuff, but it's just not. And to teach LGBTQ and all this perversion and sexual perversion and confusion and all that kind of stuff, it doesn't belong on the walls of our schools. And quite frankly, neither does blm. Black Lives Matter doesn't belong in the walls of our schools. And I'll just. I'm just going to say this, right? Do Black Lives Matter 100%? Do brown lives matter 100%, but so do white lives. I think it's a problem when we start segregating the subcultures of our culture, of our. Of our country, and making, you know, Mexican Pride Month or Hispanic Pride Month, Black Pride Month? All this because let's just say it out loud, right? Like, who's gonna. Who's gonna come out and say, oh, which month is White Pride month or White. White Culture Celebration Month?
[00:15:35] See, the problem is if you say that, you're hated for obvious reasons, right? Because we're Just these white supremacists, white, white privileged people. Right. And I. I don't know, I mean, I love Trump's whole thing of, like, let's be colorblind, because that's what most Americans are. I mean, most people. I mean, when I was in Washington, D.C. i was talking to Middle Eastern and white people, black people. No one cared what color you were. And it was really cool. And I'm just tired of that whole race card always being put on our face. Always. And, man, I'm so thankful, so thankful that, like, mainstream media is starting to realize how tired America is of the lies and of these stupid pressures that I'm talking about right now. We're tired of it. We're tired of this stuff being shoved in our faces and stuff down our throats, and we're just tired of it. So I hope I'm not going to just trust the government to do everything for me. That's awesome that we got, you know, the right guy in there, the right team and stuff. But I'm going to challenge you. You need to get. You need to go to some local board meetings and get involved in some local politics. Maybe you need to run for local politics, right? Like this. It's a big mess. It's a big cleanup on aisle two, kind of thing that we need to work on.
[00:16:47] All right, let me see here. Hope you're having a good new year. Hope you. Hope you're starting off to a good new year. I've just been working on, getting focused, excited about some things that are coming up. Working on some. I'm working on a really cool partnership that I'll be talking about in the next couple episodes, and some cool things. A book. Want to write a book or two this year. And that's a big statement, but I'm. I'm ready. I'm focused. I think I've got the framework for the books. The first one should be quick and easy because that one I've only been working on for, like, 20 years, in my head, in my heart, my life, you know, but looking forward to those developing. And so great partnership that I believe is coming with Grace Ops, and we'll talk more about that in the future.
[00:17:27] Also wanted to open up this.
[00:17:30] This talk here. So this part of Grace Ops. So Grace Ops is I don't like to pigeonhole it in as, like, a men's ministry. I don't like to call it a men's ministry, although it can serve as that for sure. And the reason it can serve as that is because we Aim it to men. We want men to be men who live strong after God. And, and who, who are men like David, who are, you know, men, men after God and, and going strong, you know, building strong marriages, building strong families. And if they're single, building lives of purity and looking either, either running strong with God. If that's. If God's blessed you to not be married or to be. Keep yourself pure for those days of marriage and keep yourself focused and intentional to be in God's call that is placed upon your life. So Grace Ops is really, we're really pushing strong to raise up an army, mobilize an army. And I see that for the whole family. I don't just see it for men. I want to aim it to men. But I want to see moms, I want to see husbands and wives, I want to see children, I want to see a family conference. I mean, there's a lot of cool stuff that I have in my heart that I want to see down the road as Grace Travis matures and grows. And this partnership I'm talking about, it's kind of going to help bring a lot of energy to that. So I can't wait to talk about that.
[00:18:44] So, yeah, on that topic though, my wife and I. My wife Christy, you may not even know my wife, but we've been married for this summer will be 27 years. We have, we have four children and a grandchild on the way and we have a grandchild. So we're excited and we want to. I'm going to start doing some podcast episodes at least once a month is the goal with my wife. And we're going to talk about things like marriage and parenting and just kind of have fun together. My wife and I have a good dynamic together and I look forward to bringing that to the Great Stops culture. And again, it's to, it's really to bring into greater focus and reality of what Grace Ops ultimately is called to do. And that's to equip families, moms and dads to raise up strong sons and daughters running strong after the kingdom of God, that we would have values driven families, values driven, you know, men and women all over. I mean, because Grace Ops is kind of like the look of it, the logo, the look, the tagline, live upright, all that stuff. It attracts first responders, military. It's kind of, it's kind of this gnarly, like military esque look, you know, of the kingdom of God. And so, you know, hey, let's, let's raise up warriors that are in love with God and want to do God's will in the earth. So we're excited about all that. Okay. So I told. I don't know if I. I think I mentioned this, but I might not have mentioned it up to this point, but something new in my life about a week ago. A week. 10 days ago now. For 10 years, I've tried to do this. I wrote about it on my Facebook, if you follow me there on my Facebook profile. But for well over 10 years, I've had a shofar. I don't have it down here in my office right now, but I've had this great shofar. Someone bought it for me in Israel, and I've just always had it. And I've tried to blow it for well over 10 years, and I can never make any good sound come out of it. And I've watched. I even watched videos. I was like, dude, I'm gonna. I'm gonna dedicate my heart to learning how to blow the shofar and all this kind of stuff. I've been in meetings. People bl. So far, they'll hand me one, and it's just the most humiliating thing to try to do. Zero confidence. And so it's been.
[00:20:55] It's been hard in that area of my life because I'm like, ah, I love the. I love the shofar. I love the sound of it, but I can't make a sound through it saved my life. And during this fast and prayer time at the church, Andrew, one of my friends who's part of grace, loves culture, he brought his shofar to our church. And we're just. I was talking. We were just all talking about it, and I hadn't blown it so far in over a year or tried to blow it because I couldn't. Can't blow one. I couldn't @ that time. And it was really cool because he was giving me a tip about, you know, try it off of the side of your mouth. And I was like, yeah, that's cool. And I go. Because, like, I was telling him, I was like this. I know what you do with your lips. I know how you position them. I know the sound you make. And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right? So, yeah, dude, the next day, I just picked up my shofar, and I was like, I'm gonna try this, like, right away. Could blow. It blew my mind. And then my heart's just been open to this sound of the shofar, right? It's. It's a horn. It's a ram's horn. And I don't know. So I'm really excited about. I've been. I've been blowing the shofar now every day for like 10 days and separate when I was in Washington. So I'm excited about that. That's kind of a new development in my life and I can feel, I can feel a change in my heart. It's pretty cool. I can feel. Feel drawing me in and. But anyway, we're excited about. About a lot of things moving forward. Looking forward to first quarter. Really kind of getting cranked up for us.
[00:22:11] Wanted to share one verse with you as we close out. Obviously gracehubs is a values driven culture and our, our values is honor, affection, liberty, war and valor. And we'd love for you to go to our website and sign the five star charge. That's something where we just got it put in place fourth quarter. We want you to sign it, sign up on the text messaging stuff. It'll text message you every day to kind of get in and get your. I built a little mini course. It literally takes less than 10 minutes to go through the whole thing. But we divided it up over seven days so you could take your time, focus on each day. 5 minutes, 10 minutes just on the values. So it helped. It's an introductory piece to help introduce people to the grace of culture and why we have these values and why they matter in our lives. But as we are in a new year, it's very important. In Philippians chapter three, Paul talks about something that I thought was very powerful. So Paul's a great apostle and when you get around great people or people are really good at certain, certain things, you always ask him, what's the one thing? What's the secret? What's that one thing that you. What's the thing? You tell me what's the shortcut or you know what I mean, how we think about it, just extract out the most powerful thing from that person. And Paul uses this language. He's like, he's like the, you know, he says, I do not consider ma. He said, the one thing I do is to forget what lies behind.
[00:23:27] That's it. He says, I forget the one thing. Here's my secret that I do is I forgive is forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. And I press on towards the goal for the prize of upper call of God in Christ Jesus. So I just want to encourage you with that today as you are in a new year.
[00:23:47] Sometimes in our lives, I hope, you know, if you've got trauma or pain or, you know, obviously you Want to. You want to take care of your own heart. You want to allow the Lord to minister to you and heal you. But sometimes, and I think a lot of us need to hear this in this day and age, I just need to forget stuff, deal with it, and then forget it. And it was kind of cool because as I think about this, God gives us permission to forget it. Like, I can bring it to him, place it at his feet, and then it's his and I can forget it. He's not going to forget it, because God doesn't forget injustice. He doesn't forget those things. But guess what? You can, Paul did.
[00:24:26] So you can bring your hurt and your pain to God and say, God, here it is.
[00:24:31] Now I'm going to forget it, and I'm going to move on, and I'm going to press on towards the goal, and I'm not going to be defeated. I'm going to walk in victory. How many people quit stuff, quit church? Like, church culture? Like, I got called to church culture sometimes. Like, is that a blessing? I know it's not a curse, but the joke. I wanted to say that as a joke, but I've had a lot of friends in church culture just quit, quit, quit, quit, quit. They quit. They quit because this guy. They quit because that guy, they quit because this circumstance or that circumstance. And I'm like, dude, now it's hard to watch. I'm not quitting.
[00:25:05] I've made this for 30 years now. I'm not quitting. I'm focused.
[00:25:10] And it's an honor to be doing life with you during Gracehouse culture with you. So I encourage you that as we leave, as we wrap up this episode, do like Paul. Be like Paul and forget those things that have hurt you, plagued you, come against you, put them behind you, put them at the feet of the cross and say, father, these are your things now. This is your pain. Now this is yours. And maybe that's part of the process that you need to go through to help you get over it.
[00:25:37] All right. Hey, I'm looking forward to a great 20, 25, and I'm looking forward to building strong momentum and to really making strong, lasting impact in the earth in the hearts of men as we help men and women all across this globe turn back to God. Hey, until next time, God bless you. Live upright.
