#199 Tim Tebow - Fighting For Our Children

Tim Tebow, welcome to the show, man.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

And I also want to say thank you so much for your service.

Oh, thank you for saying that.

I genuinely really mean it.

I know sometimes those that have served here at different places could take it as, oh, it's just a catchphrase we're supposed to say.

I hope you know how much it means to me and so many people.

Truly, from the bottom of my heart, we're grateful.

Man, that means a lot.

Thank you.

And thank you for everything you're doing.

We're going to dive into it.

But I just want to say

it's an honor to have you sitting here and very surreal.

And my whole team is just ecstatic that this is happening.

And we've got a lot of good stuff we're going to dive into.

Can't wait.

Thank you for having me.

It's my pleasure.

Like I said, it's an honor.

But yeah, so I want to do a life story on you.

And then

with the focus being towards the end, with everything that you have going on right now at the Tim Tebow Foundation and all the good stuff that you're pumping into the world, it's just, it's amazing, man.

I mean, my parents volunteer for the organization.

They do the prom.

Night to Shine?

Come on.

I love it.

They've done it for a couple years now.

Let's go.

Where at?

Down in

Florida.

Awesome.

On the West Coast.

Tell them, thank you so much.

I will.

I will.

They're ecstatic.

I love it.

But everybody starts off with an intro here.

I

So here we go.

Tim Tebow, born to missionary parents in the Philippines.

Your faith has identified you since childhood.

Two-time national champion football player and Heisman trophy winner is a quarterback at the University of Florida.

John 316 on your iBlack led to over 93 million Google searches for the verse during your second BCS championship game in 91 million searches after your NFL playoff victory.

What does that verse mean to you?

Wow.

We're getting deep from the start.

I like it.

That verse means to me, it's if you're going to sum up the love of the gospel, which I really believe when we talk about the gospel, that it is the greatest love story rescue mission.

of all time

is that there's a God that loves us so that he sent his son to put on flesh, to live a life we couldn't live, but choose to die a death that we deserve to die as a ransom for us, as the propitiation, meaning the payment that satisfies.

And that payment was his life.

And when we look at John 3, 16, for God so loved the world, he gave.

Because he loved us so much with this love that honestly it's hard to even fathom.

But when we talk about that love, in the Greek, they have four types of love, but the most admirable form of love, that love, is agape love.

And the best definition of agape love is to choose the best interests of another person and act on their behalf.

And Jesus chose our best interests and he acted on our behalf.

And he went to the cross.

Not just for us, but instead of us.

And he loved us so much that he gave his one and only son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

Man,

I know we put it on bumper stickers and eye blacks and signs and games and everything, but we can't lose the essence in the heart of what that means.

That there's a God that created all of this and spoke it into existence like this.

And yet that God, with all knowledge and all power, would say, I love you so much that I'm going to give what's so precious for me and my son, and I'm going to give him in exchange for you because I love you that much.

So when you think about John 3.16, it's,

there's no greater love.

That's beautiful.

That's beautiful.

Thank you.

First round NFL draft pick who led the Denver Broncos to a playoff victory, five times New York Times best-selling author, a broadcaster, a former professional baseball player, a philanthropist who's turned every platform into a pulpit for serving others, the founder of the Tim Thibault Foundation, a global force fighting the most vulnerable.

fighting for the most vulnerable, bringing faith.

There's a big difference.

Sorry about that.

Not at all.

Actually, can I tell you this funny story about that?

Yeah.

I've never told this before.

But several years ago, we were having a Night to Shine in Vatican City and in Rome.

And

the Pope

invited us over to say hello and talk a little bit about Night to Shine.

And so we're showing him videos of Night to Shine and serving all of the kings and queens at Night to Shine.

And so my wife's showing him some of the videos and that I'm sharing.

And then one of our awesome

team leads for ministry, she is just a rock star.

And so then he starts asking her a question, and she responds, it is just our greatest joy.

And we love getting the chance to fight people with special needs.

And his interpreter is like,

should do you want me to interpret?

And she's like, no, no, I mean, fight for people with special needs.

Fight for.

And so you can see his interpreter is like, wait, do you really want me to tell the boat that you fight people with special needs?

It's awesome.

We just cried laughing so long after that.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that's messed this up.

No, I'm not.

There is a big difference.

I love it.

Bringing faith, hope, and love to over 100 million children around the world.

A warrior in the fight against human trafficking, championing.

The renewed Hope Act to rescue tens of thousands of unidentified children from the horrors of sexual exploitation.

You're a husband to Demi Lee, soon to be a father.

Congratulations.

And most importantly, you are an unapologetic evangelist of Jesus Christ.

So before we get into the interview,

I would just be honored to pray with you.

Yeah.

So if you could lead that, that would be amazing.

Love to.

Let's pray.

Good and gracious Heavenly Father, we love you so much.

We love you because you first loved us.

We love you because you gave your all and you gave your best for us and we're just so undeserving and unworthy and I am so undeserving and so unworthy and just failed you so many times and yet

you still love us and you still want to be in relationship with us and you forgive us and you reconcile us and you bring us into your family and

we can't even fully comprehend your love for us, but we just say thank you so much and we're so humbled.

And we also ask that that love that you have bestowed on us would also be a love that we would bring to the world that we would share with the world that we would choose the world's best interests and act on their behalf that when we would see the world we wouldn't see people through the differences but we would see them for what we have in common and what we have in common most is that when you went to the cross it counted for all of us now i thank you for this time together thank you for sean and um

and the impact that he is making.

I thank you for the platform that he has and the stories that he tells and the heart that he has.

I ask that you would put a wall of protection around him, around his body or his mind, his future,

and that he would continue to influence people to

love, to good deeds, to ministry, to things that are going to last.

Thank you for his service for our country, his service for the most vulnerable to protect and defend and secure.

And we're just so grateful.

And we know that there's no greater love than those that would lay down their life for a friend.

And so we thank you for him.

We thank you for his team.

We ask you to bless them and put a wall of protection around them.

And once again, we say thank you for who you are and what you've done.

We love you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

I would just like to add one thing.

Please use this platform to amplify everything that Tim and his team are bringing to the world.

And there's a lot of unfortunate kids that are going through horrific horrific times right now.

And I hope that they at least get a glimpse of this to know that there is hope in the world for them and that people are fighting for them.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Thank you, brother.

Thank you.

That felt amazing.

So, a couple more things before we get into it.

Everybody gets a gift.

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Come on.

Legal in all 50 states.

There's no funny stuff in there.

It's just candy that's horrible for you.

So they might be illegal here pretty soon with RFK.

I knew that you gave gifts, and so we have something for you.

Oh, man.

Thank you so much for this.

I appreciate it.

And your packaging is awesome.

Thank you.

That's our logo, and it stands for faith, hope, and love.

The cross, the heartbeat, and the heart.

It stands for faith, hope, and love.

Oh, man.

I love it.

And that's part of our mission statement.

There's some other swag in there.

And it's a part of our mission statement to bring faith, hope, and love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need.

Oh, I love these.

Thank you so much.

Of course, man.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And then the last thing before we get into the meat of this.

So I have a Patreon account.

It's a subscription account.

We've turned it into quite the community.

And they've been here with me since the beginning.

And when I started this in my attic, and then we moved here, and now we're moving into a new studio that's a lot bigger than this.

And it's all because of these guys.

And so one of the things I do is I offer them the opportunity to ask each and every guest a question.

And so this is from Robert Banta.

What would you say to kids today who face significant challenges as Christians in today's school system that pushes ideals that do not align with Christianity?

That's a good question.

It's a deep question.

I would encourage them and challenge them

to

not just don't think about it showing up as an opposition,

show up thinking as a ministry.

This is also their mission field.

One of the things my dad always encouraged me when I was young, and I know I ignored it many times, was nobody is too young for God to use them.

And for those young boys and girls that are going to school, you know, this is an opportunity for them to stand up for their classmates, to love their classmates.

Those that are being bullied, invite them to sit at their table.

Those that are hurting, show them how much you care about them.

You don't have to wait one day till you grow up and you go on a mission trip or you do all these other things.

Like, this is a chance for you.

School can be an amazing place.

It can also be a hard place.

School can be a place of learning and discipleship and growing and a renewing of your mind, but it can also be a place where people experience a lot of hardship being left out and being bullied and being treated as less than.

And this is so many of their opportunities to say, no, no, you're not less than.

Hey, come hang with me.

Come stand with me.

I'm going to be your friend.

I'm going to stand with you.

I'm going to stand for you.

And maybe they have chances to share their faith verbally, but they always have chances to share their faith with their kindness and their love and their compassion and the hope that they bring every day.

And so instead of looking at it as, hey, man, this is an opposition, no, this is an opportunity.

There's a big difference.

This is an opportunity for me to win over classmates, to love them, to care for them, even teachers, faculty.

If it's a place that says, why do you believe in that?

Why do you do this?

Well,

then I get to show you, not just with my words, but I get to show you with my actions.

And one of the quotes that I love is: Every day we share the gospel, but every now and then we use words.

And I would encourage these boys and girls that they're not too young for God to use you.

We look at scripture and we see God using young people all of the time.

And sometimes they feel like they had a lot and sometimes they feel like they had a little.

But God doesn't need us to have a lot or have a little.

He just needs us to say, Hey, this is what you've let me borrow for a little bit.

Hey, God, would you just use it?

I want to be used.

I want to show up.

Here you go.

Please use it.

Take my loaves and my fish and and multiply it wow that is amazing

that is amazing and so that brings us to i mean you've just got

an amazing life story and you know you were born in 1987 in the philippines and i believe your your parents were on a a missionary operation there yeah and so

What can you go into some of the, what is the missionary operation?

Well, my dad started BTA, Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association, and

to be able to share the gospel with every man, woman, boy, and girl in the country of the Philippines.

And because of dad's faithfulness,

millions of people have heard the gospel and over 30 million people have indicated that they have put their faith in Jesus because of him and

his amazing ministry.

And

we lived there for five years, and

I was so privileged to be born there in a country that I love so much and is so near and dear to my heart.

But when my parents decided to move there,

God called them there.

And actually, my dad was driving from a conference.

I believe it was in Alabama.

My mom was in Jacksonville, Florida.

And my dad's driving with my oldest sister, Christy, in the car.

And he knew that God called him at that moment while he was driving.

He just knew.

And he's, you know, trying to make excuses.

But then he knew God called him again in the car while while he's driving.

And he's, okay, I got to surrender.

And he said, okay, God, I'll go.

I'll go.

And

he got home and he saw my mom.

And he said to my mom, God called me

to the Philippines.

And she says, I know, because he called me to.

Wow.

They were separated.

Not like separating their marriage, just separating because of the conference.

And then they start talking about, hey, well, when did you feel that

in your heart?

And when you feel that nudge?

And as they're talking about it they were looking they're like we think you called us at the exact same time

wow and um so they decided so he goes to his board and he's like hey god called me to the philippines okay let's go we got to go raise money and we got to go to send you guys off and when are you thinking you know six months or a year from now you're going to leave and he said no god called me we have to go And so they literally packed everything up and within days left and took four kids to the Philippines.

And it's just such such an example of, it's one of the reasons why my parents are just some of my biggest heroes, because their willingness to say yes when God calls, they've said yes.

And

so we are in the Philippines and living and my dad is

before I was born and my dad is in a very remote island.

The Philippines is made up of thousands of islands and he's in a remote island and he's getting ready to preach and he just starts weeping

uncontrollably for all of the God puts on his heart all the babies that are being aborted around the world but specifically in America and he's as he's just weeping God puts it on his heart to have another baby and to name that baby Timothy which means honoring God and

so he finishes preaching he goes home and he says hey

to my mom,

God put it on my heart that we need to have another another baby.

And she's like, they already had four.

And my mom's like, well, God did put it on my heart.

So I don't know.

But

she decided she's going to start praying about it.

And not long after, she started praying about it.

Not long after that, God put it on her heart too, that they need to have another baby and at least try.

Not long after that, she became pregnant.

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At least they thought she was pregnant, but then some of the doctors were saying that it's not even a baby.

It might be a massive fetal tissue.

It might be a tumor.

And so, actually, Sean, my first nickname was Timmy the Tumor.

So tried getting rid of that one from four old siblings.

But

they said, hey, with all of these issues, and there were so many issues that she was having, they said, you need to have an abortion because she had amoeba dysentery.

She had the placenta wasn't properly attached.

She even went

into a coma

in a certain time of the pregnancy.

And they said, you need to have an abortion.

It'll cost you your life.

It'll cost you your baby's life.

And

with

her faith and my dad and all the people praying for him, she had the courage to say, no, we're going to trust God.

Wow.

And I'm so grateful that she did.

And months later, the doctor that was helping my mom deliver me was a doctor that had done, helped thousands of women.

And

when I was finally born and he handed me to my mom, he said,

I have no idea.

how your baby boy survived.

It's the greatest miracle I've ever seen.

I don't know how he got the nutrients.

I don't know how he's alive.

The placenta only has a tiny bit that's attached.

All of these issues.

I just don't know how he survived.

And

I was malnourished.

And so my family continued to send out prayer requests to people around the world.

And so many people were praying for me

when I was a baby.

And I was malnourished, but I tried to make up for it quickly.

And

just so grateful that I could

be here even sitting with you today because my mom trusted God and gave me a chance and my parents' faithfulness and all the people that prayed for me because I do believe prayer is powerful.

And yesterday we were just in D.C.

celebrating the National Day of Prayer.

And,

you know, there was over 70,000 groups around America that were praying together yesterday.

Like there is power in prayer.

And I'm just so grateful that God answered that prayer to give me a chance.

Wow.

I have a question, but I'm going to let the interview develop a little bit more.

I want to know how God talks to you, but first,

do you remember any of the missionary stuff

in the Philippines?

Yeah, not as much from

when we were living there because we moved back when I was about five.

So I don't remember

a little bit of it, glimpses of it, but then we went back so many times because we moved back to the States, to the west side of Jacksonville, Florida.

But my dad would be gone gone about half of the year over there.

And so many times I got to go with him and siblings, and we would get to go back.

And we spent a lot of summers going back with him to be able to do mission work with him.

So I remember more of that than I do from when I was young.

How do you

was it dangerous at all?

My parents would try to keep the kids

in some of the areas that were safer, but my parents

went through a lot of areas that were dangerous.

My dad and certain of the countries that he went into to share the gospel got put in jail.

My dad got told to leave so many times.

My dad,

multiple times, they told him, hey, if you stand up and share the gospel, we're going to kill you.

And he...

Are you serious?

And he would stand up and he would tell them, but I just want to tell you how much God loves you.

And he would share his heart.

And

one time specifically that I can remember, a man showed up and he was in the back of the audience and he showed up with a machete.

And as he starts making his way forward, and my dad just says something in his heart is pricking him, telling him to start talking about forgiveness.

And he does.

And this man's making his way closer and closer.

And he finally gets and stands right in front of my dad.

And he just says,

I was sent here to kill you,

but I heard you talking about forgiveness, and I just want to ask if you would forgive me.

And

just so grateful for my parents' faith, and

not just the faith, like, oh, Sunday in church, but the faith in the hard moments and say yes to God, because I got to see that so many times.

I got to see my dad say to my mom when we had such little money, hey, it's okay,

give the rest away.

I got to to see that multiple times in my life.

My mom gave the rest away.

And both times people came over that evening for dinner and said, we don't know why we were supposed to do this.

We just knew we were supposed to give you, bring dinner to you guys.

And it was just like a God-wink moment, as my wife likes to say, of like, you know, God saw that faithfulness.

So so many times

I got to see that.

And, you know, one of the things that I think when I even start to regurgitate some of these stories and there's so many more I got to see so much of that and still

see God's faithfulness and his his hand work in my parents life and in the life of so much of the ministry and still so many times I

would just fall short and screw up from it and you know it's

something that

I know I've been convicted about so many times because I've seen God at work and I've seen God do incredible things.

And it's so easy for me to lose sight of that and to veer off of the path and off of the track.

And

then I see so many other lives that haven't had the same parents like me and haven't been able to see that.

And yet I see their faith and it's so strong.

I think, man, you know.

God's had to remind me so many times because my my faith has been so weak.

My trust has been so weak and I've seen it.

And then I see so many lives that have come through such harder situations, and their faith is so strong, and it's something that's so convicting to me.

To hear you say that you veer off the path.

I mean,

from what I know about you, that you've never veered off the path.

How do you,

I mean, how do you veer off the path?

Well,

with my actions, with my words, with my thoughts.

Make a long story short,

there's many times when I first got a platform that God had given me.

So I shouldn't even say my platform, the platform God's let me steward for a little bit.

People would say, hey, Timmy, I want you to know you're our son's role model.

You're our daughter's role model.

And I would start to think, no, not if you knew me on my worst day.

I wouldn't be their role model.

Not if you knew my worst thoughts, my worst words, my worst actions.

But God had to work in me with that because

actually it's just with a band yesterday called Casting Crowns, and their Christian bands been around for a long time.

And they had a song, they still have the song called Voice of Truth.

And it'll say, The voice of truth tells me a different story.

The voice of truth says, Do not be afraid.

The voice of truth says, This is for my glory.

Out of all the voices calling out to me, I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth.

And there are are so many times that I would hear the voice of shame and guilt and doubt and you're not enough and you can't, and you have this platform.

But if they really knew, you know, your worst actions, your worst thoughts, your worst days, your worst moments.

And

the feeling of you're not enough, you're not equipped, all of this.

And I would have to listen to that song and get in God's word because he would remind me, no, that's the voice of the enemy.

But what does God say?

You see, the enemy calls you by your sin.

God calls you by your name.

The enemy calls you a mistake.

God calls you a masterpiece.

The enemy says that you should be afraid, and God says, I didn't give you a spirit of fear.

The enemy says you're alone, but God says, I will never leave you and forsake you.

And so that's why it's so important to have a renewing of your mind in God's word, in scripture, in prayer, and with other people around you.

Because when we get isolated, when we get alone, all of those voices from the enemy start to leak in and they start to creep and they start to say and they start to point out all of those flaws but then you have to get back to scripture because God's saying no no no no no you're missing the mark because you're missing the point yes

you have scars and you have flaws but you're not defined by your scars you're defined by mine

that's the gospel.

That's the cross.

We couldn't do anything about it, but yet his scars are what define us now as believers.

That's what we're defined as.

And so when we're going through this journey, we start to look at all of our flaws and all of this, it's like, wait a second, but God still use flawed, fallen people.

We look at scripture, that's who he uses.

And it's just, I'm so grateful because then I'm like, oh, yes, it's encouraging because I'm not disqualified.

But it's so important that those voices aren't the voices that lead us, that we would have a renewing of our mind in scripture with the promise of the gospel, the hope of the gospel, that we would be able to live in that of what God has done.

And yes, I'm a screw-up, but he's not.

And he's the savior.

And now I'm a child of God.

I'm a son of the king, the king of the world,

who will forever reign.

That's my identity now.

And one of the things that I sometimes love to challenge, especially young people, is, hey, when you pull out your ID and you look at it,

My ID would say,

Timothy Richard Thibault, Jacksonville, Florida.

It would have my birth date and it would have all of these things on it.

But my spiritual ID, that's not what it says.

It says son of the king, king of the world, who will forever reign.

And guess what?

On my spiritual ID, there's no expiration date.

And it doesn't say, my spiritual ID doesn't say Florida.

It says heaven.

Because we're citizens of heaven because of what Jesus has done.

And we have to remember that.

Because when

we fall, when we have pride and ego and mistakes and selfishness and all of this, then it's so important to, yes, to adjust and change course, but then also remember that's not what defines me.

That's not my identity.

That is no longer who I am or whose I am.

When is the first time

So you guys were going back and forth from Jacksonville, Florida to the Philippines.

And I'm curious,

who are you guys targeting?

How do you know who to talk to?

How do you know how to even broach the subject, especially in a country where it's not welcome?

Well,

the special thing about the Philippines is they were so receptive to the gospel.

They're so hungry for it.

But I think the first answer to that would be for my parents, it would be, it's where God called you.

Just where did God call you?

And you say yes to that.

And it doesn't always have to be a logical thing.

It's a spiritual thing.

Did God called you to go there?

And one of the things that my dad would always tell me, and I'm so grateful for it, he would say,

Timmy, if

you just want to go because you have compassion, which is a great thing, or you have empathy, which is a really good thing, or you have a heart for the people, that's very special but if you go

and you're gonna get knocked down you're gonna get a bloody nose you'd say but if you get a bloody nose and you don't know you're called there

then you will start looking for every reason to go back yeah and you start trying to find out all the logical reasons well we need to go do this but if god calls you and you get a bloody nose

Because you will.

You know this is still exactly where I'm supposed to be.

And that was what I also got to see in my parents was knowing this is where God wanted them.

And the

assurance and the confidence you can live in when you really believe you are standing in

part of the reason why God created you was for this moment, for this place, was for these people to stand and to be able to share and love this.

This is where God has called you.

And so I think that would be

part of the first answer to that question.

And then it's now how strategically can we love and we share and can we do all of that?

And that was a process my parents went through of figuring that out.

And they did it in so many different ways, whether that was in basketball games because people love basketball there and they'd come to the games or it was in film showings.

They would show a film and the whole villages would show up and dad to share the gospel or schools, marketplaces, prisons, hospitals, all the above.

But it was a process my parents went on for a long time.

And

man, it was fun as

as part of it but also an outsider just being at what and to

to see the confidence they had because they knew it's where god wanted them are these

are these people

do they have any knowledge of

the bible the new test the philippines christ yes um i mean the people that you're talking to um

With the people that might specifically growing up on the mission field?

Yes.

Some.

So the Philippines is made up of just over 7,200 islands.

So the main islands, yes,

there will be churches.

They will know.

But some of the remote islands, I have personally been to quite a few remote islands where they have said to us,

in their words, you're the first visitors we've ever had.

And they had never heard of the name of Jesus.

They had never heard of the gospel.

So in a country where the people are so incredibly amazing and loving, and they will, I mean this literally, they will give you the shirt off their back.

They love visitors.

Still, the older ones, especially when I was young, they would still say, hey, Joe, for the G.I.

Joes that came in World War II.

Wow.

Like, it's so cool.

Especially when I was young, the older ones.

Now that's, you know, it's getting less and less as time's getting further away.

So there was, they love visitors.

They loved Americans.

But there was such a separation between what the people in the bigger cities were experiencing versus the remote islands.

And

I've gotten a chance to go to many remote islands and

many of them was where my life really changed.

But getting to share the good news of the gospel with people that have never heard it.

How do you start that conversation?

I mean, if you're talking to somebody who believes in something else and they've never heard of this, they've never heard of Christ.

They've never heard of the Bible.

They've never heard of any of it.

I mean,

where do you start?

Start by talking about who God is and what God God has done and in creation and all of this and how much God loves us.

And always lead with love because God is love.

And then to be able to talk about love and how much God loves you and how much God loves every person I'm talking to and really paint that picture.

And that's why we're here because we want to tell you how much God loves you.

And then after I paint that picture, then it's to say, but we have a problem.

And that problem is sin.

You see, sin separates us from God

because God is a holy, just God.

But it doesn't end with the problem.

God created a solution to our problem.

That solution to our problem was his son, Jesus.

And it goes through the life of Jesus and

the life and the death and the burial and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ and the story of Jesus.

Not just the story, but the gift of Jesus to all of us, that he's offering us a free gift of eternal life.

And that would be a big part of how we would walk people through and then invite them

if they believe in what jesus has done and it counted for them

to say yes to it

i guess

that all makes a lot of sense how how how do you i mean how does the initial do you build a relationship with him first and then you start talking about it

or do you start it right off the bat some parts of the minute some parts of the ministry yeah you start a relationship and some parts of the ministry you're trying to get to as many places as you possibly can so um to be able to share with as many people so you try to bring big groups together but for the sake of getting to as many

You don't always get to build as deep a relationship as you want.

But we always try to have follow-up, to have pastors come and follow up, to share and disciple and build churches.

And many times those churches are house churches, not churches that we think of, just people that are gathering together because ultimately

that's what the church is.

The ecclesia, the church, it wasn't like, oh, on Sunday, there's this building we go to and has a steeple.

No, it was bodies of believers coming together to sharpen each other, to be in the presence of the Lord and with each other and do life in ministry and everything together as the body of believers.

That's more of the church than, hey, we just show up and there's this, we just sing and then someone shares and then we go have lunch and we leave.

And so, yes, we do have a lot of follow-up

and we always try to, but it was also many times just getting to the heart of it.

Hey, this is why we're here.

They say, hey, why would you come all this way?

Why would you leave America?

Why would you leave Florida?

Why would you come here?

Ah, man.

We want you to know the greatest thing we've ever found.

And so many times, my dad, I watched him in so many places around the world, marketplaces, especially

flea markets, villages,

because so many people around the world different places they they show up to marketplaces to trade and they you know pesos for good for rice whatever they do build you know go sell and so they exchange right and so it's a place of trade

and so many times i got to watch my dad walk into

villages, marketplaces, and he'd find maybe something to stand on or just on his tippy toes.

And he would say, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, everyone.

I want to tell you about the greatest trade in the history of the world.

And every time that I can remember, everyone stopped because they want to find out what's the greatest trade in the history of the world.

Like, it gets people's attention.

And he'd go on and say, the greatest trade in the history of the world is that the God of this universe wants to trade you of your sin, all of your wrong, and give you righteousness.

He wants to take your sin and give you righteousness.

That's the gospel.

He takes your sin and he gives you righteousness.

He makes you right with his dad.

The greatest trade in the history of the world.

And it's just,

I just love being able to watch my dad do that.

And still, sometimes I love getting to talk about the greatest trade.

And

they're immediately receptive.

Not everywhere.

Not everywhere.

Sometimes they're

certain places they're very not receptive.

Some places I've seen them run him off.

I've seen them argue.

But also I've seen

people that you would have never thought

respond weeping.

So no, it's not always receptive.

And I could tell you that many countries where it was the exact opposite of receptive.

But you could even see in some of those times how God would start to work in the hard places and the the people that were even resistant to it.

You know,

we've already talked a lot about

God spoke to your parents about going to the Philippines at the exact same time.

God spoke to them about having another child, which was you, not doing an abortion, having faith.

When is the first time that you felt God speak to you?

It's a good question.

I grew up just with

just the best parents and four older siblings that were amazing.

And we grew up going to church all the time, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, did a couple of Bible studies in between.

And over and over again, my parents, especially my dad, would say, hey, you heard the pastor talking about Jesus and that free gift.

Do you want to say yes to Jesus today?

And over and over, I would say, no, dad, I'm good.

I'm good.

I'm good.

I'm good.

I'm good.

Go to my parents' room and say, Hey, you know, you heard the sermon today, or you heard me preach.

What do you think?

Do you want to say?

I'd say, No, Dad, I'm good.

Until one night, I was lying in my bed

late in the evening,

and I knew that I knew that I knew that I was a sinner that desperately needed a savior.

How old were you?

I was six years old.

Six years old?

Yeah.

And I

was terrified

and I couldn't sleep and I got up in the morning and I ran to go see my mom and I said mom we gotta ask Jesus I gotta ask Jesus to come into my heart and she said okay let me go get your father and I said no mom we don't have time

and I was kind of intensive too and and she said okay she said okay okay

and on the west side of Jacksonville, Florida, we got on our knees on a blue couch and I asked Jesus to come into my heart, and he did, and he forgave me of my sin.

And

one of the things that my parents did that was so special

is they wanted us to remember that moment and how special it was.

So, even a family that didn't have a lot of money and was always strapped to do a lot of things,

my mom set up a trip for us to go to Orlando and go to Epcot to celebrate my spiritual birthday.

And

my family always made a bigger deal of our spiritual birthday than they did our earthly birthday.

And

my mom still every year will call me, Timmy, it's your spiritual birthday.

You know, it's

so

that's really cool.

I've not heard of that.

Yeah.

And

I mean, you're always led.

And I mean, the 316 stuff, the pushback that you receive, the mockery of your faith, all the way up to what you're doing today with all these different things, combating sex trafficking, standing up for the vulnerable.

I mean,

how do you know,

how does he speak to you?

How do you know where to go?

How do you...

How did you know that he wanted you to combat sex trafficking and sex exploitation and

do the stuff with the vulnerable kids and the proms?

Good question.

I mean, where does this come from and how does he speak to you?

Well, I'd first answer by saying maybe I'm not a very good Christian, but God's never audibly spoke to me.

And I do believe that he does for some people,

but

never with me.

But I feel like in how God usually speaks to me or people is in God's word is time and prayer and it's also through a lot of people wise counsel it's so important to us that are literally our second core value for our foundation our family myself all of us is that we value and seek wise counsel because man God uses people to speak into you and then I would also say

of the I one of the ways I like to talk about it is the pricking of your heart like this nudging of your heart.

And

then when I accepted Christ as a boy, you know, I'm still learning and figuring out so much of what that means.

But really, the first time I would say I felt called to something specifically was when I was 15.

And I met a boy in the jungles of the Philippines who was born with his feet on backwards.

And because of that, he was treated and viewed as less than insignificant throwaway.

And many viewed him as cursed because they believed that he had special needs.

His feet were on backwards.

He's less than.

The gods have cursed him.

And so he was treated as an outcast, as less than.

And

man, I just

fell in love with that boy.

I knew that he wasn't an outcast.

He wasn't cursed.

But I also knew, and

Sean, it's hard to even say like,

this is all just, you're trying to figure out what does that even mean?

But almost if I could put it into a sentence, which I couldn't, then it was

the thought of

yeah Timmy you might know he's he's not cursed but what are you gonna do about it

what are you gonna do

you might have this thought or this feeling but what are you gonna do I've shown you how much I love him I demonstrated my love for you and for him on the cross.

But how much will you love him?

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And I don't know if I could even fully articulate that.

And I even came back to the States and I shared that testimony of some people and you're trying to articulate.

All I knew is somehow

God was challenging me and convicting me to fight.

for those that couldn't fight for themselves, to stand up and speak for those that didn't have a voice, to not just feel something or think something but do something and i didn't know i thought god but what do you want me to do i don't know what to do and um

but it was that on my heart and god started to let it grow and grow and grow and um

then i we kept going back and forth to the philippines throughout all my summer and and even into college and and so when i'm in college we're starting to we you know then you you didn't have nil or you didn't have the opportunity to have a foundation so we tried to use the rules to ways to make impact and difference and but then the first thing I did when I graduated from Florida is start the Tim Duo Foundation

in all honesty I know this doesn't sound good but not knowing exactly what it that meant I just knew we were called to fight for people that couldn't fight for themselves and so I wrote the mission statement and it was the only really place early on of clarity was the mission statement I don't know why it got let me have peace on that but I did and I remember I was right here in Nashville when I was writing it because I was training for the NFL draft over at D1.

And I wrote the mission statement to bring faith, hope, and love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need to sum it up to fight for people that couldn't fight for themselves.

And so it started with orphan care and special needs care.

And then very quickly we

got into starting to plan for our first hospital and to support strong families.

And so it was just this

uncertainty of how, but this belief in why,

if that makes sense.

I don't know strategically

what this means.

I just know that we are called to fight for people that can't fight for themselves.

Now we call that the MVP, the most vulnerable people.

And I would also say that God's challenged me a lot in my life of

really in a sense saying, Timmy, you

care and cared so much about winning.

And I loved, I loved winning.

I hated losing even more.

And insanely competitive.

I love the drive.

I love the challenge.

I love the chase.

I want to win.

I really do.

And everything that I do.

I really love the pursuit of trying to be my best.

And every now and then, you get to be the best.

And when you're the best in something, you win a championship or maybe sometimes you would win an MVP as most valuable player.

But then along the way, God started to break my heart saying, You

care so much about championships or MVPs,

but I have a more important MVP for you to chase.

It's not the most valuable player.

It's the most vulnerable people.

But which one will you care about more?

And I really believe in my life there has been many days I've missed the mark because

I could have said the right thing, but I knew deep down in my heart, man, I want to win.

Man, I want to make that team.

Man, I want to do this.

And it's not that all of those things are wrong, but when you're putting them in the place of what God has called you to and you're putting them, what is it, is so high, it becomes ego, it becomes pride, and you're putting it on an altar and you're making it the priority.

When it's fine if it's a goal, just not your biggest priority.

Just not in the place of where God and what He's called you to should sit.

And too many days in my life, I've known I've missed the mark, even though I've known that in my heart, in my head, and I probably would have given you a good answer, but I knew I put that here.

I knew I put it too high.

Well, maybe not always when I was doing it, but many times convicted afterwards.

Oh man,

I would have said the right thing, but you know what, this last season

that definitely took the place of God.

That was, my identity was there.

My focus was there.

Who and whose I was was there, not in my relationship with Christ.

I mean,

you know, just looking back, do you think that

it sounds to me like you think that maybe that was wrong to use that drive?

to become to win championships and all that stuff.

But you don't.

Do you think that, I guess,

hear me out.

It sounds to me like you think I was selfish back then.

I prioritized the wrong things.

But do you think it's possible that God wanted you to prioritize that to build your name up so that you could become the man that you are today

with the platform that you think there's a lot to today?

I think that God works all things together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Even disappointments, frustrations, selfishness, ego, somehow we have to serve a God that works all things together for good.

Those who love him are called according to purpose.

So, I believe that God can do all sorts of stuff with that.

But it's not that chasing those things is wrong.

Please don't

hear that.

It's not that they're wrong.

I do think, I think it's a good thing.

I think believers should compete to win.

I really do.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all of your might.

Like, do it as unto the Lord.

Like, no, I don't think God's saying, hey, be last.

In service, he is, but not in sports or in life or in all this stuff.

No, no, he's, what I'm saying is

if I said it was, you know, my faith, you know,

family, loving people, all of this, and football, you know, people say that, faith, family, football.

Too many times it would have actually, if you really weighed my heart, it would have been football, faith, family.

That's what I'm saying.

I let the priorities get out of whack too many times.

And it's not competing or winning is wrong.

I don't think that whatsoever.

I believe that as believers we should strive to win.

We should be good and we should try to use all of that to honor the Lord with it and love people and help people and make a difference in people's lives.

It's just

we can't let that striving

be in the place where Jesus should be.

And I think I let that happen too many times.

So it was tough to navigate the ego.

Yes.

And drive.

And so when you

back to how God speaks to you,

or the tugs on your heart, your gut,

MVPs, you want to help the most vulnerable.

You have that.

There's a lot of vulnerable people out there in a lot of different ways.

And so

how do you know which direction?

It's a really good question.

A lot of times I would try to figure that out.

A lot of time in prayer, discernment, wise counsel.

But one of the ways that we would talk about it is that

we try to gain clarity is what has God pricked your heart for and what has God opened your eyes to?

And if so, he's probably saying, go meet that need.

So he pricked my heart and opened my eyes to meet Sherwin in the Philippines, the boy with his feet on backwards.

And I believe he was saying it.

I'm letting you see him.

and I'm letting you feel for him because I want you to care for him.

And then along the way, it was more orphans and special needs and thrownaways.

And then

a couple years later, from that, it was led into the fight against trafficking and exploitation because my dad was in an underground pastor's conference in a country where faith isn't really allowed.

And so he's meeting with these pastors underground so they don't get arrested and they can go back to their communities and minister.

And in that underground location,

men came in with four little girls and started to auction off these four little girls to all of the men that are in this place.

And one of the reasons why my dad's one of my greatest heroes and role models, he just can't look the other way.

And he didn't have a seven-step plan of what to do.

He didn't have a plan of action, a strategic thought.

He just was, no,

no.

Those girls are priceless to God.

I got to do whatever I can.

He took out all the money in his wallet, which was $1,250 for the rest of his trip and to get home.

And he purchased the freedom of those four girls.

And he called me afterwards.

And

I said, hey, dad, how's the trip going?

How you doing?

And he said, I'm doing okay.

And I was like, what are you up to?

And he said,

I just purchased the freedom of four girls.

I'm like,

what are you talking about, Dad?

He goes on to tell me the story.

And I just knew in that conversation, and

I don't know, Sean, it's hard to explain.

I just knew this

is also part of what we were called to do, meaning at TTF.

And not long after I got to fly to that location, you show up and you're thinking all these thoughts like, oh, this is like Taken and Liam Neeson and this is cartels and it's, you know, crime families and all of this.

And by that time, we even had more kids.

And by that time,

when I got there, you realize most of these

children were sold by their family.

One of the first girls that I got to meet, she didn't make enough money one day.

And so when she got home, her mom, in such a place of desperation,

took her and boiled out her eye.

And

boiled out her eye.

Boiled out her eye.

And

I just knew God let me see.

God let me see for a reason.

God let me feel for a reason.

Not so that I can just create awareness or not so I can just tell a story because he's saying, I let you see, I let you feel, I let you be here because I want you to do something about it.

Because I want you to stand up and fight for her because she doesn't have a voice.

And all of these other boys and girls, they don't have a voice and no one's standing for them.

Will you?

And

that was the start of it for us.

And man, when we got into it, we had just no idea what we we were doing.

I mean, no idea.

Just trying to learn and figure out.

And

I also want to mention one thing about that story with my dad before we move on is who is my dad sitting with?

A group of pastors.

Do you know how many of those pastors, Sean, said, hey, Mr.

Thiebaud, let me go find him dinner.

Mr.

Thiebaud, let me go find him a night stay.

Mr.

Thiebaud, let me go figure out food for tomorrow or all of this stuff.

Not one of them.

Why?

Because they all had really good excuses.

Like, well, Mr.

Tebow, you know, those people that you're giving that money to, they're going to go do something else bad with it.

And yes, Sean, it's probably true.

But go say it to those four girls.

And I'm not saying that my dad had a perfect strategy in all of this.

But man, he just knew the true infinite worth and value of those boys and girls, and he was willing to do whatever he could for them and so many times we look and we're we try to weigh and judge and all of this and sometimes God's saying I want you to step in and I want you to be a warrior for them I want you to fight for them don't you just talk on the peripheral or you know share no I want you to get in the fight for them

and

I was also so convicted

When my dad told me, when I asked about what the pastors did and he told me, because I started to think, how many times in my life

have I just made really good excuses

because we can it's easy well I'm you know we're doing this and one day I'm gonna do that one day we're gonna figure it out and you know I'm gonna go on a mission trip and I'm gonna do these things and and we spend so much time making really good excuses and I don't even think we always realize we're making good excuses

But so many times I look back and I say, no, that's, Timmy, that's a really good excuse.

It's a really good excuse.

And honestly, we can fool ourselves and we can fool others.

But I would challenge this, and I've challenged myself a lot.

Are you really just saying, oh, you're tired, or you have to do this, or you have to do this, or I got to provide here, or I got to do this, but I got to go train, but I got to go do this.

Or are you really just making a good excuse to avoid saying yes to something God's calling you to?

How did your dad want?

I mean, how does he find himself in a situation,

in a community that is selling children?

Well, because he's

bringing all the pastors from the local area, and many of these pastors in this country had been thrown in prison for being pastors, for being Christians.

Many had been persecuted,

some worse.

And so it's in an area where they thought they could meet.

And so they're looking for places to, you know, these men were looking for places to sell.

And I honestly would even take it farther.

I believe that it was a,

that God used that time for my dad and some of those other pastors that have been very influential to me as

a special moment.

Sometimes we say ordained moments or stuff, and I don't know, but just a moment where it was going to open his eyes so that he would open mine.

Do you,

the reason I'm asking about how God speaks to you is, is

this is a new journey for me.

I'm about two years into it, and so

I'm learning to lean into my gut because I think that's where he speaks to me.

And so I'm going to ask, you know, I mean, what, is it a gut feeling?

I mean, and how quick do you act on it?

I mean, is it instantaneous?

Do you grow confidence with it over time?

Sean, it's such a good question.

And I wish there was a perfect answer I could give, but I'm also looking for that myself.

And I work with so many friends, mentors, and pastors of trying to discern and figure that out.

And I spend time in prayer, in God's word, and with wise counsel.

And I'll always go back to those three because

that is in scripture.

We need to spend time with them.

We need to spend in prayer.

We need to spend time with wise counsel.

All are so vital to life in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

But I would also add to that,

that

when you say your gut or I say, you know, God pricks my heart and opens my eyes, we need to take that back to God's word.

Does it match up?

Is my gut or my heart matching with God's word?

And if it's matching with God's word and there's something I can do about it,

I always want to lean towards, yes, we do it.

If we can make a difference in humanity or for a hurting person, and also why it's so important to go back to God's word, because if it matches up with God's word, and

meaning something like the fight against trafficking or exploitation or the valuing of humanity and special needs or orphan care, like all of those things we have been told in scripture,

defend the weak and the fatherless, stand up for the orphan and the widow.

Just over and over and over again.

So, yes, we've already been told to do that.

Like, that's already a yes.

It's already, so when we're saying, hey, should I get into this?

Well, maybe it's not my long-term calling, but yeah, if they're doing it and I can make a difference, yeah, do it.

And I also encourage, because so many people ask me, Tammy, how do I know my purpose?

And I'll first say, I don't know.

I'm not God and I don't understand the Bible perfectly.

I'm just a sinner saved by grace.

It's kind of trying to figure it out along the way.

But man, if your eyes have been opened to a problem, if your heart has been pricked or your gut is saying something and you know it is in scripture, it matches scripture and you can do something about it, yeah,

let's start.

Let's err on the side of doing something.

How do you know if it, if, if it aligns with scripture?

Well, I think that's where it's so important to get into God's word and to know what God's word says.

It's the love letter letter manual for our lives.

And sometimes we look at it as like a chore.

And I tell you, so many times I've looked at a chore.

Oh, man, I know I got to get in God's word and like I have to do this versus I get to do this versus, man, I get to get in God's love letter.

And yes, it is.

There are some areas that are so complicated and trying to go back to the original language and understanding Old Testament,

New Testament.

But it's something that is so real and and alive and man when you get into it and and you study with friends and fellowship in it

I also believe God does something with it and in you with it and so it's important to know when I say go back to scripture and like referring to the story with dad and like God my dad knew that Because he already knew scripture, he knew that every one of those girls are fearfully and wonderfully made That they are one of one, created in love, by love, and for love, on purpose and for a purpose.

And that ain't the purpose.

And so he already knows,

I got to stand up for them.

And ultimately, that's not necessarily, I'd say, you know, he's calling all the times.

That's the biggest calling is he's an evangelist, right?

But he knew in that moment, I'm here.

I can do something about it.

I have to do something about it.

And I love that about him so much.

Do you ever feel,

do you ever ever feel like your life is in limbo

where you're looking for a new direction

and then you're called?

I felt many times I was figuring out God's plan.

I think there's so much time in sports that's trying to figure it out.

And so when we're talking about a direction, like

like the proms or combating sex trafficking or the numerous other things you've done.

How much time

what am I trying to ask here?

I'm trying to ask how much time

I can take some of this one by one.

What's that?

I can take some of them one by one because they're all different stories of how we got into them.

How much time do you spend contemplating your gut

to move into a certain direction?

Now, something like the, like purchasing the girls.

I wasn't in that situation, but I could imagine that that's an immediate action.

You don't have time to think and ponder on it.

Is this really what you want me to do?

That's right.

And so when I'm talking about

a bigger picture of moving into the direction of any of the things that I just named, how much time will you spend thinking, is this really what you want me to do?

Some of them a lot.

And sometimes it is

like, sometimes maybe too much.

Sometimes maybe I've known, but I'm trying to deliberate and figure out and discern and do all this.

And sometimes maybe I just hang on it too much much rather than trust and I'm trying to ask God for clarity and he's like I gave you clarity go do it and so I feel like I've made that mistake a lot as well

but there's been sometimes so for the example of night to shine we were getting ready to celebrate our fifth year anniversary as a foundation and our president at the time came to me and he said hey

There's these two churches that we know of that have

something called like a Jesus prom, where they celebrate individuals with special needs.

And at that time, we already served individuals with special needs in multiple countries around the world in different ways.

And he said, so since we have such a heart form and we serve him, what if we, as a five-year anniversary, what if we did something, instead of just like having a banquet or something, what if we did something to celebrate them and how special would that be?

And I said, I love it.

He said, awesome.

Where do you want to have it?

Do you want to have it like in Florida, Texas, Tennessee, New York?

Do you want to have it in, you know, Guatemala, Brazil, Philippines?

Like, where should we have it at the places we serve?

And I said,

just my first gut or heart response was,

I think we need to have it everywhere.

And he says,

what do you mean?

And I said, I don't know.

I just know that every

boy and girl, man, or woman with special needs has been treated as less than.

They're not.

We need all of them to know their true worth and value, and their families to know their true worth and value.

And I think we need to have it everywhere.

And he's like, bro, what are you talking about?

No, that's what I'm talking about.

And I don't think he was very happy with me at the time.

And

it's just one of those moments.

And then we went back and we talked to our team.

We talked to our board.

And I just felt compelled.

No, we need...

We need to try to have this everywhere.

And so our team and board started to talk about what that would look like.

And we thought, well, what's the greatest way to do this?

Partner with the church.

It's an army that's mostly unmobilized around the world.

And so we're, okay, we came up with the 72-page manual for the first year of all the ways we were going to do it and then try to fund it and partner with churches to put it on.

And because we also want what's hopefully the best night of every king and queen's life.

to be at a church so they would come back on Sunday and be loved.

So they would know they're part of a family, that this isn't a one-time thing.

This is an everyday thing you are loved this way every day of your life this is not a one-night and i tell them that every single year that they are told over and over and over again we do this because this is how the god of this universe sees you every day of your life as a king or a queen and

so we're just praying that first year.

Please, we hope churches would partner with us.

And that first year, we had just over 40 churches partner with us in 26 states and three countries.

And we were like, yes, yes.

Like, God, you're so big.

Thank you so much.

It's awesome.

We're just so grateful and humbled.

And we flew to the, so that night, the first year, we're like, okay, we're going to go to one in North Carolina.

And then because South Carolina is close, we're going to fly to South Carolina so we can get to two.

So we flew to North Carolina for the first one.

And just as we got there, there's some of the kings and queens walking down the red carpet.

And I told some of the team, I said, wait, back here, I just want to watch it from about 30, 40 yards away.

And

I started to watch the first couple kings and queens go down the aisle

and to watch them be celebrated in their glow and watch their parents watch them and um

i thought man this is special and then when we went to south carolina for that one as we're walking in the arena where it was held one of the moms runs up to me and she grabs i mean grabs me.

She pulls me to the side.

And it's mama bear force, right?

And she's holding me, squeezing my hands and then squeezing my shirt and she's just you could tell she wants to get this out so bad and she said, hey, my daughter, my daughter, she will never have kids.

She will never get married.

But tonight she felt like a princess

and

I just

I don't need to hear anything else.

And then we got back more of the testimonies from

the first year and hearing from people in some of the places that we serve, you know, driving for hours and some of them walking for hours.

And we thought, man,

maybe this is something God wants us to do.

And that next year,

we decided we're going to do this until God tells us no.

And so that next year,

we did it again and had 201 locations.

And then the next year, 375 and then on and on and on.

And

then even through COVID, we were able to do it through shine-ons and adjust a little bit, but still have it.

And then

now this last year, we had over 820 locations in 64 nations and all 50 states.

8, 800 and how many?

Over 820 locations around the world.

I think maybe 186 something thousand volunteers celebrating well over 100,000 kings and queens.

And

and we got to be a part of some of those and

and Vietnam and and

and my wife was in South Africa and we were in Thailand and we getting to see them and you know now I've been able to experience night to shines and I don't know maybe over 20 countries now and I can't speak most of the languages I can barely speak English but

it Sean it doesn't change it doesn't change based on the country yes culturally we change because we want to be culturally relevant and appropriate, but the feel of the night doesn't change because it's not about English or Spanish or French or Tagalog or whatever language.

It's a different language.

It's a language on God's love, his worth, and his value for humanity.

And that's why when we're in Thailand, in Vietnam, in all of these countries, or we're right here, the feel of the night is one of hopefully of agape love.

One of my pastors, pastor job martin and in jacksonville florida um you know one of the kindest compliments he gave our team is he said it smells like jesus

and um

and it's our favorite night of the year and and honestly through that god has opened more doors um

through that than anything else that I've ever experienced.

We have had heads of states, prime ministers that have had family members, daughters, cousins, relatives that have attended.

We have had the daughters of crime families attend

and

just testimony because so much of them,

where does some of their family go?

They want to be loved.

They love their, some of them love their daughters and families and they, you know, like, and just crazy testimonies that we've been been able to experience families that have been walking or carrying their kids for 20 hours to get there like and

here in in america specifically we we don't always know

or really understand the honor and shame culture.

But I know you've traveled and been places and we've been able to see a lot of countries around the world.

Most countries are in honor shame culture around the world.

There's a lot of them.

And so many times they believe that this boy or girl brings shame to their family

so many so many i could tell you story after story of story of kids that have been chained up kept in the basement because they brought shame to their family kids that were told but their their community told them you need to drown your child or you need to suffocate your child your child is not worth living your child brings shame to your family and so when you're dealing with um and honor and shame cultures where they have been told over and over again, there's many countries that we serve in that they will say, if you say, how many kids do you have, Sean?

They will say, I have three and then I have one disabled.

They won't even put them in the same category.

They won't count them.

But what we have seen when the biggest night in their community, the biggest celebration is held for what some of you call the throwaway or the less than.

or the ones that brought shame, but now they're bringing honor to your family.

They're the head of the table.

They're on the red carpet, which signifies VIP, very important people.

Like, that's who they are.

And we celebrate them.

It's not just, yes, it is for them.

We would do it just for them, but it's also in the community.

It's also in their families.

It's also to be able to share with the family: this is how we see your boy or girl.

This is how we see your family member, because this is how we believe God sees your family member.

And it has opened so many doors all over the world in serving the most vulnerable.

And they say, Man,

if you love that boy or girl, would you want to come do this ministry?

Would you want to fight this way in our country with our people?

Because it's just, it's helped us earn so much trust in so many places.

And I could tell you story after story after testimony after testimony.

And another one of my favorites is actually in a roundabout way through Night to Shine is also how I met my wife as well.

Wow.

I mean, that's just,

I love the strategic angle.

You know, you create that

amazing, memorable, good experience inside of a church

with the hope that they come back to the church.

And you connect the church and that community.

And it's one of the easiest ways that we have found for churches to invite people to be a part of it.

And they can invite and volunteer.

Hey, do you want to come to this celebration, a prom night feel?

And you want to cheer on the red carpet.

Do you want to be a buddy?

And they have this amazing night and they fall in love.

And then when you leave, it's like, dang, I fell in love with that young man.

I fell in love with that young girl.

I love them so much.

now.

How can I walk by them on Monday?

How can I view them less than on Tuesday?

And it's just something about when you experience that.

The next day, wait a second, I can't just act like I didn't experience that.

And God does something in our heart and softens our heart and softens our eyes to

say, man, I...

God's love isn't just for me.

It's for everyone.

It's for all of them.

And I got to see it and I got to experience it.

And I really believe

individuals with special needs,

one of the biggest ways they impact our communities is that, man, they are such joy bringers and they bring such joy.

And

I

wish and pray so many times I could have the joy of so many of the kings and queens that we get to serve.

I love that.

Tim, we'll take a quick break.

When we come back, I want to get get into how you met your wife.

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All right, Tim, we're back from the break and we're getting ready to dive into how you met your wife.

But we were having a little conversation downstairs, and one of the guys on your team asked how God speaks to me.

And while I'm still trying to figure that out, but

so I'm asking you this stuff for my own knowledge, and

I'm really interested in this.

I had an experience about two years ago that really brought me to faith.

And I grew up Catholic, lost it, and then and then

had this very profound experience in Sedona and where God basically had slapped me in the face three times right in a row and got my attention.

And

so that's kind of why I was asking you.

And now, you know, I always want to do things

to better the world.

And whether that's exposing corruption or...

diving into certain subjects or bringing light to certain things.

And sometimes I'll find myself, I'll like dive into these subjects and it gets real dark.

And then I'll pull myself out and I'll start to think, all right,

I have

brought this in front of a lot of eyes and

to the people that can really make things happen.

And then I kind of search for the next thing, like, God, what do you want me to do next?

And I'll spend this time at limbo, and I, I don't like limbo.

Like, I'm like, let's give it to me.

And

like, feed me.

Come on.

Let's go.

And

I think that's through my own fault because I have to have,

I'm getting better at,

so I get a gut feeling and I'm learning.

I think that's how God speaks to me is through my gut.

And

I can't even imagine all the external influences that you deal with.

deal with a lot of them too.

And I'm always like, is this really like for a good reason or is this just me being selfish?

And

so I'm sure that the signs are there.

I'm just not the best at picking them up right off the bat, but I'm learning more and more to lean into my gut.

And the gentleman downstairs who I was just talking to, you know, he had asked,

how does he speak to you?

And

it's through my gut, but if he I feel like if he really wants me to do something, he puts it in front of me

three or four times right in a row.

And so the latest thing was, and I'm going to be a little vague here because

I don't want the word to get out to where I'm going, but I have a really good friend,

his name's DJ Shipley, and he's a former development group guy, teaches tactics.

And he was talking to me about

somebody that he's affiliated with who

is

basically

going under investigation

for

war crimes against

Islamists.

And this is one of the countries who's

there's a lot of this going on all over Europe.

And

one of me to potentially interview this guy.

And I'm like, well, you know,

I don't know.

It's really expensive to go there.

I got to bring my whole team.

And he's, he's like, well, he's really good friends with you, with our mutual friend,

so-and-so.

And I'm like, all right, let me, let me think about it.

I got to think, this is a big strategy thing.

I got to think about it.

I don't even know if it would be good for this guy to come on and

expose what's going on.

in this particular country.

I'm boarding the plane while I'm talking to him.

I hang up the phone.

I get my seat.

And the mutual friend that he said could give me more context on this has the seat next to me in the plane.

Wow.

And I see him and I'm like, I'll just call him Joel.

I'm like, Joel, like, I was, I literally just hung up the phone with DJ

about

Yes.

Your guys' mutual friend.

And he wants me to go interview him.

Can you give me some more context?

And so the plane was delayed a little bit.

We're sitting on the tarmac, and while we're having this discussion, my producer, Jeremy, sends me the Instagram profile of the exact same guy.

And he goes, this looks like a really interesting interview.

Not even knowing, not even knowing the context of why this guy got brought to my attention.

But I mean, it was three things, bam, bam, bam.

In about 10 to 15 minutes, I get hit three times with, you need to interview this guy, Sean.

And so to me,

to me,

I don't know how that lines up with scripture.

I'm not there yet.

I get really confused reading the Bible and I don't always understand what I'm reading.

So do I.

But to me, that is some type of divine intervention that is saying, Sean, I want you to go interview this guy.

I want you there.

This needs to be brought to the light.

And so now

we're strategizing on how exactly we're going to do this, who we're going to connect him with,

that can make a difference over there.

Turns out that just a couple weeks ago,

another really good friend of mine that has a lot of powerful friends in different parts of the world connected me about

not the exact same subject, but the fact that

I don't want to give any more information because I know.

But

that's

that's that's that's how he does it to me.

And and and so that's why I was asking like how how long do you spend

dissecting all these different avenues?

And how do you know which way God is telling you to go?

And

so anyways, for me, that's

that's how it happens.

So then what would you do with it?

Is there any process you try to take it through?

Like, hey, I got a team of mentors and wise counsel I bring it to, or is there any, it's just hey when it hits my gut three times i go with it yep and it's little like synchronicities that i see like i'll bring another example up we we were going uh i i went to romania and i interviewed this guy colleen georgescu

and

um

he was leading the elections and they just yanked his name and the and and

And they yanked his name because

basically they say that he's a puppet for Russia and

Romania has

the biggest NATO base ever to be built in Europe.

It would be a major offensive base for NATO to strike Russia.

A very strategic location.

And I'm like, man, I don't know if I should be doing this.

I don't know everything about this.

I love geopolitics, but I just, I don't know if I'm doing this for the right reasons.

And there's a quote that somebody told me, and this quote popped in my head on the airport on the way there.

Like even on the way there, I'm like, I'm not,

is this really what I'm supposed to do?

Or

am I making a deal with the devil here?

And I had said to myself, I said, the truth is like a lion.

Set it free and it will defend itself.

I tweeted that out.

About 10 seconds later, this woman walks around the corner in the airport and she has this huge glittery like sequence lion head on her shirt.

And I was like, that's the confirmation that I needed.

And so I felt good about the interview.

And

I just feel like he speaks to me.

And

now a lot of people, you know, like I said, I'm fairly new to this.

A lot of people might say, oh, well,

that could be Satan also.

tricking you.

Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but I had a strong gut feeling.

And so I went with it.

And

another thing that literally just happened

was

I went to Boca Ratone to get

the MRI cancer screen, the full body scan.

Cancer is probably my biggest fear of all time.

Like, I've seen people suffering from brain cancer, and it's like every other day, you know, you hear somebody, oh, so-and-so got cancer, oh, so-and-so got diagnosed, so-and-so died.

And I see, you know, what

people that have that go through on their journey to death.

And I'm like, man, I

would really love to just drop dead and just go peacefully and not have to battle that.

And me and my wife have been taking our health very seriously.

And so we're getting

proactive about it.

We went down and did this cancer screening and

I don't do well with anticipation of waiting for test results results and it takes about a week.

We go do this scan.

We did it together.

And we're both really worried about it.

We have a three-year-old and a one-year-old.

And all these thoughts are going like,

what if one of us gets diagnosed?

How do we treat the other?

How do we treat them in front of the kids?

How do we explain this to the kids?

especially a three-year-old.

And what's it going to be like if I do get diagnosed?

And then Katie's raising them herself.

And they don't even really have a profound memory of their dad.

Anyways, we get done with the cancer scan and my

number, how I came to Christ,

a big part of that story is the number 444,

which I looked up.

That got slapped to me three times

in about five minutes.

Looked at my dash.

It was 444 at the time.

There was 444 miles left to empty.

And it was four hours and 44 minutes after I had a meeting with somebody who I thought was an IT meeting, and he was telling me, Sean, there's guardian angels watching over you.

So it was 444, three times, and I guess about 10 seconds.

And

we get done with this cancer screening,

and I pull out my phone, and it's 444.

And so

Katie got done, and I said, hey,

we're going to be fine.

I said, I looked at my

phone right after we got done with this screening and it was 444.

And then

I pulled up.

It was like right then, I pulled up, I don't know, X or YouTube or whatever, one of the social platforms, and it had 444 across the board.

It was like 444 likes, 444 shares, 444 comments or something like that.

And so there it happened again.

And I told, I showed my wife, I'm like, look at this.

And then we were staying at her parents' house

and they had lost power and the Keurig machine was not at the right time.

You know, it was on whatever when the power kicked back on.

And right before I went to bed,

I made a cup of tea or something.

And I used the Keurig and I looked at the Keurig and it said 444.

And I just, I was like,

he's got us.

Like, we're fine.

we're gonna nothing's gonna pop up on the screen i just had the gut feeling and sure as shit

test results come in and we're 100 cancer free and

so

that's

in a nutshell and a very quick uh

explanation that is how I communicate with with God.

Thank you for sharing that with me.

I so appreciate hearing your heart and perspective of what you've been through and the signs that you feel like of how God's speaking to you.

Can I ask you a question on that?

Absolutely.

If

you mentioned, this is how I knew that God's got me,

and you knew the gut feeling is not going to come up.

Do you think God's got you any less if something did pop up on the screening?

No,

I don't.

I don't think that, but I think that is

more

confidence in this specific thing.

I think that was, even if I did have it, like I felt like,

like to me, I felt like I'm not finished with you yet.

I'm going to still use you as a conduit because that's how I think of myself is I'm just...

You said it earlier, you know, with the platform that God gave you.

And

ever since

this show's inception, even though I wasn't on the walk with Christ at the very beginning, like, I still had very good intentions.

And

they were selfless.

And

I wasn't making any money doing that.

paying money to to to bring light to other veterans to uplift their business and their struggles and to bring hope to veterans you know really all throughout the world like yeah i know like how bad it gets i tried to commit suicide i was addicted to drugs i was an alcoholic i i understand

the transition from

fighting wars to trying to fit in with society and build something completely new.

And that was really all I wanted to do.

That's why this whole thing started was I wanted to do that.

And then I'm losing track of where i was going with this but but but then is is is my journey to christ when that happened to me in sedona

it just it really fueled it and and it

so this is where i'm going i mean you had said that the the platform that god gave you that's how i view my show is i'm i'm just a conduit uh

to information of whatever god wants to reveal i love it and and

can i just throw out one thought of just listening to you in your heart of, and I could be totally out of line with it, but I'm listening to your heart and from the start of, hey, you're saying I'm a truth teller and I want to tell the truth and I'll tell people stories because I want to help them along the way.

And then

you meet the king and through all of these things and God's doing this work in you.

And I

don't know, it's hard for me not to think, well,

you're telling these stories of truth and it's leading you all the way to the truth.

And

now you're still a truth teller.

You just get to tell the truth as well.

And now it's a whole framing.

I love that because I think sometimes, you know, God creates us in a certain way and we use that, you know.

the way we think so, but then he's like, hey, I want you to use that this way.

And it's not that he would necessarily doesn't

i think he gives you those drives for a reason just to steer it the right way and i

i just love it i think it's so cool i couldn't help but i was just starting thinking of as a truth teller trying you're hey i want to tell these stories i want the people to know the truth i want to uncover it i want them to see and there's a lot of our world that needs to see they need to see certain things they need to be aware there's evils that we got to fight back again there is good things that aren't getting promoted aren't getting the praise of the recognition.

And then ultimately,

you get to share and you do it.

And,

you know,

God's taking you on a journey, and you're getting to show that journey to the world of that story of figuring out the truth.

And so it's just cool.

I love hearing it because it's just, it's an encouragement to me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I love doing it too.

I mean, it's

like I've made mistakes.

I'll continue to make mistakes.

But

everything I I do is within

with my best intentions.

And I just, I just,

there's just so much struggle in the world.

And if you are given the gift of a platform, and

I mean, it's just your duty to

steward that

in the right ways.

And

I really,

it weighs heavy on me to do that.

Well, thank you for carrying the burden of it because

it's so important.

One of our core values is that we embrace the joy and the burden of the calling.

And it's not enough just to do the joy.

And sometimes that's more fun times, but there's also a burden with it.

But I actually believe

we have a burden because of the kindness of God.

that he would let our lives and our choices and the impact that comes from that, that we would care enough about it, that we would be burdened for something, that you would be burdened to tell these stories,

that we would be burdened enough to care for the MVP, to do whatever, and leverage everything so that they could experience freedom, faith, hope, and love.

Like, burden, while it comes across as a negative connotation, I don't view it that way.

It's heavy and it's hard,

but it's worth it.

It's worth it.

And if you didn't have a burden,

why would we do it?

And I actually really believe, and this is a journey for me over probably the course of the last three years that, man, we're so burdened for something or someone.

Why?

Because we care.

Because there's something deep in our heart that has moved us, that stirred us to that.

That we believe we can move the needle, make an impact, change a life.

And we are so burdened to do so.

And so I just encourage you that when you say you're burdened, um

i think you can also view a burden as a blessing it's a blessing that god would give me a burden to tell these stories to try to tell the truth to try to shine the light like i'm burdened to do so because of the kindness of god he would give me this platform or let me borrow this platform and then you mentioned stewardship on that and Stewardship is a fascinating concept that gets thrown out all the time.

But in the Greek, it goes back to the Greek word oikonomia, which just means

a house manager.

Because it's not my home.

I'm just taking care of it till the owner comes back.

And that's, in my opinion, how we should try to use our lives, our platforms, our bodies, our energy, our mindset.

It's not even mine.

God just let me borrow it for a little bit.

But when the owner comes back, is everything in order?

You know, I love that.

And

also, I mean, if you didn't have a huge heart, then you wouldn't have a burden.

Yes.

And so that when somebody's burdened by something or troubled by something or or

it's because there's a heart yes and a big heart and then to act on it i mean

it's

it's a uncomfortable gift yes it is

that's such a good way to say that and um oh i'll get fired up about this because sometimes it it um be honest is sometimes it really bothers me when people will talk about it in such negative ways or say no I don't want to be burdened by that or I will have some people like I'll be in certain groups and someone in that group might ask me if it's a small group they'll say hey can you tell me about some of the the fight against trafficking or exploitation or can you tell me some of the stories or some of the and you'll start to tell and then you'll have other people that and this this isn't rare this happens quite often they'll say no no don't tell me because it reminds me of my kids don't know don't don't tell me because i don't want to know that.

Don't tell me because I don't want to hear that.

And one time I was with a small group at a fundraiser on a golf course and I was asked by one of the guys and the other guy, a couple other guys said, no, no, don't tell me.

Very, very successful, powerful.

Could help a lot of people.

And

I was so burdened by them saying, no, I don't want it.

No.

I don't want to hear it.

I don't want to have those thoughts because it reminds me of my kids.

And I probably shouldn't have responded this way, but out of a little bit of maybe temper irritation, I responded and I said, if the boys and girls that are going through this evil could hear you right now, what hope do you think they would have?

Wow.

And maybe it was disrespectful.

What did they say to that?

Nothing for a few minutes.

It was just, and it maybe was a disrespectful and I maybe could have coded it nicer, but it was like

Yes, there are burdens and there's evil

but

if we don't stand up and do anything who's gonna do it?

Yeah, you just you think it's somebody else's responsibility?

Yeah.

I mean, this is this is you know literally going back to Kitty Gianna Visi and I think it's 1963 or

61 or something like that and it's the story that led to the bystander effect where

Kitty Giannovisi is walking home late at night and she gets attacked and stabbed

four times or something like that.

And the lights turn on from the apartment complex where she's walking into, and the attacker runs away and hides behind a car.

And she gets up and stumbles into the hallway of an apartment complex.

And

he sees no one goes to her aid.

And so he comes all the way back and attacks her again.

I think stabs her maybe eight more times.

I think steals $49.

I believe he also rapes her.

And

supposedly over 30 people saw some of this or some most of it.

And it's even reported that one of the guys in the hallway opened the door and looked out, but nobody came to her aid.

Nobody came to her aid.

And so anyways, make a longer story short, she died on the way to the hospital.

And it was a big story.

And everybody's writing and talking about it.

And they started studying this case.

And it was where the bystander effect came from, that the more more people are present, the less likely someone is to do something because they all feel like it's somebody else's job.

And this is also the start of where the 911 call came from: was from this night in New York City of Kitty Genovici losing her life.

And there's some controversy of how many people actually saw, how many people didn't see.

But the point is, there were a lot of people that saw that knew something bad was happening, but they all thought somebody else is going to call, gonna go, gonna do.

And

we just, as

people in society, as believers in church and ministry and just life, we can't think somebody else is going to go.

It's not somebody else's job.

It's my job.

And we talk about that with our team all the time.

You can't think this is somebody, this is our job.

Like, regardless of what somebody else does, it's our job.

So when we,

the definition we use for calling is an urgent and divine invitation to accept responsibility for a particular task.

If God is calling you, it doesn't matter what anybody else does.

Will you believe it's divine and that it's urgent?

And will you accept responsibility, regardless of what anybody else does?

Yes, we want to rally people to the fight.

100% of our, is our, part of our goal.

We got to do that.

But regardless if anybody else does it, will you do it if you know you're called?

And I think there's, you know, part of the bystander effect, which is so real for all of us.

At least I know me.

Well, is anybody else doing it?

No, but what does that matter?

Is it right?

And will I do it?

Yep.

I'm 100% with you.

I mean, I think that the reason when you're talking about, because

I've dove into this topic a lot on this show with small outfits, with big outfits, with, I was just telling you about Ryan Montgomery, who I'm going to bring up again later in the show.

But, you know, I think that there.

When people, when you're talking about educating people on the topic of sex exploitation and sex trafficking, I don't think it's that they don't want to hear it because it reminds them of their kids.

I think it is they don't want to hear it because then that becomes a responsibility

to act

that gets in the way of their own selfish desires.

And

that's just how I think of it.

I mean, how could you not want to know about this stuff?

Just to, you have kids and it makes you think of them.

Wouldn't you want to know what's out there to be able to protect your kids from that kind of an evil?

I mean,

I sure as hell do.

Absolutely.

And, but I think that, especially with, I'm sure with some of the circles that

you have access to and that maybe you run in or whatever, I mean,

greed is a powerful,

it's powerfulness.

Yes, it is.

And it gets in the way, you know,

for somebody to achieve

and to keep going toward

egregious?

Towards greed.

I mean,

if you throw a blocker in like that,

it's not even a blocker, but they look at it as a blocker.

It's,

I don't have time to deal with this.

It's a disruption in their life.

Absolutely.

It's a disruption in their own comfort and to achieve their own selfish desires, and they don't want to take the time.

And comfort is a whole other conversation.

But

that stuff, man, that just, yeah, that gets to me, especially when it's somebody that could actually really make a difference,

whether it's through service or

financing or exposure.

I mean, I told you at the beginning

about Ryan and

what I saw him when I found that reel on Instagram of him

basically hacking into pedophilia websites.

getting the user base and trying to get that to one of the federal agencies to act on it.

Nobody was paying attention to him.

And

my biggest platform is YouTube, which is owned by Google.

They don't like talking about this stuff.

And

it was a big discussion with my team.

And I was like, I don't give a shit what happens.

Like this guy is grinding.

He's trying to do good.

Nobody's paying attention.

And we're going to put this in front of millions and millions of people.

Because

and if it gets taken away because we did something good, I don't care.

Like that, I feel called to this.

This is what I'm going to do.

People need to hear about this.

They need to know what's going on.

It scares the hell out of pedophiles, what we did.

It educated parents.

It brought hope.

And

it

shined a light on Ryan

so that people that do want to help, that are making a difference like you, I mean, we brought him up to,

through that show, and I didn't bring him up I mean God brought him up but it it enabled him to to

operate at his fullest potential wow and and he's doing he has gone on to do amazing things completely selfless and

and I feel like that's my I feel like that's my place in the world right now is to is to find people like that tell stories and and expose it for good well you have a platform that has a chance to

expose, to share, to build someone up.

And it's what a blessing that is.

I love doing it.

Nothing makes me feel better than

to help people.

But,

man,

I would love to talk to you about spiritual warfare, too.

Do you, I mean,

that's

okay.

Here we go.

Yeah,

that's what really brought me to Christ is

I had this internal battle where I was, you know, I was talking about a lot of

the gender surgeries that are going on

in kids that are eight and

kids that are

taken out of their homes by the state.

different states throughout our own country.

And that stuff just really weighed on my heart.

I'm not against those those people.

I mean, I interviewed this guy, Chris Beck, who was the first transgender Navy SEAL, and everybody hated him in the community.

And he has since transitioned back and is a warrior for Christ now.

But I reached out to him because I was like,

I want to talk to you about how this happens, and I want to understand it.

And I want kids and

kids up to adults to be able to listen to your story on how that happened to you, what that did to you.

And

at least they have a conversation that they can reference.

Like, this is what I'm about to go through.

And,

and,

I mean, it's,

but,

but I felt like I was the only one,

I wasn't, but I felt like I was the only one that was like really taking this all in.

And,

and, and, it, it felt like through social media and

legacy media and all these, that nobody cared about these topics.

And I'm like, it got to the point where I was like, Sean, why do you even care?

Why do you give a shit?

Like,

maybe you're the one that's wrong here

and

trying to fight this and

expose some of the stuff that's going on that's not being displayed through social media and legacy media.

And

to be honest with you, man, it felt felt like I was like surrendering my heart to the devil.

And because you knew that you needed to talk about it.

Yeah, but I, I had, I knew that I did, but I, I, I, it was, I felt so alone that I, I thought maybe I'm the one that's wrong here.

And

this happened to me in Sedona, and I had a major breakdown.

And I walked through this gate and this guy, like,

and I'm a former CEAL, former ca guy but i pay a lot of attention to security and stuff like that and a lot of the guys that worked that gate at that specific resort knew my show and we would talk and high-five them and all this stuff and we were there for a week i walked through there

see this guy that i've never seen before in my life and

he's trying to talk to me he's like hey i'm a vietnam vet and i'm like

Dude, I just surrendered my heart to Satan.

I don't want to talk.

Like, I just want to go to my room.

And my wife turned to to him and was talking to him.

And he looked at me and he read my mind from front to back, legitimately read my mind.

And the first words out of his mouth were, all this stuff with the transgender stuff and the kids.

And he goes, that's not your fight, man.

And then he started talking about China because

I'm really spun up on a lot of the stuff that's going on in there.

And after that, my mind, he freaked me out.

I was like,

How are you in my head right now?

How do you know what my thoughts are?

I've been here for a week.

I've never seen you.

I pay a lot of attention to this stuff.

I know every other guy that works the gate here, except you.

I go to my room

and I had an experience with what I believe to be

my guardian angel.

I'm really breezing through this because I want to get back to you.

And then at the beginning of that trip, my best friend here in Franklin died.

And he was also a SEAL.

And

he was a guy that

he was a guy, a very successful businessman that I could relate to, and that I knew he wasn't going to ask me for favors.

And we could just sit down and talk.

I don't want anything from him, he doesn't want anything from me.

He died on a hunting trip with his son, had a heart attack,

in my opinion, great way to go.

And his daughter, who I'd never spoken to,

Taylor Cirrillo, texted me that night and basically told me that this is all, again, within 10, 15 minutes.

She says, hey, Sean,

I've never spoken to her.

She didn't have my number.

She must have got it from her dad's phone.

And she said, I walked into my dad's gun room last night and for the

and he spoke to me and said that I need to reach out to you and that you were his

best friend and that he could relate to you in ways that nobody else could relate to him.

And

he wanted you to know that he loves you just the way that you are.

And that was like the icing on the cake for me.

I was like, okay.

Like I was, I had done psychedelics to treat PTSD and

some other traumatic brain injury and stuff like that.

And that had kind of sent me on this road where I was like, oh, it's the universe.

It's this, it's that.

It's, I don't know what it is, but I just know there's something.

And then that night, it was like,

this is God.

That was that old man who I'd never seen before.

He was speaking through him.

And

he read my mind from front to back.

And it freaked me out.

And

so I think, like, when I think of spiritual warfare, I've described this before.

I think it is a never-ending battle between good and evil.

And the way I kind of envision it is if you look at

a two-color marble,

it's black and white.

But let's say that

it's like a fluid in there.

And you just see like the black sometimes starts to overtake the white.

You spin it around and then the white starts to overtake.

I feel like it's this never-ending battle within our within our hearts and within the world and that it's just always going back and forth back and forth and it's just this fluid and eventually one will completely overtake the other

I

thank you for sharing all that with me

That's a lot to take out of digest, and I'm sure it was so much for you.

My first thought is that because of the hope that we have in Jesus, it's not a never-ending battle.

It is a battle that will end.

And it's a battle we already know who won.

That

because of the cross, we already know that

we've won because he won for us.

But one of the things that I think the enemy wants to do is

what we know his tactic.

It is to steal, kill, and destroy.

He's the father of lies.

And how is he doing it?

Stealing, killing, and destroying.

But yet, even in the midst of that, we get to have this hope.

And what does that even mean, right?

When we say we have this hope, this hope that we know is an anchor for our soul, firm and secure, this hope that we have in Jesus, that

we have this hope that brings us joy and fulfillment, that we have this hope in all of it.

Well,

I think some of the best definitions or the best definition that I've heard of, the biblical form of hope, not the hope we use in flipping a coin and hoping it lands on heads, you know, not the, I hope Florida beats Georgia next year, not that type of hope, but the biblical form of hope.

I believe one of the best definitions is to look forward with confidence, expectation, and anticipation.

To look forward with confidence.

Why?

Because we've already won.

Because God won for us.

Anticipation?

Why?

Because we know God's still at work, that he's working in us and through us.

Even in our flaws and failures, God's still working.

He's using screw-ups to impact the world.

But then also expectation.

And

one of my favorite things to think about of expectation is...

is heaven

because we get we know our best days ahead of it ahead of us because heaven is ahead of us So we get to look forward with confidence expectation anticipation and we get to

We know that that we have won

But what the enemy wants to do is he wants to diminish that is there is there and he wants to say is it really once the question is a counterfeit and counterfeit everything that God said is it did you really win is it do you really want to believe do you really want to give your life for him?

Do you really want to serve people?

Or you just want to feel good about yourself or you know you need this you need this.

And so I believe a lot of the spiritual warfare is about the renewing of our mind.

Which voice are we going to listen to?

Are we going to listen to the voice of the enemy that's putting all of these thoughts with the goal to kill, steal, and destroy?

Or are we going to listen to God's voice and the voice of truth of what he's done, what he's doing, and what he's going to do?

Ultimately,

how we win.

And I really feel like it's a battle of the mind and a battle of the heart.

And it goes together because our heart, if we don't stay soft to things, our heart heart hardens our heart gets less and less tender to the things of god and the things of good and the compassion for other people because compassion is not a comfortable thing and we talked about comfort for just a second compassion actually you know goes back to the the greek word splanchnizomai which means to be moved from your most inward parts it is a very it's not comfortable it is a painful thing eight times i believe it's used 12 times in the new testament eight times to refer to jesus this word splanchnizomai to be moved from your most inward parts, but so many times after it says that Jesus had compassion, moved from his most inward parts, and he met their needs, he healed them, he cared for them.

Like, and I think that's so important for us to understand because it's not comfortable, it can even be painful to have compassion.

But compassion isn't a distance thing, it's not an empathy or sympathy.

Compassion is very up, close, and personal.

But when our heart gets hardened, we are less compassionate.

We are less caring, we are less thoughtful, all of these things.

And it ties hand in hand, I believe, with our head and our thoughts of, you know, it's why we're told so much in scripture to consider one another as more important than yourself.

Not that they are more important.

Consider them as more important, right?

So our thoughts are on other people.

Our thoughts just on ourselves.

But the enemy wants to say, no, no, no, Sean, you just think about you.

Think about what's best for your show.

You don't need to tell that story.

You don't need to tell hard stories, right?

And he's going to lie to you about all of these things.

And so we could dive into that really deep in a lot of things.

But I feel like it is about keeping our heart soft, keeping our mind clear, or maybe a better way to say it, not clear, but focus on the truth.

Focus on the words of scripture, focus on the truth so that we're not listening to the lie.

And I tell you, I really believe that I've

had those thoughts that I know that aren't from God, and I...

I didn't get rid of them quickly.

I didn't go back to God's word.

I didn't go back to scripture.

I didn't go back to truth.

I didn't at certain times have the people around me where I could say, hey,

we got to flush this out.

We got to talk.

I need wise counsel.

I need mentors in this.

And I really believe that there's a really big part of fighting it is getting in God's word, putting on the armor of God,

knowing what his word says.

And

through that, the renewing of our mind so that we're not listening to the wrong voices, listening to the lies of the enemy, because we know what his goal is.

It's been clear for a long time.

and he is sly and he is cunning and he is a father of lies.

And we have to be able to know the truth so that we can also know when the lie shows up.

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What is his goal?

You said

we all know what his goal is.

It's to kill, steal, and destroy.

His goal for humanity is to kill, steal, and destroy.

And I love it because scripture tells us his goal is to kill, steal, and destroy.

But Jesus came to give life and life abundantly.

You have it right there.

It's right here.

The enemy's goal, the devil's goal, and King Jesus's goal is to give life and life abundantly.

And when we look at that, I think that's true in a lot of senses, true in the purpose and meaning and significance of life, but also life abundantly in heaven, life in eternity.

There's so much to that.

But ultimately, this is...

the balance of which voice are we going to listen to.

We know the enemy's

goal from scripture.

We know our God's heart for humanity and what he did for humanity and what his goal is it is so that we would have life and have life abundantly that we would have peace and not just peace but his peace he said peace i give to you my peace i give to you how do we have that peace well the promises of god the truth of scripture a relationship with christ and

So that's not diving into as much of spiritual warfare, but it's how do we counteract that?

How do we fight that?

How do we first, the first stand against that is by knowing the truth.

Because if not, if we don't know the truth and we're not renewing our mind in knowing God's word, well, how do we even know the truth?

How do we know the difference between the truth and the lie?

Right.

And that's why it's so important in God's Word, in time of prayer, and wise counsel.

I know I've said it multiple times, but I just believe it's so important.

So I would even go back to the wise counsel part with

in Proverbs.

It's a book about wisdom.

And

so many times in Proverbs, I believe it's almost 30 times in Proverbs, Solomon is pleading with his sons and all of us, but I also believe he's pleading with his sons to be Musar driven.

Musar is a Hebrew word, my favorite Hebrew words, because it means instruction, discipline, correction, or teaching.

And he's saying, be Musar driven.

Seek these things.

Be open to these things.

Instruction, discipline, correction, teaching.

But when we first hear that, like,

We flinch.

We don't want it.

I don't want instruction.

I definitely don't want discipline, like correction.

No, who wants that?

And teaching, like, yeah, it sounds a little bit better, but we don't, we don't crave those things.

We don't want it.

But he's pleading.

One of the wisest men of all time is saying, please be Mussar driven.

Seek these things.

Have wise counsel, wise people around you.

Seek it.

Be a lifelong learner.

Be in God's word.

Be listening to people.

So, because it's so easy, any of us at any time start listening to the wrong voices and you let a lie creep in and it starts to fester and you don't get rid of it.

And it starts to go from here to here starts to harden your heart and now all of a sudden i'm i'm i'm going down a path that i thought i would never go down and i'm having thoughts i thought i would never have and i just think that is so important and then we see like solomon's son takes over the kingdom and his first big decision he chooses to listen to his friends over the elders

and destroys the kingdom.

Because instead of listening to wise counsel, to elders, to getting advice and wisdom,

he's listening to the, you know, not that your friends can't also be wise counsel, but you know, he's choosing his friends over godly wisdom, and he makes a terrible decision.

And I just couldn't help but think of that as we're talking about it.

Yeah.

That in how do we fight this?

I believe those are some of the steps.

Some of the steps that I haven't always, you know, done well.

And I'm, you know, part of that I'm preaching to myself on.

How much of the world do you think is a lie?

How much of what we all think that we know for fact

is a lie?

Oh,

I don't even know how to answer that.

Can you ask me in a different way?

Well, I could.

There's just so much

cover-up going on and so much deception.

And I mean, when you look at

pandemics and

gender ideology and what's acceptable, and what isn't, and

policies that are made, and

just all the

lies that are going, that we already know about, that are going on not just in our country, but throughout the world.

I mean,

I've come to the point where

I think that when we die,

we will realize

everything that we think we know is some type of a lie and or deception.

And that's another thing that brought me to Christ was

it is the

I was at a point in my life where

the little that I did know about

the Word of God seemed to be

It was the only thing left that I could relate to.

And the way I process that is that, and you've, you,

it is the, it is the truth.

It is the only truth.

Everything that you think you know

has potential to be a lie, except for that.

Well, truth by definition is exclusive.

So when people will even say, well, my truth and your truth, well, they're really probably should say, it's my opinion and your opinion.

But there's only one truth

in a situation.

There's only one truth of what happened.

And when we talk about the truth,

the way, the life,

it's exclusive by definition.

I think we have to understand it.

But, you know, when you asked that question, my heart went to,

I do believe that there are so many lies that are being told to us, especially to the next generation.

And when I look at that, 12% of our daily thoughts are spent in some form of comparison.

Like, it's crazy.

When I first heard that stat I thought what 12% of our daily thoughts what it so what are we saying by that what we're saying is 12% of my day is thinking

I need to be more like him I need to look like her I need to act like that because we're telling the next generation who you are isn't enough You need to change so you're more valuable.

Instead of saying, no, no, you're so valuable to God.

Look what he did for you.

Right?

And

we just tweak it so much that there's a little bit of truth in there, but a lot of lies.

And that's, you know, the greatest form of lies has a tiny bit of truth in it, but it's masqueraded with a whole lot of lies.

And then you look at with young people,

the loneliness epidemic.

It's off the charts.

Here and around the world, you look at the suicide rate and you look at, especially for young girls, and the rate at which which they're considering suicide it's off of the charts and you you have to say it's because we're

we're telling them so many of the wrong things but they're also flooded with so many voices and you you get your phone and you look at it and they're on this all time and they think I'm surrounded by a community and fellowship but it's not they're looking at other people's fake best days and they're comparing it with their own worst days and they're saying okay because of this i need to change i need to adapt i i need to look like her i need to have the surgery i need to have this change i need to make that team or i'm not worth it i'm not this i'm not that you know and all of that instead of saying no no no when god made you he made you one of one

In love, by love, and for love.

On purpose, for a purpose.

Fearfully and wonderfully made.

And we say that and, you know, so many people in church, you know, fearfully and wonderfully made.

What does that even mean?

Fearfully in context and culture, it just means awesome.

And wonderfully means unique and set apart.

And I have been so blessed to see some of the different wonders of the world and

natural wonders, ancient wonders.

And I feel like they're coming up with more wonders just so they can sell more stuff.

But you see some of the wonders of the world and you get there and sometimes you're like, dang, this is really cool.

Like it is really wonderful to see this.

And sometimes you're like, dang, this is just really overrated.

But man, I feel like a few times I've been able to see a wonder of the world.

And I've been so encouraged because I thought, man, as cool as this is and as wonderful as this is,

it doesn't compare to how wonderful God created every man, woman, boy, and girl.

So when he says we are fearfully and wonderfully made, we are more one of one, unique and set apart and more wonderful than any of the wonders of the world.

But yet we say all the time,

oh my gosh, could you just imagine seeing that?

Could you go to this place and see this beauty and see this thing?

And they are awesome.

That part of God's creation is awesome.

It just pales in comparison to you and to me and every member of society.

So we think those things are so beautiful and they are.

They just don't compare to God's greatest creation, which is you and me.

And I would

share a story to explain that.

Last year,

I don't know,

near this time, we were in The Hague for

an operation

there in the fight against live streaming abuse.

The where?

The Hague, just outside of Amsterdam.

Okay.

And

so the day before it started, me and my wife got in early and then my wife really wanted to go see the Anne Frank Museum and then we are going to go to the Rake Museum.

So we go see the Anne Frank Museum and we're out.

It's super impactful and very heavy and deep and we leave and we go to the Rake Museum.

which is a museum of just masterpiece art.

Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh, all of these just incredible portraits.

And hundreds of people, if not thousands of people, were in there that day.

And we're in there and we're looking at all this art and incredible art.

And, you know, it's beautiful.

And I got to be honest, like I'm a homeschool lefty dyslexic kid from Jacksonville, Florida.

Like art doesn't mean as much to me as maybe it should or it does to my wife.

Like she really loves it.

And so we're going through and we're looking at all of this, you know, beautiful art.

And

she just definitely appreciates it more than me.

And my whole time,

I'm thinking about some other things and I'm trying to appreciate it, but spend time with my wife.

And we get to one of the portraits.

And I think it's, if I remember correctly, I believe it's a Rembrandt.

And I believe it's also called the Standard Bear.

And

it's this beautiful portrait that I think they just purchased a few years ago for $191.3 million, if I remember correctly.

And we're looking at it, and there's all these people that are looking at it.

And everyone's.

taking pictures and video of it.

And, you know, just you could hear the oohing and oh, it's so beautiful.

And, you know, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm standing kind of aside and I'm looking at it.

But then I'm looking at all these people.

And I get so sad.

So convicted and so sad and burdened watching it.

Because I'm watching all of these people film and video this.

And they're looking at that portrait as so much more valuable than they are.

And I just was so sad.

I was remembering what we're going to do tomorrow and the next few days and all of these lives that are literally being purchased to be abused and raped.

And I'm thinking, no, we're looking at this and what they're going through, and we're saying this is the masterpiece.

And I'm not trying to knock art.

I'm just trying to say that pales in comparison to every one of you.

And I wish I could have told them, hey, take your phone, flip it to selfie, and you'll see something more wonderful than that portrait will ever, ever, ever be.

And that's part of the lie that

we're trying to uncover in in in ourselves and people is we think wow this is so beautiful because it's you know all this money it's beautiful because it's called a masterpiece no no no you

are more wonderful more fearfully made than that masterpiece of a painting will ever be there's no comparison but we put this value on societal things and in temporal things and um

and we just think they're everything when they're not.

And I think that's another one of the biggest lies that we have to fight because it is something that challenges us every day.

But if I have that, then I'll be more valuable.

If I have that, I'll feel more valuable.

No, no, no, no.

That's not going to fill you.

That hole that you're chasing is only a place that God can fill.

Well,

that's a heavy thought to have in an art museum.

And my wife's probably like, why do you always got to take stuff to be so serious just can't you just enjoy some portraits and paintings

i'm sure she probably gets annoyed with me with some of that

how let's let's so originally we were going to start with how did you meet your wife with this segment so how how did you meet your wife um

So as Night to Shine was expanding, we had our first Night to Shine in South Africa.

And that's where my wife is from, South Africa.

And

she had a little sister with severe special needs and so I heard her share a testimony about her sister and so I told the team hey invite her and her family to be a part of Night to Shine as

you know can we welcome and celebrate them and and ultimately through that she her sister was too sick to be able to attend

But through that, she had heard about it and then

we

sent the invitation but she couldn't make it.

And they responded.

And

I just, even in a response, I thought, man, she's so special.

And I responded again saying, but if there's any way we can serve y'all, and partially.

because we really wanted to, but I got to admit, I had ulterior motives.

I was like, she just seems so incredible.

And she responded.

And we went back and forth on email for a little bit.

And she said, I would love to learn more about what y'all are doing.

And maybe we can set up a phone call.

So after a bunch of emails back and forth, we set up a phone call and it was supposed to just be, I literally think of the emails like, well, five-minute phone call to hear more about,

you know, the and supporting people with special needs.

And so I said, of course, and we set up the phone call.

And that phone call, instead of being five minutes, was two hours, 24 minutes, and six seconds.

Wow.

And

sounds weird, but I got to tell you, on that call,

I had a good feeling I was going to marry this girl I'd never met.

Beautiful.

Yeah,

because

even on that phone call, we both knew we have almost nothing in common.

Like her first language is Afrikaans.

I can barely speak English.

She,

all of her favorite artists or movies, I've never heard of.

All of her favorite songs,

I have no idea.

She'd never seen a baseball, basketball, or football game in her life.

She had never seen my favorite movie, Braveheart.

Like, there's nothing in common.

But we had everything and purpose.

And

we had a heart for people with special needs and

her sister with special needs.

And

we had a heart for fighting against the evil of trafficking, exploitation.

And she was carjacked at gunpoint by armed men.

who knows what they wanted to do to her.

So she had

a

feeling like she would say probably responsibility to try to step into that fight after that happened.

And so that, those type of things were what connected us of

something on such a deeper level.

And I was playing baseball at the time and it was just,

I don't know, felt so clear.

I was like, man, I...

I want someone that I, you know, come home and I'm like, hey, I went one for three with a walk.

Like, who cares?

You know, like, what does that matter?

One day, is that where we're going to

the special?

And it's like, no, all the deeper things, the meaningful things, the challenging of our heart, the who we want to be, the pursuit of God in our life, the trying to take screw-ups and

tests and turn it into testimonies and all of the, that's like where we connected.

And

so

she was Miss South Africa and then Miss Universe at the time.

And I was also like,

I never got to meet her in person.

And so she was getting ready to go on a seven-week, seven-country tour, and all of this.

And I was like, man, like, she's going to go in all these countries.

And we haven't gone on a date.

And I was like, you know, some like freaking Prince of Wales is going to, you know, meet her.

And it's going to like, you know, woo her.

And I'm not going to have a chance.

And I was like, oh, we got to find a way to go on a date before she goes on this.

So we ended up finding a way to go on our first date.

And

where'd you go?

It was over.

It was just,

we were playing baseball, and it was in Erie, Pennsylvania.

And we had a few of our friends that were with us and could be a part of it because we had never met in person.

And so,

but the day before, she literally on the phone, she goes, hey, by the way, something's going to have to really go wrong for this not to work out.

Like, we, we knew, like, we had really good assumptions.

I don't want to say knew, but we really believed that we were probably going to get married.

And then we went on the first date, and we never stopped talking.

How'd you propose?

I proposed

at my parents' farm, the place we moved back.

We moved back from

the Philippines and

I just I wanted to do it so different and special.

And so how can you have a special surprise?

You base it all in lies.

And that's what I did.

And I had everyone in on it and I wanted it to be so special.

So

we had been gone in South Africa for for Christmas and then doing football commentary stuff.

And I was in South Africa to ask her family for a hand and we got back.

And I had to do that before I did.

I just really wanted to do it that way.

And so we are at our house for celebrating Christmas, even though it was in January and our family's together.

And I gave her a ring for Christmas.

Just to throw her off so she wouldn't think that the ring was coming.

And so we set up all these lies.

My whole family was in on it.

Her family was in on it.

And

I told her that we, you know, for every Christmas celebration, we have a big dinner at my parents' house, total lie, we don't.

But because she knew, she had always told me, hey, when you propose, I would, I would, you know, love to be dressed up.

But the only thing that I really want is I want my nails done.

And so my sister took her out because they were at big dinner, so they're like just naturally bringing up nails and did all their nails and dressed up.

And then to throw her off the scent even more, I had one of our friends that has a car dealership to let me borrow a brand new truck because I told her I was going to give the truck to my dad for Christmas.

Because if she's thinking, hey, dad, Timmy's giving this truck to his dad for Christmas, he's definitely not proposing.

Oh, wow.

You really thought this one out.

So we, so

we get in that truck and we drive it to my parents' house.

And what she didn't know was all of my family was already in the house and she didn't know her family.

I had secretly flown in from South Africa.

But before we walk into the house,

I said, hey, you can walk out to the pond.

That was very meaningful to me.

It's where I just prayed many times.

That's where I decided, so tried to figure out where I was going to go play college football.

It's where we buried our dogs.

It was just where it's a meaningful place.

And I had an arch built there, and I had flowers all around it.

And I had a bench made for us there and flowers on the way out.

So we're walking out to it.

And

about halfway there, she knew what was about to happen.

and so we get there and I get on my knees and and I propose to her

but I was just trying to find other ways for it to be special and one of the things she just loves her family wants them to be a part of it well she didn't know that in the hay bales that were all around I had microphones that were planted in there and so her family could hear the whole conversation I guess it could have gone bad and my family could hear

and so I proposed to her and then I get my phone and I turn on our favorite song which is by an artist called Matthew Moll from South Africa and it's called the wedding song it's her favorite song so it quickly became my favorite song and we're dancing to it from my phone

but then as we're dancing I had turned her and then Matthew Moll had flown in from South Africa and was walking out and so then turned her and Matthew Moll is playing her her favorite song and so she's like oh my gosh and then we keep dancing to it and I turn her again but I had a sign and so her she didn't didn't know her family was there.

And then, all four of her parents, because they got divorced when she was like one and they remarried, so all four of them are amazing, they're all in her life.

So, then she turned around, and there was her four parents that she's thinking they're in South Africa, and they're there.

And so, she's crying, and they're all celebrating.

And then we're all hugging, and then when her back was turned again, I had several of her best friends that had flown in.

She turned around, there's some of her best friends, and she's freaking out, and there's my family.

And then,

and then, so we just had an awesome celebration.

And

and and then she's so so funny.

So, then my dad's there, and she's like, Uh, so wait, is

is that truck really for your dad?

And I was like, No, it was just to throw you off the scent.

She goes up to my dad, and she's like, She's like, Mr.

Tivo, I'm so sorry that you're not getting a new truck, but you are getting a new daughter.

And my dad's like, It's so much better.

It is just such a such a special

well done, well done.

That is beautiful,

Tim,

I really appreciate the fact that

you don't seem to be defined by any one moment in your life.

And I mean, you're a world-class athlete, NFL player, baseball player, college superstar, Heisman winner.

I mean, but you're not here to talk about that.

And

at least I don't think you are.

And and I just I really appreciate that.

I mean, you're so accomplished in so many different areas, but

my impression is that that doesn't define who you are.

That's something that you did, and then you move on.

And so I'm not going to cover your athletic career.

Yeah.

But what I would like to cover,

I brought up numbers and 444, you know, for me.

316.

I could dig into my notes, but I'm not going to.

I'm not a big football guy, but

316 is painted on your eye black.

And how many things

added up to 316 during that game?

Yeah, the playoff game.

Well, if I can't back it up for just a second, give a little context.

When I wore it for the national championship, honestly,

I just put it under my eyes, and I didn't really think about it.

I was just so focused on trying to win the championship.

And after the game,

we finish and we win.

And two days after the game, I'm sitting in Bally Hoo restaurant in Gainesville, Florida with my mom and my dad, Coach Meyer.

And we're having dinner.

And I even think I was eating a piece of grouper at the time because I just that moment and Coach Meyer gets a call and he answers it.

And it's Steve McLean, our PR guy.

And he's, you know, he's, Coach Meyer is always so intense.

He's like, uh-huh, what?

What do you mean?

And you know this?

Really?

Okay, bye.

And I said, who's that?

What's all about?

He said, this is Steve McClain, RPR guy.

I said, what do you say?

He said, Timmy, he just got the numbers back from the game.

And he said, during the game, 94 million people Googled John 3.16.

And I remember sitting there and just being...

So overwhelmed.

I guess on one hand, I was like, how the heck do 94 million people not know John 3.16?

But the other one is I was just thinking, man, what a big God we serve.

Like when I first started putting eye blacks in the beginning of the year, I just, I thought maybe someone with binoculars might see one.

And it wasn't a big step of courage or faith.

It was tiny, tiny.

It's nothing.

It was just putting a little eye black because I saw some of my teammates, you know, writing their area code or their mom's name on their eye black.

And I thought maybe, you know.

Someone might be encouraged.

And I even thought about putting God bless under my eyes, but I was like, oh, it might be too cheesy.

So I did Philippians 4.13, and then I switched to John 3.16.

And then I was just sitting there overwhelmed by what a big God we serve.

Like, wow, he, and then I think it was the next day or something, another Sports Illustrated come out, and, you know, the focal point is John 3.16.

And you're like, oh, my goodness.

Like, God, you're such a big God.

Well, that game, that national championship game was on January 8th.

of 2009.

And exactly three years later, to the date I wore it, we were playing I was playing for the Denver Broncos and we were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the in the NFL playoffs and it was on January 8th of 2012 exactly three years later I had no idea I honestly I really feel like there was so much of me that was just selfish in that moment and

not all in the worst way but some of it of just man I wanted to prove the doubters wrong.

I wanted to show them we could do this.

I wanted to make a statement.

I wanted to win for my team and the fans and my family and all of this.

And again that's not all wrong but there was a piece of it that was just selfish for me and i had no idea it was three years later from the day and we play this game and and we win in overtime i still think it's the fastest overtime in nfl history and we win it's a real moment and it's just like it's unbelievable and the crowd stays for well over an hour after the game going crazy and going to the locker room and i I change and I got to go talk to the media and I don't really want to.

And right before I walk in this big room packed full of media, there's all these curtains out front.

And I'm standing in front.

And Patrick, our PR guy, there steps in front of me.

He said, Timmy, do you realize what happened?

And I'm like,

yeah,

we just beat the Steelers.

We're going to play the Patriots.

He's like, yeah, I know what happened, dude.

Like, why'd you ask me such a silly question?

And he goes, no,

do you know what happened?

And I'm like,

I thought I did.

Patrick, what happened?

Because you can just see this different demeanor.

And

he said, Timmy, no, you don't know what happened.

Timmy, it's exactly three years from the night that you wore John 3.16 under your eyes.

And I'm like, oh, wow, that's awesome.

That's so cool.

And he said, no, no, no, you don't realize it.

Timmy, during the game, you threw for 316 yards.

And I'm like, what?

And he said, Timmy, during the game, your yards per rush were 3.16.

Your yards per completion were 31.6.

The ratings for the night were 31.6.

And the time of possession was 31.6.

And during the night, over 90 million people have Googled John 3.16.

It's the number one trending thing all over.

And I think he even mentioned something about there were so many people tweeting about it that like Twitter even froze or something like that.

At least that was what I was told.

And I was standing in that hallway.

And I don't think I had the reaction that a lot of people think I did.

Because Because I went from a high and a celebration and a joy

to a conviction and a disappointment.

Why?

Because when he was telling me that

I knew that God was convicting me, saying, Timmy, you thought tonight was about a game.

You thought it was about all of these things.

It's never just about a game.

I didn't die for a game.

And I was so convicted, still grateful that God would use something but convicted man my eyes were on the wrong thing my heart was in the wrong place I knew you I knew what you done but I still my heart was here and my eyes were here I knew the truth I just wasn't focused on it I was having all of these selfish ambitions and goals and it was also this reminder but I can even use I can even use it when your heart's not right I can even use you I can use something that you did three years ago and started three and a half years ago and you didn't even know that I was doing something because I honestly thought after three years when the first time I just thought man well that's cool but you also think that's cool God but it's done and he's like no you have no idea what I'm doing you have no idea and and I was just so convicted I didn't even want to walk into the media not that I really wanted to anyways but and then I go in there and I'm answering questions and and

So many of them, they want to ask me about it because it's buzzing.

You can hear them even talking, but some of them kind of ask me to the side.

They're like, oh, all of these, you you know, numbers adding to 316, 316, 316.

And a few of them to the side, they're like, Oh, that's a big coincidence.

Like, they don't even want to ask in the microphone, you know?

And uh, and they're like, Wow, what a what a big coincidence, something like that to me.

Coincidence, yeah, and I said that's what they call it.

A few of them on like the side because they don't even ask it.

And I said, Uh, well, we could believe it's a really big coincidence, or we could believe that we serve a really big God.

And

just one of those moments for me.

And I think God used it for a lot of people, but I also think he was trying to teach me something too.

And

that one, we have no idea what he's doing, but even when we know the truth, how easy our eyes and our heart can leave it.

And

it was very humbling for me.

And even going back and celebrating with my family and friends, and we had so many that were in town, it was a celebration with also a conviction, if that makes sense at the same time.

And

God's done so much of that.

Even when I've told the story a few times on some different shows, it's you know, I've gone viral on that.

And people,

one of the first things that people mention when I'm in South Africa with my wife, John 3:16.

And, you know, it's just so humbling that

I could just be a part of it.

But there's a piece of me that feels unequipped and

unworthy that God would do some of that with it.

I would say that the more I've been able to process that, the more I could say, man, I'm so grateful and celebrate it, but I never want to get to that place again

where I think,

God,

you did something, but you're done.

Because we have no idea what he's doing and how he's using it.

And I just, I don't want to put God in a box.

And I feel like so many times I've had, like, and we have no idea what he's doing.

And do you know all the things that had to happen at the end of that game for all of that to change?

I mean, the fastest overtime in NFL history, one play, 80 yards in the exact amount of time.

And if one of those things go off, all of them go off.

Like,

and yet,

just

it's what our God does, just more than we could ask, think, or imagine.

And definitely because we don't deserve it.

I wonder how many people were on the fence and then saw that happen

and realized it was real, that He is real.

A lot of people.

Hope so.

Pretty amazing.

you know and um

tell something um else that that's cool about um the 316 is um

so um

several years ago camille goes or we're sitting in our office when she joined the team and i said camille what breaks your heart the most and she said um

She wrote down the number 20,000.

And I said, 20,000, what?

What does does that mean?

And she said, it's the boys and girls that law enforcement can see their rape and abuse images, but they have yet to be identified.

And they're all sitting in the ICSA database, which is at Interpol.

And it's the database from 68 countries that house all this material.

And

we believe there's about that many.

And we talk and we know we have to do something.

And she's just a force for it.

So we convene a meeting in Leon, France with all of the, so many of the major players in this space to find out what is the ground truth for this, right?

What is the number?

And it wasn't 20,000.

It was closer to 57,000 boys and girls that law enforcement can see their rape and abuse images, but have yet to identify them.

And so we come up with a plan through...

with partnerships and especially with HSI and C3 and they're just the tip of the spear when it comes to this and partnerships with countries all over the world and that leads to Operation Renewed Hope 1 led by C3 but with a lot of countries and

Interpol and NICMIC and Europol and so many in Google and so many people that were part of this and

and so that operation to identify these boys and girls takes place and it finishes.

And one of the

men that are leading it, that's just a warrior for kids and good, calls me once it finishes.

He said, I don't think you'll believe this, but you want to know how many the official number that have been identified at the end of this operation?

316.

And

he almost couldn't tell me.

He was so blown away when he was telling me that.

And we were, um,

and I don't know if that's a God-wink week moment or it's but

it was a special moment.

And then I want to share something I've never shared before.

Can you ask Kevin to bring my phone up if he has it?

I'll need my phone to share something that I've never shared before, but I think this would be a

cool time.

No, no.

I'm sorry, Kevin.

I should have had my phone.

So then, Operation Renewed Hope 1

was really groundbreaking in this space, and

it just changed so much of the game.

And so, all the partners led by C3, the Cyber Crime Center, and DC and HSI, you know, we got to replicate this again.

And it's a really cool model of all these countries coming together to be able to identify as many and then to go rescue them.

And so, then we have Operation Renewed Hope 2.

And

when that finishes, we're actually in a lot of our team and law enforcement partners are in Romania doing a special training there and in a whole lot of areas against this.

And we're at dinner after that's finishing and we're in this like

Romanian type.

tavern and with all these law enforcement that are just heroes.

I mean, just been battling the worst evils, right?

And we're sitting with all of them.

And so, one of

who's come to become a friend of mine

has been dealing with a long time, faced a lot of evil in the world,

gone through a lot because of it.

And he's sitting across from me.

And he's like, Man, I got to tell you, when you know, I saw the John 3.16 story.

And

when I realized that it was 316 after Renewed Hope, I was blown away.

I couldn't, it's just

almost I couldn't handle it.

And he said, so now Operation Renewed Hope 2 just finished and we identified 417

and we're sitting in Romania.

And he said, so what does 417 mean?

And I said, I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know what that.

I don't know what that means.

And he said, well, look it up.

Like, go, go to the Bible.

What is it?

And I'm like, I don't, which, which 417 do I go to?

I don't, you know, and he's like, just pick one.

And so there's like 25 people sitting there and we're all sitting there.

I don't know.

And so I go,

go, 1 Corinthians.

I don't know.

And he goes, okay, tell me what 1 Corinthians 4.17 is.

And again, I just say this in all humility of maybe a God thing,

but it also broke my heart.

And so he goes, okay, read

1 Corinthians 4.17.

And I didn't know 1 Corinthians 4.17.

And so the whole table gets quiet.

And I read it, and this is what it says.

For this reason, I have sent you, Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord.

And he will remind you of my ways, which are in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everyone in every church.

And he goes,

you have got to be something else, kidding me.

And I was like, what?

I didn't know that.

And so it was just a moment where it can it's it has nothing to do with me but it's maybe maybe one of those moments where it's just a god-wink moment

wow and uh

still to this day this officer will put a lot of texts and stuff as 316 slash 417

I've never shared that that story before wow maybe a godwink moment yeah

yeah I don't think there's any maybe about it I mean,

there are no coincidences.

That's incredible.

Wow.

I love this conversation, man.

So getting into getting into what you're doing now, I mean,

you are really

kicking a lot of rocks over and

doing a lot of good things.

And so what are some of the things

what are some of the things that you're encountering?

Well,

I think our biggest heart as a ministry, as a foundation, as a team,

like we call ourselves a family, is trying to go to dark places to bring light, trying to go to places of crisis, chaos, and conflict, and

bring light to go to the hurting.

We know that our God is near to the brokenhearted.

So scripture says,

Don't know exactly what that means, but I know if God's near to the brokenhearted, man, I want to be too.

I want to be too.

I want to be near and with the hurting so that we could share faith, hope, and love.

We could protect them.

We could defend them.

We could stand up for them.

And in this fight for the...

MVP, in this fight against trafficking and exploitation,

it's, in my opinion, one of the greatest evils in the world, or maybe a better way to say it, one of the worst evils in the world.

But specifically, our heart is to get to as many and leverage anything and everything we can so that they can get out of this evil.

And as I mentioned earlier, you think so much is done by all these groups and gangs.

And yes, that does take place in a lot of areas.

But man, it's overwhelming when you think how much is done by families, by friends, by those in the trusted circle, and especially when we talk about the fight against child exploitation and child sexual abuse.

It's off the charts of what is being done in the families.

And do you know what's the

most disappointing, but maybe one of the most heartbreaking is do you know the number one offender?

Biological fathers.

And it would it's not gonna make your

day, but I brought a

map to

share with you

is this map

every red dot on that.

So first of all, that is a DOG law DOJ law enforcement map.

It's called the red dot map.

And

every,

this is over the last 30 days.

And every red dot on that map is at least one unique IP address of individuals downloading, sharing, distributing

child abuse and rape images under the age of 12.

And there's over 111,000 of them

just in the U.S.

of the last 30 days.

Wow.

And I just, I wanted to bring that because I think it brings to life

so much of the evil that we're trying to face.

And people will say, well, that's just over there.

And it's in those countries.

And it's all of those places.

And it's not.

Sean, it's right here in our backyard.

It is right here.

And out of everyone, and some people will say, okay, well, they're just downloading and sharing it and and distributing it and but they're not 55 to 85 percent are also hands-on offenders and your average offender has 13 victims in their lifetime 13 victims

Every one of those red dot map red dots is there's a boy or girl that is suffering on the other end of what they're sharing, downloading or distributing.

And I just I want to share that with you because I know that your heart breaks for them.

And I think that map brings to life the the evil that we're trying to to fight and why you know one of our hearts is to get the Renewed Hope Act passed through Congress because it takes the law enforcement officer right now and victim identification officers at C3 and they're amazing some of my favorite people in the world but there's seven of them right now at C3.

There's how many?

Seven.

Seven.

Seven.

Yes.

And also ICACs are working on that.

We love ICAC and we need to enhance their funding because they desperately need it.

Internet Crimes Against Children and they're awesome, 62 locations around the country, but primarily the ones that are also working on this are at C3.

And we want to get the Renewed Hope Act passed because it would take it from seven to 200.

And now we have a much greater chance if we have all of those officers that are trained and equipped to be fighting against this evil.

And again, that's the last 30 days.

And that's not getting into live streaming or sextortion or

grooming or so many of the other issues we're fighting.

That is just in peer-to-peer networks of them sharing and distributing child rape images under the age of 12.

This is

12 and under.

12 and under.

111,423 unique IP addresses.

And some people will say, well, that's just, you know, they're just downloading it and they're just sharing it.

And no.

It's not just that easy.

You have to go in, you have to down download it, just, you know appear to peer and then you have to be able to download all of these images and then you're sharing them It's not like this just happens by accident It's not like oh, I just looked at a bad picture and it's not like this is a photo of a of a baby in a bathtub.

No, so many of these are brutal brutal abuse of children.

And

when we go back to those 50,000 boys and girls that are unknown in the ICSA database that we were talking about before, out of those 57,000 over 3,000 of them were infants or toddlers.

Oh man.

And so if you say what's on on our heart,

man, these are boys and girls that can't fight for themselves.

They can't defend themselves.

And yet

so many of us, myself, for so long, did nothing to defend or stand up for them.

And it is our heart that we would rally an army and maybe we would even declare a national emergency to fight this evil.

This is happening in our backyard.

And out of all those that have been rescued from, or out of all those that have been safeguarded and rescued from Renewed Hope 1, 2, and 3, more than half of those boys and girls have been right here in the U.S.

So we think it's over there, it's over there, it's over there.

No, yes, it is happening in other places, but it is happening in our country, right here, in our neighborhoods, in our backyards, in our families.

and then we get into the fight against live streaming and do you know the number one payer of live stream rape of boys and girls around the world us

not close and in peer-to-peer sharing we're third china russia america

man

sorry i do get fired up about it i do too man it's um

How are you combating this?

Well, we're trying to do it in every area and every way possible, whether that's with partnerships and nonprofits and law enforcement and rallying and task forces and legislation and lobbying, you know, trying to get them to enhance

the army per se in fighting this.

And that's really what the Renewed Hope Act is for.

But it's also getting the Renewed Hope operations more and more and more.

And

we're having more and more every day, but it's also, you know, creating awareness.

And I hate to use awareness because people say it all the time.

And I don't want awareness for awareness's sake.

I want people to be aware so we act to do something.

I think we really have to change laws and legislation.

And I believe there's a lot of people in Congress and in D.C.

that want to change it, but we have to get it done.

We have to protect these boys and girls.

And I know we have to figure out budgets and balances and all these important things.

But what does it matter if we figure out a budget, but our boys and girls in our backyard are being raped and abused?

Like, let's make the main thing the main thing.

This should be a main thing.

Like, this has to be a main thing.

It's But this is

the last 30 days, 111,423 unique IP addresses.

I mean,

how many kids does that amount to?

It's hard to know.

And by the way, this is only one database, and there are multiple databases.

So it's not like this is all of them, but it's hard to know every life on the back end.

But that's why we try to find as many studies and stats and databases to find it.

But the clearest one we can go to is if you look at this, over 111,000, and then you know that 55 to 85 percent of these are hands-on offenders, and your average offender has 13.

Now you add that up: 13

offenders in their life.

How many boys and girls is that?

So, every time we take one of those offenders and we take them off the streets, how

many boys and girls did we protect?

How many boys and girls do we safeguard?

One of the and um that's like that's like

it's a lot over 1.5 million it's a lot and um in one of the operations one of the doors that got knocked down and um

and and uh men that got taken away um actually led to 30 other children that he had been abusing

and

um and i i want to say this and um i think it's important

the number one

offender type is biological fathers,

but by far

it is being done by middle-aged Caucasian men.

Many over half of them college graduates.

Many of them are educated, good jobs.

This isn't just who we're thinking about.

Like, they're, you know, technical savvy.

And I think that it is time that we call them out.

Like, that

we can't stand by and stand back like we have to stand up and say not only are we not doing our job as men

it's actually the opposite instead of being defenders and protectors of our families we're hurting and abusing we were

in the office last week and we're we're talking with someone that's amazing in this space and

We're going through a case to try to learn from this and do some more stuff.

And

the guy that has already been put away and convicted of his crime

was abusing an 18th month old, his 18th month old, and his nine month old.

And I was sitting there in just horror, right?

But then we're looking at what he was doing it on.

And he was doing it on a Florida Gator blanket.

And I was thinking, man, this is probably someone that was rooting for the Gators.

Probably someone that maybe is a fan or likes the Gators, likes when I played.

But no, this is how personal this is.

Maybe it's someone that's in the stadium watching us play, right?

Like this isn't far off or far across around the world because we always think, and even sometimes members of Congress will say to us, but you know, we got to, you know, worry about our backyard.

No, we're talking about our backyard.

This is our backyard.

This is right here.

Like, um,

I could tell you so many stories of our backyard in Jacksonville or in Florida or around our country.

of

there's an operation

last year that a task force, you know, multidisciplinary task force came together in Jacksonville that were luring men that wanted to sleep with, I believe it was eight and 13 year olds and lured them.

And, you know, 27 men showed up and got arrested because they had the goal of sleeping with an eight year old or a 13 year old.

And

so many of them work in places with kids.

They,

One of them is a former professional athlete.

A couple of them were tied to law enforcement or part of law enforcement.

Like this isn't just like over there.

It's here.

It's our backyard.

And we have to stand up for these boys and girls.

And we got to change laws and legislation.

We got to build a bigger army.

We got to be able to create awareness, know what families can do, protect your kids.

Also, in the same time, when your kids go into the internet, they have to know that they are getting lured, groomed, stalked by people with intent to do evil.

And people with a goal to do good have to work better.

I was telling you earlier when we were downstairs, when you know, there was a

dark web site that was taken down.

And before it was, one of the last messages that was sent out was a message you had thought would have been coming from a pulpit.

Hey, I just want you all to know that I believe in you.

Stay strong, stay vigilant, stay alert.

We can get through this together.

We can do this.

And it was a place where so many men were joining it so that they could view the rape of boys and girls, be a part of this terrible evil, and yet they're working together many times better than people with the goal to do good.

Why?

It's because so many times

we're more worried about the credit than we are about the mission.

And what does the credit matter?

Who cares about the credit?

It doesn't matter.

Like we don't care.

Anybody take it?

We just want these kids to be out of harm's way.

Why does there seem to be so much pushback on this particular subject?

Well, I think there's quite a few things to that.

I feel like because it's very complicated.

I feel like it's complicated to be able to understand and discern the problem that there's peer-to-peer networks, but then there's live streaming, but then there's grooming, but then there's sextortion, but then there's also trafficking, and they get merged to all look like, like you know it's the same thing so people will just sort of be like oh it's trafficking well no it's it's not the same there are differences there yes there's overlap between sexual abuse exploitation and trafficking there is some that happen in all three but there is also some that is just exploitation some that is sexual abuse and some that is uh that is trafficking but it's such a complicated nuance something that that honestly for

I'm still trying to learn every day to just learn and understand as much of it as possible so we can know how to best strategize.

And we put so many, you know, try to find so many wise people and our team is full of people that are smarter than me and trying to learn and understand how we can understand the problem so we could try to have solutions.

But I think one of it is we just don't fully understand all of the issues.

And we just think it's over there or, you know, or we just think it's border and there are issues at the border.

There's no doubt there is trafficking there.

But one of the things that we have to understand is it's not just there on the border.

It's not just overseas.

It's it is here in our backyards.

And

we could go into that, but I think that's one of the bigger issues.

It's its nuance, it's hard to understand, it's hard to grasp, it's hard to figure out.

Then you try to understand the why, and then

and that's difficult.

And I just think in other areas, maybe it's like, okay,

you know, selling drugs, this is it, you know, and there's just little lanes that are maybe a little bit less nuanced.

And this is very complicated, And it is,

and honestly, there's just,

there's even differencing of opinions on it.

There's difference of approaches to it.

But I feel like that's why we just have to get so many of the right players in the room set out on a course and fight together, not against each other, on the same team, and create strategies to defend our boys and girls here.

You know,

Earlier you had mentioned that you bring this subject up and they don't want to hear it.

They don't want to hear it because it reminds them of their kids or whatever other bullshit excuse they have.

I think it's important to,

for lack of a better term, put some of this on display for people to hear.

And you had mentioned a specific satanic cult

that

I'll let you finish it.

The story I was telling you earlier.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was just of a.

That was story of a friend of ours that fights in this space maybe three, four weeks ago was telling us, and this is a story from Texas, and it was a 13-year-old girl that was being raped while someone would stand there and read the Bible to her.

And then they would rotate and somebody else would come in and read the Bible while she would be going through this horrible evil.

And

part of the reason that it was believed that they were doing this is so that the worst moment of her life would be associated with God's word.

And um,

that's a lot of evil.

Yeah.

Um

but you want to know like what these type of conversations and stuff are sharing too.

I um

if you want to read some

It's okay to share those.

I can.

You want me to?

This forum is entitled Force Baby F and has 50 members/slash contributors.

The specific forum has been active for nearly two years.

Offender one, what are you into?

Offender two, mainly five to nine, but anything goes.

Offender three, I'm 60 and

a very violent man.

No isn't an option.

Offender 4.

Hello all.

How are my fellow

friends today?

Offender 2.

I have 20

TB.

Terabytes.

20.

Oh my gosh.

I have 20 terabytes of baby r video new for 2023 vids available.

DM me and I will give you a good price.

Offender 3.

Do you have any baby videos?

I have a problem.

I want it all the time and love new stuff.

Offender 2.

Yes, DM me.

I have a great supply and can help guide you how to do it.

Offender 3.

Yes, me too.

DM me and I can show you how to abuse your own kids and get away with it.

It's the life of a true business.

Offender 4.

Oh man, I'm not even going to read this.

I love their

I have a daughter.

I would love to.

And it goes on.

I um

this is what we're facing.

Yeah.

It's what we're facing in our in our backyard.

Um

one of there's a lot of things that are hurtful and disturbing about it.

One of the things that we're seeing grow bit by bit is offenders that are saying instead of finding their next victim, some of them are saying, let's just grow our next victim.

Meaning, have a child and grow them.

Do you think there's more motivation besides

sexuality or whatever you want to call it?

Having sex with

kids?

Well, I would say we get to work with some experts and some expert psychologists that we think are some of the best in the world.

And some of

what we have been able to learn from them is that some of these offenders

yes that's part of it but part of it is they actually enjoy the pain that's being

displayed and shown

One story, I hate to even say it, but it was by one of the top psychologists that he shared with us is one offender went to a playground and he watched all of the boys and girls

and

he he picked a certain one

and so when the psychologist after he gets called us talking to him he said why did you pick that one why why when you you

what's the reason why you did it why why did you why did you select that

person

is it height Is it weight?

Is it size?

Is it color?

Is it background?

And it was like, no, no, no, no, no.

She said, no, I waited and I watched and I tried to find the happiest kid so that I could steal her soul.

And I just, I hate even sharing that, but

there

unfortunately are people that have the goal of of hurting people so badly that that would be their intent

That's also why I believe God has created some of us to put us here so we could stand in the gap

between them between that boy or girl

So that they would know that some people love them enough More importantly that Heavenly Father loves them enough that has already stood in the gap for them

and I'm going to share something that's terrifying as well and

it is

my friend ryan who i've been telling you about he he is um

working working this thing against this satanic cult and

they are exploiting kids through graphic content of they'll have they'll have a young girl do something and then they'll exploit her.

And it's not for money or anything like that.

They've started off.

They would have these girls

after they got the videos or the photos or whatever it is.

They wanted them to carve SLUT into their skin with a razor.

And then that developed into, now this happened to a 14-year-old girl.

We're going to have you swallow razor blades.

And all the way up to having them commit suicide, which they've been successful, and this cult continues to grow.

And

Ryan's combating it

but

I mean it's just yeah

I don't like to talk about this but I think it's important for especially for parents to hear this like this is what's out there and

you know

one thing that really sticks out in my memory about my interview with Ryan is he said when you give your kid a phone

You're not giving your kid access to the world.

You're giving access for the the world to your kid.

You're giving the world access to your kid.

And,

you know, as time has gone by, like, the more I hear about this, the more that sticks in my head with the cult that I'm just telling you about.

And,

you know, Tim, it's just, I mean,

you're doing big things and you're making a tremendous impact.

But what I want to ask you is, you know,

what can parents do to protect their kids?

First, I would say

be careful about what they go on and what they look at.

And so I give a little background to that.

So one thing we haven't touched on is it ties to this, is the sextortion and how many

places around the world are trying, that literally have organized groups that are trying to extort boys and girls.

even

boys more than girls right now.

There have been over 30 right here in the states that have committed suicide from it.

And they're trying to become a best friend, trying to act like they're a young girl.

And they're getting boys to send them a photo.

And then they're trying to take everything from them.

And then ultimately, it's leading to so many suicides.

And last year, and I believe it's 2024, Meta took down 63,000

accounts.

from I believe mostly in Nigeria of accounts that were just trying to sextort people here like if you think oh, it's one or two people, it's not it's at a mass number So when you hand the phone to your kid know that the world and people with bad intentions are trying to lure them into something whether that's to groom them sex to sextort them to try to lure them into something Unfortunately, I hate to be always a person's trying to talk gloom and I'm not trying to be doom and gloom I'm trying to say that we can have hope even in the midst of it because of Jesus, but we got to protect them.

We have to protect them so that they are in a safe place.

And it's also where we work with so many different companies and technology that are trying to find all ways to to fight the trafficking and exploitation and the sex dortion and all of them because just like there's this

all this social and technology being used for bad we have to also fight it for good and there is a lot of great

companies that are trying to create products to fight it for good, whether that's on phones, whether that's on devices, whether that's to keep keep kids safe.

And so there are a lot of people that are fighting back against this and they're trying to step up and stand up the right technologies, the right teams, the right companies.

But we have to know that it is even a battle.

That if you just say, here's the phone, go do what you want, know that it's...

So I'll give you an example.

We're having several years, I think it's four or five years ago now, we're having a meeting at the offices, and

one of like the best trackers of finding missing people is sharing stuff.

And he's saying, this is how many, this is how so many of the boys and girls are getting lured in.

And it's, they're so good at their phrases and their sentences.

And they use the same ones and they copy paste all of these kids, right?

They work at the same phrases and they build relationships.

And so he's going over some of these phrases.

And one of our team members goes home and she has two daughters.

And she said, have y'all ever seen some of these phrases?

And they go, yeah, I got some today.

The exact same words said the same way, same phrases.

Like, this is absolutely a, it's real and terrifying.

And if you just think, oh, well, it's people with the, you know, with good intentions or it's just the internet.

No, there are people that are using that with a goal to do evil.

And they want to be able to

get access, to get in, to build a relationship for something that is not a good reason.

And I just, I don't want to be doom and gloom, but I I just want to tell parents, please be the protector that you're called to be.

And sometimes, maybe, if that means that you're the bad guy and you don't give them the same access, but would you please look into some of the more improving devices to help

keep kids safe, to get them on safer platforms?

And I do feel like, I don't feel like this.

I really believe that it is a terrible evil that we have to fight back against.

And that has to be as a whole.

You know, I'm just going to make it even more apparent.

I mean, we caught a guy in five seconds.

When I interviewed Ryan, I had him on here and he was talking about this.

And this was like my first interview on the subject.

And

I said,

you're a hacker.

Get your laptop out.

He said, I don't care what forum you get into, what social media platform.

I want to see how long this takes.

He said, okay.

And I said, screen record it so we can prove it.

So he gets on, gets in in the chat room, comes up with the name.

He tells me, he goes, all right, I made the name Ashley 13, New Jersey.

Right after that, he goes, up,

got a 40-something-year-old man wanting to have sex with a 13-year-old girl, wants to meet her at Walmart.

I'll roll the clip right now just so everybody sees how fast.

this is happening.

And he says it's on Xbox, PlayStation, Instagram, everywhere.

Anywhere that you are online.

Yes.

This is happening.

Ryan, do you think you could demonstrate right here, right now, how fast these sexual

predators will show up in a chat room?

Yeah.

Fire your computer up.

Let's do it.

Alright, I'm recording, so now I'm just gonna say hi.

Who

wants to chat?

I name myself Ashley Female New Jersey.

13 Female New Jersey.

Let's see how many private messages come in.

Two already.

Three.

It's been like ten seconds.

Yep.

Hey, you want to fool around?

Hey, how?

How old are you?

Let me just copy that and send that to everybody because we got other messages coming in.

What chat room are you in?

Just a teen chat.

Hey, you want to cuddle a bit?

I didn't, I mean,

I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt right now that they didn't read the...

Oh, he's 47.

47 years old in a teen chat room you got him in what five seconds he's already messaging in oh yeah there's a ton there's i can't even keep up with them here because every time i click one there's more on the list

uh he says he's okay i said are you okay with my age he says yes age

13

like my profile says

I got two more messages, so now we're at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

I'm nineteen let's ignore the nineteen year old even though it's disgusting

it hasn't even been 60 seconds yet

okay there's another guy here's the other guy this guy's 15 ignore him that is a real teenager in a teen chat

the 47 year old

Says

I said he said age I said 13 like my profile says he said name

Ashley.

And then another guy just messaged.

How old are you?

Okay, this person's a child too.

So out of all of these, there's one guy here who is 47 years old, less than a minute, who wants to talk to a child in a teen chat.

And I only said hi in the chat room, nothing else.

Holy shit, dude.

Damn, we're wrapping up the interview.

You get a flight to catch.

And so I want to ask you, what can people do to help what you're doing?

Well, I think pray.

Talk with their families.

Protect their kids.

Protect their neighbors' kids.

Look out for each other.

Be a protector.

I believe that's one of the greatest forms of love.

It's 1 Corinthians 13, 7.

Love always protects.

Always believes, always hopes, always endures.

And as a community, we need to protect, protect one another.

We need to protect the most vulnerable.

Everyone has a different skill set, resource, ability.

Use it.

Use it for good.

Step up.

That doesn't mean you have to stand with us, but stand for good.

Stand for

the most vulnerable.

If there's some specific ways they want to be involved with us, I think one of them could just be call your local congressman or woman and say, hey, pass the Renewed Hope Act and protect our children.

Go get it done.

You can go to our website, TimToFoundation.org, and there'll be links on there to figure out right ways that you can connect with your local congressmen and step up and stand up and not just make your voice heard because that's said a lot but just make it heard to the right people to know that there is an army of people right here in the States that are going to fight back against those that want to hurt and abuse our kids and

you know we have a daughter on the way so we we haven't shared the name of our little girl yet

But her middle name is actually named,

inspired by, and named after one of the youngest youngest girls we've ever been able to bring out of this evil and care for and she was rescued at 25 days old and um she just captured my wife's heart and my heart and um

so our little girl's middle name is is named after her um

25 days old yeah

well it's beautiful that you did that ma'am

your daughter's gonna be a special person

All of these kids

are so special,

made in God's image,

and so many times

we treat them

as if they're trash when they're really God's treasure.

And

man, if

all of this, if we could take all of these lives that have gone through such torture, but they can know how treasured they are by God,

that would be everything.

They would know and experience that.

Go from torture to treasure.

And wouldn't that be everything?

Yeah.

I hope one day she wouldn't just say, hey,

my dad's a good dad,

but my dad's a protector.

My dad wants to stand in the gap between people with a goal to hurt me, and he's going to stand in the way.

He won't let them get to me.

And I know I'll

be very flawed and fallen in that goal,

but I hope that's something she would say one day.

But I can tell you, our Heavenly Father, he stood in the gap for us.

He stood in the way.

When the enemy says, no, they're mine.

He said, no, no, no, no.

I'm going to take their place.

I'm the ransom.

That's me.

I'll take the penalty.

That's what love looks like.

And as a community, we as a family, as a nation, we have to stand in the gap.

Not only do we have to protect, but man, we're also causing so much of this pain here in the States and around the world.

Do you know the country I was born in that I love very much in the Philippines?

Do you know how many times we have seen the airports be flooded with Americans flying in?

Do you know how many of them?

You look and you say, man, what are they going to do?

And do you know the number one buyer of children in the Philippines paying for their rape and abuse?

Middle-aged Caucasian men right here.

So not only have to stand up against them, but we have to stand up against the pain that they're causing here in the States and around the world.

This is our problem.

It is our calling and we can't look away.

Like we can't just have the bystander effect think someone else is going to do it.

Because it's our fault and it's only growing.

All of these issues of live streaming, of CSAM, child sexual abuse material, sex dortion, grooming, runaways, all of it,

it is growing.

We aren't winning.

We're losing every day

until enough people stand on the line to say together,

we're going to fight this.

We're going to call it out.

We're going to stand on the line.

They're worth it.

They were worth it to King Jesus to die for.

They're worth it for us to fight for.

Well said.

Well said.

Well, Tim, thank you for being here.

I'd love to end this in another prayer.

Yeah.

You want to lead it?

Sure.

Perfect.

Man.

Good and gracious Heavenly Father, we just love you so much.

We thank you that you first loved us.

We thank you, your love for

every person, that you didn't just tell us about it, but you demonstrated it with your life for every person.

We pray that

we would demonstrate that love for people.

Just like you stood in the gap for us, that we would stand in the gap for humanity.

We thank you for your love for them, that you created them in your image.

With infinite value and worth.

We pray that we would see true worth, that infinite value and worth, that worth that you are willing to go to the cross for.

We pray that we would see that in them and we would act on their behalf and we would be protectors.

We wouldn't be bystanders.

We wouldn't stand to the back or stand to the side, but we'd stand in the gap.

We pray that

you do something so special in our nation.

For the next generation in protecting them and loving them and having

a real identity of who they are and whose they are, that they would know that they are fearfully and wonderfully made, that they would know and be firm and secure in the hope that you have given them of your promises, that they wouldn't just think, I need to change, I need to conform, I need to be different, I need to compare.

No, but they would be filled with you, with your love, with the Holy Spirit.

We thank you for the cross because it's the only thing that changes everything about everything.

And we pray that so many people that are starving for hope right now, that they would find the one true hope in the cross.

We know that you are near to the brokenhearted.

We pray we would be that too, that we would stand with them and for them.

We pray that you do something so special in our nation.

We thank you for letting us be a part of that.

As flawed and fallen as we are, you still allow us to be a part of your team on your mission.

We pray that you would let us get to many lives that are hurting so they could experience true faith, hope, and love that only comes through you.

Thank you that you love us and you don't leave us or forsake us.

We give all these things to you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

And I would just ask that

you please lead the army that Tim and his team needs to effectively combat this on the scale that it needs to be combated.

Just reign your protection down over them.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

Tim, appreciate you.

It was an honor.

It was.

Thank you.

It's an honor for me.

Thank you.

Thanks for what you're doing.

Thanks for shining a light.

Thank you.

Give us the chance to share.

God bless you.

It's part sports.

We have football on the brain.

Part pop culture.

Dennis Leary.

True or false, you refuse to wear a glove with Mickey Mantle's signature on it for the movie The Sand Lion.

Red Sox blood, the brew is blood, they run deep.

Add and the best celebrity interview.

Robert De Niro here on The Rich Eisen Show.

How are you, sir?

Just got over a 24-hour virus.

The antidote is to appear on the Rich Eisen Show.

There you go.

I would have done it earlier.

And you've got the Rich Eisen Show podcast.

There is a medicinal quality to appearing on this program.

Follow and listen on your favorite platform.