How I Met God in the Middle of Meth and Metal

What does heavy metal have to do with Jesus? A lot, actually. Brian “Head” Welch, along with his band Korn, changed the game when it comes to rock & metal music. Along the way, “Head” had to battle loneliness, depression, addiction, being a single dad and so much more. Watch his story and you’ll see how God can redeem any story and He can redeem your story too.

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    – Hey, I'm Brian Tome, senior pastor at Crossroads.
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    Welcome, glad you're with us today.
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    Today, we're going to have Brian Head Welch
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    from the band Korn talk about meth, metal and Jesus.
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    You might go, "Korn? Heavy metal? Meth?
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    What is that all about?"
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    This is part of what I love about Brian.
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    He's been a friend of mine for years.
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    And part of what I love about today.
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    We want to strip away the religiosity.
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    We want to stop just saying the nice things
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    that people in church are supposed to say.
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    We want to talk about things that are real,
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    things are in our lives in a way
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    that normal people do on their back deck.
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    That's what we're going to do today
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    to try to get you and I to a new place.
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    Brian's a great friend.
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    He's got some good stuff for us.
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    Let's get started.
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    – You're on.
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    – Special guest to the stage, please.
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    Special guest to the stage.
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    – Is this thing on?
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    – I had friends who invited me
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    to have dinner with you a few years ago,
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    and it was great.
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    We've downed a lot of calories together,
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    a lot of calories.
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    And they said, "Well, he has this documentary out."
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    And I'm kind of a documentary buff.
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    – Me, too.
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    – But I wasn't all that excited about it,
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    because I knew ahead of time it was going to talk
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    about your coming to Christ.
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    And Christian documentaries,
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    "Christian documentaries" tend to not inspire me.
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    What I saw was not a Christian documentary.
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    It was a documentary where Christ
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    was through the whole thing and I was blown away.
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    I mean, I'm talking very, very deeply moved.
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    And it just made me look forward
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    to having that first dinner with you.
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    And I'm just excited for people here Crossroads
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    to get to know you,
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    hopefully get engaged with your movie.
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    Just give us a little snippet of your life.
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    Not that we want to let the cat out of the bag
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    about your documentary, but just tell us,
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    who is Brian Head Welch?
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    You've got a big head, Keith.
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    – That's exactly --
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    – What is that head thing about. What are you Head Welch for?
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    – That's why, because my head grew before my body
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    when I was 14 and everybody else was taller than me,
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    but my head was bigger than theirs,
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    puberty, that puberty thing.
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    So they started calling me Head because
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    I was disproportionate and everything.
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    And so it was a -- it was a troubling nickname
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    when I was a kid, but when I was in the band,
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    we wanted nicknames in our early 20s.
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    We're still kids.
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    "Didn't they used to call you Head?"
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    I was like, "Yeah, let's go with that."
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    You know, I wasn't very creative,
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    so I just went backwards.
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    But, you know, I just -- I just --
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    My life, I wanted to be, we talked about earlier,
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    AC/DC, I got the album Back in Black
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    and I put it on and I heard,
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    "Back in black, I hit the sack."
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    And I was like, I heard the guitar
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    and I just want to do that.
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    This is what I want to do.
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    10 years old, I knew what I wanted to do.
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    And so I went for it and I achieved it.
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    And we'll get into the story,
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    but I suffered self-hatred and depression
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    since I was a kid, and I think the music
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    was like what I hung on to to make me
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    feel better about myself because I got good at it.
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    And so it just made me feel like I was better
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    than the person I looked and I saw in the mirror.
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    Know that I -- and so I hung on to that.
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    And then when I got in front of, you know,
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    sold millions of records, got in front of
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    all these thousands of people, I was insecure.
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    And so I always wanted to be masking a love,
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    you know, kind of like overshadowed
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    the self-hatred and the addictions and everything
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    and started making me process.
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    Not that I got clean
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    and got my life figured out right away,
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    but it started, the seed was planted in like,
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    "Oh, you can't be like this forever.
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    Now you have someone that needs to look up to you
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    and you need to be there for."
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    So it started, you know, took a few years,
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    but that seed was planted.
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    – I wonder what the rejection you've said
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    that you felt, the self-hatred, the bullying,
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    right around that time when Jennea, your wife left you,
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    did that feel you like another way
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    that women didn't like you, or is that another
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    sense of form of rejection that hit you deeply?
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    What did that do for your spiritual journey?
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    – That -- hat parts?
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    – When your marriage dissolved?
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    – Oh, wow.
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    So my first girlfriend, the first real girlfriend,
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    two years know we were together, we had
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    a great, great relationship early on,
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    then that self-hatred and alcoholism
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    kind of kicked in around that time, too.
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    It made me, once I knew that she was--
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    I believed that she loved me,
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    then I got comfortable.
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    And the anger that I had towards myself,
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    I put it onto her and I started treating her bad.
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    Anyway, long story short, I got my heart broken.
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    Man, I'm a feeler. I feel deep.
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    And even though I messed up and I couldn't,
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    like, keep the relationships going,
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    I couldn't treat people, especially girls,
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    like I wanted to, I felt it big time and got suicidal.
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    And so I stayed single for a while,
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    then and I met my wife, who would be my wife.
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    And we were off and on for a while.
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    But yeah, when she got pregnant
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    and we wanted to make this family work, you know,
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    and be this married couple that could just
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    have at least semi happy.
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    But when she left me, the divorce,
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    that was another just blow.
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    It seemed like I was always the one
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    just to stay in the relationship,
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    even if it was misery. I don't know why.
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    But it was only two real relationships,
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    but both of them left me.
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    And so when my ex-wife left me, she, you know,
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    she was broken, she was a hurting soul.
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    She ran away at 14 because of just family issues.
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    So, yeah, that was devastating,
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    but mainly because she left her daughter. You know?
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    She did want to take her daughter with her,
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    but she was with some gang bangers, you know?
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    And I have high powered lawyers.
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    I can't -- I wanted her in her mom's life,
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    but I couldn't let her, "Oh, take your daughter."
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    I cannot let these felons around my daughter.
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    There's going to be some kind of abuse
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    whether it's physical, sexual, or something.
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    So I had to protect her. You know?
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    And so I just did what --
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    I manned up and did what I could do.
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    And I tried to keep her in her life,
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    you know, supervised,
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    but she went off the deep end, unfortunately.
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    – I think that's what I love about your story,
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    your documentary, it's very real, it's very raw.
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    You're very respectful to your ex-wife
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    in the documentary, but the language that
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    you allow your bandmates to use in talking about Christians,
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    which is very negative in the beginning
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    part of the documentary, the level of brokenness
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    and despair you allow people to see in your life
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    is quite frankly, exhilarating for me, exhilarating.
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    It seems like the longer I'm a follower of Christ,
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    the more I'm supposed to have everything together.
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    And there is a level of you do spiritually mature
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    and you do figure out life
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    and you get closer with God
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    and you don't step in the same potholes
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    as you did when you were 16 or 26.
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    But you just ripped the mask off of that.
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    You're just like, "Here's my life,
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    here's what God's done for me."
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    And you're talking about your wife
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    and your daughter just reminds you of that.
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    So I just say, kudos, man.
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    I just hope that that spirit, that ethic, if you will,
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    infiltrates our entire church
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    and our entire country because it's needed desperately.
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    – I hope that you guys talk about
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    these hard issues at your church,
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    whether it's smaller groups.
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    And I know you do, you have counseling.
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    You have -- we have to deal with it.
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    And that's what I wanted to do in this documentary,
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    because you know how many
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    broken Korn fans are out there?
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    I mean, so many people came to Korn
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    because our singer sing about pain.
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    We sang about child abuse.
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    We sing about, you know, just parental issues,
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    bullying, all this stuff,
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    when we first started especially.
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    And these kids, man, back in the day,
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    they would run to us and just tell us like
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    we make them want to keep living.
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    We just did 700 meet and greets on Zoom during COVID.
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    And every single -- we did it for over a month,
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    like 20 people a night for three nights a week.
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    Every single night there was adults saying,
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    "Like, I wouldn't have this family,
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    these kids run around behind me
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    if it wasn't for you guys.
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    I had a gun to my head and just thank you.
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    I just wanted to tell you thank you for
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    I have my family because your music helped me."
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    And so it's just --
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    – "Your music helped me"?
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    Korn isn't known is uplifting and inspiring,
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    encouraging Christian music. Or is it?
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    – If you read the Psalms where David's
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    getting chased by, you know, and what is he saying?
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    He's saying, my eyes are, you would know,
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    you're a pastor, but his eyes are swollen from tears
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    and all the stuff. I'm in despair, everything.
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    – Laments, it's the laments.
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    – Right. He's lamenting.
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    Korn has done that in music.
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    And yeah, there's some FU's and, you know,
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    and, you know, you treated me this way.
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    But it's a step into healing for these people.
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    Maybe it's not a complete healing and forgiveness
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    and into God's, you know, all that.
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    But God has used it massively
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    as a step to keep people living.
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    – What was the tipping point for you spiritually
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    when you when you came to Christ, whatever,
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    I don't even know what nomenclature you prefer?
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    When you came to Christ, you got converted,
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    you got saved, you felt the love of God.
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    Was there a unique tipping point moment
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    or did you just gradually
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    grow into relationship with Christ?
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    – It was a handful of things.
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    It was, okay, I was desperate
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    for freedom from addiction because
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    I ended up going overseas.
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    I was such an addict that I took
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    eight balls of meth with me.
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    I ran out of drugs in Europe and I had my dealer
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    send me three more eight balls of meth
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    inside of these candles that he made.
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    And I've watched them be FedExed.
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    And it was when FedEx tracking
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    early 2000's was starting to take off.
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    And I watched them get sent to me.
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    I thought I was -- I was paranoid that
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    I was going to get caught
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    and they're going to find them in the scanners,
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    you know, because I'm watching a show on Netflix
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    about border security and I'm like,
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    "Wow, that's how they do it.
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    They could have easily found my drugs."
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    So that's when I got to the bottom
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    and I needed to get -- I needed to get free.
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    And so once I went to rehabs
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    and AA and NA, all that stuff,
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    I got some some hope and wisdom from those places,
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    but I couldn't stop.
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    So what I needed from Christ was -- or church people.
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    I don't even think Christ, like I couldn't.
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    If God is real, you can't know until you die.
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    So but I go around these church people
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    because I want them to help me get sober.
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    And then they introduced me to Christ,
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    that He's living and He'll come and live
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    inside of you and He'll reveal that to you.
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    And if you stay seeking Him, three things:
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    going to church, fellowshipping with other Christians
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    and learning from them and reading your Bible.
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    That's what the pastor told me to do,
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    if I kept doing that,
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    Christ would be revealed to me.
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    And Jesus said, "If you love me."
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    – Go to church, interact with other believers,
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    read your Bible? And you did those three things?
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    – I did those three things.
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    I was like, OK, if you crazy Ned Flanders Christians
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    are lying to me, I'm going to find out in a month.
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    But if not, I've actually found out
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    the meaning of life through it, because
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    Christ revealed Himself to me.
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    Jesus said, "If you love me,
  • 00:12:42
    that He would manifest himself to you."
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    In John 14 He said He would manifest himself.
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    He manifest Himself to me. And once --
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    So, OK, that's --I needed freedom from addiction
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    from Him, but what I didn't know was
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    that the whole reason for living is knowing Him.
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    And so once my addiction was done, I was like,
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    "Oh my gosh, I didn't know this dream
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    could come into my life,
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    that I didn't even have a desire to.
  • 00:13:09
    I didn't know I could know Jesus like this."
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    All the love that crushed my heart,
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    the relationships that didn't work,
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    Jesus would never do that to me.
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    He would never leave me.
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    He would never crush my heart like that,
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    even if I treated Him bad,
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    like I did the girls in the past,
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    my ex-wife when she left me and that other girl.
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    If I did worse to Jesus, He would never leave.
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    He would never abandon my heart like that.
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    I was like, so addicted to staying with Him
  • 00:13:37
    and working through this process with Him.
  • 00:13:40
    It's like -- and people were like,
  • 00:13:41
    "Man, this is just a phase.
  • 00:13:42
    You're coming off of meth. You know?
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    You're trading one addiction for another.
  • 00:13:47
    You know, it's not going to stay."
  • 00:13:48
    And I'm like, "You don't understand,
  • 00:13:50
    I found the meaning of life."
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    So I started getting Jesus tattooed and scriptures.
  • 00:13:54
    I was like, I'll show them, you know?
  • 00:13:56
    Matthew 11:28, that's the scripture that
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    this guy sent it to me I went off meth,
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    right before I went to church he was like,
  • 00:14:02
    "I felt like Jesus gave me this scripture for you.
  • 00:14:05
    I've never done this before, but I'm giving it to you.
  • 00:14:07
    Don't think I'm weird, please.
  • 00:14:09
    It says Matthew 11:28, 'Come to me, '
  • 00:14:12
    Jesus says, "All who are weary and burdened
  • 00:14:14
    and I will give you rest.'"
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    And I just was like that's the scripture
  • 00:14:19
    that got me and started opening up the life, you know?
  • 00:14:25
    – That's amazing.
  • 00:14:27
    What I love, there's so many things I love
  • 00:14:31
    about you and love about your story.
  • 00:14:33
    One of the things is just how
  • 00:14:37
    you still are finding a way
  • 00:14:41
    to represent Jesus inside of your occupation.
  • 00:14:46
    You know, if you can figure out a way
  • 00:14:48
    to represent Jews inside of a metal band
  • 00:14:51
    and actually change the band, in many ways.
  • 00:14:53
    You guys pray for people at your concerts even, right?
  • 00:14:57
    – I do. – You do?
  • 00:14:58
    – Yeah. – And that's why some people
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    were getting on those Zoom calls
  • 00:15:01
    and talking about those things with you.
  • 00:15:04
    I think all of us could figure out
  • 00:15:06
    how to represent Christ and whatever job we are,
  • 00:15:08
    and the world would probably be a lot more different
  • 00:15:10
    and our lives would be different.
  • 00:15:12
    And I want to ask you to make a little shift right now.
  • 00:15:14
    Are you up for a challenge, Brian Head Welch?
  • 00:15:16
    – Always up for a challenge. – Are you up for a challenge?
  • 00:15:19
    – Yes. – All right.
  • 00:15:20
    First of all, you said you're very emotional.
  • 00:15:22
    Is that -- I never asked you about your tattoos
  • 00:15:24
    with the teardrops and stuff on the side of your eyes.
  • 00:15:26
    Is that coming out of --
  • 00:15:28
    – I got those laser tattoo removal.
  • 00:15:30
    Look, they're almost gone
  • 00:15:32
    because people thought I killed two people.
  • 00:15:35
    You know, teardrops mean murder.
  • 00:15:36
    I'm just joking. They were -- They were too --
  • 00:15:38
    I didn't like them on the side or whatever.
  • 00:15:40
    – Well, I like them.
  • 00:15:41
    – Thank you. Well, I'm not putting them back.
  • 00:15:43
    – It fits your ethic. That's good.
  • 00:15:44
    – Thanks. – But let's play preaching time.
  • 00:15:48
    I'm going to give you like
  • 00:15:50
    three one-minute sermon opportunities.
  • 00:15:53
    Can you do it? Are you up for that opportunity?
  • 00:15:55
    – Of course.
  • 00:15:56
    – OK, so let's say you're preaching right now.
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    You got one minute to talk to everybody
  • 00:16:02
    who's dealing with addiction.
  • 00:16:05
    Preach to them right now. What do you say?
  • 00:16:07
    – In that camera? – Sure.
  • 00:16:09
    – Or to you? – That camera.
  • 00:16:12
    – So there is a healthy addiction you can have
  • 00:16:14
    and that's a love that comes from another realm.
  • 00:16:18
    Once you touch that, and I mean,
  • 00:16:20
    I would just say my story,
  • 00:16:21
    once you touch that love, you kind of
  • 00:16:24
    put down these little --
  • 00:16:25
    like those other addictions seem like little toys.
  • 00:16:27
    It's like your child, you have these toys
  • 00:16:29
    and your parents come in and bring you
  • 00:16:31
    this big truck and you're like,
  • 00:16:33
    you just throw those toys away
  • 00:16:35
    and you go to the truck.
  • 00:16:36
    It's like that when you meet Christ,
  • 00:16:37
    these little addictions, you throw them away
  • 00:16:39
    and you just follow this big great, forgiving,
  • 00:16:45
    loving God that doesn't judge you,
  • 00:16:49
    that just as mercy, nothing but mercy for you,
  • 00:16:52
    kindness, and the power to give you
  • 00:16:56
    to overcome all of your addictions.
  • 00:16:58
    And it happened to me.
  • 00:17:00
    I mean, if Jesus can set a crazy rock star
  • 00:17:05
    with all the drugs that I wanted.
  • 00:17:08
    I had all the money that I wanted
  • 00:17:10
    to buy all the drugs that I wanted.
  • 00:17:11
    If you could set me free from drugs,
  • 00:17:14
    then obviously, your addictions are nothing to Him.
  • 00:17:17
    It's simple.
  • 00:17:19
    – Ok, now give a minute sermon to those of us
  • 00:17:25
    who some of us may be millionaires
  • 00:17:27
    or be on top of the world in terms of world success,
  • 00:17:30
    but the self-loathing and the sense of rejection,
  • 00:17:34
    the need to measure up is
  • 00:17:35
    a never-ending CD in the back of their mind.
  • 00:17:38
    What do you preach to us?
  • 00:17:39
    – Oh, man. You put me on the spot now.
  • 00:17:41
    – Yeah.
  • 00:17:42
    – I mean, Paul said in the New Testament
  • 00:17:46
    that he has learned the secret of being
  • 00:17:49
    content in life with having --
  • 00:17:52
    with being in want and being in need and having plenty.
  • 00:17:56
    So I look at that as him saying like
  • 00:17:59
    he's been rich and he's been poor
  • 00:18:01
    and he's found the secret of being content
  • 00:18:04
    in both situations.
  • 00:18:05
    And that secret is in the next verse
  • 00:18:08
    where he says, "I can do all things
  • 00:18:09
    through Christ who strengthens me."
  • 00:18:11
    And in my life, I was definitely
  • 00:18:13
    living on couches before Korn.
  • 00:18:15
    I was eating Top Ramen.
  • 00:18:17
    I was definitely homeless.
  • 00:18:19
    And I lived both of those realms.
  • 00:18:24
    I lived poor, then I got rich without Christ.
  • 00:18:27
    I was a poor alcoholic, Top Ramen eaten poor guy.
  • 00:18:33
    And I was a rich rock star without Christ.
  • 00:18:36
    And I was a failure at both.
  • 00:18:37
    Once I met Christ, I was a multimillionaire
  • 00:18:41
    and I didn't have that contentment.
  • 00:18:45
    When I had all the money, when I was walking with Christ,
  • 00:18:48
    I ended up with all these emotional problems
  • 00:18:50
    and I lost all my money.
  • 00:18:52
    Then I went back to the poor realm,
  • 00:18:54
    not really poor or homeless,
  • 00:18:55
    but I lost all my millions and ended up in bankruptcy.
  • 00:19:00
    The Lord showed me that He took care of me
  • 00:19:02
    in my need, just like Paul said,
  • 00:19:05
    and He brought me contentment
  • 00:19:06
    when I was in lack during the bankruptcy.
  • 00:19:09
    Then He started piling back onto me the riches
  • 00:19:12
    and giving me blessings,
  • 00:19:14
    financial blessings, and everything.
  • 00:19:16
    And now I'm learning all of this other stuff
  • 00:19:19
    with investments and everything and walk
  • 00:19:21
    and being content with the riches.
  • 00:19:22
    So it's like He teaches you
  • 00:19:25
    how to be in charge of your finances
  • 00:19:29
    and He teaches you that He'll take care
  • 00:19:31
    of you when you don't have finances.
  • 00:19:33
    It's just He's everything, man.
  • 00:19:35
    And and I would just say, anybody rich out there --
  • 00:19:38
    This is longer than a minute.
  • 00:19:39
    Anybody that's rich and successful out there
  • 00:19:41
    and you're trying to measure up, man,
  • 00:19:43
    just surrender, just surrender,
  • 00:19:46
    and you give your heart to Christ
  • 00:19:47
    and let Him hold you, because that stuff is --
  • 00:19:50
    it can be here today and gone tomorrow.
  • 00:19:54
    – Ok, one minute preaching
  • 00:19:56
    to people who are single parents.
  • 00:19:59
    – Ok, so I'm the classic example
  • 00:20:02
    of a parent who loved their kids,
  • 00:20:06
    but massively made mistakes before Jesus
  • 00:20:09
    and after Jesus.
  • 00:20:11
    I would just say to you single parents that
  • 00:20:14
    you can do it and God is with you.
  • 00:20:17
    God says He's a father to the fatherless,
  • 00:20:20
    so that also means He can be like
  • 00:20:23
    a mother to the motherless.
  • 00:20:25
    And my daughter grew up without her mother
  • 00:20:27
    and God was right there helping us along the way.
  • 00:20:31
    He was right there healing my mistakes
  • 00:20:35
    and leading us to the right people.
  • 00:20:38
    And even when my daughter got rebellious
  • 00:20:41
    because of wounds from her childhood,
  • 00:20:44
    He helped me be strong enough to use tough love
  • 00:20:47
    to get her into a therapeutic boarding school
  • 00:20:50
    to make her life just flourish and heal.
  • 00:20:54
    And so every step of the way, I would say to you,
  • 00:20:58
    single parent, I know the pain.
  • 00:20:59
    I know how hard it is, but do everything
  • 00:21:02
    you can do to train your children up with God
  • 00:21:08
    so that they don't depart from it.
  • 00:21:10
    And even if it's tough love before they're 18,
  • 00:21:13
    don't let them go. Don't let them go.
  • 00:21:17
    Do everything you can to show them love,
  • 00:21:20
    but also to be there.
  • 00:21:22
    Because children, they need discipline
  • 00:21:24
    and they need to know that you're going
  • 00:21:26
    to step out there and stop them
  • 00:21:29
    if they're going the wrong way.
  • 00:21:32
    Because something, even if they're like
  • 00:21:35
    they're yelling that they hate you,
  • 00:21:38
    deep down in their souls they want to see that
  • 00:21:41
    because a parent that lets kids do whatever they want,
  • 00:21:43
    it shows them that --
  • 00:21:45
    – They're not worth fighting for.
  • 00:21:47
    – Yeah, they're not worth fighting for.
  • 00:21:48
    Maybe they do love them,
  • 00:21:49
    but they're not worth fighting for.
  • 00:21:51
    So there's something in the soul of children
  • 00:21:54
    that need that and want that.
  • 00:21:56
    That's what it says in the Bible, that,
  • 00:21:58
    you know, it's healthy to discipline out of love,
  • 00:22:00
    it's very important.
  • 00:22:01
    So don't give up again.
  • 00:22:04
    Again, a messy rock star, single parent,
  • 00:22:06
    messed so many things up with my child.
  • 00:22:09
    And she is doing amazing,
  • 00:22:10
    working for a nonprofit, 22 years old,
  • 00:22:13
    and I'm so proud of her.
  • 00:22:14
    So keep your head up.
  • 00:22:16
    – Is there anything you want to talk about
  • 00:22:18
    that I didn't prompt you with
  • 00:22:20
    or that we haven't talked about yet?
  • 00:22:25
    – Off the top of my head?
  • 00:22:27
    – And you can say no too. That's fine.
  • 00:22:34
    Yeah, I would.
  • 00:22:36
    I would just want to say
  • 00:22:37
    there's a lot of people in big churches and small,
  • 00:22:40
    you know, especially big churches
  • 00:22:42
    where they come and, you know, they hear about God
  • 00:22:46
    and they hear about what God can do.
  • 00:22:49
    And sometimes in small churches or big churches,
  • 00:22:53
    you can get lost in the fact that,
  • 00:22:56
    and I know your heart is the same way.
  • 00:22:58
    That God has given us these churches
  • 00:23:01
    and this message in the Bible is about
  • 00:23:04
    one on one relationship that we don't have,
  • 00:23:07
    we don't go to God through the pastor.
  • 00:23:09
    We don't come to see a sermon.
  • 00:23:11
    We don't -- we're not living our relationship
  • 00:23:16
    through a spiritual leader.
  • 00:23:19
    The churches are meant to be a spiritual
  • 00:23:22
    filling station for us to go home
  • 00:23:24
    and spend every day with our relationship with God.
  • 00:23:27
    He wants us to have a personal relationship with God
  • 00:23:29
    and to build us up in that relationship.
  • 00:23:32
    And I love what you guys do here.
  • 00:23:35
    And because it's just all about
  • 00:23:39
    building that relationship with, of course,
  • 00:23:41
    with the church body, that's so important.
  • 00:23:43
    I wouldn't got I wouldn't have got clean
  • 00:23:45
    if I didn't have that church body and friends.
  • 00:23:47
    But seriously, Jesus, He squashed all that stuff
  • 00:23:52
    where we've got to go through man.
  • 00:23:53
    You go directly to Jesus, spent time with at home,
  • 00:23:56
    talk to Him on your way to work.
  • 00:23:59
    And I talked to Him in the bathroom.
  • 00:24:00
    I talked to Him on my way to work,
  • 00:24:02
    going shopping, in my car all the time,
  • 00:24:04
    when I wake up, when I go to bed.
  • 00:24:05
    He's always there and He wants that relationship.
  • 00:24:08
    So He died for a relationship. Don't abandon it.
  • 00:24:10
    And I'm talking to myself, too,
  • 00:24:12
    because I get lazy, too, sometimes spiritually.
  • 00:24:14
    So that's my number one message
  • 00:24:16
    is intimacy with God a relationship.
  • 00:24:19
    That's what He died for.
  • 00:24:22
    – Brian, thanks for pouring into us today.
  • 00:24:24
    Man, it's just been great being your friend,
  • 00:24:28
    and I look forward to seeing what God's going
  • 00:24:30
    to do with your life
  • 00:24:31
    and in our friendship of the future.
  • 00:24:33
    Thanks, brother.
  • 00:24:34
    – Yes, I love you, man. – I love you, too.
  • 00:24:41
    – If you'd like another dive on Brian,
  • 00:24:43
    I had him on my podcast called The Aggressive Life.
  • 00:24:46
    You can go to Crossroads.net/podcasts
  • 00:24:49
    and you can find that Aggressive Life
  • 00:24:50
    podcast with Brian Walsh.
  • 00:24:52
    All these things that we do, we do to help you
  • 00:24:55
    and help me get to a new place spiritually
  • 00:24:58
    and sense God's presence in our life.
  • 00:25:01
    And that happens in part because people
  • 00:25:04
    are faithful to God with the blessings
  • 00:25:06
    that He's given us, we're givers in return.
  • 00:25:09
    You can give right now if you want
  • 00:25:10
    to support our church and help us
  • 00:25:12
    get God's word into your heart, my heart
  • 00:25:15
    at Crossroads.net/give.
  • 00:25:17
    Some of us kind of just throw some money here and there,
  • 00:25:19
    others of us are very disciplined about it
  • 00:25:21
    and we actually tithe,
  • 00:25:22
    give 10% of our money to the work of God.
  • 00:25:25
    If you want to try that out, it's actually
  • 00:25:26
    a test that God encouraged us to take.
  • 00:25:29
    It's called a Tithe Test and you can do that with us.
  • 00:25:31
    If you try this for 90 days
  • 00:25:33
    and you don't see God meet you where you are,
  • 00:25:36
    we will refund you all of that money.
  • 00:25:37
    Go to Crossroads.net/tithetest.
  • 00:25:42
    Well, now we're going to come with God through music.
  • 00:25:44
    It's another way for us to come to Him
  • 00:25:46
    with our hearts and our minds
  • 00:25:47
    and have a connection with Him.
  • 00:25:49
    So let's worship him together right now.
  • 00:25:54
    – Hi, everybody, my name is Josh,
  • 00:25:56
    and I get the joy, the pleasure
  • 00:25:59
    of being able to lead you in worship.
  • 00:26:01
    And one of the things that as a Christ follower
  • 00:26:04
    that I know to be true is that the story,
  • 00:26:07
    God's story is one of redemption.
  • 00:26:09
    So Genesis to Revelation, front to back of the Bible,
  • 00:26:13
    it's God makes something awesome,
  • 00:26:15
    something totally terrible happens,
  • 00:26:17
    and then God redeems it.
  • 00:26:19
    And that is the arc of my faith.
  • 00:26:22
    High, very highs, very high highs, very low lows.
  • 00:26:26
    And then the Lord comes in and He brings it up.
  • 00:26:28
    And there's a reality that sometimes
  • 00:26:32
    in those low places, it is hard to see
  • 00:26:35
    the redemption happening.
  • 00:26:37
    It's hard to see the work of God in the low places.
  • 00:26:39
    And there's a promise in scripture in Joel 2:25:
  • 00:26:49
    Now, where I live in Cincinnati,
  • 00:26:51
    we just got over this swarm of cicadas
  • 00:26:56
    and it's not quite locusts destroying everything.
  • 00:26:59
    But with those cicadas, I mean, it was
  • 00:27:02
    sometimes cacophonous volume,
  • 00:27:04
    like you would walk out your door
  • 00:27:06
    and it would be so loud you could not hear anything.
  • 00:27:09
    And that's the reality of some of those low places,
  • 00:27:11
    like the brokenness and the loneliness that we feel,
  • 00:27:15
    the desperation, it just gets cacophonous.
  • 00:27:18
    And Jesus says, "I'm going to step in
  • 00:27:20
    and I'm going to shut that noise off
  • 00:27:22
    and I'm going to bring you redemption."
  • 00:27:24
    So this song that we're going to sing
  • 00:27:25
    is just -- it's a declaration of that.
  • 00:27:27
    It's saying, yeah, from front to back,
  • 00:27:30
    God, you are about the business of redemption.
  • 00:27:32
    So I just invite you to sing this with us.
  • 00:29:46
    – That's a pretty crazy thing to say,
  • 00:29:49
    hallelujah for the Cross, hallelujah for the grave,
  • 00:29:52
    but that's the reality for us.
  • 00:29:54
    In order for redemption to happen in our lives,
  • 00:29:57
    Jesus goes, "Great. I'm going to give my life for you,
  • 00:29:59
    which is an incredible thing.
  • 00:30:01
    So this next part of this song says,
  • 00:30:03
    God, you keep hope alive.
  • 00:30:06
    And I'll say for myself, lately, things have not been --
  • 00:30:13
    Hope has not been alive lately. I'll just say that.
  • 00:30:16
    And the reality is I have to go back,
  • 00:30:20
    so I have to go back to this idea of redemption.
  • 00:30:22
    God is constantly redeeming.
  • 00:30:24
    So if I know that to be true,
  • 00:30:25
    the hopelessness I feel right now is not void.
  • 00:30:29
    There is a continuum.
  • 00:30:31
    And in that continuum of redemption happening,
  • 00:30:34
    I'm going to find some more hope.
  • 00:30:36
    And so we can say, honestly, yes, God,
  • 00:30:37
    you keep hope alive, even though right now
  • 00:30:40
    I don't see it, I'm going to choose to trust
  • 00:30:43
    and believe that hope is rising.
  • 00:30:46
    Hope is swelling up as a part of
  • 00:30:48
    your arc of redemption, so sing this.
  • 00:30:51
    If you're in a place where you like, "Yeah, that's me."
  • 00:30:53
    Join with me. Join with me.
  • 00:30:56
    Go, "Yeah, I don't feel it, but I'm going to trust it.
  • 00:30:58
    I'm going to believe that it's there.
  • 00:31:00
    Because you see, God, you keep hope alive in my marriage.
  • 00:31:03
    You keep hope alive with my daughter.
  • 00:31:05
    You keep hope alive in my job,
  • 00:31:07
    in my sickness, in my finances.
  • 00:31:10
    God, you keep hope alive in my sexuality.
  • 00:31:12
    You keep hope alive in my talents, my gifts,
  • 00:31:18
    my job, my vocation, all of those things,
  • 00:31:20
    You keep hope alive, God."
  • 00:31:22
    So sing that as a declaration of something
  • 00:31:25
    I want to aspire to.
  • 00:33:36
    – Man, it's great being with you today.
  • 00:33:39
    I hope you got a lot out of Brian Head Welsh, my buddy.
  • 00:33:41
    Man, he is a deep well for sure.
  • 00:33:44
    Hey, you can have stuff like this every single week.
  • 00:33:46
    We want to help you. We want to partner with you.
  • 00:33:48
    Whatever your stuff might be.
  • 00:33:50
    If you're dealing with addiction,
  • 00:33:51
    if you're dealing with loneliness, hopelessness,
  • 00:33:54
    you can go to Crossroads.net/getstarted.
  • 00:33:57
    We want to be in your life.
  • 00:33:59
    We'd love for you to be incorporated
  • 00:34:00
    inside of our community.
  • 00:34:02
    Next week, we've got another guy named David Mahan
  • 00:34:05
    who's coming in and he's got
  • 00:34:06
    some really deep stuff for us.
  • 00:34:08
    He's going to talk about
  • 00:34:10
    what would Jesus do about public policy?
  • 00:34:13
    We'll see you next week. Don't miss it.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend Follow-Up. The questions below are for the weekend of July 10 & 11 2021.

  1. What’s the best concert you’ve ever attended and why?

  2. Read Galatians 1:10. Authenticity is the practice of being both honest and vulnerable. What struck you about Brian “Head” Welch modeling such radical authenticity throughout his time on-stage?

  3. We’ve all had moments when we felt truly alone, rejected, or lost in darkness. What’s your normal response in those moments?

  4. Read Psalm 73: 25-26. In times when we feel like we have nothing, or when we prioritize everything else over Him, Jesus is still all we need. What’s one step you can take to put Jesus first in your life this week?

  5. Now close your time in prayer. Here’s an example: “God, thank you for your love for us. You love us so much, you even gave your Son to redeem our failures. Thank you for freeing us from our sins and our addictions and forgiving us for all the times we’ve run away. Please help us to see ourselves the way You see us, as your worthy and beloved children. We love you. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

If you are thinking of trusting God with your finances, but aren’t sure yet, you can try the tithe test here.

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Jul 9, 2021 34 mins 35 sec

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