"GET TO" vs "HAVE TO"

Yeah, I got a question.

Sure.

Okay. That's not normal. You know that, right? Like, I can go to church pretty much anywhere around here and walk in the door on Sunday morning, I sit down one of the pews and I'm good, right?

Yeah, yeah.

This whole, like standing room and I don't know if I can get in. It's overflow. Only that. What was. Can you put your finger on what was causing that?

The Holy Spirit. I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit that, you know, there was five years where I said no to a heavy calling on my life. And things started. I mean, I had a pretty. We were poor growing up, but I didn't know it. My parents did a good job of all. We always had great food to eat. Come from a family of amazing cooks with amazing backgrounds that kind of feed into how good the food is and, and everything was surrounded by fellowship and breaking bread. It might be a breaking bread having a delicious meal with people you love and talking about your faith, praying over sitting down as a family for dinner was very important. And so, you know, when I fast forward to like the, the reason behind all that, I mean, man, it was just God one day, said Jason, enough. Like, I, like I didn't hear his voice audibly. It was just. There was just too many signs that just kept saying, you're saying no. And this is why you're saying no. You think you can do it on your own. And life easy to life, not easy. And when I say easy, how you doing? Yeah, and when I say easy, I mean like I didn't have obstacles, healthy, plenty of money, good jobs, good at business, great friends. So I thought at one time, like the greatest friends around me, this really good group popularity, all. All these things. If you check off a list of majority of people, right? Popularity, check. Income, check. Great place to live, check. Those are all tangible things here on earth that are practical. It's things that people want because it's nice to have nice things. And I started saying no. I was saying no to a heavy client on my life to serve, to serve others, to give money away that I thought was mine. And. And I had this super heavy conviction and I finally said. I said yes. And then the pain actually increased. And I think that happens a lot. The enemy goes on attack because he knows what we're capable of. The kingdom work was really going to start when I said yes. To have your calling in my life to serve others and add value as much as I could. And that's where the inviting people with the wristband came from. It wasn't my idea. I was in prayer, asking God, how are you going to use me to. To. To reach others? How many people can I lead to faith? Give me the courage to lead people through the prayer of salvation. Let me recognize the opportunity. Let me see the world through your eyes and not my own. I mean, that was my prayer. Like, give me your lens. Not a lens where my flesh. Because I'll get in the way, right? I'll be treacherous. I'll tell a small fib to get ahead. I want to be the guy who has the most attention in the room, right? Like, all these things that were, like, naturally of my flesh. And when I really, truly understood the power of grace and mercy and surrendered to that calling of Jason, it's no longer about you. You're going to be behind the scenes going forward.

So is that the. Like, the first the. So for a couple questions. Yeah, a bunch of them. So the actual wristband itself, was that your idea or somebody else's idea?

No, they already were doing it. They were selling them at what part of merch, right at the church. They had T shirts and sweatshirts and hats and wristbands. And I. I was like, how much are the wristbands? And they're like, you know, you can.

Get like, yeah, can I buy a truckload?

No. So literally. So they had. I think, like, it was like, the first time I made a purchase, it was. There was 123 wristbands or like, hey, they're a buck a piece. And I said, okay, I want every single wristband in the little pile. And they're like, what, no one? You want one or two? And I said, no, I want every single one, because I'm giving them all away. Because the profit that we got from the merch went to missions anyways. So for me, it was like a double win, right? 123 bucks, and I'll buy a bunch of sweatshirts and T shirts that I'm not going to wear. I'm going to give those away, too. Let me just empty out the merch. So I think that it was, like, about three months in. I wasn't serving full time, like, as a campus leader. I just started attending a new church. I left my old church. And. And that's where the trigger was. I just had this idea. I'm like, man, I want to hand out a wristband to people. And. And it just was this conversation about inviting people to church in church, like, during the sermon, they're like, invite all your friends this weekend. It's going to be amazing. And we got freedom coming up. Invite all your friends to go to freedom. It's the best thing. It'll take your relationship with anybody you're friends with to the next level. There was, like, all this stuff about invitation, invitation, invitation, invitation, invitation. And that was going on to me. I think sublimity. It was happening, but I was ignoring it. And then it just was like, I heard invitation, and I just thought, man, what a better way to invite somebody than to just. So I started wearing two or three of them. Not because I thought it was cool, because everywhere I went, I was handing them out. And don't think I didn't have three or more in my pocket.

That's really awesome. So that was kind of the first part of how you started to say yes to serving a little bit.

Yeah.

Because you've done more.

I mean, I was serving in other capacities, but it was more out of obligation. Right. It was those things that we do where we make a commitment. We don't want to go against our word, so we do it. It wasn't like out of obedience. It was out of obligation. And so there was a very small pivot. I would say that that moment was my single degree pivot of my posture. The way that I viewed it was, instead of out of obligation, I was going to do it out of obedience. So now it wasn't. I have to. It was, man, I get to do this.

That's one of my favorite mindset type of things. You know, this idea of working out. You see all these people that don't. Right. Don't exercise.

Sure.

And. And they have. And when they do, it's like, well, I gotta go work out. I have to go exercise. I have to do this. I'm like, no, you get to.

Right.

Like, most people don't know this about me right now, so I'll. I'll divulge it here on this podcast. I'm dealing with something. I've got this autoimmune thing that's going on with me, and anybody that's kept up with me for the last couple years knows that I went through the whole 75 hard thing, got in the best shape of my life. I mean, I've never felt better.

It's a big deal.

October of this year, autoimmune gets me. I can't work out anymore.

Wow.

Pain every day. And the. That whole attitude of, I get to work out. I never had this. I have to go do the 75 hard thing. I get to. There's Somebody can't. My mom has ms, right? So she doesn't get to work out. There's a lot of people that don't have access to the facilities, the tools, or any of the stuff to do it. The instruction. There was people begging across the world to have the opportunity to work out or to have the opportunity we have here in America. We get to go to work every day. We get to impact people. We get to do these things because of the situation that we're in. And just that mindset shift of having to go to work, right. I was super pumped this Monday. I got to go to work.

Yeah.

Like, I felt well enough like I can. I'm going to go to work on Friday. Couldn't get out of bed because of one of the treatments I had to go through. So I love that. But like, that degree shift out of obligation to obedience, that has maths really good.

I'm like, you know that that was inspired by a sermon by my, my former pastor. And he's just become a really. He's become a really dear friend of mine. And he had a sermon and he was talking about like, your destination. Like, where do you want your destination to be, right? We have two places to go when we die. It's unrefutable that Jesus was a real person, right? I mean, historical facts. If we start going through dates, right? I mean, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is. There's over 39 accounts. You know, you can go through and, and look up the history and people can Google search it themselves. He's a real person, right? We can't say that he wasn't. And so then when you feel that, that level of conviction in your heart and you're ready to, you know, surrender and, and make that prayer of salvation, it's like, okay, so now you get to go to heaven. So what do we do with that? What do we do with the decision that we make and the destination that we're headed? And he had this really great concept of it doesn't matter how lost you feel even, or how qualified you are. Your resume. And he referenced this Apollo ship, one of the. The trips. And they were like a single degree. And that's why I use that degree. You're a single degree off and they would have not landed on the moon by. It was like 13,000 miles away from your desired destination. And just doing that single degree course correction gave them where they wanted to land. And so he applied that message with scripture in a way of, you know, you want to go to Heaven. Right? You can have all the knowledge, the head knowledge you want. You can have all the equipment, you have all the accolades. And a lot of times, for a lot of lost people and people that are going through pain physically, they're having marriage problems, business problems, financial problems, you know, problems with their kids. A lot of times it's just that. And you know, and you know what you want the result, you desire it. And when that aligns with God's will, that single degree that just that smallest change, some of us look at it as like it's so much bigger than what it has to be. There's so many times we're just that. That small little course correction in our business or that small little course correction in our marriage or our relationship with a family member, a sibling, or with our kid, our teenager, you know, is. Is all it takes to. To be right on track.

My. My favorite get to versus have to is in reference to my wife. I get to spend time with her.

Yeah, It's a big deal.

I enjoy her. Her company more than anybody on this planet. And so I get to like, hang out with my best friend.

I love that man.

We actually hung out last night. We went to a new place, this restaurant that was there forever. Went out of business during COVID It's been taken ever since.

They.

They put this new sports bar. And I love sports bars and sports and all that. Wasn't expecting. We were expecting like, you know, dirty biker, sports bar type feel. No, it was.

Where was this at?

This is in New Braunfels. It's fantastic. TV's everywhere. Really nice. It's right on the river. All kinds of games, you know.

That's cool. Yes.

It turned out to be an amazing night and was gonna be. Whether it was the dirty biker bar or the sports bar, sometimes the dirty.

Biker bar is kind of cool.

Yeah, we've had some good times there. We. We do our dive bar tours too.

I think if. If Jesus were dwelling on earth today, he would go to the. He would. Gangster Jesus would walk into the dirty. The dirty.

I got some stories along that. But this is a podcast about you, not me. That's a man.

I'm glad you mentioned about spending time with your wife. You know, I just. It would. I would be disappointed in myself and. And regret it if I didn't talk about, you know, one of the. One of the things that. That God used to lift my lid, so to speak, if I had a lid on my faith was what was my wife.

Why is that?

Well, you know, I was not able to have children and was, was my DNA carries cystic fibrosis. And, and there was a friend of mine who I was going to church with a female. I was friends with her for years and she would come to church and you know, we, we'd do stuff in group atmospheres and even as friends it was very platonic. I'd met her through another friend of mine introduction. She was actually kind of like a really good wingman for me when I was dating in the dating scene, which was terrible. Later in life, you know, if you accomplish your, your business stuff and I can tell you that, you know, God used her in the most radical way because you know, I have a, a very healthy, almost three year old Nile of faith when I wasn't supposed to have kids. So you know, we, we told not only my oncologist but also the doctors who said I could have kids, that they could go, you know, stuff in a sock. They didn't know what they were talking about. But you know, I, you know, we just have this miracle child. Everything. Even when she got pregnant, they said, you know, this is, this is not a good idea. There's a 90% chance that she'll be born with cystic fibrosis. It'll be passed on from her father and she's just like a kiss from heaven. I mean she's perfect in every way. I mean the way that God intended us to perform perfectly from a health standpoint. You know, she lifts her hands to worship music. Man. I got videos on my Instagram that shows my little girl, you know, lifting her hands and doing praise and worship to Brandon Lake song Gratitude. When she was little, like from age zero, like day one being born up to like six months. The only way we could get her to go to sleep was an elevation worship song called with you. Right. I mean you can't make that up. And it was because my wife and I played that when during her pregnancy. We played that song a lot because it got us through Covid. We spent a lot of time together and praise and worship and, and, and just making declarations over our daughter. And now she's, I'm proud to say, you know this, but I'll make the announcement. You know, being told again I couldn't have kids. And we even did the whole like we went to consider doing iuh which is a form of IVF because you know, we were wanting to have another child. It wasn't working. Seven months went by. It started creating a little bit of tension in the relationship because of the unknown and and man, when we stopped worrying about it and we just started praying, we started making declarations to the Lord that you're going to send us another kiss from heaven. You're going to send us another kiss from heaven. And we know that we're going to have a boy. We're going to carry on the Laverick name. And I'm proud to say that our son will be born late July.

Yeah, I was pumped yesterday.

Yeah, dude. I mean, that was awesome. Like, that 3D stuff's creepy because when they have their hands over their head, they look like, like so alien esque. And there's all these bumps and then you gotta. They gotta tell you tear and you think, oh, my word, my kids are going to like, come out with all these weird deformities and it scares you a little bit. And then, and then you get the real profile. And as I was able to share with you, Matt, it was, I mean, just what an emotional moment to see another gift from heaven. We did the multimillion variations of all the DNA testing and stranding of, you know, the possible deformities he could have. And I mean, our little. A little boy's perfect, man. And it's just. That's all God. That is all God. Just covering my wife's womb. And I had to mention her because without Aaliyah and God using her in my life and for my life, we would not be able as a couple to give other people. This level of hope of prayer is real and God is answering them and medically speaking, it's not possible for me. That's not a joke. I mean, that is on record. It's not possible. And then in the event a miracle happened, you have something else to go against. You have this, this thing that you guys got to worry about and another declarations of prayer, answer to prayer is that, you know, he'll be born perfectly. And I just. I mean, we just live in a complete season of gratitude. And the time, you know, my number one love language is time. And the time I get to spend with my. With my wife, Aaliyah is. I mean, it just. The posture that I remain in is just complete vulnerability and surrender and, and what she has shown me and her commitment to me, I mean, she just shows up, man. She shows up.

That's. It's. It's not easy, right? Like, I can relate. My wife's doing the same thing right now that I'm going through some stuff now.