Welcome to the Abundant Life Podcast, bringing you encouragement and challenging believers to spiritual change and growth by applying biblical principles to everyday life.

And now your hosts, Sasso Mendez and Ben Arellano.

Welcome, everybody, to the Abundant Live Podcast.

This is episode number 72, and I'm here with my good friend, the faithful servant of the faith, Sasso Mendez.

Hey, Ben.

What's going on?

How much, man?

How you doing, brother?

Doing good, so.

Yeah, I know.

We did, too.

Yeah, I got in and out.

I'm surprised I don't smell like in and out in here, bro.

Oh, that sounds good.

But today we've got an extra special guest with us.

We have Pastor Jason from Calvary Chapel Phoenix.

What's up?

What's up?

What's up, brother?

Glad to have you.

So this is our taco talk time, and so we.

We usually chat about, well, either what we ate or, you know, what we're, you know, digging on lately.

We've been doing a lot of.

A lot of B dubs.

We do a lot of chicken wings.

Yeah, but what's your.

What's your poison, man?

Like, what are you.

I mean, you look pretty healthy, bro.

I was gonna say.

I was gonna say my.

My food is pretty boring.

Like, I eat steak all the time, so it's good.

It's not boring.

I'm not.

I'm not mad about it.

No.

So I meal prep all my food.

Really?

So I cook all my meat, all my noodles, all my rice.

I do all that for me.

So I make like, probably 10 to 15 pounds of steak a week and dice it up, weigh it, measure it, dish it out, the whole Tupperware, pack my lunch, and I eat like five or six.

Those a day.

Yeah.

Six meals a day.

Oh, easily, bro.

I do, like, 5,000 calories.

I shoot for five, like, four, 500 to 5,000 calories a day, so.

But it's clean.

It's.

It's meat protein.

So you're lifting every day.

You're.

You're working?

Yeah, I bodybuild, so I've been bodybuilding like, six years, so it's like.

It's meal prep is everything.

Like, if.

And it's exp.

Like, it as expensive as eating out is.

Like, it's.

I can.

I can meal prep pretty.

Pretty reasonably, but it's.

It's still expensive.

You know what I mean?

I mean, steak, like.

Yeah, but it's.

It's not.

It's London broil, so it's.

It's like cheap lean cuts.

Okay.

This is not like filet mignon like, In New York.

But it's.

It's still good, but like half a cow or something.

So that's what I was actually, I was talking to some people about, like, get like the deep freezer and get the.

Get the cow.

And it's like.

But I don't.

But even like.

Like the one that Pastor George got, that that cow is super lean.

Like, we try to cook the brisket really was.

It wasn't good.

Well, it's not that it wasn't good.

It was really good.

It just had no fat.

Like, there was no marbling.

Man, it was super.

Especially if you go grass fed.

Like, it's gonna be.

Yeah, it's gonna be super lean, but it's good.

But it's like, yeah, I'm a deep freezer.

Like, I like a little marble.

Yeah.

I'm not gonna lie.

Like, I like a little ribeye.

And I just did New York yesterday for our last pool party at our house with somebody's.

And so I gotta be like, in New York.

And it's like, oh, I forgot how good it is.

Like, I've been on the London broil and it's like, eat it.

Basically like mid rare.

We're almost rare to like have any flavor, really.

Yeah.

But the New York was.

But it's for purpose, a goal.

It's not like I enjoy this meal, right?

I tell people all the time, I eat for purpose, not for pleasure.

Right?

So, like, I mean.

I mean, I like that sounds like a sermon.

It was like, it's a good sermon illustration, right?

Like, I live for purpose, not pleasure.

Right?

So it's like in this area now.

Of course I love food.

I mean, my wife just.

She's Mexican, so she made me tacos last night.

And so it's like she had some chissfirit chicken.

She's like, you want tacos?

Like, yeah, baby, I do.

So, I mean, I will down some tacos.

Like she cheat dates in there.

Yeah.

Like there's still protein involved.

But it's like.

I mean, she fried me up some tacos, so salt.

So you did the corn?

Corn.

Corn or tortilla?

Flour tortilla.

That was.

It was a corn tortilla and she fried it.

He's like, you know, sour cream, a little bit of cheese and some salsa.

Okay.

What do you guys get down on?

Well, bdubs, we like Texas Roadhouse.

Texas Roadhouse is really good for the amount of money you pay.

But I did get half a cow, so I'm still working through that.

Oh, so you.

You did it yeah, yeah, it's the grass fed cow.

It's not the, the meat's not as good as.

Because it's, it's, you know, it's real.

We're so used to that fake stuff.

No, it's true.

It's all GMO'd out and so well that.

We made some pretty good out of that.

Cuz.

You had some wagu hamburger meat.

We did some really good, like smash burgers.

We did some smash burgers.

Wagu burger.

Oh, dude, that was, that was.

They threw it in there like to entice you to next time buy the wagyu instead of the other.

Have you had like proper wagyu at like a restaurant?

Like the, like, like a steak?

I don't think so.

Yeah, it's like you haven't had a steak 44 or something like that.

I think 44 is just a regular.

Yeah.

Cow.

Just a cow.

Not.

Not.

I don't know if it's super grass fed or.

I think the wagyu.

Wagyu there.

Higher up diet.

Yeah, it's a tomahawk and it's like three.

It's crazy expensive.

Yeah, it's wild.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But that was.

It was pretty good, man.

Those bash burgers came out pretty, pretty bomb.

And I mean, it was, you know, there was the onion and we did it on the Blackstone and just.

Yeah, it was, it was pretty good.

I'm not gonna lie.

It was good.

If it's not a steak, right.

When you buy a cow, it's in a hamburger patty pretty much for that most part.

Okay, so that's how they give it to you, all the rest of the cow.

Yeah, but there's one here in the valley I know that does grass fed and then they finish it off three months with green.

So there's a little bit more correct density, marbling.

There's a flavor to it.

You gotta have a little bit of flavor.

Yeah.

I just got so sick of chicken.

It's like, I just want the meat, dude.

I want the steaks.

I know a lot of bodybuilders do chicken.

Chicken and rice.

Chicken.

Chicken's just cheap.

It's cheaper than steak.

That's why.

And it's leaner.

Right?

So it's like too much red meat can be bad for your cholesterol.

But that's the more marble.

Like, that's the more marble.

So like if you eat lean but more.

But yeah, like I was living on chicken press or chicken thighs for years.

It's all I would eat.

And you're like I cannot.

I cannot eat chicken anymore.

So, yeah, it's.

It's so good.

But I'm happy.

I'll do canes.

I'll eat canes all day.

I love canes.

Canes is, like, my guilty pleasure.

I'll take the guys out.

Like, guys, you want to do cane's.

And it's like, I always regret it.

I feel sleepy.

And I teach.

I'll eat it before I eat.

Like when I preach on Thursday.

And I'm like.

I feel like I'm falling asleep in the pulpit.

Like, I'm drowsy, like I'm yawning.

It's like, man, but I love Cane's.

Cane's is like our families.

Like, our kids are always.

It's like, in and out.

Yep.

Chick fil A or canes.

And it's expensive, though.

Like, taking the family out.

Like, 60, 70 bucks.

I feel like, for the four of us, crazy.

And it's like, guys waters.

I know.

That's.

That's kind of why we, like, in and out.

I mean, it's.

Maybe we went just today.

It's still cheap.

Four of us, 40 bucks at 10 bucks a pop.

I mean, that was pretty reasonable.

The most part, yeah.

Ks are kind of going up.

Chick fil A to me, is super expensive, and especially for the amount that you get, because you don't get as much.

The portions are not that big anymore.

No Chinese food.

You feel hungry in a couple hours.

I know.

Goes quick, like sushi.

Yeah.

It just goes crack.

Get you.

Why?

I want to go back.

Yeah, I know, right?

Gets you hooked up.

I. Fructose corn syrup.

There's nothing healthy, though, at Canes.

No, there's not water, but.

But you can actually get grilled chicken.

You can have them.

You can do unbreaded at Canes.

Really?

Yeah.

It's a little hack.

I wish you had never told me that.

I know.

Now you're like.

Or you can double bread it.

You do have an option.

You can double bread.

You can double bread it.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

There's always hacks.

I.

You can do better on both sides on the bread.

Bob.

Bob.

The Bob.

Bread.

Yeah.

The sandwich.

Well, that's what we like b does because they use beef tallow to.

To fry the wings, you know, So, I mean, it's.

And they're good.

Feel better.

My poor choices.

Yeah, exactly.

But then you end up doing fries, and it's just, you know, you throw it out the window, you know, so somewhat.

Wings are our.

That's our family.

Like, movie Night.

We get wings.

So we don't do Borrows or Wingstop.

Yeah.

And we'll order them.

And it's like, I've never been to Wingstop.

It's pretty good.

Bomby bomb, dude.

It's better than Borrows, which we were doing.

Borrows all the time is not bad.

Wingstop, they're crispy and snappy and then gooey, bro.

And so.

And they like this garlic parmesan wing that's.

So we've been doing just.

Just Wingstop, and.

And it comes with fries for free.

Really?

And it's like 50, 60 bucks for like, 20 wings and fries and ranch and the whole bit or whatever it is.

It's.

But it's so like, that's our movie night go to as a family.

Is like, wings.

Like, she just text me, like, wings.

Yes, yes, yes, baby.

When I get home, feed me wings.

Yeah, I do like wings now.

We love wings.

We go.

It's so bad.

They know us.

And they.

There was this one waitress that, like, she pretty much knew our order.

Like, she just quit.

Oh, you're there.

We're there, like, at least once we.

He's there, like, what, three to four times?

Sometimes three times.

Because right by work, he works close to them.

Okay, okay.

And then you tell people about it.

Then they go, and they like it.

And so now they want to go with you during the week, and you're like, wow, I want to get a burger.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which is not good.

Yeah, it is good, but not good.

Good, not good.

Yeah.

It's not fright and tell.

It's pleasure, not purpose.

Exactly the opposite.

I don't know what my body gets from that substance.

Not a lot.

A little bit.

Yeah.

There's something there.

There's calories.

Yeah.

I'm gonna have to start thinking about that.

I'll start meditating on that purpose.

Not pleasure.

Yeah.

You can apply it to everything, right?

Fitness, everything.

Right.

I mean, our whole life, right?

We.

We live on pleasure.

Yeah.

Which is very Hellenistic.

I mean, we're getting into the Bible, but, like, that's very.

It's very the world, right.

It's like pleasure driven, even, like finances.

You can be ambitious and be wealthy.

Yeah.

The world does it for pleasure.

We do it for purpose.

Yeah.

Right.

The more that we make, the more I can give back or build the kingdom for others or bless family, friends.

The world does it for pleasure.

Right.

It literally says the prayers that you don't answer.

Right.

In James, the reason God doesn't answer your prayers is because you ask amiss so that you will spend it on yourself.

Right.

So it's like as much as we try to.

Right.

Like, I want to be dominated by purpose, not pleasure.

Now, of course I still have fun.

I'm like a weirdo, I guess.

Like, I'm a monk.

Like, no fun kids.

Like, what's the purpose of gaming?

It's like.

No, that's pleasure.

Like, for sure, you know?

Sorry, babe, we're not going to Canes tonight.

Sorry about that.

Yeah, you gotta find a purpose in it first.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Evangelize one person and then it'll redeem.

Yeah, exactly.

I don't have the four.

I had more money.

I know, right?

Right.

I'd have a repair one to 12.

Oh, you're a Jordan guy.

My wife is a shoe.

She's a shoe.

Oh, that too.

Yeah.

He's got more pairs than I do, but.

Yeah, my pairs you got.

I'll be honest, confess it.

Probably all.

All shoes or just Jordans.

Okay, how about just Jordans?

Maybe 15 pairs.

That's a.

That's a collection.

Yeah.

Maybe have like 70 pairs of shoes.

Yo, that's a bedroom for shoes, dude.

I think I got five books.

Five different boogers.

Oh, my word.

Yeah.

And you got some Barclays.

You got.

You got some shoe shoes.

The old.

I mean, the new Jordans like to play basketball in.

And he's got the old school and.

The old school ones.

Yeah.

And just dress shoes, boots.

Wow.

Oh, I said I'm never buying new shoes for Christmas because you don't need that.

I don't need anything.

It's just gravy from here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's just for fun.

Yeah, pleasure.

That's good for pleasure.

It's not for need.

If I got another.

Another pair of shoes, I'd be.

I'd live to be for 150 and still be good.

That's crazy.

Wow.

70.

That's cool.

Yeah.

Good for you.

Yeah.

Shall we get in it?

Let's get it.

All right, before we get into the.

To the content here, I just want to remind you guys, if you guys can visit us online, you can reach us at AbundantLife FM.

Or you can find us on Meta, which is Instagram and Facebook.

And you can also follow Pastor Jason on.

You're on Instagram.

What's your handle?

I think it's just Jason Feaser.

And then Tick tocks.

I think Pastor Jason Feaser.

Okay.

So.

But I think Instagram just Jason Feaser.

Okay.

Yeah.

Nothing fancy.

Definitely, definitely follow Pastor Jason here.

And.

And yeah, so we're going to be talking today.

We had mentioned last time in our last podcast, we were going to do a Charlie Kirk memorial type of episode.

And recently with.

With all of the events that happened, I had attended a Wednesday night, and Pastor Jason had preached sort of a memorial, and Pastor Jason knew Charlie Kirk personally, which I thought this was.

You know, it was.

And it was an encouraging message because it was.

It was a message of, hey, church, we need to wake up.

What are we going to do with this?

I mean.

I mean, we all felt the pain of a brother that was murdered, that was assassinated, that was martyred, and we felt that pain.

I know I did.

We didn't know him personally.

Saw someone.

I had seen him personally at an event.

We didn't meet him personally, but we saw him.

And then obviously, most of us followed him online.

You feel like you know him.

Yeah.

Even if you didn't know him, you knew him because everyone was learning from him.

Right.

He was.

He was.

Yeah.

Crazy smart.

Oh, my gosh.

So, yeah, when that.

When it happened, and he actually was.

Was killed on my birthday.

That was my birthday.

Oh, my gosh.

And so my day started off really good, and then it went really south really quick.

Right, right.

And the next couple days, I was just.

My heart hurt like I was.

It was just.

It was painful.

And.

But then, you know, heard the message on a Wednesday night, and I thought, man, we.

You know, this is.

This is revival.

This is going to happen like God, you know, whatever was meant for evil, God meant it for good.

And so he will take whatever is evil, and he will make it good.

And so.

So I. I thought, man, this would be a perfect opportunity to bring you in on the podcast.

So thank you for.

Yeah, of course.

For joining us.

And so Sasso's going to kick us off with some key verses here, and then we're gonna.

We're gonna jump into some questions and some content here.

All right?

First Corinthians 16, verses 30, 13, 14.

Be watchful.

Stand firm in the faith.

Act like men, be strong.

Let all that you.

You do be done in love.

Romans 13, 11.

Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

Amen.

And.

And that's kind of how it feels like.

It just feels like it is.

We feel like we're in the last days.

We feel like that time has come.

100 and.

And, you know, even today.

We were talking a little bit about that today, and.

And so what would you say, Pastor Jason?

You know, you, you knew Charlie Kirk and you, you kind of sat under some of his teaching.

So can you tell us a little bit about that and what, you know, what maybe you kind of learned from him?

He, I, one thing I didn't know that you mentioned that he, he would mentor pastors and I didn't know that.

I mean, he did a lot of things I did.

I just don't know about.

Yeah, yeah, he had, he had a lot in.

Yeah, yeah, he, he made himself available and again, I didn't know him super well.

Right.

I shook out to shake his hand a couple times and waved to him and we were in the same room a lot.

But you know, he had his crew, you know, that was with him early on.

But I got invited into the process with a guy that I mentored, a guy named Jared Fleming, who then became Charlie's number two of Ops.

And now he works for Eric Metastas.

I don't know him.

So he got kind of scouted because this Jared's amazing and I wanted him at Calvary still.

He was like my Timothy.

And so Jared got scooped up by Charlie, was basically running Turning Point Faith, was a director of Ops, and then now he works for Eric Metastas and he's crushing it.

And he's this young, young, handsome guy.

Just.

Yeah, he's blonde, blue eyed.

Like he's like a Joseph.

Like you're like, come on, man.

Like he's a football star.

Like he was a quarterback.

His dad was a cop and radically safe.

Anyway, so he got me in the room with, hey, they do these pastors conferences and he does the Freedom Nights.

So it started with the Freedom Nights in Arizona where at Dream City Church they were on Tuesdays.

And before the Freedom Night event, he would have a roundtable with pastors.

And so it'd be like, we're talking like maybe twice this room, 10, 15 pastors.

And he would just do Q A and sit with you and have dinner and basically make himself available and resource you.

And hey, what do you need guys?

Like, oh, you want this book?

Like, here's a good book on Marxism and here's a good book on communism and here's a good book on, you know, politics in American church.

And he would just take Q and A's behind the scenes and then we would all sit in like this VIP section, which was a sweet way to bless the pastors of like, the service would start, he would still be with us, and then we'd all walk in together, sit in this section.

And then he would go up there and be in front of thousands of people and do his whole thing.

And he's been with us for two hours, so it was really cool.

And then they changed it from Tuesday to Wednesday, and so I couldn't keep going to those.

But then they started doing these pastors conferences and these pastor summits with Turning Point, and I was like, I want to go to that.

And then the time my wife started working at Mosaic, and she's like, well, I'm producing them.

Like, I'm there, and I'm.

I'm backstage working with the speakers, and I'm like, I'll go.

I'll go hang out with you, babe.

Like, we can sit in the same hotel room.

And so the church was cool.

They flew me out and then was able to just sit under all their teaching.

And, yeah, like, I wrestled with early on, the church and politics separate thing, which I think a lot of Christians early on are confused on, is the church really is not supposed to get too fired up about politics and confusing politics with ethics and our Christian ethos or our Christian worldview.

And we stay out.

We can't endorse candidates, so therefore, we don't speak on anything except maybe abortion.

Right.

And, like, we're not influential.

We're not out there.

We're not debating.

And so I was actually the passion that was, like, super anti politics.

And it wasn't until Charlie that it was like, oh, okay, I'm convicted.

Like, if not us, who?

Oh, everyone else.

The world and atheists and liberals and the Wokies, and they're.

They've got all the words.

And we.

The church is bad.

And that's what I was talking about on one of the Wednesdays.

Like, we're the ones that gave up ground.

Like, the church used to be the influential party.

We've backed out.

We gave up that ground, and the world and the devil gobbled it up and rose up.

All these crazy people that are writing our legislation, and the church backed out and then cry about terrible law.

Yeah.

Well, look at the public schools.

Look at all that.

Yeah.

Because we left.

Yeah.

We built our own schools.

Right.

Like, praise God for Christian school, but do you know what I mean?

Really?

We pulled out.

And then we complain about society.

Yeah.

So.

But yeah, he was so.

So he was super influential and really got me fired up.

And.

And that was when it was like.

So we had just touched down on an airplane.

We were flying back from vacation.

So the day that Your birthday.

The day that he was assassinated.

We flew in, touched down in Dallas or something, and that's.

When did you hear about dad Charlie?

And it's like, what?

So my wife knew his wife, Erica, and they were buddies, and so just.

Yeah, it really feels like.

It's like, okay, he was not our best friend.

We're not trying to.

I know people are out there.

Like, all of a sudden, everyone's Charlie's best friend.

Yeah, of course.

Right.

Like, trying to be, but whatever.

So we were not that close.

But we were close enough that it's like, this is.

I can't believe this happened.

This is crazy.

Of what we've just seen in forest history.

The first really major assassination since a long time.

Years.

And someone that was influential and inspiring.

And so we were.

We were rocked.

We were sitting in the.

In the.

The airport.

We're like, yeah, he's.

He's.

He's dead.

He's gone.

It was like, you're just like, you're in shock, and your stomach, like, adrenaline.

It just felt so out of body.

This could not have happened.

That's not him.

This is wild.

Lord, what are you doing?

But then you see.

Oh, okay, Lord, I see what you're doing.

You took Charlie home for your sovereign purposes.

I don't understand.

But what has happened?

Look what's happened.

Church.

Did you see that?

Stat?

Church.

Church attendance is up 15% and Bible sales are up, like 20% since his death.

Wow.

Right there.

Boom.

I'm hearing from people all around the world, I'm going to church for the first time.

I'm going to the church for the first time.

I'm returning to church after 15 years.

I'm returning to church.

I have a lady from England disrobed me.

I'm returning to church after 40 years.

Wow.

40.

So, like, okay, Grandma, like, praise God.

Like, never too late.

Let's go.

So it has now inspired a certain level of boldness that it's like, okay.

I think that morning of the.

Of the memorial, we started watching it on tv, and there was this guy that came on.

They.

They interviewed him, and he's like.

He was at the memorial.

He's like, I. I didn't know Charlie Kirk.

I didn't never follow him.

And my daughter told me about him, and now I'm here.

And now we.

Now we want to go back to church.

Like, it was just like.

And I told my wife, I'm like, there's going to be a revival today.

I think I texted you the same thing that morning.

And I just.

I felt that, like, that just that electric, I don't know, feeling that morning, it was just.

And just watching.

They were playing praise music on, on the memorial.

Like people were preaching the gospel.

Like it was just, it was.

Oh, yeah, those are national leaders.

Right.

That we've elected or they put into office that were speaking.

Yes.

About God, which we have.

I mean, we go back four years.

Right.

That's not happening.

No, that's a totally different mindset of, I think, civil justice.

Civil things, but not life changing internal things.

That it was at that event.

Right.

And that's what it was.

It's funny.

Like, I even go to my dad's house.

My dad has a news on all the time.

It used to drive me nuts.

And not only that, he would watch the more like liberal type news, but he's been watching Fox, which is okay.

It's an improvement, but whatever.

But it's funny because they were talking and, and they were talking about spiritual warfare one night and I was like, did I just hear that on, on the news?

Spiritual warfare?

Like wild.

Are you kidding me?

You know, they had J.D.

vance on there and he was talking about some, you know, spiritual things.

Obviously.

I think he's Catholic, but.

But I mean, it's just, you know.

But they're still talking about this stuff on national tv.

Netflix streamed the memorial and Hulu streamed the memorial.

Yeah.

I mean, it's 100 million views online worldwide, which blows my mind too, because.

Netflix is super liberal.

Oh, it's awful.

Crazy, apparently, right?

Yeah, yeah, true.

That's true.

I know.

I just saw people now are canceling their Netflix because of some, some bit about making fun of his death now.

Yeah, apparently one of the creators, like.

They did like a transgender kids cartoon.

I saw that too.

I was making fun of them.

So Elon Musk, so he has a big.

I mean, he owns Twitter, So I think 20 million, $20 billion they've lost since he told him.

Took a spike.

They showed the graph and you just.

Just saw it like waterfalls.

Go w. Go broken.

That's it.

Started putting cartoons up that showed that.

Yeah.

You know, two women, you know, hugging, like on a kid show.

And he's like, this is not.

And Elon's not.

Not a believer from what I know.

No, but he was at the memorial and I heard he was nodding his head.

You like?

And I have to sound like, oh, that's.

But, but, but yeah, he was hearing the gospel, I mean, from Rob McCoy, the other pastors.

I heard people that were close to him, like he was nodding his head.

So it's like he's hearing it, he's.

The seeds are being planted, you know, I mean, this guy, I think he's going to get saved.

My thought is he gets saved.

Trump.

We see major transformation Trump's life.

I mean, these are the mega, the biggest, most powerful, influential people in the room.

The whole entire cabinet was there for the first time in the history of the country.

Did you know that the entire government cabinet was at the memorial?

The first time in history with some precedent in what's happened.

And again, this guy wasn't a pastor and he wasn't a politician.

He was just Charlie Kirk, which is what I told the church.

Like, he was not an ordained pastor now.

He was pastoral.

He was not a political figure, but he was a politician.

But he wasn't like an office.

He was him.

He was a personality.

He was a movement.

And look what's happened.

But, you know, his movement wasn't, like you said, it wasn't political, but it.

Was truth, it was true.

It was like the truth.

And that's what's refreshing about things right now, because it's like we have all these like, just, it's just satanic, basically what it is, it's lies and people believe these lies.

But it's just so refreshing to have truth being taught, being told, being communicated.

Well, I think at one point, right.

There's all these things that were said about Charlie Kirk, that he's racist, things like that.

So people started to really watch these videos and they're starting to say, well, that's out of context.

Right, right.

That's not what he said.

That's not the case.

It's about a new wave of people back to say, wow, what he see and his message throughout was weave with the gospel, which was very powerful, that people are now going back and saying like, well, that's not true and that's not accurate.

Yeah.

And if that's what it means to be here, then I'm, I'm here because I don't agree with.

Yeah.

You laughing or celebrating someone getting murdered.

That's not what I stand for.

The celebrations on Tik Tok were crazy.

The death celebration videos, it was.

And now a lot of people getting canceled.

But it's, it, it shows the level of depression, depravity that we're at here.

And, and, and I, it's like, and, and the hypocrisy is that we would.

Can you imagine the uproar if we were celebrating.

Oh yeah.

On Tick Tock making funny bits.

Oh yeah.

Ding dong the witch is Dead about somebody on their side of the line that was a major political figure that just got there.

You know, a violent murder, assassination.

If we were on there making fun of it, would there.

The world would be upside down.

They would be rioting.

It would be fine.

It'd be civil war.

But there was no rioting, right?

No looting, right?

No Teslas being caught on fire, no Molotov cocktails being thrown at cop cars, no towns being destroyed.

Nothing except for prayer vigils, revival church attendance spiking, and the biggest memorial service the world's ever seen.

Give me a break.

Like, look at the difference anyway.

Yeah.

No, I'm so fired up.

Who do you want to associate with, right?

It's.

You see it.

You see it.

People are switching.

People are flipping.

People are coming over going, if this is what it is, I'm out.

Like, if these videos or.

Or even how they've responded, like, I'm out.

And now that I've listened to this, like you said, now that I've listened to the.

The clips that they had sound bited to cancel Charlie.

And once they've looked at the.

The context, they're going, oh, this guy was not a racist at all.

He was actually very endearing and very kind, so compassionate.

Like that clip of him.

He was complimenting the African American's daughter, how beautiful she was, how precious she was.

He said.

And the guy's like, no racist would say their daughter's precious and beautiful.

You kidding me?

Like, they would be like, so he was.

Dude, he was.

He was so nice.

He was.

He could.

He would get snarky sometimes, but he was so nice.

I think his only flaw is he drinks Starbucks.

Yeah, he definitely saw him.

I ran into him in Kierland's.

We were in Scottsdale, and I was out with my kids, and we were waiting to go to snooze.

That restaurant being the snooze.

Speaking of food, snooze, bro.

And over in Kierland's, like, our little, like, getaway.

And we're just sitting there, and then.

And then Charlie just walks by with, like, a four pack, like, the.

Like, the carrying case.

I was like, hey, Charlie.

And he's like, almost like he was caught guilty.

Like, he's got all these Starbucks drinks.

I'm like, what's up, dude?

And he's like, hey, dude.

You know?

And he's just out in the wild, you know?

It's like, hey, bro.

But, yeah, he loved.

Loved the coffee.

Yeah, well, he drank.

I think my wife said it was some kind of tea he would drink before British tea.

Yeah.

Just because his throat is coat.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So he would.

It was some kind of mint something or the.

I can't remember what, but something like that.

Honey.

Hot tea with honey.

Yeah.

Something like.

Cody knows what it is.

Yeah.

I get some Starbucks.

You can ask for the Charlie Kirk special that are not woke and they'll.

Serve it to you.

Were they really?

I heard that they're trying to push for that, like to make it an official item, the menu or something.

There's no way they're good.

Oh, they're the worst.

Yeah, I love.

And I love coffee too.

I'm like, listen, I do it, but I'll.

I'll make my own.

Yeah, don't do Starbucks.

Yeah, no, thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

I'm Rebecca Mendez with Lamplight Ministries, where I serve the Lord by loving others.

Through biblical counseling and workshops.

Every day we're reminded of our fallen world through disappointment, grief, fear, despair.

We need a Savior.

And in Jesus Christ we have that Savior.

He came to rescue us, offering his spirit to guide us and his word to comfort, correct and lead us.

If you're a follower of Christ, eager to grow in him, I'd be honored to walk this journey with you through one on one biblical counseling.

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Please Visit me at lamplightministries.com to book your appointment today.

And that's what the sign from Turning Point has is never surrender.

And it's a picture of him and then has his life like 1993 to 2025.

Yeah, those people are really nice.

I mean, I shook their hand and thanks for talking about.

I'm sure they probably get flack from people that walk by their sins and say things.

And I bet they do just evil.

Like it's.

Well, now it's dangerous.

Now it's officially dangerous to be affiliated with them.

Right.

There was.

There was bomb scares, there was bomb threats.

They found live bombs at.

Down at the headquarters.

Right.

Like people were vandalizing.

They found moltoff cocktails down there.

Like it's now officially dangerous.

And like even my wife Alyssa was processing.

What if this is my husband and you're a preacher, you're outspoken, you're getting, you know, more ability.

Sure.

Yeah.

Like I, I don't want, you know, it's weird to talk.

Yeah.

I have bigger platforms now online by accident.

I didn't want it to happen.

It just has happened.

But she was processing.

Like, what if this was My husband.

It actually now could be anybody, and especially the more vocal you are.

And.

And I guess she was so close to backstage, she actually had to handle the microphone that he was shot holding.

And so she was.

They presented it on stage.

And so the Secret Service gave her the microphone that Charlie was holding while he was shot, and it still had blood on it.

And it was just.

And she's like.

I got so emotional like this.

What.

She's like, it was like 4 in the morning.

I wasn't prepared for this.

And then she said, all I thought was, what if my husband was holding this mic?

And, you know, and like, they have, like, they put it, I guess out on the.

So it's like there's now.

This level of.

There is now danger to post.

There is now an.

Yeah.

Like, it's.

It's.

It's a new world now.

Of.

You are outspoken about the big things.

Transgenderism, LGBTQ plus, whatever.

Abortion.

Really anti.

Anything wokey.

Well, it's just persecution of the church in.

In the end.

Right.

Because, I mean, this is really what we speak out against.

I mean, it's like you were saying.

I mean, it's, you know, how politics meets the Bible.

But we should be taking our politics from the Bible.

We don't put politics into the Bible.

Correct.

We take them out of.

Correct.

But this is all, you know, the sanctity of life and, you know, it's about sin.

It's about, you know, it's about this type of stuff.

But, yeah, you speak out against it.

And of course, it's all spiritual.

I mean, at the end of the day, the reason Charlie Kirk got shot was it was a spiritual reason.

It was not political.

It was not political.

No, it was demonic.

It was demonic.

It was demonic.

It was Satanic.

And he.

Yes, 100%.

It was Satan filling them the heart of a lunatic.

Just like he did with Judas.

Right.

Just like he does with people all around the world that do his atrocities that.

That you think, how could they do that?

Oh, it's because Satan occupied them.

Yeah.

Or they opened themselves up and were vulnerable for Satanic over.

You know, some kind of an overwatch.

And.

And.

And our possession through demonic.

Like, it's.

It was satanic.

It was.

There's principalities, there's powers.

We know there's hierarchy.

We know there is demons and angels.

Pastor Mark's been doing this angel series at our church for, like, ever.

But it's like there is such a satanic, spiritual.

There is a spiritual realm that we always underestimate.

I think we can only ever underestimate because I don't think we can really understand how big it is behind the scenes.

Behind like just that third degree kind of veil.

But it was demonic, 100% demonic.

I think of Noah, right.

When Noah warned the people, they mocked him.

Him, they laughed at him, they.

They ridiculed him until the rain started to come.

And then they realized, like, oh, like we're in trouble.

You were telling the truth and he.

Had already sealed the door or God sealed the door.

And that's in our last episode.

That's what I feel like.

God with Charlie Kirk and just the gospel being spread out.

100 million people viewing that, plus countless people that view those videos.

This is last chance to warn people.

Yeah.

Say the near.

The end is near.

Humble yourself, get in.

Get in the ark.

And there's still people that are mocking.

I mean, I pass on the Bible too.

A young man today, and he just said, I'm a Satanist.

Really?

I follow Satan.

God bless you.

And he laughed.

He thought it was funny.

And you're.

I mean, I guess immaturity would be like, ah, kitten, go to hell.

And then this.

But you know, another part of me was.

Prayed for him in that moment and said, you know, God opened his eyes to the.

Yeah, received.

And I pray that that young man comes.

And he was probably 15, 16 years old.

I couldn't imagine at that age being.

So obstinate and sometimes.

So I was actually, you know, a lot of.

Not that this, this kid, maybe he really is.

A lot of these kids are using words they don't even know.

Right.

Like does he actually attend the church of Satan?

Does he actually understand the tenants of.

Of the satanic church?

Right.

Like, has he ever looked at the website?

Has he read their diet?

Like, does he even know who Antonio, whatever that guy's name is.

Yeah, like 10 bucks.

They don't even know what that means, but they like what it represents.

Which represents anarchy.

Down with the big man.

And it sounds rebellious and it sounds cool.

And.

And these.

My mom would always say, growing up in the place of the truth, any lie will do.

Right.

And so when you reject Christ, the silliest lie will be fine.

The flesh will grab onto anything.

Satan will make anything sound compelling.

Except the gospel.

Right, Right.

Which is the most compelling.

It actually makes the most sense.

It makes more sense that we were created with a purpose than that we crawled out of goo 2 billion years ago.

Really?

Let's be honest, which ones makes more sense?

Well, it takes more faith to believe.

That it really Does, Right, right.

There's that book, right?

You know, not enough faith to be any, you know, an atheist.

Right?

So it's like there is a.

There is this, and that's Second Corinthians 4, 4, 4, 4, right.

That the, the God of this world has blinded the eyes of men that they might not see the glorious image of Christ.

Right?

So these, they are literally demonically blind.

There is a veil over their eyes that the spirit of God has to pierce through the power of the Holy Spirit for them to be open to the gospel and for their hearts to be willing to be broken.

Yeah, but we see it happening.

There's a guy at my gym that I've been working on.

His name's Devon and he has a giant leviathan demon like those, like that full, like those ant horns, like freaky, scary demonic leviathan tattoo all the way up his neck.

And he's a raging atheist and massive bodybuilder.

Like 270, 280, with abs like brownies, like chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk.

Like huge.

He's like 22 inch arms.

So just picture that.

Wow.

Massive guy.

Sweet, nice.

But just a raging atheist.

And I've been working on for like five or six years.

And he is now agnostic, which he's like, hey, there's something, I just don't know what it is.

And I'm like, I can work with that.

That's actually big.

I can't work with atheists.

There's not a lot to work with.

Except there is something.

Now he's agnostic, but we've been working on and working on him and I sent him video sermons and clips and, you know, praying for you.

Love you, buddy.

Proud of you, man.

And just been affectionate with him in a godly way of just being a buddy to him and inviting him to church.

And I tell him, hey, our whole church prays for you.

I've talked about it from the pulpit before.

Hey, pray for Devin.

And he's like, wow, so cool.

And I'll have to come by one time.

Well, he just told me this week that he's leaning into Christianity and he wants to explore it and he's willing to come to church.

Wow.

So.

And this is like the toughest, like you would see him and turn around.

Kind of a guy like, like, you know, dark alley, scary, drives a charger, has like 14 lifted trucks.

Super successful, you know what I mean?

Like worldly standards has it all.

But dude, he so.

But he's getting open to the gospel.

And he would have been one years ago would have said, yeah, no thanks.

Go pound sand.

So it's like you can see the work that God's doing something.

So I'm excited, I'm excited for what's happening.

That's where I think we're in the last, the last days, the last times of.

And people that.

Everybody says that, but there's a lot of things lining up.

The one world government things, you know, the Arabs making peace with one another.

Yeah.

Well, even the gospel going out to all nations.

Was it the memorial service?

Right.

The gospel had to go out to all nations before it comes back.

And I had somebody say, what if that was a memorial service?

The gospel just went to 100 million people and is trending across the entire world.

This has been the biggest presentation of the gospel so far.

And I was like, that's a great thought that I don't think.

I mean, there's nothing for preventing the rapture from.

No, no, we're ready.

You have the technology to, to prevent buying and selling.

You know, you have that where they.

Could blackball you in one second.

They could shut down your finances.

They could freeze your bank account statements.

They could, they could take away your, your Social Security number.

They could delete you and you.

And there's.

Now there's new chips that just came out and where was it?

Uk?

British Britain.

Yeah.

Now they're starting to do that.

So it's like it, it's lined up.

Even like when the, when the two witnesses come and they, they're slain and it says that everybody can see.

It'll be broadcasted.

You can see.

Stream it right now from people's phones.

Like everybody can see that.

40 years ago you would thought that's impossible.

Right.

How would the whole world see an event?

No, now it's live streamed or tick tock or it'd be shared on Twitter in a heartbeat and it would be viral.

Like Charlie Kirk.

Right.

That was seen by everybody.

The world, the whole world saw it.

And if they didn't see it live, they saw.

I mean there's somebody.

Recordings are three seconds, right?

Yeah.

I'm not seeing it.

I don't want to see it.

Don't watch it.

It, don't watch it.

Yeah, yeah, I heard it was.

Yeah, it's like I've watched enough stuff where I felt like there's no point except to say that you did.

And it's like, I don't need to.

If I saw it by accident, like, okay, but I had some buddies that said I forced myself and I regret it.

It's just, it's, It's.

Well, that's the thing.

It's like right now, like, there's, there's all these videos, you know, with all the conspiracies and everything going on.

And I just think to myself, like, this is what Satan wants.

He wants to deceive, number one.

He wants to.

He wants to distract is what he wants.

And it's like, yeah, I do care what happened, but at the same time, like, I'm not going to waste my time trying to figure it out or trying to solve the mystery because I think at the end of the day, none of us really know exactly, like, what.

What really happened.

Sure, God knows.

God knows.

But at the end of the day, like, I think this is more of what do we need to do going forward?

And this is kind of what.

Kind of what we want to move into here in, in the content as well.

But what, what, what's, like, what's our next step?

Like, what should we be doing?

Like, as a church, we need to wake up, right?

We need to.

To.

We need to get going.

I mean, it's like Sasso said, we are in the last days.

I believe it too.

I. I feel it.

I feel some.

There's something.

There was a shift or something that happened when Charlie was.

Was assassinated.

And I don't know, you just, you feel it.

There's something different, you know, what would you, what would you say?

Like, what, what do we need to do?

What does the church need to do?

Yeah, I think first, like you said the Romans 13:11, right?

Where the time is now, you know, gone.

The days at hand cast all the works of darkness, right?

The salvation is nearer to us now than we first believed.

Like, there is no more time to play and to sit on the fence.

Like that old saying, the devil owns the fence, right?

Like, there's no more fence riding.

You really have to pick your side.

Are you with Christ?

Are you with the Antichrist?

And then you need to be vocal.

I really think it is.

If Charlie stood for anything, it's that anyone can approach a mic and talk and he wasn't going to bite your head off.

And the research, like, the resources and the research is out there for you to educate yourself.

And I talked about it a couple Wednesdays ago.

It's like, we've got to stop banking on the celebrities to defend the faith that I believe.

Like, you can't just send someone a reel and be like, see, that's why I believe.

That doesn't matter.

That's what that person believes.

What do you believe?

And I don't think our generation really has the articulation and the apologetic anymore that those old guys used to have that would go debate on campuses.

Like Cliff.

Oh, what's his name?

He was one of the legends.

Cliff.

Oh, Pastor Cliff.

What was his last name?

Lord.

But he would just go and just open square debate and.

And you don't see a lot of that anymore.

We.

Ravi, too, you know, he kind of went down.

Yeah, he went bad, right?

Yeah, he was a sour.

But yeah, like, there was the old.

You know, even like, answers in Genesis.

You guys remember answers in Genesis with like, Ken, those guys, same thing.

They would just debate atheists all the time.

And we've lost the art of debate.

We've lost the art of discourse, and we've lost the ability to have the apologetic associated with defending the faith of why we believe what we believe versus just because my parents told me or.

Or what the Mormons say.

Because I feel it.

Yeah.

Like that's what the Mormons use.

The burning in my bosom.

Like, we can't.

Yes.

I. I think that is a point to say my personal experience.

Sure.

But people have a personal experience with Buddhism too, so they.

They could use the same argument.

So I think for.

We've got to wake up.

Which.

Which waking up, I think, requires a couple of things.

I think one, there needs to be an awareness of sleep and drowsiness.

You have to know that you're asleep.

There has to be this moment where you have this reckoning with the Lord, where you have to go back to where you started.

Kind of like the church is Laodicea.

Right.

To return to your first love.

Right.

Or one of the churches in Revelation.

Right.

Where it's like, back, go back.

Do not pass.

Go, go back.

Do not collect.

Start over.

Like, you have drifted and you've been drowsy and you've been quiet.

Repent.

Yeah.

Truly.

Like, you've been quiet in the break room.

People are talking trash.

People are gossiping.

You don't speak up.

You don't challenge your friends.

You don't lead with integrity from the home.

You're not leading your wife.

You're not.

You're not pastoring your children.

You're just drifting and you're just sleepy.

That's exactly what Jesus like, that's exactly what Jesus will call you out of and exactly what the devil wants you to stay in, which is sleepy.

Christians do nothing.

They don't build nor tear down.

They just take up space and they fill our pews.

They fill Our, like, what are they doing?

Right?

And so, So I think truly there's a repentance element of I have not been living as boldly as I should have been, and as boldly as the people who've come before us are, and as boldly as Christians are living around the world being slaughtered.

Yeah, I was going to say, no one's talking about Nigeria.

Seven thousand to year, to date.

It's like genocide's happening.

I just, I saw some clips of these villages running, and all you hear is just guns, and there's just hundreds of people fleeing down this hill.

And they're all.

They're all Christians being literally just gunned down.

I mean, it's horrific.

And no one's talking about it, you know, and it's like.

And we're complaining over, you know, going to work early for 15 minutes.

Minutes.

It's just like, come on, guys, man.

There's literally life and death on the line and hell on the line, and there.

I don't think there is much more time.

I really don't.

What would you say to somebody?

I mean, you know, there's.

There's a lot of people that say, you know, you know, I. I don't feel adequate to go out and get the gospel, or I. I feel like, intimidated or just, you know, things like that.

You know, and not that they're excuses.

I think they're legitimate.

You know, they did just.

It's a real fear, but obviously that's.

It can be overcome.

And, and, you know, what would you say to.

To something.

Someone like that kind of dealing with that balance?

I think, I think sharing the gospel is a muscle, and I think it would be like bodybuilding.

You start small and.

And faith is a muscle, right?

Faith without works is dead.

Literally, it's a muscle.

So the more you use it, the stronger you become.

Faith without works, it atrophies and dissipates and your prayers are wonky and weak and you see new movement.

So I think evangelism, because it's a very faith thing.

I think it's a muscle that you have to be like, it's scary to talk to somebody about the gospel.

It can be intimidating.

I'm dyslexic and I can't, you know, something like, oh, my goodness, I don't.

I don't know, all these crazy factoids sometimes about archaeology or the, you know, how did the Bible.

How was it transcribed, or what's the historicity of, you know, the apostle John and was, you know, King Nebuchadnezzar A real king in the first century bce you know, it's like, okay, I don't know, but I could find out, right?

But so I do think there's a level of simplicity that you just start from being simple.

You just got to go to the gym.

Maybe you're just walking around the gym and not even touching any equipment.

But then, guess what you do.

You hire a mentor.

In bodybuilding, you get a trainer.

So I think at first, we'll start with mentorship.

Your mentor should be teaching you about the faith, and then you just start telling other people about what you're learning.

It could be your spouse, could be your kids, but you just have to start talking about it.

Yeah.

It can't be this separate thing that you do on.

On Sundays or on Wednesdays or on Tuesdays or on whatever.

It's got to become part of your everyday life.

That way, when you're sharing the gospel, it's not so random.

Like, you know, hey, Ben, have you accepted Christ in your life?

You're like, dude, where's that Wingstop man?

Like, what kind of a question is that?

You already know where you stand, and you're like, hey, Ben, man, I've been wrestling through this and working through this passage, and I'm interested if you want to study the Bible with me or have you ever given God a chance?

It should be much more natural that you wouldn't be caught off guard that I want to dig deeper with you and talk about theology or, hey, man, I know you're not really a church guy, but can I bounce this off of you?

And you're just wrestling through something.

Maybe you let them into your weakness and say, I've been struggling with the Lord on this.

But you know what?

I did some research, and I found that I really can't trust the Bible.

And I don't know about you.

I've ever given God a chance.

And it doesn't have to be so weird and prude, right?

I think it's like, have you believed in Jesus?

Can you.

Can I preach the gospel to you?

And you know, will you accept the Lord and Savior right now in the next three seconds?

And it gets so weird.

Like, because you saw a TikTok video of someone doing that at a gay rally, and it turns you off.

Like, that's the only form of evangelism is being obnoxious and being weird or being so bold and, like, at rallies, getting punched in the face.

And you're like, well, I'm not gonna do that.

It's like, okay, I don't want to do that either.

Yeah, Like, I think that's a little crazy, but you can do it over in your life.

So.

So.

So I think.

I think you start small.

One, get a mentor.

We all need a mentor.

Someone in your life that's been further along, that teaches you the ropes, tells you how to train, tells you the scriptures, teaches you to apologetic.

And then if anything else, you're also watching them in their everyday life incorporate Christ when you're out and about.

So, like, I mentor, like, a couple dudes at the gym, and so I take them from church to the gym, and they see how I interact with other people at the gym, and I'm constantly trying.

Exactly.

Watch what I do.

Yeah, just watch me.

You guys be quiet.

Watch me.

And I'll be like, yo, what's up, guys?

How you doing?

You guys going to church tonight?

Like, I just found that there's a giant group of guys just this last Wednesday, and I had never seen them before, and I've been at this gym for, like, 10 years.

And so they were like, like eight guys, and they were all the same age, so it was like, very, like, where are you guys from?

And so I was like, hey, where are you guys from?

You out of town?

Like, is this your first time at the gym yet?

We're all here for a bachelor's party, and we're here for a bodybuilding show, and, like, we're going cliff diving later, and it's like, sweet, dudes.

And I was like, why do you guys want to go to church tonight?

And I was like, yeah.

And I don't tell my pastor.

I don't.

I'm not like, hey, come to my church.

Like, because that's corny, right?

So I'm just like, hey, you guys want to go to church with us?

Like, we're going to church tonight.

Like, it's a pretty rad church.

I think you like the pastor.

Like, he's got tattoos, he's pretty handsome, and Jackson.

But it's like, hey, man.

Like, so.

But they'll watch me just incorporate and not in a weird, prude, awkward way.

Yeah.

You know, And I even know one guy, he just assumes everyone's a Christian.

And so that's his strategy is he'll just be like, hey, what church do you go to?

He'll just assume they do.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I'm like, it actually works really well because you get the answer.

They're like, oh, I don't go to church.

What about, like, I'm an atheist, like, oh, okay.

Oh, right on, dude.

Like, really?

How so?

Like, when did that start?

What got you into that?

And you begin.

So this guy just always assumes people are Christians.

He's like, hey man, like, what's God been doing in your life?

And they're like, what's God doing in my life?

Gotta watch them like glitch out, you know.

But I was like, that's actually a great strategy versus like, hey, do you believe in God?

Would you like to come to church with me tonight?

It's like, hey, where are you guys going for church tonight?

And they're like, oh, like we didn't go to church tonight, but like, you know, a church.

And so anyway, are you looking to apply God's truth in a practical way to your everyday life?

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Yeah, we, we.

So we do addictions ministry and we've, we've got a lot of, of interest in Bible studies from that.

Yeah.

So we would go and, and we would do a Wednesday night deal and we would disciple some guys and, and we ended up leading his uh, his cousin to Christ.

Oh, let's go.

Which is awesome.

Let's go.

And, but yeah, we would, we were kind of on a, on a kick.

We had watched.

What was that, that movie that Forage or.

Yeah, the Forge.

Have you seen the Forge?

Yeah, the Forge.

And it was just kind of a, it was a cool movie, man.

And, and just how they, they get together as, as men and you know, they, they have Bible study and it's just discipleship.

Yeah.

And so we kind of got encouraged by that and we started kind of doing that.

We kind of fell off with it because some of our guys just kind of wouldn't show up.

We could be Ben and I. Yeah.

Yeah, we have, we have a text group of guys and they just, just would, they would show for a while there but then it kind of just dwindled.

I feel like we need to get back to that.

But, and I enjoyed that.

I really enjoyed that.

But I enjoy Our Friday nights, too, because Friday nights we do our small groups and stuff.

So it's.

We get to have some.

Some good discussion and get in the Bible.

It also gives a good lesson.

And so it's.

It's just encouraging, but I think it's discipleship.

It's exactly what you said.

Yeah.

And it said here, like, in.

In First Corinthians says, act like men.

And I don't think it means, like, in a masculine way, but I think, doesn't it mean, like.

Like, we need to lead?

Like, men need to lead.

And I was talking to Pastor George about this.

I'm like, man, hopefully, you know, as he goes to his new church, like, man, you need to get the men involved.

You need to get the men going.

Like, it's, you know, we need to, you know, make sure our homes are locked in, loaded, and.

And make sure that, you know, men are discipling, men are learning, men are growing in Christ.

Because that's, I think, where the breakdown is.

And I think even Charlie Kirk would talk about that.

The breakdown of the family.

The father.

100%, bro.

Yeah.

Father figure home.

And I mean, I look at 21212 to go back to what we were talking about, and it says, for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say.

Yeah.

And I think that's huge, too, is sometimes we don't know what to say, but you just do it, and the Lord does it.

Yeah.

And you say, you go to the gym, right?

And you're like, there's some machines I don't even know how to use.

And I wait for somebody to go use it.

Like, oh, okay.

Oh, yeah, I was using it wrong.

And the same thing.

You just go out there and start sharing your test thing.

This is what.

I don't know anything, but this is what God 100.

That's the guy that was blind.

Like, who did it?

He's.

I don't know, but I was blind, and now I see.

Yeah, yeah.

Just the testament of what God can do in someone's life.

So he's got to start.

You have to just start.

Yeah.

And.

And the average person doesn't share the gospel that much, and myself included, I'm a pastor, and so it's like, I have my thing.

But even pastors aren't evangelizing.

Big, broad stroke.

I know that's.

I don't want to be dismissive.

I know there are.

But I think it's easy for pastors to get locked in their little bubble of.

I only know Christians And I only engage Christians and my house is full of Christians and I don't have non Christian friends.

I don't have non Christian influence because my bubble is literally church.

It's you guys, it's, you know, friends come over later, they're from church.

Monday, hanging out with friends, they're from church.

Right.

My whole world's Calvary, which is a blessing.

That's how I think it should be your whole life in a non culty, cool way.

Right.

But like, yeah, that should be.

But we should still be influential in the world in your workplace.

And so for me, because my workplace is literally the church, that's where I saw the gym has been like, that's like my mission field.

Everyone knows I'm a pastor there.

Even, like, even intentionally, like when I post online on Instagram because the owners, it's a local gym, so it's not a franchise, which helps.

It's a local gym here in the Valley and the owner knows me and we have rapport.

And so when I post a sermon clip, I tag the gym and they always reshare it.

Really?

They reshare it on their, on their, on their page.

And so that's what started happening was I'd have people coming up to me going, I didn't know you're a pastor.

Like, you, you're a pastor.

Like following the gym.

Yeah, they're just from the gym and I've worked out with them for years.

And again, I don't advertise it because it puts a wall up.

Right.

It's like telling someone you're a cop.

You're like, oh, not inviting you to my bachelor's party.

You're like, oh, you're a pastor.

Like, oh, did I cuss?

Oh, my bad.

Oh, oh, sorry.

Well, I'm an atheist and people just feel like there's awkwardness around you in the world because they don't know what to do with you.

And you're like, I'm fine.

Like, you know, like, can I invite you over?

Like, do you drink?

Can I cuss?

Like, my, my, you know, my grandpa smokes out back.

Is that okay?

And you're like, none of this matters.

I don't care.

Like, it's, I'm a normal guy dude.

Like, but anyway, so I normally don't tell people I'm a pastor, but, but just even that, like posting the clips online, it started to.

People do what?

You're a pastor?

It's like with the tattoos, like, I would have never assumed.

And what church are you at?

And so I've tried to keep some influence on having secular friends.

And again, not, not the friends that we can have, let's be honest.

Like, yeah, the level of depth that you can go with them, it's not the same coin in the fellowship you have with Christ followers, brothers and sisters, of course, they're not what I would say, safe friends.

They're people I'm trying to influence and draw towards Christ.

Right.

By proximity and by dialogue.

Right.

So.

But for me, that's the gym.

Before that it was woodworking.

I was, I did.

I was a carpenter and so trying to be like Jesus.

And I built, I built custom furniture for like five.

Yeah.

For about five years.

Yeah.

So I actually grew up near the Amish.

I'm from Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania, okay.

Yeah, we would, we would make fun of the Amish, but yeah, so.

So my dad was a construction guy, my grandfather was a construction guy.

And then my dad's an I T. Guy.

Okay.

And so you could appreciate that.

But I, about, about, yeah, that was.

Been bodybuilding for six.

Before that it was woodworking about five years.

So I built a company, had an Instagram following and build like custom tables, like the epoxy, beautiful, like river table, all those beautiful.

So, and, and, and then it, it was like hobby turned jobby.

And then it was like this was like a part time salary.

And then it started to get really stressful and it became more of a burden than like, do I want this to be my job?

Like, I'm a pastor, but now I gotta go home and I gotta build and I'm not spending time with my family.

So it started to burn me out.

And then Covid hit and I was like, I'm good.

And then I, I had kind of let my fitness stuff go and so then I got into the, the gym and stuff and then you can't have two hobbies.

Like, let's be honest, you can't have two good hobbies.

Maybe.

So, so, but, but even in that, I met tons of friends from the woodworking community.

People had.

I married a couple buddy of mine and his wife and mentored them and met a lot of guys in the woodworking community.

It's huge in Phoenix.

And that was my influence.

Before that I was in a beard club and I had this big giant beard and it was this big giant beard club in Phoenix.

And that was my influence.

Influence was hanging out a bunch of beard guys drinking beers and I just would hang out and drink a water.

I talk about my face.

I'm sorry, bro.

Yeah, bro.

I wish I could go.

I can't grow it at all.

No.

But I got too much indigenous.

I have no chest.

Like, I have no.

Like, I'm just like.

Like a baby seal, dude.

Wow.

I can't grow.

But I.

Man, if I have a Steve Harvey mustache, bro, like, seriously, this.

I just trimmed it.

It was, like, gnarly.

You saw it.

It was gnarly.

It was like my whole.

Covered my whole lip.

And so I just dial it back because my wife hates kissing it.

And it's like, my wife don't like kissing it.

Yeah.

And I don't even like it.

I'm, like, eating with it.

You're, like, chewing on it.

You're, like, pulling it out of your teeth, and you're like.

So I was like, my poor wife, she's like, find the lips.

Sorry, tmi.

So.

But we're married.

We can kiss.

But.

Yeah, we gotta be bold.

So kind of want to wrap things up here a little bit.

But another thing I want to do with this episode.

So we've talked about Charlie and kind of know what.

What he was doing and how he.

How he influenced pastors and just the whole world, essentially.

We've talked about how to challenge the church.

Those who are, you know, asleep.

Time to wake up.

Let's go.

But how can we exhort the church with this?

How can we exhort the church with what happened with Charlie and what's.

What's to come?

I think by being brave.

I think first you have to see the leaders being brave.

Right.

Because Charlie was brave.

Yeah.

And.

And we see even other clips of him being berated and cussed out, screamed at, and he's just like, I love you.

I love you.

God bless you.

God bless you.

Yeah.

Want a hat?

Do you want another hat?

You know, like, he.

I mean, getting spit on.

He had stuff thrown at him, and he would keep showing up, being surrounded by people that want to eat him alive.

Like, you think of, like, those guys with Stephen.

Right.

Gnashing their teeth at Steven.

You saw in those audiences this vehement level of evil of, like, they would rip him limb from limb if they could.

And he kept showing up anyway.

And I think first the church needs to see that their pastors are brave.

You want to follow a brave man?

Yeah.

Right.

I mean, who do you want to follow into war?

A brave leader leading from the front, not leading from the back, in the green room.

Right.

And, like, the pastoral suite getting a pedicure, but telling them to go be bold.

And they're not seeing in the past.

So I think first of all, pastors have to be brave.

I think they have to see us on the front lines tackling these things ourselves and then saying, come with me, let's do this together.

And let me equip you to feel brave too.

Because I think bravery, encourage, I think some of it comes from equipping, is if you're not equipped, I don't care how brave you are, if you're going to battle with no bulletproof vest and no gun and no ammo, you're not going to feel that confident.

Right?

Right.

So Ephesians, chapter four, right?

He gave the church apostles and prophets for the equipping of the saints, for the building up of the ministry so that they would no longer be tossed to and fro by every wind and cunning doctrine, but building themselves up in Christ to the fullness and stature of Christ.

So our job is to build up the church to do the job, which is to evangelize the world.

So we've got to equip them to know how to answer the hard questions, have the hard conversations that no one else is having, and tackle topics that are scary, even and controversial for us.

And.

And they have to see us doing it ourselves.

Yeah, Right.

So I think, I think we just have to be bold, invite them to be bold as well, without inviting them to do something that you're not doing.

It's like, again, someone's want to work out and you don't work out.

It's like, that doesn't work.

It's not an inspiring invitation.

They've got a fat trainer.

Yeah.

100.

Yeah.

Like you obviously don't follow your program.

Like you're telling me to eat my rice and chicken and you're like this giant monster.

It's like, come on.

Yeah, right.

Right in front of you too.

Yeah.

You're like double butter biscuits.

Yeah.

Like.

Like, bro, you obviously don't live what you preach, right?

Which is what Jesus accused the pharisees of.

Matthew 23.

You do not practice what you preach.

Age.

Right.

You place this huge burden on others while you live in luxury.

And so the church needs.

And that's what I loved about Charlie, was I was for the first time.

Not that Calvary guys aren't, but I saw brave pastors that went to prison for Covid, that didn't close down, that didn't buckle, that aren't afraid to be sued by the state.

They aren't afraid to push against their legal limits of the constitution constraints of the 501c3 loopholes, or that said we can say a lot more than we really can.

And so that was, for me, was like, these are brave men that I want to be.

Like.

And when you're.

When you're around brave people, it's contagious.

It's contagious.

That's why when you leave church, you feel fired up.

It's because you're like, yes, I'm not alone.

Thank God.

Like, dude, there's at least three other people like me.

You know what I mean?

But there's actually thousands.

And so you leave church.

The problem is we take that fire and then it burns up pretty quick by Monday.

And you're like, I'm alone again.

My boss gets scary, you know, and so that's.

That's.

That's right.

Yeah.

Like, life's still scary.

So that's where camaraderie comes in.

That's where discipleship.

That's where the text threads.

That's where like, the bro having the brotherhood of like, hey, dude, I'm going to work.

I'm feeling it today.

I'm feeling anxious.

And you're not sounding like.

You're not.

Sound like a wimp.

You're sounding like a human who's saying, bud, I need some prayer.

I'm struggling today.

I had a text from a couple guys today.

Or one guy today.

Hey, I'm feeling suicidal today, brother.

I need some prayer.

It's like, how you doing, bub?

I love you.

Like, we've got to do this together or we're.

We're.

Yeah.

So.

So I think we just got to be.

We have to be brave and be around brave people, and then we've got to get out there and do it.

Yeah.

It's.

It's.

It's not.

It's not as easy as it sounds.

But we.

It's a call to do it, and.

I think we need to do it.

It's.

We have to do it.

That was the lure of Charlie Kirk.

Right.

Is that he was brave.

He did go out to these really.

If a college campus.

Right.

I went to asu.

That.

That.

That is the.

Yeah.

Really the hard ground to talk to people because these kids are being indoctrinated by liberal theology thinking anti God.

Yeah.

And he would go right into the heart and let's talk about it.

Let's show me.

Tell me what you believe.

And I'm going to share the gospel as well as politics.

And I'm going to dispel what you're thinking.

Yeah.

And quickly disarmed them.

And they would say, well, you're you're trying to, you know, dunk on a college kid.

And the professors would come too.

Yeah, they would.

He would school them.

He would school the professors.

He didn't go to, you know, higher education formally.

Right.

But he.

I think he knew the word of God.

He knew his source of power was.

Was God.

And I think we gotta, as Christians say, if God before us can be.

Against us, we go.

And sometimes you're.

You're still scared, but you go.

Yes.

I think that's where we need to get to, to get over that.

Yes.

To not be scared, to come out.

But said, hey, with fear and trembling, but I'm trusting in the power 100%.

And.

And that.

Think of that verse, right?

What can mortal man do to me?

Right?

And the fear of man is a snare.

It says in Proverbs.

And there's a quote I shared a couple sermons ago with the Charlie one, right.

Justin Martyr said, you can kill us, but you can't harm us.

And I think we think of Jesus where he says, don't fear those that can kill the body, but fear that feel the one that can kill the soul and the body.

Right.

The worst thing that can happen is that we die and then hallelujah.

And then we're with Jesus.

To be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord.

You would be doing me a favor getting me there quicker now, of course, not to sound morbid.

My wife would scream at me.

Right.

Of course.

I want to live for my family and live for the Lord.

I'm not, you know, in a sense, like, I still got some stuff I want to do, but if that were to happen, like, that is the worst thing.

Yeah, okay.

Or get punched in the eye, like, okay, boohoo.

They have a great story about persecution.

And the Bible says, be happy you are blessed.

If you're persecuted, you are blessed.

It's a crown.

It's truly.

It's a special crown only for the persecuted.

So it's like, okay, what's the worst that can happen?

I get killed.

Okay.

All right, well, let's get after it then.

We're not playing in traffic.

We're not being reckless.

We're not being spiritually reckless.

We're stewarding our lives.

Fine.

But at the same time, the enemy is at work.

And we do not know the day or the hour that God will call us home.

So we live as if today is the day.

And maybe it's one person that you make a difference for, and you stop and say, hey, how are you?

You look, you look worried.

How's your heart?

Have you prayed today?

I don't pray.

I'm an atheist.

Really.

I mean I find the prayer is a blessing and I talk to Lord all the time and just get into something, you know, so it doesn't have to be so scary.

But you have to practice and what.

And then I know we got to go.

I would encourage people to memorize openers if, if it doesn't feel natural, memorize little openers like the hey, where do you go to church?

Or hey, how are you doing?

I've been worried about like memorize some comebacks or some openers to get the conversation going to be at least ahead of the game on, on the spontaneity.

You might not be able to just be off the cuff and spontaneous.

I would encourage people just write down a couple like one line openers to get a conversation going with even some memorization of some follow ups and not to be robotic about it.

But it does help to write down some ideas on.

If I'm standing in line at the grocery store, how could I strike up a conversation with the single mom behind me of 14 kids and be like wow, look at your kids.

They're a blessing.

That's.

So here's one I always use.

If somebody has a Bible name, I'll always say you don't have names in the Bible.

That's such a great name.

And then if I know the meaning of the name, I'll say, do you know what that name means?

That name means blank, blank, blank, you know.

But I'll be like Sarah, Sarah.

That's a Bible name.

Sarah.

Did you know that?

Oh my goodness.

Do you know her story?

She was married to Abraham.

So I'll just go into it just from their name, right?

Or kids, wow.

Do you know kids?

That's a blessing.

The Bible says to have a full quiver is to be blessed and man, praise God for your kiddos.

And you watch the reaction if they amen.

Or they go, wow, yeah, okay Mr. Then I know where I'm at, right?

But I just look for any little crack.

All I need is a crack and I'm going to rip that window open and I'm going to dive in as, as much as a naturally possible without being like, you know.

So I think that one of the things to remember too is you know, almost everybody you talk to has something going on in their life.

It's a world broken world out there 100% and somebody's always dealing.

There's always somebody dealing with something.

They're Atheists, they might be atheists because of that.

They might be atheists because they think God wronged them.

Sure.

The thing I know about atheists is, is they know God.

Like they, they know there's a God, they just refuse to acknowledge him.

They just don't want accountability or whatever the case may be.

But they, they know there is a God.

So I think it's just, it's knowing that there's a broken world out there and I think part of it too, something that Charlie Kirk did very well and even Ravi when you know, he was the way he, he, he gave truth but it was in love.

So it was that First Corinthians 13 that, you know, I'm not speaking truth and love.

Yeah.

I'm not a clanging symbol type of thing.

I'm, I'm, I'm giving this truth and love.

And I think that's one thing we need to be cognizant about too, is not just winning an argument.

Because it's not about winning an argument especially.

And I know you mentioned it.

Get off of social.

Stop.

Stop posting.

Yeah, I think that was, that's a huge point.

I see a lot of, a lot.

Of our people just trolling out there.

And it's like, dude, get off of social media, bro.

Have a conversation with somebody.

But you're not going to win an argument on social media.

You're not.

I guarantee you're not going to flip somebody on social media.

Guaranteed.

No, you're just going to make it more matter.

Push them the other one.

Yeah, yeah.

It'll, it'll, it'll, they'll double down on it.

Yeah.

It's my brother in law, right.

John.

I mean he says crazy things and I unfollowed him at some point the last week because it's just got too much and people will debate him and he's, and he believes in evil and, and good.

Which is a God theme principle.

Right, right.

Without God, there's.

Can't borrow our principles.

Yeah.

Those are our principles and there's nothing.

There's no bad.

He's saying there's morality.

Do whatever you want.

You want.

You don't like somebody punch them.

That's fine.

It's, that's my.

If that's good for you.

Yeah, right.

It works for me.

Yeah.

So to believe in like as you said.

Right.

Everybody believes in God.

They just don't.

They acknowledge it.

And I don't know why you talk about someone you don't even believe in.

Right, Right, exactly.

That's the hope that's the whole point.

Right.

You seem more obsessed with him than we are.

Yeah.

Because your whole life's built on him not being real.

It's like if you didn't care, you wouldn't care.

Right, Exactly.

And you wouldn't even have to say you're an atheist.

Santa Claus.

It's a rejection.

I don't believe in them.

Yeah.

Why do you get offended at the name of Jesus if you don't believe in him?

100%.

Yeah.

It's an offensive name.

100%.

Oh, it is.

Those who are lost until the saved.

It's.

It's a beautiful name.

Yeah.

Amen.

So, yeah, it's a challenge to the church.

Wake up.

Let's go.

It's time to get everybody into the ark that we can before that door gets sealed and we get the rapture bus backs up and we get out of here because it's coming soon, man.

I don't know if it's in our lifetime or not, but I hope so if it is.

Yeah.

I hope it's before I get, like, turn like, you know, 65, you know, 70, like when I'm getting all like, you know, can't get out of bed type, I want to.

But, you know, like the Bible says, lord, come quickly and.

And, you know.

Yeah.

Whenever he.

Whenever he chooses to, I'm ready to go.

So we.

But we need to make sure that we can bring as many people as we can with us.

That's only.

That's what they say.

Right.

The only two things you can take to heaven with you is.

Yeah.

Is God's word, because it never returns.

Void and people.

Yeah.

Souls.

Right.

Yeah.

So let's take.

Let's get to take as many as we can.

So.

But Pastor Jason, I really appreciate you coming on the show.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

It's been a blessing.

And.

And yeah, I hope you were challenged today.

And.

And if you guys like this episode or if it's been a blessing to you, would you guys subscribe?

Give us a thumbs up.

And we.

We thank you guys for listening.

We love you guys and we will see you guys in the next episode.

All right.

Till then, bye for now.

God bless you guys.

Thank you for listening to the Abundant Life podcast.

We pray you were blessed by today's episode.

Please visit us online at AbundantLife FM.

Until next time, may God bless you.

SA.