The Eric Metaxas Show - Ken Harrison

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

Faith, Love, and Courage as Christian Callings

Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Did you ever see the movie The Blobs starring Steve McQueen? The blood-curdling prep of The Blob. Well, way back when Eric had a small part in that film, but they had a cut his scene because the blob was supposed to eat him, but he kept spitting him out. Oh, the whole thing was just a disaster. Anyway, here's the guy who's not always that easy to digest. Eric the Texas! Hey, folks, today we have a special Socrates in the city interview. Man, these listen, these are great. I think you'll enjoy it. I just did this recently. And by the way, do not forget CSI,

We need everybody to go to metaxus talk.com. Click on the banner at the top of the page, metaxus talk.com. Hey there, folks. This is Socrates in the studio, which is, of course, part of Socrates in the city. The city I'm in today is Colorado Springs, Colorado. Why am I in Colorado Springs, Colorado? Because I wanted to talk to a friend, Ken Harrison. He is currently the head of Waterstone Foundation, but there's a lot more to him.

And I just wanted to talk to him. And look, he's right here. Welcome. Great to see you in your environment. Is this your environment? Yeah, because I always see you in your environment. I know. I want to talk to you about everything.

But I want to start with your story. A lot of people know you. Now it's Waterstone, which is a big deal. We'll get into that. But a lot of people know you also because of promise keepers. That's how I met you is through promise keepers. So I want to talk to you about men, manhood, those kinds of issues. You've written books.

What's the title of your book on that subject? There's two of them. So the LaGwell's recent was a daring faith in a cowardly world. Okay. So I want to talk to you about that. I want to talk to you about courage. And the previous book had an interesting title. Rise of the Servicase.

Rise of this. I want to talk to you about Rise of the Servant. Sounds like Game of Thrones. Yeah, Rise of the Servant. It's about manhood. Kings. But I always, if I have the opportunity, kind of want to get people's story how you got here. So where did you grow up?

I know you were a police officer for a long time in L.A. Let's talk about that. Where did you grow up? So my dad was in L.A. cop. And he was shot in the Watts Rites. And so he retired and moved us up to Portland, Oregon. Okay, the watch rights was at 68? 65.

65. So he didn't retire right away that he got shot in the head. it blew him backwards and ruptured a disc in his back. So he used to tell my dad, you're the only guy who's so dumb you got shot in the head, but you had to retire for a bad back. So this is like before you were born? Before I was born, I was born at 67.

Yeah. Which makes me 508. Yeah. Just saving you ready to math. Yeah, yeah. So I grew up in the outskirts of the lower middle class, half rule, half poor suburban Portland, Oregon. So did all the other things.

that my dad became a Christian after we moved there, became ridiculously legalistic. He was part of that. It's really extreme Calvinist crowd where, you know, nobody's chosen except for, like, him and a few others, you know. And so... It's just, it's so funny because I've never been part of that world, but I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. I couldn't see movies, couldn't listen to rock and roll music, couldn't wear black pants. I don't know why. Couldn't play cards. You know, couldn't, if it was fun, it was a Yeah. Running Lissus face.

Yeah. Which caused me to get in a lot of fistfights because I went to a Christian school. Imagine what it's like having your hair buzzed in the mid-70s, you know? So this was, you said Oregon? Oregon, yeah. Which part? Town called Grusham. What's in the housecruits?

But I'm saying, is that west, east? East. East. So Portland is kind of a classic city. It's divided by the Willamette River. Yeah. And the west side is where the, upper middle class lived and the east side is where the further east you go yeah the poorer it

gets yeah i was all the way east okay um so i really and i never i got saved when i was five and filled with the spirit at five i mean i love jesus at five yeah i would go around knocking on doors and handing out tracks and i wear my pet little pad and leather shoes and i chased down ricky nelson at the airport once and witnessed him for five minutes get out i was like six years old yeah my mom said he's a famous rock star i'm like really you know and that dude sat there and listened to me for five minutes. Who wouldn't listen to a six-year-old? Wow.

It was pretty funny. I also witnessed to Tonto from was a... Excuse me. Jay Silverheels, if you're scoring... Wow. Very impressive. That's impressive. Yeah.

So anyway, that's the only thing I know. But witness to him. That's so crazy. So as I often say, I was filled with the Holy Spirit of five and it took the church about 10 years to beat him out of me. So the legalistic church beat that out of you. It was, I remember being young and just thinking, I can't wait until I grew up and I'm not in trouble anymore.

I was always in trouble. And I, like I said, I just walked with the law. I didn't, I was the most innocent kid and always black guys and beat up and guys would just beat the tar out of me. And I learned how to fist fight, which meant I learned how to lose all the way up until I hit puberty. And then puberty was kind to me. And I got all of a sudden way bigger than all the guys that were bullying me. So that helped.

And it was actually Stu Weber. You know that name? Tender Warrior. Stu Weber was the pastor that I was able to find a really masculine figure. He was a green beret in Vietnam who was able to show me that you could be a strong, masculine man and love Jesus at the same time. So he really was the one that kind of brought me back. So then I leave at, I went to Marine Corps OCS, graduated from that. And I turned down flight school to join the Los Angeles Police Department because I'd always wanted to walk him.

my dad's footsteps. And my uncle was one of the most famous cops, L.A. cops that ever lived. So if you ever saw the movie Heat, you ever see El-O-L.O. Donchino. I went with Al Pacino and Robert Teniro. And Diane Vanora. Wow. Look at you, man.

Valcomer. I never saw the film. You didn't. I only know it because I was friends with Diane in... Oh, it's a must-see. In New York City. It's such a good movie. Okay, but wait.

So your uncle, that film was based... So Al Pacino plays my uncle in that movie. Yeah. He basically plays a character based on my uncle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But very similar. There's a scene in there where he gets angry with his wife as they're getting a divorce and he throws the TV out of the car. That was my uncle. And so real famous, so I became an L.A. cop in 1989. So I went through all that Rodney King stuff.

It was very highly decorated as an officer. It's crazy that your father went through Watts and you went through the Rodney King riots. And I was a cop in Watts. I mean, I really, it's funny, you know, about, I think people can relate to this. When you have a very dominant figure in your life, which I loved my dad, do you. He was a good man in many ways. You end up in many ways and in a healthy way emulating that character. Like how many in course, how many sexually abused children grow up to be sexual abusers, right?

So in my case, I just thank the Lord. I was so in love with Jesus that I didn't become the legalist that my dad was. but I trended that way for a long time and not that way at all anymore. So, and people asking what was it like to be an LA cop, and it was really in the middle of, if there was ever time you could have chosen to be an LA cop, it was when I was there.

Because it was the, there was a massive war between the Crips of the Bloods and 18th Street, which is now known as MS-13, for control of all the drug traffic in Los Angeles. And it was all relatively new at that time. And the LAPD were still, So you'll notice an L.A. cop never says I was a policeman. It's like a Marine never says I was in the military.

If someone says they were in a military, you can know they weren't a Marine. Because the Marines like, I'm a Marine. I'm a Marine the best. Right. L.A. policeman will always say I was an L.A. policeman because it was the best police department in the world. By far, I mean, the standards and everything, LAPD invented SWAT and DARE and all that. So there's a great pride in it, you know. In my academy class, I mean, everybody there was ex-Marine, ex-S special forces or ex-D-1.

athlete. I mean, it was a collection of people you would want protecting you on the streets back in those days. Right. Right. So those were really, really fun days. And people are like, well, what was that like? And this is through the 90s you're talking about. This is late 80s, early 90s. And as I give an example story that that'll really, because like the LAPD are in New York, very different from the NYPD. Yeah. And how we did things. And it was high speed pursuits and shootings. all the time, constant, you know. I got to ask to speak to some classroom at kids one time, and they asked me, well, how many times did you pull your gun?

Do you pull your gun? And I said, no, I know, five or six times. And the officer said, no, no, I mean, is that in your career or per year? I said, that's per day. I said, I'm a cop and confident. I mean, it was, wow, that. Yeah, people asked me, I got a ticket, you know. It was like when I said, I don't know, I didn't have a ticket book.

We weren't writing tickets. We were arresting bad guys. Yeah. Yeah. We averaged over two felony arrests per day and over one gun off the street per day. So it was pretty... That's like war. It was like very much.

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promo code Eric or call 800-858-0-263. promo code Eric. Hey, folks, today we have a special Socrates in the city interview. Man, these, listen, these are great. I think you'll enjoy it. I just did this recently. And by the way, do not forget CSI. We need everybody to go to make.

Metaxistalk.com. Click on the banner at the top of the page. Metaxistalk.com. So that was a really interesting time. And so people say, well, give me a story that sort of epitomized that. And so I often will tell them a story that was really not an original story. It happened all the time. But it kind of summarizes.

So I remember I had a partner. It was Don Hudson. He was undercover in the Hell's Angels and the Mongols for two years, covering tattoos from that. And a little bit unhinged, but I love to be. and you get a call, beat, beep, beep on the radio. So three beeps means code three, violent call, you know, and then it comes over, 12x 73, that's us,

211 in progress. That means armed robbery. So boom, that's the call you love to get. That's the, you know. So lights and siren, and I remember screaming down Hoover Boulevard and 100 miles an hour at 8 o'clock at night, and I remember Don hitting the ceiling of the car saying, I love this job.

You know, that was what it was. like this is so we flying down there now in in in the real laped not like in the movies you don't come screaming up in the parking lot with your lights the siren on right you cut them about six week six blocks before so they don't hear you coming right and you start looking for your bad guys so we had the description of the three bad guys and sure enough as we're flying down the road I see three bad three guys so what you do is you would pop the door so I'd open the door up but keep it like it's closed with my boot on it so they don't hear it hear it open. You don't realize it's open. The window's down. It's always down. And then pull up

and you want to identify one guy to chase because they'll always scramble. Then you pick one guy, right? So you don't want to divide up with your partner. So you try to pick the slowest guy. And so I said, okay, Derek metaxus-looking guy. We take him down. I'm very fast, but go ahead. I'll race you after this interview. I mean, you guys, the Greeks, man. You invented the games. So we picked the guy and I look at him and I can see their breathing. hard. They just got done running. So kick open the door. He runs. Chase him, tackle him. Then the other two guys are in the wind. Take him to the liquor store that just got robbed. And there's the proprietor laying there with a gun with a bullet in him. So he's in pain. And so you call him an ambulance, go out, get the bad guy. Hey, you recognize this guy? He's the one who shot me. Okay. Now we take bad guy out and we get in the car and we drive a little ways away after the ambulance is taking him and we say, we're there that you guys. And we ask him very politely and very politely tells us. And then we go to wherever they are.

Why does he politely tell you what's your leverage? If you asked politely, you know, that's the answer you politely. Okay, so you obviously didn't ask him politely. I just want to make sure I'm tracking correctly. So then we kicked the door end of the house. You got a bunch of gangsters in there dividing up the money that this poor guy, you know, earned. Everybody goes to jail, grab the money, go to the hospital. And walk in there and walk in with the money and the guys laying there in a gurney and say,

hey, everybody went to jail and we'll get your money back and see the smile on his face. I tell you, Eric, that is the best feeling of anything I've ever done professionally. There is nothing like that. I mean, to get that immediate justice is rare in life on any level. And so, yeah, you're describing something that is. And also, I think that most people would assume that cop. that cops, it's complicated, and that's very rare that that happens for many reasons. But in your experience, it was not so rare.

Not in Salisage. Because you were, you know, but when you talk about asking the guy politely where his friends went, in other words, you were clearly free to do your job. Yes. You had the freedom to do your job. I don't imagine they're doing that today. Correct. Yeah.

That was 30 years. So that's interesting. Yeah. Well, so how many years were you a company? So I was there from 89 to 92. Okay. So a pretty intense period. Very intense.

And why did you leave after just a few years? My uncle had retired. And I remember he used to sit in his house in San Clemente by the beach with his lawn chair listening to Rush Lumball at maximum volume from 9 to 12 in the morning to make sure his endeavors were educated. That was what my uncle was like. with his 44 magnum underneath the chair. Yeah, 32-year con. He calls me up one day. He says, hey, I understand that you, you won all these awards.

And, yeah, said, I'll bet you're pretty proud yourself. Yeah. And I'm like 24 years old. I'll bet you the men are your hero among the men. Yeah, he says, you idiot. And I looked at him. And he said, don't you understand what they're doing after this Rodney King thing? The federal government is going to come here and destroy this department.

He said, I always thought you'd be chief of police someday. You're too smart to be a patrol cop for the rest of your life. So go run a company or something. So I didn't. So he knew what was coming. He knew what was coming. And he told you, get out of there. Yeah.

Wow. Okay, so you're still very young at that point and go run a company. You get into real estate at that point? What do you do at that point? So I took my wife. Because I now know the decades having passed that you're a very entrepreneurial guy. but at that point, what were you thinking? Man, it's a story worth telling.

So we went back to Portland. That's where my wife was from and where I was from. We got married, she and I in the middle of all this. And I didn't know what to do. And I literally just left. And I started researching jobs at the Portland Library because there's no internet back then because you and I are that old.

And then I started praying. Lord, I don't understand business. I don't know what to do. I took this apt to. test. I kid you not. And the aptitude test came out after I asked all the questions, the best jobs for me were to be in the military or a cop, which I'd already done both. And I'm like, okay, that sucks. So I had to, I had to, it was really sort of depressing. Lord, let me go through a dark time. But then as I claimed James 1.5, I was reading that. If any of you lacks wisdom,

let him ask his father in heaven who gives generously. And if you ask, believe, you know, And I did. I said, Lord, you said, you would give me wisdom, and I don't have any. And he zapped me with wisdom. I mean, it's a, no better way to put it. Suddenly, I just understood business. I had business sense. And so I started a commercial real estate appraisal firm.

And within, it was a longer story, but it's uncomplicated, basically, within five years, we had the biggest firm in the United States. Excuse me, what? Yeah. Within five years, just as dumb. Within five years. a guy as dumb as you, because I know you. Seriously, that's crazy.

You must have known you had an aptitude because that's a big deal to just jump into a business. It was a Lord, honestly. It was the wisdom he gave me. So, and I will say, and I don't, I'm not being falsely modest. I had some partners, and I had a very business savvy and wise wife who she stayed at home and raised our kids. with so many of the brilliant decisions that I made were her decisions that I just had the wisdom to listen. And I, this is a promise keepers a lot. You know, men are all like, oh, well, we're the leader.

I mean, it has to be a leader. I'm like, well, that may be true. But a leader listens to the people who are wiser than him and things. People think I was a brilliant businessman. And I wasn't. I was a guy who knows how to make decisions. And my wife was a brilliant businessman. And I listened to her.

Yeah, but you, yeah, you had the wisdom to listen to somebody. Yeah. Well, so how long. were you in real estate? So I sold my firm in 2006 to Colliers International, which is the second biggest real estate firm in the world. And then I ran global valuation, which was the biggest valuation firm in the world.

For them, no. For them, for Colliers. Yeah, it was a condition of selling was I had to keep running it. Right. So I did that until 2012. 2012, I retired, because what else do you do as an American? When you've made enough money, you retire and you do nothing. Isn't that Satan's plan for all of us?

Yeah. Yeah. So I was praying in my closet. I've been retired for about six months. It's funny because people said, you'll hate be retired. I loved it. And the reason I loved it is I was an English-lit grad, you know. See, I forget everything.

You know I was an English major. I knew. You're an English major. Yours makes sense. Your average L.A. cop does not have a degree in English literature. That's what, that's how I got the truth out of that guy. I just quoted Shakespeare out of him until he gave up and told me where the guys were. Right. I'm sure that's what it was.

But I was loving, and one of the books I read was Bonhofer. I mean, so I had the time to read these. You know what? Holy cow. So 2012, you retire. My Bonofer came out in 2010. That's a long, suddenly a long time ago. It's shocking to me to think.

Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Wow, wow, wow. Okay. So you're reading books? I read, you know, Atlas Shrugged and Calvin's institutes of the Christian religion and Luther's Monters of the Will. I was really happy.

You know, skiing and hiking and living in Colorado and reading and I'm in my closet praying and I praying and God comes to me in this I heard his voice not audibly but so much in my head I don't know if you've ever heard it like that Ken I did I did not put you through all I did and teach you all I did so you could ski and hike for the rest of your life and I said Lord he didn't say you jerk you yeah that's how you know it was the Lord he didn't need to say that with the tone the tone of his voice implied Listen, son. Hey, folks, you listen to the Eric Metaxis show.

Today, we're playing a special Socrates in the city conversation. And I don't want to forget to remind you that we're freeing slaves, folks. We're doing it. You go to Metaxistalkis Talk.com. You've got to join us. Please participate. Metaxistalk.com. See the banner at the top of the page.

We need your help. Thank you. I love it when people are specific about how God speaks, because it's different for everybody. But you were praying, and it was clear that God is speaking to you. No doubt about it. Yeah. Like people use that all the time, well, God told me, God told me.

And most of the time they're using the Lord's name in vain, right, full of garbage. Correct. This was the first time I was 44 years old, and, I mean, it was, boom. There was no doubt about it. And I joke when I tell a story. I go, Lord, I'm a Baptist. You're not supposed to talk to me.

The charismatic is down the street. But, no, I said, Lord, what is it that you want me to do? And he said, are you willing to be as ambitious for my kingdom as you were for your kingdom? And when you say that, it wasn't, you weren't hearing, were you hearing words or was it an impression? You were hearing words. These words. From God. That's heavy, Ken.

And let me say. That's heavy. This is not something I'd ever done before. and there's been once or twice since. This is not an everyday thing, and I'm very skeptical of people when they say God spoke to me. Right, and we should be skeptical

because we know it can happen, but we also know people use it very loosely. It's a big subject for me, but... Yeah, I'm not with you on that. Yeah, so, okay, so... You wrote a great book on that. Are you willing... I've written a few books, yeah.

Yeah. Thank you. So you... I've read? So you... Yeah, like, I don't know, like 18 or 19 books. I still have to read Luther. I still want to...

That's a fun read. Yeah. I want to... No, no, I promise you. That's a fun read. You'll see. You'll see. So this is 2012.

And, okay, what do you say to that? I think the rest of this story is going to affect a lot of people in a very positive way. And they need to hear this. So I said, you know, Lord, you know, he said, are you willing to be as ambitious for my game as you were for your kingdom? Right. And then there was a warning. It said, be careful of your answer. Answer, it will cost you your life.

And I said, I don't know. I'm picturing Hut in Uganda. You know, I'm picturing who knows what. And I remember I started whining at the Lord. And I said, I'm sick and tired of being sued, stabbed in the back, gossiped about, lied about. I just don't want to be in leadership anymore. Just don't make me lead anymore. And God said, that's okay, but you missed my full blessing.

And then I had a vision. So this gets even crazier. It's getting even freakier. Yeah, I'm starting to sound like a Pentecostal. I promise you. I am a Pentecostal. You know, like whatever, it's kind of like pay one price. Like, whatever comes with the faith, like, what, do I get visions?

Do I get like whatever, you know, as long as it's not a counterfeit from the devil. Like, you know. So you're telling me in this one session you're praying that you're having this dialogue with God. And then now you get a vision. I understand. I'm a guy who has loved scripture and sought the Lord. entire life. Yeah.

Never had an experience like this. Yeah. So this vision, and in this vision, I see my life as I intended it to be. My ranch in the mountains, my grandkids, rafting, skiing, nice little American life. Then I have a vision of the judgment seat of Christ. And at that judgment seat, I see what would have occurred had I fully obeyed him. It's a little bit of a, it's a wonderful life moment, right? And at that moment, I have weeping and gnashing of teeth of,

regret for my wasted life at what didn't occur because I wouldn't give all. I still sat in that closet for two hours and wouldn't say, still after that, finally I said, Lord, whatever you want, I'll do. I'm thinking hot in Uganda. I'm yours. And he said, I'll tell you what I have for you when you're ready, and that was it. This is like Lord speaking to you the way you're talking to the guy in the back of the cop car. Yeah, a little bit.

It's kind of funny. to me because he's like, all right, pretty direct. Can I be easy? You want it easier? You want it hard? What do you want to do? So. Do you want me to quote Shakespeare?

So you, the Lord invented Shakespeare. Think of that. So you basically say, okay, Lord, but you don't know what you're saying yes to. Correct. Okay. So I'm in the dark. So I tell my wife about this, who is very prophetic. I mean, so she just knows stuff.

You know, I mean, she's the kind of woman that literally, just recently, we were walking along the beach in Florida. And she goes, oh, no. I said, what? She said, God just told me to go pray with that woman. She just lost her father. Like, crowded beach, Florida. And I'm like, okay, well, you do that. And I'll be over here where the weird people, where the non-weird people are hanging out.

And she went over there. And I see her whisper to this woman for five seconds. The woman collapsed into her arms. And she just, they, she cries with her for half an hour. And it comes back and says, yeah, her dad died of COVID last night. And she was saying, God, if you're real, please. please tell me, and then she said, I walk up and say, the Lord just told me to speak to you about your father.

Like that kind of stuff. I'm sounding worder and worder, but not to me. I mean, I've walked in this kind of stuff for over 30 years, so I'm very comfortable with this. But maybe people listening are, it's new to them. But that's kind of why I want to have these conversations. I want everybody to know, hey, hey, this is actually normal. Look, this is normative.

This is wonderful. How wonderful. Okay, so keep going. I want to say, I mean, this is what happens in the Christian life when you're walking with the Lord, and you're not, you're not drenched down with sin. Because I think people can look at me and go, okay, that's a normal dude. That's not a crazy, you know, I'm not Kenneth Copeland. I'm sitting here like, so my wife understands this sort of thing. And so I tell her, and so lots of times it goes by.

Four years I went by, Eric. Four years. But in the middle of that, I'm Elliot. her is her name and she praised prayer warrior all the time and I'm like would you pray to Lord about what we were talking about because he ain't answering me maybe he'll answer you and uh she says yeah can I keep getting the same word wait wait wait I don't like that word go get a different word we yeah wait so I actually kind of babyed out I grabbed my little new testament with in I have a new testament with the Psalms and I went to the mountains of Colorado I got a thermos

full of coffee and I climbed the mountain with my dog at sunrise climbed, I mean, I hiked a mountain, sit there by this little waterfall. And I said, Lord, I'm going to sit here until you tell me what we were talking about. Now, it's been like two years until you tell me what we were talking about. And I said, I don't know what I'm going to do if it gets dark tonight because it's going to get cold and it's going to be a bummer. But I'm staying here until you answer me. So I opened up my Bible and I just started to read. And the first thing I opened to is Psalm, I think it's 28, 27 or 28.

it says wait on the Lord be patient and wait on the Lord in the summer of 16 I'm sitting reading a book and behind my house which was probably one of yours I'm sure it was and had my highlighter unriding all this genius beautiful beautiful and I get a text and on that text it says Waterstone is looking for a new CEO this is 2016 2016 so wait a second so 2012 you retire when did you have the experience with the thermos of coffee, what year was that? 14. Okay, so two years in, you pray, you demand God speak and he tells you wait. Your wife keeps telling you the word I keep getting is wait. And then in 2016, what was it that precipitated right before the, you know, hearing from what was there anything that right before that? Well, other than reading a Taxus book, I'm sure that's what opened my whole heart out. If only more people would read mine, folks, they would hear.

clearly what their life's mission is. I keep saying that, but... I mean, no. Okay, so 2016, you find out that Promise Keepers is looking... Waterstone. I'm sorry, Waterstone in 2016. Okay. So I walk into my wife, I shore my phone, and I say, Waterstone's looking for a new CEO.

She said, who are they? And what do they do? I said, I don't know. Wait a minute. You didn't know? I said, the Lord just finally, no, this was just an impression. This was not a word. I just knew this will be the next job.

Wait, so when you... get this text, you just have a sense from the Lord, this is it. This is it. So you get a text, but then you also get, because I've had this happen to me where I'll have a thought, and I know it's my thought. It's not God's thought. It's my thought. I have a thought.

But then it's like the Holy Spirit highlights the thought. And I go, oh, God is saying, this is me. You ever had that happen with Scripture? No. No. So many people have, but no, with me, it. I can't think of a case where that's why that was saying God speaks so differently to everybody in different ways. But anyway, so but you didn't know.

So tell the audience in case people don't know what Waterstone is. What is Waters? It's a Christian Foundation. So we help people give away their money. So Waterstone gives away about $4 million a week. $4 million a week. Yeah. Okay.

Now that's other people saying we have accounts there, give that to where I want. Yeah. We ensure we help them take complicated assets and turn it into giving. And then we ensure that what they're giving. is really what they thought they were giving to. Right. So, for instance, a prominent family, you know the name, I'll tell you off here. You know, Patriarch dies. Granddaughter-in-law wants to give to this nice man she met with an anti-suicide group,

but she wants to give a million dollars. Well, it's really a gay front group using that as an excuse. So we research it, and then the family self, thank you so much. We wouldn't have known. So that's what Waterstone does. Protect people's estates. So if someone has real estate or business interests or oil wells, We take all that and turn it into ways to give.

It gets very complicated from what I just said. But anyway, that's what we do. And it allows us to have a real influence on certain ministries that might be drifting a little bit. Who get a lot of funding from us, I'm able to have a little bit of a leverage. A little bit of a ruler smack the hand ago. If you'd like this, two million dollars. We're talking to the guy in the back of the cop car. It's all coming back to this.

Well, excuse me, I'd like a word with you. Okay, so, and obviously what prepares you for this is years from real estate and all kinds of stuff. So you, you get a nudge that God is saying, do this. Yeah. And so you do that. So we were able to turn Waterstone was a little tiny foundation at the time. Now we're a very large foundation and God has really blessed us. And then a year into that becomes promise keepers.

So a year into that is a waterstone. What? So comes promise keep. Promise keepers comes to you saying we would like to, what, reboot the franchise? What are they saying? In a long story boiled down, yeah, they were lost and drifting. And I really didn't want to do promisekeepers and really felt this also was from the Lord. So we, that was seven years of a lot of work. And it's funny because when you start off and stuff, we just tell people, here's a great, here's a great story to illustrate this. Another cop story, but a less violent one.

There was this guy named Richard Ramirez. So I was on a specialized group of officers, and we were called the gunfighters. That was our nickname, because we got so many shootings. So there was this cop bar off Sunset Boulevard that only LA cops were allowed to go into. Like, they just, not even, if you were

another department, you couldn't get, he had to be LAPD. So it was always full L.A. cops. One guy tried to rob this place one time. True story. He had over 100 a hole in them when they got finished. There was this boy. He didn't realize it was a cop bar. Listen, what, the funniest thing, if we can tell stories.

I'm not comment on that. Go ahead. If I sit and tell stories, the funniest thing cops would tell you is just how dumb bad guys are. Like, you know, you, so we would show up and they would always vacate the bar because we got off of work at 7.30 in the morning. So at 8 o'clock, we would all show up at this because it was our Miller time. We'd show up at this bar, long bar. At 8 a.m.

At 8 a. Because you've been working all night. Yeah. And now you'd like a beer. Not you like a before you go to bed. Exactly. Okay. And you're going to, again, it's such a violent area that we're all needed in a detox.

You know, you're talking about everyone's catching up and you've seen each other. And you've been lights and siren flying around and you're calling and getting help and your guy has gotten. It really is like war. I'm not kidding. This is like, as I hear you talk about this, that's very similar. Yeah. Jerry Boykin and I talked about this a lot. He's like, wow, what you did was way more violent than what we did.

I'm like, well, yeah, because it was up close and purse. General Jerry Boykin. amazing, yeah, amazing man. Yeah. But what we did was face to face,

you know, it wasn't from a distance, and it was where you lived. It wasn't like you went to some place and then came home. This is every day, you know. I'm not trying to make it out more than it was.

I'm just saying that that's the reality of the situation. So you'd get together in detox. And so as we got together, Joe Ramirez was this old salty cop. He's probably 40, you know, but it's time to me seemed Asian, you know,

big old mustache. And he'd sit there and drink his beer at the end of the bar. No one messed with Joe's seat. And then all the way down on the bar as a curve was this rookie. And everybody on this group rode Harleys, except for me and the rookie. I would not ride a Harley.

I drove a Jeep. And this guy drives a ninja. So he yells down the bar. Hey, Joe, I don't know why you ride that Harley. It takes you too long to get where he want to go. So Joe drinks his beer and everybody looks at the kid. Puts his beer down and goes, boy, when I'm on my Harley, I am where I want to go.

That's like a Zen line. Is that a great line? That is a great line. I always remember that one. It's like a scripted line. That's good. And so the thing we do is, the point I'm trying to make is God uses the journey to build us into who he wants us to be. And so we're always wondering, why is it easy?

God, you called me to this, but now it's hard and this. And this and that will, because God never stops loving you and wanting to build Eric Mataxis into the best son of his he can make him, right? we're always being built into what we're going to reign with Christ someday those who have earned the right not every Christian by the way that's what dairy faith that car all the world's about so if we're going to reign with Christ he's building us into the character that we will be someday to reign with him on the turn of millennial years hey there folks welcome back this is hour two i want to ask you a question are you rethinking your child's educational path are you wondering if their current school truly supports your family values. Well, if you're thinking about this, you're not exactly alone. The Herzog Foundation is here to help. With the Trump administration working to abolish the federal department of education, hurrah, and return control to the states, there's never been a better time to explore Christian education. For too long, federal overreach has dictated how children learn. But now,

parents have a greater say in their kids' futures. This shift could make Christian education more attainable than ever. So the Herzog Foundation, these are our friends, there are trusted guide in navigating these changes. So whether your family is considering a Christian school, a hybrid model, homeschooling, Herzog Foundation provides the resources families need to make informed decisions to stay updated on the latest developments from the Trump administration and how these developments impact education. Please go to The Lion.

That's Herzog Foundation's award-winning publication. You can find it at readlion.com, R-E-A-D-L-I-O-N.com. So that's their publication. Leadleon.com is the website. And you can sign up for their daily, weekly newsletters. It's important stuff. We have to take back education from the Marxist lunatics in our federal government. We have taken our eye off the ball for like what, 50 years. This is very, very important. So the Herzog Foundation, you can find them at herdsugfoundation.com. Herzog Foundation.com. These are our friends, folks. These are our friends. They're doing great work.

Hurtzog Foundation.com. I want to mention a campaign with Christian Solidarity International. This is a big deal. I've been sharing about it on the program. We have an opportunity. If you're listening to me on this program, every one of us has an opportunity to be modern-day abolitionists, to not just to add actually it's more than being a modern day abolitionist um abolitionists

advocate against slavery we have the opportunity actually to free slaves and we've done this every year with c s i they have connections in sedan and this is one of these amazing things i've never have been to Africa, much less to Sudan. The things that go on in the world, horrible, horrible things. We know that in the 90s, many, many Christians were enslaved by radical Muslims. And when the UN got involved and ended that war, they did not free those who had already been enslaved. So we get to do that because of CSI, because they're already there. And this is what they do. and we've talked about it on the program. They trade cattle vaccines with these Falani tribesmen.

They do all kinds of things to free these slaves and then to bring them, to walk them to a new territory into a life of freedom. And then they set them up in a life of freedom. We've talked about it with Kevin McCullough on the program and with Todd Chapman. And the only thing that remains is for you. to help us. So in order to do that, you go to metaxis talk.com. The website, it's actually our radio website, metaxis talk.com. The top of the page, you will see a banner. You click on the banner, and once you click on the banner, you see all the different options and the details. There's all kinds of details, things I'm not sharing here, but there are a number of ways to give. I say, just to be

clear, every $250 that anyone gives. So you can give a fraction of that. whatever, but every $250 freeze a slave and sets that person up in a life of freedom, it's a big deal. So some people can give monthly. Maybe that's easier. But we'd love you to do that. It's amazing to me that we can do this. And I invite everybody to get involved, to be a part of this great thing.

So metaxus talk.com is the website 888-25. 3532, 888, 253, 2522. Please go to metaxis talk.com. Click on the banner at the top of the page. Please join us in this.