America the Beautiful

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Well today, today, this is a special show, special in the way, well special one because of who I have on it, but secondly, special because this is the 4th of July special edition of The Man Up. And with me today, the Christian car guy, Robbie Dilmore. Robbie, welcome back to The Man Up Show. Oh, I love these holiday shows. What an honor it is always.

And of course, this holiday is all about man and up, right? Because you think about those guys that decided to man up and sign the declaration, you know, they were, that's some serious manning up, right? You know what it is, because I don't know, you know, depending on how well our listeners know their history, right? And that's not to say I'm not a historian or a history buff per se, but I love history, right? I love traveling around the world and seeing castles that are a thousand years old or walking through, as I did in the country of Jordan, walking through Roman ruins that were three and 4,000 years old. You know, now I'm fascinated by that, right?

The ruins of Petra and so many other things. But to your point, what some people, I don't know if they realize, Robbie, that when they signed up, by they meaning like the founding fathers, those whose names are on the Declaration of Independence, essentially, they were signing their death warrant. And what I mean by that is, had it not worked out the way it did... Clearly, the empire would strike back. Yes, to use a good Luke Skywalker term, yes, the empire would strike back because the King of England, it would have been known as what? Treason, it was completely treason. Treason, right? Treason to the king, right? And they would have been hung in the gallows, right?

Back in those days, I think that was the form of punishment, hanging by gallows. So, hey, welcome to the Man Up show today. Are you getting a mental image, a picture of that?

I just thought about that. That was so serious. That pen to the paper, it was manning up. Yeah, for real. Yeah, you wanna talk about manning up, that's the... And the whole thought of it's almost crazy. Like, wait a minute, you think you are gonna take on England, you little bitty, like, speck of a whatever, and we're talking about the greatest superpower on earth.

I mean, this would be like... And you're gonna take on England, the mirror, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me is like, yeah, that was all things right there. And it weren't that old too, like by different accounts. I mean, some of them were in their teens, maybe early 20s. I mean, they weren't all that old, but they had a vision.

Right. They had a vision and they've, in their heart of hearts, had a mission. They had a mission and they had a vision, right?

And just to take it one step further, so not only the signing of their death warrant, but obviously it also meant losing any and all property that they maybe had, all of their income or wealth or any family, any and all of that, right? I imagine they met some resistance back then. And I'm not just talking about by the King of England, I'm talking about, I'm thinking they might have met some resistance here in the colonies as we know them as well.

Oh my goodness. I mean, the inner fighting was unbelievable because obviously this wouldn't be popular. Like, you not realize what you're gonna do to the whole society by you rebelling? Yeah, unpopular. Now, and I may have in my notes somewhere here what the term was for those who... There is a term... Tory? Was it a Tory? Was it a Tory?

The ones who were... Staying with England. Staying with England, right.

That's it, right. Staying with England. Like, yo, we're not joining your band of marauders, right? Right, right.

We are locked in with England. And even from my understanding, like even certain, like even families, families were torn apart by some who decided they're gonna stay as Tories and others who were gonna join the revolution, right? The American revolution.

And of which, hey, we're talking about today, July 4th, the celebration of the independence of the Americas, of the United States, of America, of the colonies. And so I hope you find this interesting today. We're gonna delve a little more into this, but Robbie, first, before we do, who's the Christian car guy? Because some may not be familiar with who the Christian car guy is. You gotta tell our listeners who the Christian car guy is. Well, first of all, I'd like to say that I have met many, many, many Christian car guys. There's a lot more Christian car guys than just me, by all means.

But it is the name of my radio show that God called me to in 2006 as I was a Chrysler dealer. And interestingly, sometimes, well, what I like to say is when God calls you to do something, like, man, if you say yes, and you go on that adventure with him, he will blow your mind. You'll go places you never thought you'd go.

You do things you never did. He's gonna stretch you. That's gonna be good. But along the line, man, like, such joy, and one of those joys is getting to do radio with Nikita Koloff. Like, really?

Is that... I mean, how fun is that? I actually get to do these shows and to record with you. So I produce, and I also help people with radio shows and podcasting that wanna syndicate those, get them on a lot of stations. And so how fun. Like, man, sometimes I have to pinch myself. Like, you mean I have to sit here and listen to all these Nikita Koloff radio shows, but sometimes I get to record books and all sorts of fun stuff.

But it's a blast. Like, man, just the stories that I've heard today, right, of what God's done through the different people that you interview every week. It's amazing.

Yeah, different individuals. Of course, you do a phenomenal job. And so you got the... And the Christian Car Guy airs on Truth Radio Network on syndicated nationally, right? On Saturdays and... 10 o'clock, right? Not long before your show. 10 o'clock on Saturdays on the Truth Radio Network.

If you don't have the Truth app, go get the Truth app and make sure you're listening to it on the Truth app, if not on the radio itself. And that's not the only... You do other shows too, Masculine Journey, some other shows too, right? Land and Rescue, one of my favorites, where God has chosen these people to go and rescue folks out of sex trafficking and actually helping the Ukrainian war and lots of other things at Land and Rescue is involved in that so much. That's just cool. Another one like, God, really? I get to do this?

I mean, amazing. The stuff that I get to do, that Masculine Journey, of course, very close to manning up. And so that's a John Eldridge style ministry. We do boot camps around. And I've done two of them now with you.

Because, hey, I need to be fed too. So I did your first boot camp a year or two ago, and then you did it. I saw it in an advanced boot camp and I'm like, oh, that's calling my... That has my name all over it. So went and did your advanced boot camp.

How often do you do those? Spring and fall, I think, right? Right. We do do boot camps a year and sometimes we do an advanced, but most of the time it's just the regular, but... Anybody can come? Oh, man.

Yeah, except women. Any man can come to this boot camp. And over the course of a weekend, okay, about three days or so that you do these camps. Yeah, we start on a Thursday. And unlike your camp, which is going after the heart of God for a whole week, which, believe me, I've done and I look so forward to coming back and doing again, we do them starting on a Thursday through Sunday. So four days. Okay.

So four days. And if you've ever had an interest in wanting to do a podcast of your own, let me encourage you, Robbie is your man, reach out to Truth Radio Network and say, I wanna speak to Robbie Dilmore. And they can connect you to Robbie and he can enlighten you to what it looks like to have your own podcast and or perhaps help you make that a reality, make that happen. And if that's not enough, Robbie, you're pastoring right now as well. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. God really opened up that door. And how fun, an amazing church in West Ashboro Baptist Church, which is a little ways from my house, but just unbelievable that God opened that door too at 67 years old.

A lot of people are retiring. But I... You're just getting started. I am. I remember God wants to do it. I was talking to Tammy yesterday. He said, you ever think you'd be a pastor's wife? But just really, really fun and just an amazing thing that God's doing at that church and loving on our family. But like you say, God blesses you when you serve so many ways.

You can't out serve God, you can't out give God, right? And you and Tammy have been married how long now? 35 years. Congratulations. That's amazing. And two beautiful daughters. Two beautiful daughters, one of them born on the 4th of July.

So her birthday, we call her Miss Independence for obvious reasons. Oh my goodness. Wow. I love it. I love it. So, wow.

And I have a son too, who's also in the car business and doing very well. Yes, yes. Wonderful. So incredible. So that's amazing.

That's pretty interesting. She was born on the 4th of July. Yeah, that's why I especially love doing the 4th of July show, because it always makes me, reminds me of Mariah.

And so I feel led to tell the story of Mariah. I had cancer in 1996, lymphoma, and it was a pretty serious type of cancer, the kind where you shouldn't be able to have children afterwards, because you're going to go through a bunch of chemo and stuff like that. But Tammy, my wife, desperately wanted to have children and really, really did. She didn't have any at this point. No, we had the two older children. We had Robbie and Tess, but she wanted a bigger family. So here I went through this, but she still wanted a family.

But I just put away that thought, realizing that they told me this would make me sterile. And so about three, four years later, I guess it must have been three, Tammy asked me to dinner one night to the Outback Steakhouse, and I'll never forget it. And she said, well, good news, my other two kids were there. And she said, well, good news, you're going to be a dad. Come on. And I said, well, yeah, I am. She goes, no, no, no, you're going to be a dad. Again.

No, yeah. So it was a miracle. It really was that she would be born, that Mariah would be born. Well, we got to name this child. And so we get our other two kids, Tess, my older daughter, was nine at this point in time. And we used to love to go to Tweetsie Railroad. And every time we'd go there, there was a cowboy that used to sing to people. And he would sing, the rain is Tess, and the fire's Joe, and they call the wind Mariah. And so she loved that, you know, that the guy recognized her name being Tess. And she said, so we need to name our daughter, even though my son's name is Robbie, we're going to name her Mariah.

Right? So we named her Mariah. And which, because that's what Tess wanted. And it sounded good. We all liked it.

And so we went with it. Well, that fall, now realize that my wife wanted one and wanted a child. And we really both did, this third child. But we didn't think we were going to have him, especially because of the cancer. But God, number one, healed me from cancer, another story.

But now here we are with his child. So I go to this play that my kids are putting on at school, my older kids, and they're putting on a play of going through the Bible. Right? And so as they're going through the Bible, you know, the scene of Abraham's going to sacrifice Isaac on the mountain.

Right? And as they say, well, now, you know, we're going to call this place Mariah because the Lord will provide. And I demand the tears are flowing because I realized, oh, my gosh, did you? Like, the Lord provided, you know, this daughter. And that has been just like, oh, my goodness. I mean, all my kids are such a joy, especially in so many different ways.

But Mariah, you know, really, you know, went to college to be a missionary. It just really has been an amazing story of the 4th of July baby. The 4th of July baby. And I mean, we could do 10 shows with you and just you're not only overcoming cancer, but just all the different adversities that you've overcome. We're just giving you the short version of the story here today.

I mean, Robbie is a true, as you can already tell, a true miracle in many sense of the word. So, well, on that note, the July 4th baby, you know, and we're doing a special edition for the 4th of July. But just backtrack just a moment or two, because some may or may not know, you know, really more of the history now that, you know, that's how America came to be through the American Revolution in defeating the British. But, you know, America goes way back and, you know, there's many accounts and different stories all the way back to Christopher Columbus in 1492, who sailed the... Darrell Bock The Ocean Blue, I'm pretty sure. Jay Famiglietti The Ocean Blue, right, and started the European colonization of the Americas, right. And William Penn is part of history in 1681. You know, he was handed a large piece of North American land holdings, you know, by King Charles II at the time. And it was kind of a, I guess, a payment of debts, you know, to William Penn.

In fact, the state of Pennsylvania would be named after William Penn. Announcer You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Jay Famiglietti Nikita Kolof here, and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement? Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Kolof Fans, and like it and follow today. Announcer Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption.

Go to www.kolof.net and donate today. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Jay Famiglietti And he was, of course, he was an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, which is what kind of prompted and was leading into the 1700s, right? Which is a big reason why a lot of the Europeans came to the Americas, right? Was religious freedom, is that right? Jay Famiglietti Oh, absolutely. In fact, I'm sure a lot of your ancestors did mind it. If you do any genealogy, it's shocking how many came over for that very reason is, you know, there was serious trouble over in England, serious trouble in lots of countries, if you didn't hold to whatever the religion of the state was.

Jay Famiglietti Right. Yeah. I mean, again, I mean, you just go back to the gallows for a second, right? The king could decree all kinds of things, right? And, you know, going back to William Penn just for a second, it's interesting, he gets, I guess, some of the credit, maybe all the credit, I don't know, what was called the Pennsylvania frame of government, these principles that he has set forth, that my understanding became an inspiration for the framing of the Constitution of the United States that was set in place in Philadelphia in 17, I guess, officially 1787. But it included, my understanding, some of Penn's vision that all persons, all persons are equal under God. Now, that's interesting, right? And in fact, as you and I both know, I mean, the Constitution has come under continual attack, right?

Even in present modern day. Darrell Bock Yeah. It's kind of a sign. Anytime you see something being seriously attacked, you realize that we have an enemy, you know, that's not flesh and blood, but a spiritual enemy. And the Constitution is a perfect example of, boy, that thing has come under serious fire, you know, actually, since its founding, and back then especially. Darrell Bock Yeah. And, I mean, you know, because there is an enemy, right? And it's interesting that people came here for religious freedom, but yet that freedom is constantly challenged, right? Constantly, and even more so now than perhaps in a long, long time, or maybe even ever before in America, right, that is being challenged. Darrell Bock Oh, absolutely. And if there was ever a time to man up, and it's clearly now.

Darrell Bock Yeah, it is. And, you know, not everyone considers himself to be patriotic, but it is America, land of the free, right? There's a reason why everybody wants to come here. I mean, the last time I checked, and, you know, I don't see people beating the doors down to go to North Korea. I'm just gonna pick one country, like for real. And by the way, I have technically been in North Korea, believe it or not.

Darrell Bock I do, I've heard the story. Darrell Bock You've heard that story, right, where the road warriors and I were at the, what's called the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone, where that building is housed half on South Korea, half on North Korea. And we got the opportunity to go in the building, which means we could walk all the way across to the other side, and technically be in North Korea. But I assure you, based on my experience, nobody's beating the doors down to go to North Korea. You know, not to pick on them, but just to illustrate a point, right?

Everybody wants to come to America, the land of the free, the land of opportunity, right? And that's what it is. And, you know, thanks to guys like William Penn, who, by the way, you know, because of his pursuit of religious freedom, at one point, he was, due to his faith, you know, there's a book called No Cross, No Crown. He was actually imprisoned in the Tower of London at one point by the king in trying to establish religious freedom. And I think that's where he really became or wrote that Christian classic, right?

No Cross, No Crown. So you fast forward, Robbie, into 1776, and as we're celebrating Independence Day, and we're creeping up on 250 years of freedom too, right? Oh, wow.

That would be a big one. That makes me feel old. I mean, but on a grand scale of things though, America being only, really only 250 years old, compared to many other countries, it's not that old, is it? Especially for those of us who remember the Bicentennial all too well. But no, it's not. I mean, clearly not even close to old. You know, but when you think about it, as you get up there in your own age, you're like, man, that's only four times my age, or whatever the situation may be.

I mean, it just is not that long ago. Do you have a favorite thing to do on 4th of July? I'm just curious. Well, I personally have always loved fireworks. Okay.

All right. I love barbecues. I love barbecue, period. But most of all, it's being with family, and the people that you love, and enjoying your independence, right? Yes, which is what we've been given, right, is independence, right? And part of that foundation is, again, the religious freedom is the motto, in God we trust, right?

That came out of that revolution too, correct? Would your company, business, or you personally like to partner with me in supporting Koloff for Christ Ministries, The Man Up Show, and Man Up Minutes? Go to koloff.net and click the donate button.

You can give monthly, annually, or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. Exactly, right? In God we trust, and e pluribus unum. I'm not a Latin expert. I hope I said that, right, for those who are Latin experts out there, right? But do you know what that means, e pluribus unum? See, I was wondering when you're going to get to this part. Do you listeners out there know what e pluribus unum is saying? I do not know. It sounds like something to do with some multiple people united.

That's just, it sounds like that. Yeah, you're a highly educated guy. Across the table from here. Out of many, one. Wow. So you were close. You were close. Out of many, one. So for those of you out there who got the answer right, unfortunately, you couldn't call in and give us the answer.

Thank you for knowing that answer. But so thoughts on the... Besides gathering together with family and lighting off fireworks and celebrating, any other special thoughts about the 4th of July? Well, for me, it always signifies what will you do with that freedom?

In other words, this thing didn't come without a cost. It was spectacular what people have paid for to give us the freedom that we have. And all the centuries back there from William Penn, you can go back further. And the people that fought in England or people that fought in Martin Luther brought that...

However you talk about it, there's been a whole lot of people who lose their life, lose their position and all that stuff over their faith. And so we've been giving this unbelievable, I mean, just unbelievable gift of freedom. But the million dollar question with that is the same one William Wallace asked on the Battle of Sterling is, what will you do with that freedom?

And someday lying in your bed... Right. How will you make a difference? Right.

Yeah. How will you make a difference? When you think about where America stands presently today, Rob, there's many who consider us to be a post-Christian nation at this point, even though we were founded on religious freedom. And so I guess our challenge, even as we begin to wrap up this special edition today in talking about the 4th of July is, what will you do with that freedom? We know in the course of history, we've had many great awakenings. Many are hoping for one more great awakening here in America so that we don't lose our freedoms, right?

That that is a concern for many people, right? And I was enlightened to this at the NRB a couple of weeks ago that the word Babylon, it means confusion. Okay. It's just simple.

They're really simple stuff. And you look at the confusion today, it's all over the place. Well, you know the truth. If you're listening to the Truth Network, you have some clue that it comes out of the Bible, right? And it's so helpful to people that are confused to have some absolute truth. Right. And it comes with Jesus.

It does. So moral relativism is alive and well, but at the end of the day, the only absolute truth, if you want answers to any questions is the Bible. And so I just want to challenge, I really want to, I guess, as we wrap up the show, challenge you and just reemphasize what Robbie just said and put that challenge out there. What will you do with your freedom?

The freedom we have in America. What will you do? Will you stand up? Man, woman, or child, whoever's listening to the show today, what will you do with the freedoms we have in America? But will we just silently sit by and watch our freedoms slip away? Or will we actually be a voice in America and say, not on my watch. Right, Robbie? Not on my watch.

That's right. And so just challenge you as you go out and celebrate the 4th of July this weekend and have your barbecues and your parties and the lighting of your fireworks, and maybe attend American pastime baseball game where they'll set off fireworks. More than anything, one, be grateful for the freedoms we have. Two, are you willing, if need be, are you willing to stand up? Much like those who put their name on the line in 1776, the 1700s, and their name, reputation, land, life, and everything they owned to say, not on my watch, we're going to have freedom in America. Don't know that we'll ever get to that, but are you willing, if necessary? Last thought?

Oh, my last thought is that, oh wow, as the rockets red glare, right? The bombs bursting in the air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Was still there. Hey, thanks for tuning in to this special edition of the Man Up Show, July 4th edition. Until next time, have a God-filled, God-blessed day. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to koloff.net and donate today.

Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out the Man Up Show, now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings, or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. If you are enjoying the Man Up Show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment. Nikita Koloff here.

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