5 Ways to Handle Vision Killers

If you’ve ever left a meeting with someone feeling smaller than your calling, tempted to cancel or lessen your vision, and overwhelmed by someone else’s objections, this episode will steady you - and remind you that builders don’t stop at the wall. They look for the door.

Want to grow as a WORSHIP LEADER?
Go here: https://shorturl.at/oqB6x

Want to grow as a SONGWRITER?
Go here: https://shorturl.at/FQAnM

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In an age of hot takes, fear, and one-track minded leaders, many creators are facing a different kind of pressure. Pressure to scale back. Pressure to play safe. Pressure to call something “wisdom” when it’s really fear.

In this episode, Justin unpacks a recent meeting that sought to derail his creative project, and the five lessons that emerged from it. A candid conversation about courage, counsel, and the pressure that tries to shrink vision. 

ABOUT JUSTIN RIZZO

If you’re new here, my name is Justin Rizzo.

I'm a worship leader, songwriter, and filmmaker based in the Midwest, USA. I'm the founder of the Worship Leader Academy which has helped hundreds of worship leaders grow and develop through online community and one-on-one coaching.

How I got here…

7 yrs old: Love for music began with the recorder.
9 yrs old: Started drum lessons.  
12 yrs old: Parents taught how to lead worship.
13 yrs old: Led an original song at church.
13 yrs old: Vowed I'd never do it again. 
16 yrs old: Began to really love leading worship.
18 yrs old: Became a full-time worship leader.
19 yrs old: Broke my vow and began writing again.
20 yrs old: Recorded my first record.
23 yrs old: Leading began to feel like a burden.
24 yrs old: Blogged about worship leading.
25 yrs old: Started therapy and found healing.
26 yrs old: Called to produce musicals and films.
27 yrs old: Wrote and produced my first musical  
29 yrs old: Started my own production company.

Today: I live full-time as a worship leader and creative. I've written and produced three award- winning musical films, had millions stream my music, and travel the world leading worship and speaking at events.

Chapters

• 0:00 On The Road And Shoutouts
• 0:46 Creative Legacy Conference Preview
• 3:19 Worship Leaders And Special Guests
• 4:59 Invitation To Entrepreneurs
• 6:58 Fundraising The Deborah Film
• 8:46 The Hard Conversation That Sparked This
• 10:55 Maturity Over Complexity
• 12:32 Five Lessons: Counsel vs Critics
• 15:51 Faith Faces Difficulty
• 18:17 Experience Can Become A Cage
• 20:54 Guarding Vision From Cynicism
• 23:05 Builders Ask Better Questions
• 26:37 Wisdom, Fear, And Real Warfare
• 28:39 Take Thoughts Captive And Share

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome into another episode. I am still on the road here. A couple episodes ago, I mentioned that my wife and I and family were headed out on the road and we are still out and about. And if you're watching this on YouTube, you'll notice that the set that I'm in here is completely different. And that is uh we're at um my brother and sister-in-law's house. And I want to give a big shout out to their podcast. And if you go watch their podcast right now, um you'll see this set on there. And uh it's Ben and Liz Varan. That is their names, but their podcast is called Hour One, the number one, Blessed Mess. Hour One Blessed Mess. You can go check that out uh on YouTube and everywhere that you listen to podcasts, but shoot huge shout out to them for letting me use your space today to record this episode. Want to talk with you guys about a couple things today. The first one being my Creative Legacy conference, which is coming up in just a couple of weeks. I'll be back in Kansas City. So I've been planning that on the road, doing marketing on the road, and it's it's incredible the lineup of speakers and worship leaders that we have coming to present at this gathering. We have some really amazing worship artists, singers, musicians who are going to be coming to minister to the Lord, and there'll be some times of worship as we gather together, and then uh we have some amazing, kind of more spiritual enrichment speakers, if you will. But I specifically I want to highlight if you're a business person listening to this podcast or watching this podcast, I want to encourage you to try and get here to Kansas City March 19th through 21st, trying to get there to Kansas City. Um we have some people who are very successful in the entrepreneurial space who are going to be doing some sessions that I think are gonna be incredibly, incredibly valuable, whether you have a um, you know, couple million dollar business, uh even even above that, uh, if you're into the multiple eight figures, or if you're just starting a business or you're thinking about starting a business, I want to encourage you to get to this event. Uh, we have some people, Wayne and Bethany Johnson, some friends of mine from Seattle, Washington, who are very, very successful in the business realm are going to be coming and doing a uh both a main stage session as well as a breakout session. Um, some other people, local people in Kansas City who'll be coming to speak as well. And it's just gonna be an amazing, amazing event, not just with worship and then from the stage, you know, talks. There's actually gonna be some some really fun things. I'm not gonna share too many details here because we want it to be a surprise, but some really fun activation times that we have set up as a a uh a leadership team that I think are gonna be very, very life-giving. So creativelegacy.org, just a couple of weeks away. You're not gonna want to miss it. Uh Andy Squires' leading worship, Joe L. Barnes, who's formerly with Maverick City's leading worship. He's the writer of promises. Uh a guy by the name of Aaron Williams who wrote a song called Abide. It's been one of my personal favorite songs for maybe about a year at this point, maybe over a year, called Abide. And it's number 20, I think, right now in the CCLI, which is like the the uh the church charts, if you will. A phenomenal song, and Aaron is an incredibly humble individual and just excited for him to come minister. And um, yeah, so it's gonna be an all-run great time. Yours truly will be there, and a bunch of other amazing uh worship leaders and speakers and presenters. So don't miss Creative Legacy, March 19th through 21st in Kansas City, Missouri. So along those lines, I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago now, and I've been kind of putting together my thoughts and gathering my thoughts and calming down as well before I talk about them here on the podcast. But I knew right as I was having this conversation, I was like, this is gonna be a podcast episode. And I want to bring it into a you know a pastoral way as much as possible. I'm not just here to vent or to share, you know, my annoyances or my grievances, my my heart and goal in sharing challenges that I have, whether in conversations or you know, bringing a project across the finish line or raising uh donations or raising capital, whatever it is. My my heart and my goal is to to uh encourage other creatives and entrepreneurs. And so I hope that today. But I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago with with someone um who is uh who I was interviewing about my uh my new movie, which is based on the life of Deborah. Okay, so if you if you're following me, you'll know that uh right now we are raising$2.5 million in um we're accepting capital for the first time, so an investment to you know return on your investment when you invest into this film, but we're also still receiving donations. We have a 51c3 nonprofit that we're able to still take donations through to make that DEPRA movie a reality. We only need, I think, about maybe two two and two point one, two point two ish million um left is all that we need. So we're we're well on our ray, well on our way in this raise. And side note, if you're first time hearing this and you're like, oh, I want to invest in a Christian film, or I know someone who invests in Christian films, or you want to donate to this thing, um, hit me up in the show notes, shoot me a message, and we we'd love to have a conversation with you about making that happen. So I was talking with someone because you know, to do a film, and that's a small indie film, 2.5 million, but it's it's it's a pretty solid budget. It's a pretty solid budget, but it's still small in the grand scheme of things, right? So I was interviewing some different people for a position and a role that I need for this this film, and I had a phone call, and here's how here's how I'm gonna say and kind of frame this podcast, and then I'll I'll get into the the details of it. Sometimes when you share something big, the conversation isn't so much revealing the complexity of your big project, but rather it's revealing the maturity of those in the room talking about it. Okay, I'm gonna say that again. Sometimes when you share something big, your idea, my Deborah film, the conversation isn't so much about revealing the complexity of your project. Because it is complex. It's when you have investors and all the different pieces and you know, all the flow of money and all the things. Um it's not even so much revealing the complexity as it is revealing the maturity of those in the room having the conversation. Um, that really sets the tone for kind of what I want to share in these five points in this in this podcast. And I'm not just talking about, you know, oh, like dream killers, oh, this like mean person who killed a dream. It's about learning to steward my calling and you learning to steward your calling, whether it's as a singer, musician, workspeaker, songwriter, or in the business world of starting a business or being a creative or launching a podcast or launching a book series or launching a movie or a TV series, whatever it is, we have to be good stewards of that calling. And we can't allow conversations like I'm gonna share here in a second to to deter us or to derail us or to to to um have that kind of you know seeds of a bitter root begin to grow inside of us, right? We have to, in a sense, forgive, move on, but don't forget, because in the sense of there are so many lessons to be learned. And my brother said it well actually recently. We were having a conversation, and he said, I just I don't want to miss, I don't want to miss the lessons the Lord has for me to learn in the season. And I was like, man, that's really good. I'm taking that. So my brother John said that I don't want to miss the lessons that the Lord has for me to learn in the season. And so I think with every conversation, whether good, bad, ugly, whatever it is, like, Lord, I don't want to just like forget it, like, oh, that mean person, forget you. You know, like, Lord, is there like even like one millimeter of something I can learn from this? And then I will move on, right? So I had this conversation about Deborah. We're talking about some different things, numbers, et cetera, et cetera. Again, I'm not gonna give too much away as to what we were talking about, but pretty much it was met with a uh a cement or a brick wall. I'm like sharing, you know, the um the rays for the film, the mission of the film, the vision for the film, and it just hit a massive, massive brick wall. And this person responded very intensely and pretty much said, Well, here, not only is your idea um, you know, so first he was shocked at how small it was. Like, oh, it's only like only 2.5 million. Like, okay, so you're like a small, like independent film. And that that rubbed me just just slightly, you know. But then it wasn't just that. And then if he had said that, okay, that's a little bit of a jab, and then pivoted to, well, let me see if I can help you in these four ways. So instead of doing that or referring me to someone else who perhaps did those types of you know, uh budget films, um and and by the way, this this person was referred to me. I'm not like, you know, on Google randomly searching people. Uh, this was referred to me by a very, very successful, um, yay, famous person who, you know, shared this person's contact and said, hey, this is, you know, a friend, you know, um, you can talk to this person. And I was just so I I went in, you know, with that person's name. So I wasn't coming in green, right? Just to set the context for this. So not only was it, oh, this is like a small type of thing, and then they pivoted to, you know, hey, maybe I'll they should have pivoted, I'll maybe I'll revert you to this person, refer you to this person, or you know, um, I can help you on this level, but it's probably not gonna be worth my time to, you know, work with me, whatever. Instead of that, they began to just fire away, like rapid fire away of like all the reasons why this isn't gonna work. All the reasons why this isn't this isn't gonna work. And I'm not gonna give details as to what it is that I want to like expose fully here, who or what I was talking about. But needless to say, that conversation for me, it uh it lit a fire in my gut. Uh in in many ways, I I was angry, I'm not gonna lie. Uh, because I I've learned over these past four years of doing these movies and stepping out in faith and doing all kinds of creative projects, way beyond, you know, just I wrote a song and it's a I'm releasing a single or I'm releasing an album. Again, I still do that, I still love that that um aspect, and it's a calling I still feel as a songwriter, as a worshiper to release those types of things. But when you're doing something at this massive a scale, quarter million, couple million dollars, you know, it's like the stakes just go way up, right? And anyone listening to this, you know, who's worked in that space understands that, right? And so um I it just lit a fire inside of me when I was I was angry, I was frustrated, but I was, you know, fiercely committed to through I was not perfect. Like I had I had unrighteous anger, but I was fiercely committed to say, Lord, let this be righteous anger. That turns into some lessons for Justin. Okay, so here are five things that I've processed out with the Lord in my journal with some different friends since this this conversation a couple of weeks ago. Number one, not everyone who sees a problem is meant to lead your lead to your solution. Okay, not everyone who sees a problem is meant to lead the solution. So this person saw all kinds of problems with with what I was pursuing, and they should have had nothing else to say except, hey, I don't think I'm your guy. Um instead, he he sought to become my solution by sharing all these like lists of problems, how it can never happen and it'll never work. Uh there's a difference between identifying obstacles and building through obstacles. Okay, big difference between identifying obstacles and building through obstacles. Some people are wired or more naturally go in the way to protect something and just say, let's play it safe. Okay, so stay here. Other people are wired to pioneer. I would argue that uh from the biographies that I read from successful people that I am speaking with and being mentored by, whether close or from afar, uh playing it safe and trying to just protect the little that you have is the way to go, you know, nowhere. Again, it's not about big and success, it's about stewarding what God's given you. Whether that looks small or looks big in the eyes of the world isn't the question. It's are you stewarding what God has given you, right? And only each of us in our own soul can actually, you know, meter that out and know whether or not that is that is true or false, right? Um but some people are wired to protect, some people are wired to pioneer. Both matter, they're just not the same. Proverbs chapter 11, verse 14, where there is no guidance, people fall. But here it is, in an abundance of counselors, there is safety. Which that verse sounds like I'm, you know, counter um going against what I said. Uh, an abundance of counselors, Justin, this guy's a counselor to you. Well, the key word here is counselor, not a critic or a commentator on an idea. Okay, where there is no guidance, a people fall. But in an abundance of counselors, there is safety. Counselors give you direction. Okay. If you go to a counselor and he says, Well, I think there's no hope for you and your issue, it's like, well, you're not really a good counselor. You're you're a wall builder, right? Like, so um, that's what we want to seek to have in our life. And to be able to identify you're not a good counselor. And that is, that is okay. I'm not talking about the profession of counseling. You you track with me here, right? If you go to someone and you say, Hey, I want to do this idea for business, I want to do this idea for my art, I want to do this idea with my film, and you know, they don't offer you counsel, they instead offer you all the other things, then they're not they're not a counselor, right? So Proverbs 11:14, with no guidance, the people fall, but in an abundance of counselors, there is safety, okay? Point number two that I learned from this is faith does not deny difficulty, it's just it decides to move forward anyway. After I spoke with this person, I'm not gonna lie to you, the next day. So I thought I worked through my funk that day. Then the next day I woke up. First thing on my brain, laying in my bed, is my God, that person's right. I am so stupid. This whole thing is so stupid. This is all this is all dumb, you know. And you know, faith doesn't deny, oh, there's gonna be difficulty. It moves through the difficulty, okay. Uh big things, trying to do things like this, or big big being something you've ever done before, um, will always look and feel complex on paper or on a Google search, or if you're you know working out the details with a friend or whatever in their profession. But complexity is not a stop sign, okay. So much of what I was hearing on this call was complexity, complexity, complexity, complexity. You can't do this. And uh, and I believed it for a couple hours, like, oh, stop. Like, no, complexity is not a stop sign, it is an invitation for leadership to actually find wise counselors to begin to work through this. And I have a point here I'll end with after at the point and a point two here about uh wise counselors. Be strong and courageous. We all know this verse, Joshua 1.9. Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. So I was asking myself, Justin, do you really believe that as you're pursuing this 2.5 million to make this Deborah movie? Do you believe that God's with you going into these uncharted waters of doing this capital raise and going to these uncharted waters? Do you actually believe that the Lord is with you? And we all know this, God never says that it'll be easy, um, but he says he'll be with us in the midst of it, and that is all that we need. That changes everything for us. And on the the counselor's piece, since this time, I've had three more interviews with different people in this field, and it has gone exceptionally well. Exceptionally well. So um, again, finding the person to not say, oh, like, you know, we can't do this and say, No, actually, I'm gonna partner with you. We're gonna get through this together. We're not moving away from complexities or difficult things, okay? Number three, experience is powerful. Experience is powerful, okay? But it can become a cage. Sometimes the most experienced voice in the room can be the most limited. If someone has only seen what's been done before, they may struggle to imagine what has never been done. So when this person heard my concept, my idea, they've done this over here in this lane over here. That's all they could see, it's all they could know. When they got into my lane and actually understood what I was talking about, they just feasted and just like devoured. But they had the more, they had the expertise in the room. Absolutely, they did, like way by far, by far. But you have to be careful sometimes, even if you're the expert, and I've seen it in my own in my own life, you know, as a uh a worship pastor for 25 years, as you know, mentoring and and coaching creatives for 25 years, writing and releasing songs for you know so many years, it can be easy sometimes, but I I can tell you what, in these worship leaders and these creatives that I coach on a daily basis that I'm working with, I have to have an open mind, man, because sometimes they'll still say things or push back on things, or they'll come with ideas for songs or you know, whatever it is, creative projects. And I'm like, well, dang, I I thought that'd be super stupid, but now that you you mentioned it, like, man, that that's incredible. And I I mentioned this before on the podcast, a very, very successful like multi-billion dollar business owner once told me, said their business would be out of business, they would have gone out of business years ago if they had not always remained a learner. Okay. The way technology is happening, the way that we can um do things exponentially faster now in businesses, if you do not keep up with that and you only have like, well, no, in the 80s or in the 90s or in the early 2000s, we did it this way, man. And and it was really successful and it was wild, it was awesome. Da-da-da-da. It's like, great, you're the smartest person in the room in that field, but do you are you aware of like XYZ that is now you know here? So experience is powerful, but it can also become a cage. You have to be aware, be aware of that. Isaiah 43, verse 19, um, massively out of context Bible verse, but I'm doing new things, it springs up. Do you not perceive it? But so I'm borrowing the context of that verse in Isaiah into this context here to say, um, be aware that that God might give you something that all of your friends and your little um click of your niche, whatever that is, might they might they might all say, like, oh dude, yeah, that's super weird, man. We we that's not how this niche works. That's not how this happens. And you're over here, and and I would encourage you, we want to be learners. So you don't throw out this niche in the history of it and say, like, well, like this has been around for 40, 50, 60, 70, 100 plus years, whatever. Like, yes, learn things about that for sure. But that's not the end all be all because things are constantly changing. So you have to be learning and moving, learning and moving, learning and moving. Um, I think you know, a great way to say it is God many times specializes in new things. Maybe not, yes, I get lamentations, I understand there's nothing new under the sun, sure. But is it new to you? Is it new to your family, to your city, to your region, to your county, to your state? Like be learning and be growing. Uh, new things often look irresponsible to people who live in the past. New things often look irresponsible or impossible to people who are stuck living in the past. Number four thing that I learned from this conversation is to protect my calling from cynicism, my own cynicism, but also the cynicism of others. And I would say if there was a spirit I had to name about this meeting, was it was a very, very cynical meeting. There was a point in the conversation where this person actually said to me after they listed off their five or six things about why this wouldn't work and all this different kind of stuff, like, well, yeah, sorry. Sorry, sorry, I had to be the bearer of that news for you. And they they stopped. That was their that was their big climactic pause. They're like, yeah, this, yeah, so so sorry. And I was like, wow, like, yeah, sorry, I had to be the bearer of that news for you. So pretty much like, what? Like, spirit of cynicism and just doubt and negativity was all over that thing. Discernment knows how to listen carefully. Cynicism shuts things down way early. I would encourage you in your friendships, in your uh, you know, in your marriage with your children in friendships, be aware of like that type of thing that might be leaking out of you. Because again, if you are a cynic in your in and of yourself about Justin's life, Justin's projects, Justin's this, Justin's that, then it's really easy for me to look at other people and be like, yeah, but and then the cynical spirit can just like creep itself in. So be aware and protect your calling from cynicism. Not every concern carries spiritual weight, okay? And again, what I was what was heaped and pounded upon me in this conversation, it did carry a uh negative, dark side spiritual weight, if you will, from the evil one. And I had to work myself out of that and pray and just declare myself into like, you know what, that is not what Justin is operating in. Uh, Proverbs chapter four, verse 23, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. Guard it from doubt, from subtle mockery again of your own stuff, but even on the outside, looking at other people's things, um, people who make you feel foolish for dreaming. Um, protection of vision is godly stewardship. So protect your calling from cynicism, yours and other people's. And the fifth and final, um, builders always ask better questions. Crushers will stack up the objections. Like, well, Justin, here's the seven reasons why your idea will not work. Builders ask, okay, how how can it can it work? And that's what I did. Just it came out of my gut, like, probably not with the best attitude. But after they, you know, heaped on all this other kind of stuff, and and I'll give the conclusion of our conversation here in a moment. After they heaped out these things, and I said, wow, and they said, Yeah, sorry, I had to be the bearer of bad news. My mind was like overwhelmed with like, but what about this? But what about this? But what about this? Well, this person told me this. What about this? What about this? What about that? And then they begin to like slowly come back with, like, well, yeah, I mean, you could do that, and yeah, this this could work. And, you know, this law was just changed. We could do that. Yeah, okay, we could do that, we could do that. And I'm like, so that in incarnate, in the flesh was happening. As a builder, myself, and many people who listen to this podcast, you are builders. You ask. Better questions. You're not just going to be like, and let's be clear, we live in a day and age where more than ever, it's called Google, it's called AI, more than ever, people are asking questions and being good at like figuring things out, right? Sometimes there's a massive fault on that as well as a massive strength, and we have to live somewhere in that middle, I believe. And ultimately, the Lord is, you know, should be the one that we're talking to, you know, about what we're gonna do, what we're doing and all certain types of things. So asking questions to the Lord, yes, for sure. I always want to, you know, I have people pushed back all the time by AI and different sorts of things. But um, you want to ask questions, and there are always solutions to problems. Crushers only stack the objections. Builders ask, well, how can we make it work? And it's like, you know, it's like the the business owner. And I guess I've done it with with each one of my films, even my some of my records and projects. It's like, okay, great, this person is sick, or this didn't work, or this like we had a light blow up on set from my last film, and it put us like four hours behind. You know, the budget went up, I had to pay overtime to all these people, yada, yada, yada. So it blew up, and then we're all on set, and glasses like raining down, and potential for even a fire because it was actually oil leaking from the light. It's a very, very expensive light. They never seen it pop like this. It was our most expensive, uh, elaborate and most flammable set in this sound stage was you know, it took hours to set up this thing. There's like, you know, all kinds of things, all wood and timber and um leaves and hay and all this stuff. And it's like, okay, give me a deadline. How long will it take to fix? How long will it take to ship in a new bulb, all the different things? Like, um, how can it work? How can we make it work, right? Um, don't be a objection-filled person that just crushes, again, not just someone else's thing. I'm mostly looking at myself here. Look at yourself. Like, builders figure it out. They keep asking questions. And for a lot of you guys, you're resonating, like, yes, absolutely. And you see that as so true in your own life. Hebrews 10 verse 24. Let's consider how to stir up one another to love good works. Stir up one another. Um, notice it is to stir up, it is not to shut down, it is not to shut out, it is not to shut up. It is to stir up. I am called, you are called to stir yourself up. I'm called to stir myself up. And in our conversations in our life with our friends and family and loved ones and business partners or whatever, we're called to stir each other up. Real leadership ignites courage in other people. Um, so to kind of wrap this up, wisdom will steady you, fear will shrink you. Okay, in this conversation with this person, I began to feel so much fear. I began to like almost compelled by fear. I was like, oh my God, this the the doubt I already had in my mind is being confirmed right now. Is this the Lord confirming my fear in this moment of this person just like heaping all the stuff in me, whatever? And again, after a couple of hours, again, I had another funk the next day, and you know, even like a week later, I was still like processing through the stuff, whatever. But we need to learn um the difference between that. We need to learn the difference between, okay, what is the voice of wisdom and the voice of reason? And what is the voice of cynicism and fear? And we have to understand the difference as creators, we have to understand the difference as business owners because there are things I believe that we are called to do that the enemy of through people, through individuals, just so easily just kind of you know slips itself in there. And before we even know it, we're like, man, I've spent the last like four hours thinking how stupid I am for this stupid idea and how it's never gonna happen, right? And it's so easy to live in that place. I want to end this this episode by quoting John Eldridge, which, if you don't know who that is, go look him up. He's incredible. And John is a friend, and we've had him at my creative conference. Um, and he did a video, he does these weekly videos, and so he posts it or he emails people out on Friday. You can sign up on his website, I think. I'm not exactly sure what it's called, but they're three, four, five minutes long. And he did this video two weeks ago, I think it was, about how he was talking with some different spiritual leaders around the world, and they were basically talking about man, is it is it are we over-spiritualizing everything? Are we over-spiritualizing that we're we're in a uh a war? You know, like there's so many like heavy things going on in the world. You know, people at their houses, they feel stuff, in their neighborhoods, they feel stuff. And you you go on X, you go on, you know, TikTok, you go on Instagram, it's like, oh my god, the world's blowing up over here and this war over here, and all this other kind of stuff is happening. You know, is it are we just like over-spiritualizing everything, you know? And John, I love that he he set it up so perfectly in his video, he came back with a resounding no. And he said this statement, I love the statement. He said, You have to understand almost every negative emotion that you feel is being breathed, most likely by some kind of demonic force. He said the statement, he said, You have to realize you are living in Narnia, you are literally living in the Lord of the Rings. And again, the Lord of the Rings, you know, it's it's so easy to be like, oh, well, it's kind of dark and the orgs are this or whatever. But that is darkness that is raging and hating against you. Like, I don't want to over-spiritualize it, but I don't think we've spiritualized it enough. Like, there is so much vile perversion that the enemy is seeking to bring against your life, against your mind, your will, your emotions, your body, your soul, and your spirit. And he's just raging against the sons of men. And this is tried into, tried and true, tested throughout scripture. So if you're finding yourself in this place of like, I just I don't feel motivated, you know, like you know, you talk to oh, your wife or your friend, I just don't feel motivated, you know. I wonder what it is. John is basically saying, um, rebuke the devourer, rebuke the enemy. Like, wake up and realize you don't need to, you're not hyper-spiritualizing something by saying, I think it's the enemy. He's like, Yes, hello, hello, you're in Narnia, you're in Lord of the Rings. Now, the caveat that I always give, and again, if you're a listener or fan of mine, you know that I'm a big proponent for counseling, for therapy, for for mental things. We have to get worked out. I'm not just saying you just pray all of your issues away, right? But I am saying this, and this this conversation I had with this person a couple weeks ago, you know, showed it front and center that I had several days, several weeks even, I had to take my thoughts captive. I didn't just say, like, oh, I'm gonna agree with this. I I realized that is a dark thought from hell or from a demon or from whatever, you know, it is. And I'm gonna rebuke that. And I'm gonna put on the mind of Christ. I'm gonna arm myself with the um uh wow, why can't I not think of it? The um armor of God. Well, I already said it, that's why I can't think of it. I'm gonna arm myself with the armor of God. You know, it's not just frivolous words that I'm saying. You're actually like doing it um with your heart as you're leaning into God's word, the sword of the spirit, belts of truth, helmet of helmet, all the different things. Um, it's a real war that we're fighting. And that day was so clear to me. And you might be listening to this podcast right now. Maybe you're in a great season. You're so everything's clicking in your business, in your uh entrepreneurial creativity or whatever it is. And you're just like, ah, I'm great, man. You know, bless God, FBI, favor blessing increased. And I love that, but we have to realize, guys, we are in a war, and the enemy does not want you or I to succeed. So as I end this podcast today, I want to encourage you to take stock, take inventory of what thoughts you're allowing into your mind to be meditated upon. What thoughts are you allowing to actually like take root into because I felt this in my gut. I felt it in in my being. I felt like sick to my stomach after this meeting with this person. I was like, they're right. This is all, it's it's all for naught. It's all all the things I've done, it's all for naught. And I was like, no, I'm gonna take captive every thought to the renewing of my mind in Christ Jesus by his word and by the Holy Spirit with some some solid therapy and counsel going in there. There's wisdom in the counsel of many. Um, but I want to encourage you guys with that today. Hopefully that's helpful. Hit me up in the comments. Again, always thank you so much for watching this. If you're on YouTube, if you listen to this in your car, uh please hit the share button. We'll be so grateful if you texted this to a friend or two, emailed it out, or posted it on your social media. We will see you guys in the next episode.