Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, welcome to the Gracehouse Podcast. It's an honor to have you here with us today. I'm sitting here in our studio with a great friend of mine, Joe McGraw. He's been on our podcast before. I always call him Judge Joe. And can you ever retire from that name? I'm not. I'm not sure. It's just you, like a Marine, you never. You just always.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: You always have the honor of. And most people, you know, can't remember your name. So you're always going to be judge.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I say it all the time. Judge Joe. That's just kind of how I know you, but you're much more than that. And to, you know, we want to kind of take some time today.
I'm honored to have him here as a man after God, because that's one of the things that I've loved about Judge Joe all these years that I've known you. You know, we've. We. We've done like.
We've done, like brotherhood, man. We forged brotherhood together.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: You know, we've cried together. We've prayed together. We've been with each other in highs and lows of life. And so that's kind of what we're trying to champion in this whole culture of grace ops is to forge brotherhood and do this in your backyards. And, you know, it's not. That's not easy work. You know, it's hard work, and you got to be willing to be there, be present, be vulnerable. So it's really cool to have Joe with us again on the podcast. And we want to start off by just kind of, like, diving into some politics. You know, that's what you're supposed to talk about. Right. In life every. So just go right towards politics and religion.
So we want to just kind of get into, like, you know, we both watched the entire 30 of the state of the Union address by President Trump a few nights ago. A couple nights ago. And just talk. Let's. Let's just dive in there. Like, what stood out to you? Good and bad? What. What kind of. You know, you're a judge and also ran for Congress, so you. You're kind of been in the game, man. You know, you ran for Congress in a very insane, kind of, like, district.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Gerrymandered.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: I mean, it's insane what you were up against and did really well, but tough battle to win. That was an uphill battle.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: Came in second.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Came in second. Yeah, that's right. There you go. I like it. But no, you're a warrior, man. And you're out there fighting and, you know, we were. We were there for you the whole way and.
But yeah. So what stood out to you?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: You know, it was sort of a microcosm what's going on in America.
There's a group of people that are very much in support of President Trump and there are another group of people that are completely opposed 100% to anything he says or does and to the point where it's not even rational. And, you know, thinking about the role of the church, you know, you know, our salvation doesn't come from President Trump, you know, or not at all, or those that are elected leaders. But what it has. His victory has given us a window of time to begin reasserting ourselves in our culture and our communities as biblical leaders leading biblically biblical thought. Whereas had the election gone the other way with a government sponsored censorship and.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: The lawfare, I can't even imagine we.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Would have been in a much worse position.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Totally different scenario.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Wow. Well, talk about the differences, because the deception, which is so demonic in so many ways, really, it seems like the theories of the left, like BLM and LGBTQ and, and the wokeism is really what I believe has found its moorings. You know, if you read Jonathan Cahn's book, the Return of the Gods, he talks about the spirit of Ishtar, this ancient spirit goddess. And her. I. Her like, icon logo was like the rainbow. And, you know, we kind of. We kind of let her out and let her have, you know, but now with Trump back in, it was kind of like, hey, you know, we've. We've moved that agenda over and pushed it back, pushed it back, kept it at bay. It's going to reorganize, it's going to re. Re attack.
But it's really sad because I watched. I don't know where I watched this, but like, I watched some clips of like 1950s Democratic convention, and it was like almost like a church service. You know what I mean? It really. It felt like that. It was like, oh, my. The call of God on my life was like, these were Democrats talking that way and the Republicans were talking that way. And it was like they talked so close. They were so aligned. It was like, why are we even two different parties?
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: But now it's just so absolutely opposed. And so you. Trump makes a strong statement in his State of the Union address that wokeism is done. Yeah, I mean, that's a huge statement. So talk about the difference. Like the. What's driving behind the scenes, like the Koolie the drink. I don't know.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: You know, it really gets down to what's your world view. You know, Trump exclaimed that, you know, he was saved by God, you know, to, to restore America to greatness. And so he is a man with a mission, he feels a calling. And you know, being a student of the law, our founding fathers understood the nature of man, that man has fallen and not only does he need a savior, but you know, laws provide a structure so that there can be order, so that evil can be punished and good can be exalted.
And the current left wing of the country no longer believes in that worldview. They believe that people are basically good and that the government is basically here to provide for us and that anything that doesn't play into that, socialism, redistribute, distribution of wealth, you know, all the false teaching about men and women and children that they, they are militantly, angrily opposed to anything that doesn't reinforce their worldview. And so you, you just saw that on display during the State of the Union because even things that were of the most genuine nature that anyone could or should applaud, you know, you know, parents of survivors of, you know, yeah, those have been killed, you know, by.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Illegal tragedy, like life altering tragic events have happened in their homes. They were at funerals, I mean they wept. Yeah, they no longer have fathers or daughters, you know, like these people. And then, yeah, yeah, they, so it.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Was, it was really cold hearted and amazing that there was not enough humanity in some of those left leaning leaders that they could even find common ground on the most basic human, you know, issues. You know, as you said, you know, comforting somebody in tragedy, exalting them for their nobility and their courage, they couldn't find any common ground in that. And that was concerning.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Yeah, just being able to connect with the human agony of it all. Like man, we get that and like this isn't even about politics.
I don't know, that's, you know, when I look at it because it, and there was a couple, I noticed on the, the Democratic side there was a couple that stood during some of those things, you know, we can't say 100% sat, but like 99% of them probably sad and had scowl faces.
It's, it's hard, it's hard because it's uncalled for.
And I feel like what was really behind it and we know is behind it was just the destruction of a nation.
And this is so hard because I think emotionally there's so many emotional buy ins to this, to their ideologies of like mar. Of like, play the victim, play the role of the victim, be. Be victimized, you know, instead of living in victory, you know, like, there's just it. They were trying to destroy man, like saying that masculinity is toxic. They were trying to destroy the family. They were, you know, some of those situations that, I mean, there was a lady in the, the room at the State of the Union address that they highlighted about having.
Fighting now against the schools that blocked her from her own child's. Could you imagine a school helping your child transition genders and without telling you about it? Oh, my gosh. So that's what it's like. That's what they're about. They're about the destruction of the family. They're about the overtaking this, this chaos of government that Doge is kind of combing through.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: You know, God established certain authority structures, of course, one is the church, you know, one is the family, and the other is a form of government.
And the left is attempting to undermine every single one. They want to destroy the families, you said they want to take away authority from their parents. They want to lift up their own secular leaders who they think know more than you do, that they're actually the experts. They'll tell you what to think, they'll tell you how to raise your kids.
And it goes on and on from there. And also to convert the government from being, you know, a terror to evildoers and protection for those who do well to making the government a fearsome tool in their hands with all the lawfare, not just against Trump, that's what most of us know about. But, you know, there were many, many other prosecutions, you know, pro life protesters, you know, pastors that, you know, didn't comply, and the list goes on and on and on, that the most powerful parts of our government were brought to bear against regular, regular people, regular citizens and Christians.
And that was the harbinger, I think, that showed all of us just how far down the road we were, just how dangerous it was. And that. But for Trump's victory, that would have just continued to accelerate. The persecution would have just continued. So now we have some time. We need to make hay while the sun shines.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Yeah. I think about you and I think about the way you view the world is much different than probably everybody else that's even listening to this or anybody I've ever met. Because you, you did spend 20 plus years as a, as a circuit judge and a chief of judges like you. You are very experienced in the judicial, like, legality of, like, how things play out. So you have that viewpoint and. And, you know, you're. How does. How do you see the world, like, where it is, like, through that lens of, like, all your experience. And then you tried to run for Congress, so you got all that experience, and you got to see the world from a totally different, you know, like, these two different spectrums that are. That are related. But, like, how do you see. Because right now, it's like the federal government. Yes. We have Trump at the top.
So how do you see, like, the next four years? What are the opportunities? What are the things you would say or kind of war would warn against? Like, how do you see the next four years?
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Well, you know, the opposition is just going to redouble their efforts and continue to, you know, undermine anything that Trump is doing or that conservatives are doing. But, you know, I think of the church, and it's time for men and women to rise up and seize the day, seize the moment.
There are so many levels of government, you know, local, state, you name it, where we need godly leaders. We need to have godly leadership in all spheres. And, you know, this is not something that can be accomplished from Washington alone. You know, we think of school boards, we think of. Think of aldermen, we think of mayors, we think of all the state representatives and other forms of leadership. School boards, it just goes on and on. So I think that this is a time where we realize that there's an awakening on just how crazy everything's been. And so it's not enough to point out how crazy everything's been. We have to point out, you know, the truth, the alternative, the way of looking at things from a biblical point of view as the counterpoint to what's been going on.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: Because I think what's happening, what we see happen on a national level is reform, but it's not, you know, the left isn't meeting it with any type of common sense or, let's learn, they're just stumbling down, which hopefully will hurt them so bad that they. They suffer for another few election cycles, you know. You know, hopefully that's the results of it all. But nonetheless, it's really sad to see. But then when I try to put myself in their shoes, you know, because, so, like, if you're a woke person, dei, or if you're into lgbtq and you're like, really? That's like your anthem, and you're really about. All about that, you feel like this is tyranny coming at you, right? Like, they feel like, oh, this is just government control, and you can't just shut that down. It was like, you know, we. We. You know, we treated like that, like civil rights, you know, like, we. We marched and strategized and so, yeah, I mean, I could understand, like, where they're coming from, and I imagine that's painful, you know, and it's hard to watch. But the common sense that they overlook, you know, like, it's, you know, like, to. To celebrate the fact that President Trump said, you know, there's only two genders in our country. Like, there's the idiocy of that, like, the common sense just like. Like, wow, like, our country got that bad to where we had to identify two genders.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, some things just need to be said. It's almost like the. The bubble needs to pop. You know, someone saying the emperor is not wearing any clothes. I mean, sometimes things just need to be said, and that causes kind of a reset or realignment. But we have to step into the void they've created with all their false doctrines and false beliefs. It's not enough to merely point out how they're wrong. We have to show that.
You have to have, I think, a bit of a grasp on American history.
And how did we develop as a country? What were the values that we held as a country that caused us to develop the way we did, and how those various values, you know, of God and family and country were undermined. Slowly, there was an erosion taking place, and then there was crumbling. So now's the time to shore up. Shore up the foundations with good leaders and to speak the truth. Just speak the truth and let people just know that there really is a choice. It's not just about Trump. It's about good versus evil, right versus wrong, light versus darkness, you know, private property versus, you know, socialism.
And, you know, we have plenty of examples from our nation's history. Why do we develop these values? Where do they come from? And we have to really reclaim that heritage that's been lost.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: But so from your view as, like, a judge, like, saying, because you can cut. You have a unique angle of.
Of a perspective from, like, where you are to the Supreme Court.
[00:16:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Like, you can see the country, all that kind of stuff. What does that look like? All these executive orders and the lawsuits and, like, what do you see? Have. What do you think will happen from a legal perspective? Like, what's your gut on that kind of stuff?
[00:16:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's gonna depend on.
Let's put it this way. You know, we are a nation of Laws, not a nation of men. Okay. You know, we hearken to laws, our Constitution, things that set forth our principles.
Executive orders, I think, are intended for emergencies.
In other words, when you, you can't wait for Congress to act, the President can enter an executive order dealing with exigencies here. And now they've become more or less the normal fare. You know, one executive order after the other is probably due to a couple of things. One is the inability of Congress to act and you know, the stale stalemate.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: We saw that at the border, Right.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And just the, you know, the, the lack of leadership. And so, you know, Trump, if he, he's nothing if he's not a leader, not a decisive leader. And so, you know, with the stroke of the pen, he is making course corrections because, you know, from his perspective, we are in a state of emergency.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Over time, if I don't know that that executive order way of governing is going to have a, a long term appeal. You know, in other words, the people that were elected along with Trump, you know, they're going to have to be able to say what they've done, how they had advanced this, you know, reawakening, how have they advanced American values?
Because if they, if they don't have a part of that, some ownership in that, then they're going to be seen as irrelevant and they're not going to necessarily have the support of the voters. You know, Congress has to do its work every day, even though it's difficult, even though it's, you know, it's tough to get a budget. You know, it's tough to, you know, with the narrow, narrow margins to get certain things done. But, you know, we haven't had a budget, for example, since Clinton was president. And I don't want to give him too much, I don't want to give him too much credit. But that's when the Contract with America with Newt Gingrich and so, you know, caused a huge shift in the House. And I was, at that time we balanced the budget and since then we've had continuing resolutions, which is just like writing a check in your checkbook, but never balancing the checkbook.
And that's caused kind of things that Doge is pointing out every day, a lot of reckless spending, no accountability with the spending, no determination whether or not what's being spent is effective and so forth. And so that external audit by Doge, I think, is highlighting the, one of the major faults in just having these continuing resolutions with no accountability. So we need to see a budget is an expression of our values, you know.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: We're taking money from the taxpayers and we're voting on what to do with that money. So it better be an expression of the values of America.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: Do you think that Doge will, what they're finding will eventually do some arrest? Do you think it's going to go that far?
[00:20:02] Speaker B: I think so. It's really up to the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, because there's a lot of investigation needs to take place because, you know, Doge can uncover misspent money. But for there to be real reform, there has to be prosecution of the fraud.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: There's a person, when they discovered that was 350 years old, that was received.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Trump's laugh line that I guess we're healthier than we thought, you know, to Bobby Kennedy and.
But, but that's just so absurd that something like that could even exist.
And, you know, Stacey Abrams, who's a long term Democratic operative and critic, she founded a climate, you know, some sort of climate organization a few weeks before Biden went out of office and was given $7 billion.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: Seven billion.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: $7 billion. Some say five, some say seven.
And they've never done anything. They simply submitted a paper on how they would go about helping with climate change, what have you. And you kind of say, is that responsible? I mean, if you're going to hire a contractor, you'd want to know what kind of work they've done and had their references and.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: $7 billion.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: Yeah. It's just like we've lost all touch with what money is, you know, billion. It's like none of us really know what that is other than it's a lot more than we have.
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: But we become numb to spending these astronomical amounts. And, you know, we've got as long.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: As we got our phones and our coffee and our.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: All of our distractions.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Got Netflix and, you know, pizza being delivered. So, I mean, we're pretty much most of us are content. But, you know, this is the first year, I mean, when I was campaigning last year, I learned a lot about a lot of different subjects. And one of them is that this is the first year that we're paying more for debt service than we are for the United States military.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:22:20] Speaker B: And that will just continue to increase because of compounding interest.
And at some point in time, we'll be doing nothing but debt service. So if you are a responsible steward before God, a responsible leader, you have to be like a head of a household and realize that you've got to make ends Meet. This is a duty entrusted to. You can't shirk it.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: If only the government had to run like a business.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: Which hopefully that's where it's headed.
[00:22:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Because it needs to be accountable, you.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Know, but it boils down to, you know, your character and what your worldview is. If you're a pleaser of men, you know, it's like whatever the latest hue and cry is.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: I want to get on that bandwagon. I want to support that. And then if you have a biblical worldview, you're looking at what is right, what is wrong, what advances the cause of righteousness, what thwarts the cause of righteous or advances evil. And you've got to make some value based decisions that may not be popular.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Now, when you were running for Congress, you spoke in a lot of churches. What, what is your view of the church? I know you hit it on a little bit.
What, where's the church bombing? Like, where are we failing? Because, like, just because. And Trump isn't our savior. We covered that.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: You know, I don't look at Trump as a savior type. I do look at him as a.
Saving our nation, saving the moorings and the fabric of our constitution and our way of life.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: Doesn't mean you have to agree with everything he does.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: Right.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: But, and, or his personality or how he carries himself. Although I thought this second time around he's been way better than the first time.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: True.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: But what, where you know, I run a church outside of Grace House, but what.
I mean, so I can. I have some things to say here too. But like what is, what does the church need to do in the next two, three, four years?
Because I just believe the citizens of this country need to get busy. Like you're saying, like get involved in your local county boards. Go pay attention. Who's on your school districts or your school boards, because like, go talk to your local mayors, go set a meeting with them, talk to your congressman, you know, get with your representatives. Because these guys, that's where a lot of people need to get involved, get back involved. Because I think that's where we really lost it.
[00:24:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:50] Speaker A: You know, we're winning at the top again, but we're still losing at the grassroots.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Yes, that's true. You know, when I was campaigning, I tried to speak in a different church almost every Sunday.
And it wasn't just, you know, vote for Joe McGraw. That wasn't it at all. It's not the approach I took. But you know, there's a book by Eric Metaxas called Letter to the American Church.
And that was influential in me deciding to run. You know, I was retired for less than two weeks. I retired from being a judge and two weeks later I'm running for Congress.
But in that book he highlights the changes that were taking place in Germany during the ascendancy of Hitler and how the German church just turned a blind eye. Didn't want to get involved, you know, just going to let things just play out, you know, sort of a status quo adjustment and not realizing that, you know, obviously, you know, ideas have consequences. And it certainly became more and more powerful at church, eventually was totally co opted and was really incapable of standing against Nazism, national Socialism. They just let it go until it was too big and too strong to be effective for them to be an effective counterpoint. And so when I'm talking to the churches, you know, I would really. One thing I would emphasize is you are the government.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: You.
[00:26:25] Speaker B: Yeah, the government is we the people. Remember that and that we elect people to represent us, our values.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: And over time it's become such a huge bureaucratic state that those people that are there, the politicians come and go and the bureaucratic state, the deep state, you know, thinks, well, we're really running this, you know, you know, you'll be gone in a couple years. But we're the ones that are really running it. And that's dangerous because they aren't representative of the people, they're not elected. And so when I would talk in the churches, you know, I would point out just, you know, where we are in kind of a timeline, you know, in our country where we are in terms of, you know, eschatology, end time, things. And you know, there's something called the myth of continuity, which means things will always be as they've always been. Yeah, that is not so. You know, history is moving, things are moving towards a specific point and we have to understand the times in which we live and do what needs to be done. And that includes the things you mentioned. Getting politically involved, standing up, be the people, hold our elected officials accountable. Because if we don't do that, they're going to kind of just forget everything.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm looking up a verse here that I was looking at the other day.
I was hoping I would just pop right up.
But let me pull it up here because it's kind of goes right along what we're saying. In Colossians it says Colossians 2, 8. So see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.
According to human Tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.
So we have to be on guard. And I think that's where the church.
Oh, I mean, it's hard to say the same things all the time. Like, I'm starting to hear, because I say this stuff a lot, like, especially my church or on these podcasts or whatever. I'll say, like, go get involved in your local politics. And the people that we have influence with are. I, I get a little trickle feedback of like, hey, you know, I started going to the meeting, I started, you know, learning, you know, because that's where we lost.
[00:28:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: And that's where we have to win again. We have to win that back. And the reason I say win like that is because it really matters to the advancement of the kingdom who sits in those areas. So like, you know, some people, they, I think they confuse nationalism and, or they get confused on Romans 13 when Romans talks about, you know, obeying the rulers of the land and the, you know, but the, the United States is not run by a person or a governor or a mayor. It's run by the Constitution.
So that's, we have to dial into that. Like, like that we are, that's what we are to obey. Yeah. Our government is set up. Very well said. Like, we are the government. Like, I did a tick tock video a long time ago and I, I named it I am the government. And it just blew up. It took off. It was pretty cool. You know, it's still in my feed down there somewhere. But. But yeah, it was that whole thing of like, I am the government, we are the government.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: And you know, one of the things I encountered as I would talk to some of the pastors or churches, it's definitely fear of man, fear of losing their tax exempt status.
And you know, we really need to think about ourselves and our role in relationship to Jesus Christ. Is he really Lord? If he's Lord, is he really Lord overall? And what does the Lord compel us to do? To pick up our cross, to carry our cross, you know, to, you know, you know, if we lose our life for his sake, then we save it. In other words, we are not designed to have all of our needs met, all of our desires met, all of our dreams come true in this life.
This is a contested planet, okay? And so for Christians, they need to get informed, educated. Who's running and where are the issues. They need to contribute money to good candidates who represent their values because the other side certainly funnels money to represent their views. And then you Hear one of the lies that I heard as well. You know, we just preach the gospel.
That's a false statement because the whole counsel of God's word, you know, be preaching and teaching the whole counsel of God's word. There's plenty of examples in scripture where men of God. I just read about Rahab the other day, you know, who hides the Hebrew spies and she disobeyed her government and she's listed in the genealogy of Christ.
And you know, John the Baptist spoke out against, you know, Herod marrying his brother's wife and he was beheaded. And the list goes on and on.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: The disciples wouldn't go under the gate of Caesar, you know, which declared he was Lord.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: Right.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: So they got crucified for it. Literally.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: No. And you, there's plenty. That's rebellion of martyrs and the book of Acts and of course Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, you know, defying the edicts. And so who is Lord? Are we really willing to lose our lives or our money or our position or the approval of men in order to be Christ followers? Because Jesus, you know, said that he comes to divide and will. So do we want the approval of men and just to fit right into the comfy materialistic culture, are willing to.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: Well, unfortunately, I think a lot of current day churches are saying yes to that. Yeah, yeah, we want comfort.
[00:32:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: You know, and for us to really advance the kingdom of God, we need to go to war with comfort. We need to go to war with, you know, being comfortable in status quo and fitting in. The gospel is not about fitting in. It's not about purposely offending, but it's not about going with the flow. It's about going against the flow in a kingdom minded way that leads men to follow Christ. It leads men to be disciples of Christ. It's appealing to them to be born again.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: You know, to come alive in his kingdom. And that's where we find our true purpose. And I think the church is just off in the area of like her purpose. Like, like, yes, I want the blessing. Yeah, I'd love to be a millionaire, you know. Yeah, I love all that stuff. But like, I love how you just said that, like we don't get everything we want in this life.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: I think especially if you stay focused on what really matters to the heart of God, you know. Yeah, we, we get distracted with abundance. We get distracted with the great blessing in this country, you know, we, because we. And hey, you know, the Bible does warn against, like, and it speaks about how the Rich are hard to lead. You know, the rich, it's harder for the rich. And we're the in the top 5% of the world's wealthiest people.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:43] Speaker A: Probably even our homeless people are, you know, not too far off from those 5% numbers. You know, like even our homeless people are taken care of pretty well, you know, and especially in any way. It's just the church.
I think the church has to be. I think if you go to a church that's weak and, and can't confront tyranny, you should lovingly confront the leadership.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:06] Speaker A: Lovingly. Kindly talk to them and, and stay at that church for as long as the Lord wants you to. Maybe you stay there for the entirety and disagree with them. You know, maybe you're that pillar of strength and then maybe you leave that church. Right. Like they're. I met a young guy within the last week or so and he was describing the church that he went to to me and he was talking about how, you know, there was this interim pastor there for like a year and he really liked that guy. And then this new lady came in and she, she's been ranting about this campaign of like one of her friends trying to do a gender transition.
And I just put my hand out and I was like, welcome to the Grove. Like, like, come on over, buddy. You know, like, like that's kind of apostate territory. You know, when churches are hanging rainbow flags and they're, they're representing the spirits of the world and there's these philosophies that come to deceive. You know, Paul was like, you have to be alert and be on guard against these things.
So yeah, there's a lot of work to do and it's not about just putting your head down and ignoring the pain of the world because right now there's a lot of great things happening reform wise at the top of this country. But the church has got to get her. This is the worst time for the church to just kind of like fall back asleep and go. And a lot of the church is probably going to do that, but I think there'll be a percentage of us that's like, wait a minute, I got to get busy working because I don't want this to happen again.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: Yeah, you got to seize the moment.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: And it's not about political winning or political control. It's really not about that. But it is about, I mean, we're talking about inalienable rights.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: That come from God. And that's why the Constitution is powerful. The Constitution doesn't give me rights. It protects my God given rights.
[00:35:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:43] Speaker A: And it's trying to uphold that life.
[00:35:44] Speaker B: It's intended to be a restraining the government, you know, recognizing your God given rights to restrain the government from infringing upon those rights. And so there's always going to be a tension there. But you know, as believers and as the church, we've got to keep our eye on the ball, which is, you know, an eternal perspective. You know, we can look back at history and see all those who sacrificed in so many ways to give us not only the prosperity but the freedom that we have now. And unless we emulate their sacrifice, their lifestyle of serving God and serving in their community, you know, mindful of their broader responsibilities to serve and, and to imitate Christ, it's not going to happen.
We don't have the luxury. You know, this is like I say, we've been given a little bit of overtime here, you know, because of Trump's win, instead of being, you know, obliterated. But that is for God's purpose, to make hay while the sun shines. I mean, it's when we have IT administration, it's not hostile to us now. We need to recapture lost ground, not just sit there and think, oh well, we won't lose any more ground under this guy. That's not the view. The view is, you know, the ground we've lost.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: Well, because while this is happening, the enemy is still shifting and moving things because he, you know, we know global tyranny eventually is going to manifest.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: And so we just have to be busy about advancing the kingdom of God and live fearless. I mean, you got, what are your closing thoughts?
[00:37:26] Speaker B: My closing thoughts are these are exciting times, really exciting times because there is a revival taking place in America.
I want it to and pray that it will just continue to grow and gain momentum and gain energy. As men and women know, boys and girls turn their hearts towards God.
[00:37:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: And say, speak, Lord, your servants listening, you know, what, what's your will for me? And if that happens, it's amazing what we'll be able to accomplish and experience and enjoy. Otherwise it's going to be a short lived, you know, political blip. And I'll go back to how things were. So it's a spiritual issue.
[00:38:18] Speaker A: Exciting times, that's a good way to frame it. My closing thoughts on this would be when is the last time that you as a believer asked someone that you don't know? A complete stranger walked up to them with a boldness of approaching them on the subject of Christ finding An angle. Finding a way to have a conversation to relate to them, asking them the question, like, that's, you know, being a bold witness. Like, hey, where are you at with Christ?
And then if you're. If that scares you, that whole idea, my only advice would be fail at it and just go do it and struggle in it and be like. Because I've done that a lot. You know, it's like, oh, well, that one didn't go too well. You know what I mean? And you never know what happens after you leave.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: True.
[00:39:06] Speaker A: You're not in control of it all entirely. We're just being obedient, trying our best. And so I just want to encourage you to be a bold witness. And it doesn't mean that you have to be perfect to be a bold witness or talk to somebody about God and you're not there to win them over or preach to him or, you know, you're just. I'm just talking, like, authentically, you know, and not just this soft love thing where it's like, oh, I love them in Jesus name. That's not being a bold witness. There is a place for disruption, and I think right now the church, more than ever in her history, needs to be disrupted. Just like we've seen our country disrupted by Trump. Trump's a disruptor, and we need that same type of representation. And I'm not talking about politically. I'm just talking about us, the spiritual passion to disrupt the spirit of religion, to disrupt the status quo, to, like, the defibrillators.
[00:39:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: Like, coming in, you know, like.
Like go and go be a witness. Go talk to people about Christ. It's your job. All of us have to do that. All of us are supposed to witness and so be excited about it. Exciting times, there's still dangerous times. There's still all kinds of things we're up against.
But right now, go be a powerful, bold witness. Use your backyard. Invite some people over, have some cookouts. Get to know your neighbors. See what God does with that. Right. Like, love your church. If you don't have a church, try to find one. I know it's hard nowadays to try to find a church with some moxie and some balls that'll stand against tyranny.
[00:40:37] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:40:37] Speaker A: You know, because that's a. That's a thing, too. But.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Well, you just speak up and you'll find out if you're in the right place or not.
[00:40:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And you do it with a humble heart, but yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. And it's. But it's sad.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: It's sad right now because I think more churches than not are like, more like what you said. Well, we just preach the gospel, you know, and then they would call guys like you and me like nationalists. Like, all those guys are not even kingdom focused. They're so into their politics. And so, yeah, I'm concerned about the politics that rule my local region and tell my children what they can and can't do and tell me what I they think they can tell me what I kind of can't do. Yeah, I'm concerned about all that. You know what I mean? So. Well, Father, we love you and we thank you for Joe McGraw. We thank you for the wisdom that he brings to this community that we have in Grace House. And Lord, we pray that your wisdom and revelation would manifest and go forward. And we pray, Father, that you would help us to live and embrace these exciting times and to have eyes that see, to have the wisdom to know what to do and to walk according to your power and to be bold witnesses in Jesus name.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: Amen. Well, thanks for being on on our podcast, man.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: Love you, man. You're awesome guy.
[00:41:44] Speaker B: So thank you for what you do.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: Yeah, no problem. Until next time. As we always say, live upright.
