WHOA That's Good Podcast - Cory Asbury and the Reckless Love of God

Episode Date: September 19, 2018

Sadie visits with Cory Asbury, who is a worship leader, songwriter and a pastor. He joined the Bethel Music Collective in 2015. Cory serves at Radiant Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan with his wife Anna. He exploded on the scene in 2018 with his massive hit song, Reckless Love, going to #1 at radio in only seven weeks. This is a song the church will be singing for years to come! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I am so excited because I'm pretty sure all of you have probably heard the song reckless love. If you haven't heard reckless love, you need to go listen to it right now but grab some tissues because it is overwhelming. Anyways, seriously, Corey Azbury is on the show today and he is an amazing guy. I follow him on Instagram, I think he's hilarious. I've got to meet him in person a few times and he's become a great friend And I cannot wait for you guys to get to know him

What up fam. I am so excited about this. Whoa, that's good podcast because we got a whoa Really really cool person Corey as very in the house. Hey, go ahead. Hey, oh, it's so good So simple as podcast ever. One question, it's not that hard, but it could be confusing. What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given? Okay, so I've been thinking long and hard. Good.

I've been given lots of good advice, but I think the most important thing that's ever been told to me was from a guy named Mike Bickel who's had a place called the International House of Brains in Kansas City. I spent eight years there and he told me this right before my wife and I got married and he said the first one to say I'm sorry wins and for me that was huge because I was a very very prideful person and I hated saying sorry I hated apologizing because I hated being wrong you know and it was massive in my life the first one to say sorry in an argument in an altercation in a conversation whatever it is if you mess up you know in a relationship if you can go to that person and actually say hey I messed up I'm sorry about that yeah and

apologize then you win. And that's always given me motivation. So that was the biggest thing for me. Well, that's so good. You know what I love about it is, I think that whoever said that to you is genius, because I think that, especially if it's a hard thing for you to say you're sorry,

and you are, I don't know, struggle with pride in the past or something, it's cool that he made it a competition, because it almost speaks to your personality. It's like, okay, you're gonna win if you say I was diverse. And then that same sense of like passion that maybe even feel pride at one time

is now feeling this like sense of, no, I'm gonna do this the right way. And that is so, so cool. And I also love that it has to do with your marriage because that's the thing I wanted to hit on because I got to meet your wife beautiful At the Bethel conference and just hearing about what you guys do together and worship was super cool And I'm sure people would love to know that side of your life. Yeah. Yeah

We met We've been married for almost 12 years, which is insane. I'm only 32 so feels like half my life We met in Kansas City actually at the St. Place House of Prayer and we've been leading worship together for a long time for a great number of years and I remember in the beginning it was difficult because I was kind of trying to be her leader while while leaving worship with with her which is very difficult you, because I was saying, hey, I want you to work on this and this and this, and my tone wasn't always wonderful back in the day. Like I said, there's so much pride and so much,

young zealous, I wanted to do well, but I didn't know how to do it, so I would say these things to her, trying to get her to do better, and it would end up hurting her. But we have come so far and now we lead worship together regularly actually at our church. It's incredible, you know, the synergy that you have with the person that you live your whole life with is just amazing. So much, I don't have to say anything. She knows exactly where I'm going. I know exactly where she's going. It's really a special thing to be able to leave worship and it's something that's really beautiful in our relationship together. So cool. I love it. I just love you guys and

all that y'all do, all that y'all put out. So I want to hear a little bit about the backstoring and like making the last album that you made. Yeah. Just the creativity on it. I know we didn't really talk about that. We were going to go there. And I wasn't even planning on it. But I do know that that album has reached so many people, so many homes, so many car rides. And I know that beyond it just being songs, it's become people's life anthems. And I know that that's probably a huge thing to carry and just know like, oh my gosh, that the Lord used you in that way.

So I would just love to know when you were writing that, what did that look like? Sure, yeah. I think, you know, there was so much fear of failure in my heart as a young person. Growing up, my dad, he was pretty harsh. He was pretty rough on us kids. There was a lot of kind of verbal, you know, maybe even verbal abuse sometimes, and words that were harsh. I grew up with sort of this idea that God must be that same way, right? He must be sort of harsh, sort of mean, sort of, you know, standoffish and I just put that on God, you know, he must be like that. And I had so much fear of failure because of that.

And I had this performance mentality and I got to do A, B and C to get the affections of God because I had to do A, B and C to get my dad's attention in affection, right? You know? And so growing up, I did everything that I could. I played football, baseball, all these sports, and I excelled at all of them because my motivation was actually the wrong motivation. I wanted my dad to be like, son, you know, you've done it. I'm proud of you. And I would hear that sometimes, but that was so much of my motivation growing up. And that kind of moved into sort of the spiritual realm as well. You know, my relationship with God, I felt like I had to do something to earn your love. I felt like I had to say the right things or play the right things or write the right things or read my Bible a certain amount in a certain day. And then maybe, and then maybe God would be like,

you finally did a quarry, you've arrived, and that record was sort of the redefining of my relationship with God and asking him, okay, what do you actually think? How do you actually feel about me? I know what I think, you think, and that's probably wrong, and he just began to speak. And tell me what he thought in he just began to speak. Wow.

And tell me what he thought in these songs began to kind of come out of that place, and reckless love is, you know, obviously the biggest one of those, but that's about the love of God that comes even though we don't deserve it, you know, in the line. We don't have to, we don't have to earn it, because we can't. And that's the beauty of grace and the love of God. Wow. Okay. That was beautiful. That's actually super

encouraging to me. We're about right now. Let's just go vulnerable. That's good because somebody actually asked me yesterday. They said, Sadie, what has God been teaching you the most this summer? And I started thinking about it. And I think that the biggest thing is that and this is kind of a hard lesson to learn and to hear even from like my ears from what they were saying to me but that I think that I put a lot of disappointment on God that was not at all God's doing. It was what people have said to me or people have done to me. That was attached to the word love with it.

When somebody would say I love you but then they would also speak harsh words or I love you but they would not follow it with their actions on that. And I kind of saw God like that. It's like, yeah, I understand He loves me, but I'm disappointed in some of the other things that have happened in my life and in my story. And I think that finally I set for a minute, like you said, and I just said, God, actually, what do you say about this? And I think that a lot of times, because we see something that we think might reflect God, because it maybe has a word love or has a word father with it, we just say, oh, that is you God. Instead of saying, actually, God, I'm going to let you have a time to speak, and I'm just going to actually fix my eyes to see you in every single time truth is put over the

situation and covers the situation. And it's actually amazing to hear the heart behind that because now thinking about the words of your song, I'm like, yeah, in those moments, if you would actually have those moments to be still and to ask God to come in and ask God, what do you use to say? What do you like? And then just actually sing the song that you wrote, reckless love, like it just pours that truth right over the situation. And so that's beautiful. I hope everybody is listening. And you're like me or you're like, Coria, maybe you've put something on God that actually wasn't God, but it was somebody that made use the word I love you or used

had the word father in your life that figure. Whatever it was, I just encourage you to sit for a minute and ask God, give him a chance to just speak to who he really is, and get to know the character of who our God is, because he's a good one. And I know that sometimes when you hear he's a good father and you're in a place where you can't really believe that it's hard to hear,

but I do encourage you to just sit still for a minute. So cool, okay, so now that was like super serious talk, but you are a hilarious guy. You're actually gonna absolutely kills me. So I would, I just wanna know more about who you are at, like, okay, for instance, I think that sometimes people like think that they know us, but like they don't really know us, you know, so like what is everyday in life?

So maybe not everyday, what's something you love to do? You and your wife, you have family. Sure. I mean if you follow me on Instagram you definitely know lately that I love fishing. Nice. I think it's weird because I think a lot of people see that and they're like oh he's posting fishing pictures again. But honestly my life and the way that it's gotten crazy this past year, with travel and then, you know, the song and this record kind of taken off in ways that I never expected. Fishing is actually a place of peace for me. So cool. And so a lot of times I bring my son who's eight years old, or I'll bring my daughter who's four years old. We also have another

daughter who's one and a half. So I don't bring her. You know, I'll bring those guys out with me on my kayak. And that's the place where it's just me and God. And for a lot of people, you know, it's almost like you think I gotta be in church to experience God, right? Or I gotta be reading my Bible to experience God. And I think the biggest thing that he's teaching me lately is just get out in nature and talk to me.

Yeah, so good. And so that's actually my place of peace but that's that's like my favorite thing in the world because there's also a measure of mystery to it yeah you never know what you're gonna catch like that's so fun to me because you might catch a 10 pound bath that day and if I catch a 10 pound bath I'm freaking out everyone listening's like yeah whatever but I'm like freaking out fully you know know, so I love that. And just having fun with the family being crazy and, you know, I've been trying to jump on the trampoline

with my kids. I think it's a bad idea because my knees are going to roll jacked up, but I'm nailing a flip lately. Hey, come on. I can almost do a 540 flip, which I'm pretty fired up. Oh, what a way. Front, our back front our back flip. front so it's like forward and you spin at the same time. I haven't worked up the courage to do it back flip. So that's hilarious. Oh my gosh see that's funny. I could do a back flip. I cannot do a front flip. Okay that's weird. I don't want to see where I'm going. I really just know. I know. Let's do it. That's hilarious. No I love that you said that. I actually just went fly fishing for the first time. Oh I saw it. I was jealous. Seriously, where were you again?

In Montana with the bus goes. It was the coolest thing ever. But I had such a god lesson in that whole thing. It was a three hour trip. Literally we had three hours. We were supposed to, I mean, we're thinking we're a catch, we're a catch so many fish. We're actually having a fish bath tonight, you know?

Oh, it's different. Oh no, okay, it was so different. I'm used to fishing with like a worm and a cane pole. And like, you see, you put it in again. Oh yeah, it's always the end of fishing. You put that worm in and it's like right out, you have a fish every time. This fly fishing, holy cow, it was two hours and 45 minutes.

I had not caught one fish. And I was like, but you wanna talk about my prayer life. Okay, my prayer life was a bomb thing. So I was like, Lord, just teach me through this moment, patience, whatever, but I know it's gonna be efficient at the end of this journey. You know this has to be a promise message. Well, it was two hours and 57 minutes. Why can't I literally see where we're pulling up? I've put that fly in there one more time and boom my tanna

Native fish and I can't even tell you I I totally relate to your if you caught a bass you'd be freaking out I almost like hit the boat. I was freaking out. It was a close-in ever But I love that you said that about church. It's like it's not all about just being at church You can you can relate to God and counting him anywhere you are And actually I drive a pretty good way to go to my church And I've actually found that when I turn my radio off and I just sit in the car And I just have this drive a lot of times That's actually when I encounter God the most on the way to church when I'm at church

You know I get to be with the family the body You know there's that community aspect and it's so important, but some of my most personal encounters with God have been on the way. And so I just love that. I feel like a overarching thing through this is those moments when we get silent, we actually just allow him to just be him. That's where I've overwhelmed. And so that's super cool. Anything else that you want to give as just a piece of advice. I know you gave us your best piece you've been given, but anything you would tell just overall to this generation. And I know that's kind of a, people always have to make a best word you've ever had. And I'm like,

but anything you just want to give. Yeah, I think I can, I can give you what I'm learning, you know, and that's for me lately, let God fight for you. I think in this past season of my life, I always thought that I had to do it for myself. And it's almost like this, pull up your bootstraps and get it done because you're your own maker and blah, blah, blah. And I think that's bull. Yeah.

To put it lightly, I don't think that's right. And I think when we actually invite God into our story, whether it's a victory, a triumph, or a trial, or whatever it is, you just say, okay, God, I actually need your help. You invite him in. He's just waiting for you to invite him. You know, especially if it's something difficult, I imagine him sitting there going just like, just ask me. Yeah. Just ask me, I want to help. And so many times we think we have to do it for ourselves. And so I've just been going, okay, God, I'm going to let you fight for me. And I've found, you know,

this kind of tongue and cheek, but he almost always does better than I would have. It always ends up better than it would have ended up if I fought for myself. Yeah. And I used to think, well, to be a strong personality and a strong leader, I have to be a certain way and I have to just bowl people over to get what I want and what I need. And the truth is, that's actually not how Jesus was. He was kind, he was meek, he was gentle, and he let the father do what the father needed to do. You know, and so I've just been going, okay, God, I invite you into this story, whether it's something difficult or something awesome, and I just allow you to fight for me. I allow you to take care of it,

because you're gonna do it better than I would. That's so good. Wow, I've actually been reading Daniel lately, and I've been reading it over and over and over again, and I think the reason why is because of the part where it says the angel came and shut them out of the lion, and I just have been so intrigued by that that like Daniel didn't fight the lion himself which obviously if God wanted that to be the story he could have done that

considering God gave David the strength to you know kill lions and birds of the stands. But Daniel he didn't give that straight. He let the angel come and fight the lion and it's a huge part of that story because King the king that was around like he was able to see like oh my gosh what a faithful God you serve that your God would send an angel and it was this huge thing about God fighting for him and so it's actually cool I I wouldn't have made that connection until you're just saying that but it's that same thing I'm just like God can do it a lot better than you can and when you let him do it then the attention at the end of the day is not on you.

And so the people around, you're able to say, wow, what a faithful God you are. What is the God saying? There's one more thing in Daniel just, sorry, real quick, you got to fire it up. Come on, say it. There's one more thing, the Bible in Daniel says that as soon as he started to pray, and fast and ask God, it says immediately an angel was dispatched to go out and help you know So it's as soon as he asked bam something happened so good change. So I think that's really I love it Just like you said he's just waiting on that ask in the minute you ask all of heaven's army is coming towards you

That's so cool. Come on Corey. Whoa way good way good Thank you for spending time with us. And not only just allowing us into your life, but giving us the best advice. This is a solid, solid situation. Yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. All right, y'all.

You know what time it is. Time to call Mama. So we're going to call Mama with our best piece of advice and our worst piece of advice. Let's see what she has to say. What's up? Hey, yo. How you doing, mom? Good. How are you? Good. I actually have been spending the day with Corey Azbury and it was awesome.

Oh my gosh. you are not ready. You're cool. It was really cool because you know, reckless love. Obviously, I think everybody in the world knows reckless love and he told us like the backstory on like why he wrote it and stuff. So it was awesome. So awesome. You're getting to talk to all the best people. I know it's been great. Okay, you ready for the world that's good. Well, that's bad test. Yes brought to you by the World that's good podcast Instagram little plug. Okay, anyways to the point. Okay, this is a really this is a really really hilarious because I think we've actually in our house I know me and Bella have both been here cutting your own bangs. I should just stop there Cutting your own ways. I'm just gonna go ahead and say, whoa, that is bad.

Is there more to this advantage? Yeah, it's actually more to get the good way better and worse. Cutting your own things after a breakup is a great idea and a perfect way to look new to get over him. Whoa, that is really bad. That is so bad. First of all, do not make any major life changes after breakup. That's good. And your bangs is a major life change. Let's all agree on that.

I agree. You will never... No, not only would you not forget the season that you had bangs, nobody in your life around you will let you forget the season of your life that you had bangs. Cutting your bangs is always about that. Yeah, but cutting your bangs after break up is like Really bad idea. That is like that's bad y'all like don't ever do that That no, I was actually funny because you know Laney has like been rocking the bangs for quite some time now Yeah, Laney it looks me in the eye every day. It's a saty. Is everybody talking about me like in my bangs?

Like the way that people normally talk about bangs are like I'm actually doing it. I'm like I think you're actually doing it It's quite impressive This is true friend. I know I need to be real about the bangs. I know I told her things I would change a lot I kind of thought about cutting bangs this morning But I remember it. I know know why, like why did I do it till I were at some time? Why? Bad.

No. I don't know. I know. Yes. Good job. Way to resist. That would be really shocking. OK.

Next piece. Seek to understand not to be understood. I think we should understand and be understood. I think we should understand and be understood. I think we like because I think first of all we need to seek to understand and because that is like first we need to listen before we speak. So first we should maybe it's that advice for change to like first seek to understand. Then seek to be understood. So like, if you seek to understand, it'll probably lead to being understood. Boom.

Well, no, no. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's good. Well, that was good. Because if you give it time, if you listen, if you hear the person out, then you can bring

understanding with more clarity. Because normally, if you're not being understood, there was a, there was something, there's a misconnection. You understood, there was a there was something there's a misconnection, you know, there was something that got lost in translation or so I think that just to try to understand from where that person is coming from, then you can in turn bring a decision and be understood. That's good because I think if your goal is like to be understood, then that's really more of a like a, you're worried about what

you're saying, more than what the other person is saying. And it really, really conversation is about listening, and the conversation flows from that. So I think I get it now. I get the advice, and I think that it's a good one. So that's good. Well, that's good. Okay, that was actually really good.

I like talking about that one. Some of these, you actually have to think about a little bit. Yeah, you really do. Yeah. Good. You have some good followers. Oh, no. You guys are awesome. Okay. So how about this? I'm actually really interested in hearing what you get to say about this. Just sleep through your problems so you don't have to deal with them. Coming from a nine on the anyogram, what do you have to say about this? I think I've seen you take a nap or two on a stressful day. I do like sleep, but I think it's in all that bad advice because like sleeping

through your problems you're just gonna wake up and there's still gonna be there. But I do think sometimes a good nap can cure a lot of things. And even like going to sleep at night, sometimes you, you know, like you just wake up to a new day, are you wake up after an hour, you know, like, okay look, this is solvable, this is actually doable, where if you just keep stressing over it and allowing it to, you know, just probably you and keep you up at night. That's not a good thing either. So yeah. Okay. I have a question for you. We're taking a

detour on the one that's good podcast. Okay. So there's that script, sureness is like don't go to bed angry, right? So how do you translate this into kind of what we're already talking about as far as like going to make as you said sometimes a good night sleep is good for you but I think if people were to argue but the Bible says don't go to bed angry like where do you think the line is drawn for that. So I think that sometimes you can like say like like we're just going to put a pause on this and let's sleep and then tomorrow it might be any day. You might have a different feeling or really pray about it

Then could a sleep and then wake up and you will have a breast perspective. Yeah, I think you will have a breast Reveal seconds so I don't think it's like That that verse is meaning like literally stay up all night and argue it out and fight it out until you So you solve it because some things are not gonna be solved in one night. Like, it's not. Like, you can stay up as long as you want and you're not gonna solve this problem. But at the same time, like, whenever you good a bit,

don't go to bed with your anger, go to bed like giving it up to God. Yeah. And, and, you know, letting that, letting go of that, giving it to him, and then wake up with the new perspective the next day. That's so good. You know, the verse, like after that, I read one time, it says like don't go to about

angry. It says don't go to don't be angry at another believer. It says but be angry at the unjust, at the ungodly of the things that that are of God. And so it's basically saying like sometimes I think we channel our anger towards like the person that like, you know, we're fighting against, well, we think we're fighting against, but then later in Ephesians, because that was in Ephesians 4 or 5, later in Ephesians 6, it obviously says, it's not against flesh and blood. And so don't channel your anger towards that person or you're just going to keep building

on anger. Things are going to become really annoying, things are gonna add up. But if you just actually look at it for what it is and maybe it's jealousy, maybe it was something that the enemy brought forth, like be angry at the jealousy, be angry at the enemy. Pray towards that to fall into end to go away. And the next day, you might look at the person beside you and be like, you know what? Nothing's even like you didn't even do anything. Are you didn't intend to do something that was to hurt me and you can just talk about it with a new perspective because you're not looking at it like that person you're looking at like oh this is so the enemy

no more not today Satan but girl that is so good, you get so wise. I have a really great mother. But I love you mama. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks so much for listening to the world. That's good podcast. We got a lot of good nuggets today Don't forget to follow me on all the social media platforms of mine Instagram. I'm at legit Sadie Rob, Twitter, Sadie Rob, and follow our live original Instagram. Also, I'm Sadie Robertson on Facebook. Head over to liveoriginal.com and subscribe to this podcast. And while you're there, you can see the tour dates that I'm coming to a city near you. Don't forget, please leave comments in the iTunes section and leave reviews.

This podcast is produced by Steve Strauss and Peter Hartzel, so a huge shout out to them and I thank you to my LO team. You guys are the best, we love y'all and we appreciate you listening. I'll see y'all soon! you