Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Gang Member to Christian. Expelled Twice from High school. God's Radical Saving Grace. - Highlight Episode 328

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Gang Member to Christian. Expelled Twice from High school. God's Radical Saving Grace. - Highlight Episode 328 · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Today's a unique episode because it's sort of like an episode within an episode.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: What's it called?
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: It is Easy's Testimony.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Easy's Crazy Testimony that's what it's called.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: It should be changed to Crazy Easy's Testimony.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I like that.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: For those of you who don't know, Easy was in a gang.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: It's hard to believe because we know Easy for who he is as a new creature in Christ.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I got a text from him this morning because he has been sick and I said are you better?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: And he wrote back and he says last night I was sweating like a pig but I came better.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: I actually read it as swearing like a pig.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: It's very close when you look at it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I had to focus my eyes a little bit, but his light, I mean for easy to swear would be just anathema, because he's such a godly man and he's a testament to the fact that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Because when we listen to this testimony I've heard this testimony before so many times, I've heard this testimony so many times.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I've heard this testimony before it's wonderful and it gives glory to God, but it shows he was a very vicious, very vicious gang member and yet this nobody is loving and ferociously kind, as easy.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: And if any man be in Christ.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Yale's pretty close.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Is he here now?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: No, oh, there you are.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: He's born again.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: New heart, new desires, and that's the miracle of conversion.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: You're going to see now.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Compelled is essentially a story form podcast where they do an amazing job interviewing individuals learning about their salvation story.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Ez was honored enough to be asked to be invited onto Compelled to share his testimony, and so you're going to hear.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: This is a very different kind of format.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: They put a lot more effort into their post-production than we do, that's for sure, and we think you're going to like this.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: So here is EZ's episode on Compelled.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: I was getting into fights all the time with other fellow students.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: I was not doing well academically.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: I threatened to kill one of my teachers.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: I vandalized one of my classrooms near the end of the school year, so yeah.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: So they nabbed me and busted me and said, yeah, you're not coming back next year.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: So by the end of that freshman year I was now expelled.
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: When you're that age and you're after again acceptance and belonging and wanting to be cool and wanting power, you just foolishly end up making really stupid decisions.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: And there was a bit of that kind of when the dust settled and I kind of came back to my senses and I realized, wait a minute, I just became a part of one of the most notorious gangs in the United States.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: And so from there things really degenerated.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: I started going downhill morally more than ever.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: That long list of do's and don'ts that I had established was now just a distant memory.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: I mean, just about everything on there was checked off.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: And so, yeah, by the end of my sophomore year now I found myself getting expelled from my second high school.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: At the end of my sophomore year now, I found myself getting expelled from my second high school.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: At the end of that sophomore year I had a grade point average of 0.32, four Fs and twoD minuses.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: And I would think, man, I know I really got to give my life to God Because I would go to an evangelical church with one of my friends and I would hear things about God.
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: But still it's like I knew and I remember I would pray at night and I'd say God, I know I need to give you my life, I know I need to surrender everything to you, but I can't stop drinking and partying and indulging in immorality.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: And I was right, I couldn't, I didn't have the power to do it.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: But my friend invited me to this evangelistic event and I really can't believe.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: I said yes to him.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: He said, hey, my parents invited me to this thing, you want to go?
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: And it was a month before we were supposed to go.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: And I said, yeah, yeah, I'll go.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: And we walk into this amphitheater and there were like 20,000 plus people there and I was just like, wait, what is this?
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: Again, I had no clue what this was all about.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: And so I walk in and I see this like festive atmosphere and thousands upon thousands of people, and people just look so full of joy and I remember they started the worship music and I'm looking at these people, man, and they're standing there and they're looking toward the heavens and their faces are beaming with joy, big smiles on their faces, and I remember thinking, man, these people are acting like God is really here or something.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: Even just hearing the music, my heart just started to soften.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: So then the preacher gets up and he begins to preach the gospel.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: You say I can't come to Christ, I could not give up my way.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Sure, you can, because if you become a Christian, jesus Christ will take residence in your heart and he will give you a new nature.
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: And man, it was so strange.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: It was almost as if, though, he had like a camera that followed me everywhere I went, recording every moment of my life.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: It was almost like he had a chip in my brain that was reading my thoughts, because so many of the things that he was talking about and touching on I had been thinking about and contemplating.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: I remember the preacher, at the end of his message, said that salvation was a free gift that you couldn't work for or earn, but that God gave on the basis of his grace.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: We get to my house, but that God gave on the basis of his grace.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: We get to my house.
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: I'm walking in toward the door and I look in through the window and we catch eyes and she went into that I'm gonna kill you, mom, pose, you know where the fists go, up there up to the side, and it was like, oh man, I'm in big trouble.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: So I walk in and I just remember I had this you know, ear to ear grin that I just could not bring down Again.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: I was just transformed.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: I'm like man, I have everlasting life, like what just happened to me.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: And so I come in.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: I'm like hi, mom, you know this big old permagrin and she goes hi huh, you've been doing this, haven't you?
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: I go yeah, mom, I have.
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: She nearly flew back like 20 feet.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: All my life she'd been accusing me of things and asking me if I've been doing things, and of course I never admitted to anything.
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: And here I am, like, without any arm twisting, I'm just saying yes.
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: So she takes another shot.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: You've been doing this too, haven't you?
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, mom.
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: Not just that, but a whole lot more.
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: And I remember we sat down that night in her room and I just told her everything I'd been doing, from A to Z, and she just began to weep no-transcript.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: So I said, mom, I want you to mark my words.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: From this night forward, nothing will ever be the same.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: So that was August 15, as I said, 1991.
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: And my mom passed away from cancer May 22nd of 1994.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: But until that day she never forgot those words because God, by his grace, allowed her to see the radical transformation in my life and everything about me changed, the way I walked, the way I talked, the way I acted, the way I felt.
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: I mean, I was just totally transformed.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: You know, again, I was on my way to the big league with my rap group and I knew instantly that I couldn't carry on with that, because I couldn't be a hypocrite, couldn't get on stage and rap about the filthy things we used to rap about and then get off stage and go and be a Christian.
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: You know, I knew that my life had to have that integration in it, that God had to be a part of every aspect of my life, and I couldn't live by a double standard.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: And so I remember, I called up my producers, I called up my DJ.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: I said, hey guys, something massive has changed in my life.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: I'm a Christian.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: I can't do this anymore.
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: A few years passed and Emil's fervor for evangelism hadn't died down.
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: In fact, if anything, it had only increased.
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: After graduating from high school, emil enrolled at a Christian university to study the Bible and teamed up with a former high school enemy of his who had also become a Christian, and together they planted a small church.
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: And it was around this time that God used Emil's interest in evangelism to open up a rather unexpected door.
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: I went to visit some friends at a Bible college and this guy comes up to me and he goes.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: Man, you ever heard of this guy named Ray Comfort?
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: Man, he's crazy.
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: No, I've never heard of this crazy guy named Ray Comfort, but he really got my attention with that and so he goes.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: Man, I'll be right back.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: He goes to his dorm room and he comes back and he puts this book in my hand called Springboards for Effective Evangelism.
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: It was a book written by Ray and he goes.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: Man, you've got to read this and I'm reading about all this stuff this guy's doing.
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: I'm like what in the world?
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: I mean it was just like insanity.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: I mean he's going up to perfect strangers, cold turkey, on the street preaching the gospel to them.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: He's preaching the gospel out in the open air to the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: He's doing a mock funeral in public where he's got these guys dressed up in white button-down shirts and black ties and sunglasses, with a guy lying on the ground and a sheet over him.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: They're acting like pallbearers.
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: He's doing a funeral in public and then preaching the gospel, talking about death.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: And I remember reading in the front of the book it said edited by Rachel Comfort on the title page and that stood out to me and I thought I wonder who that is.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: Is it his wife, his daughter, I don't know.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: I was just my jaw hit the ground.
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: I'm like this is crazy.
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: And I was really inspired.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: And so I started to connect more with the ministry and get resources.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: And I remember I called one day to order some tracts and I hear this very familiar voice on the other end, living waters.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: I'm like wait, no, this can't be.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: I'm imagining things.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: So we keep talking a little more.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: And no, this can't be.
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: I'm imagining things.
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: So we keep talking a little more.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: And then I'm like I'm sorry, is this Ray Comfort?
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, bro, I am.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it was him.
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: And I'm like what I knew I was calling Living Waters, but I didn't expect Ray Comfort to answer the phone.
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: That was just awesome.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: Meeting him was surreal and just really, really neat.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: And so then we invited him to come on a Sunday morning.
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: Now, what's interesting is before that I had gone to speak at a retreat up in the mountains and typical retreat, nothing out of the ordinary.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: But at the end of the retreat, this very respected godly woman in the church comes up to me and says hey, there's something that's just really heavy on my heart, I wanted to share with you.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: And she goes yeah, but I can't tell you now.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: I was like what.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: I mean, she took me up up, you know, to Mount Everest and then dropped me down into Death Valley, you know, and I'm like what in the world?
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: Anyhow, I come home, you know, I'm reading the book of Genesis, as I was teaching it at a midweek Bible study at our church, and I'm in chapter 24, and I get to the very end, I read the very last verse, and it said Isaac took Rebecca in his mother's tent and she became his wife and he loved her and he was comforted after the death of his mother.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: My mom had passed away a year prior to that, so, and my mom and I were super, super close and I just missed her terribly, I mean very, very badly.
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: And so when I read that verse, it just struck my heart.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: You know, isaac took Rebecca in his mother's tent, she became his wife, he loved her and he was comforted after the death of his mother.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: And so then the next day, sunday, july 9th, that's when Ray came to speak, and I remember he and I were standing outside our sanctuary, which was on a second floor, and we were looking down as we stood outside into an open courtyard and all of a sudden the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth comes waltzing through.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: And I look down at her, ray looks at me and goes that's my daughter.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: I'm like wow.
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: And so she gets up to the top of the stairs and man, it was.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: It sounds so cliche and corny, but I just remember looking at her and getting this sense man, I'm looking at my wife like this girl's going to be my wife.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: It was just weird.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: And so Rachel was actually looking for a new home church and so she started visiting the church, coming to my Bible study, and we began to build, you know, friendship.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: And then, right after that, I get a call from that lady from the retreat.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: It was really heavy on my heart to share with you Genesis, chapter 24, when Isaac met Rebecca.
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: And then I believe God's going to bring you a woman who will bring you.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: And I was like what it was?
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: Like this hot flash came over me.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: It was so you know.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: I mean she had told me she had something she wanted to share with me, didn't tell me what it was.
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: I come home I read this verse.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: It really strikes my heart.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: I asked the Lord to bring me a woman who'd bring me comfort.
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: And then, right after the next day, I meet this girl who I sense is going to be my wife.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: Then that lady calls and tells we built a friendship for five, five and a half months or so and really really hit it off.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: And I mean, we both kind of fell in love with each other.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: And I was going to wait a year because I just really wanted to be certain.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: I didn't want to be mystical about it.
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: You know I was going to wait, but then it just became really apparent.
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: You know what I think the Lord's really in this.
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: And so I remember I called Ray and I said, hey, ray, can I come over and talk to you and Sue his wife?
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: So he said okay.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: So I shared my heart and told him everything that had been going on.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: And then I asked for their blessing to start a relationship with her.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: And, yeah, they gave me their blessing and so we started a relationship, a very, very, very long three-week relationship, got engaged for three months and then got married.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: You know, the amazing thing about it all is.
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: I had had two previous relationships that were significant for different reasons.
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: One was a relationship before I became a Christian.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: The other one was my first relationship as a Christian.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: One of the girls' names was Rachel, the other was Naomi, but in the end neither of them brought me comfort.
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: But the Lord gave me a second chance.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: My wife's first name is Rachel, her middle name Naomi.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: Her last name, comfort.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: The day before I met her, lord, bring me a woman who'll bring me comfort after the death of my mother.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: The next day, he brought me a woman bearing those other two names and even bearing the very name of Comfort, and so celebrated 27 years here not long ago.
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: And God's blessed us with five beautiful children, two grandchildren and hopefully many, many, many more grand and great, great, great, great grandchildren to come.
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: And I'm just like Lord, I should be dead or in prison and look at what you've done.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: And I recognize it.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: It's only His grace.
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: That's what he does.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: He takes those that are lost and dead and blind and he finds them and he gives them life and he gives them sight and he uses them for His glory.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: And years ago I summarized my testimony in this real short verse, and it's simply this.
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: I once was but a lump of coal upon a heap of mire.
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: Yet Jesus Christ redeemed my soul and saved me from the fire.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: Boy.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: You know, ray would often say when we would travel I'm having a hard time falling asleep.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: Just tell me your testimony.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Please Help me out.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: I'm having a hard time falling asleep.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Just tell me your testimony.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Please Help me out, Do you?
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: remember that, Ray?
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Yes, so funny, but EZ's testimony is anything other than boring.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: You almost feel like you don't have a testimony.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: And quick side note it's okay if you don't have a testimony, like EZ's.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: If you don't know when you got saved, you just remember growing up inside of a Christian household and at six years old you're going to church.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: That's such a good point, you guys.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: There is something beautiful about the faithfulness of parents raising their children in a Christian home, early salvation and just growing up faithfully in God's Word.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: What's funny is for those of us that have more of like a road to Damascus type stories.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: I'm compelled by those stories, the stories of just a faithful Christian family whose sons and daughters grew up faithfully following the Lord.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights from the Living Waters podcast.
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: Friends, we value your time, so we've created a bite-sized version of our podcast for listeners who wanna get equipped without the jokes and fellowship.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: Be sure to check out the full episode every Thursday, where we dive deeper into the topic.
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: Until then, you can watch the full podcast episode, available now on livingwaterstv.