Speaker 1: My league books has how the knowledge you want?
Speaker 2: My league, but has how the knowledge you need?
Speaker 3: Chat they have out the books that the whole wild
Speaker 3: world one of read Malague books. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to
Speaker 3: Malik's bookshep bringing a world together with books.
Speaker 1: Culture and community. My name is Malik the hype Man
Speaker 1: of Books.
Speaker 3: Hey, so many people have come to Malik's and said
Speaker 3: that they loved my passion, They loved how I hype
Speaker 3: up books.
Speaker 1: And you know what I.
Speaker 4: Was sleeping on that title. This is Malite the height
Speaker 4: Man of Books. I'm going to run with this title.
Speaker 4: In fact, I think I did an episode the hype Man,
Speaker 4: the hype Man of Books.
Speaker 2: I believe I did you know.
Speaker 5: Hey, this is the nine so hungspec remember every title
Speaker 5: that I came up on this podcast, but this is
Speaker 5: the ninety six episode, and I'm going to feature this
Speaker 5: interview I had with Tim Ross, who brought out this
Speaker 5: explosive and electric book. Last Thursday, March twenty first, at
Speaker 5: Elite Books. I hosted Tim Ross, who wrote this explosive
Speaker 5: and electric book called Welcome to the Basement and Upside
Speaker 5: Down God to Greatness.
Speaker 1: And it was fire. The crowd came out in full
Speaker 1: for we.
Speaker 6: Felt up belief books.
Speaker 1: We had man standing room only.
Speaker 3: It was electric, fiery, informative, shattering, uplifting, motivating, inspiring.
Speaker 1: The bottom line is we had God shaking up up
Speaker 1: in there. And you know what I'm saying. We had
Speaker 1: you know, we called it Church called it, the Masque
Speaker 1: called it whatever.
Speaker 3: This was the Word of God taking place and it
Speaker 3: was touching in the testimonies that people came up after
Speaker 3: I interviewed Tim Bross to testimonies, they came up to
Speaker 3: talk to him about personally as he signed their books.
Speaker 3: People crying, just loving, very emotional to hear some of
Speaker 3: their stories. I mean, this brother, Tim Bross, change many
Speaker 3: of their lives, well some of their lives.
Speaker 1: This guy is.
Speaker 3: In the streets and the highways and the bus always
Speaker 3: upsetting the.
Speaker 1: Norms of Christianity. He has a whole new, refreshing.
Speaker 6: Approach to.
Speaker 1: God's message as a Christian.
Speaker 3: And I had a chance to interview him, the hype
Speaker 3: man of books, and I prepared myself, read the book,
Speaker 3: had my questions, and the conversation was electric. I believe
Speaker 3: God led my words and I was able to.
Speaker 1: Bring out.
Speaker 3: So much to the audience out of tend with the
Speaker 3: questions that I was inspired to ask him, and it
Speaker 3: just made for a good talk, a good book talk
Speaker 3: about on Welcome to the Basement, and it afforded him
Speaker 3: the opportunity to talk about his Masterpiecet that he was
Speaker 3: inspired to write by.
Speaker 1: God, and it was touching and powerful. We all had
Speaker 1: a good time. We had church. Like I said, he upset,
Speaker 1: you know, like I asked him.
Speaker 3: I said, well, when you when you change up like
Speaker 3: who you upset? He said that myself because the things
Speaker 3: that I like to do, I'm now being held accountable
Speaker 3: and pushing myself away from those things to clean myself
Speaker 3: up from those things.
Speaker 1: So and to make those changes. So I'm upset. So anyway,
Speaker 1: he touched the people. He touched the people.
Speaker 3: I could look at their faces in the crowd and
Speaker 3: can see how he touched the people and how emotional
Speaker 3: they were. It was a phenomenal event. It was different.
Speaker 1: It was a sit down, it was a discussion, it
Speaker 1: was a eat and greet, it was a book signing,
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 2: All of those things.
Speaker 1: In the community came out in large numbers to show
Speaker 1: the love and respect and admiration they had for his ministry.
Speaker 1: He used to be in a church, but he's no
Speaker 1: longer approaching his ministry in that way. He's more in the.
Speaker 3: Streets podcasts because he has a major podcast and he has.
Speaker 1: A huge audience called Upset the Ground.
Speaker 2: That's his.
Speaker 3: Instagram it's called Upset the Ground. And he also have
Speaker 3: b side app. This as part of his podcast that
Speaker 3: Tim Ross has. That's his miniature, his podcast, him moving
Speaker 3: in and out different communities across the nation, and he's
Speaker 3: touched a lot of people because I seen he came
Speaker 3: to liv he lived in Texas.
Speaker 1: That understanding.
Speaker 3: He came out to La to Malik books and shut
Speaker 3: down the roof. That's how powerful this book signing was.
Speaker 3: Our conversation was. Well, that's what I'm going to feature
Speaker 3: on this episode of ninety six. This episode ninety six
Speaker 3: is Welcome to the Basement, an interview with Tim.
Speaker 2: Rosss So in Jordan. Can y'all hear me?
Speaker 6: Welcome to Malik, folks.
Speaker 2: I'm excited, I'm excited. This is amazing.
Speaker 7: I'm glad everyone came here early so we can started
Speaker 7: on time.
Speaker 2: This is gonna be.
Speaker 3: A wonderful, wonderful conversation. I want everybody to make sure
Speaker 3: you out Elie Books. I want to make sure everybody's
Speaker 3: following Tim Ross right guests today, just to give you
Speaker 3: a little background about Elite Books. We've been serving the
Speaker 3: community with books since nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2: It's not an easy thing.
Speaker 7: It's books, you know, has exploded over the years.
Speaker 3: I've seen the industry go up and I've seen it
Speaker 3: go down. We're in an upswing where we can bring new,
Speaker 3: refreshing authors like Tim Ross to our community to talk
Speaker 3: about his historic book.
Speaker 6: Welcome to the Basement, Upside Down, God.
Speaker 1: To this right.
Speaker 3: So I'm excited. I want to make sure that you
Speaker 3: know a little bit about our upcoming events because it's
Speaker 3: important for you to follow.
Speaker 6: Us to know that it don't stop today.
Speaker 7: It continues, all right, Because April eleven, we got a
Speaker 7: young man coming in.
Speaker 2: He's gonna be talking about.
Speaker 7: His book Lies about Black People, and we all know
Speaker 7: that there's a battle out there for our voice.
Speaker 2: That's why it's important.
Speaker 3: That we honored these types of authors like Tim Broncks right,
Speaker 3: because if we want to make their best sellers right now,
Speaker 3: right and.
Speaker 2: So that's April eleven, come through.
Speaker 7: Its a Thursday night, it's gonna be at seven, So
Speaker 7: come through on that La Damion Williams Blood at the
Speaker 7: Little Fantasy Book.
Speaker 6: He's a screen rot.
Speaker 7: You know, he got a book deal by talking about
Speaker 7: fantasy idea and it went rival. He ended up with
Speaker 7: a book deal man.
Speaker 3: This technology is social media.
Speaker 2: And also April twentieth and the twenty.
Speaker 3: First is the La Times Festival Books.
Speaker 6: We're gonna be out there and we're blessed to.
Speaker 8: Curate the children's stage all in about thirty authors and
Speaker 8: we are honored to be the book seller for the
Speaker 8: main stage for children out there.
Speaker 6: So come through, Come through.
Speaker 2: That's an honor.
Speaker 3: You know, it ain't gonna be got a few specs
Speaker 3: of us out there, so come through our voice battas.
Speaker 2: Now, we also got.
Speaker 7: Our booth which is eight eighty and we're gonna probably
Speaker 7: we're gonna We're not probably, but we're gonna have some
Speaker 7: authors as well at our booth. Uh, stay tuned. That's
Speaker 7: why you better follow Elite votes so you know what's popping.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 7: So so I'm gonna move on to introduce our honored guests.
Speaker 7: All right, he's been on a world wind book tour
Speaker 7: and he's gracing us today at Elite Books.
Speaker 2: Ten rocks now.
Speaker 3: He was born in Inglewood, California hometown. Right, listen, what's
Speaker 3: amazing is that sometimes we don't know how we end up,
Speaker 3: but you know, you'll find out if you.
Speaker 6: Live long enough where you should be.
Speaker 3: And I'm Kim Rosson found his calling and his calling
Speaker 3: is led to this new book, Welcome to the Basement,
Speaker 3: and he's here today to talk about the upside kind
Speaker 3: of God to greatness. And so without further ado, you
Speaker 3: know I can go through the long fi yo, but
Speaker 3: we're gonna be in the conversation today. So let's bring
Speaker 3: him out with a thunderous ride of applause.
Speaker 2: Till the brook.
Speaker 6: WHOA, what's up?
Speaker 2: People?
Speaker 6: Ain't the rest of the model no what to do?
Speaker 9: Right now?
Speaker 2: They're like, I came in here to get some Canda
Speaker 2: Express and they're making too much good over there. I
Speaker 2: love y'all. Thank y'all so much for talking. Love y'all,
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, y'all give it up,
Speaker 2: and mister Malie, I can destroyed in there. I know
Speaker 2: y'all are excited and some of y'all scared.
Speaker 6: You get these books in your life, Yes, sir, I'll
Speaker 6: be back you say.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 3: That's good, wonderful wonder for my brother. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 7: You've been touring the country and you you told me
Speaker 7: that you went intentional about supporting black.
Speaker 2: Bookssellers around this nation.
Speaker 3: So I just want to appreciate that because it takes
Speaker 3: us being intentional to move forward in the future. Sir,
Speaker 3: it's our responsibility to addrest certain things.
Speaker 2: In our community. And I'm forced matters and that's why
Speaker 2: we exist.
Speaker 7: And you make my job easier by having such a
Speaker 7: wonderful book that I had the pleasure of reading.
Speaker 6: Now I'm going to be in conversation with my brother local.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 7: My first question is tell us about your book and
Speaker 7: what was the motivation behind me?
Speaker 2: So I had how many people that read the book already? Sweet?
Speaker 2: I love you guys, and I love all of you
Speaker 2: all that haven't and didn't lie about it just now,
Speaker 2: like there was no fear pressure. They were just like,
Speaker 2: I have not read your book fairly, but I'm here.
Speaker 10: So I.
Speaker 2: Had open vision when I was thirty years old. And
Speaker 2: I don't want that to sound like too deep. All
Speaker 2: the vision is is a dream, but you're awake, that's
Speaker 2: all it is. So I had this vision, and I
Speaker 2: wasn't like in prayer or nothing like that. I think
Speaker 2: I was watching like part of the interruption on ESPN
Speaker 2: with Mike Wilbond and Tony Cordenizer. But God can speak
Speaker 2: to you at any time. So I have this open
Speaker 2: vision and then this vision there's this one hundred story
Speaker 2: building and my thought I was supposed to be at
Speaker 2: the top, and I got to the top only to
Speaker 2: find out I was really supposed to be at the bottom.
Speaker 11: What I now know is the basement.
Speaker 2: And the reason why we call it a upside down
Speaker 2: the great upside down Guide to greatness is because when
Speaker 2: you get it, when you really step into the Kingdom
Speaker 2: of God, you realize that the way in is actually out,
Speaker 2: the way up is actually down, the way to get
Speaker 2: is to give, and the way to live is to die.
Speaker 2: And so when you have that much counter cultural fel
Speaker 2: philosophical uh uh philosophy, and ideology, you just realize that
Speaker 2: when you give your life to Jesus, your your whole
Speaker 2: life does get turned upside down. The Bible is the
Speaker 2: most upsetting book that's ever been written. Jesus lived the
Speaker 2: most upsetting life that's ever been lived, and on January fourteenth,
Speaker 2: ninety six, my life was turned upside down. That's twenty
Speaker 2: eight years ago. I haven't turned back since. So this,
Speaker 2: this is it forever forever.
Speaker 3: You know, you never know when your touch with inspiration
Speaker 3: to write the spirit that came to you. I mean,
Speaker 3: I find myself sometimes sitting be late at night with thoughts,
Speaker 3: and so we know that this is not your first book.
Speaker 3: This is your second book. So what's the difference.
Speaker 2: The difference is it's a full narrative.
Speaker 11: Now.
Speaker 2: When I wrote Upset the World, I wrote it because
Speaker 2: I felt like that was the burden that got laid
Speaker 2: on my heart. And the book came out in twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: and it fumbled like it was a pandemic book. The
Speaker 2: publisher didn't really know who my audience was, They didn't
Speaker 2: know who to get the book to, And it was
Speaker 2: almost like all that happened just for me to clarify
Speaker 2: my voice and to get specifical on what this was
Speaker 2: really about. Upset the World is not the full revelation.
Speaker 2: The basement is. And so to talk about being upside
Speaker 2: down without talking about the basement is like getting half
Speaker 2: for the code. You don't even understand where it's coming
Speaker 2: from and since I was thirty years old, I've been
Speaker 2: living with this basement mentality and this basement philosophy. So
Speaker 2: sometimes sometimes you can write a book. And first of all,
Speaker 2: you shouldn't write books. If I'm talking to believers in
Speaker 2: this room, you shouldn't write a book unless God tells
Speaker 2: you to come on, like if you just write books.
Speaker 2: I don't like doing nothing that I ain't supposed to
Speaker 2: be doing. I wouldn't have been a preacher if you'd
Speaker 2: have left me alone, I would have did something else
Speaker 2: with my life. But he told me to write the book,
Speaker 2: and I wasn't looking for the book to sell. I
Speaker 2: was looking to be obedient in writing the book. But
Speaker 2: I learned something about me and writing that book, and
Speaker 2: that's what led to this. And once we got this out,
Speaker 2: it was like God kissed it. French kissed it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it just it just went up, he did.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know you're talking about the upset, and I know
Speaker 3: your world has been turned upside down with the loss
Speaker 3: of your.
Speaker 2: Father, and I appreciate you standing.
Speaker 3: Of course, just before the tour, you lost your father,
Speaker 3: and so I know that your world had been turned
Speaker 3: upside down. Talk about the challenges and what you've been
Speaker 3: going through in terms of dealing with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So my daddy was my hero. Charles errad Ross
Speaker 2: is my absolute hero. I am the man that is
Speaker 2: sitting in this chair today because of the man that
Speaker 2: he was. And so I didn't grow up with any
Speaker 2: father wounds growing up in Inglewood, LA Area. All the
Speaker 2: places that we were at, my dad was really the
Speaker 2: only dad on the entire block. Like at all of
Speaker 2: my homies, my dad was their dad because their dads
Speaker 2: were not in their life. And so whereas most of
Speaker 2: the black men in the neighborhood I was growing up
Speaker 2: in were fatherless, I don't know what it is not
Speaker 2: to have my daddy's voice until February twenty fourth of
Speaker 2: this year. So I lived almost forty nine years and
Speaker 2: my daddy's voice was in my life prevalent. He was
Speaker 2: always encouraging, He was always present. He was at the games.
Speaker 2: He was at my talent shows. When I was in
Speaker 2: show choir wearing funny cumber buns and bow times, he
Speaker 2: was like, that's my song. When I did talent shows
Speaker 2: in school, I see my childhood friends right there, right
Speaker 2: all right there, These are all my people right here.
Speaker 2: I almost jumped up my skin when I saw y'all.
Speaker 2: I almost forgot I was like doing an interview. I
Speaker 2: can't wait to ull y'all girl. So my dad was
Speaker 2: just always president. So not having his voice in my
Speaker 2: life right now is the strangest thing. I can't even
Speaker 2: describe how strange it is. It feels. I've heard people
Speaker 2: that have lost the limb talk about what they referred
Speaker 2: to as a phantom itch. The limb is gone, but
Speaker 2: they still wake up in the night and go to
Speaker 2: reach to scratch their leg, but the leg's not there.
Speaker 2: And so I can't tell you how many times I've
Speaker 2: been on the road and like, got to call Daddy
Speaker 2: and let him know I made it. I gotta call
Speaker 2: Daddy and tell him, Oh my god, I can't believe
Speaker 2: you know that this place is sold out. And he's
Speaker 2: not gonna answer that phone. I pay his phone bill,
Speaker 2: so I don't know when I'm gonna get that phone
Speaker 2: de activated, because I just might want to ring his
Speaker 2: phone and hear his little craggly voice, be like, you
Speaker 2: reach Charles, leave a message, you know. But I do
Speaker 2: have a overwhelming sense of peace and and my heart
Speaker 2: is full. Somebody said, do you feel father less since
Speaker 2: he died, and I don't. I feel father full. My
Speaker 2: Daddy filled my heart with his love and his presence,
Speaker 2: and I don't have any holes in my heart, so
Speaker 2: ain't nothing leaking. So I'm carrying them with me, except
Speaker 2: three different.
Speaker 10: You know, I lost my mom in the June twenty fifth,
Speaker 10: twenty twenty three, and five months later I lost my
Speaker 10: sister and she was the oldest, so I was happy
Speaker 10: to get out of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: Yeahs.
Speaker 7: And so I'm grieving, and you know, everybody loved it, mama,
Speaker 7: and so she's not here with us any longer, but
Speaker 7: I feel like she is because I wouldn't be here
Speaker 7: without and so I share your grief. It's just we
Speaker 7: all process grief different and so, and that's the reason
Speaker 7: why I wanted to ask you that question, because you know,
Speaker 7: that's something that is a long process, and each day
Speaker 7: something to rip off the band aid and the wound
Speaker 7: opens up, and so those things that we can't control.
Speaker 7: But you here the day, and I'm sure your father
Speaker 7: will be please and I'm sure he's happy when because
Speaker 7: you talk about that in your book. You talk about
Speaker 7: the day that you had the itch and you had,
Speaker 7: you couldn't wait to share that you was ready to announce.
Speaker 7: You accepted Jesus your Lord and saved right. And so
Speaker 7: you talk talk about that day in church after you know, partying.
Speaker 6: All night carrying your mama and daddy to church.
Speaker 2: Yep, yep, yep, yep. You read the book for sure. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you read the book for real. So my parents started
Speaker 2: a church that in our house, like it literally started
Speaker 2: in our house nine fifteen Hertbuth Belinda, California, nine one
Speaker 2: seven four four, and we moved all the living room furniture.
Speaker 2: We went to Ace Hardware, brought thirty brown chairs. My
Speaker 2: godmother and my godfather pastor to church in Compton. They
Speaker 2: had an extra pool pit in storage. We put it
Speaker 2: on a dolly, rolled it into our house, set it up,
Speaker 2: and my mom was the lead pastor of the church.
Speaker 11: Now, if you are.
Speaker 2: In here and you have any theological squabbles around women preachers,
Speaker 2: then you need to walk out right now, because a
Speaker 2: woman preachers church is what led me to Jesus. So
Speaker 2: whatever you think about it, I'm just I'm just letting
Speaker 2: you know you may not want to listen to me
Speaker 2: no more.
Speaker 3: Because the first teacher is a woman, the mother of
Speaker 3: simplstration the people.
Speaker 2: So you know just why people think that today? Yeah,
Speaker 2: well well they do. I won't get off into that anyway.
Speaker 2: So it went from it went from our living room
Speaker 2: to at the time, this is ninety six, we were
Speaker 2: having church in a banquet room of a bowling alley.
Speaker 2: So don't think like a church. We in a banquet
Speaker 2: room of a bowling alley. Like in between praise and
Speaker 2: worship songs, you hear bowling balls knocking over pens. Okay,
Speaker 2: Yolanda's mama is my Sunday school teacher. To this day,
Speaker 2: she's the only Sunday school kids teacher I claim to
Speaker 2: this day. Beverly Walker is her mama. And that was
Speaker 2: my Sunday school teacher. And Sunday school had just ended.
Speaker 2: My memory ain't short. That's another thing y'all gotta understand
Speaker 2: about me. I don't forget nobody you did anything nice
Speaker 2: for me. I will never forget you. I might forget
Speaker 2: your name, but I will not forget what you did
Speaker 2: for me. And so Beverly Walker, you know, was my
Speaker 2: Sunday school teacher. We had just finished Sunday school morning worship,
Speaker 2: had just started. I'm sitting on the back I'm sitting
Speaker 2: on the back road to church. I can hear the
Speaker 2: bowling pins for real from the back row, and I
Speaker 2: I heard the Holy Spirit say to me as clear
Speaker 2: as I'm talking to you right now, mister Malie, you're
Speaker 2: a sinner. Thre words. That's it, You're a sinner. And
Speaker 2: there was no condemnation in the statement. It was like
Speaker 2: saying you got on a long sleeve hoodie. He was
Speaker 2: like pointing something out. But the moment he pointed it out,
Speaker 2: the moment I felt disconnected from God and out of nowhere,
Speaker 2: I just started to crying. I'm just crying on the
Speaker 2: back row. And this is a Pentecostal church in a
Speaker 2: bowling alley. Dan ain't got nothing that time. Sunday school
Speaker 2: had just ended, morning worship had just started. I'm like,
Speaker 2: because I think too much and I'm a literalist, and
Speaker 2: I'll be processing everything real time. I'm like, I'm probably
Speaker 2: three and a half hours from salvation. Like, there's gonna
Speaker 2: be an a B C. D selection, that's gonna they're
Speaker 2: gonna raise the offering, there's gonna be a cermaonic solo.
Speaker 2: Then it's gonna be a sermon, and then that could
Speaker 2: be an another fifty minutes, and then there might they
Speaker 2: might shout, and if they have a praise break, that
Speaker 2: could be twenty minutes, and so I might be four
Speaker 2: hours from salvation. And my dad was officiating the service
Speaker 2: that day, and I'll never forget. Five people got up.
Speaker 2: They did testimony service, and I don't know if y'all
Speaker 2: ever been in a church with testimony service first giving
Speaker 2: out of the God who is ahead of my mind right.
Speaker 2: And but some people don't be testifying. They just be complaining.
Speaker 2: They'd be like people paying for me to devil busyness,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, dude, this ain't no testimony. You need
Speaker 2: to sit.
Speaker 6: An They repolled my car.
Speaker 2: I'm like that ain't the devil that was Riboto that
Speaker 2: put repold your car. That was not faith. They love
Speaker 2: was not present. You should have paid your car though.
Speaker 2: So you know, you got five people talking and I'm
Speaker 2: standing up in the back. And I'm standing up in
Speaker 2: the back and remember those cartoons that got like an
Speaker 2: angel on one side and the devil on the other shoulder,
Speaker 2: and they like one's telling you good and one's telling
Speaker 2: you bad. I just had two demons on show. They
Speaker 2: was like, niggas, sit down and you should. You should
Speaker 2: not give your life to Jesus today or any other day.
Speaker 2: You sleeping around, you got a porn stash underneath your mattress.
Speaker 2: You boning too, best friends, and you doing you're doing
Speaker 2: the most. I was wildly promiscuous. When I tell you,
Speaker 2: I was off the chain. I was off the chain.
Speaker 2: And I just kept standing there with all of that
Speaker 2: in my mind, like, wow, not having sex doesn't sound fun.
Speaker 2: That porn stash is. I don't really want to do that.
Speaker 2: But I got sexually abused when I was eight, and
Speaker 2: this is my out. Maybe I should give my life
Speaker 2: to Jesus next week because I probably need to throw
Speaker 2: it all the porn at the trash before I give
Speaker 2: my life to Jesus. That's the second time I heard
Speaker 2: the Holy Ghost got called by that good old King James,
Speaker 2: that good old Holy go said, you won't do none
Speaker 2: of that if you don't walk out of here with me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you felt that thing. Is the fact that it came
Speaker 2: from the back road after I lost from and that's
Speaker 2: where I was, Hey, that's where I was so uh
Speaker 2: and and truth be told, whenever I'm preaching the all
Speaker 2: twenty eight years I've been preaching. I always preach in
Speaker 2: my mind, I preach from the back row to the front,
Speaker 2: because the first four roads already saved. Anyway, the nigga
Speaker 2: guarday know what you're gonna say if you say turn
Speaker 2: the exitu three andre like it's gonna.
Speaker 12: Talk about Moses. Like they just they looking like, let
Speaker 12: me see if you know what you're talking about. They
Speaker 12: missed me off perch, let me see if he gonna
Speaker 12: be in the book.
Speaker 2: So I'm glad you felt it from the background, bro,
Speaker 2: I feel that. So so I just kept standing. And
Speaker 2: then when my dad finally like everybody sat down and
Speaker 2: he saw me in the back, I know he was
Speaker 2: surprised because I wasn't one of the pks that played
Speaker 2: church like. I wasn't like choir boy, and then did Dirk.
Speaker 2: I was just in the back, like y'all know, I
Speaker 2: can't participate. I can't. Don't ask me to lead a prayer,
Speaker 2: don't ask me to do no Eastern speech because knows
Speaker 2: her no man. So he was like, they did got.
Speaker 6: Something to say.
Speaker 2: And this is a small church. So in the small
Speaker 2: church people are nosy. So forty eight people, just what's
Speaker 2: he at to say? And I just said, I give up.
Speaker 6: Mm and it.
Speaker 2: Was just silent. Everybody was kind of like, give up what?
Speaker 2: And I was like, man, I need to give my
Speaker 2: life to Jesus right now. And my mama let out
Speaker 2: the biggest backust end credit scene of a Tyler Perry movie,
Speaker 2: Halloween you have ever heard in your natural born light.
Speaker 2: And I was in the back and I walked to
Speaker 2: the front and I was crying, and I gave my
Speaker 2: life to Jesus. My brother and my homeboy, Steve, they
Speaker 2: were both deceased. They came to pick me up to
Speaker 2: take me to Venice Beach cause Sunday for me was
Speaker 2: driving my parents to church.
Speaker 11: They're gonna drive it back.
Speaker 2: My boy's gonna pick me up. Were going to Venice
Speaker 2: Beach till about six, then we're gonna eat at Limbs
Speaker 2: or Dulas. Then we gonna cruise Crenshaw till two o'clock
Speaker 2: in the morning and try to get some girl's number.
Speaker 2: And they came to get me to take me to
Speaker 2: Venice Beach after the service or whatever. And my eyes
Speaker 2: were still read from crying and all stuff.
Speaker 11: And Myles looked at me, my younger brother, Miles.
Speaker 2: He's in heaven. He were seventeen months apart. And he
Speaker 2: looked at me and he said, oh, nigga, you know
Speaker 2: your siblings be knowing. I dapped him up and Steve buppan.
Speaker 2: He looked at me. He said, oh, nigga, and he looked.
Speaker 2: He said, you didn't. I said I did, And he said,
Speaker 2: Nigga asked what's up? Steve had no idea. What's going on?
Speaker 2: Steve said, what happened? He said, man, this nigga got saved.
Speaker 2: And that's my life changed from that day. When I
Speaker 2: tell you, in twenty four hours, my only friends were
Speaker 2: my parents and my PlayStation one and a King James
Speaker 2: Thompson chain reference study. Bible I was in, but I
Speaker 2: was in it for real. I wasn't perfect that day.
Speaker 2: I wasn't like super into the Bible that day, but
Speaker 2: I was made righteous that day. And over the last
Speaker 2: twenty eight years, I've just become freer and freer and
Speaker 2: freer and freer. It's a process. It's a process.
Speaker 13: He sold this this book is meant to give people
Speaker 13: that type of a cheat code and understand that you
Speaker 13: don't have to wait until you're old and you do
Speaker 13: it all you don't do you like, the last thing
Speaker 13: you want to do is you.
Speaker 2: I promise you don't want to. You're gonna hurt you
Speaker 2: doing you. The best thing you can do is be
Speaker 2: him to him so to live his Christ.
Speaker 11: In the dis game, that.
Speaker 2: Was beautiful, touchy.
Speaker 6: He might have upset some of y'all out there because
Speaker 6: he ain't have nothing but his family left.
Speaker 2: That's right, Well, who you upset? My brother? Tell him, Yeah,
Speaker 2: so when you get first, the first person that's gonna
Speaker 2: be upset is you. That the first person before I
Speaker 2: can upset anybody else's world. Mine was getting completely upset
Speaker 2: because I start reading that Bible and then the whole
Speaker 2: when the Holy Spirit comes in, he starts convicting you
Speaker 2: with stuff. Don't nobody got to tell you, Like I
Speaker 2: couldn't even go to the club, right, I felt like
Speaker 2: I'm saying, but you know, I still can go to
Speaker 2: the club. I got in the club, and the Holy
Speaker 2: Spirit was like, I don't want to be here, nigga,
Speaker 2: I'm not visiting you.
Speaker 6: I I want to go home. I don't want to
Speaker 6: be here.
Speaker 12: And and I remember, I remember the first time.
Speaker 14: A girl used to talk to called me at night
Speaker 14: and asked me to come over, and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 14: and the Holy Spirit did not let me enjoy it.
Speaker 2: He told me from the time I took that call
Speaker 2: to the time I got to her house, don't go
Speaker 2: over there the whole time, from the time I said yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm on my way over, don't go over there. Don't
Speaker 2: That's all I heard on repeat for like fifty four minutes.
Speaker 2: I took a shower, got dressed, got in the car,
Speaker 2: drove over there, walked up the little sidewalk to her
Speaker 2: apartment door.
Speaker 11: Don't go over there.
Speaker 2: Don't go for the whole time did. She opened that
Speaker 2: door with just a T shirt though, and he stopped
Speaker 2: talking and we had sex. And before she come out
Speaker 2: of the bathroom, I was on the side of the
Speaker 2: bed bawling my eyes out, I mean, ugly fring. She
Speaker 2: came back like, bro, but swama could I was like,
Speaker 2: I wasn't supposed to be here.
Speaker 15: All rights make the God in you and me, so
Speaker 15: I couldn't.
Speaker 2: I couldn't have sex with nobody no more. I couldn't
Speaker 2: hate on nobody no more. If I cut somebody out,
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm so Sully, you know You're a
Speaker 2: child of God, and I'm trying to get better at
Speaker 2: being your child of God. Please forgive me.
Speaker 16: I didn't used to care about nobody's feeling so so
Speaker 16: so the first person that gets upset as you, and
Speaker 16: and the and the moment you stop fighting it.
Speaker 2: And you submit to it, and you stop trying to
Speaker 2: make excuses of why you're not gonna do it. Your
Speaker 2: life just becomes so much simpler. You you just know
Speaker 2: the way to go because the Holy Spirit just keeps
Speaker 2: guiding you in that way.
Speaker 3: So I know that, Hey, look this is the basement
Speaker 3: right now to the casement.
Speaker 6: I really know to these words are so you get
Speaker 6: touching me. This is deep, you know, because that guilt
Speaker 6: is real.
Speaker 3: It is, and that duality inside of us is real.
Speaker 6: It is we fight our own self because we're.
Speaker 3: Fighting against our own salvation and we need to do
Speaker 3: the right thing.
Speaker 7: You know, trust in God, trust in all his wisdom
Speaker 7: except your.
Speaker 2: Delivery. Yeah, it's don't fight. You know, everyone has a calling.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And when reading a book you're talking about I
Speaker 7: think you talked about predestiny or for knowledge and your
Speaker 7: predestiny and how you can change your direction in your
Speaker 7: life because it's not preset. And so I wanted to
Speaker 7: ask you about you know, that particular chapter because I
Speaker 7: think it was called spoiler alert.
Speaker 2: It is spoiler Yeah, you're right, it is. So you
Speaker 2: read that book, it's one thing to skim mister, read
Speaker 2: that through its.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, you did so.
Speaker 2: So a lot of there's a lot of theological squabbles
Speaker 2: around predestination and free will, and it's really not as
Speaker 2: hard as people think it is. Romans eight makes it
Speaker 2: very very clear. In King James it says for those
Speaker 2: he did for no, he did predestined. So both fore
Speaker 2: knowledge and predestination is right there. If you know before,
Speaker 2: then you can predestine something. If you only fix it
Speaker 2: and there's no foreknowledge, then that means that you don't
Speaker 2: have a choice. That nobody in here has free will.
Speaker 12: And if God was like that, I wouldn't serve because
Speaker 12: that means it's fixed.
Speaker 2: Some people are in and some people are out, but
Speaker 2: everybody has a choice. What people get lost in is
Speaker 2: trying to with our finite minds, figure out something that's
Speaker 2: infinitely more complex than we can ever imagine that our
Speaker 2: free will could exist in God's mind before he spoke
Speaker 2: us into existence. Now if you try to figure out
Speaker 2: how your brain's gonna hurt, that's just that's above my
Speaker 2: pay grades. So I leave that alone. But what I
Speaker 2: do know is that everybody has a choice to make,
Speaker 2: and it's all centered around submission. This is a this
Speaker 2: is we can we can argue about all kinds of stuff,
Speaker 2: but at the end of the day, if you're gonna
Speaker 2: have a relationship with Jesus Christ, it's gonna come down
Speaker 2: to your will. And most of us have too much
Speaker 2: pride to give our whole lives over, so we give peaces.
Speaker 6: You can.
Speaker 2: I will serve you Sunday through Tuesday, but I gotta
Speaker 2: have Wednesday through Saturday because I'm just you know, Lord,
Speaker 2: you know my heart. You know I'll be trying. Oh
Speaker 2: you're rebellious and just say that right, And because he
Speaker 2: knows anyway, he knows your thoughts are far off, so
Speaker 2: it ain't like you plot so so for me, I
Speaker 2: like to that chapter was about encouraging people to understand
Speaker 2: that the moment you can submit your will to God,
Speaker 2: the easier living for him gets. Not saying you're not
Speaker 2: gonna have challenges and issues and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 2: but once it's result in your in your mind that
Speaker 2: you don't have a plan be life gets very very easy.
Speaker 2: When I gave my life to Jesus on January fourteenth,
Speaker 2: or nineteen ninety six, mister Maligue, I did not have
Speaker 2: a plan B and so I don't have an out.
Speaker 2: It's the only life I know. I'm down ten toes
Speaker 2: in the dirt. Somebody hold me at gunpoint right now, Nigga,
Speaker 2: denounce Jesus or die. I'm gonna see my daddy quick.
Speaker 2: That's that's on my daddy, Nigga. Like I mean that,
Speaker 2: like that. I'm about this, like for real, not just
Speaker 2: because I live in America. You dropped me off in
Speaker 2: a place where it's hostile to serve Jesus. I'm about
Speaker 2: to die because I can't take back what I know.
Speaker 2: That's right. So you can pull out any book you want.
Speaker 2: You can start trying to break down the Bible. Say
Speaker 2: that it was written by the white man and that
Speaker 2: he was colonized into it. Bruh, have you read the text?
Speaker 2: This predates anything you think about the colonization of Europeans.
Speaker 2: So so I'm I'm about I don't want to get
Speaker 2: started on that, but I'm back into la so my
Speaker 2: little hood kind of I can feel my head about
Speaker 2: h a little bit more than it would about Bendala
Speaker 2: be real.
Speaker 6: You can tell my brother.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, that's what were You know, you remind me,
Speaker 3: you know, this talk reminds me of my grandmother. She's
Speaker 3: very spiritual. You know, as you get older, you sud
Speaker 3: get wife. You know, we shouldn't be doing the same
Speaker 3: things we did as a twenty and then that thirty
Speaker 3: year old. So my grandmother, you know, was very devoted
Speaker 3: and very spiritual, and she was the mother of the church.
Speaker 2: And so you know, I grew up in the church.
Speaker 2: But everything that I saw.
Speaker 3: My grandmother pray for, I saw her received from God.
Speaker 3: And you know I witnessed that, and it was amazing
Speaker 3: because she sacrificed, and she was devoted and she wanted.
Speaker 3: She was always about helping people, and she wont proclamations
Speaker 3: from the Washington d C.
Speaker 6: Making sure the streets are clean. And like I said,
Speaker 6: she was the mother of the church.
Speaker 2: And so your book talks about the power of prayer.
Speaker 3: And so my grandmother prayed a lot, and everything she
Speaker 3: prayed for I saw it received. And so I wanted
Speaker 3: you to touch on the power prayer because you you touched.
Speaker 2: On that in your book, and so I want that
Speaker 2: you talked about that. I need. I need to talk
Speaker 2: to your grandmother because I didn't get everything I prayed for.
Speaker 2: So I just want to know how grandmama structured her
Speaker 2: prayer so I could follow it like ber Vadim. But
Speaker 2: but I tell you what prayer changed me. Prayers do
Speaker 2: change me, even if they don't change the circumstance, they
Speaker 2: change me. And and and one of the things that
Speaker 2: I disdained about church is the churches I grew up in.
Speaker 2: Let me let me preface that, not all churches, but
Speaker 2: the church I grew up in. Is that how intimidated
Speaker 2: people were to pray, because we almost made it like
Speaker 2: we almost like venerated professional prayers.
Speaker 17: Oh dear God, you come to the all God.
Speaker 2: Most creator of heaven and earth. You are the ones
Speaker 2: that fondness from the dust of the ground. You are
Speaker 2: the one that's the spot, the spot. You are the
Speaker 2: one that falls to a system cold. And you're like,
Speaker 2: and then somebody's like, you're turning. You're like, I don't
Speaker 2: have the vocabulary too. I've failed science class, so I
Speaker 2: don't know if I should pray. But but the most
Speaker 2: beautiful prayers I've ever prayed are the ones that sound
Speaker 2: like a conversation. Yea, it's the ones that sound like, like,
Speaker 2: I really miss my dad today since he's up there
Speaker 2: with you, can you tell him? I said, how, I
Speaker 2: don't even know if that's the thing.
Speaker 11: Amen.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, Yes, that's a prayer like a whole prayer
Speaker 2: could be. I'm tired. That's a whole prayer, A whole
Speaker 2: prayer could be. God. I believe you're a healer of cancer,
Speaker 2: and I've lost loved ones to cancer, so I believe
Speaker 2: you can do it.
Speaker 6: Will you just do it?
Speaker 2: Because man, right, I believe you're the the God of miracle.
Speaker 6: I read about him in the back.
Speaker 2: I know you still do him today.
Speaker 6: So please don't let my friend die from this cancer.
Speaker 2: Amen. I don't have to remind him that he created
Speaker 2: solar system.
Speaker 3: There's a whole bunch of angels in heaven that all
Speaker 3: they say is Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Todd Almighty.
Speaker 2: So he wants to hear from me, the real me,
Speaker 2: not the professional me, not the preacher me, just me.
Speaker 2: And when I stripped down all of those facades and
Speaker 2: I just talked to my Dad, the creator of the
Speaker 2: universe just happens to be our father, which are in heaven.
Speaker 9: Hollowen be thy kingdom, Come, Thy will be done he
Speaker 9: art as it is in heaven.
Speaker 11: Mp us, yes our day brand, and.
Speaker 9: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those that sitting
Speaker 9: against us.
Speaker 6: And lead us not and.
Speaker 2: Spucking like a true single woman, My God, lead us
Speaker 2: not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for the
Speaker 2: hindness the kingdom, Yeah, and the power and the glory
Speaker 2: forever and ever. Amen. Like if you break that prayer down,
Speaker 2: that thing is the most basic. First, identify who he is.
Speaker 2: It's your dad, hello, not your stepdad, So you ain't
Speaker 2: got to say his name seventy two times. Father God,
Speaker 2: we just thank you, Father God for this day. Fact
Speaker 2: of God, Early Father God. We just love you today,
Speaker 2: Father of God, because Father God, you're just a healer,
Speaker 2: Father God. You know Father God, Father God, and Father
Speaker 2: that why don't we keep why do we keep reminding
Speaker 2: him who he is? Then we like, whill you please
Speaker 2: do it? When you please do it? With That's how
Speaker 2: you've talked to a step here. I know we don't
Speaker 2: have a biological connection, but if you love the other,
Speaker 2: if you love your spouse, who happens to be connected
Speaker 2: to me? When you please make me a flummis English. Oh,
Speaker 2: this is your dad, so you can go to him
Speaker 2: boldly because of Christ's blood that was shed on the cross.
Speaker 2: So I'm just about simplifying this and then just just
Speaker 2: reach you out cod swish no more. I'm putting it
Speaker 2: in the language that I grew up with. Yeah, some
Speaker 2: people don't like it. Some people think it's crash. Some
Speaker 2: people are like, but I'm just talking like the I'm
Speaker 2: just I talk in public now the way I talk
Speaker 2: at home. If I'm preaching, you'll never hear me get
Speaker 2: close to this type of cadence. But when i'm when
Speaker 2: i'm adroll, this is how we gonna talk. And you
Speaker 2: may not talk like that, and I expect you from
Speaker 2: talking not talking like that, but don't be mad that
Speaker 2: I do talk like that. I can't tell you how
Speaker 2: many of.
Speaker 18: The white people that I preach for love the dynasty,
Speaker 18: all these country folks preaching in their church with full camel,
Speaker 18: one uncle side, just a mumbling.
Speaker 2: But then when I come out of talking about I'm
Speaker 2: not sure it's a little disruptive. Tim don't you think
Speaker 2: I'm like not more disruptive than what Trump said.
Speaker 19: Okay, you know the thing is, God is gonna say
Speaker 19: anybody speaking the language of the people, because that's what's important.
Speaker 3: You know, everybody is a lock, but not everybody got
Speaker 3: to keep.
Speaker 1: And some locks.
Speaker 6: Got and it takes a not in love. So we
Speaker 6: gotta pay God for bringing.
Speaker 2: The master lot.
Speaker 6: You to deliver you. We all a touch differently.
Speaker 3: We all trying to get up that mountain, but we
Speaker 3: all gonna take different paths.
Speaker 2: Some gonna get there longer, some gonna get there quicker.
Speaker 2: But we think God is that he.
Speaker 3: Lives in us to bring a master locksmith to unlock
Speaker 3: the rusty locks that a lot of us have become.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm never gonna forget that, sir, I promise you
Speaker 2: won't forget that. You're gonna hear that again, Like next
Speaker 2: week you're gonna hear that.
Speaker 20: You gonna hear that none day on the podcast. You're
Speaker 20: gonna hear that one day.
Speaker 6: I just you just gave me labored. I didn't even
Speaker 6: know how.
Speaker 2: Need to thank you. I need to get you a
Speaker 2: gift card and I need your cash yet, Sir, Lord
Speaker 2: of Nursey, that was good for me, just God speaking
Speaker 2: to absolutely.
Speaker 3: And that's how you know someone is annointed, because it
Speaker 3: touches you in a certain way.
Speaker 2: And so that's the beauty of it.
Speaker 7: And that's how we can discern between you know, evil
Speaker 7: and good, and it is the delivery and it's how
Speaker 7: it touches us.
Speaker 2: And so I can't take the credit for them.
Speaker 6: Boy, it came from God right here, right there. Believe
Speaker 6: books conversation, I got one more thing. I want to
Speaker 6: open it.
Speaker 2: Up to some questions.
Speaker 7: Okay, yes, sir, Now break down the difference between being
Speaker 7: religion and religious, sir, because you talk about that in
Speaker 7: the book.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, So I made the mistake, like many people
Speaker 2: made the mistake in the last ten years or so,
Speaker 2: of saying, you know, it's not about religion, it's about relationship.
Speaker 2: And sometimes certain sound bites just start circulating the church
Speaker 2: and before you know it, you picking them up and
Speaker 2: you saying it before you realize what am I saying.
Speaker 2: So I remember, I got caught up in it, and
Speaker 2: I started saying it as well, it's not about religion,
Speaker 2: it's about relationship. And I understood what I meant when
Speaker 2: I said that, But then I have a friend who
Speaker 2: is a Messianic Jewish rabbi and he told me, Bro,
Speaker 2: you gotta stop saying that. He's a dude from Seattle.
Speaker 2: Just Jewish rabbis are that love your shoe. Are just
Speaker 2: built different and they don't mind telling you nothing because
Speaker 2: you are gentile and they know it. They're like, sir,
Speaker 2: you have no idea what you're talking about. You have
Speaker 2: no situational awareness at all. He said, you gotta stop
Speaker 2: saying that. He said Jesus was very religious and he
Speaker 2: would have been in the synagogue every week and he
Speaker 2: didn't miss any festivals and he didn't miss anything. They
Speaker 2: were about him. They were to reveal him. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry, I'm just a gentile. Can you tell me?
Speaker 2: And so I listened to him and I started to
Speaker 2: process it, and I was like, oh, I get this now.
Speaker 2: Like we're all very religious people, whether we admit it
Speaker 2: or not, every single one of us have a religious routine.
Speaker 2: It may not be around prayer, it may not be
Speaker 2: around church. It may be around a TV show that
Speaker 2: you watch. It may be around working out. It may
Speaker 2: be about around when you clean your house or your
Speaker 2: car or whatever. For Juliette and I. Fridays are our
Speaker 2: date night, and so I'm very religious about that because
Speaker 2: I keep this religious day because of the relationship I have.
Speaker 2: So the statement is not about religion, it's about relationship.
Speaker 2: Isn't the most refined statement. I am religious because of
Speaker 2: this relationship. So let me tell you how much I
Speaker 2: love Juliet. I've been on this tour. It's been kind
Speaker 2: of manic. The publisher has had us all over the country.
Speaker 2: I don't think I've been anywhere more than thirty hours
Speaker 2: from the time I land to the time I leave.
Speaker 2: Because Juliet's cute, Like, I'm very attracted to my wife.
Speaker 2: So when I get on the plane, I'm already thinking,
Speaker 2: how can I get back home and in the bed,
Speaker 2: get this curt and not even for sex, just to snuggle. Yeah,
Speaker 2: then sex, then snuggle, I don't care what order is.
Speaker 2: Then sexy, snuggles, snugglings, just the two essence. So so
Speaker 2: if we have day nights on Friday and we go
Speaker 2: to the movies all the time or whatever, if one
Speaker 2: Friday she gets sick and she's like, Babe, I'm just
Speaker 2: too sick to go to the movies. If I go
Speaker 2: to the movies anyway. Now my religion is bad. The
Speaker 2: reason why I was religious about it is because of
Speaker 2: the relationship. If I chose to still go to the
Speaker 2: movies minus the person that I'm supposed to be going with,
Speaker 2: that's good. Now my religion is empty, because what I'm
Speaker 2: saying is I'll do this whether you're witney or no,
Speaker 2: that's a good time. And I cannot tell you how
Speaker 2: many churches that's it show up on Sunday and they
Speaker 2: gonna have church, whether whether God ever closed or or not.
Speaker 2: I will on Monday after I break down the fact
Speaker 2: that I'm a master locksman.
Speaker 20: And I opened up Roughty lost the kee to these blocks.
Speaker 2: But there's a lot of churches that are like, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, we're going to church. Was God there?
Speaker 10: Wow?
Speaker 2: Actually, if they were honest, I don't care if he's there.
Speaker 2: I go to church that is. And there's a lot
Speaker 2: and that religion is empty. That's the religion that even
Speaker 2: God says in the Book of Amos, I hate your festivals.
Speaker 2: Who well, God like the people are like you told
Speaker 2: us to do him. You instituted all these festivals. You
Speaker 2: instituted to pass over. He was like, yeah, I loved
Speaker 2: when you did it with me. Yeah, I hate when
Speaker 2: you do it without me. So religion isn't bad as
Speaker 2: long as the relationship is intact. But when we choose
Speaker 2: religion over relationship, it's empty. But if you have a
Speaker 2: true relationship with God, you are going to be religious.
Speaker 2: Because I'm religious about my time with him. I'm religious
Speaker 2: about carving out time to pray, to read my Bible,
Speaker 2: to do good things, to assemble with other brothers and
Speaker 2: sisters in the faith. I'm religious about those things because
Speaker 2: I love the relationship I have with God. So that's
Speaker 2: why I spoke about that in that chapter, because I
Speaker 2: want to redeem that language. And really I'm calling out
Speaker 2: my own hell from that moment forward, I'm like, let
Speaker 2: me when y'all be saying stuff before I say, hey, man,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna just listen twice because I don't want to
Speaker 2: get reviewed by this MESSI hady Jewish Rabbi no more
Speaker 2: like that. That's real talk. So that's where that came from.
Speaker 2: Give it up for that answer, man.
Speaker 7: You made me think about my own because you know,
Speaker 7: I can marry for a while and we do things
Speaker 7: religiously together, and.
Speaker 6: If she does it on her own, I do it.
Speaker 6: It does make us.
Speaker 3: Feel a certain way, yeah, Michelle, And so I just
Speaker 3: never thought about that in the context that you said
Speaker 3: with God, yes, and so I think that that was
Speaker 3: very meaningful in touch.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 7: Let me ask my father one moment, then I won't
Speaker 7: let you answer and give him a question, you know, brother.
Speaker 3: Reading your book, parts of it made me think about
Speaker 3: the Rocky movement where Rocky was.
Speaker 7: Training in a dungeon and the pilot, Cree, was training
Speaker 7: in the scale, and so, you know, Rocky was on
Speaker 7: the bottom, like so many of so many.
Speaker 3: Of us in our community bottom already, and we're trying
Speaker 3: to we have that design to elevate, you know. You
Speaker 3: know when I think about, you know, the pen house,
Speaker 3: I imagine that's an analogy for heaven. Right, So your
Speaker 3: book made me think about the contrast between Apollo and
Speaker 3: Rocky and how they trained. One is on in the
Speaker 3: basement at the bottom, in the dungeon, the others in
Speaker 3: the lavish hotel on the top.
Speaker 7: And it's a story on folio y'all watched it. But
Speaker 7: should the people desire the pent house, even though we
Speaker 7: might start on the bottom, should the goal be the pinhouse?
Speaker 2: The goal shouldn't be the penhouse. The goal should be
Speaker 2: proximity to God. All of my promotions have come because
Speaker 2: I kept my head down. Like my mom said something
Speaker 2: to me that I'll never forget. Mommy is a Southern
Speaker 2: bell from Birmingham, Alabama, and she said, Babe, God has
Speaker 2: opened up a lot of doors for you, and he's
Speaker 2: given you influence and you traveling. She said, but just
Speaker 2: remember this, no matter how high you go, you will
Speaker 2: always be at the feet of Jesus. So he felt that.
Speaker 2: So what I realized is all of my blessings have
Speaker 2: come from the bottom, not like in this downcast way,
Speaker 2: but like I haven't desired. I never pray for this.
Speaker 2: When I tell you, I never pray for it.
Speaker 6: God, use me to shake cut your the ration.
Speaker 2: I have the dude at the front of the youth revival.
Speaker 2: I'd be like, use him. He wants it. He's at
Speaker 2: the front with yellow one like he wants a prophetic word,
Speaker 2: like get him. I'm in the back. He's like, nah,
Speaker 2: you come with me, and I'm like.
Speaker 21: No.
Speaker 2: And all of my promotions have come when I least
Speaker 2: expect that, and when my intention was already on being
Speaker 2: content with what I already had. I'm gonna say something
Speaker 2: and it's gonna wreck the How do I want to
Speaker 2: say this? Okay, let me let me let me press
Speaker 2: this it by saying this, if you if you're if
Speaker 2: you're a driven person, God wired you that way. So
Speaker 2: when I make this statement, I don't want you to
Speaker 2: be like I need to die. Alright, suck, How do
Speaker 2: I get this out of me? Gonna tell you how
Speaker 2: to tweak it. Ambitious people scare me, not go oriented people,
Speaker 2: but ambitious people. But let me tell you who scares
Speaker 2: me the most? People with godly ambition. I read the
Speaker 2: Bible through and through. I can only find one verse
Speaker 2: with a with a somewhat positive connotation with the word ambitious,
Speaker 2: and it's when it's in the Book of Romans when
Speaker 2: Paul says, it is my ambition not to plant churches
Speaker 2: where other churches have already been planted. Loose paraphrase. But
Speaker 2: Paul di need to get to plant all the churches
Speaker 2: he wanted, right, he wanted to get to Spain. He
Speaker 2: got chopped off at wrong right. Here's my definition for
Speaker 2: godly ambition. And this is a definition I work. I
Speaker 2: just kind of wordsmith this definition Godly ambition to me
Speaker 2: is when we make up stuff to do for God
Speaker 2: that he never said he wanted to do through us.
Speaker 2: And we usually don't check people with godly ambition because
Speaker 2: it sounds so noble. Right, I'm gonna start a food
Speaker 2: pantry and it's like, I'm gonna feed the homeless, and
Speaker 2: you're like, well, hey man, yeah, we need to feel
Speaker 2: feed the homeless. But you've been at it for like
Speaker 2: eighteen months and the pantry has twenty two Kanza green beans.
Speaker 6: That's it.
Speaker 2: The Lord's not with you. It sounds dope. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: plan a church in the inner city. There's gonna be revival.
Speaker 2: Did he tell you too, that's right? Or are you
Speaker 2: just planning a church in the inner city because I
Speaker 2: want revival? Well, I would not voluntarily square up against
Speaker 2: the demonic strama unless I knew the Lord was on
Speaker 2: my side. So like sometimes we can have these visions
Speaker 2: and dreams of like I want to do this for
Speaker 2: the Lord, and the Lord is like, just take your
Speaker 2: wife on that day. I want to counsel people, and
Speaker 2: the Lord is like, just take your kids to soccer practice.
Speaker 2: But because we don't think that's glamorous and we're not
Speaker 2: gonna you can't instagram that, and that don't seem then
Speaker 2: we're like, we got to prove that we're doing something
Speaker 2: for Jesus. This book is out and it's selling good
Speaker 2: because he told me to write Fight the Mind, But
Speaker 2: he also told me to write the first book and
Speaker 2: it fopped. He was involved because the first lad to
Speaker 2: the second, and you gotta always watch out for the second.
Speaker 2: First man Adam, second man at him, Always watch out
Speaker 2: for the second, Esau Jacob, always watch out for the second.
Speaker 2: That's right, So I am. I don't like for people
Speaker 2: to use God to try to fuel their own ambitions.
Speaker 2: I would rather you accept God's will for your life.
Speaker 2: And as Paul instructed Timothy, godlsness with contentment is great game.
Speaker 2: I love the season of my life, but it can
Speaker 2: end tonight.
Speaker 3: I promise you.
Speaker 2: We could end tonight. Podcasts could be over tonight. Wouldn't
Speaker 2: bother me one bit because I am totally in love
Speaker 2: with my God, my girl, my kid, and I'm already fulfilled,
Speaker 2: and I was fulfilled and content before he told me
Speaker 2: to do this. I do not feel like I finally
Speaker 2: made it. I kind of feel inconvenienced rather be at
Speaker 2: bone with my life. No discredit to y'all. Love y'all.
Speaker 2: I'm here and present with y'all, but it don't take
Speaker 2: much to make me happy. So if you're a driven person,
Speaker 2: you're goal oriented, just check in. You gotta just check
Speaker 2: in more often. If you're wired like me, you don't
Speaker 2: move to a God tells you to. But if you're
Speaker 2: a goal getter, thank your Holy Spirit. I got to
Speaker 2: prove this to y'all real quick, okay, So Act sixteen,
Speaker 2: excuse me, mister relief. I don't know what time it is.
Speaker 2: Mall closed, your store closed, nothing, I'm just up here talking. Okay,
Speaker 2: So Act sixteen, I'm almost sure it's Act sixteen maybe,
Speaker 2: but let me do it with check it. I think
Speaker 2: it's at sixteen. That's the power technology, right yep, writing
Speaker 2: a palm in your hand. Yeah, yeah, it is at sixteen.
Speaker 2: Because Paul was ambitious. He said it himself. My ambition
Speaker 2: is to not churches where others have already been planning it. Right,
Speaker 2: So let me read this to y'all just so you
Speaker 2: know that Paul's regular decular don't make him a superhero.
Speaker 2: He wasn't wearing no cape just because we hear his
Speaker 2: name the most, and he wrote the most epistles don't
Speaker 2: mean that he always got it right or knew what
Speaker 2: he was doing. So next Paul in silence traveled through
Speaker 2: the area of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit
Speaker 2: had prevented them from preaching the Word in the province
Speaker 2: of Asia at that time. He was trying to go,
Speaker 2: and for him not to go, the Holy Spirit had
Speaker 2: to prevent him because a dude had just kept trying
Speaker 2: to get to Asia. Some of us are hard headed,
Speaker 2: and the Lord has to literally close doors to get
Speaker 2: you to stop. Then, coming to the border of Maja,
Speaker 2: they headed north for the province of Bathenia, but again
Speaker 2: the Spirit of Jesus did.
Speaker 6: Not allow them to go there, so they had blocked twice.
Speaker 2: So instead they went on through Maja to the seaport
Speaker 2: of troe ash Uh. That night, Paul had a vision
Speaker 2: a man from Macedonia and Northern Greece was standing there,
Speaker 2: pleading with him come over to Macedonia and help us.
Speaker 2: This is Luke writing.
Speaker 12: So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having
Speaker 12: concluded that God was calling us to priest the good news.
Speaker 2: There they found the will of God through doors that
Speaker 2: were closed. Come on, not the doors that were open.
Speaker 2: So if you're real goal oriented and you're a go
Speaker 2: getter and you don't be mad at the closed doors
Speaker 2: for you when you on that grind and you like,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it all for God, God has to
Speaker 2: close all the doors for you just to get you
Speaker 2: to go through the page. For a person like me,
Speaker 2: he has to bust it wide open for me to know, Oh,
Speaker 2: I guess you want me to go this way, because
Speaker 2: you know I would never go anywhere unless you tell
Speaker 2: me to go. So I just don't want anybody to
Speaker 2: walk out of here with golly ambition because I've seen
Speaker 2: too many people get their butt kicked, marriages ending, divorced,
Speaker 2: their kids hate them, and then they trying to blame
Speaker 2: God for it. I was doing the work of ministry
Speaker 2: without God telling you to, and it was only gonna
Speaker 2: end one way, just like the Seven Sons, deceiver, You're
Speaker 2: gonna get your butt kicked, You're gonna get exposed, and
Speaker 2: you're gonna get ran back home. Okay, short hands, Hi everybody, Hello,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 11: I'm grateful.
Speaker 2: I am currently watching you on a lot of platforms.
Speaker 2: You're very new to me. Two s quick questions. I
Speaker 2: have a will come out and n coming out next week.
Speaker 2: I'm a new author. It's a children's book. Yah, yes,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 22: And because this is your second book, my first question
Speaker 22: is you've already talked about the difference between the first
Speaker 22: and the second. However, your platform, when I listen to you,
Speaker 22: you talk so much about relationships and your wife. You
Speaker 22: make me cry because I've never heard a man talk
Speaker 22: this much about how much he loves his wife.
Speaker 2: But you're so transparent. I don't hear you talk a
Speaker 2: lot about your children.
Speaker 22: Do you keep that separate because of privacy issues with
Speaker 22: your children or when you're talking about Juliet it is
Speaker 22: manifesting through the love, and therefore that's also your undergirth
Speaker 22: your platform about your children.
Speaker 2: Yes, so uh, I appreciate. First of all, I'm so
Speaker 2: excited about your book coming out.
Speaker 6: Yeah you yeah, you here.
Speaker 2: It'll be here at Flick Books.
Speaker 6: It'll be a Flick book.
Speaker 2: So so so I give me your name, Shannon, Thank
Speaker 2: you so much for being here. So, Nathan and Noah
Speaker 2: are fifteen and thirteen. That will be sixteen and fourteen.
Speaker 2: I've had a lot of people say, can you talk
Speaker 2: about parenting, And the only reason why I haven't is
Speaker 2: because we're not done raising them. And I have seen
Speaker 2: parents give advice on raising kids that are not done
Speaker 2: raising them, and I'll just be looking at them.
Speaker 23: Like shut up, like they'd be like, you know, my kids,
Speaker 23: we read the Bible every night and fame those scripture.
Speaker 23: I'm like, they're nine and six Yeah, when they're nineteen
Speaker 23: and sixteen and they still doing that, hop it back right.
Speaker 2: So there's some principles I can give. But until my
Speaker 2: boys get in their twenties and I figure out what
Speaker 2: I did right wrong and in different and how much
Speaker 2: time they're gonna need with my therapist, yess know what
Speaker 2: we did to them or didn't do to them. I'm
Speaker 2: just not giving no advice that I'm gonna have to
Speaker 2: come back and be like, sit, that didn't work, don't
Speaker 2: listen to that pod because we didn't mean it right.
Speaker 2: We found out something else. So it's not I'm not
Speaker 2: trying to be private. I'm just trying to respect this
Speaker 2: process and understand and admit I'm not done with it.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Shame Basement dweller with the T shirt on.
Speaker 6: And those are O G shirts too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're trying to get some money. Yeah, yeah, you're like,
Speaker 2: I came for him. I love it. This man, your
Speaker 2: name high Ruth, your name's in the biod.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 22: So I have a friend who is a dweller and
Speaker 22: recently got into a relationship and kind of mentor her
Speaker 22: to guide her her to you.
Speaker 2: And now is moved in with her boyfriend and she
Speaker 2: found lost.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and so now I don't know how to.
Speaker 2: Like maneuver shell postings about Jesus still on her page.
Speaker 2: And she's at a new church because she had to
Speaker 2: find someone new to go to, you know, And now
Speaker 2: I don't know how to maneuver this relationship. That's a
Speaker 2: that's what. First of all, I completely understand where you are.
Speaker 2: She gonna learn learn love her if if need be
Speaker 2: love from her, disc right, because you don't condone what
Speaker 2: she's doing. She left the church and went to another
Speaker 2: one because she found a church that won't convict her.
Speaker 2: She found she found a church that has some cool water, right,
Speaker 2: And they're not judging over here, and it's all about
Speaker 2: grace and psych like there's a standard. There's a standard,
Speaker 2: and the worst thing the worst thing they have to
Speaker 2: do in a friendship relationship, whatever ship that is, is
Speaker 2: watch somebody have a car wreck, because when you love somebody,
Speaker 2: you're like, I don't want to see you crash into
Speaker 2: a wall, right, And the hardest thing to do is
Speaker 2: to get out of the vehicle and watch the wreck,
Speaker 2: because after they wreck, then you have to like act surprised.
Speaker 2: And I can set my watch. She gonna holler at
Speaker 2: you in less than twelve months. I can set my
Speaker 2: watch on stuff like this, and then you're gonna have
Speaker 2: to be like, oh my god, what happened.
Speaker 6: Oh honey, Oh come come, I'm so sad.
Speaker 2: And in your mind you're like, I don't but you
Speaker 2: can't do that. But we got But you gotta remember
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit convinced people of sin. He doesn't need
Speaker 2: us to remind people right that she she already wants
Speaker 2: her distance from you because she knows where you stand,
Speaker 2: and you've told her. We don't have to keep repeating it,
Speaker 2: right and and and when the Holy Spirit leads her back,
Speaker 2: she'll it would be something that helps to change her heart.
Speaker 2: And she'll know that you loved her with boundaries. So
Speaker 2: I hope that helps.
Speaker 11: Thank you, Ruth running all over the place. You're not
Speaker 11: your agro.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. Hi you uncle? What's my nephew?
Speaker 1: I love you.
Speaker 2: Good to see you. Thank you. I love you so much.
Speaker 2: My name?
Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: How you doing. I'm doing well, that's good.
Speaker 10: My question.
Speaker 2: I found you senior year of high school. My friend
Speaker 2: put me on. Life has been transformed, and I'm freshman
Speaker 2: in college. I can't thank you enough. Thank you.
Speaker 17: My question, though, if you were sitting down with an
Speaker 17: eighteen year old youth, what things would you tell him
Speaker 17: on how to become an more integrated person.
Speaker 2: I know discipleship is key, but do you have any
Speaker 2: practical tips? Oh? Absolutely I do. If I was talking
Speaker 2: to me at eighteen, I would tell me to calm down. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I would tell me to calm down, that I don't
Speaker 2: have to have all the answers today.
Speaker 11: That, oh, thank you alis Fair.
Speaker 2: One of the things I would tell my eighteen year
Speaker 2: old self, Ethan, is that my salvation is not in
Speaker 2: jeopardy like it makes me emotionally even thinking about it,
Speaker 2: because when I first gave him my life to Jesus,
Speaker 2: I thought every time I missed the smart I thought
Speaker 2: I was starting over and for somebody that survives sexual abuse,
Speaker 2: had a porn addiction, low self esteem, habitual liar out
Speaker 2: of protection. Not like I wanna lie, but when when
Speaker 2: you come home after being abused when you're eight, you
Speaker 2: have to lie to survive. I lied not to blow
Speaker 2: my whole family up. My daddy was gonna kill that
Speaker 2: boy if if he found out. My older brother's gonna
Speaker 2: bury the body, and then my mom was gonna have
Speaker 2: a broken heart, and then we're gonna have to.
Speaker 11: Live in the hood with our aunties and uncles.
Speaker 2: So at at eight, I had to lie to make
Speaker 2: my world stay intact.
Speaker 11: And when I gave my life.
Speaker 2: To Jesus at eighteen, I was still lying about parts
Speaker 2: of me cause I was afraid that if I was
Speaker 2: seen for who I really was, that I would blow
Speaker 2: up my spiritual family in the same way I thought
Speaker 2: I was gonna blow up my biological family. So so
Speaker 2: I had these I used to have these kind of
Speaker 2: panic attacks when I thought, like, oh my God, somebody's
Speaker 2: gonna find out. And so if I just knew that
Speaker 2: my salvation wasn't in jeopardy, and that letting myself be seen, heard,
Speaker 2: known would lead to them loving all of me, Like
Speaker 2: think about Jesus telling Peter to his faith. You're going
Speaker 2: to deny me three times.
Speaker 11: I already know it.
Speaker 21: But bro, I've prayed for you that your faith fail
Speaker 21: not and when you are converted, when you come back
Speaker 21: from this thing, I already know you're going to do
Speaker 21: strengthen the rest of your brothers.
Speaker 6: Who still advised that dude to dinner.
Speaker 2: You don't let me find out somebody I wrote with
Speaker 2: about to deny me.
Speaker 11: My whole attitude gonna change when I said.
Speaker 2: When they walk in the house, and it'd be like, nah, good,
Speaker 2: I can't believe you rolled up in here. No, dang well,
Speaker 2: you about to act like you don't even know me
Speaker 2: the ball like I couldn't know it. I could not
Speaker 2: die for none of y'all in this world. If I
Speaker 2: shed my blood on the cross for your sins, you're
Speaker 2: going to serve me. I'm say, hank you for the
Speaker 2: rest of your lot. I will think you Do you
Speaker 2: want me today? Do you want me today? Do you
Speaker 2: want to day? Do you want me to day? Don't breathe?
Speaker 2: I would be so petty with you, crazy so so
Speaker 2: if I didn't know if I could, if I could
Speaker 2: arrested at my age. I didn't get saved at eighteen.
Speaker 2: I got saved at twenty. But if I could arrested
Speaker 2: at twenty knowing it doesn't matter how great your day
Speaker 2: is today, Timothy Charles Raws, or how horrible it is,
Speaker 2: your salvation's intact. Get up and keep moving this. I
Speaker 2: beat myself so much. I beat myself up so much
Speaker 2: over what I did, and then knowing God forgave me,
Speaker 2: and then confessed it to the people in my life,
Speaker 2: and still put myself on punishment for six weeks.
Speaker 11: I just don't feel like I should be in your presence.
Speaker 2: And I know you forgave me, but I just want
Speaker 2: to remind you again what I did. I know you,
Speaker 2: I know you're forgiving God, but remember when I had
Speaker 2: sex with that girl, when you told me this happened,
Speaker 2: I did. And we do that with God a lot.
Speaker 2: And so those would be the two things your salvation's
Speaker 2: not in jeopardy. Keep moving forward, and the quicker you
Speaker 2: can find people who will love all of you, you
Speaker 2: can relax. Everybody in this room if they knew that
Speaker 2: they could tell somebody the worst thing about them and
Speaker 2: they would still be like I love you, would we
Speaker 2: would relax there wouldn't be no more in Israel and
Speaker 2: Palestine right now if they all knew that they could
Speaker 2: be seen, heard, known, and loved. Even if they disagreed
Speaker 2: with right now, all words would stop right this minute.
Speaker 2: So I hope that helps, all right. I love it
Speaker 2: to take all right.
Speaker 6: Now, let's give it up for Tim Brooks.
Speaker 5: Thanks for listening to Malik's Bookshelf, where topics on the
Speaker 5: shelf are books, culture, and community.
Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review. Check
Speaker 1: out my Instagram at Malak Books.
Speaker 6: See you next time.