Real Talk Episode 603 // Interview with Ryan Ries of The Whosoevers movement

[Music] everybody welcome to realtalk the show where real faith meets real life I'm here today with my man from the whosoever's Ryan Reese what's up man how you doing brother welcome to the show I'm having a great time out here in Florida I'm glad you're here we got to talk because you have an amazing story of life change how God reached you like in from the depths yeah and brought you out and so two things I want you to tell us your story and then we're gonna talk about the movement okay yeah so um you know I grew up in Los Angeles California I was the son of a pastor you know mega church pastor and with those issues have grown up in the church I've always had this desire to see what's outside of the church I think a lot of church kids hold on we're gonna have to talk about that later cuz I've got four pastor's kids so I need some insider information yeah oh yeah they've told me recently that it's tough there's a lot that goes with that yeah I think that I like when you grow up people look at you like you have to be a certain way because oh look at your dad you know you know you should be this way but I didn't really care too much about those people I just always had a desire to go out and and be a part of the things of the the world as we refer to it as sins or the lust the I of the pride of life of lust of the flesh and just just drove into it at a very young age got exposed to pornography at a young age which now it's like the average age for a kid to get exposes six years old that's pretty much the goin number right now and it just started twisting my mind and affecting my mind and and got into high school got exposed to drugs and alcohol puttin out I think kids are getting exposed to drugs and alcohol like in middle school till I fifth grade everything's progressed you know just likes and it progresses and just got kicked out of school because I was never really into school I've always into being been into being creative and like I've always been like coordinated into sports skating surfing snowboarding stuff like that but then I got got exposed to the electronic scene when the rave scene first happened and I love the music obviously I was into hallucinogenics and stuff back then a lot and saw the art that was coming out of these places so I started going to school for graphic design and decided that I want to produce my own events because I've always liked bringing people together Tector so I've always been good at that so I figured I just start doing my own parties doing music festivals and got into that and then that led me to meeting a girl I met a stripper girl in a in a bar and basically fell in love with her we went through a lot of chaos a lot of heartache she aborted a kid then I got a pregnant with another baby which split into identical twins one died out from vanishing twin the other baby got aborted from her and she cheated on me with my worst enemy it that that really jacked me up and my heart was broken and I just got so pissed at God just hated God and I just remember going I hate you I want nothing to do with you how could you do this to me but I never even had a relationship with God so that's interesting because I think a lot of times we gods not part of the picture until we have pain and then somehow he's to blame for it yeah yeah I found myself in that same situation I was like how could you why would you and I mean at some point it's got to be up there scratch his head like wait I've been a part of your life yeah you systematically shut me out at every turn and now somehow I'm to blame for your choices I just I think that's compelling because I feel like that's a lot of people well also a lot of people believe that you know just because they're born in America they're Christians or their mom and dad goes to traditions or they go to church once a month they're Christians a Christian relationship is has to be led by the spirit it has to be like Jesus refers to it as a tree a good tree produces good fruit a bad tree produces bad fruit what is happening in your life what are you producing if you're caught up in sin 24 hours a day and there's been no transformation since you gave your life to God well then you're a bad tree so for me I was basically a rotten tree rotten fruit just dropping off and then I'm going God what are you doing to me when I brought it upon myself so during that time we got real bitter at God and maybe there's people watching the show now that are bitter at God you know and I just continue living this life to make success and just to make my mark in this world and I started managing a professional skateboarding for ten years working with some of the biggest rock hip hop bands on the planet and I'm not a festival right I love I launched a music festival called skate jam in 2009 it was 2000 it was like the first skate jam of its kind huge skate contests hands wu-tang and other bands and it was just sick and then started traveling the world living the dream and just surfing my brother had a timeshare in Taba yueer he would go there surf skate the most exclusive spots in the world and then just found this emptiness like nothing could get me nothing could fill that empty void in my life and finally after nine days of cocaine xanax and alcohol on a skateboard - or I just I I Oh deed and the ski team called my parents because they knew they were Christians and they called and said hey we're gonna lose your son in Panama so please uh you know we don't know what to do my parents to start praying and God literally brought me out of that and that's when I realized I had to change my life I was empty I was 32 I had everything I ever wanted and then I just called out to God and I just said God if you're real and your name is Jesus Christ prove that you're real to me and I just said forgive me for my sins and fill me with your Holy Spirit and how did you know to do that well because I grew up going to church and I've just I've just heard people vary yeah I just heard it around in my life so I just went back to my roots you know and I just so similar to my story that's why I'm like I remember when when it all came to bear and like the fruit of my choices finally my fruits fallen off the tree and I don't I mean I'm just at a loss yeah I finally looked up and I kind of did the same thing I was just facedown on the dirt and I'm like yeah I realized almost like verbatim the prodigal son you know I've ruined my life and maybe I could go back home and be a servant at my father's house yeah yeah prodigal son is definitely my story and I was just empty you know and life doesn't matter what you get you can have the house you get other cars you have the beautiful girl the big bank account but it's like there's a song more money more problems it's just like I believe that's Mo Money Mo Money mo problems just to correct an addiction there brother and basically uh you know the only thing that's gonna fill that empty void in your life is a relationship with the God of the universe and what it discovers Jesus isn't religious Jesus wants a relationship he wants you to talk to him he talks back you read the Bible you have the Holy Spirit in you the Bible is a spiritual book it comes alive and sharper than a two-edged sword when you eat it and you have a spirit in you the words start popping off do they jump out of that that's exactly I was 22 not 32 but yeah in a band and just out out of control and I realize okay I'm gonna open this book you know I I believed it when I was a kid and I've seen good things and Jesus is in here so I'm gonna find him start flipping through the pages and it's crazy how God literally speaks to you through his his word it's true and you know you could try to live this Christian walk without reading the Bible it's you're gonna go nowhere it's like the skaters like you skate I surf your Wemo skate surf if you don't know the tricks that people are doing and asked in the magazine or you watch the videos you know what's going on in the culture you're a poser in the same way as Christians I say I'm a Christian but I don't read the Bible I'm a poser I don't know what I believe so basically I gave my life to God I stole the Bible from the hotel I started reading it like I would read the Thrasher Magazine I read think the Gideons it was a Gideon Gideon bite okay they're cool with that then they call em oh they want you stealing Bibles they that's I am the on the post child for the Gideon's yeah they have allowed me to come speak at their conference and as he gave me free Bibles so it was worth it stealing that Bible best decision of my life and everybody out there right now contemplating should I steal this Bible to do it do it that's why they're for and you know what God you started changed my life it was a work of the Holy Spirit my life yeah you know the job of the Holy Spirit is to purge you destroy everything that's unholy in our life those things that are dragging us down our addiction or pornography the sin in our life that are just happiness the unforgiveness the jealousy the rage it's all in yeah all those things all those things that are just eating us up alive unforgiveness is huge so bitterness anger in this generation in xiety depression yeah you give it all to God and you read the Bible God since the Spirit starts working in you it says that the says the old things in your life will pass away and all things will become brand-new you become a new creation and it's a beautiful thing and I've been following Jesus pretty much ever since that moment okay so you you have the you pray yeah like come into my life if you're real you throw down yeah and did you what did you feel or experience Oh at that moment I didn't feel anything when I gave my life to Jesus but when I got on the plane I started reading the Bible okay no that's important because I think people have had that moment it's almost like a dairy I dare you and people are thinking okay if I say come into my life right now that somehow Jesus is gonna show up and it's gonna be like yeah choirs of angels and like oh wow I bless you my son yes yes and that didn't happen no I thought Jesus was gonna show up and be like my son Ryan and I've been waiting for you you dirty sinner well he didn't show up exactly I didn't have that moment but what's interesting I did later on have that moment a couple days later okay so I gave my life to Jesus I get the Bible I read it for six hours straight the Bible I land in Los Angeles and I feel peace so I'm reading the Bible which is the DNA of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is the DNA of holiness I'm reading it and I feel peace so that was the first effect of the Holy Spirit I go home I go to bed I wake up the next morning I hear the song singing through my head this is the day the Lord has made it's a small steel voice and God I know that Jam I knew that God was real it was a song that I heard when I was in Sunday school when I was I can i don't know Kinney garden or first grade so then God reveals himself to me three days later and then I knew God was real at that point and that that's the effects of the Holy Spirit sometimes you all give you a lot to Jesus and you'll encounter peace and love and joy instantly sometimes he'll reveal himself through the Word of God yeah sometimes he presses himself it lays stuff on your heart you can see so you can hear something audibly he can give you a dream I don't know God can do anything he created the heavens in the air yeah but a lot of times emotion yeah is involved yeah and I think his guys were afraid of that emotional experience you know I like maybe want to think things through but there are times where for me the Holy Spirit came on me and I just cried man yeah there was so much crap my wife says tears are bricks and we're constantly building walls around our heart and so God comes and he knocks down those walls and it it comes out as tears there was a lot of tears that have been shed in my life since I gave my life to God you know it is it's the work of the Spirit you just you'll you'll be listening to worship you'll be reading broken boom and then also you start crying and you I don't cry I'm a tough guy and I fight and stuff pretty sure both of us in church for crying last weekend we record as ice I saw the glasses in the wipe I was like I was streaming and you're wiping and I was like and we were just singing yeah but it was so powerful as God's presence tell me about your parents though because our pastor's son just had to come to Jesus moment so my parents what's interesting is they never judge me so here I am my dad would come over cuz we all wrote our leads together so he'd come over on Saturday as we go riding come in I have a handle of vodka in the fridge we have you know beers you know no food just like beer you know in vodka and my girlfriend's living with me and just you know cigarette butts in the hole you know just the scene and he never judged me and he would tell me they were still hung out with you yeah we hung out and then there would be like Jesus he hung out with sinners and there was this moment today were these little moments that jig that he would it would break through and he would say hey God has a plan for your life and I look at him and be like like God because I was deceived but then it was like there's no Holy Spirit moments like yeah God has a plan for your life and I'd be like in my mind God has a plan for my life like I got the life people dream of like I got everything I need God has a plan for my life but there was some there I knew there was truth behind it but I couldn't see the picture because physically I had everything that I needed but yet I was empty so then when you came back to Lord I mean my family the call dad moment my dad was the first one I called I said dude I gave my life to Jesus and this is what happened and he said that's God's voice and he revealed himself to you so I knew a God was real that's amazing dude yeah well listen I want to talk to you we're gonna take a quick break but I want to talk to you about what God's done through you what he did in his amazing the prodigal son story he does it all day long all over the world yeah and so you and me are just another version or iteration of His grace and goodness but then it's not just what he does in us it's what he does through us and like what God's doing through you and your ministry is mind-blowing so I can't wait to talk about it so hey thank you guys for tuning in we'll be right back with more time you hey welcome back everybody back with my man Ryan Reese from the 'whosoever movement which is amazing actually I want to show you guys a clip really quick so you have an understanding what it's all about students today face many more distractions and problems than ever before drug abuse depression broken families self-harm suicide are just a few of the issues they have to overcome a 15 year old living today gathers as much information in one day as a 15 year old would gather eighty years ago in one year 23 percent of male students in high school and 37 percent of female students in high school struggle with depression on our school tours we've encountered a sense of hopelessness because of the rise of suicide depression and anxiety the whosoever's mission is to deliver a message of truth of the gospel to the students and empower them to realize their true purpose in life dude that was amazing so that's I mean that's a glimpse of what you guys are doing literally all over the world right yeah we started out in Los Angeles start hitting the public school system because we were thinking like where are the kids act and how do we get in front of them and let them know that God loves them hmm like a prevention almost because you know there's jails that are full there's rehabs that are full but how do we get to the kids to prevent them from ending up in these situations so we started going to the middle schools and high schools and it just started like like Jesus says you know start in Judea and Samaria and then to the other parts of the world we started in our in our chewy dough Jerusalem's basically just right there in in Los Angeles and it just started expanding and now we've hit Australia we're going to Colombia we've been to Mexico City Toronto East Coast West Coast we've gone to I was even speaking to Boulder Boulder University not too long ago which is the second most liberal city in the United States and all kinds of kids came to the Lord dude it was awesome so yeah we're touring around and we're letting people know that God is love jesus loves sinners because a lot of kids you know 4 percent of kids in schools believe that God could be real or the Bible could possibly be real he--they ISM has doubled since the gens millenials and even what the Jonesy's so the majority of students in school never even heard the gospel they don't even know they weren't across and I go do you know what that stands for and they have no idea Jesus was on the Krauss Wow so the harvest is ripe is with two things because it's amazing yeah the impact you guys are having yeah one I got it we got to hear about the birth of the movement you how in the world do you get into these schools okay so basically the birth of the movement started ten years ago I left the skateboard industry and I was just praying to God in the garden go Sammy the actual garden I said God what would you do in my life you know I pretty much I was at a place where I've lived I've done everything I've ever wanted to do is I'm like whatever you want to do in my life I'll go except for Africa cuz you know it's too dry you know I need like concrete to skate but there's different parts of surface lady I've been south South Africa South Africa go to South Africa actually Durban ribs compromise with God yeah no I would say JB yeah honestly I asked him I said God I'll do whatever you want and it was a really a come-to-jesus moment I said I'll do whatever you want me to do and I said if you want to tell my story then have someone contact me and I got a phone call the next day from a pastor in Las Vegas saying he got my you heard that I got saved through friends of friends and he wanted me to come tell my testimony at his church and I was like literally I was like dude Jesus I was just joking like I did not you just prayed that the day before yeah I print the day before and the next day he answers a prayer and I was like oh like I meant it but I was like scared to see I was always scared of the stage or to be in front of people yeah so then I was like oh my god I'm gonna do it and I was told Sonny 4p OD I said come with me to Vegas when I get home because I'm gonna tell my story and he said I got your back so on that trip he told me he had a name of a movement he would like to start one day and be a movement of whosoever's the movement would be called the whosoever's it'd be a movement of whosoever's to lead the way to reflect Christ and culture and when he said whosoever is he says he travels all around the world in a band and he sees all these different types of Christians and Christianity is different all these different parts of the world the way they do church right and he says we need to start a movement where we can all come together just under the whosoever umbrella whosoever believeth whosoever believeth and not worry about all these minor theological things so theological issues aren't the main issue that we need to deal with when we're trying to reach people for Christ it all comes down to the cross the most important thing all said that is the cross what s says I pitched across Jesus Christ crucified we need to reach this generation we got to stop dividing the church and dividing everyone because they do it a certain way I have friends from all different walks of Christianity and they are filled with the spirit and they're reaching people and I want to see a movement of whosoever's coming together uniting around the world to reach as many people for Jesus because at the end of the day whatever differences we have when we're chilling and having together we can argue and work it all out there and I doubt we're gonna be doing that we're in heaven I mean we have eternity how do we do if maybe if you're really that but her don't want to do that and there might be one one small group in heaven that wants to talk doctrine yeah you know what how did you get here well I believe it's I was saved and then I did the right things okay well I would say by grace I believe in every single word of the Bible just like it says in Revelations whoever adds or takes away will be cursed I believe in every word it's inerrant it's the Word of God and that's what I stand on and Jesus Christ crucified my mission is the Great Commission I'm here to reach as many people as possible and I want to get them plugged into churches where they go through the Bible and they can grow and in their relationship and they can have that work of the Spirit and God could use them to live out their Great Commission I mean that's great and and I think there is such a need for us institutional Christianity sort of took over America really the world and then we all have to have our own brand we have to define it our own way and we all have to in like you said then I've got to point out how I'm doing it this way because they do it wrong and I think we've kind of given Jesus a black eye in that pursuit sometimes and each other we've wounded each other quite a bit and when we can just raise the banner of Christ and keep the main thing the main thing keep it simple people are coming 100 percent the institution I'd like to talk about that is you know I was meeting with the the director of the Billy Graham Association and I was telling him like man I'm so tired of the church man we got to go out and reach people this thing he goes Ryan you're not tired of do not mad at the church I said I'm mad at the church he goes no you're mad at the institution you're mad at the institution because you're out living out the the book of Acts and you're reaching people you're praying for people in your scene lights transformed and you come home and and everyone's stuck in this in this rut of like being a part of these well we do it like this because it's always been done like that that's that's like the institution and you could become institutionalized and Tuohy forget why we're here on this planet is that's to reach people who is the model Jesus Christ what did Jesus do then he commissioned the Apostles they went out they lived exactly what Jesus showed them to do that's the model that's how we have to live and we had to live from every single word of the Bible which is inerrant and that's how we need to live our life you had this group of you Sonny yeah I know my friend Brian Welch from corn yeah mutual friend yeah he was part of that yes that initial movement of hey we're different we don't look like the cookie cutter growing up in a church teaching Sunday school kids and God reached us and so we want to use our story for you guys to be reached lacy mm-hmm Lacey Sturm from was the birthday from Lacey Sturm from Flyleaf when it first started when I ended up going to Israel I mean when I went to Vegas I went out with Sonny and he ended up calling head Brian head watched a fly-in I called Lacey and we all met up together and instead of me telling my testimony we ended up all going up on stage and sharing the stage and that was naturally the birth of the whosoever's movement before the whosoever's even existed so cool so tell me this then how are you getting in these schools people asked me that all the time yeah I say my friend Brian and his team they go out into schools all over the world really because with all the heat in the separation church state all that stuff talk to me about some strategy so basically it's very simple you know Christians don't believe that we could even get into the schools and preach we can it's legal every district is allowed to have Christian clubs just like that the Church of Satan has their club the LGBT community has theirs the Christians have their clubs so there's several all you have to do is have a student started up with a teacher and then we go in through the Bible Club and we host the event depending on what city or state we're in Texas you could do assemblies for the whole school different Tennessee you can but Bible Belt Bible Belt but if you're like in LA where I matter or in Florida you have to go in and do lunchtime assemblies inside of the gymnasium and as students wall in by choice they're there they walk into the room and then we can share the gospel because it's a club nice it's very simple okay and it's not just schools though because God's got you going into all kinds of places where else uh we got why just got done doing I'm going into the juvenile facilities here in Florida we went to the Supermax the man and the women that's amazing everyone I mean the whole facility gave their life to Jesus they they said the prayer they said Jesus forgive me and we ask that God would fill them and it was creepy they were crying they God showed up basically it was awesome like we were talking about and then we go into middle schools we go to high schools colleges universities pretty much anywhere I could get in front of students I tour churches we and we tool all over the world so I had a question recently I was hanging out with a group of young adults about 50 and they asked me to speak and instead of speaking I said can I just do Q&A and so the first question was hey do you think our generation has it harder than your generation and and my answer was absolutely I think it's not even close and maybe they'll say well you know it's the same as it was I think it's way harder today I'm what do you think about that because it seems like the spiritual warfare what's against this generation from the electronics the tech the iPhone all the way just the level of perversion and confusion I mean is that what you're seeing yes well think about when we were growing up if we wanted to sin or get into some trouble we'd have to go out and learn about it we have to find pornography we had to go on a mission you couldn't buy it right when you were younger no I need it I mean it was like your one friend had his grandfather's playing cards that had drawn pictures of a woman's chest and you were like yes I can't believe I saw this now now we often on our phones on our fingertips we have the most hardcore stuff you could ever imagine violent to be CIA everything is at our fingertips immediate yeah immediate and no consequence yeah we do consequence you watch it and people are watching this stuff and they're learning how to send you could get on social media and you can follow a couple people and they're gonna show you how to smoke weed a million different ways that you even even know how to do these drugs yeah or or even introduce new drugs literally it's this soul will either edify bless your soul or evil curse your soul there's no in-between with this device so the spiritual warfare this generation is facing is significant it's like huge we don't know how many more laps we're going around the Sun but we know we're in the last days right I mean that that's Paul said that anyway so thousand years I met with a sheriff and he says the way we talk about electronics he's like would you ever take your daughter or your son and take him to a house party with all these strangers you don't know who it is and they're eight nine six years old and you drop them off and they go into the house and they lock the door well that's that's the phone if you can't see what's on your kid's phone this kid's six years olds going there he's in there with the pedophiles with the pornography with all the different things that are happening and we're just letting our kids driving to this device and locking the door behind us and not allowing us to see what's going on our phones that's that is crazy okay and we we got a pretty much come to a close I want you to encourage us with how we can as parents as adults as people watching the show how we can be a part of the solution the solution is simple we need to live out the Great Commission that God's called us to do we need to be in the word read the Bible be filled with the spirit and and and send out basically we need to Commission people to go out and reach people their harvest is ripe you can go talk to kids on the street anywhere these kids this generation knows they're sinners and they're looking for the remission of sins they're looking for forgiveness and they're looking in freedom for eternal life yeah freedom they want to be free but they don't know how to do it because they don't know who Jesus is so it's awesome times for us to be living actually but we the church needs to be the church and we got to get into the word rely on the holy s--t go out trust got in and go what did Jesus say go out and make disciples of the nation's baptized in my name and Father Son and Holy Spirit and teach them to obey my Commandments obedience obedience to the Cross boom punk rock preacher just laid it down thanks for closing us out thank you guys for tuning in to real talk keep it real and remember God is crazy about you I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Real Talk

Views: 1,475

Rating: 4.9436622 out of 5

Keywords: ryan ries, the whosoevers, the whosoever, ryan ries testimony, whosoever, ryan ries live, ryan ries interview, raul ries, ryan reese, whosoevers, brian head welch, real life, whosoevers movement, garden of gethsemane, real life christian church, the, real truth, kill the noise, talk show, ryan reis, brian welch, ryan reyce, testimony, sharon ries, the word, christianity, jesus in the old testament, korn, understand the times, proof of jesus

Id: U4Jq5m5vX34

Length: 27min 32sec (1652 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 05 2020