The Eric Metaxas Show - Joshua Broome (Encore)

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

Joshua Broome shares his powerful testimony in his book: 7 Lies That Will Ruin Your Life: What My Journey from Porn Star to Preacher Taught Me About the Truth That Sets Us Free

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments. Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to listen to a man of grace, sophistication, integrity, and whimsy? Well, so are we. But until such a man shows up, please welcome Eric Mattaxas. Folks, back by popular demand, my friend Albin Sater, Albin, welcome back. I am glad to be back here. I dusted the cobwebs off my seat and now I'm sitting pretty. I got to tell you, also back by popular demand, ask metaxus.

It's a segment we used to do on the program. We used to call it Ask Metaxus. And now we've decided to call it Ask Metaxus into the future. Because it sort of sums up the theme of the segment, Ask Metaxus. People write in, they write in questions. You ask the questions. I'm in Texas. I try to answer the question. So what do you have for us, Alvin? Well, here's question number one from the folks out there. Where do you buy your suits? Okay, I buy my suits at a different place than I buy the book obvious by Albin Seder.

Wow. Yeah, you see this book? This has nothing to do with where I buy my suits. I want to be very clear about that. And it's a great book. Now, it's interesting because part of people in America no longer knowing how to dress or being confused about it and becoming increasingly casual means that they don't even have a vocabulary to understand particularly men's clothing. And so people often when I'm wearing a sport jacket like I'm wearing today, they will say nice suit. And I think, well, it's not a suit. It's a sport jacket. A suit is a jacket and matching pants. And I really don't own many suits because, you know, typically I'm going places where I don't need to wear a suit.

But where do I buy my suits? Many, many different places. I don't know where I'm going to buy my suits in the future. But a really good friend of mine, it's hard to believe this is true. But Mimo Spano, Domenico Spano, who's passed away this past year, He was a legend in the world of men's suits, just a legend. Mimo Spano, Domenico Spano. And I had the privilege a number of years ago of buying a few suits from Mimo. And so the ones that are really beautiful tailor-made suits, the only ones that I own, were made by Mimo Spano.

But the short answer to that is I buy a lot of things on eBay because I, you know, feel like, you know, clothing can be expensive, and I don't know, on a radio salary and on the salary of a book author, you can't really buy, you can't, you know, just go to some place and get bespoke suits. But I, so I buy a lot of things, I do buy a lot of clothes off of eBay. Yeah. And since I'm, my size is a 50 long, it's hard to find stuff. But anyway, yes, thank you. You're doing a segment on Socrates Plus, right, about the gentleman and, you're, bringing back the gentleman thing and the suits and the ties and the whole nine yards, right? Actually, Socrates Plus, people can go to Socrates in the cityplus.com.

We are going to be, you know, some of these episodes, venturing into menswear because I actually think it's an important thing. Yeah. Yeah, great. You, Eric, do so much good for America and Christianity. Are you hopeful? Wow. Well, I mean, I think, first of all, that's a very kind comment. I don't know if it's exactly true, but I think that, listen, anybody who understands what we have in America

must know that it is his responsibility and duty to try to keep the Republic, to try to keep the freedoms that we have. And I feel that just by dint of understanding some of those things, I want to do everything I possibly can. And, you know, Christianity, I don't do anything for Christianity. I do, I hope everything for Jesus. And I really think that it's just a joy. I feel like I don't deserve to know God. I don't deserve to have relationship with God. I don't deserve to live in a country like America.

These things are just the greatest gifts you could get. And of course, nothing could compare to the gift of knowing God. And it gratifies me that people would say something like that. But in terms of whether I'm hopeful, we're commanded to be hopeful no matter what. In other words, I think that God himself is our hope, even when things are very bad, even when things are difficult, our hope is in him. And I think there are a lot of people that don't get that. A lot of people that don't have a personal relationship with him.

If you have a personal relationship with the God of the Bible, your hope is in him. It's not about, it's not in what he can do for you. It's not in turning things around. Ultimately, you want to turn things around when they're going badly, as they are in America and around the world. but ultimately our hope is in him. And if our hope is in him, then we can dare to hope that the God of miracles

really can wake us up and help us turn things around for the better. So I'm hopeful on a number of levels, and I exhort others to be similarly hopeful. John 1-5, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Hey, that's a last quote in my book. That's in the book called Obvious. by Albin Seder. Albin, honestly,

you've got so much stuff in there. Now, John, the Apostle, he gets no royalties. You ripped him off, he used his quote, and he gets no royalties from that. Quiet. But his descendants are going to be suing you. The light, this is the last part of your book. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1.5.

I end on a hopeful note in the book. Sayeth the Lord. Yes. Question number three, what do you make of this union between the radical left and radical Islam, in their hate for Israel? Well, it's pretty simple.

I think that if you're ultimately animated by demonic forces, you're going to hate the people of God. You're going to hate God's chosen people. You're going to hate the God of the Bible. And I think that what we're seeing rather clearly in a way that we haven't in the past, we're seeing how the enemies of God are united, in their hatred of Israel and the Jews.

And it's a clarifying moment. I have to say, it's a wonderful clarifying moment. When you see clearly the evil, there's something good in that because then you can fight the evil and you can understand what it is. But ultimately, it's a spiritual hatred of God. It's not particularly logical. Yeah. The next question, how do you personally discern when God gives you a task to do?

Well, that's a, that's a, a tough question because I think that all of us are always tasked by God to do things. And so the first thing you want to say is, what does the Bible say? You don't need to get a special delivery. Hey, Eric, you know, don't kill anybody. Don't lie. Don't commit adultery. You don't need to hear from God on that because he's already spoken on that and it's in the Bible. So the first thing I want to be clear is you don't need to hear from God on most things. Most things, most things what to do, what not to do, you can get it from the Bible. Now, you also need people to help you interpret the Bible correctly, and you need discernment.

There are people, this is why I say to people, you have to have a personal relationship with God. If you don't, the Bible can just be a bunch of dead words that are not animated by the Holy Spirit. And you know what? The devil quoted the Bible in the wilderness. People can quote the Bible for evil ends. And so I think you have to, when you read the Bible and as you walk through life, you have to ask God continually to reveal himself to you and to guide you so that when you're reading the Bible or when you're hearing a sermon, you're hearing what God is saying and you're not getting some twisted version of it because there are plenty Christians today going to churches or hearing Christian leaders who are not saying what God is saying. Now, they give lip service to the Bible or to God, but we have to remember that the enemies of God, the ones who sought to kill Jesus and killed him, they were the most religious people of the day. And so you can be quoting the Bible and think you're right and you're doing the work of the devil.

So you have to have a personal relationship with the Lord, and you really have to humbly ask God to give you wisdom and discern and to surround you with people who are saying what God really is saying. because we can all be deceived. Let's go with a light-hearted question. Are you coming back to Pittsburgh? Never. Oh, come on. That's my home town. When I was last in Pittsburgh, and I said it, I think I said it on this program,

I said it on Instagram. Pittsburgh is such a gem of a city. But, I mean, no kidding. Yeah, it is. It is a gem of a city. And I loved being there and all, I mean, I have to get invited back. But there are a number of churches in the Pittsburgh area that I've been in touch with.

So I'm certainly, by God's grace, coming back to Pittsburgh. Go to Ericmetaxis.com. My schedule is always there. It's constantly updated. But I'll be doing a lot of speaking in the spring. So the answer would be yes. Go to Ericmataxis.com for the details. And the author of Obvious is originally from Pittsburgh.

And the author of Obvious is from Pittsburgh. Yes. Hey, it's Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs. And I've got a movie coming out on June 27th. it is surprisingly clean. It's called Something to Stand for, and it tells a series of incredible stories you've never heard before about a small group of Americans who built our nation. The film will air in theaters all over the country, but only for a limited time, so don't wait, reserve your tickets today at something to stand for. Dot movie and check out the trailer while

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Legacy pm investments.com. Check it out. Hey there, folks. If you're a religious Christian, and I use that term in the pejorative sense, this story is not for you. But if you're a follower of Jesus who knows the power of God to deliver people from the darkest places and to bring them into his light, then this is a story for you. My guest right now is Joshua Broom, who, this is amazing, Josh. I'm so glad to have you. porn star turned pastor. My friend Billy Hallowell brought this book to my attention and brought Josh's story to my attention. This is a story about the power of God that many people who, you say you're a Christian,

but you haven't seen the power of God to deliver people from the places that are so dark we can't even imagine. Josh Broome, thank you for being my guest. Thanks for being willing to tell your story. Oh, so glad to be here. And such an honor to get back with you again. Good to see you. Yeah, I was going to say, I can't remember when you were last on the program,

but your story is mind-blowing. And I think what it does is it kind of challenges people who have what I call a fussy religious view of the faith because they're not willing to see that Jesus died to save us from evil, not to make our lives a little bit better, but to take us from evil, from darkness into light. and no story illustrates that more dramatically than yours, because I think that there are people that they really can't imagine. I mean, there are people. I'm one of them.

You can't really imagine, wow, how does that happen? How does somebody get trapped in something so wicked, so dark? You know, that's the first question. But then how does God reach you? That's even more amazing. So tell us a little bit about your story. I want to be clear, you and Billy have very, written a book called Seven Lies That Will Ruin Your Life.

And so that's the brand new book by Josh Broome and my friend Billy Hallowell, Seven Lies That Will Rune Your Life. And a lot of your story is woven into there, Josh. But just tell us the story. Where did you grow up and how did you get trapped in this incredibly destructive lifestyle? Yeah, I think it's like paying the picture from how I ended up there is so important. And so I grew up in a small town in South Carolina, and I was born in Charlotte, which I'm actually speaking at men's event here in Charlotte. So I'm in Charlotte right now.

But I was born in Charlotte, grew up in South Carolina. And what was unique about me growing up was that, unfortunately, it's a normative thing to grow up without a father in your home. But what was unique about my circumstance was that I had a father that was down the street. So the town was so small that he was in close enough proximity to me where I saw him. So being a young man in need of a father or even just a man in my life to, you know, show me how to do things and nurture me and hear what we all need to hear that, son, I'm proud of you, that caused confusion, which led to frustration. and because I could see the thing that I needed and wanted, it increased the feelings of inadequacy.

And I believed, well, if I do enough and obtain enough, I will feel like I'm enough. And that's a lie that many of us believe. If I had X, Y, and Z, I would feel differently about myself. And I pursued any and everything I could. So try to make the best grades, try to be the best athlete. And those were ways that I sought out affirmation from others from doing things well. And I started modeling and acting when I was 13 or 14 years old and had some success there. And then continue living this life and go to college and I'm studying theater and really more involved in pursuing my dream of being successful in the acting and modeling space and dropped out of college, moved to high.

Hollywood. And while I'm in Hollywood, I have an agent and I'm doing okay, but like many people who moved to Hollywood or Miami or New York, while you're trying to chase your dream, you've got to mitigate your expenses. And I'm working at a restaurant. And while I'm working at a restaurant, three girls approach me and ask, do you want to be an actor? And the acting they were talking about was adult film acting. They were talking about pornography. And, and, And you look back, well, I didn't have an example of what it meant to be, you know, really a man. I didn't have a biblical worldview. I had brokenness in my life.

And I was exposed to pornography at 13 years old. And that shaped my worldview in terms of what I thought intimacy was what I thought that, you know, a man and a woman interacting with one another in a romantic way. I thought that was what that meant. And that's why it's so important. You know, if you are educated by the world, you will behave like the world in my experience informed by decisions. And I said yes to something that I thought wasn't that harmful. And I honestly didn't think it would be that big of a deal. So I did one, and my life imploded because that the one that I did many years ago, like 2006 is when I did my first film.

I did that and it went viral and a lot of people found out about it, started sharing with me. And then at the time, my mainstream agent discovered that I had done that and they released me from representing me. And then living in a small town, word travels pretty fast. And my family finds out that I've done this. And now there's this shame and this disconnect from everything I was pursuing. And I believed the lie that, well, because I did this, now I'm a task. to that forever, and I might as well continue doing that. But with the same mindset, well, if I become the best, if I become famous, if I make a lot

of money, that will mitigate the way that my heart feels. We have to be clear, and because I think a lot of times people forget that when you're living in the world, when you're not in a Christian community, there's nothing wrong with porn. When you're living in that world, nobody has a problem with it. They consume it. And they don't have any moral qualms. They don't have any moral qualms about sleeping with somebody before marriage.

It's a different world. And when you're in that world, that stuff becomes normative. And most people escape the horror of falling into producing pornography. But some don't. And so there are men and women being preyed upon. And you are one of them. Somebody approaches you. We've got an easy way for you to make some.

money. It's just, it's so easy. You're a good looking guy. You want to be enacting, right? Let's check it out. Let's try it. And so there are many people that have been trapped in that lifestyle, in the world of prostitution. There's so many people out there that they believe these lies. And I want to be clear that, again, this is normative in the world outside of people with a strong Christian background. You know, the idea of frowning on pornography, thinking, oh, come on, don't be so puritanical? What's the big deal? These people are doing it freely and on and on and on. And so you're one of those stories and you're trying to do the best you can. You don't have anybody telling you, hey, this is 100% wrong. You're in a world where people say, you know,

why not? You know, you can get ahead. You can make some money. Yeah. I mean, in a real way. So my mom and some of my fraternity brothers from college, and there were a few people in my life saying, dude, what are you doing? So there were. Okay. So go ahead. Yeah. So this doesn't align with who I know you to be. And I think like that's the beauty of having true accountability in your life. And it normally works one or two ways. Either someone says, hey, you're doing something outside of who I know you to be.

So you get, you know, someone loves you enough to tell you the truth. like Proverbs 273 talks about the wounds of a friend. You know, sometimes people need to tell you something that stings a little bit for your own good. And I had that, but I didn't respond to what they said. Instead, my shame caused me to think, well, I'm too far gone. So what I did is I removed myself. I isolated myself from them. So I disconnected from everyone.

Yeah. And I stayed in that industry for six years. I did over a thousand films. and I did everything that I thought would bring me happiness. I made, you know, I made, you know, millions of dollars, I got success, I won the awards, I did all the stuff. But after six years, and I won a male performer the year in 2012, and I thought, well, if I won that award and, you know, people say that I'm the best, and I win this award for being the best, I'll feel good about myself, but it didn't work. And when it didn't work, my anxiety was amplified, my depression was deepened, and I made a very clear plan to take my life. because everything that I wanted wasn't no longer available.

I tell you, when we think of, I call it the evilness of evil, how evil Satan is, because people say, oh, yeah, Satan, the devil, but folks, the evil, the evilness of evil, the deception, to suck somebody into something, and then to persuade them to take your own life. It's just so horrifying. But, you know, Josh, the good news is God reached you. And so when we come back, I want to talk about that. The book by Josh Broome and Billy Hallowell, new book, Seven Lies That Will You Will, I want to talk about that as well,

Seven Lies That Will, Brand New Book, Billy Hallowell and Josh Broome. This is the Eric Metaxson show. We'll be right back. All that talk of opportunity. Hey, this is Eric Mettaxis. For years, I've told you about Nutrametics, a professional supplement brand trusted by doctors since 1993. Nutrametics offers a variety of health bundles. Whether you want to support your immune system, improve your sleep, promote joint comfort or detoxification support, Nutrametics has a health bundle right for you. The best part about Nutrimetics, every year they donate a minimum of 50% of their profits to Christian charities and missions.

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Big bright, shiny yellow sun. Welcome back, folks. I'm talking to Josh Broome, who with my friend Billy Hallowell, has written a brand new book called Seven Lies That Will Ruin Your Life. And Josh Broome is a pastor who is serving God. But the enemy messed him up and took him to a very, very dark place. You were just telling us, Josh, that, I mean, this is like a story like, it sounds made up, right? You get sucked into the porn industry. You become a star. You are celebrated in that industry. And all the people in that industry, you know, when you're around people, birds of a feather

flock together, it seems normal. And, you know, you have metrics of success in that world. People outside the world say, what are you doing? Get out. But in that world, you are being given a lot of money and accolades and awards. And you get to the top of this industry. And you say at that point, with all the money and all the accolades, you felt empty inside. And you decided to take your life. What year was this? This was 2013.

I mean, you had actually decided to do that. I mean, why? In other words, where were you in your head that you didn't think? you could get out of this and you decided to to take that path out. Yeah. So, I mean, so in a real way, the industry in itself is built upon manipulation. And there's no real consent that exists within the industry because you are made to believe your only worth is tied to selling yourself for sex. And if you don't sell yourself for sex, then you're not good for anything else.

So your no doesn't have any validity. So the only thing that you can say is yes, so you don't even bother saying no. And you stay in a place where, you know, you could say, well, I don't enjoy doing this. I feel frustrated. I wish I was doing something else. Yet you live in this cognitive dissidence of, well, I know that I could do something else. But what is it? You know, and it's like you're living this contradiction where so you have to say, I love what I do while you hate it.

But that's where I was. I literally wrote on a piece of paper, I will never be a father. I wanted to become the thing I never had. I'll never be a husband. I saw my mom abused and treated terribly. I knew what a husband wasn't. And I wanted to become a husband. And I wanted to contribute to the world in a way that led to positive change.

So those are the three things that I wrote on the piece of paper that I was certain that I had disqualified myself from. And if I couldn't do the things that mattered most to me. and my worst mistakes are tangibly found for the world to see, then what am I to do? And what's true, Eric, is that 33, as of last week, 33 people who I knew from the industry, I've been out of that industry for 11 years, have died of suicide or overdose. 600 people in the last 20 years have died or either murder, suicide, or overdose. And the industry's not that big. And it's all because they believe they are their behavior.

I've done bad things, so I'm a bad person. I don't have any value. So what's the point? So a lot of them either take their life or they put themselves in situations that they end up dying. And that's where I was. I made a plan where I was tired of doing what I was doing. There was nothing else that I can do. I disqualified myself from everything that my heart longed for.

So what was the point? And I walked into a bank. and I wanted justification. I wanted someone to verify the way that I thought about myself. And on a memo of the checks that we would get, there would be this antagonistic comment to continue the belief of, I'm not worth anything, I'm dirty, I'm whatever. So generally, I would go to ATM, Dropbox, mobile deposit.

But on this day, I went into a bank and handed this check to a teller, and I wanted her to look at me and disgust or shake your head And instead she said, Joshua, are you okay? Joshua, how can I help you? Because she saw me trembling before her. And her words and her response, it provoked me to run instead of die. And I, again, I found myself, I left. I quit the industry that day.

And I called my mom and I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. And I started another identity. But it was the same thing. I worked in the health and fitness. space. I became, you know, I worked in a gym and I got all the credentials and got a lot of personal training clients and started making money and started, you know, aesthetically looking like my life was put together while inside my life was a wreck. I like to say I was trying to put enough good dirt on my bad dirt so I didn't feel dirty. But what was true is even if I didn't look

dirty inside, I was dirty and broken. And after two years of that, I meet this girl and I'm like, man, I'm so sick of these like empty relationships or these situations where someone finds out who I used to be and everything blows up or I lie and I get found out. So I'm just going to tell this girl the truth. And I told her to the truth. And I'm like, hey, and then after hearing this five-minute monologue of this guy who grew up fatherless and made all these mistakes and all these mistakes are tangibly found. And I'm just this horrible person. Her response was, well, are you doing those things now?

And I said, no. And she said, well, a person's not defined by the worst thing they've ever done. And they're not defined by the greatest thing they'll ever do. There's a creator that exists outside of time, space, and matter. And he created you and he created me. And he has the final say, do you know God? And, you know, that walk led me on a journey where she challenged the way that I saw myself. And then we walked and talked, and she invited me to church.

And it was in church that next week where I heard this sermon about in 2nd Samuel 9 about my fable shaft and how he was summoned by David and he saw himself as deserving of death. And he saw himself with this dead dog. But David was so insisted on showing him the loving kindness of God. It changed his life and changed everything. I want to hear the rest of the story. Folks, this is called the cliffhanger. We're going to hear the rest of the story.

We're talking to Josh Broome. The brand new book, Seven Lies That Will Ruin. your life, don't go away. Folks, welcome back. An amazing story. I'm talking to Josh Broome, who just wrote a book with our friend Billy Hallowell. It's called Seven Lies That Will Ruin Your Life. And you're telling us, Josh, your story.

I mean, this is an amazing story of God's redemptive power, stunning, really. And so you meet this young woman. Obviously, you care about her. She cares about you. And she accepts you and your past. and basically says you need God. And you go to this church service with her a week after you have this serious conversation. And you're just describing that you're hearing in this sermon stuff that's speaking to you.

So keep going. Yeah. So I hear this sermon about my Fethelchev in 2nd Samuel, Chapter 9. And it's really just a picture of God's grace where, you know, we were all sinners, Romans 3, 23, and we're deserving of death, Romans 6, 23. and there's something that we need that we don't have access to, which is a relationship with God. But Jesus comes, being fully man, fully God, died on the cross,

and it raises on the third day. And through what he did, it gives me access to God and changes everything for me. And so for me, like hearing the gospel in its totality, I surrender my life to Christ. and so many beautiful aspects of that story. So number one, that girl that went on that walk with, her name is Hope, and we've been married for almost eight years, and we have four boys, we have four sons,

we have a five, a three, a two, and a seven-week-old. And then so, yeah, and her name is Hope, so how cool is that? And so that's amazing in itself, but, you know, you read Second Corinthians 517 word, you know, that you understand that, you know, the old is gone and the news here, and you're not who you used to be. but it continues. So you're not only saved from something, you're saved for something. And I started getting disciples. Three days after I gave my life to Christ, I went to this church. And I'm like, hey, I got a story. And I think I need to be able to understand the Bible to tell it well. And this guy, Andrew Yates, that just finished at Dallas Theological Seminary, he had moved to Raleigh, and he was a new pastor there, and he had disciples me. We spent around 10 hours a week together for a few seasons. And then I went to Liberty University and studied Christian ministry, and I served on staff at a few churches, and God continued to open door after door, but what he did, he hid me for a season because there

needed to be healing. There needed to be a foundation of my faith to be built. They needed to be all these things that I needed to heal from so that now I have a wound in my story, but that wound has been healed, and that wound has a scar, but that scar, it doesn't point to fatherlessness or pornography, it points to the only one that can heal who is Jesus. And I love sharing my story. And the book in itself is, hey, here is the lessons from someone who is believe the lies of the world and the lies that destroyed myself. But there is a person of Jesus that has come and I can have reconciliation with God.

So that's the starting block. But also, how do you rebuild your life? Because there are so many people that's like, okay, now what? You know, I give my life to Jesus, now what? What does it look like the practicalities of me transforming your life? Like, how do I be in a relationship with someone where we're going to be a walk in purity? We're going to be abstinent after I live the life that I live. We're going to go to premarital counseling.

I'm going to learn all these things. And it's like there are so many failed attempts as we're trying to modify our behavior through the management of our heart, but our heart is, as Jeremiah talks about, is wicked and deceitful among all things we can't trust it. And there's this cognitive dissidents wearing like Romans 7 where, you know, we want to do things that we ought not do and we struggle to do the things that we can do. And to your point, why is that? Because there is an enemy that wants to destroy. There's an enemy that wants to distract, destroy, kill, and keep you from the abundance that is found in the person of Jesus. And that's what this book is about. There is an enemy that wants to destroy you.

There's lies that he wants you to believe. He's the father of lies, but there's also true. And let's be clear, folks. You can be born again. You can say, I accept Jesus into my heart, yada, yada, yada, yada. But you can still believe a bunch of lies. And that's the process of sanctification and redemption. That you're not done when you get saved.

You just cross the starting line, not the finish line. That's the starting line. Now you can ask God to heal you. Some people need deliverance. There are tons of Christians that need actual deliverance, that need inner healing, that need counseling, that need teaching. And God is in that business. And so I hope that Joshua's story encourages you. Josh, what are some of the lies?

The title of the book is Seven Lies That Will Ruin Your Life. Let's just go through a few of them in the time we have left. Yeah, I would say, I mean, the first one is this lie of approval, so false approval. and thinking that you can earn the approval that you need from having enough people in your life, having the right people in your life, if you have enough affirmation, if you have enough achievements, if you have the right car, the right house, the right amount of followers on whatever social media platform, if you have the blue checkmark, you will feel as if you were approved. But we were built to operate from approval through what happened on the cross,

we're not to earn anything. If we understand we are operating from approval that is because of what Jesus has done, and there's nothing that we could ever do to obtain that, it changes everything. But the world tells you that, well, this is what success looks like. This is what happiness looks like. This is what sex is. This is what marriage is. And it's everything but what is true.

And if you, in that points to the second lie, this, this, you know, the God of the self. And there's this really beautiful story in Exodus 32 where you see, Moses is up on the mountain, getting the Ten Commandments, and Aaron and his band of misfits are waiting, and they think it's a good idea to melt down all of their jewelry and make this golden animal. Sometimes we're referenced as a golden calf, and they even call it Yahweh. And what we've done many times in American culture is we take our presuppositions, our pain, our sin, our preference, and we superimpose those onto what we call our worshiping Jesus. But actually, we've created a God in our own image with our own preferences and our own thoughts.

And we've extracted the beauty and the purity and the righteousness of a holy and perfect God. So what we're worshiping is not ourself. we're worshipping exactly what Satan wants us to worship. I'll tell you, this is, I mean, I talk about this. I have a book coming out called Religionless Christianity. There are a lot of people doing dead religion. You're going to church, you're going through the motions, and your heart, you're getting it wrong. It's important we understand these things.

The book is Seven Lies That Will Ruin Your Life, Seven Lies That Will Rune Your Life. Josh Broome is my guest. We'll be right back. When you get the blues, come on, get a ruther. When you get the blues, get a rock and roll. Go feeling in your bones, but taps on your toes. Get your own. Hey there, folks.

You want to talk about redemption? I'm talking to Josh Broome, who was leading one of the darkest lives imaginable. And God brought him out of that. Has been in the process of sanctifying him. He is now a pastor, father of four boys, husband of an extraordinary wife. obviously, since we've been hearing the story of how that happened, just beautiful. And I think we need these stories, Josh, because a lot of people, you know, they don't, first of all, they're not aware of evil.

They're not aware that there's a devil who wants to take whomever he can into the darkest places and throw away the key. And God is in the business of redeeming. And your story is that story. It's amazing. So the book, the brand new book, A Seven Lies that Will Rewan Your Life. So what are some of these lies? We mentioned a couple of them, but let's keep going.

Yeah, so we talked about, you know, this false approval, you know, believing that you can find approval in the world. We talked about this God of self and thinking that, you know, from the garden, if I can create my own autonomy, I can know what's best for me and what is true. We're a terrible Lord. And that's exactly what Satan wants for you. And I think a really important thing that I can speak into in a unique way is this counterfeit, intimate. like counterfeit intimacy. And intimacy, from a biblical perspective, is not sex, while sex can be part of what exists in the realm of intimacy.

Intimacy in itself is proximity to God. And if you understand that intimacy is found in the presence of God, surrendered to the person of God, satiated by the Word of God, then that's the only place that you can find satisfaction. That's the only place that your soul can be at rest because you were created to desire that thing. And while all emotions are God-given, if you believe a lie that you can find intimacy in a counterfeit place and it will satisfy you. I mean, that is why the pornography industry is so – like, there's so much proclivity around that because, I mean, you look at Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL all combined, and it – pornography grosses far more. You take Netflix, Disney combined, pornography grosses far more.

33% of all the data transferred on the Internet on a daily basis, pornography. 54% of the divorces that happen in America have something to do with pornography in it. And you believe the lie that people are products and sex is transactional. And you think I can consume this thing and I can find satisfaction because I'm not going to experience rejection. But it all goes back to this identity crisis. And if I am not understanding who I am through sonship or being a daughter or a son of the king of kings, if that is not where I get my identity, I'm going to believe that I can obtain it elsewhere. And that's why pornography is so prevalent in this culture, because even if I'm honest, that's why my story is such an anomaly, because we've made sex a God and we worship it. So me coming out of that industry and preaching the gospel was such an anomaly because we worship sex.

If you want to sell, you know, if you want to sell movies, what, sex and violence? So I would just say, man, God is better. And until you understand that, like to your point, there's a generation of people who have experienced the forgiveness that comes from 1st John, but they haven't experienced the deliverance and healing that comes from James 516. There's a spirit of confession that needs to happen. The thing that you struggle with you feel like is unmentionable, once you speak it, the enemy loses its power over you. And once you speak that thing that you've been just dwelling on for so long that you hope

no one will find out about or you're too ashamed to talk about, that is how the enemy is holding you hostage. And truth is the thing that's going to say. And that is the power. That's the power of your story that you give people hope, people who have no hope. check out this man's story and you will see what God can do. Just a joy, Josh, to have you back. Josh Broome is my guest, The Book, Seven Lies, That Will Ruin Your Life.

God bless you, Josh. Thank you. Thank you so much.