"Can Christians Have Desires?" Ruslan KD Interview (EP 135)

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: The Bryce Crawford Podcast
Episode: "Can Christians Have Desires?" Ruslan KD Interview (EP 135)
Date: August 25, 2025
Host: Bryce Crawford
Guest: Ruslan KD

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Overview

This episode features a candid and practical interview with Ruslan KD, discussing whether Christians can have desires and ambitions while honoring God. The conversation explores how to discern between godly and selfish ambitions, the role of desires in the Christian life, practical financial wisdom, identity, and how to find purpose post-salvation. The episode also serves as an introduction to Ruslan's new book, "Godly Ambition."

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ruslan’s Backstory: Redemption Through Hardship

[02:08–13:39]

• Ruslan's Armenian Christian roots: Armenia was one of the earliest Christian nations.
• Fleeing persecution: As a child, Ruslan’s family fled the pogroms in Baku, marked by severe violence against Armenians.
• Trauma and dysfunction: Parental divorce, abuse at church, and early criminal behavior deeply affected his worldview and led to rebellion.
• Turning point: Community service brought Ruslan into contact with authentic, loving Christians who modeled the gospel for him.
• Conversion: Years of wrestling with doubt, trauma, and suffering led to a gradual acceptance of Christ in his late teens.

"Jesus is who he says he is. Like, he is. He's not a liar. He's not a lunatic. He's not crazy. He's Lord."
— Ruslan [12:17]

2. Life after Salvation: The “Now What?” Problem

[13:43–23:00]

• Common misconception: Many young believers think following Jesus means giving up all ambitions or becoming a pastor/worship leader.
• The transition: After salvation, both hosts describe the uncertainty about how to use one's gifts and ambitions.
• The heart shift: Ruslan notes a key marker of being born again—beginning to hate old patterns of sin and desiring things previously avoided, like Scripture and church community.

"How you know you're Christian is do you hate the things that you used to love, your sin?... And do you love the things you used to hate?"
— Ruslan [21:00]

3. Defining Godly Ambition vs. Selfish Ambition

[24:30–27:48]

• Two kinds of ambition in Scripture: Selfish ambition ("edithaia") is condemned; godly ambition ("philiotimia") is encouraged.
• Godly ambition is:
  • Serving others with your gifts
  • Pursuing sanctification (holy living)
  • Responsible stewardship of resources and talents
  • Leading a life that wins respect outside the church

“My life is not my own, my platform is not my own, my money’s not my own ... I am called to steward and manage it unto the glory of God.”
— Ruslan [27:09]

4. Redeeming Desires and Passions

[28:51–38:25]

• Not all desires are from the flesh: God may redeem even pre-Christian talents and ambitions for His glory; the problem is the heart’s orientation.
• Jesus and the disciples’ desire for greatness (Luke 22):
  • Jesus doesn’t rebuke the disciples’ desire to be great but redefines true greatness as servanthood.
  • Not all “worldly” gifts are poisonous—many can be redirected for service if motivation is pure.

“He doesn’t rebuke or reject their desire to be great. He redefines greatness. He redirects their desire, and he redeems it.”
— Ruslan [33:42]

• True passion: Less about excitement, more about what you're willing to suffer for—the kind of "passion" shown by Christ.

5. Abundant Life and Stewardship: Beyond Prosperity and Poverty Gospels

[43:38–56:53]

• Abundant life: Foundationally, the fruit of the spirit—peace, joy, contentment—not money or status.
• Context matters: While caution about riches is biblical, so is providing for family and stewarding resources.
• Financial stewardship:
  • Work ethic, budgeting, and long-term planning are biblical.
  • Generosity is the antidote to greed.
  • Contentment, not just ambition, is essential.

“Money is a terrible master. Don’t let it master you. But money is a good servant.”
— Ruslan [54:25]

6. Practical Steps for Young Adults & Couples

[61:44–77:03]

• Before marriage: Consider financial realities—many women desire to stay home with kids, and the ability to provide brings peace and respect.
• Work to eat, sow to reap:
  • Work now for survival, but invest in skill-building for future harvests.
  • Deliberate, focused development (as little as 20 hours on a new skill) can radically change life trajectory.
• For couples in debt: There’s hope; with focused effort and a plan, most can be debt-free within 12–18 months.

7. Advice for High School and College Students

[77:10–83:16]

• Identity is top-down: You are who God says you are, not what you feel or what others say.
• God’s will is not a fork in the road, but a way of living: Ask not just what to do, but why and how.
• Gifts can be sanctified: Your calling may be rooted in interests and talents God gave you before salvation.
• Why and how matter more than what: Examine motivations and methods; pursue opportunities in line with scripture and community wisdom.

“God’s will is found in God’s ways and God’s ways are found in God’s word.”
— Ruslan [77:10]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On trauma and testimony:
  "Everything you just said there is encouraging ... there's kids out there currently in that position. Maybe they have parts of your story that is their story, maybe your story is their story right now. And they think that they're too far gone."
  — Bryce Crawford [13:55]

• On seasons of being hidden:
  "When you first come to the faith, you need a season of just go sit."
  — Ruslan [31:12]

• On practicality and stewardship:
  “The only thing that grows overnight is weeds and magic mushrooms. And I don’t think you want either of those.”
  — Ruslan [66:33]

• On how to build ambition and identity:
  “God’s will is found in God’s ways, and God’s ways are found in God’s word.”
  — Ruslan [77:10]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Ruslan’s Testimony and Faith Journey: [02:08–13:41]
• Wrestling with Life After Salvation: [13:43–23:00]
• Defining Godly Ambition: [24:30–27:48]
• Redeeming Desire and Passion (Luke 22): [28:51–38:25]
• The Meaning of Abundant Life: [43:38–56:53]
• Financial Wisdom for Young Adults & Couples: [61:44–77:03]
• Advice for High School/College Students: [77:10–83:16]
• Closing, Book Plug, and Practical Advice: [84:02–end]

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Your ambitions are not inherently sinful. God wants to redeem your gifts—ask why you pursue something and how you go about it.
• Abundant life is first about peace and joy in Jesus—not status or possessions.
• Stewardship is spiritual—work, budget, give, and continually invest in yourself and others.
• Contentment and generosity are key to a balanced Christian life, no matter your stage or status.

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Further Resources

• Ruslan’s book: [Godly Ambition] (Available at major retailers and at mygodlyambition.com, including preorder bonuses)
• Bryce’s platforms: Links in show description

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This episode is rich with encouragement, practical wisdom, and a call to live out faith with intentionality, stewardship, and redeemed ambition. Highly recommended for young Christians navigating purpose and calling in today’s world.

Transcript

[Bryce Crawford]

November 8th this fall, in San Diego, California, we'll be at the Balboa Theater for the live podcast tour. Chicago, Birmingham, and Nashville are already sold out, but we still got tickets left in San Diego. If you guys want to come out, experience the presence of the Lord, worship with us. I believe that the word God has stored in my heart for San Diego is going to be so specific to the city and break chains. So if you live in Southern California, San Diego, or you just want to come experience the presence of the Lord and have fun at the live podcast store, go, go to jesusonthestreet.org tour. Come out to San Diego. We got some seats left. Love you guys. Enjoy the episode. What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford Podcast. I'm Bryce, and today I have an incredible special guest here. You know, by the title of this episode, we have Ruslan with us. Ruslan, how you feeling?

[Ruslan]

I'm feeling great. Thanks for bringing me on. You were just on my podcast, which I thought was a great conversation we had.

[Bryce Crawford]

Dude, so fun.

[Ruslan]

So I'm grateful to be on your podcast.

[Bryce Crawford]

I know, it was so fun. It's finally good to get you in here. I'm so happy you're here. I'm really pumped about this episode, too, because I feel like the topic and why people are clicking on this specifically is something that just, like a lot of people in our generation, kind of need to know what it looks like to have godly goals. What's God's will for our life? How do we make sure that the things that we're doing are not only glorifying God, but not distracting us? And how do we know that what's on our heart is from God and not from the devil? And so, guys, we're going to be diving into an incredible conversation with Ruslan. This is going to be a broad sneak peek into his new book called Godly Ambition, which I'm super pumped about. I got to listen to some of the audio this morning from the first few chapters and have just been extremely blessed by it. And so if you guys want to pre order his book, he's got a ton of assets. I'm gonna put all the info right here, and it'll be in the description as well. If you're blessed by this conversation, if you get to the end of the podcast, you're like, man, this podcast is great. I want to get more details. I want to learn more. All the info will be in the description, and you guys can check out Ruslan Socials as well. But I kind of want to get a little bit of a backstory for you. Like, because you're not originally from America, you so kind of give us a backstory where you're from, what life was like growing up, things like that.

[Ruslan]

Yeah, man. So I'm ethnically Armenian and Armenia is one of the oldest Christian countries in the world. Like we didn't have a written language until we developed one to. To translate the Bible, right? To have a version of the Bible. So you're Talking about around 300 AD, Armenia becomes officially a Christian nation is before Rome. It's around the same time as Ethiopia. There is a deep, deep, rich Christian history in Armenia. But Armenia was a part of the former Soviet Union, which was communism, which was, you know, we remove God so that the state becomes God. And we are Armenians, my family and I, but we grew up in Azerbaijan, which is the country just to the east of Armenia. And Azerbaijan is predominantly a Muslim state. And they were both under the former Soviet Union. And the Soviet Union, as most superpowers do, drew up these real weird boundaries that created a lot of tension between the Arzies and the Armenians. So there's like this autonomous zone that's Armenian, but it's in Azerbaijan. And then there's like this slither of Azerbaijan right next to Armenia. And this created all kinds of issues out in the mountains that then affected all of us in the city. So what happened is in the late 80s, something broke out called the pogroms of Baku, which is the Arzies, because of alleged reports of Armenians mistreating Arzies in other parts. They wanted all the Armenians out of Baku and they proceeded to ethnically cleanse hundreds of thousands of Armenians from Baku. Violence, death, killing people. There's a whole movie actually made about the like kind of my origin story. It stars Elizabeth from the Chosen, the lady that plays Mary. So it's called Beyond Borders. It's a dope movie and it just, it just, I mean it captures it so well. And so yeah, hundreds of thousands were exiled, thousands of people died. And my, my family had to leave and flee because we were again, culturally Christian and came to the United States when I was six. Totally different environment, totally different context of everything.

[Chris]

And.

[Ruslan]

And my mom and my dad had all these marital issues. They had marital issues back there because my dad was Armenian, he looked Armenian. He had to leave before we did. We were more fair skinned because my mom's a Russian and. Or Ukrainian. She was adopted by an Armenian family. And so we stayed behind to Handle all the affairs. Well, that then caused my dad to commit adultery, my mom to commit adultery. So there's. Their marriage is hanging on by a thread by the time we come to America, and they end up six months into it, end up getting divorced or separating. Communism falls. And I'm now growing up as, like, a kid in America. Whole new culture, whole new language, whole new everything, not understanding anything. And in the same time, we start going to Armenian Orthodox Church. And in that, it was, like, really cool. I'm like, man, this is different. Like, I've never heard about God. We never talked about Jesus. But, like, this is the cultural hub for all the refugees. And I liked it, man. I was an altar boy. I got christened as a kid. It was dope. It was dope to, you know, sip on some of that leftover communion wine. Come on, you can't. You. You can't waste the blood of Jesus. And they would let us little altar boys finish up the communion wine. So that was a trip. And. And it was. I was dope, man. Like, hearing about God for the first time, even as a kid, I didn't understand it, but I understood there was. There was something beyond this realm. Well, then in the midst of that, dude, I end up. I'm like 7 or 8, and there's some older altar boys that are, like, 13, 14 years old. And I end up getting essayed as a kid by these older altar boys, which, again, dad's not in the picture. And I just have this stain on my mindset. My mental. My framework of now God and church and Jesus and everything is tainted. And I just go down a really dark path, bro, of just wiling out by wiling out. I'm talking by the age of 11, I'm breaking into houses. I'm smoking weed, I'm drinking. I'm, like, about to start experimenting with other drugs, but age 11. By age 11.

[Bryce Crawford]

Oh, my gosh.

[Ruslan]

And I got arrested breaking into a house at age 11.

[Bryce Crawford]

No way.

[Ruslan]

Yeah.

[Bryce Crawford]

Dude, what do they even do with a kid that's 11 years old that they were like, what do they. You know what I mean? Like, what do you do?

[Ruslan]

Yeah, yeah. What they do is they take. They handcuff you, put you in the back of a police car, and they take. It's like a holding station. And then they. They separated me and the people that I got caught with. And, you know, we. We were not built for the streets, bro. We started talking and telling and everything that was going on really quickly. You ever seen. You ever seen that show? Scared straight. So, like, I didn't even have to go on the show, bro. Like, just getting arrested and all the crazy stuff. Like, I was scared straight. Like, right away I was like, all right, you know, I was. I was petrified. And my mom was mad because she's like this single mom. She finally's getting on her feet, working a job, figuring it out. And here I am, like, getting arrested. Knucklehead. And I continue on for a while, but as I get arrested, this is how the Lord works. I now have to do community service hours, so I know I have to do some community service. And I was behind on the community service hours. I kept getting in trouble. And then the lady that was the manager in our apartment building, her name is Cherie. And Cherie, man, she was interesting. She was my mom's, like, best friend. Her son was my best friend, Stephen Jackson.

[Chris]

And.

[Ruslan]

And Cherie went from being the mom, like the cool mom. When I was like 8 or 9, she took me and Steven to a Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg concert at the San Diego Sports Arena. So imagine, like, I'm one of the only kids there, but I'm like, definitely the only white kid there.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

And I'm seeing Snoop and I'm seeing Dre, and people were smoking, passing a blunt. Like, this is my childhood. One night, Steven, thankfully spent the night at my house. She wasn't there. And someone did a drive by and shot up her whole house right where his room was at. And so there was like, bul holes. So this is like Cherie, like, Sheree's, like, kind of involved in some street stuff, some sketchy people coming around. She gets arrested for trying to transport cocaine going through an airport, right?

[Unidentified Guest]

Whoa.

[Ruslan]

Crazy stuff, right?

[Bryce Crawford]

Dude, what in the world?

[Ruslan]

Like, straight movie stuff. But she goes to jail and she gets, like, radically saved. Like, radically on fire for Jesus.

[Bryce Crawford]

Oh, my God.

[Ruslan]

Comes out a couple years later. So this is right. She comes out right as I'm in the middle of just like, my rebellion, like, I'm wilding out at this point, and comes out and somehow, like, our entire apartment becomes Christian. It's like an eight unit apartment. Everyone's Christian now besides me, my family and the army, the other Armenian family. And dude, I have to do these community service hours. And so, like, I'm behind and like, I'm about to go back to court if I don't have these hours done. Like, I'm. I'm cooked, right? So Charlie and Willie, some folks that go to Cherise church, that she either converted or Moved into the. I don't know. But they. All of a sudden, I got godly Christian men around me are like, hey, you can do community service hours with us. So now I'm around these godly Christian men. They're sharing Jesus with me. Sharia's sharing Jesus with me. And it was this beautiful. It was this beautiful tension that they had of like, we're going to tell you the truth about you. Like, you're wilding and you're like a rough kid, and what you're doing is not okay, but we're going to do it in a way that still lets you know that we love you and we accept you.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

And that consistently those. Planting those seeds. And I'm an atheist at this point. I'm like, there's no God.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

Because look at all the terrible things that happened to me. And if there is a God, he definitely doesn't like me. He wants nothing to do with me. And they just kept being patient with me, bro, and kept sharing Jesus with me. Sharing Jesus with me and living Jesus. I saw her life transformed. I saw her temperament change. I saw the. These men that were functionally like father figures to me.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

Just loved on me, dude. And I still wasn't convinced. I was like, nah, like, like, nope. And then my, my. My mom sees that I'm on this dark path. And at the end of my seventh grade year, it really hit the fan for me, dude. I. I broke into another house. And this time everyone knew in the neighborhood that, that, like, oh, those are the kids that break into houses. They just knew. And so then someone's being sent to my apartment building with a bat looking for me. Like, outside looking for me. Another kid, the Samoan kid in seventh grade brought a gun to school and told me about it and then got caught and expelled. And then detectives bring me into the principal's office and. And are like, hey, what's up with this gun? And I'm like, what gun? Like, I didn't even see a gun. He told me he had a gun. I didn't even see a gun. And they're like, oh, he. He told us you gave him the gun. And I'm like, what? And they're like, yeah, they said you gave us the gun. Because I'm on probation at this point. Like, my. I got this reputation. And I'm like, I get up and I'm like, it wasn't my effing gun. Like, run the fingerprints. Like, I'm yelling at these detectives in the principal's office, and I I end up leaving, and a couple days later, this Samoan kid is approaching me on El Cajon Boulevard in City Heights, San Diego. That's where I grew up. Approaching me and. And he's like, why did you snitch on me? And I'm like, snitch on you? Like, what? You said it was my. I got to snitch on you. I just said it wasn't my gun. And. And so. And then he has a little. A shank. He has, like. And starts lunging at me and. And Bryce, dude, thankfully, this kid was fat because I. Yo, yo, he was a fat. I mean, I love my Simones, but, you know, he was a fat kid, bro. If he's watching this, I love you, brother. Dude, thankfully this kid was fat because I was able to hit him with a. With a juke. I was playing flag football, so I hit him with a juke move. And, bro, I ran for my life down El Cajon Avenue with everything I had, he couldn't catch me. And I'm not exaggerating. Like, a week or two later, we relocate to Vista, California, which is you. When you. That's Vista, California. So totally different vibe, not city. And it was a fresh start. It was a fresh start, bro. And I got into sports. I got into basketball. My GPA went from like 1.0 my seventh grade year. Like, I didn't even think they were going to let me move on to 8th grade to 3.8 my 8th grade year.

[Bryce Crawford]

Dang.

[Ruslan]

Like, a complete turnaround in one year. In one year.

[Bryce Crawford]

That's crazy.

[Ruslan]

I became a good student. The subsequent year, I'm playing basketball. I get into music. I win a talent show. There's this girl that's really into me. The only way I could see her over the summer is if I go to church with her and her family. I start going to church. I wrestle for two years of. Is it Jesus? Is it Allah? Is it the Jehovah's Witnesses? Is it the Mormons? Is it what? Is it, right? The Buddhist. Because I had a really diverse friend group. And through wrestling, I read the New Evidence that Demands a verdict by Josh McDowell. Amazing apologetics book. And I come to the conclusion, like, Jesus is who he says he is. Like, he is. He's not a liar. He's not. He's not a lunatic. He's not crazy. He's Lord. Because that was the. You only have three options, right? And this is coined by C.S. lewis. Either Jesus is a liar and he's not the Messiah, and he's just Lying or he's out of his mind, he's crazy. I'm sure doing what you do, ministry probably bumped into people that think they're Jesus, right? He's lunatic. He's a lunatic. Or he's, he's God and you can't, there's no third option. He can't be a good moral teacher, he can't be a good guy, he can't be a good moral example. Because a good moral example wouldn't be a liar, wouldn't be a lunatic. And so I was convinced of the resurrection, I was convinced of Jesus. And dude, I wrestled for another year and then finally, like the end of my junior year, give my life to the Lord and jump into ministry and, and really haven't looked back since. That's been, that's almost 25 years ago.

[Bryce Crawford]

Wow, you said the end of your junior year?

[Ruslan]

The end of my junior year, yeah. So it was a wrestle. Like some people come to the Lord and like, it's like instant for me. Like, I had so many questions. The problem of evil, suffering. Why did I get essayed as a kid? Like, why did all this crazy stuff happen to me? It was a lot of wrestling that I had to do with God.

[Bryce Crawford]

I mean, you had a lot of challenges. I mean, just being like, I mean, dude, immigrating from your home country to America at 6 years old, your parents splitting up, basically, as soon as you kind of get to America, not knowing people, hanging out with the wrong crowd, doing this like that, that's just wild. I can't keep. Stopped laughing at the, at the, at the shank thing because it's like, that's so, that's just so funny to me. But yeah, yeah, but man, like, I, I think that's so, I think that's so powerful because I think everything you just said there is, is encouraging to me as like a young person and to my generation. Because you have kids out there that are currently in that position, right? Maybe they have parts of your story that is their story, maybe your story is their story right now. And they think that they're too far gone. They think that they're too messed up or, or they just flat out think that the behavior they've been doing for too long is just their story and that's how they're going to be forever. But obviously that's not the case. You have this moment with Jesus over years of wrestling, you get encountered. God changes your life. I, I think that's super encouraging, especially for, especially for people that kind of get caught up in that. I don't know, in the drugs and in the theft, in the. In the. All that, or someone that even had that, like, criminal record at a young age. I mean, you look at now, like people that have criminal records that get out of jail, like, they can't even get jobs. They can't even do any of that stuff. So they feel like that their life decisions kind of screw them up. And so I think that's the. I think that's the good pivot. The entry in the door is Jesus. The faith in Jesus. After that faith in Jesus, it's like. It's kind of like the. What do you do next? I think that's. That's the big question. Like, I remember giving my life to Jesus when I was 17 and wondering, well, what am I supposed to do? I. I had been so Before I was 17, I was making YouTube videos from the sixth grade up until my junior high school when I became a Christian, but they were like prank videos. I was like, yeah, lit my neighbor's lawn on fire by accident. I was like, by accident?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah, by accident.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah, by accident. You gotta clarify that. You know, all this other stuff. And I'm, like, pranking people and messing with people. I remember I always felt so weird in my heart because I was purposefully, like, frustrating people. But I enjoyed the creative aspect of it. I became a Christian, was like, all right, God. And I think this is the first. The first idea that came on my brain. I'm a Christian, so that means I have to become a pastor. And as I started growing, I realized I'm not going to be a good pastor. Bryce is not. I'm not. That's not a gift of mine. I'm just not good at shepherding people. I'm not. I'm not good at that. And that's okay. There's people that are good at that. But I realized that quickly. But I remembered when I first be, like, really started following Jesus when I was 17, I thought that I had to become a pastor because now I'm all in. And so, because I'm all in, I got to do this, and I've got to live broke, and I've got to do all these things, and I can't enjoy these things. I can't enjoy basketball. I can't enjoy school. You know, it's like all these things that kind of shut down. And then the more I got in my relationship, I kind of started to realize that that actually wasn't the case. Like, how do you kind of discern with someone like, if someone gives their life to Jesus right now, for the person that is currently giving their life to Jesus or maybe has been a Christian, but feels like they don't know what God is calling them to do, what are the first action steps to say, hey, what am I supposed to do?

[Ruslan]

Yeah, that's a great question. For me, it was similar, man. It was like, hey, you're. You're either a. You're either gonna be a pastor or you're gonna be a worship leader. Like, those are your two options in church. It's like, pastor, worship leader. And it's like, man, I like music. Like, I made music at hip hop and did that professionally from 2015 to 2020, traveled all over the country and toured and all that. But, like, I'm not a worship leader. Like, I don't know how to play guitar. I don't know how to sing.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

Or pastor much like you. I'm like, yeah, I'm not really a shepherd. Like, I love. Like, true pastors are folks that, that can communicate the word. Well, sound doctrine, obviously, live above approaching all that, but they can also shepherd and love people and, and be with people in the, in the midst of their suffering.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

Like, I was just at Echoes Church in Arizona with my buddy Daniel Golding, one of my, one of my best friends. And bro, like, he's a pastor, dude. Like, he knows, hey, man, this person's going through this and I'm praying for him. Hospital visits, you know, marriages, funerals. Like, dude, that, that's a different degree of gifting and a different capacity one has to have for people that if you're like, hey, man, I just want to tell people about Jesus. You know, I want to. I want to be used by God. Yeah. Not, not, not everyone is wired for being a pastor. But I think the beautiful part is when we look in the scriptures, there's all sorts of spiritual gifts, there's all sorts of different things that we could be doing to, to usher in God's goodness and God's beauty and the kingdom on this side of eternity. And so for me, I was. I knew I was born again because something interesting happened. And, and people listening may or may not relate to this, but I feel like the first question is, how do you know if you're born again? Yeah, how I knew I was born again is all of a sudden, dude, the things I used to love. Sexual immorality, porn, smoking, weed, drinking, cussing. All of a sudden those things I used to love, I now hate. I don't, I don't want to do these things no more. I still wrestled. Like, don't. Don't get it twisted. Like, I still wrestle. Like, having sex with your girlfriend when you're like, you've always done this. Why don't we stop?

[Chris]

Right?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

So I still wrestled, but I would be sick afterwards. I would feel so convicted and, like, nauseous to the point, you know, Same thing with. With adult content. Like, I would wrestle and in this, like, all of these things, like, I just couldn't do them in peace anymore as I could before.

[Chris]

Yeah, right.

[Ruslan]

And then all of a sudden, the weird thing happened, dude, is like, all the things I used to hate, the Bible, prayer, weird Christians, worship music. I really didn't like worship music. Like, that first year and a half ago in church, I did not, like, open the eyes of my heart. Lord, I despised Christian music, but I did not like it. Worship music was like, so. And maybe it was the guy that was singing it to me because, you know, people are like, you're tripping. Like, those songs, slap. I didn't like it, dude. And all of a sudden, like, I. I'm lifting my hands. Like, I like. I like these songs. I. I like being around the weird Christians that walk around the school with their big old Bible tucked underneath them and just. They're kind of quirky. I want, like, that those are the people I wanted to be around. So, like, there was this. There's a shift that happened that was beautiful. And all of a sudden, I'm desiring to be in community. I'm desiring to be in a small group. So I think there's people listening to this that are, like, first and foremost. Like, they don't even know if they're. They're saved. Like, I don't even know if I'm Christian.

[Chris]

That.

[Ruslan]

That would be the tail sign. How you know you're Christian is do you hate the things that you used to love, your sin? The patterns that you know don't honor God, that are against scripture? And do you love the things you used to hate? The Bible, Scripture, listening to Christian content, listening to preaching, worship music. That. That's an indicator in terms of, like, are you in the faith or you're not in the faith? That would be like, where has your heart changed? My heart changed. I knew my heart changed.

[Chris]

The.

[Ruslan]

The issue, though, Bryce, was, for me, is like, no one talked about now what? Like, not now what? Like, okay, cool, man. Like, you're safe. You're 17, 18 years old. You got all this testosterone.

[Chris]

Like, you.

[Ruslan]

You're Thinking about girls. Like you're thinking about sex, you're thinking about all this stuff. It's. And, and God wired you a specific way. And then you got these dreams and these desires and like, like, I think I'm supposed to have a job, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to come. Am I supposed to go out and just tell people about Jesus all day? Like, what am I supposed to be doing? No one really had these conversations and, and mental health. Like, forget about mental health. Like, we thought therapy was demonic. Like we thought talking to someone about what? The trauma that happened to you, man, just confess that in your small group and that's it, you know, and it's like, yeah, confess it in your small group. And yes, get around a good pastor. But man, sometimes there's things that, you know, you go through and it, and it rewires your brain. Like trauma can rewire your brain and that may require a bit more work and effort.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

And so I knew I was supposed to remove sin. I knew I was supposed to wage war on sin. I know obviously one of you guys have. In your bathroom, be aggressive against sin.

[Unidentified Guest]

In the bathroom? Yeah, yeah.

[Ruslan]

I think in the, in the shower. I was like, that's fire. Like, be aggressive in how you deal with sin. Right. Like, I knew that and I knew I was supposed to remove those vices, but I didn't know how to replace those vices with virtues.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

I didn't know how to remove and uproot the evil in my life, but replace it with something beautiful and plant a garden.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

No one talked about this sort of stuff outside of like, go to church. Go to church, read your Bible, serve, like, cool, man. Like, I love it. I'm in.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

But then what?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yep, yep.

[Bryce Crawford]

I'm right there with you. I remember I became a Christian and it was weird because I felt like, no. So in my circumstance, no one told me that, like, no one told me, like, oh, you have to be a pastor and that's the only thing you could do. That's just what I assumed. Right. That's the assumption. And so I was doing the Wednesday night group of the local church, going every Sunday, you know, going to a church conference, if I could. Serving here, serving there, you know, praying for people in the street and this, this and that. Right. When I become a Christian, meeting with my non Christian friends at Waffle House for breakfast or at the Mexican restaurant for dinner and talking to them about Jesus and at the football games. But. But then again, it was like the now What? Because all my ambitions and desires before Jesus were, well, the hookups, the porn, the people pleasing. And then now it's like I'm in this sanctification process where I'm trying to stop doing those things. But I'm only, the only things I'm doing are like going to church and things like that, which. Those are great things. Like we need that stuff. I love the local church. And there was even like a year and a half in my faith journey where I kind of was just like, oh, you know, it's just about me and my relationship with God. And then I was like, bro, what am I?

[Ruslan]

I need the local church.

[Bryce Crawford]

You need the local church. But so we, we need the local church. But I thought that was the only thing I could be doing. And so if you could define, if you could define godly ambition. What is godly ambition?

[Ruslan]

Yeah, I think, I think the simplest way I could define godly ambition. The scriptures forbid selfish ambition. And that word in the Greek is edithia. It's like a self promotion clobbering at any me by any means to get over other people. So scriptures forbids selfish ambition. It's, it's, it's in James very clear. Like selfish ambition, bad. But the word for ambit, there's a second word for ambition. I'm a butcher this West Huff tried to help me with the pronunciation of it, but it's philiotimia.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

It's a different type of. And even if we break the etymology down, filio is brotherly.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

So like Philadelphia. So there's a, there's an in tamiya and it's like a, a, it's a, it's an ambition to serve people and steward what you have.

[Chris]

Yeah, right.

[Ruslan]

And that word is actually used three times in the New Testament. It's used when Paul says, hey, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel where, where others haven't.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

So he wants to go into uncharted territories, which, which is kind of a lot like what you're doing. Like you go to Burning man, you go to these places where like, let's be honest, like Christians don't go or are afraid to go. Yeah, right. So you're going into uncharted territory, preach the gospel. The second is Paul says he makes it his ambition to do what pleases God. So live in a way that pleases God. And the third and, and is, I think one of the most crucial. Paul's writing to the church in Thessalonica. They're going through persecution. People are getting Killed. It's dark and they kind of grow apathetic. Like they're like, man, we're just waiting for Jesus to come back, bro. So they stopped working. They started being dependent on the church. And in First Thessalonians, chapter four, Paul writes them and he says, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, working with your own hands so that you will not be dependent on anyone. Minding your own business so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders. And to me, it was that third, in that third part that I was missing. Working with your own hands, so, so that you mind your business, lead a quiet life so you won't be dependent on other people. So there's a, there's a calling towards independence, right. Towards a coming of age moment for us as men to leave our parents house and go out and be independent.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

And, and that, that it's our, it's our daily life that wins the respect of outsiders. We could have all the apologetics and all the polemics and all the philosophy and all the theology and all that's great, and I love all of that. But if that, but if it stops there and people can't see a transformed daily life committed to virtue and service and love, then, then, then it's, it's, it's null and void.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

You know, think about like amazing Christian people that we've been influenced by that tragically had a moral failing, right? And think about like, what that does to people, right? Like it, it shakens them, right? So it's like that daily life, that, that, that daily pursuit of sanctification. And I think godly ambition is all of those things. It's the pursuit of services, the pursuit of sanctification, it's the pursuit of stewardship. Meaning none of my life is not my own, my platform is not my own, my money's not my own, none of it is my own. And I am called to steward and manage it onto the glory of God. And so I think in all of that, like, that, that is how I would define godly ambition. And there's a passage of scripture I want to show you that I think you'll love. But let me, let me just kind of pause there for a minute.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, there's a lot of people, you know, you may be listening or watching this, that you're in the street or maybe you were sexually abused, or maybe you've been involved in theft, drugs, alcoholism, and you feel like your whole life's been thrown away. And those are the only Desires you've had. But Ruslan is a testament. Ruslan's life is a testament. Bryce's life is a testament. Many believers have a testimony that says, that used to be my life. It doesn't have to be my life anymore. God can change your ambitions. And that's the encouragement, I think it's like, so, you know, my brain immediately goes to the passage in scripture of the parable of the talents, you know, where three people get three different sets of talents and the one guy buries his. And I felt like that was me, out of fear, being a Christian, saying everything I did before Jesus was all bad, so I have to just hide it all. Well, obviously now we're making YouTube videos, and I was making YouTube videos before Jesus.

[Ruslan]

That's right.

[Bryce Crawford]

Except before Jesus, it was all about me. It was all about Bryce and how Bryce could be known and making. Getting the eyes on me because I was a people pleaser. I just wanted people like me. So I knew if I could get anything to do anyone to like me and record and get whatever, it would help. And then for years, I just kind of hid and was like, there was great. There was good that came out of it. Good out of this, like, hiding period of just being with the Lord. But then I had a dream, and God's like, hey, no, this thing is okay. Just do it for the glory of God. Like, do it for me.

[Ruslan]

Come on.

[Bryce Crawford]

And so it's just crazy how, like, that desire wasn't necessarily a sinful desire. God just changes. Okay, you used to do this for yourself, but now you're going to do this for me. Yeah, and I think that's. That's just a big encouragement of where, you know, those guys get the talents they steward, the gift God gave them. And it multiplied and impacted people. And so I, you know, there's a lot of people out there that are listening that God has put ambitions in their heart from the moment they were born or from the moment they were little that they have in their heart that they kind of think it's like, maybe not from God because other stuff that they're doing is sinful. So they just assume that everything in their heart is sinful. But there, there's an ambition in there that God's trying to unlock in them and trying to use for them. And I, I feel so encouraged by that and encouraged by your story because you're saying, hey, look, man, I enjoyed hip hop music. I wasn't a worship leader, but, man, I was making music for the glory of God and using that gift and I, I think that's, I think that's what people need to know is that we need lawyers. We need people at the gym, front desk, we need waiters and waitresses. We need accountants that are believers that are doing it for the glory of God. I think of that scripture in First Peter where it says, be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for the hope inside of you, but do it with gentleness and respect. And one of my prayers has always been like, I just want the way that I, like carry myself. Like, the way that I walk on the street makes someone ask, like, why do you, like, you walk different. You know what, why do you walk the way, why do you carry yourself that way? You know, I think, I think that is like even in your work, if you're a lawyer, like, why are you not shady when you're in court defending your client? Like, why are you just respectful and calm, but firm and Jesus, you know, I think we need that.

[Ruslan]

Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. I mean, first let me just acknowledge, I love that you said that there was a necessary season where you needed to go in hiding for a moment. And I think that there's, there's, there's. That needs to be acknowledged because oftentimes, especially today in the, in this climate, people see what you're doing, they see what George is doing. Girls gone Bible, they see that and that they wanted, they want to jump right in. But like, you're spot on, dude. Like when you stop, when you first come to the faith, you need a season of just go sit. You know, Paul, who wrote the majority of our New Testament, spent I want to say, seven years in Arabia just, just hidden before he went out and started doing all this stuff. He came to faith, but then he went and sat with the disciples. Then he went and just sat for a while, you know. And so I think there's something to, hey, let's pause and get rooted in our faith, right? So I think, I think you're totally spot on. But then to your point, like, then something starts to happen with those things that the Lord deposited even before we were Christian. Now there are certain things, like you said this man, like you, you can't be a meth head for Jesus.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah, right.

[Ruslan]

Like you can't, like we're not, you can't be an only fans model for Jesus. Right? You can't, can't be a drug dealer for Jesus. Like there's certain things that, like they're just out, right? Like, like you can't do Those things. But there are other things that God has deposited or maybe even things connected to some of the, even the sinful things, right? Like I'll be honest with you in that like a lot of the folks I knew who were in the streets and doing illegal activities in the streets ended up indirectly having entrepreneurial gifts. They just didn't have opportunities or wisdom on how to flesh those things out.

[Chris]

Right?

[Ruslan]

And so there's this really interesting story in scripture I wanted to share with you, man. This is so fascinating. So In Luke chapter 22, this is the last supper and Jesus in the parallel gospels just washes his disciples feet. And then he's telling them that one of them is about to betray him. And they're study talking about who's going to betray him, right? And then something crazy happens. In Luke 22, verse 24, it says a dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. So here these disciples are, Jesus washes their feet, he's like, hey man, when you guys are about to betray me, this is right before he's about to face the cross. And they're arguing about who's going to be the greatest in this earthly political kingdom they're expecting him to establish, right? Like just bad timing, bad form, right? And like what do you, like, what knuckleheads like, are these disciples? Like this dude's about to go to the cross and you guys are arguing about like who, who's going to have the most clout and the most power in the new kingdom, right?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

And so Jesus does something interesting, man. Jesus, he doesn't rebuke their desire for doing something great because he could have. He'd rebuke Peter, right? He'd rebuke the Pharisees. He, Jesus was not uncomfortable rebuking people. He doesn't rebuke their desire to be great. He doesn't even reject their desire to be great. He does something interesting. In verse 25, Jesus says to them, the kings of the Gentiles lord it over them. And those who exercise authority over them called themselves benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest and the one who rules, like the one who serves, right? So he says, hey, your worldly understanding of greatness, that ain't it. Because that's the world is about power and dominance and status and clout. That's not it. So he doesn't rebuke or reject their desire for greatness. He redefines greatness. He redirects their desire, and he redeems it. And he ultimately points them to service. He says in verse 27, verse 26 says, but you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest. And the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves, is it not the one by who is it at the table? But I am among you as one who served who serves. Jesus says, true greatness is through servanthood. True, true greatness is through being the biggest servant and being willing to lay down your life. And he's about to demonstrate that to them by the cross.

[Chris]

Right?

[Ruslan]

So I think so many of us, we want, we have a vision for something, but we did it when we did it the world's way. We knew that that was incongruent with who God is. But now we're in Christ Jesus. And so we go, well, how do we go about it? Well, so how do we go about it? As we go. Wait a minute. Are you doing it to build your castle? Are you doing it to build God's kingdom? Are you doing it to, to dominate over people? Or are you doing it to serve people?

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

And so serving people doesn't always mean being in the lowly place and just cleaning the bathroom, I think. Cleaning bathrooms and toilets. I did it. I worked. I was a janitor at a church. It's actually the only job I got fired from.

[Bryce Crawford]

No way.

[Ruslan]

Being a janitor, church.

[Bryce Crawford]

How do you get fired?

[Ruslan]

I got fired because I was working at a Pizza Hut and I was double scheduled and Pizza Hut was my full time gig.

[Bryce Crawford]

Gotcha.

[Ruslan]

And I was like, I can't miss this.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

Because this is only for the weekends. And I told them and then I was like, I'm not going to show up, guys. I'm not coming. Guys, I'm not coming. And so I didn't come. And they were like, you're fired. And I'm like, so only job I ever got fired from. But like, there's something in the remedial, you know, being hidden. Clean the toilets. It's good for your. It's good for the ego, it's good for the soul. But there's also times where you're serving as a leader that's helping other people.

[Chris]

Right?

[Ruslan]

So a lot of what you do is like, you're serving. What you do is serving. But it may not be you cleaning toilets.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

It may be you in front of a thousand people sharing your testimony. That is serving.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

That is serving people as well. And so I think service is being willing to do the uncomfortable things for the sake of other people.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

For the benefit of other people. Jesus went to the cross, right?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

In the book, I go into this idea of, like, passion, right? People were like, I just want to follow my passions, dude. Like, my passion, like, bro, Bryce, my passion was like, I thought I was going to be a professional basketball player, right? And then I discovered something called genetics, you know? And, like, genetically, bro, it wasn't in the cars, but that was my passion.

[Chris]

Yeah, right.

[Ruslan]

But when we look at passion, we look at. We look up the first definition of passion, and it's like this exciting, amazing thing that you're excited about.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

You know, the second definition of passion is what? Agony. And then it says the suffering of Christ. Dang. The passion of Christ. So passion is not what are you excited about and feel euphoric about so much, man. Just find something you love to do so much that you do it for free. And you'll never have to work a day in your life.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

That's your path. No, no, no. Your passion is what are you willing to suffer for? What are you willing to go to through agony and lay down your life to suffer for it? Granted, none of us are going to the cross the way Jesus went to the cross.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

That is an amazing atoning work for the forgiveness of our sins. But there are times where we've had to suffer in doing this that most people aren't willing to suffer. Like, I'll be real with you. I'm not going to Burning Man. I'm just not. I'm not going to Coachella.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

You're willing to put yourself in situations and suffer and. And be uncomfortable, and that is something that God gave you. And so what if passion was less about what are you excited about, but more about what are you willing to suffer for that other people aren't willing to suffer for? And what if your calling is in that?

[Bryce Crawford]

I love that. That literally reminds me of in. I think it's in Luke chapter 16, when he sends the disciples out. And too, he's like, don't bring a knapsack. Don't bring an extra tunic. Like, go in faith. And then I remember I was at Arizona State. So when we were all meeting up for the podcast, we were at Arizona State, and this young lady came. Came up there and she was talking to me and she was like, yeah, you know, so that means that she was like, I sold my car, I sold everything, blah, blah. And I'm all in. And I'm like. She's like, so everyone needs to do that or they're not following Jesus. And I said, well, hold on. We have to understand that, you know, he's using a metaphor here to get them to be totally dependent on God. If you read like five chapters later, he's like, hey, do you remember when I told you guys not to bring the tuna and not to bring the knapsack? He's like, okay, use your common sense this time. Bring the knapsack and bring the tunic.

[Ruslan]

And buy a sword.

[Bryce Crawford]

And like, yeah, because he's like. He's like, use the gifts and the things that I've given you.

[Ruslan]

That's right.

[Bryce Crawford]

Almost like, steward the things that you have.

[Ruslan]

That's right.

[Bryce Crawford]

I really believe God rewards the stewardship. Like, if, if, like, you know, people see maybe outward success or what people are doing or what people have, and they assume I've gotta have that. But if you can't even be trusted with the little things that you have, how is God going to be able to trust you with the grand thing? Because that's when I feel like that, for me, was the first indicator of, like, am I trying to build my castle or am I trying to serve people and expand the kingdom? Was like, do I want what everybody else has or do I want to steward what God has given me? You know, I remember, like, when I first became a Christian, it was like, you know, there is that deception of like, true successful Christianity is preaching in front of thousands of people, right? But then you get a taste of what real success is, is when you meet one on one with that friend you've had for 10 years. And then they, they get encountered by Jesus because of your faithfulness and your, your hard work, like, earning, earning, earning. Like, I, I'll never forget. I'm not even saying any of this, like, bump my gums. I'm just like reflecting right now on my whole senior year of high school. At my Christian school, all my classmates did not like me. They all thought I was a righteous police. They all thought, like. I remember we started out the senior year, we did a whole high school retreat. I was reading my Bible during Christian high school.

[Ruslan]

They didn't like you.

[Bryce Crawford]

Christian high school, that's crazy. I would get my, my Bible shut in my face like I was reading my Bible. In my quiet time. Kids would come up, shut my Bible, messing with me. I was hosting like the. Me and my, my best friend were hosting like the chapel services every night. And when he would come out, everyone Would cheer. And then when I would come out, people would boo. And I got food thrown at me at the student section. People would ignore me. And people would only come to me when their life was crumbling. And then when I would comfort them and pray for them, then when they would immediately go and gossip about me in the same classroom, like, leaf. And I remember sitting there thinking, like, man, like what? I almost thought, like, what I was sewing was just like, waste. I'm like, man, like, I'm sitting there thinking, why am I being faithful to these people that are treating me like this? And then ever since we graduated high school, I get calls and texts and messages from people I used to go to high school with that are now being impacted by. By Jesus through a lot of what we do now. And all I can imagine is like, man, what happens if I just wasn't faithful?

[Ruslan]

Come on with that.

[Bryce Crawford]

With those people in that time period. Even though they were rejecting me, even though that they were pushing me away or even though they had their reservations towards me, like this. This girl I went to high school with that I don't really even talk to that much. I didn't even know I did this, but she had texted me, like, five months ago. Didn't even know I had her number saved. You know, she had my number. We never really talked much in high school. She texted me this three. Three massive paragraphs just talking about how she got pulled over and had gotten a ticket. And it reminded her of in high school, our senior year, how she would gossip about me and make fun of me and spread rumors about me. And one day she came into school getting a ticket that morning and was saying how her parents were going to ground her and kill her, and she didn't have the money to afford it. And apparently I paid for her ticket.

[Ruslan]

Whoa.

[Bryce Crawford]

And she was just like, I got pulled over today and was just reminded of that generosity you gave me, even though I was gossiping about you and sp. Spreading rumors about you. And she just sent me these three paragraphs, just grateful for what Jesus was doing in her life, Grateful for that. And it just reminded her. And gratitude. And all I could just think of is like, man, like, if you're not faithful with the little, what. What's God gonna do? What. What. What can God do with you in the. In those moments of, I don't know, opportunity, you know, I think. I think that's. I think that's just such a beautiful picture that you're painting there. And my brain, I kind of want to kind of like flow into this conversation of when I was reading your audio. Sorry, Listening to the audio, I noticed that you talk about the abundant life. Right. You know, after you get godly ambition. You know, I think about the scriptures where it says, like, the man that neglects his family is worse than the unbeliever. And working with your hands, you know, there's something good about doing work and glorifying God and you reap what you sow. And Proverbs talks a lot about it.

[Chris]

Yep.

[Bryce Crawford]

There's a part of me that gets nervous around the idea of abundant life because of the definition that it can be associated with. Right. You know, like there's the prosperity movement that can abuse the term abundance and say, well, abundance only means monetary goals. And so if you give this amount of money, God's going to return double that amount of money to you. What is the abundant life?

[Ruslan]

Yeah.

[Bryce Crawford]

And what. How does that correlate with our godly ambitions?

[Ruslan]

Yeah. I think universally abundant life, like globally, throughout space and time, in all of history, looks like the fruit of the spirit. Joy, peace, kindness, gentleness.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

That Zoe. Life. And so when we're talking on a macro scale, wherever you're listening to this at, the abundant life is ultimately the ability to be content and have joy despite your circumstances. And I think that is something that a lot of people, what money here don't have. Like people in America. We know a lot of people. You're in la, bro. We know a lot of people that got all the money in the world and no peace. Yeah, they got all the. They got all the clout and influence in the world. No joy. You know what I mean? And so that, like, first and foremost, I think it's that it's joy, peace, it's being able to lay your head down at night and sleep and not. Not feeling like you've. You've been faking the funk this whole time or you've been living a false Persona.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

So I think foundationally, it's like the peace and the joy that we have in Jesus. Right. So that I think is foundationally now. I think where people struggle and where some people struggle is, yes, we look. And there is warning against money in scripture, right. Jesus says, like what. What good is it to gain the world and lose your soul?

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

First Timothy 6 says, you know, for the love of money is a root to all kinds of evil. So there's some warnings about. About pursuit of wealth for the sake of purpose, pursuing wealth.

[Bryce Crawford]

For sure. For sure.

[Ruslan]

Where your treasure is that your heart is.

[Chris]

Right?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ruslan]

And then, and then, so, so I like to approach scripture and say scripture has to interpret scripture, right? So people point to first Timothy 6 and then first Timothy 5, which you mentioned, which is, hey, he who does not provide for the needs of his family, specifically his immediate family, is worse than a non believer and is denied the faith. Now we're living in a climate where for some, some people it's, it's hard to provide for their own needs. Like they can't even move out of the house, right? They can't even go. And you guys have a super cool spot here. Bachelor guys, five of you guys living in this house. Most people can't even afford to do that, right? And, and then you add the, the, the, the cognitive dissonance around finances and success and work ethic as a Christian, and you can, you can easily slide into apathy and just like, I'm just gonna pump my life for Jesus, bro, because he's coming back next Thursday and it's just about me learning more information and not doing anything with it, right? And then you can kind of grow spiritually obese. You have all this information in this head knowledge, but you're in, you are in such a caloric overload of good teaching and you're not exercising or doing anything with it that you just stay stuck, right? So I think finance, when we talk about finances specifically, I think we have to first, what does the scripture say? Yeah, first Timothy 5, right? Proverbs says that a righteous man leaves an inheritance for his grandchildren in the, in the house of the righteous, there's choice, oil and spices, right? That wealth attained little by little will last, but those who get rich quick will wither away, right? So there's so much in the scriptures, I mean, Jesus talked about finances a lot. Not always in a favorable light. There was caution around it as well. And so I go, okay, what is our context in the here and now, in the west, where we're not under Roman occupation, where we're being persecuted and martyred like the disciples, we relatively can express our faith in it. Not, sometimes it might cost you economic opportunities, sometimes it might cost you a job, but generally speaking, like, no one's going to fire you because you're a Christian in America, generally speaking, right? And so it's like, you're not being persecuted the way the disciples were. You're not getting fired. You may be, there might be some persecutions, but not in that sense. And then there's all of these amazing principles in scripture about work ethic, about wisdom, about living below Your means about avoiding debt. If you're in debt, get out of debt as quickly as possible. Living on a budget. Like, there's so much in there. And this is the crazy part, right? All this stuff that's in there has been hijacked by the self help gurus and repurposed to this weird new age mysticism. And.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

Or the prosperity gospel, which, which is like believe it, name it and claim it. You know, blab it and grab it. You give God a dollar, he'll give you 100.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

And it's like, no, it doesn't work that way either.

[Bryce Crawford]

It doesn't.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

But, but there is a lot in there about godly stewardship.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

Management of resources and so like if the standard is provide for the needs of your family.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

Specifically your immediate family. That's the standard.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

If you don't do that, you're worse than a non believer. You're not the faith. I get it. There's going to be teenagers that are listening to this and like, dude, I'm in high school. What are you talking about? I'm not talking about right now. I'm talking about for when you, you're becoming a young man. That is the, that is the goal. You should be able to sustain yourself financially. And where you're in this season, let's just call it 18 to 25, where you have all this access to time.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

You have all this, you know, access to opportunities and you don't have any of the responsibilities that those of us who are married with kids have. And there's a small window of time where you can actually develop yourself, build your skills, learn how to be on a budget, how to get out of debt, how to stay out of debt, how to invest. All of these, you can do it within 18 to 25 to set yourself up for the next decade. And so many Christians I meet, dude, they, they just punt it. Yeah, they just, they're scared, right? It's like they're scared. I met this kid at a young adults group, bro, super, super talented kid, dressed well. He worked at like a thrift, like a high end thrift shop. He's in like super sick Japanese, Japanese salvage denim jeans. There's creased and fly outfit. He's on a worship team. He's, he's a visual artist. And we're talking and he's like, man, I want to be a visual artist. I'm like, dope, let me see some of your work. So I'm looking at him like, dude, are you, you pursuing this and he's like, nah. And I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, I work, like, 20 hours a week. And I'm like, and what else are you doing? I'm just kind of kicking it. And I'm like, you don't want to pursue your visual art? And he's like, nah, man. I'm afraid I'm gonna be too successful. And I'm like, too successful? Bro, you're at your mom's house. Like, you work 20 hours a week. You're on the worship team. Five hours too successful. So what we're doing is we're solving for problems we don't even have yet. It's like, how many people you know that are like, bryce, I'm scared to go to the gym, bro, because I might get too buff, I might get too jacked, and then I'll be vain, and then all the girls will want me, and then I'll fall into sin, right? Like. Like, bro, there is a chasm of a difference between where you are now and looking like Dwayne the Rock Johnson.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

Like, there's a chasm of difference between you just getting in the gym and becoming a sex icon.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

Like, stop it.

[Unidentified Guest]

Like.

[Ruslan]

Like, so we're solving for problems we don't even have yet, and you're not. You don't even walk. You don't even go outside. And we're talking about getting tube off. Like, you, you, you, you, you, you.

[Chris]

You.

[Ruslan]

You work 20 hours a week, and you live at your mom's house, right? Like, and you want to talk about being too successful? Like, how about we just get you to a baseline of. How about you just sustain yourself? How about we get you to a place of moving out and paying for every bill that comes to you. It's in your name. How about we get you off your family's cell phone plan? You know what I mean? Like, so. So we're solving for problems we don't even have yet. And again, I'm not. I'm not trying to be disparaging and mean. It's just like.

[Bryce Crawford]

No, there's this truth to it. There's just there. There's this truth to it. To it. You know, it's like. It's like the guys that are, you know, yelling, money cometh to me at the prosperity, because they, you know, they. They want money, but they're about to go drop that on a parlay this weekend on an NFL game, and then they wonder why the money ain't coming to them, and it's just because God don't trust them. Like, it's not that prosperity is true. The prosperity gospel's truth is that God doesn't trust them.

[Ruslan]

That's right.

[Bryce Crawford]

But, but there is this awkwardness about money. And if I'm being completely honest, like I get awkward about money. Like, I don't think money's sinful, it's amoral, it doesn't have feelings or emotions. You know, there are the warnings against scripture, you know, but then, then I read, you know, a lot of proverbs where Solomon's like, okay, look at the life of an ant. It's got no boss, but it works hard.

[Ruslan]

Yep.

[Bryce Crawford]

So work hard. And the reality is you reap what you sow. You put in hard work, you reap the dedication of the hard work. When I would study really well for tests, I would reap a good grade on my quiz and test because I studied hard and I was prepared, you know, But I think that there's this like awkwardness of people that's like, you know, if like. Did you see that picture of Pope Francis bedroom, like once he passed away?

[Ruslan]

Yeah.

[Bryce Crawford]

Do you see that? The trip, it was like a bed and then there was like a wooden cross hung on the wall. Like that was it.

[Ruslan]

Yeah.

[Bryce Crawford]

And I think, you know, and praise God for that. Praise God for that. I think that bedroom is the, is the, like that. How do I say this? Like, I'm trying to be careful how I say this because I think when I saw Pope Francis bedroom after he passed away, I was super encouraged. I'm like, man, he's content with little. He was a voice for many. He was, he was the literal Pope of the Catholic Church. That's how he was living his life. Humble, humble living. But then there's the contrary that can almost make people feel bad for, you know, like, like having things. Yeah, I, I, Before I moved to la, I worked for four months in Florida on boats. I had a co worker, his name was Mitch, double my age, slap broke, worst steward with money like love money. Slap broke would miss his phone bill. But every time we got tip money on the dock, he asked me if I wanted to split some scratch offs with him at the sick go across the city street. And then I also have a close family member who's the CEO of a successful business. And he is the most humble, generous, kind, best father, best friend, best steward with his resources. And when I compare those two circumstances, I go, okay. My old co worker had a little bit more of a heart issue than my close family member. That I know that is stewarding the gifts God has given him, stewarding the resources God has given it. And he's still a present father, a present. You know, he's got this busy life, but he's at every one of his daughter's volleyball games. He's at all the family meals. He makes time for everyone. Like, I'm like, man, that's that. But then there's this awkwardness about just money in general. Like, I'm not. I'm like, I think it's good to kind of get in the specifics, you know, like. Yeah, like, what is.

[Ruslan]

So I think. I think the greatest antidote to greed, which is really what you're getting at. And let me just say this before I say anything else, Let me say, man, there are people that love Jesus at all economic levels. There are poor people that love Jesus, and there are wealthy people that love Jesus. There are poor people that don't love Jesus, and there are wealthy people that don't love Jesus. Money can become an obstacle. It can become an idol, but so can poverty. You know, like, if you got to work seven days a week just to keep the lights on, you're not going to be able to go to church a lot of times, right? So. So there's tension on both ends of the spectrum, right? And so I think that the idea is quite simply, man, money is a terrible master. Terrible master. Don't let it master you. But money is a good servant. When you master money and you allow it to serve and be generous. And the way we do that, one of the most practical ways to do that is you make generosity a pillar of your life. Financial generosity, right? Like, because, yes, you can give away your time and you can give people attention, and you should do all of that. But when you're in a consistent rhythm of giving regularly, or, man, God just blessed me with this thing, Let me find someone to bless. I'm blessed to be a blessing. That is the anchor to combat what you're describing, which is greed, because you can be greedy and not make a lot of money, right? And you can be greedy with a lot of money. But when you make generosity the anchor, that is how we combat that. Like, we combat that by saying, I'm going to be generous, right? And the rest of it, I'm going to be faithful. And if God breathes on this thing, praise God. If he doesn't, I'm content, right? Contentment is often not talked about in our society. When that verse, you know, I can do all things through Christ, who Strengthens me.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

That verse is in the context of contentment. Like, I know what it's like to have plenty. I know what it's like to have little. I know what it's like to go without.

[Chris]

Right?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It has nothing to do with a football game.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

Like. Or like, I'm going to be an athlete. Like, I can do all things in Christ's strength, literally. Like, it's actually about contentment. Right? So, like, contentment is the launching pad to faithfulness and potentially abundance. Like, it's the contentment. It's the. I'm okay with little man. Like, I've. We've. Bro. We've been broke. Like, I've. You know, we. We went. We were a hundred thousand dollars in debt in 2011, me and my wife as newlyweds. And so I know what it's like to go scorched earth. We don't eat out. We don't go to the movies. We don't do anything because we're trying to clean up this mess we made. Like, I know what that's like. And we, by the grace of God and following Dave Ramsey's baby steps, we were out of debt in 18 months, you know.

[Chris]

Wow.

[Ruslan]

Before I was on YouTube, before I was doing music, before I was an.

[Bryce Crawford]

Entrepreneur, is that what kind of encourage you to. Because I don't know. I don't know anyone that knows Russell. I don't know if you guys know this. You used to have a financial channel.

[Ruslan]

Yeah, yeah. At the start, absolutely.

[Bryce Crawford]

Like, for. But you've had it for a while where you were, like, giving financial advice. Is that kind of what motivated you to do that? Because you had that season?

[Ruslan]

Yeah, because. Because I met so many young people, so many creative people, so many people that were creative but already had families, and they were trying to do this ministry thing or this music thing or this YouTube thing, and it was a burden on the family, and they're trying to figure out a balance it. And so I'm like, hey, man. Like, there's a way to build something.

[Bryce Crawford]

Sure.

[Ruslan]

There's a way to build something for optimal impact. And it doesn't have to come at the expense of your soul, and it doesn't have to come at the expense of your family.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah. One of the things I really respect about, like, my Muslim friends and just Muslims in general is that they give a lot of alms to the poor. And there was, like, a season two years ago where I would go to restaurants and then I would just ask, you know, when we were sharing Jesus with you, I just asked people like, hey, what's the worst shift to work? And like nine times out of ten they were saying Sunday because they were like, yeah, the church crowd just is so stingy. And I, I just, I sat there and I'm like, okay, you know, as Christians, we believe Jesus Christ is Lord, but we have a religion that contradicts the gospel, that is doing more generosity wise for people than Christians are. And it just, it kind of just got me thinking. I'm like, man, like, what are we doing? You know, like that, that, that broke my heart because I'm like, man, like, that's.

[Ruslan]

We should be the most generous.

[Bryce Crawford]

We should be.

[Ruslan]

Sundays after church, that's my favorite shift to work because them Christians show up, bro, and they give the fattest tips.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah, it's, it's like, man, what are we, what are we doing? You know? And I think like Matthew 25, you know what we do? The least of these, you do unto me. A lot of these people don't know, like when I was working on the boats, it was a part of a restaurant. Like these, these restaurants, like, even when we were on the boats, like our, our boat salary, like, if, if I shared how much like our salary was on the boats, people would freak because we lived off the tips. So these guys are working with their hands to reap what they sow. And like, because you know, Christians can, can be. Not all Christians, but we can be stingy because there's like this, it's like there's this awkwardness about money. But then when we obtain money, it's like, but that 10%, I need, I need the 10% this month. Or I'm just not gonna give this month because I need it. But for some reason I find those moments where even when money is tight, when I'm still generous, like God, God, just like when I first moved to la, I had no money and I just, I was just praying and asking God for help and asking God for help and still doing what I could, working side jobs and things like that. I was still doing my part while also praying. I wasn't sitting in my closet hours a day asking God to drop cash in my hands. I was working, also asking God for help. And I just remember those moments when I would have like a hundred dollars in my bank account, but I would see the homeless guy on the side that needed a meal. And I remember the battle in my flesh of going, okay, I literally have no money, but at least I have a roof over my head. This guy probably hasn't eaten. I'm going to get this guy a meal. No, God didn't bless me financially because I bought him a meal. But God showed up in many other ways that allowed me to steward my life. And now we're here. And so I think there's that, like, there's this like weird, you know, double edged sword. And also too, I have a, I just know a lot of Christians now, right, that this might be something good to talk about. I think this is good to talk about. I love that there's this Christian urgency in the Christian culture to get me married. I think that's great. I think that's beautiful. I have a lot of my friends that got married pretty quickly. They have amazing marriages. I also know a lot of Christians that got married quickly, but it was a poor financial decision and now they're struggling. They're struggling and like, they can't provide for their families. Like, what, what is the, is it wrong to have financial goals? And, and you know, like, like what? You kind of get what I'm asking here. Like, like, we got, we got people out here that are, that are more worried about, I'm keeping it a buck. We got more people worried about getting married so they can have sex than getting married so they can provide for their family and starting a life and nurturing something beautiful that God has given them it. Again. I'm just like, what are we doing, man?

[Ruslan]

Yeah, man. Look, dude, there's a, there's a, there's a study done by Forbes women that found out that 80, I want to say 84 of working women desire to stay at home for a season when they have kids. Like, this is working women, Women who are aspirational want careers, right? They did another study during the pandemic where they found out that 65% of working women with kids 18 and under would have preferred to stay home to raise their kids over working a job. So these are working women with kids 18 and under that are preferred to stay at home had they been given the opportunity to.

[Chris]

Right?

[Ruslan]

This isn't Christian women. This is in conservative women. This is in church women.

[Bryce Crawford]

Baseline tests.

[Ruslan]

Women who work and have children, the vast majority of them would have preferred to stay home and, and raise their kids. Now, depending on what pocket you're in, that would be like, yeah, well, duh, like if you're in the TradCon space. And I know, like that's super trendy on Tick Tock, like, of course, but like there's Other folks that are like, no, like, I want to go to college. I want to get an education. I want to go do these things. But here's, here's, here's the reality. In that same Forbes article, it found out that a huge percentage of women, like a high, like, I want to say, in the 90s, also became resentful towards their spouse if they couldn't provide that for them.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

And that's tough to talk about. When you're in your late teens, early 20s, mid-20s, you're not thinking about the, the biological reality of pushing out another human.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

What is that going to feel like, the connection, the reality that that baby's going to be latched on to you, that most babies, they, they, they. They drink breast milk. They're not, they're not on formula. I'm saying there's anything wrong with formula. And listen, I understand that there's all sorts of situations, and this is generally speaking, yeah, this is what most women desire when they get married, even if they don't know it. Like, right now, you might be like, I don't know, I'll send a baby to daycare. Huh? Try having a baby and trying to send them to daycare.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

It is heartbreaking to see the type of stuff that folks go through where they have to keep working.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

And so it's like, man, we're in this window of time where there's never been more opportunity and more technology or more access and more ways to learn new skills. But it's also very hard. It's also financially tough right now. The wealth gap keeps increasing. The middle class is shrinking. It's a tough season. And so if you're like, man, I want to get married. Okay, sweet. Want to get married? Man, I want you to get married. I want you to get married. I want you to have a great sex life. I want you to build a godly family. But in that, you have to count the cost and think about things five years from now that you're not thinking about now. And having kids is one of those, man, like, so if you're like, I want to get married, but, like, you have no skill set. Like, you do. Like, all you know how to do is like, wait tables. Like, wait tables, man. Like, hustle that. But you need to be doing something else.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

So this is, this is how I define it. I say there's two buckets that every man and woman, but every man specifically needs to focus on. Bucket number one is you need to work to eat right in. Second, thessalonians Paul writes them and says, a man who not work ought not eat same church. So it's interesting how in the scriptures he has to keep reiterating, I told you guys, like, man, make it your ambition to be quietly. And then, like, they didn't get it. Okay, man, if you don't work, you don't eat, right? So work to eat. Every single one of us has to figure out ways to work, to eat, to sustain ourselves, right? Not at the expense of church, not at the expense of your soul. But you need to figure out some ways to work to eat.

[Chris]

Right?

[Ruslan]

Work to eat. But then the second bucket is you got to sow to reap for the next season. So there's a sustainability. Hey, man, bills are due. You got to figure it out. You, you got to pay rent, you got got work to eat. That might mean driving for Uber, driving for lift, picking up an extra shift. Whatever you got to do, you got to work to eat. But the so to reap is for the next season.

[Unidentified Guest]

Y.

[Ruslan]

Me and my son were hanging out a couple weeks ago in our backyard. We were eating cherries. And you know, you eat cherries and you put the seat, or at least I put the seeds on the neck. I don't swallow them. So you guys to do your freaks swallow your cherry seeds. And my son looked at me, he's like, hey, we should plant a cherry. Cherry tree in our backyard or one of these seeds. And I was like, oh, let me look. How long it takes to for cherry tree to grow? How long you think it takes for a cherry to chew to grow?

[Bryce Crawford]

Probably a really long time.

[Ruslan]

Seven to ten years. Oh my gosh, seven to ten years. So we, because of this inundated culture of social media and the hustle bros and everyone grinding and automation and Amazon drop shipping and ah, you think you're gonna start something today and it's gonna be flourishing in a month? Yeah, like, that's not how it works. Yeah, like you're sowing to reap for the next season, and that requires patience. The only thing that grows overnight is weeds and magic mushrooms. And I don't think you want either of those.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yep, yep.

[Chris]

Right?

[Ruslan]

And so work to eat, sow to reap. You do those two things, you're going to position yourself. And so how do we sow to reap? We start saying, well, what. What areas am I interested in? What areas do I have a burden for? What passions do I have things I'm willing to suffer for?

[Chris]

Right?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

And what skill set deficits do I have? Currently that can be filled so that I can go and do more in the market, serve more people.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

So our brother, what was your name right now? Chris. So Chris right now is taking photos.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

Not everybody knows how to use a camera.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

But it's easier than ever before to use a camera.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

And they're more accessible than ever before. You're on a Sony, that's probably what, a three thousand dollar camera with the lens?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ruslan]

Probably a little bit more than that. Okay. When I was on doing stuff, bro, cameras were like 10 grand. You know, back in high school, things are getting cheaper. YouTube videos, you can watch a 10, 20 minute YouTube video, learn the ins and outs of that camera very quickly. We couldn't do that when I was in high school.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

Couldn't do that when I was in college. YouTube didn't exist yet, dude. YouTube came out of scene in like 2005. So what I'm saying is you can learn ways to use that camera, lenses, techniques, colors, lighting, editing, lightroom, on your phone, on the go right now, very quickly. So you figure out what skill deficits do I have? And maybe you don't become the Bryce Crawford and you're an influential dude that God is using. Maybe you're the number two or the number three or the number four to a Bryce Crawford. Maybe you go and you're the behind the scenes guy for a season. Maybe you sit underneath someone like you and you study and you learn to develop the skill set. And maybe you discover you actually don't want the headache that comes along with being the Rice Crawford.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

Maybe you're like, dude, you do that in front of the camera stuff, bro, I'll run the behind the scenes for you.

[Chris]

Right?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

And I think so many of us, we're just not thinking like that. We're not thinking like, hey, you have a skill deficit. What do you need to learn now in the area that you're interested in to make up? And there's a beautiful book that came out, bro, that said that we can learn almost any skill to a degree of competency with 20 hours of deliberate focus.

[Chris]

Focus.

[Ruslan]

20 hours of liberal focus. You can almost pick up anything when you learn cameras. Want to learn video editing, want to learn social media, want to learn SEO, want to learn coding, Want to learn graphic design, Want to learn T shirt design one.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

You want to learn how to weld. You want to write like 20 hours of deliberate focus. You will be at a competent level.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

You're not going to be a 10,000 hour expert but you will be at a competent level. Right. Like, there's never been a time like this before.

[Unidentified Guest]

Right.

[Ruslan]

Never been a time like this before. And so people want to be the best at something. You don't have to be the best at one thing. You can be in the top 20% of, like, four or five different things.

[Bryce Crawford]

Sure.

[Ruslan]

And then you have this unicorn of a skill set that makes you an extreme valuable asset to serve people in the marketplace and provide for yourself and your family.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think, you know, there's a huge encouragement the way I was raised, man. I'm just from the South. My family's a little redneck, blue collar, you know, so. So I love just to work with my hands. I know that there's other people the way that they're raised. They don't do that, and that's okay. So, you know, I can be. I just love that. I'm so passionate. I like one of the things I struggle with is I'm impatient with. I can just get impatient. I'm like, man, I like. You know, I like that. And I think there's a beautiful call. Right. I think you said something incredible that. That hints to both those things. You know, one of the things I recognized after I became a Christian as well. When I was 17, my senior year of high school, I took a college writing class, and I learned. I loved to write. I loved to phrase things a certain way. That also correlated into us preaching.

[Ruslan]

Come on.

[Bryce Crawford]

You know, a lot of people say you, you. They love the way we phrase things and talk about things and. And I. I found out in high school that I just love writing, and I love the way I love phrasing things in an easy, understandable way. And so there might be some people out there that are listening or watching that say, man, I want to be a preacher one day. And I love communicating, but they're broke, and they think success right now is preaching in front of thousands of people. And so maybe the start to working on both of those things is getting a waiting job at a restaurant that is teaching people how to serve. Is providing for yourself and your. And your life and your family, paying the bills, but also the interactions with people are in a. A shot to preach the gospel to people, learn how to phrase. It's just like a combo. We didn't even start. We didn't start making the videos until 2024. February of 2024, I became a Christian. December of 2024 years. And for a year and a half, I traveled with my mentor. He Became a father figure. But he was an itinerant preacher. I traveled with him for a year and a half and was his armor bearer, basically. If you don't know what that is, just being there for his right hand man holding the Bible. You know, we were going to the Amish country, We were going everywhere, and that was the most fun ever. And I, I vividly remember, you know, there's a young man, he's so great. He asked me a couple months ago, he's like, he's, he's doing the same thing. He's like, man, how did you know when to leave your mentor? Leave that season? And I was like, well, I didn't want to leave him. It just kind of naturally happened. You know, God gave me a dream. Moving in. Faith started, but there was all that preparation season. I also don't want to come on across hard on the people that, you know, have gotten married and are in that financial hole because even you shared, you're like, I got married. We were a hundred thousand dollars in debt. If you could speak to the young Christian couple that's married but wasn't necessarily ready for the financial provide, like, what would you encourage that, that young Christian couple with?

[Ruslan]

Yeah, I think the biggest thing I would say is, well, first there's grace and mercy. I think in everything we're talking about, there's a ton of grace in this. And then we, and we, we serve a gracious God. I also want to say, everything we're talking about, we're not talking about salvation. Salvation is by grace, through faith alone. Faith in Jesus. You were saved because you placed your faith in Jesus. You placed your confidence in Jesus. We're not talking about salvation. We're talking about now that you're saved, how does life look?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yep.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

Now that you're married, how does life look? Well, take inventory. Take, take, take inventory of where you're at. Take inventory of where you live and say, what? What is the objective? What do I want to do? Where do I want to be? What is the goal is the goal. To have and start a family soon is the goal. Hey, we want to pay off our debt is the goal. Hey, we want to increase our income by getting a certification in a specific career field. Take inventory of where you're at. And the biggest encouragement I would give is you would be shocked how much you can do with deliberate focus. Like 2011, me and my wife were 100 grand in debt. We're newlyweds. By the way, prior to that, I didn't share this with you. Prior to that, my first year of marriage, we lived with my mom.

[Chris]

Wow.

[Ruslan]

So, like. And my mom was an alcoholic at the time. By the grace of God, she's. She's so. So imagine like Christian newlywed living with your mom, bro. Like, I was in the thick of it and it was rough. That first year was brutal. And so we finally scraped together enough to get out of debt. I got sued in the process, our accounts got levied. Accounts get levied, meaning you wake up, you check your account, all the money's gone. They got sued in the process. And yeah, we were 100k in debt. And the deliberate focus of putting our head down and saying, hey, we have this goal. We're going to be debt free. We're going to be completely debt free. Why? Because we knew, hey, at some point, my wife, we're going to have a family and we know our values. My wife's going to want to come home for a season.

[Chris]

Right.

[Ruslan]

And she hasn't went back to a job outside of the home. Now she works with us now with all the stuff we do, but she doesn't work outside the home. And we knew that was a value of ours. And so you would be shocked how much you can do with deliberate focus by putting your head down and saying, if it's a financial issue, if it's a debt issue, man, put your head down. Most people get out of debt in 12 to 18 months. That's the crazy part. Like when you really hone in and say, what's the number? Fifty thousand, thirty thousand? A hundred thousand? And you say, I'm going to put my head down and I'm going to go scorched earth. Dave Ramsey calls, calls a gazelle intensity. I like to call it gazelle grind. It's from Proverbs 6. Rice and beans. Beans and rice. No eating out, no movies, no extracurricular, no vacation budget lock in. Most people can be out of debt 12 to 18 months when they go all in. Maybe it'll take you a little longer, wait till you get 24 months. But that, that foundation for us, dude, was so crucial because that we had room to breathe. Like, like, I'm not just working to pay all this stuff.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

And I have no margin, so it gave us margin. And then we then saved six months of living expenses, so we were out of debt and we had six months of living expenses. And then I was able to go and work at my church for two years so my wife could spend. Stay home, I could work on my church so I can go into Ministry. And then after two years at my church, I was able to transition, be a full time entrepreneur. And, and all of this is because my wife was confident because we, we had worked on it and she was confident in me leading to say, hey, you've been faithful in these areas and you, you keep God, God keeps being faithful to us. When I called her and I asked her, I said, babe, do you think we should put in my two week notice at the church? This is 2015. She said, I don't think there's anything else to pray for at this point. I think you need to come home and put in your two week notice. I think my wife, that, that was like stay at home mom with, with my son was eight months old.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

You know, that was over 10 years ago.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah.

[Ruslan]

And so if you're that young couple, you're struggling, man, you would be shocked how much you can get done with deliberate focus. But, but listen, you got to have a vision, you got to have a plan. Like whatever you aim for, you will hit. So if you're not aiming at anything, you gonna hit that, you're gonna hit nothing. But if you're like, man, deliberate focus. We want to be able to, to give my wife the opportunity to stay home. That was one of our values. Make that plan, figure out what that number is, figure out where is there a skill deficit? Is it, what is it? And just go get after it. I recommend Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University. Some, some people, you know, may not be fans of everything Dave does, but that, that system works. Those first three baby steps, thousand dollars emergency fund debt, snowball your debts, smallest to largest, three to six months of living expenses. Dude, there's nothing like it. And so we locked in on that. And I think that's most people, that's probably the best thing.

[Bryce Crawford]

I think that's so practical. Like if you're in that whole lock in, like, work hard, put your hand to the plow, and I think the last people group just kind of close it out. We have a lot, a lot of young people in high school, just single young people, guys, girls in high school. If you could encourage them in godly ambition.

[Ruslan]

Yeah.

[Bryce Crawford]

What would you say to the young Christian guy or the young Christian girl when it comes to godly ambition? How would you encourage them?

[Ruslan]

Yeah, I would encourage them. And, and I would encourage them. One, pick up the book. Like Shameless Plug, Pick up the book. That, that's, that's the point of all this. If you don't like reading, get the audible, if you pre order it there's the first four chapters of me sitting and reading it on camera just like this. But there's a section from a book that I think could perhaps ride provide some clarity, right? And it's about the idea of identity. And ultimately our identity should be anchored in Jesus. So like the world is going to tell you that your identity is one of two extremes. Your identity is what can you generate externally. So your identity is how you look, your identity is how much money you make. Your identity is what other people say about you, right? It's an outside in identity. The other extreme in the world is they'll tell you your identity is whatever you feel it is. So whatever you feel like on the inside, that's who you are, right? But the scriptures talk about something totally different. Talks about a top down identity, right? J. Warner Wallace coined this idea of top down identity, meaning I am not my external validation and what people say I am. I'm also not what I subjectively feel because my feelings can be subjective and fleeing. I'm who Jesus says I am, right? And so therefore I'm no longer a sinner, I'm a saint, my body is the temple of God, I'm a friend of God, I'm born again, I have new desires, I'm a son, I'm a child of God, right? And so my identity is top down. And how do we like discover identity, discover our calling? In the chapter on identity I say scripture is a gift. It offers a panoramic view of our status as God's beloved children. God's will, which a lot of people want to know. High school, college, what do I do? What is God's will for my life? What is God's will? My life? We think it's this fork in the road moment, right? Like man, if I go left when I'm supposed to go right, I'll ruin God's will for my life, right? And I say God's will is found in God's ways and God's ways are found in God's word, right? So, so, so you're trying to figure out ambition, you're trying to figure out your calling, trying to figure out your purpose. Sometimes I think we're way too concerned with the what, what am I supposed to do versus saying hey, why do I want to do the thing I want to do and how am I doing? Yeah, so let's talk about relationships, right? Someone's like, I want to be in a relationship, I want to date someone.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah, okay.

[Ruslan]

Why? Oh, I'm lonely, I want to have Sex. I'm horny. I need validation. I need someone to affirm me. Probably not the best reasons to jump into a relationship, but if it's like, hey, I want to be in a relationship because I believe that I'm about to step into being a responsible young adult and I rather build a good foundation and I want to date with purpose and I want to honor God with my body. Totally different reason, right? So the why matters. Not just the what, the why matters. And then two, the how matters, right? So I want to be in a relationship. Great. How is that going for you, Right? How are you doing it? Are you on the phone until 4 o' clock every single night with this girl? Because you, you really need a therapist. But this girl, she's not your therapist, dog. Like, let her go to bed and go tell your darkest traumas to a real person. That could help you go find a friend or a pastor, right?

[Bryce Crawford]

I mean, I mean, it's real.

[Ruslan]

It's like, right? Like you, you're, you don't need, like, how matter. So it's like, how are you doing dating? How are you going to do that? Oh, man, I just, I just, I'm lonely. It's like, I just want to come over and I just want to Netflix and chill. It's like, and then what, where is that gonna leave?

[Bryce Crawford]

Stand up, get the blood flowing and go, right?

[Ruslan]

Like, so the how matters, right? So it's like, hey, you know what? I'm going to pursue a relationship, but I'm going to go about it in a way where I'm going to guard that person's heart and I'm going to guard their purity. And I'm a guard my purity. And I'm being intentional and calculated and how matters? So it's like the what is. The what is college, not college. That's. That's important. But I think the why and the how is more important. And so the, the how is in God's ways. Like, God's ways are in God's word. God's will is in God's ways. God's ways is in God's word.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yep.

[Ruslan]

Right? So you, you, you're trying to figure it out, man. Ask yourself the question. Why. Why do you want to start that thing? You want to be okay, you. They're watching Bryce. They're watching me. Like, man, I want to be a Christian influencer. Okay. Okay. Why? Because my dad didn't refer me as a kid and my mom didn't give me enough attention. And so, like, I feel like if I'm famous on TikTok, then maybe I'll feel valued. It's like, dude, you're already valued in Jesus. Like, God already loves you. He already laid down his life for you. He placed you in a right standing. He's declared you righteous. He's given you a new heart, new desires. You're already valued, and you're already loving Jesus. Okay, so that may not be the best reason to go and try and be a Christian famous influencer.

[Chris]

Right, Right.

[Ruslan]

But if the why is, hey, I just feel like, man, I have this testimony, and I want to share it with the world. And I've. And I'm in a local church, and I've sat under the mentor, and I've been hidden in a quiet place, and I feel like guys are stirring me up to share something with the world. Okay, that's a better why. And then we go, how are we doing it in a way that. That's God honoring? Are we ethical about it? Are we honoring about it? Are we. Are we. Are we gossiping about other creators? Are we building a platform by tearing others down?

[Bryce Crawford]

For sure.

[Ruslan]

Right. Are we going about it by building others up and pointing people to Jesus? So I think, yeah, man. I would say, if you're trying to figure it out, God's will for your life is in God's ways for your life. And to discover God's ways for your life, like you, you got. You got to get in God's word.

[Unidentified Guest]

Yep.

[Ruslan]

You got to get in God's Word, and you got to get around God's people.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah, I love that, man. I think what Ruslan is saying is so impactful because I wish I had someone telling me this when I was first. When I first started out. Me, too, because it would help so much. Guys, man, this episode is so near and dear to my heart because I think, you know, man, I just love the supernatural and this and just the deep spiritual moments with Jesus and the depth in scripture. I also just love the practical supernatural.

[Ruslan]

Super practical, man.

[Bryce Crawford]

What the heck am I supposed to do? So, man, if you're a young person watching and listening, and you're wondering, man, what's God's will for my life? I love what Ruslan said. Find the why. Why are you doing this? How are you doing it? And then even to that, just. I love what we said earlier. Just reflect on the gifts that God has given you. Start there. Use them for the glory of God. And I think that's beautiful, man. Ruslan, thank you for coming on. Yeah, I really appreciate it, guys. And I highly encourage you. I think one of the best practical things we can do is invest in ourselves and bet on ourselves. And so I think that there's so much rich, beautiful information and wisdom in Rusan's new book, Godly Ambition. Rusan. Where can they pick up the book?

[Ruslan]

Yeah, so get the book at your favorite retailer, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ChristianBooks.com I think Target will have it or Target has it online so you can pre order it. And then after you pre order it, we got a super dope bundle for you guys. Go to mygodlyambition.com Get a screenshot of your pre order and then go to MyGodlyAmbition, hit Redeem and you could see a bunch of other stuff. We got like upcoming live events, we got all the endorsements, all the what everyone's saying about the book. [e-mail] hit Redeem and you'll just upload your receipt and you'll get the first four chapters in audio video of me reading it and telling you some of the behind the scenes. You'll get the first four chapters in an ebook. You will get an exclusive podcast with me and Jonathan Puda that no one else will ever see except those of you guys that pre order. Jonathan Puda did the book adulting good friend of mine. He did the forward to the book as well. And then you'll get 25% off to our Bless God shop merch store and you'll get an ambition action worksheet that you can start filling out to discover your calling and your purpose. And it's a super practical tool that I think you can find that overlap of like, what is my passion, what is my mission and what is my current vocation and trying to discover that calling. So yeah, mygodlyambition.com, but yeah, any bookstores that sell books, it's on there available for pre order. And then this is that pre order bundle is available through when the book comes out, which is September 9th.

[Bryce Crawford]

Yeah, come on guys. Man. If you're wondering what God's will is for your life and how to have godly goals and godly ambitions, read the word of God, renew your mind, review the gifts God has given you. And I would highly encourage you guys to go get Godly Ambition on mygodlyambition.com Pre order the book, get the resources, man. It's so incredible. Rusan, thank you again for coming on.

[Ruslan]

Thanks for having me. And by the way, these chairs are super fly.

[Bryce Crawford]

Hey, thank you.

[Ruslan]

I know about them. At first I walked in, I was.

[Bryce Crawford]

Like, yeah, they're Vibe, Facebook, Marketplace. Come on, let's go. Let's go. Guys, thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode. If you guys like it, subscribe to us on YouTube, follow us on Spotify and Instagram and TikTok. Bless you guys and see you guys next week for the next episode.