Persevering Through Friendly Fire W/ Sonny Sandoval (P.O.D.) - #299 - Provoke & Inspire Podcast

[Music] welcome to the provoke and inspire podcast my name is ben pierce so excited that you can be joining us today we do oh we we really at this point only have chad as well the usual compliment of regulars everyone else i don't know they they're they just luke's and poland he panicked uh yeah i don't know we we only have but let me tell you we have these i would say chad and i are probably the best of the four of us on the podcast so uh for those watching and not listening we have an incredible guest for you today i'm super pumped uh we have sunny sandoval he's uh well you know there's no introduction required he's the american singer rapper and songwriter uh co-founder of p.o.d uh and then also most more recently he's part of the evangelistic movement the whosoevers and we get to talk to brian head and ryan a lot ryan reese uh it's so it's so great to also be able to talk to you sonny thank you so much for being on the provoke inspire podcast oh thank you guys man i love being here yeah well thank you for uh for getting up i know we changed the time on you a little bit which oh i think you're west coast so that was probably a little appreciated yeah yeah wake up too early so sonny i think this what would be great is is just i know most people watching listening will will have heard of pod will will recognize you but could you share a little bit about just your your story um you know you have a very very interesting story and i think our listeners would love to hear more about it for sure i try to keep it as short as possible um i grew up in a neighborhood you know where it's easy to get into trouble grew up in a young immigrant family so they were just they were young drugs all that whole thing just trying to figure out life you know having kids and you know god started to pick off people in my family one by one you know he started to save them becoming real not this religious experience just this heart-to-heart intimate relationship and then does your family did you come from a christian family no no well we my grandmother and my mother they were from italy so you know they have that classic catholic routine background you know and uh so i never had a problem with god you know it was just part of our i think it was part of our culture it's just it was a religious thing i didn't i didn't know god personally you know i went to church on easter and christmas eve you know what i mean get it in there you know and but you know my when i uh when my mom came to the lord i i really watched i just watched a change in my my family and so it was real and like i said i never had a problem with god you know i i find it i mean that's not crazy to me but it's always it's crazy to me when people just have it in for god and they don't even know why you know but you know my mom she was diagnosed with leukemia cancer when i was 18. so i kind of watched her go through that and even though she was just deteriorating she her love for god was unreal you know her faith was it was contagious and uh i watched her go through that and and long story short you know i kind of made a deal with god you know i came to him and i just said you know if you take my mom you know i don't know what i'm gonna do uh but i just want my mom's jesus i don't i don't want the world's jesus i don't want this you know this history of the institution of church and hypocrisy that i that i felt was you know in my heart and mine at the time and i um that wasn't real to me but but the jesus in my mom's life was undeniable so i i prayed that you know i told god i i know i'm a sinner i don't need anybody to tell me that he wasn't even telling me that you know it was just i already knew it you know but i i knew god can clean me up and wash me up and he did that and so i asked god into my life and then that same day i i went back into the hospital and i whispered to my mom you know go and be with jesus and then she would take her last breath and then i was just trying to figure out my my walk with god my journey at that time um i started to try to give up things in my life that i knew were unhealthy for me and try to walk this life and before i knew it um you know i i ask god use my life whatever that means i just want um i want my friends to know i've changed i'm different i want my community my neighborhood to know that that this jesus is real in my life and marcos and love the guitar playing drummer in my band they were doing some other thrash stuff and we used to go to local shows and you know house parties and stuff and get down with them um and they were believers and then they had asked me to if i wanted to be you know when i wasn't pod at the time it was being their band and i think it was just a way for them to keep me out of trouble and then long story short through so many other details it was just confirmed that it was meant to be um and we just started playing around town everywhere we can go we learn to have this hardcore kind of christian gang mentality to just more love and grace and you know and then as we've met before you know we learned that there was a scene you know in the in the christian underground world i i didn't know that christian music existed or you know there was a scene and until you just started playing and then you started meeting other guys and you're like oh cool we're all like-minded and we're out there in the world you know um but our heart was always to um it was confirmed always to to go into the world you know it wasn't to stay um locked in within the church walls or boundaries it was we just we just knew that that's that's what it was you know and yeah we we toured a bunch underground and we toured and then about seven to eight years after starting i remember i i remember seeing you sorry to interrupt you but no please i remember seeing you guys in uh in birmingham alabama when i lived there and i started up my own little music venue and record label and you guys would come through a venue called the crush warehouse and it was just derek's place just this big empty space yeah and uh and i remember hearing people like just kids getting so excited for pod and i was like what's that is that like a new drug you know yeah yeah and uh but i love it i'm thinking man these guys these guys are amazing and and so passionate and uh and i just it was it was cool to watch from like a really early level that yeah just the trajectory you know like the i mean it was actually shocking um because back then there wasn't a whole lot of uh the the fade over you know where the crossover run from from the the christian once you're in the christian world you're screwed you're always in the christian world kind of yeah yeah i mean it's hard man to break out of that is a is a challenge so anyway yeah very yeah very fun very fond memories that that's in those early days chad that's funny you say that because when i was when you guys were at that point i was in new zealand in high school and so i never i don't know if you played in new zealand i assume you played in new zealand at some point yes yes yeah well i didn't see you there the first time i saw you is at the excel center with lincoln park so slightly different yeah nice slightly different experience from gertie warehouse too big arena yeah that could be the book i don't know if you want to do that but that could be the book so i mean i had the totally different experience i would love to hear about that that desire because i think that was intentional right like your your ability your crossover was not just accidental i mean i think that's what from a from an economic perspective i think that's what all christian artists want but from a missional perspective was that part of the plan were you were you always hoping to not get sort of put into that box of a christian band how did how did you manage to do that yeah for sure again like i said i never we never you know we never said we were a christian band or we we didn't even know that that title existed i just listened to music to me music is music but even in the hardcore scene you know what whatever it was that you believed in or your stance you were just about it you know it wasn't you weren't labeled this thing or that thing you were just you were just about it um when we were playing around san diego we were 19 we were playing bars and clubs we couldn't even get into bars and we'd have to sit outside they bring us into play and they kicked us right back out you know and and we were getting this buzz in in san diego like man these guys are these guys are good you know they're cool they're dude it was obvious that we were believers and we were playing with skinhead bands we were playing with anybody it was just an underground thing but you were allowed to speak you know what you were about and then the first time we got asked to play in a church which we it was for like this youth group rally they were going a bunch of youth groups had come into town they were going down to mexico which is my backyard to help with an orphanage over there and a guitar player he kind of grew up in this church and you know we played because they heard like man they heard we were believers we went in the first song dude the first song some youth pastor from i don't know what church i don't know what city he literally walked in on the first song clapped the guitar and just said oh no no no we can't we can't do this so we were already we were already told from that point our first christian experience was yeah we're not we were not of god right this is this is not god's music uh our tattoo everything was everything about us was not of god and that was really confirmation that was like dude we got we we're getting known in our town in our neighborhoods and as this band and yet the church doesn't want us which was fine there was no heart it was it was it's all right it was all good yeah and that but that was just me learning here again i just got saved it was kind of my experience with the church with with believers or christians i should say and and so that was it we just we were always our heart was to go up to whoever would listen yeah and even even through the year so when we went like you're talking about the crush there those were places that were they were they were christians and believers that were just stoked they were stoked that we can get down that way those bands were getting down they were coming through with with no shame just saying dude we love you guys it's about jesus and you know because for those christians that were grew up in the church or whatever they were only allowed to listen to dc talk or you know whatever so a band like pod comes in or unashamed you know what i mean some of these new of uh earlier tooth and nail bands yeah they were like this is us you know this is christians can be christians can be cool too you know right right so we got a lot of we got a lot of comments coming here apparently mark skelton took you out to dinner at some point but you were on an adkit diet so you were not willing to eat buns with your burger at the time oh that's so that was that was the trend back there i'll never forget everybody's doing the everybody in all the bands the question is are you still on the atkins diet because that's like that's commitment i no no i go in and out of so many things right now i'm a so-called vegan you know nice nice so here's here's my question because the whole christians in the secular scene and then the church get you know you'll get criticized for the clothes or the tattoos or the music style or whatever it's such a messy thing and and i feel like i think one of the biggest things is how are you able to to of course there's those superficial things that you just have to push beyond it's like look jesus was a friend of sinners he spent so much time with sinners he was accused of being one himself how how though at the same time did you manage that balance of being in that world um and and and how did you manage that to be a witness i mean how how are you able to be bold did you find that that was a threat to your trajectory how did you manage that tension of of trying to be in the world but then also at the same time not kind of going down the route that i feel like a lot of christian artists went which is they just stopped talking to to to continue to rise how did you fight that balance right right well i think for us i think once we again know no no love loss once we realized that we weren't being supported by by the church uh we didn't really look for that support you know it was it was always we knew we we 100 said do we we are about jesus and so we knew that we had to be you know 50 times better than the band that we played with because you're already gonna say oh that's that that's that lame christian band dude so we we we wanted to just destroy those stereotypes from the beginning and again because we weren't looking for the support of the church like a lot of those christian bands back in the day um i don't i don't know if they ever really said we want we want to get outside of this box because there was so much support there for them it wasn't there for us but it was like oh yeah dude we can you know we can go play a church and they'll throw some some some money or they'll put us up to stay they'll feed us whatever we can't pack out a bar you know we can't get two people at a bar so why why go there right where our our heart was like i'd rather go to the two people at the bar than go to a packed out christian church or or or venue whatever that was so that that was always our our mindset and we knew that god was was guiding and leading so we went we just went that direction and then at one point i remember at the time was one of the biggest christian labels at that time had come to us and said dude we want to sign you guys and i remember telling the guys or we you know we had a conversation together where we just knew that that's that wasn't the direction so a lot of people even from the tooth and nail world and all them were like dude you guys did you guys didn't sign with them and i was like why that's just that's the christian world right why so when we started to get looked at by labels from the world this it was it wasn't we just knew that one day it was going to happen and when it did it was like it i don't think it was more exciting that uh you know atlantic records was wanting to make a deal with us it was just more exciting that dude we followed our hearts we trusted god and it was it happened and that to me that was the most exciting thing you know yeah how are you did you manage to once the platform kept growing and it becomes less about the two people at the bar because that season didn't last from my experience i remember the two people at the bar right i did too how did you with all the pressure that comes with that and all of the the increased platform and and probably people talking to you and saying don't do this or don't do that how did you manage to stay fruitful in in in the witnessing part of it were you did you find that you were able to still do that did you see still see fruit as the band continue to grow for sure i i think at this point by time we got signed i think we had already been a band for like eight eight years and so we there was already a lot of growing process you know some of the stuff we had talked about but like i said in the beginning when we used to to play these bars with the two people in we were just we had this gang mentality where we went in there and we said like no one's going to tell me about my jesus this is my jesus and we came off very militant you know almost like we were ready to fight because because of the bands we were playing i think it was more the bands you know you'd have a nazi skinhead band that played after us or before us and it was like we were ready to fight you know no matter what and i'll never forget we're getting a letter from from this guy uh he was a local artist you know played coffee shops and a believer and at the time you know uh before email you know he had to actually write a letter he actually wrote a letter to us and it was the most beautiful just to the heart letter and it said man i i see what you guys are doing and and you're getting into places that i'll never get most believers will never get and he was like dude i love the passion i love the fire you know i love the zeal and he said if i can encourage you guys to just to let that love you know let love lead the way you know it's just he's like he's like you guys want to get invited back he's like you're being invited into places and i get it that he's like you guys are going there kind of burning it down a little bit you know and he was just almost like just just a spiritual father you know he just said man just love him just love him to the lord so at that point i in my heart i was i was good with them because then you wanted to see the fruits like you wanted to see you know those two guys from the bar come straight up to the stage and and fall on their face and give their life to the lord and confess jesus as a savior and that's that wasn't the thing i knew at that point i was like god if if you put us on a place and and we're just throwing out you know thousands hundreds of thousands millions of seeds i'm i'm content with that like i'm good with that i so do it in a way that was just dude just throwing out the seeds and let let god's people water it let god's people bring them in or let let god do it so again it was the more that heart like we weren't going to go in these places and then we just knew that we weren't going to burn it down anymore we were just going to be excellent they were going to know that that we believed in jesus and we loved them and that you know just again with the heart and mentality that they would invite us back we started you know building relationships and so when we went into the to the secular world and we got signed you know that first record you could see the transition still a little bit still a little bit kind of oh yeah no one's going to tell us we're or we're not denying nothing you know that you feel like you have to defend all the time and then the second album came with you know i mean that album did very well when it went platinum and then the second album you know you have songs like alive youth of the nation just more more universal we went in with the universal mentality that do we we want these songs we do want to play on radio we do want people around the world to hear them but the lyrics are undeniable they're going to know that we're talking about god we're talking about jesus you know it was already it was already we were open book about our faith so it wasn't like it was already known like you were spinning some some new thing no we didn't have to keep telling the same story it was like okay now what's next what's the next album how how do you guys move forward you know we do good did it close down doors for you did did the openness and the willingness to speak did you did you sac did you feel like there was a sacrifice in terms of the the career side of it the the opportunity side of it i i think so i mean whatever god ultimately god's in control but but i i think so i think it was just a learning process with us and how the church works and music um you know but but even when they would ask us like are you guys a christians i would ask what do you mean by that like if you're just trying to tell your readers hey these guys are christians they're lame they believe in god don't listen to him then i don't want i don't want to give in into that you know what i mean um so it was yeah it's just it's what it's what it is you know but we we knew that just moving forward god was in control of everything that was going on so you mentioned spiritual fathers a minute ago and i think one of the things that that has always impressed me about you and about pod is especially coming from a from a music industry business perspective as as an anr guy that was finding and signing and helping develop bands it was weird not only was it not normal it was weird to hear that a band had a pastor yeah it was like i was like dude where'd you get that guy you know like how in the world do you have a pastor yeah and of course now knowing guido i know that it's not actually not weird at all that it's a really beautiful thing but at what point did guido come into your lives and would you if you were to do it all over again is er and maybe giving your younger self advice now or anyone listening who's still got crazy dreams of their own um what would you say specifically relating to kind of like the spiritual father uh place with within uh a group or or uh an artist does that make sense yeah yeah for sure um i mean dude it's it's definitely accountability is needed i mean because you're by no means will we perfect we made a lot of mistakes and again you look back and say to your younger self guido didn't step in the picture until actually you you were saying then that was on that lincoln park tour that's the first time i met guido so we we had already been let me see actually it was before then i'm sorry it was right before then it was the last show that we played with marcos before we had our little split yeah um so i want to say around 2002 maybe but see but but the thing is when we would go and play these shows before we were assigned to atlantic records there were so many you know again spiritual fathers out there that would come to us and they'd say dude i get what you guys are doing man like you know it's like it's like we're like these i always say like this with people they always felt like i'm this assassin you know i'm this assassin from stage and you're just sniping people off one by one you know it's not this big revival you know what i'm saying it's not this yeah it's not this altar call it oddsfest it's not that it's just more individual but the guys that got it we had been we had been hit with so much resistance from from the church and people that it was like oh wow that's it was it was it was a bummer it was it was like damn this sucks same thing with the head all these guys what he went back to corn what you know all these bands there's all these questions and stuff and it's like dude let god be god and do what he's doing you know and but there were those people that would come out and say dude i dude i pray for you guys every day man i you know i want to be here while you guys are playing this show and just you know just pray for the crowd and there was there was people that got it and i do yeah we we tried to focus more on the five people that got it than the thousands that said you guys are not it's this is wrong you know what i'm saying so dude but again going back to back to accountability which which still for for me is even even to this day is still you know needed but the more that we got into that secular world and this is the crazy thing is we i think we went into it with the heart of saying okay cool we know what we believe god got us here you know this is we're on a mission right and this is not going to happen to us we're going to learn from other people's mistakes and then once you get there there's just so much more things coming at you that it's like from the most subtlest of things you know it's not this big you know enemy attack it's just the most little just worldly things little things here and there that get to you and then you know and not only that just all of a sudden we became rock stars you know right and i hate even saying that because i definitely don't define myself that in any way but when people treat you like rock stars and all these things dude you start to like enjoy the company start to enjoy the all the little yes men and all these things and even though your heart's right and you're doing stuff you know and before you know it for me personally that's when you just discovered dude i'm i'm so lukewarm in my walk with god this is crazy you know did you go from recognizing lukewarmness into the like a return to to zeal because that's something that's for anyone who's been listening to this podcast knows in my story i've been in a season of lukewarmness that's not it's more like it was like more like sin induced than it was just like yeah yeah like one day i just my my zeal for god kind of lessened it's like i i uh i finally came to terms with the fact that i've been addicted to pornography for most of my life and and i've always kind of like been like well it's really not that bad it just happens every now and again it's it's like it's like every man's battle i basically never actually confronted the recess of my heart and the inner world that i was um deliberately um sustaining uh uh on a even if it wasn't occasional but still it's like porn was occasional but lust and objectification and all the things that happened up here the the it was like very very frequent so yeah god's been doing a really cool work in in my heart and i'm so grateful and my marriage is being restored my family's being restored my it's crazy but i'm still kind of like dealing with this question of how how do i regain the fervor the fire the heat you know because i've been there yeah and i can't just make it happen i want it i don't know give me that you want it you want it i want to make it like do do you have the special like anointing oil of like making it happen because that's what i wish i wish bro i mean that's that's about that's kind of what happened was around 2009 um you know going into a whole nother season of music and just watching all the things that were happening around me that's when i was like dude i i need to take some time off and that's when the whosoevers was birthed and it was really just me you know i knew god's grace and his faith and i mean his you know his love for me and and i just didn't want to believe i was saved because i said this prayer so long ago you know it's like i i that excitement was kind of even though i'm we're at the top of our game that my spiritual excitement was just like i was going through the motions you know and it was just more of a slow compromise of things you know like hey well this is what you do in the business you gotta network you gotta be around these people you gotta you gotta play the game yeah before you know it it's like man i just started seeing people that were mighty men of you know to me were mighty men of god are strong in the faith you were just getting they were getting picked off one by one and so i came to a place where i was like dude i'm i didn't even ask for this i believe god you know gave this to me and dude music doesn't define me this band doesn't define me and that's when i just wanted to just get my heart right with god you know and that's when the whosoever's birth i was able to come home i took some time off of music but then here we are in this season i just got back from the whosoever's uh the last couple years i'm excited and i've been telling people dude i feel like i just found god for the first time so see i don't have the i don't have the the recipe it's just this season of action of being thrown in there and i think for me because of quarantine and covet and just going down the rabbit hole of what man is this the end of the world what's going on god what do we do you know my heart's still broken for all these young people and people in general that are lost without you and so to be a part of that it was really for me a stepping out of faith and and again i've i've been a christian for a long time but first something happened you know that that really it just became exciting again not that i haven't seen god work not that i haven't been a part you know been able to witness and be a part of things to see god do every story we're talking about is miracles to me but you know being out there with that heart to say just really that desire to step out in faith watch god move and i went to be a part of this but yet this whole time god was working in me saying dude i want to i want to stretch you i want to take you farther like look what just happened like just come on you know after all these years get get with it you know and i so i'm excited man yeah and i am i am too i mean i think for my uh for myself and my own story that it's like i didn't want the last two year season that i've lived through i never i never would have picked it had it been mine to choose i never would have gone through it had it been you know my own personal thing but now that i'm like coming coming out of it i can so i'm i'm so much more capable of seeing god's hand in it and how much he's been uh speaking to those places that i didn't even know needed a touch from him and uh and i think that's that maybe that that's one of the things that i hope god will do in the lives of anyone listening especially those who are struggling with their own faith and their own like what you just said even covet stuff like when what do i do with all this and then politics on top of it there right now there's seems like there's such a it's such a crazy season and um and and i hope and pray that one of the things god does is is just this this uh rekindling where it's like man i didn't i can't make it happen i don't want to force it but i want to stay open you know so that that was me bro but you know what you know what the the thing is i think your honesty and your vulnerability that's what the world needs man they're so busy or they're just so used to looking at a church that's perfect that that there they just they know that dude i'll never be there i could never do that god i'm way too sinful i'm way too ugly in my heart you know my soul that dude because of the image that we as the church have portrayed like oh dude we got all together you know we're so holy we're so righteous that you were pushing people away by the thousands and the thousands because they just don't get it that that dude we you know we should be we should we are a broken people but but by the grace of god we we restored we're restored people and people should know that people you should be honest to say dude i'm going through the craziest season of my life i've been a christian for a long time but dude god is faith i know god is good i know he's faithful he's going to get me out of it but so you know it's just people need to know that dude there's a they have a chance you know yeah yeah that's good one part of your one thing you said earlier that i i think relates to this is that when you're an artist you have this unique opportunity to speak to thousands of people especially when you reach a certain level and it's a challenge because you're able to do something on that level right but but you're there it's two hours maybe and then you're gone and you don't have continual access with those people and i think something that you're speaking to something that's reflected in your story my story chad's story is that this walk with jesus is daily it's dynamic and we have to continue to work it out i i think it's kind of like if you're married you don't just get married and you're done right like sweet like that's just you're so dumb in the beginning you have no idea how much work and how much you're gonna have to continue to fight so much yeah real and intimate it's like people think you know like what i often say is people think getting married like buying a house no getting married like buying the land now you spend 40 years building the house yeah you've done nothing yet you have no idea so but but the point is it's the same sort of thing and the problem is artists get put in this position where they're responsible to tell the truth but what they don't want is to give the impression that it's like just say yeah i'm in and now it's good right because our our lives reflect that man you gotta it's a long journey and you need grace and patience and like you said i mean you say the thing like i'm discovering god for the first time i think if you're not discovering god for the first time every few years you're not yeah all the time yeah right i i totally agree man and i i think you know we're talking about accountability or just just you know the the church being like-minded having you know one heart one mind one soul's like we need that you were saying like dude we you know you play a show and like you plant these seeds but then where do these people go to they need they we need to be on the same game plan so when these people are like dude i i'm feeling jesus move and i do i just want to go to church you know we need everybody needs to be on that page you know we we've done stuff even ministry stuff where some of these old school churches you know uh they knew that dude you know every every color hair and tattoos and piercings they're gonna come and they're gonna get saved but then these old school churches are like well well what church are they gonna go to after they get saved and it's like they're going to go to your church dude what are you talking about right right and they admitted like to being scared or being nervous about this this generation and it's like oh then you're not you don't trust in the the power of god to heal and restore and to change that you're just i don't know i don't know what you believe in you know your your church door should be welcoming dude every person every color every creed every from wherever walks of life who is broken and needs a place you know to go where someone can show them the love of god and if you're not on the same page then you know it's we're just we're just hitting the miss do you do you think that part of the problem just as we're talking here i'm just thinking it's do you think that what we've done is we've we've taken a christian artist and we've isolated them and and they say okay you go out there you know especially the ones like you that that had this anointing and calling to go outside of the church and then the church will you know and again this is not we love the church i am of course of it feels as if it's almost like go do it we're going to stand back here and if you're not preaching enough we're going to get you if you're look too much like the world we're going to get you and it's kind of like i almost feel like the problem is we need to be there together you said something that's brilliant right the church the band is one part of the body right the artist can uniquely express something in society can point out lies and communicate the truth in a powerful way but right there the church should be that the people that are good at talking to people one-on-one the disciplers the hospitals exactly you know what i mean so that we're not encouraging what's happening is the artist is just kind of going all right good luck and then they're surrounded by this world that's very polluting and challenging and i just think we're setting up artists to fail because we're putting too much on their shoulders rather than just letting them play the role that they're supposed to play in the body surrounded by other people with other gifts doing it together their their role exactly they need to play their role and and so does the people in our church but dude i'll never forget bro when when we signed and we started to you know make some headways i remember doing our first we flew in from somewhere on tour and we're doing our first real rock festival and marilyn manson was headlining and at the time he was the he was the devil right remember at that time just like alice cooper was the devil before and then christians were afraid of him and then he now he's saved right because because god's in in in all the details and god's god knows what he's doing but here's marilyn manson he was the devil himself you know he was gonna take all our kids to hell and so i remember we were flying in with all these bands that we're like oh man i can't believe we're playing with all these bands right and we get there we're driving to this to this outdoor venue and we see all the picket signs and we're like oh dude here he goes all the all the all the christians out there picketing marilyn manson right we're like oh this is gonna get crazy we get closer we get closer and all of a sudden they're picketing pod it was christians it was christians christians that were picketing pods saying these guys are not of god they're lambs and sheep's clothing they're uh uh or or wolves that she's called excuse me all these things and we were blown away it was like are you kidding me and our minds were like dude we you know assassins we just got into the you know the enemies camp here we are assassins and instead of praying for us or saying you know instead of saying dude this might not be world but dude or my world but i understand you know or do just come talk to us see our heart come test our hearts you know and see that dude god's got you in a place man i'm going to stand behind you and really really support you but the moment you fall off or you you have a a you know you struggle with something oh dude they'll be the first ones there to to pick you apart and criticize you and it's like dude what do you care where were you right you know and i spent so much time of my early years you know when i was just trying to discover god all of a sudden i quickly realized that dude i'm i'm not like most christians or or or they're telling me that i'm not like them and so maybe all we do have in common is christ crucified and to me that's still okay but we should still love each other we can still support each other and i i see that with a lot of our brothers and these bands that have gone out and they they've made it in the secular world and they were christians and now they say they're not christians and all this stuff and and and a lot of that i understand the hurt that comes from that pressure the people that are saying dude you guys you guys blew it or why don't you say jesus and you know a thousand times in each song or there's all these criticisms and then eventually you just give up you're like dude i'm so sick of trying to please you bro i'm just trying to i'm just trying to keep my head above water you know i sure wish you would just pray for me love me keep me accountable but walk with me you know and and so when they feel that way it's easy for them to give up and and so you know i i totally understand that but i also understand that when you when you stand before god it's those those excuses aren't going to matter you can't you can't point the finger you all do it's because you know christian joe over there and christian sally it's not going to work i get it and i believe you i believe you dude 100 i've been there but i'm you know we are accountable for ourselves and so but we need a platform we need a place to encourage those people and and say dude it's about dude we say this all the time but it never goes dude you could say it until you're blue in the face it is about jesus yeah it's not about the institution of church and christianity it's not about this religious thing or your past hang ups or the way you grew up dude it's about right now walking with jesus in this moment that dude that's that's what gets us more excited you know yeah and i think it's quite telling that that jesus spoke so much of unity and also reserved his most visible anger for christians or christians who are not getting it yeah right and again his anger was directed at pharisees i mean i i've you know we haven't i've been in situations and shows not with people not with lincoln park but we played some shows and we were in front of lots of people and seeing people come to jesus and being all these places i remember getting off stages and walking up and talking to some guy and he's from he introduced himself he's from the church and he says yeah you know i just really am bothered because you guys were using like satanic rifts you know there was like the music anyone like or like you were wearing like a lot of red so you know that's that's a bad color and um have you not seen what we've just done here there's like thousands of people who preach the gospel and all these people are touched and what you care about is the some weird hang up about a riff like i said what even is that so you're never gonna please you're never ever gonna please them the problem is is that that's the thing is it dude you can say you know what i don't even care you know it's like it's like reading a comment on your instagram i'll do whatever i don't even care but deep down inside you care it hurts it does dude so when so here you are and and you're in this band you're like dude they don't even know like i just prayed with this guy backstage or i just let this do to the lord or dude uh i've built relationship with with these guys in some of the biggest bands in the world that do they're open to the gospel and there's this there's this relationship being built and all that person is saying like why don't you say why don't you do an altar called auslis why didn't you why don't you do this why don't you do that it's like oh kick back like you don't even know what's going on behind the scenes like and so then i wonder like where's your where's your discernment like where's your faith in god like where it's just it's mind-blowing and do it and it will get to you and i think forever that made that made me it did it made me bitter and that was more of you know that wedge to where i became lukewarm was like you know i'm so tired of these christians again coming against me and not really knowing the whole picture you know and but dude i'll never forget even when the whosoever was was birthed you know god had to take those hang-ups and really just just destroy them you know and i i said this before you know where i really felt like god was in order for me to draw keep drawing closer to him he whispered in my heart he said dude take it easy on my church son i know i know like who are you telling i know this and they and i will judge them but you need to keep your heart on me and so dude i've i've been trying i mean dude we can have a venting session all day long you know and like you said i i love i i love the way you said hey dude we're not talking about the church we love them you know we are the church you always have to clarify that yeah because there's always like dude i spend more time being like bro to the christian like what's up dude can you get over it so we can go talk to this guy about the lord the world needs to get saved right and we're we do we're too busy arguing with each other like i don't have time for that and i you know i never really had time for that but it still it still bothered me you know yeah and i think i think that's that is something that i i would guess in the same way that you were you experienced luke warmness at least in some measure some degree because of those kind of experiences that uh there there are friends of mine from the the music world who i would guess if we if we were all able to be honest enough and found a space where we could really have this conversation and if we could really begin digging down i would guess that many of them have either walked away from god or or are currently struggling with god be all be like tying it back to a little thread of of offense um where somebody offended them for something and oftentimes in cases like this so um it's i guess like to to kind of like um shift gears a little bit um i wanna i wanna you guys you and ryan i know have just come back from another tour like right now everybody except for sean floyd is like staying in their houses and not doing anything public no no gatherings like nothing yeah and but then there's like the whosoever so it's like you guys have found this little niche that's not it's not like 10 000 people on the yeah downtown nashville court courthouse steps um it it's like still high schools and skate parks and different places around america where when i see evidence of of what god's doing it's still kind of like mind-boggling because it's like oh wait it's uh is this covet oh maybe it is maybe i don't know i can't remember what what year is this um but can you just share from from your heart what it is that that you see god doing and what that uh maybe maybe what that experience has been like for sure for sure and dude and i'm i'm guilty of that as well trust me i'm you know i don't thank god for covid but when they said dude you guys have to sit at home for two months lock down with your families i was like thank god you know i was like yeah dude i toured 13 months out of the year so for me that was that was you know and was a blessing in disguise for me personally you know but as time goes by you're like okay what's really going on this is getting too long i need to i need a tour i need to you know you don't tour you don't eat you know i mean you got to make money you got to do all these things come into play sure um you know and all those cares and worries and then so again if you i look back down and i'm like man i wish i could have did things so much different you know not that i i regret the time with my family and just doing nothing and being here yeah um but there's a lot of things i mean i wish i would just use that time to really i don't know just get closer to the lord you know but whatever god god knows what's up so that's what happened with the the whosoever's you know here we're from california and a lot of the the main focus is in the high schools and stuff like that and because of kovid we can't go in so ryan's been going out he started it he went down to mexico he started in idaho because a lot of times you know the rules are a little bit different um but then we just kind of shifted we're still doing high schools and stuff but the skate parks are wide open you know and the rules are a little bit um you know not as uh not as crazy just there's still people coming out um and so we were just he called me literally a few weeks ago and said dude we're going you want to come and i was just like dude i just i yes i need to i need to go and be a part of something beautiful i need i need to be i need for myself to see god move and know that you know i'm not trying to go down this rabbit hole of worries and doubts you know so it really was stepping in faith i didn't even look at the itinerary i knew we were doing skate parks youth uh detention centers um family homeless shelters rehabs all the things that started you know when we started the whole service that's kind of what we were at and if they were open to have us in you know obviously we followed the rules massed up and we went in and it was really just the most purest innocent love for people to just meet them again right where they're at but but for me this time was more stepping out in faith and watch god move like with more of an urgency you know it's not this throwing out seeds and then let god do it because of the situation of life we're in it's a little bit more urgency i feel for for us and it was just like dude okay we came here to love you we came to share the gospel with you we came to pray for you whatever is going on in your life uh healing demonic uh uh you know encounters just any struggle all these things and stepping out in faith i was like blown away and then it was like dude because they were experiencing this thing we were just like you want to receive jesus and they're like yes you know what i mean and so for me it was me stepping out of my comfort zone and you know because i'm a laid back kind of guy but but when these kids were there and they're saying man i you know we prayed for for things that are going down the broken homes and the anxieties the suicidal thoughts all these things but these kids were open for us to pray over them however we felt and then did i watch god heal people physically spiritually um just everything and then because of those seeing those things happen these kids were like dude i want what you guys have wow and so it was easy bro it was easy it wasn't just like okay i'll just go and i'll tell you i'm gonna pray for you and then you know i'll give you my prayer hand emojis and my texts and then and then and then and then i'm out you know it was more like i'm i'm talking guys if the next binging yeah yeah i'm talking about guys at the gas station guys at the diner it was like we just all of a sudden we came alive and it was like dude every moment we had if someone walked up to us to say hey what are you guys doing here well let me tell you man and it was like dude before you know we're walking out of you know a fast food joint a coffee shop and somebody's giving their life to the lord and dude i was i am still again trying to process it all it was mind-blowing but dude like you said you it makes you hungry like you want it again so dude what happened i'm going to florida next week with the hoosiers i'm supposed to be writing the pod album right now you know pause but i was on the album it's time to get time to go on tour dude i gotta i want to go where god is moving you know because it's exciting man yeah it is well i think something that that's so important about what you're saying is i think we one of the challenges you know i think of the western church i think of what jesus said when he talked about how hard it is for the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven and i think part of the problem is we have so much and for many people there isn't really they don't they need god but they don't need god if you know what i mean they don't need god in any real way they don't ever put themselves in positions where god is required i i'm firm believer that yeah if you're not saying this isn't going to go well unless god helps me we're not saying that a lot as a follower of jesus yeah i feel like you're not putting yourself in a position where you even require the presence of god right we need to be so right we need to be putting ourselves in positions where it's like god if you don't show up this is going to go really bad for me yeah and that's when you're that's when you go back to your bible and go man i i need this god i need this intimacy because i'm experiencing this real life stuff and and so i it's such a beautiful example of of how your faith isn't grown by more intellectual knowledge or by more activities but by getting out there and experiencing the the brokenness and then god's power intervening in the brokenness to him so so right on brother so many people have all the head knowledge from sitting in church for so long and that but their heart they have nothing in their heart their hearts there's nothing there there's no experience you know there's no action it's just man you you got you got me dude you quote you can quote more verses than me you got me that doesn't that doesn't mean anything you're not you're not being activated you're not doing anything and that's just it there there's some people that have so much but dude you don't you don't have to walk far down the street to find someone that has nothing and has nobody and has you know the stories that we encounter with these kids will just do they they're i thought though i knew the world was evil before i left but encountering these these hearts and these broken kids and the youth it's just one more reminder that it's even more evil than than i thought and it's so dude so many times i prayed that while while you know ryan or christina like all these people they would lay hands on somebody to to watch god move dude i'm talking from dude high as a kite strung out kids coming up and just just praying that even god would sober them like dude i'm sitting i'm sitting there praying with them like come on god like dude you're not a joke and i don't want to be a joke either you know i'm not we didn't we stepped out in faith to pray for this kid we want this kid to experience this dude the spirit touches life right now we want to see this kid say dude oh my gosh my dude my arm dude it feels so much better or i felt this peace in my heart and i'm so i'm literally just like you said praying like never before like god like this is not a joke you're not a joke god like do it this is the only way this kid is going to accept you right now is because he's going to experience sobriety like that he's going to experience this demonic force leave him like that he's going to experience all of a sudden dude i could barely i couldn't even breathe i couldn't even barely walk because of my skateboard accident i can't even skate all of a sudden by the time we leave the skate park he's skating around doing his stuff because we prayed over him and that kid is like again dude how do you feel dude i feel great you want to accept jesus yes repeat after me jesus jesus forgive me my sins forgive me myself these kids are doing it right then and there and i'm sitting there like oh my goodness this is not right i'm excited this is crazy lord like where have i been the last 30 years you know that's how that's how kind of how i felt was like and then now i'm rereading again through the book of acts and i'm like dude okay god you called us to do this man you said do it and so i'm like instead of being a skeptic i'll do it again i'm not weird man i'm i'm as i'm as non-weird as they come just because i know the weirdness it pushes people away and some sometimes you know me i'm just as real as they come but i'll but this excitement and it's genuine it's like dude i'm i'm watching god move man i'm saying you get on board like jump on board with me not not because i know it all but dude let's jump on board together let's watch god move right now i mean one of the one of the things to honor you bro that i i thought uh in preparation for this today was really really encouraging to my heart because i'm i've seen a lot of what you're describing and i've also seen a lot of the weird and and kind of like how how easily it can become a very uh seemingly fleshly kind of thing but i thought what was what was maybe most remarkable was one of your instagram posts was talking about like you were basically apologizing to the social world and everyone following you on social media that you hadn't communicated very well because you were just trying to stay present with the people in front of you and make them your priority and i think that any time that our hearts are are able to press pause on the demands of of social pressures around us just because we care enough about the person in front of us like i'd say at that point dude you're you're getting closer to jesus then you might think you know it's so true so that was really encouraging and i i i want to that definitely challenged me you know and it's like man i'm uh yeah i want i want more of that and yeah yeah thank you thank you for sharing thank you for what you're doing how how can we best be praying for you and our community be praying for you in in this season i mean like i said i'll be be right another pod record you know next year is very look you know if we can get back to work it looks very promising it's our 20th anniversary of our biggest record satellite yeah so a lot of people are excited um you know tours are lining up but again who knows when's the first oh sorry when's the what's the first confirmed event that pod has in 2021 like date wise do you know as of right now on the books is all the all our european um dates and festivals of 20 20 were basically everything was just pushed back to 21. so we'll take off in may um you know europe's a little bit more lenient right now as far as the rules go but who knows what's going to happen next march april you know so that's but i try not to get lost in that i just uh you know you kind of just do business uh like you're supposed to and if it happens it happens you know but um so but for now i mean that's going down we'll be obviously i think every band in the world is writing a new record right now because they have the time right you know that's seven space which is exciting for music next year um as far as the who servers go man um we really are just just keep just just keep praying for that god does it um i would love you know i would love to do this uh not full time but when god is done with music and or or that you know that community or whatever that chapter you want to move on to the next chapter you know what i mean but but dude i got to put my kids through college as well like i i never get paid for ministry in all my 30 years but now you're like well what if you go into full-time ministry like right what's gonna happen you know you gotta i hate putting money and ministry together but it's like you really do need those finances that say hey dude i i can go out and and do the things i believe god has called me to do while also being secure that dude my you know my rent's getting paid you know my my bills aren't i mean my lights aren't going to shut off you know my my kids are going to get an education you know yeah there's food on the table it's all those things come into play um and because the whosoevers i believe you are very radical people see people the outside world or christians see us and they think oh they're rock and roll guys or or maybe that's not of god or they have all the money in the world and they don't need my support it's like that's not true so because when we go to these skate parks and stuff dude we give away we we feed them you know we get we get a thousand pizzas you know we feed all the kids we we we supply you know we're giving them skateboards we're giving them clothes we're just everything that we can do to give it's give give give and then the moment you open up all those things in them that these guys are just giving they're not taking then we share the gospel with them and it's like dude i'm just going to tell you guys this one thing you know the reason why we were able to do this because people love you god loves you and they do they're more you know acceptable to it but yeah yeah just keep paying for the whole servers man if you go to our socials and the the website and stuff you can kind of see what's going on cool thanks ben can you can you close us out by praying for sonny and the whosoevers yeah that's great yeah lord i thank you so much for sonny i thank you for his life and his heart and his humility god and that the best is is yet to come lord that you are going to use him more powerfully in the future than you ever have in the past i really believe that god thank you for this awakening in his heart give him more deeper a deeper understanding of how much you love him how much you are for him lord let let him find that pure simple intimacy with you that is totally disconnected from anything he'll ever do that there's nothing there's no work that you need him to do to validate him as a person you love him already and and are so proud of him already and i pray that he would just feel that like he's never felt that before lord so that that it's house money from that point lord everything he does is just like it's it's cool lord it's just working with his dad lord reaching people loving people uh we thank you for this this brother in christ and we pray for just amazing amazing testimonies of power um be beyond this day lord god i pray that pod would have an amazing uh tour next summer lord let this covered nonsense go away or let the virus be broken in jesus name and let let the world not not everything go back to normal or the things that you want to go back to normal let them go back to normal otherwise let it be just a summer of spreading the gospel through art and music lord and and let peyote be part of that jesus thank you we just thank you for our brother and for the whosoevers and ryan and brian and everyone else and and just bless bless them all and uh let us continue to partner together for the gospel in jesus name amen amen thank you brothers appreciate you guys man thank you sonny that was uh that was awesome hey i'm always around for you guys man i love you guys thank you love you too well for those listening and watching and commenting there's been a lot of food comments uh apparently everyone knows you by the by the meals yeah that's crazy how many people are like i have candies with this guy no i'm telling you it's a struggle it's a struggle that's so funny man well that's good that's good well it could be worse so yeah all positive things all right guys thank you so much for listening watching this will come out in a few days we love you sunny we are praying that god uses you powerfully and for those listening we'll talk to you next time [Music] peace [Music] you

Channel: Provoke & Inspire

Views: 452

Rating: 4.8666668 out of 5

Keywords: persevering church, sonny sandoval, p. o. d., provoke and inspire, provoke & inspire, podcast, steiger, ben pierce

Id: BtKA1_FLUuU

Length: 58min 34sec (3514 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 14 2020