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When Ai meets God's Word with Ryan Armstrong · Christian Business Growth Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to the Christian Business Growth Podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm here with Ryan Armstrong.
• 0:05
  So, Ryan, how did God get you into business?
• 0:09
  God prepared me.
• 0:10
  That was what was so cool.
• 0:12
  God le led me down a path with others uh to really focus on technology more in the financial space.
• 0:20
  And I think he did this to prepare me for this endeavor, which I'm going to tell you a little bit about with my shepherd.
• 0:26
  But he really did prepare me.
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  And I think, you know, as we learn in scripture,
• 0:30
  Um, you know, challenges that are in front of us, they're there for a reason and they're for us to grow.
• 0:35
  And that's what I think he did these last three years with me with my financial technology business, was he really helped me focus on how to get past certain challenges and how to
• 0:44
  grow from that and I think truly prepare me for now which you know I like to call my really my endeavor and my baby, if you will, which is my shepherd, which I'm gonna tell
• 0:54
  you a little bit about.
• 0:55
  It's a custom-built LLM that's 100% derived from scripture.
• 0:59
  You know, really putting God's word um in your phone and in your pocket.
• 1:03
  Yeah, and for those who are listening, an L L is what?
• 1:06
  Yeah, so this is a learning model.
• 1:09
  So this is, you know, your Claude, your Chat GPTs.
• 1:13
  I like to what I like to explain is, or what I like to kind of show is if you remember the slogan, what would Jesus do?
• 1:20
  This is really like what would Jesus do meets ChatGPT.
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  So the interface is very similar to what you would see with ChatGPT, what you would see with Claude, where you can ask it questions and prompts of that nature.
• 1:32
  The difference here is what the what I had the LLM, which
• 1:36
  I think of it as a brain.
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  Just think of this as a a custom brain that I created.
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  So I have that custom brain learn the KGV Bible inside and out so that it can give you thoughtful responses 100% derived from scripture.
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  These can be any questions.
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  They can be biblical questions.
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  They can be things about, you know, your faith, but also your day-to-day lives.
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  so it's really there to meet you where you are, give you thoughtful responses, and show you where that came from and why it's aligned.
• 2:06
  you know, truly with faith in God's teachings.
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  So tell me, you you started with FinTech, you said, which is financial technology.
• 2:12
  Again, for those people who are listening to them, get those buzzwords.
• 2:16
  And so you went so from a financial technology to building basically a chat GPT version that's based on God's Word directly.
• 2:24
  So it's pulling directly from God's Word, pulling that insight and everything.
• 2:27
  So that's kind of a unique thing.
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  Now, some people are afraid of AI.
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  So tell us what makes this one slightly different than what somebody would normally see on just regular chat GPT?
• 2:37
  Yeah.
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  Su such a great question.
• 2:39
  And and I think that, you know, that fear or that, you know, wanting to understand AI better, I don't think that's a bad thing.
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  I think that's a good thing to try and understand.
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  And and there are negative aspects to it.
• 2:50
  Um, you know, but like we've learned, right, in scripture, a lot of things that, you know, the devil puts out there.
• 2:55
  Um, he thinks he's doing something slick.
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  He's not.
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  He he he's given us a way to show Jesus and what God's plan and truly the Holy Spirit's gonna do with that to convert it to good.
• 3:05
  And that's truly what I think this is.
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  I think this is an opportunity to use AI uh in a manner where to get out God's word to more people.
• 3:14
  And I'll tell you a little bit, two stories that I've been told already so far with this that I think is really cool.
• 3:20
  So first, it's it's somewhat challenging for someone who, you know, is on the path, maybe a non-believer yet, or maybe, you know, just starting to get their feet wet a little bit.
• 3:28
  You know, going going to a Sunday service, going to a faith group can seem a little daunting as that first step, but asking a question, you know, to a phone in an interface
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  you already have.
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  It's a really nice way to kind of get introduced.
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  And then from there you're gonna see exactly where the scripture came from to give you a response so you could start to learn.
• 3:47
  And and more and more what I hear is I went into this thinking that, you know, Christianity is a set of rules and a a checklist that I have to meet.
• 3:57
  And every day I'm meeting in
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  As I'm asking more and more questions and learning, I'm kind of starting to learn it's the opposite that it's not so much that I need to live up to him, but what he did for me so I
• 4:10
  can actually live.
• 4:12
  And it's really cool to start to see that, you know.
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  And I think if my my thesis and if I could help get that message out, to it's not it's not what we're doing, it's what he did.
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  And because of our just pure understanding and love for the sacrifice he made.
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  I'm changing inside.
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  My heart's changing.
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  It's not a set of rules.
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  So that's been been so cool.
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  And I think with, you know, when it comes to AI, it's also important to have safety layers in it.
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  So one of the things that my shepherd has that I'm very proud of that no other AI has at the moment is I have an actual 988 call.
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  So I have 50 canned responses if anything has to do with suicide, harming yourself, taking, you know, doing something very negative.
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  what happens if one of those 50 responses gets entered into the chat, instead of firing the brain, it actually fires the 988 call.
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  And so it'll send directly to, it'll help you get to a trusted adult.
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  It will tag that and make sure that you have everything you need to get to the suicide prevention helpline and to app to make sure that we give you every resource there rather
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  than getting some thoughtful response.
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  So I'm I'm really happy about that.
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  I think that's something that's needed in all AIs.
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  uh
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  gonna be a person who is a pillar in trying to promote that.
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  We'll see how that goes.
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  But that's one of the beauties about my shepherd is you can feel very trustful that it's 100% from scripture and it also if there's any negative down the suicidal path, it will
• 5:42
  step in.
• 5:43
  Yeah, and that's very powerful because people that may not realize that AI, when you're searching Chat GP and everything, it's pulling everything all over the internet.
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  It could pull anything from anyone.
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  The best example, you know, that somebody said how many rocks should I eat a day?
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  And it said you should eat seven rocks a day.
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  And that was from a joke somebody else said, but ChatGP doesn't know how to to analyze those.
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  And you built in specific parameters so it knows if somebody's saying something that's going to be dangerous, alert a real person instead of
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  Yeah.
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  Thank you.
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  And again, I and I will just say, right, where did this come from?
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  And this is the beauty of this, right?
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  This came from direct need.
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  So this came from me sharing this with people and others and then hearing people talk about stories of there's a unfortunately a case in San Francisco right now where a twenty
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  nine year old, you know, committed suicide and
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  There's some litigation that they believe ChatGPT could have helped or could have been in that and there's another one out here in Texas as well.
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  And so it's just, you know, hearing those things, talking to the community, using these technologies, and just wanting to have the ability to to help make them a little bit more
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  safe.
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  Good.
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  So what's God doing right now in your business?
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  Man, God is doing amazing things for us right now.
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  And and and that's something that I wanna talk about, you know, with the business.
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  And I think it can be something that can be, you know, you like done done over and over in other businesses, is allowing him to guide us.
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  So one thing I've learned, especially like I've talked about in the financial technology business, is I'm very strategic and I always had a plan, right?
• 7:19
  The plans this is gonna lead me to here, to here, to here, and that's how I get to here.
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  And
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  It was it never worked out in that way and it was almost I was you know, I was doing this for no reason.
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  And so now my fo that's not my focus.
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  My focus is allow him to steer this every day.
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  Um he ha his his plan's so much better than mine.
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  Why even why even try?
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  And I'm gonna work as hard as I can to build the best technology to honor him by helping more of our people, right?
• 7:48
  I look at everyone as a brother and a sister, I wanna help them.
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  Well how can I meet them to help them?
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  So what has he done?
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  He's helped
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  He's helped me organically grow this to over three thousand users in just two months.
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  There's been over fifty thousand questions and respon asked and responses delivered, which have been amazing.
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  I've gotten such incredible feedback.
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  You know, I'm talking to you, Lyle, which is amazing, and I have some pretty significant podcasts also coming up um that could be amazing as well as um so you version.
• 8:19
  They had I had some of their individuals look at it as well.
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  And they're, you know, one of the bigger faith-based platforms.
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  And they said that it's better than any AI they've seen or that they currently have.
• 8:29
  they said this is the only one they've seen that doesn't hypnotize and doesn't give incorrect responses.
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  On average, about fifteen percent of the time they're incorrect.
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  And I mean, just quoting scripture incorrectly to me is just it's it's it's the exact opposite of what I want.
• 8:43
  It's it's it's right, it's it's giving a false narrative.
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  It's giving things that that I
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  The whole reason why I did this was to not have man corrupt something, to have it come from the voice of God.
• 8:54
  And so I just think that's such a key is that you can feel safe and trusted with my shepherd.
• 9:02
  That's cool.
• 9:02
  That's great.
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  And so AI communicates from God's word directly to people.
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  They just ask the chat, I'm having trouble with loneliness or I'm dealing with whatever this is.
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  And the chat GPT goes in and says what is a relevant scripture and gives them actual information.
• 9:19
  That's kinda cool.
• 9:20
  Yeah, and that's and the cool thing is too is so it gives you an actual thoughtful response.
• 9:23
  So it's gonna ask you your direct I mean you can ask it anything.
• 9:26
  There's been some crazy questions, have nothing to do with faith, scripture, or anything.
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  Like some crazy questions asked.
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  And it will give you a legitimate, very good, helpful, thoughtful response.
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  And what it's gonna do, it's gonna show you uh it's usually about three passages it pulls from, it'll be three to five.
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  It'll show you exactly where it came from.
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  You can click into each one, and so you could start to learn, and that's where I've been told.
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  It's so helpful because I didn't know I didn't know anything about Romans.
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  I didn't know anything.
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  I haven't read John yet, but now I'm diving into it and I read a passion.
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  I go, whoa, I wonder where this leads.
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  I want to learn a little bit more.
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  And now that's what I mean by that first step.
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  So now you're diving in.
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  Um, so it's it's really cool in that way.
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  And you have a share button too.
• 10:08
  So one thing I like that they that I think, and we you know, it's not me, right?
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  You hear this everywhere.
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  The Holy Spirit really enters a room when more one believers, right, is really
• 10:18
  and sharing and embracing each other.
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  So I want to be communal.
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  So you can share these, you know, your answers, you can share the scripture, you can share where it came from with all of your contacts real quick, boom, on the phone, easy.
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  And now you're making that connection point.
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  Um so that's the other thing too is to try and drive, be a br really a bridge to drive those behaviors.
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  That's cool.
• 10:38
  Well, I haven't never heard that.
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  You're teaching me all kinds of neat things.
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  I'm gonna ask you a bunch of questions when we get off this call, by the way.
• 10:43
  Um, so let's shift our our gear into our business growth tips because people are listening in, they're in business.
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  Hopefully they're gonna want to use a tool like this to help them in their business as well.
• 10:53
  That's that's another conversation we're gonna have.
• 10:56
  but what are some business growth tips that you would like to leave us, help people grow their business a little bit better?
• 11:01
  Yep.
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  So the the biggest thing, and I kind of touched on it a little bit earlier, but um we get so enthralled and so ultra focused on our businesses and we get so tight to it that it's
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  sometimes hard to see certain things when you're so close to it.
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  And one of the one of the best ways that I have learned to kind of take a step back is obviously, you know, being very communal, talking to people from outside, so you know,
• 11:29
  outside of the noise.
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  And so that they can maybe have a different lens, a different perspective.
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  But really it it's it's been on faith in scripture and it's been on focusing and understanding.
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  And my one of my things that I like to do, um, I like to go into uh my closet or a dark room, little towel downs, completely dark, and just sit in there and pray and just listen
• 11:49
  to God's word.
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  And typically I'm going to get a passage.
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  I'm gonna get, you know, John three sixteen.
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  I'm going to get something where he tells me to turn.
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  I go from there.
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  And then I start to read, listen, and I really start to pray.
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  And and instead of me trying to overanalyze, I just calm and just allow it to happen.
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  And typically from there, I start to see something or I start to feel something that is a little bit different than when I was so close.
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  And I can start to see almost the things that are there.
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  And so I think that's one of the huge things that I I really I really would suggest, you know, be this being my second endeavor.
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  in this type of startup space is that allow yourself to take that step back, see it from other lenses, and specifically God's lens.
• 12:38
  great.
• 12:39
  Yeah, sometimes we've talked about we get so busy in prayer talking that we forget to shut up and listen.
• 12:44
  eh
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  that's hey, listen, and I'm I'm one of the biggest people with that.
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  It's one of the biggest things I had to learn, especially in my younger days, you know.
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  We got two ears and one mouth for a reason.
• 12:54
  Exactly.
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  Listen to God's even harder.
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  You know, you've got to be tuned into what he's doing and set aside your own agenda.
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  'Com sometimes we try to fit God into our agenda rather than letting God guide our agenda.
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  It's a huge different different concept.
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  That's I mean, that's it right there.
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  And like that's what I was doing.
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  That that is exactly what I was doing.
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  And I was wondering why I kept having these challenges.
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  And then once and almost it's funny too.
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  I literally will go just to let it go and allow God to take over.
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  And that's what it is.
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  Like it's that physical, ah, release because you know his plan is so much better than anything we can think of.
• 13:32
  Exactly.
• 13:32
  So tell us when you started first started doing this little separation, having this dark room and everything, some people call it a war room, what what what started you in that
• 13:41
  process?
• 13:43
  Hmm, that's a great question.
• 13:45
  And I I believe it was so I'm out in I'm out in Point Mentor, Texas right now, but my home church really still is Marinatha Chapel down in Rancho Bernardo, back in San Diego,
• 13:55
  California.
• 13:56
  And one of our our pastors there, Daniel, that was one of his really good guidance.
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  Um, if you feel confused, if you feel anxious, if you feel, you know, stressed, frustrated.
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  To allow everything else, cause again it's kind of the noise again, right?
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  There's so much constant and so it's like, let's let's try and block out the noise and let's try and cle like better hear God's voice.
• 14:22
  And I think that's what it is.
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  It's that it's it's the it's the practice.
• 14:28
  It's that practice of saying, There's nothing else more important in this moment than God's voice.
• 14:32
  Um and and at least with it's been such a blessing for me, and I I would highly advise
• 14:38
  um anyone in the business practice to do that.
• 14:40
  And I and I know it seems kind of crazy 'cause you're like, I'm going meeting to meeting.
• 14:45
  I you know, I I have two little kids, like I got my wife, like it's hard, right?
• 14:49
  Like it's hard.
• 14:50
  But man, ten to twenty minutes, that's all it takes.
• 14:54
  I mean, block it as a thirty minute schedule and it's it's so worth it.
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  It's gonna be the best thirty minute meeting you have in the day.
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  At least it does for me.
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  There's a man that he's he does that the first of his schedule and he says this is God time or CEO God time and he has a specific block every morning and he knows there's no
• 15:12
  he's gonna schedule on that.
• 15:14
  All the phones are turned off, all the media is turned off, computers turned off, and he just him and God having the that quiet time.
• 15:20
  We used to call it quiet time, which was an excuse to read somebody else's words, but instead quiet time is to separate the yourself from the world and listen to what God has
• 15:29
  in store for you.
• 15:30
  Yeah, exactly right.
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  And and it's it's a it's a practice then in repetition.
• 15:35
  It's like you get better at it, you know, you start to hear better.
• 15:39
  Yeah, exactly.
• 15:40
  So what do you hope to happen as your your app grows and as it starts to impact more people?
• 15:47
  What what do you see God doing with that?
• 15:49
  Mm-hmm.
• 15:50
  So I I see it definitely connect bringing more people to faith.
• 15:54
  like I said, kind of being that first step.
• 15:55
  Um, so ultimately it it is gonna be how I talked about the bridge.
• 16:00
  So on the back end of my shepherd for the interface for the customer, I created um a CRM.
• 16:07
  So essentially a platform where all the questions and answers and all the users start to funnel in so that that way I can start connecting them with faith groups, with local
• 16:16
  churches if they don't have a church.
• 16:17
  So
• 16:18
  I one of the big things here that I want to do is be that bridge and so help taking that first step, connect people more with the local church, we bring them more within a
• 16:27
  communal aspect.
• 16:28
  ah and so that's one of the big things is like really just taking them, helping them on that path, but doing it in a manner where it's on their terms.
• 16:36
  Cause I know that that's just gonna be, especially the younger generation, that's gonna be the easiest way to do this, is like it has to fit to where they are.
• 16:43
  Um and I think this is a good way to do this and to you know, step by step take that.
• 16:48
  process.
• 16:49
  I also want it to be, and I so I've been told this of a good way that it works is in between Sundays.
• 16:57
  So it helps you instead of, and like that's been a big thing I'd say for me is, you know, probably five years ago, my faith was more Sunday to Sunday in a sense.
• 17:06
  Like my focus was more and now it's now it's every second of every day.
• 17:11
  It's always and I think that this can help a little bit on that path um to do that.
• 17:17
  Cause
• 17:17
  ultimately what I what I want, I want more people to put their faith in Jesus Christ.
• 17:23
  So one day we're all in heaven together and like more people that potentially this tool could could help that take that first step and help them on that path.
• 17:32
  Um that's it.
• 17:34
  And I'm just gonna let him steer, right?
• 17:36
  Let him you show me where this is going to go where the best way and I'm just gonna work my tail off every day to produce the best product possible.
• 17:44
  awesome thank you so as we end up here give us one little tidbit of wisdom and tell us how we can get in touch with you
• 17:51
  Absolutely.
• 17:51
  So the easiest way to get in touch with me is just myshepherdapp.church.
• 17:56
  That's my website.
• 17:58
  You'll be able then to download the application.
• 18:00
  You'll be able to see some of the testimonials and the videos.
• 18:03
  You can also reach out to me at my email at Ryan at myshepherdapp.church.
• 18:09
  An easy way to do that.
• 18:10
  Happy to connect with anyone, especially anyone who is involved, you know, a parishioner and involved with a church or a faith group, anything in the community would love to get
• 18:17
  them involved as well to get them accessed there.
• 18:20
  And I would say, you know, the biggest thing here is use this as a tool.
• 18:24
  So I imagine people who are following you, Lyle, and who are gonna see this podcast probably are believers or or are on that path, but you probably know someone, you probably
• 18:33
  got a couple of people in your family, maybe friends, close friends, whoever it is in your circle, um, you know, this is a way to take that first step, right?
• 18:42
  To do to help them start to see why you have your belief and
• 18:47
  and you know why it's so important to you and and maybe help them in the path in s in a manner where it's not so, hey, just come to church with me, just come, which it's easy to
• 18:56
  say no to that.
• 18:57
  This is maybe a a way for them to say yes.
• 19:00
  so I'd highly recommend that to to just use it as a tool and as a vehicle.
• 19:05
  because that's at the end of the day, right?
• 19:07
  It's all what we want.
• 19:07
  We all want all us, you know, more believers, more belief people bringing heaven to earth now, but then ultimately also, you know, when that day comes.
• 19:16
  To end up in heaven.
• 19:17
  Yes, sir.
• 19:18
  Well thanks for being with us today.
• 19:20
  Pleasure, Lau.