Damien Wong - Lead Singer of Set to Stun / Shares His Testimony

[Music] the ryan reese show from southern california this is the ryan reese show post your questions using ryan reese on his instagram twitter or facebook are you ready ready all right this saturday night i got a sick show um i have a guest in studio right now named damon wong he's a lead singer from set to stun so thank you for coming out and i'm just actually surprised that we're here making this happen right now just the way everything connected yeah it's incredible but i mean the christian doesn't have the luxury of coincidence yes our steps are ordered and so we're always shocked but we shouldn't be i mean god is a great orchestrator of all of our movements and so it's just wonderful to see those continual affirmations that we're walking in the path that he set before us and so you know what's interesting is um it's funny to say that because you know i was listening to the study on the way up here and was talking about the good shepherd and how you know he has all the the sheep in in the in the sheepfold but then the good shepherd goes out to reach the one and as i was coming up here to interview you today i was thinking about how you know you're a believer you're in a band you're out in the mainstream and you're chewing with all these uh you know mainstream artists and just um out in the world basically and it's so easy for us as believers to get caught up in um just being in the sheepfold and being comfortable within the the church walls and and it's cool because you get to grow you get discipled this is what the church is built for for us to grow in the faith and to know the word so we can actually live it out but there's not many people that uh act like the good shepherd and go out and try to reach people and i got to get passed off your contact from from zach and i got to watch a couple interviews and as i was watching your interview the whole reason why this this conversation started is when i watched this interview and i just saw your heart kind of bleed through this uh this interview with some girl i think it was in nashville or something she was asking some random questions you're like that was kind of random but but as the conversation started you could just see that how god is using you just to go out and you're not a rock star that is going out and trying to make fame for yourself and you're using it as a platform to um build this this massive audience you're a believer in christ and god has given you this this path to lead the sheepfold to go out and let your light shine and you don't take it for granted yeah you know um it's not even something that i can claim credit for just like you opened us up in that prayer and we recognize that it's god moving um you know my influence the influence that i've been allotted of god um i recognized it as an early at an early age that um i would i had this degree of influence with people and um a means of speaking to them but the truth is that i never had any power to wield um even to save myself let alone i can't claim any credit for it and truthfully um even when i was out there operating within the world uh in the band um as it continued to grow um it never gave me any peace you know and so um i can only truly say that i've been following after christ for the last three or four years of my life truly discipled as a youth i was never raised with it i went to a catholic school for some degree of time never felt any degree of like real um relationship you know i want to i want to jump on that a little bit because we have an hour okay and you're gonna speak a lot of truths about you know this walk with christ and there's a lot of people that are listening that are in that place like if you look at think about the the amount of people that have grown up catholic my wife was catholic my dad was catholic i mean i think half my friends are catholic yeah but there's never been a transformation or a relationship of christ but talking to those people right now that are that have grown up and they're younger and they they grew up in in catholicism would you experience while you were there um in going to catholic school um burden you know um i felt that um really this it was just a it was religiosity you know it was a burden of religion rather than a relationship um i saw christ hanging on the cross but i never saw the resurrected christ you know interesting huh and so that was the difference when i first came to a christian church when i was um i don't know 11 years old my name my neighbor took me you know and it was like i saw that this congregation was alive i saw that the minister was alive and as a boy coming from a household of alcoholism and uh you know my parents were divorced and seeing all of that i uh i wanted that life you know i wanted um that and so um plus there was no real firm grasp on the doctrine you know in terms of catholicism i didn't understand any of it and it wasn't necessarily something that i was um encouraged to understand rather i was just told to walk within the guidelines of this i i've heard some people that would go to a catholic church and they say well when they go there because i ask students i'm like as we're in front of a lot of students i ask them the ones that go to the catholic church and go well do you understand what's going on there and they say no we just go in there and they they read these things we go through these motions and then we leave but we never understood the gospel or anything it's just all uh practices and then you have these idols like you were talking about in these churches and god says to make no idols so you have these idols of this this dead jesus hanging on the cross that looks miserable but there's no resurrection and there's no life yeah so how how is that attracted yeah well i mean like if we get into catholicism i mean it's riddled with um with contradictions to what christ actually calls us to you know the word says that there's one god and one mediator who can reconcile god and humanity the man christ jesus and instead we're taught within the catholic religion that mary is indecessor in that regard that the saints are intercessors in that regard um and so we pray to these gods that are no gods we pray to these idols we like candles it's all just this um it's it's closer to paganism than it is to christianity you know and um yeah so you know but also just to speak and to be to be truthful you know we have the same sort of uh misalignment in terms of not understanding the doctrine even within contemporary christianity within america right now you know um more often than not when i come across people who were quote unquote raised within the faith they don't know how to like peter says sanctify the lord god in your heart be ready always to give an answer for the hope that is in you and you know they're taught a very a very uh simplistic christianity um they're not taught to count the cost you know jesus says count the cost nobody goes to war without counting his troops nobody builds a a building without making sure that they have enough material and instead you know your testimony is similar in this regard and that you were raised in a certain way and i read just a little bit of your book that's the only way that i can you know yeah i don't presume to know but there was this wandering away you know and you you know and just to speak on what you opened us up with christianity the body of christ the church is a collective of the one out of 99. you know we are all made of the one that have wandered you know exactly um it is the good shepherd that has gone out and brought us back into the fold and um those who have been forgiven much have are grateful for much you know yeah and so um that's how he br that's how he builds the fold and you know what you were just talking about how even with christianity today i love that you said that that people have not been taught to cut count the cost um with me i grew up in the church but i ran from church because that's all i've ever known so i was the opposite of you like all i've ever known is church church church dude go to church god's good this is this or this and i'm like no i want to know like what the forbidden fruit is like what's on the other side yeah well why is it so bad out there why is hollywood so bad why is going out to music festival you know whatever it is that that forbidden fruit but with a lot of christianity you know people call themselves i'm a christian because i'm an american i i grew up in america i'm of course i'm a christian or i'm a catholic or whatever but what happens is like you said is people don't read the bible so they never discover what god's voice sounds like uh these guidelines he has for us this call he's called us to do and the power that he will give us to the work of the holy spirit as we deny self the relationship of christ as you know it all comes down to going to the cross denying self repenting that that word that people hate to hear but repenting is the simplistic word for repenting is you turn yeah you just flip you turn in your life and you run the christ and that's what the the problem right now with with christianity in the world and i love when i met you again you're a musician and you're you're a man of the word and you know the scriptures and that's that's really rare to come by actually um a lot of creative people because you know why you guys everyone lives on the road they're not plugged into a church you know to be able to get discipled and it's it's it's a it's a it's a process to really to have to dig in and take that faith to yourself but the same way goes with other people that are called themselves christians they don't really dig into the word yeah i mean we have uh you know we have uh here's the thing like when i'm out on the road um you know god built my church before i even knew it right yeah and gave me all this influence that i keep talking about and um if you go into my lyricism um there's really nothing to do with christianity in that and it's not something that i'm even i'm not proud to say but i'm also not ashamed because you can look back on that album and you can see this is a man who was out of his mind you know with pain and suffering and um you talked about that interview that interview was before i even knew the lord you know and even then he had his hand on me you know and it's like we always have this high estimation of ourselves you know that at you know in our hearts we're good you know yeah you know he's made mistakes but in his heart he's a good person and the scripture doesn't teach that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it you know and um when i first came to the word so when you're talking about you know you're a man who knows the scripture um really it's because i had exhausted myself in every other regard for searching and and truth and i had poured myself into like we talked about on the phone you know philosophies and reading all of these high and learned uh man the wisdom of the world you know and none of it wielded any power you know and really i became haughty and proud in my own eyes and i was too wise for my own good and so when i first came to the word it cut me to the bone it cut down every high estimation of myself it ripped from me this imagination after my own heart this god that i had created in my own image right um you know um and it left me bare you know he really had his hand heavy upon me and just crushed me and uh so i had nowhere else to go i had nowhere else to run and i'm so thankful that he did that because all i could turn to was him and it wasn't just you know um it wasn't like a night and day kind of thing it was uh you know the scripture says the lord chasteneth those he loves you know like a good process yeah he he disciplines his his children you know it proves that you are the children of god and um now during there now during that time though when you were searching for you were reading all these books and you became your own god in a sense with all this wisdom and knowledge it's almost like in the scriptures with with satan you know he got puffed up he wanted to be like god he wanted to be like the most high he ended up getting kicked out he wanted to be the most knowledgeable and um when you when you gave your life to christ during that time you were actually dating your wife now and did you have kids at that time or like what was going on in the in the home unit like with your home life as you were searching for god yeah well um i mean you talked about satan and his pride and just being pumped up in the garden tempted adam and eve you said you know you will be like gods in your own eyes yeah so that sin is deeply rooted within even the first fold of our you know yeah our first parents yeah and so i think it's no wonder now that we're in this same predicament but yeah so my wife who is now my wife um we were together for about eight years before i came to the lord maybe a little bit less we did have a daughter she had a son when i first got with her he was about a year old so i've always been in his life um we had a daughter a couple years later our relationship was uh just two broken people thinking that our we were going to find salvation in the other you know thinking that we were going to be remedied somehow within this relationship and really it just led to more and more of a of a brokenness more of a self-pity self-loathing sort of thing it was a very violent relationship um and so when god began to take a hold of my life when i first came to his word jesus says do not think that i came to bring peace right but i came to bring a sword you know and i'll turn mother against her daughter father against you know the scripture and so he also says the same account in the in luke's gospel it says think not that i came to bring peace but division and so that division of being reconciled to god it's not something you know when you look at it through the natural man through the context of our own reason we think well that's not of god right the psalms 1 says blessed is the man who walketh not in the council of the ungodly and so i remember hearing all throughout this division that was being caused counsel of people who didn't know god who weren't rooted in biblical precepts and and were advising me just after what they thought and so it was like that's not of god god doesn't come into a family and divide it god doesn't do this and god doesn't do that god's ways are so much higher than our ways his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and what he had planned for me was far beyond anything that i could have comprehended and far beyond anything that um i could have ever like devised of myself and so he did cause this division because there are only two kinds of people in the world those who are dead and trespasses and sins and those who have been reconciled unto god through faith in christ and so that division was not something necessarily that he came in to turn one against the other but rather having called me out of the kingdom of darkness bringing me into the kingdom of light into the kingdom of his dear son that division was a natural consequence and so my my girlfriend at the time it was foreign to her you know she wanted nothing to do with it truly um she saw these changes in my in my nature and she didn't like those changes no no yeah no so um yeah like what like okay so like what were some of the changes that she was getting you know like okay firstly i'm i've was straight edged for like the first 26 years of my life never took a drink nothing like that yeah right had my first drink when i was 26 you know i like i said i had alcoholism in my family so i've always i had always stayed away from it it always deterred me i came into a different uh period of my life being a father myself and i didn't want to ascribe to a certain belief simply because it was actually born out of disdain right it was born out of hatred it was born out of an experience in that way and so i thought you know what i don't want to hold on to this ideology anymore yeah um and so then i you know would have like drink and drink socially and stuff like that and uh so just that was one of the things you know i didn't want to do those things anymore you know it's like and it wasn't like i'm a christian now so i'm not going to do this um really it was it was the new nature you know the desire changed yeah exactly colossians chapter 3 says put on your new nature right let the word of christ dwell in you richly and it was like i didn't desire those things and the things that i didn't desire before i i aspired after you know and and he really he says if i be lifted up i will draw men unto myself you know and so i had come from this place of absolute darkness you know all throughout the psalms he says i'm in a pit right you know pulled me up out of this pit and he had raised me up from this pit and placed me on a rock that rock was christ and he had become the light of the world to me and he was the only light in in a world that was fallen and crooked and perverse and so it was like he was exalted in my life and i had nowhere else to turn but to him and he was drawing me unto himself and so you say like well those aren't bad things right why would your girlfriend not like if you drank or did this or that um it was just it wasn't necessarily something that i can even try to reason out it was just you know what it really was it was the spirit of christ and spirit of the world you know it's just that war with each other they're at war with one another they're in conflict they cannot compromise and so it was like my my girlfriend at the time my wife now being in a place where she was being influenced by the world where she was um you know not reconciled yet unto god there was an animosity there right so i mean you and i can sit here and we say we know that the word of god is 100 percent accurate 100 truth and so to us when we look at unbelievers we say how can you not agree with this right but in corinthians it says the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of god right neither can they know them because they are spiritually discerned says they think that they are foolishness the message of the cross is foolishness to them that are perishing that's funny because i it's when i when i talk to people like because like the christians will come up like well man these guys look at them they're just they're they're just in sin and they're citiz i mean can you believe they're doing this stuff and i'm like yeah yeah like this is this is not bad for them they drop f-bombs all the time or they watch like watch pornography all the time from like fourth grade and on like guys like you got to think like they're they're thought processes of the world they don't even understand the spiritual side so how from that point what was the process of like did you guys splits did you guys stay together because there's a lot of people there there's people that are listening now that are in this situation i can't tell you how many christians and non-christians are together but light darkness cannot coexist yeah amen um you know be not unequally yoked exactly right and so i mean do we see all these precepts laid out for us by god we can look back now and say if only if only you know um even when he brings his people israel into the new land he says don't let your sons marry their daughters don't let your daughters marry their sons you know um they will bring you down um they will you know you cannot be yoked together with this and so it's very crystal clear god is not the author of confusion we look at this word and we say if you live by these standards all throughout the proverbs if you live this way god will be with you you know and and so now our lives we want to be quick to criticize well it's not that crystal clear right there's a lot of gray area in my life and this and that well that's because we have muddied it up so much with sin and our own decision making that now it's like this tangled ball of yarn that god is going to unwind and so it's like that's exactly what was going on um with me and my wife and so it truly uh and and just talking about christianity you know dude i didn't know god by any other means other than in his word so i didn't you know when i went to look for a church i went to find a church i felt more of a foreigner in church than i did in the world you know jesus says if the if you were of the world the world would love you as its own right he says if the world hates you remember they hated me first right so when i first read that it was like all of my life everything that i'd ever felt it was right there it was like i was actually fashioned for a different world i was a stranger a pilgrim passing through and everything made sense and so when i started looking to to find a place in different churches you know i remember feeling so confused and i was thinking god how come i don't feel at home in your home you know this is my father's house and really it was because there is this culture within christianity that is not necessarily biblical and so my i knew god the god of the word yeah that's it and so it was just like i didn't understand how you know i always say the church is it's the armory right you know if uh ephesians 4 12 it says to equip the saints for the work of ministry so it's like i always see church as that it's the gathering of the saints we've had enough of the world we've been getting beat up all week right we've been waging war and it's like we can come together we can sharpen our swords together we can be edified we can be encouraged we can be built up and so to me it was like i didn't understand how he could sit through 25-30 minutes of a kind of watered-down service and then go gather in the foyer and start talking about football you know and start talking about this not that those things are wrong in themselves but i remember feeling just like i want to talk about christ you know like i don't want to talk about these things i want to talk about what my other friends are talking about like and so i remember just just not knowing where i fit and it's like um so you know i knew that my christianity baptism to me was a burial you know it wasn't it was a celebration obviously yeah but to me when i went to my baptism i knew that i was going into the grave yeah and i knew that when i came out of that water it was going to be christ living through me and i was no longer my own all of my ambitions all of my desires everything that i wanted i was taking it to the altar and i was saying god burn it up you know and that sounds exactly with what i read in the bible yeah right that's then so that's that's the true christian walk that's the real christian walk yeah and the call dude you know galatians 2 20. i am crucified with christ nevertheless i live right yeah not i but christ living through me life i now live in the flesh i live by the faith of the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me that was real to me i was alone i had christ and it was like i have enough i've been suicidal since i was 13 years old you know it's like i've wanted to die and now it's like now i want to live but i want to live in him and him live in me and so i bring all this up to go back to my wife right so i'm laying that foundation because we had friends who were quote unquote christian and i'm not questioning their salvation right that's a different conversation but what i am saying is that they were in the realm of secular thought and so they were saying you know you're abandoning your family you know this is not what god would want um you know god would want you to stay and you just need to stop pushing it on her not that i was pushing it on her but that's the language that we use right you know um but i knew if my home wasn't built on the rock it didn't matter it wasn't going to matter you know it really wasn't and i read in revelation all those whose names were not written in the lamb's book of life were cast into the lake of fire that is the second death and i remember thinking like i don't even care if she if she ever wants to be with me again i don't care if she ever loves me again i want her name to be written in that lamb's book of life and sure enough that division was was kind of like came to its fullest fruition and i moved out i was away from my my daughter my son i was away from her um it was the most painful year of my life and i spent it in pain and confusion um i spent it you know um being ridiculed being criticized um you know by every every person christians and non-christians yeah yeah you know and um but dude my hope you know congratulations that god is your refuge when it says that he is your rock he's your sword he is your shield he is your protector your deliverer your redeemer all of these things i mean he is and so it's like my hope was in him my hope was in him god if it be your will and if you're willing right like the leper if you be willing bring my family into the fold and build my home on the rock so i have a question for you yeah so during this time because this is so interesting like on paper this doesn't make sense what you're doing right you're like you're you're leaving your family you're leaving your kids you're separating but at this time you're you're still plugged in you're reading the word god that's god's voice he's speaking to you and we're led as christians we're led by the holy spirit so obviously clearly as i'm hearing this and i know this is clearly the leading of the holy spirit he's leading you and he's taking you on this journey but through this storm yes there was anxiety or you know depression or just you know being away from your wife and kids i couldn't even imagine that you know i could only i can only imagine how gnarly that would be but in this storm like you know that you knew that god was with you during this time he was still speaking you right during these storms you're still giving that peace even though things were all crazy around you you just still have that peace of god with you through it right yeah which passes and that's how you know just for the listeners that's how you know that god is is leading you through these times you know because you you could enter these crazy like you know in my book you know that you you were reading living the impossible there was a story obviously where i was in this crazy storm felt like everything was falling apart dude people are coming against my my wife-to-be uh you know just all this division and craziness but yet i just had peace in the store but everyone was coming against us the same thing yeah and that's how you people you might be listening right now and you might be in a storm and or god might be asking you to do something and they might just be saying well i don't think it's god it doesn't make sense on paper no god does cr wild stuff but the way you'll know is he'll give you that peace beyond all understanding he'll give you that peace as you move through that storm yeah you know the word says uh your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light onto my path you know and it's like if we break that verse down just very quickly firstly it's a lamp until my feet you know it exposes the thoughts and intents of the heart is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart sharper than any two-edged sword and so firstly it's going to be a lamp to my feet and that's what it was is that it showed me where i stood you know and i stood at anonymity against god i stood at war against god i stood condemned jesus says those who don't believe are already condemned right you know and that's where i stood and so the word cut me to the bone and then it was a light to my path and only after that point you know um and so it guided me it did and um you know like like we weren't married yeah we weren't married and so it's like like i talk about this gray area it's like we you know you mentioned be not unequally yoked right and we talk about first corinthians chapter seven all of those things that paul gives us as guidelines for marriage and it even says if the you know if the stay where god has called you to be right if the unbeliever wants to depart let him depart you know you're not bound by god in this and so there was a lot of sifting through there was a lot of discernment that needed to be exercised and uh just to clarify it wasn't like i packed my bags and said i'm gone um she actually didn't want me in the house you know and she was like and dude in her defense she was just so confused she fell in love with this person and didn't understand what was happening um and just to be clear when you do give your life to god there is a transformation yeah and there is a whole new life that comes alive so like yet you're still the same person but then your um your desires change so it is a big it is a big difference for for someone that when they're you marry someone or you get in a relationship with someone that's not a christian and then to become a christian there's a serious transformation if you're plugging in the word of god your life will start transforming radically so yeah i can only imagine there there is some confusion and she doesn't want anything to do with god so she's trying to figure out what the heck to do yeah you know and just to speak on that because i keep forgetting that you and i aren't just having a conversation but there's actually an audience you know so it's like i'm like now i'm reminded by that but you know um just to speak on that jesus says come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden right i will give you rest for your souls and then immediately following he says take my yoke upon you right learn of me you know my yoke is easy my burden is light and so there is this immediate call to obedience and so more often than not i see within the contemporary folds of christianity that people are complacent and they're content simply with salvation you know and i don't say that simply but i mean that is a magnificent miracle of god to take a dead man and resurrect him or give him new life and but it's like you're missing the point if you just see it okay now i'm not really going to hell so i'm good you know and it's like there's a reason that god says be not unequally yoked because it's like it is a continuous taking up your cross daily like you said dying to self and coming after the lord and so when he said take my yoke upon you learn of me um if i had put that bible down for even a moment um i would have been right back into my old nature and obviously there were times of that right there were times i'm going to hold because we're going to be going to break okay in a minute but this is good stuff i knew this interview was gonna be epic when when when we uh had that first conversation i have uh damien wong in studio he's the lead singer of set the stun um we are booking tours with the whosoevers contact us we got the kill the noise book out it's a discipleship tool uh to uh to build your faith to help you guys grow go to killanoisebook.com and go to the whosoever's dot com and book us we are doing a u.s mega tour wow i think we're hitting like arkansas oregon uh colorado florida and north dakota and several others so we'll talk to you guys in two minutes after that more of the ryan reese show coming up post your questions at ryan reese on his instagram twitter and or facebook now back back to the ryan reece show all right we are back i got damien wong in studio the lead singer of set to stun man this first half dude has been epic thanks for coming on i knew it was gonna be sick and uh just right before the show we were just talking about how you gave your life to christ and there was also there's this transformation going on but you were living with your girl you had a kid with her and she had a previous kid so there's this whole transformation going this is a crazy crazy scenario but really it's really not that crazy and the amount of people that i talk to they're actually in this scenario yeah i mean i think that that's become the societal norm yes you know is mixed families um you know not even marriage the precepts or the the institute of marriage not even being held in in an honorable position anymore yep but like i said i just taught about this at my church um last sunday um but yeah so i mean that has become the norm right single moms um father's out of the picture or you know back and forth and so as we started going through these places of division um you know just to speak on more of that that i just thought of it but you said you know you're living with your girl that the i the idea of intimacy changed for me you know um having sex with her it just wasn't something that i could do anymore you know so when you talk about confusion because i was convicted every single time i did you know it was like i knew that um sex outside of marriage it wasn't you know it wasn't just like a legalistic thing it really wasn't but i recognized it and i saw it more in the light of what god saw it as and so when i saw myself either um giving in to her pursuits or or being led by my own flesh to satisfy my own desires you know you talk about it in your book very early on you talk about you know about objectifying women being out you dehumanize them you do spiritualize them to become less of an actual uh being made in the image of god and more so just something that you can satisfy or lust and so um in both regards i felt that this is um firstly i'm sinning against nobody but god right and so it's like he was to me my everything and it's like it didn't matter if everyone else in the world said that it was okay i knew that my god it said that it wasn't and then secondly i saw it as a gross um i saw it as a uh a misappropriation and and not being responsible for the the spiritual aspect of my girlfriend and my wife i was i was sinning against her you know i was sinning against myself and so it was like i saw that this is a woman in bondage this is a woman who was the scripture says if our gospel be hid that it is hate to those that are lost you know in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of christ shine unto them and it was like this is a woman who is blind to the truth right and yet it's still okay just i'll just still use her for sex so yes you know so you're reading the scripture and you're seeing actually the way god set up this institution of of of a relationship and you know the truth god's the holy spirit because he's in us and he works through us and he speaks to us illuminates our mind and and convicts us and then all of a sudden you're like but wait now i'm just going i know the truth like the word of god says in james it says you know when you read it it's like a mirror it shows you what's wrong with your life you're seeing it and then all of a sudden you're you're going out and you're acting on it and you're going against what it says and that's that's something that is very um that's something that could definitely mess with your mind at that time because you know what is right you know you shouldn't be doing this and you know things need to be in order and that's basically what was going on is you're just having this whole uh this this conflict yeah yeah it's galatians five right it's you know the flesh and the spirit at war with one another you know you know the fruits of the flesh yeah you know you and then ephesians two he talks about you know you had you walked according to the prince of the power of the air you walked according to the course of this world you know you've had enough of fulfilling your own lusts and your own desires but of course the same way we're talking about the contradiction between the spiritual man now and the natural man my wife saw that as am i not attracted to you anymore you know am i not pleasing to you um is there is there another woman you know she sees it in the natural context when i don't want to be intimate in this regard and so that's just just to speak on more of the things at a deeper level it was like you know but it was because of my love first for god and then next for her um if they had use if one had usurped the other and my love for her had superseded my love for god um then my everything that i would have aspired after would have crumbled and fallen you know and fell apart and so there's this division um and then once i got all the criticisms about you know because she didn't want me living there it's like you're abandoning your family you're this and that then there came a development within the conversation of out outside counsel and people were saying and suggesting just because you have kids together doesn't mean you belong together right and so they're feeding into this this perpetual cycle that we're talking about of broken families and i knew there are so many enemies to the family today i didn't want the testimony of my life to be founded on on that as well or you know settle for it and i'm not saying that god doesn't do that right i'm not saying that there is a template that my life has suggested and now god will do this way but i i my heart broke for all of the single mothers that are out there my heart broke for them who didn't have you know and this idea of feminism also this idea of a man being the high priest of his home you know being loving his wife as christ has loved the church giving himself for and not exampling that um exampling that firstly in his in his marriage with his wife so that the kids see that and then discipline his children the tenderness of the mother and the sternness of the father they're cohesive you know and it's like that is how god has made it and so it's i've seen these things ripple outward continuously especially as traveling across the country and seeing the fruits thereof and so i didn't want my family to just be another one of those statistics so but that's the council i'm getting right right right you guys don't go ahead yeah no no go ahead i'm listening you know you guys don't belong together right you guys just don't make it work but you guys can be you guys can keep it together for the kids just be respectful for the kids right and it's like you know she'll go and do her thing and i'll go and do my thing well that all makes sense if i'm still serving self you know right that actually is that's a win-win for me because i don't have to be with this woman that i had kids with i don't get along with her i can go off and do my own thing she can do her own thing and then i can still say hey you know i'm a good father and you know again it's not a criticism if you're in this position right now it's not it's just that i the same way that i knew i had been crucified with christ i wanted to live by that example and and again going back all those his names were not written in the lamb's book of life that's right all right it all goes back to that dude i i love that woman you know i i love her i love her more now than you can even imagine you know we've been married for a year and a half now we've been it's the best year and a half of our life ever you know like we've been at such peace such joy we've never known a love like this we've never known anything like this and it and it came at such a great cost you know but it was worth it and it was like the scripture says lean not on your own understanding right but acknowledge god in all your ways and he'll make straight your paths and it's like that is a critical aspect you know of like you're talking about in this storm and god being there not to lean on my own understanding but i trust if you weren't now if you would have been listening to all the people around you like you were saying there was all because you were even saying that there was people in the church that were given the you know secular viewpoint and then there was the people that weren't christians given that viewpoint and if you were leaning on their understanding and just uh going along what they were saying you wouldn't even be in this situation but you kept going back and this goes for the listeners it always goes back to the word i mean you guys been listening to the show for how long we're always pointing to the word because if you lean on your own understanding your own understanding is everything that's coming in through media tv music what you're reading everything that's coming into your ears and your eyes that's your own understanding what you're understanding here but what happens is if we lean not on that and we press into the word god gives us he's a lamp to our feet like you were saying it's it's literally god has laid it out so simple but you know what the problem is we and i'm i'm no saint we me we don't want to deny ourselves pick up our cross and follow jesus and that's why it's every single day we have to strive to pick up our cross deny ourself and that could just be just opening the word of god and reading it people can't even like do that connection and then they're like dude my life's a mess i don't know what to do things are going on who am i supposed to marry what's my career what you know what the heck is life all about open up the book yeah lean not on your on your own understanding and press into the word yeah okay so we have 16 minutes left all right so what happens at this point so how did she find god yeah so this whole time i thought that i was literally going crazy man like i'm telling you i was in that valley of the shadow of death i was in that darkness i was in a room i was renting a room for my drummer i was by myself you know i was in the word i was working it was whatever but um yeah dude it was it was dude but i was on my knees i was weeping i've never felt like closer to god than when i was completely stripped away you know he says be holy for i am holy you know there is an aspect of holiness and godly living right but at the root of that word is a separation right he separates you you're a peculiar people i've called you out of the world you know um romans 12 be not conformed to the to the image of the world right but be renewed you talked about repentance early on that's what a repentance is it's a renewal of the mind it's a continual changing and attitude that that picking up of the cross and so um she you know here's in my mind i'm going to put it out the way that i saw it first in my mind i thought that we were working on things every now and then we you know we i'd think that things were going to get better they didn't right they fell apart every now and then i saw that she would receive a certain degree of the word uh but really it wasn't uh it was on it was on shallow soil right and i wouldn't even say that i would say it was more on the footpath and it was a pretense right it was like i want him so i'm gonna do what it takes to kind of put on this facade yep and get underneath there and god was faithful and always exposed that yeah you know and so my wife the same way you ran same way i ran same way we've all had our ways you know the scripture says there's none righteous no not what right all have gone astray like sheep we have all gone astray talk about the good shepherd and so my wife um she did that same thing she went off you know she went out every night you know there were nights where i thought the kids were with her i thought that they were and they weren't and she was out drinking giving herself to other people you know there was a lot of hurt in that and i was totally blinded and i just didn't even see it in my mind that's like the last thing that i would have thought you know um but she went out and she was trying to fill this hole within her heart there was a thirst right psalms 42 was like one of the very first things that i read and it says as a deer panteth after streams of water so my soul penteth after you o lord and it was like there is this thirst within the human heart within the human soul that only god can satisfy and so now i thought my world was falling apart how much more so when her when she didn't even have a rock to stand on you know and so she went in search of these things and um it wasn't until i mean dude there's there's so much that i'm not gonna be able to cover but to to sum it up long story short all those things came into the light all those things came into the light right it was like somebody she couldn't hide behind anything there was no pride i had no learned the truth and it was like she it was thanksgiving we were together because we were with the kids we had gotten into an argument everyone in the whole house was on me right i was the i was you know i was the root of the issue and there was somebody there who said look i can't watch this anymore she called me inside she said like where do you think she was last night and i was like when she was at home with the kids you know she's like you're full she's like you're an idiot you know this whole year i've been doing i've been with her i've been instigating it i've been doing you know what i mean so all these things came into the light and she left went home and decided she was going to kill herself that was it you know it's like she's been exposed she didn't find every time that she went and gave herself over to somebody every time that she went out and drank and said do you think that she felt any sort of satisfaction satisfaction or gratification she felt more empty than she did before she went home weeping you know and it's like so now this man that she loves right her family it's just like he'll never forgive me i'm gonna go home and i'm gonna kill myself and uh you know if we had been married prior to um she would have said you're just staying with me because you know your god says not to divorce me or whatever the case you know what i'm saying and so it's like and dude in that moment i i was just i was so filled with grace and love and forgiveness and goodness and it was like i you know it says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus i knew the verse i knew the theological aspects of it but i never fully experienced it until i looked on my wife in that moment after all that she had done and i said you to me are without blemish you know the way that i could see you and love you and it's like and that was the first time she ever experienced the goodness and and the mercy of god and she put her hand to the plow and she never looked back we were married two weeks later and um yeah it's history ever since you know and uh i'm not saying that it did it was incredible it was undeniable the goodness of god in that and um dude our home you know we have a new daughter now tell us what we got like 10 minutes so i have we just had a baby in january her name is jubilee um truly she lives up to her name she's uh just full of joy she wakes up i was just telling them she wakes up in the morning and she's just smiling you know and it's like uh and this man you know and my children let me just comment on that too they were present in this you know they were present in all of this they saw a relationship before christ came into it they saw the fool that i was they saw the fool that their mom was they heard what everybody heard they saw god have a hold on my life they saw me weeping in prayer they saw all of this and then they saw everything come to pass and they there is without a doubt in their mind it was god who reconciled our family who brought us together it is god who has done it and so there is a great testimony in their life and um this is a daughter now who will never know separation who will never know divorce who will never know these things um and it's just it's incredible to me it's such a blessing truly i mean truly children are a gift from god and it's like i'm gonna raise my kids according to to the word um eventually they're gonna have to come to the cross on their own but i want to make sure that they fully understand it you know and what's the best way for for parents that are listening now what's what's the best way to lead your kids to the cross what's the best way to be an example like what do you what do you have in place for for them to well it's like you said god gives it he's very clear you know what i mean um husbands love your wives as christ loves the church it's a self-sacrificing love you know it's not contingent upon uh it's not conditional you know it's not based on merit yeah well you know she's been a she's been a jerk today so it's like i you know i'm free from this no no no in the face of that you need to love your wife you need to serve your wife and wives submit to your husbands you know as the as the head of the household and that's not even to say that he is in a place where he he necessarily should be honored with that authority but pray him into that place pray him into that position um and fathers you know don't grieve your children don't discourage them you know love them raise them up uh with discipline and in fear of the lord mothers you know showcase that and so it's all within the word firstly fulfilling the offices within the family right a husband turns into a father my wife turns into a mother children be obedient to your parents this is pleasing in the sight of the lord so there are all these things in the application aspect um but secondly i would say you know it's not your pastor's responsibility to teach your kids the theological um realities of the word it's not you drop them off at sunday school that's what people think yeah fix my kids you know and it's like yeah well i take them to church every sunday you know and it's like but you know that yeah it is it is your responsibility truly um and and you need to understand this and you need to get into it and you need to pray and you know it says that jesus says he's given us everything you know and not just doctrine but he's given us a holy spirit that is the spirit of truth that will guide you into all truth it says you have an unction of the holy one first john right you need it that no man teach you and so it's like you need to grasp the realities of this the first piece to the armor of god is what it's the belt of truth it's what it's what cinches everything together you need to stand on that truth not your feelings your feelings are subject to change you know and it's like quick yeah right now i'm on the mount right but then i'm in the valley and so now i'm lost and i don't know what to do spiritual yo-yo yeah and your feelings and god is obviously that's you know we're human and we experience those things but it's truth that needs to gird your loins and it's truth that you need to stand in and know i may be feeling this way right now but it doesn't change who god is jesus christ is the same yesterday today and forever he says be not you know tossed about to and fro like children right yeah by every wind of doctrine paul says that in ephesians and so it is the truth we serve a god of truth truth is not a thing he is a person you know he is the way the truth and the life he he says depart from me um i never knew you you need to know him you need to know him personally you need to know him in his word you need to know who he is it needs to be firstly consecrated and sanctified within your own heart exampled within your family and understood with a continual renewing of the mind um that's the way to raise your kid your kids have to uh well said by the way um your kids have to they have to see they have to see you and live in and out and i just want to encourage parents you know it's i'm a parent you're a parent you know life gets crazy toss turns storms high highs lows but the thing is you have to just you just have to keep walking out your faith you have to walk it out you're gonna make mistakes you just gotta ask forgiveness you know some days you know you're not going to come home and want to treat your wife like gold or some days you know she's not going to treat you like girl because you know what she's probably with the kids all day long you know and and she might be losing her mind and you it's it's it's something with parents that you have to navigate through every every situation and and um ask god to like you know give you that that that peace and rest are in those times and and that clarity of how to try to interact you know because um it gets it gets even more complicated with kids you know of the amount of kids and and just the the ups and the downs and and just like you know finances and resources i mean when you start looking around especially with everything that's going on even with coveted and everything do so many people have lost their jobs people are losing their house their cars they can't pay rent no food that the the food lines are like crazy right now you know there's a people go through a lot of hard stuff is basically what i'm what i'm trying to say and this is why we need god to be a lamp to our feet we need to hear his voice we need we need him desperately and that truth that you're standing now that you're talking about is his word as god that's the truth that you're talking about i mean you aren't going to get it from the world lean not on your own understanding like we were talking about because all that stuff could lead you to depression anxiety suicide broken marriage drugs alcohol pornography cheating i mean all the crap of the of your sin life but a work of the holy spirit through the truth god created these guidelines you know these commandments and these these um the law in the bible is to give us a good life you know don't covet basically don't spend your life having coveting what everyone else has because that brings resentment and bitterness don't go don't go hook up with someone else's wife don't kill like do we have a problem with these things no these are all actually really good things love the lord god with all your heart mind soul and strength if you just love god with everything in your being not saying that you're perfect but if you just love them with everything in your being god is faithful he's gonna come alongside you and he's gonna he's gonna literally show you that life that that you were created for it's very simple yeah but it all comes down to that love the lord god with all your heart mind soul and strength if you literally try loving god with all your mind all your heart and all your soul you will see a dramatic change in your life i mean you're a testimony of that dude amen um and you know it's important i just want to follow up on that because it's like jesus says those if you love me you'll keep my commandments right so there's like love faith in works right james talks about it he says now believes that there's one god that'll do as well the demons also believe in tremble right and so it's like faith coupled with works we it must it's it's critical that it's not the reverse or it will become just as much of a burden as everything else in your life it's not i'm going to obtain a right favor with god by following these things but rather it's the love of christ that constrainteth me you know it's uh in hebrews i know we don't have much time but hebrews chapter 11 right it's like by faith this person did that by faith faith faith faith faith yeah right and it's like faith is is not something that is necessarily blind we walk by faith not by sight so it's like it's in one regard you can say that but faith is the highest faculty of man it is the means by which we understand the things of god and so it's like you have eyes to see you of ears to hear you have these things by which you possess the material world and the the natural realm it is faith that takes you into the spiritual realm of god to understand these truths and following right after that is chapter 12 and so just just to piggyback on what you're saying chapter 12. he says seeing that we have so great a cloud of witnesses right you were talking about family you're talking about exampling it for your children um your co-workers people that you are around you are salt and light and god has sent you out as an ambassador for christ you know when an ambassador comes for from africa or and they're coming into america or vice versa they represent not their own opinions they represent not their own ideas they are there as a representative of that foreign entity of that sovereign nation and we need to ask ourselves are we living for the kingdom of this world or the kingdom of god are you an ambassador for christ are you still living for self and it says so seeing we have this great cloud of witnesses let us cast off every weight right and the sin that does so easily beset us looking unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith and that's where it is it's just what you're talking about it's that's how you that's how you lead your children that's how you live this life it is the love of christ you're saved by grace through faith you've done nothing to deserve it you know the song amazing grace it's like i heard that song 100 times before didn't mean really anything and now yeah now you understand it is amazing grace i've done nothing to deserve this life that god has given me and that love is a powerful motivator so that you can actually fulfill these things and it's jesus is the vine you're the branch you know the branch doesn't struggle to bear fruit he does so by the sap that is running through it he does so by the strength of the vine it's not the branch clinging to the vine necessarily though there is that aspect but it is the mighty vine who holds the branch in place and we need to look unto jesus you talked about the law you talked about all these things that god is pointing us to to live a good life every single word in this book points to one person and that is christ he is the word made flesh and so when you're reading you need to see that you need to see him in every line of scripture and the law just points to the fact that we need jesus as a savior because we can't do it without him that's why we need that grace and that mercy and that's the most beautiful thing about a relationship with with christ well dude this show was sick thank you for for being on i know a lot of people are going to be encouraged um we'll have to get you back on another time another place yeah maybe take some live calls or something that's where the party gets started you never know it's like the wild west up there sometimes yeah yeah no thanks for having me as privileged truly yeah dude it was uh it was awesome man uh where can people find out more about you um i'm usually only on instagram okay um but yeah you can dm me through there i'll get to it for sure i respond all right damian wong and that's your instagram two as well uh yeah instagram is fearless desperado okay perfect but that's just my only real connection with the world now that's good one connection i got too many i'm trying to trying to disconnect yeah um all right you guys well thanks for tuning in i do want to plug the kill the noise book it's out well actually it's out for pre-order it comes out uh may 11th um it's it's a story of it's like a highlight rail when you go through instagram you're clicking through the highlight rail it's a highlight reel of different situations in my life showing the word of god pasted with stories that happen in my life to build your faith to grow your faith if you want to know who god is if you're struggling out if you're just empty this is the tool that will get you on track to deny yourself pick your crops and follow jesus [Music] [Music] this has been the ryan reese show to connect and find out more about ryan click on ryan reese.com check us out next saturday at 9 00 pm for the ryan reese show [Music]

Channel: Ryan Ries

Views: 816

Rating: 4.9310346 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: nnm85J87ZnE

Length: 57min 34sec (3454 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021