Eric Stephen

David W Ebel: Yeah. Welcome to the God Says Yes podcast. You are welcome here. Hi, my name is David Ebel. I'm your host, and this is God Says Yes. It's this is a podcast for those who need encouragement. Whether you've you you know you're one of the ones who've been let down or betrayed, belittled, be something, or church hurt has h has caused you to hurt. You know, sometimes the church we forget that the church was really the emergency room of the body of Christ. So not everyone who walks in is in good health spiritually. And ⁓ sometimes in that way, people splash off their ugly. And we who are are pr even though we're prayed up, it hurts. And people get side sidetracked. And I on but on behalf of the body of Christ, I apologize for that. That's not something we're we are as a church are proud of, but it happens. But you don't need to be the you don't look at God because the people act up. You look at God beyond the people who act up because God's got a great plan. You are custom made by God. You're one of a kind. Every one of us is created from the inside out to be like him. The outside doesn't look the same because that's not the point. The inside is like him, where he can lead us, guide us, provide us healing, he can direct us, he can provide for us, he can be our heavenly father, the good one. And so we are we're grateful for you know you being here, and we want you to receive all the blessings you can. And ⁓ that's why we're here with ⁓ God says yes. And ⁓ I have with me my brother Ste Eric Stevens. Eric's a pastor and a and a ⁓ a serious man of God, and ⁓ I've invited him on here to tell his story. And so ⁓ Eric w welcome. Thanks for having me, man. How you doing tonight? Good. ⁓ can you tell us a little bit about yourself so that the everybody knows ya? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can ⁓ no, thank you for for having me. ⁓ I'm a pastor and an elder ⁓ at at my church. I I host the ⁓ the rooted in Christ Rooted in Christ podcast. I ⁓ I also host the Beyond the Walls concert series here in ⁓ in Cleveland, Ohio. ⁓ it's a Christian hip hop and R and B concert 'cause the message in secular music I think is is poison. ⁓ so ⁓ yeah, that's ⁓ you know, I'm married to my best friend, father, father of of one twelve year old. And ⁓ yeah, that's that's the short version of of what we got going on right now. Well that's good. But that that means God's doing something in your life, and that's what we want. ⁓ everybody should be open to God doing something beautiful in them and through them. And ⁓ you know, that's why I do what I do. And that's why you're doing what you're doing. So Eric, we're we're really grateful you're here. And so ⁓ would you t would you tell us about your ⁓ your story? Yeah, I ⁓ you know, I started up I grew up in ⁓ in in Cleveland on on the east side. ⁓ I was for the most part early on, probably the first like eleven, twelve years of my life, I was raised by my mom and and my grandmother. It it was a it was a loving home. ⁓ faced some rejection at at school, but for the most part, you know, it was it was a loving home. My my biological father, you know, didn't you know, he wasn't really around. So I really watched the example of my my grandmother a lot growing up. You know, she grew up in an era where being black and being a woman was two strikes against you, you know. But she had ten kids and worked two jobs. And yeah, and worked two jobs. And I I never heard her complain. I'm not saying she didn't complain. It's just the kids didn't didn't see that, you know. ⁓ the grandkids definitely didn't see it. So It was just her work ethic was just something I tried to really, you know, model and I just I looked up to her. ⁓ so you you fast forward a a little bit. I was I was going to to Catholic school at the time. But my my so I had mass on Fridays, but my by biological father, like I said, he wasn't really a part of my life. ⁓ I saw him I think it was like on my eleventh birthday and we went to ⁓ basketball court in In Woodhill Park, which if you're from Cleveland, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And, you know, I want to put this in perspective. I'm eleven years old. I'm this short, pudgy, fat kid. I'm probably the round as the basketball at this point in time. And he is six foot three, fresh out of the military. I went up for a rebound and he fouled me so hard I hit the ground. I started crying. And this wasn't one of those like we need to toughen you up, be a little bit tougher than this was like unnecessary hit. ⁓ And he just berated me. He said, you know, you're not gonna be like me, you're not gonna get girls like me, you're on the ground crying, you're not in shape like me, all of these, all of these things. And I was like, you know, thanks, Dad. This was this is great. ⁓ you know, came back home crying. I remember my grandmother told him, like, hey, you're never you're not you're not gonna see him again. You know. So, ⁓ but he didn't want to be a part of my life anyway. So that wasn't really ⁓ he he didn't desire. Like I have half brothers and half sisters I've never actually met before, ⁓ just based off the life that he was he was living. So, you know, it really, I know it now. I didn't know it then, but those were like some of the deeper seas that rooted rejection in me. ⁓ you know, after that, I said, I'm I'm really, you know, ⁓ you you just get tired of getting picked on. And I just said, you know what, I'm gonna start creating this character that people are gonna want to be around and want to like. And sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, you know, just trying to be liked and pleasing to to everybody. But something really, really broke by the time I I got to college because my mom ended up marrying who is now my my stepfather. So I really want to s like differentiate between my biological father and my stepfather here. ⁓ you know, at that point now when she got remarried, we're not I'm now going to Catholic school, so I have mass on Fridays, but I'm going to a Baptist church on Sundays. So I'm getting I'm getting all of it, you know, and I'm like, I said as soon as I get to college, I'm walking away from all of this. I I I didn't, there was no, there was a little bit of a relationship, but not enough of a understanding. I wanted what the world said I could have. I wanted all these worldly things. I thought that's what would satisfy me. So ⁓ I went to college and I acted crazy. Like we were we were that group of people who we pregamed harder than people partied. And I'm not bragging, I was putting in perspective like how quickly things escalated. I was drinking whiskey through a straw, and I mean the bottle. It wasn't like a couple shots. We were partying. I was buying weed by the ounces. ⁓ you know, we we were just being neighborhood tough guys and picking on and bullying people. It was, you know, it it was it was a mess. It was an absolute mess. ⁓ you know, but I'm getting further and further and further from who I was really called to be and didn't know it at the time. You know, and I tell everybody, sin is gonna keep you longer than you wanna stay and it's gonna cost you more than you're willing to pay. You know, you're gonna you're gonna just get in deeper and deeper and deeper. You might start over here. Then be all the way in in right field, you know, before you before you realize it. Cause the enemy tries to make it attractive. And what does the Bible say? We're tempted away by our own sinful desires. Is that, you know, so the temptation's one thing, but the willingness to to give in is what turns us into full blown sin, you know. And then these things became habitual and just got buried deeper and deeper and deeper. ⁓ you know, if you you fast forward a little bit, ⁓ I'm out of college now, still doing a lot of the same things. ⁓ Get a phone call from my mom that tells me, hey, your ⁓ your grandmother has they were diagnosed her with cancer again because she had bee cancer prior, but they said it's bladder cancer. And she said, with how advanced this is, you know, and some of the signs that she was showing, they gave her, you know, like five to seven days to live. And like my world is rocked because I've gone all of high school, all of college, all the way to my mid-20s. without really processing any of my feelings or or my emotions. And at that point, I get that phone call, like my hero is about to to pass away. I get a phone call from another family member, maybe like five, ten minutes tops. And 10 minutes is pushing it after my mom and I get off the phone. And that person said, I don't know who started this rumor about your grandmother ⁓ dying. She's 100% gonna live and be fine. And I'm like, my head is like I said, spinning because I Why would my mom call me to lie about the death of her mother? But then there's that part of me that doesn't want what my mom said to be true. And I want what my aunt is telling me to be true. And I went, I remember this like almost to the like to the T. Like I went in my bedroom and I just sat down. I didn't move for Lord knows how long. And I'm living in Lakewood, Ohio, ⁓ at the time. And You know, throughout her health process, like what she was going through, like I started periodically going to a church at Kent State because something just kept told me, just go, just go. And oddly enough, that church was called New Beginnings, which was which was crazy. But and I went to Kent State University. So when I moved away from Kent and moved to Lakewood, I attended a church called New Life Church. And I had gone there one time. So now we're back to you know to me just sitting in my bedroom. Just wondering what the heck is gonna happen. And I finally just got on my knees after really not honoring God with my life this whole time. And I said, God, if you're real, I need you to make yourself real to me. And I need you to tell me if and when my grandmother is going to die. And I'll follow you. I need to know. So if you live in Lakewood, the Lakewood train goes by, it just becomes white noise. Like you don't even hear it. Like you can fall asleep to it. You get so used to hearing it. That train went by right when I finished praying so loud, I literally jumped out of my skin. And it said, and it it blew its horn like three times. And I just knew something on the inside of me said, She's gonna die in three days. And I knew it was gonna be true. I just knew. Saturday morning, I wake up, 6 a.m. First phone call I got, she's gone. And I also later that day, ⁓ so the next day, I got a phone call from the pastor at at New Life Church and he said, Hey, we noticed you weren't in church today. Hope everything's okay. This man met me one time and knew I wasn't there. And I was like, all right, I don't, I don't need any more signs. ⁓ started going to church at New Life Church. ⁓ so this was in May of 2010 when she passed away. I gave my life to Christ that August. ⁓ and I I want to tell you it was all Rainbows and sunshine and peaches and cream, but it wasn't. ⁓ I didn't put my sin far enough away from me. I actually backslid after ⁓ I got saved, which left me with my own nine millimeters in my head wanting to take my own life. Because at that point now I'm aware of my sin and I'm feeling the weight of it for the first time in my entire life. And it felt horrible. ⁓ it just all this intense, it went from like You know, it it was a lot of shame and guilt and condemnation. So yes, we know it was the enemy, but I still had the consciousness and awareness like I really just spurned God. And it was almost like the enemy trying to pick off a a, you know, a baby at that point. Like the conviction quickly got drowned out by your failure, you're never gonna get this right. You might as well just end it all. And, you know, I'm sitting there with my gun to my head, and oddly enough, and I say oddly, but we know why. One of the pastors from the church had called me because I had been talking to him just about some of my struggles and some of the things I've been going through in life. And he called me on the phone while I'm sitting here with my gun to my head and he said, You know, if you really want to change, here's some stuff you gotta do. And I mean, I'm giving you the nice version. Like he was laying into me. Like it wasn't like this was this the truth was coming. There was some love there, but it was a whole lot of truth. And it was just direct, but it was exactly what I what I needed to hear. ⁓ put the gun down. I saw him the next the next day at church. I said, or no, it was a few weeks later and I saw him. I don't know if I missed him or he missed me, ⁓ just for travel, whatever. But I saw him and I said, Hey, remember that day you called me? I said I was gonna take my own life, had my gun in my head. And I'll never forget this. We were in the children's like director's office and he had these massive hands. Now to put this in perspective, I'm six one, probably over 200 pounds this time. And I just remember he grabbed my shoulders and I could not move and he's like, Why didn't and he's shaking me. He's like, why didn't you tell me that? Like, why would we and he was just going in. He was like, We could have handled this differently and all this stuff. And I'm like, no, first of all, let me go because you're hurting me. Second of all, like if you would have gone any softer, it may have not been what I needed to hear to really start transforming my life, you know. So ⁓ I'm going through some of this a little bit quick, but that that that backslidden state really ⁓ you know, I I I wished it like I wanna say like I put things as far away from me as I should have, but I did not. That's not that's not my testimony, that's not my story. ⁓ if you really fast forward to to twenty seventeen or twenty sixteen actually, the Azusa conference came to Cleveland and that's when I really got serious about my walk. I rededicated my life to Christ right there on the on the altar, and I believe it was the arena where the Cavs actually play at at the time, like right there on the floor. ⁓ and just I haven't I haven't looked back. You know, I'd I would tell anybody that you're never too far gone for for Jesus. I would tell anybody your circumstances don't define you, your mistakes don't define you, your past doesn't define you. You know, and I would encourage anybody, don't look so lateral like like I love what yourself or I love other people. Like just literally look above and start to shape your identity based on what the Bible says, based off what scripture says, based off how God defines you. Because If you're gonna get lost in something, get lost in that truth because you'll be searching your your n his love is endless. You'll be searching for the rest of your life, trying to see how deep his love is for you. So But you you you've made the point clear and I'm glad you have because ⁓ a lot of people don't get it it when we when we dance around it too much. They need to hear it directly because that's how they think and they and th when they're hanging with their friends that's how they talk. Mm-hmm. So ⁓ your your your directness is important. Now that that gets us to where where you you needed Jesus and you and you began to find him. So what happened then? Yeah, like I said, once I you know once once we got through ⁓ you know, twenty twenty sixteen and we we did that. It was then it was just really continuing to peel back, peel back the layers of of that onion. And I I tell anybody, you know, I really look at Ephesians four twenty through twenty six, they're really about putting off and putting on. You know, 'cause that was the issue. I'd put off certain things, they come back, but I didn't I didn't I didn't put on enough to to keep those things away. So now it's really time to what'd you say? Please explain that For the people who don't read their Bible every day, that they need to hear what what you're trying to say. Yeah. So when you if you're if you look at Ephesians four twenty through twenty six, one of the things that I really talk about is if I'm gonna stop a bad habit, stopping the habit isn't enough. I need to then replace it with a godly habit. I need to put on with a godly lifestyle. So in my case, stopping doing drugs was great. It was a good thing we stopped doing it, but I now had to put on something else because I was probably smoking weed twenty to thirty hours a week. So There was once that stopped, I have all this idle time on my hands. What am I going to do literally with my hands? So, you know, I started ⁓ attending, ⁓ you know, I I got more and more with my health. I lost about 115 pounds. I used to weigh 315 pounds. I was started walk I'm walking around about two ⁓ five right now. ⁓ obviously I started, you know, ⁓ attending church functions more. I started joining our small groups and connections more. I I definitely started going, like I said, going to the gym more often. That's just some of the the habits. I'm using that as an example. So I'll give you a bad example of a put off and put on. If I stop doing drugs, putting on watching television is not a healthy put on. This isn't going to give life to to my situation. I put on studying scripture more. I put on reading more. I put on being discipled. ⁓ and these are all things that God put on my heart to do to get me to the point of where we are, where we are right now. So yes, stopping the bad behavior is one thing, but we can't just focus on that. We need to focus on the things that God is is is calling us to do. And it's it's a different focus when we say, Lord, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to spend my time? I've given my life to you. I've been washed clean by your blood. Therefore, I'm blood bought, blood purchased. How do you want me to to move? And then really focusing on doing everything I'm trying to do unto him and living for him and doing everything as an act of worship to him. 'Cause it's it's great to ri the the the mind needs to be renewed daily, but every day I need to live my life for an act of worship unto him. So what does that look like day to day? So that's that's some of it. That that's good preaching, brother. I I love that. but it's important for people to realize that that's not like you put it on and you're done. Right. You put it on and you practice it. You practice it. It's like a good muscle. You know, when you fart when you start exercising, those muscles burn a little bit. But then the more you use them, then they become strong, they become powerful. And spiritually, when we practice what we now believe, we go from being a little wimpy on the edges and struggling, being firm in our faith, and then eventually to becoming bold in our faith. Because we now know how powerful God can do things because He's done it for us. And we can't tell people how good he is till he's good to us. ⁓ it it it's like a salesman who's never never sold never used the product. You know, if he if he doesn't know what it is, how can he recommend it? When we're when we're talking about God, he doesn't need a salesman. He needs a a a living example. And when we fall in love with God and we give our hearts to God and we fall in love with him, well my example is when I met my wife, I had had the the worst relationship issues. I my girls always told me, You remind me of my little brother. Now I'll tell you, if you want to be humbled, that's the quickest way I can think of for a guy to not feel like a man. And ⁓ you know, w when we when we when I met my wife, she listened to every word. When I wrote her a note, I you know, she loved it. And she'd write back to me and I would have it memorized that same day. I didn't have to keep the piece of paper, it was burned into me. 'Cause I loved her, I wanted to please her, I wanted to have a relationship with her, so I wanted to invest fully in that. Well if I'm willing to do that with a with a girl, she didn't die for my sins. She didn't forgive me for anything. She didn't have the ability to heal me. She just had the ability that God gave her to love me. So if I'm willing to do that for her, how much more should I be willing to give to God? Who created me, who loved me, who forgave me and forgave me and forgave me, and then we and then when we finally surrender, then he restores us and he rebuilds us and he renews us and he gives us hope and joy and peace and all these wonderful things that start with the putting down and the putting on. Mm-hmm. Tell us more, bruh. I like the example you use as a salesman. I always use the one where I won't eat a chef's food. I if a chef is cooking food and he won't eat it, I'm not eating it either. Amen. I won't do it either. That's weird to me. ⁓ you know, so if you if you really once we I I I guess I want to touch on this too, because you're right. Like this didn't just stop like at that at that point. Like this is something I now have to work on daily. Because I I believe God is always moving. I think scripture's clear about that. So if I'm not moving, there's no such thing as standing still in this walk. If I'm standing still, that means I'm moving backwards. You know, and I if I'm standing still and not feeding myself every day, that means I'm not growing because they call it daily bread for a le reason, and the and the Bible gives life. So if if if I have to continuously crucify this flesh, I can't afford to go days without reading scripture. Sometimes I may not be able to afford to go hours. And I would stress to any Christian who's listening, like when you feel Your flesh start to rise up. I encourage Christians to fast. Fast, fast, fast. And I don't just mean from social media. I'm talking about fasting from food. I'm talking about going, going hungry and intentionally scheduling time for your flesh to get crucified. ⁓ it is I I I encourage every Christian to get into the spiritual discipline of doing that. Because for me personally, it's one of the ways I start to hear from God the most or see him move the most. And it's not because he isn't moving or trying to get my attention. Sometimes we have so many distractions around us that we're just not listening. We're just not focused. So getting into those basic spiritual disciplines is is key. Going to church, reading your Bible, fasting, getting involved in in your small groups or connect groups, having the right community around you, you know, and and actively doing things that you know are going to bring you closer and closer to him. And being aware of what some of your shortcomings and your your triggers really are. Like here's an example. The Bible says, be not drunk. I'm fully aware of that. I fully understand what the scripture says. I don't drink. It's something I just I don't do. Because personally, I have a very addictive personality. And it can go positive or it can go negative. There is no in-between with me. It's either zero or it's a hundred. So yeah. So you don't. lose 115 pounds out of having an addictive personality. But you also don't gain 115 pounds either without having some type of addictive personality and having flaws in your in your in your diet. So ⁓ so for me, I said, you know what? Based off my past experiences, my current circumstances, and my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing for me to do in this particular area? And wisdom says it outranks right and wrong. It outranks legal or illegal because I'm using wisdom. I don't have to worry about something being wrong. I don't have to worry about something being illegal. The wise thing for me to do is to set this guardrail, set this boundary to where I just don't drink anymore. We're done. And that's fine. I can be the weaker vessel saying I can't handle this, so I'm not doing it. But the fact is I've saved more money and I've gotten a lot less trouble. So so it's it's worked out. It's worked out it's it's the same with any other ⁓ addictive thing. Whether it's whether it's it's TV or it's it's sex or it's dru whatever it is. If any I I love the saying that says what runs your life becomes your God. That's real. And I mean that y that's that that is that'll preach. That that's something that that can speak to you on every level, whether it's worry, it's fear, it's temper, it's unforgiveness and bitterness. Doesn't matter what it is, if it's filling the space that God designed f for him to fill, it's like going to a a But I was a big I was a little kid, my big brother liked to t to tease me. And I I I couldn't do sports, so I made I did puzzles, big jigsaws puzzles. And he would wait till I wasn't looking, he'd steal a piece out of the middle. And and he wouldn't pretend it never happened. I'd get it all done and then I get compulsive, addictively dr dra drawn to f figuring out what that was. So I'd get cardboard and markers out, and I would try to make the piece so I could finish the puzzles. And when I got it and tried to get it in, it wouldn't fit right. Then he'd laugh and say, Is this what you're looking for? Yeah, well that's how it is. Our our life are all these pieces, but there's only one God shaped hole. Yeah. And there is not enough cardboard, alcohol, drugs, sex, or anything else to fit that hole because there's only one thing that fits the God shaped hole. And that's why we need to daily, weekly, hourly, guaranteed for the rest of our lives, choose to fall in love with Jesus over again, because he's our way to God. That's right. And I I think that we you know, that's one of the things that I always I always say, like God used my grandmother's death to bring me to life. Because I can say, you know, years later, you know, she had a place in my heart that God was supposed to have. Should have placed my heart that Jesus was supposed to have. You know, she had a voice in my life that was positive, but still like, you know, at the time her voice would outrank the Holy Spirit. And so God used I think God did God in you know, did He have her die to hurt me? No. No, I I think that God can use anything to get our attention. And I think that's what happened. You know, I I don't believe God has intentionally set out to let anything harm me or hurt me. I believe He's let allowed things into my life to teach me lessons. And unfortunately, I can be very hard headed. So sometimes those things have to be extreme just to get my attention. ⁓ Yeah, usually it's a two by four for me. It's gotta r I don't take hints. He if he doesn't tell me ri boldly, I d I'll miss it for sure. Yeah. You know, so ⁓ you know, once we and one of the the main things that really happened, which is how we kind of got even got here, was around that twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen time, like I was working for a college university. I do I do fundraising for for a living. And I was traveling all over the United States, meeting with the alumni, asking to give back donations and contributions to to help out with the with the college for scholarships. capital campaign money. So it would have been like dorm renovations, building renovations, all kinds of things. ⁓ academic purposes. So I was flying in an insane amount, an insane amount. I was probably on the road two to three weeks out of a month sometimes. And what ended up happening was our church decided that they were going to bring back our encounter retreat, which is really just a way to get saturated with Jesus, saturated with the Holy Spirit. You know, all it was it was an incredible conference that we used to do. But they brought it back just for the leaders first, before and ideally those leaders would then go on to teach the next encounter retreat and bring up other people. So that was a structure of the time. I go to on that mind. I'm traveling for a living. I go on this, I get ready to go on the on on the retreat, and this lady at our church walks up to me and she starts talking to me about her her vacation to to California. And I'm telling you right now. 99% of the time when people talking about their vacations, I am not listening. It is in one ear and out the other. I was traveling for a living. So, like for me, this is me personally. I traveling for leisure just didn't appeal to me at the time. Like it was just business. Like I'm I'm packing my bags and booking my tickets for ⁓ for a purpose. Like I'm tracking where my planes to previous destinations were because I need to go ask this guy for a million dollars and I need to make sure I get there on time. Like I had already seen so much of the US and like I just But for some reason when she started talking, I I couldn't shake it. So I wrote down everything that she told me about her vacation. And mind you, this was twenty seventeen. Between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty, I cannot tell you how many times I legitimately thought about this woman's vacation and all the stuff that she told me. Twenty twenty hits. We all know what happens. The world shut down, my wings get clipped, I'm at home. It is like one o'clock in the morning, and I'm literally just sitting there watching TV. And the Holy Spirit is like, Go grab that notebook off the shelf. And I open it up and I start reading it. And it said, The the the the redwood trees in California. Grow to be about 400, 450 feet tall. The roots of these trees are only six feet deep, but they're interlocked and they're intertwined. So they go on for for miles because these trees are uplifting and supporting and holding one another up. These trees are so massive that they're their own ecosystem. They water and nourish the area around it. They take care of birds and animals that live on it. These trees need fire for purification. But if you see a redwood tree down, that means it got isolated somehow. However that happened, it got isolated. When the Holy Spirit gave me that, I said, This is the way Christianity is supposed to be. Not I go to this church, you go here, not this church versus that church. Not I have tattoos and you don't. Not I I speak in tongues and you don't. No, what did you do with Jesus? Okay. This is this is an accepting the savior thing. Are are we following his doctrine? Are we following are we pattern our way after our savior? Are we practicing the way of Jesus? Are we practicing the way that he showed us to go? Are we Are we discipling the way that we are supposed to be disciplined? How, what did we do and what are we doing with Jesus? Let's keep the main thing, the main thing. I'm not excusing bad doctrine. I'm not excusing sin. I'm not excusing heresy. I'm saying keep the main thing, the main thing. Are we focused on Jesus? Are we focused on our own individual preferences? And it hit me to start a nonprofit called Redwood Christian Ministries. And so I launched a 501 ⁓ C3. Our three pillars are salvation, discipleship, and church unity. ⁓ our mission is we see a need, we feel a need. Our vision is to be the church. And you know, we accomplish that through a weekly podcast, Rooted in Christ Podcast. I mentioned earlier I host a Christian hip hop and RB concert called ⁓ Beyond the Walls, which that's a whole nother crazy story. How we started that ⁓ missions trips around the United States. ⁓ I do guest speaking and preaching. I come on shows like this to really Just share my story to hopefully uplift and encourage somebody else to keep going. ⁓ because I know what it feels like to feel alone and and feel hopeless. And don't let me tell you that because you're not alone and you're not hopeless. That is a lie from the pit of hell. ⁓ you know, one of the things that God told me when I was really looking to take my own life is like, who are you to take your life? Just because you're done. I'm not done with you yet. You know, you don't get to decide that. Like I said, blood bought, blood purchased. ⁓ you know, so I started a nonprofit. And, you know, we've been we've been running for, like I said, since about twenty twenty with the with the nonprofit. The podcast is about to hit two hundred episodes. ⁓ my wife and I are are gonna do episode two hundred together, so I'm looking forward to to that. But I have guests come my show similar to this and share their testimonies because there's power in the testimony. And my and there's it doesn't matter whether you have a story like mine, whether you were looking to commit suicide, whether you were addicted and you had eleven guys waiting for you outside of a nightclub. Or you grew up in the church. I've had all kinds of people on that on that show tell their stories. Miscarriages, ⁓ abortions. I've had white witches on there. I've had people coming out of the occult, people coming out of new age, ⁓ Christian hip hop and RB artists. I've had, I've had authors, I've had worship leaders. You know, you name it, they've had them on there. Thank, you know, and I thank God for it. ⁓ thank God for that. Because now there's something out there combating the airwaves to say, no, there is hope. There is a positive message. And here's over two. almost 200 episodes of someone telling you their story of overcoming. You know, there's something on there for everybody. You know, I didn't limit it to just men or just one topic. You know, I I went the approach the approach to if you got a Jesus story to tell, come on and tell it. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna limit what what God is is going to do. You know, despite the fact people were telling me, ⁓ you should just do this for for men and ⁓ you should just do this for young men. I'm like it just it never sat right with me to do that. Maybe one day that's the route God will send it. But as of right now there's someone there for everybody. And I think if if I just would have listened to those voices, all the stuff we would, all the testimonies we would have missed out on, all the connections I would have made, all the connections God used me to make with other people, ⁓ for other people, excuse me. You know, that's one of the roles I play in the kingdom. He uses me as a connector. ⁓ I I plug other people in with other folks and then he sends me somewhere else. So it's probably the evangelist in me that you know, I just I'm constantly on the move and I I love it. I love every second of it. So Yeah, those are just some of the other things that that have that have sparked from you know from from my journey. This is amazing. And you you've you've shared all these these different things. Is there a sp specific story that you can tell us that will kind of ⁓ illustrate that? Yeah. This podcast, and it's funny because even me sitting here talking to you, this was all birthed out of my disobedience. God told me to start this podcast, and I told him no. I literally said, I'm not doing this. I didn't want the attention, man. I I see all this stuff that happens online with these, with these pastors and these preachers. I just I see the comment sections. I see the hate, you know, and I'm just like, I I I like to move the way Paul did. When I was a Jew, I carried myself as a Jew. When I was a Gentile, I carried myself as Gentile. So I might win some for the gospel. Paul never changed the message. He just tweaked the method he used to preach the gospel. I just I'm like, I always just wanted to infiltrate and just keep and just keep it pushing. I didn't this was not something I wanted. And guy was telling me, he's like, no, you know, I'm you need to do this. And I literally told him, No, again, I'm not. And Yeah. I've done it a couple of times. It it didn't work out for me either. Now you see where we are. You see how I'm sitting here talking right now. It did it didn't work out. ⁓ not the way I thought it was going to anyway. I was taking a trip for For work one night and I just I didn't want to go. I had just left church. I was exhausted. Probably wasn't gonna land until like nine or 10 PM. So I would have, you know, it's just one of those two hour days. You know, you're just whining, didn't feel like doing what I was supposed to do. ⁓ but I said, you know what? I'm gonna grab a touch car from my church. And I said, Whoever sits next to me in the plane, I'm just gonna share my faith with them. Like I'm going to at least try to make the best of this trip, stop whining, get this focused off me. I have a job. You know, that's what I always tell people too. Like if you really are in a funk like that, maybe you're just tired. Think of like three to five things you're grateful for and just you know, focus on on those things. You know, don't don't sit there and dwell on the negative. Like think about what you're thinking about and then do something about it. So you know, I'm gonna grab one of my touch cars from my church. This person may not because I'm flying from Cleveland to I think I was going to North or South Carolina at the time. I said, you know, somebody in this plane's gotta be coming back here. So let's just share my faith and see what happens. So the guy sits down next to me and I start talking, you know, and I tell him, he's like, I said, Hey man, how you doing? He I'm good. How are you? I said, I'm good, man. I'm tired. Served at church all morning. Cause I was just trying to see how he was going to react to me talking about church. And he stopped what he was doing and he said, ⁓ so you're a believer. And I paused. I was like, Huh. Yeah. He's like, ⁓ you're spirit filled. I said, That's what happens at justification. Yeah, I I am. And he's like, ⁓ man. And he starts and then he just starts talking. He starts talking about how like his life and all the things that he's doing for the kingdom and all of these things. And he said that his wife was pregnant and he wanted to start a nonprofit, but he didn't want to go back to school for like the two and a half years it was gonna take. Now, mind you, I had already told you I just started a nonprofit in twenty twenty. And I've been doing fundraising for over twenty-four years now. And I said, man. You know what, it's funny that you don't want to feel like doing that because God is telling me to start this podcast, but all these mics and all these cameras, all this stuff looks the same. I don't actually know where to start. I totally wasn't gonna do it. But I said, you know what? I had a bad attitude today. So like I I'm gonna try to do something good. Like I can help you start a nonprofit. Like before this plane lands, I can tell you everything you have to do for free. Like you don't need to go back to school for this. Like it's actually not that hard. The taxes, you need to go to school for the tax part. Like, get get somebody to help you with that. Cause, you know, if you live in north of South Carolina, I can't. I don't I don't want to get you arrested or get the IRS hunting you down. So ⁓ he said, if you tell me how to start a nonprofit, I'll tell you exactly what equipment to buy for your podcast because he was a producer trying to get a Bible TV series on Netflix. It was crazy. This is what I want to divide a point. It was absolutely insane. I gave him all the info for the not for the for the nonprofit. He sends me an Excel sheet with all the podcast equipment I need to buy. And So I bought all the stuff. And I wish I could tell you that that was enough for me to start the podcast. And it wasn't. It sat for months. Cause I just like it just sat there. But in my defense, I did try to get it started. I started reaching out to a few people who I knew. I'm like, ⁓ these people would be great first guests. ⁓ there was a lady who I came to our church where spoke at one of our conferences, and we really we connected, we really hit it off. And I'm said, Think she'd be a good guest. I reached out to her over Instagram. ⁓ so I didn't have her phone number or her her email, which is odd because I, you know, now that I'm saying it out loud, like I probably did have her email, but I reached out to her on Instagram and I could see that she read the message almost immediately. And I'm telling you, months went by and she never responded. And I'm like, what is this? Like, how do you you answer me every other time until right now? Reached out to one of my best friends, a pastor of the church. We miscued, like I sent the I sent the invite to his wrong email. He didn't show up for one of them. Then we we miscued another date. And this is one of my best friends. I'm like, we've never had these communication problems before. Reached out to another one of my friends. She, Sister in Christ, she had she literally said, Yeah, I'll gladly do it. I'm excited. I'm happy to be on the show. Right when we were gonna get going, she drops an album and can't do the the recording. Like because God put on her heart to start to make put out the CD. And I'm like, I'm not doing this podcast. Clearly, I'm not supposed to, because I must have all of this must have missed like absolutely missed the call of God. Like I this was not his voice. So this is 2021, and I was one of those people, I did not catch COVID in during 2020. I took a trip to Washington, DC and caught it somewhere on that trip. Came back. And I tell you, when it hit me, it hit me hard. Like I probably lost like 15, 20 pounds in three or four days. I wasn't eating, I wasn't drinking. Like it was it hit me hard. So I bring it up because I'm just laying on the couch. I'm not moving. I'm perfectly still. And I just said, God, you told I I cause I in my like in my line of sight, I can see all the podcast equipment that I bought. And I'm one of those people like once I put my money into something just to watch my money sit on the shelf was just infuriating me. I'm like, God. If you wanted me to start this podcast, why are all these people telling me no? Why are these people not responding? Why is this not working out? Like, if you really want me to do this, I need you to make it clear to me to do this. I kid you not. Twelve minutes after I was done praying that the person I reached out to, Julia Gentry, who I had reached out to months prior, messages me back to my original message and said, Hey, sorry I didn't answer. I've been traveling. I've been swamped. I have an assistant now. Work with her. Let's get your get your show going. I was like, this is unbelievable. I love it. This is unbelievable. ⁓ so she ended up being my my first guest. So I get everything, I get everything set up, I get it, I get it all ready to go. And you know, it was you just you just take it from there. Like that's that's how the that's how the whole thing started. That's really how the whole thing started. ⁓ with with the podcast. And I can't take credit for any of it because I didn't know what to name the show. And I say, Lord, what do you want to call it? So I wrote down a couple of things that I felt like God was telling me. And Rooted in Christ was one of them. And I didn't want to do that because I'm like, I don't want people to to see me coming. Like I I, you know, I don't want I was just like I was just fighting God even on the name. And he told me, call it the Rooted in Christ podcast. So my engineer and editor at the time, I gave him all the names that I came up for the podcast. He said, I don't like any of these except the Rooted in Christ podcast. What? And then you search on on Spotify and on YouTube and no one has it. The last Ruder and Christ podcast was like four or five years ago and they weren't even making podcasts anymore. So the name was available. And I'm like, This is insane. And he said, You're calling it the Ruder and Christ podcast to help disciple the body of Christ. And I said, Huh. All right. So here we are, you know, so ⁓ I want to tell you that I was listening to God from the very beginning, but I wasn't said this was all out of my disobedience. And I would I would tell anybody who's looking to start a podcast, I keep eight to twelve episodes stored up at all times. ⁓ because when knowing God called me to do this, I wanted to do it with excellence and do it right and do it with integrity. So if usually when life starts to happen, one of the first things to go on somebody's life is their podcast. If he called if you know, if you're if you're doing this. I'm not doing this for leisure or or doing it because like I'm I'm doing it because I know I'm supposed to. And I love it. You know, I don't want to paint that picture, but I'm doing it because something he called me to do directly. So this way it doesn't take away from my marriage. This way it doesn't take away from my parents. This way it doesn't take away from from my job. I batch record. So I keep everything, you know, tight. And I don't that way if I want to stop and take a break, I can not record for a few months. Thanks to a pod match, I probably got about Close to thirty episodes banked up right now. Like we're we're solid for the rest of the year, almost going into twenty twenty seven. ⁓ by the time these next few recordings happen. So but yeah, that's how the that's how the podcast got here. I love it. And you know, ⁓ when when God told me to do the podcast, I tried to do it and he let me get about six episodes in, and then my health went way down real fast. I ended up in a ha in an ambulance. And by the time I got out of there I was so sick I couldn't deal with it. And then then someone hacked my computer and everything I had saved and recorded was was gone. Even the even the the names and addresses of who to call was gone. So I I just said, Okay, God, when you're ready, I'm ready. And ⁓ one day God woke me up and said, Okay, this is what you're gonna do. You just wrote the story of your life as a book. So the name of the store the book is When the Doctors Say No. God says yes. It is a story of how God took me from not living to living fully and joyous. And so we made the the podcast God says yes. And but it it it's all it's a privilege, it's an honor, it's a passion. ⁓ it's not a job. And it is sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's just absolute work. But it's good work. It's worthy work. And we and like you, we we don't want it half a story. We want it to be quality. So that people want to listen and they want to be involved because we're bringing the best people we can find to be guests so that they're getting the cream of the crop. And that way the love of God can be shared in lots of ways. Now we're gonna we're kind of running toward our our our our time break. So I always invite our guests. Would you give us a golden nugget, something our our viewers and listeners can take with them for the next week or so or just meditate over, pray over, mull? Whatever way they process, what would you give us so that we would have something to to to take from the podcast they can take into their life? Honor God with everything you do. And that's including your your health. ⁓ you know, I'm I'm I don't know why this is on me right now, but I actually injured both of my Achilles, so I had tendonitis bad in both of my Achilles after two cash strains. And I've just been praying like Lord, give me the grace to to remain healthy, to do all the things that you called me. to to do. So I would just make sure that we're honoring God with with with our bodies, you know, so you can continue to to run your race well. You know, and I I stress your race because my lane has already been taken up by me. Your lane has been taken up by you. He ha if you're listening right now, he has a lane for you. And I want to encourage you to sit there and dream with him and find out all the things he has for you. Because there's nothing anybody can do about it. You know, so you know I I would stress your physical, mental, and spiritual health so you can run this race well. ⁓ that's really what's on me to share. And I I hope that really encourages somebody because that is not something I had planned on on on talking about. But I I think it's important that we are ready in season and and out of of season. And it doesn't have to be big things or just do the thing. You know, do that very thing. Like if he if he's calling you to to be a missionary, then make sure you have your passport. Make sure everything you need is is together. You know, if he's if he's calling you to go work somewhere, make sure your resume is always up to date so you can be ready to walk through that door when when it opens up. You know, if he's calling you to to to travel around the United States and and preach the gospel, make sure you're physically healthy enough to to do that to the best of, you know, to the best of your ability. You know, I but most importantly, stay in your word. You know, don't get caught up in every like don't I got in the bad habit of waking up and always looking at my phone, you know. Wake up and start your day with him. You know, fill yourself up with him, not all of these distractions. So that's what I would say. Stay ready in season, out of season, stay healthy in season, out of season. You know, we know things are going to happen. We know things are to come. But you know, I'm saying make sure that you are healthy enough to run your race. That's one of my prayers. Lord, I know you're calling me to preach the gospel to the nations. Keep me healthy. Keep me healthy to do it. You know, and I speak forth that health over my life. I pray over my Myself, I pray with my wife, whether she's awake or she's asleep, whether she's with me or she's not, so we can be healthy enough physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually to do what he called us to do. Amen. You know, it's really important for people to realize that you don't have to be Billy Graham. You don't have to be anybody else. God created you individually for you to individually live for him. He doesn't want another somebody else. If he did, he'd make him. Right. He wants you. He wants the best of you. ⁓ you know, my favorite slogan, ⁓ God God didn't send his second cousin Louie to the cross, he sent his best. How dare we offer less? So, you know, instead of just kind of half doing something, go home and practice, prepare, read, study, get ready for the the next divine appointment when God says, Okay, now that you're prepared, let's go do this. Give it your best shot. And if you can't do what other people can do, don't worry about it. You know, I I'm disabled. I can't do a lot of things. So what do I do? I make a list of what I can do and do those things. No pity party, no feeling sorry. Just see you know, feeling how c what else can I do, God? What else can is there an opportunity to do? And it's amazing. I never run out of things to do. Because there's more God than there is me. So He's he he goes ahead of me and makes sure the the path is smooth so that when I get there, it's prepared so I can do what he told me to do. And it works because he won't deny himself a good thing. It's a powerful, powerful way to close our our podcast. And I'm grateful that you came. Love to have you back on another time at some and and share some more. ⁓ what I what we'd like to do now is is ⁓ talk y you you I know that you've got a ⁓ a website and you've got some other information. This is a chance for you to for us to slow down a little bit so people can write down the information. So why don't you tell us about what what you have to offer? I don't even know where to start. So we'll just we'll just kick it all with this. Please, please, please, please, please subscribe and follow to the Rooted in Christ podcast. We are on all major podcast platforms. Again, that's the Rooted in Christ podcast. ⁓ Spotify, YouTube, Apple, it is everywhere that ⁓ podcasts can can be found. So please ⁓ subscribe and follow. It really helps us get get the message out. If you're interested in being a guest on there, ⁓ send me send me a DM. It is the Rooted in Christ podcast on ⁓ on Instagram. X Twitch, what is the other one? I'm forgetting Threads. We're we're on all of them. We have a we have a Facebook page. So anywhere you can find the Rooted in Christ podcast, type in on social media. It'll come up. ⁓ Also, we please check out our website. It is www.redwoodcm.org. ⁓ That is where you can honestly put in there for prayer requests. You can put in there to be a guest in the show. You can also enter in if you ⁓ enter your information if you're interested in life coaching. I am getting ready to launch our life coaching business that is also ⁓ available on that website. We also have the Beyond the Walls ⁓ concert series happening here in Cleveland, Ohio, November 7th. ⁓ KB is our headliner. We also have Porsche Love this year. ⁓ Breno and Taylor Well is going to be there. And I got a lot of surprise guests coming, ⁓ coming through this year. ⁓ a lot, I mean two or three. So so for a concert, that's plenty. ⁓ it's a Christian hip hop and an RB concert. We do it, we do it every year. ⁓ it's at the House of Blues in Cleveland. So definitely come come and check us out there. ⁓ and be on the lookout for for Redwood Christian creative. My wife and I just started in LLC, and I will be doing booking for Christian hip hop and RB artists along with my life coaching. She teaches voice and piano lessons. ⁓ those are gonna be some other things we we have coming up. Amen. Gotta serve any way you can. Yeah. And but the the reality is, my friends, no matter what you've been through, doesn't mean you that's where you end up. You what you went through is the foundation. That's your history. Where you are today is the beginning of what ⁓ what you choose to happen so that you can have an excellent tomorrow with God. But it's always starts with trust in God. It always starts with forget about the people, forget about the building. Forget about the idiots that insult and and and do things wrong. Forgive them for your own sake, move on. And give God that room that y that somebody's been camping out that doesn't belong there. You know, you if you get that let that stuff fester in you, you're gonna be spoiled. So you can't have any good stuff, you won't even recognize it. So let God clean you out of the ugly and fill you full of the good and start your life over again. God's got an amazing plan for your life, starting today. And ⁓ if you've liked what Eric shared, be mo be motivated by it. If if you're not a hip hop person, that's okay. There is enough other ministry opportunities for you to find a place where you can belong and serve God. ⁓ you don't it's not always healthy just to stay home and be a hermit. It's a lot healthier to be part of a a a body of Christ believing group, whether it's whether they just meet in someone's home or however, but they meet and they bear each other's burdens and they love each other. And they don't le they don't stay alone, you know, so that when it's a tough day, the others can encourage. That's God's plan for us. So we're gonna we're gonna pray, and then I'll give a closing and ⁓ we'll call this one ⁓ memory made number one and we'll we'll c we'll work on having memory made number two come up in the future. There we go. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're so pray we're so grateful. We're honored that you give us the privilege to meet together and to share what God has done in both of our lives. Lord, we're so grateful for what you you've done with Eric's life. Lord, if if man looked at it and didn't see the end of the story, they'd never they'd think he wouldn't end up to be anything. But that's because they don't understand you. If there's an inch an inch of you left in them, that's enough to reclaim a whole person from. And you know, you you built that ⁓ the measure of faith and hope in each of us so that we can we can bounce back, trust in you, and you can make a whole person out of the the leftover parts from all the wounds. You can heal the wounds. You can heal the broken hearts. You can heal the betrayal and the hurt. And Lord, we ask that you manifest that in the hearts of the those that are listening and watching today. Do something wonderful in their lives and give them hope. Do something that's beautiful in their lives to the glory of God in Jesus' name. And together we say Amen. Amen. Amen. And we're good what we're going to do is ⁓ I wanna I want to give a a quick closing and that is If you want to know God, it's simple. Just reach out. If you want to know how to get to know him better, Jesus said he was the way. So if you want to know God better, Jesus is made the introduction. He died and sh and shed his blood and rose again from the dead. So we have a bridge between us and our past. So we don't have to live in what we used to be. We can live in who we are and what God planned for us to be. So you know, don't you want to know more about God? See Jesus. Seek Jesus, he will introduce you to God. That's what God wants, you do it, and you will be blessed. This has been the God Says Yes podcast with David Ebel. Connect with David. Yes podcast at Gmail Dr. You can get his latest book, When the Doctors Say No, God Says Yes, at Amazon.com.