He is a true Hollywood legend, star of TV's Sanford and Son, Demond Wilson! Demond shares his calling from God and his experiences in Hollywood as a Christian.

Hey everybody. Welcome back to Lead 12:12. We're excited that you're hanging out with us. We have a great speaker today. We're so excited about Chris. Tell us about our speaker today.

We are here with a true legend, the star of my favorite TV show Sanford and son.

It's my honor to introduce. Demond Wilson! Thank you so much for joining us today.

It's my pleasure in that.

I say hi to, to all of your listeners and the woman that you said was your wife to just.

We weren't supposed to talk about that.

Yeah.

Yeah,

so Demond, I would love to hear your salvation story. Can you share that with us?

I'm so far beyond that, I grew up. Totally. Ensconced in Catholicism. I was an acolyte and my whole life is from the age of eight was centered around the church.

But I brought my mom. And my dad. Out of.

The dark side into the light, through the Catholic church now. One might say.

But you went from the dark side to a lighter, dark side which is true, but it, there are many roads that lead to to the most high and what the Lord saw in me. That I was born with was a talent. For entertaining. As a dancer and a singer and all of that. And. The love in my heart for him

so the Lord's call was on my life. My kids were in private parochial school. We were living in. In Bel air. Beverly Hills and I have six adult progeny. I took the Lord. A little as a, literally when he said go forth. Be fruitful and multiply.

did

that. Yeah, you

We think so I have four adult.

Daughters. And two adult. My oldest is 48, Nicole. My, my second born Melissa, and they both live in Atlanta with my granddaughter. My second, Melissa is 40. Is 44. My oldest son, Christopher who hits a golf ball, 320 yards. He's a beast. His kid. I put it off club in his hand when he was eight years old.

He is a monster and his brother Demonn Jr. Will never want it to be known as the Mon Jr. Until he started working in a corporate world and people say, Hey. Do you know who your dad is?

No. Do you know what whose name you have? And he said, yeah,

That's my dad and they said, wow, we're going to do business with you. So now he's Goodman Jr. The rescue and he's 41. Tabitha is 36. And my baby who's been married five years and has her doctorate. She is. 32. She's the one that I came off the road for and I. My personal touch was on her. She's a beast.

That's amazing.

Yeah, she, Sarah is 32 and she's married to a guy named Matt. Matthew Mahoney. Nice kid. Nice kid, but my baby girl, I still, I'm still, when he comes to my house, I do this.

I got ya. Yeah. Keep your eyes on him.

We've been married five years. So what happened to your base in your voice? It went up. We've been married. Mr. Wilson. I said, yeah. But I still. We've got you. And my scopes.

Then

Yeah, boy.

also back to what your original question was. I've always known. I came into the Catholic church to Christen my second born Melissa and my parents. I had sent to them. We had a rather large place. In Bel air and I came down the aisle of the church holding. My second born and my wife, my mother notch nudged my father.

And she said my dad's name was Grady Wilson. That's where the character

came from.

that's amazing.

And no, that's what his parents named him. So that's what he. What do you answered too? And my mom said But that's his nickname. The mine's going to preach. It's all over him.

And I turned down a lot of money after my third series. I was going to Florida to do my first. Revival. I had been studying, and I said to the Lord, Until I'm imbued with the with the paraklete, with the pneuma. The spirit of the living. Creator. I'm never going to eat again.

And I'm up.

And my tower in Belair up. And in my bedroom and. I took off all of my clothes and I just sat on the floor. And I'm about a day later. A voice spoke to my heart and said, are you ready to receive.

Wow.

And I got up and I was trembling and I went into the bathroom. Now my bathroom window was closed. My bathroom looked out over a tennis court, but it was a small window. It was closed. And I went down on my face. The way I came in the world. And I felt this warm. Breeze coming over me. And I jumped to my feet and.

I put my clothes on and I ran downstairs. My, my family. We're sitting at the breakfast table downstairs, having dinner. And I wanted to say to them, Honey. I just received the holy spirit and all of this strange language started coming out of my mouth. I couldn't start with. I felt like I was regurgitating and my wife and my kids looked at me like, oh my Lord.

He's gone.

No.

And you know what they were right. My wife would leave the house to drive the kids to school and she would come home. And I would be in, in the formal dining room, bathed in sweat. Preaching. Just preaching. There was no one there.

And she thought I had lost my mind. It was all over me. It wasn't something I could contain. So I knew when people said, why did you leave? Showbiz is when you went to the top. I never would do that. I said that's because I know what you don't know. I know the demonic force. That's all over the world, but specifically it's in areas like Hollywood Hollyweird.

Hollywood.

Is the, would that would just conjure on.

Okay.

big sign that you see Hollywood.

If you look up Hollywood, that's the, would that, which is conjured. And I saw all of that. You don't get to the top in the industry unless you have help.

True.

When I came from Vietnam. And when I got out of the military in 1968,

I had to reestablish myself in the theater. I had grown up in the theater. I started on Broadway as a kid and two years went by, I was drafted and. I was reestablishing myself and I was doing.

Gut bucket theater. I was doing.

Off-Broadway and then I started doing off-Broadway. And in those days, people like Al Pachino and the late Raul, Julia, who's a buddy of mine and we all did a film together in San Francisco. You don't get to the top in the industry and motion pictures and the recording industry. You do not get to the top simply because you're talented dis take that outta your mind.

It doesn't work that way. So when I saw the underside, the underbelly of what I was involved in, and I was at the top of my game, I did Sanford on NBC baby on back on CBS.

The new odd couple on ABC and universal studios. Had called me up and they were praising me. Demond come on over. I said, I don't come to studios. Doing a regular hours. This should come tell us when you want to get here.

I'll be there 4:30, 5:00, maybe 5: 30. We'll be here. I got there, there was the director, the producer, and they were ready to start ahead of. Sit-com they praised me for five minutes and they said, this is a story about a black doctor who was tired of the city, moved to the country.

And the people didn't trust him. And so the kids started bringing their animals to him and he. He caught on in the community like that. They said, it's perfect for you. Demand. You're a good guy.

And they made the mistake of saying. What have you been doing lately? Now what they didn't notice. I'm standing there with in those days, surgery over Linday jeans, and so I had a little bomber leather bomber jacket on me. Didn't see my quarter pounder with cheese under my arm. That's what I call my Bible. In those days.

Oh, okay.

Hebrew Bible quarter pounder with cheese. I didn't see that. But they made the fatal error of saying, what have you been doing lately? And there was a year between the new odd couple in these guys. I just stood there in the middle of the floor to the producer, the executive at universal studios, the director, and two writers.

And preach the gospel unwanted down. No, just straight up, no ice. 20 minutes.

And they shook my hand and they weren't, they didn't say anything. They were like, what the heck? I get home. And my wife said I had a, I had a. I had an English Jewish. Manager Bobby Littmann and my wife said, honey, you need to call your manager. And I called him. He said, oh, darling. What have you done?

I said, what do you mean. These people were going to pay you 150,000.

Oh, my

They said the mind doesn't want to act. It wants to preach. And the lights. There it is. And I had no idea how that was going to happen. I'm living in Bel air behind gates magic Johnson was down the hill. Jerry West was up the other end of the street. I had no, the only thing I knew was the Catholic church in Reverend I, so I knew that you could see the dilemma that was a joke. Hello.

Is this on.

Huh.

So you could see this dilemma. I I'm studying. The Lord is saying I'm going to open your ministry. I had no idea how it was going to happen. I'm sitting in the breakfast room, my gardener rolled down or Ramos it'...