Faith, Fatherhood and Fighting with MMA Professional Jason Eastman

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jason Eastman (00:05):
Work like everything depends on you, but
pray like everything depends onGod.
You always got to go back toreading your word.
Let them see you read, let themsee you pray and let them see
you worship.
People, man, that don'tunderstand Christianity.
They think Christians are wimpsand I'm there to show them like

(00:26):
.
Well, we're not wimps, man, youknow, we're strength, under
control.

Aaron O'Connell (00:30):
Welcome back to WHY to Fitness podcast.
I'm your host, aaron O'Connell,and today I am joined with
Jason Eastman and we're going toexplore the intersections of
faith, mixed martial arts andfatherhood.
I understand that those thingsdon't always seem like they're
going to be jiving and thatthere's going to be lessons to

(00:52):
be learned, but that is whatwe're here to do to prove that
wrong.
So how are you doing today,jason?

Fantastic man.
I appreciate you having me on.
It's just an honor and apleasure to mix some of my
favorite things.
You know.
Jesus fighting fatherhood yeah,man, let's get into it.

Yeah, of course , of course.
So we can just jump right inand start discussing the role of
faith in fighting, because alot of it seems like it's an
oxymoron yes, wait a minute,we're supposed to turn our cheek
, we're supposed to.
So a lot of people may not knowlike, well, wait a minute, how

(01:33):
can I really navigate faithwhile having my profession be
fighting?
So how do you, how does thatfaith take a role in your life?

Man, I mean it manifests itself in many
different ways, you know?
I mean that's kind of a classicquestion from you know,
traditional Christians, can youhold that?

Yeah, let's do that.

But for me, really think about any other
sport.
You know, how can you playfootball and be a Christian?
How can you do soccer and be aChristian?
It's an athletic event.
I'm not violating somebody inthe parking lot.
We're two athletes that havetrained in martial arts for many
years.
We're both agreeing to go inthere and compete against each

(02:19):
other.
I understand, to the, you know,the naked eye, I mean two guys
cock fighting, you know two pitbulls in the cage fighting.
But really at its, at its heart.
It's the most pure form andexpression of an athletic event.
There's no team as far as inthere with you.
There's no pads, there'snothing like that.

(02:39):
But as far as the role faithplays, it's huge.
It bleeds into every area.
You know the faith and God'splan because there's so many
unknowns.
When you walk into the cage, Imean, what if this happens?
What if he does this?
What if I?
You could go crazy, playingevery, every single situation in
your head back and forth.
You know, at the end of the day, you have to and I love this

(03:02):
quote.
It's by a guy, is it?
Maybe it's Brian Tracy, I don'tknow.
But work like everythingdepends on you, but pray like
everything depends on God oh, Ilike that.
At the end of the day, you doyour best and you know the horse
is prepared for the day ofbattle, but the battle belongs
to the Lord.
You know that's pray, probablyjust one of my favorites.
So you prepare yourself as muchas you can and at the end of

(03:24):
the day you have your faith andyou let it all hang out, man,
you know I like that, I likethat.

And just to dive a little bit deeper into
that, how does faith providethat mental and emotional
strength that's needed so muchin the in the combat world?
Because I know you're gettingyou're literally rolling with
the punches literally and you'regetting hit and you have to
have faith in your technique.

(03:50):
You're, I'm assuming, you knowI did?
I did one year of mixed martialarts.
I did this in college and I'lljust a quick little brief, sorry
, I was benching like four orfive for like eight times back
then, Sick, sick Strong guy.
And so I go in there and it wascalled Tallahassee mixed martial
arts and I'm strong, you know,and I get in there and it

(04:10):
humbles me so quick.
Yes, I got, because first we'redoing three minute drills.
I start on my back there andthere's women in there.

Granted, there was probably pretty good, oh
yeah.

Granted, there wasn't any like tiny women, but
there was one.
One girl is probably like 160,170 or something like that.

You know strong girl but she would.

She would tap me out all the time because
she's been there for three yearsand I would don't get me wrong.
She would have me in the, inthe choke.
I would stand up, squat herbecause I'm so strong You're no
G no, no, no, no, no, no.
I would be able to squat whileshe's on my back, her up, and
I'm like I could jump, probablylike eight inches high, and land

(04:52):
on my back and get you off myback If this was a real fight.
But we're training, all right.
You can't do that Can't do that,so I would get choked out all
the time.
Quickly I learned if I wasn'tlike a raptor and kept my feet,
my, my, my elbows close to mybody.
Arm bar, arm bar, arm bar.
And I hated that because thenI'm yanking on my muscles and it
just hurt Especially being sostrong and tight oh yeah, you

(05:15):
don't have the flexibility,exactly.
So like that humbled me and alsothe guy that I was, that was
like the head guy there.
He was in the WEC, nice.
And how much do you weigh?
I walk around about 150.

You won 47.

What do you fight at?

125.
Okay.

So.
So this guy was right aroundthe same.
You know 130.

WEC was small guys.

Yeah, it was all small guys, but I'm, I'm
this big guy, I'm on my back.
He tied his hands behind hisback and I couldn't get him off
me.
Yeah.

He had to have an equalizer, you know dude, I
couldn't get him off me.

He would spin on me like a helicopter and just
shove his hips down Every timeI'm about to go.
It'd be like he knew I wasabout to do it and he would spin
, press it down and I would justget gassed.
I couldn't get him off me.
You know it's, it's real.
Training is real.
So I really want to just divedeep into that.
You know that mental andemotional strength that's needed

(06:17):
in the world of combat sportsman.

For me, one of the reasons I love fighting and
training and living thatlifestyle is it really brings me
closer to God.
Because, you know, there's twotypes of people, like the kind
where you have to say, like,chill out, you know they're a
little too full of themselves.
And the kind of people whereyou got to say, hey, man, you're
better than you realize.
You know, and I'm the kind ofguy that, because of my

(06:42):
upbringing and because of someof the things that I've been
through, you know I wasn'talways confident and so I need
that.
You know I need, I needsomething hard to do in my life,
something difficult, somethingchallenging, a big dream,
because that drives me closer toGod.
That brings me closer to Godbecause I know I can't do it by
myself.

I need him, man , oh yeah, and we need that
purpose in our life.
We need something to aim for.
We look forward to the prizeset before us running our own
race.
But God also.
He promises a great life inthis life and the next blessings
in this life.
Maybe not a great life ifyou're using worldly standards,

(07:23):
but a blessed life in this life,in the next, as long as we're
not looking left and right.
We're keeping our eye on theprize and with that purpose.
So how would you say that youare fulfilling your God given
purpose through fighting?

Man.
So you know a lot of peoplethat are in the fight world,
especially the fans and stuff.
They're not Christians.
They're in the crowd drinkingbeer and killing whippers, but
you know, and and all this stuff.
I'm glad I ain't in there, Ijust see red.
So so basically, it's part ofmy platform that God gave me to,

(08:01):
because after every fight, man,they give me the microphone and
the first thing I say is thankyou to you know, jesus, my
savior, amen.
Yeah, man, and there's a lot ofpeople that hear that and they
come up to me afterwards andlike, wow, man, that's thank you
for saying that.
I felt something, you know, andI just love being a role model.
And a lot of people, man, thatdon't understand Christianity.
They think Christians are wimps, and I'm there to show them

(08:23):
like we're not wimps, man, youknow we're strength, under
control.

Yeah, meekness Right.

Right, a biblical Christian, not not maybe a
modern Christian.
I mean, when you know we get alot of things wrong and even
though our heart may be in theright place, you know, sometimes
I'm meekness right Likestrength, under control, and so
I love being able to live a realexample of that and, at the end
of the day, give God all theglory.
And I usually give like alittle 30 second message when

(08:50):
I'm up there.
I can't even help it, it's justcoming through my pores after I
went to fight, because I'm suchon a holy spirit Like bro,
fighting and giving, puttingyour spirit and your soul into
something nonstop, 24, seven,and then being able to, you know
, do something like compete andput it all out there.
It's such a spirit field thingthat, like I said, after a fight

(09:11):
I'm just oozing man, like Ifeel the spirit on me, you know
and I've had fights where Iliterally fought a guy that I
was supposed to lose to.
You know, like my first, myfirst place Professional fight,
I fought a two time grapplersquest world champion.
This is my first pro fight in2014.
Yeah, I was scared, bro.
I was the super underdog man,two time world champion, and I

(09:32):
watched his videos.
He was submitting people inseconds, bro, seconds.
And this guy, you know, rightbefore I fight, I saw him, his
coach, rolly Delgado, who is aUFC vet, highly respected.
He was tagging Dana White, thepresident of the UFC, telling
him this kid is the next bigthing and it's the guy that I'm
about to fight.
And I was nervous, I was scared, but that, you know, just

(09:54):
brought me to a higher level andin that fight, I literally, I
literally, actually God gave mea vision of how I was going to
win that fight and literally,that's the exact way that I won.
It was nuts.
I body kicked him and he triedto clinch with me because that
body kick hurt him.
And when he tried to grab me,because he was such a great
grappler, I like separated hishands and I threw a nasty elbow
and the elbow split him reallybad, right above the eyebrow and

(10:17):
he was bleeding and the fightgot stopped like that.
But I felt it was weird,looking back like I felt power.
You know, in a weird way.
And you know, like I said,traditionally Christians are
like how can you do that?
And you know I'm not mad at theguy.
This is, it's an athletic event.
You know we're signing on thedotted line.
We understand that there's youcan get hurt.
I mean I'd love to win withouthurting anybody, you know, but

(10:39):
sometimes it doesn't.
Doesn't happen that way.
Like you said, football you canget hurt.
There's actually more injuriesin football.
Soccer neck injury, you know,break the spine there, paralyzed
.
Boxing there's more braindamage because you can
repeatedly hit somebody.
They fall down.
They give you a 10 count, youget up, you get hit again, you
fall down, you get MMA.
I hit you, you fall down,you're over.

It's over, because you're gonna you're
gonna go choke them out.

You're gonna go do something.

You're gonna do one, two, three done and the
referees will stop it.
It's not, you don't get asecond chance get 10 seconds.

No, no, no, no so it's actually it might seem
superficially more dangerousbecause there's more blood,
because you get cut with it, butit's brain injuries and and
parap, parap, parap.
I'm sorry, paralysis it neverhappens in MMA, yeah.

And I'd also assume that a lot of people
you're fighting are fighting outof that anger.
You know, I'm I'm assumingyou'd be surprised, Really.

The rule.
There are always exceptions,right yeah, but mostly no.

Really Because because you, I guess you see
those UFC, you know those littlenews conferences before and you
see one guy that's always like,hey, happy, go lucky, goes up
against, and then there's theother one that's like mean
literally has beef, or whateveryeah.
But I guess that would maybe bethe news just saying like well,
we only show the ones that theyare all controversial.

I think it could be two different things.
It's um, sometimes that isn't aperson you know.
They went through something orthey never made peace with it.
They got a chip on theirshoulder and they really are
angry.
In order for me to competeagainst you, I have to be mad at
you Now.
I think, personally, thatpoints to insecurity, because if
you're, if you're reallyconfident in your skills, you
don't need that anger andemotion.
They hold you back, they cloudyour judgment.

(12:16):
Man.
They'll make, you make mistakes,but on the other hand maybe
he's not really angry.
Some guys they do that for theshow because they know that's
going to pump up the pay perviews.
They people.
If I act a fool at a weigh inor a press conference, two types
of people either people thatare gonna wanna see me get my
butt whooped, or people that aregonna wanna see me whooped.
The other guys butt right.
So it goes both ways, you know.

No, that funny thing is, I'm a big Star Wars
fan and I'm just sitting herelike anger clouds your vision
and all this stuff.

I'm just thinking of the force, how they're using
the force and all that otherstuff you know, and I can just
see those parallels.

But also, you know, just talking about that
discipline and being able tofollow through with that and
having the faith and knowingwhat you're, what you're
deriving your power from,because so many people are doing
so much self-denial, goingthrough the techniques and doing
all these worldly things, butthey're denying the very power
that exists, which is God, thatgives you that peace, that

(13:12):
passes on understanding, whichthen allows you to see much more
clearly, that doesn't give youthat adrenaline rush, which
adrenaline may help you withinthe first 10 seconds, 15 seconds
but if you don't submit them inthat 15 seconds now, you're
gassed.

Yeah, man.

What goes up must come down.
So when?
Having that faith in somethingbigger than yourselves, I'm sure
from now, just hearing whatyou're saying is going to go a
long way.

It's huge man.
And if you look at all thesuper successful athletes even
if they're not Christian, rightwhich most of them are Christian
, by the way, but they all talkabout man you got to look at
something bigger than yourself.
You got to have faith insomething bigger than yourself
and again, at the end of the day, that's what you got to do.

And I love that you found your purpose in it.
Because first Corinthians 927says I discipline my body like
an athlete, training it for whatit may do.
To do what it must do in fearthat I, after my own preaching,
may be disqualified, is whathe's saying, which means you
need to figure out what yourbody is supposed to do.

(14:18):
That is your purpose, and hetrains and seeks that purpose
and all to do what it must do,because he has the fear of God
in him that he may bedisqualified.
So I'm sure that disciplinefrom your faith goes right into
fighting.

Man, I love that dude, like I fasted.
I mean, look, when you're afighter, you know you win three,
four, five fights and you feellike you're on top of the world
and you lose one, and it's likemy world is crumbling and, dude,
I have fasted over my careerbefore.
I have seeked God thoroughly,you know, and intensely, and I'm
like, look, god, as much as Ilove competing, as much as I

(14:57):
even just love training becausecompeting can be scary, but I
love training as much, god, ifit's not of you, take it from me
.
I don't want to do anything asnot of you, god, and that's been
my attitude for many years, andit always comes back to this is
your calling, and I'm like, andso finally, after doing that,
I'm like, oh God, look, I'mgoing to get out of my own way
and quit wondering, wondering,wondering.

(15:17):
Is this you?
I've had yes so many times.
How many times can you say yes?
From now on, I'm going toremember that answer yes, and if
you ever change your mind aboutit, you let me know.
But until then, I'm going tohave the confidence like I got,
like I'm on your side with thisand we're on the same page with
this, and I'm going to walk thatout, you know, instead of
holding myself back, becausereally, what that is is fear of
my own self, you know?

(15:38):
So, um and man, if you look atme and you look at all my
attributes, I am built for thisphysically.

I'm built for you mentally.

I'm built for it.
I'm.
It's easy for me to bedisciplined.
It's easy for me to eat very,you know, properly, correctly, I
don't.
I'm just different man.
Anybody that knows me knowsthat and when you you look,
you're like wow, he really isbuilt for this and I'm just.
I know that now, after I'vematured a little bit in my
career.
I matured a little bit in mywalk and seeking God and now

(16:08):
that I know that it's reallychanged my me as a person.

You know, when you find that purpose, that
vocation, that you can not onlyfeel the you know the adrenaline
, but the passion and all theworldly happiness, but also you
get the joy of the Lord and youknow that you're marrying the
two.
It just goes and explodes,because that's what I'm doing
through this podcast, throughyou, through my training because

(16:32):
I used to be a personal trainerI no longer do that you know,
because I just didn't want tosubstitute one idol for the next
.
I wanted to truly show them truefreedom, peace of mind and
heart, true success, and I hadto step back for so long.
But just even how we got tothis podcast.

Grayson Levy you know he's got his Instagram
handle.

If you want to check him out, is our full time
adventure and that is he'sfinding his purpose in travel
and he's going and he's goingaround and traveling to all
these areas, talking about God,not as like a preacher, and it's
my main thing, but there'sthese brief moments that they
bring God into it, just themliving the life, because it's

(17:16):
it's not so much I heard it's anexcellent quote that I heard
and it's not it's more importanthow you do what you do than
what you do.
That's right.
Everyone is beating themselvesup of I need to do XYZ, I should
do this, I need to stop this.
That is legalistic, but it'smore important how you do what

(17:39):
you are currently doing.
Are you bringing God into?

it.

Are you?
Are you doing it out of love?
Then you can be doing anything.
You could be fighting, beatingsomebody up, causing bloody
noses, you could be traveling,you can be a nurse, you could be
a stay at home, you have thatfruit to the spirit.
But you find it, you find thatpurpose, and when you find that
and align it with God, that'swhen the Holy Spirit does walk,
come in and gives you the faith,the patience you know, the love

(18:05):
, the joy, the peace, thekindness, the goodness, the
gentleness and the self control,or a ka sound mind.
You know, exactly and I want toactually ask you a question, and
can you think of a time and ofwhen it may have?
Been you ready?
You may have already said it inthe very first fight, but you

(18:27):
were experiencing like a mentaland spiritual anguish, overdoing
something, because I'm sure ourlisteners have this big thing,
they want to do this over thescary thing, this, this problem,
that they're thinking about itso much.
I'm just wondering how, if youhave a story like that, and how

(18:47):
you were able to overcome thatso really speaking of decisions
again, right.

So, man, I used to go back and forth to what's
right, what's wrong, what shouldI do?
What should I do, man?
I really think now, as long asyou are doing the right things
and what is right things, I meanreading your word, worshiping,
praying, developing yourrelationship with God, you're
immersing yourself in Jesus.

(19:14):
That man, you know, whateveryou do will be blessed and you
just and if you're ever inquestion about it, what I do, it
might not be the only way to doit, but I say, look, god, I
feel like I should do this.
Sometimes I don't feel like Ishould do it, sometimes I lower
this dude that they offered meto fight is, I don't know, lord,
you know is tough, you knowhe's he's tough, but but, God,

(19:38):
I'm not going to let my doubts,my fear, get in the way of of a
success in my career onadvancement of my family and
advancement of my finances.
So, god, I'm going to say yesto this opportunity.
If it's not of you, lord, look,I'm going to lay that beyond.
You.
Take it away from me, becausewins, losses, you know, in life,

(20:00):
not just fighting, it's all,all things happen to the good of
those who love him.

Yes, you know.
So to me, I'm like yo.
Lord, I'm going to say yes, I'mlike yo.

Lord, if you want me to walk through this and I
win, I lose.
But Lord, if it's your will,I'm down.
I'm down with it.
So that's how I address thosehard decisions.
You know, especially if I'm onthe fence about it or you gotta
pray about everything, man, yougotta filter it through your

(20:27):
heavenly father.
You know, Like I don't wantanything that's not of you, God,
you make that decision, youknow.

I love that you know, because you're speaking
of victory, no matter whathappens.
You know, and 1 Corinthians 15,57 reminds us that thanks be to
God, he gives us the victorythrough Lord Jesus Christ.
So, as long as we have Christ,we know that, no matter what

(20:53):
happens, like you said in Romans, all things are gonna work for
the better for us because welove Christ, we know we do,
we're not halfway in and halfwayout, because James already says
we're gonna.
You know that's false religion,that's that you're gonna be
tossed like a sea, like thewaves of a sea.
You know you're only foolingyourself.
Double-minded man, exactly.

(21:15):
But when you're all in, itreally takes everything to the
next level for sure.
I agree, I love that.
So I wanna also dive in toself-control.
It's a big one and it'ssignificance in faith and in
fighting, because I'm sure youhave so many people pulling you

(21:39):
left and right.
You know, do this, do this,don't do this.
You know, or you know even inyour faith, but, like I think it
within fighting is a good wayfor the listeners to kind of get
like a layman's terms how to dothings about.
Like how do you increase thatself-control?
What are your, what are youraspects?
Type of thing.
Like what would be the one, two, three steps for somebody

(22:01):
that's like, hey, I'm lackingself-control, I don't know what
to do.
What would your advice be tothem?

So there's a couple of things self-control,
man.
Some things come easy, somethings don't you know Some
things is hard to control.
Some things is not so hard.
Every discipline, every successbuilds on the next one.
You know, you wake up, you makeyour bed, and then you're like,
wow, I made my bed, now I dothis.
You know, you get your workoutdone and you're like, man, I

(22:30):
might as well eat good now.
I already worked out, I mean.
But if you miss your workout,you're like I miss my workout, I
might as well eat pizza whocares?
And then the next day you cheatagain, and then you so
everything.
It's like a snowball effect.
You know, for your self-control, get small victories and build
into your bigger ones, yourharder ones.
You know.
You know, and again, you haveto always lean on God.
Some things it's not easy tocontrol and you gotta really

(22:54):
seek God on that.
You gotta make your body aslave, you know.
Yeah, yeah, because this spiritis willing bro, but the body is
weak man.
And look, I'll go ahead andspeak about something that I
struggled with for nearly halfmy life, you know, I mean I
became addicted to pornographyat like 13, 14 years old and I
really, really struggled with it, man, up until about three

(23:16):
years ago or so.
Yeah, about three years ago,and the Lord radically delivered
me from it, radically deliveredme, and it was something I
thought I could never, ever, youknow.
And the point is I reallydidn't overcome it myself.
You know, I relied on him andyou have to come to a point
where you hate your sin so bad.
You know, if you don't hate it,you kinda wanna keep that

(23:37):
little pet sin.
It's not.
You can't have that.
You gotta, you know, yeah, yougotta understand that's getting
in the way of the blessings thatGod had for your life.
You know you might not go tohell for it, right, because God
died for our sins.
But, dude, do you wanna be awreck over here on the earth
while you're here, you know?
So you gotta give it to God andyou gotta begin to hate your
sin and he will deliver you fromit if you fall flat on your

(23:59):
face in front of Him and justbeg Him to take it from you.

Yeah, that I struggled with marijuana, for
you know, like you, 13 to youknow, up and about, you know, I
can't even say a year ago reallyyou know, because, like, even
though I'd be going longer andlonger, and longer I would go
into those little bits and for awhole month or so I would I
have a prayer journal and I keptpraying Lord, help me hate

(24:28):
smoking weed, help me hate it,help me be revolted of it.
And then after I did that, likeeven I would even write that
even as I was smoking type ofthing, like if I was high type
of thing like help me hate itand within about a month, all of
a sudden, I'm like I hate this.
Every time I smoked, I usuallywould get relief because I was

(24:51):
procrastinating and you know,when you're not doing what you
know you ought, you're sinning.
And when you constantly havethis stress and this turmoil of
things that you haven't done, oryou're focused on the past
depression or you're anxious ofthe future because you're not
doing what you're supposed to do, you run to something, that
false idol and for me it wasmarijuana and all of a sudden,

(25:13):
just me praying that, prayingthat every single time it was
like it gave me headaches.
And I don't get headaches.
I'm hydrated, I get my salt, Iget my electrolytes.

I know what's up.

But I don't get headaches.

The Lord said let me encourage you a little bit.

And I would start getting headaches.
But also on top of that, Iusually my mind will go like in
crazy places and I'm like, oh,I'm so creative Tomorrow, I'm
going to do this Tomorrow.
All these other things thatstopped happening.
All it was is just like thissucks.
I would usually be able to.
I don't get lost into TV series.
I don't really watch much TVwhatsoever, but when I smoked I

(25:51):
could watch TV and just keep onwatching it.
I couldn't do that while I wassmoking.
But now when I said God, take itfrom me, I make me hate it.
It made me not be able to dothose things, it made me just
kind of sit there doing nothing,and not OK with doing nothing,
but I couldn't do anything.
And it just got to the pointwhere I'm like I hate this.

(26:11):
And now it's gotten to thepoint because when I stopped
before for like the five months,two months, three months, two
weeks, whatever it is I'd begoing and if I saw someone
smoking in their car I'd be likethat looks so good.
It would just be like oh, thatlooks so good.
Oh, lucky you.
Now it's like I pray for them.

(26:32):
I'm like man, lord, deliverthem from, let them hate that,
so they can be able to see you,to be able to see what's in
front of them and give them anopportunity to better themselves
.

Yeah, man.

Oh yeah, and I want to take that little segue
because you mentioned you're afamily man.

Yes, you're a family.

Yeah, how many kids you got.

Well, that's sort of a loaded question.
So I had a son about 13 monthsago, right, and he's amazing.
I love him.
His name is Leonidas.

After the 300 movie right, that's best say
isn't it?

God gave me that name because it means son of a
lion and his middle name isJudah, so son of the lion of
Judah.
So I thought that was sick.
But God dropped that in my head.
But so I have a son, right.
But I also have a daughterwho's eight years old, and I've
been in this battle to getrights for her.
I didn't know she was reallymine until she was four, so I've
been in this.
You know, I'm a past life andpast life comes to haunt you

(27:26):
sometimes.
Oh, I know.

And sometimes usually all the time Right
exactly, exactly, thank you.

So I've been battling to get rights to her
for a couple of years.
Not that I want to take heraway from her mother, but I just
want to be able to see mylittle girl.

And so.

I've been in this legal battle for like four
years now, so she's eight now,and so, yeah, so I have two kids
, and also my wife is pregnantagain, so congratulations.

Thanks, man, thanks, thanks.
When's the due date, type ofthings Soon.

She's 10 weeks, ok, ok.

So relatively new you still got some more time
to you know, get things alittle bit more buttoned up.

I'll go ahead.
Yeah, I'll talk about a familyman, dude, like my wife, is
incredible.
She's a tough cookie, bro.
And just to give you a littleinsight on the way we do things,
we're people would call usweird, right, we do things a
little different.
When we had our son, we did anat-home birth with no medical
intervention, just me and her,right?

(28:21):
Yeah, natural at-home birth.
It's called free birthing,right?
Yeah, dude, it sounds like freebirthing.

I know, yeah, you know.

So it was the most amazing, craziest, I mean
most intense thing I've everbeen a part of, and to see her
go through that.
And the Holy Spirit was just inthat room with this man, oh I
can't imagine.
And for her to give birth to ourchild right before my eyes, you
know, and it was amazing.
But that's how tough and howstrong she is.
Yeah, that's awesome.
So she's a tough one.

(28:50):
She's really sharpened me as aman, because when you have a
woman, that's that sharp dudeyou'll either get left behind or
you better tighten up, you know, yeah.

No, I like that .
And what I want to ask you islike, what are some values and
life lessons that you, as afighter, can pass on to your
children?
Because Proverbs 22.6 saystrain up a child in the way that
he should go?
Yes, you know we never departfrom it and you'll never depart
from it.
You know we need to make surethat we discipline them, because

(29:20):
those that spare the rod fromtheir children, you know, don't
like or hate the child.
Whatever.
You know you say like you don'tlove the child, because you
need to give them thatdiscipline.
You can, and especially in aworld today where, like in
California, they just passed thelaw, or the committee passed
the law where it said, hey, likeI watched this TikTok and it's
like oh, where they're now ableto take away the children from

(29:45):
the parents if they don't affirmtheir gender.
And here's this woman sayinglike and it was the dumbest
statement in the world and, likeall the comments agreed, it was
like it said something alongit's like, as a parent, it's our
duty to affirm our children andit's like that is so wrong.
So clearly this is a spiritualbattle.

(30:06):
We know we don't wrestle withflesh and blood.
You know, but of theprincipalities of this world,
and that's Ephesians 6, 12.
So we know that there's thisadvancement that's going on at a
rapid rate, at least here inthe West.
The West is going down, whereasthe East and all those other
countries seem to have moreChristians and more Christians

(30:27):
and more Christians.
But us on the West side of theworld, you know it's going down.
So I'd really like to know aslife lessons or values that you
could take from fighting or not,that you want to pass down to
your son, to your daughter.

Yeah, man, this is the Lord gave the devil a lot
of authority over this world.
You know, I think in my headall the time I'm like man,
things are getting so bad, butI'm like this ain't heaven yet.
What do you expect?

Exactly.

It's amazing that there's anything good that
happens in this world at all,you know, because this is not
heaven yet man, and anythinggood that happens to us or for
us is purely by the grace of Godbecause we don't deserve any of
it.
You know, yeah, man, disciplineI think is super important, like
I mean, for me, growing up Iwas pretty tough, you know, like

(31:18):
I got saved young, three orfour years old maybe I still
remember the moment but ofcourse I didn't really start
walking really heavily into myfaith, like I didn't really
blossom until about three, fouryears ago really, when I met my
wife because I prayed about her.
You know, when I got deliveredfrom porn it all kind of
happened at the same time.
I prayed for God to take sexualsin from me the porn, the

(31:40):
sleeping around and to give me awoman that was stronger in that
area than I was.
And he did, you know.
He gave me my wife and she wasan answer to prayer.

He'll give you what you ask for, as long as
it's according to his will.

He says it right there in the Bible.

Amen, I love that.

I love that we're wicked we're wicked and do we
want to give our kids badpresents?
Right, there's a verse thatsays that who asks for a bread
and I give you a rock.

Yeah, yeah, scorpion, you know, You're right
, exactly so imagine ourheavenly Father.

He wants to give us all the desires of our heart
too, as long as they're in,according to his word.
But I say all that to say thatI really started walking out my
faith really in the last severalyears and before that.
It was a lot of ups and downs,a lot of backsliding, and I
needed some of the harshdiscipline that my father gave
me because I was although I gotsaved young, I didn't love my

(32:30):
family situation.
My mother got divorced from mydad at a young age.
She remarried me and that guydidn't get along, even though he
adopted me.
I took his last name for a longlong time, until a couple years
ago.
I changed it back to my birthname, but he was somewhat
abusive in different ways.
And then I got in trouble atschool because I started acting
out.
I started gangbanging a little,started getting into drugs.

(32:52):
My mother had no idea, man.
She was into her own thing.
She was sleeping aroundcheating on her husband at the
time and home was just a messman.
I was an angry kid and eventhough I had God deep in my
heart, man, I hadn't startedliving it out yet.
I got involved with gangs, gotinvolved with drugs, got kicked

(33:13):
out of school.
And my mom was like look,because up until that point I
had only seen my dad, my realdad.
So much because I didn't havehis last name anymore.
I saw him some, but not enough.
My dad was a very military man,disciplinary, so I'd go over
there and act like a robot, yes,sir, but he didn't know who I
really was.
I only got to see him probably,you know, maybe once a month or

(33:34):
so, maybe a little more often,but when I see him, I see him
just for a weekend or so, justlong enough to fake it, and I'd
go back home and I'd be who Ireally was.
But I got in trouble in schooland my mom was like I can't deal
with you, no more, you gotta golive with your dad.
For at least a year I likefailed school and sent me over
to my dad's house right in thenick of time, because with his

(33:54):
harsh discipline, some wouldcall that abuse too.
But I needed it, plus the Lord,you know, man, they turned my
whole life around so when didyou find?

was it your mom that had the faith, that
instilled it in you?

You, know I love my mother.
She's a great woman and don'tlose that thought because I
might get off track here.
I just moved her in with me, meand my wife.
We just moved her in.
In the last like two monthsshe's been living in Mississippi
.
Of course we're here in Floridashe's been a part of.
She's had a new husband forabout 12 years.
He's a super abusive guy, superalcoholic, really, really bad,

(34:29):
and we've been trying to get herout of that situation, pray her
out of it.
For like as long as I've livedhere it's about five years now
I've had me and my whole church,my wife, all of us have been
praying for her for like fiveyears.
Finally, about two months ago,dude, I was on the phone with
her praying the most fervent,powerful prayer I've ever felt
myself personally pray and Ifelt the spirit move, dude.
I felt something happen in thespiritual realm and literally it

(34:51):
wasn't.
A couple weeks later she was onmy couch.
We had a one bedroom house wehad one bedroom apartment and I
was praying.
I was like Lord, I need to getmy mom her own room.
Blah, blah, blah.
About a month, two later nowwe're in a three bedroom
apartment.
I don't know how we afford it.
I was breaking down my budgetlast night.
I'm like man.
I don't know how we afford it,don't even mathematically make
sense.
But God is making a way we'repaying bills.
So that's my mom right.

(35:13):
But I did not.
I did not get my faith reallyfrom her.
You know she has anunderstanding of God and she's a
wonderful woman, really lovelywoman.
We'll give you the shot off herback, but she's still growing
in her faith.
She's still baby stepping inher faith you know, but my dad.
Now, you know my dad.
Nobody's perfect in everything,right, but my dad, he's the one

(35:35):
that always instilled theimportance of faith in God.
He had me in church all thetime, all the time.
I remember getting bored as akid trying to color.
You're not listening to whatnobody was saying, the pastor
was saying.
But I grew up in church becauseof my dad, you know, and he
gets that credit because evenwhen he was with my mom and all
that, he's the leader of thehousehold, you know.

He took me to church.
I love that because a lot oftimes people you know have that
testimony of oh I've been savedever since I was a young kid and
they don't think it's thatpowerful.
Not everyone has the gangbanging the drugs you know,
because I chased, I chased, youknow, the dragon smoking Roxy's
off a tin foil.
I've smoked cigarettes.

(36:18):
I've slept around.
I've been addicted to porn.

I've done.
You know you name it, I'veprobably done it, or something
like that other than super,super hard stuff you know, but,
like, not everyone has that.

So they have this story.
That's like, oh, you know, I'vejust been ever since I was
young and they don't think it'sa powerful testimony.
That's a powerful testimony.
It gives the testimony of whata generational impact is.
It gives testimony of what afather is and what a mother or a

(36:52):
parent is, and the importanceof raising up our children in
the way that we go and they go,and guarding our hearts above
all else.
You know we need, yes, we needto do that.
That's Proverbs 4.23, that weneed to do that.
But it's so important asfathers to instill and mothers
obviously, to instill thesevalues, our Christianity, and

(37:15):
not just by our words but alsoby our deeds, because you can
identify a tree by its fruit.
Kids don't do things justbecause you tell them to.

If you tell them.

Faith is dead without works.
Yeah, like if you're smokingcigarettes and you tell a kid
not to smoke, they're gonna endup smoking cigarettes, because
you don't you're just everythingyou say that's dangerous.
You're doing it, so they'regonna do what you do not what
you say.
They look up to you, they wannabe like you.
So, as a father, I know,because I have a daughter.
She's seven years old and I doeverything I possibly can to

(37:48):
point things back to God.
You know, no matter what it maybe, I get my patience from that
as well and just mylevel-headedness from that as
well, but it's just so important.
Yes, because we don't know whenthey're gonna have that
prodigal season.

We had our prodigal seasons.

It could last a year.
It could last a lifetime.
If 15, it could go all the wayup until 70, you know, whatever
it may be, but I like what yousaid about that prayer.
You were praying for your momfor five years.
Our Bible says knock and thedoor will be opened, seek and
you will find.

(38:26):
And it may not be in ourlifetime, but we know that God's
outside of space and time.
If a day seems like a thousandyears, a thousand years is a day
, which is just a poetic way ofsaying like your timeframe means
nothing you know, because it'sstrengthening us and your prayer
life, because if you prayed forit for two weeks and then it

(38:48):
happened, you'd be like God's soawesome.
But when you do it for fiveyears and how you just get
deeper and deeper into faith andjust trusting him, and then all
of a sudden, after five years,it happens that explodes your
faith Amazing.

Yeah, man, that's beautiful stuff.
God has really done huge worksin my life here recently, you
know.
But I think, as far as you know, bringing your kids up, man, I
think the most important thingyou can do and emulate, because
we're gonna mess it up, dude.
We're gonna try to get it rightand we'll get some of the right
, but we ain't gonna get all ofit right.
But you gotta show them theimportant things and again, you
always gotta go back to readingyour word.

(39:29):
Let them see you read, let themsee you pray and let them see
you worship and after I won mylast fight it was a wonderful
victory, bro.
I mean, I was so reliant on Godfor that fight and I had an
outstanding performance.
I brutally finished this reallyhigh level guy and you know,
the Lord was all over it, man.
I was just really reliant onhim.
And afterwards I got home and Iwasn't injured and I had this

(39:52):
great victory and my son was inhis high chair and I was just
praising God.
I had the TV on loud, listeningto some of my favorite worship
songs.
You know the one that I reallywas really liked.
I think it's Brandon Lake, ifI'm not mistaken, but the song
was called Lions.
It's called Lions, bro.
I'm gonna have to check thatout.
Hell, hell, lion of Judah, letthe Lion Roar.
Oh, bro, bro, I was going hard,I was lifting my hands and I

(40:14):
looked at it and he was liftinghis hands.
He's like 10 months at the time.

Oh yeah, lifting his hand, maybe less
than nine months Bro.

so you know we're not gonna get it all right, but
, man, if we get those thingsright, we are doing our job
Exactly, and we're gonna fail nomatter what.

But it's those little rhythms that keep us
going.
It's that reading, it's thatpraying, and so many people
worry about saying the rightthing.
How do?
Oh, I didn't respond the rightway, or whatever it was.
Oh, that short outburst.
Okay, well, you took a deep,you took a.
I went to look at it as a bankaccount.

(40:51):
How often are you depositingthese spiritual things, no
matter how small they're?
It's just a tally mark.
She sees me reading the Bibletoday, sees it today, sees it a
hundred times.
And then all of a sudden I goand lash out, I do something
wrong.
She, you know, my daughter,actually was one of the biggest

(41:12):
reasons I started really feelingbad about smoking, because when
she caught me, it makes youfeel bad.
You know Her mother, still, youknow, smokes, vape and all that
other stuff which I absolutelyhate.
You know, because she's seen it.
And I, you know, and I, evenwhen I promised her, I promised

(41:33):
her, I was like, hey, I'm notgonna smoke more, I'm smoking
weed.
She, you know, like not justtobacco, but like she doesn't
know better, no-transcript.
You go five months and then allof a sudden you're hiding again
.
She finds it again and it justcreates so much pain in you.
But those are, those are right.
There are withdrawals, but shealso sees me in church, like

(41:53):
raise my hands.
Like you said, all I listen tois Christian music.

It's the only thing I was a hard thing for me
to get over, but yes, now I'mlike you.
Yeah, for me.

Because if you really listen to the words, what
do you glorify me?
Because what are you worshiping?
What?
What is your mind focused on?
Like?
For me, it's the most amazingthing having my daughter Just
sitting there, you know, andjust starts belting out a song
from Lauren Deggle or just, andshe's a human jukebox and she,
she really remembers it all,right she remembers every.

(42:23):
It's all about like the sameknowing song she can learn a
song so quickly musical very butlike it's the best thing
hearing her to be able to saythose things you know saying I
am nothing without you, Lord youknow like thing these types of
lyrics, because she, that's allshe hears From me.
She see mine.

(42:43):
I live with my mom as well andwe have our Bibles out 24-7 on
the, on the, on the dinner table, you know.
It's just constantly there andshe's catching us there.
She's caught me and on my knees, you know, coming down the
stairs and I'm on my knees justpraying and she's like daddy,
what are you doing?

I'm weird, I'm praying.

Why are you on your knees?
And then I it's a time to teach, but like what?
Also she sees me doing that.
So when I fail and what I thinkso often parents kind of get
wrong is they.
They try to be Superman to them.
They try to hide the Clark Kentand only show that superhero to
them when they get caught, theyalmost like minimize their own

(43:28):
Offense, you know, because theywant to maintain this perfect
look to their kids.
But when you can sit there andsay I am sorry, yes, I was wrong
.
Do you forgive me?
Model that to your kids, askingthem to forgive you, like if I
ever, you know, get Go on, avery, what are you doing?

(43:51):
You know, even if it'll scareand it puts stops are in her
tracks, you know, but even then,even if, like she didn't cry or
anything like that, I all thetime now will be like, hey, I'm
really sorry for what?
Raising my voice, I could havedone that the wrong way, you,
and then I can.
But then I Explained to her whythat happened.
I'm weak, you know.
I'm sorry that I that's becauseI care about you, that's why it

(44:14):
came out, but we need to beable to control that and you
know, and be able to just talkthrough that.
And Because I'm somebody thatstarted why to fitness, I had
that desire to explain whyalways and I needed to know it.
And I hate it when someonewould just be like because it's
because, just because whateverI'm like, that's not sufficient

(44:35):
enough.
Because I said so, because Isaid so, it's like wait now
You're the authoritative powerand I don't know about you if
someone's being an authoritativeperson, a dictator, they aren't
liked by the masses.
Yeah, usually so you know thosethat authoritative leader is not
.
But when you can actually have,where they feel like they have
a say, you're empowering them.

(44:55):
You're letting them Get thesetools and tricks that you have
and you're not just holding themback.
You're saying we're the same.
You have so much in you.
I struggle to I identify withyou, no matter if it's a
three-year-old, five-year-old,seven-year-old, 20-year-old,
whatever it may be, because we,we need to train them in the way
they go.
We need to instill in themthings that we have and also

(45:18):
things we don't have, and showour weaknesses, because our
weaknesses you know what was itI'm drawing a blank who had the,
the thorn in his flesh.
Jacob, jacob, there you go.
He had a thorn in his flesh.
I always had something, whateverthat may be, and it's like,
wait a minute, we're all gonnahave that one thing, but that is

(45:41):
what's remained keeps us humble.
We can't just hide it, butthat's what's gonna keep us
thinking we're better thaneveryone else because you may be
better in seven areas out often out of Everyone else, but if
you got those three, you justas bad, because they may have
that big three.
You know, and we.
It keeps us humble, but Ireally want to know, on your
side, what is it that you wouldlike to instill?

(46:03):
Like, what type of legacy Wouldyou like to leave to your kids?
Like, what would be that goaloutcome?
Would they that you would wantthem to say about you when, when
, when you know you're no longerthere, or when you're old, or
whatever it is like?

What would that be?
That's a good one, man, um,sorry, I didn't give you this on
Good freestyle and no man, yougot to know the answer to these
big questions.
You know, give you, give yousome direction.
You know, I mean, I live mylife in such a way where, like
I'm, I'm a protector.
You know, I protect, you know,the women of my life, my wife,

(46:45):
my, my mother I'm a bigprotector my children.
You know, I think that's one ofUm man's and husband's biggest
roles protect, provide, cover.
You know, I don't know man, Ijust want my, my son to be able
to say man, my dad was a toughdude, but man he was, he was

(47:06):
soft when he needed to be, youknow he was, um, he loved God.
You know that.
What else can you ask for, man?
Like yeah, like he loved God.
You know he, he didn't doeverything perfect, but man, he
um he always circled it back tothe right thing.
You know, and I think, talkingabout some of these things with
with kids and stuff, man likebeing quick to apologize and and

(47:28):
teaching them to forgive, youknow, not be sticky.
Don't let stuff stick to you,man, let it, let it go.
You know it's funny.
Um, we have a goddaughter, um,who's basically like my daughter
because her Father's not in herlife.
It's my wife's a close friendof hers, named Ashley, and then
she's got a daughter namedNatalina.
We just call her Alina, but, um, she's older than my son.

(47:49):
She's about two and a half and Ihaven't we haven't started
disciplining like my son yet,because he's so young, right,
but I'm getting a little bit ofpractice with with Natalina,
because there's certain thingsshe understands and she decides
to Disobey certain things youknow, and so I'm, I'm I'm
getting a little practice withher and learning when is the

(48:10):
Proper time to discipline, andshe's very sensitive.
So sometimes you know if, if,like you said, you raise your
voice or something, she fallsapart and you're like, oh, man
that hurts dude, and you got tobe quick to apologize, you know,
and they got to see that spiritand you can't be too hard.

Yep, you know, as a man it's important to have
both and, and you know, we, weare supposed to rejoice in our
trials because they produceendurance and produces strength
of character.
Strength character produces ourhope in Jesus.
You know, so what I like tolike?
Just recently actuallyyesterday I caught my daughter
in a lie you know, and.

(48:47):
And also she was stealing youknow, this isn't like like she's
the.

She's the perfect girl.

You know, like this wasn't supposed to happen
type of thing.
You know her mother's gonnakill me.
I'm like put this on thepodcast.
But like I told her because itwas like it was a couple days
coming.
You know, like first there wasa little lie that I didn't know.
I talked to her mom.
She's like, oh, it's probablynothing.
You know, I trust my daughter,type of thing, and then I just
Figured out what it was.
As I word this come from.

(49:15):
She lies and I'm like, okay, donot lie to me and Everything
will be so much better.
Mmm, that's right, you knowwhen she goes.
Yes, I did steal it.
I'm like, okay, and then all ofa sudden, instantly, she
fabricates another story.
Well, I told him and he saidthat I could have it also like
so if I wouldn't ask them rightnow and give them a call, would
he say that?

(49:35):
She's like oh crap, no, you know, I'm like yeah now you're lying
to me again, you know, and itwas the first time that I'm
really having to do this.
You know Cuz every time wasjust like a little bit of lie,
but it's like no, I didn't grab,I didn't eat the candy.
Yeah, it's like you clearly atethe candy, like some of it.
Yeah, like just little things,but, like, this was the biggest

(49:56):
first thing you know, and and Ihad to Gather myself at first,
you know I was doing real good.
Then I brought her up to a room.
You stay here for a little bit,like I had to.
I had to go and pray about it.
I went online.
I'm like, oh, how do I do this?
Like, what's the proper thingsto say to a seven-year-old at
this moment?
You know, and like, and I got alot of wisdom.

(50:16):
But then it gave me theopportunity To help her grow and
that's.
And so often I think parentsget it wrong, humans get it
wrong, that when there isn't afence taken, when there is
something wrong that's happened,our instant is to get angry and
our instance is just to be likeyou're wrong and I'm gonna show
you how wrong you are.
And I, I didn't take thatapproach.

(50:39):
It was out of love and Istarted explaining to her.
I do understand that it's trustthat is being broken.

We trust you so much.

That lying and stealing breaks that trust.
And that's when her tears wentfrom like a little bit.

I'm not mad at you, I'm disappointed.

That hurts, bro , exactly, but like and then
it's, but it's not just thatit's explaining it to her,
because then she said I was like, and I was like, so explain it
to you in my own words.
And she said stuff, like youknow, because I could go to jail
, I'm like one longer terms, yes, that's why we're here to help
you.
I also.
She also said because I couldgo to hell, I'm like, I'm like,
I mean, I go.

(51:22):
No that's not how it works.
It's not so I got a chance toexplain to her that doing wrong
things Isn't a ticket to hellyou know and doing right things,
so it gave me an opportunityfor her to understand that a
little bit more.
You know it's, and so I reallyput it through there and Allowed
her to really process it.
Then I said, hey, go write aletter.

(51:43):
You know, I think I said thatbefore the big old talk too.
I was like, write a letter tohim.
I'm not gonna help you, likeshe can't really write too well,
so like it's you could tell, aseven-year-old wrote this thing,
like how was written?
I was like you have to write aletter explaining to it and all
that like to him, how you'resorry and what you learned, the,
the lessons you learned, allthat something.
She started getting to it allthat stuff and and I didn't

(52:07):
Really discipline her that muchOkay, no screen time today type
of thing is the first defense,because the what a she's out up
doing a birthday party right now, but also, I know, on Monday
when she has to go back and Tellthis man, it's not a kid.
Oh yeah, it's, it's herafter-school teacher.

Yeah, you know that makes it better, because
he'll kind of under.
Oh, of course, you know, andit's the most littlest thing in
the world.

You know, I, it's the principal, it's the
principal of it and I'm like,and I had to tell her mother,
mike, we shouldn't just do itmore.
I don't want to take somethingaway, then let her go on this
birthday party, then take itaway, because then it's like a
Double whammy, because I waslike the double whammy is gonna
come when she has to go there.
Give them this later music, face, the music you know.
But I showed her and it gave mealso an opportunity to tell her

(52:52):
I'm like, I'm in your corner.
You need me for the worst partsof your life.
Don't just come to me with thegood stuff, that's right.
You need to especially come tome with the bad stuff.
And I still love you, and I,because I still love you.
It went because if you don'tcome to me when you're in
trouble, when you were had goingthrough the consequences of bad
decisions, when you're in themiddle of that bad decision,

(53:14):
whatever it may be, if you don'tcome to me, I can't help you.
And that is the same thing withGod.
If we keep thinking that wehave this sin and this sin and
we got a button it up before weget to God, he can't help you,
then, yep, we need to go to himwith all of our pain, all of our
afflictions, all of everything.

(53:35):
Like you said, you brought yourPortnography to him.
I brought my weed smoke intohim, my, my procrastination to
him, everything I bring it tohim because I don't.
I've already proven to myself Idon't have the power.

You know we're so funny man.
You know you got to bevulnerable before God, but it's
like he knows anyways.
He knows you yeah, do you thinkyou're hiding it from him?
Like it's really just an egothing?
Like admitted he already knows.
But you got to get soft.
You got to be vulnerable beforeyour God so he can help you.
You got to open that door, thatgate, so he can help you.

(54:09):
Man, you just got to admit itand you got to repent.
You got to turn around, go theother direction and you know, as
far as the self-control thinganother good thing, like Like
I'm strong now been going for along time without watching
pornography, but guess what, Istill have software on my phone.
I still have software on mycomputer that prevents me, bro,
because I'm still human.

(54:30):
I still have temptationsometime.
You can't say, oh man, I'mbeyond that now, bro.
No, you're not.
Life will happen.
Life will smack you in the faceand you'll be weak, and all it
takes is one moment.
And now you're stealing fromyour wife.
You need to bring your sexualenergy for her.

And now you can't because something else is
taking it, because youmasturbated and you went out and
now all of a sudden she comeshome already and you're like, oh
, and now?
And don't think she don't know,because there's no heart,
because now you're going 40minutes and you're sitting there
like, oh, come on Trying toforce it right?

Yeah, no, exactly , man, exactly.
And you know, sin is like afishin', like a hook bro with
bait on it.
You think that bait is good,you eat it.
It snags you and it keeps youlonger than how long you wanted
to be there, and it takes fromyou more than you thought it
would ever take.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, you know.

Mm-hmm, and that's just the thing is, there
is that lingering effect.
You know, like you know that,no matter what, even if you've
experienced that freedom, youneed to keep bringing God's
power into it, because a lot oftimes we experience freedom from
just methods of this world.
I'm not gonna do this, I'm notgonna do that, whatever.
But right there in Matthew Ithink it's chapter, I'm guessing

(55:40):
right now chapter 11, all right, I'm pretty sure.
But it says if you go and youclean your house, and you drive
that demon out, seven's gonnacome back.
Seven's gonna come back findingit perfectly clean in order and
wreak havoc on you Like seven'sthat completion number that much
worse.
That's why, when you cleansomething out, you need to fill

(56:01):
it back in with Christ, amen.

You have to fill it back in with Christ.

If not, it's just gonna come back that much
harder.
Why?
Because the devil goes afterthose that are causing a lot of
destruction.

On his side, he's gonna go after you.

So you need to keep those barriers in there.
You need to have thoseboundaries.
You know it's the same thing aslike hey, I wanna be free.
Great, you found your freedom,but what started as driving?
If you don't keep those linesin the road, you can be driving
all free and all that stuff.
If there ain't lines in theroad, guess what?
Lil Johnny's coming around thecorner at 90.
And you should be going 30.

(56:36):
And you got your kids in thecar and he's gonna be just
drifting around it because thereain't no lines.
Those boundaries, those steps,that proactiveness,
understanding where you're weakis so important and a lot of
people don't wanna do that.
That's why we go to community.
We have brothers and sisters.

(56:56):
So we have to hold usaccountable.
That care about us, that can bethe voice of God when you're
not hearing it because you'reout sinning.

They can come and speak to you and breathe life
into you and I wanna touch onsomething, man, so glad you're
talking about this, because I'vebeen a part of a lot of
churches, I've moved around alot in my life and stuff like
that.
But, man, the church I'm a partof now, I love it and we've got
such a tight community and forme it has been one of the best
things.
Because I hear a lot people say, oh, you don't have to be a

(57:26):
Christian and go to church and Imean, yeah, I guess not, but I
could be a pro fighter and nottrain.

I wouldn't probably be very good you can be
married and not go home veryoften.
Very great example, greatexample.

But you wanna be effective in the kingdom.
You wanna be constantly growing.
You want to do this thingtogether or you wanna do it by
yourself.
That's not, bro.
God died for his people.

He modeled it perfectly.
He had his three, he had his 12, he had his 70 disciples
Exactly.
He needed those people to buildhim up.

Do not forsake the gathering of the brethren
man, and it's so important whenyou're weak to have those people
to lean on when you needtrouble Advice man I used to be.
I had a lot of acquaintances butit was really hard for me to
let people in.
But I've you know, for a man tohave friends he must himself be
friendly.
That's another verse.
And once I started learning tolet people in and really utilize

(58:19):
people, godly counsel, godlyadvice, godly friends, you know,
like you show me your friends,I'll show you your future.
You know, if you don't havegood God-loving friends, get
some, because that's where yourincome is.
Even studies are shown is gonnabe the average of your friends
within 10 to 15%.
You know your friends really,really matter, and I'm not

(58:41):
saying you can't hang out withpeople that aren't believers,
because we have to minister too,but the bulk of your friends,
your main people, they need tobe believers in good ones.

You know I actually was talking to a pastor
about that, you know, becauseyou're the sum of the five
closest people that you hang outwith and you need to have those
people breathing life into youthat you can go and boast about
your weakness, because God'spower is made perfect in our
weakness.
You know we need to have thatcommunity.
But he shook my world.
This was a couple years ago.
He was like I'm a pastor, Ishould be around all the bad

(59:14):
people.
That's where my ministry is.
He goes yes, I have all mypeople that you know, that
breathe in life.
You know, if I'm going out intoa place where it's gonna be
filled with temptation, I'mtrying to reach those people.
I have somebody with me, youknow.
That's why he sent them out inpairs Because the devil's
roaming around looking forsomeone to devour one person,

(59:37):
not looking for people to devour.

A three-corded, three-stranded court is not
easily broken, right, God, youand somebody else.

Exactly because we're two or more gathered.
Surely God is there.
And it's just so important tohave that community and find
that and don't be going intochurch going like I'm gonna
quickly find it, just like this,you know, because the church is
a hospital.
We got sick people in there andthat's where the most dangerous
people are.
That's right, because lukewarmis what gets spit out.
It's the people that say I'mChristian, but then turn on.

(01:00:09):
You know whop?
You know what was that?
Wet ass.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, you knowyou know, like those types of
those types of you know types ofthings you know, like that, are
going out there and doing thedrug, doing all this stuff.
You know you can, you could havesorrow in your heart and be
struggling with these things,and then I come around you.

(01:00:31):
I'm like, hey, man, you know, Iunderstand you're going through
this, but let's talk aboutChrist nearing it.
But if there's no focus onChrist nearing that time, it's
like those are the wrong peopleto be around, you know, because
they're only checking the boxand they're gonna be the ones
that are like, hey, you don'thave to.
You're crazy, man, stop beingso on fire.
It's only by faith alone.
Man, you're so legalistic it'slike I don't know about you, but

(01:00:55):
if you love me, you're gonnaobey my commands.
Jesus said.

Jason Eastman (01:00:58):
It's automatic.
Yeah, it doesn't give you apassword, it's automatic, like
you know you can identify thattree by its fruit.

Aaron O'Connell (01:01:05):
You know you can prove your faith by your
works.
You know like my works showcasemy faith.
You know faith without works isdead is what our Bible says.
So we need those people thatare actually walking in as well.
It may be the gimpiest gimp ofthe world walk but that's okay,

(01:01:28):
you might have still someleadership inside of yourself.
You know some compassion, someyou know you may be able to get
rid of some pride because you'rethinking yourself is so great,
you know, because you're readingthe Bible, you're praying and
this person's not, and all thisstuff.
Yet they're trying, they'retrying, they're doing their
thing.
Who are you to be the judge,you know?

(01:01:48):
But you are there to be able togive them the law and say, well
, this is what it says.
And if they're not repenting ofit, if they're not having that
sorrow, if they're justconstantly doing it, but yeah,
and they make a justificationfor it, that's when you're like,
wait a minute, this because we,the Bible is pretty clear the
devil comes disguised as anangel of light.
Oh yeah, I have that right here.

It says angel on my arm right there, the devil on
the other side.

Because so often people are thinking
they're doing so good.
Well, I'm doing, you know, butthere's the devil, right there,
the devil.

The devil's not gonna show up with horns and
he's red.

He shows up in sheep's clothing, bro,
bifurcated tail, nah man.
He comes well dressed, wellsmelling rich.

He's gonna look like a good looking woman
Smelling good.
You know he's trying to tearyour world apart.

Exactly.
That's why it's so important tobe firmly in groups, you know,
because we go to God's peoplefor healing.
We go to him for forgiveness,amen.

I love that.

Yes, yes, yes, and that's where we get to see
it.
And you can be forgiven and nothealed, oh yes.

You know, because you can, God will forgive you,
but you might not forgiveyourself.

You already forgave all of our sins.
You already died, that's right.
But you need your brothers.
You know your sisters.

If you're a woman , you need to lean on each other
to get that healing.
God already forgave you.
Get your healing.
Go to your brothers, you know?
No, I love that.

So leave our listeners, we wrap things up and
we could definitely talk for awhile.

Oh yeah, man, I can see that.

But I just wanna be mindful of our
listeners and all that stuff iswhat are some bits of wisdom,
advice, whatever it may be thatyou would like to leave the
listeners.

Man, I've always lived my life.
You know the heart is deceitful, so you don't wanna get it
mixed up and think, oh, followmy heart.
But, you know, as long as youwanna just make sure you're in
God's will for your life, youknow you don't wanna be pulled
apart to the left, to the right,because you're living in such a
way that your spirit doesn'tagree with.
You know some of the people.

(01:03:45):
They have the job that theyshouldn't have because they
didn't pray about it and they'restill in that job.
God's got something better foryou.
You know, keep God.
I mean you gotta pray abouteverything.
You gotta keep God.
You know the centerpiece forall your decision-making and all
that.
But you know, don't be dividedamongst your spirit and your
flesh.
Walk the way.
You know you're supposed towalk and work hard man.

(01:04:08):
I'm a hard worker dude and theBible talks so much about hard
work.

You know a little folding of the hands you
know, and poverty's ready to bepounced on Like a thief.
Yeah, man, right outside yourdoor, you know I think God
really blesses hard work.

Man, I think you should do your best.
Don't be afraid of really hardwork and don't divide yourself.
You know, I've always let myspirit I'm not gonna call it my
heart because it's my spiritCause I mean I'm a fighter
because I do love a lot aboutfighting, but there's some
things in fighting that I don'tlove and I could be making a lot
more money doing something else.

(01:04:42):
Be using my brain doingsomething.
You know I could be livingsomewhere where it's not you
know $2 million to own a housewhen I'm from.
You own a nice house for aquarter of that.

You know or less?

You could, I mean , have acres of land, I could be
taking care of my family better, I could be doing so many
things differently and betterand more easy.
Right, but that's not the pathGod has me on.
So you gotta do what not isnecessarily comfortable, but you
gotta do what God has for youto do, cause there's a job.
One of my favorite verses I'mso glad I just thought about it.
God made you for a purpose, butit says he created the purpose

(01:05:17):
first.
So he didn't make Jason andthink, all right, what am I
gonna have this guy do?
He created something to be donefirst and then he made me just
to be able to do that purpose.
Oh, man.

Isn't that amazing?

So don't, let, don't, cause his will will be
carried out anyway.
Don't let him hire somebodyelse for your job.
You know, follow your spirit.
Make sure you're prayed up,make sure you're in the Word.
You know you're letting Godguide you.
Do what your spirit, you knowyou're supposed to do.
Don't let fear get in the way.
Live God.
You know, live your lifeaccording to God's will.
And you know, fulfill yourpurpose.

(01:05:52):
Cause only you can fulfill yourpurpose.
Don't let him hire nobody else.
You know.

I love that and today's episode we went through
the power of faith and justfacing challenges, the internal
battles we all fight, and alsojust the importance of being a
present parent, you know, andreally instilling those things.
So I just love all the topicsthat we're talking about.
I'm praying that it justtouches at least one life for

(01:06:17):
sure.
You know, I know that willhappen, you know, but where can
people find you?
I know, like share yourInstagram so people can follow
you, man.

Yeah, man, my Instagram is godschamp125.
So God's Champion, but withoutthe.
You know I-O-N Godschamp125,that's my Instagram.
I post, you know, most of myfight news there.
You know, verses with fightpictures.
It's really just a for my fightbusiness, my career.
I don't put too much personalstuff there, but all my, you

(01:06:47):
know a lot of biblical stuff, alot of fight stuff.
You can find most of my stuffthere.

Excellent, excellent, well, thank you so
much for jumping on this podcastwith me.
Thank you, grayson, for makingthis connection happen and just
speaking so highly of Jason, andjust he's like you gotta get
him on the podcast.
He was the first person.
I was like nice that justmentioned you, and I can see why
now, because your fruit isevident, man, you can tell
you're in the word, you can tellthat you're walking the walk,

(01:07:14):
not just talking.
The talk, which is so rare inthese days, and I just love what
you said is just like don't bescared of that hard work.
We are created to work.
We were to be to subdue theland.
We were created to be leadersof this place you know.
So that's what we must do, andI'll be honest, I'm just now
realizing that I had so muchturmoil in my spirit.

(01:07:36):
I didn't pull the trigger forso long because I was literally
lost in that.
Oh, who can do least, the leastamount to get the most?
Right, right, right you know,success you know, but no real
success is peace of mind andheart, that inner peace, and I
didn't have it, and that you areexactly right.
Yes, it looked like I workedhard in the gym and all that
stuff, but my home in Taliyah'show can I do less and get more

(01:07:58):
results, you know, which is okay, because God will use all the
way that you defied him to goreach out to other people that
are defying him in that exactway.

One of my favorite things that my pastor
says.
He said God works in spite ofus, not because of us.
So, even if you mess it up, bro, we don't have to get it
perfect, but he's gonna work inspite of us.
Not because of us.

You know Amen, so we just know we gotta work
hard and stay focused on Christ.
Amen, awesome.
Well, thank you so much, jason,for joining me.
Thank you very much, and this isanother episode of the Y2
Fitness Podcast.
If you're not subscribed, thenhit that subscribe button on
wherever you get your podcasts.
Also, you can find us onYouTube YouTube slash Y2 Fitness

(01:08:38):
, if you wanna actually watchthe videos of all the different
podcasts that are there.
Thank you so much.
My name's Aaron O'Connell.
This is Jason Eastman.
Y'all have a great rest of yourday.
God bless you.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Breakfast Club

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Faith, Fatherhood and Fighting with MMA Professional Jason Eastman

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Breakfast Club

All Episodes

Faith, Fatherhood and Fighting with MMA Professional Jason Eastman

Stuff You Should Know