In this motivational sermon, the speaker argues that personal suffering is integral to God‑given calling and ministry. He explains that anyone called to help others in broken areas—marriage, addiction, low self‑esteem—must first experience those same pains, because only those who have walked through darkness can truly reach the unreachable. He shares a vivid personal testimony of his own descent into homelessness, IV drug addiction, psychiatric units, and near‑death experiences in downtown Los Angeles, and how he emerged to build a 10‑year clinical career, lead a men’s ministry, and create a seven‑figure business called Beyond Driven that equips hundreds of men. The speaker emphasizes that God does not call the equipped; He equips the called, and the missing piece for listeners is a systematic, start‑to‑finish process that puts them back in the driver’s seat. Using the biblical metaphor of the armor of God, he urges listeners to embrace darkness, go back into it to help others, and recognize that their purpose is forged from their pain, encouraging them to rise and fulfill their larger divine plans.
Chapters
The calling on your life is going to crush you. See, if you have a calling to help people inside a broken marriage, you're going to have to go through marital struggles. If you got a calling to help people who are in the darkness in addictions, you're going to have to have your spirit broken by affliction and suffering and addictions and and vices and self-destructive behaviors. If you have a calling on your life to minister with people with low self-esteem, then you're going to have to be inside the brokenness of loss and hopelessness and powerlessness and self-doubt. If you have a ministry and you have a calling on your life to speak and help people who are in lost and broken places, you must have been a lost and broken person in order to reach those individuals. Yes, my brother, it is you. The best ministers are the people who have been there. A lot of people can teach you what they know out of a book or try to teach you from a perfect life that they've had, but very few individuals can teach and preach and reach the unreachable unless they've actually been through it. The best teachers are the ones who have persevered and learned the lesson. See, here's the most powerful thing about you, about you. I'm proud of you, man, because you've been through all these things in your life, and you— God's got a calling on your life. And what you're not recognizing, let me help you out here, is that all the things that you're facing right now is a part of God's calling on your life. You and I both know that you want to be in a position of leadership. You want to be in a position where you can minister to other people. And the only way that's ever going to happen is if you recognize that your purpose comes out of your pain. Your purpose comes out of this pain. See, right now you're in this pain and you can't see the purpose that comes out of it. The calling on your life is going to crush you. If God is calling you to those places, he has to create a common ground. God creates a common ground with you and the people that you're going to serve by you walking through hell. Right now I could tell you My brother, I walked through hell. I'm talking about downtown LA, homeless, addicted to IV drugs. I'm talking about psych units. I'm talking about trauma. I'm talking about brokenness. I'm talking about near-death experiences. I'm talking about a life, a life that very few of the guys that I was in that life with actually escaped. To doing what? To working in the clinical field, helping thousands of people, stacking over 20,000 hours, over 10 years of clinical experience, one-on-ones, groups, facilitating, consulting, speaking, right? Traveling around, ministering to people, becoming the men's ministry director at my church, creating Beyond Driven, a 7-figure business that's helped hundreds of guys. Hundreds of guys are currently using the systems that I teach them. Why? Because I came out of the darkness because I was called to something greater. My brother, you are called to something greater in your life. There is no difference between you and me, bro. We are the same. And the only thing that you are missing is a system. The only thing that you are missing is a start-to-finish process that puts you back in the driver's seat and actually equips you. Here's the most powerful thing: God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called. God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called. Which means what? If you're already called, God is just waiting to arm you with the tools. As you put on that full armor of God— helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, shoes of peace, shield of faith, sword of the spirit— as I go to war with the things that tried to take me out of this life. A lot of people, they're spiritual. And they don't want to go to the darkness. They want to stay in the light. And a lot of us, we've already been to the darkness. We've looked darkness in its eyes. We've seen and been immersed to darkness. And you know what? We're not afraid to go back into the darkness to reach our hand in to help somebody else out. My brother, you got such a massive call in your life. God has so— God has such bigger plans for you, man. What I want to do today is I want to encourage you, inspire you, and remind you that this is not over. If you're not dead, God's not done. You've got a ministry, you've got a calling. It's time to rise.
