Ep.68: God And Football

In our spiritual life, you could look at all of the circumstances, right?

You could say, There's no way this is ever gonna turn around.

There's no way this marriage is gonna turn around.

There's no way this health situation is gonna turn around.

There's no way these finances are gonna turn around.

But but in reality, that's why you gotta apply, play the game.

Yeah, that's why you gotta walk the faith walk.

That's why you gotta walk out your faith.

That's why you gotta trust the weapons that God has given you, the principles that God has given you.

Welcome, welcome, everybody.

What's up?

We haven't seen you in a hot minute, but we are glad to be back to our favorite podcast, Ask Me Anything.

I'm Frank Santor.

This is my new look co-host, Pastor Ronald Julian.

What's up, guys?

What's up, guys?

Have you actually officially been on air with the new with the new look?

Yeah.

I think we did the last week with the uh relationship podcast with Dr.

Joseph.

Oh, so you've been on, but not with me.

Not with you, no.

Not with me.

This is the first with you.

But but that was when the dreads were just kind of like barely coming together.

They were combed.

They were barely coming together.

So we call them comb coils.

So you take the comb and you twist them up right there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So but now they they they start to come in a little bit.

A little growth.

I think I'm I think I'm digging it.

I like the new look.

I like the new look changing it up a little bit.

Yeah.

Still got it, baby.

I didn't say all that now.

I like the new look.

What is understood doesn't need to be echoed.

That's what I said.

Now you're you're you're taking out my role this week.

You know, giving yourself props.

Did you break your arm, pat yourself on the back again?

No, no, no, no, no, no.

I can reach.

I can reach just fine.

How are you feeling, man?

Glad to have you back in the saddle.

I feel good.

It's been a it's been a good couple of weeks back in the saddle.

And uh, you know, it was a it was a nice, pleasurable, pleasurable uh time off.

Um it was a little harder to get back this time.

Um I'm wondering if uh I'm starting to feel that that retirement vibe a little bit, you know, um, and it was enjoying everything.

It was in Italy, you know that?

Beautiful.

And uh went to um the uh uh Lake Como area.

Okay.

Um stayed in a place called Menaggio when I was there.

Little town, about 3,000 people, but but close enough where you can get on a ferry or a boat and go to other places.

Went to Milan, went to Switzerland, um, went to went to Venice, which was a long trip.

We got to hop on the bullet train.

It was a four-hour trip to get to Venice, did the gondola thing.

Uh yeah, just had a real good time and you know, ate uh pizza, pasta, and gelato every single day.

All right.

So I was enjoying it.

Pizza, pasta, and gelato.

And I'll tell you what, the the one thing that stood out to me is the gelato.

The ice cream there is different.

Okay.

Different good, different good.

Okay, different good.

Like I've been back, had had had some here, and it was a disappointment.

So it was it was real good.

Just had a really enjoyable trip, and you know, but uh to be honest with you, when I stay away from the things of God uh that I do for a living, not not from just spending time in the presence of God or anything, I do feel a little purposeless.

Really?

Yes.

And so um that's one of the things that kind of always makes me know that uh I'm doing what God has called me to do.

And then uh a week before I officially got back uh to church here, I went to speak at uh a church in Connecticut, and uh it was my first sermon after not preaching for six weeks.

And uh as soon as I preached, I'm like, yeah, I was born to do this.

Yeah.

You know, just just you're in your sweet spot.

Yeah, yeah.

And then uh so I did that and then went to Woolkett the following week that that Sunday and enjoyed preaching there so much.

That's our one of our other location for those of you that don't know.

Um one of our fastest growing locations.

I mean, we're getting ready to add a third service.

Yes, third service.

We just bought the building there and God's really moving there in a great way.

Amazing.

I really enjoyed that.

Then did Bible study last night for the first time in a long time and really enjoyed doing that.

Then prepared to preach again this weekend and really enjoyed doing that.

So uh, you know, even though I enjoyed vacation, I'm like, yeah.

Well, well, from from a staff point of view, we we we know that you were born to do this because even while you were on vacation, we were still getting emails and text messages and phone calls and everything like that.

So I thought I was pretty con controlled.

No, you were good.

I was pretty controlled, yeah.

But we all know you.

Yeah, we know you.

You're not gonna go six weeks without reaching out about something.

You know, eleven o'clock at night you're thinking about something, head spinning, you know, first thing in the morning, you're sending an email.

You know, those are the times where you can do your best thinking for me.

I agree.

You know, and nobody bothering you, no, no, no, nothing coming at you.

You just kind of can can focus in on stuff like that.

And I do a lot of studying during those hours.

You know, uh if you're gonna sit there lying awake, you know, I I usually sleep pretty good though, though.

I I get my eight hours, eight hours a night.

But if I'm gonna be in bed and my wife's sleeping, I'm not just gonna veg out, just watch TV.

I'm like a study or listen to a sermon or a podcast on something or learn something.

Yeah.

Um, and and I really enjoy that.

But I'm I'm glad I'm glad to be back.

We are glad to have you back.

We'll be glad to have you back in the saddle here on Ask Me Anything.

Yeah.

Glad to have you back in the saddle at church on Sunday.

Bible study, man.

We just love love uh love having you back, man.

Um, but there's a lot of things going on in the world.

There are a lot of things going on, a lot of things happening.

There's something else that's going on in your life, too.

I don't know if you want to share it here on the podcast.

Breaking news.

Breaking news is my second grandchild's on the way.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Let's go.

What's amazing though is that I told somebody that the other day they said, You're grandpa already?

There's no way.

Oh man, come on.

And I was like, Come on.

I know I don't look it.

Come on.

I know I don't look it.

You said that to yourself.

You didn't no one in no one that you ran into randomly said this to you.

Nobody said this to you.

It's not even true, though.

It's not even true.

It's not even true.

I mean, I can't tell you what really happens to me just randomly, because you know, I don't know if you can handle all that, you know.

But uh, but yes, it does happen, you know.

Oh, you have a grand grandchild?

I said, yeah, I have a grandchild.

Yeah, but I'm excited.

Yes.

You know, uh my my first grandchild, um Alani, she's she's starting to know who I am now.

So, you know, it's just a matter of time before my favorite starting to know.

She's starting to know pop.

Yeah, she's starting to know me, you know, and pretty soon she'll know me.

This this is the guy that I go to when I want something, right here.

You know, take no shame in that.

So yeah.

That's beautiful, man.

Congratulations.

We're gonna find out, I think, next weekend uh what the next grandchild is gonna be, whether it's gonna be a boy or a girl.

Yeah.

Fantastic, man.

Awesome.

Anything else you want to share about what's that's going on in you in your life, in your world, man?

Or in the world in general?

That's about it.

I've to be honest with you.

During my whole time I was away, I really didn't zone in on what was happening in the world at large.

You know, you just see stuff on what I'm what I'm amazed with is way the the way these autonomous vehicles are starting to take over.

Yeah, bro.

Now you can buy like you can buy a cyber cab and and you buy it, and it goes and makes money for you.

Or if you have like a Tesla, you can have it drop you off at work and then program it with uh with an app and it goes out and it makes money for you, and it comes back and picks you up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was like, sign me up.

I'm gonna buy as many of them as I can if they make them available to the public.

I'm gonna be like, and they're sending 25,000, 30,000 bucks.

Yeah, right?

That's it, that's a cheap investment.

If it's gonna go out and make you money, yeah.

Yeah, sign me up.

Yeah, listen.

This this this technology, this AI, bro, it's it is growing faster than that.

So another thing, NVIDIA is gonna put some type of energy system in your house, right?

Where it's gonna basically power your whole house, free energy, and somehow, somehow, they're getting some benefit for that by the I think the data that they're collecting, whatever the case may be, is and that's another thing that's coming on the horizon.

So assets are now being turned into uh you know things that make you money, which is really what an asset is, by the way.

Yes, oh yeah.

A lot of people, you know, call assets assets that they're not really assets.

Right.

Well, listen, the other thing that's happening right now, uh well before we go there, before we go there, we also want to acknowledge um uh last week's was the 25th year anniversary.

It was of 9-11.

Of nine-eleven.

That's actually a pretty good segue.

Yes, yes, yes, yeah.

Um a day that will go down in infamy is a day that changed um the world, really, but definitely American life.

Yes.

Obviously, we have a campus down in New York City, and uh, you know, people's lives were changed forever.

They're still reeling from that, trying to pick up the pieces and move on.

Uh so we definitely want to honor uh the brave men and women who tr saved as many as many lives as they could, families who are still grieving the the loss of loved ones and all of those.

I was on I was on uh I was going over the Tappensea Bridge when that happened.

And uh I could see some smoke really you know from the distance.

It was kind of amazing.

Wow, wow.

I remember me myself, man.

I was uh in New Orleans still, and uh one of my choir members from our college choir choir called me and every TV st station had it on.

You weren't you weren't with our church back then.

I was not.

Wow.

That was a long ways away.

That was a long ways away.

Because it feels like you've been here forever.

I know.

Yeah, it was a long, long ways away, man.

Wow, but um but yeah.

Yeah, we had um a member of our church um who uh intricately involved in Tunnels to Towers.

And um matter of fact, did many things with Tunnel to Towers while he was here.

He since moved to Ful Florida and uh uh shortly after uh 9-11 Hurricane Sandy came um and uh Tunnels the Towers was was uh partnered with us in helping us to put uh homes for people who were displaced from Hurricane Sandy right here on on the church property.

They put 20 homes there.

People live there for a year, let their kids come to school here, and then uh once they were able to kind of get back on their feet again, they were able to take the home and lift it up and put it on a piece of land somewhere and uh and live.

And so we helped a lot of people get started and Tunnel the Towers, which is the key um foundation that is associated with 9-11, um, was intricate and helping that to happen.

And this particular gentleman, he was at the time the the second person in Tunnel the Towers.

Beautiful, beautiful.

And I think uh this past Sunday night, uh during a football game, there was a tribute.

The MetLife Stadium, the New York Giants played the Dallas Cowboys.

You got to see trying to throw subtle jabs in a sombre way.

I think this is a good thing.

I mean, trying to try to like, you know, keep me at bay by like, you know, getting me into this reflective moment and then wham! No, no, no.

This is like out of nowhere, like, you know, just here you come with this with this stuff.

You are the star of this show.

My job is to try to drive and steer the ship.

So this is a great segue.

See, I see.

I give it some red bill by the way.

A great segue into our conversation today.

It's absolutely football season.

It's officially football season.

It's officially football season.

I am thrilled.

I'm excited.

And I was just gonna say that the Sunday night game featured um the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys, and they had a pre-game tribute to um um to commemorate um 9-11.

But there was a football game that was.

There was a football game.

And if you've ever been uh if you're if you're a football fan, if you've gone to church where your pastor was a football fan or your husband is a football fan, or your wife's a football fan, you know inevitably there's going to be some cross-pollination.

Um, you know, there's so many, you know, football is a microcosm of life.

It is.

You know, there's so many uh metaphors and so many lessons that you can learn and even spiritual uh metaphors.

Yes.

And we're gonna talk about that a little bit today.

We're gonna talk about football and God, God and football.

God and football.

Because there's a lot of lessons, and you know, it's the opening kickoff week last last week, you know, last Sunday.

Uh one unfortunate game.

You know, we're hoping that it's just a little stumble, you know, just a little stub your toe.

Not an indication of the whole season.

I mean, they did have a lot going against them that particular day, you know.

They're going into a hostile territory, you know, 9-11, all of the all of the uh juju that's going on around 9-11, if I could say that without people criticizing me for saying juju, you know, uh all of that kind of stuff going on, and you know, a lot of lot of a lot of things working against the Cowboys, you know.

Yes.

Um Jim Harbaugh coming out, you know, Jim Harbaugh's a good coach now, you know.

Don't get me wrong.

And uh, you know, uh a lot of things going on.

And so um Can we just pause for a second?

I hear what you're saying, and I agree with you 1,000%.

Yeah.

But I think all the things that you are saying right now, you knew when we talked before the game.

And what was your prediction?

My prediction was that the Cowboys were gonna win by 24.

Okay, all right.

Just want to make sure that's the one.

I said the Cowboys was gonna blow them out.

We want to be fair and balanced.

We'll put it all on the table here.

And you know, it's amazing to me because I have to say that um the Giants had a great, great game plan.

Right?

Great game plan.

And the game plan was basically keep Gotti off the field.

You know what Gotti is, right?

Well, you you you shared this with me.

Yes.

So let our listeners know what Gotti.

If you're a woman watching, just stay with the wheel.

Whoa, whoa, wait, hold on.

You can't say it like that now, though.

If you're a non-football fan watching, I mean how many how many ladies do you actually know that are like really into the other?

There are quite a few now.

Really?

Yeah, there are quite a few now.

Well, forgive me.

I you know, forgive me for being chauvinistic or whatever you whatever you whatever you you know, but but you know, typically uh my family, the ladies don't watch football.

You know, so it's just like all they do is bring us snacks.

No, I'm just playing.

I'm just I'm just playing.

Now people are gonna really get mad at me.

No.

The thoughts and views of Pastor Fleming are his his his uh views and thoughts only.

But yes, football.

Let's go.

Uh so you know their game plan was they got to keep Gotti off the field.

You say, What I thought I thought the Giants were playing the Cowboys.

Well, they were playing the Cowboys who got Gotti.

They say, What is Gotti?

Greatest offense there is, right?

And so they knew, they knew that if Gotti stays on the field for any length of time, there's no shot at winning that game.

And and and they were right because when Gotti was on the field, I think the Cowboys had the ball for 23 minutes and scored 20 points.

So um good coaching on the part of Harbor um because the Giants basically monopolized the clock because the Cowboys defense stunk, right?

And they were going on six, seven, eight-yard drives.

Cowboys only got the ball twice in the second half.

Um, and if you looked at the game, and here's here's the spiritual point, because this is this is kind of what this show is about, right?

Yes, if you looked at the game, all of the appearance of the game was Cowboys gonna win by 24.

Okay.

Um, and and you know, I mean, I know a lot of people don't think that, but but let me break it down for you.

Cowboys have been by many sports analysts, people who you would never even expect.

They were the sleeper team in the NFC who has been picked by by quite a few people to go to the Super Bowl this year.

Right.

Okay.

And the reason for that is because all of on the outside, they're looking at this offense, Gotti, greatest offense that there is.

They're saying, yeah, that's pretty, that's pretty much it.

I mean, Dak, MVP level last year, you know, um, statistically, if you look at his career and Tom Brady's, just take the names, you know, faces off of it, and just look at just the pure statistics better than in that same time period.

But of course, Grady's the GOAT, best of all, because on the pressure, he's fantastic.

But MVP level last year, you got C D on one side, you got George Pickens on the other side, you know, you got you got uh you know a running back that's just was great last year, top five running back, offensive line, you got everything going on, right?

So they're like, and then defense, you start adding the names.

You know, you start bringing in names.

You got Quentin Williams, you got Kenny Clark, you got you got uh, you bring in Von Millia, you draft Caleb Downs, you know, who's touted as the next Ronnie Lott.

And so everything appears, and then you got the Giants.

The Giants.

You know, we're the Giants daddy.

I mean, we I think we've beaten them 17 out of the last 19 times now.

I mean, so it's just like so everybody's looking from the outside going, why are we even playing this game?

Here's the spiritual lesson.

Sometimes things are not as they look.

Sometimes, sometimes in in in in our spiritual life, you could look at all of the circumstances, right?

You could say, There's no way this is ever gonna turn around.

There's no way this marriage is gonna turn around, there's no way this health situation is gonna turn around, there's no way these finances are gonna turn around.

But but in reality, that's why you gotta apply, play the game.

Yeah, that's why you gotta walk the faith walk.

That's why you gotta walk out your faith.

That's why you gotta trust the weapons that God has given you, the principles that God has given you.

I'm preaching this weekend um from the book of Esther, and uh I'm preaching on prayer and fasting.

And uh uh what shocked me this weekend is, and I and I think I shared this with you, is that Haman, who was the enemy of Israel, and he wanted to wipe out all of the Jews because he hated this guy, Esther's uh uncle named Mordecai, simply because Mordecai would not bow down before him, because Jews believes we don't we don't bow down before anybody but God.

And so Haman had it out for him, tricked the king into signing this edict to to wipe out the Jewish people.

And the way he picked this date, right, was he took these lots, and and lots were a way of rolling the dice, and it was a pagan way of getting their gods to respond, and the lot fell on a certain day in a certain month.

And so he had about a year to prepare, and he he built these gallows, and uh he was gonna hang the Jews and execute all the Jewish people on that day.

Um, Haman on the gallows, and then Jewish people were gonna be wiped out.

Well, uh, through a series of God-ordained events, uh Haman was found out, and the king issued a new edict.

And the new edict that the king issued was an edict not to wipe out the old edict, it was to to give the Jews authority to defend themselves against the edict.

So it didn't do away with the old edict, but it but it but it gave them a higher law to operate by.

Now check this out, check this out.

This is this is powerful stuff right here.

Because it's a it's a picture of what happened scripturally, and I'm getting to the football stuff in a second.

But here's what happened scripturally is we were under the law of sin and death.

God did not wipe out the law of sin and death.

Yeah.

Matter of fact, the law of sin and death said that sin must be punished.

And guess what he did?

He fulfilled that in Christ, but then he superseded the law of sin and death with the law of life in the spirit in Christ Jesus, empowering us against the law of sin and death.

So that's what's going on in the book of Esther.

It's it's this topology that is happening behind the day.

But here's what happens is because there's a new law that came into effect, and this law gave the Jews the right to defend themselves when they were attacked, because the a king couldn't take his edict back.

All he could do is empower by another edict to counteract that.

On the day, the exact same day that the Jews were supposed to be wiped out, they called it the days of Purim, because Purim means lot, the day that cast lot.

On that exact, the Bible says the exact opposite happened.

So everything that looked like it was gonna go down, Jews are gonna be wiped out, the king's edict is in place, there's no way the situation can change, the king's edict is irreversible.

All of those ways, all of the way it looked, the exact opposite happened.

Yeah.

Why?

Because they operated by a superior law.

And see, here's what we need to understand.

This is where, you know, you're looking at, you know, the Cowboys versus the Giants.

Even Cowboy haters knew the Cowboys should be the better team on that day.

Now, they may not be the better team than the Giants because you've got to play the game, gotta see how they are.

But but just going in, by the way, everything looked.

Giants don't have as good of a quarterback, the receivers on the Giants aren't as good, running back on the Giants, although Scatterboot, not bad, not as good, you know, all the outside stuff.

Yeah.

Said the Cowboys ought to win this game.

But the Giants operated by principles that allowed them to win.

One of the principles was monopolize the clock.

If they can't touch the ball, they can't score, right?

And so they did that.

We have laws that God has given us, spiritual principles that God has given us, that it really doesn't matter what it looks like if we operate by those spiritual laws.

And one of them, we'll talk about it maybe on the next episode, is prayer and fasting.

We can encounter dangerous things and have different outcomes.

Yeah.

And and and really, so that's what I saw, you know, uh as I was watching.

I'm always thinking, by the way, whenever I'm watching football or anything like that, I'm always thinking spiritual things anyway.

Um, there were some other spiritual things, by the way, in that game that really came out to me.

Go ahead, let's talk about it.

I mean, one of the things was on I think it was the drive that kind of put the game kind of out of reach for the Cowboys.

I couldn't behind too much was they ran, the Giants ran the same play.

Yes, the same exact play.

Yeah, three times in a row.

Three times in a row, and the Cowboys could not defend it.

Three and three times in a row, the play was wide open.

And I'm thinking to myself, dude, I don't even Not I'm not talented enough to play in the NFL, you know, but but I know this.

If I was on defense, I'm like, nah, I've seen this before.

I know where this is going right over here.

And I thought to myself, that's a spiritual principle.

And it's a spiritual principle in two ways.

First, spiritual principle is this from the negative side of it, the enemy will keep running the same play over and over against us, over and over when it comes to sin, temptation, and deception, over and over again until we recognize it and we play the right defense.

Now I hate to say it like that because really I believe we should play the right offense, right?

But I believe that scripturally speaking, we have both defensive weapons and offensive weapons.

We have stuff that protects us and stuff that we use to attack.

Absolutely.

Right.

So I think there are some defenses that we have to have in our life.

Like one of the things I talked about in Bible study on Sunday, uh on Wednesday night was that um you need to, because one of the ways the enemy, or one of the parts of the playbook the enemy runs, is is he he dangles bait out in front of us.

Uh Peter talks about the allure of temptation in 2 Peter uh chapter number two, verse number uh uh 2 Peter chapter 2, I think it's uh or chapter 3, where he talks about the allure of deception.

2 Peter 2 · chapter mention

And then James talks about how uh every man is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed.

And the word enticed here and the word allure that Peter and James use is both the same Greek word, it means to bait, right?

And so what bait is, you know this because you're you're a you're a Louisiana boy, right?

You're you're a fisherman, and so you you you'd like to do your fishing even now, right?

Tell me we got this little dinghy boat or something like that.

John boat.

John boat.

Because I said to you, why didn't you have to take me out on your boat?

You're like it's too small, too small, you know.

You'd be scared, man.

You'd be scared.

It's scary.

Just ask the question.

What's that supposed to mean?

It's curious.

Yes, I can swim.

Okay, that's all.

Yes, I can swim, man.

Yes, I can swim.

Anyway, um, so uh as a fisherman, you know that if you're going out to catch a certain type of fish, the best way to do it is to know what kind of bait they like.

Right?

Um and give me give me a fish that likes a specific kind of bait and doesn't like another kind of bait.

Do you know fishing that one?

I mean, I mean, every every fish has baits that they like.

Other fish have bait that they don't like.

So, like, for example, you know, I mean, bass, for example, you have smallmouth, largemouth, you know, have different lures that complement different, you know, um, like, you know, bluegills.

They all like bluegills.

Yep.

Um, so which one that they don't like?

Do you know offhand, or just, you know, am I going too deep with your testing your fishing knowledge too much?

You're not really a fisherman then, right?

Okay.

I understand.

I understand.

So you just like to do that.

It's not a whole lot that they don't like, though.

There's not a whole lot.

So a good a good fisherman is not going to take something that fish don't like, right?

You're not going to go fishing with a with a Red Bull can.

Yeah.

You're not going to put a Red Bull can on a hook and expect to catch fish, right?

A good fisherman is going to take whatever they like.

What'd you call they like?

What'd you call it?

Oh, uh bluegill.

Bluegill.

So, you know, if you're going to catch bass, you're going to use bluegill to catch bass because you know they like that.

Right.

And so the way temptation works, the process, right?

We're talking about running the same play over and over again.

That's what the Giants did to the Cowboys.

Sorry, old defense on the Cowboys.

Anyway, same old Cowboys.

You know, last year, offense was prolific.

Defense giving up 30 points a game.

There's nothing you can do.

Everybody, oh, it's Dak's fault.

No, it wasn't Dak's fault.

Dak did his job last year, it was a defense fault.

Dak did his job in this game, it was the defense fault.

But anyway, so a good fisherman is going to use the bait that's going to attract whatever they're trying to catch.

Yeah.

And so we talked about defensive strategy.

You got to know your bait.

Yeah.

You got to know what it is that is going to attract you to be lured away from the Lord.

And you got to put some boundaries in your life around those things.

And what people don't realize is that the way you beat temptation is that you don't wait until it's knocking on your front door.

You don't wait until you're, you're, you don't put yourself in a situation where you're constantly confronted with it.

Now, temptation's gonna come.

Sometimes you can't do anything about that, but there are smart things that you can do.

Yeah.

And one of the examples that I gave is I said, and this is not necessarily because of what my bait is, but just as a pastor, right?

There are some smart boundaries that you have to put on your life.

So here's some of the boundaries that I've had since day one.

Number one, I don't set my own salary.

Never have, never will, right?

I didn't come into this for salary.

I'm not getting out of it for salary.

I came into it because God called me.

So whatever board of directors and the attorneys say I should be paid, that's what I get paid.

Right.

So that's a boundary that I put because I don't want that level of uh uh uh temptation or anything like that in my life.

Second boundary that I set is I don't meet with females myself.

I've refused to.

I've gotten women really mad at me for this.

I've got women who have who have cracked up because of this and have refused to meet with like my wife or refuse to meet with other pastors or anything like that.

And I always say, well, if they refuse to meet with anybody else, then then there's a problem there.

Right.

Right.

But I know, and people ask me, why do you do that?

I mean, you you know, and because I don't know who's crazy and who's not.

That's right.

Because if it's just if it's just one-on-one with somebody, and I think this is a good rule of thumb, by the way, in many occasions.

Um, if you're single, I think you should avoid being alone with the opposite sex.

I think if you're married, you should avoid being alone with the opposite sex.

Yeah, right.

So you're cutting off the avenues for bait to be dangled in front of you.

And then the third thing, so you you have the the the the money thing, the sex thing, and the power thing.

And the power thing is where there's accountability, right?

And so there are matters in the church that I'll say to the elders, okay, I need y'all to weigh in on this.

And uh more or this is you, this is y'all's situation, you know.

You guys come to a conclusion, you guys deal with this, you because there's accountability in that.

I've always had a spiritual father, I've always had a pastor, and I've always been accountable to them.

They can, they I'm open with them.

This is what's going on in my life.

They have the right to speak into my life, they have the right to all of those kind of things are defensive mechanisms that we put so that the devil doesn't keep running the same play on us over and over again until you know he scores.

Yeah.

And we lose.

Yeah, that's good.

Which I can't believe the Dow Dallas Cowboys can defend that.

Can't cannot believe it.

Well, you hit on something earlier that I would love for you to speak to, because I think sometimes there are people um what you're talking about is, you know, a a discipline, right?

And and and and being disciplined to the game plan that that that scripture lays out.

And I but I think sometimes people are what I call spiritually sincere, but strategically foolish.

Yeah.

Right?

Can you speak to that sometimes because uh sometimes poor planning, we we we we label poor planning uh faith.

Right.

You know?

So can you speak to maybe not necessarily the the cowboys and the giant situation, but the the the the the uh the tension between the two.

Yeah, I mean, well, there there are people who are constantly praying for God to remove a temptation in their life, who are constantly subjecting themselves to the temptation.

Yeah.

The temptation is never gonna go away.

Right.

The desire for that thing is because what you starve dies and what you feed grows.

Yeah, right.

So if I'm asking God, if I'm saying, God, I need you to to remove, deliver me from this ungodly desire that is eating my lunch.

Because one of the one of the crazy things about sin is sin first says you can, meaning you you have a choice.

You can do it, don't worry about it.

But then here's what happens to sin.

Now it becomes a you must or I must.

Yeah, you no longer have control anymore because that desire has become full grown.

And the the thing about that is when it becomes full grown, it produces death.

Right.

So you have to be smart in the way that you strategically plan for everything.

So one of the things that is is my Achilles heel is I love chocolate chip cookies.

Okay.

And I this is easy to talk about, right?

And we should get more vulnerable, not necessarily over the air, but when it comes to our struggles with somebody that we can trust.

Right.

Right.

But but it's easy for for me to talk about because nobody thinks, well, you're a deviant because you like chocolate chip cookies, right?

But if you're if you're struggling with pornography, it's kind of sometimes hard to say because people look at you some kind of way, like, oh, you're you're you're that kind of deviant, you know, type of thing.

Or whatever, whatever it may be.

So chocolate chip cookies, but you know what your chocolate chip cookies are.

And so I know that if I come home and my wife has tried to be a blessing to me, and she's got uh a tray of chocolate chip cookies sitting on a counter, that's not a blessing to me.

Because I I'm not eating one, I'm not eating two, I'm I'm eating them probably 12, 15, you know, at 18, I'm probably getting a little tired of them, sick of them.

You said 18?

Yeah, no, they're like one poppers, you know, especially the Nestle ones that you just kind of just that's like a one bite.

You know, boom, you just it's gone, you know.

A little milk on the side, you know, you you you're doing you're doing work there.

Anyway um, so I I've asked, I said, listen, please do me a favor.

If you're gonna make chocolate chip cookies, hide them.

Go ahead and enjoy yourself.

Maybe leave two out for me if you want to be a blessing to me, you know.

But but make sure that the whole tray is not out because that is gonna be an Achilles heel for me.

So you got a game plan, you know.

Um it's it's like we say if you're an alcoholic, you don't want to constantly be going with your friends to a bar, thinking, you know, you you got the willpower.

Just got a game plan.

That's good.

You mentioned game plan, and I and I think that that's another thing that I think many of us tend to struggle with as believers, because sometimes we have a game plan, but we never check with God to see what his game plan was.

Yeah.

And you know, um coming up with the right game plan is about I like what David said.

He said, Search me, O Lord.

That's right.

That's good.

Search me a Lord.

The game plan is you gotta get before God.

Okay, you gotta be honest.

Okay, you know, God knows anyway.

Search me, O Lord, show me my eras of weakness and show me, give me the direction.

What's my game plan for this area of weakness?

I mean, and the Bible gives game plans.

Like, for instance, you know, a lot of people struggle with sexual things.

We know that.

Um, and by the way, some sins, the way you defeat them, is not by standing, it's by fleeing.

The Bible says, flee youthful lust.

That's right.

Right?

Joseph, when when when Potiphar's wife came his way, Joseph didn't take a minute to think about that.

Yeah.

Because if he would have thought about that too long, Joseph would have been like, all right, let's kick it.

You know, I mean, he would have been boom.

But what Joseph did was he ran.

And so some battles are won by standing, some battles are won by running.

But you got to get before God and you can say, okay, God, show me, show me my weaknesses, show me what my bait is in the situation, and then give me a strategic plan.

What do I have to do?

When I first got married, we had with our cable, we had free HBO, free Cinemax, and free showtime.

Okay.

It was free.

Okay.

And I'm surfing through the channels at night, and I'm like, whoa, what's going on right here?

You know what's the worst thing?

It's when you fall asleep to a movie.

Whoa, now that's a different movie.

You know, you know, you're watching a movie, yeah, yeah, you fall asleep, and then you wake up.

You think your wife is like, oh, you're like, nah, let me read that's the TV right there.

Yeah.

Listen.

Yeah, yeah.

I had to cancel to the max, bro.

I had to cancel it.

So I called them up.

I was like, listen, how'd I get this off my TV?

Yeah.

You know, how do I get this off?

And they're like, is this free?

Why why would you want it off your TV?

I said, just because it's free, you don't mean it's for me.

All things are lawful, but all things are not profitable.

We got we gotta get this off the TV.

Thousand percent.

Right?

Thousand percent.

Because you have to you have to be able to, you know, really know where your weak spots are.

Yeah.

You mentioned earlier about the the Giants running the same play three times.

Same play.

Right.

Uh, and scoring off of the three.

And where where's the coaches at?

Well, well, where's the coaches at?

Well, that brings me to this to this next point.

Because in football, you know, for those of you that may not know, you have something called halftime.

Well, right?

So you have a gameplay.

But they don't run that play in the first half.

They ran that play in the second half.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But you have a play, you know, you have a time called halftime after the first two quarters.

Every team has a game plan they go in.

What are we talking about right now?

You you played football, right?

Yeah.

Didn't you have a team mom who brought you the orange slices at halftime?

Nah, bro.

Nah, bro.

Really?

Nah, bro.

Yeah, you know what you give sure your dehydration was straight.

Listen, bro, we were men at 12.

We were men, bro.

We we ate after.

The orange slices for the colour.

I love the orange slices, man.

Often never tasted so good.

It's funny about the orange slice when you when you're thirsty like that.

Oh, yeah.

As opposed to like, you know, nobody like desires orange slices big time when you're at home.

When you play football at halftime, we're like, we got the orange slices and listening.

It's an instant charge, man.

It's an instant charge.

But halftime is when, you know, obviously you want to get the players to make a um uh have have a time of rest.

But it's I I can tell.

But it's also a time where you game plan, right?

You make adjustments, right?

Because you notice patterns, you moti notice the team doing certain things, certain plays are working for you, but certain plays are working for them as well.

So can you talk a little bit about how um how we adjust, uh uh it allowing the Holy Spirit to give us the the discernment to adjust in certain areas where we notice certain patterns, where we keep missing the mark, we keep failing.

Yeah, so I mean, first of all, the Holy Spirit's called a coach in the Bible, right?

He's our it's one of the interpretations of the the um the the Greek word paraklete or parakletos um is coach, our our our advocate, our teacher, our guider, our leader in all truth.

So the Holy Spirit is always trying to coach us through certain things.

And one of one one uh interpretation could be tour guide.

And what a tour guide knows is he knows how to get from point A to point B in the most effective manner.

Right?

So if the Holy Spirit is a tour guide, that means he's got a plan.

That means that if we're not having success in an area that is ungodly, this is because we're not following the plan.

Yeah.

And the reason why we're not following the plan is because we're not taking any time to listen to the Holy Spirit, which by the way, we can come back to that because remember what Dion did.

Yeah, yeah.

Right?

So um the when it comes to the Holy Spirit, we've we've got to listen to the coach, listen to the Holy Spirit.

And sometimes here's what happens.

If you keep getting beat by the same thing over and over again, it means you've got to change the plan.

Right?

The Cowboys didn't.

They kept throwing the same old defensive, you know, scheme out there against something that they were getting killed for.

You got you got to change that.

Yeah.

You gotta change that.

And sometimes here's the thing, here's why we don't, because sometimes the change is drastic.

Yeah, but we we practiced this, you know, uh defensive scheme, this this particular lineup.

Yeah, but it ain't working.

Yeah, you got you gotta change it, otherwise you're gonna get beat for a touchdown.

Yeah, and here's what what I mean by drastic.

Jesus said it this way He said, if your right eye offends you, pluck it out.

If your right hand offends you, cut it off.

It's better to enter into life maimed than to eternity.

And I'm paraphrasing this in part, you know, totally lost.

Yeah, yeah, right?

And so sometimes the game plan of the Holy Spirit requires inconvenience.

Yeah, sometimes you gotta cut it off.

Like, like what if?

And I think this was the case, it was a long time ago, but I think they said there's nothing we can do about it.

Well, it's free.

I said, Well, then cut the cable.

Yeah, but you ain't gonna be willing to watch TV for a minute.

Are we willing to make the costly sacrifices in the moment for the long-term gain because we realize that the damages to our relationship with the Lord, and it's really a matter of how much do we value our relationship with the Lord.

And a lot of times we don't want to cut things off, right?

Yeah.

So I remember when when uh we had our first child when Lisa was pregnant with Nicole, and we needed every bit of finances that we had.

We needed it all.

Lisa was the breadwinner at the time, okay?

Lisa was making$14,000 at the time.

That was that was from her primary job.

And I was making$10,000 from my primary job at the time.

Um it started at$4,800.

I've been advancing real quick, so I got all the way up to$10,000 for the year.

And so I was working other jobs.

So that Lisa's portion of income was was absolutely essential to us being able to make it.

And so um when she was pregnant, she said, you know, I really don't want to work outside of the home.

See, I was I was politically correct when I added outside of the home right there.

Because I, you know, at the beginning I was not politically correct.

So um she said, uh, you know, I don't I don't want to do that.

I want to I want to be here to to raise the kids.

And um, so I had to figure out a way, right?

And I was already working more than one job, but I had to figure out a way to work more in order to bring in some more money because she wasn't gonna work.

And one of the ways we did it was not just by bringing in more money, it was by getting rid of expenses.

Yeah.

So here's some of the expenses that are hard to get rid of.

No cable.

I gotta watch TV.

Well, why?

Is it how much does watching TV at the end of the day impact your life?

Right.

Matter of fact, you'd probably be better off not watching TV because you probably have a lot more time to do to do other things that are more important in life.

One of the big things we made is we said, we're gonna go down to one car.

What a sacrifice that was.

Yeah.

Right.

We had to figure that thing out, but we're gonna go down, we're gonna go down to one car for a season.

And so we started looking at all of those things that were truly not essential to life, so that we could prioritize something that was more important to us as a family.

And I mean, those are rough times.

Yeah, there were times when I remember we I didn't know where I was gonna get money for formula, diapers.

There were times when we was cracking open the piggy bank, yeah, rolling quarters, rolling pennies just to get enough money.

I mean, we had family that would help us and so on and so forth.

But you know, when you're a man, you're not always wanting to ask for help for stuff.

And so, you know, if they'd find out, they'd pinch in and help, but you know, you're not just gonna pick up the phone and say, hey, can you can you do this?

Can you do this?

And by the way, that that's a good godly first instinct.

The good godly first instinct is to try to figure it out yourself.

You know, it's not refuse help, but but if your answer is always get somebody else to solve my problem, then you never learn how to solve your own problems.

Yeah.

And so we made those costly, cut it off types of sacrifices along the way that were difficult in the moment, but now that I look back, that have paid off in the long run, paid off by the values, the the love for the Lord that our that our kids have, the the way that our the way that our family was just gelled together, all of those kind of things.

So at the time it didn't feel comfortable.

Yeah.

But now I'm like, it was so worth it.

And you know, in the moment, it doesn't always feel comfortable when God gives you a strategy that is calls for some violent execution of something that is a doorway into, you know, your life so that that bait keeps getting dangled before you.

Yeah.

And you wind up getting defeated by the same play over and over again.

Yeah, that's good.

One of the things you you mentioned the word uh the Holy Spirit and kind of made the comparison of calling him or referring to him as a coach or a guide.

And I think we've seen this in football games where you see a coach, they have a a head coach has a game plan.

Yeah.

That game plan clearly is not working, but they stick to it because there's a stubbornness, there's a you know, there's an arrogance, you know, like you just like you and you you're gonna go down with this ship versus, you know, leaning on the Holy Spirit.

You want to speak to that a little bit?

Because I think we're guilty of that in our own lives in a lot of ways.

We get something stuck in our head, and there's a stubbornness in most the Bible says be not like the horse or the mule, yeah, which has to be led about with a bit in its mouth.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And well, it's basically don't be stubborn when it comes to God.

Yeah.

And and there are many times when we get something in our head that it's got to be done a certain way, and we dig our heels in, and we're not willing to change, we're not mill willing to make adjustments.

We're not l willing to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, the coach who is trying to give us those adjustments, and we stay with it.

And there's times when you there's times when you you should go down with the shit.

Right.

But that's on that's standing on that's standing on business.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

That's standing on godly uh principles clearly uh outlined in the scripture.

There are other times when it's completely foolish to go down.

Is that the hill you want to die on?

Absolutely.

Right.

There are some things that are not just, and sometimes we just get so stuck in our ways that you know we're gonna, and it's kind of what we're talking about in our weekend series called White Flag.

It's about surrendering to God.

And there are times when really it's just that we're unwilling to surrender to God in a particular area.

Yeah.

Like I tell people this all the time, like, so you know, I'm just gonna use an area that people can relate to, and I know people think it's a preacher talking point, but people struggle with their finances for 10 years.

I'm like, You've been a Christian for how long?

Are you tithing yet?

Yeah, but how's that working out for you?

Yeah, you know, why why not surrender the white flag in your finances and just see what God would do in the situation?

Whatever it is, in your marriage, you know, in in in you know, saying you're sorry in in your marriage in terms of you know giving your spouse more of the attention that they need, you know, whatever it may be, in your church attendance, in your priorities, and your in your setting aside time to to uh and learning a skill.

Yep.

In learning a skill.

Like, you know, I I can't make any money.

I no matter how hard I try.

Well, maybe you need to learn a skill.

That's right.

You know, you know what I've been doing?

I you know, I do real estate too.

So I've been taking a course at 11 o'clock at night.

When everybody else is watching TV late, sleeping, yeah, I'm taking a course.

Why?

Because I'm I'm learning a new skill.

And you gotta constantly be learning, investing, being willing to adjust along the way so that you can experience the plan that God has for you in life.

Yeah, that's so good.

That's so good, man.

This is really good stuff.

There's there's two more things that I want us to talk and touch base on because I think one underrated biblical principle when you're talking about having the right plan, you gotta have the right people around you.

Right.

And so we talk about draft picks in the NFL.

Oh, yeah.

You know, that you know, you have the the war room where you have all the coaches sitting there, they're evaluating, they do all of the scouting and so on and so forth to pick the player that you think is going to help get you over you know over the hump.

You know, how important is it to have the right team around you, the right players around you?

Absolutely essential.

Um you know, they say in business three things are important people, processes, and product.

That in order to have a successful business, you gotta have all three.

Right?

And um but notice one of those big things is is people.

The same thing is true in life.

Okay the team that you have around you, the people that you have around you are so important to your success.

The Bible says bad company corrupts good morals.

That's right.

Right.

Um the Bible also talks about um when a brother or sister is overtaking a fault, those of you who are spiritual restore such a one.

So there's the restoring team around you.

Yeah.

Jesus had the right team around him.

He had he had his twelve disciples, but then when it came time to uh go into things that were a little bit deeper, he took Peter, James, and John only.

So they were there were different teams for different times.

And the right people around you make all the difference in the world in terms of how you respond to things.

You need people around you that are not just not gonna uh just agree with your point of view, but you needed people around you who are gonna sharpen you with the iron of the scripture.

That's right.

They're gonna, they're gonna, not people who are gonna cherry pick scripture, you know, but people who are gonna use scripture appropriately where it applies to the situation.

People are gonna sharpen you in those areas.

So, you know, draft picks are so important, and you know, the way that they evaluate is they past performance is an indication of future success.

Right.

Right?

So they've not always an indication of future success, but can I tell you something?

It's definitely an indication of future success.

How somebody has responded consistently over time is usually an indication of what's gonna happen in the future.

So um, if I need somebody around me, a team around me to help me with my marriage, I'm not gonna pick somebody who's on their fifth marriage.

Exactly.

Right?

Exactly.

Probably not even gonna pick somebody who's not married, right?

Yeah.

Not because people who aren't married don't have wisdom, but but I need I need somebody who's got wisdom in that particular area, right?

So, you know, if I'm I'm struggling with man issues, I'm probably not gonna go to a woman.

Yeah.

Although women do think they're experts when it comes to men, and men do think they're experts when it comes to women, right?

So but I wanna, I wanna, there's sometimes I need I need somebody who's who can speak to the issue from personal experience.

You've been through it.

This weekend we had somebody who came to church and they were detoxing and struggling.

Okay, and they needed help.

So you know who I called?

Somebody in a church who had gotten victory over that.

I said, Come here, I need you to help this person.

Yeah.

I needed to get them around the right person who could understand what they're going through.

Because, like, from my point of view, it's like, yeah, just stop.

Yeah.

You see what drugs are doing to you.

Right.

Why don't you just cut it off?

I I don't I can't have that personal intimacy with the feeling of withdrawal.

With an addiction, yeah.

And and and and all of that kind of stuff.

So so they need somebody who can who can speak their language.

A thousand percent.

Somebody, and that's what the right team around you is.

I mean, even in the Bible, there's there's the man that was carried by his four friends, right?

The paralytic.

And uh had he had not had that team around him, he never gets healed.

Yeah.

And and that's that's a word right there because sometimes if you don't have the right team around you, you don't get healed.

Yeah.

The Bible even says when it comes to sin, it says to confess your faults one to another and and pray for one another that you may be healed for the effectual, fervor, and prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

James 5, 5, 16, I think that is.

Um and the reason why it says that is not because you need to confess to somebody to be forgiven, because it doesn't say that.

We have one mediator between God and man, that's Christ Jesus.

If we confess our sins to him, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But if you want to be healed, yeah, you need accountability.

If you want to get over something, you need somebody in your life, the right people around you, to help push you over that particular thing.

Yeah.

And the problem with most people is most people run to people and they only listen to people who are gonna give them the answer that they want to hear instead of a biblical answer.

Yeah.

We're looking for biblical answers to to problems.

Amen.

That's good, man.

That's this is some really, really, really good stuff.

The the last thing that I'll say, and then we'll transition to one last point um about the importance of what what we call in in sports film studying.

After the game is over, right?

The team sits down on a Monday or a Tuesday and they look at everything that went right, yeah, but you have to look at what didn't work, what went wrong.

Speak of that a little bit.

So, first of all, old saying in business, you can't measure, you can't manage what you don't measure.

Yeah.

And it's the same thing in life.

If you're not measuring something, if you're not evaluating the Bible says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

And in that, in that statement, there is an element of self-evaluation.

And and that's where we were saying before, David, search me, oh God.

This willingness to look in the mirror of the word of God, not for condemnation, but for necessary correction in order that we might become everything Christ wants us to be.

And so um we need to be able to to definitely self-evaluate with the help and the guidance of the Holy Spirit and and look at those kind of things in our life so that we can improve.

That's that's film study.

So I know for me, um the things that I look at most are the things that are not working.

Yeah, and there's this whole business thing, focus on your successes and restraints and not your weaknesses.

You know, I I I understand that.

Um and that's that's true.

There's some truth in that.

But when it comes to to the areas where we keep falling down in, if we just keep focusing on our successes, we're never we're gonna keep falling down in those areas.

So we've got to be critically think through those areas about how we can become better in those areas.

Amen.

Amen.

This is good.

One last thing.

We'll talk about uh it happened this past weekend.

Yep.

Uh Deion Sanders, who is the head coach.

One of the greatest cowboys ever, by the way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

One of the greatest cowboys ever.

Come on.

If you ask Dion what team he identifies with the most, who's he gonna say?

San Francisco 49.

No, it's not.

Because you know, once a cowboy, always a cowboy, babe.

Everybody wants to be part of the big dogs.

I hear you, I hear you.

Um, but after they win their second game, uh two games in a row, yeah, uh, it's it's it's a thrilling victory.

He comes and he sits down at the press conference table and he says, give me a minute.

Uh, I need to calm down.

And he begins to speak in in tongues.

Wow.

What are your thoughts on that?

I mean, you know, mixed, to be honest with you.

If I'm if I'm on, first of all, I admire him from one perspective, right?

Totally admire him.

Just not ashamed, like, not ashamed of the gifts of God, you know, not ashamed of all of that kind of stuff.

And I believe in obviously um speaking in other tongues.

The apostle Paul said, I speak with tongues more than y'all.

Yeah.

Right.

So um I believe it's a it's a spiritual it is according to the scripture, spiritual prayer language that every believer can and should practice in their life.

Um, what it is, is it's it's one of the ways, one of the things the Bible tells us, it's how we build ourselves up.

Uh He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifies himself.

You build your tongue up.

Another place in scripture talks about when you don't know how to pray, the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

And uh in one version it says inarticulate speech.

And so there is this aspect of speaking in other tongues that definitely can be uh build you up, give you focus, so on and so forth.

Now, so I admire all that.

Like I I love Deion Sanders.

I was like, yeah, go boy, go ahead.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But at the same time, there's a part of me that's going, like, but I know like you're trying to use your platform, or maybe you just got caught up in the moment, or whatever the case may be is, but there's also the other part where like, you know, it it don't come it come across a little wacky.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, uh, and so I think we do have to use spiritual wisdom in those moments, but like, like if Dion had to do it, did it all over again, I'd I'd still be like, yeah, go ahead.

Go for it.

Go for it, you know, type of thing.

Yeah, yeah, go for it, type of thing.

That's awesome.

Yeah, I I kind of I kind of felt that way more than I think I felt the same way.

It was, it was mixed, but I've more so felt like, ugh, I know our people that that don't understand that, how they'll try to interpret that and talk negatively about it.

I think we did a whole podcast, right?

And uh so you can go back in the in the in the list of episodes and you can watch a whole podcast where we talk about, you know, um tongues, interpretation of tongues, the heavenly language of uh prayer language of speaking in another tongue.

Should everybody speak in tongues?

Is tongues the initial sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit?

You know, all of that kind of stuff.

We did a whole podcast on that.

Great detail, all the scripture, you can go check it out.

Beautiful.

All right, now we're gonna transition to our real life react.

This is where um Pastor Frank, you get a chance to watch a real for the first time.

I'm bracing myself.

I have a feeling this is some Cowboys clip.

I have a feeling I'm just, you know, I don't know.

I have a feeling this is like you trying to make fun, you know, get some.

Yeah, go ahead and show me.

Here are some historical events that happened since the Cowboys last appeared in an NFC championship game.

Make sure you send this to a Cowboys fan to ruin their day.

Phillips released the first flat screen TV in 1998.

In 2007, the first iPhone was invented.

We are now on the 17th generation model of the iPhone.

Oh, in 2003, MySpace was launched by Tom Anderson.

The U.S.

also elected their first African American president since the Cowboys were last in the NFC Championship.

Sam Darnold was born in 1997, grew up, got drafted, and won the Super Bowl since the last time that the Cowboys were in the NFC Championship.

This one's my personal favorite.

Every single NFC team, other than the Cowboys, made it to the NFC Championship since the last time that the Cowboys made it in 1995.

Now all they can do is serve those five trophies, wiping the dust off of them, watching those VHS tape Super Bowls to try to relive the moment because they know in the modern day era the Cowboys are never gonna make it to the NFC Championship, and they're for sure not going to make it to a Super Bowl.

Wow.

I mean, you want to react to that, I think.

Well, you know how I react to that?

It's our time.

Oh, why?

Summertime.

Summertime.

Time is on our side, baby.

Interesting.

Like, like I'm a Knicks fan, bro.

53 years in the making.

And we we we went into we went into San Antonio.

We were we were the dogs.

They were like, you know, nah, they had women when we had Brunson.

And and you know, they had the and we had the workman, baby.

And what happened?

We we went in there, we did work, we did work, and we didn't want to come out quick.

So 53 years in the making.

Uh-huh.

By the way, I gotta, I wrote a I wrote a rap up.

You can put the rap up there, but I'm putting the football season.

It's football season break.

That's my tribute to the cowboys.

My my tribute to all you cowboy fans.

Don't lose hope.

I just thought about keep hope alive.

Yes, we look.

I'm gonna bring it back to Barack.

Yes, we can.

Yes, we can.

Yes, we can.

All right, all right, all right, we gotta keep it moving.

We gotta keep it moving.

All right.

I got some over-unders for you.

Okay.

And and and I got some Okay.

The first one.

Number of times fans will say we're going, Dallas fans will say we're going to the Super Bowl, the over-under five and a half.

Over under.

Number of times, like during what?

This season this year that that fans are going to say we're going to the Super Bowl.

Over under.

Over over five.

Over five.

I would agree.

Yeah.

Because us cowboy fans, as soon as we see a glimmer of hope, we'd be like, yeah, it is.

We're going to the Super Bowl.

All right, next over under.

Uh, how many times someone says Dak ain't the guy immediately after an interception or a touchdown?

As a cowboy fan?

Over under.

12 and a half is the number.

As a cowboy fan.

Uh-huh.

Under.

Under?

Yeah, because cowboy fans know the reality of that.

They know that everybody, everybody, Dak is like a lightning rod.

Dak is like a lightning rod.

But cowboy fans know that when you look at Dak, first of all, look, think of all the quarterbacks who have been way worse than Dak who have won Super Bowls.

Let's start with Sam Darno.

Okay?

All right, we don't we don't need the Holy Spirit.

Way worse.

Way worse.

We don't need a whole dollar.

The fact of the matter is, Cowboy fans know that Dak Dak is more than capable of taking us to.

We need to fix the defense.

All right.

Okay.

Number of times cowboy fans bring up the 90s during an argument this year.

Over under three and a half.

Way over.

Way over, bro.

That was the glory days, baby.

Speaking of the 90s, so I was, I was, I was uh golfing the other day.

Um, a friend of mine belongs to a country club.

So I went to golf at the country club with him.

And who's there but but Bernie Williams and a guy by the name of Richie Cuttingham?

Now you don't know who Richie Cunningham is.

You're thinking happy days, because that's how old you are.

But uh but but Richie Cunningham was a place kicker for the Dallas Cowboys.

Now here's the thing about him he was a place kicker for the Dallas Cowboys in '94.

Okay.

And then came back in '96.

Dallas won it in '92, '93, and '95.

So I told him, I said, I guess, I guess when you left, they it it was good luck for them.

Yeah, he wasn't important to win once.

All pro kicker, by the way.

I looked up his stats and uh he won the won the club championship at this at this course.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

All right, last over under.

How many Sundays before someone says there's always next year?

Cowboys fans over under 10 and a half.

Ten and a half?

How many Sundays?

That's gonna be under.

Under?

Yeah, because here's why here's my reasoning for under.

Because that would mean, in my opinion, that it would have to be clear that the Cowboys had no shot at making the playoffs or making a deep run in the playoffs.

So um I think that despite this first game, the Cowboys are gonna write the ship.

I think that they're gonna have an early season surprising win against a team that's really good, that's gonna put them back in the conversation of okay, they can make a shot at winning the division.

And uh it's only when they're it's clear that they're not going anywhere that people always next year.

So I I say that's under.

All right, last one.

Yeah.

Cowboys regular season wins set at nine and a half over under.

So when the season started, when the season started, um before all the hype, before all the we're fixing the defense, and you know, we're bringing in Von Miller and all this kind of stuff.

When I just looked at the schedule, right?

Before everybody was jumping on that that that upset wagon, that sleeper wagon, I had the Cowboys at nine and eight and ten or ten and seven.

Okay.

Okay.

So that nine and a half is kind of right there.

Okay.

So but but one of the wins I had them having is against the Giants on on opening on opening day.

So if you're asking me right now, I I think I think it's under because they lost to the Giants.

Now, I I could if they come back and they beat like the Rams, they they win a game that I had them losing, or they beat the 49ers, a game that I had them losing, then I then I think, okay, all right, maybe, maybe they're gonna they're gonna they're gonna surpass that.

But that's where I had them.

All right.

And then I'm not delusional.

Well, no, you are.

Most people think I'm not delusional.

You are.

You are.

You can't be a Cowboys fan and not be delusional.

You just can't be.

But it's okay.

You're allowed to have that.

But I think our friend Ralph's in the building.

All right, Ralph, be boy.

Ralph's got a question for us, and then we're gonna bring this podcast to a close.

What you got for us, Ralph?

How do you reconcile, as both a pastor and a Dallas Cowboys fan, your theological conviction that God specializes in accomplishing the impossible with the empirical evidence suggesting that a cowboys championship may in fact exceed even the boundaries of divine intervention.

Wow, Ralph.

Wow.

No program.

That's this question.

I don't know what you're talking about.

You know what's hysterical about this?

I saw this thing going around on social media where where husbands were handing their wives um two weeks' notice of of of of uh what was it?

Uh in preparation for the season.

Two weeks' notice of of suspending uh husband duties in preparation for the season.

You know, not gonna be available for this, not gonna be available for that, you know, can't do this, can't do that, until after February.

And uh and then of course most husbands would say, but there there are some husband duties that I will still be attending to.

Right.

But then one wife snapped back or clapped back and said, This can't be a legitimate contract.

And they said, Why?

And she said, because Dallas never plays in February.

Oh, so yes, bring it on, bring it on, bring it on.

But it's gonna be one of these years.

One of these years.

One of these years.

I'm gonna have that last letter.

One of these years.

Listen, uh a broken clock is right twice a day.

Blind squirrel finds a nut every now and again.

What they chapter an answer, though?

I mean, it's a great question, though.

I mean, we come on.

Come on.

Ralph, how would you stop with this nonsense?

Listen, we hope you guys enjoyed uh this podcast.

We thought we'd do something a little fun, but you still have a little spiritual twist to it as well.

Can you guys do us a favor?

Can you like, share, and subscribe to this podcast?

We want to bless and be a blessing to as many people as possible.

I am Ronald Julian, and this is Frank Centora.

We'll see you next time on Ask Me Anything.

Bye, guys.