LIVE from Nashville

What an electric program today, live from Nashville, Tennessee.

Robby Dilmore, the Christian Karga, and I have it hooked up. So we've been interviewing Pastor Jonathan Falwell. You're going to hear from him. You're going to hear from Pastor Rob Passienza. One pastor is the epic Thomas Rowe Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, and he has a message that he's going to bless you.

And then the other pastor is Coral Ridge Pastoral Church in Coral Ridge, down there in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Pastor Rob, Trues to Transform. Stay tuned. Be encouraged.

Share this program after you hear the whole thing with a whole bunch of people. They're going to be blessed, too. And listen all week as we are live from Nashville at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention.

God bless you. Learn more all about us at our website, truthnetwork.com. Foreign events and theology all come together.

Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. We are in Nashville, Tennessee, and this place is, I don't know what to call this place. What do we call this place, Pastor Jonathan?

How do we describe it? Disney World on steroids, I think is what the operating plan hotel is. It is absolutely amazing. Walking across the lobby just, you know, you think would be a short trip.

You have to plan 30 minutes to get across to the front door, get, you know, to the driveway. This place is incredible. But good pizza. I had some great pizza earlier. You had some pizza.

I did. And probably some of the best pizza I've had. Plenty of food, plenty of music, plenty of musicians everywhere, on every corner. I just ran into, for King & Country, like walking over here. Just, you know, walking down the hall and got to talk to them a few minutes ago. And of course, if you go outside the hotel and drive down the streets of Nashville, you know, you can meet every future star.

Every country music future star is every corner playing a guitar somewhere. They might be bringing your wings to dinner. You know, they might be your waiter or waitress.

Bringing you the Diet Coke and one day they'll own Coke. How about that? No, we are in one of our Truth Network suites. You know, we're kind of hidden in the hotel for security purposes because we have Pastor Jonathan Falwell on the radio in the house. The legend himself.

And what's wild is reboot or rewind the tape, Jonathan Falwell. I'm Stu Everson. We're talking right now.

We've got a Facebook feed, so this is being recorded by video. I definitely have a facial radio. This guy's TV everything.

I mean, he is big time. But we're sons of the pioneers. Indeed, yeah. In fact, you know, we were talking just before we went on the air about, you know, going back into the 80s with NRB. And your dad and my dad were, you know, both served on the board for many, many years. And, you know, the impact and the opportunities that they had to work with, you know, a generation of Christian broadcasters who were passionate about taking the gospel around the world. And, you know, that they were they were part of that and they were working with a lot of others and like Billy Graham and J. Vernon McGee and all of these names from the past that, you know, Adrian Rogers and D. James Kennedy, so many others who truly, I believe, changed our nation for the better because of the work that they did. And here we are now in 2024 and they're in heaven and they're better off than we are.

And we're here and we're trying to trying to carry it on. My dad used to tell me stories about your dad, Jerry Falwell. They would be going to preach somewhere in Greensboro or Elkin or around Winston-Salem and they'd see a couple of kids playing basketball in the backyard.

It'd be 100 degrees outside in the humid south. And your dad would say, hey, Stu, let's pop out. Let's take these kids on. But only because your dad was about 6'8 that they could pull that one off. Hey, they got out there, they took them on and your dad would be dripping in sweat. Well, you know, my dad was not a fool.

When you have an Epperson on the team, you're going to be OK. So, Jonathan Falwell, you're addressing everyone tonight. This is exciting. It's a real answer to prayer, you know, because you have a heart for evangelism. You have a heart to reach the world. You're doing it at Thomas Road.

You guys have all these church plants, this amazing church planting network that's kind of really spanning the globe. Talk about your passion and kind of what you want to say. We're going to get cues from headquarters to dial down.

We'll come right back after the break if we get interrupted. But start into where you want to take this crowd tonight with this message. Well, you know, obviously we live in a time where the message that we preach, the message that we share, whether it be from a church pulpit or whether it be from the Truth Network and through the radio stations that you have the opportunity of of leading. You know, we live in a time when that message is something that the world that they're attacking it.

They want to stop it. And of course, we know that the reason that the world and when I use that term, the world I'm talking about, you know, those people out there who don't care and don't want to hear about the message of the gospel, which I think, you know, that the headquarters for all of that is in a place called Hell. And Satan is the one who wants to stop it.

He comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. And what he wants to do is to stop us in the preaching of this message, because we know and he knows make no mistake. He knows that it is the only message that will change lives. It's the only message that will change the world. It's the only message which will bring hope. And we live in a world today where everyone's looking for hope. Everyone is looking for peace.

Everyone is looking for joy. And we know you and I both know it comes from Christ and Christ alone. And so we just have to like double down on our efforts of being more passionate and preaching that message everywhere that we go. Because if we do not, then we will be in trouble. The world will be in trouble.

And God has called us to be faithful. Well, and so you're going to get up and speak. You're going to show a little blast from the past because you and I were just little guys running around. Yeah.

You know, I was I was well, you were six, five, a little guy. But yeah, I remember I remember that my favorite part of NRB in Washington, D.C. was this little video game room at the bottom of the escalator. And I would try while mom and dad went to the right into the big Sheraton Ballroom in Washington. I would try to dart left to go in and try to, you know, scavenge as many quarters as I could to play Ms. Pac-Man.

Yeah. And I would sneak out the front door of the hotel and go down to the Hardee's right at the bottom of the hill. And there's that there's a drugstore there. There's a Hardee's.

It was in the drugstore to go down and get some decent food that didn't cost, you know, thirty five dollars for a hamburger. But the formative years, the importance of preaching the gospel, but addressing and engaging the culture because Pastor Jonathan now there's pastors who say, oh, don't talk about abortion. Don't talk about marriage. Don't even bring up gender from the pulpit. You might offend some people. Those are, quote, political issues.

I mean, how do you even speak to that? Well, number one, the gospel is offensive. You talk about it's a message that it might offend someone. The gospel is offensive. The gospel does step on people's toes because it takes us from darkness into light.

It takes those who were once dead and brings us back to life again. And so, you know, yes, the message of the gospel is offensive. But if we don't preach the gospel, then we will never be able to truly reach this world with the message to change his lives. And so, yeah, I mean, obviously people say, hey, don't talk about this or don't talk about that. I've just made it my mission in my heart that I'll talk about anything and everything that Jesus talks about. And I'll talk about anything and everything that the word of God talks about. And when you when you take it from that perspective, then guess what? It brings in all of those things that the people say, don't talk about it because it could be offensive. It brings it all in because Jesus talked about every single bit of it in his word. And if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for all you think about William Wilberforce. You think about all the pastors, you know, your dad going back, you know, your forebears, my forebears who spoke out publicly against things like slavery.

Yeah. In 1865, it wasn't popular for a pastor to preach. I mean, he might have had slave owners in his church. Hey, we're not going to we're going to be tithing. We're going to stop our giving. We're going to walk out of this room and there's going to be no building program, sir, if you if you preach against owning human beings.

That was very real then. What are those issues today? We'll come back from a quick break. Just a few more minutes with Pastor Jonathan Falwell. We are live from the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in what you call it? Opry Opry Land.

Disney World on steroids. This place is amazing. We got a whole week shock full of awesome guests. We're kicking it off right with a superstar, Jonathan Falwell, one of my awesome spiritual heroes.

More coming up after this. Hang on. You're listening to the Truth Network and Truth Network dot com. Truth talk live. We are here. We are live. We are in Nashville, Tennessee, and I'm looking out the window at a beautiful place.

If you're in Nashville, it'll be like Where's Waldo to try to find Jonathan Falwell or me because we might stand out. But this place is a maze, isn't it? We're looking out the window. We're looking out into the inside because that's inside still out there.

But it looks outside. They've got entire gardens and forests in the middle of the hotel. So if they had any idea the ratings being generated in this suite right now, I'm telling you, we got Robbie Dilmore in here. We got Nick back at the station and the whole team, Carmen and you know, but we got a lot of team truth here. It's just exciting. It's like it's like this is a little picture, many picture Jonathan Falwell of heaven.

And I really mean that because you see these. You just saw a bunch of people that you hadn't seen in a while. It's like it's it's just instant because of the what is it about the family of God? It's just that makes it very real. Well, you know, obviously we're connected. We're connected in a lot of ways. We're connected not only in friendships, but we're connected in mission.

And to me, I'm going to talk about that a little bit tonight. How do we you know, we might come from different backgrounds. We might come from different denominations. Even we might come from, you know, different perspectives, you know. But when you when you recognize that we're united in mission and the mission that we have is to take the message of the gospel around the world. And from lots of different ways of doing that, from churches, from radio stations, television stations, television ministries. A lot of, as you know, a lot of people here who are making Christian movies, Christian films, putting those out into theaters.

I mean, you know, that's the way it ought to be. It ought to be that the family of God is touching every part of society, making an impact in every part of society and making an impact for good. We've had too many stories in the past in our history of the Christian world impacting the world for the worse.

When you've got stories and problems. And as I flew in here last night with with my wife and some of our of our friends, we came in and and we started recounting some of the stories, some of the let's be honest, some of the scandals that have happened, you know, in the decades past that that have influenced and impacted Christian ministries, Christian media. And we sit back and recognize that while those things have happened, certainly like the word of God continues to be proclaimed. And it gets proclaimed from the mom and pop ministries to the the big massive ministries like David Jeremiah's and others. It just keeps happening and it keeps happening because we're united in mission. And we recognize that we're all humans and there are people amongst us that might mess up. But at the end of the day, man, we keep our hearts fixed and focused on what's right and what's what we're called to do and keep doing it. And God honors faithfulness. And that's what we've got.

And again, whether it was 40, 50 years ago or whether it's today, we have to remain faithful until the moment that we hear that trumpet sound. And this is our first opportunity to welcome a whole lot of people listening in your backyard in Lynchburg, Virginia. Yeah, at home on Wards Road. The only road I know that has two Starbucks in a town the size of Lynchburg.

So that road, Wards Road has two Starbucks within a mile of each other and three Chick-fil-A's within a mile of each other and two McDonald's within a mile of each other. So it's a pretty. Yeah. All right there together.

Kind of amazing. Well, those Chick-fil-A's may not be open on Sunday, but Thomas Road Baptist Church is. And my man, Jason Adam Charles Billingsley is in the house a lot, man. And you are preaching the word and we hear you all over the Truth Network for the weekly, you know, sermon.

But in Lynchburg and in Roanoke, a lot of folks love hearing you every weekday morning at 730. That, you know, that just the teaching of God's word, leveraging media to reach people. Pastor Jonathan, that's something that is that's something that runs in the in the Falwell DNA.

Does the power of that? Well, so dad, you know, dad went on and your your family actually helped him do this back in 1957, 1958. He went on radio and then television in those two years. And we have been on the air literally since 1957 from Thomas Road Baptist Church.

And so, you know, I don't know. I don't know how many other ministries have been on that long continually. That's before you were born. It was.

I wasn't born till 1966. And so we've been on the air, you know, going all the way back to 1957. And dad always had a philosophy that he talked about often saturation evangelism. And it was reaching every available person at every available time. And here's the kicker by using every available means and whether that's radio, whether that's television, whether that now is Internet, you know, whatever that might be, streaming all of those kinds of things. These are resources that might have, you know, come from the, you know, from the Googles and the Facebooks and the YouTubes of the world. But I believe it with all my heart. God allowed those things to be created so that we could proclaim the gospel to the far reaches of the world. And so when the scriptures tell us to go into all the world and preach the gospel, make disciples of all the nations, go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.

I don't think Facebook, Google and YouTube had that in mind when they created the resources they created. But God allows us to use it and we're going to do it. Well, what was your dad and my dad say about an algorithm or about all these these crazy, nuanced techno AI and all these things? But, you know, the the old time gospel hour, you know, the word of God still goes out and it's it's pretty remarkable.

This is my first NRB without my dad. He's in heaven with your dad. Yeah, I mean, they're hanging out. I mean, they had a big card game with D.L. Moody, I believe. And I think A.W.

Tozier is going to jump in on that. They're playing maybe Rook or Uno or something like that. They're running a 5K first thing in the morning with Barnabas and Job and those guys, you know, so. Yeah, well, it would definitely have to be heaven for my dad to run a 5K because it wouldn't have been happening here. But, you know, you and I were little guys looking up there. Our dads are on the stage of NRB. They were in the founding. They were in the founding days of NRB.

Right. Which, you know, an association that says, you know what, we're going to speak out against like what would have been ancient slavery, modern day abortion and all the horrific things and the twisting of the family and all these things. You know, the NRB is willing to stand up there.

They fight. They've argued cases in front of the Supreme Court. They've influenced policy. Their current pastors have a backbone.

Your dad, my dad were there. We've got pictures of them doing all this. And now the next generation. What's your passion about this next generation to take up the baton, you know, to continue to carry the banner of Jesus first, just like that amazing, you know, Jesus saves Jesus first, right?

Yeah. Well, you know, obviously, you go back and you look in history. It seems like every generation says something about the younger generation, like they look down on them.

I don't do that. I actually look back today and I see the next generation. And I'm encouraged more today than I've ever been because I see a generation of young people who are passionate about issues. And they're passionate about making an impact and they're passionate about making a difference.

Young people today are not as much interested in how much money they can make or or the fame that they could acquire. They're interested. What can we do to make an impact in the lives of other people? And we see that at Liberty University every single day.

Fifteen thousand students on campus. One hundred and fifteen or twenty thousand students around the world and just the the the amazing hearts of these young people who just want to make a positive impact and a positive dent in the universe, so to speak. And they want to do that. So I'm encouraged about the next generation. I believe we're going to see if you and I live to see it. I believe we're going to see revival and it's not going to come from us older guys. It's going to come from the young people who lead lead the way.

Well, thank you for what you're doing. You got the whole Thomas Road, the whole church plant going on out there. You got all these churches that are young pastors you're poured into. You're hopping on your airplane and going and discipling pastors to do the same thing.

The church. There's still two billion people on planet Earth who haven't heard the gospel. What are we doing? Right. Well, what we're doing is we're doing this. And you know, this this convention is all about that very thing is how can we use the resources that have been created to take that message? The only message that can change the world and to take it far and wide and do it today.

I love it. Pastor Jonathan Falwell, we're all praying for you tonight as you bring the message to the whole grand opening, you know, the opening night of the NRB. Thank you for your partnership with the Truth Network. Thank you for being faithful to preach the word, brother. You are a blessing.

Thank you for all that you do, man. Awesome. Coming up right after this from Nashville, Tennessee.

Hang on. Welcome back to Truth Talk live. We are live today from the NRB. And we just really, really enjoyed having Jonathan Falwell with us. And actually, Stu is is headed out there, set up his next guest, which is his pastor, Rob.

We're going to have him here on in a second. But man, it is just like they're talking about that when you're at the NRB, you see all these. You know, Tammy and I were talking on our way in this this this afternoon that this is my 18th. I can't even believe it.

My 18th NRB. And of course, you get to see all these folks that are going around the world sharing the word of God. And it just keeps going and going. And it's like heaven. It's all coming together. And we got Stu back.

He got done with Jonathan at work. We should be we should not be allowed to have so much fun. This should be illegal. It's just crazy.

All these people. And I'm walking down. There's Eric Metaxas. He grabs me. He got he was doing a live radio show. He got out of his big booth. He got out of his big chair and he's on this little stage.

He comes all the way around, goes outside this little curtain thing. Gives me a big hug. Man, I haven't seen you since your dad passed.

I want to give you a hug. I mean, this the spirit here, Dr. Lutcher. I interviewed him. We're gonna play that segment this weekend. But we have to visit with Jonathan Falwell like that.

Right. So encouraging, you know, in going back to the families, going back and friends. I just hope you'll appreciate your if your pastor is still living. Love him. Encourage him. Pray for him.

These guys are fighting a battle, a literal battle. And the pastor who's now sitting across from me is one of our newest additions to the Truth Network. He is the pastor of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.

One of the most I mean, we've had two of the most storied, historic, just epic churches that their current has senior pastors. One of them just got up and walked out. Jonathan Falwell.

And then before I know it, before I can catch my breath. Look who sits down. Rob Passienza, the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. God bless you, brother. Hey, God bless you. Thanks for having me on. Buddy, this is this is exciting, isn't it?

It's electric. It's unbelievable. It's an incredible week. Incredible opportunity. And just to see how God is using all of the available tools through technology and media to advance his gospel.

It's an exciting time to be a part of the church. You know, you think of Dr. Kennedy. And it's funny, you and Jonathan pass each other. And yet we've got a quick selfie. I have to post it.

You know, I had I got my six foot seven inch selfie stick with me. Right. So but you got to share some kind words in the hall because, you know, rewind the tape 30, 40, 50, 60 years. It was Kennedy. It was Falwell. Yep. You know, and even Big Stu, Uncle Ed, that were on the stage at NRB.

Absolutely. You know, my Uncle Ralph and others, you know, that were real pioneers. These men were pioneers. That were, you know, holding the straight and narrow and holding the truth.

And now here you are, sir. Well, they were pioneers in the way that you could take your Sunday morning faith and apply it to all of life. How does it affect media?

How does it affect law? How does it affect government to see them start? So many organizations, ADF, CNP, NRB leading the way.

For us now, the next generation to really pick up the mantle and run with it for the sake of generations to come. Well, what a tribute to Jerry Falwell. What a tribute to Dr. James Kennedy to have Jonathan preaching the word with passion. And he's on the Truth Network to have you. I mean, you were mentored by Dr. Kennedy, right?

He was my spiritual father and mentor. Unbelievable. And here you are. It is unbelievable. No, it's surreal even being at a conference like NRB. I mean, just realizing the legends that went before us, including my spiritual father and mentor, D. James Kennedy.

Yeah. And friends, as you're listening, just, you know, just it's a time it's almost like a Hebrews 11 thing. The Great Hall of Faith. You know, you think, you know, we're seeing you walking in the hall this morning. Dr. Erwin Lutzer is there, you know, the historic Moody Church.

He's held true to the word of God. Rob Passians, a lot of things changed in the culture. I mean, we've got whoever thought, you know, no one would have thought none of these guys. Kennedy Falwell going way back when.

J. Vernon McGee. None of these guys would have ever thought that we would be debating about gender. And there's are there, you know, how many genders are there that some kid, you know, in one of the 50 United States would. You know, the mom would call the pediatrician and say, my little girl feels like she's a cat. And the pediatrician jokingly says, oh, we'll have her go go to the vet and just kind of laughed it off.

Mom files a lawsuit against that pediatrician. I mean, would they have ever thought that would have happened? And not at all. I mean, these things were going on, but they were taboo.

They were something that certainly wasn't celebrated. It might make The Tonight Show. Exactly. But now it's being openly celebrated. You're getting the next generation that think, hey, to get attention, to be popular, to kind of be on the inside and kind of be innovative and kind of get everybody's attention, kind of get that celebrity status that everybody wants, you know, we're going to push the envelope.

We're going to bend the rules and we're going to be as audacious and in your face and flamboyant as possible in order to get the attention. And as our good friend Dr. Al Moller said, if we needed organizations like NRB and faithful men of God to stand up on Sunday mornings and preach the whole Council of God, if we needed that, then in the era of the Falwells and the Kennedys, how much more do we need it today? So, Pastor Rob Passian's truths that transform. Give us a quick introduction to everyone that some of you are old Dr. D. James Kennedy holdbacks.

You are familiar with the evangelism explosion. I used to listen to him on the radio all the time. We had him on the Truth Network, one of our anchor original programs. The show went away. They kept him on TV playing the old tapes, some radio. But now tell everyone what God's doing, man.

Absolutely. So the brand that was launched in 1978, Trues to Transform TV and Trues to Transform Radio, as you just said, launched by Dr. Kennedy, really went through a season of lack of attention, lack of new content being produced. And we are now officially relaunching, relaunching both of those brands. Trues to Transform Radio, Trues to Transform TV. And what you're going to find every week, whether you're watching on TV or listening on the Truth Network to our radio program, you're going to hear how God's word is not only true, but it speaks to all of life. They are truths to transform. God's word is transformative in our lives personally and privately, but it's also transformative publicly as well. We believe that God's truth is a public truth. It talks about how nations and societies and cultures can be transformed. It talks about how marriages and family and politics and government and business and economics can be transformed because we believe that God's word is true and that it speaks to all of life.

Wow. Pastor Rob, the culture may change, may nuance, and a lot of people, even Christian people now, are saying, Oh, it's so complicated. Oh, things are so complicated. But let me ask you this, honest, man to man, to a man of God who's a pastor, is it really that complicated when you go back to the book?

Absolutely not. Satan loves to deceive. That's what he's in the business of doing. So anytime Satan can deceive, can cause confusion and chaos, he wins. He believes that he's winning and he is deceiving an entire generation to believe. And parents and grandparents in our cultural moment today that it's too complicated that the culture's lost, that we've lost the war and, you know, just all of these things that we used to believe in. We somehow have to either water them down or walk away from them or maybe twist the truth or water down our message somehow in order to win back the next generation or to get a leg up in society. But that's all garbage.

That's all nonsense. We believe that God's truth is timeless. We believe that God's design, as it's outlined in scripture, is the best design for humanity.

It's the best design for the world. The problem we're facing in society today is that we've gone against God's design. We've complicated it by going away and walking away from God's design concerning gender and sexuality or manhood or womanhood. And we wonder why we're in the confusing and chaotic state we are today. We have to go back to the simple, timeless truths found in God's word and understand how they apply to all of life throughout every generation, regardless of culture, regardless of time and history. They apply to all of life. It's what changed the world 2,000 years ago when Christianity was born, and it's what will change the world today.

It's interesting that you had every opportunity. Your board, your church, they really trust your leadership. God's coalesced a really neat team of really committed Kingdom folks.

Dr. Kennedy's family, they're amazing. You could have changed the name, but you leaned in to the old name. You kind of brought it back. A lot of good vibes from that. For people with truths that transform.

Absolutely. It's 50 years of steadfastness, 50 years of this incredible legacy. Why would we change the name?

I love it. God causes people to be innovative. We change our methodology. We change the way we might approach doing things, but we don't change the name.

We don't change the timeless truths that have been given to us in God's word. So we are so excited to relaunch Truths that Transform Radio right here on the Truth Network. Okay, I'm Stu Epperson. We are in Nashville, Tennessee at the Opryland Resort, the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. It is crazy here. I can't believe you found the room.

How did you find this suite? It took 10 minutes to get here. I'm out of breath. You get your steps in for sure. Absolutely. But we're here. Listen, folks, this is where you want to hang out with us all week long. I know we'll have the podcast. You'll hear this show later on demand.

Share it in our interview with Pastor Rob, Pastor Jonathan Falwell. We have got a veritable who's who of guests that are lined up. We'll be live on the exhibit floor. I know you're going to come by again. There's a couple of guests.

We need the ratings, so we have to revisit with you. So, Robby Dilmore, Pastor Rob, he gets to the front of the line. We've got all kinds of people. There's all kinds of Bible characters dressed up down there in the exhibits. The exhibit's open tomorrow, so they'll cut the ribbon. We'll all go in. It'll be a hoot. The Truth booth is packed. But, Pastor Rob, when we come back, why some states are creating hate crime legislation, if you call someone by the wrong pronoun, how does a pastor respond? And we're going to congratulate you, National Radio, on something happened this morning, a vote you received to join a special group. So stay tuned. More Truth Talk Live from Nashville, Tennessee, Music City, when we come back right here. Don't touch that dial. Truth Talk Live!

You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. We've taken the show on the road. We are in Nashville, Tennessee, and I am holding in my hands a bottle of something. Pastor Rob Hacienza, listen, you're a fit guy, you work out, you're a pastor, you got to stay in shape. Trying to stay healthy. This right here is their new drink from Mighty Muscadine and La Blue Water. Look at this. It has no sugar, no calories, no carbs, no artificial sweeteners. It's called VineTastic, but it's power packed with a bunch of the antioxidants from the muscadine grape, which is like a super grape with all kinds of phenolic compounds and quercetin, resveratrol, and words I can't pronounce.

Zero calories, zero carbs. Yep. So anyway, you're going to need that, buddy, let me tell you, because you have a long week ahead of you. It's only the first day of the convention. Absolutely. The exhibit's haven't even opened yet.

Yep. We're in Nashville, Tennessee. We're just getting rolling. Just getting rolling. Pastor Rob Hacienza, if you just joined us, is our guest.

We had Jonathan Falwell on before him, who's addressing the group tonight. He's preaching to the group, which I'm excited about, and we're just blessing our friends at VineTastic, loaded us up with a bunch of product to bless these pastors with to keep them fit and healthy. We've got some muscadine juice up there too, a little bit sweeter, but still very healthy and good for you. And then we have our 25 year anniversary water from Le Bleu with the label on it. It's just kind of neat. They do this private label thing. They'll do it for your church. I mean, if your church, Coral Ridge ordered a bunch of the water from them, and they put the label on there, and someone walks out of your, put the Romans Road on the back. There it is.

And a member of your church walks out with a bottle of water. Is that the water I had in your office? Yes. Yes. Pure H2O.

It has no expiration date because it's pure H2O. Very good. And they love the Lord, and they support Christian Radio. And so, and they need to be, South Beach needs a little more of Le Bleu and mighty muscadine, I'm going to tell you. We can take it down there. Well, but we love it, the businesses, companies, ministries that partner with us to help us spread the Word of God. I mean, that's what we're trying to do here. It's awesome.

And so it sure helps. And of course, I just downed a whole, Robbie saw me during the break. He ate a banana. I drank VineTastic.

Both came from a vine, just a different kind, right? Don't leave the peel on the ground, Robbie. We don't want someone to slip in here, okay? But we're at the Religious Broadcasters' Convention, and we're going to talk about this hate crime stuff.

Like if you call someone by the wrong pronoun, in some states now, they're trying to push legislation through that you get written up on a hate crime. I want you to answer that, Pastor Rob Pacienza, with Trues that Transform. You're all over the Truth Network. Really a rising star there, but the ministry's been going for 50 plus years. Y'all just said, hey, we're going to lean in and go back and grab that old name because the name hasn't changed. The Word of God hasn't changed.

But there's issues like this that are seemingly new that need to be addressed before we go there. Congratulations. Thank you. As on being elected this morning, I was in there and I voted for Rob Pacienza to be on the board of directors of the National Religious Broadcasters' Convention. So you're a member of the board.

I mean, talk about surreal. Yeah, I mean, growing up hearing Dr. Kennedy go to NRB conventions and to be elected to the board is an incredible honor, and it's an important organization. Our CEO and President, Troy Miller, said it best. What separates us from other alliances and conventions is that we're bringing the gospel.

We're a convention that is bringing the Word of God and the gospel out by, as Dr. Kennedy said, ways yet undreamed through all of the modern technology, not using it for the city of man, but using it for the city of God and honored to be a part of this organization. And Pastor Rob, that brings up an interesting topic because a lot of pastors are, you know, I hate to use this phrase that's worn out, but have gone woke in that they're like, well, I'm about Jesus, but I don't want to bring up any political issues. And suddenly they throw issues that are really morally driven, theologically driven, like marriage between a man and a woman. That's biblical. That's not political. I don't care what your politician says about it.

Or abortion, that we still kill our young in our country, tragically. But you're a pastor who is solid doctrinally. You've got a degree. You're preaching the Word. You're expositing the Scriptures. We talked about that in the last segment. And yet you aren't, you don't hesitate to speak.

You don't see that as, well, that's over there and that's for the politicians and vote however you want. But over here we do Bible study. Talk about how the kingdom of God has this, this permeates all of these things and isn't just this isolated thing or this, a bunch of these little compartments. My seminary professor said all good truth must be public truth. The truths of God's Word that are good and true and beautiful are to be made known to the entire public. As Colossians tells us, that Christ is over every ruler, power, authority, in heaven above and earth below. And we need to understand that if Jesus Christ is Lord, he's Lord of all.

Or as they said, he's Lord of nothing at all, nothing of all. And so we've got to understand and really help from the pulpit encourage our pastors out there in North America. How do we take the timeless Word of God, but to apply it to all of life? How does God's Word speak to gender dysphoria? How does it speak to marriage and family? How does it speak to sexuality? How does it speak to racism? How does it speak to politics and government and an upcoming election? The election of 2024 is not a matter of right versus left. It's a matter of right versus wrong.

And we need pastors and Christians and other Christian thought leaders that are boldly proclaiming God's Word, but proclaiming it in such a way that it's connecting the dots between what they believe on Sunday morning and how they live out their faith on Monday morning. Yeah. And it's also not a matter of nice versus mean, because a whole lot of people of quote faith went out and voted for the nice guy who is all about, he's the pro death. He's pro gender confusion. He's pro destroying our country. The border's out of control.

Fentanyl's coming and kill people. He's done, you know, the, the, the, they elected a guy who he was nice and a nice grandfatherly guy, but they didn't vote, you know, people have faith. They hate the mean guy.

Absolutely. And the fact is they're both vulgar profane unbelievers. And I'm not going to judge anyone's soul, but like, we're not voting for a pastor. We're not voting for someone who's nice in a while. I don't like how he sounded.

I don't like how he talked about women. We're voting our faith. We're voting.

It's policy, not personality. A hundred percent. Yeah. And so, and by the way, nice is the 11th commandment.

Yeah. We're not called to be nice. We're called to be truth tellers, uh, operating with the spirit of love and compassion. Uh, but we're not called to, uh, to go out there and just affirm every lifestyle, affirm every thought, affirm every, uh, you know, uh, ideology.

We're called to speak truth in love, uh, to not, uh, rejoice in wrongdoing, uh, to do it not in an arrogance or in a prideful way, but we are called to expose, uh, that which is false and advance that which is true. So engage on every level, even engage in politics. There's some, by the way, there are some Lord of all, he's Lord of every sphere of culture. There's some godly politicians.

We've had some on our show. Absolutely. But at the same time, when I'm voting, I'm voting policy based on the word of God who lines up bringing the Lordship of Jesus Christ into every sphere. And that includes the sphere of politics and the electoral process and being salt and light in the culture and speaking out against things that modern day abortion could be the equivalent of ancient slavery, protecting the sanctity of life. Yep. Owning a human is just as evil is murdering a human before they can even be born. Yep.

Absolutely. When I hear, when I hear people say that Christians shouldn't be engaged in politics, I say, well, you would have been hard pressed to be a follower of Jesus in the first century when he's looking at his disciples in Matthew chapter five and he says, you should be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. He then says, and you're a city on a hill. The Greek word for city is polis. It's where we get the word politics from. Jesus is saying right there, you are going to be a political entity, not a political entity like the world, but you're going to be this alternative political entity.

You're going to be the city of God in the midst of the city of man. That involves politics. That involves the shaping, the values and the customs and the norms and the ideals and the virtues of a given society to look more like the kingdom of God and less like the kingdom of darkness. How you do that is the key because you do it in the spirit and the power of Jesus.

Absolutely. You do it with a heart to evangelize. I have a buddy who's in the state of politics in North Carolina and he really has, he shares the gospel with people on the other side of the aisle with him and he's kind to them. They disagree, they vote against each other, but he loves them and he goes to Bible study with them and he's trying to, you know, because you change the heart, policy follows the heart ultimately. The truth without love is condemnation and so we need to realize that we are called not to wage war against a certain political party. We're not to wage war against another brother or sister. We are called to wage war against the true enemy. It is not a battle against flesh and blood. So supposing you're in Florida, this won't happen there, you know, a current, you know, the current regime guy who sees he's got some backbone, he's got some courage, but you, so supposing you're one of these states is trying to make it a hate crime, like an actual felony to call someone by the wrong pronoun.

Yeah. What do you do as a pastor? How do you preach about that? I think you preach boldly.

I mean, we are not immune or some somehow an anomaly throughout history, right? Every generation has had to face some type of opposition, some type of persecution. And I know that sounds easier said than done, but we must remain steadfast. It's John MacArthur refusing to close his doors during COVID. We must remain steadfast. Jack Hibbs remaining steadfast through all of the persecution and the ongoing onslaught of the enemy, uh, that, that he is facing right now.

We have to remain steady, but what if they put you in jail and so be it. Okay. Wow.

All right. Pastor Rob, Passianza, Trues to Transform. What a blessing you are my friend. Thank you for being on the truth network. Thank you for being a part of this, uh, this, uh, this ministry and for preaching the word faithfully and for, for preaching the gospel. The pulpit is not a political bully pulpit, right? But it's for the preaching the gospel, which touches every aspect of life. Good news of the kingdom and the kingdom reigns overall.

Yeah. And I would say that last part, if we, if we want to see this nation turn around, we need to understand it begins with the pulpit. It has always been the pastors from the time of the revolution that had been speaking into the hearts and the minds of the people sitting in the pews of how they apply the word of God to all of life.

We can see cultural transformation, but it begins with the people of God first repenting and turning from their ways of being silent and being, uh, absent from the discussions in the public square and being active once again as salt of the earth and light of the world. We're out of time. What's your website? CRM.TV.

I love it. CRM.TV. See him, hear him on the truth network. Pastor Rob Passianza, Trues to Transform.

More information is available about the vine tastic at mighty muscadine.com. Thank you to them. Thank you, pastor Rob for being here with us all week long. We've got some adventures. We've got a lot of other guests. Thank you to the listeners for praying for this program, for this station that you're hearing it on. God bless you. We'll be here tomorrow. Live from Nashville, Tennessee on truth talk live. Another program powered by the truth network.