>> DAVID NASSER: Let's just welcome home,
welcome home Jason and David Benham, everybody. What a great honor and a privilege to have
you brothers back on campus. I know you're both Liberty grads and man,
just to watch how God has raised you up from people sitting on section whatever you sat
on all the way down to now just having been - >> DAVID BENHAM: 108. >> NASSER: What? >> D. BENHAM: Section 108. >> NASSER: Is that where you were? >> JASON BENHAM: No, no, no, it was - >> NASSER: Where you at Section 108? >> J. BENHAM: I think it was up there. >> NASSER: Where were you sitting? >> J. BENHAM: It was 113. >> NASSER: Wow. They don't sit all the twins together? Okay. Man, just to watch like how the Lord has just
from those days prepared you and then raised you into such a public platform of just testimony,
such a visible arrow for His glory. It's just been amazing. And so, obviously if you're not - I don't
know where you've been living if you're not familiar with the Benham brothers, but we're
talking here to two incredible entrepreneurs, two men who are not just real estate tycoons
but guys who dress well and I think you've been working out a little bit, doing a little
CrossFit. I just want you to know, I don't even have
to work out to get what I get. >> J. BENHAM: You got some nice boots. >> NASSER: This is all natural. There's no creatine here; this is all natural. Don't be jealous. >> J. BENHAM: I couldn't rock those boots. >> NASSER: I know you can't, buddy. >> J. BANHAM: Those are awesome. >> NASSER: Thank you, buddy. You're tall, I got to have, like, platforms
just to try to get where you - pray for me. Would you pray for me? >> J. BENHAM: I would. >> NASSER: Which one are you? Are you Larry or Bob? >> D. BENHAM: You can direct some of the prayer
warriors up here, this direction. >> NASSER: That's right. >> D. BENHAM: Right over here. >> NASSER: They told me they were going to
mess with me. I told them I'm an Iranian, and so I'll mess
with you later. I have people. I have people. >> J. BENHAM: We were just at the Value Voter's
Summit; there was probably 360 - we have some peeps over here I think that we spent some
time with. There's about 360 media there, and we came
right out of the gate and said, "We're dangerous guys. We love Jesus. We have shopped at Hobby Lobby - well maybe
he has. We've eaten Chick-fil-A, we watch Duck Dynasty
and we graduated from the greatest university of all time, Liberty University. And - >> NASSER: That is red meat to the conservative
right, bro. >> J. BENHAM: And I said my brother and I
taking this strong stand, it didn't you know, obviously it was our fear of God, but it was
also our fear that Dr. Falwell's going to come out of the grave and spank us. We didn't want that to happen, so we knew
we needed to stand pretty strong on that. >> D. BENHAM: He used to get on us all the
time about shaving and Jason and I were walking out of the - we're actually staying at the
Montview Mansion; I can't believe it. I feel so disrespectful, you know, that's
where Dr. Falwell's office is, and I walked in there and saw my baseball bat in there. I was shocked. I gave him my baseball bat 13 years ago and
he still had it sitting there on his desk, so that's a little dangerous and I - >> J. BENHAM: Let me - I'm going to interrupt
him for one second. You know - DAVID BANHAM: We haven't shaved, so we'd get
in big trouble. >> J. BENHAM: I look at you guys wearing whatever
you want to Convocation, and I was thinking about that this morning. I got out and I watched the blood moon. Did you guys see that this morning? Wasn't that crazy? I tweeted it, so go check it out. I was watching the blood moon and the thought
crossed my mind, all these students get a chance to wear t-shirts and jeans and whatever
they want to class and I'm not really happy with that, and then the thought hit me: I
slept in the Mansion. And not a single one of you have ever done
that. So we got that on you. You can wear all the t-shirts you want. >> NASSER: You don't know that, bro. I have. I've slept in the mansion. >> D. BENHAM: You have? >> NASSER: Yes. But, man, like just to watch you guys just
be raised up in that position and not just as business guys but guys who got, you know,
obviously I think you represent well, you're definitely worth watching as a life. I mean, goodness, you got like a huge - both
of you have like a bunch of kids; you should be Catholic, I mean you got so many kids. And so obviously HGTV comes your way, they
say, "Let's develop a show, just a seat into - a window into your life called "Flip It
Forward." Everything's going really great, it just feels
like, "Wow, God's about to give us even more opportunity to really boast on Him." And then take us through that process, what
that was like, and then how it came to a screeching halt. We'd love to hear a little bit more, just,
like, beyond the headlines what all went on with that. >> D. BENHAM: Well I'll jump back real quick,
let me go back two years before all of this started. In 2012, Jason and I were at the height of
our business career. We had a hundred offices, 35 states. Dr. Falwell taught when we were here if it's
Christian, it ought to be better, so we built a real estate company and we always had that
in the back of our head, "If it's Christian it ought to be better." And so in 2012, I don't know if you remember,
but the Democratic National Convention came to Charlotte, and God laid it on our hearts
to host a solemn assembly the night before in Verizon Wireless Amphitheater of the Church
of Charlotte before the convention opens. Now we didn't - it wasn't a real popular thing
to do amongst 1,300 churches in our city, but 150 churches showed up, nine thousand
folks, and we got on our faces before God and we repented of our sins and in the context
of that I specifically spoke - my mouth is the one that got us in trouble - I specifically
spoke about the difference between sinners, which we all are: adulterers, homosexuals,
thieves, murderers, you name it, we're sinners. And there's always forgiveness for sinners. But there's an agenda that is attached to
homosexuality called "The Homosexual Agenda" and so we isolated that off and said, "That
is something that is a place of dominion and authority where Satan has stepped into our
culture and seeks dominion through that agenda in every sphere." In entertainment, in media, in higher education,
in government, I mean, unless we have our head buried under a rock we see this. So I spoke to that. >> NASSER: You spoke to that, though, not
in the context of a political rally but in the context of - >> D. BENHAM: A prayer service. >> NASSER: - a posture of prayer and intercession. >> D. BENHAM: We were on our faces before
God and we said, "If my people who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray,
seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their
sin and heal their land." It was in that context I was speaking, so
I was on a radio show and then two months later a production company reached out to
us and said, "You guys want to be on reality TV?" Jason's like, "Yeah, I want to be on reality
TV!" >> J. BENHAM: The call was more like, "We
like the guy Jason, maybe David could come along as well. >> D. BENHAM: Yeah. >> J. BENHAM: That's more what it was like. >> D. BENHAM: Until they took the interview
and they realized, "Okay, yeah, we got something with David, but Jason maybe he'll just tag
along. So we took an interview with them, then they
interview our wives and our wives are over here with our nine little kiddos, Lori is
my wife in the blue necklace there and then Tori, Jason's wife, and his daughter's frowning
now. >> J. BENHAM: Now I made it all the way through
Liberty without a girlfriend. I did. And I, you know, I thought that there was
some little misfit here for me but there was not and if I could go back 20 years ago and
talk to myself sitting in Section 113 I'd say, "Hey, that's your wife," and I would
say, "Thank you, God. Thank you." >> D. BENHAM: So then they came to us - production
company came to us. Let me get us back on track here; let's focus. So they came to us, production company says
to us, "We'd like to interview." They did a series of interviews, they said,
"Okay, what we want to do is do a sizzle clip." It was a three-minute clip, we didn't know
what a sizzle was. They took it to Los Angeles, five networks
wanted it. So A&E was interested, Spike, MTV, TLC. TLC made us our first offer - and then HG
came in and made us an unprecedented offer. They said, "We're bypassing a pilot, we're
taking you straight to series because we see something in you. We see that you guys, you love your wives,
you got kids, you live on the same street, and there's this faith element," and if you
look in America right now, we just got contacted by a major network last week that said, "Will
you please come on our show?" Now of course we saw the show, we were like,
"We're not going on that show," but they said they want a moral compass. And it's really interesting that there's a
desire there and it's up to the church to be salt and light. So anyway, let me get back to the story. So HGTV then goes and does a background check
on us and they saw some of the articles that were written on us by Right Wing Watch, and
Right Wing Watch basically, I mean they didn't really provide any analysis, they just simply
said what I said and I said, "Amen, I stand by it 100 percent." And HG said, "You know what, you guys aren't
haters, and we're going to go ahead and sign you to the contract." So then we signed the contract, so we signed
after everything had happened. Fast-forward six or seven months. We're in pre-production now, we're setting
to air six one-hour episodes, we're in the middle of production, they start airing commercials
now. Buddies of ours are, you know, shooting us
pictures from the television. They're airing commercials and then they said,
"We're going to announce your show at New York City, a thing called the Upfronts, where
you see the Duck Dynasty guys where they're there with all the banners in the back. Those are up-fronts where they're kind of
showing off their talent trying to get advertisers to come and advertise for shows. Well GLAAD, Gays and Lesbians Against Anti-Defamation,
was at the New York City up-fronts. They found out the Benham brothers were going
to be on HGTV, so GLAAD called HGTV and basically said, "We're going to inform you of what kind
of men these are." >> J. BENHAM: I think they said, "No you didn't." That's what they said. >> D. BENHAM: Yeah, they were really upset
about that, so HG calls us and says, "Listen, guys, we've got a few months before the show
is supposed to air and we're getting a lot of heat from GLAAD." So we had a series of conversations - this
is about three weeks before we got fired - a series of conversations and the ultimate conversation
came. We were sitting at a steak house, at Fleming’s,
in Charlotte, North Carolina about a week before we got fired and - yeah, Fleming’s
is fantastic - and Jason and I are sitting there, and our show, our producer says to
us, "guys, we're following your Twitter account, we're following Facebook now and we noticed
that you're Christians and you talk about your faith and that's fine. But you talk about controversial issues, specifically
gay marriage and abortion." And they said, "We're just asking if you guys
would just kind of stop, you know. Just don't say anything right there." And it was that point where Jason leans in
and he says, "Okay, let me ask you this question. If I take my Bible and open to 1 Corinthians
chapter 6 verse 9, 10, and 11" - which is a great verse of hope because it's a fantastic
verse that gives us all hope, but it also outlines, you know, "do you not know that
the unrighteous, the unholy, the sexually immoral" - fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals,
thieves - "will not inherit the Kingdom of God? But such were some of you." Jason said, "Can I read that and not offer
any opinion and actually close my Bible and will that be okay with you?" And the producer just sits there and he just
leans back in his seat and he just goes - . And we knew at that point, "All right, the battle
is on. what are we going to do?" We were sitting there with an opportunity. Then the general manager called us and we're
sitting there with the opportunity to basically back off or stand strong and we're going to
tell you a little bit in a minute of the Scriptures that helped us stand strong, but it was at
that moment Jason then leaned in and said, "We're not bowing to any agenda. We are going to speak the truth of God. We're going to do it in love because if we
don't do it in love then we should not even be speaking." And so, but we are not going to back off where
we feel that Satan has dominion in our nation today. And it was at that point we knew it was just
a matter of time before we got fired, we just didn't know how it was going to happen. >> NASSER: Sure, you knew it was going to
play out. But it sounds like well before that moment,
well before that crossroad moment that there were some principles, there was some Scripture
so that the circumstances only brought you to the point where - that the pillars that
you had founded your life on were then just going to get to get leaned on, right? And so you built a house ready for a storm
one day even though it might be sunny today, you build it. You guys are contractors, I think you know
a little bit about that because you know the storm will come. You know the persecution will come. Can you tell - give us a little insight on
personally for you men, I mean, some pillars that you live by that all of a sudden come
forefront when something like this comes down. >> J. BENHAM: Sure. We came to Liberty from Dallas, Texas. I don't know if we got any Texans in here. We didn't study business; we studied history. Our goal was to get drafted into professional
baseball, which we both were, and then to play and be Hall of Famers and all of these
things. Well, a man plans his course; God directs
his steps. But the one commitment that we made as 18-year-olds
coming to Liberty University was we're going to read through the Scripture, cover to cover
every year. And so we're now 21, and we've done it three
times - just kidding. We're 38, about to be 39, we've done it 21
times now, cover to cover and I want to tell you some things that we learned through this. When we got done with playing professional
baseball, we got out - we had families and we got out and we started mowing lawns, we
were painting walls, we were going and we helped lay a driveway, we were doing whatever
we could to make money for our family. And through that we ended up getting our real
estate licenses and we got out into real estate. Well, as Dr. Falwell always said, “if it's
Christian it ought to be better.” So we simply - we didn't know exactly what
to do in business but we had biblical paradigms from reading the Scripture continually. We simply went into the business world as
salty Christians, and a salt influences wherever it goes. And so there were some principles that were
engrained in us that when we got out into business, it just gravitated success to us. One of them was to be faithful in little. It's not the speck of sand in your shoe that
stops you from running a sprint, but in a marathon it will destroy you. So it's paying attention to those really little
things in your life. You can't let those things go unchecked. The second is to be a fountain and not a drain. This is so incredibly important. These are the principles we built our business
on and now we go speak all over and people are like, "What are your business principles?"
and I think we're going to share some of that, some more of them with some classes later. But to be a fountain and not a drain. If you think of a water fountain, a fountain
is constantly giving, it's constantly providing nourishment for other people. All it has to do is be plugged into the source. Now what about a drain? A drain wants to be plugged into a fountain. A drain is someone who's constantly taking,
constantly taking and we said to ourselves, "We're going to be fountains. We're not going to be drains." And then, of course, as you see, profit and
success just chased after us. The third is to give more in value than you
take in pay. If you show up to a lawn and you've bid $35
for that lawn but it's a $75 job, your responsibility is to work according to your ability and not
according to the pay. You're going to give more in value than you
receive in pay, and when you do that you are going to be so incredibly profitable it's
not even funny. Apply that to a marriage relationship and,
my wife can tell you, the beautiful one over here, and she could – >> D. BENHAM: Both of you are beautiful. >> J. BENHAM: - if I give more to her - >> D. BENHAM: I had to put that in there. >> J. BENHAM: I love my wife too. >> D. BENHAM: Jason has gotten me in more
trouble saying comments like that - >> J. BENHAM: Hey, we got twelve minutes. Don't interrupt me, man. >> NASSER: These two principles down, he's
got one more to go. >> D. BENHAM: I just want to see us go right
here. >> J. BENHAM: But I was about to say something
because every single one of you in are in the position in life where one day soon you're
going to have a relationship with somebody, and I can say this; here's one piece of advice
about that and then I'm going to finish my other principle. So this is my squirrel moment, so I got a
little squirrel. So, okay, don't go and try to find Mister
or Mrs. Right, okay? Here's the thing. Hold on. Just be the type of person that would attract
Mister or Mrs. Right, maybe not "and" but "or." Well we could get our show back. But just be that person, and the right person
will come to you, and, okay, I'm almost done with my other principle and then you can go
on to the next question. It was given more value than you take in pay. So in my relationship with my wife, if my
concern is to give more to her and not concern myself with what I'm receiving from her, than
I want to tell you that is going to be a very, very profitable relationship. You take that into business, you take that
into your church work, you take that into school, it does not matter. We got some good secrets on how you can go
from a C to an A but we might want to keep that on the down low. >> NASSER: So that's three, right? Being faithful in the little things, just
- >> J. BENHAM: We have several more but I don't
want to give them all away and we got to hurry. >> NASSER: Yeah. You want to do the fourth one, cause you guys
got four Bs, right? >> D. BENHAM: What is the fourth one? >> J. BENHAM: It was to breathe life. Wherever you go, you breathe life. So, the question is when someone calls you
on your phone and you look at that person, how do you feel? Is that the call you want to answer or is
it the one you're looking at like, you know, if it's David Nasser and you're like, "Oh
boy, not this again." So there's a difference. So, you want to be the person that wherever
you go, life follows you, that life comes up from the dead, that anywhere you go and
whatever, it's a classroom or it's in the inner cities like our brother over here. Wherever you go, you bring dead things to
life because that's the Christ inside of you. >> D. BENHAM: Let me wrap a little - >> NASSER: Resurrection power. >> D. BENHAM: Let me get some theology for
our brother back here in case you're going to challenge us Scripturally after it's all
over with. The Bible says in John chapter 7, "He who
has the Holy Spirit out of his belly will flow rivers of living water." Cross that over to Ezekiel chapter 47, where
the prophet Ezekiel saw the water flowing out from the temple, not in. Generally we come to services and we come
to church and we always want in, but God wants it out, and it said that trees were along
its bank rich with fruit. You ever see a tree eat its own fruit? No. Trees produce fruit for others, so it's always
out. You're like, "Yeah, I lived in Iran." >> J. BENHAM: You're weird. >> D. BENHAM: He lived in Iran, he's seen
everything. >> NASSER: We don't have, like, cannibal trees,
bro. Like - >> D. BENHAM: That's the point! That's the point of the Scripture. Then it says that men are fishing out of the
river and where the water goes the salty areas become fresh. Wherever you go, the salty areas should become
fresh, and that was what was exciting when HG came to us. They said, "It's really refreshing to have
you guys" Now of course they had already met our families and our wives and they, you know,
they said, "It's really refreshing." And so we said, "That's just part of the breathe
life principle that we've been living for years." >> NASSER: So can I just go back to the breathe
life principle there? I noticed you bring your Bible up. I notice when you talk about these principles,
you keep grounding them in Scripture. I noticed that you're telling us that one
of the foundational things that this school gave you was just a biblical grounding where
you aren't emotionally driven or circumstantially driven, you're biblically centered, you're
Christ-centered, you thought beyond the moment. That's applying in your marriage; that's applying
to when the test comes, all of those different things. And so, not everybody here's going to get
an HGTV TV offer. I mean, you know, a reality show offer. How is this - what are some handles on how
some of the things that God is doing in your life through your life can apply? Is there a challenge that you would give to
our students in whatever they - because at the end of the day, I think what we see in
you guys is that the hunch was right. If you raise up a child in the way that it
should go hoping that it will not depart from it. And so you get it ready for the day when that
day does come, cause it's never "if" but "when." And so I think what we saw is that you were
not wiling to give up your convictions, you were not willing to give up your personal,
you know, pillars of just what you're founded in based on whether it was going to be popular
or not, based on the vote or based on a conversation with somebody who's going to go, "I can shut
down a TV show." And so, people wonder if you're going to be
legit until the moment comes when it comes to a test. People wonder if all these are just Bible
verses and Chris Tomlin songs until the cancer shows up, until the moment of test shows up. So what is that take away for us in that for
our students? What is the challenge that you would say? >> D. BENHAM: Okay, I just want to challenge
you very quickly on something as Jason and I, we were 18, we committed to reading through
the Scriptures every single year, and one of the stories that continually came back
to my brother and I during this whole situation was the story of Daniel. And you look at Daniel, and it said, okay,
so here's Daniel, he's a Jew, and he lives in Jerusalem yet he's deported over to Babylon,
like the most pagan culture you can imagine. Yet it was excellent. And the king noticed him, along with his buddies,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Daniel, it says in Daniel chapter 1, that he purposed
in his heart. Another translation says that he made up his
mind not to defile himself with the king's food. There's something right now at the age. Now Daniel was a young man, more than likely
he was around your age, but he made up his mind, he purposed in his heart, that he was
not going to be defiled by the Babylonian culture. He knew he was a Jew and a man of God. "I made up my mind," Daniel says. He purposed in his heart. So right now, you can purpose in your heart. Twenty years ago we purposed in our hearts,
"We are not going to defile ourselves with the culture." Now, Daniel did something else and you'll
see what happened. When you purpose in your heart, what happened
to Daniel's life? It says multiple times, "the favor of the
Lord was upon him. The favor of the Lord was upon him." And he began to be elevated in a pagan culture. And so God we've began to see is the - began
to just shine His favor on our business and favor on our lives we had purposed in our
heart. But there will come a time when your convictions
and your conscious will conflict with the culture. Now it says in the Scripture that Daniel,
after having interpreted a couple of dreams, now he's one of the top guys. Now there's a new king, Darius, and the King
Darius had a bunch of his boys, his minions, we'll just call them politicians, and all
the politicians get together and they have one target: Daniel. Why? Because Daniel represented something that
they hated, that they could not handle. And so they couldn't deal with Daniel's ways,
you remember? It says they couldn't find anything about
him, and that's what we said to Bill Mahr and the others on HBO, "You can't handle our
ways. You can't talk about our company; you can't
talk about the momentum that God has given us. You can't stop what the Holy Spirit puts in
motion, but you can deal with the words of our mouths. And so what did they do? They created an ordinance and an injunction
that basically said you can only pray to the king. Now, Daniel had a choice. What's he supposed to do? Now all of a sudden, here's the culture hot
button, here's the cultural moment. Everyone's bowing, what are you going to do? Daniel said - Daniel goes up into his room. You remember what he did? He opens the doors to Jerusalem where his
windows were already open, and he knelt to pray. The Bible says he read the edict first, then
he went up, and here's the point, "and he prayed as was his custom." He didn't change. We tell people when HG fired us we didn't
change. We had built in disciplines into our lives. You know what? We purposed in our hearts when we were eighteen
to read through the Scripture, and as we read through the Scripture we began to order our
lives according to this book and build customs or build disciplines. Guess what happens? When you begin to build customs according
to God, those customs will conflict with culture. So what are you supposed to do when you know
you're going to get thrown into a lion's den? Open up the windows and say, "What up? I'm not changing." And so, that's the challenge, is that - is
right now, the take away today, purpose in your heart. You need to purpose in your heart. "Choose you this day who you will serve." You cannot serve God and man. Right now this gospel, small "g," is an irrelevant
gospel, it's not applicable to culture in the least, it's just a happy go-lucky gospel. Now, we find joy in the Lord and that's our
strength, but today is the day for you to purpose in your heart and to choose who you're
going to serve because guess what? It will come in conflict with the culture. >> J. BENHAM: Okay, because you guys are at
the custom building stage in your life, this is why I said right from the get-go when we
got here we made the commitment to get through the Bible. Because it is a - we start so many of our
little talks when we go to the places where there's all the media and we tell them, "Hey,
I got a really good sound bite for you. You guys want to go ahead and get your pens
out and you can start writing it ‘cause there's so much media there. And I say, "It's a fun thing to follow Jesus,"
and then the Christians are like, "Yeah! Yeah, it's a fun thing to follow Jesus." And then we say, "Until you find out where
He's going. Because He's going to a cross, and He's bidding
you to follow Him. And so when God takes you to that cross and
every day you're bearing that cross on your back, you need customs in your life and your
need purpose in your life. And I want to tell you guys, this is what
David and I want to leave you with and I'm going to actually ask you to make a commitment,
that every single person in this room ought not make a commitment to read through this
book every year of your life until the day you die. The reason why, look, I don't understand everything
about the Bible - >> D. BENHAM: You said, "ought not." You mean, "ought." >> J. BENHAM: Did I say, "Ought not?" >> D. BENHAM: You did. You mean, "Ought to make a commitment." >> J. BENHAM: Ought to make a commitment. Why didn't you interrupt me? >> NASSER: I'm just - >> J. BENHAM: I thought for sure you'd interrupt
me. >> NASSER: I feel like the triplet. >> J. BENHAM: You are our brother from another
mother. >> D. BENHAM: You know, that's probably the
best compliment we've ever been given. >> NASSER: Why can't we all just get along? >> J. BENHAM: Man crush. >> NASSER: But we ought, we ought - ? >> J. BENHAM: We ought to make that commitment. Now listen, here's the thing: you don't have
to worry if you don't understand the Scripture, okay. Don't worry about that. I don't understand how a black cow can eat
green grass under a blue sky and produce white milk, but I am not putting water in my Lucky
Charms. So they have Lucky Charms in the Rot? >> NASSER: In Iraq? >> J. BENHAM: In the Rot? >> NASSER: Yeah, they do. >> J. BENHAM: They have that? Okay. Hey, by the way, Dorm 22, where's dorm 22? Represent! I told you it was 113! You thought it was over there. >> D. BENHAM: We sat in 108 at one time. >> J. BENHAM: We're Dorm 22. >> D. BENHAM: All right, get focused. >> J. BENHAM: Sorry about that. That was another squirrel moment. >> NASSER: We ought - >> J. BENHAM: I apologize. >> NASSER: Not - >> J. BENHAM: We ought to - >> NASSER: We ought to challenge us to - >> J. BENHAM: Get into the Word every single
day. Now listen, okay. Who's going to do that? Who's going to make that commitment today? To get into the Scripture because when the
poop hit the fan for us, I want to tell you, what came out of us was what was out into
us right here. I literally got off of Megyn Kelly's show
and I'm like, "I don't even know what I said," and I looked back and I was like, "That actually
made sense." It was the Holy Spirit doing all the work. So if you're going to make that commitment
today, I want you to stand up. If you're going to make a commitment or you
have already made the commitment to read through the Bible every single day, I want you to
stand up. Okay, now I'm going to take a picture and
I'm going to tweet it so that you guys know who's standing. Hey, you tweet a picture real quick. Take a picture and tweet it. Okay, see I'm seeing this. Okay, if you're sitting down, I'm not mad
at you or anything. This is awesome. But - this is great. Okay. You're going to have to close us out. >> D. BENHAM: I got it. >> J. BENHAM: You're going to close us. But let's get this picture. By the way, this is the iPhone 6, ladies and
gentlemen, and it is not bent. It is not bent. Okay, you finish this up. >> NASSER: While they're standing, our students
are standing, hopefully, I just want us to make sure that we take this serious. First of all, God's not going to give you
a big syringe full of "I want to read my Bible" serum. You will not be able to - what you just stood
for, you will not be able to do it every day. There's going to be a morning you're going
to wake up and you're going to wake up because the phone rang at three in the morning, and
you're not going to be able to go, "Well, I got to read my Bible, I got to get in Leviticus
before I get in there and go see my best friend in the hospital" or "go bail him out of jail." But this is not about dogmatic, this is not
about legalistic commitment, this is about becoming someone who says, "I've hidden the
Word of God in my heart so that I will not sin against Him. I'm going to become a student of God's Word." And that's what these brothers are saying. So I want to make sure that we take this seriously,
that we don't just take God's Name in vain, we don't make a promise because the guy beside
us stood up, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, desperate that God would give us this as the
trend of our lives, the trajectory of our lives, man would you bless and pray over this. >> D. BENHAM: I will. I'm going to read a Scripture as we close
and then I'm going to pray. But, remember this moment, and Daniel was
serious, even in the face of the lion's den, and his buddies, even in the face of the fiery
furnace. Twenty years ago, it was all going to be baseball
and business for my brother and I. We had no idea what the culture was going
to look like twenty years later. I'm telling you guys, if you're making this
commitment, be ready to pick up your cross in this nation. Be ready to pick it up. But I want to give you some encouragement. We know that this was a blood moon this morning,
and God is in charge of the moon and the stars and the sun and I just want to read something
out of Luke chapter 21 verse 35 through 28: "There will be signs in the sun and moon and
stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and
the waves. Men fainting from fear and the expectations
of the things which are coming upon the world for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in
a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place,
straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." Let's straighten up, let's lift up our heads,
because our redemption draws near. These are great times for an awakening in
this nation and I pray it in Jesus' Name. Lord, thank You for these kids, thank You
for Liberty University, thank You Lord Jesus for the leaders and the champions for Christ
that have come out of this school that are now piercing the structures of culture. Lord, I pray for entertainers, I pray for
those in the media, I pray for those to go into the government, Lord I pray for those
in the arts, I pray for those in the judicial system, Lord, I pray for marketplace leaders
and athletes, I pray for pastors and church leaders, I pray Lord Jesus that out of this
building that these students would purpose in their heart today not to defile themselves
with the culture. I pray, Lord, that they would build customs
into their lives and if those customs come in conflict with the culture, they would stand
strong no matter what. Lord, we love you, we bless You, Jesus we
confess that you are King. There is no other God but You. Bless each and every student here as they
leave for Fall Break. Lord, let them go home with a rejuvenated
spirit and a renewed thirst and hunger for you. In Jesus' mighty Name we pray, amen. >> NASSER: Amen.
