Happening Now with Ruslan KD

We have uh a young man with us this evening that is making major, major uh influential impact in the lives of young people today. Uh, he has a tremendous podcast. He is a rapper. He, you can listen to his music on Spotify and on Apple Music and other areas. Uh, God has led his life through a path where I want you to pay close attention tonight because in this young man's life, he's lived almost a couple of life spans uh with experience from hurt, from pain to conversion to victory. Um, and I just love him. I met him. I forget how it hasn't been all that long ago, but I, I was honored that he would ask me to be on his show. And uh, that, that happened. That became a, a side note to me. I wound up falling in love with his heart. And um, he loves the word of God. He loves the reality of the word of God. And um, I love what he's doing tonight. And I'll remind you when it's over, make sure that you take his book and his merchandise home with you tonight. Uh, I'll, I'll say this, he won't say this. Uh, he's got a beautiful young wife and he's got three beautiful young kids and um, I want him blessed. But I'm telling you, Godly Ambition is his latest uh book that has just come out and you guys, it just hit USA Today bestseller list. So that is fantastic. Give a warm welcome to Reland.

Thank you so much, Jack. Thank you. All right. So, we're going to dive into this. Before we get going, we're going to throw up some uh scripture >> and um, and you've got some scripture to share as well, but I wanted to make sure that we went to this tonight. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 20. "Oh, Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings." How did Paul know about the internet? "And oppositions of science falsely so-called." Tremendous statement. Think about that for a moment. Next verse, 1 Peter 3:15. "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that askketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."

Father God, we pray that tonight, those that are here, those that are watching right now, Father, that people would just uh be drawn around either their computer screen or the TV screen, real life network, whatever, however they're watching this and for those that are here right now, that what we discuss, what is shared would be so transformative. So, Holy Spirit, you are so invited to take control of this night, to take the word of God and embed it in our hearts and cause it to be, Lord, wrapped around our feet and our hands as we would go about to serve you. And all that begins with the fear of the Lord. So, Father, may we understand your will for our lives and bless our our time of dialogue. May you convert it, Father, into a message well preached into the hearts of many that are listening tonight. We invite you, Lord, in Jesus name. And all God's people said, >> "Amen."

>> Amen. Amen. >> Well, you guys listen, uh, Rousin has, as I said earlier, u has had a lot of achievements that are working in his life and inspiring other people. And uh, the reason why we have uh our youth in here tonight is to make sure that that kind of rubs off on them as well. But um, I don't want to embarrass him, but to God be the glory. Though he be a young man, he's got wisdom beyond his years because of what he's experienced. And so um, listen, let's dive into this, but I'd love for you to share uh what you were sharing with me back.

>> Yeah. >> We were we were talking about Thessalonians. Yes. And we're just we're just going to jump right into the deep end uh with the scriptures. Uh, church church in Thessalonica has an opportunity to be a blessing to the Macedonians. Yes. >> And the Macedonians are are going through it. They're under famine. They're struggling. And the church on Thessalonica has an opportunity to be a blessing to another church that's struggling. And so Paul is writing them in First Thessalonians. And he's encouraging them. Hey, you you can be a blessing to this other church that's in the middle of a famine. And he writes to them. He says uh verse 9, 1 Thessalonians 4:9, he says, "Now about your love for one another. We do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God's people throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more." He needs he needs them to step it up. And then he says, "And make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. You should mind your own business, work with your own hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anyone."

>> So, he's encouraging them to to to step it up. And it's because they're struggling. There's persecution. Uh, they're asking when Jesus is going to come back. They heard a prophet on TikTok say it was happening next Thursday. They're freaking out. And Paul is like, "Listen, you've become so heavenly minded, you're of no earthly good." Meanwhile, the Macedonians can really use your help right now. Later on in second Thessalonians, he has to say this again to them. It's like it's like he keeps having to draw the uh 2 Thessalonians 3:6. He tells them, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you receive from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day laboring and toiling so that we did not have a burden uh we did not have to burden any of you. We did this not because we did not have a right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate." So they're saying, "Hey, when we were with you, we though we had every right for you to care for us as ministers and apostles, we didn't do that. We worked we worked ourselves." And he says, "We do this so you would imitate us." And then this is verse 10. Uh, for even when we were with you, we gave you this rule. The one who is unwilling to eat, excuse me, the one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.

>> Remarkable. What a interesting time where you have one church with the capacity to bless a church in a different part of the world, yet they're so hyperdistracted by all the hysteria of what's happening around them that Paul has to keep reminding them in two books. >> I need you to focus. I need you to step it up. If you're not going to work, you ought not eat. And I think if we examine the landscape of where we are today in America with such abundance, such prosperity, such opportunity to be a blessing to other churches, to other Christians. Uh, what an immense privilege we have today to be the hands and feet of Jesus to folks that perhaps need our help. And instead of stepping into that, often we allow ourselves to be distracted. We allow ourselves to be to grow hysterical. We allow whatever late is fat or if Alex Jones is talking about turning the frogs gay or whatever. Am I allowed to say that? >> Not these frogs. >> We allow ourselves to be distracted. Meanwhile, there's never been a time like this ever to communicate God's news through these devices that we all carry in our phones to help people who may not be able to help themselves. And I think young people are are looking for that push. They're seeing that this is a unique time and place for us to actually be the hands and feet of Jesus.

>> This is awesome because what he's saying, what you're saying is that um, everyone that God has created has a purpose, has a meaning. Amen. Of course, the that in path begins with Jesus, knowing Christ personally. Uh, but for those of you who are here right now, those of you that are watching right now, if you if you uh profess Christ, then you've got to also come to the understanding of that of those passages you read a moment ago where then the God's got a plan for your life. And we're going to get into some of the backstory of his life. Uh, but let's set it up this way that your life is to have meaning and to have purpose. And God wants you to succeed in what you are called to do by God so that you're a blessing to others. Right? So think about that with what he just read. 2,000-y old documents here and just a short several paragraphs blows up >> the the trend in America to embrace socialism, >> to embrace um a way of living that let's just let's let's have all things in common. Isn't that a biblical statement? Well, listen. uh to have all things in common uh is found in the Jerusalem church. And that same church, by the way, wound up going absolutely belly up and needed support and help uh from other churches because they wound up doing church in a in a socialistic manner rather than the way that God had dictated us in the word of God. And that is for each of us to be busy with our own hands so that we can bless others. And in this case, even those as far away as in Macedonia, uh, which today a lot of young people are being told, "No, no, no. It it private ownership is bad." Uh, you you working, standing out, being being an example, that's bad. You need to just blend in and be monotone and all these things. Uh, a lot of people have been put down regarding their uh call that God has placed upon their lives. God has made you uh to achieve and to perform great things for his kingdom. And I say that now to take this time to have Jerusalem introduce his life to you because as I told you guys recently, things like church hurt. I'm not denying church hurt. I'm not denying that we have been maligned or abused by people in life. I'm not denying any of that. What I'm saying is how long are we going to let that be our excuse for why we can't live a victorious, dynamic Christian life?

>> Yeah. >> We need to understand that God, the power of the Holy Spirit is greater than anything that's happened to you and I in our past. And so with that said, >> I want you to learn about this young man's life and what God has brought him through. So go all the way back. You are you were you immigrated.

>> Yeah. Yeah. So I'm ethnically Armenian. My mother is uh adopted by an Armenian family. My dad is fully Armenian. Armenia is one of the oldest Christian nations in the world going, you know, thousands of years back. And Armenia is nestled in between Turkey, Azarbajan, and just uh south is Iran. It's a very peaceful part of the world. He's joking.

>> And so there's a community of people in Armenia that were living in Baku, which is the Muslim country just to the east of Armenia. And we live there amongst folks our entire life, uh, without any issues. But then in the late 80s, there began persecution and there began uh something called the pilgrims of Baku. Now all of this is under the backdrop of the former Soviet Union. Anybody remember the former Soviet Union?

>> Absolutely. >> What kind of system of government did the former Soviet Union have?

>> Communism. Communism. >> I'm not talking about that we tried to freeze the rent and then quit after it got too hard. >> Type of communism. I'm talking real communism. I'm talking I remember as a kid lining up to get boxes of food and that was all that we had rationed to us.

>> Right. >> At one point I remember the water shortage and we would get a tub of water to share as a family for weeks. My mother and my dad didn't get to pick what they did for work. Like real communism. The government controlled the means of capital. And on the backdrop of all of this, there ended up being half a million Armenians that were ethnically cleansed from Baku, uh, this Muslim nation. Um, and we ended up coming to the United States as refugees. We applied for asylum status in, uh, Australia, Israel, and America. And weirdly enough, America was the first place that accepted us was the last place that we applied for. And so, we come to the United States. I don't know anything about the culture. I don't know anything about the language. I don't know anything. All I knew was American Ninja. You guys remember that movie? My brother right there remembers American Ninja and Michael Jackson. Clap for Michael. You know, my buddy Rodney Jerkens uh shared the gospel with Michael Jackson. And there's been multiple documented people saying he gave his life to Jesus multiple times, but particularly two weeks before he passed.

>> Would that be awesome? >> Yeah. Fun fact. I think Michael's in heaven. I hope that's true.

>> So that's all I had is like the king of pop in this cringy ninja movie that was very weird. And I I come to America, I don't know anything. Right after coming to America, my mom and my dad already had a tumultuous marriage. They're already struggling. They end up splitting a couple months after. Uh, my dad remarries and my mom goes down a dark spiral of alcoholism. Uh, a very toxic taste in men. She's walking with Jesus now, thank God. Uh, but at the time it was really rough uh as a kid to see, you know, my dad get in fist fights with boyfriends and uh, and her telling him not to come see me anymore. And this is all under the backdrop of '90s gangster rap.

>> And this is happening where?

>> San Diego, California.

>> San Diego.

>> Yeah. Yeah. And this San Diego is a very different time in the early 90s. Let me just tell you, it just wasn't all peaches and sunshine. It was it was different. And you got my soundtrack to my life is is Dr. Dre's The Chronic, Snoop Doggy Doggystyle. And I'm this white Armenian kid in a predominantly black neighborhood. I'm confused. My dad's not in my life. And the beautiful part is there's this Armenian Apostolic Church, a part of the Oriental Orthodox Church. And back in the Soviet Union, there was no God. There was we didn't talk about God. We didn't go to church. I don't I I may maybe vaguely remember hearing about God once or twice in my lifetime.

>> That he was dead.

>> That that he was dead and and that's it. And so we start going to this Armenian uh Orthodox church. It's beautiful. There's art. There's the smells and bells as they say, the candles. And uh, I remember becoming baptized. I remember getting baptized. It was like a big deal. I remember becoming an altar boy. and uh, that that entire thing of you know, helping with the service and and it's like, okay, this is interesting, right? And then sometimes they would have the the communion leftover wine and because they thought it was really the blood of Jesus, you might know where I'm going with this pastor Jack.

>> They let the young altar boys finish up the wine because they couldn't pour the wine down the.

>> Wow.

>> Yeah. I like being an altar boy.

>> Free wine.

>> Free wine. So, long story short, what happens is that I'm about seven or eight at this point. There's some older altar boys. They're like 13, 14, and I end up getting repeatedly sexually assaulted by these altar boys. Uh, multiple times. It started with showing uh gay film and then doing the acts on me repeatedly.

>> Uh, multiple times. And then somehow when this all comes out, it's spun in a way to make me look like the aggressor even though I was the young kid.

>> Um,

>> So you're the aggressor against that are twice your age.

>> Yeah. That I was encourage I was I was initiating this. I was encouraging this. I was apparently somehow had these ex ex ex-rated tapes and the entire thing was and it became this like schismatic moment in our community where everybody was confused and upset. My dad and my mom, we were all uh very upset by this. But it was the way the church uh didn't do anything and they didn't handle it at all and they didn't talk about any of this stuff. Uh, there was no consequences for these boys. Uh, and I was kind of like ostracized. At the same time, my dad remarries uh which my mom claims, you know, how could they remarry him? Technically, they were not divorced. I don't know the particulars. So, she's mad at the church for that. And then maybe a year or two later, me being into gangster rap, I thought it'd be cool to get my ear pierced. So, I get my ear pierced and I show up to church and the higher, the the priest sits me down and scolds me for about 30 minutes reading Leviticus to me about my ear piercing.

>> While the other stuff's going on.

>> While the other stuff is going on and there's no. And I'm and I'm just like, man, where are the just scales?

>> Exactly.

>> So, it was at that point I was like, man, there there there is no God and if there is a God, I want nothing to do with this God. That's right.

>> Or he wants nothing to do with me. So, I had to have been at this point walking around as the youngest atheist alive. Uh, just flat out hostile to God, telling people I there there is no God. I'm an atheist, man. So, you are carrying that. I'm going to assume that that I mean, I know that leaves a mark. So, that's going to show up in other ways. So, you start conducting yourself. How?

>> Yeah. I mean, smoking weed at like 10 or 11, alcohol. I I'm I'm hypersexualized at this point. So then I started being intimate with girls, two different girls in the neighborhood.

>> Um, that and it's and it's really weird to say this stuff now because my son is my age when all this was happening.

>> And I see the innocence.

>> Yep.

>> In his, you know, prepubescent body. Like he doesn't get any of this. And I, you know, am I'm am living this in real time. And just confused. I uh, I joined a gang. It wasn't really a gang. We just decided to have a little gang. Me, the Armenian kids, and this older this other dude, and we all like gathered in a circle and jumped ourselves in. It's really bad. Then our gang leader goes to jail.

>> Well, that's bad.

>> Yeah.

>> So, that's worthy of being bad.

>> Yep. Yep. Our gang I So, I'm doing tagging and graffiti art. Uh, my our gang leader goes to jail and we get the bright idea that in order to bail him out, we're going to break into this other guy's house to get the bail money.

>> That's bad.

>> It was really bad. We didn't think this through very well.

>> The guy who lived next door to the house we were breaking into just so happened to be a undercover police officer or off off duty police.

>> That's really bad. And so here I am climbing through a bathroom window cuz I was the smallest one waist deep. And our lookout I just hear just the most screeching scream. He is on the ground and the offduty police officer has him in one of those UFC arm bars.

>> Yes.

>> And so he ends up telling us to, you know, get out of the window, get on the effing ground. The police get called. I get put in the back of a police car, handcuffed, taken to the police station. Uh, my mom finds out. She didn't know I was breaking into home. She didn't know any of this sort of stuff. And it's like my entire life starts to unravel at at a very young age.

>> And so no God,

>> no God,

>> no dad any longer, right? You're on your own basically.

>> He would come around maybe once a year for my birthday. Yeah. But

>> but you're you're believing if there is a God, uh, he doesn't want me. There's no way.

>> Yeah.

>> Because there would have been some sort of favor or kindness thrown my way. Yeah, I think I was dealing with the problem that many of us deal with, which is like the the problem of evil. Like if there's a good God, why did he why does he allow evil in the world? Why is he allowing evil to happen to me?

>> And I didn't I didn't know how to reconcile that. Um, at the time, the same window of time, our apartment manager, our first American friends, her name is Sheree Jackson. Uh, she when I'm going to uh like she would take me and her son Steven to like the Dr. Dre, Snoop concert. Like we have to have been the two smallest kids in there, right? Um, she ends up getting caught up in some street stuff, basically trying to transport drugs through an airport, which was really stupid. I don't know why she did that.

>> Gets arrested herself, goes to jail for like a year, and then gets radically converted in jail.

>> Sheree comes out and starts evangelizing our entire apartment complex. Everyone except the two Armenian families get saved. Everyone, my next door neighbors, Charlie and Willie, uh, we're over there watching the This is back then when uh Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield fight. You guys remember that? Holyfield would come out to the Fred Hammond gospel music.

>> So now I have all these people and they're sharing the gospel with me and they're telling me about this Jesus and I'm just like, you guys are you guys are crazy. Like there is no God and if there is a God, he wants nothing to do with me. Well, I had to get community service hours done to uh meet my requirements for my probation. I waited till the last minute. The only way I can do them is if I went to their church and clean toilets or whatever. And so I get this weekend with Charlie and Willie. And they I mean they're just drilling it into me like, listen, like you're a mess, but like Jesus loves you.

>> He accepts you right where you're at, but he wants so much better for you. Yes.

>> And it was this sweet grace and truth that they presented to me. You know, John chapter 1, it talks about Jesus coming full of grace and truth. And it was really exemplified to me by by these two dudes that like I really had nothing in common with. They were in their 30s or 40s and they are kind of becoming these father figures to me. And I even remember them saying stuff like, "Man, you know what? One day you're going to do great things for the Lord." And I was like, "You guys are insane. One day you're going to reach millions for Jesus." I'm like, "You guys are wild. This is no way." And so, so I'm getting these seeds planted. I'm still hostile. Um, my mother sees the trajectory I'm going on. She relocates us to Vista, California,

>> which is like suburban. It's it's very slow. And all of a sudden, God's just sending Christians into my life. And at this point, I'm repulsed by Christians. I don't I think they're corny. I think they're insufferable. I don't want anything to do with Christians. They always want to tell me about this Jesus. All right, I've heard it. Um, but I I end up meeting this girl the end of my freshman year. And the only way I could see her over the summer is if I went to church with her and her family on Sundays.

>> God always has a way of.

>> It's always a girl, right? It's always a girl. So I'm like, fine. So I start going to a church in Oceanside, California, and I start hearing about this gospel. I start hearing about this Jesus over and over. Now, some of you guys, you have the date when you get put your hand up and you said the prayer. You have that written in your Bible. It was 2 years of me kicking and screaming coming to the Lord and God just kept sending people. Me and the girl break up. I start dating a Jehovah's Witness girl.

>> You You really? So, I'm I'm like super confused. Is Jesus God or is he the son of God? Is he God eternal? Is I'm just confused. And again, God just keeps sending people to me. My manager at Pizza Hut. I was working at Pizza Hut, which by the way, still the best pizza. Someone said, "Amen." My manager at Pizza Hut, her name's Barb. She starts sharing Jesus with me. Uh, and she's correcting all my heretical Arian views, right? Like, you're wrong. Then the delivery driver, our lead delivery driver, he he's sharing Jesus with me. One day we're in the back and I'm rolling the dough and they're like really driving home the point. They're like, "No, no, Jesus is God." Like, "You're confused. It's okay." And they gave me this textbook. This had to been this thick. And it was it was uh Josh McDowell's The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict.

>> It's bigger than the Bible.

>> It's bigger than the Bible. And so I end up taking home this book and I read it and I devour this book. And it was at that point I'm like, "All right, this this Jesus is God Almighty. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. All things are created through him and for him.

>> Amen.

>> He is Yahweh. He just made it so clear to me. I end up giving my first public profession of faith.

>> Uh, in the summer July 4th, 2022. Excuse me, July 4th, 2002 at the Miles Ahead Crusade hosted by Miles McPherson.

>> At the San Diego Sports Arena. Some of you guys remember Pastor Miles. I'm still friends with Pastor Miles now. You guys can clap for that. Big props to Pastor Miles. Um, and it was it was weird because it was it was this heart change that Ezekiel talks about where I'll take your heart of stone and I'll give you a heart of flesh.

>> And it was as if all the sin I used to love, all the sexual immorality, all the ego, all those things, all of a sudden I I couldn't practice those things anymore and not hate the way they made me feel. And then all the things I used to hate. Church, the weird Christians, the Bible, CCM worship songs. All of a sudden, those were the things I was gravitated towards.

>> And it was it was like a switch went off. And I and I I couldn't even explain it, but but this what the scriptures talk about being born again. Um, I had new heart, new desires, and my life started changing. I I got into a local church. I said, "I'm not just going to do this once a week thing anymore. I'm going to connect into a small group. I'm going to get discipled. I'm I'm going to serve." Uh, my goodness, serving in my local church did so much more for a kid like me.

>> Can you say that louder?

>> Yes. Serving in a local church did so much more for a kid like me than I could do for the local church. Why?

>> I mean, why why is that important?

>> Yeah. Well, it's it's important because if you're if you're struggling and you're going through stuff, one of the best things you could do is take the attention off of yourself.

>> That's right.

>> Like, I needed to get out of my own head.

>> Because I was the main character of the story. Anybody know anybody that has main character syndrome? They just think that they're, you know, their life is one big movie and you're an extra in their life. If you're not laughing right now, it's cuz you got main character syndrome. I had main character syndrome. I'm struggling. I'm dealing. I still got the remnants of sin that I'm trying to wage war on. I feel like Paul in Romans 7. The things I do, I don't want to do, but the things I want to do, I can't. And one of the best things I could do is one, just take the attention off of myself. Let me let me not make it all about me. Let me serve and do things that are not about me. And that was very, very, very healthy. It was, it also allowed me to learn stuff that as a young man without a father, I didn't get access to learn stuff. I didn't get access to older godly men. I I all of a sudden I'm starting to learn the soundboard and I'm learning about cameras and technology and all these things that I mean I'm a I'm a 18-year-old kid like without a dad arrested at the age. No one was going to let me touch any of this equipment and any of the content.

>> Sure.

>> And here I am getting to be hands-on and learn stuff. Uh, the the the community aspect. And so I'm I'm a big proponent of not just the local church, but like stepping into a local church because the local church did way more for me than I ever could do for the local church.

>> Now, this is huge because God did such a great work at this time of your life where you had gone from being abused in a local church.

>> To now finding community life, meaning Christ, and the and discovering that there's a purpose for your life.

>> Yep. Yep. Yeah. And that was, you know, to know that there's a God that the creator of the universe valued me so much that he was willing to step into human history and live the life I couldn't live and die the death I should have died on the cross in my place for my sins and and then not just saving me for heaven because I think that's how a lot of us it's like, man, cool, like I got my health insurance if the prophet on TikTok is right, I'm good, right? And it's like, no, no, no. He he he then said, "Okay, now I'm going to equip you to do the work of the ministry and usher in a a piece of his kingdom on earth."

>> And I get to participate in his story. I don't have to be the the the lead of my own mediocre story. I get to step into Jesus's story and the redemptive work that Jesus is doing in humanity right now, ushering in goodness and beauty.

>> That's awesome. Absolutely awesome. So we all live in this culture. The young people are held captive by this culture. But they're the fact that this device has this strange.

>> I mean, I don't want to say demonic power, but it it could.

>> Magnetic hold.

>> That's a good word. Magnetic hold where all of a sudden you've got to make your own life story all the time. The fixation of self. Um, you're you're getting pulled out of yourself, investing in the lives of others, finding out that there's a meaning to life. I think that's the description of Jesus saying, "If you want to save your life, you're going to lose it. If you give up your life, you're going to find it."

>> Yep.

>> So so true. So now now fast forward um, you at some point in time your music, how did your music career come around?

>> Yeah. Let well, let me just piggyback that verse because this is a fun fact. Uh, he who wants to you know, gain his life has to lose it. So that word life.

>> In the original Greek and you guys could all fact check me on this. That word life when Jesus says that actually is the word psyche.

>> And it's it's your mindset, your view, your your way of doing things, right? But then when Jesus in John 10:10 says, "I've come to give you life and life and the abundance." That word life is a different Greek word. It is actually the word Zoe, right? So the life that Jesus offers us is one of fullness, one of goodness, one of beauty. And the life that he says to lay down is one of our own paradigm and our own mindset and our own way of doing things. Lay down your way of thinking and your way of doing to get actual fullness of life that you can only find in Jesus. And so now that I know this, that I have this understanding that God has something more for me, that there's a fullness and an abundance he has for me. Uh, I was the kid that was on the basketball team and I would kind of freestyle around and then it turned into battle rapping around the campus. You guys, anybody remember 8 Mile? This is that era, right? And so I'm I'm doing the battle raps around the camp. It's it's it's super cringe and funny at the same time. Um, I'm doing talent shows. One year we were as a rap group, we won the Battle of the Bands, which was like a huge scandal because we didn't have any instruments. We just had tracks. And as I'm coming to Jesus, I'm like, "Okay, this part of my life has to be consecrated to the Lord. I can no longer make the music that that I would make before I was a Christian. I can't talk about the same things. This has to come under the lordship of Jesus." And I remember looking at the scriptures and I remember reading about Moses and and reading about Joshua and reading about David. And it was this interesting motif I kept seeing where it said that when when when Moses went to stand before Pharaoh, God told Moses, "Take this staff that's in your hand."

>> Right? When Joshua and the Israelites, they had just lost and were defeated at Ai. And then it says it took the the javelin when they were going to defeat Ai. And and Joshua holds out the javelin that was in his hand. Right? When David goes to fight Goliath, it says he took the slingshot that was in his hand. And so someone asked me, "Well, what's in your hand? What do you have that you could offer up to God?" And I was like, "Well, I guess I got this this this music thing, this rapping thing." And so I just started making CDs and selling them around and and it slowly became more and more consecrated. And you know, before I knew it, it was like, okay, like now I'm getting asked to come perform at places and we were we were performing at both churches and cuz at the time, I mean, Christian hip-hop wasn't so accepted within churches. So those shows didn't come very often, but then we would also go play secular colleges. And we we ended up making uh a life for ourselves playing secular colleges unapologetically as Christians. And uh, that that led me to eventually doing music full-time from 2015 to 2020. Uh, my wife got to stay at home and and I got to, you know, travel around the country playing colleges and sustaining myself as a as a full-time Christian hip-hop artist.

>> That's awesome.

>> You've been married for how long?

>> Uh, we've been together for 22 years. Married for 18. It'll be July 5th is our 18 year anniversary.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> Awesome.

>> I think she's the one.

>> She's the one. I think she's the one.

>> It's getting real serious. And the last time I was at your house, you there was a there was one uh.

>> Yeah, there was one in the oven.

>> Yeah, there was one in the oven. Yeah, Luke. That's right. Yeah. So, Levi's 11. Um, Zoe Grace is five, but she thinks she's about to turn 15.

>> Of course.

>> She thinks she's a grown-up. Uh, and then Luke, we just had baby Luke. Luke is seven months old. Yeah. And he's he's absolutely amazing. Share share with them something that um, the general population doesn't hear about. They probably think it's wrong,

>> but the dynamic with the the working mom or the stay-at-home mom, what you experienced,

>> you talked about.

>> I think you called it rice and beans. Lisa and I called it pork and beans.

>> Pork and beans. You guys have pork. We ain't have pork.

>> Okay. So, we were a little better off.

>> But what's beautiful about that is you um.

>> You know in Christ you don't realize that when you don't have anything, you don't realize that you don't have anything.

>> Yeah.

>> Because you're you're content.

>> Yeah.

>> And so Lisa and I can we afford now to go buy a steak? Yes. But if we can't, guess what we know? We know exactly. We know that we can have a great time on pork and beans.

>> But you're going to even take it further with rice and beans.

>> Yeah. Yeah. So I here's here's the meta point. Like I think contentment is the launch pad to abundance.

>> Absolutely.

>> I think you first got to learn to to to live very modestly and humbly. And when and when you can learn that lesson, I think that's where where the the advancement comes, right? Humility precedes honor in the scripture.

>> I got married and even though I'm following Jesus, we both come from broken families. We didn't have anyone to teach us about financial literacy. We we didn't understand anything about money. And we went into our marriage, me primarily, my wife was better than I was. And I had made every stupid decision there is to make with money. Like I was the kid that went and got the brand new car at 21 years old with zero miles on it because I needed a reliable vehicle. Right? Boom. Now I'm in debt with a car note. I went and took out as many student loans as I could. I had credit card after credit card right before the housing recession of 2008, couple three, four years before that, I co-signed on a condo for my mom that then when everything collapsed. She ended up allowing to go into foreclosure. I'm on the mortgage. The HOAs I'm on. She ends up not paying anything and then they sue me and then levy my accounts cuz I didn't show up to court to have my last name misspelled. And I was like, ha, that's not me. My last name is misspelled. They sue me.

>> First of all, come on.

>> Yeah.

>> How can somebody spell your name right.

>> Correctly?

>> His last name, you wouldn't believe me.

>> My last name is Karlanov. It's It's long.

>> You should see it.

>> Yeah.

>> You should just look at it.

>> So, so I the Lord's still working on me. I'm only four or five years into being a Christian. So, I'm like, "Ah, I'm not that's not me. I don't even live with her anymore. Shoot, you know." So, they sue me that it was it was it was $1,200 that went into collection that turned into $5,000. They sue me, levy our accounts, meaning we check our bank accounts and everything is gone. Thankfully, we had just paid our our rent. Praise God. My wife calls me. She's like, "Levied our account." I was like, "Levy, what does that even mean? Like, how did how do you how do they do that?" He's Jewish, right?

>> From the Levite. And u and then I go check my credit and and so I on my credit I discover that second mortgage for 60,000 that never fell off. That's still on my credit. So we were technically in debt $100,000 as newlyweds and absolutely scared and I thought I was going to have to file for bankruptcy. I was like, there's there's no way I'm going to be able to pay all this off. And then around the same time we discovered Dave Ramsey in the baby steps and we got on a budget. We got on rice and beans, beans and rice. We didn't go out to eat. Everything. We paid for our groceries with cash. We have the envelope system going.

>> We We snowball our debts. I mean, we locked in. We drank that Dave Ramsey Kool-Aid hardcore.

>> But here's the beautiful part. Within all of that,

>> listen to this.

>> Huh?

>> 18 months later, we were completely debt-free.

>> That's right.

>> Completely debt-free. And in that process, we learned how to decrease our overhead because now I don't have a student loan, uh, a credit card payment, a car note. We decreased our overhead to, you know, I think we could live off of $2,500 a month. Um, I said, "Okay, I didn't want to go and work at a church and be in ministry if I was in debt. I just had something just felt icky about that."

>> And so then I went into ministry for two years. We also saved six months of living expenses. And then as I'm working on uh in ministry, God's seemingly breathing all the music and I'm running the media. So I'm like running the video switcher, running all the cameras at my church. I'm doing the YouTube stuff. I'm doing the the chopping of video, doing all this. But then I'm like, man, God's breathing on a music. I can't be gone as much. So I remember calling my wife. We were we were coming home from South by Southwest in Austin. We had played this music festival in Austin, Texas called South by Southwest. I'm driving home. I remember calling my wife. She's a stay-at-home mom at this point. Uh, and I called her and I said, "Hey babe,

>> do you think we should start praying about possibly transitioning? I don't think I could keep doing this and working at the church. Like, it's just not right." And I remember my wife on the phone and it was I remember the vivid memory she said to me. She said, "There's nothing to pray about.

>> It's time for you to come home and put in your two weeks' notice." My stay-at-home wife, who had a six-month-old at the time, had more courage and faith in stepping out and pursuing the next chapter of being a full-time artist than I did at the time. And it's because we decreased our overhead. We are very practical. We had six months of living expenses. Right after I came home, I put in my two week notice. I went and got certified for Uber just in case it all hit the floor. Right? And you know, 2015, June 1st, stepped out in faith. I never had to drive for Uber and God's been sustaining us ever since.

>> Okay. But wait. Yeah. Yeah.

>> So, you're not in your mom's basement playing games in your underwear?

>> No. No. I do play video games with my 11-year-old, though. Sometimes in my underwear.

>> That's But that's But that's okay. But the my point that I'm making, you're getting it. My You didn't sit around waiting for things to happen. You got out there. You.

>> Like you said earlier, what you found in your hand.

>> You did.

>> Yes.

>> Young people today, you need to you need to know that. Don't sit there and think God's going to fly by in a cloud and drop something into your hands. You've got to show up to the battle and God will give you the victory.

>> Amen. Amen. Amen. I I think it was I it was the the Dave Ramsey stuff, the getting debt-free. Now I'm like building my confidence of like, man, we we conquered this mountain because Jesus helped us walk through this thing. We wouldn't have been able to do this on our own. And if we could do this, what else could we do? Right? And and and so what I started what I started understanding, and this is this is this is theological in a way. Um, we were talking about this in the back. You guys know the first heresy that crept into the church was the heresy of Gnosticism. And if you're reading like the the uh reading first John, uh, that's what first John and second John is railing against. This heresy of and the Gnostics were interesting because they didn't have an issue with Jesus being God. They had an issue with Jesus being man.

>> And of course, Jesus is fully God and fully man. And we are also spirit. We have we have a soul, but we're we're also flesh. And what I started discovering is that as a follower of Jesus, I have to integrate my spiritual life with my physical life.

>> That I don't get to compartmentalize my physical health for my spiritual health. I don't get to compartmentalize how I handle my finances from the God I claim I serve. If Jesus is Lord,

>> yes.

>> And if Jesus is king, that means the king has a kingdom and has a protocol and how I am to embody all things that I'm entrusted with. And so in that I I I I I started discovering that like I can't compartmentalize these things. I have to be a fully integrated.

person. And I think often what happens is in an information world where we have robust access to scripture and theology and sermons and podcasts, is that all of a sudden we start being so up here with this information. But if the information we're consuming is not causing transformation, if it's not causing implementation, what is the point? Then we're just becoming spiritually obese.

We're just consuming and consuming and consuming. And the scriptures say to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God working in you, giving you the power to obey him.

Yeah. Right. And so I said, "Okay, I I got to work these things out." And so a lot of young people, unfortunately, I think is like, "Man, we love learning stuff. We love hearing stuff and getting in. But if that's not causing you to love God more, obey Jesus more, love your neighbor more, be more faithful with what's in front of you, then then what what are we doing? We're just we're just becoming bloated with more stuff in our mind."

Yeah, I love that. Immediately what came to my mind is the first time I don't remember how many decades ago it was, but we were standing down at the Dead Sea in Israel and um I think well, I don't think Amir was our tour guide as he always is our tour guide, and Amir said, "You know what makes the Dead Sea dead is that it has no outlet."

The lifegiving waters of the Jordan River flow down into the Sea of Galilee, flows out of the Sea of Galilee. Everything about it, it's living and beautiful. And then it gets down in the Dead Sea. And the Dead Sea's got no outlet. And if it had an outlet, it would wind up being able to purify itself because the salinity of the Dead Sea, it's very salty, like the Sultan Sea. But if you were to cut a a river down at the southern end and get some activity going, it winds up purifying itself. But the Dead Sea is dead because it doesn't have an outlet. So many times, you said it so well, where we're taking in, taking in. I'm just going to go do another Bible study. Are you sure you should go? Because maybe you should put last week's sermon into action and go do what you learned before you take in another. You said, "Well, what are you are you telling are you suggesting we shouldn't go to church?" No, the opposite. I'm saying after you go to church, go do it. And you young people tonight, tonight, you need to know that when you hear a message, go do it. You should go to a sermon, you should arrive at church. All of us should arrive at church expecting God to speak to us individually.

When you show up at church on Sunday or Wednesday or wherever you go, God, speak to me. And when you speak to me, he's just not going to speak to you what to do to entertain you. No, he's going to speak to you intending for you to go do something about it. And when you do that, and like you said, with that in your hand, it's it's not going to be perfect. We're going to make mistakes. We all do. We all will. Don't let fear keep you from getting involved. But when you step out, that's when you see the power of God. So many people say, "I don't see the power of God happening." Well, what where are you and what are you involved in where the power of God is needed? Well, I'm not I'm waiting for the power of God to show up. Well, you have a long wait.

Yeah. You have a long wait. Yeah. I I I I think about it this way. I think many Christians are often chasing another revelation, another word, another spiritual high, another retreat, another deliverance service. They're they're just chasing something.

And my question would quite simply be, have you done the last thing God told you to do?

That's right. Have you implemented the because every single one of us knows, man, we we were hearing Pastor Jack preach on something and then boom, you know, you're supposed to do something. Have you done that thing before you go chasing and asking him to do another thing? I need another word. I need another revelation. I need another deliverance. I need another I need another conference. No. Have you done the last thing the Lord told you to do?

So good. That's a Let's Let's kind of hang around that for a moment where um scripture warns us, history backs this up where we've got the entire word of God, but we're still searching for something else.

When it's all here. Oh, God's just just give me a word. And there's, you know, what is it? I don't know, a couple million words in this book. Oh, God, just give me another word. And you can almost hear God say, "How many millions of words do you need?" But, but I need a revelation. I need a new thing. I need a new that there's a lot of that going on where something popped up on my phone just the other day and it was this guy talking about how you need to be delivered from the demon of gluttony. Now, I have not seen anywhere in my Bible a demon of gluttony.

There's gluttony in the Bible, and there are demons in the Bible, but I've not seen them working out of the same pastry shop or something. But what I do know is this. A lack of self-control will cause me to overeat.

Yep. That a demon doesn't have to be involved for that to happen. What you need to be delivered from that. I'm not doubting that there's demonic activity that attacks us with oppression or suppression.

Uh it's the enemy that will that will tempt us. But if I were to get delivered from the demon of Krispy Kreme and I come back next month and I need to be delivered from the demon of Krispy Kreme.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's bad theology all all the way around because I'm either saying that God's word is not powerful enough.

Or how I'm approaching the Bible is wrong.

I'm not walking I'm not applying that victory. I'm not I'm not doing that last thing I heard.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, a fun way to summarize that thought is you can't crucify a demon and you can't cast off the flesh. Your de a demon isn't something that you can crucify. You're supposed to crucify your flesh. We're called to crucify our flesh.

And so there are aspects of our flesh that every single one of us will deal with, but we are called to to to put those things to death, right? To put to death the

Crispy Kreme fleshly desire.

Exactly. Right.

And that is less of a moment and more of a process. And that is often being more integrated as a full human. The way Jesus was fully God and fully man stepping into the human story. We have to be fully integrated with our spirit and our body to say, "Hey, there are things that God is working on in my flesh that I need to constantly die to and wage war on my flesh so that my sin doesn't kill me." Not let me find a shortcut and if I could just get the right abracadabra said, maybe it'll just bypass all of the work I have to do. Yet there is work we have to do. We see that uh Ephesians 2:8-9 and 10, you know, for it is by grace uh you've been saved not of your own doing. And then the very verse 10, it says, "You are created as a workmanship in Christ Jesus to do good works which he prepared for you to do."

So we're saved by grace through faith to some work. We got some work to do.

Yeah. We got and that doesn't mean you work for God's love. It means you work from God's love. And I think the more the more we can be okay with, man, God has some work for us to do. And it's good for us. In the same way that my 11-year-old is starting to become a young man, it is good for him to work. Hey,

go out back and pull some weeds.

Yeah. Sweat. You know, pull some. It's good for Dad, I want to play. No,

go pull some weeds out. And I think sometimes God is telling us in our lives, go pull some weeds out.

You got to pull the weeds out. And then after you pull the weeds out, you got to plant some gardens. You got to plant something better. You got to replace the the the the the death and the sin with better things, more beautiful things, more nutrient things.

You mentioned something earlier on that we can come back to that ties into this, and that is when you were abused, it opened up a door in your life to pursue uh pornography. You were very young. And I want to touch on this because uh those who studied the mind, those who deal with uh post-traumatic events and those who have studied this the the sexual aberrant practices of of a culture. It's interesting where they've where they've landed on some things. A a child can be abused and that affects the child and the way the suket the sec the mind works. You we talk about gender dysphoria. Talk about gender confusion. What nobody's actually talking about but they they need to finish the sentence. The reason why there's gender confusion in our culture today is because there's some form of abuse that has happened or happening to that child. No one wants to talk about it.

Let me explain. It may be as benign as this. Your child's completely fine, but your child goes to school and your child hears in class from the teacher. Have you ever had a a thought? And the teacher offers the thought. This is for real, by the way. I'm telling you what parents have told me and what kids what kids have told me.

Where the school teacher says in the class, "Katy Perry sang a song, I kissed a girl and I liked it."

There's a lot of power behind that song of hers. The teacher says, "If you're a girl and if you've had a thought about kissing a girl like Katy Perry, that probably means you're a lesbian." So, the kid sits in class. Think about what's happening. The kid sits in class, hears that from an authoritative figure.

Satan is sitting right over here launching thoughts into that kid's head. The kid now concludes, "I'm either confused, I don't know what's up, this is strange to me." Goes home and tells mom and dad, "Oh, I found out that I'm this way." The parents come to church and they're crying because this is what their child has expressed. It can be as benign as that. Or listen to this. An abused child. The mind can't handle it. Winds up becoming extremely promiscuous and or um into homosexual relationships or the child is exposed to very graphic pornography. Did you know that psychologically a child exposed to imagery they have concluded it's just exactly the same effect as if the child had been molested physically?

That to say fast forward now. Don't think today. Don't think tonight that, well, I'm a Christian and I'm not saying you're not a Christian, but I guess I'm just going to have to live with this battle of pornography in my So if you're trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and you've been born again, I'm not denying that. But if you're settling for that lie of Satan where, oh, but this is an area that you're just going to have to that's your cross that you're going to have to bear. I want you to know that Satan that is Satan using scripture wrong against your life to keep you like Lazarus alive but bound up in grave cloths. Okay? So listen to this. There's only one way to defeat all these things and that is to love Jesus more than those things.

You say, "Well, how how do I do that?" Dive into his word more and find out more about him, Jesus. Because if you're here tonight or if you're watching right now and you're saying, "Well, I'm a Christian, but I got this I got this side hustle and that's that's this porn. It's not as bad as it used to be." Listen, that is a spiritual portal that has entrance into your life. And Satan has his way with you. What I'm asking of you, if that if that is you, you need to realize that Jesus Christ, his blood, his death, his resurrection is far more powerful than that.

And when you embrace the reality of who he is, he will give you a loathing, a hatred for that sin or whatever it might be. For some of you, it might be a sale at Nordstrom's. You just lose it and the money flies. But we do the things we love. Remember that. Oh, I don't know why this happened to me. Don't say that again. Because those of us who are older, we know exactly what you're saying. You have this thing in your life. It's an idol. And God has given you the power through Christ to get rid of that idol. Amen.

You need not walk in defeat anymore.

In that or any area. Yeah. Keep that in mind.

Can I piggyback on this a little bit?

I think this is important. So, Romans 7 is the passage where Paul is talking about wrestling with his flesh. And you know, if you've ever dealt with addiction or you dealt with the power of sin, you may relate to it. And then Romans 8, he launches into this beautiful uh statement in verse one. And he says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

So, I think one, I had to come to a place of someone who did struggle with pornography. I had to come to a place of like, hey, uh, there's no condemnation for me because Jesus already dealt with my sin.

That's right. Present, past, future, all of it was dealt with on the Christ, on the cross. However, Paul then goes on to to give us some instruction here. And in verse 12, this is where he gets practical. It says, "Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh to live according to it." Okay? So, there's no condemnation, and because I'm in Christ Jesus, I don't have to live according to my flesh. I don't have to be a slave to sin. And then verse 13, "For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live."

There you go. And I had to ask myself, what does that mean to put to death the misdeeds of the flesh? And the way I I I understand it is that I have to wage war. I have to kill my sin or my sin will kill me. I have to have a plan and a mission and a strategy for me to wage war on my sin. So I personally I don't have social media on my phone like that because I know it could immediately be a trigger for me, right? So if I have Instagram, I got to have it behind a whole thing where I got to use Face ID and put in a code and I get 30 minutes on Instagram and that's it. I don't have X on my phone. I I don't have any of I have to wage war. I have to be careful on how late I go to bed because if I stay up late, I get tired. I start thinking some things I shouldn't be thinking. So, I I got I got to have a off time as someone that is self-aware of these things. I have to be intentional to wage war where I got to be careful what I'm listening to, what kind of music I'm consuming. There there's a waging of war. And then in ver in chapter 12, Paul I think drives this home this point home even more. Chapter 12 verse one and two, you know this one. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy."

So, in view of this mercy that we have because of Jesus, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. So, that that there's a physical sacrifice I need to be making with my body. I need to be doing hard things. I need to be going outside. I need to be challenging myself. That I'm not the the Gnostic heresy is that you're not a body and a spirit. You're not a body and a spirit. We are just a soul trapped in a body. No, we're integrated people. We have a soul and we have a body, right? And then the next verse, right? "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." There's that word mind again.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Amen. And so the more I'm I'm sitting in that I'm like, man, this has a lot to do with my physical and my practical life and not just my spiritual life that that they're one and the same. They're integrated. So the more I stepped into that, the more it was like the the the the temptations were lifted, the flare was lifted. And and and now there's a freedom that I have to not be a slave to sin. Still got to be careful. I still got to be hypervigilant. I still have to have boundaries, but I can walk in a freedom there. And I think many of us say, "Hey, are we waging war on our sin? Are you taking your sin seriously? Or do you think it's just some little pet that you could just kind of keep tucked away?"

It's not a it's not a little kitten. That kitten is going to grow up to be a lion and it's going to bite your face off.

Kill your sin before it kills you.

So you think about this is so I mean this is just so practical. What? Uh, so I I guess at some point in time, right, parents wake up to some thought or maybe they get pressured in by other parents, but it's time now to hand my kid an iPhone. Really.

Um, people have lived without iPhones and all that for thousands of years, but all of a sudden we all of a sudden we can't because our daughter or our son, his friends got an iPhone. So now I don't want to be the stick in the mud parent. But do you realize what you're handing them? You're handing them access to a world that we can't even handle. I mean, think about how I mean, wouldn't you say that we're all striving even I know obviously he's an Old Testament character, but he had a very born again type of relationship with God, even though it was an Old Testament character. And that's David. Wouldn't you love to have God say about you or about me, "She's after my own heart. He's after my own heart."

Right? But look at David had freedom to not go to war. He should have gone to war.

At least to stay on the hill on the horse and watch the war. But he stayed home and watched Bathsheba instead and got into murder and adultery and everything else. So, it almost seems like I'm sinning when I say, "Gosh, mom and dad, you really need to weigh the realities of your kids having access to this world that's out there."

Um, I mentioned that I was this week in Europe. In the country that I was in, Parliament was meeting to vote to make cell phone access to children under 15 illegal because they have so many problems with kids. Uh regarding social media and parliament was just we were literally there happened to be there. It was not planned where this this country was they they saw the danger of young children having devices. You don't hand your listen you don't hand your 13-year-old a an AR-15. You don't hand your You don't hand your five-year-old a chainsaw. Think about this. Well, that's ridiculous. Those things can cut your arm off. You know what? You can lose an arm and and survive. But you get something where somebody steals your soul, so to speak, and changes your mind. I remember the first time I was so young, like you. I was so young when I saw uh pornography for the first time. It was it was a shock. We were playing army. We're shooting at each other and blowing each other up as a bunch of us guys. And we wound up breaking into Bobby Schroeder's garage and we're hiding out in there. We had we just couldn't wait for the it was the Russians. As soon as the Russians came in, we had to flip coins in the who was who who were Americans and who were Russians and

Sorry about all that.

No, it's okay. And so we're sitting there and the boxes. They're all Playboy boxes. Boxes of Playboy magazines. And I have to listen, I'm telling you, I the first peak. What is this? When you're 11 years old.

Mhm. And you go like this. You go like this. What is What is this? You don't know. You don't know. You don't know. It's Listen. IT'S NOT WHOA. WOW. WOO. It's none of that. It's none of that. It's what? You don't know. you're innocent and you know it's it's just a weird feeling and you know that's what what what you just saw. And guess what? You can't get it out. You cannot get it out. At least if you're a boy, you can't get it out of your head. And from that second forward, I could never look at a female the same ever again. There was a there was that that image was now superimposed on females and some pervert might think, "Oh, that's cool." No, you know what? It's torment. And scripture warns us that when we sin sexually, we're sinning against our own soul. Look, it's not good to rob banks or your neighbor's uh house. That's not good. But the Bible doesn't say you're sinning against your own soul. But he who sins in im sexual immorality sins against his own soul. Why? Because it gets inside and he can't get it out. Only Jesus can get it out.

But man, let that be a warning. Parents, just be wise. And look, young kids, if your parents aren't going to be wise, then you be wise. Because it'll ruin your life. It's it's it's ridiculous. Let's fast forward. Your successes, God's been using you. Amazing. Your program, your your uh tours. Um talk about it.

Yeah, that was a hard pivot from I was I was so mesmerized. I was like, "Yeah, I wanted to get out of there."

No, that was good. Pull up. That was good. I I I was taking it in because I have an 11-year-old and we have very intense restrictions on all devices.

Good. Um and I think I think Yeah, I think that's that's huge. And sometimes you got to be the bad parent, you know.

Yeah. Um yeah, the bad parent. I uh I I discovered this fun fact and maybe we could use this to segue. I discovered this fact that the average American spends seven hours a day passively consuming media on their phone. That's not education, that's not work, that's just consuming media. So you you tally up

TikTok, Instagram, uh Netflix, Amazon, you you YouTube. Never mind. You keep watching YouTube. YouTube 7 hours a day. Okay. Wow. That's 49 hours a week. 49 hours a week.

How does anything ever get done? How does anything ever get done? So, what I'm discovering is that we're already in the in the in the phase of the hyper consumer and the hyper creative. And as I traveled and did the Christian rap concerts, I started discovering men who had great theology and they knew a lot of stuff. But when it came down to their day-to-day life, their lives were a mess. Their marriages were a mess. Their their physical health was a mess. Their anxiety levels were a mess. They were disintegrated as people.

And I got on YouTube initially because I had a community of Christian rappers that were trying to figure out how to do what I was doing. And I would give them advice and give them marketing ideas and ways they could, I don't know, sell merchandise or whatever. And then they started asking me deeper questions. And I was like, man, what an opportunity we have right now as followers of Jesus to mitigate some of the noise that is happening by speaking into the culture, speaking into the felt need, speaking into these things, and hopefully not just creating stuff to keep people consuming more and more and more and more, but God willing pointing people to something beyond more consumption of more stuff. And I talk about this in the book Godly Ambition where they discovered, you guys all ever heard of the 10,000 hour rule? You guys ever heard of that? To the 10,000 hour rule is like if you want to be an expert at something, you got to spend 10,000 hours uh mastering it, right? And so then it becomes this impossible task. I got to spend 10 I don't got 10,000 hours. I don't how many years is that? Right? But then you discover there's a new discovery that came along of a book called The First 20. And the first 20 says that we can become competent at almost any new skill. Almost any new skill with 20 hours of deliberate focus.

Wow. 20 hours. So you want to learn a second language. You want to learn to play that instrument. You you want to learn how to edit video. You want to learn marketing. 20 hours of putting your head down, turning off your phone, turning off the distraction distractions. You can learn almost any skill to a competent level.

Totally doable. And so I thought, man, what if I can leverage this hyperdistracted society that we live in that we're all consuming stuff and God willing channel people to say, I'm going to move from a selfish ambition to trying to just build my own name and build my own castle to say, can I have a godly ambition and build God's kingdom with the stewarding of my time, my talent, and my treasure? Can I can I can I take those things that are already in my hand and build on top of them? And in that I've I've done podcasting and the YouTube and and the live events and wrote the book, but but really it is to say, "Hey, how can how can I get people to go, I have something that God's put in my heart and I need to orient that in scripture and I need to take those things and build on top of those things." I call this uh talent stacking, right? So the myth that many people believe is like if you if you want to be successful, you got to be in the top 0.1%. You know, I thought I was going to be a professional basketball player as a kid. You know, then I discovered I was 5 foot 10 in Armenian. Me and LeBron James birthday is one day apart. Same year of high school, same everything. LeBron is a is a genetic phenom. He's very different. He's in 01% of athletes worldwide. I can't be LeBron James. But you know what? I can be in the top 20% of YouTubers. I can be in the top 20% of communicators. I could be in the top 20% of authors. I could be in the top 20% of people that are trying to articulate the scriptures. I could be in the top 20% of people that know cameras and know how to do video switching.

And and so then I weave together this skill set of these different things that may not even have anything in common on the surface.

Yeah. And I use that first and foremost to be a blessing to my current situation to what is right right in front of me. Where can I serve with this my employee, my job? And then over time, God just kept scaling it and moving it over. And now, you know, it's we're almost at 850,000 subscribers on YouTube. We reach 100,000 unique viewers a day. Thank you. You can clap for that. I like the golf claps. That was great.

A million unique viewers a month. Uh but it was really on the other side of let me just be faithful to what's right in front of me right now. How can I be faithful to what's right in front of me right now, Lord? Okay. If it's key right there,

yeah, if it's running the video switcher in the church, I'm going to do this with excellence. If it's being the video announcements guy, I'm going to do this with excellence.

And the more I was excellent and faithful to what was right in front of me, I love that the more doors opened up and and things began to scale.

You know, I just love that. First of all, what he said earlier about I can't be LeBron James. The reason why he can't is the same reason why I can't. It's because we're not supposed to.

Scripture says those who compare themselves among themselves are not wise. Why? Because God uniquely made you.

That's right. And Russell mentioned earlier about the works that God created you to do. There's a God invented you for a particular ministry. You personally don't look don't be doing something right now and be looking 10 fences over to see what else is out there. Be faithful. He mentioned the word, I think, two or three times. Be faithful to what you have within your hands. Oh, but I'm not that person. You're not supposed to be that person. Yeah, but I don't have what they have. You're not supposed to have what they have. I think that's why the scripture says, do not despise the day of small things.

Yeah. It's the day of small things that you learn so much about how to handle the days of bigger things. Yep.

And so, well, you know, I won a church this I had somebody tell me years ago, God called me to pastor a church of 10,000 people. And I I didn't know what he was talking about. And I said, well, you know, may the luck of the Lord be with you. Uh, and that guy never wound up pastoring a church of 10,000 people, but that's what he wanted, right? So, it's like, I want this, God, will you bless it? Not a good place to be. What you want to do is, Lord, here I am. Make me faithful to do what you want me to do.

So, show me what that is. And you say, "Well, I I want to know." Then stand up. Show up. Say, "Well, I don't know if I'm what what if that's not my spiritual gift." Then guess what? You just learned that that thing is not your spiritual gift. What a great thing to learn. But you just keep moving on until God shows you what that thing is because he has a very specific thing for you. And for me personally, I tell you, I thank God I grew up at a a a church, well, I got saved at a church. I didn't grow up at a church, but that I got saved at a church that taught that where take a risk, step out, and let let's see what God wants to do. And it's okay to make a mistake. If you're if you're not supposed to be an usher, but you signed up and you fail at being an usher, that's a great victory. You know that you're not supposed to be an usher, but what you think is a rotten voice that you have turns out to be a great voice and you're supposed to be in the worship ministry. Just don't count yourself out in the kingdom of God. Imagine if every in fact not even every there's just this section over here. Imagine if just this group over here did what God had given them the gifts to do. Did you know that? Look, there's enough people right there to completely affect the entire world.

When the Holy Spirit gets a hold of a willing heart and he gives you the gift of the spirit, whatever that might be, to use in and through you, that's called a revival, folks.

Come on. And that that you can't stop a church like that. You So, uh, yeah. Yeah. Can I just piggyback on that?

No. No.

So, we were talking about the verse Romans 8:28 earlier when we were chatting and uh, "All things work for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose." And so many of us ask, "What is my purpose in life? What is my purpose?" No, the better question is, "What is God's purpose?"

Yes. What is what is God's vision? We're not the main character of the story. Jesus is the main character of the story despite what the public schools taught you. Right?

And so if you're in Christ Jesus, if you're a follower of Jesus here, all of us have the same purpose. It's to know God and to make him known.

Amen. All of us have the same purpose. Now, I think what we often do, unfortunately, is we conflate our purpose with our job. We conflate our purpose with what we do for money.

And that's not your purpose. Your purpose is to know God and make him known. Your assignment is going to be different based on the season that you're in.

My wife's assignment as a new mom is very different than when we were getting out of debt and she had to work two jobs. Very different assignment. Purpose is still the same. Know God and make him known. And I think what we're really trying to get after and you're and you're hinting at it is this idea of that sweet spot or like what is our calling?

What is our calling? And I think our calling is discovered through the process of being faithful to the assignment that's right in front of you with the understanding that your purpose is to know God and make him known in all things. And I think the more I'm able to be faithful to what's right in front of me right now.

Psalms says, "The word of God is a lamp onto my feet."

Yes. A lamp onto your feet gives you just enough light for your next couple steps.

It's not a light beam where you could see 10 fences over. That's

right. Right. It's just enough. And so God gives us just enough to say, "Hey, I have an assignment in front of me right now. How can I be faithful with this assignment?" Knowing the greater purpose and knowing that the assignment is seasonal, your purpose is constant, and your calling is discovered. And your calling is discovered through being faithful. And I think that when I started walking in that, it was it was so much less pressure. And just said, "Lord, I'm I'm here. Whatever you want to do, I'm here." And then I'm trying to get in on what God is doing. and not trying to get God in on what I'm doing. And I think that shift for me is what then start slowly started leading me on this idea of godly ambition in particular. Uh you kind of hinted at it, right? Um there's two words in the Greek for ambition. The negative connotation is selfish ambition. It's edithea. It's used twice. It's forbidden. It's bad. It's building your own castle. But there's three times Paul uses a positive connotation for ambition or what I would call godly ambition. In uh Romans, he says he makes it his ambition to preach the gospel where others haven't. In 2 Corinthians, he says, "I make it my ambition or we make it our ambition to do what pleases God." So ambition, preach the gospel where others haven't. Aim to to uh do what pleases God. And then 1 Thessalonians 4, we kind of have a full circle moment. "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, minding your own business, working with your own hands, so that you will not be dependent on anyone. so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders."

That's in the context of being a blessing to other people. That's in the context of being the hands and feet of Jesus here on earth. And I think when we when we get a hold of that, our why gets bigger. It's not just about me and trying to, oh, I just want more stuff. No, no, no. There's people out there that need to be helped.

How can I leverage what God's given me so I can be a blessing to other people?

So good. In closing, Yeah. In closing, what would you say though you've said beautifully thus far, what would you say to the younger generation that's here right now? Um, what would you tell them uh that should be the pursuit of their life? I mean, we know the word. We know it's Christ. But most specifically,

yeah, I I I you know, I think Jesus first and foremost, I think like if you haven't given your life to Jesus, like surrender your life to Jesus. Place your faith in Jesus. Put your confidence in that he is who he says he is and he died for you and he rose for you and there's a better way for you. Um I I would secondly say get plugged into a local church. Look, we're at a local church. Get plugged in. Start serving. Start being faithful financially. Start being a contributor, not just a consumer. So many of us go to church and we just sit back, we consume, and then we go back into our week. No, no. Start contributing. Start participating. Um, and and then I would say start stepping out and understand that God's ways for your life are good.

They're not oppressive. They're not they're not they're not here to hurt you or keep you back or to rob you of joy. God's ways for your life are in your best interest. My rules for my household and my 11-year-old and my 5-year-old are for their best interest. It's not cuz dad's a killjoy that he doesn't want him to have ice cream at 11:00 at night. But left on our own devices, we just want to have all the ice cream. And God's a good father and he has parameters for your life. Whether it's sexuality, whether it's financially, there's there's parameters and there's ways for your life. And a lot of us want God's will for our life. God, what is my calling? what am I supposed to do with my life? But here's here's the big idea. If you walk in God's ways for your life, you will always be in God's will for your life.

That's good. If you live out the ways of God with your sexuality, with your finances, with your mental health, with your time, if you live out the ways of God, you'll always be in the will of God. The will of God is not some fork in the road moment where, oh, if I went left and I should have went right, I screwed it all up. That's how not how it works. The the ways of God is how you'll stay in the will of God. And if you want to know the ways of God, you got to stay in the word of God. You got to stay consistent in the word of God. And so that would be that would be my my biggest advice. And I think the more we do the ways of God, that then starts impacting everything. What kind of employee are you? What kind of friend are you? What kind of neighbor are you? You know, I I I think about this. I don't know if it's just a San Diego thing, but man, in San Diego, we'll live next to people for years and not know their name. What kind of neighbor are you? Do you know your neighbor's name?

Are are you a good friend? Are are you a good employee? Are you or are you just on the clock just trying to get more from your from your job than then you know I want to just get more than I give. No, no, no, no. We're supposed to be the most generous, the most kind, the most loving. And I think when you start doing these things, that's when you you find yourself splat in the will of God. And the will of God, he begins to reveal it to you. He can't show it all to you cuz if he show if he showed me everything 25 years ago, I would have freaked out.

Yep. Absolutely. You're going to be on stage with Pastor Jack talking about what? Writing a book about what I could barely read 25 years ago.

You think I'm joking? So God gives us just enough.

That's right. Just enough. What is that last thing he told you to do? Do that. Start there. And I think in that that that's when we'll start seeing it all it all culminate and all come together. Hebrews 11:8, "Abraham went out following God, not knowing where he was going."

That's That's hard. That's hard unless God's God's directives and God's leading never burdensome.

Amen. So, the book the book's available tonight in the foyer. There's other things that are out there, right?

Yeah, we got we got some uh I know Father's Day is Sunday. We got some uh priest provider protector t-shirts for the dads. We brought a very limited amount. Uh it's also on Amazon. If you if you guys want a signed copy, I'll be hanging out afterwards. If you guys want it on Amazon, it's it's a little cheaper on Amazon right now. Um and then I think we have some hoodies and I think that's it. I think Yeah. Uh books, hoodies, t-shirts, priest, provider, protector. I mean, this to me is what I believe that I'm called to as a man.

That's right. To be the to be the priest of my home. To be the pro the the provider of my home. 1 Timothy 5 says that he who does not provide for the needs of his family is worse than a non-believer and is denied the faith.

Uh so I have a call and a mandate to be a provider and to be a protector, you know. So uh to to protect often times protecting your home looks like not giving your kids the device and saying, "Yeah, you're just going to be mad at me, son, but no, you're not getting a phone. No, you're not getting a tablet." You know, and so I think we're all called to that as men. So shout out to all the dads here.

Yeah. Um, I re I really believe um not to I know we're over on time, but I I really do believe and I know that as as the men come, the families follow.

There's no doubt. Yeah. And as the families follow, the communities change. And the nation does.

And the nation does. You guys, let's all stand. Wrist, I'm going to have you stand. We're going to pray for you. You guys want to lift your hands in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord God, that for 2,000 years, your church moves on from generation to generation. And Lord, we ask of you tonight that your Holy Spirit might fall like the mantle of Elijah upon Elisha. Father, you've been faithful to pass the torch of witness. And God, I thank you that you've put that light upon our brother Rusyn and his family and as he influences others. We pray Lord for the young people that are here tonight, those that are watching that supernaturally, Lord, maybe even at this very second, unbeknownst to them, clueless, they might experience an encounter with the true and living God even now. Lord, we know that it's your desire that your people be on fire for you, God, that we would be full of your word and full of the spirit and full of the fruit of the spirit of God. Lord, that we might be a people that cannot be extinguished.

Lord, such a light cannot be put to death. We have been touched by your spirit for eternity. And in the meantime, we are to be investors in what is right, what is good, what is holy and pure. And God, we pray, Lord, that you, and it is so clear maybe to all of us, Lord, it's not our economy, it's not the gas prices, it's not the border, it's not politics or administrations that make or break a nation. It's if that nation has called upon the Lord to be their God.

And Lord, we call upon you now and ask of you, Lord God, that you might send revival to the church in America.

That Lord, the lost would have a place to run to. So revive the church and awaken the lost. And father, while we have opportunity to have a microphone or to have a voice, to have hands, to have a podcast, to have a program, to have an office or to have a construction site or a home or a child in our arms, that we might understand the number one call upon our life is to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth, starting with the baby that's in our arms.

Lord, bless Russellin and all that he puts his hands to do. God, I pray that you keep this young man anchored and stable.

Lord, protect him from success as he gets more successful. May he become more humble. May we be able to recognize him a a year or two or three or 10 from now if you don't come back soon. how close he is by how humble he is.

So, Father, we give ourselves to you tonight. We receive the baptism of your Holy Spirit's power arh. And we thank you that Jesus Christ came, died on the cross, and rose again from the grave to set us free from the power of sin and death. To him be the glory. We pray in Jesus name. And all God's people said, "Amen."

Amen. God bless you guys. So, are you going to be in the foyer today? Okay, you guys, he's going to be out in the foyer. And um God bless you. See you on Sunday.