On BLM: interview with Juan Riesco of Nini’s Deli

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

What is going on, everybody? You tuned to another episode of Provoked and I'm here with my sister,

00:05

Des. Hello. How are you doing? I'm doing fantastic. I'm super excited about today's episode. Yeah, it's going to be awesome.

00:11

I just can't believe you found our brother that we're going to be speaking to in a couple of moments. Well, one of our awesome listeners actually gave us a tip, so we're super thankful for that.

00:21

Yeah. Oh, awesome. So yeah, our show, I mean, if you've tuned in, you pretty much know I kind of repeat the same things every other week that we record.

00:30

But we call it Provoked because what we want to do is provoke the church to action. So some people say, you know, you're being so provocative and you're just trying to, you know, kind of embroil a fight for no reason.

00:41

But we want the church to fight. We have to be a fighting church, fighting people. The scriptures command us to fight the good fight.

00:48

The Bible says even God is God of war. You know, we don't, you know, battle. We don't battle flesh and blood like the scriptures tell us, like Paul tells us.

00:57

But we do have a battle that we're to be a part of and the church needs to be active. The church needs to get out of the four walls.

01:04

So much of the American Evangelical Church is just so focused internally and not externally. Being about the proclamation of the gospel and being about really, you know, focusing on issues that destroy our neighbor.

01:15

Right. So that's what we're here to do. You know, we want to really come alongside of the church to equip the church to preach the gospel, to rescue babies, of course, that are being delivered to death at abortion clinics, a massive effort at Apology of Church, Apology of Studios to destroy idols.

01:31

And then we also want to defend the faith. Right. We're called to have an answer for those who ask us about the hope that's within us.

01:38

And so what you're going to see in the future, I think the remainder of the year, we're really focusing on debating, professing unbelievers because atheists don't exist.

01:47

Right. The Bible says that everybody believes. So we want to do that, debate them in a loving way, conversational way, not to win a debate or not to be, you know, show off some intellectual prowess as if we have that.

01:58

Right. But what we want to do is equip the church to defend the faith in these times that we need to be able to do that.

02:03

So what you could do right now to help us and support us, we're so thankful for all the help that pours into Apology of Studios on a day to day basis.

02:10

I mean, we're so blessed by you guys. But as we consume, you know, from a podcast or whatever it may be, a ministry, we want to be able to pour back into that.

02:20

The way that you can do that is go to ApologyofStudios .com, become an All Access member. Of course, as you do that, you're privy and you're open to a huge amount of education.

02:31

And we can't even get into all the details, just a huge amount of education, top notch teachers, all different types of topics for you.

02:38

And then what you do through that support is you keep us doing what we're doing. And as I say, almost every time we want to do it, the

02:45

Christian should want to do it. Right. And that's to get the gospel out. What do we hear? It's to proclaim the gospel to all creation.

02:51

To save these babies that are going to die without the church being involved and to defend the faith.

02:57

So please go there and do that. So what are we going to do today, Dess? OK, so we are going to talk to Juan.

03:04

Let me see if I could pronounce his name right. Riasco or Raysco?

03:10

Juan Riasco. OK. See, like I said, I'm sensitive to people mispronouncing names because my name always gets mispronounced.

03:17

That's why I just say I'm Desi. But, you know. And it's so funny. Then you have one way. Oh, you know the right way.

03:22

You've been saying it the wrong way. I know. And then you freak yourself out. In your brain. Yeah. So anyways, we're going to talk to him. I am like off the charts excited.

03:29

Like I was thinking about it last night because the purpose of our show is to, like you said, provoke, stir up, embolden the church.

03:38

Kind of, you know, give them a kick in the behind a little bit. And so you come across somebody like Juan and he is just like such an encouragement to me.

03:49

I watched his documentary and I was like so like encouraged and fired up after listening to his story.

03:57

You guys are going to be floored. I was brought to tears. It was just amazing. Like tears of joy and then tears of just inspiration.

04:03

Oh, absolutely. Like you guys are going to freak out when you hear what this faithful man has gone through.

04:11

And just how he stood in the face of adversity. No matter what the cost and all that the

04:19

Lord has done through his life. We, of course, give Jesus all the glory for all the work in Juan's life.

04:25

But for me personally, there's just stories that come across like this. And it just emboldens you and makes you want to fight harder.

04:33

And it makes you go, you know what? Christ can get us through anything, even the worst of circumstances.

04:39

So for me, it was super encouraging. So I hope that this episode is as much of an encouragement to you as the documentary

04:46

Paint the Wall Black was for me. And I'm just out of a, you know, pure like,

04:53

I was just hoping, I didn't even know if Juan would have time. Of course, he's a father of two. He's had his whole life turned upside down.

04:59

I was like, I don't know if he'd be interested in coming on our show. But I'm so thankful that he does. So anyways,

05:05

I'll stop talking so he can give you the story himself. But you guys are going to love this episode. Juan, are you there?

05:12

Oh, wait, you got to push unmute. Hey, brother. So thankful. So honored to have you on our show.

05:18

Thank you for the warm introduction. Thank you for having me. Awesome. So just tell us a little bit about who you are.

05:24

Not really diving into your testimony, because we're going to get to that in a few minutes. Just a little bit about who you are and what you're doing right now.

05:31

Absolutely. So my name is Juan Elias Riesco. I am a child of the living

05:37

God. My family and I recently moved to the DFW area from Chicago, Illinois.

05:44

And we are currently church planning here, the second campus of our

05:49

Chicago -based church, Metro Praise International. I am a Bible college student by the grace of God.

05:56

I have an entrepreneurial background. I have a calling on my life to be an evangelist for the

06:05

Lord and to make disciples of all nations. Praise God. Awesome. So we both watched the documentary.

06:11

And for those of you that don't know what we're talking about, it's called Paint the Wall Black, the Story of Nene's Deli.

06:17

You can also watch an interview, a great interview Juan gave to Conversations That Matter. He did a really good job on that one too, brother.

06:24

But we watched this documentary, and it was so excellently done. And like Desi was just saying so excitedly, it was just so inspiring and such a picture of brave Christianity.

06:36

And that is what we want to do. That's pretty much the entire purpose of our show is to get the regular

06:42

Christian out there, not thinking they have to be an academic giant or have to be somebody special.

06:47

We want to get the regular Christian out there proclaiming the gospel, speaking the truth in love, proclaiming the accurate gospel, the true, true gospel, and then doing it in a way that's loving and in a way that would honor

07:01

Jesus. But as we're looking at your documentary, there's so many things that we can talk about.

07:10

Leaving the homosexual lifestyle, running a successful Christian business, using your influence to glorify

07:17

Christ, standing for Christ in the face of severe persecution, bold biblical evangelism in the face of persecution death.

07:24

I really want to camp on that one because that's what our show is all about. Understanding the true face of the Black Lives Matter movement, loving those who hate you, how to evangelize the church.

07:33

So within that documentary, so much content, there's so much substance there. But what

07:40

I want you to do Juana is just bring us back. Let's just start out by going through your testimony all throughout your situation with Nene's Cafe.

07:49

And then we'll kind of stop and ask questions and maybe hammer down on some specific topics.

07:57

Does that sound good? Yeah, dude. Hallelujah. Yes, of course. Okay, great. So go ahead and let us hear it.

08:05

I guess first and foremost, I just want to thank Apology Radio just for the opportunity just to be here and to share with you all.

08:15

I love what y 'all do. I love the stance you all take for the gospel. And so I'm just so grateful for just this opportunity to share with you guys, man.

08:24

When my mom and dad opened up Nene's Deli back in 2010 -ish,

08:31

I was just the typical, sinful, young Chicago guy.

08:39

I mean, I grew up, like brother, you mentioned earlier, living a homosexual lifestyle.

08:46

I grew up just immersed in all types of wickedness.

08:53

I was obsessed with shoplifting. I used to do a lot of graffiti. I had been arrested probably like five or so times by the age of like 20 just because I was infatuated with a life of criminality.

09:05

And I really found my purpose and my worth. At least I thought I was finding my purpose and my worth in those things.

09:12

And around 2013, the Lord had just radically saved my older brother,

09:19

Jose, out of a lifestyle of gangbanging. He was a gangbanger.

09:24

He was a Latin king in Chicago. And the Lord had just really done a work in his heart and changed him inwardly and made him a completely new man and instilled a fire in him to preach the gospel basically instantly when he had fully surrendered his life to the

09:45

Lord. And the Lord had really instilled in him a desire to preach the gospel first to his family, his friends, and then of course to the nations like Matthew 28 refers to.

09:57

And my brother was faithful to that. He preached to, he evangelized by the grace of God to virtually our whole family.

10:07

He evangelized my father, my mother, my aunts, my uncles, my cousins. And I was just testifying about this earlier.

10:14

He had basically become ostracized by our entire family. I mean, basically cut off by a lot of people in our family and was looked upon as just a crazy person to our family.

10:28

And he took every moment he could with our family in a gathering to preach and to share the gospel.

10:35

And I have family members that are involved in the wicked Roman Catholic cult.

10:41

I have family members that are also homosexual and just a part of the leftist cult as well.

10:49

And he did not let any of that slow him down. He knew that their soul was worth more than their relationship.

10:55

And he laid the gospel down to virtually everybody in my immediate family and cousins and things like that.

11:03

And I was one of those people who he evangelized. And at that point in my life,

11:08

I was sleeping around with however many partners I could get my hands on. Men, women, the whole thing.

11:16

At that point, I was casually getting arrested for shoplifting or doing graffiti and getting out of jail like it was normal and proceeding on with my life.

11:27

And when my brother presented to me the gospel, I truly looked at him right in the eyes and I said, I'm good.

11:34

I'm good. I'm a good guy. Somehow I had convinced myself of that. I'm a good guy.

11:39

I help mom and dad when they need my help. And and, you know, I don't I don't need that.

11:44

God, it might be good for you, but it's not what I need. And my brother had spent the next months on his knees weeping for my soul and interceding for for the me, his lost brother.

11:58

And within a couple of months of that, September 15th, 2013, I surrendered my life to the

12:03

Lord. And Jesus set me free. He made me a completely new man.

12:09

He made me new from the inside. He made my desires be him.

12:14

He washed my brain clean of all the wicked things I've done. And and and now now here

12:21

I am serving him. And I guess the way that intersects with the with the restaurant is that during that time, my parents had started the business and and it was a failing business.

12:31

They had started it and it wasn't doing well at that time. In 2013, we were making like 200 to 300 dollars a day in a 12 hour work day.

12:41

So 200, 300 dollars in sales is roughly like 10 or 15 transactions, you know, so it was not doing well.

12:48

We'd work for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and nobody was coming in. And I had given my life to Jesus and I had just through reading the scriptures, just learned about how how much

13:01

God honors when his children serve others and how much God blesses people who put the needs of others first.

13:11

And I had really sensed that the Lord was calling me to stay at my family's failing business, but to to work it from a biblical perspective.

13:20

And so I did that. I remained faithful there by the grace of God, studied the scriptures, served my served the guests that came into the business.

13:30

And after three or about four years or so of remaining faithful, well.

13:37

Kind of loving Jesus, then loving the world, and I kind of struggled for a little bit.

13:43

But after years of being diligent to the Lord, he rewarded my faithfulness to him,

13:49

I believe. And he made my family's business basically the highest rated restaurant on Yelp for three years in a row.

13:57

Yeah. You know, he took a failing business and really made it something that brought him glory. And so we we've we went from nothing to, you know, being a pretty big name in the city of Chicago.

14:07

Sure. Because you had deals with Nike, right? And you had deals with Adidas. And it was just getting getting crazy there for a while with just your popularity and everybody wanted to kind of get in on that.

14:20

Right. Yeah, dude. Yes. By the grace of God, it was like every every couple, honestly, days or so.

14:27

It was like another big organization, you know, was reaching out to me to co -sign something they were doing.

14:35

You know, design a sneaker, design a T -shirt. We were getting lines out the door, literally like lines down the block for different events that we were being a part of.

14:45

The Chicago Fire soccer team offered to, like, build us a food truck as like a permanent installation inside the soldier field for their season.

14:55

And, you know, yeah, all different all different types of pretty amazing, pretty big doors opened for sure.

15:02

And that's exactly right. God blesses faithfulness all throughout his scriptures. I actually just preached a sermon to our church, but it is undoubtedly true.

15:10

As you're faithful to Christ, you honor him, you put him, you really seek to glorify him. And I like what you said in the documentary is when you served the people at Nene's, it was as if you were serving

15:21

Jesus. Right. Dude. Yes, bro. Literally, the Lord, while I was praying, had just showed me like a picture.

15:29

It was so funny. I was like just praying, you know, just talking to the Lord. And and he was like revealing an image in my head.

15:38

And it was a line of people. It was a line of people into my business. And his head, what

15:44

I would imagine Jesus to look like, his head was on the shoulders of all those people. And it was like a visualization the

15:51

Lord had shared with me. And I felt like, you know, what the point that I was that I was receiving was serve people as if you are serving me.

16:01

Serve them as if my head is on their shoulders. And that's truly what I did. Wow.

16:07

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, let's just kind of kind of continue on with the story and kind of the pivotal point, which happened last year,

16:15

June. Correct. Yes, it was around the time George Floyd had had or had been murdered, rather, which

16:26

I like to I like to make that clear, because a lot of people, you know, specifically in the leftist leftist cult like to believe that for some reason, as a

16:36

Christian, I don't like justice or something, which I love justice. I just like biblical justice. Right. Amen. Exactly.

16:42

And and my God is who authors justice and definitely not the secular

16:47

God. The secular God is definitely not the author of justice, because if secularism is all that we have, then there really is no definition of justice anyways.

16:55

Exactly right. That's a whole nother podcast we could do. Yeah, I might have to have you on again to talk about that.

17:03

But so, yeah, you know, I believe that that officer murdered George Floyd. And so when we got asked because of the

17:12

Lord's mercy on my business, you know, we were so successful and we had a pretty really large following, rather, on the

17:19

Internet. My personal Instagram had the blue checkmark and, you know, my restaurant was at like close to 30 ,000 followers, which for a mom and dad owned restaurant was, you know, those were big deals for us.

17:31

And so because we had this influence that the Lord had blessed us with, people wanted us to use that influence to uplift the

17:40

BLM social justice movement. And so, you know, comments started trickling in.

17:48

People were like, what do you guys think about this? How come you haven't stood with BLM yet? You know, why aren't you using your platform to promote these organizations that are fighting for black lives and things like this?

18:01

And I really sensed at that moment that I had to choose, because up until that point,

18:08

I had been evangelizing people when they would come to my business more on a like interpersonal level.

18:15

I had been a faithful deacon in my church, faithful to my wife, free of pornography by the grace of God for about six or five years at that point.

18:26

You know, like I have been serving the Lord faithfully, like loving him. And but I had not publicly denounced these things yet.

18:37

And so or publicly stood with them even. And so I do understand why people were curious on my thoughts on that, especially because I'm so outspoken in the digital realm.

18:49

And so I really did feel this impression on my heart that it was like now or never.

18:55

Yeah. So you must and I and I listened to this part of your documentary very closely, but it must have been very tempting for you just to remain quiet, right?

19:04

Well, dude, that's that's totally right. You know, it was very tempting to to not say anything.

19:13

And in fact, I had even envisioned plenty of times what life would look like had

19:19

I not said anything. And I'll be completely honest, like it it that was for sure, like on my heart.

19:27

But but I know that Scripture says that. Whoever obeys

19:34

God is it are those are how we know who his children are, you know, obviously I'm paraphrasing there.

19:39

Sure. We know that by who obeys him. And so I know the Lord's word tells me not to shrink back.

19:45

Yeah. And it's Jesus says, if you're ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you. Right. Totally. And and I also think about I believe is the prophet

19:54

Jeremiah says cursed on anyone who is lax in doing the Lord's work, a curse on anyone who keeps their sword from bloodshed.

20:04

And so, you know, scriptures like this were just echoing in my heart. And I was like, no, I know I know that the

20:10

Lord's word is a double edged sword. And if I keep it away from potential bloodshed right now, the Lord's curse is upon me, according to Jeremiah.

20:19

And so those are the things that are impressing on my heart. Yeah. So I guess you're, you know, they're they're telling you,

20:27

Juana, you got to say something. And so what do you what do you choose to say? Dude, and that was totally it.

20:33

You know, I had told my wife, I was like, babe, I'm getting message after message, comment after comment. Like every time

20:38

I'm refreshing, it's 20 more comments. Wow. And and she was like, you know, why don't you ask pastor first?

20:45

Like, see what his thoughts are. And I don't know if y 'all I mean, y 'all watch the documentary. So y 'all know how my pastor is.

20:51

Yeah. He's like sword to the blood. Let's go. Oh, yeah. I love that about him. For 20 plus years, by the grace of God, through the power of the

20:59

Holy Spirit, he's been on fire for the Lord ever since he got saved. And so I already knew what my pastor was going to say.

21:04

I already knew what my leaders have trained me up to do. I already know what the Church of God has equipped me to do.

21:11

I already know what the Holy Spirit was impressing upon my heart. And so I looked at my wife and I said, thank you for that.

21:16

You know, baby, I appreciate you. However, I know I know the answer to this. Right. And I immediately started responding to each person one at a time.

21:25

I said, I love justice, you know, because they would call me a bigot, a hater of justice, a hater of X, Y, Z.

21:31

I said, I love justice because my God created it, because my God is who informs justice.

21:38

And I said, and because of that, I believe that all lives matter in the name of Jesus, because all lives were created by by the

21:46

Lord. That's right. And I just started hitting them with responses like that. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And and their heads would just like I could

21:53

I could sense that they were just wilding out because they would just start hitting me even harder.

21:59

Like I couldn't even respond. And then it just got to a point where they were like, you know, we're going to come burn down the building.

22:05

We're going to come protest you. We're going to come, you know, and then the death threat started flowing in. And so I just, you know, first the first stance

22:13

I had to take was really a stance in the spiritual with myself saying like,

22:19

Lord God, if I don't have you, I don't want anything. You know, I had to battle my own temptation as well.

22:24

First, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I triumph triumphed over my own self alone.

22:30

And then I had to triumph. Then I had to, you know, be led by the spirit to combat these the demonic realm digitally.

22:39

And then they came out to my business the following day. Wow. That's a that's a massive decision, right?

22:46

It's either going to say, you know, I'm going to keep quiet because I'm thinking about the repercussions of this. Or I'm going to say

22:53

I'm going to glorify Christ. I'm going to obey him. Like you said, Jesus says, if you love me, you're going to obey me.

22:59

So our love for him is demonstrated in our tangible obedience. And you decided to cross that line and you suffered for it.

23:07

I mean, we throw around persecution in America all the time. Right. That word.

23:13

And we we don't even I mean, you think about church history and especially our brothers and sisters in different countries are truly suffering persecution like North Korea, Iran.

23:23

But we really don't experience persecution at all in a degree that our brothers do, and especially, you know, looking at church history.

23:30

But I would say you did here experience some persecution. Go ahead.

23:36

I'm sorry to cut you off, bro. I just I have to share that, expound a bit on that. It's the honest truth.

23:43

I honestly cringe every time I even say that I experienced that or every time that others say

23:49

I experienced that. Not because it's not true, but just because of like exactly what you said, bro.

23:54

Church in China, church in Iran, like what these people, by the grace of God, are enduring for the gospel.

24:00

And we know they're blessed for it. We know that. But Lord, have mercy if we don't pray for them at the same time.

24:06

Sure. Because for certainly they are experiencing every day. Right. You know, I may have got to experience for a moment's time, a short period of time.

24:15

And, yeah, and of course, it's it's not comparable to people like in North Korea. You know, Christians were going to be in jail until they die.

24:22

But, you know, the average American evangelical Christian, what is their persecution? Is that people will say not nice things to them or defriend them or unfriend them or think a certain negative, negative way.

24:35

But you did as you go into the story, you know, we see that the persecution became real.

24:42

I mean, the negative effects became real. So why don't you kind of pick it up from there? And tell us what happened after you started to kind of engage with the movement there.

24:52

Yeah, man. So certainly these things actualized. They came out and protested our business by the hundreds the next day.

25:01

They were spitting in our face. They surrounded my building. They were lighting things on fire. They were pushing me, you know, you know, the whole deal.

25:11

And we had really told them, told the writers, because, you know, you got to remember early on in June of last year, this was like the peak of those riots.

25:20

This was like before they really, really kicked off. This was before Chaz. This was like what led up to, you know,

25:27

Chaz and like all those other cities being burned down and things like that. This was like the momentum that led there was situations like what happened at my business.

25:37

And, you know, they had told us, like, if you're going to they had told us, like, we're going to protest or whatever.

25:44

We want to burn down your building, like, you know, things like this. And we had literally I had literally like responded digitally.

25:51

And I said, if you are going to protest, you better believe we're bringing the gospel and we're going to be out there.

25:57

I'm going to be open to be preaching to man. So by the grace of God, it was it was an amazing time because I had actually recently had the honor of employing two gentlemen from my church at that time.

26:12

And one of which is like a faithful, faithful brother. His name is Lawrence Rodriguez. He's been serving in our church for so many years.

26:20

He was the youngest deacon to ever be ordained in our church. This brother is so faithful to the

26:27

Lord, preached the gospel on street corners, I believe weekly and just loves

26:32

Jesus. And I had recently had the honor of, you know, giving him a job at the business. And I looked at him and I said, brother, have have you ever been paid to preach?

26:44

And he was like, you know, mind you, like he's like doing his job, like folding up in bananas while people are protesting outside.

26:49

You know, so his heart is already racing because he's like, I'm just going to be faithful to doing my job.

26:56

But I know there's rioters outside. You know, it was a crazy juxtaposition happening there.

27:02

And he was like, no, I haven't. And, you know, I knew the answer because our church, Metro Priest International, we're storefront church.

27:09

You know, we have about 200 people. There's only a handful of people on staff. And so, you know, but but I said that because I wanted to share with him.

27:16

I was like, well, bro, today you are going to stay on the clock and go outside and preach the gospel to those rioters.

27:25

Wow. And he was like, bro, are you serious? I'm like, yes, bro. Put down your empanada tools, take your apron off, grab the word of God and go out and preach with my brother right now.

27:36

That's what you have been employed to do today. And, dude, he was so hyped. So that was like when the church, the rest of the church members started coming.

27:44

And so he got to go out there. And for me, that was just like such a special moment to be able to like fuel the spreading of the gospel message that day.

27:53

Right. So that was was that the first day you guys started preaching? Yes. Sorry. Yes. That was day one of us preaching.

28:00

That was like the first day the rioters came in and all that. Yeah. And just to kind of give an idea for our listeners who haven't seen

28:07

Paint the Wall Black, I mean, this wasn't just a couple people. This was a big, angry crowd.

28:13

People were spitting on you, cussing you out. This wasn't just like, you know, a couple of people giving you a hard time like this was serious business, right?

28:22

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I would say like the first day, I would say it was a couple hundred. And then the second day at that point, they had already leaked my address, leaked my mom's address, called my brother's employer, called his wife's employer.

28:35

Your wife is pregnant, too, right? So you've got a little one. Yes. My wife is pregnant.

28:41

We had a five month old daughter and my brother's wife was pregnant as well. He has three daughters and they had posted pictures in front of my brother's home.

28:48

We had already fled our homes because we knew we couldn't go back. You know, and then the next day is when they came out by the thousands.

28:57

Yeah. So, yeah, we had already fled because, you know, they were just putting threats on our heads like all day long.

29:04

Wow. Yeah, they were leaking your license plate. They were going into and finding information about your church, your pastor, the services, the people.

29:14

Right. I mean, they were really doing everything they could to destroy you. And this is the

29:19

BLM movement. So part of what we want to do is give everybody kind of a just a clear understanding about what this group propagates.

29:30

And how because a lot of the BLM ideology and like you said, this kind of social justice movement has leaked into the church and it's insidious and it's dangerous.

29:40

And people are deceived into thinking like they're on the side of of being doing justice when they're this this movement is perpetrating it.

29:52

Yeah. So maybe we just stop right there for a second, because, as you know, and I think you said it in the documentary is.

29:58

Well, it's difficult persecution that you faced was professing brothers and sisters in Christ that were attacking you for the stance that you were the godly biblical stance you were you were making.

30:09

And that's the rough part. And I think that's where we want to kind of give some clarity is, you know, how would you answer that question?

30:14

You know, can a faithful Bible believing God honoring Christian, you know, stand hand in hand with the

30:22

Black Lives Matter movement or Black Lives Matter supporter and affirm that organization?

30:28

Can they do that and be faithful to Christ? In my opinion is it is actually impossible.

30:34

Right. And I find textual evidence for this in Ephesians 511.

30:40

It says, have nothing to do with the fruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Right.

30:45

Have nothing to do with the fruitful deeds of darkness. BLM, you know, and this has been reiterated by virtually every

30:55

Christian voice. And every true Christian biblically rooted voice and even conservatives who are far from God have said

31:06

BLM affirms LGB, BLM affirms Marxism, BLM affirms the murdering of innocent lives.

31:15

We can't align with this. Right. We are supposed to expose those fruitless deeds of darkness, not stand in the mob.

31:22

Right. And scripture also says that you can't serve two gods. You either love one and hate the other. Right.

31:28

Right. So why do you think, I mean, all you had to do was they were saying Juan is confused.

31:35

All you had to do is paint the wall black. Right. All you had to do was say three words, Black Lives Matter.

31:40

And they were trying to extort you, really, I think, ultimately, and try to get your checking account.

31:45

But why, why were they so vicious? I mean, here's an organization that says that they're supposed to be anti -violence, that they're supposed to be anti -oppression.

31:56

They're supposed to be anti -hatred, tolerant of all kinds of people.

32:01

But you saw the exact opposite. Right. You saw the people that oppressed you, that threatened your life, that threatened your nieces and nephews lives and your own lives, that they did everything they could to destroy your business.

32:13

And ultimately they did. Right. Nene's had to shut down. Nene's is shut down.

32:18

Right. Yeah. I mean, they ran you out of town with pitchforks, basically. Right. Yeah. So that's the true face of this movement.

32:26

Right. Regardless of what they're saying right here on their Black Lives Matter website. Right. No, for sure.

32:31

You know, and the scripture that comes to mind is 1st John 3 10. Super simple. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are.

32:41

Anyone who does not do what is right is not God's child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

32:49

It's very simple. These people are not children of God. Brother Zach, Sister Desi, who are they children of?

32:58

Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah. Jesus says, yeah, if God is not our father, the devil's our father in John chapter eight.

33:05

Right. Absolutely. So they are simply acting like their father. Absolutely right.

33:10

You're right. They're just enslaved to sin and they only go about doing his will, like Jesus said. But what would you say to that,

33:16

Professor Christian? Because there's a lot of Christians, you know, that are kind of hoodwinked by this organization.

33:21

I mean, what would you say to that, that professing Christian that says, Juan, don't you believe black lives matter?

33:27

Don't you believe that there's systemic oppression of black people in the United States? What would you say?

33:34

Yeah. You know, my the Bible talks about answering a fool according to his folly.

33:40

And unfortunately, I would see a person who says they're Christian and subscribes to this wicked ideology as unfortunately a fool.

33:49

And so I actually what I have done to people who give me that question and call themselves

33:55

Christians is I actually turn around and ask them, OK, systemic racism exists.

34:01

All right. What's the most systemically racist thing that exists in America then? And then they'll say, oh, this the workplace, oh, the education system.

34:10

And I said, you know, that just shows you how blind to sin you are, because if systemic racism did exist in the way that you you say it does, then why wouldn't you say that the most systemically racist thing that exists in our nation is the fact that Planned Parenthood is camped up in every, quote unquote, person of color community across this nation or in all the big people of color communities across this nation?

34:38

Right. You know, if you want to if you want to talk about systemic racism in the way that you're saying it, well, then please explain to me why 30 million

34:45

African -American black babies have been murdered in their mothers wombs by Planned Parenthood that strategically placed in their neighborhoods.

34:54

Right. So what they do is they try to pervert. They try to get us Christians to hyper focus on on what they decide to be pressing issues in this nation.

35:05

But at the same time, they turn a blind eye to 60 million aborted babies, which they have nothing to say about and no uproar about.

35:13

Right. And so they will be held accountable for that, trying to get us to subscribe to their idea of what is what is the problem in this world.

35:22

Meanwhile, the blood of those babies are on this nation's hands. Right. Absolutely.

35:27

So if they're going to talk about justice and problems, they might as well talk about the biggest one, which is abortion. We totally agree with that.

35:35

Yeah, 100 percent. I know y 'all do. So I would answer them. I would answer them in that sense, according to their own folly.

35:42

I would say, OK, you want to talk about systemic racism? Well, then tell me why 30 million black babies have been murdered and you haven't joined one single march in that.

35:48

Yeah. Here's what I find interesting. None of them have preached that Planned Parenthood. Nine times out of 10, none of them have have stood up to their, you know, social justice professors that that affirm abortion.

36:00

Nine times out of 10, none of them have have denounced any of these things within within their personal circles.

36:06

But yet they're Christian. Right. Probably more accurately, nine point nine point nine nine nine nine percent. But yeah, exactly what

36:12

I find. Right. What I find interesting is like you are like, hey,

36:18

I believe that George Floyd was murdered. I'm not trying to justify that. Like we say, like racism or tribalism is an abomination.

36:27

We, of course, don't think that that's OK. That's sin and it's worthy of hell. And so you're like, hey,

36:34

I'm in agreement with that. But I just won't say these three words that you are requiring me.

36:40

I'm not going to bow down to you and say these three words that are associated. They can't just like when our

36:45

Pastor James said they can't just be suspended in midair without connotation.

36:51

You know, they're they're they're linked to this organization. Do black lives matter? Of course, black lives matter.

36:57

They're not only matter, they're precious in the image of God. They are precious because they're made in the image of God.

37:03

They more than matter. Right. And we care about racism. We care about all those things.

37:08

But the Black Lives Matter organization is saying what's abominable to God is good.

37:14

They're calling good evil and evil good. Or, you know what I'm saying? So anyways, you would not just you know, your family immigrated here.

37:23

You guys came and you got this amazing business that you started from the ground up and basically lived out the

37:31

American dream. You guys aren't even white. Right. That's the thing.

37:36

I don't know. Depending on who you ask. Some people say that I I've had people literally tell me that I benefit from white privilege.

37:43

Okay. Yeah. If you start going to the conspiracy or the critical race theory and all that. But it's just crazy to me that you're like,

37:50

I'm in agreement with all these things, but I'm not gonna bow down and say black lives matter as an organization.

37:57

And guess what? Because you don't do those, you're getting ran out of here with pitchforks.

38:03

We're going to threaten you literally, literally just saying the most hateful things to you, calling you all sorts of names.

38:10

To me, it's like it is Romans 1 on display. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Or people who profess the name of Christ or people who identify as Christian, rather, who also stand against abortion.

38:32

So who you know that that rebuttal that I presented a second ago wouldn't stand towards people like that, you know, and and I think just to clarify, you know, for those other people who maybe they stand against abortion, confess, say they're

38:45

Christians and are also in line with BLM. I think of first Corinthians 15 to that says, by this gospel, you are saved.

38:54

If you hold firmly to the word I preach to you by this gospel, you are saved.

39:00

It's not a social justice gospel. It's not a postmodern gospel. It's not a

39:06

BLM inspired gospel is simply the gospel that Paul in the Bible presents to us that we're saved.

39:12

Exactly. That's exactly right. And I was I was thinking about that. You know, it's just amazing all throughout church history.

39:17

And it started out with the, you know, the disciples, what did they have to profess to, you know, thwart persecution or to get away from persecution, like a horrible persecution, right?

39:28

Like being, you know, sawn in half and hung upside down and having their heads cut off.

39:34

All they had to say was Caesar is Lord. Like it was an affirmation of something that's anti -biblical.

39:41

It was an affirmation of something that was was dishonoring to God. I mean, you think about that, you think about like the

39:48

Scottish covenanters, all they had to say was the king was higher than King Jesus. You know, so all throughout the ages, the enemy is trying to get truth tellers.

39:57

Christians are truth tellers, right? We're, we're people of the truth where our mouths are supposed to be filled with the truth.

40:03

But to get us to affirm something that is anti -Christ, to get us to affirm something like you had just said, that is anti -gospel or is another gospel, because when

40:14

Christians do that, man, the world suffers because now these people who have the light of Christ, who have the light of the true gospel, who should be disseminating that boldly and passionately, now they're, they're compromising.

40:27

So all throughout history, this has been the attack against the Christian, right? And so thank

40:33

God by his grace, you didn't give into that. But what I want to kind of get into is what

40:39

I saw you do and, and what I think is so exemplary and so difficult is that you responded to people who destroyed your business, who threatened your life, your wife, your brother, your family.

40:52

You responded with love and you did it in a way that just supernaturally gifted you by God to do that.

41:00

That's what we have to do. And if we, you know, in the face of such an evil organization like Black Lives Matter or Planned Parenthood, you know, your flesh kind of tempts you to respond in a way that's not biblical.

41:12

But how did you kind of go through that thought process? I mean, you know, what, what really motivated you to do all this in love?

41:21

Oh man, I'm trying to pull up this verse that was, you know, really loud to me.

41:32

And it's James 4 .4. And it talks about how, you know, some of us were adulterers.

41:40

All of us had enmity towards God. All of us were, were literally

41:46

God's enemies. All of us had strife between us and the Lord. And still at the same time,

41:53

Jesus laid his life down for us while we were still in that wicked state, while we were still in the mud.

42:22

Right. And when he put it to me like that, I was like, gosh, that is exactly what I was. I had worse than motor oil.

42:29

I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood of people. I had blood innocent people on my hands, just thinking about all the times

42:35

I didn't stand for, you know, like abortion and things like that. And I was trying to clean myself and I couldn't.

42:42

And it was only through God's sweet mercy that I was able to be washed clean of my sins.

42:49

And so that is really the heart that I looked at these people with. I know that had this had been, you know, a couple of years prior,

42:58

I probably would have been with them. Right. I would have been with them, and I think about when

43:03

Paul was testifying, I believe it was to the Sanhedrin in the book of Acts, he talks about, like, guys,

43:09

I was raised up in the Jewish faith, I was trained by Gamaliel, I think was his name, you know, like,

43:14

I'm one of y 'all. I'm one of y 'all. I was persecuting the people of the way just a few months ago.

43:23

But Jesus set me free, essentially, I paraphrase that, but, you know,

43:28

I literally was like explained to them, I'm like, guys, I used to be gay. This is what I'm thinking in my head. I'm like, I used to be gay.

43:34

I'm from the streets with you. I've been arrested. I've sat in the same jail cells as you.

43:41

But Jesus set me free. Yeah. Amen. Amen. Chief of sinners, right?

43:46

All of us. Like, Jesus set us free, right? Yeah. Amen. Yeah. And that's how we have to respond.

43:54

And sometimes you don't, of course, people profess the name of Christ and we become enemies, you know, and ultimately, you know, we are enemies.

44:02

But Jesus says, what, love your enemies. I'm not calling you to hate. I was thinking about that, bro. I was just thinking about that because, you know, a lot of Christians with the type of, you know, spirit that, you know, people like us on this podcast have this like fervor for the

44:17

Lord. You know, we we want to be like Paul explains in Romans 12, devoted to one another, but never lacking in zeal.

44:24

You know, this fervor that's totally the heart of of Apologia Radio, from what I can sense, that's totally the heart of provoked, you know, but there comes a time when you really have to look at, you know, the things that you're posting, the things that are on your heart, the things that you're sharing with others.

44:39

And you really got to ask yourself, like, man, do I hate people more than I hate the devil?

44:47

You know, it's something that I've had to really sit back in my heart, like, wait a second, wait a second. I know that Psalm 55 says that God hates, you know, wicked people.

44:56

He makes that very clear that wicked people can't even stand before him. Right. But our enemy is not these people.

45:03

It is the devil. Yeah. We need to be actively hating the devil and his work.

45:12

So I've really had to guard my heart from that. You know, I love Psalm 55, you know, but I want to make sure that I hate the devil.

45:20

And all the things that he puts his hand to. Yeah, because again, it's so tempting. I still love people enough.

45:25

Exactly. It's so tempting, especially for guys like us. You know, like we're passionate about like sometimes confrontation can be exuberating, you know.

45:34

But it's like I can't I can't desire that more than the truth being shared.

45:40

Yeah. And I think you exemplified that in the midst of that whole, you know, them being outside.

45:47

What was your response to go? Your response wasn't to go hide. Your response was we're going to go bring them the gospel because that's the most loving thing you could do.

45:58

And so you laid aside your fear. You laid aside probably your desire to get the heck out of there at that moment.

46:06

And you went in and sacrificed and you went and loved them by telling them the good news of Jesus so that when they stand before God one day on Judgment Day, they're not going to be able to say they never heard it.

46:18

They heard it. And you had the opportunity right there. I mean, I'm not going to lie. I might have like been like, let's get the heck out of here.

46:26

There's literally a mob outside. So I'm really encouraged by the Lord's work in your life.

46:32

And just the example that you have given the rest of us in the midst of, like Zach said, a persecution that most of us

46:39

Americans haven't seen. I know, like you said, there's different levels of persecution, but you faced persecution and the

46:46

Lord gave you strength to stand firm, you and your brother. You know, it's funny, too, is my brother Zach here, he was saved before me, kind of similar when

46:54

I was listening to you talk, it reminded me a lot of him. So that was cool to hear that. Yeah. So let's just maybe shift gears a little bit.

47:04

So you guys have to leave. The second day, thousands of people come up. And actually, just so you know,

47:10

Christians have been doing this since the beginning. You know, we get pressed. Go ahead.

47:16

So you're talking about skipping town? Yeah, exactly. So you have to skip town and Christians have been doing this. The French Huguenots had to do that.

47:22

The Scottish governors had to do that all throughout church history. The persecution gets so hot that you have to go.

47:29

You have to go for the sake of your family. So what happens? I mean, you don't have to tell us any confidential information, of course.

47:35

We're not trying to pry into that. But what were your steps after you closed the doors to Nene? What happened?

47:42

OK, I'm going to keep it 100 with you, bro. I literally looked at my pastor in his eyes.

47:50

We had just stopped preaching because the mob was just getting so intense that day.

47:56

It was it was horrific. I mean, they had spat on us, like I mentioned, tried to burn stuff down. And the police, honestly, you know,

48:02

I trust me. I'm very familiar with Romans 13. But the police did a horrible job at trying to protect us.

48:08

It was a mess on their part, unfortunately. And and we my pastor just called it.

48:16

He was like, guys, we're not getting anywhere. This mob is ridiculous. None of them are listening by any means.

48:23

The gospel is just falling on deaf ears. We were throwing seed on very hard ground. And not that we're pragmatic in our presentation of the gospel.

48:32

We know that the gospel is going to yield fruit, you know, which it has, obviously. But it just wasn't seeming like we should continue preaching to this mob.

48:41

And we had retreated back inside the business. And I looked at my pastor right in the eyes and I was like, bro.

48:49

We coming back here tomorrow or what? So we got to prove this gospel again tomorrow or what?

48:56

And he was like, bro, let's just see how tonight goes. Sure. He literally said that to me.

49:02

And I was like, yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right. Let's get the children and women out of this building. So right where we think about that.

49:10

But that was really my heart was like, man, we got to continue to bring the gospel to these people. So basically, if you watch the documentary, you'll see the police had to escort the women and children out.

49:20

And a lot of the men out because it was just so dangerous out there. And they were, you know, just not slowing down.

49:28

In fact, they were growing in numbers. And there was only enough police and children to get them to get the women out, children out.

49:36

And then some of the men. And I had looked at my brother, Calvin Robinson, whom I love with my whole heart, one of the first people

49:43

I ever got to disciple in the Lord. I met him at Nene's. He was depressed. He had suicidal thoughts.

49:49

I presented the gospel to him. He gave his life to Jesus. He's now married by the grace of God. He's now a deacon, a faithful deacon in our church.

49:57

He's one of the first people I ever got to disciple in the Lord. And he looked at me. He was there that day and he looked at me and I said, bro, there's only enough police officers for the women and children.

50:07

I said, I said, if I were you, I would get behind one of those women and follow behind those police officers, basically. And he looked at me and all 20 or so people of the church were out already.

50:17

And I was the last person because I had to lock the doors. I wasn't going to leave the doors open to the mob. And and I said,

50:22

I said, bro, just go like I'll be I'll be good. And the blood of Jesus is all over me, baby. And and he's like, bro,

50:29

I ain't going nowhere, nowhere. I'm not going nowhere until you're out of this building.

50:36

My heart just like sunk. And I was like, and, bro, thank you, bro. And so I just locked the door and him and I just walked down the street together with the

50:46

Holy Spirit covering us. And we walked through the mob. And literally there was a point of time when they couldn't even it was like they couldn't see us.

50:54

It was so crazy. Like we walked like through the most of the mob. And like nobody said anything for a portion of time.

51:04

And then out of nowhere, like just more people you see in the video, like there's a point in time where there's only like a couple of people around me and then like they all pile up behind me once one guy yells out like,

51:14

Juan, he's over here. It's like the dude is taking the video. But like there was a point in time when like we were just walking through like as if we were just passing on by.

51:23

And and they didn't quite notice us. And then they surrounded my car. And yeah, it reminds me of that time.

51:29

Remember, they were going to take Jesus and throw him off a cliff. And the Bible says that he just turned around and just passed right through the middle of them.

51:37

Yeah, he did. So the big mob, they were going to just kill him. Right. And he turns around and he just walks directly through the middle of them.

51:44

Exactly. That's crazy. How it felt. It was wild. All right. So I have one question.

51:50

I just wanted to kind of just get your thoughts on this, because when I was watching that, it really seemed like demonic, like you guys said, like out there, like it was so demonic.

52:01

And I wonder if if part of that, obviously the whole thing with you not bowing down and saying exactly what they wanted to say.

52:08

But do you think there was there was extra hate and vitriol towards you because you're an ex homosexual and that you're open about that?

52:17

And you're like, look, Jesus saved me from this. I am a new person.

52:22

I'm a new creation. And if you notice, BLM, the LGBTQ abortion rights, they're all strongly linked together.

52:32

And so do you think that possibly because of your testimony that even fueled more hatred into you personally?

52:42

Yeah, I mean, I you know, I I just can't help but just repeat the words of Psalm two.

52:49

It says, why do the nations conspire and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the

52:57

Lord and against his anointed. This is something that's been going on since day one.

53:05

Right. Nations and the kings hate God's anointed people. Right.

53:11

They hate us. But we and I think Christians really need to understand, because while Christians are sitting down playing four square and checkers with the world, the world, it's it's kings hate us.

53:23

Right. They hate us. They hate our our our testimony of our shackles being thrown off.

53:30

They hate our testimonies of being new creations. And and they they they hate these things. Right.

53:36

Because of that hatred, we need to respond with the gospel. Amen. Exactly right.

53:41

Stop playing pity, petty parties. We need to stop by the grace of God. We need to stop playing checkers with them.

53:48

And we need to show that we really love them by presenting to them the good news.

53:54

Yeah. And it's kind of it's kind of crazy because I remember you saying in the documentary that, you know, first it was

54:00

Black Lives Matter. And then there was like Satan is showing up. Right. There's all sorts of people. And it's that only took a couple of minutes.

54:07

Exactly. That wasn't like day later, Satanist shows up. It was like, oh, Satanist is on his way with these people because they're all in the same camp.

54:17

They all have the same father. Exactly. All of them. Yeah. And they hate just so you know, that happens to us all the time.

54:23

So I've been a part of an organization like Operations Save America. We go to, you know, clinics and a hundred of us will show up and try to save babies and preach the gospel and love the rusty.

54:34

Yeah. Rusty Simons love the love the the mothers. And then, man, everybody and their mom will show up against us like Black Lives Matter.

54:43

I mean, you name it, the homeless, the LGBTQ. Because you're right. They're all a part of the you're either part of the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness.

54:52

You either you either are saved by the grace of God and God. The father is your father or the enemy is your father.

54:58

But it just becomes very real and in living color when it gets into an almost a really confrontational type of battle format.

55:07

So I feel you on that. Maybe I haven't received that amount of persecution that you have, but I feel you.

55:14

But so what maybe just for a moment, I know a lot of the accusations out there when you were preaching the gospel was, you know, you're about your homosexuality.

55:25

People were saying, you know what? It's not right. I think your brother was preaching and a woman was talking and she said, hey,

55:32

Juan, he's a homosexual and it's Juan. He's confused, right? I mean, what would you say to the people that contest that and that say, you know what, you're just confused.

55:42

You were born that way. You need to stay that way your whole life. What would you say to them? Yeah, you know,

55:48

I think about that all time, because when I first started to come to terms with this idea that I was a homosexual, you know, one of the first things that the devil had put into my mind was this idea that I was born this way.

56:01

I was born this way. I was born this way. And it became like a mantra that I repeated to myself. I'm born this way.

56:07

I'm born this way. And when my parents and my brother confronted me in my sin, you know, I was like,

56:12

I'm born this way. I'm born this way. And honestly, it sounds almost, you know, planned.

56:17

But my brother and my my pastor at the time who discipled me told me they were like, well, good news.

56:25

John three, three, says Jesus speaking, says very truly, I tell you, no one could see the kingdom of God unless you are born again.

56:32

Right. And so my response to those people is, man, maybe you were born that way. All those, you know, literally even secular scientists say nobody can be born born gay.

56:42

Yeah. But that's secular scientists that say that. Right. But. Let's just find you can have it.

56:49

I was born that way. Well, good news. Jesus Christ allowed me to be born again. That's right. Praise God.

56:55

Yeah, that's right. That's got to be the answer to the world. Right. Well, fine. You're born. Fine. You were born that way. Good. OK. Be born again.

57:01

Right. In Christ. Exactly. And it's we're all born to certain, you know, born that way.

57:07

Blast femurs, adulterers, that heart murders. Yeah. Bible says Psalm fifty one five. We're all born in iniquity.

57:13

Right. And so that's why we all need to be born again. Yeah. You know, Sister Desi, it's totally true.

57:19

We are all born in wickedness. And I think that's why my heart goes out so much to or why

57:27

I get so sharp about people who ask me, like, well, you know, how should I preach to gay people?

57:33

How should I preach to, you know, my LGB cousin or whatever? And I'm like, dude, the same gospel that saved you.

57:39

That's right. Preach to that. Are you were you by some chance different than them?

57:46

Right. You were lost. You were blind. You couldn't see. You know, Paul does say that sexual immorality does have a different consequence on our flesh in this current life because it's it's it's a defilement of this body that the

57:59

Lord has borrowed us. You know, so I do understand that there's different consequences of sexual immorality, but the the final eternal consequence is the same.

58:10

Amen. Right. Yeah. And I like I liked what you said. You're like, if it wasn't by the grace of God, we'd be sitting there on the other side.

58:16

We've said that out there at the abortion clinic, talking to like the death squirts like, hey, like I didn't get

58:22

I'm almost thirty nine. I didn't get saved till I was like twenty nine thirty. And like it wasn't that long ago that I was in agreement with you.

58:30

And if it wasn't by the grace of God, I'd be standing there in that pink vest, too. You know, we're no better.

58:37

We're just better off because we have Christ. So. Amen. Yeah. Awesome. So maybe a little.

58:43

Hopefully I'm not being too redundant. But, you know, we we said some strong words when it comes to kind of adequately and accurately defining the

58:52

Black Lives Matter organization, the movement. But with, you know, our listeners and people who have, you know,

58:59

Christian family members who are a part of this, how how should we talk to them about this?

59:05

I mean, what should we do? How should we evangelize those who are kind of trapped in that type of ideological thinking?

59:13

Do that's such a good question. So the way that I like to approach this is typically by asking that person questions.

59:22

So I would like I typically like to ask Christians who identify with this ideological position by the first thing

59:31

I ask them is like, who informs your theory on justice?

59:37

Who where does this theory derive? Where does it come from? Who is defining these terms?

59:43

Where do your definitions come from? Right. What is the origin of this position that you're sharing?

59:51

And it takes one simple Google search to see that the foundation of the people who started

01:00:01

BLM is Marxism. And Marx made it his life mission to pull

01:00:09

God out of everything possible. That was the goal of Marxism.

01:00:15

Was essentially to make the state God and to remove

01:00:20

God and the thought of God from all things, because Marx believed that God actually oppressed people.

01:00:28

So when we are to when we examine the root of these positions, we see that it is godless.

01:00:38

And so the way of addressing it in my my from my perspective is

01:00:44

I would say, ask them where these thoughts come from. That's good. Good.

01:00:49

That's absolutely excellent. You're right. It's all built on Marxism, which is built really on communism.

01:00:55

Yeah. Marx was a God hater. Yeah. And isn't it crazy? I mean, it's so funny as I was looking at all those people just screaming at you.

01:01:03

Like, really? I mean, if I if I could point my finger, if somebody said, have you ever seen like demonic oppression?

01:01:10

It would be like that. The gentleman that was just, you know, just with rage and so much hatred in his voice, you know, trying to take pictures of your license plate.

01:01:19

But that's kind of the that's the fruit of godlessness, right? Is you get that it's people who who say that they're tolerant.

01:01:26

Yeah. And say that they're loving and they're against oppression. But what do they do? They actually act that out.

01:01:32

Oh, yeah. Deny the God that created. That's right. Yeah. But and maybe just a little question. You know, the guy or some of the individuals in that film, did they oppress you?

01:01:41

Are they still after you or kind of has that calmed down or? I mean,

01:01:48

I think what's changed, brother, Zach, is really just the way I see it. They are still making miscellaneous threats or statements or accusations on me.

01:02:01

I think I just had one two days ago or so. But I think. But I almost don't want those things to stop.

01:02:09

I pray that they do cease in the name of Jesus. But what I say that it's it's my my perspective has changed.

01:02:15

Because I know that. Because of these things,

01:02:21

I'm blessed, right? Yeah, exactly. Well, woe to us if if all men speak well of us, right?

01:02:28

Yes. Yes, exactly. I think that's Luke six that that I must be, by the grace of God, doing something right for the kingdom of God.

01:02:39

If these things continue. Yeah, so exactly. We say that a lot in counseling, because, you know, when people join our church, they they join a very militant church.

01:02:51

I don't know if you've looked into it too much, but we're very, you know, active, active and active with the gospel and, you know, trying to end abortion prophetically by way of the gospel in front of the abortion clinic and also, you know, legislatively trying to put bills into place to criminalize abortion and all that.

01:03:08

But people come to church and they get involved. They go out to the mills, they go to the strip clubs that we go to to preach the gospel and or they're going to, you know, preach to people partying at Mill Avenue.

01:03:20

Then all of a sudden they're assaulted by the enemy. You know, because once you publicize your faith, man, you become enemy number one.

01:03:28

You know, just like remember the seven sons of Sceva, you know, that attack those sons. And they said, you know,

01:03:34

Paul, we know, but we don't know who you are. And why did they know who Paul was? Is because he probably he was very public with his ministry.

01:03:41

He was out, you know, arguing with the Jews and the synagogues. I mean, confronting the culture with the gospel in a in a brave and a bold way.

01:03:48

But once you do that, I mean, the enemy comes in like a flood, man. But it's a good thing. And so what I tell them is understand what it is.

01:03:55

It's not you. It's a real active devil who wants to steal, kill and destroy. And you kind of have to say, you know what?

01:04:01

I'm going to take honor in the attack because I must be doing something right. Right. Yeah. So I have a question.

01:04:08

I guess we should probably be wrapping it up here. But so you're in Texas now.

01:04:14

Tell us, like, what what do you got? And, you know, for the future, I don't want to give you an exact location because I don't want these guys coming after you.

01:04:22

But is there going to be a Nene's in Dallas? Because I I mean, the food looked amazing. I want to like I was literally drooling, like I'm drooling thinking about it.

01:04:30

Like it looks so good. Is there possibly a Nene's deli in the future? Like what do you what do you see looking ahead?

01:04:36

And also, I mean, you your whole family was uprooted. You're kind of starting from scratch.

01:04:42

Is there any way like Christians can come around you and support you guys right now? Is there a way to do that?

01:04:48

You guys have a GoFundMe. Is there a ministry? Is there anything in any way that we can help you right now in your family?

01:04:56

Well, thank you so much. So thank you for that question. It's a great way to conclude.

01:05:03

So when all everything when we got ran out of the city, we just prayed and just asked

01:05:12

God to lead us in any direction that he wanted us to go in. And we had all kind of simultaneously sensed

01:05:18

Florida because we knew there was an open door there through my pastor, his father lived there.

01:05:24

And so while we were on our way there, BLM had hacked into my eye messages because they had stole my iPad from my business.

01:05:33

And so they were tracking my messages and my location and everything. And so we then were in Georgia when

01:05:40

I got a message from somebody that said, you know, I know you're in Georgia and we know where you're going.

01:05:46

We have the address and everything. And I was like, wow, OK. So I shut my phone off and changed my number now for the second time because I had already changed it the day before.

01:05:55

Was with my wife and my daughter and my pregnant wife and my daughter, my brother, his family, his pregnant wife. And we were just like,

01:06:00

Lord, where do you want us to go? And, you know, they know where we're going now. And so we we pivoted and we sensed the

01:06:07

Lord lead us towards Dallas, Texas. So, yeah, we're out here now and I make it public because I don't want to shrink back, you know, and I want to just I'm grateful because the

01:06:19

Lord has allowed us to plant a church here now. And so by the grace of God, just like they did in the book of Acts, when disciples were persecuted out of a city, they went to another one.

01:06:28

And the Bible says that they preached everywhere they went. And so we have been pushed out of Chicago and now we are in Dallas, Texas, preaching the gospel everywhere we go to the club.

01:06:38

We're in the club districts every Friday. We go door to door every Wednesday by the grace of God. Praise God.

01:06:44

And and we are. This is an official launch of our church, Metro Praise International. This is the official second campus by the

01:06:50

Lord's grace. And so, yes. So if you feel led by God to give to our ministry, we'd be so grateful.

01:06:59

You could just go to MPI Dallas dot org, MPI Dallas dot org. Yes. Awesome.

01:07:04

And we have a giving page there. If you feel led to connect with me on any level, my

01:07:11

Facebook is the name that appears on this interview here.

01:07:17

And and yeah, we're just so grateful because so many people from all over the world have connected with us through this testimony.

01:07:23

And believers have came around us in so many ways. Whether it be through prayers or finances or people have came and visited our church since this documentary has came out.

01:07:32

And they said, you know, that this our church, you know, they've responded in a way where it seems like our church is like a breath of fresh air to them because their church has gone so woke or so, you know, away from God.

01:07:44

And so we get that. We get that a lot. Yeah. Well, that's why I almost I chuckle when you say that apology a church is militant, because that's probably what people would say about our church.

01:07:53

But really, we're just faithful. You're just faithful Christians. Yeah, it's just it's basic obedience.

01:07:59

Christianity played out in whatever culture. It just seems militant in this climate because we're surrounded by a lot of.

01:08:06

Yeah. But meanwhile, the world is literally militant and literally. Oh, totally. Literally doing the things that we get accused of doing.

01:08:13

Right. Right. Of course. OK, so one last request before we wrap it up.

01:08:19

But, you know, we'll name this episode probably a provocative title.

01:08:25

Juan is my hero. No. Something like that. But we're going to have I know we're going to have a lot of people who adhere from Black Lives Matter listening.

01:08:34

They're going to be they're actually listening right now. They will be listening, you know, when this comes out. But maybe in just a few minutes, what do you want to tell that that person?

01:08:43

Oh, man, very simple. John 316, for God so loved the world. That he gave his one and only son, that for whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

01:08:55

BLM and all people that follow BLM, we pray in the name of Jesus that you'll do like Desi did 10 years ago, that you'll do like Zack did many years ago, that you'll do like I did many years ago, that you'll do like Paul did thousands of years ago.

01:09:10

Repent for your sins. Believe in the one true gospel and give your life to Jesus or else you will perish.

01:09:18

But you have an opportunity for eternal life through the Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

01:09:26

Praise God. Amen. Amen. Man, we love you and we don't even know you.

01:09:31

We love you in Christ. And we are just so honored to have you on and your example. Of course, we give all glory to Christ in everything.

01:09:39

He deserves it all. He's he's the source behind it all. But thank you so much for the stance that you've taken along with your pastor.

01:09:47

You know, it's it's awesome to see the man that your pastor is through his people.

01:09:53

You know, you could see his shepherding through you and through your church. And so we're just so thankful that you came on our show.

01:10:00

And we're praying for you. And and I just want to let you know that we're here for you. Let us know how we can help.

01:10:07

We're going to direct people to that website to help you out. But thanks for coming on, man.

01:10:12

Yeah. Thank you, Juan. Can I say one more thing? Oh, of course. Yeah. I just like to end with on this note and and it's it's really this is that.

01:10:25

From the moment I got saved, I was never a rogue Christian. From the from the moment I got saved, the

01:10:31

Lord had really impressed on me versus like I believe it's Hebrews 13, 17, where the author of Hebrews talks about this concept of submitting to leaders and submitting to essentially the church governing the governing church body.

01:10:44

Right. And I had subscribed from an early on in my faith. Galatians six, six.

01:10:50

It talks about we should give all things to those who teach us the word of God. I kind of paraphrase that.

01:10:55

But I have, like you mentioned, brothers, that had the honor of being shepherded by a good pastor and have also had the honor of submitting to a good church, a local church.

01:11:06

And when we read the New Testament, almost all of it is written to a church. That's right.

01:11:12

Right. No revelation is to the church, to the church, to the church, to the church, to the church. You know, and it's not to the rogue

01:11:18

Christian. It's not to the guy who who follows himself and only himself. You know, it's to the church.

01:11:25

And and I really just want to urge the body of Christ, those who believe in the Lord Jesus, those who want to submit their ways to him.

01:11:32

Submit yourself to a local church. That's right. Absolutely. Rooted that loves the gospel.

01:11:39

And if you don't have one in your neighborhood, get yourself up and move. Amen. Yeah, a place that does have a biblical church, because if I were to offer you a job that would give you a pay increase, you would move anywhere for that.

01:11:52

Oh, sure. Similarly, you would go anywhere in the nation to go to a college that gives you a scholarship, right?

01:12:00

You wouldn't even think about it. So why do we think about moving to a place that has a biblically rooted church?

01:12:07

That's right. See, I know you're going to be perfect for a show. Yeah, it's just like a brother from another mother. I know. Yeah, I mean.

01:12:13

So, yeah, I just want to I just want to make that make that in there to the listeners, find the church, submit to leaders, live for Jesus.

01:12:20

We could not agree with you more. All right, man. Well, I'm going to pray for you real quick and then I'll let you go. Father, I thank you for my brother.

01:12:27

I do love him. I'm so thankful, Lord, to you as you've brought glory to yourself through his life, through the stance that he took, the stand that we all need to take.

01:12:36

Not one that we decide, the one that you decide through your word. And so I pray your blessing over his life, your continued protection,

01:12:43

Lord. I pray for this new church plant that you would bless it. And I know that you will, as they are faithful to your word and faithful to you.

01:12:50

So I pray now that you would go before him, direct his steps, Lord, direct the steps of all of his efforts, Lord, and let your blessing and your and just your grace and your mercy to pour out on his life and the life of his family.

01:13:01

It's the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. OK, we'll be in touch. We'll message you in a little bit.

01:13:07

Yeah. All righty, guys. Thanks again. God bless you. Well, thank you, guys, for listening to another episode of Provoked. I thought

01:13:12

I hope that you were encouraged because, man, I'm so encouraged. Yeah, that was awesome.

01:13:18

And thank you to Juan. And yeah, if you can check out check out Paint the

01:13:23

Wall Black, right? Because that documentary is going to now that you've heard all about it, I'm sure you're going to want to watch it.

01:13:29

But it was so well done, really tells the story of Juan. Nene's Deli really accurately and great.

01:13:36

And yeah, and then go to we're going to link that in the comments. And it was at MPI Dallas, he said.

01:13:42

I can't remember. Well, we'll make sure that we get it right on there so you guys can direct your your efforts, your prayers and hopefully your support to this new church.

01:13:50

Yeah, that's awesome. But absolutely. Yeah, we just as I think was the reoccurring theme all throughout this episode is, you know, when we talk about the

01:13:57

Black Lives Matter movement, we don't hate them. We don't hate you. If you're a part of that organization, if you affirm those godless principles that they do affirm, we love you.

01:14:08

And what we have to do, Christian, because this show is all about trying to help you share your faith to share your faith and love to them.

01:14:14

And like what Juan said, you talk about things, you discuss, you figure out where they are, you explore, but you also just lay out the gospel and love.

01:14:23

That's what we want you to do. And we hopefully that you got the most out of this episode was sharing your faith boldly and passionately, but it has to be in sacrificial love.

01:14:32

So love you guys. We got a lot of good stuff coming up. We have debates and just a lot of provocative stuff on the horizon.