In Awe of God | Colby Schnacky | Episode 35

Speaker 1: 0:00

Pull up a chair across the counter. You're one stop shop for a variety of perspectives around Jesus and Christianity. I'm Grant Lockridge and I'm here with Colby Schnacky, and I heard he had some sort of affiliation with a band. So what's that all about?

Speaker 2: 0:16

Yeah, we're jumping straight into it. Oh yeah, we're going into. So yeah, basically our thing is. Our thing is we have this thing called J Walkers and over the last two years it's really developed into everybody that I'm associated with. Everybody in my house, everybody in my group all does music, except for me. I was not gifted in that area. I cannot sing. I can play a few instruments, not really just enough to trick somebody, and then I stop. But everybody else is doing music and so J Walkers' Worship is a band and we I guess it's a band worship collective, whatever you want to call it. And yeah. And so we've been blessed to do some things on our own. We've put out a song called Silence. About a year ago we did a song with House Fires called I Thank God, and then we just did a song called Crazy Love with Maverick City and then a tour with them too, on their latest, the Mavaway tour, and so it's been a lot of fun. I mean, I wasn't necessarily a part of the singing group that traveled around and did stuff, but I showed up at a few shows and did all that. But no, that's kind of what that is, and it's a blast.

Speaker 1: 1:35

That's awesome. So how'd you get into, like the Instagram, TikTok social media space? I was bored.

Speaker 2: 1:46

No, honestly. So I used to work. I worked as a server for six years at a restaurant and then COVID kind of came crashing down on everybody and it kind of reset the world, reset everything, and then the world was just shut down. I had nothing else to do. I didn't know what to do. I saw my little sister. She was making these stupid videos and hers aren't stupid, no, hers are really good. But I was like I have nothing else to do and so I started doing them and that led to everybody in my house kind of just doing social media to pass the time and like what else were we gonna do? And God really showed up in an amazing way and we didn't know what he was doing at the time, almost five years ago. But it's opened up so many doors. It's been an amazing thing. We love doing it. It's been incredible. But that's really how. That's how the whole thing started. The whole thing started just through. What the heck are we gonna do in quarantine and all we have is our phones and there's a bunch of trends going around and we put our own spin on them and we did them and we just hung out with each other. That's all we did. That's awesome.

Speaker 1: 2:53

Is that what you do, full time now?

Speaker 2: 2:56

Social media. Yeah so I do social media full time, along with ministry and everything else that we're doing. But yeah so the last five years I've done a live stream every single night, pretty much every single night, other than like if I'm sick or holidays or something came up. I've done a live stream for about two hours the last five years on TikTok, so that's what I do on there, and then I post videos, content, speak and do ministry with my family.

Speaker 1: 3:26

So tell me more about kind of the ministry aspect. What led you to get into that so?

Speaker 2: 3:34

years ago we were sitting outside of my favorite coffee shop in Los Angeles. It's called Priscilla's, it's in Burbank, it's so good, it's so good. And it was me, my dad, my brother and our friend and we were just dreaming up Like we wanted a church for like the things that we were interested in. We wanted a church that wasn't too young. It wasn't. It was constantly changing as we grew, as we grew up, and we wanted some like real substance. We didn't really want the games, we didn't really want the youth group aspect, and so, when we were 17, we decided to start this thing called J-Walkers and that we learned, we learned a lot, and so we started. We started a youth group. We were thrown into like leadership at a young age, all underneath my dad's leadership, and so it wasn't just us like willy-nilly saying let's start a church and we have no theological background, no, nothing. It's like it was underneath the leadership of my dad and my uncle and we just came up with the crazy ideas, did the worship, the sound, all that type of stuff, and so, yeah, so it just it was through a lot of trial and error, just thrown into leadership at a young age, learning and trying to grow this thing called J-Walkers as a youth group. Really, just for the age that we were at, I don't even want to call it a youth group, I don't want to call it a young adults group. It's like it's been ever changing. As we grow older, our desires and the things that we are learning and the things that we want to learn are constantly changing, and so we've constantly geared it towards that. But we ran that for about, I think, four, five years and then, yeah, around four or five years, and then we gathered weekly a bunch of kids and did this thing called J-Walkers and it was awesome. I loved it. It was just a blast and I was doing it with my friends, I was doing it with my family. It like it couldn't get any better. It was great. We were having a blast the time of our lives. We were learning so much, we were messing up so much just trying to figure this whole thing out. And then COVID shut down. Then COVID shut everything down and we stopped meeting weekly and then that's where the social media aspect of everything kind of came in and we just started doing social media, started making these videos, started doing this, and then God kind of grew the platforms for all of us, not just myself but my brother and my little sisters, my sister, some of our friends who are there's like 12 of us that are constantly doing this on a daily basis. And J-Walkers was kind of the unity, the thing that kept us all together, the thing that just kept us all close. That everything kind of ties back into. And so we always say, like, what good do followers do, what good does a platform do if it's not feeding back into the kingdom, if it's not teaching people about Jesus, if it's not getting people provoked about who this Jesus guy is and was, and so that's how we see everything. And then, coming out of COVID, the world started opening back up. We were still doing our social media thing and that's kind of continued on, but J-Walkers never left our hearts, j-walkers never disappeared, and so we kind of revamped it and we came back in with renewed vision, renewed ideas. We started doing events, we started putting out music and in the last year we've done I think I think we did about four different events and then one conference, and now we're just writing music, doing songs with other people, and it's been really cool, it's been really awesome and it's just. What's been cool is just like that aspect of it. You really just see the faithfulness of God, just like the things that us young kids were just sitting there dreaming about when we were younger, trying to figure out like we wanna be doing music and all this stuff and preaching, and it's just really cool to see the faithfulness of God that those dreams were never unheard, they were never unseen. And eight years later we're finally seeing the fruition. We're finally seeing each of us step into the things that we've always wanted to do and we're kind of getting a glimpse of what we've always dreamed of. And so that's kind of like the story of J Walker's and where that's at and how it started.

Speaker 1: 7:55

That's cool. What kinda led you well, first I wanna just kinda hear your testimony of like how you became a Jesus follower. Yeah, I don't know, Like you never been asked your testimony before.

Speaker 2: 8:09

No, no, no, no. I tell my testimony quite often. I just when, like some people are like, this is the very moment, date, timestamp that I've been doing like oh shit, we don't need to hear that. I'm just like you know, I didn't write that down.

Speaker 1: 8:25

I didn't know. Yeah, I don't have any of that either.

Speaker 2: 8:26

I didn't know it was that big of an event when it happened and so, no, I hear that all the time. So I'm like I don't really know when I became a Christian. I've kinda grown up in the church, whether or not the people around me believed in God or whatever it was like we went to church and I think it was just out of the idea that it made you feel better, and so, growing up in that sort of family, I just I went to church and I went to Sunday school and I learned and as as time went on, I just kind of Stayed in there and just like growing up in like in a chaotic environment, I just never really wanted to be home and so, instead of going to the parties and stuff, which I did, I did all that aspect of things and I had my my time. But all my friends were at church, all like my my friends were at the, at the youth group, and so I kind of grew up constantly going back to church and if I wanted, I had this like escapism mentality. If I ever wanted to get away, if I ever wanted to go somewhere, if I ever Wanted to just like disappear, I would go to the church and that's where I would hang out with people. I would just kind of Do that, and so there was always like this weird grasp On it towards me, and it wasn't that I was learning anything. I mean, I think you do subconsciously just pick up on stories and things that are that are being talked about constantly in your Environment, but it wasn't that I was actively seeking Jesus. It wasn't that I was actively seeking God. I knew about him. I grew up here in the stories, I grew up Listening to the sermons and stuff like that, but I wasn't actively seeking who Jesus was. I was just in an environment where he was always kind of there, and so as time as time went on, I just kind of hung out with friends that were around that. And then when I was around, like 1617 I was, I was in a church and I really just didn't like things started not sitting right with me with the preaching and by this time I started taking my like walk a little bit more serious and I was like, okay, I'm a Christian, what does that mean? Let me study. And so from a young age I was constantly studying, just like Theology books and systematic theology and all of this type of stuff and it created a desire me to eventually want to go study theology at a university and so With that, what that means said is like what they were saying in the Jesus that I have grown up hearing about, it just didn't kind of align to me. There was just certain differences where I was just like no, that just doesn't seem right, that doesn't seem like Jesus, that doesn't seem like who he is or his character. And so I started, I started studying more and more and I started realizing oh, there's different factions of churches, there's different beliefs within Christianity. It's not I just believe in Jesus, it's there's sections and factions and all of this type of stuff. In the current one that I was in, I was just like that is that does not feel like Jesus to me, and so I I Ended up leaving that church and that's kind of when Jay Walker's Started stepping in to my life and we started building that out. But yeah, I mean my story isn't my story when it comes to like who Jesus was in my life and learning about Jesus it was. It was a constant slope. It was never just like I'm heading down and then I hit the rock bottom and I met Jesus and then my life turned around and all that type of stuff. I grew up in the church. I grew up here in the stories. I wasn't pursuing Jesus, I wasn't actively looking for him, but as I stayed in that environment, as I stayed Hearing about who he was, I began to get more curious. I began to hear stories where I was like, oh he does, he is looking at me, he does care about me. Who is this Jesus? And it just provoked me to start asking questions instead of living a life that was Bad, hitting a wall and saying I need Jesus. It was just a constant slope for me, just Learning more and more and more until I finally just came to the point where, okay, this is who Jesus is, and I start seeing him in my own life or who he is, and Making my own relationship with him, and then that's a whole different story. That's just like my true relationship with Jesus and how that grew and how I started learning and the convictions that started taking place in my life and the things that started shifting in my life, because there's one thing to know about Jesus and it's another thing when you truly know Jesus and what he wants to do in your life, you can't live the same way, and so that's a that's kind of my story. When it comes to how did I hear about Jesus? I just grew up in it.

Speaker 1: 13:11

Yeah, sorry since you studied theology, have a theology background, so to speak. This is a question that I love asking people who know something about theology. So what is the most recent thing that you've like completely shifted and your and your beliefs are in your views.

Speaker 2: 13:33

It's not necessarily something that I've shifted, it's more the thing that's been brought up in in just in my thoughts and Just like the idea of like the awe of who God is right, like when you truly sit there and you think about who God is, I'm like trying to get to this place of awe and like just awestruck wonder of holy crap, I'm small, I am, I'm like I'm really nothing, I'm nothing special, there's nothing in me that's significant, I'm like I'm dead and what Jesus did. It's just the idea of like God created this world through his conversations. He, he ever, everything that he spoke. He procreated every single organism, everything that is sophisticated to us, everything that we're still trying to explain and trying to figure out. Like we don't we can't even comprehend the exact calculation of where the universe is because it's ever expanding. We're still trying to figure out how the pyramids got like, how those were so perfectly created and crafted, and the idea that's just like that God procreated Every single thing just through speaking it into existence every living cell, organism, photosynthesis and how it take. Like every how, like it blows my mind to sit there and think that all of these scientific wonders and how things work, god just spoke and and it just kind of it just listens. But not only that is like this God that also created everything, created humans Didn't remain anonymous. He like he. He reveals himself to us constantly and he's fond of us, like he's fond of out of everything that he created. He enjoys being in unity with us. He wants to talk with us, he wants to have a relationship with us. There's something special to him about us. We are the object of his obsession. He is crazy about us. And not only that is like when we did destroy that relationship with him, like the links to which he went to to get off of his throne in heaven, to come down to die of death that we deserve, so that we can be Unright standing with him. It's like We've done everything we could possibly do to push God away from us, to get God out of our lives, to let us live our own thing, to have our own free will, and God's just like no, I'm gonna keep chasing, I'm gonna keep chasing you down, I'm gonna keep loving you and you can like. You're just gonna get to a point where you're gonna be like I See that you're right there and I see the world's right there. You're gonna have to choose and then just like it, just it just blows my mind. Just the idea of the intentionality and the, the desire that God has towards us individually and as a unit is just like how active he wants to be in your life and how minute, like how, even the small, tiny little details, like you, just I don't know. I've just been at this place where I'm trying to understand this, get through the sensitivity of God and his movements and what he's doing, and as I sit there and I just pray and I'm just quiet, it's like God wants to be in everything. He wants to be in every little fine detail, and it just blows my mind that the God who's constantly Holding everything together is also worried about the smallest things in my life. It just blows my mind and so I'm just trying to get to this, this, this awestruck wonder that everybody talks about. Where it's like, when you really Understand and think about who God is, what he's done and what he's trying to do in your life. It just brings you to a place of wow. You know what I mean, yeah, oh.

Speaker 1: 17:16

Yeah, when we were talking with Colby Meyer, we talked about the slowness of God and like how if he was, you know, if we saw him, completely, basically that we just like die. That he's like slow revelation and slow patience and faithfulness to us, and that kind of made me think of that of like he's so just big and we're so small and if he'd like Came at us as fast as he wants to, it would be like Crazy, like we would die, like just he's that, he's that big and I I love how like fired up you got a second ago just about like talking about the awe of God, like that's just cool to see Dude fired up about that.

Speaker 2: 18:03

Also, the aliens built the pain, built the pyramids, so Isn't it funny that we would rather credit accomplishments to things that we don't even know exist than to admit that there are people smarter than us, like there. Yeah, you know what I mean that there there was, like People that lived on this world that were smarter than how we are now.

Speaker 1: 18:31

Yeah, at least like the chronological snobbery or whatever. Like you know, people a couple thousand years ago didn't know anything and we're at the pinnacle of, you know, thought and Civilization, but it's like humans didn't necessarily get smarter, like the knowledge like we have.

Speaker 2: 18:51

Like Mayans and like Egyptian astronomers knew way more about outer space than we do, but it's like I was years and years and years ago. How do they know more about that type of stuff than we do? You?

Speaker 1: 19:05

know. But yeah, man, and I just yeah, that's such a Hard thing to grasp like. I don't even think we can grasp like how big God is like, because he's like outside of time. So it's like what is that even? What does that even mean? Like what does that even look? Like like we have time and he's just like out on a different thing.

Speaker 2: 19:36

Like that's crazy, I don't know. We're literally like, even right just before this podcast, my dad and I were just sitting in the living room talking and it's God's got it. God's got everything. It's like he's he's not just on this timeline, figuring things out as they happen. He's not surprised by things, he's not taken back by things when they happen. It's like oh oh, now we got to figure this out. It's like he knew. He knew from the beginning, he knew what's gonna happen and he knows how it's gonna, how he's gonna work it together. But we look at life on this spectrum from, like, just past, present, future, on this linear basis, and so we're just constantly. We don't have the mindset of God, we don't have the viewpoint of God, and so that's why we are stressed out, that's why we do get anxiety and anxiousness, and it's because we can't see what God sees. We don't know what God's doing or how he's gonna work, and so it's just faith. It just comes back to like are you gonna trust God? Like, are you gonna? Are you going to Stop trying to run this rat race by yourself? Are you gonna stop trying to do it by yourself and really just Understand that God's got it? There's like that verse. Exit is 14. 14, which just talks about, like, the battles the Lord's. All you have to do is be silent. Like how much better would your life be if you actually just considered the fact that God was fighting on your behalf, that all you had to do was worry about your obedience and being where he was calling you to be and not worrying about the future, not worrying about the next step, not worrying about what this or that person thinks of you, not worrying about what people are saying against you. You just realize that God is fighting for you, he's on your side. He is gonna work all things together for the good of those that love him, and all you have to do is worry about being silent and being in right standing and being obedient to where he's calling you to be. Like how much better would your life be now? I know that's easier to say than it is to do, but like you sit there and you think about it and like my life would be pretty good, you know, and so no, those are the things I think about constantly. I just I just sit there and I think about God is transcendent. He does, he does know what's gonna happen. He's not worried about when the government's at or what your next step is. He's like got it, but we just sit here and we stress and we Try and, and then, through that stress, we also try to just Be the god of our own life, and that's where that's where things really go bad, that's where things just start to get hectic and flare up, because that's not your role.

Speaker 1: 22:08

Yeah, I love that. Just the, you know, it makes me think like the, don't be anxious.

Speaker 2: 22:14

You know, today has that you know, I'm just worried about.

Speaker 1: 22:18

Yeah, exactly, just like I Don't know. That's almost like Doing because if you worry about the future, that's like you trying to put yourself in the place of God, like you know what's happening in the future, because like we only know what's happening like right in front of us, like we can, like anything could happen in the next second, like we have absolutely no clue. And he's a God that you know holds literally everything together. So I mean he definitely, he's definitely got it. There's, there's no doubt about that.

Speaker 2: 22:53

I also just don't think that we were meant to worry about that many things, or even, like that verse says, is don't worry about tomorrow, for today has enough things of its own and it's like we're constantly fed so many things to worry about. We're constantly fed so many things through social media through, through billboards and TVs and and news reports and stuff, and it's like I don't think that our mind and our state of being and our humanity was actually meant to process that much stuff. And that's why I think that the anxiousness is in, anxiety is at an all-time high is because we're constantly flooded with new things to be worried about and we're not meant to worry about that many things. It's like we're not God. Why would I worry about things that I can't sit here and control? Why would I sit here and worry about things that don't even involve my Able of life? You know I can't sit there and I can't do anything about it. So why would I sit here and why would I stress about something that I can't even do anything about? And but I'm sitting here worried about it? And it's because we're constantly flooded with so much information about things to worry about and stress out About. So we're constantly in this state of anxiety and anxiousness, when we were never created to live in that state in the first place, and so we're just constantly flooded with information.

Speaker 1: 24:19

Yeah, like I just like the last, in the last couple days I've just really been noticing, like, if I like scroll on my phone and like go through like Instagram or whatever, yeah, and I do that for like 30 minutes. I put down my phone and I realized that I'm like a little sad and I'm like when did that come from? And then I think about it and I'm like, oh, it's because I was just doing nonsense and like an overload of information, like you said, for 30 minutes, and I didn't, you know, do it.

Speaker 2: 24:48

I just gotta fix your. Fix your feet. I'll sit there and I'll go to my Explorer page and anything I don't want to see like. If you hold it down, you just put not interested. If you go to my Explorer page right now, it's all golden retriever videos. I Don't know, I don't know how I don't it's not even my favorite dog, but they are so funny to me and so and funny animal videos dominates my entire feed on Instagram, on TikTok, on On YouTube. It's cooking videos, which I don't know why. It's like this guy that's constantly frying the craziest things and then you eat some. It's like ASMR. I don't know why I like it, but I do. And so Dogs and food, bro, that's that's. That's what. That's what my mind.

Speaker 1: 25:34

I don't feed the mind. I'll tell you, I'm like I.

Speaker 2: 25:38

Just got to this point where I'm like I'm, if I can sit there and I can do something about what Instagram showing me, why wouldn't I? Yeah, you know, it's like they're gonna feed me the information that I tell it to feed me, so why would I? Why would I tell it to feed me or watch things that I just Don't, in that I'm not interested in? Why would I sit there and watch things that are gonna make me sad? They're gonna make me feel bad? It's like All I'm watching now is if I don't like it, if I don't, if I see it, or it's something I don't want to see, or it's not good for me to see. I hit not interested, and so now it's dogs food and then Think Joe Rogan.

Speaker 1: 26:19

Dogs food and Joe Rogan. That's the episode title, right there, no.

Speaker 2: 26:27

But that it's true. It's like, if you can do something about it, why don't you?

Speaker 1: 26:31

Yeah, for real.

Speaker 2: 26:32

I mean, I never even knew that that was the thing, so I just found out about it like four months ago and it's been the best thing of my life is Like, if I go to, if I go on Instagram right now, go on Instagram, you got your golden retriever video. But it's like, if you, if you, if you don't like a video, you just hold it down, not interested, not interested. Oh, golf, but that's. But you know, I mean you hit, not interested, and it won't show you stuff like that anymore.

Speaker 1: 27:06

Let's get. Yeah, that that's. That's a good tip for me, cuz I don't know, man, my feed's all over the place. It's nothing like bad, it's just like Nonsense. It's like I'll go to like I like a funny video, to like, you know, somebody talking about like the end of the world, to like somebody. You know I do watch a lot of funny animal videos as well. Those are those are cash, like those are. Just that's my friend. I have a buddy that just sends me those cuz he knows that I like him, so he'll just like constantly send me like animal videos. It's crazy.

Speaker 2: 27:43

That's what my brother and I were like crazy about animal, but they're the funniest things in the world Big fan.

Speaker 1: 27:50

I just got a little dog Um, but by just got, I mean a year ago, but she's still small and her name's tugboat and she's a little like Bashaan freeze, Okay yeah, and she's just the cutest thing. She's an absolutely horrible dog, but she's so cute and we love her to death. You're still training it. We didn't train it at all, so it's just, it's a little tiny sucker and it's just like she's tugboat and that's it and she's nuts, but I'm gonna be honest, I Can't do small dogs I. Used to have a big old Leon burger. That's. It's a weird name, but it's basically like a beefed up German shepherd and that sucker was a hundred and fifty pounds, something like that, and Talk about it's like tan. So I went from because my wife's allergic to dogs. So oh, no, yeah, I had to get a small little hypoallergenic dog. She wouldn't let me get the Afghan hound, if you know what that is.

Speaker 2: 28:54

No, I don't know what that is.

Speaker 1: 28:55

It literally looks like it's got like a girl's hair, like it's got like beautiful, like oh, that's so funny. But I was like I gotta get me one of those. So I love the idea of, you know, fixing your Instagram feed because I had a. You know I was gonna go out there and make content. That was better, but now it's like kind of nice to know that I can just do that, because I don't know if I want to spend the time to go and make, like Instagram and YouTube content.

Speaker 2: 29:34

So, yeah, I just, I'm so against the narrative that social media is bad for you. Like, yeah, is it. Is it the best place to be? No, but it's also a great place to be. Like so many Like, why would we run away as Christians? Why would we run away from the place that so many people are active in? It's like, if we're called to be in the world, but not of it. Like, why don't we set up things on our Instagrams, just like that, that are going to prevent you from seeing negative things, that are going to prevent you from seeing things that you don't want to see? It's not like Instagram's out to kill you. It's the fact that you watch that stuff and Instagram says, oh, they like that stuff, I'm going to give them more of it, right? And so why wouldn't you just sit there and say I don't want to watch this, I'm not interested in this, and Instagram's gonna be like okay, here's some dog videos, right, but it's like Instagram and social media is not out to kill you. They're not. It's like is it a place where there's so much negativity? There is darkness and stuff? Yeah, but that's the world. That's like the world that we live in. And like I hate to break it to people, but that's just, that's just it. The fact that you can see the world in your pocket, that's it's not any different than what you were experiencing out here. It's just more centered and more focused, because that's the stuff that you're looking at, that's the stuff that you're actually feeding your mind with, and so Instagram and social media and all of it, it's gonna be as negative as you're gonna allow it to be in your life, but at the same time, there's so much light and there's so much goodness and there's so much benefit to actually being in social media. It's like I sit here and I'm I was telling somebody the other day. It's like what good does it do these people if I'm sitting here and I have a, I have a platform and I have the ability to sit there and make a video about God, or I have the opportunity to sit there and talk to people about God in a world, in a, in a, in a Tech world where there's so much negativity, in a tech world where there's so much Going on and so much hatred and so much just darkness? I have the, the key for that. I have the answer. It blew my mind Right and like these are my friends, like when I, when I sit there and I go on live stream and I talk to these people or I look at the people that follow me, I view them as my friends, right, and so because they are and it's I do life with these people and it's a it's a lot of people that I've actually been investing and just supporting me over the last Five years, and it's not that I don't know anything about them. I genuinely know things about the people that follow me. I love it and I've seen life change in it and these people have come to our events and they're impacted by the stuff that we're doing in the same way that they, they, they impact me. But I was listening to I forget his last name, but you know the the guy cliff. He goes and he speaks a different, like he's like blowing up all over the place his name's cliff, but he goes and speaks at universities and Really well-spoken, knowledgeable guy about the Bible and I think I'm talking about. Yeah, he was saying this. He has like this thing called ask cliff and he was saying this one time. It blew my mind. It was just like this analogy where he was sitting there. It's like the end of his life and You're standing before, you're standing before God, and you look over to your right and you see the friend that you grew up with right and you know you're going into heaven. He's not so sure and so you just sit there and he says he has this interaction. He said this is his biggest fear is that he's sitting there talking to this guy. And this is a guy that he's spent time with, it's a guy that he interacted with, it's a guy that he actually knew. And I'm going to heaven, I'm going through the gate and I know that. And this guy just looks at me and he says it's his biggest fear is he's like you knew about this. You. You knew all about the fact that we were going to come to the end of our life and we're gonna stand before God and that there is a heaven and that there is a hell and there are decisions that you have to make and there is an obedience that you have to follow, like you knew about all of this and you didn't. You didn't tell me about it, you didn't have the audacity, the guts to tell me that this is where we were headed. And so now he just sits there and he's like he's not so sure if he's getting in. And it's such a scary thought because it's like we impact and we see so many different people. And what good does it do anybody if I'm sitting here and I have Whatever this following is on social media, and I have this knowledge of who Jesus is, what he's done in my life, this testimony, how he's actively Moving and working in my life, and I know where I'm going and I know that there is a line between heaven and hell. What good does it do anybody if I just hold all of that to myself because I'm too afraid to say it about talk about it in a dark place, and so no, I just think there there's, there's a there's gonna be a rude awakening for a lot of people and and there's like there's that verse that just says that it's Jesus talking, and I'm pretty sure it's in Matthew. It's Jesus talking in any saying I didn't, I didn't come to bring peace but a sword. And you look at that verse and you're just like, oh, frank, that's like what. What do you?

Speaker 1: 34:45

mean? What do you mean he?

Speaker 2: 34:46

didn't come to bed like you're Jesus, you're the peaceful guy, you're the peace. Be with you, I'm gonna. Don't be afraid that you're that guy. And Jesus is like no, I'm, I'm coming to bring a sword, I'm gonna. They're there. I'm gonna draw a line in the sand and this is it you're gonna. I'm gonna force you to make a decision. You're either gonna choose to be with me or you're gonna choose to be with the world. And it says it's gonna pit daughter against mother, it's gonna put father against son, and so there is a line in the sand and you have to choose. Jesus is saying I'm gonna force you to choose. And what good does it do anybody if I'm sitting here and I know that people are gonna have to choose and I'm not saying anything about it? That's just like that right. That wrecks me, that that that hurts me. The fact that I know all this stuff and I've studied it. I know what I'm talking about. I have faith of my own. I've seen Jesus move in evident ways in my life. Why would I not tell somebody about who Jesus is? Because I'm afraid to have a hard conversation. You know what I mean. It's like I Don't know. I just think that the days of safe Christianity and the days of just Going through life, the way that you want to go through life, and not having to have hard conversations I think that that's coming to an end and I Just you got to care, like I just want to see people saved, and you got to care a lot about people in order to have those Conversations, and so I don't know. I mean that's what we're called to do too. I'm sorry I can just keep talking, but like that's what. You hear about Jesus and then he says, okay, I see what I did in your life, I want to do that in everybody's life. Right, and now that you know about me, go give me to other people. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father. Like it's the great commission, it's like the. The last thing that Jesus told us to do before he ascended into heaven was to go tell people about him. And so it's like Jesus's greatest good was never just coming and saving you. It's like there's fruit to bear in this life by being obedient to him and he. He doesn't have a calling and a purpose and a mission over your life. And it's like so many people are just concerned with getting into heaven and getting saved, and that's okay with them, but they completely want to bypass and overlook the fact that there's a mission that they're stepping into now, and that is to go. Whether it doesn't matter whether you're a social media influencer, you have a following, a platform, or you're you're mowing grass or whatever You're a server, like you have a mission and that is to tell people about the thing that you're experiencing and who Jesus is. And so many people just want to overlook that. Sorry, I'll just.

Speaker 1: 37:33

That's a very refreshing take on social media because I mean, you know, I'm sure you know this, but like tons and tons of Christians are, like social media is the devil, like, yeah, you got to get off that thing. Like, and there is validity to that of like so TV. Yeah, exactly, you know turning off devices of any type and you know spending time with people and Jesus and stuff like that, but I, I love the idea. It's. To me it's kind of like watching the chosen, if that makes sense of like, if you're gonna turn on the TV, why not watch a Jesus show? And if you're gonna do social media, you know why not have Jesus sinned or content or dog videos that aren't just like actively like Making you sad and like leading you away? So I think that that's a very solid thing like how to like actually use your social media for that True.

Speaker 2: 38:35

I mean, I'll also take like I'm not. I'm not a hyper spiritual Christian, right, I'm not. I'm not gonna sit here and say, like every single thing that you do has to Revolve around Jesus, right, but at this, but at the same time, it's like a, a lot like how do I say this? It's like not everything that you do has to revolve around Jesus, but the way that you act and entertain things should, right, and so it's like what you're saying is like it doesn't have to be like a to me, like it could be a Jesus show, but it doesn't have to be a Jesus show. But is that show exemplifying things that I don't agree with? And if it, if it exemplifies things that I don't agree with, then I probably shouldn't be watching it. Is it? Is it stuff that is gonna make me? Is it stuff that's gonna challenge me? Is it stuff that I need to guard myself from? Then you shouldn't, then you shouldn't be watching it. So I'm not, I'm not gonna. I don't want to say that I'm like the super spiritual guy, but Because I'm not, and like I listen to music, I listen to, I watch TV shows and all that type of stuff, but at the same time, I know when to turn it off and I know what's not good for me to listen to. Like I'll like, I'll say I'll come on here and I'll say it what it for, what it is. I like rap, right, but what the what the songs Exemplify and certain things that they'll say or certain ways that they'll talk, I'm not about it. I'm not. I won't listen to it, I won't entertain it. There's just, there's just certain things or certain music videos where I'm just like you know what. I'm gonna stay as far away from that as possible because I don't want that in my mind, right? I'm not gonna be the guy where it's like Like I don't curse in my life but if somebody, if somebody, curses around me, I'm not gonna shame or scorn them for For for cursing. It's like it's just. The whole idea is like we're in a dark, fallen world. People sin, people mess up, people are gonna say things. It's holding yourself to a higher standard and knowing your weaknesses and where you fall. I was reading Jeremiah, not Jeremiah. I was reading what's his name? Nehemiah. I was reading Nehemiah the other day and he's so. Nehemiah is rebuilding the walls of Israel. Right, he got, he was allowed to go rebuild the walls of Israel and they're rebuilding the walls, but there's certain areas in the walls where that are still broken down, and he knows that there's enemies that are coming to attack him, and he knows that there's enemies that are that are fixated and focused on, and they know where the walls are broken down and so obviously, that's where they're gonna attack. And so Nehemiah sets up guards and sets up Protection in the places where he's weakest, in the places where the walls are broken down, and I think that that's just such an exact indication of how we should live our lives too. It's just like I'm good in that area, like that area is solid, that area is not falling. That area it is good, but this area I'm not good in this area. On weekend, this area is broken down, this area is still being built and I'm getting stronger in this area, but that's where the enemy is gonna attack me, and so what you need to do is you need to set up guards in those places so that when that does happen, and when people do come to steal, kill and destroy, like you're guarded and you're set up against that. And so I think that I think that you can take that into so many aspects of of life, with just like understanding where you're weak and Set up guards in those places. Otherwise, you're gonna keep falling. If you don't, if you don't learn the test the first time, you're gonna have to retake the test, and that's why so many people just sit in the same area in their life over and over again. They're like God, I want to be done with this, I want to be done with this, I want to be done with this. Let me go to the next thing is that you haven't passed the test yet. When you pass the test, we'll move on to the next thing, and so, but people just sit there and they're like I'm not learning, I'm not learning, I'm not learning. Why am I not moving on to the next thing? And God's like when you pass the test, we'll stop retaking the test. You know what I'm, you know what I mean, and so I Don't know if that makes any sense.

Speaker 1: 42:37

No, that makes perfect sense. You know, guard, guard where you're weak. And you know, ask God to reveal where you're weak to you, because it's hard to you know. A lot of times it's hard to know, like you know some areas you're weak in, but sometimes you don't even you have no clue. So it's like you know, just asking God, be like, hey, what areas am I weak in? Like David did that all the time. He was like search me now me.

Speaker 2: 43:05

Do it is a vulnerability that comes from like talking to God. It's not just like Make your request known. It's like On a relational level with God. Like God I'm. Where am I? Why do I keep stumbling? Can you highlight an area in my life? Can you highlight the weak points in my life, just like what you're saying?

Speaker 1: 43:27

Yeah. So I'm curious Are you a big reader? You read a bunch.

Speaker 2: 43:33

I Just threw out a lot of books, but I love to read what's your like bookrex, what's your favorite books and? I'm a really boring reader. I, it's, it's. I cannot read fiction. It's really hard for me to to read read fiction, unless it's like Screwtape letters by CS Lewis. Yeah, it's a.

Speaker 1: 43:58

CS Louis yeah thanks.

Speaker 2: 43:59

Incredible favorite book of all time. Mere Christianity, so good. Um, the the awe of God by um let's forget his last name. I look it up and then I'm like, oh, that's who it's by. And then by John Brevere. The all I've got by John Brevere is incredible. This book right here it's called the Imitation of Christ. It's incredible and it's really just like little snippets of wisdom. It's just like if you're reading Proverbs or something. But it's based off of like stories and stuff. But I love this book so much. Dangerous Prayers by Craig Rochelle is really good. Orthodoxy by GK Chesterstein is really good.

Speaker 1: 44:48

Oh gosh, that one's a bear dude. Can you even explain? Can you even read that and understand that one? I don't even know.

Speaker 2: 44:55

No, you can't.

Speaker 1: 44:57

And that one's a bear dude.

Speaker 2: 44:59

This book is great. I love to read. The way I view reading is just you can only experience so much of life through your own eyes and reading is a really cool way to see how God is speaking to people through their life. Like everybody's got their own relationship with Jesus, everybody's at different levels. But the beauty of reading is you can look at these people and you can just see how God is moving in their life, revelation that he's teaching them in their life, and that's why I love it so much is just, you learn so much by the people that have gone before you and I don't know. I just love to read and I just cannot read fiction.

Speaker 1: 45:46

Yeah, I get that Dude. That's why I love podcasting, by the way.

Speaker 2: 45:50

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 45:51

Same thing. That's exactly the reason why I do podcasting, because I don't care about giving myself a platform or people hearing what I have to say. I want to hear from you guys. I know what I would say, but what would you say about that? You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 46:10

At the same, time it's like vice versa for me. It's like I don't know what you have to say.

Speaker 1: 46:15

Yeah, that's just so valuable and that's kind of the thing of counting others is better than yourself, which is something that we really try to work on on this podcast, especially with the tougher interviews, if you will. This one's like we're speaking the same language, everything's good. You know what I mean. But the tougher interviews, it's hard to count others better than yourself and be like, ok, that have something valuable to share with me and I'm going to listen to it and try to respond. And that's hard for me, man, that's tough.

Speaker 2: 46:48

I agree with that. Sometimes you're just like no, and you want to like, but at the same time it's just. It's better to just sit there and listen. There's a I forget, I forget who it was a song, I forget who sings it, but it was just. It was really just talking about we have more in common than we don't, and if we could really just focus on the things that we do have in common, I don't need to sit here and argue theology. I don't need to sit here and argue beliefs and all that type of stuff. I think we put so much complexity on things that just don't necessarily matter and when we just need to focus on like salvation, are you saved and who is Jesus and what's my role in the story? I don't need to sit. It's like the whole equally yoked thing is like don't get into a relationship Like you're not equally yoked. Equally yoked to me really just means like we have the same core, foundational values as people. I believe this, I believe this, I believe this. You believe the same things as me. I don't need you to be a theology major. I don't need you to sit here and know every single detail about the Bible that I know that's not equally yoked. Equally yoked to me is just like our core foundational beliefs and who Jesus is and how we live our life is unified, but I don't need to sit here and know all the things that you know and you don't need to sit here and know all the things that I know and what I'm constantly learning. I just feel like, as pastors or as people that study theology, if you're not doing that and you're not actively pursuing that, you don't need to sit here and know all about that different stuff. Is it beneficial? Yeah, you can have conversations that are really edifying and really fun, and I love having deep theological discussions about different things, but, at the same time, that's not a matter of salvation to me and understanding that I don't need to know everything you know and you don't need to know everything that I know, and we can actually have a relationship that is beneficial in that, and it's not me trying to prove you wrong or get you to believe something that I believe we have way more in common than we don't. And so I feel like so many people are just trying to force beliefs and force different things, and Jesus never did that. Even if you walked in as you read the gospels and as you study who Jesus is, jesus said this is me, take it if you want. And so he was never forceful about who he was. He came and he gave himself freely and he revealed who he was to people. And then he said do you believe or not? You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 49:44

Yeah, come follow me. And they didn't want to.

Speaker 2: 49:47

They didn't do it. It's like the rich young ruler. You want to follow me? This is what it's going to cost. He's like peace.

Speaker 1: 49:54

That don't make a lot of sense. I'm out.

Speaker 2: 49:58

And so I think we overcomplicate so many different things.

Speaker 1: 50:02

Yeah, the only reason because I used to do that. I used to care about debating people on theology, but that's just fun. I think that's a fun time and if it's ever like I'm trying to get you onto my side type of thing, it's like that's some nonsense.

Speaker 2: 50:21

Yeah, when it's more about winning than it is about just having a good time, because debating is fun, like going back and forth. If you've ever read Seeking Allah, finding Jesus by Nabil Qureshi great book, incredible book. But he said so. He was a Muslim and he believed in Allah. And then he went to school and he met a Christian guy who was really well studied and they became friends. They were just like, he was nice to them and they became friends even though they had different belief systems, even though they didn't see eye to eye on the same thing, and what they did was they're like OK, this is what I want you to do. Here's a specific topic in Islam and here's a specific topic in Christianity, and we're going to study that for a week and we're going to come and have a debate. And they just like for fun. And they just did that. Oh, like week, week after week after week after week after week, and it eventually led to Nabil finding Christ. And. But I just think it was just an incredible book based off of. I don't care what you believe, we can still be friends and we can still have conversations that are deep and intellectual, and it's not going to cause strife in our relationship Because there was a time and a place to have that conversation. They were arguing topics and it was just like it was healthy and so yeah.

Speaker 1: 51:54

Those facts. So any final thoughts, any last things that you want to share with our audience, that you got going on or future stuff, or anything like that.

Speaker 2: 52:06

I mean I could sit here and I could talk about. All I'd like to do is just sit here and talk about different things and people's worth and value and all that. And then I mean things going on we're writing music, we're going to be putting out music soon, which is really exciting, really fun. Just podcasting, getting back into the structure of starting back up a podcast and just speaking in social media that's really. That's really. My life is so simple and I love it. I do. I mean simple as like it's hard and I do a lot and I work and I work really hard. But I think one of the biggest things that I'm really focusing on is understanding what needs to be in my life and what doesn't need to be in my life and for me. I get excited about so many different things. I can sit here and I get excited about building brands and doing new things and picking up new hobbies and stuff like that. But what I feel like God's really teaching me right now is just like let's focus on a few things to be excited about. When you spread yourself too thin, you don't really get anything done. Not only that, but I don't think you can be completely obedient when you're so focused on so many different things because you can't give your calling the time that it needs to develop, and just really, really stripping back on things and focusing on key things in my life that I just want to do and I'm excited about doing, and that is being obedient to where I feel like God's calling me.

Speaker 1: 53:47

That's solid, man. Well, if you can talk for that long, we ought to do a part two then, oh dude, I will talk your ear off.

Speaker 2: 53:56

You get me going on certain topics or really anything. I will sit there and I will ramble and I will talk and I will, bro, I will. It's bad. I think it's bad because I'll just sit there and I'll go and I don't know when to stop.

Speaker 1: 54:16

It's bad if it's not the right time. If I'm trying to let you ramble, that's fine. I want to hear from you. But if we're like you know, if we were just like trying to have a conversation, I was like, hey, bro, you know, here's I'm struggling with my son, and then you just ramble. This is a perfect time.

Speaker 2: 54:39

I am so unaffected by stuff. If you were just like bro, shut up, I would be like you got it. Yes, sir.

Speaker 1: 54:47

Yes, sir, sir, yes sir. Well, that's awesome man. Thanks for listening to the Across the Counter podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate us five stars wherever you got this podcast. Thanks, y'all.