No Half Cakes Podcast Transcript

Sales, Spiritual Warfare & Showing Up with David Pasqualone | No Half Cakes Podcast 0:15

Hey, what is up everybody? Welcome to the No Half Cakes podcast. My name is Jim Spelico and I am happy to have you here.

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Uh this episode is a special one. It is with my good friend David Pascalone and we are going to talk about everything

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from sales and marketing to angels and demons and just about everything in between. Uh truly a great conversation

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whether you are someone who is interested in growing your business uh growing in your faith, growing as a as a

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father, as a leader in your house. Uh tremendous amount of amazing content in here. So without further ado, let’s hop

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into it. I’m I’m happy you’re here. You know, I I think it’s awesome to have these conversations, especially with someone like yourself who is so bold in

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their faith. You know, I noticed in a little bit of uh pre-show stalking as I was kind of browsing the website of

Why David Refuses to Compartmentalize Faith and Business

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yours, there’s a lot of faith components to that. Uh it’s unfortunately not that

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common to see someone who is walking so boldly within their faith. And I just wanted to start by a thanking you for

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being someone who is willing to be so bold and b asking you a little bit of background there on like the story of

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where does where does that come from for you? Yeah. Well, so I got saved when I was 15. I trusted Christ and it changed my

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life and one of the things that I always believe from the beginning is God knows the truth. So I can lie to other people.

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I can lie to even myself. But you can’t lie to God. So why waste the time? And

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when you’re in business, a lot of people have this lie that they believe from

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Satan that they think, “Oh, I need to compartmentalize.” It’s like the the lie

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that people say the separation of church and state within America. If someone actually read and believed that they’re

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illiterate because that’s not what it’s talking about. Um, in the Constitution, it talks about how the government won’t

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control religion, but a foundational belief in God is is core to America’s

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value system. So, in my life, I believe in God. And if you’re going to work with me, you don’t have to believe in God,

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but I need to know where you’re coming from. You need to know where I’m coming from. And we build a friendship. And why

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waste time lying? And if someone says you’re going to lose business over that, that’s probably not the business I want,

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right? So, if somebody’s not going to do business with me because I I’m a follower of Christ, then that’s fine. I

The Foundation of Trust and Bold Faith in Business

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don’t need their business. There’s 7 billion people in the world. So, that’s I’ve always run that way and it’s always

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been a huge asset to my business. Um, I I get great customers who become

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long-term friends and I don’t I don’t look back with any regret. So, what does your what does your

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business do exactly? Give me a little bit of background about what you do professionally. Yeah, so professionally,

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excuse me, professionally, I’m a sales and marketing consultant. So, I personally have always just loved sales

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and marketing. Even when I was working in restaurants at 18, I’d play with which tie do I wear today? If I cut my

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hair with a flat top versus cond, you know, traditional, how do my tips get?

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You know what I mean? I I’ve always loved it. So, I’ll handle the sales coaching and the marketing strategy and

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helping set people up and then I have a team that once we set the plan, then they run with it with the client and

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help them grow. So in a nutshell, we say, “Hey, where’s your business realistically at? Where do you want to

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be?” We reverse engineer the plan, and then we hand them the handbook and say, “Either we’ll do it. You can do this

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yourself, you can do it yourself, and we’ll coach you, or we’ll just do it for you so you can focus on what you love.”

Building a Sales and Marketing Business with Purpose

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So in a nutshell, marketing and sales consulting. And then on a separate just

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from ministry to help people grow, we have the remarkable people podcast, the politics and religion podcast, and

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hanging out with David Pascal and Friends podcast. So those three are just to bring content to people and help them

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in their lives become better humans. And then professionally, sales and marketing all day, the fun stuff. No accounting.

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So talk to me a little bit about what it means to be a remarkable person. I’m curious for your definition of that. to

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me I mean on textbooks someone remarkable is something worth marking something worth noting so to me

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remarkable people it doesn’t have to be you know I say this all the time to people we get up to we’ve had months

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repeatedly 3 400 people are applying for the show and when you have the name remarkable people podcast it’s kind of

What Makes Someone Truly Remarkable

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hard to tell somebody you’re not remarkable right but what we look for it doesn’t matter if you’re the janitor the

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CEO or anything in between did you take the card you were dealt and make the

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most of them and to do it with a good attitude or at least you’ve learned from it and now you have a good attitude. So,

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you know it we have guests that come on and they were broke. We have guests that came on they were addicts. We have

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guests that came on and they’re held at gunpoint and gang rape for 3 weeks and we have they’re not all the episodes are

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sensational, right? It’s not about drama. We have episodes where they came on they’re like I’m claustrophobic or

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I’m shy or you know I just feel uncomfortable in social settings. But we talk about what they faced and overcame

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and achieved in life and then we reverse engineer to the practical steps of how they did it so the listeners can too. So

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remarkable to me as someone who despite the adversity they kept going they fight

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and they get it done or they die trying cuz I don’t mind dying in war but I’m going to die fighting. M I like that

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definition because, you know, I think that there’s a lot of people who probably struggle with some self-doubt and think, hey, maybe I’m not

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remarkable. Um, you know, because I haven’t gotten a million views on YouTube or I haven’t done X, Y, and Z

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by, you know, social media standards. And I think to to broaden it to to make it more applicable to a quote unquote

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everyday person and celebrate, hey, you are remarkable in your own right is a really awesome thing. So, I congratulate

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you uh doing that. And I know I’m sure it’s not an easy effort to kind of filter through all that, have those conversations.

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Yeah. And it’s and I tell people all the time like I’ve had people billionaires and I’m like it’s just not the right fit

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because they either can’t articulate how they did it or it’s just business to them or they don’t want to share their

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personal story. And this isn’t our show is not about business. It’s about life and the human journey. And when you’re

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going through life like we all are, right? Just hearing somebody say how great they are doesn’t do anything. But

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knowing that we’re all facing the same struggle and again it could be anything. It could be like depression. So it’s

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like hey these are the three things I did to help me and hopefully they help you too. So at least it’s a catalyst or

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starting point for people. But people who are remarkable to me are ones that

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they just don’t quit. they just keep moving forward, keep fighting, and they just have that love and that

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generosity and basically the Christian heart, you know, uh whether they know it

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or not, they are Christlike. You mentioned that you were saved at 15. Would you be open to sharing some of

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your testimony? Yeah. So, I grew up in a dysfunctional household. No dad, you know, I love my

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mom, but she had her own struggles. And pretty much from like 10 years old on, I

David’s Testimony and Path to Salvation

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was sick all the time. And because of the situation, you know, I was American poor. You know, we didn’t have good

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health care. The doctors just kept saying, “Oh, you’re a hypocchondric. It’s in your head.” So, by the time I

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got to 14, I stopped going to the doctor. Because I was like, all they do is prescribe you medicine and uh

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antibiotics, and they’re just like, “Get out of here.” So, when I say I was sick

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all the time, I was like having the flu almost every other week. And I’d go to the like I started wrestling actually in

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high school and I’d go wrestle and I was weak and tired, but then I’d go run an hour and a half just fine. And then I go

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to the gym and I couldn’t bench 120 lbs because I was just exhausted. My I was

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all over the board and I was never sleeping, but I was always sleeping. Like always falling asleep, but I could never sleep. So when I was 15, I started

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having I mean I don’t know. I never went to the doctor, but there was two or three episodes where I had what I

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believe was a panic attack. So, I’m downstairs by myself at night and I just

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just completely like flipped out. Like, what is going on? I thought I was losing

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my mind. And then I’m like, I believe there was a God. I didn’t know who he

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was. You know, I I’m a first generation American. I grew up outside of Boston.

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So, you know, you got a lot of Roman Catholic. My mom, my whole family was

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Catholic. And then my mom started going to this church. It was supposed to be Christian when I was a very young when I

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like birthed to four. And I still have memories of that church cuz it was a cult. And she didn’t know it. She

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thought it was like Christian cuz they spoke of Christ, but that doesn’t mean they are Christian. And finally, thank

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God, I remember going there with her at four years old and thinking, “What is going on with these people? This isn’t

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right.” And then when my grandmom died when I was four and a half, the pastor

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of that church or whatever he called himself came and said, “Oh, you should have called me sooner. I could have resurrected her from the dead.” So,

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thank the Lord, the real Lord, that it woke my mom up and she stopped going. So, from that 4 and 1/2, 5 years old

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till 12, we never went to church. And then there was this pastor that’d always knock on doors, Pastor Carl and his

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wife Bev. And they’d always be knocking on doors or going to the basketball courts and inviting people to church,

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especially the teens. He had a heart for teens. And um when I was 15 and that

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like panic attack happened, you know, I hated school. I was sick all the time. I

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didn’t have a lot of friends. I had really bad acne. I was fat. Like just,

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you know, wasn’t a good situation. So when all that happened, even though I wasn’t saved, God shared with me like,

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“Hey, you need to go to that church.” And I’m like, “What?” Like, like, so I just felt compelled to go to that church

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where the pastor was always knocking on our door. And we used to, I don’t know if you guys ever did this or where you live, but you used to have people knock

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on your door and to tell you, especially like Jehovah Witnesses, uh, you know, to me that’s a cult, too, but we’d jump

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behind the couch and hide and shut off the lights so they wouldn’t bother us, right, as kids. Well, when this

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happened, the guy I went to that church and it was like a Wednesday night and I couldn’t even drive yet. So, I remember

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waking my mom up at 2 a.m. and telling her, I’m like, “Mom, there’s something wrong with me. I think I’m going crazy, but I want to go to that church.” And

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she’s like, “Well, I’ll bring you, but I won’t go.” I’m like, “Okay.” So, she brings me on a Wednesday night. And it

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was funny because looking back, I didn’t know the really the difference between the Bible and the Himnel. And he’s

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talking about, you know, turn to this or turn to that. It was a small church, less than a hundred people, and I didn’t

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know anything. But when we’re in school, what do you do when you have a question? Like when you were in school, what do you do when you have a

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Huh? Raise your hand. Exactly. So, I’m in church on a Wednesday night. I’m raising my hand and

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what’s that pastor do? He answers it. And I’m not kidding. I I heard, “Oh, there’s church on Sunday morning.” So, I

Getting Discipled and Growing in Faith

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went and I’m raising my hand in church. Nobody says a thing. Sunday night and

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this went on for like three weeks and then there was a Thursday night youth group. So I’m going all I can just

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answering asking questions asking questions. I had so many questions and then he’s like Dave it’s he’s like you

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know sadly there’s not a lot of men in our church. He’s like but I have a friend who lives a couple towns over uh

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Tony Stephanie. So a shout out and thank you to him. And he’s like he has some time in his schedule if you’d like for

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him to disciple you. I’m like, “Uh, yeah, sure. But what is that? What’s

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disciple?” And he’s like, “Disciple just means he he sits down with you. You guys spend some time together and he answers

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your questions on the Bible.” I’m like, “Oh, yeah. I’d love that.” And then we sat down and then I got uh like I

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understood what salvation was and I trusted Christ as my savior at 15 and my whole life like radically changed. Like

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I had peace and joy. All that stress and anxiety was gone. And I know it doesn’t happen like that for everybody, but even

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other things that like I struggled with, I started praying and within I’m not kidding, a week just everything melted

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away and I just it was like a new life. It was a new life. And then my best friends, you know, all the kids in the

How Christ Radically Changed His Life

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neighborhood, they’d come over and they’d listen to Tony and he’d lead them to the Lord. So, it was it was really a

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beautiful experience and that that’s how I trusted Christ and grew and and

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learned. It’s amazing. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. Yeah. It’s fun. It is fun. I I think that kind of the

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best part about that is that everyone has their own unique journey through that experience, right? For people who

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have gone through that that sort of process where you kind of maybe feel a little bit lost and not sure what to do

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or where to turn and you know, you’re stuck kind of in the ways of the world and then you have that experience. you

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know, I I think for me, one of the things that I notice happens in almost every case is you get brought into some

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level of isolation, right? So, you get separated first and then you get saved.

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And and I’m not saying again that’s the same for everyone, but one of the lessons that I think I love the most

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about that is that in the moments where you feel the most alone, you have the most opportunity. And I think for a lot

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of people, they can take some comfort in that in knowing that like, hey, when you feel like everything is going wrong, it

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it very well could be the setup for everything to go right. And I think for more people to understand that, when

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they’re when they’re faith-based and they understand kind of the calling that’s been put on their lives, or at

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least the willingness to explore what calling has been put on their lives, they can see so many more opportunities

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in front of them where they’re not just worried about, you know, trying to figure it out on their own, right? And one of the things that I actually read

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recently was we have this inclination to think that we can control everything and once we control everything then we will

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find peace. But rather if if you find peace first you find that faith base you

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find that joy then everything will be uh sort of laid out for you and I’m curious

Finding Peace Before the Plan

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for your your perspective on that. Yeah I agree 100%. So one of the things

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that I think Senan uses especially within the church within Christian homes is we’re too busy. So like the opposite

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like when you’re alone and when you have time be still and know I’m God you know verses in the Bible you have time to

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reflect and to think to use the brain the logic the reasoning God gave you gave us all and you do think about the

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deep things in life but when you’re always running around I got to do this and I got to do that you know you I

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think one of Satan’s greatest tricks to our generation is we’re too busy and it can be too busy on things that are quote

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unquote good like oh I got to go help this person with this and I got to go help this person with that. And you’re

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doing things with help, but you’re you’re losing everything. You’re doing it all in the flesh and all the Holy

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Ghost is just like, well, I’m here when you’re ready, but you’re just doing your thing and you’re too busy, so I I’ll

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wait. You know, I’ll be there when you’re ready. And I think we exhaust ourselves. So, I think that’s what

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you’re saying that that time alone and how some most people don’t find God

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until they’re in that darkness. um because then you see the light so

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clearly, you know, it’s just so easy to see. So, I agree with that. And then the other thing is when you um when you’re

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going through the hard times and things are still and

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you know, you feel like you got, oh, I got all this special stuff. This is all my my stuff. Your arms are full of

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stuff. Well, if you’re holding all that stuff, God can’t give you new stuff. God can’t give you better stuff. You know

Are You Too Busy for God

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what I mean? If your if your arms are full of like trash food, you know, you

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got cupcakes and Twinkies, they taste good for a second and then you’re going to die from the poisons in them, right?

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You’re going to be sick and fat for the rest of your life. Well, if you let all the junk go of the world, God’s going to

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give you amazing food that’s quality and delicious and give you strength and

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energy. So, I think what you were saying is spot on. Yeah. I think, you know, if we could

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bring this to the business perspective for a second, I think that there are some business owners who struggle a lot

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with that when it comes to how to grow their business or market their business or attract new customers. And you see

Letting Go of Bad Clients and Trusting God to Provide

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some people, I’m sure you’ve seen this, who get a certain customer and they’re afraid of letting go of that type of

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customer or they’re afraid of um, you know, saying no to a certain job. So they wind up stretching and doing things

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that they’re not supposed to really be doing that are not aligned with their their core values or their purpose, their mission. Uh and they’re afraid of,

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you know, how do they actually truly grow their business if they turn down this terrible customer in front of them

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uh that’s maybe not aligned with them, but they’re just in it for the money aspect, right? Do you see the same sort of thing where where they’re

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prioritizing or they’re idolizing money rather than mission? Okay, so the answer is yes. And it’s not

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always. There are some people who are just I mean there’s some people just they really do love money, right? And

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they don’t care and they’re soulless. They’re not soulless, but they act like they’re soulless. It’s just all about

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the money. But most people aren’t like that. Most people are doing it either it’s not conscious or they’re motivated

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by fear. Like, you know, I need money. I need to feed my family. So, I’ll take this business. You’ve done it. I’ve done

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it at times. Everybody’s done it. But for the most part, again, it goes back to be because I grew up without money.

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Like we were poor. I never wanted to be poor again. So I always had this drive to work, okay, and to to make money. So

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I have to be careful with my priorities in a way more than the average person.

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But when it came to working with people who are going to be bad clients, who are going to be

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nightmares, who are bad people, I will not and I never would do something I don’t believe in. It goes back to that

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first question you asked me. I set the standard right up front, like who I am with you on this interview, who I am in

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private when the interview ends, who I am tonight, who I am tomorrow, it’s going to be the same despite the

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situation I’m in. I mean, you might have discernment if you’re hanging out with your friends versus a new client, but

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when you are working with a client or potentially working with a client and you’re like, they’re not doing something

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you believe in or support, you need to just back out and say, “Hey, thanks. I don’t think it’s the right fit.” And if

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they push you, say, “Why?” Maybe that’s a great opportunity to witness to them. You know, you can absolutely, you have

Drawing a Line in the Sand with Integrity

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every right to say that. And I can tell you firsthand

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uh every single time that I can think of where I’ve drawn that line in the sand, it’s worked out better for me and it’s

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come back. I even had one I have to be very careful how I say this, but I had a situation

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where a third party threatened one of my clients with all that cancelled culture

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and they were a big organization. They had the power to do so. So my customer

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backed down and pulled the content that he posted

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and I told the guy that you are what’s wrong with America. You’re what’s wrong

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with the world. You’re a liar. You’re a hypocrite and you are completely immoral

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and you say one thing in public but you live a totally different life. I said,

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“He’s, you know, gonna back down and I’m going to do what he says because he’s my

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client, but I have no respect for either one of you right now.” And then I talked to my client after in private and I

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said, “Hey, if this is how you want to run, I understand it. You’re afraid to lose a significant amount of money.” I

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said, “But this translates into what’s going on in our world, and this goes to

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what’s going on in America, and we’re part of the problem if we do this. So if you’re going to do this, I understand

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it, but I’m not going to do it with you. So we agreed. He said, you know, I won’t

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do that anymore. And this happened, right? And the person I spoke this to

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was very influential and powerful. Well, six months later, Jim, I get a call from

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another notable public figure and he’s like, “Hey, I’m looking to grow my

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presence and I have Christian belief system and I was

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told that you will do this morally and with, you know, God’s kind of

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parameters, not like I’m not going to use girls in bikinis to get more views.” you know what I mean? Um, and I’m like,

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“Yeah, man.” I’m like, “Thanks. That’s a huge honor. I It’s great to meet you. By the way, who did you get my name from?”

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And the guy that was completely immoral that I called out. He is the one that

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referred me. He didn’t like me, but he respected me. And when he was talking to this other gentleman, he said, “Hey, you

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know, you basically believe in God and want to do the right thing. I’m not the right guy for you. You need to talk to

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David. So, you talk about how God can all things work together for good to them that love God, to those called

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according to his purpose. I made a great client and he’s a great friend to this

God Can Redeem Every Situation

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day. And it all started with me saying, “No, you’re a scumbag and you’re what’s wrong with America.”

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Well, I think yeah, there’s there’s a big part of that, too, where it starts from you understanding what your core values are, right? And what you believe

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in and what you’re willing to do and and what you’re willing to not do. what you

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I will can I add one thing to that? Yeah. A lot of people know what they believe, but they don’t know why. We need to be

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spending time with God every day. We need to be in our Bibles. We need to know what we believe and why. And that

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lasts generations. Cuz if I have kids and I say, “Do this, do this, do this.” And they don’t know why. I’m like, “Just

Know What You Believe and Why

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do it.” Okay? They know the line of right from wrong, maybe. But when their kids ask them to do it, they’re like, “No.” and their kids are like, “Why?”

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Like, you know what? I don’t know. Just go ahead and do it. You know, it’s like if you pick any topic that’s hot today

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in the in the society. Well, as if you call yourself a Christian to be Christlike, we should be living

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Christlike. But if a topic comes up, you need to not just say that’s right or wrong. You need to be able to explain in

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love why. And if people don’t agree with me, I’ll spend all day talking and I have no like I didn’t believe right all

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the time. I still to this day, I’m sure I’m wrong about a lot of stuff. But either you’re right and I’m wrong. I’m

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right and you’re wrong, or we’re both wrong. But we should always be seeking truth. So the people that bother me are

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the people who are hypocrites, the people who are liars, the people who say they’re like Christ, but they live like

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the devil. But yeah, so to go back to what you just said, I agree completely. We need to know what we believe, but we

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also need to know why we believe it. Cuz that’s the core. That’s when you say,

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“All right, I’m going I’m not moving. I will die. I will go to prison.” Now, none of us want to die for something in

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the sense none of us want to go to prison for something. None of us want to lose our jobs for something. But when your bigger purpose is to please God, to

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glorify God, which I think is the number one human like calling for everyone. That’s our purpose is to glorify God.

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So, if it takes whatever it is to glorify God, when you know what you’re doing and why, you can do it and know

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God’s going to take care of you. Yeah. So, just to go back to something you said there just now about seeking the

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truth, do you consider that a continual process? Like, do you ever really truly find it or is it this intentional

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everyday like you never cease prayer, right? This always continuous relationship where you are continuing to

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seek truth and staying in the word. Yeah. So, I believe truth is universal,

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foundational. It doesn’t change. It’s there. And for us, you know, John 1:1,

Seeking Truth Is a Lifelong Pursuit

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in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. So I believe the Bible is the word of

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God. And I believe that, you know, you can read the Bible. It’s a living book. It’s not just like a textbook. And you

24:24

can read it and see more and understand more. You know, there’s like levels of

24:29

learning like, “Oh, I get it. Oh, I get it. I really understand.” There’s like levels of intellectual learning, but

24:36

with anything in life, when you’re reading, you become deeper. So, like there’s truth, foundational truths in

24:43

the Bible, in life that yes, I believe, but how how much of the human body does

24:49

a doctor understand? Like a thousandth of a percent of a fingernail. You know what I mean? They don’t understand

24:55

anything. But you take what you know and you apply it the best you can. But you should always be growing and learning.

25:02

And you know, when we get to eternity, God will show us everything in his time. But for now, I just want to know as much

25:08

as I can and apply it the right way because knowledge doesn’t make you holy.

25:13

But it says, “Study to show thyself approved, a workman unto God.” Um, rightly dividing the word of truth. And

25:20

I think I might have mixed up that verse a little bit, but I think believe that’s in James, but it basically says, “Study,

25:25

learn, grow, but then apply it.” You know, commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thought shall be established.

25:32

Um, the talk of the lips tendeth only to penery. A lot of people don’t know what that verse means, so they skip over it.

25:37

It means talk’s cheap, man. Do it. Just do it. So, it’s just like the Bible’s

25:43

rich in every wisdom and knowledge. And I believe all truth comes from God. I

25:48

believe all truth and all answers to every questions in the Bible. It’s just are we seeking it? And is it time for

Faith Requires Action Not Just Knowledge

25:55

God to reveal it to us? Yeah. And truly, I think, you know, like you said before about you can see something, but do you truly understand

26:01

it? It reminds me of even like if you’ve ever watched your favorite movie, the first time you watched it, it was a good

26:07

movie, but the second, third, fourth time, you understood different nuances in that that that made a little bit more

26:12

sense. It gave a little bit more context. Right. Yeah. I think you’ve got kids, right? Two kids. Yeah. 22 and 21.

26:18

Okay. So, a little older than my mine are 11 and 8. But one of the things that

26:24

we talk about sometimes is the different phases that your kids will go through. First they’ll love you, then they’ll

26:30

despise you, then they’ll understand you. Right? That’s that’s to paraphrase sort of the the general process a lot of

26:36

kids will go through in their evolution. I’m sure as your kids are older, they’ve probably gone through somewhat of that

26:41

that process a little bit more than mine. But, you know, I think that despise phase, right? First, they love

26:47

you because you’re literally everything. And as they start to kind of test the waters a little bit to see, hey, what

26:53

are you made of? I think if they find out that you are more talk than action,

27:00

if you say, “Hey, this is why you’re supposed to do something, but you don’t understand why.” Right? To go back to

27:05

what you just said. Oh, because you know that’s just what you’re supposed to do, but you’re not really understanding the

27:10

why behind it. I think that’s when you suffer from that despise phase. But if you are the type of person who really

27:16

truly lives out your core values and understands the why behind what you do and has the principles, it minimizes

27:23

that. So I’m curious for your perspective having two older children like where do you see that line up?

27:29

So you know I this that’s super great question because you know how the other

27:35

thing is the older you get the more you see the more you learn and you can’t beat experience. In general I agree 100%

27:41

with what you said. However, there’s illustrations in the Bible where the men

27:49

and women did everything quote unquote right and the kids still ended up going down the wrong path. But then there’s

27:55

the promise of the Bible that says, “Train up a child in the way he shall go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” So I think there’s definitely

28:03

people who are whether it’s conscious or unconscious, they’re hypocrites because you can say something not even realize

28:09

you’re doing the opposite in your life. And hopefully you have good people to call you out is iron sharpenth iron. So

Parenting Isn’t About Control It’s About Direction

28:14

the main accountants of a friend and there’s definitely definitely I agree completely that

28:20

overall the average in general if you’re not living what you’re saying your kids are going to think you’re a hypocrite

28:26

and go through that despise phase more and harder. But there are

28:31

people who just choose for what Satan gets in the head. He tricks him. He thinks, “Oh, it’s more fun to do this or

28:39

oh, everybody else falls for that.” But I won’t I won’t I won’t get that deep. You know, I won’t become an addict. I’m

28:44

just snoring coke for fun. You know, it’s like saying messes with people’s head and tricks them. So, I agree with

28:50

what you’re saying that it’s the the standard and the general. But I do think and I’m seeing more and more the older I

28:56

get that it goes back to we got to love God first. We got to love God more than our spouse. We got to love God more than

29:02

our kids. Um we got to love God more than anybody or anything and then trust

29:07

that he’s raising our kids. We’re just a tool he’s using to do our best because

29:13

you can do everything quote unquote right and they still go down the wrong path. So that that’s what I think about

29:19

that. And then the older I get, the more I see that. I thought, “Oh, well, if

29:25

there is a kid that wasn’t doing well, there’s something wrong in the home or there’s an imbalance.” But then I go

29:30

back and I look at the Bible and how many people had kids that went arry and there’s the same parents. One kid went

29:37

right and one kid went wrong, you know? So yeah, I think a lot of it is just we we’re as a parent, we’re called to do

29:43

our absolute best, be pointing them to God, be loving them, but then we have to accept that the rest is just between

29:50

them and God. Yeah. Well, I think there’s a point too where, right, if you don’t know now, later you’ll understand, right, we got

29:56

to apply that same principle to our kids. And if if we don’t understand why they may be trending in this other

30:01

direction, even though we’ve given them every good instruction we could possibly give them, perhaps it’s just their their

30:08

path that they’re on, right? And and we may not understand it, we may not love it. We may want to shield them because

Letting Your Kids Follow Their Own Journey with God

30:14

we love them and we want to protect them, but that may be the necessary journey that they need to go on to find

30:19

their true purpose. And even though that really sucks as a parent to have to accept the fact that we may not be able

30:25

to control and protect them entirely, I think if you prioritize and put God first truly, like really truly put God

30:31

first, you have the comfort of knowing that ultimately they will be okay. Yeah. And it’s hard like when you’re

30:38

going through those moments and you just got to trust, but there’s really nothing you can do but love them and pray and

30:44

then Yeah. I mean, it’s definitely something that the the people I’ve known

30:50

and even myself, when things aren’t right, I’m sure for you, when your children are in pain, it’s terrible.

30:58

When you can’t do anything about it and when you see them making decisions that you know, you don’t think are the best

31:04

decisions, you know, aren’t the best decisions. Um, it’s hard. But, you know,

31:10

you they have to have their own relationship with God. And there’s phases, you know, when you’re a kid, you

31:15

just protect them and show them what to do. And then as they get older, you let them make decisions and fall. And then

31:21

as they become a teen, you’re trying to get them to the point where they’re making the decisions, but before they make any critical bad decision, you’re

31:26

there to correct them. But Satan’s always trying to break that, break the

31:32

family. Satan’s always trying to, you know, if you lose respect for your earthly father, you don’t have the right model of your heavenly father. And then

31:39

when the breakdown of the husband and wife, when the home gets broken, um it

31:45

it just breaks everything. And we’ve had generations of society leading and influencing and the home and the

31:52

structure and just the view of what a home should look like has changed so

31:57

much. And when we’re living these days, the Satan’s just, you

32:05

know, God Satan has two goals. to keep people from trusting Christ. And once they’re trusted Christ, he’s there to

32:11

destroy their lives so they can’t tell other people. He wants to not just steal their joy, but he wants to destroy them

32:17

so no one else gets saved. Well, even if there’s a parent that’s on fire for God and doing the right thing and God has

Satan Wants Your Kids Because He Can’t Get to You

32:24

blessed them, like you said, you have two children, right? Yeah. So, you have two beautiful children. God has a

32:30

distinct plan for. He has huge blessings waiting for them. he has an amazing life

32:35

that they be full of peace and joy. Well, Satan says, “Well, I can’t get to Jim, so I’m going to go after his kids.”

32:41

And he’s going to try to derail them in every way he can, and they’re not going to know what happened until it’s too

32:46

late because that hurts you. And then that hurts them from fulfilling God’s purpose. And all that doesn’t glorify

32:52

God. So, Satan’s real. He’s a liar. He’s a piece of crap. I mean, he’s he’s

32:58

horrible. But at the end, God wins. But during this part of life, you, me, and everybody in the world that’s ever lived

33:04

and ever will live, we need to follow Christ and make sure we make the best decisions we can and hope and pray our

33:11

kids do, too. But Satan is definitely targeting not just us, but our children every single day.

33:17

Yeah, that I think that’s a difficult thing for people to accept. Yeah. But it doesn’t make it not true.

33:22

When Satan fell a third, the angels fell also, and those are the demons that walk

33:27

the earth or chained until eternity. talks about that cover to cover in the Bible. And when an angel fell, it was

33:34

just a choice. And now we call them demons. An angel, a demon’s a fallen angel. And there’s a lot of them. We

33:41

don’t know how many there are, but there’s a whole bunch. There are people who in Christian, the average Christian

33:47

sits in their yoga pants. And today, I’m not saying all, but you know, you get these no modesty. They’re dressed in

33:53

yoga pants, people $37 cups of coffee, and they’re in church cuz it’s a social

33:58

gathering on Sunday. It’s fun. It’s an experience. They got rock music, smoke, and lights. And all the songs are about

Why Christians Need to Wake Up About Spiritual Warfare

34:04

I, me, and my instead of the great creator, right? And when all this is happening, you bring up in that circle

34:11

that man, that person needs prayer. I think they might be possessed. They act like you’re a freak. And then they’ll go

34:17

home and watch an occult movie and not think twice about it. Our societyy’s been desensitized because the same

34:23

demons that walked the earth when Jesus was here are still on the earth. And if you don’t believe that, you’re not

34:28

reading your Bible. Not you, anybody. Like you, anybody, any human. I’m not a big like charismatic person. I’m not a

34:35

big like follow demons and stuff like that. That’s not who I am. But it’s realistic. There is God and then there’s

34:42

all these demons who betrayed them. And they know where they’re going. They’re going to the lake of fire for eternity.

34:47

and they want, you know, the saying misery loves company. They want to bring as many people with them as they can,

34:54

but it it doesn’t change the fact that it’s real. And we got a lot of people today who are, in my opinion,

35:00

demonically possessed or at minimum oppressed. And they’re within the

35:05

church. They’re within our businesses. They’re within our society. And it’s it’s sad.

35:12

Yeah. I think to some degree too, it’s it’s almost there’s a degree of people who are I’ll use the term possessed by

35:18

laziness. You know, I don’t know if it totally applies here, but like they believe in God, but they don’t

35:24

necessarily believe in the devil and demons, right? They they don’t believe in this active uh, you know, opponent or

35:31

whatever you want to call it that’s on the, you know, on the flip side there who’s actively looking to seek and destroy. And I think those people are

35:38

lazy when it comes to it because it it it just is easy and convenient to believe in God because believing in God

35:44

feels good and warm and fuzzy and you leave it at that. You believe in God, but you don’t necessarily consider the

35:50

rest cuz it’s uncomfortable or it’s concerning or whatever the thought is. So you just totally ignore it and then

35:56

you know because of that laziness or or whatever term you want to use to it. I I

36:02

don’t love the term laziness on this but we’ll roll with it. you know, does that make sense? Yeah. No, no, go. I didn’t mean to cut

36:08

you off, there’s a latency in our conversation. Finish what you were saying. I’m sorry, Jim. Yeah. No, it’s good. I just I think

36:14

that, you know, when you are unintentionally ignoring the other half of the equation, it’s really taking away

36:21

from the glory to God in the first place. It’s taking away from giving the people around you the proper protection

36:27

and understanding of, hey, these are the rules of the game, right? It’s like going to play a basketball game but only

36:33

learning 10% of the rules and not understanding like you’re going to play against an opponent. It’s not just you

36:39

and the ball. There’s another there’s another player on the court you have to be aware of and understand, hey, this is

Stop Playing the Game Without Knowing the Rules

36:44

how this works if you want to truly win the game. Yes. And I think you’re spot on. So,

36:50

two main thoughts when you were speaking that came up was number one, remember

36:56

when Jesus walked up to the man possessed with devils in the Bible and he said, you know, we’re legion for we

37:02

are many. And then the key phrase that they said when Jesus walked up was, “Why

37:09

torment thou us before the time?” Even the demons know God wins. They

37:15

rebelled. They fell. They made a huge like sin. They know they’re going to

37:20

spend eternity in the lake of fire forever, but they want to again take as many people down as they can. But they

37:26

said, “Why torment thou before the time? Let us go into that herd of swine.” And

37:32

Jesus said, “Go.” So who knows how many demons, thousands, hundreds of thousands

37:38

went into this herd of swine. And then I don’t fully understand this, but the swine run off the cliff, commit suicide

37:44

into the water. There’s something with demons and water. It’s like some escape. I don’t know if they go into a different

37:50

portal realm, but there’s something to it. I’ve heard a lot of stories of, you know, people who’ve dealt with demons

37:56

and there’s something about water. So, number one, the demons are real

38:02

and they know there’s a time. But then the other thing is when you’re talking about people who don’t believe and

38:08

you’re whether you call it lazy or whatever it is, you know, it says in Revelation, they’ll call me Lord, Lord.

38:16

And he’s going to say, “No, I never knew thee.” There’s the demons that Jesus drove out of the man into the swine.

38:24

They believe there was a God, but they didn’t trust him. And there’s a lot of

38:29

people in church, like when I was 14, I believe there was a God. And I wouldn’t even speak bad of God, but I didn’t know

38:36

him and I didn’t trust him. And that salvation for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Not

38:43

might be saved, not can be saved, not a certain type of person. It’s just for whosoever shall call upon the name of

38:49

the Lord shall be saved. So when people say they don’t believe in demons or Satan, they don’t believe the Bible

38:56

because they’re not reading it. And it’s either ignorance, pride, but there’s nothing good that’s in that list that

39:03

you could classify them as lazy. It’s taking saying, “Okay, I like this

39:08

concept of God. I like going to church, but I don’t really follow it.” So, they

39:14

might believe there’s a God, but they haven’t trusted Christ. And Hebrews 11,

39:19

that’s the faith chapter. It ties the Old Testament, the New Testament together. And every age throughout

Belief Is Not the Same as Trust

39:26

history, what ties people, what brings people to Christ? Salvation. It’s faith. By faith, by faith, by faith. So people

39:34

who say they believe in God, but don’t believe in Satan. I I don’t I’m not saying I’m not God,

39:41

but I’m just saying based on intellect and experience, I don’t think those people truly believe in God. Because if

39:48

they did, how if you don’t believe in the bad side or in hell or the lake of fire, what’s Jesus saving you from? And

39:56

what passion or urgency would you have? So that’s why I think a lot of people,

40:01

they believe, but they don’t trust. I think that’s where you get into the difference between religion and relationship, right? A lot of people who

40:07

who understand religion, they just kind of buy into, hey, I’m supposed to go show up in church every Sunday or at

Religion vs Relationship with God

40:13

minimum on Easter and Christmas Eve. Uh, and then they say they’re religious, but they don’t have a relationship.

40:20

Exactly. Exactly. And that’s what it is. It’s a relationship. It’s 100% a relationship. That personal love and

40:26

trust. And that’s why, going back to the other question you asked, it doesn’t matter what’s happened. Like Joseph,

40:31

he’s a great character in the Bible. He didn’t just suffer for weeks. It was years. Some people say over 30 years,

40:37

but it didn’t matter if he was betrayed by his family, if he was betrayed by strangers, if he was betrayed by his

40:43

boss’s wife. It didn’t matter who betrayed him. He’s like, I’m sure he had moments that he was upset. I’m sure he

40:50

didn’t always have the best attitude. I don’t know, maybe he did. But at the end of the day, he always stayed faithful

40:55

cuz he had that relationship like you’re talking about with God. And that’s what

41:00

it comes down to. That core relationship that I trust you no matter what. I may not understand it, but I know it’s going

Putting God First Changes Everything

41:07

to work out. Yeah, I agree, man. David, I got to thank you. This has been an amazing conversation. And uh you know, how can

41:13

we best support you going forward from here? Man, I mean, always pray. Always pray for each other. Um I love my kids like

41:20

you love yours. So if you pray even more for me, pray for my kids. And uh

41:27

professionally, things are good. If somebody needs help, they can always reach out to me. I love um I I marketing

41:35

and sales I do all day, but I love sales. Like I love cuz to me sales is serving and helping people. So if

41:42

somebody really wants to like promote their product or really get their product out there, that’s something we

41:49

can do to help each other. Uh listen to our podcast. Hopefully it helps you grow. If you ever want to meet a guest

41:55

or have any questions, reach out to me or the guest. and uh just if they want a

42:01

free promo code, I got a free promo code for companies that sponsor us if they want and that’ll just help them save

42:07

money and live better. Uh I mean, I’m all about let’s just help each other. So, but for me personally, main thing is

Pray for Our Kids More Than Our Careers

42:13

pray for my kids. Pray that they know God, love God, have that relationship cuz as a dad, if my I could die now,

42:20

Jim, and be happy. I just want to, you know, I want to see my kids have that joy and peace and love and have any form

42:28

of confusion that could be around them gone. I love that. That’s uh it’s an amazing

42:33

way to live. So, I know that’s not always easy and I’m sure that takes a ton of intentional prayer and effort and

42:38

focus and uh I just I want to publicly acknowledge that that’s worth it and it’s admirable to see because I think

42:46

people need to see that so they can replicate it. So, thank you for living that out loud. I mean, we all just Yeah. Thank you. But

42:52

I just that doesn’t mean life’s not hard or without pain or doesn’t hurt or

42:58

sometimes I got the wrong attitude or like flatout sin. You know what I mean? We’re all humans, but hopefully we have

43:03

good friends or you like slap me in the head like, “Dave, what are you doing?” You know, or like you help each other get it right or you you you repent and

43:10

not just acknowledge you sin, but you turn for a minute and go the other direction. So yeah, but it’s all about

43:15

if I was there, if you were there, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. We’d be with God in eternity. So clearly

43:21

we have some mission to still accomplish or many. Yeah, I love that. Well, again, thank you. It’s been an amazing conversation.

43:27

Yeah, man. It’s been an honor. And if anybody needs anything, they can reach out and then like I said, you can go to

43:33

the website. That’s the best way to get a hold of me. David Pascalone.com. Everything’s there. My contact us page,

43:39

the podcasts are there. I honestly don’t have a lot of what I what I do is there,

43:45

but I don’t really market. It’s like a mechanic who doesn’t fix his own cars. I don’t market myself um because I’ve been

43:52

blessed. I’ve had customers that are reoccurring like for years and the referrals. So 98% of my business for the

43:58

last, you know, 15 years is just referral. That way there’s already that relationship. Like I trust Jim, I trust

44:06

Chris. So I know if they refer someone to me, it’s it’s already a great start.

44:12

But I mean, anybody who needs help, I don’t even mind jumping on a call and trying to give them at least a blueprint

44:17

to follow to get them kickarted. Yeah, I love that. Well, again, thank you. Yeah, you’re welcome, buddy. It was an

44:22

honor. Thank you. Happy birthday to you. Cha cha cha.

44:28

Happy birthday.

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