#306 Bryce Crawford - Gen Z Evangelist on the Vices Destroying Your Life

25:50You're getting busy. We're going to try out your new energy drink here in a minute. You're the first person outside of our team that's tried it. Really? You are. Right on, man. So what is success to you? Because shit gets complicated the bigger you get. You know, it does. I'm right there with you. Noise doesn't impress me. This does not impress me. People talk a lot. And you know, I've been a Christian for a little over five years now. I've been doing our ministry. This is going on our third year, but I've been a Christian longer than we've done it. And I've seen some dirty aspects about ministry.

26:28I've seen some things that have hurt me, some things that have rubbed me the wrong way, some things that made me question the motives of certain people. But true to success, there's no dollar amount that deems success. There's no following. And that's the deception of the world. People think that success is, oh, well, if I don't have a big enough podcast as Sean Ryan, and that's not what it means to have a podcast, I'm not successful. Or, oh, if I'm not as rich as Mark Zuckerberg, oh man, then I'm really losing it. Is that really what success looks like? I heard a quote from a pastor in Nashville.

27:04His name is Lyle Phillips. He says, we don't pray for fame, we steward influence. God has given every individual a level of influence. And that's why it's important for us to reflect on our gifts and use our gifts for the glory of God. You know, before I was a believer, I was fascinated with writing. I would take these college writing classes, these essay classes. Like, I just loved trying to take complicated ideas and complicated subjects and making them a simple way for people to understand. And when I became a believer, God has allowed me to use that gift, but now for His glory. Instead of talking about myself and benefiting off myself, I talk about Jesus and reach people in that way.

27:41And, you know, I don't know why. Still to this day, I wonder, God, why are we reaching the people that we do? Why? I don't understand. It's only the grace of God that God's allowed us to do that. It's the grace of God that God's allowed you to do what you do. And so in this moment, I think, man, Sean, like God trusts you. No, you've been faithful with little, so God can trust you with much. God really trusts you. And there's seasons of your life that no one has seen. No one's known the junk that you've been through, the long nights, the early mornings, not just being a husband and a father, but being a business owner, being a man, being a friend, serving our country, no one knows half the crap that you've been through.

28:19And you've been faithful with what God's given you. So God trusts you. You know, with all this, I mean, this was, you'll find this too when you have kids and probably find it already now that you're married. But, you know, all this takes away from that. Yeah. And it's a tough, tough thing to balance. and you're constantly wondering if you're doing the right thing. Absolutely. Do you have any idea how you're going to balance that? I mean, I know you want to start. You're busy. You're going all over the place, and I know you want to start speaking at schools, universities. Yep. And we'll get into that later, but have you thought about how you will balance all this when your kids arrive?

29:00Oh, man. It's tough. The Bible says the man that neglects his family is worse than the unbeliever. How does it say that? It says it in the New Testament. And man, I would hate, hate to have a successful ministry and come home and have a failing marriage and a bad relationship with my kids. People get swallowed up by this thing called the ministry monster, or let's call it the business monster to make it accessible to not just people confined to Christianity, like the business monster, the success monster, right? Success is more and more and more. That's not the case. And so, you know, making a decision for the glory of God, right?

29:41Because that's what it ultimately is. Like, if I'm a Christian and I want to submit myself to Jesus, I want to make a decision for the glory of God. And making a decision for the glory of God looks like setting yourself up best spiritually. You know, so if you're making decisions that are robbing you from spiritual intimacy with Jesus, it's keeping you dry from your family. Like, your first ministry, Sean, is your family. That's your first duty. And now that I'm married, like the Bible says in Ephesians 4, that my duty as a husband is to lay my life down for my wife, just as Christ has loved the church, us.

30:13And so I had to be ready to die for Maddie. I had to be ready to lay my life down for her. And to think that I'm going to sacrifice her for people or success. Don't get me wrong, I love people. But for the sake of this first ministry, absolutely not. And so really, it's just looking like making decisions that set me up best spiritually. And those are things right now that we've prayed into. You know, this decision to go on the college campuses is something that I felt like God spoke to us about. And when Maddie and I met, it was months before we had started the ministry. And still to this day, like I desire to get a flip phone and throw my iPhone off of a cliff and go live in the middle of Kansas or in the middle of nowhere if I could.

30:57See, that's what I'm getting. That's what I think about, you know, and so when you're talking about success and you're talking about these trivial things like trying to build wealth, trying to build a following, you know, I mean, even that becomes a balance because, yeah, you can say, I could say, yeah, I work my ass off and I definitely spend more time at work than I do at home. I think that's true for just about anybody who is a provider, right? But the more that you can bring home, the better life your family could live. You know, you can live in a better neighborhood, better education, better everything except time.

31:48And so on the other hand, you could move out into the middle of Kansas and the middle of the woods. You know what I mean? and have a very low cost of living and raise your kids and spend all that time with your kids. Does that set them up for their future? I don't know. Yeah. You know what I mean? And so it's like this dichotomy of what is the balance? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for example, like wealth, right? The Bible doesn't say money is inherently simple. It says that the love of money is wrong, right? Money is amoral. It has no feelings or emotions. Now, that's why in Luke 18, I think it's so interesting because the rich man, he's like, oh, Jesus, how do I inherit eternal life?

32:31And if you read the scriptures, he's like kind of puffing his chest because he's like, I already know the answer, but I'm just asking to ask. And Jesus is like, well, you know, love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. He's like, yeah, yeah, I get it. Tell me something I don't know. And Jesus is like, okay, well, then sell everything you have and then follow me. It says that the man got very sad because he loved his money more than he loved God. And I think that's the diagnosis that we have to make, not just with money, with anything. When something matters more than what matters most, it's an idol.

33:02Relationships can be an idol. When you try to find your fulfillment in your partner rather than Jesus, and you're going to put God expectations on a limited, finite human being that can't handle God expectations because they're not God. And so when it comes to like navigating success, like it's not wrong to have goals. That's why I love Aroussan's godly ambition. Like ambition is not inherently wrong. That's why the Sabbath was created. We need to rest. We need rhythms of rest. I don't want to get to heaven well-rested. I don't want to be lazy. There's two opposite extremes. It's like we either work seven days a week or we don't work at all.

33:34And laziness and procrastination is just as bad as overworking. And it's this weird balance. I'm right there. And, you know, to be honest, I don't even have like a full answer. It's like, where do you draw the line? Do you only do 40 hours a week? Do you only make this amount of money a year? Do you do this? Do you do that? And I'm going to be honest, I don't think the Bible is actually necessarily making a specific truth claim about a certain salary amount, a certain work hours, or anything. But God has trusted us with family, friends, businesses for a reason. And so that's why we need to pray and ask God, like, God, what do you want me to do?

34:08How do you want me to navigate this situation and move off of the peace of the Lord? Because even in the midst of chaos, He gives us peace. Now, like a practical thing I'm thinking about, I read this book called Leadership. by a man named Brian Tracy. And essentially from the business perspective, he says, he would say like, hey, Sean, think about the only thing that you could do for the rest of your life that would benefit the business the most, what would it be? And you just think of it right in your brain. Like you probably think of it right now. You're like, if I did this thing, that would benefit the business the most if this was the only thing I did.

34:39And he says, okay, all right, think of another thing, a second thing. If you could only do that thing and one other thing for the rest of your life that would benefit the business, what would it be? Okay, great. And then he does it one more time. If you could think of a third thing, so you have three things, the first two things and another one that would benefit the business most, what would it be? He says, okay, after those three things, delegate the rest. And I've applied that to many different things in my own life, business, family, friends, like what three things when it comes to ministry, like what is Bryce's job that's not going to allow him to burn out?

35:13And I think that's a good question. Like what What is burnout? Burnout happens when you put the wrong fuel in an engine or an engine does something it's not designed to do. An apple tree doesn't have to try to grow apples. It naturally bears fruit. As a Christian, we will naturally bear fruit. As a good leader, you will naturally bear fruit. And that's why I think when it comes to everything, that's why I think the Bible is so important. We have to keep pointing back to that because it's this transcendent piece of literature that has impacted generations before us today and the future. I mean, that's what that picture is up there, that rainbow picture.

35:47All the cross references and... 62-something thousand times. Is that not wild? It's wild. Crazy. So, you know, I think it's interesting that we're always in this dynamic, but I think ultimately, you know, I constantly have to, at the end of the day, you know, your wife, my wife, we have to count the cost sometimes. Do you feel anointed in what you're doing? We had this, we went to, I don't go to church. We talk a lot about it at home. I just don't like going to church. And because I've gone to a couple where it didn't feel like, whatever. Sure. I felt like I was kind of used as exposure to grow the church.

36:36And that made me feel very uncomfortable because it's not what this is about. This is about Christ, right? Absolutely. And that kind of didn't turn me off from Christ or anything like that. I was like, maybe this just isn't for me. And so we brought it home. And then last weekend, we had dinner with a couple that we've been friends with for a long time. And they said they had tried a new church. And my wife wanted to go. amazing i was like all right well they said it's super small so we were like all right we'll try it and we went you know it was great great message very small wasn't even in a church it was in like part of an office building it almost seemed like some kind of underground thing i was like but it was cool yeah and um and they were talking about john the baptist was the first prophet after the 400 years of silence yep and uh and they were talking about being anointed and and anyways this led to a conversation this morning and uh my wife asked me if she feels like i'm i she she asked me if i feel like i've been anointed to do some of the things that i'm doing and i said i think so but and she asked what it felt like and i i said i i mean you never really know i was like i don't i don't i said it's not a good feeling i can tell you that it's not a good feeling i i feel like i've made a trade um and where i'm going with this is my my yes i I think I'm supposed to be doing exactly what I'm doing right now.

38:22More in particular, I think because I'm a new Christian, I don't really have fear of questions. I ask a lot of questions that a lot of people fear to ask out of embarrassment or whatever it may be. And I think that helps grow Christianity and faith in Christ. The other thing is the kids, protecting the kids. and we've done some super dark interviews we get people try to sue us all the time got another letter this morning about this thing going on in canica camp canica whatever anyways i told we're calling out some really big institutions and and and a lot of evil and that can be dangerous and um you know i've had a higher security and she was she was asking me what i thought about you know how it felt and i said i don't it doesn't feel good it's it's it's more of like a burden that's a duty that i feel than than a good thing and in and that what i mean by the trade-off is in my mind i have these conversations uh with god and it's oh shit you put another one of these on my plate and you want me to do this and i'm gonna do it but i need you to protect me and my family and when that stops this stops i don't even know if that's the right conversation to be having or not but that's how i feel yeah i'm wondering if you feel any wow anything like that i love what you're doing and i think that's what God wants.

40:07God wants honesty. Your random question, like, did you always feel like enjoying it when you were serving our country? No. You know? I mean, there were some moments you were like, man, like, I love that I'm doing this. Oh, yeah. I'm not serving our country, but, like, there's moments that you knew that you had a responsibility serving people that you're never going to meet. Mm-hmm. Say, hey, I'm going to stand in the face of suffering and in the face of trial and stand for truth in the face of evil.

40:37All right, so I've always thought learning a new language was one of those things that sounds great in theory, but then you sit down and it just feels overwhelming. And the reality is most people quit, but that's where Babbel is different. Babbel is built for real-world use, not just memorizing random words. And what I like is that it's practical. You're learning how to actually have conversations, whether that's ordering food, traveling, or just connecting with people. It's all designed by real language experts, so it's not just some gamified app. It actually works. The lessons are short, too, so you can fit them into your day.

41:16Just 10 minutes, and you're making progress. You can actually feel, and you can learn however you want, whether that's listening, speaking, or going through lessons at your own pace. And for me, Babbel really helped me and my team communicate when we traveled internationally for interviews. Here's a special, limited-time deal for our listeners. Right now, get up to 60 % off your Babbel subscription at babbel.com forward slash SRS. Get up to 60 % off at babbel.com forward slash SRS. Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com forward slash SRS. Rules and restrictions may apply.

42:02Welcome to Hollywood vs. Reality. Did I do it? Right?

42:09What does he do in the movies? Tell me if I'm doing this wrong, because I don't watch it. Little flick like that, right? Seems pretty cool. It is pretty cool. Gotta silence it.

42:26In another lifetime, I did gun reviews for a living. Proprietary magazines, supposedly the best engineering in the world. When that breaks, you're f***ing f***ing f***ing. And now we're bringing them back.

42:45It does look pretty f***ing cool. I gotta admit that.

42:53And what we're doing, like the term anointed, like I laugh that like as I hear it a lot in the Christian space, like to be honest, I don't even know what that means. Like, you know, what do you, you know, what do you, what do you mean? Like, I just feel like I'm walking out a responsibility. What I mean, and I don't even, I don't really know the definition. Like I said, I'm a baby Christian, but I feel, I mean, to me, it means I know it's more than this, but it's finding, it is maybe it's not more than this it's finding your exact purpose this is what you are here to do buddy and it's not going to be easy it's going to be hard but this is what i want you to do yeah that's that's what i think it means what do you think it means i mean i think god has given you a unique gift and a and a special burden to stand against evil that's why you do the things that you do.

43:47God has given you a gift of conversation and care for people to search out the truth. And I think that's why you found Christ because he claims to be the truth. God's given you this unique gift. I just talked about it last night at one of our tour stops, Matthew 25. It talks about the parable of the talents. God gives five talents to one guy, two talents to one guy, and one to another guy. And essentially the two first guys, the guy with five and the guy with two, they go multiply it. But the last guy, he was so afraid, he went and dug it up, dug up a hole in the ground and hit his talent. And so then when the money master came, the first two, they were ready.

44:23They were prepared. They persevered through hard times, but they were ready. They said, hey, master, you gave me the five talents. I multiplied it. Here you go. And he said, well done, my good and faithful servant. Experience this joy. Second guy, you didn't give me as much as the first guy, but I was able to multiply it. And he says, well done, my good and faithful servant. Go experience this joy. And the last guy says, oh man, you're a really hard and tough guy and kind of scary. And you sow where people don't sow and reap where people don't reap. And so to be honest, I just went and hid it in the ground because I knew you were coming back and I was a little afraid and I was a little nervous, but here's what was yours.

45:01And the moneylender gets mad at the man and casts him out into the darkness. This parable essentially is saying, hey, God has given every human being unique gifts and talents. Sean, I don't covet your gifts. I'm not jealous of your gifts, partially because you have to deal with a lot of crap that I don't have to deal with, and I'm grateful. But also, you were built for this. God designed you uniquely and knows that he can trust you with it, that you can handle it. There's things that God can trust you with that he can't trust me with, and that doesn't make me jealous as a brother, that makes me grateful for a guy like you.

45:34There's things that God can trust me with that maybe he can't trust you with, and that should make you grateful for me. There's things that God can trust other people with that he can't trust us with, and that should make us grateful for them. And so God has given you unique gifts and talents, and you're walking it out. And you said to yourself, that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. And knowing that it's going to be hard doesn't make it any better. But even when suffering comes and trial comes, and it's, you know, again, we keep pointing back to Jesus, but we have to. You know, he was spit on, mocked, chased after.

46:04One Sunday, they're celebrating him. The following week, the same people that were laying palm leaves at his feet were saying, crucify the man that has only healed people and release the prisoner that's a rapist, a thug, and a murderer. Release that guy. The same people. And so, you know, I fully don't know why God has allowed you and trusted you with these things. But in the grand scheme of things, imagine standing before the Lord in heaven. He's It's like, man, look at all these people that have been impacted because you endured. And the final thing I'll say to you is Paul says that his greatest accomplishment, you know, we talked about him earlier, one of the most impactful Christians in all of human history.

46:43He says his greatest achievement was not writing most of the New Testament, was not what happened to him when he used to kill Christians and then he became one. He said his greatest achievement is that he fought the good fight, he kept the faith, and he finished the race. And I think we need to hold on to that a lot. What do you feel? Do you feel anointed? Do you feel like you're doing what you're supposed to be doing? I mean, I feel I'm confident I'm walking out what God has called me to do, but I agree with you. It doesn't make it easy. Like, I wouldn't wish on any man some of the stuff that we have to go through.

47:20How do you know? How do I know that I'm walking it out? How do you know you're doing what you're supposed to be doing? Well, I think a couple of things. Number one, I just reflected on the gifts God has given me, and I've attempted to just use them for his glory. I think that's a good marker for anyone that wants to figure out what am I supposed to do with God? There's a famous quote that says, if you want to know God's will for your life, read the Bible out loud. And that's like a practical thing of what it means to be a Christian. But the specific things that we do for the Lord, reflect on your life.

47:48Just because you become a Christian, every Christian doesn't have to become a pastor. We need Christians in the business world. We need Christians at the gym. We need Christian waiters and waitresses. So I was just reflecting on the gifts that I felt like God had given me to use them for his glory. But second thing is I just move off of the peace of God. God, do you give me peace in this situation? And here's the beautiful thing, Sean. It's like, let's say that you make a decision thinking that you're doing it for the glory of God, and it's not, there's grace. See, I was going to go there afterwards, but yeah, in that book that Jesus Calling, there was one a couple days ago that said that something along the lines of a lot of people will say they're doing things in my name and they're not yep and i think it may have even said that they don't even realize that they're not and then that made me think well maybe i'm maybe i'm totally off the mark i probably am you know that why you know that makes you different though because the people that are that think that they're doing things for god and are they're not asking themselves that question.

48:54They're not. And that's what makes you different. I mean, read Matthew 7. Well, Jesus, I mean, we prophesied in your name. We were casting demons out of your name. We were healing the sick in your name. And he says, depart from me. I never knew you. It's not that those things were bad. They just weren't following Jesus. And that's fascinating. Like the people that are doing those things not for God, they're not asking the question that you do because you actually care because it's bigger than the things that you do you care about relationship with jesus that's what makes you different well thank you yeah absolutely i'm grateful for you well let's do i'm grateful for you too thank you let's let's get into your life story but first before we do that let's pray Let's do it.

49:42You want to lead it? I would love to. All right, my man. Jesus, we just thank you so much, God, for today. Lord, thank you for Sean and everything that you're doing in his life and moving in his heart. Lord Jesus, would you continue to just bless his family, bless his team, bless this show. God, thank you for the ways that you're using Sean to reach people. God, I pray that you bless this episode, that every word spoken between me and Sean would just be for your glory, point people to you. God, thank you for this day. Thanks for waking us up. Thanks for the weather. thanks for putting breath inside of our lungs and lord we just invite you into this space the scriptures say where two or more are gathered you are here so lord jesus we thank you for being with us it's in your name we pray amen amen thank you yeah absolutely all right couple things here before we get going uh-oh one everybody gets a gift vigilance league gummy bears legal legal in all 50 states let's go until 2027 when they outlaw red die so thank you yeah you're welcome you're welcome snack on these throughout hit it i love it well i have something for you i got two things for you well here's one of them so what all right so tell me about this praise energy you're the first person outside of our team to try it um we wanted to make an energy drink that is a cleaner option that can honor god with your body so that's a that's a Our samples come in the glass bottles.

51:04Nice. And it's made with monk fruit, stevia, and organic cane sugar. It only has 100 milligrams of caffeine. And it has less than half of the amount of ingredients that some of your popular energy drinks on the market have. Right on, man. So you don't have to be intimidated by the ingredient unless you can know what you're putting in your body. All right, taste test. Let's see it.

51:31Dude, that does taste like Skittles. Do you like it? I do like it. Let's go. I do like it. Smells like Skittles. Tastes like Skittles. There you go. Is this the final blend? That's the final blend. When's this releasing? So, well, we were about to begin production, but we were trying to battle the sucralose battle because sucralose, the artificial sweetener, is 200 times more sweeter than your natural sweeteners. but there's so many studies out there that it messes with your gut health and it was a really big thing for me to like keep our mission pure and make sure that like the products that we were put in were a cleaner option and were the best that we could do to honor god with your body so nice it's the final blend it's in production as we speak and so we're we're excited i love it congratulations no thank you so much that's awesome i appreciate that what are these these are our electrolytes so we got okay two flavors in there and if you want some throughout the show i'm a big electrolyte guy i love to have electrolytes and so um we have a punch and a line pretty great i'll try one on the break thank you absolutely yeah well i got something for you i got two things for you right on man number one i got a matching t-shirt for you oh dude awesome and i washed it for you so it's nice and clean there you go i hate satan shirt perfect thank you but uh Outside of the shirt, I got something that means a lot to me that I wear on my backpack.

53:03I like patches on my backpack. Right on. And I've had this patch for a while. This patch has been into some dark areas. I've been into the satanic temple with this thing. I've been in different areas trying to be a light. And it has John 15, 13 on it. It says, greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Oh, man. And you've done that for our country, and you've done that in many other ways. So I thank you. And I wanted to give you that. Yeah, absolutely.

53:34This is getting framed. Let's go. Put it in the studio. I love it. Thank you. It's got some wear and tear on it. It does, dude. It's been through some dark areas. Satanic temple, what the hell is that? Yeah, it's real. And it's in Salem, Massachusetts. So it's pretty... It's more of just like a political activist group, really. Hold on. Okay, we're gonna get into life story. Let's get into Satanic Temple. What the? What? What is it? I mean, okay, so, like, the Satanic Temple, it's not, like, it's not really what you think. Like, when you think of Temple, you imagine, like, oh, like, people being sacrificed, like, that's what you think.

54:12But it's more, they have it more as a museum. They have just this, like, demonic, Satanic art throughout it and just this weird, dark imagery. It's more of a political activist movement. They promote abortion. They basically just say, like, have you ever seen the Baphomet goat? Have you ever seen that? So it's like that goat head with the women's breasts, and it's sitting there with its hands. It's got two children underneath it. Essentially, they say, hey, look, if you're gonna have the Ten Commandments in a school, you should have Baphomet in the school, which is like counter-cultural to the Ten Commandments.

54:45So they promote abortion, a bunch of different political activist groups. It's a really dark space. Is it legitimately called the Satanic Temple? Yeah, you can look it up. It's in Salem, Massachusetts. it's sincerely one of the darkest places I've ever been in in my life. And both times we went in there, we went in there to pray. Pray that every person that steps foot in that place would feel the conviction of God and leave. Okay. Walk me through the whole thing. I want to hear this. Yeah. So, well, Salem, Massachusetts, they film like all the Halloween stuff there. And so in the fall, like it can get a little crazy down there.

55:18So we do a lot of evangelism during October in Salem, Massachusetts, but But that's where the Satanic Temple's headquarters, per se, is there. It's this building. It's just a little black house, really, is what it is. But you can buy a ticket, go tour it. But there's not much in there. It's just a few bedrooms and then like a merch booth where they're selling like the Satanic Bible and things like that. I've never read it myself. I tried to get one and couldn't get my hands on one because they were selling out so much in Halloween. Why are we buying a Satanic Bible? What's going on? But, you know, you walk through in there, and there's just, like, weird, bloody, demonic, naked images and, like, paintings and art in there.

56:01The famous Baphomet statue is in there. You can, like, take a, like, just from a practical standpoint, like, people go in there and take photos with it and weird, interesting, like, statues and relics. But it's dark. And a lot of the people that work there, they're not really Satanists. They're more atheists. So it's more of like a political movement, an activist movement, essentially. But the things that they promote are demonic and it's dark. And so we just wanted to go be a light. So we went in there and prayed and asked Jesus to convict people that walk in there. Because there's people that don't believe any of that stuff that just go in there and see it.

56:38I mean, do you feel anything walking in there? Absolutely. I mean, you know, you feel this like uneasiness in your heart, in your spirit. It feels dark. It feels demonic. It feels heavy. You can feel the weight of the world in there, even. And I'm going to be honest, there's very few environments that I go into that I don't like to be in. That's one of them. I'll bet. That's really one of them. It was harder to go into this year than last year. You've been into it multiple times? Yeah, I've been in there twice. I went in 2024. And so we went in there and we made a video going there and praying in there.

57:18And then this year we went again in 2025. This last year we went again in 2025. And we weren't the only Christians to go in there. Like our video encouraged other believers to go in there and do the same and pray in there, which is like, that has been the ultimate goal. It's like, we want to go to Sidious so that next time people beat us to it. You know, that's a cool goal to know that, oh, maybe next time you share Jesus to someone, they're like, oh, somebody already told me about him. You know, that's pretty good. But it's dark and it's heavy in there. But the bible tells us that jesus is the light and if he lives inside of us and we can be the light anywhere at all times to anybody right on man damn all right where'd you grow up i grew up in georgia grew up in a small town and called cartersville georgia are you a big football guy no okay well for the people that are football guys trevor lawrence he's the quarterback of the jacksonville jaguars he grew up in my hometown oh cool that if he didn't grow up there no one would know where this town is at all.

58:15So it's like, you know, a small town north of Atlanta, about an hour. I grew up in Georgia, and I got a brother with autism. His name's Tyler, and I have a mother and a father named Shiri and Steve. Older or younger brother? Older brother. So he's about four years older than me, three years, four years older than me. Right on. Yeah. What were you into growing up? I loved sports. I loved sports. I loved baseball. I wrestled middle school and high school for seven years. I wrestled. I like watching football. I always played outdoors. I was never really into video games too much. But I was also pretty extroverted.

58:52I loved just hanging out with friends. I grew up hunting with my dad. I liked reading growing up. I was probably like a jack-of-all-trades master of none. You know? Like, I just had my hand in a bunch of buckets, but I loved it. Did you grow up in the Bible, in the Word? Well, I grew up like a lot of people I feel like grew up in the South. I grew up going to church. And so we have made Christianity in the South in particular a sticker or a key chain or an add-on to life. Whereas if you go outside of America, it is embedded into the culture. Religion is a cultural thing. It means more to them than just going to church on Sundays.

59:36But for me, I grew up going to church. I went to the vacation Bible schools. I went to youth camps in middle school. I probably got saved 30 times in two summers at a church camp just singing songs and going like, God, I love you. And then when it came to going and telling people about them, no, I'm not doing that. So, I mean, I grew up doing it, but I was really hurt. by people that claim to be Christian. And that's where, from a young age, that this bitterness towards God and this lack of trust in Christians kind of came from. I even went to a private Christian school from the fourth grade till I graduated.

1:00:17And so, you know, we stopped going to church in about the fifth grade, but I went to private Christian school. I was always around some sort of talk about Jesus, reading some sort of Bible verse for a quiz and test at my school, like people that I knew that claimed to follow Jesus, but I just had some issues.

1:00:39What were the issues? I mean, I think with anyone... I mean, you know how it is. People need to put their money where their mouth is. We love to talk in our generation now, but we don't like to live it out. It's all noise now. And that was my biggest issue. And that's why I was, like, mentioning that earlier, is, like, noise doesn't impress me, because I've been around it for so long. I mean, there were people that were close friends, and even in our family that claimed to love God with their mouth, but their actions were the total opposite of what they would tell me to do, of what people would tell me to do.

1:01:14I would go to my Christian school, and I got a great education, and I loved it there, and I still love it, and I'm still friends with some of the teachers, but there were some instances where some teachers would tell me what to do with my life, and I would see them outside of school doing the total opposite of what they were telling me to do. And so I'm like, man, if that's what Jesus is like, I want nothing to do with that. If Jesus is a hypocrite like this, I don't want anything to do with that. And then I had seen like pastors fall, you know, people cheat on their wives and such like that in our community, like cheat on their wives and steal money from the church and run.

1:01:50Go, if that's what Jesus is like, I want nothing to do with that. And then like in school, because I went to a Christian school, Jesus became more of like an intellectual thing to me. It wasn't like Jesus is a real person. He's alive. He's God. It's just more like this is the guy that you talk about on your quizzes and your tests. Gotcha. The occasional, you know, Bible essay. And we have a chapel every Thursday. Wow. So you were checked out by fifth grade. Oh, no doubt. No doubt. And, you know, like a lot of people don't, we don't give like young people the credit. Like young people are smart.

1:02:25Very smart. I'm not just saying like, oh, I'm smart. Like young people are smart. They listen. They're watching. And so that was like a really big issue I had. I was watching a lot of things. And then ultimately, like in the eighth grade, my dad's dad had gotten pancreatic cancer. Oh, man. And when he got pancreatic cancer, because Bryce was the one that went to Christian school, there was kind of like this underlying, like, no words spoken, hey, you know, you go to the Christian school, you're the Christian, like, you need to go visit. with Grandy and make sure that, you know, he's going to heaven.

1:03:05Well, I just shared with you, I have this bitterness towards God. I don't really care. So I visited my grandpa one time at the very beginning of his battle, and then I wouldn't go anymore after that. And then I vividly remember this one day, my dad came upstairs to my room and said, hey, you know, do you want to go see Grandy in the hospital? And I said, no, not today. and that was the day that my grandpa died.

1:03:33And that day was the day that Jesus became the man that killed my grandfather. And that was the day that really began my deep battle with depression and anxiety. I had struggled with it a little here and there throughout middle school, but that day, the eighth grade, was the day that it really all began. and um yeah that was um you know an interesting season and hard time to think that why you know my god why would you do such a thing that's the thing that's going through my brain like why why is that the reason um in matthew chapter 16 jesus asks his own disciples who do the people say that i am and i think we ask ourselves that question every day who is jesus to you who do people say that i am and that was the day that jesus became the man that killed my grandfather and that that really spiraled me into this like season of depression and anxiety that lasted for years and years and years man how bad did it get it got really bad i mean every night i would come home and i would just want to lay in bed and i wouldn't want to talk to anyone and i I would be sad, I would cry about every night, every other night.

1:04:47I didn't want to tell anyone because I was embarrassed. My depression and anxiety almost felt like a cancer. Like, oh, if someone gets near me and they touch me, are they going to know that I'm going through this? Or are they going to feel like that they don't want to be friends with me because I struggle with this? And I had other struggles and depression and anxiety. Like in the fifth grade, I had gotten exploited to pornography. And so I battled a pornography addiction from the fifth grade. From the fifth grade? I'll never forget. You never forget how you're introduced to a drug. You never forget.

1:05:20Never forget. I was on the beach and some random man came up and showed me a meme. A meme and it had porn in it. And that's how I got hooked. That day. I'll never forget. So I carried the shame of, like, pornography addiction from the fifth grade. and I treated women horribly because that created this fantasy in my life that then led to me just treating women horribly. And I never did drugs or alcohol. I've never tasted alcohol before. I've never done a drug. It was never attracted to me. I saw it ruin people close to me that I loved, and so it made me stay away from it. But everyone has their own vices.

1:05:59I was a big people pleaser. In high school, I would have been a different person to you than I would have been to my friend Diviz outside and my friend Seth outside, because for me, it was if I can get everyone to like me, then I'll feel good about myself. And now when I'm looking back on everything, I was really just on a quest for love. Everyone's on a quest for love, and that's why sex sells. That's why vices sell, because they think that that thing is going to show them the love that they're searching for. And so in that moment, when my grandfather had passed away, I mean, every night, it's just crying and crying and crying, every other night crying, depressed and anxious, and go to school with a smile on my face and then go home and not be OK.

1:06:44Long drives home, in my head, constantly, real estate. Now that I know that I'm a believer like the devil in my brain, going, like, tormenting my mind, making me feel ashamed. And in the midst of this depression and anxiety, I'm just continuing to act on on this porn addiction, on the people-pleasing, on where's my identity coming from, because now I'm trying to figure out how to cope with the anxiety and depression. Now I'm trying to figure out, well, how can I make the pain go away? I don't know if you've ever had anxiety or depression, but if you struggle with it consistently, it feels incurable.

1:07:18Oh, yeah. Unescapable. I still deal with it. Yeah, I mean, it's like... It feels like an incurable, inescapable cage in your brain and in your heart and the weight on your chest. And so that, every day, just battled with it and never wanted to tell anyone. How did you overcome... Have you overcome the porn addiction? Yeah, the night I met Jesus, I stopped watching porn from that day. So this all led up to a suicide attempt. It did. Correct? Yeah. What was the final straw for you? So... When did suicide become an option? Well, I started thinking about taking my life, not because I wanted to die, but because it felt like it was the only way to get the pain to go away.

1:08:10And... I had thought about it a few times, but never had the guts to go through with it. But on December 25th of 2020, that's when I decided today was gonna be the day I woke up and we had had like a hard Christmas that day, just like with arguments and family and stuff like that. And I was having a hard day mentally that morning and coming in from the night before. And so I don't know what provoked me to be like, today is the day, but I'm going to do it. And so we went through the whole Christmas day, you know, spent time with family. And then when we got done, I got back to the house and... Not like trying to get graphic.

1:08:50Go ahead. Sorry. No, no, no. You were going to do it on Christmas Day? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Was that planned? Was that, I'm going to give Jesus the middle finger here? Why Christmas Day? No, it had nothing to do with giving Jesus the middle finger or because it was Christmas. It was just that morning we woke up and there had been some arguments in my family that day and that rubbed me the wrong way. and it just didn't feel like Christmas. Christmas was a day of gift-giving and joy, and that day did not feel like a day of gift-giving and joy. And I had had a rough mental night the night before, and that morning, and going into the Christmas break from school.

1:09:33I was a junior in high school. And so that morning I decided today's going to be the day because I'm just sick and tired of dealing with this. It was like the cherry on top, you know? And so after we had gotten back home from spending time with all of our family, I went to my room and I wrote a letter that was just like a suicide note. And I didn't... I'd grown up around guns, like grown up hunting, but like I didn't have my own guns. The only thing that I had accessible was this knife called a Hawksbill knife. You know the Hawksbill knife? I don't. So the blade is... and it had been given to me by my grandfather, and it was accessible because it was in my nightstand.

1:10:20But the blade, it's thick, and it looks like a hawk's billet. It's curved. So it's really sharp, easy to open things, open letters and things like that. So I was planning on killing myself by using that knife. And... How were you gonna do it? I was just gonna cut myself. Your breasts? Yeah. I was just gonna cut myself. Shit. And so... And after I wrote the letter and kind of like going, okay, this is what I'm going to do, I went upstairs and I told my parents, like, hey, I'm going to go to Waffle House to go get some food. But in my mind, that's my death row meal. But I'm telling my family, hey, I'm just going because it's the only thing open on Christmas Day.

1:11:05Like where I'm from, if Waffle House is closed, the apocalypse is going down. Seriously. Like, it really is. Like, there was a snowstorm one time, and, like, they left it open and on. No employees. You could go in and make food and, like, leave money on the counter and leave. Wow. They wouldn't close it. So I'm like... So to them, it was just like, oh, he's going to Waffle House because it's the only thing open on Christmas. But in my brain, it was my death row meal. And so I... It was about five-ish minutes, seven minutes from where I grew up, and I get to Waffle House at a park, and I'm looking in there and it's packed out the wazoo, like people everywhere in there.

1:11:50And I'm going there to really just escape my problems one last time. And I enjoy, I like Waffle House. I love Waffle House. I think it's the best restaurant on earth. And so I'm like, all right, I'm going to go here. And it's packed. And so I go in there and I wait and I couldn't get a table because there would be like families on Christmas night that would, it's like one guy versus a family of four or a family of three, like, of course, they're going to give the booth to them because me taking up that much space and that much business, I couldn't get a table. So then this guy walks in about double my age, and he's alone.

1:12:25And I looked at him and I said, hey, bro, I'll pay for your meal if you sit down with me so we can be a party of two. And he said, okay. And so I grabbed this guy just for the sole reason of sitting down. Like, I wanted to sit down and eat and kind of get this over with. I mean, I'm in my brain battling my depression and anxiety and struggling. And so I sit down. I don't know if you've ever been, they have like the high top bar. And then they have like the pay counter. And then next to the counter is like this low kind of side table bar thing. I'm sitting at this side table in our Waffle House.

1:12:57We're sitting next to each other. And as we sit down and we get done ordering, he starts dumping his life issues on me in that moment. And he's like, my wife's divorcing me. She's taking my kids. It's my last Christmas. We're out of money. She's stealing everything from me. And he is complaining and complaining and complaining about his life in front of me. And I'm sitting there thinking, I came here to escape my problems one last time. And I got this random dude dumping his life issues on me. And so our food's coming, and I'm just eating and kind of, you know, glancing every now and then, eating.

1:13:38And he's dumping, dumping, and dumping, and complaining, and complaining, and complaining. And all I can think about in that moment is, I just want the pain to go away. I was the most broken, guilty, shameful, prideful, lust-filled, selfish version of myself in that Waffle House. but I was the most honest version of myself in that Waffle House that day. And so as we're sitting there, the guy next to me that I asked to sit down with me, I hear him just say, Man, you know what? I love my wife, but she just doesn't feel the same about me. There's no growth in a relationship if the love isn't mutual.

1:14:30and when he said that it was like all of time had stopped he never said anything about Jesus he never preached the gospel to me he never said anything about the Bible but in that moment it felt like all of time was flashing before me all the Bible verses that I had learned growing up, all the scriptures that I had heard, the vacation Bible schools. And for the first time in my life, I asked myself the question, well, maybe I don't know God loves me because I haven't given myself a chance to love him back. It's like us building a relationship. Like, you know, we spend time together and the more we spend time together, we do things that you like, you do things that I like.

1:15:12We grow in relationship and we hang out and we can't grow if we don't actively make an effort to mutually hang out and seek each other out. And the Bible would say, well, God is after us, but it's humanity that's rebelling against God. It's humanity that's saying, I'm slapping God in the face and I want to serve myself. And so I'm in real time. It feels like all of time has stopped. These things are flashing in my brain and I ask myself that question. Maybe I don't know God loves me because I haven't given myself a chance to love Him back. And so I immediately just get hit by the Lord and I start crying and weeping for the first time in my life.

1:15:52I felt like I had felt the presence of God. And I threw money on the counter, like cash to pay for the ticket, and got up and ran out of the Waffle House and went into my car. And I just sat in my car and I said, God, if you're real, take away my anxiety and depression, because this is why I want to take my life. And in that moment, I felt the pressure off of my chest. and a weight off of my brain, the chaos gone, silent. Wow. And instead of taking my life, I gave my life to somebody who wanted it. And that night was the night that I surrendered my life to Jesus. And I was scared because I had tried everything and it didn't work.

1:16:39And it felt like a last resort. I felt confused and broken and upset. I mean, I was planning on taking my life. i had a porn addiction up to that point i mean i was a people pleaser i made mistakes with women i i had done so many different things and i thought that god didn't want me but in that moment a god that's created everything in the universe had time for me and actually saw me when i was broken and i i just wanted to be seen in that same that same passage actually brought up earlier matthew 16 when jesus says who do the people say that i am And they say, well, you know, some think that you're John the Baptist, some think that you're Elijah the prophet, and then Peter.

1:17:20He's like, oh my gosh, you're neither of those people. You're the Christ. You're the Messiah that we've learned about, that we've been waiting for. And Jesus says, it's not by flesh and blood that you've been able to understand this, but it is a gift from God. There was nothing in me that night that conjured up an intellectual response to Jesus. It was a gift from God, a genuine grace that God met me that night and gave me this gift of experiencing a relationship with Him. And I haven't turned back since. It's been over five years. Wow.

1:17:59Did you tell your parents when you got home? No, not when I got home. What were your next steps? Well, I came home. I don't recommend this to anyone, but I came home and went to my room, kept praying, and then I grabbed my Bible that I had to have for school. Because I went to Private Christian School, I grabbed my Bible, and then I had this textbook called Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem from 1990s. Big, thick, blue textbook. I wanted and to have a greater understanding of the right way to view God, theology. You know, Jesus is fully God and fully man. The Bible is the infallible Word of God.

1:18:44These theological concepts that make the Christian faith Christian. And I locked myself in my room with those things, and I made a video the next day on social media to, like, the people that followed me from my hometown. Just, hey, look, I had this encounter with Jesus. I don't know what to do with it, but from now on, I'm going to use my voice to stand for Jesus. I'm going to use my voice to tell everyone about Him. and I'm going to commit myself to this thing. And that's where everything began.

1:19:12Yeah, man. You know,

1:19:19suicide in teens is at an all-time high right now. Yeah. What do you have to say to kids that are, or anybody, not just kids, anybody that's getting ready to take that step?

1:19:44It's not worth it. You know, sometimes, like, we convince ourselves, like, oh, well, it's the best thing I can do for my family because I'm a burden or my friends. It's not true. You actually leave them in worse shape than before. There are people that actually care about you. And I thought that people didn't really care about me. And to people struggling with suicide or suicidal ideation or want to take their life or self-harm, like, genuinely reach out to someone that you love and care about. Talk to them. Explain to them. We need to create a culture that vulnerability isn't weakness, that we shouldn't shame people from opening up because of their struggles.

1:20:25Transparency leads to transformation. And so to the older people out there that don't battle with this, like, make yourself available for my generation to talk. And then for people, whether you're young or old, that struggle with this, find someone that you love and talk to them. But actually give them the opportunity to help you. Don't just say something for pity. Like, say something because you want help and you want change. That's good advice. I've been in that slot. You struggled with suicide? Oh, yeah. I should be dead. Wow. When was that? That would have been around 2017, probably.

1:21:11And, yeah, I reclined my seat back in the garage, left the car running.

1:21:19I was ready to go. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And, I mean, I was drunk as shit. i don't even i don't remember it yeah but uh yeah woke up woke up naked in my room smelling gasoline or something and uh ran downstairs saw my gun not the gun that i carry every day yeah um a bigger gun sitting on the couch so i knew i was like well that's i wonder why that's out and then i walked out into the garage and uh grabbed the handle still it was hot i walked in and uh i was like oh i think my car's running in there and i was like man if i open this door and there's a fire i'm probably gonna get blown away i was like well that would be good so i opened the door nothing happened and then i saw i stayed i saw the car running smelled like gas big time in there i was so it was so it was there were so many fumes i was like holy i mean i was still drunk too so i wasn't thinking right but i was like man i don't even want to push the garage door button now because the whole damn condominium building's gonna blow up and uh so i and then i was like well wait a minute there's uh spark plugs firing so i was like that probably isn't gonna happen so i hit the button and then um i i just i went and looked in my uh gas tank had melted and there was drops of gas dripping onto the exhaust whoa and then there was a little a little bitty like you know they'd hit the exhaust and you see these little bitty like flames and i was like holy shit oh my god almost died there were four times oh my gosh i shouldn't be here should have died in the car because i came home reclined the seat went to sleep something woke me up went inside was obviously going to kill myself with my gun went upstairs passed out came back then hoped that the door was going to blow me away wow you And then you see that fucking gasoline dripping on top of the exhaust and igniting flames in a condominium building.

1:23:46It wouldn't have just been me. Holy crap. You know? And, yeah. Wow. Did you, like, want to die or you just... Yeah. What made you want to die? Oh, a lot of things. No purpose. No Jesus. I'd recently left contracting for the CIA, felt no purpose, didn't feel wanted, felt like life was over. I'd hit the pinnacle of everything I wanted to hit up to that point. I was a SEAL and got in, was doing shit with the agency. And then I left and I was teaching tactics, and I fucking hated it. And I just couldn't get any traction and didn't feel like my family. but it was a lot of things man it was a there was a lot of shit going on up here but um but anyways well i'm happy you're here still me too so but uh i mean i don't think that was a coincidence me either you know and um so how did your life i mean we're gonna get into it but immediately how did it how did it change immediately after you had accepted christ Well, like I said, like what I thought would be impossible to quit, like porn, just that I haven't looked back since.

1:25:10Just gone. No cravings, nothing. No cravings. Well, look, we're human, right? So like, of course, I have temptations. But like what I thought would be the hardest thing for me to give up was actually the easiest thing for me to give up with Jesus. And so it really started by making a diagnosis on my heart. Psalm 139, search my heart, God, reveal to me the areas of my life that are causing me to be separate from you. And Matthew chapter 6, God gave me the strength to cut them off. And so there were some friends I had to stop hanging out with. There were some things I had to stop doing. And there were some new people I needed to start surrounding myself with.

1:25:46And so what it really looked like was my Bible, that Wayne Grudem book, talking to my Bible teachers consistently more, asking them hard questions at my private Christian school and allowing them to pour into my life. I tried to find a big youth group in my hometown so I could surround myself with people my age that loved Jesus

1:26:11and tried to find friends that cared, that actually wanted to follow this thing out, that didn't just talk about being a Christian. And I think that was the hardest thing for me to navigate at the beginning was so many people claimed to love Jesus, but I was making changes that they weren't. And I'm not saying that makes me holier than someone. But if your life doesn't look different before you claim to have met Jesus until after you've claimed to have met Jesus, then I would argue that we would be following a different Jesus. And so those were the quick and easy steps, and I immediately started sharing my faith.

1:26:44I would run up to people and be like, Jesus loves you, and run away before they could respond, because I didn't have the answers to their questions. And then I started standing there and taking the questions. And a lot of times it was, I don't know, but give me a couple of days, and I'll give you an answer. And that challenged me to dive deeper into my faith and see, man, do I really believe that Jesus really is who he says he is according to the Bible? And that's really the first few steps I did. And then a month into becoming a Christian, I went to a Christian conference. How did you feel? When I was following Jesus?

1:27:18Yeah. I felt like the greatest, you know, I've never done drugs before, but it was like the best feeling since pre-Waffle House, the best feeling I was looking for. You know, like I was... Euphoric. It was unreal. It was like the sky was blue. The grass was green. My perspective on life had changed. I had purpose. Like you just said a moment ago, like I didn't have purpose without Jesus. Me too. Now I did. And I didn't care what was in my way. I was going to do everything I could to invite people into this thing called the family of God that I experienced. Because like, you know, the mistakes that no one knows about you the same way I know my mistakes that no one knows about me.

1:27:57So I felt like the dirtiest human being on the planet. I felt like I was so far gone, no one could save me. And then Jesus saved me. So I thought if he can do it for me, he can do it for anyone. And so I was just over the top, over the moon, excited, and ecstatic. And when I started second semester of my Christian school, no one really said anything to me about it. They kind of thought I was just riding a high, I think. No one really acknowledged it. I was talking about Jesus, making iPhone videos, teaching the Bible, teaching what I was learning in school, teaching what I was reading in my quiet time, just every chance I could get sharing about Jesus.

1:28:35And I think people just were like, yeah whatever what would you do with those videos i would just post them on tiktok i would just put prop up my phone and click play like looking back at them now they're really cringe they're extremely cringe like i'm like cool though man that's you see an arc there it definitely is cool to see the storyline it's it's hard to watch this video sometimes but i'm like it's whatever i was 17 like it'll be cool but the beginning man it is the beginning it is the beginning and what's cool you know you'll be able to look back on that and see how much you've grown that's that's what's fucking cool in my opinion i mean i'm grateful i mean i definitely am grateful it is a little cringe to see like young me and my hair i have really bad hair and it was really just yeah wild but anyways i uh would post them on like tiktok and instagram and just, hey, Psalm 23, here's the verse of the day, or here's this thing, or I'm learning this thing.

1:29:35And I would also be vulnerable. Like, if I was experiencing hard times and I was crying, like, I'd be like, man, I'm having a hard time right now. Be crying, like, look, like, I'm a Christian, but like, I'm having a hard time. And I think that allowed people to relate. Because I think we have too many Christians that act like they got it all together. Mm-hmm. I'm not in that business. Yeah. I want to try to be as vulnerable as possible. So that's kind of what those first steps really look like. Man, that's a good way to be. Well, Bryce, let's take a quick break. But before we do, I just want to go back on the anointed thing because I probably misspoke.

1:30:12But like I said, it was a thing that happened at the church. It struck up a conversation this morning, and I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, but I'm just emptying my head. I like it. No, right there with you. I love it. Cool. I just want everybody to know I don't think I'm more important than I am. Yeah, I just emptied my head. Absolutely. Anyways, let's take a break. Let's do it. Cool. The best investors don't rely on guesswork. They have an expert by their side in a system that keeps them on track. But most people don't have access to a human advisor. That's where Stash comes in.

1:30:49It gives you a disciplined, long-term investing philosophy focused on steady habit building, not speculation. So you can build your portfolio with confidence. Stash is a registered financial advisor built right into an app. Stash shows you way more than just your balance. It offers personalized next steps to keep you moving forward in any market scenario, so you always know what to do with your money and why. Stash is guided investing. It's not a trading platform, and it's not a robo-investor. Stash is the guided middle ground. Don't let your money sit around. Put it to work with Stash. Go to get.stash.com.srs to see how you can receive$25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures.

1:31:37That's get.stash.com.srs. Get.stash.com.srs. Paid non-client endorsement. Not a guarantee. nor representative of all clients. Investment advisory services offered by Stash Investments, LLC, and SEC registered investment advisor. Investing involves risk. Hi, I'm Sarah Adams, the host of Vigilance Elites, The Watch Floor, where we highlight what matters. It became a permissive state, explained to you why it matters, and then aim to leave you feeling better informed than you were before you hit play. Terrorists, hostile intelligence agencies, organized crime, not everything is urgent. But this show will focus on what is need to know, not just what is nice to know.

1:32:38All right, Bryce, we're back from the break. oh what do you think i'm about to try they smell so good why gummy bears like what made you make the gummy bears gummy oh why gum well it's kind of a long story but so i started out teaching weapons and tactics and um before i really dove in i have a lot of friends that are doing that from my past life and so i looked at what everybody was doing and everybody was kind of a tough guy hard ass fun is for pussies we only eat protein shakes and chicken breast you know what i mean and i was like dude that's not me i don't want to be a hard ass people are already scared of seals and like that and i was like i have to be approachable so i just started posting all the junk food i ate nice and um and then fast forward we started the podcast i wanted to do cbd gummy bears because i always have problems sleeping and uh my marketer was like no you can't do that you're gonna get sued jewel just got sued for uh something like marketing to kids or something with cbd or i think it was jewel and um so i said fine uh we'll just do regular gummy bears so we did it and i and i did it because i couldn't i couldn't make a living off this at the beginning yeah you know nobody would advertise i had no spots nothing you know and it was literally paying shit tons of money at the time to produce this and it was just me and my wife and i was like man if we want to do this we're gonna have to have we have to make some income right so that was it these are these are actually so good oh thanks i love them i might go through this whole bag by the end of this i'm not even kidding hey well we got more oh well thank you thank you You're welcome.

1:34:32But all right. So I think we left off. We didn't get to you're going to L.A. Yeah. So what why L.A.? Well, from a small town in Georgia to Los Angeles. Well, you know, I ask myself the same question sometimes. I'd never even been to L.A. So when I don't blame you. Well, where I'm from, everyone says the same thing. And my grandma, every time I come home, she's got like a new news article that's like, the tectonic plates, it's going to fall in the ocean, you know? So like I got to, you know, it's funny. But yeah, so after high school, I had moved to Destin, Florida. I worked on pontoon boats there for about four months.

1:35:22And then by the end of the summertime at Ghost Town of Tourists and everyone there just didn't follow Jesus and things like that. and I wanted to be around people that did. So I moved back to Georgia, and I'm just praying, like, God, what do you want me to do? Like, where do you want me to go? And so anyways, long story short, I go to a conference in Dallas and feel like the Lord speaks to me to move to LA. Well, I knew there was no selfish bone in my body that wanted to go there because I've been saying the same thing you just said about LA all my life. So I'm like, heck no, I don't want to go to LA.

1:35:55And that day, I had five random people throughout my day that didn't know each other that were like, hey man I feel like God wants you to go to LA or man I feel like you should move to LA and be a light for Jesus like random people would say this to me throughout that same day and I was like what the heck isn't that crazy how that happens so weird so wild so I'm like okay this is weird I'm not doing it I'm not doing it I'm not gonna go and after about the fifth time towards the end of the night one of my buddies called me my one of two friends I had that lived in LA he's like hey you know, Bryce, I need you to pray for me.

1:36:31Someone moved out of my bedroom, and so now I've got this weight of rent on me like my old roommate did. I've got an extra bed in here, and I'm having to cover rent. This was the same day? Same day. At the end of the day. And so I was like, hold on one second. I think I'm supposed to move in that bedroom. And then I prayed, and then I bought a one-way ticket with two, with like a suitcase, a duffel bag, and a backpack. What did you pray about? God, where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do? So I had initially, initially, here was my plan. My initial plan was after this summertime, I was going to go to Liberty University in person.

1:37:10And in the summertime, I had dropped out without my parents knowing and made a poor decision there, and I own it. But now we see God's used it for his glory, even my mistakes God has used. And so when I dropped out, I wasn't going to college. So I switched to online. I'm actually still online. I'm about to graduate in the spring. So I'm an online student at Liberty University. I transfer online. I'm like, well, God, what do you want me to do? I'm online. So I can kind of go anywhere, anywhere you want me to go. And that's when I felt the Lord speak LA to me and put it on my heart. When I say speak to me, it like kept coming in my brain, like move to LA, move to LA, move to LA.

1:37:50And I'm like, what the heck i'm not moving to la so i arrived and the first place i lived i lived in uh i lived in crenshaw that was the first place i lived my neighbor got stabbed within the first 30 minutes of me living there and i was like where the heck have i moved right now wait is crenshaw like is that famous should i know this well crenshaw is like uh you know compton like you ever heard it's not compton but it's like another city um along the same lines a little bit yeah kind of similar. Not as rough, I guess you could say. Rough enough. Yeah, it's rough enough because it's made a name for itself.

1:38:26I say Crenshaw because it's more of like a blanket statement, but it's this little pocket, if you want to get really specific, called Exposition Park. This is where I live. So it's near USC. And I moved into a house that had four rooms with eight dudes. I was the eighth dude. Only knew two dudes in there. Both of my friends in LA happened to live in the same house that I knew that lived there. And then I started just doing what I could. I mean, I would feed the homeless on Friday. We had a house church on Sunday nights where we would all gather and do like church in a house, just young people.

1:39:01I would preach to people in the streets everywhere I went. How are you making a living? I was actually spending my savings from working on the pontoon boats. You couldn't have much savings. I didn't have a lot, but I was using it and just going hard, and I thought I was only going to be there from like that. I moved there at the end of September of 22. So I thought I was just going to be there from September until like January 1 of the new year, and then I was going to have to leave. Man, you got to like pay to breathe oxygen out there. Like it's like, it's no joke. So you move, are all these guys in the house, are they doing the same thing you're doing?

1:39:41No, like some of them did like e-comm stuff. Some of them had actual jobs. One dude was like aspiring musician. One guy was like trying, like doing what I did in a similar instance. His name's Elijah. Like he was, he's just one of the smartest guys I know about the Bible and Christianity. And he was like itinerant preaching at churches and, you know, making iPhone videos for Jesus. And I was still making these iPhone videos at the time talking about Jesus. But like I was, you know, I was more concerned and still am more concerned today with real people, real conversations. And so I was doing everything, feeding the homeless on Friday, Bible study on Wednesday nights, house church on Sunday nights, preaching to everyone in the streets, doing whatever I could.

1:40:22Monday nights, I would go to a worship night all the way in Huntington Beach. What are you preaching in the street? That Jesus Christ loves them and that he died for their sins and defeated their sins on the third day. I mean, I always wonder this. Well, I see people doing it every once in a while. I always wonder, you know, what who's getting something out of this yeah like it was just almost like forgive me but i'm no it's almost like a heckler to me sure yeah i think how do you find the people that i mean i've never seen somebody that's like on the street preaching like that where somebody stops like man i want to hear what this person has to say oh wait you're thinking of the guys with the microphones.

1:41:05It doesn't matter with microphone or signs, whatever. I didn't do either of those things. I never see it. So is that what you're talking about? You're just on Broadway in Nashville preaching the gospel. No, not at all. Neither of those. I would just walk up to people and start talking to them. Like just roll up on you. Like if you had your black coffee at the stoplight waiting across the crosswalk, I'd walk up to you and be like, hey man, how's your day? What do you think about Jesus, do you have a faith? Just like that. One-on-one convo. What's the typical response? You'd be shocked. Like, you know, that's why I laugh when like the street preachers, the signs and the microphones are like, oh, I'm getting persecuted.

1:41:43Yeah. Well, I think anyone in their right mind would yell back at you if the only thing you're saying is you're going to burn in hell. Like, it doesn't shock me that that's like a response. Like, why do we act so surprised that that's a response? You know, that's not persecution. You're just provoking anger out of people. them. And look, truth, like loving people doesn't mean you compromise for their lifestyle or their sin, but Jesus was full of grace and truth. So you're able to pull the gold out of people and call them higher. So I would just ask like, hey, what do you think about Jesus? But it really started in situations where like people couldn't run away from me.

1:42:16And what I mean by that is like in an elevator, like, where are you going to go? Where are you going to go? Or like restaurants, Waiters and waitresses, they have to talk to you. That's their job. They have to talk to you. Or getting a haircut. Like, you're going to mess up my hair. It's going to grow back in a couple months. You know? Like, what's the difference? So I would just be like, do you have a faith? Or what do you think about Jesus? Or what gives you purpose? What do you think happens when you die? These questions that I think are necessary that we need to ask ourselves. Sometimes I think we avoid because they're hard.

1:42:51And everyone has a perspective about Jesus. Everyone does. Why is that? Why is Jesus the man that everyone has a perspective about? That's fascinating to me. And so that question has no language barrier, no nation barrier. Every person has a perspective about Jesus, whether they don't know who he is, or they've been hurt by people who claim to love Jesus, or they are Christian, or he's just a prophet in their religion, or he's just a good teacher. Everyone has a perspective. and nine times out of ten, it was either, you know, oh, I grew up in church or that's about it. You know, if someone said, you know, I read my Bible and I go to church.

1:43:28Okay, what does that look like for you? You know, what does that look like? Well, I mean, it's not as much, blah, blah, blah. Now, the people that were rejected, they didn't want it. They would just say, oh, I'm not interested. I vividly remember there was one time, I'll tell you a cool story. I shared Jesus with a waitress in San Antonio at a restaurant. And I kept talking about Jesus, and she kept not wanting it so much, so that she changed waitresses with me, that she left being the assignment on our table, and they sent a new waitress to our table. So then I started talking to that lady about Jesus.

1:44:01And then she got upset, too. So then she went to go get the manager. So then the manager comes to the other table, and I preach the gospel to the manager. The manager gives her life to Jesus. So the manager of the restaurant was the one who needed to hear. Right there. Right there, at the table. I mean, how did that go? I just asked her, I said, hey, what do you think about Jesus? And she said, oh, you know, I don't really think about him, blah, blah, blah. And then I just started asking her questions about her life, how long she had been working there. You know, and then I liked, I really like asking this question.

1:44:30If God could do a miracle for you right now, what would that be? Like the hardest thing you're dealing with right now, if God could show up and fix that problem, what would it be? And I don't exactly remember what she had said, but that was really what had softened her heart. and we just prayed for her. I shared the gospel with her, and she was just overwhelmed by this love, and she gave her life to Jesus and surrendered to Jesus in that moment. So the next day, I went back to that restaurant. I went back to the restaurant, and the two ladies that had gotten mad at me before were at the front counter, like we're the host stand.

1:45:08And they went, oh my gosh, you got to be kidding me. I'm going to get our manager to kick you out. So they go and get the manager, the lady that we had just talked to the day before, And she comes back, Bryce, good to see you. Come over here. Come sit down at the table. And it's just totally like rock to roll. I'll never forget that story. It was in San Antonio. Well, so what's that like though? What, I mean, what, what was the, what did you say to her that she was like, I'm in? Well, you know, I think that's the thing we have to recognize. Like there's no amount of words that you and I could conjure up.

1:45:40That's going to make someone intellectually believe in Jesus. The Bible says that we plant seeds and water seeds, but God brings the increase. So the best thing we can do is represent Jesus to the best of our ability. And that's why like she genuinely surrendered to Christ, like wanted to follow Jesus. And I pray that she's continuing on in the faith. I don't like count salvations. I don't like how do you track a salvation? Like someone please tell me how you track a salvation. What does that mean? Just because someone fills out a note card does not mean that they're following Jesus. You know what I mean?

1:46:11Or raises their hand. She sincerely surrendered to Jesus. And I believe that she's wholeheartedly, but like, I'm not going to count it and be like, oh, there's one person that got saved under me. Like, I don't, I don't view it like that. But I presented the gospel to her and that's that radical love, you know, people supernaturally, God allows them to understand this gift of the gospel and they either reject it or they're for it. And the next day she was just glowing. The first day we met her, down, anxious, hard day. Next day, glowing. And so it was really cool. Just to see like, man, I'm glad we could be a light to her.

1:46:47But Jesus says an interesting claim. He says, the harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few. The odds are in our favor as Christians to share the gospel with people. He actually says, many people are ready to give their life to me. But he says the laborers are few. Not enough people are doing it. And that's why we started this ministry, is because not enough people are doing it. We're too scared of the response. Like, what do you say? Do they react? Are they hostile? You even asked to me earlier when we weren't sitting down, you know, like, do people reject it? Do people get crazy? Yeah, they do.

1:47:23But we also see people that accept it, that are grateful for it, that want to hear it. Hmm, that's fascinating. That challenged me respectfully. Thank you. I'm going to think about it. So that's what it looks like, really, in the street. I mean, that's an interesting question you asked. What was it? If you could get a miracle today, what would it be? Yeah, if God could do a miracle in your life right now, what would that be? What is it for you? Well, for me, it was taking away my depression and anxiety. What is it today? What is it today that he keeps me strong in the faith? I want to finish this thing out.

1:47:58I met 100 new Christians a month after I became a Christian, and today half of them aren't even believers anymore.

1:48:09And as much as I love them, I don't want to end up like that. And so that's my prayer constantly. It's like, God, give me strength. Protect me. Guide me. Lead me. What do you think happens when we die? Well, I believe that when we die, we're going to stand before an all-knowing God, and that God happens to be Yahweh from the scriptures that we read, Old and New Testament. We're going to stand before God and we're going to have to give an account for our life, the way that we lived. Our actions are going to testify against us. There's no one to blame. We're going to be held responsible. And if we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that his perfect eternal sacrifice was enough to atone for infinite wrongdoing against God, then we will experience an infinite eternal time in heaven with God.

1:48:58But if in this lifetime we chose to reject God and say, no, I want to live for myself. I don't want to accept the reality that he is Lord. I don't want to do these things. It breaks God's heart. But he respects the free choice that he gives human beings to choose to follow him. And they will spend an eternity separate from him. What do you think it looks like? I mean, we read the Bible and it's daily life. like what's daily life like i'm just curious what i mean i think about this stuff all the time oh okay you didn't mean like what is heaven and hell like you meant what is daily life like anything i mean what's it look like are we in uh are we do we look like we look now well the bible would say that we have a body we give them new bodies right so we're given new bodies in heaven um there there's i i'm very cautious to listen to people that have give like wide detailed descriptions of heaven because there's not really a lot about it.

1:49:51I mean, the streets are gold. I think that's fascinating. So like, imagine like gold and gold in heaven is like asphalt on earth. We spit on asphalt. We walk on asphalt and gold is a valuable resource. So I'm thinking if that's our asphalt in heaven, does it say that? Yeah. It says that there's going to be streets of gold. If there's going to be streets of gold and our streets and earth are asphalt and we walk on them, we just like treat them like normal. Like we don't even think twice about what we're walking on. I'm like, oh my gosh, how much more beautiful is heaven going to be? Where does it say that?

1:50:25It says it in the New Testament. I believe in the book of Revelation. I could be wrong. I'm more happy to look it up with you. It says we have bodies too. Yeah, we're given new bodies.

1:50:39And particularly with heaven and hell, the thing that fascinates me the most about hell and heaven is we don't talk about the reason for both the extremes, right? Like hell, the Bible says it's weeping and gnashing of teeth. We read that in Matthew 25 and we read it in other instances in scripture and in the book of Revelation. I think it's in Revelation 20 or 21. And we think, oh, it's all suffering and it's fiery and it's burning. Well, I personally do not think that hell is scary just because it's fiery and burning and there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. The reason why I think hell is going to be so suffering is because every human being, whether they believe in God or not, is going to stand before him.

1:51:21And they're going to see the most beautiful, magnificent being they've ever seen in their life. And then they're going to spend an eternity separate from it. Hell is the absence of God. Heaven is the presence of God, both for an eternity. That's why I think hell is going to be suffering. Imagine not thinking that God is real, and then you see the most beautiful being you've ever seen in your life, and then you have to be separate from it for an eternity. Like, that's why I think hell is going to be so much suffering. And that's why I think heaven is going to be far greater than we can imagine.

1:51:51It's hard for us to really wrap our minds around what hell and heaven are going to be like, because this is as real as it gets right here, like this. But we should look forward to it because Jesus is the prize. Like, He is the prize. He's what we're looking for. We're not going to heaven because we want to walk on the streets of gold and we want some, you know, you always hear people say, I'm going to get a big mansion in heaven for the things I do for God. It's like, I don't want to go to heaven because I want some big mansion in heaven. I want to go to heaven because I want Jesus. He's the prize.

1:52:19But I also do not believe that heaven's just going to be us singing songs on repeat 24-7. I don't believe that's the case. We read that about the seraphim in the book of Revelation and Isaiah 6. Seraphim? Seraphim. So, there are angels that have six wings, and they have eyes all over them. And the Bible describes them in Isaiah 6, that when they're in the presence of God, that they have to cover their eyes themselves with their wings to even sing how holy God is. And they sing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. And they continuously sing it over and over and over.

1:52:59And for the longest time, I was like, is that what we're going to be doing? Like, no offense, but like, I don't really want to just sing a song on repeat all the time. I mean, some of this stuff might get me in trouble, but I'm just being honest. Like, do you, like, I'm just being honest. Um, and, but I realized the reason that they do that is because God is infinite and they see something new about God. So they can't help, but sing that from their heart. Like God, you are so holy, holy, holy, are you Lord almighty? It's genuine and pure. Um, but that's not, that's not what we're going to do. I don't believe.

1:53:31Um, but for the Christian, like everyday walk just looks like following Jesus. Jesus has the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Do you think there are relationships up there? Do you have relationships? Like marriage relationships and things like that? Friends? I mean, I think we're going to— Just daily relationships. I think we're going to interact with each other, but I don't think there's going to be like marriage romantic relationships up there. I definitely think that we're going to interact with each other and be friends.

1:54:04Like, I don't think it's so far-fetched to think that, like, one day I can go talk to Paul, you know? And be like, dude, Paul, what was it like, you know, being chained to a wall in prison and writing the Book of Joy? Or, you know, John, what was it like being boiled alive and then surviving and then be casted to an island? And then they explain it. And they're like, hey, Sean, Bryce, like, what was it like? And it's like, oh, we got a few hate comments and people threatened us digitally, you know? And it's like, what are we doing? I'm excited to learn. We have our own struggles in each century, but I just think that's fun.

1:54:36And you know what? I don't think it's far-fetched that dogs are going to be in heaven either. Do you think that you learn up there, or do you think when you die, you get this kind of infinite knowledge where everything just all of a sudden makes sense? You know, God is infinite. So the Bible even says that there's new mercies for us every day. So I don't think it's far-fetched to think that we're going to not stop continuing learning. Like, we're going to continue to learn, I believe. And, you know, I wish I was a little bit more educated on the heaven and hell thing, but I'm not as hyper fixated on, like, where I'm going.

1:55:15I'm hyper fixated on, I know where I'm going and I want to bring as many people with me to this place because I know it's going to be good because God is good and I trust him and he's a man of his word. And so, you know, I need to do, I need to definitely do a better job of understanding heaven as like, what is it like? What's it going to be like? I'm just in the business of, I want to bring as many people possible to this place. If Jesus is Lord and he really is who he says he is. I'm just curious what you think it's going to be like. I'm always curious to hear. You know, we do read about heaven and hell in the gospel of Luke.

1:55:53I'm not going to quote the chapter, but it's called The Rich Man, Lazarus. So it's another rich man story. So Luke 18, there was a rich young ruler we talked about earlier. Now this one, it's like, there's a king and he's high of royalty and very wealthy and rich in this lifetime and a massive house and mansion and palace and servants and eats well. And the crumbs on his table is what the poor man ate. And there was a poor man outside the gate of his city who would barely eat the crumbs with the dogs. And when they died, it says that the poor man outside the gate was carried by angels into heaven, and the rich man Lazarus was condemned to hell.

1:56:34Now, this has nothing to do with money. But it's interesting how in the account of the rich man Lazarus going to hell, he asks for two things. First of all, he says, hey, can you give me a dip of water on my tongue? I need some relief. Why didn't Lazarus say, hey, can you get me out of here? Why didn't he ask to be taken out of hell? Why did he only ask for relief? And then the second thing he asks is, well, hey, can you just warn my family and friends that not to make the choices that I made? Can you just warn them? And God says, well, they have the prophets. They have Moses and Elijah and all these people.

1:57:14Like the evidence is there. But he never asked to be taken out of hell. And I wrestled with that for so long. Like, man, God's looking down on you. You're communicating with him. Why wouldn't you ask God, hey, bro, I made a bad choice. Can you help me out? Doesn't do it. And there's an aspect of hell where it's self-inflicted. God doesn't send people to hell. People send themselves to hell. Heaven and hell is a choice. you know we choose if we want Jesus or not and if we choose to live for ourselves and think that we know what's best for our lives and make our own decisions it breaks God's heart but he respects the free choice that we have and we spend an eternity separate from him but if we choose I want to live God's way I want to know what you have in store for me I want to I want to know what you think is best for me then it makes God's heart glad and we spend an eternity with him And that passage fascinates me.

1:58:14It's in the Gospel of Luke. Like, man, I don't want to be like the rich man Lazarus that's so distracted by things and by himself and his own brain. Humility is this interesting aspect in the character of Jesus. He's described as being gentle and lowly. And I think we need to be more like that. Do you think the passage to get into heaven is narrow? It's hard to get in there? Well, it defines what you mean by hard to get in there. The passage is narrow. Do you think the majority of the population goes there or to hell? I think there's a lot more people that are going to hell to think that they're going to heaven.

1:58:59Really? Yeah. What does it mean to follow Jesus? That's the question. And there's deception. You know, the same people in today's day and age. Let's go Matthew chapter 7. Well, Lord, we prophesied in your name. We cast the demons out in your name. We healed the sick in your name. He says, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Let's change it to 21st century, modern day. Hold on. Let's go back. What does that even mean? Why would Jesus be pissed that they're healing people in his name? Right. Because their faith and trust is in the things that they do for God and not in him. what? Absolutely.

1:59:37So this is a weird dynamic about faith and words. Okay. The 21st century version of that is, well, I'm a Christian and I'm going to heaven because look at how many devotionals I've read, God. And look at how many times I went to church and this person didn't. And look at how many times I gave to the homeless. And look how many times I did that. People are banking more, putting all their poker chips in on the fact that they do good things than the one who actually is good. Jesus himself said, no one is good except God alone. So we have to understand our good works, the Bible says, are like filthy rags to God.

2:00:15Now that doesn't mean they don't matter. We'll get back to that. But filthy rags to God, meaning if your stairway to heaven is based on what Sean does, it would maybe buy you two weeks in heaven. Maybe two weeks. For Bryce, you get in there a little bit longer than me, maybe four days for Bryce. Sean would get two weeks with his good works, and that's it. It's not about the things that we do. It's about what he has done. That's the gospel. That's why people aren't confident. Let me ask you this question. On a scale of one to 10, 10 being absolutely certain and one being not certain at all, how confident would you be you'd go to heaven if you were standing before God?

2:00:54Five. Five. Why a five? Maybe a six. Why is that? Let's go six. Let's go to higher number. Why a six?

2:01:05Because I'm trying to...

2:01:11Do what I think he wants me to do. I'm trying. I'm trying to live that way. I'm trying to treat people that way. And it's fucking hard. It would be a lot easier if I wasn't trying. Life would be a lot easier if I wasn't trying. Man, it is hard, isn't it? Actually, I know life would be a lot easier if I wasn't trying. Absolutely. You know, it would be a lot. I wouldn't have a heavy conscience. I would react to things that I fantasize about that we talked about earlier. You know, I would indulge in all of that. Yeah. But I don't because that's where I want to go. and I think you had said something earlier too that you'd said, I plant a seed.

2:02:02I think the exact same way. I think you, look, all you can really do is lead by example and that plants the seed or put an idea on somebody's head and see what happens. But I think the main thing is you need to be the walking example of what you want other people to be. Absolutely. And I totally understand. Like as Christians, like we should live this thing out. The book of James says pure religion that's undefiled before God is visiting widows and orphans in their affliction. It doesn't say pure religion is talking about how holy you are, talking about all the good things you do. It's like, hey, put your money where your mouth is.

2:02:46I'm right there with you. But if you say you're a six, do you believe that Jesus only died for 60 of your junk well hold on no i'm saying a six because i've also done a lot of up things in my life yep that's what i'm talking about right so so same here i totally understand so because you've done a bunch of messed up stuff and you rate yourself on a scale of one to ten ten being absolutely certain that you would go to heaven and one being not so certain you labeled yourself a six Right? And that's a combination of you feeling like it's our duty that we've got to live this thing out. And you know that you've done some messed up stuff.

2:03:25So with that in mind, because of the way that you've ranked yourself on that scale, you're basically determining your salvation on everything that you've done. All the good and the bad. That's what you just mentioned in this moment. Whereas Jesus would say, it has nothing to do with that. if that's the case, Jesus only died for 60 % of your sins because you're a 6 out of 10. Now, the Bible would say that Jesus Christ's sacrifice was sufficient enough for all of Sean's mistakes and all of Bryce's mistakes and all of human history's mistakes past, present, and future. So think about it like this.

2:04:00Like if we went to a Dallas Mavericks game and I had two courtside tickets to the Dallas Mavericks game and I gave them to you as your gift today when we started it off. I said, here, Sean, here's two courtside tickets to the Dallas Mavericks game. And next week you flew to the Dallas Mavericks game and you win and you walk through and they scan the ticket and you walk down all the way down to courtside and the security guy stops you and says, hey, wait, hold on, wait a second. Where do you think you're going? What are you going to say? You say, well, I got tickets. And he's going to say, well, why should I let you in?

2:04:36Well, because Bryce gave me these tickets. These tickets were a gift. And so that's why I'm able to get in. In the same way, that's how salvation works. Like it is a gift from God. Nothing that we do is going to get us into heaven. The standard for heaven is perfection. It's righteousness. And I'm not going to speak on behalf of you. I'll speak on behalf of me. I'm a jacked up human being that's made a load of mistakes and has a lot of bad past mistakes. And you know what? I'll probably continued to make mistakes unintentionally. But the fact of the matter is Jesus Christ's death on the cross and the fact that he defeated death means that he defeated our sin.

2:05:16He defeated the thing that we can't escape. So if we put our faith and trust in that, it wipes our slate clean as if we've never done anything wrong. The book of Malachi would tell us that God drops our sin in the sea of forgetfulness as if we've never done anything wrong. Now, because we have been given such a gracious gift from God, Paul writes about this in the book of Romans. He says, oh, so now that you've been forgiven, does that mean you should just go and do whatever the crap you want? He goes, absolutely not. That is abusing God's grace. We don't abuse God's grace. The book of Titus tells us that God's grace and his salvation actually fuels us to walk this faith that put our money where our mouth is.

2:05:58And so we have to change perspective. The idea of faith without works is saying that the works identify whether someone's faith is sincere. The works don't get us into heaven. That was the other thing I was going to say is, you know, there's a lot that when I think about, oh, am I going to heaven or am I going to hell? I mean, it's more than good works and sins and all that kind of stuff. That was the next thing I was going to bring up is my faith strong enough. Mm-hmm.

2:06:29All right, everybody, listen up. If you've got pans in your kitchen right now that are warped, burnt up, or everything sticks to them, it's time to let them go because spring cleaning isn't just about your closet, it's about your kitchen too. I've been using Hexclad, and I'm telling you, these are easily, by far, the best pans I've ever used. What surprised me the most is you get the real sear like stainless steel, but cleanup is just as easy as nonstick. And I don't have to baby them either. I can use metal utensils, throw them in the dishwasher, or oven, and they still hold up. Most cookware makes you choose between performance and convenience, but hex clad, well, they give you both.

2:07:12And there's a reason guys like Gordon Ramsay use them, and it's because they work. Don't go through another spring using the same busted up pans you should have thrown out years ago. For a limited time only, our listeners get 10 % off your order with our exclusive link. Just head to hexclad.com slash SRS. Support our show and check them out at hexclad.com forward slash SRS. Make sure to let them know we sent you spring clean your kitchen the smart way with Hexclad. I legitimately wonder that. I mean, for me, sometimes it slips away a little bit. You know, sometimes fear sets in and I'm like, oh, shit, what happens if we die and it's just fucking lights out and that's it?

2:08:02That's it. We're done. Yeah. That's like the worst possible scenario. Sure. Like it. Everything just stops. Right. You know, and I think about this kind of stuff all the time. Yeah. And so when those thoughts creep in, I'm like, oh, shit. my faith isn't strong enough. I asked you your question. If there was a miracle that God could do for you today, what would it be? You said, strengthen my faith, keep it strong. Right. And so that's, that's just another thing that goes into it. Another thing is, I mean, am I, you know, am I, we're talking about the anointed thing earlier? Am I doing what you want me to do or have i i'm human we all justify things in our head we're masters at justifying why we do fucked up things in the world yeah and it's like oh yeah like like like like something that's been on my mind maybe maybe even been on my i've invested in some very prominent defense tech companies yeah i mean i don't know was that a good thing i don't know yeah one of the investments i made while i had that on my conscience yeah and i'm like maybe i'm just maybe i'm just fearing this because maybe or maybe i shouldn't be doing it sure is this going to do good for my family yeah well if it pays off it will yeah well what did it what did the investment and do for the rest of the world?

2:09:39It's weapons. Yeah. I don't know. Is it good to invest in a defense tech company that's going to defend our nation and keep us safe, but it's also going to, you know, it's war? You know, that's a fascinating question. I think... Maybe I made the wrong decision. It was on my heart, and I fucking invested anyways. Right. I don't know. You know what I mean? Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, faith biblically defined as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen. So, the fact that like you have moments of like wavering faith, doubts are natural. They're natural.

2:10:19Like I question too, even Batman had dark nights, you know? So, we can't just shake, like we can't shake. And that's why immediately after that passage in Matthew 7, like when it says, depart from me, you works of lawlessness, then Jesus now encourages followers of him to build their foundation on the rock, which is him. Build your foundation on me, not your stuff. Build it on me. Build it on my word. This unwavering thing that's not going to change. And so I have moments of wondering, man, am I doing the right thing? Like, what if I have them too? I'm a human. We're all human. I mean, is Jesus really real?

2:11:00Like, what if I'm just preaching a bunch of nonsense right now? What if I'm doing it? I mean, I think we need to acknowledge you. You have the same thoughts every once in a while. Absolutely. Absolutely. And anyone that looks at you, I'm not going to speak before anyone and say anyone that looks at you and says not is lying to you. But I think our human nature, we need to be honest. Like, I have doubts. I mean, even look at Thomas. When Jesus is resurrected in his physical body, he's like, I'll believe him when I see it. the resurrected Jesus appears in front of him and he's like, nope, not enough.

2:11:30I got to put my fingers in the holes. Like think about him. The resurrected Jesus in his physical body is standing from me to you. And he's like, nope, not enough. I got to put my fingers in the holes. Wow. Like our human nature, it's there, but I don't think it's inherently wrong for us to do that. But that's when, you know, I can't absolutely prove that Jesus Christ is God. I can't prove to you that God exists. I can't prove to you that when we die, it either goes all black or there's a heaven and hell. I can look at where does the overwhelming amount of evidence point to? What does the overwhelming amount of evidence?

2:12:09Because the reality is, let's say it goes all black, nihilism. Let's do it. Well, that leads us down a whole lot of rabbit holes. That means your life has no purpose and my life has no purpose. That means every podcast guest that has sat in this chair, those conversations were fruitless. They mean nothing. What was the purpose of them? No purpose. If there is no God and it goes all black, then where does our moral code come from? Well, it's your truth and my truth. Well, Hitler had his own truth and I don't know about you, but I mean, what he did was pretty messed up. And the guy that shot up Sandy Hook had his own truth, and that's pretty messed up.

2:12:45Well, hold on, that's wrong. No, no, no, no, you can't say that. It's your truth and my truth, because where does the moral standard come from? So, if you and I believe in objective morality, that there is a truth standard, then we have to ask ourselves the question, where does this truth standard come from? If this objective truth standard is here, is it from a God? And if so, which God should we look at for this objective truth standard to come from. And I think through the narrative of scripture, the overwhelming evidence of the manuscripts that we have along with eyewitness accounts and along with the sustaining nature of history, we should look to Jesus Christ being God.

2:13:24And that's where like that stability a little bit comes from. It's like, I'm putting all my poker chips in on Jesus because I think that same dynamic you mentioned earlier. Well, like what happens if I like believe in Jesus and it goes all black. Well, what did it do to you to, you know, quote unquote, be a better person? If it goes all black, what does it even mean to be a better person? But let's just use that language for the time being. Like, what did it hurt you to serve more and show up more for people and love people more?

2:13:57I mean, then you brought up something too. I mean, and I actually had not heard this, but you're talking about doing good deeds. And I've heard that he likes it when you do good deeds. I've heard it doesn't matter. You're kind of on the side where it doesn't matter, it sounds like. Well, not that it doesn't matter. It matters. Just not in the way that we tend to perceive in our brain that it matters. Because there's things I... I mean, I am a huge believer in always rooting for the underdog, and when you find success, you have to pass that along to the next person. You have to pay it forward. And, you know, I think that I can do this through exactly what I'm doing right now.

2:14:43And, or whatever. I mean, a lot of lives have been changed from coming on the show. and that makes me feel good that i was able to pay it forward like that you know and and and yeah i mean i hope that even for this interview i hope that god is smiling down on us and going

2:15:14that's what you should be doing you know and i think about it all the time but it sounds like you're kind of saying that's not the way to live. Well, we have to understand like the purpose of the works because there is purpose in the works, right? The purpose of the works is not so that Sean and Bryce can climb their way to heaven. Every God and all of the religions, there was this description described as if God was on the top of the mountain and the Buddhists was on one side. And if you looked a little bit further, the Muslim was on another side. And if you looked a little bit further, the Hindu was on another side.

2:15:45And if you looked a little bit further, there was another religion and they're all climbing their way up the mountain. The Taoist monk was on one side and they're working their way to perfection. Jesus Christ is the only God out of every religion where Jesus comes down from the mountain and meets people where they're at. And so the dilemma I had a couple months before that suicide attempt when I was 17 was, if I have a broken heart and I live in a broken world and I can't even fix my broken heart in a broken world, how could I ever work to perfection? It's impossible. Rather, the fact that Jesus Christ met me where I'm at, that fuels me to live this thing out.

2:16:23It's like, I don't do things because I have to. I do things because I want to, because I love him. I wanted to eat ice cream every morning for breakfast and my dad didn't let me do it. I didn't listen to him because I had to. I listened to him because I loved him and I wanted to listen to him. In the same way, I don't follow the teachings of Jesus because I feel like God's threatening me. I do it because I'm motivated by his love for me. God showed me this radical love that he was willing to die for me. I mean, you know, you served for our country. You really know what it looks like to lay your life down for people.

2:16:58You really know what it looks like to be in the midst of war and suffering and all of these, these intense environments to lay your life down for people that may not even know you. Jesus Christ did that for humanity, past, present, and future. He did that for us, that overwhelming amount of love to go, man, God really loved me enough. So I'm going to do everything to love him back and love people. And so my love for him fuels me to stop doing this certain thing. His love for me fueled me to go, I'm going to leave the porn behind because that's actually not where true love is found and true life is found.

2:17:32The Bible says in the book of John that Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus comes to give life and life abundantly.

2:17:43sometimes i think this stuff just gets way too complicated too do you know what i mean oh i'm right there with you i mean discernment everybody has their you know their interpretation of the bible i grew up catholic i still i still consider myself Catholic. I go back and forth from the Catholic Church to non-denominational. I think we'll get into that later, but I think, I don't know. And you're a lot more well-versed in this than I am, but I think maybe there is a possibility that God never intended any of this to be so damn complicated. And if you break it down, it really comes down to good and evil and one's always trying to take over the other and so if you back to setting the example planting a seed if you can be the example that you want other people to be that which is good and you pay it forward and you share you lift up people that maybe aren't whatever is successful or whatever whatever the fuck you want to call it and you you just are constantly spreading good which is not you know then that overtakes evil and if you're spreading evil then that's amplifying evil and setting an example that other people are going to follow.

2:19:22Everybody has influence over somebody, you know? And so if you use that influence and you use it for selfish reasons and spread evil, then that's, then that begins to amplify. If you use it to spread good, good begins to amplify. In the end, one takes over the other. We know what that is. Do you think it could be literally that damn simple? Well, I think there's an aspect to God where he's not trying to do mental gymnastics with us to get to understand that he loves us, he sees us, and he sent his son to die on the cross for our sins and defeat sin and death on the third day. God is not trying to do mental gymnastics with us there.

2:20:03Now, we're also talking about an infinite God here. There's going to be abstract things and intense things that aren't fully comprehensible to the human brain. And to me, that makes me love God in a sense more because I'm like, man, you really are that holy. There are aspects about you that I don't fully understand. You really are compelling. But you mentioned paying it forward. And I love the heart behind that and do good. But what even is good? Doing good unto what? Where does that good come from? Where does the standard of good come from? The heart. The heart. Well, every human heart is different, right?

2:20:40My heart and your heart could be different. I mean, we can agree for the most part. I think human beings can naturally agree for the most part on moral code. But where does that moral code come from? I mean, you have the Jeffrey Dahmers, you have cannibalistic tribes around the globe still, you have the Hitlers, you have the dictators, you have war and rumors and people that think that rape is okay, people that think that all these things is okay. So, where does the good come from? Because they might be thinking that they're doing good by trying to convince people that their way is better. So if morality, good and evil, is subjective, then...

2:21:16I don't think it's subjective. Do you really think it's subjective? I think it's objective. I don't think it is subjective. I think it is objective. I think that there is a truth standard. But if it is subjective, then hypothetically, we can't tell people watching or listening right now that what they're doing is right or wrong. Let's say that there's someone watching and listening and it's like, I'm not really in it. I'm not the kind of guy that likes to pay things forward. I like to keep all my money to myself and I don't like to bless people. Well, if morality is subjective, you can't tell that guy that what he's doing is right or wrong because it's coming from his heart.

2:21:52So it's like, well, hold on a second. There has to be some sort of standard for us. And I believe that that moral code comes from God. And because we have that moral code, that's why the standard of heaven is perfection. And you and I were wicked people, we've done wrongdoing, and that's why we need Jesus to enter into the scene and pay the price for our wrongdoing, to set the record straight, to write our names in the book of life so that we can be with him for an eternity. And I'm all about serving people. We need to serve people. We need to live this thing called Christianity out. If I claim to be a Christian, and you saw videos of me preaching on the street, and then we went to dinner tonight, and I got slapped drunk, and then I started cheating on my wife, and then I started doing other things, Would you think I was a Christian?

2:22:37Probably not. But my works are not getting me into heaven. My salvation is secure. And so the reason I gave that example, the 110 thing was going like, Sean, if you've put faith in Jesus, like you can be secure. And knowing like, man, I am set straight. What Jesus did for me is enough. And because he did for me, there's no period. And because he did that for me, it fuels me to live this thing out. Like I would not be able to live the life that I'm living and try my best to love Jesus with my whole heart and live by the Word of God if it wasn't for what He did for me on the cross. So that is what has to compel us to live a life that's giving glory to God.

2:23:15And in that, God speaks and He teaches and such like that. I like that. Let's go back to L.A. Back to L.A. So when did this turn officially into your ministry? Well, I had mentioned we were doing like all those Bible studies and house churches and feeding the homeless and serving in all these different things. And so I was in this state again where I'm like, God, what's my thing for you? Like, what do you want me to do for you? Kind of in that same spot. Like, what do you want me to do? And in May of 2023, I had a dream that I believe God spoke to me. And in this dream, I'm in my grandma's house in the dream.

2:23:59and there's a man sitting at the table and I'm talking to my grandma. So, Grandma, I don't even know what to do with my life. I don't know the purpose. And she's like, go talk to that man at the table. And so I walk and sit down at the table and it is a man by the name of Lauren Cunningham. Lauren Cunningham is the founder of a Christian missions organization called Youth With a Mission, YWAM. They're based out of Hawaii, Kona, Hawaii, but their whole purpose is training up Christians to be sent everywhere in the 1040 window to all the nations and preach the gospel. Lauren Cunningham has been to every country and continent, even Antarctica.

2:24:34I've never even met the guy. The guy had been dead a few years before I had this dream. And in this dream, he looks at me and says, Bryce, God's calling you to stay in your own backyard, stay in America. And you're going to reach the nations by focusing in America. And I want you to talk to the darkest people, go to the darkest places and the darkest events and preach the gospel, reaching the lost, and have those videos encourage people to be bold for their faith. I woke up at about 3 a.m. sobbing from that dream. I don't really have dreams. I normally just go to sleep and wake up. I don't really dream.

2:25:06And so I knew that when I was having the dream, it was significant. And so I'm like, man, God, if that's what you want me to do, I'm going to do it. And so then that began the process. A couple weeks later, I met up with a friend of mine that I had had for a long time named Josh. And I was like, just randomly, I was like, Josh, what are you passionate about? He's like, man, I think I really want to capture things on video for God. And I was like, well, I got to tell you, I think I want to capture things on video for God. And then I shared with him the dream, and he was like, I'm in. And so we formed a nonprofit organization because we had no money.

2:25:42And we were like, hey, if you guys want to support the mission, if you're passionate about seeing the gospel go forth, but you've got families or you're in college and you can't be sent, send us out. Like, we'll go. We'll go to the darkest places. And then in February 1st of 2024, that's when we began the following year. Wow. What does success versus sacrifice mean to you? I think there's sacrifice and success. And I think, you know, with sacrifice, when you follow Jesus, the Bible tells us that it costs something to follow Him, that we must deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him. There's going to be preferences and comfort that you like, that I like, that we might have to sacrifice to follow Jesus, you know, but there might not be.

2:26:27And so with sacrifice, I mean, I am sacrificing my preferences and comfort. Like, would I prefer to live in the most expensive and arguably one of the darkest cities in America and newly married and navigating life out there and ministry and doing that? or would I be more comfortable if I had a stable job with a flip phone in a quiet area closer to my family? I have preferences in comfort, but there's some sacrifices that have to be made because I'm trying to be obedient to Jesus, what I believe he's calling me to do. And that's okay. You know, Jesus didn't say it was going to be easy. We talked about it earlier, but I think that's what success is.

2:27:09It's loving God and stewarding what he's given us. And right I'm doing my best, and I have moments. I fail, and I'm human. But I really want to try to do my best to be open-handed with God. The second that, you know, God places something in your hand, and you grip it, and you don't want to let it go, you've lost. That thing's become an idol, and I try to live open-handed. You know, if God told us to stop doing what we're doing, I'd stop. Do you ever feel like you need to test yourself? In what way? Taking a break, walking away from it, coming back if you feel called back. You know, I've been convicted about the Sabbath, like creating a consistent rhythm of rest.

2:27:48Like I tend to have the struggle that you have where it's like I love what I do. Like I love to work and I love to put effort. And I've always, I don't know about you, but my creative juice has always flown and I'm always thinking of new things. Like how can we reach more people? How can we do this? How can we do that? And really my wife helped give me a heart check a lot and gives me a lot of heart checks of like, hey, like, you know, like this is all cool. But like what matters more? Are you able to differentiate what's your ego and what's what's your calling? I would say definitely better now than a few years ago.

2:28:19And I think one of the best things I did is I surrounded myself with people that aren't impressed by me. Because if you're impressed by someone, you're too scared to tell them, oh, I don't think you should do that. Like if you only surrounded yourself with yes men and you were doing something wrong, they wouldn't they wouldn't tell you you were doing something wrong. And so I want to be surrounded by people that aren't yes men that can wound me with their words for the sake of my soul that's who I want to surround myself with and and that's who I try to keep in my inner circle and Those people keep me on track and challenge me and keep my heart pure And I also have like some mentors that I also talked to I think we need more mentors and fathers to step in our lives as well Where's the where is the first darkest place that you went the first darkest place was Venice Beach I mean, how did you, what did you do?

2:29:06Did you research it? Did it just pop in your head? What, how did you decide where you're going? I woke up and I was like, where are we going? We went to Venice Beach. And, uh, it's like, wait, just basically like blind pick a spot in LA. No, I'm just kidding. It's like, uh, we went to visit Venice Beach and there was a Satanist guy out there, Satanist atheist guy. And that was the first like dude that we talked to. And he rejected me and was kind of mean towards And I remember walking away thinking, wow, it's gonna be a whole lot harder than I thought. And then we posted the video, and a little short-form clip went online.

2:29:42Ten million people saw it. First video we ever posted. And so that was like the first video we had ever filmed and uploaded, and since that day, we've reached almost two billion people with a B. Wow. And through social media, digital and in-person media. but then that started leading then we started finding the people it almost felt like even god was sending the people to us like i pulled up to the library one time there's just a satanist chilling outside like when's the last time you ever went to the library and a satanist is just hanging outside the door you know what i mean i don't see many satanists maybe i do but i don't notice them but well i didn't think they existed until i moved to la and i started meeting people that believed in that.

2:30:26Do you see a lot of them over there? I mean, you see more than you would think exist, but some of them are, like, expressive with their clothes, and sometimes you just meet in conversation. Sometimes you can tell by their tattoos and stuff like that. But that's one of the reasons why I have tattoos, is so I can, I don't know, people feel, like, more approachable and relatable and, you know, not so... I mean, dude, that's why I'm wearing Lightning McQueen Crocs right now in a T-shirt and sweatpants. Yeah, I want to feel inviting and caring. But that's where it all started. And we just started bouncing all over.

2:31:02Different cities, different places. We went to the Burning Man Festival. How was that? That's probably the darkest place I've ever been. Are you serious? It was worse than the Satanic Temple. Why? Well, they advertise it as an art festival. That's what they advertise it as. Like, it's an art-free-thinking festival. So Burning Man becomes the second largest city in Nevada for a week. 70 ,000 to 80 ,000 people go there for an entire week. And it's not a free-thinking art festival. It's a big LSD orgy. That's what it is. I remember when we walked in there, and it is like, from an aerial view, it looks like, I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Maze Runner, but it just looks like a ginormous maze, like, from in there.

2:31:45And you walk in there, and they've got, like, a purple school bus with blacked-out windows, and it's the orgy bus, and they have times for group sex on there. And then next to it, you have an electrolyte station. And then next to it, you've got, you know, a cannabis shop. And then the next to it, you got people's tents. And next to it, you got like a dance party. And people are walking around no clothes, old people, new people, sleeping with everybody, doing drugs with everybody. And I'll never forget, we entered into the thing. And I looked up, and I noticed that there were naked people immediately.

2:32:17And I immediately pulled my head down. And I was like, God, protect my eyes. Like, I've got a beautiful girlfriend, my now wife. Like, protect my eyes. I'm here to do mission work. I only saw naked men the rest of the day. So God was, like, protecting my eyes and protecting my heart. But it was dark, man. Like, it's just people lost and in search and in need of Jesus, but they won't turn to him. But we had some of the most fruitful conversations there. Really? I mean, are you expecting to talk to a Christian at Burning Man Fest? I would assume not. Absolutely. You know, you're not planning on it.

2:32:53And then they have that big statue, you know, that they burn at the end of the week, the man. And, like, whether you like it or not, like, sometimes people worship that thing. Sometimes people don't. They have a big temple that they burn. A lot of the stuff that they build there is burnable. So by the end of the week, they burn it. It was very fascinating. I couldn't believe it was real. A lot of high-profile people there that wouldn't want you to know that they were there. And it's just like people live a double life. that was like the realest double life i've ever seen will you go back i don't know like high profile ceos doing just wild stuff a-list celebrities that are covered in you know you know it's it's a the middle of the desert black rock desert you know you know wearing turbans hiding the you know the wind and goggles and i don't know if i'll go back only if god calls me there that's why we went because we felt like god called us there we didn't go last year because we felt like God wasn't asking us to go back.

2:33:47And it was really dark. Like, I don't know how to explain it. The weight on your chest and going in there and feeling uneasy and what's going on. But we were able to talk to people and have fruitful conversations and reach people. It was amazing. I mean, we definitely looked like the odd ones out. I got offered LSD twice when I was walking around. And I was like, no, but I got something better than LSD. Really? What is it? It's Jesus. It's Jesus. So it's better. He's better than LSD. But, yeah. Man, you were there the whole time. No, just for a day. Just for a day? Yeah, I could not handle that.

2:34:27Shit, man. Yeah, it was just a day. I was like, I had to really take a couple days off afterwards because I was like, that was heavy. How'd you meet your wife? Well, I went to a small private Christian school, and she went to a big public school in the city next door, and she was very beautiful and popular, and I was not very beautiful and popular. And so in the eighth grade, I knew who she was, admired her from afar, thought she was absolutely gorgeous, became a Christian, graduated high school, would randomly think of her every now and then because I just thought she was so beautiful in high school.

2:35:00She had no idea who I was. And then one day, we're doing that Bible study out of my apartment Wednesday night. My roommate runs in, all of a sudden, she walks in my apartment for the Bible study. And I about poofed my pants because I'm like, you got to be kidding me. This girl is inside my apartment. How is this even possible? And so I walked up to her and introduced myself to her. And I was so awkward. I could barely talk. I'm an extrovert. She didn't know who I was. I knew who she was. I said, hi, my name is Bryce. She said, hi, I'm Maddie. And I went, I know. Talk about blow up a potential relationship.

2:35:34And then a couple of days later, my roommate that runs the Bible study and I, we did a road trip with Maddie and her roommate at the time to Waffle House, because the closest Waffle House was in Phoenix, Arizona. So we drove there and drove back, and I really got to know Maddie on that road trip. And I thought, man, I just think she's incredible. But I kept praying and asking God, like, can I take her out on a date? Can I take her out on a date? Almost like I would, you know, knock on her actual dad's house, and be like, hey, can I take you on a date? So I did that for a while, and then got to know her heart, her character.

2:36:08We dated for two years, got engaged, in october of 25 married in january of 26 right on ben thank you congratulations that's awesome thank you hometown girl come on it's the best life do it right it makes holidays easy you know because we can just go we can go back and have fun good point good point furry con what Oh, man. Oh. Furry con. I think the furry community, as much as I love them as human beings, I think it is a massive deception that we don't talk about. What is this? Are these the kids that are going to school, and they think they're... Animals in the mascot costumes and, yeah, things like that.

2:36:53So when you go to the furry convention... So there's adults that do this? A lot of them are adults. I would say over half of them are adults like in their 50s yeah so when we went I would argue furry con was just as dark as burning man I would argue it and uh how many people are at this thing oh man like I'm trying to think we just went to one at the like in q3 of last year I'm trying to think maybe like a thousand and they do them all over the country so we went to one in in California Maybe like a little less than a thousand, but they're just in the mascot costumes. They're acting like they're animal.

2:37:35They got this persona on and they claim like, oh, it's just like a character. It's just this. It's just that. But then like the first one we ever went to, my thing is Jesus says be as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove. So when we go into environments, I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb, but I'm not going to put on a furry costume. I'm not going to put on a furry costume. So I went in the exhibit hall to try to find a t-shirt. Well, they didn't have any t-shirts in there. It was all, you know, tails and mascot heads and, you know, furry heads and whatever. And then I noticed that there was a roped off section and I should have used two cents in my brain.

2:38:12I had to show them my ID to get into the roped off section because it was another exhibit hall. It was an 18 plus explicit exhibit hall. They're selling like sexual furry items in there and like sexual posters of cartoon furries and body pillows and all this weird sexual stuff. And it just felt like people were getting groomed. That's what it felt like. And, you know, the thing that really breaks my heart is the fact that people feel like that they have to identify, identify with a persona. Like be who God has made you to be. Like if God has called you, if God has made you a man, like be a man.

2:38:52If God has called you to be a woman, be a woman. Be who God has made you to be. But you don't have to hide your personality behind a costume or a persona. It was arguably just as dark as Burning Man. And we had a lot of fruitful conversations. We got asked to leave the first one two years ago. And then this one that we went to, we were able to stay a little bit. And we didn't get, quote unquote, kicked out. But, I mean, people were hungry for Jesus. I think that's the cool— Yeah, everyone's hungry for Jesus, more than you would think. More than you would think. And, you know, I think that's our job.

2:39:37It's like we are so afraid to tell people about Jesus because we're like, oh, they're going to reject it. Like, oh, that's the immediate thought. But Jesus says that the harvest is ripe. Many people are ready. He says the laborers are few. Not enough people are doing it.

2:39:54Wow. These things just pop in your head. You're like, all right, going. I know. I got an interesting brain, don't I? I'm just like, man, I want to... Well, because I'm so... I didn't even know they had furry conventions. Oh, yeah. I mean, they got meetups. You can find them on X and stuff like that. You know, Telegram. The furries really congregate on Telegram. I've been in a couple group chats, but that's about it, like, to know. But I mean, I'm so committed to talking to these people because these are the people that society writes off. These are the people that say, oh, they're too far gone.

2:40:30Oh, no, you can never reach them. Oh, they would never want Jesus. Oh, they would never that. And I think the total opposite. If you can be so extreme for something that's not true, how much more on fire could you be for something if you found out it was the truth? That's why I'm passionate about these groups and these people. What happened at Auburn University? Oh, man, Auburn University. Well, I love Auburn University. I think it's a great place. I got all my hometown friends go to school there. We started doing some campus debates. So that last year in the spring of 25, we did a few test runs at a couple of SEC schools that were gracious enough to invite us.

2:41:10Auburn was one of them. We did two full days on the green, about four hours apiece. and we just talked about Jesus and preached the gospel and answered questions about Jesus. And we partnered with a campus ministry there. Then we did their campus night. And then I've done two, one this year, or one in 2025 and one in 2024 did a fraternity event. I did one for just the fraternities and then we did one for the fraternities and the sororities where we and then answered questions about faith. And to see young people. The first time we went there, when we did it on the lawn, I think we had 1 ,500 people come out on the first day.

2:41:50And then the second day, like a little under 1 ,000 maybe. Wow. And just back-to-back days for hours in the sun, just hours sitting there taking the heat and just listening and learning about Jesus and catching people walking by and things like that and having dialogue about faith. And then the fraternity thing I'm passionate about, fraternities. And so, we did one for all the fraternities at Auburn, and then we did another one for both all the fraternities and all the sororities. Wow. I mean, you're doing debates, too? What are you debating? Yeah. So, we're going to be doing some campus debates in the fall.

2:42:25So, open air tabling, particularly about Christianity, because we need to train believers globally through digital media how to defend the faith, that you can have respectful conversations and disagree. But also, we want to plead the case for Christianity. So, we're going to be going to college campuses. We've already gotten over 2 ,500 requests in our form to go to campuses. So, there's a desire. Not only do people want us to come, but they just desire their campus to know Jesus. And so, we're actively learning, you know, how can we come to these campuses and not only just show up and leave. Like, we want to be able to partner with the campus ministries on campus and equip them to reach their own classmates as well.

2:43:07Because if we just show up and leave, what do we do? Nothing but an event. But if we show up and equip and leave, it's not just an event, it's a movement. And the movement's bigger than one person. It's not about Bryce, it's about Jesus. And so we want everyone in this place to know. I mean, imagine this thing called Christianity, it's not limited to a language, it's not limited to a nation barrier. I mean, Christianity is for anyone that breathes oxygen. And so if we can train people to do so, we're going to do it. We're going to debate other religions, Islam, Mormonism, Hinduism, you name it, in respectful dialogue while also answering tough questions about Christianity.

2:43:47Man. You know, Gen Z is seeing this huge wave back into Christianity, correct? Yep. What is it about your generation that you think is pulling that draw? Well, phones are the gateway to a lot of vices now. And you can get access to vices quick. And so I think because of the influx of access to many different things, Gen Z has been able to obtain a lot of sinful desires very quickly and very frequently. And I think they're tired of it. They're tired of fluff and they want the truth. And so that's why I think Christianity is so attractive because it's pretty plain cut. This is who Jesus is. This was his life.

2:44:35He died on the cross and defeated death. If you want him, you want him. If you don't, you don't. God's going to respect the choices. It's on the table. And I think that there's this deep desire for truth because people are tired of being fed lies. And that's the thing that's really making me so frustrated about how good this technology has gotten now because now we're making videos and pictures with technology that looks more real than life itself. It's so hard to understand what's the truth. Like when something breaks online, I don't even know if what I'm reading is true now. I don't even know if the video I'm seeing online is a real video.

2:45:09And so that's why it's important that we go to these campuses and we teach the students and we talk to Gen Z specifically about Jesus is because we have to be ready. Godlessness is rising every day. We're one step closer to Jesus returning and we're also one step further into a bunch of suffering. I feel like every time we turn on the news, it's only bad news. Every time I open my phone, it's only bad junk. And there's this thing that we need Jesus, and so we need the Word of God to do so.

2:45:39What do you think the difference is between Christianity and Catholicism, or Protestants and Catholicism? You know, I'm proudly a Protestant Christian, and I have Catholic friends, and I even have Orthodox friends that sincerely love Jesus. I also think that there's Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians and Orthodox believers that don't sincerely love Jesus. There's denominational differences. There's things that I appreciate about Catholicism that I respect that I think Protestants need to learn a little bit more from. And there's also some things about Catholicism that I disagree with.

2:46:22But you know what's so fascinating to me is that we preach against self-harm and mental health, but the body of Christ cuts itself every day. When we argue with each other over secondary issues and tetrary issues, when we really agree on the primary, but we're arguing over who's better and who's the real true church, I think that we need to see a unity. Like some things that I appreciate about Catholicism in particular are like, I love the reverence for tradition and church history. I think it's important. I think that we should look more back on it as Protestants. I think there's incredible church fathers that we receive a lot of our doctrine from today that we don't understand.

2:47:00Like this guy named Tertullian before 300 AD coined the literal term Trinity, like where we get that like label for the triune God. He was the one that coined that term. The Nicene Creed, a lot of our doctrine comes from there. There's amazing things about church history. The Desert Fathers are an incredible read. I think we should look back on church history. I also think the sacraments, the Catholic Church has a deep reverence and respect that I think Protestants tend to just casually walk through without respect. I think that baptism is beautiful. I'm not convinced. This is one thing that I'm not convinced, but I'm challenged on.

2:47:37I'm not convinced that communion is literally the flesh of Christ and literally the blood of Christ. but a popular Protestant belief is that communion is just a symbol. I do not believe communion is just a symbol, but I have not been fully convinced that it turns into the physical blood and the physical flesh. I think that there's this beautiful holy middle ground because a sacrament is a holy gesture before the Lord. And I think that the reverence and respect that Catholics and Orthodox brothers and sisters have for the sacraments is beautiful. I think we need more of that. But there's also some things that I disagree with and I haven't been fully convinced, and that's okay.

2:48:15But I think that we should figure out how we can unite as believers under the truth that we want to see people know Christ. I think that's the main focus. It seems like you have some pretty strong feelings about Islam as well. I do. I do have some strong feelings about Islam. Let's hear them. I think Islam is the Antichrist. Really? Yeah, and I say that confidently and boldly, and I'm not going to shy down from it. I love Muslims as people, but Islam as a religion is a religion of war and a religion of division and a religion of, if you don't do what I say, you will be punished for it. And I don't agree with it.

2:48:54The prophet Muhammad, 600 years after Jesus was born, is visited according to the Hadiths, which are about 85 % of Muslims are considered Sunni Muslims. So I'm going to talk as if we're talking to the major population of Islam here. According to the Hadiths, Muhammad was visited by the angel Gabriel. And if you read the Hadiths, he's visited by the angel Gabriel and he is squeezed and he is pressed and beaten by this angel. And it's laughable for me to think that they're claiming an angel visited him in a cave. Because every time you read the Bible and an angel visits someone, they get afraid and they say, wait, don't be afraid.

2:49:43They comfort the person that they visit. But for some reason, Muhammad is beaten to the ground and squeezed and tortured by this so-called angel. So much so that he tried to kill himself multiple times. Jump off of a mountain. Their own writings record this. no eyewitnesses to this. He goes back home to his wife, Khadijah. It says, I had this wild thing in the cave happen. And she's like, oh, you're a prophet sent from God. And she's like, let me go take you to my Christian buddy. And I'm going to mispronounce his name, but his name's like Warak or Waraka. So they go to this Christian buddy and he's like, oh yeah, I mean, if all that sounds true, I mean, you must be a prophet sent from God.

2:50:26Well, a few days later, that dude died. And that was where that period of time spiraled where Muhammad tried to kill himself multiple times. Until finally he came to his senses at one point and said, wait, I must be a prophet sent from God. And so there we have the birth of Islam. Now, if you read the Quran, you'll notice that it's written in two different time periods. The first half of the Quran feels very inclusive. Jews and Christians are people of the book. Look to the Torah, look to the Injil to confirm our scriptures. But as you continue to read the book of Islam, it becomes less inclusive and more exclusive.

2:51:11It's either our way or the highway. Isn't that Christianity? Well, in a sense, but not in the sense that we're going to physically kill you over it. Not that we're going to physically punish you for it. So this is how it starts, right? There's three stages of Islam. Here's the first stage. America's in the first stage right now. It looks like woke Islam. They're inclusive. You have Muslims who are okay with trends and homosexual ideologies. But if I went to the Gaza Strip as a gay man, and I went in the street and said, I am gay, before I could finish that sentence, I'd be murdered in the street.

2:51:47But here in America, the Muslims are okay with it. They're tolerating it. Why? Because they're the minority. right now. They're trying to come in. Stage two is what's happening in Germany and in Europe. They've invaded that country and basically taken political power. No, if you say something that you disagree with the Muslims, they're not going to physically hurt you, but you know what they're going to call you? They're going to call you an Islamophobe. Well, you're Islamophobic. I'm not afraid of you, nor am I angry because I hate you as a moral person. I'm angry at what your religion is doing.

2:52:22I'm angry at the division it's causing. And then stage three is Islam that you would see in the Middle East. And that is if you do not convert to Islam, home to Allah, they will kill you if you do not conform to their ways. And America's in stage one. And I believe Islam is the Antichrist because if you look at the eschatology of what happens in Islam, the end times of Islam compared to the end times in Christianity, all the bad stuff for the Christians is like the good stuff for the Muslims. I don't think that's coincidence. 600 years after this, and the Bible tells us that Satan can appear...

2:53:03What do you mean the bad stuff for Christians is the good stuff for Islam? So here's an example, right? So in the end times, we believe in a massive falling away as believers. We believe that in the end times, according to Christianity, that there is going to be a mass falling away. Well, in Islam, they believe in a mass conversion. In the book of Revelation, we read that a beast will rise from the sea. And if you take the mark of the beast, you'll be condemned. In certain Islamic traditions, some that are still respected and received today, some Islamic traditions and writings say that a beast will rise from the sea.

2:53:35And if you take the mark of Allah, you'll be saved. You know, the way that the martyrs were killed in the book of Revelation is through beheading. the number one way you kill people in jihad is through beheading why is that why are these similarities here do you think i don't think satan's an idiot he's not a red guy with pitch forks and horns he's seductive he's attractive and the bible tells us that he can appear as an angel of light and his demons as angels of righteousness he can appear as so and so time and time again, we hear about new religions and things like that. And the ultimate, I really have two major issues with Islam.

2:54:14And these things are like minor issues. Like look at the eschatology, look at how Muhammad got the revelation in the cave and where he got it. I really have two major issues with Islam and it's with the Quran and it's with Muhammad marrying a six-year-old. Those are the big issues I have with Islam. And I think we should stop overlooking it. Right on. Right on. Let's take a break. Starting something new isn't just hard, it's terrifying. Before I launched The Sean Ryan Show, those what-ifs were loud. What if nobody listens? What if this fails? Walking away from what's familiar to build your own thing takes real faith.

2:55:02But it ended up being one of the best decisions I've ever made. Whether you're starting a podcast or launching a store, it helps to have a partner like Shopify on your side to help ease those worries with their expertise and tools. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all e-commerce in the U.S. From household names like figs to brands that are just getting started today, one of the biggest hurdles is efficiency, and Shopify helps you accelerate that. Whether you're uploading new products or trying to improve existing ones, the platform is packed with helpful AI tools that can write your product descriptions, page headlines, and even enhance your product photography for you.

2:55:51They also allow you to tackle all your important tasks in one place, from inventory to payments to analytics. There's no need to juggle multiple websites. Everything is in one spot to make your operations smoother. And you've definitely seen that iconic purple ShopPay button is used by millions because Shopify has the best converting checkout on the planet. It helps boost your conversions, which means fewer abandoned carts and more sales for your business. It's time to turn those what-ifs into... with Shopify today. Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash srs. Go to shopify.com slash srs.

2:56:38That's shopify.com slash srs.

2:56:47all right bryce we're back from the break i want to continue this islam discussion a little bit where did we leave off do you remember yeah so we were talking about uh well two things that our issues with the quran and our issues with aisha which was one of muhammad's wives muhammad had married a six-year-old named aisha in islam essentially you know the dumbed down version of this is Muhammad has a friend, a good friend that's a part of this religion that writes some of these hadiths called Bacardi. And Bacardi's daughter was Aisha. And essentially what happened was Muhammad comes to Bacardi and it's like, hey, God told me that you're supposed to give me your daughter for marriage.

2:57:35And he's kind of like, what? That's a little interesting. And he then tells Bacardi that essentially Allah is going to strike you down if you don't give me your daughter. So, Aisha, at six-year-old, marries Muhammad. And at nine years old, he consummates their marriage by having sex with her. Muhammad had sex with a nine-year-old, married her when she was six years old. And the common objection you will hear from a Muslim is, oh, well, you know, she was at the age of puberty. You know, she had had her period. it was puberty, it was fine back in that time period, by no means. Because one of the most well-respected Muslim scholars on telling you and I and Muslims how to interpret the Hadiths would tell us both that she didn't hit puberty until she was 14 years old.

2:58:30And one of the most popular Muslim commentaries to teach people the Hadiths, he says, yeah, she didn't hit puberty until she was 14 years old. And one of the signs was because in the text, it tells us that Aisha played with dolls that was shameful in that culture unless you were a prepubescent girl and so we're looking at this and going well hold on a second we don't have like Muslims don't have an issue with it but we should have an issue with it as human beings Muhammad marries a six-year-old and has sex with her at nine and you know who tells us this in Islam Aisha herself personal testimony from Aisha describing that yep Muhammad married me when I was six and consummated our marriage when I was nine.

2:59:12I have a really big problem with that. We say peace be upon him as a prophet. Police be upon him. We need to call the police on Muhammad. He's got some big issues. So that's one of my issues with Muhammad. You've read this? You've read the Quran? Yes, I've read this in the Hadiths and in the Quran. These are in the Hadiths. So the Quran is like their word of God in Islam. But these Hadiths are highly respected documents where they get doctrine and information about Islam. The hadiths are, I don't want to do disrespect, like the Quran is a Quran. Like it's like, this is our word, but the hadiths are highly important in their culture as well.

2:59:52And Aisha gives personal testimony of her being six years old when Muhammad marries her. What got you interested in this? I'm just curious. Why did you decide to read the Quran? Well, I got interested in it because when we look in the Middle East and see all the Islamic regime issues that are going on, actually, like in the time period right now, like they're retaliating against the Islamic caliphate. So I'm not going to talk about it in this moment. But over the years, we've seen like a lot of issues with Islam, this religion. It's this religion of peace. And if you don't do what we say, we're going to kill you and we're going to hurt you and harass you.

3:00:31I mean, look at ISIS almost a decade ago with those 21 martyrs on the beach. Do you remember that? I spent a lot of time over there and I've seen a lot of shit. Yeah. So I don't remember that exactly, but I know what you're talking about. Yeah, just wicked stuff. Things like it. They killed 20 Coptic Orthodox Christians on the beach. There's a famous video of them making a video and beheading them on the beach. And then there was a young black man who had been arrested, and he didn't even know Jesus or anything. And he looked at the Islamic regime and saw their faith and said, whatever they are, I am.

3:01:07And they killed him, too. 21 martyrs. But I got fascinated by it because Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world. And so because of that— I've heard Christianity is now the fastest-growing religion in the world. It may be now. But in the West, right, we're seeing, and look, like the underground church in China is the biggest church in the world. Is it really? It is. It's the biggest church in the world. Yeah, it's incredible what God's doing in China right now. But statistically speaking, Islam grows at a rapid pace, unreal rapid. Oh, I know. I'm aware. And the thing with Islam is it's not just religion to them, it's culture.

3:01:48It's deeper than just, you know, we live in the South and we live so comfortable. well, you know, if someone disrespects Christianity, we're just kind of like, all right, whatever. Well, if someone disrespects Islam, then it's, oh, this is personal. This is a big deal. This is bread. This is culture. You can lie for the sake of Islam. Would you say they are a more righteous people than us? There's some aspects. Like, there's a lot of Muslims that pray more than Christians do. They give more than Christians do. They fast more than Christians do. Like, I respect that Muslims are like one with the law and it's like God is one.

3:02:26He's there and we just do whatever he says. Like, there is a devoutness, devotion to Allah and Islam. And I can respect that from an outsider view, disregarding my opinions about it. Like, I respect your devotion. Like, it's respectable. But the fruit of the religion and the fruit of being a true Muslim and the fruit of Islam isn't really fruit. It's just takeover and domination and submission. That's what it is. And now we're seeing Muslims challenging Christians. And this is really what made me get hyper fixated on it. We're seeing Muslims challenging Christians and saying, do you think the Bible has no flaws?

3:03:11and Christians say yes, and then they point to a scribal error that doesn't make the Bible flawed. And they say, look, look at this. There's a flaw in your Bible. And they make everyday people in America that just are labeled as Christians think that it's false just because they interacted with a Muslim on the street and the Muslim pulled out a Bible verse and said something about it. And so I got so hyper fixated on it because for a while I'm like, I've got to come up with every argument and every defense, and I've got to hyper fixate on this and that. And while all those things that we mentioned are great, this is where we get to the main problem of Islam, and that's what we call the Islamic dilemma.

3:03:44And the Islamic dilemma is essentially in the Quran in Surah chapter 3, or it's either Surah chapter 3 or Surah chapter 53. It talks about how the Quran can be confirmed if we just look back to the Torah and the Injil. The Injil would be considered the gospel. Well, if you ask a Muslim, what is the Injil, they can't tell you. They can't tell you what the gospel is. So which gospel would they be referring to? Well, they would obviously be referring to the scriptures that we have in our leather-bound Bible that you and I claim is the word of God and that we revere our faith to, right? Well, they say, well, the Bible is corrupt.

3:04:28Well, if the Quran says that we need to look back to the Bible to confirm that the Quran is true, if the Bible is corrupt, then that means the Quran is corrupt. So why would I want to become a Muslim. But then if the Bible is true and it says, well, look back to the Bible to confirm the Quran. Well, if we look back to the Bible, we shouldn't look to the Quran according to the scriptures. So this is the Islamic dilemma. It's a double-edged sword. If the scriptures are true, Islam is false. If the scriptures are false, Islam is false. And so it's this Islamic dilemma that still to this day, we have not seen an answer from a Muslim prove to us and give us an example or a few to this claim.

3:05:17Interesting. I didn't know a lot of this. It's very fascinating. I don't know too much, but there's some guys like God Logic and Sam Shamoon and Nabeel Qureshi, who formerly was Muslim and then converted. It took him seven years. he's dead now but they have phenomenal he wrote a book he did seeking a law finding jesus yep he's dead he's dead shit i just found that guy i was thinking about trying to get him on here yeah he had a he had pancreatic cancer and passed away um but he's got great stuff on islam as well right on right on interesting discussions end times the end times What do you think?

3:06:02Are we getting close? A lot of people think that. Well, the end times are the period in which we wait for Jesus to return a second time. So hypothetically, the apostles were in the end times after Jesus had ascended into heaven. So I do think there's this aspect of the end times where people are fear-mongering people. I literally watched a dude last year say, Jesus is going to return on September 23rd. I can't remember the date. I'm blanking on it. and he was doing a countdown of him selling all of his possessions and documenting it. And it was a really big deal on social media. And people were like, I'm having dreams.

3:06:37It's going to be on this date. And the Bible says no one knows the day or the hour. Okay. But people are like, oh, he's coming back on this date. And then that date came. And then we all went to sleep. And then we woke up. And I just couldn't stop cracking up about it. Because... We had a guy on the show say he was coming back Easter at 2026. Did he really? Yep. Oh, snap. Be ready, guys. I'm about to find out. It's going down. I could replay that clip here pretty soon. You know, it's fascinating because there's many parables. If we read Matthew 24 and 25, it's Jesus specifically talking about the end times.

3:07:16He's like, look, there's going to be wars and rumors of wars, and there's going to be certain things and aspects and birth pains. These are just the birth pains. These are just the beginning. See, I hear that and I think, this is every time period in my life. And my parents' life. And my grandparents' life. And my great-parent parents' life. Yep. Yep. And I think that's the aspect to the end times that's dangerous is, you know, for example, war breaks out in Iran recently. Oh, no, the end times is coming. Well, maybe. but like just because suffering is happening, that shouldn't make me try to get a get out of hell free card.

3:08:00Like my love for Jesus, like I am expectantly and joyfully waiting on Jesus' return because the promise of the scripture says when Jesus returns, he's going to end sin and suffering once and for all. And so as a believer, that's why Matthew 25 is so important because we read this parable about the parable of the 10 virgins and now there's 10 virgins and they're essentially a part of the bridal party of the bride, right? And so five of them have oil in their lamp and five of them don't. This oil represents the Holy Spirit. It represents intimacy with Jesus. And so they had no idea when the bridegroom would come and get their bride, but the ones who had oil in their lamps were able to go and be with the bridal party.

3:08:41And so we need to look at the imagery of scripture and what Jesus uses in the language he uses to talk about his return. and I believe that the ultimate depiction of the return of Christ, which should be how, I personally believe how we should perceive it is a Galilean wedding. And we see that imagery a lot throughout scripture. A Galilean wedding. What is that? Yeah. So essentially in like a Galilean wedding, you would have this thing called a betrothal, which was like a verbal agreement between the man and the woman saying, you want to get married? Yeah, I want to get married. Do you want to get married?

3:09:12Yeah, I want to get married. Let's get married. So it's almost like, I don't want to call it an engagement, but it's essentially like a verbal agreement. So we commit and it's like, great. The husband then leaves the bride and he goes back home to his father's house and he begins to build a room attached to his father's house for him and his future bride to live in. As he's building the house, the bride is going to go back to her father's house and she's going to wear her white wedding dress, white representing purity because she has no idea when the bridegroom will return for her. And so she needs to be ready.

3:09:47She needs to be in her white dress, pure ready, sleeping in her dress, walking in her dress, everything in her dress, bright and ready. And when the bridegroom is done building the attachment onto the house, he's going to begin to come for her with trumpets. And when he enters into her city, he's going to blow trumpets and be like, I'm here. I'm here for my bride. And wherever she's at, he's going to go into the house and pick his bride up and bring her back to his father's house where he created space for her. And they're going to go in there for seven days and they're going to love each other very well for seven days.

3:10:23And then after that seven days, they open it up and they're at a marriage feast. Now, why is this imagery so important? Because Jesus came to the disciples and says, it is better for me to go because I'm going to make room for you in my father's house. He's not just talking to the disciples. He's talking to believers, people that believe in him. He says, I'm going to go. It's better for me to go because I need to go make a room for you in my father's house. And so then Jesus ascends into heaven and he is actively in heaven in his physical body, waiting to return. And no one knows the day or the hour.

3:10:56That's why I laugh at people that are like, Jesus is returning on this specific date at this time. I'm like, get out of here. No one knows the day or the hour except the father. And so it is my job as a believer to always be ready. That's why the lady is wearing her dress in white. Number one, the white represents purity. So I need to honor God with my actions, you know, the sincerity of my faith. But secondly, I don't know when he's going to return. Imagine if on your wedding day, you're standing at the altar and waiting for the church doors to open. And when the church doors opened, your bride is kissing another man and has a beer in her other hand.

3:11:34It goes, oh, now the show's ready and throws it all away and grabs her bouquet and then walks down the aisle. That'd be really odd. No, no, no. We don't want to live like that. We want to be a bride, essentially, that is ready for Christ to return. And then we read the book of Revelation that he's going to return with trumpets from heaven. I'm coming for my bride. I'm coming to get what's mine. And he's going to return on a white horse in power and glory. And he's going to come take us. We're going to go be with them. And then the Bible says after Judgment Day that the people who have put sincere faith in Jesus Christ are going to have this marriage feast of the supper with the Lamb.

3:12:16The same way after that seven-day period that the bride and the bridegroom would, married life, love each other very well for seven days, they would open up those doors and there would be a marriage feast waiting for them. And in the same way, everyone that's put faith in Jesus Christ, we get to have this thing and celebrate called this marriage feast of the supper of the land.

3:12:39I've actually never heard that. It's fascinating, isn't it? It is. It is. I mean, do end times scare you at all? I mean, there's moments where I'm like, oh, wow, is this really all going to end someday? You know? Because right now, this is all we know to be. There's supposed to be a lot of persecution of Christians in the end times. Absolutely. And we're starting to see it. And we're starting to see it. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you could have read this in your Bible before I say it. It's going to continue to grow. And it's going to continue to happen. And that's why we need to stand for truth and be prepared.

3:13:21I mean, a lot of people are persecuted. A lot of different, you know what I mean? There's Muslims that are persecuted. There's Jews that are persecuted. There are Christians that are persecuted. in there probably every religion you know i don't i don't know i look around and i think man they're probably on the way but what the hell do i know right i guess so i mean but i mean

3:13:50when you're talking about burning man furries all this like gender ideology shit that's going on i I mean, all the wars, all the, everything. Everything, almost like, all the pedophilia. Yeah. All over, it's everyone. We're the number one consumer of pedophile, of whatever, pedo content. Yeah. This country. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? It's extremely sad. Extremely sad. If that doesn't wake you up to think, man, could there be a God that could save us all from this? I don't know what will. man man well let's get to some good stuff so you're on tour right now where are you heading next i know you're going to huntsville tomorrow huntsville tomorrow hattiesburg mississippi jacksonville atlanta new york arlington virginia twice um utah missouri california twice so we're trying to take it as many places as we possibly can right on man man well i got a little something for you so since you're going to all these crazy places burning man uh-oh where the kkk hangs out satanists wherever the hell that neighborhood is that you're going to in la oh oh oh you mean o block it's in chicago it's in chicago they got you a little something you said you had it no way yeah you got you are you serious Can I open it?

3:15:24Of course. I just wanted to ask. That's what presents are for, right? I just had to ask. Oh my goodness. Pick it up. Wow. Yeah, so that is the Sig P365 Legion. All metal. Do you know much about firearms? I don't know too much. Okay, so it holds 17 rounds plus one in the pipe, which is unheard of. of in a gun that size that's sig's new optic line so there's a red dot up there that's brand new and they just came out that stuff and then up front uh see those grooves on the top yep yeah that's uh that's compensator so that'll help you with the recoil management stuff it's all metal most guns are made you know with polymer plastic not that that's a bad thing but that's better so dude thank you you're welcome that is the primo of everyday carry subcompact pistols i've never been given a gift like this thank you i'm really grateful thank you so much you're welcome you want to break that thing in oh i do want to break it in all right we'll go break it in let's go and uh but before we do i got a bonus question here all right

3:16:44this has to do with end times great there are so many narratives and so much propaganda flying around that i'm not saying this is true as it's unverified i want to use it as a bible question it's first reported by independent journalist jonathan larson we'll link the substack below The Military Religious Freedom Foundation says it's logged 110-plus complaints in roughly 48 hours from 40-plus units across 30-plus installations, alleging some commanders framed the Iran conflict as God's plan and tied it to revelation and end times prophecy. Here's the question. If that kind of message were true, can human beings actually speed up the return of Christ by trying to force end times events, or is that a dangerous misuse of revelation and prophecy that Christians should reject outright?

3:17:45Wow, fascinating question. Here's how I believe we can speed up the return of Christ, and it's not by forcing suffering around the globe. Suffering is naturally going to occur because we live in a sinful world. So we don't have to force suffering for it to naturally happen. It's going to naturally happen. What we can do to, quote unquote, speed up the return of Christ is see as many people come to know him as possible. That's what we can do. Forcing suffering does nothing. We think that we're able to interject into God's plan and God's will and be like, nope, well, I'm going to do this thing and force it.

3:18:25God foreknew everything that was going to happen. So we can't necessarily create an event or create a moment and think, oh, I've interjected into this thing, so now it's going to speed up the process. God already knew what was going to happen. But I guess if anything we could take away from it is because we are in the end times, it should give us a sense of urgency to tell as many people as possible about Jesus. You don't think anything about rebuilding the temple or the golden calf for any of that is trying to kickstart this? I mean, look, the Bible tells us to look for signs, right? So I'm not going to be the one to say this is specifically a sign and this one isn't specifically a sign.

3:19:07But the Bible says that we should look for signs and we will know. And so I don't think it's far-fetched to think that these things are coming to fruition, that certain things are taking place around the globe. We've become privileged in America. We think that Christianity is all about Americans. It's all happened in the East. So we got to look at what's going on over there. But I try to be as cautious as possible by making absolute claims about very gray areas. Look for signs. Well, what does that mean? The Bible talks about the Nile River turning red, or sorry, the Nile River drying up. Well, it has dry cycles naturally.

3:19:45So the next time it dries up, I'm not going to put an absolute statement on that and be like, Jesus is about to return because look, the Nile River has dried up. Well, it has dry cycles. So So I'm going to use some common sense here. So when it comes to science, I want to be cautious at making an absolute truth claim about it because I don't want to lead people astray. But then again, look at the world we live in now. Look at the technology we have now. And look at all the deception that's rising up. I mean, it doesn't seem far-fetched that we're not necessarily – I mean, my personal opinion, I think we're getting in the thick of it.

3:20:19But I don't say that to fear monger, because every generation, like you said, Billy Graham believed that Jesus was going to return before he died. And before that, people believed that he was going to return before then. I mean, can you imagine how people felt in World War II? Oh my gosh. So, you know, that should not create fear in us. That should create urgency, urgency to share the gospel. It's a follow-up question here. When people point to Revelation and say, this headline is Armageddon, what do they usually misunderstand? And how should Christians read Revelation without turning news into prophecy?

3:20:52That's a great question. You know, I think we need to understand by now at this point, the news is going to profit off of suffering. You know, like for example, when the plane started crashing, when Trump got back into office, every news headline, every time I open the phone is a new plane crash, new plane crash, new plane crash, new plane crash. So I'm like, dang, the pilot's just getting bad this month? They're like, what's going on? And I don't think it was necessarily that. It was just, they were hyper fixating on an issue. So, we do need to be careful about labeling news headlines as, oh, this is the Armageddon.

3:21:30I think that's where the correct perspective of the end times has to be. Like, we've always been in the end times. And so, we're waiting on Jesus to return a second time. And the fact of the matter is, we don't know. He could come back before this podcast episode ends. He could come back two years from now, two days from now, two hours from now. and that should provoke us to live a life that's giving glory to God and submitting to him. Right on, man. Well said. Well said. Let's go. One more thing to crank out here. So, you know we're live right now. Yep. So, Wyatt gave us some questions from patrons watching this.

3:22:06So, this one is from Oliver MP. Bryce and Sean, with both of you being so influential and having such large platforms, How do you deal with imposter syndrome if you do? Sean, how do you deal with it?

3:22:25I don't know how to answer that. I just keep putting one fucking foot right in front of the other and driving forward. And there's a lot of fear in doing this in different subjects. And, you know, I'm kind of... You got to keep pushing forward. You cannot let fear drive your life and dictate all of your decisions and keep you from achieving what you want to achieve and what you should be doing. And, you know, so I think that's me. How about you? You know, I'm actually off social media too right now. Are you really? I am. When you said that, congratulations. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. We've made it.

3:23:07We've made it. That lie about being chronically online is totally a lie, man. I mean, dude, a thousand good comments just pumps you up with pride, and the one bad comment is louder than a thousand good, and it just shatters your heart. Because I've just found out it never does any good, so I've honestly just cut off my social media and realized it's actually allowed me to love people well and not care about what other people think about me. That's how I've avoided it so far. I love that. How long have you been off? Probably about three days now, three or four days. Three or four days? Yeah. I'm not much farther along.

3:23:41I'm about a week and a half. let's go i like it but uh i will say i am a lot more in the moment with my wife and kids now i did not you just don't realize how much that is is in all honesty ruining your fucking life yeah you know but uh this one's from luke when struggling with lust and just feeling empty inside what is the best way to quit the addiction and to live for christ to the fullest Hmm sexual sin is the only sin in the bible it tells us to flee from So if we think that we can beat sexual sin, for example, someone says well I want to stop sleeping with my partner outside of marriage, but i'm gonna go sleep over at their house Or you're flirting with it.

3:24:24If you think you can get in the boxing ring with it, you've already lost Bible says to flee from it And so I think a couple things first thing. I think we need to take accountability We oftentimes blame the devil for situations that we put ourselves in It's like oh, I can't stop watching porn the devil's the devil's got me but you stay up till 2 a.m. scrolling on your phone. Like, what are we doing? And so there's an aspect of it where it's Psalm 139, search my heart, God, reveal to me the areas of my life that are causing me to stumble. And Matthew chapter six, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

3:24:55For it's better to enter the kingdom of heaven with one member than to go to hell with both. So there's this aspect of sexual sin where it's damaging to the soul. You create soul ties. You can get diseases and sex outside of marriage. Create this unreal fantasy in your brain about what sex is like versus what it's really like. And ultimately, lastly, it's knowing what true love is. Love isn't sex. Love isn't booze when it hits the system. Love isn't the feeling you get when you look at that significant other in the eyes. Love is a choice. Love is sacrifice. Love is Jesus. Man, nice one. This is from Angie.

3:25:28How significant is the role of masculinity in today's church culture? And what can be done to better cultivate it among young men who are seeking a deeper relationship with God? we need men to stand firm, be bold. I mean, if you read both of the letters that Paul wrote to Timothy, I mean, we read what it looks like to be a man of God, 1 Timothy in particular. Men need to do hard things. Why have men stopped doing hard things? I don't know. Why have we stopped? I think we've stopped. You know, Ephesians 4 tells us that husbands should love their wives the way that Christ loves the church unto death.

3:26:03There's no responsibility like that on the woman. Why is that? Because men are called to lead, stand firm, be bold, do hard things, be courageous. And if you're looking for a resource out there on good biblical masculinity, there's a pastor out of Florida named Pastor Joby Martin. He has a book called Stand Firm and Act Like Men. And it is just a phenomenal book. His resources and sermons on biblical masculinity have blessed me. And I think that men have decided to take a back seat because we think that that's what women like. And that's not the case at all. Women like men that are bold and, you know, women want a man that's going to get up at 3 a.m.

3:26:42when they hear a noise in the house and go bust down with their new pistol from Sean Ryan and see what's going on down there, you know? That's what women are looking for. Right on. This is from Hunter Widden. Why do you think so many young men today feel spiritually lost? And what would you say directly to them? I think so many young men feel spiritually lost because there's so many options. Like, sometimes I get overwhelmed with decision-making with things now because it's like there's 12 different flavors of jelly and, you know, 44 ,000 religions. And it's like, what are we doing? What are the options?

3:27:27Where do I put my worldview? But I would encourage every young man or young woman, look at the overwhelming amount of evidence. Like examine the life of Jesus. Read the Gospels for yourself and test it with history. Like look at the amount of evidence that points to this dude being Jesus. I mean, if the evidence really points to Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life, then that's worth putting all my poker chips in on. I'd like to add to that. I think, you know, you brought something up earlier that I talk about all the time, and that is nobody knows what is real anymore. It doesn't matter whether it's social media, mainstream media, whatever.

3:28:00You can't tell anymore. The only thing that you can rely on is the Bible. Yeah. And I really believe that. Yeah. This is from Hunter Ryan. Bryce, what's the single most important lesson the Holy Spirit has taught you through all your street evangelism encounters that you wish every Christian, especially young people, really understood about boldly sharing the full gospel today? we need to listen more than we talk listening there's a reason god gave us two ears and one mouth and we need to treat people like human beings and not statistics and i think sometimes the the misconception is oh let me go into this thing and i got to say as many words as i can and conjure up the right phrases and that's what's going to convince them actually people just want to feel seen and heard people want to know that you care.

3:28:56Ask questions. Listen. Oh, really? How did that affect you? What was it like growing up? What was your home life? Oh, really? Hey, tell me more about that. What's going on? Ask questions. Be intentional. Use your ears and listen, because God's given us this ministry called presence, being there for people. And that tends to be more powerful than words we can conjure up. Well, we're about to end this here. So do you have anything that you want to say before we end it? Thanks for having me on. I had so much fun. My pleasure. I say we end it with a prayer. Let's do it. Ready? Let's do it. Jesus, I just want to thank you for this amazing discussion today with my new friend, Bryce.

3:29:39And we hope that this message reaches everybody right where they're at. And this is what they, this is what you want them to hear. And we hope that this helps grow so many people in their faith journey. Jesus, please just continue to be our guiding light. Amen. Amen. All right. Bryce, it was an honor, man. Thanks. Same here. I hope to see you again. Likewise. Thanks for having me. I appreciate you. Thank you.

3:30:20No matter where you're watching The Sean Ryan Show from, if you get anything out of this at all, anything, please like, comment, and subscribe. And most importantly, share this everywhere you possibly can. And if you're feeling extra generous, head to Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review.

3:30:50Thank you.