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00:00:03
– Hey, I'm Brian Tome,
senior pastor at Crossroads.
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00:00:05
Welcome, glad
you're with us today.
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00:00:07
Today, we're going to
have Brian Head Welch
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00:00:09
from the band Korn talk
about meth, metal and Jesus.
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00:00:13
You might go, "Korn?
Heavy metal? Meth?
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00:00:16
What is that all about?"
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00:00:17
This is part of what
I love about Brian.
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00:00:19
He's been a friend
of mine for years.
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00:00:21
And part of what
I love about today.
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00:00:22
We want to strip
away the religiosity.
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00:00:24
We want to stop just
saying the nice things
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00:00:26
that people in church
are supposed to say.
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00:00:28
We want to talk about
things that are real,
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00:00:30
things are in our lives in a way
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00:00:31
that normal people
do on their back deck.
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00:00:34
That's what we're
going to do today
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00:00:35
to try to get you
and I to a new place.
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00:00:37
Brian's a great friend.
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00:00:38
He's got some good stuff for us.
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00:00:39
Let's get started.
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00:00:42
– You're on.
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00:00:44
– Special guest to
the stage, please.
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00:00:45
Special guest to the stage.
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00:01:02
– Is this thing on?
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00:01:11
– I had friends who invited me
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to have dinner with
you a few years ago,
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00:01:15
and it was great.
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We've downed a lot
of calories together,
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00:01:20
a lot of calories.
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00:01:22
And they said, "Well, he
has this documentary out."
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00:01:25
And I'm kind of a
documentary buff.
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00:01:28
– Me, too.
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00:01:29
– But I wasn't all
that excited about it,
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00:01:32
because I knew ahead
of time it was going to talk
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00:01:37
about your coming to Christ.
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00:01:39
And Christian documentaries,
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00:01:42
"Christian documentaries"
tend to not inspire me.
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00:01:46
What I saw was not a
Christian documentary.
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00:01:49
It was a documentary
where Christ
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00:01:51
was through the whole
thing and I was blown away.
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00:01:54
I mean, I'm talking
very, very deeply moved.
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00:01:59
And it just made me look forward
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00:02:01
to having that first
dinner with you.
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00:02:03
And I'm just excited for
people here Crossroads
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00:02:06
to get to know you,
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00:02:07
hopefully get engaged
with your movie.
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00:02:09
Just give us a little
snippet of your life.
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00:02:11
Not that we want to
let the cat out of the bag
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00:02:13
about your documentary,
but just tell us,
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00:02:16
who is Brian Head Welch?
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00:02:17
You've got a big head, Keith.
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– That's exactly --
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– What is that head thing about.
What are you Head Welch for?
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00:02:23
– That's why, because my
head grew before my body
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when I was 14 and everybody
else was taller than me,
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00:02:29
but my head was
bigger than theirs,
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puberty, that puberty thing.
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So they started calling
me Head because
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I was disproportionate
and everything.
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And so it was a -- it
was a troubling nickname
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when I was a kid, but
when I was in the band,
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00:02:43
we wanted nicknames
in our early 20s.
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00:02:44
We're still kids.
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00:02:45
"Didn't they used
to call you Head?"
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00:02:47
I was like, "Yeah,
let's go with that."
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00:02:48
You know, I wasn't
very creative,
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00:02:50
so I just went backwards.
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00:02:51
But, you know,
I just -- I just --
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My life, I wanted to be,
we talked about earlier,
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00:02:59
AC/DC, I got the
album Back in Black
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00:03:02
and I put it on and I heard,
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00:03:04
"Back in black, I hit the sack."
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00:03:07
And I was like, I
heard the guitar
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00:03:09
and I just want to do that.
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This is what I want to do.
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00:03:13
10 years old, I knew
what I wanted to do.
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And so I went for
it and I achieved it.
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00:03:19
And we'll get into the story,
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00:03:21
but I suffered self-hatred
and depression
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since I was a kid,
and I think the music
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was like what I hung
on to to make me
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00:03:30
feel better about myself
because I got good at it.
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00:03:35
And so it just made
me feel like I was better
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than the person I looked
and I saw in the mirror.
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Know that I -- and
so I hung on to that.
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And then when I got
in front of, you know,
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sold millions of
records, got in front of
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all these thousands of
people, I was insecure.
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00:03:55
And so I always wanted
to be masking a love,
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00:03:59
you know, kind of
like overshadowed
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00:04:03
the self-hatred and the
addictions and everything
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and started making me process.
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Not that I got clean
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and got my life
figured out right away,
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but it started, the seed
was planted in like,
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00:04:15
"Oh, you can't be
like this forever.
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Now you have someone
that needs to look up to you
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and you need to be there for."
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So it started, you
know, took a few years,
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but that seed was planted.
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– I wonder what the
rejection you've said
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00:04:27
that you felt, the
self-hatred, the bullying,
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right around that time when
Jennea, your wife left you,
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did that feel you
like another way
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00:04:39
that women didn't like
you, or is that another
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00:04:41
sense of form of rejection
that hit you deeply?
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00:04:43
What did that do for
your spiritual journey?
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– That -- hat parts?
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– When your marriage dissolved?
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– Oh, wow.
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So my first girlfriend,
the first real girlfriend,
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two years know we
were together, we had
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a great, great
relationship early on,
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00:05:01
then that self-hatred
and alcoholism
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00:05:04
kind of kicked in
around that time, too.
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00:05:06
It made me, once I
knew that she was--
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00:05:08
I believed that she loved me,
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00:05:10
then I got comfortable.
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And the anger that I
had towards myself,
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I put it onto her and I
started treating her bad.
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00:05:19
Anyway, long story short,
I got my heart broken.
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Man, I'm a feeler. I feel deep.
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00:05:24
And even though I
messed up and I couldn't,
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like, keep the
relationships going,
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00:05:29
I couldn't treat
people, especially girls,
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like I wanted to, I felt it
big time and got suicidal.
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And so I stayed
single for a while,
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then and I met my wife,
who would be my wife.
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And we were off
and on for a while.
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But yeah, when she got pregnant
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and we wanted to make
this family work, you know,
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and be this married
couple that could just
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have at least semi happy.
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But when she left
me, the divorce,
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that was another just blow.
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00:06:01
It seemed like I
was always the one
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just to stay in
the relationship,
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00:06:06
even if it was misery.
I don't know why.
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00:06:09
But it was only two
real relationships,
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but both of them left me.
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00:06:15
And so when my ex-wife
left me, she, you know,
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she was broken, she
was a hurting soul.
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She ran away at 14
because of just family issues.
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So, yeah, that was devastating,
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00:06:29
but mainly because she
left her daughter. You know?
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00:06:34
She did want to take
her daughter with her,
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but she was with some
gang bangers, you know?
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00:06:40
And I have high powered lawyers.
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I can't -- I wanted
her in her mom's life,
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but I couldn't let her,
"Oh, take your daughter."
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I cannot let these felons
around my daughter.
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There's going to be
some kind of abuse
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00:06:55
whether it's physical,
sexual, or something.
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So I had to protect
her. You know?
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And so I just did what --
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I manned up and
did what I could do.
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And I tried to
keep her in her life,
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you know, supervised,
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00:07:08
but she went off the
deep end, unfortunately.
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– I think that's what I
love about your story,
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00:07:16
your documentary, it's
very real, it's very raw.
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00:07:23
You're very respectful
to your ex-wife
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00:07:25
in the documentary,
but the language that
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00:07:29
you allow your bandmates to use
in talking about Christians,
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which is very negative
in the beginning
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part of the documentary,
the level of brokenness
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and despair you allow
people to see in your life
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00:07:42
is quite frankly, exhilarating
for me, exhilarating.
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00:07:48
It seems like the longer
I'm a follower of Christ,
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the more I'm supposed to
have everything together.
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00:07:57
And there is a level of
you do spiritually mature
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and you do figure out life
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00:08:01
and you get closer with God
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00:08:03
and you don't step
in the same potholes
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as you did when
you were 16 or 26.
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But you just ripped
the mask off of that.
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You're just like,
"Here's my life,
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here's what God's done for me."
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And you're talking
about your wife
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and your daughter
just reminds you of that.
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So I just say, kudos, man.
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I just hope that that
spirit, that ethic, if you will,
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infiltrates our entire church
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and our entire country
because it's needed desperately.
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– I hope that you
guys talk about
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these hard issues
at your church,
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whether it's smaller groups.
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And I know you do,
you have counseling.
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You have -- we
have to deal with it.
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And that's what I wanted
to do in this documentary,
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because you know how many
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broken Korn fans are out there?
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00:08:44
I mean, so many
people came to Korn
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00:08:48
because our singer
sing about pain.
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00:08:50
We sang about child abuse.
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00:08:52
We sing about, you
know, just parental issues,
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bullying, all this stuff,
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when we first
started especially.
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And these kids,
man, back in the day,
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they would run to
us and just tell us like
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we make them
want to keep living.
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00:09:06
We just did 700 meet and
greets on Zoom during COVID.
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00:09:11
And every single -- we
did it for over a month,
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like 20 people a night
for three nights a week.
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Every single night
there was adults saying,
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"Like, I wouldn't
have this family,
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these kids run around behind me
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00:09:22
if it wasn't for you guys.
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00:09:23
I had a gun to my
head and just thank you.
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00:09:26
I just wanted to tell
you thank you for
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I have my family because
your music helped me."
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00:09:32
And so it's just --
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– "Your music helped me"?
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00:09:35
Korn isn't known is
uplifting and inspiring,
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00:09:37
encouraging Christian
music. Or is it?
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00:09:41
– If you read the
Psalms where David's
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00:09:43
getting chased by, you
know, and what is he saying?
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00:09:46
He's saying, my eyes
are, you would know,
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00:09:49
you're a pastor, but his
eyes are swollen from tears
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00:09:52
and all the stuff. I'm
in despair, everything.
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00:09:55
– Laments, it's the laments.
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– Right. He's lamenting.
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00:09:59
Korn has done that in music.
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00:10:01
And yeah, there's some
FU's and, you know,
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00:10:03
and, you know, you
treated me this way.
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00:10:06
But it's a step into
healing for these people.
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00:10:10
Maybe it's not a complete
healing and forgiveness
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00:10:12
and into God's,
you know, all that.
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00:10:15
But God has used it massively
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00:10:18
as a step to keep people living.
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00:10:22
– What was the tipping
point for you spiritually
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00:10:25
when you when you
came to Christ, whatever,
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00:10:27
I don't even know what
nomenclature you prefer?
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00:10:30
When you came to
Christ, you got converted,
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00:10:32
you got saved, you
felt the love of God.
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00:10:35
Was there a unique
tipping point moment
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00:10:37
or did you just gradually
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00:10:38
grow into relationship
with Christ?
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00:10:41
– It was a handful of things.
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00:10:43
It was, okay, I was desperate
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00:10:45
for freedom from
addiction because
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00:10:47
I ended up going overseas.
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00:10:50
I was such an addict that I took
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00:10:52
eight balls of meth with me.
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00:10:53
I ran out of drugs in
Europe and I had my dealer
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00:10:59
send me three more
eight balls of meth
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00:11:01
inside of these
candles that he made.
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00:11:03
And I've watched
them be FedExed.
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00:11:05
And it was when FedEx tracking
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00:11:07
early 2000's was
starting to take off.
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00:11:09
And I watched
them get sent to me.
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00:11:11
I thought I was -- I
was paranoid that
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00:11:13
I was going to get caught
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00:11:15
and they're going to
find them in the scanners,
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00:11:17
you know, because I'm
watching a show on Netflix
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00:11:19
about border
security and I'm like,
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00:11:21
"Wow, that's how they do it.
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00:11:23
They could have
easily found my drugs."
-
00:11:24
So that's when I
got to the bottom
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00:11:28
and I needed to get
-- I needed to get free.
-
00:11:31
And so once I went to rehabs
-
00:11:35
and AA and NA, all that stuff,
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00:11:37
I got some some hope and
wisdom from those places,
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00:11:40
but I couldn't stop.
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00:11:42
So what I needed from
Christ was -- or church people.
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00:11:46
I don't even think
Christ, like I couldn't.
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00:11:48
If God is real, you
can't know until you die.
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00:11:51
So but I go around
these church people
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00:11:53
because I want them
to help me get sober.
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00:11:54
And then they
introduced me to Christ,
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00:11:57
that He's living and
He'll come and live
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00:11:59
inside of you and
He'll reveal that to you.
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00:12:02
And if you stay seeking
Him, three things:
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00:12:06
going to church, fellowshipping
with other Christians
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00:12:09
and learning from them
and reading your Bible.
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00:12:12
That's what the
pastor told me to do,
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00:12:14
if I kept doing that,
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00:12:15
Christ would be revealed to me.
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00:12:17
And Jesus said,
"If you love me."
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00:12:20
– Go to church, interact
with other believers,
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00:12:22
read your Bible? And
you did those three things?
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00:12:24
– I did those three things.
-
00:12:25
I was like, OK, if you crazy
Ned Flanders Christians
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00:12:30
are lying to me, I'm going
to find out in a month.
-
00:12:34
But if not, I've
actually found out
-
00:12:38
the meaning of life
through it, because
-
00:12:40
Christ revealed Himself to me.
-
00:12:41
Jesus said, "If you love me,
-
00:12:42
that He would
manifest himself to you."
-
00:12:44
In John 14 He said He
would manifest himself.
-
00:12:46
He manifest Himself
to me. And once --
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00:12:49
So, OK, that's --I needed
freedom from addiction
-
00:12:53
from Him, but what
I didn't know was
-
00:12:55
that the whole reason
for living is knowing Him.
-
00:12:58
And so once my addiction
was done, I was like,
-
00:13:01
"Oh my gosh, I
didn't know this dream
-
00:13:05
could come into my life,
-
00:13:07
that I didn't even
have a desire to.
-
00:13:09
I didn't know I could
know Jesus like this."
-
00:13:11
All the love that
crushed my heart,
-
00:13:13
the relationships
that didn't work,
-
00:13:15
Jesus would never do that to me.
-
00:13:17
He would never leave me.
-
00:13:18
He would never crush
my heart like that,
-
00:13:20
even if I treated Him bad,
-
00:13:23
like I did the
girls in the past,
-
00:13:24
my ex-wife when she
left me and that other girl.
-
00:13:27
If I did worse to Jesus,
He would never leave.
-
00:13:30
He would never
abandon my heart like that.
-
00:13:33
I was like, so addicted
to staying with Him
-
00:13:37
and working through
this process with Him.
-
00:13:40
It's like -- and
people were like,
-
00:13:41
"Man, this is just a phase.
-
00:13:42
You're coming off
of meth. You know?
-
00:13:44
You're trading one
addiction for another.
-
00:13:47
You know, it's
not going to stay."
-
00:13:48
And I'm like, "You
don't understand,
-
00:13:50
I found the meaning of life."
-
00:13:52
So I started getting Jesus
tattooed and scriptures.
-
00:13:54
I was like, I'll show
them, you know?
-
00:13:56
Matthew 11:28,
that's the scripture that
-
00:13:58
this guy sent it to
me I went off meth,
-
00:14:00
right before I went
to church he was like,
-
00:14:02
"I felt like Jesus gave
me this scripture for you.
-
00:14:05
I've never done this before,
but I'm giving it to you.
-
00:14:07
Don't think I'm weird, please.
-
00:14:09
It says Matthew
11:28, 'Come to me, '
-
00:14:12
Jesus says, "All who
are weary and burdened
-
00:14:14
and I will give you rest.'"
-
00:14:15
And I just was like
that's the scripture
-
00:14:19
that got me and started
opening up the life, you know?
-
00:14:25
– That's amazing.
-
00:14:27
What I love, there's
so many things I love
-
00:14:31
about you and love
about your story.
-
00:14:33
One of the things is just how
-
00:14:37
you still are finding a way
-
00:14:41
to represent Jesus
inside of your occupation.
-
00:14:46
You know, if you
can figure out a way
-
00:14:48
to represent Jews
inside of a metal band
-
00:14:51
and actually change
the band, in many ways.
-
00:14:53
You guys pray for people
at your concerts even, right?
-
00:14:57
– I do. – You do?
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00:14:58
– Yeah.
– And that's why some people
-
00:15:00
were getting on those Zoom calls
-
00:15:01
and talking about
those things with you.
-
00:15:04
I think all of us
could figure out
-
00:15:06
how to represent Christ
and whatever job we are,
-
00:15:08
and the world would
probably be a lot more different
-
00:15:10
and our lives
would be different.
-
00:15:12
And I want to ask you to
make a little shift right now.
-
00:15:14
Are you up for a challenge,
Brian Head Welch?
-
00:15:16
– Always up for a challenge.
– Are you up for a challenge?
-
00:15:19
– Yes. – All right.
-
00:15:20
First of all, you said
you're very emotional.
-
00:15:22
Is that -- I never asked
you about your tattoos
-
00:15:24
with the teardrops and
stuff on the side of your eyes.
-
00:15:26
Is that coming out of --
-
00:15:28
– I got those laser
tattoo removal.
-
00:15:30
Look, they're almost gone
-
00:15:32
because people thought
I killed two people.
-
00:15:35
You know, teardrops mean murder.
-
00:15:36
I'm just joking. They
were -- They were too --
-
00:15:38
I didn't like them on
the side or whatever.
-
00:15:40
– Well, I like them.
-
00:15:41
– Thank you. Well, I'm
not putting them back.
-
00:15:43
– It fits your
ethic. That's good.
-
00:15:44
– Thanks.
– But let's play preaching time.
-
00:15:48
I'm going to give you like
-
00:15:50
three one-minute
sermon opportunities.
-
00:15:53
Can you do it? Are you
up for that opportunity?
-
00:15:55
– Of course.
-
00:15:56
– OK, so let's say you're
preaching right now.
-
00:15:59
You got one minute
to talk to everybody
-
00:16:02
who's dealing with addiction.
-
00:16:05
Preach to them right
now. What do you say?
-
00:16:07
– In that camera? – Sure.
-
00:16:09
– Or to you? – That camera.
-
00:16:12
– So there is a healthy
addiction you can have
-
00:16:14
and that's a love that
comes from another realm.
-
00:16:18
Once you touch that, and I mean,
-
00:16:20
I would just say my story,
-
00:16:21
once you touch
that love, you kind of
-
00:16:24
put down these little --
-
00:16:25
like those other addictions
seem like little toys.
-
00:16:27
It's like your child,
you have these toys
-
00:16:29
and your parents
come in and bring you
-
00:16:31
this big truck and you're like,
-
00:16:33
you just throw those toys away
-
00:16:35
and you go to the truck.
-
00:16:36
It's like that when
you meet Christ,
-
00:16:37
these little addictions,
you throw them away
-
00:16:39
and you just follow
this big great, forgiving,
-
00:16:45
loving God that
doesn't judge you,
-
00:16:49
that just as mercy,
nothing but mercy for you,
-
00:16:52
kindness, and the
power to give you
-
00:16:56
to overcome all
of your addictions.
-
00:16:58
And it happened to me.
-
00:17:00
I mean, if Jesus can
set a crazy rock star
-
00:17:05
with all the drugs
that I wanted.
-
00:17:08
I had all the
money that I wanted
-
00:17:10
to buy all the
drugs that I wanted.
-
00:17:11
If you could set
me free from drugs,
-
00:17:14
then obviously, your
addictions are nothing to Him.
-
00:17:17
It's simple.
-
00:17:19
– Ok, now give a minute
sermon to those of us
-
00:17:25
who some of us
may be millionaires
-
00:17:27
or be on top of the world
in terms of world success,
-
00:17:30
but the self-loathing and
the sense of rejection,
-
00:17:34
the need to measure up is
-
00:17:35
a never-ending CD in
the back of their mind.
-
00:17:38
What do you preach to us?
-
00:17:39
– Oh, man. You put
me on the spot now.
-
00:17:41
– Yeah.
-
00:17:42
– I mean, Paul said
in the New Testament
-
00:17:46
that he has learned
the secret of being
-
00:17:49
content in life with having --
-
00:17:52
with being in want and being
in need and having plenty.
-
00:17:56
So I look at that
as him saying like
-
00:17:59
he's been rich
and he's been poor
-
00:18:01
and he's found the
secret of being content
-
00:18:04
in both situations.
-
00:18:05
And that secret
is in the next verse
-
00:18:08
where he says,
"I can do all things
-
00:18:09
through Christ who
strengthens me."
-
00:18:11
And in my life, I was definitely
-
00:18:13
living on couches before Korn.
-
00:18:15
I was eating Top Ramen.
-
00:18:17
I was definitely homeless.
-
00:18:19
And I lived both
of those realms.
-
00:18:24
I lived poor, then I
got rich without Christ.
-
00:18:27
I was a poor alcoholic,
Top Ramen eaten poor guy.
-
00:18:33
And I was a rich rock
star without Christ.
-
00:18:36
And I was a failure at both.
-
00:18:37
Once I met Christ, I
was a multimillionaire
-
00:18:41
and I didn't have
that contentment.
-
00:18:45
When I had all the money,
when I was walking with Christ,
-
00:18:48
I ended up with all
these emotional problems
-
00:18:50
and I lost all my money.
-
00:18:52
Then I went back
to the poor realm,
-
00:18:54
not really poor or homeless,
-
00:18:55
but I lost all my millions
and ended up in bankruptcy.
-
00:19:00
The Lord showed me
that He took care of me
-
00:19:02
in my need, just like Paul said,
-
00:19:05
and He brought me contentment
-
00:19:06
when I was in lack
during the bankruptcy.
-
00:19:09
Then He started piling
back onto me the riches
-
00:19:12
and giving me blessings,
-
00:19:14
financial blessings,
and everything.
-
00:19:16
And now I'm learning
all of this other stuff
-
00:19:19
with investments and
everything and walk
-
00:19:21
and being content
with the riches.
-
00:19:22
So it's like He teaches you
-
00:19:25
how to be in charge
of your finances
-
00:19:29
and He teaches you
that He'll take care
-
00:19:31
of you when you
don't have finances.
-
00:19:33
It's just He's everything, man.
-
00:19:35
And and I would just say,
anybody rich out there --
-
00:19:38
This is longer than a minute.
-
00:19:39
Anybody that's rich
and successful out there
-
00:19:41
and you're trying
to measure up, man,
-
00:19:43
just surrender, just surrender,
-
00:19:46
and you give
your heart to Christ
-
00:19:47
and let Him hold you,
because that stuff is --
-
00:19:50
it can be here today
and gone tomorrow.
-
00:19:54
– Ok, one minute preaching
-
00:19:56
to people who
are single parents.
-
00:19:59
– Ok, so I'm the classic example
-
00:20:02
of a parent who
loved their kids,
-
00:20:06
but massively made
mistakes before Jesus
-
00:20:09
and after Jesus.
-
00:20:11
I would just say to
you single parents that
-
00:20:14
you can do it and
God is with you.
-
00:20:17
God says He's a
father to the fatherless,
-
00:20:20
so that also means
He can be like
-
00:20:23
a mother to the motherless.
-
00:20:25
And my daughter grew
up without her mother
-
00:20:27
and God was right there
helping us along the way.
-
00:20:31
He was right there
healing my mistakes
-
00:20:35
and leading us
to the right people.
-
00:20:38
And even when my
daughter got rebellious
-
00:20:41
because of wounds
from her childhood,
-
00:20:44
He helped me be strong
enough to use tough love
-
00:20:47
to get her into a
therapeutic boarding school
-
00:20:50
to make her life
just flourish and heal.
-
00:20:54
And so every step of the
way, I would say to you,
-
00:20:58
single parent, I know the pain.
-
00:20:59
I know how hard it
is, but do everything
-
00:21:02
you can do to train
your children up with God
-
00:21:08
so that they don't
depart from it.
-
00:21:10
And even if it's tough
love before they're 18,
-
00:21:13
don't let them go.
Don't let them go.
-
00:21:17
Do everything you
can to show them love,
-
00:21:20
but also to be there.
-
00:21:22
Because children,
they need discipline
-
00:21:24
and they need to
know that you're going
-
00:21:26
to step out there and stop them
-
00:21:29
if they're going the wrong way.
-
00:21:32
Because something,
even if they're like
-
00:21:35
they're yelling
that they hate you,
-
00:21:38
deep down in their souls
they want to see that
-
00:21:41
because a parent that lets
kids do whatever they want,
-
00:21:43
it shows them that --
-
00:21:45
– They're not
worth fighting for.
-
00:21:47
– Yeah, they're not
worth fighting for.
-
00:21:48
Maybe they do love them,
-
00:21:49
but they're not
worth fighting for.
-
00:21:51
So there's something
in the soul of children
-
00:21:54
that need that and want that.
-
00:21:56
That's what it says
in the Bible, that,
-
00:21:58
you know, it's healthy
to discipline out of love,
-
00:22:00
it's very important.
-
00:22:01
So don't give up again.
-
00:22:04
Again, a messy rock
star, single parent,
-
00:22:06
messed so many
things up with my child.
-
00:22:09
And she is doing amazing,
-
00:22:10
working for a
nonprofit, 22 years old,
-
00:22:13
and I'm so proud of her.
-
00:22:14
So keep your head up.
-
00:22:16
– Is there anything
you want to talk about
-
00:22:18
that I didn't prompt you with
-
00:22:20
or that we haven't
talked about yet?
-
00:22:25
– Off the top of my head?
-
00:22:27
– And you can say
no too. That's fine.
-
00:22:34
Yeah, I would.
-
00:22:36
I would just want to say
-
00:22:37
there's a lot of people in
big churches and small,
-
00:22:40
you know, especially
big churches
-
00:22:42
where they come and, you
know, they hear about God
-
00:22:46
and they hear about
what God can do.
-
00:22:49
And sometimes in small
churches or big churches,
-
00:22:53
you can get lost
in the fact that,
-
00:22:56
and I know your
heart is the same way.
-
00:22:58
That God has given
us these churches
-
00:23:01
and this message
in the Bible is about
-
00:23:04
one on one relationship
that we don't have,
-
00:23:07
we don't go to God
through the pastor.
-
00:23:09
We don't come to see a sermon.
-
00:23:11
We don't -- we're not
living our relationship
-
00:23:16
through a spiritual leader.
-
00:23:19
The churches are
meant to be a spiritual
-
00:23:22
filling station for
us to go home
-
00:23:24
and spend every day with
our relationship with God.
-
00:23:27
He wants us to have a
personal relationship with God
-
00:23:29
and to build us up
in that relationship.
-
00:23:32
And I love what
you guys do here.
-
00:23:35
And because it's just all about
-
00:23:39
building that relationship
with, of course,
-
00:23:41
with the church body,
that's so important.
-
00:23:43
I wouldn't got I
wouldn't have got clean
-
00:23:45
if I didn't have that
church body and friends.
-
00:23:47
But seriously, Jesus,
He squashed all that stuff
-
00:23:52
where we've got
to go through man.
-
00:23:53
You go directly to Jesus,
spent time with at home,
-
00:23:56
talk to Him on your way to work.
-
00:23:59
And I talked to Him
in the bathroom.
-
00:24:00
I talked to Him on
my way to work,
-
00:24:02
going shopping, in
my car all the time,
-
00:24:04
when I wake up,
when I go to bed.
-
00:24:05
He's always there and
He wants that relationship.
-
00:24:08
So He died for a
relationship. Don't abandon it.
-
00:24:10
And I'm talking to myself, too,
-
00:24:12
because I get lazy, too,
sometimes spiritually.
-
00:24:14
So that's my number one message
-
00:24:16
is intimacy with
God a relationship.
-
00:24:19
That's what He died for.
-
00:24:22
– Brian, thanks for
pouring into us today.
-
00:24:24
Man, it's just been
great being your friend,
-
00:24:28
and I look forward to
seeing what God's going
-
00:24:30
to do with your life
-
00:24:31
and in our friendship
of the future.
-
00:24:33
Thanks, brother.
-
00:24:34
– Yes, I love you, man.
– I love you, too.
-
00:24:41
– If you'd like
another dive on Brian,
-
00:24:43
I had him on my podcast
called The Aggressive Life.
-
00:24:46
You can go to
Crossroads.net/podcasts
-
00:24:49
and you can find
that Aggressive Life
-
00:24:50
podcast with Brian Walsh.
-
00:24:52
All these things that
we do, we do to help you
-
00:24:55
and help me get to a
new place spiritually
-
00:24:58
and sense God's
presence in our life.
-
00:25:01
And that happens in
part because people
-
00:25:04
are faithful to God
with the blessings
-
00:25:06
that He's given us,
we're givers in return.
-
00:25:09
You can give right
now if you want
-
00:25:10
to support our
church and help us
-
00:25:12
get God's word into
your heart, my heart
-
00:25:15
at Crossroads.net/give.
-
00:25:17
Some of us kind of just throw
some money here and there,
-
00:25:19
others of us are very
disciplined about it
-
00:25:21
and we actually tithe,
-
00:25:22
give 10% of our money
to the work of God.
-
00:25:25
If you want to try
that out, it's actually
-
00:25:26
a test that God
encouraged us to take.
-
00:25:29
It's called a Tithe Test
and you can do that with us.
-
00:25:31
If you try this for 90 days
-
00:25:33
and you don't see God
meet you where you are,
-
00:25:36
we will refund you
all of that money.
-
00:25:37
Go to Crossroads.net/tithetest.
-
00:25:42
Well, now we're going to
come with God through music.
-
00:25:44
It's another way for
us to come to Him
-
00:25:46
with our hearts and our minds
-
00:25:47
and have a connection with Him.
-
00:25:49
So let's worship him
together right now.
-
00:25:54
– Hi, everybody,
my name is Josh,
-
00:25:56
and I get the joy, the pleasure
-
00:25:59
of being able to
lead you in worship.
-
00:26:01
And one of the things
that as a Christ follower
-
00:26:04
that I know to be
true is that the story,
-
00:26:07
God's story is
one of redemption.
-
00:26:09
So Genesis to Revelation,
front to back of the Bible,
-
00:26:13
it's God makes
something awesome,
-
00:26:15
something totally
terrible happens,
-
00:26:17
and then God redeems it.
-
00:26:19
And that is the arc of my faith.
-
00:26:22
High, very highs, very
high highs, very low lows.
-
00:26:26
And then the Lord comes
in and He brings it up.
-
00:26:28
And there's a reality
that sometimes
-
00:26:32
in those low places,
it is hard to see
-
00:26:35
the redemption happening.
-
00:26:37
It's hard to see the work
of God in the low places.
-
00:26:39
And there's a promise
in scripture in Joel 2:25:
-
00:26:49
Now, where I live in Cincinnati,
-
00:26:51
we just got over
this swarm of cicadas
-
00:26:56
and it's not quite locusts
destroying everything.
-
00:26:59
But with those
cicadas, I mean, it was
-
00:27:02
sometimes cacophonous volume,
-
00:27:04
like you would
walk out your door
-
00:27:06
and it would be so loud
you could not hear anything.
-
00:27:09
And that's the reality of
some of those low places,
-
00:27:11
like the brokenness and
the loneliness that we feel,
-
00:27:15
the desperation, it
just gets cacophonous.
-
00:27:18
And Jesus says,
"I'm going to step in
-
00:27:20
and I'm going to
shut that noise off
-
00:27:22
and I'm going to
bring you redemption."
-
00:27:24
So this song that
we're going to sing
-
00:27:25
is just -- it's a
declaration of that.
-
00:27:27
It's saying, yeah,
from front to back,
-
00:27:30
God, you are about the
business of redemption.
-
00:27:32
So I just invite you
to sing this with us.
-
00:29:46
– That's a pretty
crazy thing to say,
-
00:29:49
hallelujah for the Cross,
hallelujah for the grave,
-
00:29:52
but that's the reality for us.
-
00:29:54
In order for redemption
to happen in our lives,
-
00:29:57
Jesus goes, "Great. I'm
going to give my life for you,
-
00:29:59
which is an incredible thing.
-
00:30:01
So this next part
of this song says,
-
00:30:03
God, you keep hope alive.
-
00:30:06
And I'll say for myself,
lately, things have not been --
-
00:30:13
Hope has not been alive
lately. I'll just say that.
-
00:30:16
And the reality is
I have to go back,
-
00:30:20
so I have to go back to
this idea of redemption.
-
00:30:22
God is constantly redeeming.
-
00:30:24
So if I know that to be true,
-
00:30:25
the hopelessness I
feel right now is not void.
-
00:30:29
There is a continuum.
-
00:30:31
And in that continuum
of redemption happening,
-
00:30:34
I'm going to find
some more hope.
-
00:30:36
And so we can say,
honestly, yes, God,
-
00:30:37
you keep hope alive,
even though right now
-
00:30:40
I don't see it, I'm
going to choose to trust
-
00:30:43
and believe that hope is rising.
-
00:30:46
Hope is swelling up as a part of
-
00:30:48
your arc of
redemption, so sing this.
-
00:30:51
If you're in a place where
you like, "Yeah, that's me."
-
00:30:53
Join with me. Join with me.
-
00:30:56
Go, "Yeah, I don't feel
it, but I'm going to trust it.
-
00:30:58
I'm going to believe
that it's there.
-
00:31:00
Because you see, God, you
keep hope alive in my marriage.
-
00:31:03
You keep hope alive
with my daughter.
-
00:31:05
You keep hope alive in my job,
-
00:31:07
in my sickness, in my finances.
-
00:31:10
God, you keep hope
alive in my sexuality.
-
00:31:12
You keep hope alive
in my talents, my gifts,
-
00:31:18
my job, my vocation,
all of those things,
-
00:31:20
You keep hope alive, God."
-
00:31:22
So sing that as a
declaration of something
-
00:31:25
I want to aspire to.
-
00:33:36
– Man, it's great
being with you today.
-
00:33:39
I hope you got a lot out of
Brian Head Welsh, my buddy.
-
00:33:41
Man, he is a deep well for sure.
-
00:33:44
Hey, you can have stuff
like this every single week.
-
00:33:46
We want to help you.
We want to partner with you.
-
00:33:48
Whatever your stuff might be.
-
00:33:50
If you're dealing
with addiction,
-
00:33:51
if you're dealing with
loneliness, hopelessness,
-
00:33:54
you can go to
Crossroads.net/getstarted.
-
00:33:57
We want to be in your life.
-
00:33:59
We'd love for you
to be incorporated
-
00:34:00
inside of our community.
-
00:34:02
Next week, we've got another
guy named David Mahan
-
00:34:05
who's coming in and he's got
-
00:34:06
some really deep stuff for us.
-
00:34:08
He's going to talk about
-
00:34:10
what would Jesus
do about public policy?
-
00:34:13
We'll see you next
week. Don't miss it.