The Bryce Crawford Podcast - "Can Christians Have Desires?" Ruslan KD Interview (EP 135)

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

In this episode, Bryce sits down with Ruslan KD to discuss the topic of Godly Ambition. What does it mean to create Godly goals and have correct ambitions in life!

November 8, this fall in San Diego, California, will be at the Balboa Theater for the live podcast tour. Chicago, Birmingham, and Nashville are already sold out, but we still got tickets left in San Diego. If you guys want to come out, experience the presence of the Lord, worship with us. I believe that the word God is stored in my heart for San Diego

is going to be so specific to the city and break chains. So if you live in Southern California, San Diego, or you just want to come, experience the presence of the Lord and have fun of the live podcast store. Go to Jesus in the street.org slash tour. come out to San Diego. We got some seats left. Love you guys. Enjoy the episode. What's going on, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I'm Bryce and today I have an incredible special guest here, you know, by the title of this episode. We have Ruslan with us. Dude, how you feeling? I'm feeling great. Thanks for bringing me on. You were just on my podcast, which I thought was a great conversation we had.

Dude, so fun. I'm grateful to be on your podcast. I know. It was so fun. It's finally good to get you in here with us. And I'm so happy you're here. I'm really pumped about this episode too because I've feel like the topic and why people are clicking on this specifically is something that just like a lot of people in our generation kind of need to know what it looks like to have godly goals. What's God's will for our life? How do we make sure that the things that we're doing are not only glorifying God but not distracting us? And how do we know that what's on our heart is from God and not from the devil? And so guys, we're going to be diving into an incredible conversation with Ruslan. This is going to be a broad sneak peek into his new book called, godly ambition, which I'm super pumped about.

I got to listen to some of the audio this morning from the first few chapters and have just been extremely blessed by it. And so if you guys want to pre-order his book, he's got a ton of assets. I'm going to put all the info right here and it'll be in the description as well. If you're blessed by this conversation, if you get to the end of the podcast, you're like, man, this podcast is great. I want to get more details. I want to learn more.

All the info will be in the description. And you guys can check out Ruslan's socials as well. But I kind of want to get a little bit of a backstory for you, like, because you're not originally from America. So kind of give us a backstory, where you're from, what life was like growing up, things like that. Yeah, man. So I'm ethnically Armenian, and Armenia is one of the oldest Christian countries in the world. Like, we didn't have a written language until we developed one to translate the Bible, right, to have a version of the Bible. So you're talking about around 300 AD.

Armenia becomes officially a Christian nation is before Rome. It's around the same time as Ethiopia. There is a deep, deep, rich Christian history in Armenia. But Armenia was a part of the former Soviet Union, which was communism, which was, you know, we remove God so that the state becomes God. And we are Armenians, my family and I, but we grew up in Azerbaijan, which is the country just to the east of Armenia. And Azerbaijan is predominantly a Muslim.

state, and they were both under the former Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union, as most superpowers do, drew up these real weird boundaries that created a lot of tension between the Arzis and the Armenians. So there's like this autonomous zone that's Armenian, but it's in Azerbaijan, and then there's like this slither of Azerbaijan right next to Armenia, and this created all kinds of issues out in the mountains that then affected all of us in the city. So what happened is in the late 80s, something broke out called the pogroms of Baku, which is the Arzis, because of alleged reports of Armenians mistreating Arzis and other parts. They wanted all the Armenians out of Baku and they proceeded to ethnically cleanse hundreds of thousands of Armenians

from Baku, violence, death, killing people. There's a whole movie actually made about the, like kind of my origin story. It stars Elizabeth from The Chosen, the lady that plays Mary. So it's called Beyond Borders. It's a dope movie. And it just, I mean, it captures it so well. And so, yeah, hundreds of thousands were exiled. Thousands of people died. And my family had to leave and flee because we were, again, culturally Christian. Yeah. And came to the United States when I was six, totally different environment, totally different context of everything.

And my mom and my dad had all these marital issues. They had made marital issues back there because my dad was Armenian. He looked Armenian. He had to leave before we did. We were more fair-skinned because my mom's a Russian or Ukrainian. She was adopted by an Armenian family. And so we stayed behind to handle all the affairs. Well, that then caused my dad to commit adultery.

My mom to commit adultery. So their marriage is hanging on by a threat by the time we come to America. And they end up, six months into it, end up getting divorced or separating. Communism falls. And I'm now growing up as like a kid in America, a whole new culture. a whole new language, whole new everything, not understanding anything. And in the same time, we started going to Armenia and Orthodox Church. And in that, it was like really cool.

I'm like, man, this is different. Like, I've never heard about God. We never talked about Jesus. But like this is the cultural hub for all the refugees. And I liked it, man. I was an altar boy. I got christened as a kid. It was dope.

It was dope to, you know, sip on some of that leftover communion wine. Come on, come on. You can't waste the blood of Jesus. so they would let us little altar boys finish up the communion wine, so that was a trip. And it was, it was dope, man, like hearing about God for the first time. Even as a kid, I didn't understand it,

but I understood there was something beyond this realm. Well, then in the midst of that, dude, I end up, I'm like seven or eight, and there's some older altar boys that are like 13, 14 years old, and I ended up getting essayed as a kid by these older altar boys, which, again, dad's not in the picture, and I just have this stain on my mindset, my mental, my frame work of now God and church and Jesus and everything is tainted.

And I just go down a really dark path, bro, of just whiling out. By whaling out, I'm talking by the age of 11, I'm breaking into houses, I'm smoking weed, I'm drinking, like, about to start experimenting with other drugs. By age 11. By age 11. Oh, my gosh. And I got arrested breaking into a house at age 11. No way.

Yeah, dude. What do they even do with a kid that's 11 years old that they were, like, what do they, you know what mean like what do you do yeah yeah what they do is they take they handcuff you put you in the back of a police car and they take it's like a holding station and then they they separated me and the people that i got caught with and you know we we were not built for the streets bro we did we started talking and tell it and everything that was going on really quickly uh you ever seen you ever seen that show was scared straight uh-huh so like i didn't even have to go on the show bro like just getting arrested and all the crazy stuff like i was scared straight like right away i was like all right

you know, I was, I was petrified and my mom was mad because she's like this single mom. She finally's getting on her feet, working a job, figuring it out. And here I am, like, getting arrested, knucklehead. And I continue on for a while. But as I get arrested, this is how the Lord works. I now have to do community service hours. So I now have to do some community service. And I was behind on the community service hours.

I kept getting in trouble. And then the lady that was the manager in our apartment building, Her name is Cherie. And Cherie, man, she was interesting. She was, my mom's, like, best friend. Her son was my best friend, Stephen Jackson. And Cherie went from being the mom, like the cool mom. When I was like, eight or nine, she took me and Steven to a Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog concert

at the San Diego Sports Arena. So imagine, like, I'm one of the only kids there. But I'm, like, definitely the only white kid there. Yeah. And I'm seeing Snoop and I'm seeing Dre and people were smoking, passing a blunt. Like this is my childhood. Yeah. One night Stephen, thankfully spent the night of my house.

She wasn't there and someone did a drive-by and shot up her whole house right where his room was at. And so there was like bullet holes. So this is like Sheree. Like Sheree's like kind of evolved in some street stuff, some sketchy people coming around. She gets arrested for trying to transport cocaine going through an airport. Right? Whoa. Crazy stuff, right? Dude, what in the world?

Like straight movie stuff. But she goes to jail and she gets like radically saved. Like radically on fire for Jesus. Oh my gosh. Comes out a couple years later. So this is right. She comes out right as I'm in the middle of just like my rebellion. Like I'm whaling out at this point.

And comes out and somehow like our entire apartment becomes Christian. It's like an eight unit apartment. Everyone's Christian now besides me, my family and the other Armenian family. And dude, I have to do these community service hours. And so like I'm behind and like I'm about to go back to court. If I don't have these hours, then like I'm cooked, right? So Charlie and Willie, some folks that go to Sharish, church that she either converted or moved into the, I don't know, but they, all of a sudden,

I got godly Christian men around me. Yeah. Are like, hey, you can do community service hours with us. So now I'm around these godly Christian men. They're sharing Jesus with me. Sharia is sharing Jesus with me. And it was this beautiful, it was this beautiful tension that they had of like, we're going to tell you the truth about you.

Like, you're a wild and you're like a rough kid and you, you, you, what you're doing is not okay. But we're going to do it in a way that still lets you know that we love you and we accept you, right? And that consistently, those planting those seeds, and I'm an atheist at this point. I'm like, there's no God because look at all the terrible things that happen to me. And if there is a God, he definitely doesn't like me. He wants nothing to do with me.

And they just kept being patient with me, bro, and kept sharing Jesus with me, sharing Jesus with me. And living Jesus, I saw her life transformed. I saw her temperament change. I saw these men that were functionally like father figures to me that just loved on me, And I still wasn't convinced. I was like, nah, like, mm-mm, like, nope. And then my mom sees that I'm on this dark path. And at the end of my seventh grade year, it really hit the fan for me, dude.

I broke into another house. And this time, everyone knew in the neighborhood that, like, oh, those are the kids that break into houses. They just knew. And so then someone's being sent to my apartment building with a bat looking for me. like outside looking for me. Another kid, a Samoan kid, in seventh grade, brought a gun to school

and told me about it, and then got caught and expelled. And then the detectives bring me into the principal's office and are like, hey, what's up with this gun? And I'm like, what gun? Like, I didn't even see a gun. He told me he had a gun.

I didn't even see a gun. And they're like, oh, he told us you gave him the gun. And I'm like, what? And they're like, yeah, they said you gave us the gun because I'm on probation on this point. Like my, I got this reputation.

and I'm like, I get up, and I'm like, it wasn't my effing gun, like, run the fingerprint. Like, I'm yelling at these detectives in the principal's office. And I end up leaving, and a couple days later, this Samoan kid is approaching me on El Cajon Boulevard in City Heights, San Diego, that's where I grew up, approaching me. And he's like, why did you snitch on me? And I'm like, snitch on you.

Like, what you said it was my, I got a snitch on you. I just said it wasn't my gun. And so, and then he has a little a shank. a knife and starts lunging at me. And Bryce, dude, thankfully this kid was fat. Because I... Yo. Yo.

He was a fat. I mean, I love my Simone's, but you know, he was a fat kid, bro. If he's watching this, I love you, brother. Dude. Thankfully, this kid was fat because I was able to hit him with a juke. I was playing flag football all the time. So I hit him with a juke move. And, bro, I ran from my life down El Cajon Avenue.

with everything I had. He couldn't catch me. And I'm not exaggerating like a week or two later. We relocate to Vista California, which is you, you, when you, that's Vista, California. So a totally different vibe, not city. And it was a fresh start. It was a fresh start, bro.

And I got into sports. I got into basketball. My GPA went from like 1.0, my seventh grade year. Like I didn't even think they were going to let me move on to eighth grade to 3.8, my eighth grade year. Dang. Like a complete turnaround. In one year.

In one year. That's crazy. became a good student. The subsequent year, I'm playing basketball, I get into music. I went a talent show. There's this girl that's really into me. The only way I could see her over the summer is if I go to church with her and her family, I start going to church. I wrestle for two years of, is it Jesus, is it Allah, is it the Jehovah's Witnesses? Is it the Mormons? Is it, what is it, right? The Buddhist, because I had a really diverse friend group. And through wrestling, I read The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell, Amazing,

Apologetics book. And I come to the conclusion, like, Jesus is who he says he is. Like, he is, he's not a liar, he's not, he's not a lunatic, he's not crazy, he's lowered. Because that was the, you only have three options, right? And this is coined by C.S. Lewis. Either Jesus is a liar, and he's not the Messiah and he's just lying. Or he's out of his mind, he's crazy. I'm sure doing what you do ministry, you probably bumped into people that think they're Jesus, right? He's a lunatic. Or he's God. And you can't, there's no third option. He can't be a good moral teacher. He can't be a good guy. He can't be a good moral example because a good moral example wouldn't be a lunatic. And so I was convinced that the resurrection, I was convinced to Jesus.

And dude, I wrestled for another year. And then finally, like the end of my junior year, give my life to the Lord and jump into ministry and really haven't looked back since. That's been almost 25 years ago. You said the end of your junior year? The end of my junior year. Yeah. So it was a wrestle. Like some people come to the Lord and like it's like instant for me. Like I had so many questions. the problem of evil, it's suffering. Why did I get essayed as a kid? Like, why did all this crazy stuff happen to me?

It was a lot of wrestling that I had to do with God. I mean, you had a lot of challenges. I mean, just being like, I mean, dude, immigrating from your home country to America at six years old, your parents splitting up basically as soon as you kind of get to America, not knowing people hanging out with the wrong crowd, doing the stuff like that that's just wow i can't you stop laughing at the at the at the shank thing because it's like that's so that's just so funny to me yeah yeah but man like i i think that's so

powerful because i think everything you just said there is is encouraging to me as like a young person and and to my generation because you have kids out there that are currently in that position right maybe they have parts of your story that is their story maybe your story is their story right now and they think that they're too far gone they think that they're too messed up or they just flat out think that the behavior they've been doing for too long is just their story and that's how they're going to be forever but obviously that's not the case you have this moment with jesus over years of wrestling you get encountered god changes your life i think that's super encouraging um especially for especially for people that kind of get caught up in that,

I don't know, in the drugs, in the theft, in the, in the, all that that or someone that even had that, like, criminal record at a young age. I mean, you look at now, like, people that have criminal records that get out jail, like they can't even get jobs. They can't even do any of that stuff. So they feel like that their life decisions kind of screw them up. And so I think that's the good pivot. The entry in the door is Jesus, the faith in Jesus.

after that faith in Jesus it's like it's kind of like the what do you do next I think that's that's the big question like I remember giving my life to Jesus when I was 17 and wondering what am I supposed to do I had been

so before I was 17 I was making YouTube videos from the sixth grade up until my junior high school when I became a Christian but they were like prank videos I was like yeah I was like lit my neighbor's lawn on fire by accident i was like by accident yeah by accident yeah by accident

yeah by accident i got to clarify that uh you know all this other stuff and i'm like pranking people and messing with people i remember i always felt so weird in my heart because i was purposefully like frustrating people but i enjoyed the creative aspect of it i became a christian was like all right god and i think this is the first the first um idea that came on my brain I'm a Christian, so that means I have to become a pastor. And as I started growing, I realized I'm not going to be a good pastor. Bryce is not, I'm not, that's not a gift of mine. I'm just not good at shepherding people.

I'm not good at that, and that's okay. There's people that are good at that. But I realized that quickly, but I remembered when I first beat, like really started following Jesus when I was 17, I thought that I had to become a pastor because now, I'm all in. And so because I'm all in, I got to do this and I've got to live broke and I've got to do all of these things. And I can't enjoy these things. I can't enjoy basketball. I can't enjoy school. I just like all these things that kind of shut down. And then the more I got in my relationship, I kind of started to realize that actually wasn't the case. Like how do you kind of discern with someone?

Like if someone gives their life to Jesus right now for the person that's that is currently given their life of Jesus or maybe has been a Christian but feels like they don't know what God is calling them to do. What are the first action steps to say, hey, what am I supposed to do? Yeah, that's a great question. For me, it was similar, man. It was like, hey, you're either a, you're either going to be a pastor or you're going to be a worship leader. Like, those are your two options in church. It's like, pastor worship leading. And it's like, man, I like, I like music. Like, I made music, hip hop and did that professionally from 2015 to 2020, traveled all over the country and tour and all that. But like, I'm not a worship leader. Like, I don't know how to play guitar.

don't know how to sing, right? Or pastor, much like you, I'm like, yeah, I'm not really a shepherd. Like, I love, like, true pastors are folks that can communicate the word well, sound doctrine. Obviously, live above approach and all the life, but they can also shepherd and love people and be with people in the midst of their suffering, right? Like, I was just at Echo's Church in Arizona with my buddy Daniel Golden, one of my best friends. And bro, like, he's a pastor, dude. Like he knows, hey man, this person's going through this and I'm praying for him, hospital visits, you know, marriages, funerals.

Like, do that. That's a different degree of gifting and a different capacity one has to have for people that if you're like, hey, man, I just want to tell people about Jesus. You know, I want to be used by God. Not everyone is wired for being a pastor, but I think the beautiful part is when we look in the scriptures, there's all sorts of spiritual gifts. There's all sorts of different things that we could be doing to, to usher in God's goodness and God's beauty and the kingdom on this side of eternity.

And so for me, I was, I knew I was born again because something interesting happened. And people listening may or may not relate to this. But I feel like the first question is how do you know if you're born again? How I knew I was born again is all of a sudden, dude, the things I used to love, sexual immorality, porn, smoking weed, drinking, cussing, all of a sudden those things I used to love, I now hate. I don't want to do these things no more. I still wrestled.

Like, don't get a twisted. Like, I still wrestle, like, having sex with your girlfriend. When you're, like, oh, you've always done this.

When do we stop? Right. Yeah. So I still wrestled. But I, I would be sick afterwards. I would feel so convicted and, like,

nauseous to the point, you know? Same thing with adult content. Like, I would wrestle and, and, like, all of these things,

like, I just couldn't do them in peace anymore as I could before. Yeah. Right? And then all of a sudden the weird thing happened, dude, is like all the things I used to hate, the Bible, prayer, weird Christians, worship music. I really didn't like worship music. Like that first year and a half ago in church, I did not like, open the eyes of my heart, Lord.

I despised Christian music, but I did not like it. Worship music was like so, and maybe it was the guy that was singing it to me because, you know, people are like, you're tripping like those songs slap. I didn't like it, dude. And all of a sudden, like, I'm lifting my hands. Like, I like, I like these songs. I like being around the weird Christians that walk around the school with their big old Bible tucked underneath them and just, they're kind of quirky. Like, those are the people I want to be around.

So, like, there was a shift that happened. That was beautiful. And all of a sudden, I'm desiring to be in community. I'm desiring to be in a small group. So I think there's people listening to this that are like, first and foremost, like, they don't even know if they're saved. Like, I don't even know if I'm Christian. That would be the tail sign.

How you know your Christian is, do you hate the things that you, to love your sin the patterns that you know don't honor god that are against scripture and do you love the things you used to hate the bible scripture listening to christian content listening to preaching worship music that that's an indicator uh in terms of like are you in the faith that you know that would be like what has your heart changed my heart changed i knew my heart changed the the issue though bryce was for me is like no one talked about now what like now what like okay cool man like you're saved you're 17 18 years old you got all right you got all right you're all right you got all all this testosterone.

Like you're thinking about girls. Like you're thinking about sex. You're thinking about all this stuff. And God wired you a specific way. And then you got these dreams and these desires. And like I think I'm supposed to have a job, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to go out and just tell people about Jesus all day. Like what am I supposed to be doing?

No one really had these conversations. And mental health, like forget about mental health. Like we thought therapy was demonic. Like we thought talking to somewhere about what the trauma that happens to you, man, just confess that in your small. group and that's it, you know? And it's like, yeah, confess it in your small group. And yes, get around a good pastor. But man, sometimes there's things that, you know, you go through and it rewires your brain. Like trauma can rewire your brain. And that may require a bit more

work and effort, right? And so I knew I was supposed to remove sin. I knew I was supposed to wage war on sin. I know obviously one of you guys have in your bathroom, be aggressive against sin in the bathroom. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think in the, in the shower. I was like, that's fire. Like, be aggressive in how you deal with sin, right? Like, I knew that. and I knew I was supposed to remove those vices, but I didn't know how to replace those vices with virtues. Yeah. I didn't know how to remove and uproot the evil in my life,

but replace it with something beautiful and plant a garden. Yeah. No one talked about this, sort of outside of like, go to church. Yeah. Go to church, read your Bible, sir. It's like, cool, man. I love it. I'm in.

Yeah. But then what? Yep. Yep. I'm right there with you. I remember I became Christian. and it was weird because I felt like no so in my circumstance no one told me that like no one told me like oh you have to be a pastor and that's the only thing you could do that's just what I assumed right

that's the assumption and so I was doing the Wednesday night group of the local church going every Sunday you know going to a church conference if I could serving here serving there you know praying for people in the street and this this and that right when I become a Christian meeting with my non-Christian friends at Waffle House for breakfast or at the Mexican restaurant for dinner and talking to them about Jesus and at the football games. But then again, it was like the, now what? Because all my ambitions and desires before Jesus were, well, the hookups, the porn, the people pleasing.

And then now it's like, I'm in this sanctification process where I'm trying to stop doing those things. but the only things I'm doing are like going to church and things like that, which those are great things. Like we need that stuff. I love the local church. And there was even like a year and a half in my faith journey where I kind of was just like, oh, you know, it's just about me and my relationship with God.

And then I was like, bro, what am I? You need the local church. You need the local church. But so we need the local church. But I thought that was the only thing I could be doing. And so if you could define, if you could define godly ambition, what is godly ambition yeah i think i think the simplest way i could define godly ambition the scriptures forbids selfish ambition and that word in the greek is erethea it's like a self-promotion clobbering

at any means by any means to get over other people so scriptures forbids selfish ambition it's in james very clear like selfish ambition bad but uh the word for ambit is a second word for ambition I'm going to butcher this. West Huff tried to help me with the pronunciation of it, but it's a filial temia, right? It's a different type of, and even if we break the etymology down, filio is brotherly, right?

So like Philadelphia. So there's a, there's an intemia, and it's like a, it's an ambition to serve people and steward what you have. Right? And that word is actually used three times in a New Testament.

It's used when Paul says, hey, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel where others haven't, right? So he wants to go into uncharted territories, which is kind of a lot like what you're doing. Like you go to Burning Man, you go to these places where like, let's be honest, like Christians don't go or are afraid to go. Right? So you're going into uncharted territory, preach the gospel. The second is Paul says he makes it his ambition to do what pleases God.

So live in a way that pleases God. And the third is I think one of the most crucial, Paul's writing to the church in Thessalonica, you're going through persecution, people are getting killed, it's dark, and they kind of grow apathetic. Like they're like, man, we're just waiting for Jesus to come back, bro. So they stopped working, they started being dependent on the church. And in first Thessalonian chapter four, Paul writes to them and he says, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, working with your own hands, so that you will not be dependent on

anyone, minding your own business, so that your day. life may win the respect of outsiders. And to me, it was that third part that I was missing, working with your own hands. So that you mind your business, lead a quiet life. So you won't be dependent on other people. So there's a calling towards independence, right? Towards a coming of age moment for us as men to leave our parents' house and go out and be independent, right? And that it's our daily life that wins the respective outsiders.

We can have all the apologetics and all the polemics and all the philosophy and all the theology and all that's great. And I love all of that. But if it stops there and people can't see a transformed daily life committed to virtue and service and love, then it's null and void. Think about like amazing Christian people that we've been influenced by that tragically had a moral failing. And think about like what that does to people. Right. It shakens them, right? So it's like that daily, like that, that daily pursuit of sanctification.

And I think Godly ambition is all of those things. It's the pursuit of service, is the pursuit of sanctification. It's the pursuit of stewardship, meaning none of my life is not my own. My platform is not my own. Money is not my own. None of it is my own. And I am called to steward and manage it onto the glory of God. And so I think in all of that, like that is how I would define Godly ambition.

And there's a passage of scripture I want to show you that I think you'll love. But let me just kind of pause there for a minute. Yeah, yeah, I think, you know, there's a lot of people, you know, you may be listening or watching this that you're in the street or maybe you were sexually abused or maybe you've been involved in theft, drugs, alcoholism, and you feel like your whole life's been thrown away and those are the only desires you've had. But Ruslan is a testament. Ruslan's life is a testament. Bryce's life is a testament. Many believers have a testimony that says, that used to be my life. It doesn't have to be in my life anymore.

God can change your ambitions. And that's the encouragement, I think it's like so, you know, my brain immediately goes to the passage in scripture of the parable of the talents, you know, where three people get three different sets of talents. And the one guy buries his. And I felt like that was me out of fear being a Christian saying, everything I did before Jesus was all bad. So I have to just hide it all.

Well, obviously now we're making YouTube video. And I was making YouTube videos before Jesus. That's right. Except before Jesus, it was all about me. It was all about Bryce and how Bryce could be known and making, getting the eyes on me because I was a people pleaser. I just wanted people like me. So I knew if I could get anything to do, anyone to like me and record it and get whatever

it would help. And then for years, I just kind of hid and was like, there was great. There was good that came out of it, good out of this like hiding period of just being with the Lord. But then I had a dream. and God's like, hey, no, this thing is okay. Just do it for the glory of God. Like, do it for me.

Come on. And so it's just crazy how, like, that desire wasn't necessarily a sinful desire. God just changes where, okay, you used to do this for yourself, but now you're going to do this for me. Yeah. And I think that's just a big encouragement of where, you know, those guys get the talents. They steward the gift God gave them and it multiplied and impacted people. Yeah. And so, you know, there's a lot of people out there that are not.

listening that God has put ambitions in their heart from the moment they were born or for the moment they were little that they have in their heart that they kind of think it's like maybe not from God because other stuff that they're doing is sinful. So they just assume that everything in their heart is sinful. But there's an ambition in there that God's trying to unlock in them and trying to use for them. And I feel so encouraged by that and encouraged by your story because you're saying, hey, look, man, I enjoyed hip hop music. I wasn't a worship leader, but man, I was making music for the glory of God and using that gift. And I think that's what people need to know is that we need lawyers. We need people at

the gym front desk. We need waiters and waitresses. We need accountants that are believers that are doing it for the glory of God. I think of that scripture in First Peter where it says, be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for the hope inside of you, but do it with gentleness and respect. And one of my prayers has always been like, I just want the way that I like carry myself, like the way that I walk on the street makes someone ask like, why do you like you walk different? You know, what, why do you walk the way? Why do you carry yourself that way? You know, I think I think that is like even in your work, if you're a lawyer, like, why are you not shady when you're in court defending your client? Like, why are you just respectful and calm but firm and

geez, you know, I think we need that. Yeah. Yeah, that's so good. I mean, first let me just acknowledge. I love that you said that there was a necessary season where you needed to go in hiding for a moment. And I think that there's, there's, that needs to be acknowledged because oftentimes, especially today in the, in this climate, people see what you're doing. They see what George is doing, girls gone by,

but they see that and that they want to jump right in. But like you're just spot on, dude. Like when you start, when you first come to faith, you need a season of just go sit. You know, Paul, who wrote the majority of our New Testament, spent, I want to say seven years in Arabia, just hidden before he went out and started doing all this stuff. He came to faith, but then he went and sat with the disciples, then he went and just sat for a while. And so I think there's something to, hey, let's pause and get rooted in our faith, right?

So I think you're totally spot on. But then to your point, like, then something starts to happen with those things that the Lord deposited, even before we were Christian. Now, there's certain things like you said, this man, like you can't be a meth head for Jesus. Yeah. Right. Like we're not, you can't be an only fans model for Jesus. You can't, can't be a drug dealer for Jesus. Like, there's certain things that like, they're just out, right? Like, you can't do those things. But there are other things that God is deposited or maybe even things connected to some of the, even the sinful things, right? Like, I'll be honest with you. And that like a lot of the folks I knew who were in the streets and doing illegal activities in the streets ended up indirectly having entrepreneurial gifts. They just didn't have opportunities or wisdom on how to flesh those things out. Right. And so, there. And so, there. There's this really interesting story in scripture I wanted to share with you, man. This is so fascinating. So in Luke chapter 22, this is the Last Supper.

And Jesus, in the parallel gospels, just washes his disciples' feet. And then he's telling them that one of them is about to betray him. And they're talking about who's going to betray him, right? And then something crazy happens. In Luke 22, verse 24, it says, a dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. So here these disciples are. Jesus washes their feet.

He's like, hey, man, when do you guys are about to betray me? This is right before he's about to face the cross. And they're arguing about who's going to be the greatest in this earthly political kingdom they're expecting him to establish. Right? Like just bad timing, bad form, right? And like, what do you? Like, what knuckleheads?

Like, are these disciples? Like, this dude's about to go to the cross. you guys are arguing about like who who's going to have the most clout and the most power in the new kingdom right yeah and so jesus does something interesting man jesus um he doesn't rebuke their desire for doing something great because he could have he'd rebuked peter right he'd rebuked the pharisees he was not uncomfortable rebuking people he doesn't rebuke their desire to be great he doesn't even reject their desire to be great he does something interesting in verse 25 Jesus says to them, the kings of the Gentiles lowered it over them, and those who exercise authority

over them called themselves benefactors, but you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest and the one who rules like the one who serves. Right. So he says, hey, your worldly understanding of greatness, that ain't it. Because that's the world is about power and dominance and status and clout. That's not it. So he doesn't rebuke or reject their desire for greatness.

He redefines greatness. He redirects their desire and he redeems it. And he ultimately points them to service. He says in verse 27, verse 26 says, but you were not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest and the one who rules, like the one who serves,

for who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves. Is it not the one by who is it at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. Jesus says true greatness is through servanthood. True greatness is through being the biggest servant and being willing to lay down your life. And he's about to demonstrate that to them by the cross, right? So I think so many of us, we have a vision for something,

but when we did it the world's way, we knew that that was incongruent with who God is. But now we're in Christ Jesus, and so we go, well, how do we go about it? Well, so how do we go about it as we go, wait a minute, are you doing it to build your castle? Are you doing it to build God's kingdom? Are you doing it to dominate over people?

Are you doing it to serve people? Right? And so serving people doesn't always mean being in the lowly place and just cleaning the bathroom. I think cleaning bathrooms and toilets. I did it. I was a janitor at a church. It's actually the only job I got fired from. No way. Being a janitor at a church.

How did you get fired? I got fired because I was working at Pizza Hut and I was double scheduled. And Pizza Hut was my full-time gig. Gotcha. And I was like, I can't miss this. because this is only for the weekends. And I told them and then I was like, I'm not going to show up.

Guys, I'm not coming. And so I didn't come. And they were like, you're fired. And I'm like, so only job I ever got fired from. But like there's something in the remedial, you know, being hidden, clean the toilets. It's good for your,

it's good for the ego. It's good for the soul. But there's also times where you're serving as a leader that's helping other people, right? So a lot of what you do is like you're serving. What you do is serving. but it may not be you cleaning toilets, right? It may be you in front of a thousand people sharing your testimony.

That is serving, right? That is serving people as well. And so I think service is being willing to do the uncomfortable things for the sake of other people, right, for the benefit of other people. Jesus went to the cross, right? In the book, I go into this idea of like passion, right? People were like, I just want to follow my passions, dude. Like my passion, like, bro, Bryce, my passion was like, I thought I was going to be a professional basketball player right and then i discovered something called genetics you know and like genetically bro it wasn't

in the cars but that was my passion yeah right but when we look at passion we look at we look up the first definition of passion and it's like this exciting amazing thing that you're excited about yeah you know the second definition of passion is what agony and then it says the suffering of christ day the passion of christ so passion is not what do you excited about and feel euphoric about so much, man, just find something you love to do so much that you do it for free and you'll never have to work a day in your life, right? That's your passion. No, no, no, no, no. Your passion is what are you willing to suffer for? What are you willing to go through agony and lay down your life to suffer for? Granted, none of us are going to the cross the way Jesus

went to the cross, right? That is an amazing atoning work for the forgiveness of our sins. But there are times where we've had to suffer in doing this that most people aren't willing to suffer. Like, I'll be real with you, I'm not going to Burning Man. I'm just not. I'm not going to Coachella, right? You're willing to put yourself in situations and suffer and be uncomfortable. And that is something that God gave you. And so what if passion was less about what are you excited about, but more about, what are you willing to suffer for that other people aren't willing to suffer for?

And what if your calling isn't that? I love that. That literally reminds me of in, I think it's in Luke chapter 16 when he sends the disciples out. And too, he's like, don't bring a knapsack. Don't bring an extra tunic. Like, go in faith. And then I remember I was at Arizona State. So when we were all meeting up for the podcast, we were at Arizona State.

And this young lady came up there. And she was talking to me. And she was like, yeah, you know. So that means that she was like, I sold my car. I sold everything, blah, blah. And I'm all in. And I'm like, she's like, so everyone needs to do that or they're not following Jesus. And I said, well, hold on on.

You have to understand that, you know, he's using a metaphor here to get them to be totally dependent on God. Well, if you read like five chapters later, he's like, hey, do you remember when I told you guys not to bring the tunet and not to bring the knapset? He's like, okay, use your common sense. This time. Bring the knapsack and bring the tunic. And buy a sword. And like, yeah, because he's like, use the gifts and the things that I've given you. Almost like steward the things that you have.

That's right. I really believe God rewards the stewardship. Like if, like, you know, people see maybe outward success or what people are doing or what people have and they assume I've got to have that. But if you can't even be trusted with the little things that you have, how is God going to be able to trust you with the grand thing? Because that's when I feel like that for me was the first indicator of like, am I trying to build my castle or am I trying to serve people? and expand the kingdom was like, do I want what everybody else has? Or do I want to steward what God has given me? I remember like when I first became a Christian, it was like, you know, there is that deception of like true successful Christianity is preaching in front of thousands of people, right?

But then you get a taste of what real success is when you meet one-on-one with that friend you've had for 10 years. And then they get encountered by Jesus because of your faithfulness. your your hard work like earn it earner earn and like i'll never forget i'm not even saying any of this like bump my gums i'm just like reflecting right now i'm my whole senior year high school at my christian school all my classmates did not like me they all thought i was the righteous police they all thought like i remember we started out the senior year we did a whole high school retreat i was reading my bible during my free time they didn't like you christian high school that's crazy i would get my my bible shut in my face like i was reading my

Bible my quiet time kids would come up and shut my Bible messing with me I was hosting like the me and my my best friend were hosting like the chapel services every night and when he would come out everyone would cheer and then when I would come out people would boo and I got food thrown at me at the student section people would ignore me and people would only come to me when their life was crumbling and then when I would come for them and pray for them then when they would immediately go and gossip about me in the same classroom like leave and I remember sitting there thinking like man like I almost thought like what I was sewing was just like waste. I'm like man,

I'm sitting there thinking, why am I being faithful to these people that are treating me like this? And then ever since we graduated high school, I get calls and texts and messages for people I used to go to high school with that are now being impacted by Jesus through a lot of what we do now. And all I can imagine is like, man, what happens if I just wasn't faithful?

with those people in that time period, even though they were rejecting me, even though that they were pushing me away, or even though they had their reservations towards me. Like this girl I went to high school with that I didn't really even talk to that much. I didn't even know I did this, but she had texted me like five months ago,

didn't even know I had her number saved. You know, she had my number. We never really talked much in high school. She texted me this three massive paragraphs just talking about how she got pulled over and had gotten a ticket. And it reminded her of in high school, our senior year, how she would gossip about me and make fun of me and spread rumors about me. And one day she came into school getting a ticket that morning and was saying how her parents were going to ground her and kill her and she didn't have the money to afford it.

And apparently I paid for her ticket. Whoa. And she was just like, I got pulled over today and was just reminded of that generosity you gave me, even though I was gossiping about you and spreading rumors about you. And she just sent me these three paragraphs, just grateful for what Jesus was doing in her life, grateful for that. just reminded her and gratitude. And all I could just think of is like, man, like if you're not faithful with the little, what's God going to do? What can God do with you in those moments of, I don't know, opportunity.

You know, I think that's, I think that's just such a beautiful picture that you're painting there. And my brain, I kind of want to kind of like flow into this conversation of when I was reading your audio, sorry, listen to the audio. I noticed that you talk about the abundant life, right? you know, after you get godly ambition, you know, I think about the scriptures where it says, like the man that neglects his family is worse than the unbeliever and working with your hands. You know, there's something good about doing work and glorifying God and you reap what you sow. And Proverbs talks a lot about it.

There's a part of me that gets nervous around the idea of abundant life because of the definition that it can be associated with. Right. You know, like there's the prosperity movement that can abuse the term, abundance and say, well, abundance only means monetary goals. And so if you give this amount of money, God's going to return double that amount of money to you. What is the abundant life? And how does that correlate with our godly ambitions? Yeah, I think universally abundant life, like globally throughout space and time and all of history, looks like the fruit of the spirit, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, right? That's Zoe life. And so when we're talking on a macro scale,

wherever you're listening to this at, the abundant life is ultimately the ability to be content and have joy despite your circumstances. And I think that is something that a lot of people, what money here don't have. Like people in America, we know a lot of people, you're in L.A., bro. We know a lot of people that got all the money in the world and no peace. They got all the, they got all the clout and influence in the world, no joy. You know what I mean? And so that like, first and foremost, I think it's that, it's joy, peace. It's being able to lay your head down at night and sleep and not feeling like you've you've been faking the funk this whole time where you've been living a false persona right so i think foundationally it's like the peace and the joy that we have in

jesus right so that i think is foundationally now i think where people struggle and where some people struggle is yes we look and there is warning against money in scripture right um jesus says like what what good is it to gain the world and lose your soul right um first timothy six says you know, for the love of money is a root to all kinds of evil. So there's some warnings about pursuit of wealth for the sake of pursuing wealth. For sure, for sure. Where your treasure is, that your heart is, right? Yeah, yeah.

And then so I like to approach scripture and say, scripture has to interpret scripture, right? So people point to First Timothy 6, and then First Timothy 5, which you mentioned, which is, hey, he who does not provide for the needs of his family, specifically his immediate family, is worse than a non-believer and is denied to faith. Now, we're living in a climate where for some people, it's hard to provide for their own needs. Like they can't even move out of the house, right? They can't even go and you guys have a super cool spot here, Bachelor guys, five of you guys living in the cell.

Most people can't even afford to do that, right? And then you add the cognitive dissonance around finances and success and work ethic as a Christian. And you can easily slide into apathy and just like, I'm just going to punt my life for Jesus, bro. Because he's coming back next Thursday and it's just about me learning. more information and not doing anything with it, right? And then you can kind of grow spiritually obese. You have all this information and this head knowledge, but you're in such a caloric overload of good teaching,

and you're not exercising or doing anything with it, that you just stay stuck, right? So I think when we're talking about finances specifically, I think we have to, first, what does the scripture say? First Timothy five, right? Proverbs says that a righteous man leaves an inheritance for his grandchildren. In the house of the righteous there is choice. oil and spices right that wealth attain little by little will last but those who get rich

quick will wither away right so there's so much in the scriptures i mean jesus talking about finances a lot not always in a favorable light there was caution around it as well and so i go okay what is our context yeah in the here and now in the west where we're not under roman occupation where we're being persecuted and martyred like the disciples we relatively can express our faith and it not sometimes it might cost you a connoisse opportunities. Sometimes it might cost you a job. But generally speaking, like, no one's going to fire you because you're a Christian. In America, generally speaking, right? And so it's like you're not being persecuted the way the disciples were. You're not, you're not getting fired. You may be. There might be some persecutions, but not in a, in that sense.

And then there's all of these amazing principles in scripture about work ethic, about wisdom, about living below your means, about avoiding debt. you're in debt, get out of debt as quickly as possible, living on a budget. Like, there's so much in there. And this is the crazy part, right? All the stuff that's in there has been hijacked by the self-help gurus and repurpose to this weird new age mysticism or the prosperity gospel, which is like, believe it, name it and claim it, you know, blab it and grab it. You give God a dollar, he'll give you a hundred.

Yeah. And it's like, no, it doesn't work that way either. It does it. Yeah. But there is a lot in there about. godly stewardship, right, management of resources. And so, like, if the standard is provide for the needs of your family. Yeah.

Specifically your immediate family. That's the standard. Yeah. If you don't do that, you're worse than a non-believer and you've got to faith. And I get it. There's going to be teenagers that are listening to this and like, dude, I'm in high school. What are you talking about? And I'm not talking about right now.

Yeah. I'm talking about when you're becoming a young man, that is the goal. You should be able to sustain yourself financially. And where you're in this season, let's just call it 18 to 25, where you have all this access to time. You have all this access to opportunities and you don't have any of the

responsibilities that those of us who are married with kids have. And there's a small window of time where you can actually develop yourself, build your skills, learn how to be on a budget, how to get out of debt, how to stay out of debt, how to invest. All of these, you can do it within 18 and 25 to set yourself up for the next decade.

And so many Christians I meet, dude, they just punt it. Yeah. They just, they're scared. Right? It's like they're scared. I met this kid at a young adult's group, bro. Super, super talented kid. Dressed well.

He worked out like a, like a high-end thrift shop, he's in like super sick Japanese, Japanese salvaged denim jeans. They're creased and fly outfit. He's on a worship team. He's a visual artist. And we're talking and he's like, man, I want to be a visual artist. I'm like, dope. Let me see somebody works.

I'm looking at it. I'm like, dude, are you pursuing this? And he's like, nah. And I'm like, what do you do you do? He's like, bah, I work like 20 hours a week. And I'm like, and what else are you doing? I'm just kind of kicking it. And I'm like, you don't want to pursue your visual art?

And he's like, no, man, I'm afraid I'm gonna be too successful. And I'm like, too successful. Bro, you're at your mom's house. Like you work 20 hours a week. You're on the worship team, five hours, too successful? So what we're doing is we're solving for problems we don't even have yet. It's like how many people you know that are like, Bryce, I'm scared, to go to the gym, bro, because I might get too buff.

I might get too jacked. And then I'll be vain. And then all the girls will want me. And then I'll fall in the sin. Like, bro, there is a chasm of a difference between where you are now and looking like Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Yeah. Like, there's a chasm of the difference between you just getting in the gym and becoming a sex

icon. Yeah. Like, stop it. Like, so we're solving for problems we don't even have yet. And you're not, you don't even walk. You don't even go outside. And we're talking about getting too buff. Like, you, you, you, you work 20 hours a week and you live at your mom's house, right?

Like, and you want to talk about being too successful? Like, how about we just get you to a baseline of, how about you just sustain yourself? How about we get you to a place of moving out and paying for every bill that comes to you? It's in your name. How about we get you off to your family's cell phone plan? You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, so we're solving for problems we don't even have yet.

And again, I'm not trying to be disparaging and mean. it's just like, no, there's just truth to it. There's just, there's just truth to it. You know, it's like the guys that are, you know, yelling money coming to me at the prosperity because they, you know, they want money, but they're about to go drop that on a parlay this weekend on an NFL game. And then they wonder why the money ain't coming to them. And it's just because God don't trust them.

That's right. It's not that prosperity is true. The prosperity gospel is true. It's just that God doesn't trust them. That's right. But there is this awkwardness about money. And if I'm being completely honest, like I get awkward about money. I don't think money is.

sinful. It's amor. It doesn't have feelings or emotions. You know, there are the warnings against scripture. You know, but then, then I read, you know, a lot of proverbs where Solomon's like, okay, look at the life of an aunt. It's got no boss, but it works hard. Yep. So work hard. And the reality is you reap what you sow. You put in hard work. You reap the dedication of the hard work. When I would study really well for tests, I would reap a good grade on my quiz and tests because I studied hard and I was prepared. You know, but I think that the, there's this like awkwardness of people that's like, you know, if like, did you see that picture of Pope Francis bedroom? Like once he passed away?

Yeah. Did you see that? It was like a bed and then there was like a wooden cross hung on the wall. Like that was it. Yeah. And I think, you know, and praise God for that. Praise God for that. I think that bedroom is the, is the like that.

How do I say this? Like I'm trying to be careful how I say this. Because I think when I saw Pope Francis bedroom after he passed away, I was super encouraged. I'm like, man, he's content with little. He was a voice for many. He was the literal pope of the Catholic Church. That's how he was living in his life. Humble, humble living.

But then there's the contrary that can almost make people feel bad for, you know, like having things. Before I moved to L.A., I worked for four months in Florida on both. I had a co-worker. His name was Mitch, double my age. Slap broke, worse steward with money. Like love money. Slap broke, would miss his phone bill, but every time we got tip money on the dock,

he asked me if I wanted to split some scratch-offs with him at the sick go across the street. And then I also have a close family member who's the CEO of a successful business, and he is the most humble, generous, kind, best father, best friend, best steward with his resources. And when I compare those two circumstances, I go, okay, my old coworker had a little bit more of a heart issue

than my close family member that I know that is stewarding the gifts God has given him, stewarding the resources God has given it, and he's still a present father, a present. You know, he's got this busy life, but he's at every one of his daughter's volleyball games. He's at all the family meals. he makes time for everyone. Like I'm like, man, that's that, but then there's this awkwardness about just money in general. Like, I'm not, like, I think it's good to kind of get in the specifics, you know?

Like, yeah. Like, what is. So I think, I think the greatest antidote to greed, which is really what you're getting at. And let me just say this before I say anything else. Let me say, man, there are people that love Jesus at all economic levels. There are poor people that love Jesus and there are wealthy people that love Jesus. There are poor people that don't love Jesus. And there are wealthy people that don't love Jesus.

money can become an obstacle. It can become an idol, but so can poverty. You know, like if you've got to work seven days a week just to keep the lights on, you're not going to be able to go to church a lot of times. Right. So there's tension on both ends of the spectrum. Yeah. Right.

And so I think that the idea is quite simply, man, money is a terrible master. Terrible master. Don't let it master you. But money is a good servant. Yeah. When you master money and you allow it to serve. and be generous. And the way we do that,

one of the most practical ways to do that is you make generosity a pillar of your life. Financial generosity, right? Because yes, you can give away your time and you can give people attention and you should do all of that. But when you're in a consistent rhythm

of giving regularly or, man, God just bless me with this thing. Let me find someone to bless. I'm blessed to be a blessing. That is the anchor to come back which you're describing, which is greed. Because you can be greedy and not make a lot of money, right? And you can be greedy with a lot of money.

But when you make generosity the anchor, that is how we combat that. We combat that by saying, I'm going to be generous, right? And the rest of it, I'm going to be faithful. And if God breathes on this thing, praise God. If he doesn't, I'm content. Right? Contentment is often not talked about in our society when that verse, you know, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, right? That first is in the context of contentment.

Like I know what it's like to have plenty. I know what it's like to have little. I know what it's like to go without, right? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It has nothing to do with a football game. Or like, I'm going to be an athlete. Like, I'm going to do all things you crazy. Strangis me.

No, no, no. Like, it's actually about contentment. Right. So like contentment is the launching pad to faithfulness and potentially abundance. Like it's the contentment. It's the, I'm okay with little, man. Like I've, bro, we've been broke. Like I've, you know, we went, we were $100,000 in debt in 2011, me and my wife as newlyweds.

And so I know what it's like to go scorched earth. We don't eat out. We don't go to the movies We don't do anything Because we're trying to clean up this mess we made Like I know what that's like And we by the grace of God And following Dave Ramsey's baby steps

We were out of debt in 18 months You know Wow Before I was on YouTube Before I was doing music Before I was an entrepreneur Is that what kind of encourage you to Because I don't know

I don't know anyone that knows Russo I don't know if you guys know this You used to have a financial channel Yeah yeah At the start Absolutely yeah Like for but you've had it for a while Where you were like giving financial advice

Is that kind of what motivated you to do that because you had that season? Yeah, because I met so many young people, so many creative people, so many people that were creative, but already had families. And they were trying to do this ministry thing or this music thing or this YouTube thing. And it was a burden on the family. And they're trying to figure out to balance it. And so I'm like, hey, man, like, there's a way to build something. Sure. There's a way to build something for optimal impact.

And it doesn't have to come at the expense of your soul. And it doesn't have to come at the expense of your family. Yeah, one of the things I really respect about, like, my Muslim friends and just Muslims in general, is that they give a lot of alms to the poor. And there was like a season two years ago where I would go to restaurants and then I would just ask, you know, when we're sharing Jesus with you, I just ask people like, hey, what's the worst shift to work? And like nine times out of 10, they were saying Sunday because they were like, yeah, the church crowd just is so stingy. And I just I sat there and I'm like okay, you know, as Christians, we believe Jesus Christ is Lord. But we have a religion that contradicts the gospel that is doing more generosity-wise for people than Christians are. And it just got it kind of just got me thinking.

I'm like, man, like what are we doing? You know, like, that, that broke my heart because I'm like, man, like, that's, we should be the most generous. We should be. We should be Sundays after church. That's my favorite shift to work because them Christians show up, bro, and they give the fattest tips. Yeah. It's like, man, what are we doing? You know, and I think like Matthew 25, you know, when we do the least of these you doing to me, a lot of these people don't know.

Like, when I was working on the boats, it was a part of a restaurant. Like these restaurants like even when we were on the boats like our our boat salary like if I shared how much like our salary was on the boats people would freak because we lived off the tips. So these guys are working with their hands to reap what they sew and like because you know Christians can be not all Christians but we can be stingy because there's like this it's like there's this awkwardness about money. But then when we obtain money it's like but that 10% I need. I need the 10%. I need the. 10% this month or I'm just not going to give this month because I need it. But for some reason, I find those moments where even when money is tight, when I'm still generous, like God, God just, like, when I first moved to L.A., I had no money and I just, I was just praying and asking God for help and asking God for help and still doing what I could work in, side jobs and things like that. I was still doing my part while also praying. I wasn't sitting in my closet 13 hours a day asking God to drop cats.

my hands. I was working also asking God for help. And I just remember those moments when I would have like $100 in my bank account, but I would see the homeless guy on the side that needed a meal. And I remember the battle in my flesh of going, okay, I literally have no money. But at least I have a roof over my head. This guy probably hasn't eaten. I'm going to get this guy a meal. No, God didn't bless me financially because I bought him a meal. But God showed up in many other ways that allowed me to steward my life and now we're here. And so I think there's that like there's this like weird you know double-edged sword and also too I have a I just know a lot of Christians now right that this might be something good to talk about. I think this is good to talk about. I love that

there's this Christian urgency in the Christian culture to get married. I think that's great. I think that's beautiful. I have a lot of my friends that got married pretty quickly. They have amazing marriages. I also know a lot of Christians that got married quickly, but it was a poor financial decision. And now, they're struggling. They're struggling. And, like, they can't provide for their families. Like, what, what is the, is it wrong to have financial goals? And, and, and, you know, like, like, what, you kind of get what I'm asking here. Like, like, like, we got, we got, we got people out here that are, that are, that are more worried about, I'm keeping it at a buck. We got more people worried about getting married so they can have sex, then getting married so they can provide for their family and starting

a life and nurturing something beautiful that God has given them. Again, I'm just like, what are we doing, man? Yeah, man. Look, dude, there's a, there's a study done by Forbes women that found out that 80, I want to say 84% of working women desire to stay at home for a season when they have kids. kids. This is working women, women who are aspirational and want careers. They did another study during the pandemic where they found out that 65% of working women with kids 18 and under would have preferred to stay home to raise their kids overworking a job. So these are working

women with kids 18 and under that have preferred to stay home had they been given the opportunity to, right? This isn't Christian women. This isn't a conservative woman. This isn't It's a church women. BASeline tests. Women who work and have children, the vast majority of them would have preferred to stay home and raise their kids. Now, depending on what pockets you're in, that would be like, yeah, well, duh, like, if you're in the tradcom space and I know, like, that's super trendy on TikTok. Like, of course. But, like, there's other folks that are like, no, like, I want to go to college.

I want to get an education. I want to go do these things. But here's a reality. In that same Forbes article, it found out that a huge percentage of women, like I want to say in the 90s, also became resentful towards their spouse if they couldn't provide that for them. Right? And that's tough to talk about when you're in your late teens, early 20s, mid-twee, you're not thinking about the biological reality of pushing out another human.

Yeah. What is that going to feel like the connection, the reality that that baby's going to be latched onto you, that most babies, they drink breast milk. They're not on formula. I'm going to say there's anything wrong in formula. And listen, I understand that there's all sorts of situations. and this is not optimal, but generally speaking,

this is what most women desire when they get married. Even if they don't know it, like right now, you might be like, I don't know, I'm going to send a baby to daycare. Uh-huh. Try having a baby and trying to send them to daycare, right? It is heartbreaking to see the type of stuff that folks go through where they have to keep working, right? And so it's like, man, we're in this window of time

where there's never been more opportunity and more technology or more access and more ways to learn new skills. But it's also very hard. It's also financially tough right now. The wealth gap keeps increasing. The middle class is shrinking. It's a tough season. And so if you're like, man, I want to get married.

Okay, sweet. Want to get married? Man, I want you to get married. I want you to have a great sex life. I want you to build a godly family. But in that, you have to count the cost and think about things five years from now that you're not thinking about now. And having kids is one of those, man.

So if you're like, I want to get married, but you have no skill set. Like, all you know how to do is like, weight tables like weight tables man like hustle that but you need to be doing something else so this this is how i define it i say there's two buckets that every man and woman but every man specifically needs to focus on bucket number one is you need to work to eat right in second thecelonians paul writes them and says a man who not work ought not eat same church so it's interesting out in scriptures he has to keep reiterate i told you guys like man make it your ambition to be quietly and then like they didn't get it okay man if you don't work you don't eat right so work to eat

Every single one of us has to figure out ways to work to eat, to sustain ourselves, right? Not at the expense of church, not at the expense of your soul, but you need to figure out some ways to work to eat, right? Work to eat. But then the second bucket is you got to sow to reap for the next season. So there's a sustainability, hey, man, bills are due. You got to figure it out. You got to pay rent. You got work to eat.

That might mean driving for Uber, driving for a lift, picking up an extra shift. Whatever you got to do, you got to work to eat. but the Sotomas for the next season. Me and my son were hanging out a couple weeks ago in our backyard. We were eating cherries and you eat cherries and you put the seed, or at least I put the seeds on the neck. I don't swallow them. So you guys to do your freaks, swallow your cherries.

And my son liked it means like, he's like, hey, we should plant a cherry tree in our backyard with one of these seeds. And I was like, oh, let me look how long it takes for a cherry tree to grow. How long you think it takes for a cherry tree to grow? Probably a really long time. Seven to ten years. Oh, my gosh. seven to 10 years.

So we, because of this inundated culture of social media and the hustle bros and everyone grinding and automation and Amazon drop shipping and ah, you think you're going to start something today and it's going to be flourishing in a month. Yeah. That's not how it works. Yeah. Like you're sowing to reap for the next season. And that requires patience. The only thing that grows overnight is weeds and magic mushrooms. and I don't think you want either of those

yeah yeah right and so work to eat so to reap you do those two things you're going to position yourself and so how do we sort of reap we start saying well what what areas am I interested in what areas do I have a burden for what passions do I have things I'm willing to suffer for

right yeah and what skill set deficits do I have currently that can be filled so that I can go and do more in the market serve more people so our brother what was your name right now Chris. So Chris right now is taking photos.

Yeah. Right? Not everybody knows how to use a camera. Yeah. But it's easier than ever before to use a camera. Yeah. And they're more accessible than ever before. You're on a Sony.

That's probably what, a $3,000 camera? With the lens? Yeah, yeah, probably. A little bit more than that. Okay. When I was on doing stuff, bro, cameras were like 10 grand. You know, back in high school.

Things are getting cheaper. YouTube videos. You can watch a 10, 20 minute YouTube video, learn to ins and outs of that camera very quickly. We couldn't do that when I was in high school. Yeah. Couldn't do that when I was in high school. college. YouTube didn't exist yet, dude. YouTube came out to see in like 2005. So what I'm saying is

you can learn ways to use that camera, lenses, techniques, colors, lighting, editing, lightroom, on your phone, on the go. Right now very quickly. So you figure out what skill deficits do I have and maybe you don't become the Bryce Crawford and you're an influential dude that God is using. Maybe you're the number two or the number three or the number four to a Bryce Crawford. maybe you go and you're behind the scenes guy for a season. Maybe you sit underneath someone like you and you study and you learn, you develop the skill set. And maybe you discover you actually don't want the headache that comes along with being

the Bryce Crawford, right? Maybe you're like, dude, you do that in front of the camera stuff, bro. I'll run the behind the scenes for you, right? And I think so many of us, we're just not thinking like that. We're not thinking like, hey, you have a skill deficit. What do you need to learn now in the area that you're interested in to make up? And there's a beautiful book that came up, bro, that said that we can learn almost any skill to a degree of competency

with 20 hours of deliberate focus. 20 hours of deliberate focus, you can almost pick up anything. When to learn cameras, want to learn video editing, want to learn social media, want to learn SEO, want to learn coding, want to learn graphic design, want to learn T-shirt design, right? You want to learn how to weld, right? Like 20 hours of deliberate focus,

you will be at a competent level. You're not going to be a 10,000-hour expert, which you will be at a competent level. Like, it's never been a time like this before. Right. Never been a time like this before. And so people want to be the best at something. You don't have to be the best at one thing.

You can be in the top 20% of like four or five different things. Sure. And then you have this unicorn of a skill set that makes you an extreme valuable asset to serve people in the marketplace. Yep. And provide for yourself and your family. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, there's a huge encouragement.

The way I was raised, man, I'm just from the South. my family's a little redneck blue collar you know so I love just to work with my hands I know that there's other people the way that they're raised they don't do that and that's okay

so you know I can be I just love that I'm so passionate I like one of the things I struggle with is I'm impatient with I can just get impatient I'm like man I like you know I like that and I think there's a beautiful call right I think you said something incredible that that hints to both those things you know one of the things I

recognized after I became a Christian as well when I was 17 my senior year of high school I took a college writing class and I learned I loved to write I love to phrase things a certain way that also correlated into us preaching come on you know a lot of people say um you you they love the way we phrase things and so and talk about things and and I found out in high school that I just love writing and I love the way I love phrasing things in an easy understandable way and so there might be some people out there that are listening or watching that say, man, I want to be a preacher one day and I love communicating, but they're broke and they think success right now is preaching in front of thousands of people. And so maybe the start to working on both of those things is

getting a waiting job at a restaurant that is teaching people how to serve. It's providing for yourself and your life and your family paying the bills, but also the interactions with people are in a shot to preach the gospel to people, learn how to phrase. It's just like a combo. We didn't even start making the videos until 24, February of 2024. I became a Christian December of 2020. It's four years. And for a year and a half, I traveled with my mentor.

He became a father figure, but he was an itinerant preacher. I traveled with him for a year and a half. and was his armor bearer basically you don't know where that is just being there for his right hand man holding the bible you know we were going to the amish country we were going everywhere and that was the most fun ever and i i vividly remember you know there's a young man it's so great he asked me a couple months ago he's like he's he's doing the same thing he's like man he's like man how did you know when to leave your mentor leave that season and i was like well i didn't want to leave him it just kind of naturally happened you know

God gave me a dream moving in faith started, but there was all that preparation season. I also don't want to come across hard on the people that, you know, have gotten married and are in that financial hole. Because even you share, you're like, I got married, we were $100,000 in debt. If you could speak to the young Christian couple

that's married, but wasn't necessarily ready for the financial provide, like what would you encourage that young Christian couple with? Yeah, I think the biggest thing I would say, is well first there's grace and mercy i think in everything we're talking about there's a ton of grace in this and we and we we sever gracious god i also want to say everything we're talking about we're not talking about salvation which salvation is by grace through faith alone faith in jesus you are saved because you place your faith in jesus you place your confidence in jesus we're not talking about salvation

we're talking about now that you're saved how does life look yeah right now that you're married how does life look but take inventory take take take inventory of where you're at take inventory of where you live and say what is the objective what do i want to do where do i want to be what is the goal is the goal to have and start a family soon is the goal hey we want to pay off our debt is the goal hey we want to increase our income by getting a certification in a specific career field take inventory where you're at and and the biggest encouragement i would give is you would be shocked how much you can do with deliberate focus like 2011 me and my wife are 100 ran in debt were newlyweds.

By the way, prior to that, I didn't share this with you. Prior to that, my first year of marriage, we lived with my mom. Wow. So like, and my mom was an alcoholic at the time. By the grace of God, she's so, so imagine like Christian, newlywed, living with your mom, bro. Like, I was in the thick of it, and it was rough. That first year was brutal. And so we finally scraped together enough to get out of debt.

I got sued in the process. Our accounts got levied, accounts get levied, meaning you wake up and check your account all the money's gone. Yeah. They got sued in the process. And yeah, we were $100K in debt. And the deliberate focus of putting our head down and saying, hey, we have this goal, we're going to be debt free.

We're going to be completely debt free. Yeah. Why? Because we knew, hey, at some point, my wife, we're going to have a family. And we knew that we're going to have a family. And so you would be shy. how much you can do with deliberate focus by putting your head down and saying if it's a financial issue, if it's a debt issue, man, put your head down, most people get out of debt in 12 to 18 months. That's the crazy part.

Like when you really hone in and say, what's the number? $50,000, $30,000, $100,000? And you say, I'm going to put my head down and I'm going to go scorched earth. Dave Ramsey calls it gazelle intensity. I like to call it gazelle grind. It's from Proverbs 6. Rice and beans, beans and rice, no eating out, no movies, no extracurricular, no vacation, budget,

lock in, most people can be out of debt in 12 to 18 months when they go all in. Maybe it'll take you a little long and wait for you 24 months. But that foundation

for us, dude, was so crucial because that we had room to breathe. Yeah. Like, I'm not just working to pay all this stuff. Yeah.

And I have no margin. So it gave us margin. And then we then saved six months of living expenses. So we were out of debt and we had six months of living expenses. And then I was able to go

and work at my church for two years. So my wife could stay home. I could work on my church so I can go into ministry. And then after two years at my church, I was able to transition and be a full-time entrepreneur. And all of this is because my wife was confident because we had worked on it and she was confident in me leading to say, hey, you've been faithful in these areas and you keep God keeps being faithful to us. When I called her and I asked her, I said, babe, do you think we should put in my two-week notice at the church?

This is 2015. She said, I don't think there's anything else to pray for at this point. you need to come home and put in your two-week notice. Like my wife that was like, stay-at-home mom with my son was eight months old. You know, that was over 10 years ago. Yeah. And so if you're that young couple, you're struggling, man,

you would be shocked how much you can get done with deliberate focus. But listen, you've got to have a vision. You've got to have a plan. Like, whatever you aim for, you will hit. So if you're not aiming at anything, you're going to hit that. You're going to hit nothing. But if you're like, man, deliberate focus, we want to be able to give my wife the opportunity

to stay home. That was one of our values. Make that plan, figure out what that number is, figure out, is there a skill deficit? Is it? What is it? And just get after it. I recommend Dave Ramsey, Financial Peace University. Some people, you know, may not be fans of everything Dave does, but that system works. Those first three baby steps, $1,000 emergency fund, debt snowball, your debt, smallest to largest, three to six months of living expenses. Dude, there's nothing like it. And so we locked in on that. And I think that's most people, that's probably the best thing I think that's so practical. Like if you're in that whole lock in, like work hard, put your hand to the plow.

And I think the last people group, just kind of close it out. We have a lot of young people in high school, just single young people, guys, girls in high school. If you could encourage them in godly ambition. Yeah. What would you say to the young Christian guy or the young Christian girl when it comes to godly ambition? How would you encourage them? Yeah, I would encourage them. And I would encourage that one, pick up the book, like shameless plug.

Pick up the book. That's the point of all this. If you don't like reading, get the audible. If you pre-order it, the first four chapters of me sitting and reading it on camera just like this. But there's a section from a book that I think it could perhaps provide some clarity, right? And it's about the idea of identity. And ultimately our identity should be anchored in Jesus. So like the world is going to tell you that your identity is one of two extremes.

Your identity is what can you generate externally. So your identity is how you look. Your identity is how much money you make. Your identity is what other people say about you, right? It's an outside-in identity. The other extreme in the world is they'll tell you your identity is whatever you feel it is. So whatever you feel like on the inside, that's who you are, right? But the scriptures talk about something totally different.

It talks about a top-down identity, right? The J. Warner Wallace coined this idea of top-down identity. meaning I am not my external validation and what people say I am. I'm also not what I subjectively feel because my feelings can be subjective and fleeing. I am who Jesus says I am. Right. And so therefore, I'm no longer a sinner. I'm a saint.

My body is the temple of God. I'm a friend of God. I'm born again. I have new desires. I'm a son. I'm a child of God. Right. And so my identity is top down.

And how do we like discover identity, discover our calling? In the chapter on identity, I say, Scripture is a gift. It offers a panoramic view of our status as God's beloved children. God's will, which a lot of people want to know, high school, college, what do I do? What is God's will for my life? What is God's will in my life?

We think it's this fork in the road moment, right? Like, man, if I go left when I'm supposed to go right, I'll ruin God's will for my life, right? And I say, God's will is found in God's ways. And God's ways are found in God's word. Right. So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, trying to figure out your purpose.

Sometimes I think we're way too concerned with the what, what am I supposed to do, versus saying, hey, why do I want to do the thing I want to do? And how am I doing it? Yeah. So let's talk about relationships, right? Someone's like, I want to be in a relationship. I want to date someone. Yeah. Okay.

Why? Oh, uh, uh, I, I, I'm lonely. I want to have sex. I'm horny. I need validation. I need someone to affirm me. Probably not the best reasons to jump into a relationship. Right, right.

But if it's like, hey, I want to be in a relationship because I believe that I'm about to step into being a responsible young adult and I rather build a good foundation and I want to date with purpose and I want to honor God with my body. Totally different reason. Yep.

Right. So the why matters, not just the what, the why matters. And then to the how matters, right? So I want to be in a relationship. Great. How is that going for you? Right?

How are you doing it? Are you on the phone until 4 o'clock every single night with this girl? Because you really need a therapist, but this girl is, she's not your therapist, dog. Like, let her go to bed and go tell your darkest traumas to a real person that can help you. Go find a friend or a pastor, right? How am I mean, it's real. Right? Right?

Like, you don't need, like, how matters. So it's like, how are you doing dating? How are you going to do that? Oh, man, I just, I'm lonely. It's like, I just want to come over and I just want to Netflix and chill. It's like, and then what? Where is that going to leave? Stand up, get the blood flowing and go home.

Right. Like, so the how matters, right? So it's like, hey, you know what? I'm going to pursue a relationship, but I'm going to go about it in a way where I'm going to guard that person's heart. Yeah. And I'm going to guard their purity and I'm going to guard my purity. And I'm going to be intentional and calculated and how matters. So it's like the what is.

The what is college, not college? That's important. But I think the why and the how is more important. And so the how is in God's ways. Like, in God's ways or in God's word. God's will is in God's ways. God's ways is in God's word. Right?

So you're trying to figure it out. Man, ask yourself the question, why? Why do you want to start that thing? You want to be, okay, they're watching Bryce. They're watching me. They're like, man, I'm going to be a Christian influencer. Okay. Okay.

Why? Because my dad didn't affirm me as a kid. kid and my mom didn't give me enough attention. And so like I feel like if I'm famous on TikTok, then maybe I'll feel valued. It's like, dude, you're already valued in Jesus. Like, God already loves you. You already laid down his life for you. You placed you in a right standing. He's declared you righteous. He's giving you a new heart, new desires. You're already valued and you're already loved in Jesus. Okay. So that may not be the best reason to go and try and be a Christian famous influencer. Right. Right. But if the why is, hey, I just feel like, man, I have this

testimony and I want to share it with the world and I'm in a local church and I've sat under the mentor and I've been hidden in a quiet place and I feel like guys are stirring me up to share something with the world. Okay. That's a better. And then we go, how? Are we doing it in a way that's God honoring? Are we ethical about it? Are we honoring about it? Are we, are we gossiping about other creators? Are we building a platform by tearing others down? For sure. Right? Are we going about it by building others up and pointing people to Jesus? So I think, yeah, man, I would say if you're trying to figure it out, God's will for your life is in God's ways for your life and to discover God's to waste for your life.

You've got to get in God's word. You've got to get in God's word and you got to get around God's people. Yeah, I love that. I think what Rusana is saying is so impactful because I wish I had someone telling me this when I first started out. Me too!

Because it would help so much. Guys, man, this episode is so near and dear to my heart because I think, you know, man, I just love the supernatural and just the deep spiritual moments with Jesus and the depth in scripture. I also just love the practical. of like supernatural, super practical, man.

What the heck am I supposed to do? So, man, if you're a young person, watching and listening, you're wondering, man, what's God's will for my life? I love what Ruslan said. Find the why. Why are you doing this? How are you doing it?

And then even too, that just, I love what we said earlier. Just reflect on the gifts that God has given you. Start there, use them for the glory of God. God. And I think that's beautiful. Man, Ruslan, thank you for coming on. Yeah, I really appreciate guys. And I highly encourage you. I think one of the best practical things we can do is invest in ourselves and bet on ourselves. And so I think that there's so much rich, beautiful information and wisdom in Rusan's new book, Godly ambition. Ruson, where can they pick up the book? Yeah. So get the book

at your favorite retailer, Amazon Barnes & Noble, Christianbooks.com. I think Target will have it. We're has it online so you can pre-order it and then after you pre-order it we got a super dope bundle for you guys go to my godly ambition.com get a screenshot of your pre-order and then go to my godly ambition hit redeem and you could see a bunch of other stuff we got like upcoming live events we got all the endorsements all the what everyone's saying about the book but at my godlyambition.com hit redeem and you'll you'll instant just upload your receipt and you'll get the first four chapters and audio video of me reading it and telling you some of the behind the scenes you'll get the first four chapters in the e-book, you will get an exclusive podcast with me and Jonathan

Pekluda that no one else will ever see except those of you guys that pre-order. Jonathan Pocluda did the book Adulting, good friend of mine. He did the forward to the book as well. And then you'll get 25% off to our bless god.shop, merch store. And you'll get an ambition action worksheet that you can start filling out to discover your calling and your purpose. And it's a super practical tool that I think you can find. that overlap of like what is my passion, what is my mission, and what is my current vocation and trying to discover that calling. So yeah, my godly ambition.com. But yeah, any bookstores that sell books, it's on there available for pre-order. And then this is that pre-order bundle is

available through when the book comes out, which is September night. Yeah, come on, guys, man. If you're wondering what God's will is for your life and how to have godly goals and godly ambitions, read the word of God, renew your mind, review the gifts God has given you. and I would highly encourage you guys to go get godly ambition on my godly ambition.com. Pre-order the book, get the resources, man.

It's so incredible. Rousan, thank you again for coming on. Thanks for having me. And by the way, these chairs are super fly. Hey, amen, thank you for saying. I know about it at first.

I walked in. I was like, yeah, they're vibe. Facebook Marketplace. Come on. Let's go. Let's go. Guys, thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode.

If you guys like it, subscribe to us on YouTube, follow us on Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok. Bless you guys and see you guys and see you guys next week for the next episode.