All right, welcome. Today I'm with my friend Nico. We've been friends for a few years. Nico is 31, lives in Malibu, grew up in Indonesia, is a SAG actor, musician, planted lots of house churches, done lots of ministry all over the place. Most importantly, just a great friend. So I'm glad we get a chance to talk. The reason why I'm doing this is because for four years now, I've been on a journey just trying to teach the Bible, teach people about God, see as many little churches as we can, spring up in all places, all spaces, and helping people get water. I've met a lot of really wonderful friends along the way, and there's some insights into some of those people that I've met that I hope we can listen from and learn from to sort of gain some wisdom, make our lives better so we can do what we need to do, open up the heart behind us. So we met three years ago. I feel like it's been longer than that. Yeah, I feel like it's, yeah, it feels longer, maybe four, three or four. But you grew up in Indonesia. Wow, yeah, was it that night with Callie and Hope at Sur Coffee? I think it was with Callie and Hope, yeah. 

Nicko: 
And then you told me the first day you met me. This guy tells me the first day he met me, he's like, I want you to find a church. I'm like, you just met me, how do you know me? You know? A smile. I told him I'd pray about it for like six months, you know? Yeah, yeah, it was pretty clear. I can see things in people pretty fast. So here we are. But you grew up in Indonesia. Yeah,
I can't talk about that a little bit. You're the only person I know who's grown up in Indonesia.

Yeah, so I grew up in Indonesia. I was born there. My parents are Americans from California.

I was born in Bandung, Indonesia, on the island of Java. And my dad's actually working over

there. An incredible house church movement going on over there. You know, just simple

house churches of five Muslims and one believer. And then they all read the Bible. They all

get saved. And they plan another one. Boom, boom, boom. So over the last 10, 15 years,

it's been like 500,000 new believers in Indonesia. And this is the first, historically, the first

25
00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:34,560
big move of God that's ever been recorded there. So it's pretty amazing. You know, house

26
00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:40,040
churches work everywhere in China, India, Indonesia, US, anywhere there's houses and

27
00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:52,200
people. So it's fun. Yeah, so growing up over in Indonesia, I had a really fun childhood

28
00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:58,600
surfing, playing soccer, flying kites. I was the only white boy in my whole neighborhood

29
00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:08,000
where I was with Indian or Indonesian. Really great fun life until about junior high, when

30
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:12,680
my mom started getting sick. And so we went to some doctors in Singapore, we said you

31
00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:18,720
should go to America. We went to some doctors in North Carolina for seven months. Then they

32
00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:24,800
said you should go to San Jose, go to San Jose for seven months. And my parents sat me

33
00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:28,920
and my sisters down on the couch. It was a really sad day for me, because my mom was

34
00:03:28,920 --> 00:03:33,000
just amazing lady, loves the Lord. And they just said, Hey, you know, the doctor says

35
00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,720
she has a type of Parkinson's disease, she may only live another five or 10 years. I'm

36
00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:44,320
about 12 years old at the time. And just devastated. My parents said we're not going to go back

37
00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:48,880
to Indonesia, we're going to stay in the US. And I really felt like an astronaut who just

38
00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:52,960
went to the moon and the spaceship just broke and I'm stuck. I don't want to live in this

39
00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:58,440
country. I want to go back to Indonesia. It's kind of just a family, friends surfing. I

40
00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:05,400
was like, my whole world just fell apart in one day. Thankfully, I was already saved.

41
00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:10,600
August 14 1996, I asked to three of my sons be my king. And my parents had already taught

42
00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:15,040
me how to read the Bible and pray. So when I was 12, and I was just I was devastated,

43
00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:22,800
I was sad. I actually felt so much sadness, I felt like a physical pain in my stomach.

44
00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:25,640
And but thankfully, my parents have taught me how to pray with the Bible. So I just go

45
00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:32,200
into my room for hours and hours on end, and just read songs, read Proverbs, pray, and

46
00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:36,880
then the pain actually go away from my stomach. And I feel like a piece of God, and I just

47
00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:45,080
go back to zero. And I was like, I'm gonna do this all the time. So. So yeah, God really

48
00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:50,720
got a hold of my heart from a young age, junior high, high school, I was already pretty radical.

49
00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:53,880
By the time I got to high school, I would bring my Bible with me. It was a big black

50
00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:58,280
Bible, but I bring it with me under my arm everywhere I went to school. I was a big pop

51
00:04:58,280 --> 00:05:03,400
of school, near Pismo Beach, Colorado Grande High School, probably like 3000 students.

52
00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:06,920
I was the only one that would bring my Bible outside of my backpack and walk around with

53
00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:11,560
it. And I put on my desk, you know, boom, every day, public statement of faith, this

54
00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:15,680
is what I am, this is what I do, I read the Bible, I'm a believer in Jesus, try to share

55
00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:22,480
with anybody at school, listen to me. I was a, I remember I was a sophomore. And my friend

56
00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:27,200
Aaron Lunsford was a senior, he saved me from this, this fight in the locker room one day

57
00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:31,160
when I was getting pinned up against the locker by this big football player, he saved me and

58
00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:35,880
he's like my best friend. So then I went to go save him. He saved me physically, so I

59
00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:39,960
saved him spiritually. So I just shared the gospel with him. Jesus died for our sins,

60
00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:45,960
so we could go to heaven and not pay for our sins. And I asked him if he wanted to pray,

61
00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:49,920
pray that prayer and accept Jesus. And he said, let me think about it. He went home

62
00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:54,800
that night, we had lunch the next day at school, and he says, hey man, I went and prayed that

63
00:05:54,800 --> 00:06:00,000
prayer asking Jesus to forgive my sins, to be my king. So he got saved, and I was a sophomore,

64
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:05,720
he was a senior, he was awesome. And yeah, since that, really since a young age, I was

65
00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:11,600
very driven, I was very on fire for God. And it's not even something I could have planned

66
00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:17,560
for myself because with my mom passing, I just knew, oh my gosh, life and death is real.

67
00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:22,400
I don't know if I'm going to live to be 30, 40, 50. My mom passed when she was about

68
00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:29,560
50, 60, and I was 21. And so life and death became so real to me where it's like, I want

69
00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:35,760
to live for God every day, whether it's sports, academics, my work, I want to go all out in

70
00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:41,120
everything I do. And so I was already doing that in high school. So one example of this

71
00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:46,880
is like, I got cut from my soccer team sophomore year, and I'm a pretty good soccer player,

72
00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:50,320
grew up my whole lifetime in Indonesia. And I was like, there must be something wrong,

73
00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:54,080
probably because I had, I was poor, I grew up in a poor family, I don't mind. Most of

74
00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:57,840
that your weaknesses, right? Yep. Grew up in a poor family, had shoes that were too

75
00:06:57,840 --> 00:07:02,040
small blisters on my feet, I wasn't playing the best soccer because of that. And I got

76
00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:06,240
cut and I was so sad, devastated. I thought, you know, I'm not a quitter, I'm gonna go

77
00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:10,440
back to your year and get on the team. So I joined cross country just to get a straight

78
00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:16,080
for soccer. Had old knockoff shoes, they weren't even Reeboks, they were like knockoff and

79
00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:21,960
Reebok. Old shoes full of holes. And I started winning first place in these JD races. My

80
00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:26,520
first year racing against 70 other boys and all these other high schools, first place,

81
00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:31,000
I'll win next race, first place, next place, first place. And my coach would ask me, why

82
00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:34,200
do you run so hard? Because I would push for the toss, I would push ourselves all the way

83
00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:38,360
to almost you faint. And then you just cross the finish line, right before you faint pretty

84
00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:42,400
much. And they're like, why do you run so hard? And I said, well, I believe in Jesus

85
00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:48,360
and just doing my best, everything I do. And you're like, looked at me like, what? Yeah.

86
00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:54,680
You know, but I said, okay, just keep doing it. So they brought me up to varsity my first

87
00:07:54,680 --> 00:08:01,200
year. We go to competitions in San Diego and Mount Sack and all these different places.

88
00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:05,840
And I was on the varsity team. We made it to the Pac seven championship and we beat

89
00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:09,640
every other school in the region my first year ever. And I was on that varsity team

90
00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:17,520
that won the race. And the reason I share that story, one, as a believer, I think we

91
00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:23,440
get to bring other people into victory with us. Two, when you really follow God and you

92
00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:28,320
believe life and death is real, there is a heaven, there's a hell. I was living all out

93
00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:32,720
for God since high school and anybody can do that. And that's why I'm sharing this with

94
00:08:32,720 --> 00:08:37,040
you. It says the testimony in Revelation, it says the testimony of Jesus is the spirit

95
00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:41,160
of prophecy. So it's saying God do it again. I pray that more people will live fully for

96
00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:45,720
you since junior high, fully for high school. So I just invite you guys, it's never too

97
00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:49,920
young to start living for the Lord. Let, you know, go for him in junior high, high school

98
00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:53,000
and lead other people to him as well.

99
00:08:53,000 --> 00:09:02,880
Wow. So you have always been one of the most positive people that I know since I met you,

100
00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:10,960
one of the most joyful people that I know since I met you. There is something about

101
00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:16,760
joy that's rooted in grief, you know, and I've talked with you enough to know that life's

102
00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:26,320
not been easy. You lost your mom really young and you were very, very close. And that really

103
00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:33,720
can go a few different ways in life, you know, depending on how you react to that. What I

104
00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:41,160
saw from you and what I heard from your story is you took the faith your mom had, you know,

105
00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:47,080
and you doubled down. You were like, no, I'm going to draw closer to God. We all have our

106
00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:54,800
questions about life, myself included, you know, the whys, we all have our whys. Why did

107
00:09:54,800 --> 00:10:00,880
this happen? Well, the reality is you don't get answers most of the time. You can find

108
00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:08,000
comfort in the promises though that you get from God based on the whys that pop up in

109
00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:17,240
your life. Well, why did this happen? Why didn't this go my way? Why did life not calculate

110
00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:25,720
and happen the way that I had planned it to? And in those moments we can get these promises,

111
00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:32,320
you know, from God that instead of driving us farther away from him can actually drive

112
00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:39,200
us more to him. And I've seen you do that. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because

113
00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:48,040
I think that's a hard thing for people to understand. You know, can you chat and talk

114
00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:54,560
a little bit about that? Yeah. So the way I look at it is pain and suffering is actually

115
00:10:54,560 --> 00:11:04,720
an invitation to go deep with God. I don't chase after it. You know, we don't try to

116
00:11:04,720 --> 00:11:11,400
walk into terrible situations. But when we are in a trial, because it says, you know,

117
00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:16,360
trials just come, you know, I look at it, it's like an invitation. Hey, do you want

118
00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:19,760
to go deep with God today? Because here's a shortcut. Here's something that's going

119
00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:27,640
to take you really deep. And so whenever I'm feeling that pain or that sadness or even,

120
00:11:27,640 --> 00:11:35,680
I mean, even over the, you know, pandemic when everything shut down, I lost all my jobs,

121
00:11:35,680 --> 00:11:40,520
all the churches were shut. Honestly, I made quite a few mistakes over that period of my

122
00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:46,120
life. It was that I was sad, I was lonely, all the churches were closed. I actually got

123
00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:51,560
an argument with pastors about, hey, you should open the church, we're all struggling here.

124
00:11:51,560 --> 00:11:56,480
And then I started hosting house church in my apartment in downtown LA. 14 people packed

125
00:11:56,480 --> 00:12:01,680
in there and my actors weeping and crying and saying, if you weren't hosting church

126
00:12:01,680 --> 00:12:05,560
right now, when everybody I could get fined, I could have gotten fined from the government,

127
00:12:05,560 --> 00:12:10,960
I could have gotten shut down. And God just told me just host church. And my friends would

128
00:12:10,960 --> 00:12:16,080
be weeping saying like, if you weren't hosting church, and if I didn't have this encouragement,

129
00:12:16,080 --> 00:12:19,840
I might have taken my life over COVID. So you know, it's like, that's why it says in

130
00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:25,160
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24, 25, don't stop meeting together. Don't stop meeting together

131
00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:29,720
is the habit of some and meet together all the more as you see the day approaching. So

132
00:12:29,720 --> 00:12:35,240
anyway, through the pandemic, a lot of hard things happened. I lost, you know, all my

133
00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:41,120
acting jobs, everything was just shut. You know, sometimes you have to go through the

134
00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:45,920
door of humility to go forward. And I started driving for I think it was like postman, such

135
00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:50,680
a name, you know, going from making decent amount having like lobster for lunch, and

136
00:12:50,680 --> 00:12:58,640
steak and chicken to making very small wage, and sweating, and working hard, and just thinking

137
00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:03,480
what is what am I doing with my life? You know, this is horrible. And even then it was

138
00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:07,800
an opportunity, it was an indication to go deep. So I would drive around LA, and I'll

139
00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:13,960
listen to a podcast, I'd listen to a sermon. And that and I'm still frustrated by afternoon.

140
00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:18,240
So what I do, I turn another podcast, another sermon on boom, boom, boom, driving around,

141
00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:22,920
I'm still not feeling I'm still kind of frustrated by my work situation. It's the evening time,

142
00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:28,600
okay, to the third sermon on boom. So now listen to three sermons a day driving around,

143
00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:31,880
you know, and that's how I look at it, your pain, your suffering, whatever you're going

144
00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:36,240
through is an invitation to go connect with God, whether it's through listening to a sermon

145
00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:42,560
or podcasts, reading the Bible, playing worship, you know, God, God wants to connect with us

146
00:13:42,560 --> 00:13:48,360
on real levels. And emotions are not a bad thing. It's just learning how to use that

147
00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:53,320
emotion to connect with God. Like even I was just on the East Coast, actually doing a little

148
00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:58,200
house church and other stuff in North Carolina. And I had one day where I was feeling kind

149
00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:02,160
of lonely, I was feeling kind of sad, because I was like, kind of radical, and just wanting

150
00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:07,240
more people to be radical about their faith, I was just feeling kind of sad. And I couldn't

151
00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:12,440
just let it out on my family, I couldn't let it out on somebody. But I just zip my mouth

152
00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:18,600
shut, went outside, grabbed my guitar, I wrote a whole new song on the guitar about, you

153
00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:24,400
know, I'd rather be an outcast than comfortable in my sin. I'd rather join the Baptist than

154
00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:30,000
and purity deep within. And I wrote this whole song. And my sadness was actually an invitation

155
00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:34,520
to pull me in deeper to God through writing a song through playing worship on guitar.

156
00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:38,320
So whatever you're going through, you know, let that be an invitation, whether you go

157
00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:43,440
read Lamentations and Proverbs or Psalms, David writes a lot of sad Psalms, you know,

158
00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:48,040
God wants to connect with us where we're at. So that's my encouragement to you. Let your

159
00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:51,120
pain be an invitation to connect with God deeper.

160
00:14:51,120 --> 00:15:00,560
Okay, you touched on another thing about the pandemic, there are a lot of reactions to,

161
00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:07,000
you know, how are we going to gather together as believers at that time? I didn't feel that

162
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:13,440
too much because at that point in my life, we had already been meeting, we it was me

163
00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:18,320
and Adam Watson, Bobby Ramsey, I mean, there were three of us, we started a church in a

164
00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:22,720
jujitsu studio here in San Clemente. So we were I was already fine with three people

165
00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:29,040
in the church. But you know, if if you didn't have three people in your church, you're pretty

166
00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:33,920
bummed, you know, because people had expectations about things. But I was already used to there

167
00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:39,640
being a few people and I had already gotten accustomed to just really looking forward

168
00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:46,760
to it. I've seen a lot of beautiful things happen in smaller settings in the last the

169
00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:56,480
last big season of my life. It's been beautiful. And I heard from friends of mine that are

170
00:15:56,480 --> 00:16:02,520
in different religious contexts where the environments are bigger, they've had a very

171
00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:10,240
hard time with that. For obvious reasons, it didn't fit their model. You know, well,

172
00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:17,280
you know, you don't have to follow God very long to find out that God is outside of models,

173
00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:25,520
you know, and he's always doing something new. The last part of my life, I've seen God

174
00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:32,760
do amazing things, putting people telling telling people who don't even know that they're

175
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:38,640
a leader to open up their home and have people over for food and to worship and Bible study

176
00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:44,880
and people come into the Lord. People leading things and starting things that don't fit

177
00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:51,040
in conventional boxes. This is it's been very, very exciting. Right. And yeah, you have any

178
00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:59,920
thoughts on that just about how God uses people who don't feel like they're they should be

179
00:16:59,920 --> 00:17:06,720
a leading thing? Yeah, exactly. For the American audience, I think the house church is such

180
00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:13,200
a new model. Because for hundreds of years in America, we've had church building, everybody

181
00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:16,400
goes there. There's nothing really wrong with that, you know, as long as you're preaching

182
00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:24,160
the Bible. But there's this quote, you know, it says, you know, in times of change, learners

183
00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:29,200
inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully prepared for a world that no longer

184
00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:35,200
exists. Bingo. And it's just going to keep learning, you know, obviously, stay true to

185
00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:42,240
the book, stay true to the Bible, but you can change your style of meaning for worship

186
00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:49,520
and understanding how it is. I was recently in the church service and it was a big building

187
00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:56,240
and there's about 20 people in this huge building. And I'm like, wow, there's probably seats for

188
00:17:56,240 --> 00:18:02,880
like 300 people. There's probably 15 to 20 people in this building. And just thinking

189
00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:10,320
about it, nothing wrong with it. I'm just thinking this is interesting. No. And and

190
00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:14,480
then I did a I did a house church meeting literally just on the beach, no resources,

191
00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:23,440
no money, no life. Just in May, I texted everyone two days before 25 people came from, you know,

192
00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:30,400
San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Malibu, Orange County, LA, San Clemente, Oceanside. And I

193
00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:37,760
had more people there than in this huge church building. So I just want to challenge anyone

194
00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:42,640
in America who might not be aware or familiar with the house church model. You know, sometimes

195
00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:47,360
it's more effective and we bless every big church. We bless what they're doing. We love

196
00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:52,160
what they're doing. But it's it's just good to realize that, you know, in a lot of countries

197
00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:58,160
like Thailand, you know, India, China, Indonesia, some of the largest, those are the three largest

198
00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:04,160
countries by population with America as well in the mix of the top four. Three out of this top

199
00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:09,440
four, Indonesia, China and India, their main way of meeting for church is house churches.

200
00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:15,520
Hundreds of thousands of people spread across in different house churches. So it's just it's good

201
00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:19,600
to, you know, I just encourage you open up your mind, open up your heart, even just pray, ask

202
00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:26,640
out like what what could I do for my community or how could I bless people? You know, we're not

203
00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:31,520
fighting against anyone. We love every church that needs and preaches the Bible, whether they're

204
00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:37,600
big or small. But it's really cool to see what God is doing in the house churches right now. And

205
00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:45,040
like, for example, when the whole shutdown happened in 2020, it was just a really effective way to

206
00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:50,480
reach people. Like I said, all the churches in L.A. shut down, you know, every single one. I was

207
00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:55,680
trying to go to church and fellowship with anybody because I was lonely and depressed. And I was like,

208
00:19:55,680 --> 00:20:00,560
and God said, well, why don't you know, okay, he would say like you could get paid for snitching

209
00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:05,520
on someone. You could get fined for hosting a meeting. And I just said, you know what, I just

210
00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:10,240
got to risk it. I lived in the very middle of downtown L.A. in a small little apartment

211
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:17,120
for one person. Packed it out there. You know, we're having this this one worship and prayer

212
00:20:17,120 --> 00:20:23,040
night, this little house church, 14 of my friends, and then black, white, Latino, Asian, all types of

213
00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:27,840
people. All my friends packed it like shoulder to shoulder as close as you can get in this house

214
00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:31,920
where you're supposed to be playing six feet apart, whatever. We're shoulder to shoulder in this little

215
00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:38,240
room, stacks of pizza stacking up on the table. I'm about to play guitar, start leading worship.

216
00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:43,120
And my friend thinks my public manager is one of my friends because I have friends of all ages.

217
00:20:43,120 --> 00:20:49,280
He's like, hey, why don't you come in? And I'm like, oh no. Our meeting's gonna get shut down.

218
00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:55,840
I'm gonna get fined. He's gonna get paid. This is terrible. He's not a believer. You know, 50 year

219
00:20:55,840 --> 00:21:00,080
old guy who walks around in black clothes and a long white beard. I'm just like, oh man,

220
00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:07,680
this meeting's gonna get shut down before he was targeted. But you know, I'm a little tricky.

221
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:12,800
I might be related to Jacob in the Bible. Who knows? You know, I'm thinking, what can I do right now?

222
00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:17,440
OK, I remember my guy, he likes food. So I'm gonna, you know what? I'm gonna offer him some pizza,

223
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:23,120
see if I can distract him. So I'm like, hey man, you want some pizza? And he's like, sure, I would

224
00:21:23,120 --> 00:21:28,640
love some pizza. He loves to eat. So I was just chopping the pizza, chopping a second piece probably

225
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:33,200
by this time. I'm trying to get him out the door because we're trying to start the meeting. Hey man,

226
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:37,520
you want to go make your nightly rounds? He's the night manager. Or do you want to stick around and

227
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:41,120
hang out? Or do you want to go make your nightly rounds? I'm trying to politely say like, do you

228
00:21:41,120 --> 00:21:47,600
want to leave now? You know, we're trying to start this meeting. And he said, oh yeah, I love guitar

229
00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:55,280
music. I would love to stay. And I was like, oh no. Inside and just like, oh, let's see what happens.

230
00:21:55,280 --> 00:22:00,000
No, you know, I have no idea what's going to happen. But I outside and just completely poker face.

231
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:08,000
OK, sure, great. Dope, you know. So I just started to do worship and we all just started worshiping

232
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:12,960
God. The whole room of us just started singing and worshiping and praising and he just stays there

233
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:18,000
standing. We have no room. Everyone's sitting on my bed, on benches, on chairs. The whole room is

234
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:24,000
packed. There's no place for him to sit. So he's standing up there eating a slice of pizza and he

235
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:28,800
just keeps standing and eating pizza. And I'm listening to him. He loves guitar and Led Zeppelin,

236
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:33,200
all these artists. And he just is listening to guitar and he's loving it. We go through the whole

237
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:39,120
worship, the whole little church service in my house. He stays for the whole time. He's the last

238
00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:42,960
one a week. He's talking to everybody. He's getting blessed. We're praying for him. We just have this

239
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:49,120
amazing time. He doesn't shut us down. He doesn't find us. He's just so stoked to hang out with

240
00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:55,520
people who are loving him and feeding him and being a friend. You know, so. Yeah, sometimes I mean,

241
00:22:56,320 --> 00:23:02,640
that whole shutdown, the house which is really a great model to reach people. Like I said before,

242
00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:06,000
people came up to me, my acting friends would come up to me and say, you know, if you weren't

243
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:11,120
hosting meetings, I might have been so depressed. I would have taken my life. So weeping and just

244
00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:17,200
saying thank you so much for hosting these meetings. Yeah, and I really feel like God is using

245
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:25,280
it, but maybe not for the reasons that people might think. I live in San Clemente. You live in

246
00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:33,280
Malibu. When you invite people, when you invite 20 to 30 friends to the beach or 20 to 30 friends

247
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:39,280
to the coffee shop or to a bar or to a park, and we've pretty much seen these little small churches

248
00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:44,960
pop up pretty much everywhere at this point. And I've always wondered, you know, why are they so

249
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:51,760
effective? And I think one of the things is where we live in California, nobody really trusts

250
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:59,040
each other, you know, and there's a there and because there's an authenticity problem. And the

251
00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:10,800
average man in America doesn't trust one other man. And we live in a culture where the average

252
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:18,640
man doesn't trust even one other man. For the most part, people don't trust each other. And

253
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:29,120
authenticity really is at the center of that. You know, people are just people are starving for a

254
00:24:29,120 --> 00:24:37,600
friend, a real friend, someone that they trust. And in these smaller environments, when you're just

255
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:44,000
doing stuff that you love, you know, a lot of a lot of times people try to have an

256
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:55,040
an attractional ministry. I'm not in that camp. I try to have an attractional life,

257
00:24:56,480 --> 00:25:04,240
you know, and putting all of my effort into just being the Bible talks about being salt

258
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:13,040
and being light. And you're you have an interesting gift mix. You if you do a Venn diagram,

259
00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:21,680
you can draw circles. And then you and then where the circles overlap, there are areas of commonality,

260
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:26,160
you have a bunch, you've got like surfing, which you're really good at, you've got music,

261
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:33,840
you've got acting, you've traveled a bunch. And you love Jesus in the center of it. And so

262
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:40,880
what I've seen in your life, you had you had it on your heart to be in Malibu, God really put that

263
00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:48,560
on your heart to be there. You live there now. You live there now you have work there now.

264
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:56,080
God's you are doing house church there, doing ministry all over the place out of

265
00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:02,400
Malibu. And it's been incredible to watch to see how you've

266
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:09,360
really held on to that dream that God gave you about where you were going to be,

267
00:26:09,360 --> 00:26:15,120
where you were supposed to live. And that's been awesome to watch. But can you just share for

268
00:26:15,120 --> 00:26:23,440
what do you think about this idea of trust, you know, and how people don't trust each other.

269
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:29,680
But when you invite friends to just stuff that you're doing, like hanging out at the beach,

270
00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:36,000
that's almost like way more effective than anything you could ever do to just show God's love to people.

271
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:43,360
Totally, I think, you know, trust, authenticity, good relationships, you know, at the end of the

272
00:26:43,360 --> 00:26:47,920
day, everybody wants to be loved. Everybody wants to be understood for who they are,

273
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:54,240
and to be loved for who they are. And it's hard when you're like wearing a mask, or you're not

274
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:58,640
authentic, or you don't have these relationships, when you don't have trust. And where I work,

275
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:03,120
you know, in LA and Hollywood, there's the least trust ever. Everybody's trying to

276
00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:08,640
shoulder up off of you, or get your money, get your connections, get whatever they can from you.

277
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:15,840
And what does trust look like in that environment? And I've had to learn, you know,

278
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:21,760
I have a lot of friends, you know, who are, you know, successful singers, or producers, actors,

279
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:29,360
or people. And sometimes I get shocked when they offer me something really big, like, hey,

280
00:27:29,360 --> 00:27:33,680
I could put you on this TV show right now, and get you on this big world tour, like I'm doing with

281
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:39,120
my daughter. Do you want me to do that for you? And I say, well, maybe if God is on it, but if

282
00:27:39,120 --> 00:27:43,360
God's not on it, I don't really want it. But yeah, maybe if God is on it. But in my heart,

283
00:27:43,360 --> 00:27:47,280
he said, please God. And I think LA and Hollywood is longing for people

284
00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:52,960
to love them as a real friend, or anywhere in California. But I mean,

285
00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:58,080
this is like almost the hardest place. Hollywood, you know, I think, you know,

286
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:04,960
Hollywood. Yeah. And I think, I guess for me, I just talking about my life, like, I'm so grateful

287
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:08,720
for friends like Ryan, brothers, Ryan, dumb, or Chad, Edmund,

288
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:15,120
Dana McGregor, awesome guys, you know, honestly, I can just be myself with we talked about our

289
00:28:15,120 --> 00:28:22,240
trials, we hang out over coffee. It's interesting how there's actually a correlation between

290
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:26,720
confessing and being healed. Even says in the Bible confess your sins to one another,

291
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:30,880
pray for one another, and you'll be healed. It's not just talking about physical healing,

292
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:35,680
but spiritual healing, mental healing, emotional healing. It's really good to have people

293
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:40,880
that you can trust. And maybe it's like, I don't have any friends, I don't have anyone I can trust.

294
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:45,840
Well, why doesn't it start? How about we start with you? Are you trustworthy? Are you being a

295
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:52,400
good friend to somebody else? Like, I won't say their name, but this very famous singer from Europe,

296
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:58,160
who I made friends with on the set, I gave him a prophetic word, just an encouraging word from God.

297
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:05,680
And then we became friends, you know, very, very famous person, knowing the followers. And I just

298
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:09,360
want to be a friend to them. I just want to be your friend. So I gave him free surf lessons at the

299
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:16,960
beach. We just hang out, free surf lessons. Just go hang out and be friends, you know. You're black,

300
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:23,280
I'm white, teaching you how to surf, we're having a blast, you're having a blast. I'm just here to

301
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:28,880
be your friend. And people can tell when you're just being authentic, genuine friend to them. And

302
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:33,440
now we've been friends for years. He called me up the other day to thank me for whatever I'm praying

303
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:38,160
for or doing something for a friend. Like, inviting her, I invite her to the house church,

304
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:42,800
and things that we do in Malibu, she gets blessed, you know. And it's like,

305
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:48,320
I mean, first, we have to get right with God, you know, just go read the Bible, pray, get yourself

306
00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:54,560
right with God, get in community, get in church, get in house church. And if you see people who

307
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:58,400
have good friendships, try to start hanging out with them, learning from them, learn from Ryan,

308
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:03,440
what does he do? You know, it says, even Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. Hang out

309
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:07,280
with people like Ryan or other people that you see who have great friendships, who have tried,

310
00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:12,320
who have trust, ask them, pick their mind, pick their brain, hang out with them, look at how to

311
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:18,800
interact with their friends. Because right now I can say I have incredible, loyal, solid friends

312
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:26,080
in my life. I try to focus on a key few. I have a lot of text messages on my phone. But I focus on

313
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:33,520
the key few who I build with Pastor Ryan, Chad Deadman, Dana McGregor. You know, I could name

314
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:39,440
a few others. Good guys. You know, good guys. We build together, we love each other. And I'm so

315
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:44,080
grateful for these amazing loyal friends. I always say, even just talk to Ryan more about that,

316
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:49,760
you know, if you need to learn more about that, it's the best thing in life. There's the best

317
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:53,920
thing in life. God keeps telling you more and more life. What is the treasure of life? The treasure

318
00:30:53,920 --> 00:31:04,000
of life is people. People. 100%. Friends. It's a treasure of life. Yeah, I have always just tried

319
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:10,960
to be that, be a loyal friend, try to look out for my friends, try to take care of my friends.

320
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:18,400
Doesn't mean I have agreed with all other decisions. But I still try to be loyal to

321
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:29,120
my friends and my family. And it's interesting too. I've been to your house church many, many times.

322
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:38,880
One time I rode 100 miles on my bicycle. And then I told you I was coming. And then I showed up

323
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:43,920
and I was there and you saw me in my gear. And you're like, dude, you rode your bike from San

324
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:49,440
Clemente to come to my house church? I was like, yeah, bro. And you're like, there is no excuse

325
00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:55,440
for anyone in LA to not come to church. You rode 100 miles to come to my church. And, you know,

326
00:31:55,440 --> 00:32:04,960
we laughed about that. But yeah, just trying to support the people that are close to you in your

327
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:14,640
life. And not just trying to do things for people because it's the right thing to do. I've been to

328
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:22,240
your church and I laughed because I was like, yeah, there's 20 or 30 people here or whatever.

329
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:34,160
And then this has got to be the most influential small church that I've ever seen, ever, that I've

330
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:41,840
ever been to. And I laugh because that's your, I really think you're calling, you know, I think

331
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:48,800
there are not everyone can handle that. I know a lot of people, there's a difference between what

332
00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:54,880
you want and then what you can handle. And I mean, I've lived here my entire life. So I've seen some

333
00:32:54,880 --> 00:33:01,680
things. I haven't seen everything, but I've seen some things and most people can't handle that.

334
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:10,480
You do really well because you have a lot of humility. And I don't know where that comes from

335
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:18,960
all the time. I think there's some people that just, they have, I think people do well when they

336
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:24,560
have more humility than they do influence. And you have that quality. I want to encourage you with

337
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:30,720
that. And I think that's why God's put you in Malibu and why you've been so fruitful there.

338
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:38,560
And I want to admonish you in that you've set a great example for so many people in that.

339
00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:48,640
That's a very unique gift mix, you know, and I always pray for you that you'll just keep,

340
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:55,680
you're a good dude, just keep having more favor and keep doing what you're doing. You're making,

341
00:33:55,680 --> 00:34:00,800
Jesus said, he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

342
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,640
Jesus has the authority, he says, so go and make disciples.

343
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:11,440
You baptize them, the name of the father and the son, teach them to obey everything I've commanded

344
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:16,880
you and surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age. So when we make a disciple,

345
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:21,360
we're simply trying to teach somebody else the things that we have learned about God.

346
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:27,200
And what are your thoughts on, you know, just like disciple making and how much you, I know you've

347
00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:32,400
led a lot of people to the Lord up there and touched a lot of lives, dude. What are some of

348
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:37,840
your, your thoughts? You're very honoring. You always tell me, oh yeah, I learned from,

349
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:41,440
well, I learned a lot from you. So just talk to me about, about that.

350
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:49,280
Man, disciple making. I guess you know a lot of different stories. It's, it's, uh,

351
00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:56,960
it's, uh, it's fun when God just puts somebody in your life, you know? Um,

352
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:04,720
I'm thinking of a couple of different stories, one from college, one from

353
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:09,840
valid, but I guess we'll talk about valid, since we're there. Yeah, talk about that. But, uh, so

354
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:17,280
my friend, he's already like posted publicly about this. So it's awesome. It's already out there

355
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:26,640
publicly. But, um, my friend Israel Dufres, um, he's a, he's a great guy, loves God, loves people,

356
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:32,640
professional boxer. He beat every other boxer in South America. He's from Panama. He's not in the

357
00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:40,480
U.S. and he still boxes internationally and professionally. Um, and, um, I met him, we were

358
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:46,240
both soccer players on this one TV show and I met him and we've just been friends for years. We made

359
00:35:46,240 --> 00:35:53,840
a song together in Spanish and English, um, 2020 Vision, check it out on Spotify. But anyway, um,

360
00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:59,680
we've been friends for years and after the whole shutdown and reopen, um,

361
00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:06,720
I was, I was just thinking, I need to reach out to Israel and invite him to one of my house

362
00:36:06,720 --> 00:36:10,560
retreatings and all of it, I think. I think he would want to come and say, hey, Israel, do you

363
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:19,520
believe in God? He said, do you like surfing? So, okay, okay. I get it. You want to come,

364
00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:22,720
you want to come worship and pray. We're just going to do a little music, a little prayer,

365
00:36:22,720 --> 00:36:28,960
have a little food. Yeah. And I mean, let me just tell you this as a side note, when you have God's

366
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:34,800
agenda and I have God's agenda in Malibu, I'm not there for really anything else. Ryan knows how

367
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:42,560
hard it was to communicate. Yep. That's a whole nother story. But I'm just trying to, my joy and

368
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:48,720
delight is seeing other people taste how good God is, taste and see how good God is. It says,

369
00:36:48,720 --> 00:36:53,680
taste and see that God is good. And so I just doing these house churches that people would get

370
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:58,080
as on fire about God is me because that, that brings me joy. So I'm like, Hey man, you want to

371
00:36:58,080 --> 00:37:02,400
come worship and pray with us. He comes, he brings his French girlfriend, Audrey, who's amazing.

372
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:08,000
He worships and prays with us with a favor. You know, I'm just seeking God's will. And now

373
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:13,600
I'm living in this huge mansion in Malibu for free, bigger than some church buildings I've seen

374
00:37:14,240 --> 00:37:18,960
for free. That to me, that to me, that to me has always been the funny part. Cause the,

375
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:25,360
you couldn't, I mean, you literally couldn't come up with enough money to try to,

376
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:31,920
you know, show that community of 13,000 people that live there. Plus the students at Pepperdine.

377
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:38,480
I know that's the attendance is the city has more than that when the, when the students are there,

378
00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:48,720
but you couldn't come up with a big enough amount of money to, to impress. And it turns out God

379
00:37:48,720 --> 00:37:56,080
hasn't needed any money. Just people who love him and are willing to step out and, and

380
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:02,080
change people's lives and see their lives changed. So it's wild. So we're meeting this beautiful

381
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:07,200
man on this hill and Israel comes up to me afterwards. He's like, Hey man, I needed that,

382
00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:11,840
that worship and that prayer, man. It really touched my heart. I needed that. I need this in my life.

383
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:16,080
So he starts coming every week, I think for like maybe five weeks.

384
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:20,880
And he's like, man, God's calling me, man. I gotta go all in for the Lord. I feel God's

385
00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:26,800
steering my heart. Like I gotta just follow him all the way. So like, okay, sweet man. Like have you,

386
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:31,520
have you ever been baptized before? You know, because that's our proclamation of your inward

387
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:37,200
faith. And you said, Oh, well, not really as a baby, you know, Catholic when you're just a baby.

388
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:41,360
And I said, well, this is your like adult baptism. You're adult now. You can think for yourself,

389
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:45,200
like, this is you saying to the world, I'm gonna go to the church and I'm gonna go to the church

390
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:49,040
and to the world, I'm gonna follow Jesus. So it's like, yeah, yeah, I think they should do that.

391
00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:56,400
And so we set up this time. We go down to the pier in Malibu first point, you know,

392
00:38:57,600 --> 00:39:01,760
there's hundreds of people on the beach, non-believers, obviously, believers, non-believers,

393
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:07,040
hundreds of people on the beach. There's like 20 of our friends who are believers, you know,

394
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:12,480
black, white, Latino, all types of people, because that's our friend group, you know,

395
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:19,040
we're all in one big family. And we go down the beach. And people are looking at us like,

396
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:26,080
what is this white guy doing? Like, what's happening? Yeah, I was there. It was a trip.

397
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:30,800
Yeah, it was a seaweed going in the water is like, Israel is like brushing the seaweed off.

398
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:36,080
And you know, whenever you back to someone you want to make sure you want to make sure that

399
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:40,640
they're really safe, they understand the gospel. And so I said, you know, it's right to ask you

400
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:46,240
to forgive your sins. He's like, yes, I want to follow God the rest of my life. Okay, well,

401
00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:51,840
if baptize you, you obviously are saved. You ask God for forgiveness of your sins. You're in heaven.

402
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:58,080
So let's just make it outward proclamation of your faith. So I get there, baptizing in Father, Son,

403
00:39:58,080 --> 00:40:02,480
Holy Spirit, boom, smash them on the water, bringing them back up. Everybody's clapping,

404
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:05,120
cheering, Ryan's there. I think Ryan's there. You want them to take your photos.

405
00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:12,560
You're taking photos. Yeah, because you had asked me, hey, do you want to baptize Israel? And I said,

406
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:21,040
no, you do that. You've earned a friend in his life and I'll take the pictures. But the picture

407
00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:27,920
that I took, I said to him, and it ended up in the... Right. So this is what happens, right?

408
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:33,360
So Ryan's taking photos. We pray over him after you baptize someone. It's great to just pray over

409
00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:38,240
them, fill them up with the Holy Spirit, pray and encourage them. They're just letting go and die

410
00:40:38,240 --> 00:40:41,600
into all the old ways, coming back in a new life. So just fill them up, lay your hands on them,

411
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:45,600
pray for them to feel the Holy Spirit, pray for them to just encourage them, give them prophetic

412
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:52,960
words from God. And Ryan's taking photos. We send it to Israel. Israel is a public figure,

413
00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:57,840
has 100,000 followers on Instagram. People follow this guy. People love this guy. He's a national

414
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:03,440
hero of Panama. He posted on his Instagram about the baptism. I didn't know about this, Ryan,

415
00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:07,680
didn't know about this. We're just doing what we do. Israel is the one who wanted to make every

416
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:12,720
super public. So I'm like, okay, you know, I don't even post that much to be honest. Yeah.

417
00:41:12,720 --> 00:41:17,600
Israel wanted to post it. I'm like, very sweet. He posts it on his Instagram, you know, thousands

418
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:22,400
of people are loving it and hundreds of people are commenting like, hey, I'm a Christian too. This is

419
00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:28,400
encouraging my faith. And now Israel is discipling his people. Israel is discipling his 100,000

420
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:33,520
followers, you know, and it's just amazing. He texted me the next day, sends me this article

421
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:38,720
on this news website. He says, Hey man, it looks like you're famous now in Panama. I said, what do

422
00:41:38,720 --> 00:41:44,320
you mean, man? Like I look at the article, I read Spanish and I read this whole article in Spanish

423
00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:50,080
about, Hey, Israel Dufres, our hero box where, you know, just got baptized by this guy named Nico

424
00:41:50,080 --> 00:41:57,040
and Malibu. So this news website pretty much got a hold of this photo that Ryan took and published

425
00:41:57,040 --> 00:42:02,480
it in international news. And it's one of the biggest news websites in Latin America, all across

426
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:08,000
Panama and other places. So it's just amazing. Like Ryan was talking about earlier, if you're faithful

427
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:14,800
with the little things, God just blows it up. And you know, it's amazing watching Israel. And now we

428
00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:20,640
just baptized Audrey the other day. I don't know how I heard about that. We baptized Audrey at another church in Malibu.

429
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:26,480
Amazing. You know, it's about teamwork and unity. And now they both got baptized. And it's like,

430
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:31,760
I love these guys. These are my friends. And these are amazing people that are, you know,

431
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:38,160
Audrey works for Netflix. Israel is an actor and a model and a boxer. These are influential people

432
00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:45,600
in LA that we love. And God has put them in our lives to disciple. You know, people disciple me,

433
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:51,840
you know, Ryan disciples me, Chad disciples me, you know. We all need people to learn from. And this is

434
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:57,360
like some of my great friends who I've had the privilege of helping, you know, pray with and

435
00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:01,600
baptize and just, discipleship is a long journey. It could be years and years and years, but it's a

436
00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:08,160
beautiful journey of friendship. And when you're discipling somebody, you don't even have to say

437
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:12,560
that you're discipling them when you're hanging out with them. You know, you could know in your head,

438
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:16,560
I'm discipling this person. I'm the spiritual father of this person. But you don't have to

439
00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:20,400
rub it into them. You could just say, hey, we're hanging out. We're getting coffee. We're reading

440
00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:25,520
the Bible together. We're hanging out. You know, you didn't have to mention that. I don't think I've

441
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:32,720
ever said in my life that I was discipling someone. Does it? That feels weird to me. I don't. I, it's,

442
00:43:32,720 --> 00:43:40,000
it's Jesus's command. Right. So we want to, that's what we're all about. What Jesus says and teaches.

443
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:52,160
But just my way that I relate, I just, I think of it as trying to be someone's friend and influencing

444
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:59,600
them into like God's mission for their life. Cause there's like what we want to do with our life,

445
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:06,400
which is unfruitful. It's just unfruitful. It's the right word. It's unfruitful. What we want to do

446
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:15,760
with our life is you can justify it, but it's unfruitful. When you, when you get into God's

447
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:25,920
mission for your life, the fruit happens and we want to, we want to have fruit that shows Christ.

448
00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:37,600
Yes. Yes. I think of it as just trying to influence somebody, try to use a friendship,

449
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:43,760
be a good friend to someone and influence them to God's mission for their life. I,

450
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:50,640
I'm a teacher, public school system. I teach special education. There was a guy six weeks ago

451
00:44:50,640 --> 00:45:00,080
who is one of the campus counselors on at school. And I went up to him and I said,

452
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:06,240
Hey man, you're, you're, you're a good dude. And he goes, he goes, no one ever tells me that.

453
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:13,040
And I said, well, why, but you are man. And he goes, cause I can see how he interacts with the,

454
00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:19,040
with the kids and stuff. He goes, I don't feel that way. I'm just, I have to go back to school.

455
00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:24,400
I'm 39 and I have to get this, this, this, I have to go back and I have to work on my degree. And

456
00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:29,760
all my other friends are, are doing this stuff. And, and I, and I said, and I said to him,

457
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:38,160
Hey dude, what we do doesn't define us. You know, and it's like he needed to

458
00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:46,320
to hear that. And then he told me, he goes, can you come by every day and tell me something good?

459
00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:55,600
This is this guy that I work with. Hey, and you know, my personality, I've viewed that as,

460
00:45:56,400 --> 00:46:00,960
okay, you know, like, I'm, yeah, I'm going to come by and just try to say something good,

461
00:46:01,520 --> 00:46:07,520
you know, and influence him. And, and I invited him to our, to our guys church. He didn't come,

462
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:14,080
but I invited him and just trying to be his friend, just trying to be encouraging to people.

463
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:22,320
People are starving for someone to say something encouraging to them anywhere. The grocery store,

464
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:26,400
people don't even look in California. People don't even look each other in the eye at the store

465
00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:32,000
everywhere you go. People are dying to have someone say something nice to them,

466
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:37,200
something encouraging to them. Let's talk for a second about this idea of prophecy and like,

467
00:46:37,200 --> 00:46:42,720
what that means. You know, I, uh, one way that I look at it, I'll share one way. I'd like you

468
00:46:42,720 --> 00:46:54,800
to share one way, but one way that I view prophecy is calling out in someone what you think God sees

469
00:46:54,800 --> 00:47:05,680
them as. And sometimes, like if someone doesn't know what that is, they'll view it and experience

470
00:47:05,680 --> 00:47:14,720
that experience it as this incredibly encouraging thing. When someone looks at you and like affirms

471
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:21,440
who, who you are and why you're here. Yeah. What do you, what do you, what do you, what's

472
00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:27,120
somebody that you're not? I totally agree with that. Um, I totally agree with that. I think

473
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:32,080
prophecy is actually really simple. If you just think about it as hearing God's voice for another

474
00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:37,280
person, because Ryan and I both are people of prayer. We love to pray. Um, and we believe when

475
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:41,760
we pray, we can actually, it's not just, it's a two way street. We, we talk to God, but then God

476
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:47,360
also talks to us. So if God can talk to me about myself, it's kind of silly to think that God can't

477
00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:53,520
talk to me about Ryan and encouraging. Yeah. You know, so like just the other day I was at this

478
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:58,000
worship night in Anaheim and I was praying for this, uh, the daughter of this guy who, she was like a

479
00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:04,080
six grade girl. I said, I just, I just feel like I see this vision of you dancing and I feel we're

480
00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:08,880
praying for you to heal. And I just said, I feel like you're going to get fully healed and be able

481
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:18,880
to fully dance. And, um, this is actually a crazy story, but, uh, she said, you know what? Everything

482
00:48:18,880 --> 00:48:24,800
sounds a little girl. I wanted to be a dancer. And you know, that's, it's a prophecy. It's, I'm just

483
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:29,920
saying here in God's heart over her life. And she's encouraged by that because only God could, I

484
00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:33,920
couldn't have known that only God could have known that about her. So it's encouraging to her. It's

485
00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:39,680
just another type of prayer, you know, just sharing with other people. And, um, that girl, actually

486
00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:44,720
it was, it was wild because she had it like Achilles tendon that was too short on her left side.

487
00:48:44,720 --> 00:48:51,200
She had two surgeries, wasn't able to, um, run since she was four years old. She's now sixth grade.

488
00:48:51,200 --> 00:48:59,120
So we pray for her. I, I, I think you're going to be a dancer. She can't even run. She said, I always

489
00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:05,120
wanted to be a dancer. So I started praying for her and, um, just put my hand on her ankle praying

490
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:10,320
for her. And, you know, it's just, it's amazing. Like God is God and I'm just a human, but God can

491
00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:16,000
do anything. He says nothing is impossible to God. It's easy. It's easy for God, you know, and Jesus

492
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:22,400
healed people in the New Testament and it says, God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

493
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:27,920
So why wouldn't he heal people right now? So I prayed for her ankle. She starts walking around.

494
00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:33,120
He says, I don't have any more pain when they walk. That's weird. Yeah, you used to have to walk on

495
00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:36,960
my tiptoes. Now I don't have any more pain. So now I'm getting excited because God is presence is

496
00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:41,760
touching and healing it. It's not me, it's God. So I put my, she said, now my knee is feeling where

497
00:49:41,760 --> 00:49:46,400
God, I can tell God's healing her whole leg. So pray for her knee, her knee gets healed. And then I grab her

498
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:51,440
ankle and pray for her again, that she'd be able to fully run. I feel the Holy Spirit telling me,

499
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:57,520
ask her to run, test it out. So I say, Hey, um, now they prayed a second time for your ankle.

500
00:49:57,520 --> 00:50:01,680
Do you want to go run and test it out? She's getting overwhelmed now. She's like, Oh my gosh,

501
00:50:01,680 --> 00:50:07,360
God is doing so much. Like give me five minutes. She sits for five minutes. She gets up and she

502
00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:12,720
starts running around this pool. And we took a video of it and her dad, her dad says the

503
00:50:12,720 --> 00:50:19,120
chiropractor starts weeping and crying because he's tried two surgeries on his daughter and

504
00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:23,120
nothing worked. And now he sees his daughter running around this pool. She hasn't been able

505
00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:28,320
to run since four years old. And now she's running around. The dad's knee gets healed. We pray for

506
00:50:28,320 --> 00:50:32,720
the dad's knee, he gets healed. And so then the dad and the daughter go for a hike together the

507
00:50:32,720 --> 00:50:38,080
next day. And so just honestly, I look at it as like anything you see in the Bible, like the New

508
00:50:38,080 --> 00:50:42,400
Testament, whether someone's sharing the gospel, discipling someone, praying for someone to get

509
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:48,320
healed. Jesus told us to do all those things. He said, go make disciples. He said, go cast out

510
00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:52,960
demons. He said, go raise people from the dead, go heal people. And that's what we see all the

511
00:50:52,960 --> 00:50:58,400
apostles do. And if God is saying yes, for day, today and forever, then he's still doing it. And

512
00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:03,280
honestly, I've seen all of that happen. You know, it's like amazing. And one thing that Altari says

513
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:08,080
is Indonesian missionary is the more you just focus on sharing the simple gospel and just

514
00:51:08,080 --> 00:51:12,080
learn about all the mission sharing the gospel, the more you'll see crazy things that God does,

515
00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:17,280
the activist things that God does. But it's all about bringing God's gospel everywhere we go.

516
00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:23,840
Yeah. So anyway, fun times. Yeah, it's, it's so when you think about,

517
00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:29,920
uh, like the future and, and things that you pray about, I have, I'm a very, you know me really well.

518
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:36,560
I mean, I like my, my routine. I go to bed early. I get up early. I like to pray and read my Bible.

519
00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:41,760
I like to get my waves. I go teach. When I'm at school, there's a couple of opportunities where

520
00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:46,480
I can like return texts and emails and I'm on it. And then I come home and I hang with my family.

521
00:51:46,480 --> 00:51:51,520
And I like to volunteer for ocean water stuff. So in the afternoons, I'm always like, Hey, Lord,

522
00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:56,240
who do you want me to call today? Just try to talk with them, you know, and I'll call different

523
00:51:56,240 --> 00:52:02,080
people. I had this little bench over here where I go sit and just ask God, who do you want me to

524
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:09,280
reach out to today? And I get on the phone and reach out to people. And, but this life, and I

525
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:15,040
think about the future and I think about, man, God, what, what can you do? And I have things that I

526
00:52:15,040 --> 00:52:21,600
pray about that I don't share. Um, I just pray about them because I, cause I want them to be

527
00:52:22,080 --> 00:52:27,920
personal and I want them to between, I want them to be between, you know, me and the Lord,

528
00:52:28,560 --> 00:52:36,800
but I do pray for them all the time. And, um, I've seen God do a lot of that. And I think,

529
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:41,360
I want to talk about a little bit with you is like, do you do that too? Like, do you have

530
00:52:41,360 --> 00:52:50,960
things that you, like, there are, there are people that I pray for. Um, and I've prayed for them for

531
00:52:50,960 --> 00:53:02,000
years. One was, um, uh, a recent family member that I asked to, uh, just this person can't read.

532
00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:10,000
So I got them on a one year Bible plan and they just play it like an audio Bible. And they just

533
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:16,800
play it like an audio Bible and they've been playing it at work for two years. And then just

534
00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:24,400
last week, this family member of mine came up to me and said, I found, I found Jesus

535
00:53:25,680 --> 00:53:34,400
and gave me the biggest hug and said, thank you for, um, putting these seeds in my life.

536
00:53:34,400 --> 00:53:40,080
And so I have a lot of people that I pray for and a lot of circumstances and a lot of things that I

537
00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:46,640
want the Lord to see, like in the world. Do you have a lot of that too? Oh, it does me. Um,

538
00:53:48,320 --> 00:53:56,720
so, you know, I got my Bible, I got my journal. Um, and I love one thing I love about Ryan,

539
00:53:56,720 --> 00:54:02,000
he's super consistent. He's super faithful. He's on it. He does really get up at what? 430?

540
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:13,520
Yeah, 345. Yeah. It's wild. And, um, I think one of the beautiful things about God is understanding

541
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:19,120
God as a person. Sometimes people are very disciplined and it's a gift. Sometimes people

542
00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:24,400
are very spontaneous and it's a gift. Yeah. And it's a, it's a, it's a beauty to understand how

543
00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:28,880
I do both. Yep. Now, sometimes I'm on a mission trip and I'm running around doing church services

544
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:34,160
and praying to people and all this stuff. Sometimes I'm at home and I have a routine of,

545
00:54:34,160 --> 00:54:41,200
you know, I have, I literally have this list of all these different things. Um, I do.

546
00:54:41,840 --> 00:54:49,200
There's spiritual growth right here. Boom. It's our list. So, and this is, it's spirituality,

547
00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:53,360
reading your Bible, connecting with God. It's not about just doing the right thing, going to heaven.

548
00:54:53,360 --> 00:54:58,800
We're saved by the grace of God, but reading your Bible and doing all these things strengthens your

549
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:04,720
faith. So why would you not do that? You know, it's like you're saved through the door by grace

550
00:55:04,720 --> 00:55:08,800
and you're saved by grace, of course, always, but it's like, I want to think about how much can I

551
00:55:08,800 --> 00:55:13,600
get of God? I want to get as much as I can. I want to read as much of the Bible and any other

552
00:55:13,600 --> 00:55:20,480
great author I can. And so, you know, I have on my list, if I have time in the day, maybe,

553
00:55:20,480 --> 00:55:25,520
maybe I'll have three hours. I don't share this very often, but I'm sharing this as a teaching

554
00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:31,280
moment. Please. You know, sometimes I'll spend three or four hours just doing this, reading the

555
00:55:31,280 --> 00:55:36,880
Bible and going through this list. I don't do this really every day. If I'm at home and I have time

556
00:55:36,880 --> 00:55:42,320
and I'm doing this, it's just great. It refreshes my soul. I get back from a missions trip, I journal,

557
00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:48,080
I read my Bible. So this is my list. I go read the Old Testament. I read the New Testament. I'm kind

558
00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:53,120
of strange. So I read the Bible in Greek, in Spanish, in Indonesian. Um, I do listening prayer.

559
00:55:53,120 --> 00:55:57,440
I listen to God. Prayer of intercession, praying for others. Prayer resolution, getting myself right

560
00:55:57,440 --> 00:56:04,720
with God. Guitar worship, praying Matthew 7, asking God for things that I need. Tongues,

561
00:56:04,720 --> 00:56:09,600
evangelism, discipleship, those things I have to do outdoors. Reading spiritual books by any other

562
00:56:09,600 --> 00:56:14,240
good author. Podcast sermons, thankfulness prayer, taking communion, getting right with God.

563
00:56:14,880 --> 00:56:18,880
So that's just a list. I can do that for three hours and I just get so refreshed. I get so

564
00:56:18,880 --> 00:56:23,040
blessed. It's not about the list. It's not about doing the right thing or earning God's favor. I'm

565
00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:27,680
already saved. But I just want to see how much can I get of God. And I share that list with you

566
00:56:27,680 --> 00:56:31,920
because maybe, maybe you want to connect with God like Ryan every morning. And I just encourage you,

567
00:56:31,920 --> 00:56:35,680
you know, just start by reading one chapter of the Bible a day. If you want to do more,

568
00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:40,640
you can do more things on that list. And it's just refreshes your soul, fuels you up. I journal,

569
00:56:40,640 --> 00:56:46,240
I pray. And I mean, that's how Ryan and I live our lives. If you want to really know us, like,

570
00:56:46,240 --> 00:56:51,200
we pray about what we do. We pray, we get with the Lord, we make a plan, we journal, we write

571
00:56:51,200 --> 00:56:57,840
down prayers. And it starts with prayer and then goes to action, right? Ryan does both really well.

572
00:56:57,840 --> 00:57:02,960
He prays, he takes a lot of action. I pray a lot. I think I need to take some more action sometimes.

573
00:57:05,280 --> 00:57:12,560
Thanks for that. I mean, I have very much, like, I like to, I definitely, I like to pray and read

574
00:57:12,560 --> 00:57:17,360
my Bible in the morning for an hour. It's been like a routine for as long as I can remember.

575
00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:22,960
And I have a list and I have like a note. I write down people's names and people say things to me.

576
00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:32,160
And I got a lot of people, but I want to make sure that when I see them, that the next time I see them,

577
00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:38,880
I can say, hey, you know, I've been praying for you. If I feel the need to say that, you know.

578
00:57:38,880 --> 00:57:45,680
And I also, I like to listen to, and I have a one-year Bible plan, but also

579
00:57:46,720 --> 00:57:54,160
always on the way to the beach, I listen to some worship from Charlie and Ryan and Michael.

580
00:57:54,160 --> 00:57:57,600
I love those guys. I tell them that every time I see them. I appreciate them so much.

581
00:57:58,400 --> 00:58:03,360
But they have some stuff on SoundCloud that I really like. I'll listen to, just all the way

582
00:58:03,360 --> 00:58:07,520
there, like 30 minutes, from the time that I leave my house to when I get on the walk,

583
00:58:07,520 --> 00:58:12,800
it's about 25 minutes. So I get like 25 minutes. And then on the way to school, I'll put some more

584
00:58:12,800 --> 00:58:17,040
on and then on the way home from school. So I'm either like throughout the day, I'm either like,

585
00:58:17,040 --> 00:58:22,000
I'm just filling my mind with, you know, some really good worship. I also have a lot of podcasts

586
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:26,560
that I like to listen to. I'm also in the academic world. So there's some like science stuff that I

587
00:58:26,560 --> 00:58:34,320
like and other just different big books and I like to read, but definitely no downtime. I like to,

588
00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:42,480
I like to fill my mind with as much either scripture or worship or I want to learn.

589
00:58:42,480 --> 00:58:47,360
You know, I love to learn. So I just find like in my downtime, that's usually how it's

590
00:58:47,360 --> 00:58:54,880
fleshing itself out. And it's awesome. You can actually go through the day and feel

591
00:58:54,880 --> 00:59:04,560
close to the Lord and feel full of his spirit, you know, like in all circumstances. And it's good for

592
00:59:04,560 --> 00:59:11,840
us to, for people to know that. Yeah. And I look at it as like your whole day is worship to God.

593
00:59:11,840 --> 00:59:17,840
You know, I get, I get with my Bible and my journal and God will often convict me of things

594
00:59:17,840 --> 00:59:23,440
I need to go do. I'll be like, Oh, remember to pay your phone bill or whatever. And I'll be like,

595
00:59:23,440 --> 00:59:28,160
remember to pay your phone bill or, you know, finish that music, finish that song they're

596
00:59:28,160 --> 00:59:34,000
working on, whatever. So I pray, I get with the Lord. Maybe I write a list of three or four or

597
00:59:34,000 --> 00:59:39,280
five things to do. And then the rest of my day is worship. I go and do what God just told me to go

598
00:59:39,280 --> 00:59:47,520
do, whether it's work, making money. Oh man. I only make money when God tells me to make money. I

599
00:59:47,520 --> 00:59:52,160
want to build the kingdom of God, but if he tells me to go make some money, I go make money. You

600
00:59:52,160 --> 00:59:59,680
know, like it's just about one, but once before the other, yeah. And it's money. Money is great.

601
00:59:59,680 --> 01:00:06,960
But I know plenty of people who have it and they're not on the inside. They're falling apart

602
01:00:06,960 --> 01:00:15,280
and they're broke. It's like where we live, it's like coming across one way on the outside, but

603
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:23,040
feeling broke on the inside. And Jesus wants us to feel like a million bucks on the inside.

604
01:00:23,040 --> 01:00:28,240
Yes. And we do that every day. Every day that we invite them in, things are not perfect.

605
01:00:29,200 --> 01:00:35,760
Life's not perfect, but every day we invite them in, we get peace, we get joy, we get grace,

606
01:00:36,320 --> 01:00:42,640
we get kindness. The treasure of the kingdom is the peace and the strength and the joy that God

607
01:00:42,640 --> 01:00:48,960
gives you every day, but you only get it if you seek it and you ask for it. And our natural tendency

608
01:00:48,960 --> 01:00:55,840
is to do that when it's the only option and then life gets really good when you seek God

609
01:00:56,480 --> 01:01:02,480
every day as the only option. Right. Yes. It's amazing, honestly, like, and it's,

610
01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:07,520
obviously money isn't bad. Jesus talked about money in the Bible, but it's like where is your

611
01:01:07,520 --> 01:01:13,280
heart, where is your priorities? You know, the rich young ruler had everything and he missed out on

612
01:01:13,280 --> 01:01:18,160
the greatest treasure, which is Jesus, because Jesus said, go sell everything and follow me.

613
01:01:18,720 --> 01:01:24,320
And the guy went away sad because he's like, I think my worldly wealth is more important than Jesus.

614
01:01:24,960 --> 01:01:31,120
And then on the flip side, people like Ryan, they have their job, they're being responsible to

615
01:01:31,120 --> 01:01:35,200
paying their bills, but his priority is I'm going to go to a Southrop on the church. I'm going to

616
01:01:35,200 --> 01:01:42,080
go here to God's will. And it's, you know, I have one friend who, you know, they're into all this

617
01:01:42,080 --> 01:01:46,480
business and all this real estate and all this stuff. Their church is dwindling and it's becoming

618
01:01:46,480 --> 01:01:51,280
almost nothing, but their finances are booming. And it's just where is your focus? Where is your

619
01:01:51,280 --> 01:01:58,160
focus? And God loves us so much that he wants us to focus on him first because he really is the

620
01:01:58,160 --> 01:02:06,640
greatest treasure. We think, yeah, we think that if we have riches that we're rich and we're not,

621
01:02:07,440 --> 01:02:12,400
in fact, it's the person that doesn't need the money. It's the rich one. My heart is Lord,

622
01:02:12,400 --> 01:02:23,120
give me my riches to help the poor so that I'm not poor. Because if we have riches and we're not

623
01:02:23,120 --> 01:02:31,120
helping the poor, we're poor. We're poor. We're the poor ones because you have and you didn't,

624
01:02:31,120 --> 01:02:36,640
you know, that's why as we get into like, you know, how do you help people? You know, I mean,

625
01:02:39,120 --> 01:02:43,520
so for me, because my background's in water, I spent a lot of my time in the last 10 years

626
01:02:43,520 --> 01:02:50,800
trying to figure out how to help people with that. But there's plenty of ways. I mean, I have a friend

627
01:02:50,800 --> 01:03:01,600
the other day, our friend Curtis, he bought a fifth wheel and spent his own money. I think him and his

628
01:03:01,600 --> 01:03:07,200
wife spent, they bought the fifth wheel, they put more money into it. They had like a bunch of money

629
01:03:07,200 --> 01:03:13,600
into this thing and they drove it out here to spend some time in California, to spend some time

630
01:03:13,600 --> 01:03:22,400
with my friend Ralph in San Diego and spent some time here just learning about missions and ministry,

631
01:03:22,400 --> 01:03:30,400
wanted to just have an experience with his family. This guy's really, really sharp and has some really

632
01:03:30,400 --> 01:03:40,480
good business skills. So he goes back to Texas and he met this single mom with four kids who didn't

633
01:03:40,480 --> 01:03:51,280
have a job and he gave his fifth wheel. I want to say he had like 50 grand in this thing and I told

634
01:03:51,280 --> 01:04:01,600
him, I said, bro, if you take what you have and you help someone else have housing, the Lord will

635
01:04:01,600 --> 01:04:08,240
always make sure you have a ministry. It's amazing. It's just one, and I know a week ago story back

636
01:04:08,240 --> 01:04:16,800
and forth, I have my friend Shane the other day, him and his family, they found this lady who was

637
01:04:16,800 --> 01:04:23,040
really hurting and they went and they got her a thousand dollars worth of groceries. And I guess

638
01:04:23,040 --> 01:04:36,160
the point is, when you're trying to take what you have to bless other people, that's the heart of

639
01:04:36,160 --> 01:04:47,600
God. And then what I have found in my life is when really your heart is to help other people,

640
01:04:48,480 --> 01:04:56,800
God's always taking care of you. Every single time. Isn't that cool? It's amazing. You can't

641
01:04:56,800 --> 01:05:04,000
out give God. I know it sounds so cliche, but it's true. Yeah, and just like one,

642
01:05:04,000 --> 01:05:09,040
one example of that is like, you know, seek first the kingdom of God, his righteousness,

643
01:05:09,040 --> 01:05:12,400
all these other things will be given to us. Of course, God cares about your finances. Of

644
01:05:12,400 --> 01:05:16,240
course, he cares about your health and everything else, but it's what are you seeking first? Like

645
01:05:16,240 --> 01:05:35,120
one day I was in Malibu and God told me to go serve for the Okreya.