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Speaker 1: Life Audio.
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Speaker 2: Build Different is a production of the American Association of Christian Counselors. To support this podcast and learn how you can help us to promote all our biblical content, spread the Gospel, and provide mental health resources and training to people everywhere, just go to Aaccfoundation dot org. Again, that's Aaccfoundation dot org.
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Speaker 1: Welcome to Built Different. I'm Zach Clinton, your.
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Speaker 2: Host, and each week I come to you exclusively on the Life Audio podcast Network. I'm proud to partner with Life Audio and bring you entertaining, life changing, family friendly podcasts for a new generation.
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Speaker 1: I Built Different.
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Speaker 2: Our mission is to provide encouragement, hope and challenge to help push you past your limits and.
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Speaker 1: Reach goals you never thought possible.
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Speaker 2: Colossians two, verse six says, So then, just as you received Christ Jesus's Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him.
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Speaker 1: Amen. Now let's roll.
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Speaker 2: Hello everybody, Welcome back into the Built Different podcast is always.
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Speaker 1: I'll be your host, doctor Zach.
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Speaker 2: Clinton, joined by my dad as always, the president of the AACC, the founder of Ignite, the director of the Global Center for Human Flourishing at Liberty University, doctor Tim Clinton, Dad, thanks for joining me.
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Speaker 3: As always, love having conversations, Zach, especially with our special guests. You know, yes, good stuff. I mean this is where life hits the road. You know what I'm saying. That's what it's all about, meaningful conversation.
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Speaker 2: I can't wait as we're backstage here at our Ignitement's Impact Weekend twenty twenty six. Right here in Lynchburg, Virginia, Thomas for a Baptist Church sod out crowd forty five hundred men are gathering to deepen their relationship with God and develop and strengthen their community and relationships with one another. I think God's going to do something fantastic. And tonight we have a very special guest to lead us in concert, really to lead us in worship, mister Rhett Walker, who's backstage. Rhett cannot wait to dive in a little bit more aboutrhtt though he is a Grammy and a Dove nominated a singer and songwriter in the Christian space. But also he's got this this country, this pop flare about him when it comes to just be able to rock and roll Southern Southern.
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Speaker 3: Stop even even got the shoes to him.
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Speaker 1: Man, He's got something to him.
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Speaker 2: So many songs, gospel song days that we dreamed of, believer songs that you're very well aware of and familiar with, Rhet. I cannot wait to dive into today's conversation. Thanks for joining us, Rhet. Let me say this, as you prepare to go out to a room an audience of forty five hundred men, men are coming.
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Speaker 1: In carrying things.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, pain and brokenness and shame, and you get the opportunity to lead us in the heart and in the posture of warship. How do you prepare and what's your prayer for tonight?
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Speaker 4: Well, my prayer in general going to a show is that people won't check their bags at the door, like bring it to the altar, bring it to the feet of Jesus. The stage that I'm on, I don't deserve that stage. Like nobody's stepping on that stage tonight deserves that stage. We are all flawed, messed up human beings, and so I think that's always my prayer. But tonight with men us men, we like you just said, we carry it. We're not the first to go be like, hey, wife, let me sit you down and talk about this like we carry it. We don't want to tell anybody, and so I think my biggest prayer tonight is that these men will just be vulnerable. It'll go Lord, you move, move through me, change what needs to be changed.
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Speaker 5: So that's my prayer.
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Speaker 2: I can tell ret that it's not a performance with you, like you said, it's not about me getting up there to impress people.
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Speaker 1: This is personable.
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Speaker 2: You want to impact people, allowing God to use you as a conduit, a vessel through which he channels his message of hope to other people.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I have been doing it a while, It's been thirteen years, but I don't take it for granted. Like each stage is different, like each stage is a it's a different soul in that room that needs different help.
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Speaker 3: And hey, there are seasons two in life when it seems like things are I don't know, just coming together, Like something's happening in our country. We hear people talking all the time about how Bible seals are up and how men in particular coming to God like never before, young men.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, turning to Christ.
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Speaker 3: Seriously, you go back and you look at the condition of the country and the challenges, but then you look at the everyday life of men. You begin to realize it's a battle. I mean literally, it's in a throwdown fight. Not just culture. I'm talking about the battle for the hearts and souls of men, and the majority of men somewhere along the way rad have come to believe for whatever reason, maybe God he's good. But I don't know that he really loves me, because if he knows me the way you say he knows me, there's no way he could love me.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I tell people every night before I sing this one song, I'm like, look, you got to remember if we believe what we say, we believe, he didn't send Jesus to die for ninety eight percent, to die for ninety nine percent. It's one hundred percent paid in full. And people are out there going But Rett, you don't know me. You don't know the thoughts I have, or the addiction I'm dealing with or trying to get through, or the marriage problem or the wayward kid my son that don't respect me, or what. You don't know that, And yeah I don't. But I'm not the one that can heal that. That's only God. And so that's why we're here tonight or any night. I'm playing a show like I can't save you. Only Jesus can. But I can point you to Him and point you to the one that can save you. And so I think that's the beauty of grace and knights Like this, you know, and every other conference that you are doing all across the country, it's like you're coming together to just point to Jesus.
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Speaker 5: It's not about anybody on.
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Speaker 4: That stage, like I just said, It's just about Him, right.
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Speaker 2: You know, every person has a story. We all are familiar with suffering. No one's a stranger to struggle. And so for you, man, I was just doing my research and my home and I saw some of your backstory and just your upbringing the backwater behind. Really this man who sings songs like the gospel song, who sing songs like believer, I'm just like I saw in an interview recent and you said, I can't believe that I get to do this knowing who I once was and now who I now am. Take us back though, growing up raised around the faith, but then as a lot of us have right kind of wandering, drifting and finding your way back to him.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, so I grew up a pastor's kid, and I did too.
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Speaker 4: If you know, that's about to say. If you've met a PK, you know immediately. And I added some chapters to that PK book for sure, And and you know it.
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Speaker 5: Was it was wild because I grew up.
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Speaker 4: I mean when I say, as in the church every day, like that's where I got dropped off after school because that's where my dad was. And you know, I learned to play music there mainly because I was the one that had to fill in for whatever. Dude didn't show up for the worship team on Sunday. So it's like the bass player can't make it. So figure that out, son, you know. But I grew up in the faith, and I always tell people I knew enough Jesus to get out of trouble. You know, like if they're like, Ray, you need to you need to quit talking, I'd be like, well, Philippians four thirteen says, you know, I could take scripture out of context so quick to fit whatever RENT needed. And I lived that way for seventeen years, and it caught up with me real quick. Just you know, living however I wanted to, didn't care the consequences or who it might, you know, hurt my family, whatever, And I just we moved. My dad had just got to church. He was the first time head pastor at this church, he'd been associate pastor before. And we were there six months and I got my girlfriend pregnant, and small town USA erupted because they were already mad because you know, he was trying to preach in genes and so that we didn't do that, you know, And so there are always already this guy's stirring things up. And then you know, the pastor's son gets his girlfriend pregnant. Now the whole town is just talking about this dude that knocked or the pastor son that knocked up his girl, and like, how can he run a church if he can't even run his own family, Like my dad had anything.
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Speaker 5: To do with it, you know.
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Speaker 4: And it's and I watched outside of this church just murmur and fuss and wine and talk bad and call names. And then I got kicked out of my school. And I was in a Christian private school when I got her pregnant. Then they kicked me out because I got my girlfriend pregnant. And all I could think was now's the time, Like I need the believers the most. Yeah, it was a summer before my senior year in high school, and the Christian school kicked me out, like I probably need to graduate with this baby coming, you know, And everybody was talking, and I was starting to tell myself like, man, I've got every reason to just run from this crap, like this is this is stupid, Like we.
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Speaker 5: Every Sunday, we do the same dag.
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Speaker 4: I'm saying, like, I don't care about this if this is the way believers really are. And inside the four walls of that church was a small little congregation that rallied around me in April and said, listen, if you will put your eyes on Jesus and give your life to the Lord, we will help you. We're gonna stay by your side, especially because you don't know how much formula costs.
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Speaker 2: You know.
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Speaker 4: And so they're like, we're going to rally around you and support you, but you've got to put your eyes on Jesus and you've got to follow them. And I remember I hit me in April, my wife, hitting my knees and going, Lord, I've heard my daddy talk about grace, peace, redemption, all these things for seventeen years, and I need that to be true. And if that's true, here's my life, and so we gave our lives to the Lord. We got married, had that baby when I I'll have four kids, twenty one down to seven, and we celebrate twenty two years of marriage this July third, So congratulations. But the coolest part, and this is what I love on stage every night when I tell that little story right there, is the greatest thing about that is it has nothing to do with me in April, like we didn't read the right devotional or book or say the longest prayer or fast longer than anybody. Like it started with us just going Jesus, here's our life. Everything else fell in the place after that. Because I wanted to be a good dad. I screwed up along the way. I don't think any dad would say they haven't. You know, there's been many times I've had to go to my kids and go, hey, I'm sorry for the way I responded or reacted to that, you know. And now that we celebrate twenty three years, just looking at it's like this just points to God. And that's the same grace for anybody, not just for that in April. That's my favorite part of the show. And maybe tonight, you know, getting to remind me in or tell them for the first time.
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna stop this right there and jump in to say, you're listening to build different I'm Zach Clinton. We need to break for a brief message from our sponsors. I'll be back with our guests to keep the conversation flowing right after this.
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Speaker 1: You're listening to Life audio.
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Speaker 3: One of my favorite songs of yours when Mercy found me. Yeah, you listening to you unpack that? It takes on a whole new connotation. Now that's what I've listened to that song a lot. You know that, Rhett, and I'm thinking growing up as a pastor's kid, I get. I understand that glass house issue and the challenge and the scrutiny and the ridiculousness, and by the way, also the frustration and the anger toward people.
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Speaker 5: And how they they help.
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Speaker 3: Church people sometimes treat pastors and people in the midst of storms. You hear what I'm saying, always good to see people. Quote come back to center, come back to grace and mercy. You hear what I'm saying, and quote love in such a way that we challenge one another to good works. We know the Lord loves righteousness. He does, and he calls us to that. But rhet not easily done and letting go a lot of that stuff and moving forward. It takes intentional effort. You don't just will yourself to do it. You've got to discipline yourself, train yourself in those ways. Talk about some of how maybe music became that DNA for you and how God used it in your life, the kind to pull you, you know that maybe really pull you toward Him in different ways.
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Speaker 5: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: So I never had a plan b at all. I wanted to do music since I was a kid. Since then when seventeen hit, it mattered even more because it was like, oh man, as they hit the fan but up on three Christian bands, my dad saying Quartet.
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Speaker 5: So I grew up on Gold City. And then.
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Speaker 4: The second Christian band was the Supernatural Tour. I went and saw DC talk and I was like, I want to do like you can do it this get me again professional, like I want to do like so I learned my my vocals from Gold City. I learned like ooh, you can actually talk about Jesus and put on a show still like this can be a thing like well produced. And then the third Christian band, I grew up on was Leonard skinnerd.
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Speaker 1: Put Southern rock and roll right that church music.
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Speaker 5: So yeah, so that's kind of where I got my background.
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Speaker 4: But growing up in church, A good part about like having a film in on those Sunday mornings was being around worship music my entire life, you know. And then when I was eighteen, a year after we had Riley Southeastern Seminary in wake Forest, North Carolina, asked me to come out there and be one of their worship leaders.
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Speaker 5: Wow. And I was.
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Speaker 4: Like, like, this town's still talking crap, like you want me out there? And and we did that, and I got to travel around to universities with like their worship team and lead. And then I was around not just my dad being like a spiritual leader in my life because he was the pastor of the church.
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Speaker 5: There wasn't many for me except for my youth pastor.
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Speaker 4: So now I'm around people that are studied, that have went you know, and and some I'm around these older men that are just like kind of pouring into my life. And then God just kept opening doors. And that was one of the prayers with me in April at first, was like God, like you're gonna have to shut this, you know, walker door for me because I'll do music to people are like, hey, it's weird for you to stand on stage, you're too old, like go home. So I'm always pray like, God, you're gonna have to shut the door. But he just kept opening doors. And a church called, and then we moved. And of course we were young and didn't have much money, and no one told us not to have two kids, like maybe make some money first. And we had my second son immediately after my daughter, and uh, and so then my mom so we would move a church, you know, if they'd pay me a quarter extra an hour. And then my mom called and she goes, right, if you're gonna do this music thing, I was praying for you this morning and God just put on my heart if you wanted to be a surfer, you would move to the ocean. She was like, why don't you move to Nashville? And that had been on my heart like crazy, but God had kept moving us. We didn't move five six times. I'm like, April's gonna kill me, like if we move again. And so I went to her and I said, hey, let's pray about this. What do you think about moving to Nashville, and she goes, do you feel like God's leading us to Nashville? And I was like yes, she goes, all right, figure it out, and so I was reluctant. I emailed two churches that was it, and didn't tell them my background and tell them like I had been leading worship at these colleges and I've been doing this for a few years now. And I emailed two churches and I just said, hey, are y'all looking for a worship leader. Two months later we moved and I got the church gig. And then two years later I signed my first record deal and God just kept with it. Was It's always been two's in my life too, but God just kept opening these doors, and so.
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Speaker 5: That has literally drown.
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Speaker 4: I love making music that shows my heart and connects people with Jesus, but like you said, music has really drawn me in because I get to continue to see God's grace in it, like He's let me do this tonight, forty five hundred men like a sold out thing. Like never in a million years did you know the dude that knocked his girl up at seventeen would be like, oh yeah, I bet I'd be going to Thomas road to a sold out with all these great people, and I be the concert at the end, never in a million years. So it is truly a picture of God's grace that he just continues to let it.
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Speaker 5: And I try to screw it up.
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Speaker 4: I'm human, like there's no reason I should be getting these things, but it's like God just keeps going. Now, man, I know I know what you really want, and you're actually using your voice to do what I really want.
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Speaker 5: So I won't here you go.
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Speaker 2: Isn't that the mystery of God, the incomprehensibility that we can't even fathom his ways and his goodness and his grace in our lives? Just a fun question here before we go a little bit deeper. Out of all the songs, right the gospel song when Mercy found Me Believer, anyone that particularly sticks out to you, is you know what? That was the song that God continues to use in my life, in my story to continue to draw me closer to his heart.
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Speaker 4: That I wrote, Yep, Man on the Middle Cross, because that one was crazy because I live in Georgia again. I lived in Nashville for many years, but we've moved back to around my family and my wife's family, and I was driving to go right with Matthew West, and I had no idea of like any song to write, and like when where she found me being about teenage pregnancy. I like to write songs about life lived and lessons learned. You know, hey, if Wret can get through this, maybe I can get through this exactly.
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Speaker 5: And I was I was.
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Speaker 4: Literally scrolling TikTok and that's just sitting in the hotel room, just doom scrolling, going, Lord, please just give me something in the morning, I guess. And I came across the Man on the Middle Cross sermon by Alistair Beg yep and that and the clip that went viral. And the thing that got me was he said, imagine the man on the right ends up in heaven, say he's the angels, you know, he sees the angels or whatever, and the angels go, dude, how did how did you get here? Like you just died on the cross, Like you're a criminal? Like how did you get here? Like you didn't even you didn't even follow Jesus and you walk the same ground at the same time as him, Like what makes you think you can spend eternity? And he said, can you imagine if the man just looked at him and said, hey, I don't know where I am. I don't know how I got here. All I know is the man on the middle cross said I could come. And I was like, what a beautiful picture of grace because we try to complicate it, make it this trophy Jesus thing where if I do enough, rite, enough good and we need to do those things, but it maybe God will let me go to heaven. The scripture says, those who call upon the name of Jesus shall be saved those other good works and things come like I said earlier, come after that, because you see God's grace for a wretched soul when you go God man, I want to follow Jesus and love on people and tell the clerk at the grocery store about this God that I found. And so I went to Matthew's house the next day, and before like I could even knock on the door, he goes, Ritt, have you seen this tick talk? And it was the exact same clip, and I went, brother, we might have some questions will have to answer in heaven if we don't write this song. So and our prayer behind it was just that the Holy Spirit would meet people right where they're at when they hear it, it not be about me singing, and man it is it is so fun to watch each night, It's like people just go God, I'm just reminded of what he's done. I'm like, I can't. I don't deserve it and I can't earn it. Look at what he did.
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Speaker 1: Yes, you know.
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Speaker 2: I was on a flight with a team a couple of weekends back. It was our kickoff event for our twenty twenty six Extraordinary Women Tour, which is by Still Waters is the theme out of Psalm twenty three, and I was reading out of Mark chapter eight, and it was interesting because as I was reading about Jesus having just fed the four thousand, and Mark chapter six is the account of him feeding the five thousand that everybody's pretty well aware of twelve baskets of overflow, and this account in Mark chapter eight, after he feeds the four thousand, there are seven baskets of overflow, and then just moments later, Jesus gets on a boat with his disciples and they only brought one loaf of bread. So they're looking at each other disgruntled, upset because they forgot their bread rhet and they're mad, and they're weary, and they're worried, and they're frustrated, and Jesus hears them. And then he asked this question, like, do you do you not remember what I just did? Were you not just there like truly in person? I just fed them? Did you not see the baskets? And ask the question how many baskets were left when I fed the five thy twelve? How many baskets were left when I've had the four thousand and seven? He said, do you not yet understand? I think Satan would love nothing more? He uses fear, But I think rooted in fear is a spirit of forgetfulness. And when I think of worship, and I think of what you do every night leading people in the presence of God, you are reminding us to continually proclaim the goodness of God, to continually remember and practice that spirit of remembrance in our daily lives. Speak to just why do you think worship in the practice of remembrance is so necessary for us as mena faith?
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Speaker 5: Because of what you just said, like the enemy.
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Speaker 4: Like a few of my songs I wrote, believer, I wrote it brushing my teeth, and it was because as soon as I got up that morning, my first thoughts as I was getting ready was you're probably I think me and April got into an argument the night before and everything was fine about it felt like you're just not You're not gonna be the husband that you're supposed to be, Like you're you're it's always going to be like this it started off crazy, or you can't be the dad that you're. Your teen who's struggling with at school right now needs to be now all these souls that started happening, and I'm not really an anxious guy, like most of the time I'm told to calm down, but like I just started getting anxious and everything's Finns and I was like, no, I'm not like I'm I'm no, I've got Jesus like, I'm you know, I'm I'm a believer, I'm a gospel preacher, I'm you know, because of him, a mountain mover like all these things. I was like, no, like, I've got to be louder than this. That's why reading your word is important, That's why you know, being what you put in is what comes out. And so I wrote that song just brushing my teeth to remind myself, like hey, dude, like tell the end of me where to go, like we're And also I think another big thing is practicing sharing the gospel.
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Speaker 5: I've got a buddy who just.
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Speaker 4: Came to faith and he came to me one time and he goes, he's I mean like came to faith, like from nothing, like never went to church, nothing. And we had talked my kids are in school. We homeschool now, but they're in school. And every day at carpet up we'd sell on our golf carts and that man, why do you sing this? Because he knew I played music, and I was like, well, man, you know this comes from scripture or this comes from life. And so he just started reading and he finally came and one day on the golf PARTI goes. He goes, hey, Riet, I asked Jesus to come in my heart, but I don't want to talk about and I was like, all right, cool, like you know you're figuring this thing out. The next day on the on the cart, he goes, hey, man, because he don't know anything about church, he goes, I would like to start something where like maybe dudes come together and like talk about the Bible.
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Speaker 5: But it not be like dumb.
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Speaker 4: And I was like, you're talking about a small group, and yes, we can do that, and so we started, like he started this small group all because of just small conversations that he had been having with people around the neighborhood and you know, getting in his word.
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Speaker 5: And I tell people all the time, like I try to practice it.
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Speaker 4: At my local grocery store with people just any chance I can, because I felt guilty a year about a year ago, I was like, I only really share the gospel on stage, and is that equated to the only reason I'm on stage is because I'm getting paid, And so I kind of it's weird, like I do it for ministry, but.
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Speaker 5: The only time I'm doing it is when there's a check.
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Speaker 4: And so I was like, you know what, I've got to tell people in my community, Like that's where almost start at my grocery store. And so that's now that my small group is doing that, They're going out and like you know, and it was funny. They're like how do we do it? And I was like, start with Hey, Jesus loves you. It can start there. You build relationships with people, and so that's why I think. When you're constantly thinking that way, it's hard for the.
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Speaker 5: Enemy to go. You're not going to be the man you need to be.
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Speaker 4: You're not going to meet because you're constantly preaching goodness over yourself. I tell people all the time too, kids start acting crazy. Put worship. Tell Alexi to turn worship music on. They don't have to be ret Walker. Tell them to turn Olilan on, and the air in the room will change because it's hard for the enemy to get louder than that when when worship is just in your house.
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Speaker 3: But there seems to be a shift in culture, even in music. You look at country music, Christian music, Brandon Lake, Jelly Roll, people out there, Carrie Underwood, people on bigger stages talking openly about Jesus. You've got Christian music that's soaring. You know that a lot of people are coming back. There's this crossover entry thing. A lot of people grew up on eighties music, et cetera. You know that talk to us about the dynamic of maybe your vibe, your approach, your entry point. You got a lot of guys who are coming here tonight. A lot of people think that we bring the choir and we don't most of these guys, maybe half of them or something like that, go to church barely, you know, off consistent, but not many. Most of the other guys, they probably grew up in a Christian home or they have some type of connection, but they really haven't been alive in their faith. They come here and this is an experience for them because it for whatever reason, we use outdoors, you know.
00:27:07
Speaker 1: Midway barbecue.
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Speaker 3: We got jeeps and four wheelers, and we've got workshops on turkey hunting, predator hunting, duck hunting, to being a good dad, how to have a great marriage, how to overcome an addiction. All this stuff's going on. So what it does is it rips down walls. And for a lot of these kids people out here, you got fathers and sons who, by the way, the sons have never been in a church service where they heard their dad sing, you know what I mean. And so all this stuff's happening, okay, But something happens when I'll say.
00:27:39
Speaker 5: The boys get together. When the boys get together.
00:27:42
Speaker 3: And the place is staged, right, there's something that really explodes. And I'm speaking to that somehow. You have to enter into that portal, if you will, to get the right or the opportunity to bring that light into the darkness.
00:28:00
Speaker 1: You know that, And I don't.
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Speaker 3: I don't know if I'm making sense. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, just what is that kind of wiring for you? Well, I'm looking at your hat, Jesus says, I mean years ago, nobody would ever warren that hat. Yeah, what I'm saying, No, that that would have been like the death of you. And in some circles, you got it.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, this is actually out there.
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Speaker 4: I love so Yeah, I'm getting Yeah, it's cool.
00:28:23
Speaker 5: That's cool.
00:28:24
Speaker 4: I think enough junk has hit the fan and there is enough. Yeah, And like people are, people are tired, and they're looking for hope. And the church for many years has done a terrible job of pointing people to.
00:28:42
Speaker 5: Where that hope is.
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Speaker 4: Like there was outreach, you know, people would go make sandwiches for somebody, and a lot of churches.
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Speaker 5: Did it, right, But I just have a little potluck or something. Yeah, but that's usually for the people that go there.
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Speaker 4: And if you have a pot luck, I'm not going because I don't want to touch the food that I don't know who.
00:29:00
Speaker 5: That's weird.
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Speaker 4: They put their hands in the green beans, like I'm not doing that, like you got food trucks here. But I think enough desperation. Stuff has hit the fan sins of our fathers where you know, just generational things have passed down like you said, addictions or whatever, and and people are tired, and dudes are finally going, man.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, I can't I can't keep this up. This pace won't last.
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Speaker 4: I'll lose my life, my wife, my kids, Like I'm this ain't gonna work. And then you starting to have the men rise up in the church, people that are like y'all that go, let's give them a reason to step into a church. No one, like you said, half these people went and darkened the door of a church. But the right person invited them that they trust because they hunt with and they go, yeah, it's like all right, I'll go to this stupid worship thing.
00:29:53
Speaker 1: But Red Walker's there. We'll go, we'll go, we'll go.
00:29:58
Speaker 4: But yeah, it's it's the thing where it's like, oh there's a there's a turkey hunting.
00:30:03
Speaker 5: Of course, like all right, we'll do it.
00:30:05
Speaker 4: You know. And then all of a sudden, the gospels laid out from people that they respected, like a tony dungee. It's like wait, you know, wait, what's he talking about? Like, I respect this dude because of the man he is. I don't understand the faith he's talking about, but I respect the man he is, So let me find out more about that faith and if it's because of desperation and people looking for something, and I tell people there was this. The thing that got me to really kind of why I do what I do is I heard a podcast one time with an atheist and two Christians that were like debating, and the atheist goes, if Jesus really is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, if he really is that, then how much do you have to hate someone to not tell them? And I was like, oh my gosh, Like that blows me away. And so I think I think we're starting to see people who were redeemed, you know, say a jelly roller or something that we're like so like caught off guard because of the life they've lived that they're like, oh my gosh, I gotta tell everybody.
00:31:12
Speaker 2: Good.
00:31:12
Speaker 5: Look, it's changed my life, I tell everybody.
00:31:14
Speaker 4: So there's an excitement in the culture, and I think it's opened the doors for more people, like in country music and you know, to go, Hey, I believe that too, you know, like Nashville is full of country artists that you would have never have known. But now that door is opening. And you know when we played the Opry sixteen times, now wow, and we don't change our set lists. Yep, they play the same songs like we're not going to hide it, you know. And I think that's that's the thing is, just got there and be bold and loud.
00:31:46
Speaker 2: You know where I'm going with this because I'm going to kind of land a plane here for a second. But when you talk about sharing your faith and being bold and being courageous about that unashamed. Years ago, I was sitting in the Hyatt I think it was the Higher Regency hotel that's connected the Orlando Airport, and I was invited to an event with fifty other kind of next gen ministry guys. And we're sitting in a room and we're under the teaching and the leadership of doctor j Strack, who is ad your friend of ours from Student Leadership University. And he gets up there and he's talking about dry eyed Christianity like that. There's so many Christians that are just so focused on their PhDs and the cars that they drive and they're nice homes and they're going to bed dry eyed while everyone else is crying themselves to sleep. And he talks about stepping into that moment. But then he said, don't you dare commit the sin of the desert. And everybody in the room is like, I've heard a lot of sins. I've never heard of the sin of the desert. And he kind of picked up on just what in the world we're talking about here, and he said, the sin of the desert is when you know where the water is, and he refused to share. And so it's the idea of what you're saying. Man, every day, let us be weary of committing that sin, but let us be bold enough to step into the moment, to step up to share the good news of the Gospel. And I think we do that best through this one phrase. When I was in the deepest, darkest lofe most moment in my life, so grateful that I had people and my dad and my family to walk alongside of me through that. But I'll never forget coming across a quote by a woman named Nancy Lee de Moss. They shared it every time I sit down with a worship artist. And this woman said this, I have learned that no matter what I come up against in this life, I can respond in one of two ways. I can whine or I can worship. And she said this, but it's impossible to worship without giving things right for you. Man, it's not about what we do or what we not do. It's about what's been done. What's a final word of hope you have that hat on Jesus saves about the gratitude that you have in your heart every single day for what God has done for you.
00:33:37
Speaker 4: I would just say, looking if I had to look back over the past twenty two years and what God has done, like he's capable, he's constant, and he's proven and he's able, and you're never too far gone.
00:33:55
Speaker 5: That's not a real thing, you know.
00:33:58
Speaker 4: And I think it's good to remar and remind yourself that, especially people that have never been to church. You think of it as maybe you know people that are too good for you. We don't serve a God that is in the middle of the paved road going hey, when you get your junk together, I'll be right here. Like he's in the mud, he's in he's in the woods with us going. Man, just turn around, just look at me, and I can get you back to the road. And so I think my biggest thing just as a reminder that that he's there and he's present, and all you got to do is just look.
00:34:36
Speaker 1: You know, in sports they say he see you, see you.
00:34:39
Speaker 5: That's good.
00:34:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, God sees us, he does, and we see you. We salute you, man, We appreciate the faithfulness. And may your best your best days be ahead of you, not behind you. Hey, you got a special guests going to join you tonight.
00:34:54
Speaker 5: Hey, let's know Olivia. Yeah, so she is. U got a few songs out.
00:35:01
Speaker 4: She's singing a Woman at the Well at a men's conference, which is what I asked her to do, just to see if it make her awkward.
00:35:08
Speaker 5: And I'm just kidding. I just really love that song.
00:35:12
Speaker 4: And she's she's a mom and she'll tell you more about it. But she's got a serious ExM show that you should tune into. Like when you talk about a hard working woman in the music industry. That's why me and my family were so excited to bring her out. Like she loves the Lord, She's passionate about it and spends a lot of time being passionate about it with all the stuff that she does to get the word out about Jesus. So yeah, I'm excited for people to hear her of some people know her more than me because of the serious ExM show. So I was also like, hey, maybe she'll talk about me on the radio and help me out a little bitter. No, we're excited.
00:35:48
Speaker 5: She's awesome and I can't wait for people to hear more.
00:35:51
Speaker 2: Yes, and speaking of that, retwork in our audience, go to find out more about you. I've always asked this question, does it matter Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube where they go?
00:36:00
Speaker 4: Nope, it does not matter wherever you stream music, stream it, you know, and but just tell your friends. And the biggest thing for me that I like on the on that set on the business side is Instagram.
00:36:13
Speaker 5: Like that's the one I'm on.
00:36:15
Speaker 4: The label asked to run it and I was like, no, I want to talk to the people. And so when they d M me, I'm the one.
00:36:21
Speaker 5: Talking back to them.
00:36:22
Speaker 4: And I'm like, if I was a pastor, I wouldn't be too cool for school, Like I'd be talking to the people. So, you know, thinking of it in that type of way, and so get Instagram just at Rett Walker, go find me stream my music because one hundred percent of the money I make from you streaming my music.
00:36:42
Speaker 5: Goes to feed needy kids. Wow yet, but now I feel bad. I mean my four media kids. That's what I talk about. The way He wove.
00:36:56
Speaker 2: It that makes me want to stream it even for You are a blessing dude. You're a gift to the church. You're a gift to us at Ignite. I can't wait to see what God doesn't.
00:37:05
Speaker 5: Invite it up tonight, Ben, Thank you, Thank.
00:37:08
Speaker 2: You for joining me to our built different audience. I just wanted to say thank you so much again for just giving us your time today. I hope him pray you are as encouraged as I was. Again, it is a choice to rejoice no matter what you're going through in this life. I pray that you would never forget the faithfulness of God. He continues to draw near to you as you continue to draw near to Him. Thanks so much for joining us. We love being a part of your life.
Speaker 1: Life Audio.
00:00:03
Speaker 2: Build Different is a production of the American Association of Christian Counselors. To support this podcast and learn how you can help us to promote all our biblical content, spread the Gospel, and provide mental health resources and training to people everywhere, just go to Aaccfoundation dot org. Again, that's Aaccfoundation dot org.
00:00:25
Speaker 1: Welcome to Built Different. I'm Zach Clinton, your.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: Host, and each week I come to you exclusively on the Life Audio podcast Network. I'm proud to partner with Life Audio and bring you entertaining, life changing, family friendly podcasts for a new generation.
00:00:38
Speaker 1: I Built Different.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: Our mission is to provide encouragement, hope and challenge to help push you past your limits and.
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Speaker 1: Reach goals you never thought possible.
00:00:45
Speaker 2: Colossians two, verse six says, So then, just as you received Christ Jesus's Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him.
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Speaker 1: Amen. Now let's roll.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Hello everybody, Welcome back into the Built Different podcast is always.
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Speaker 1: I'll be your host, doctor Zach.
00:01:05
Speaker 2: Clinton, joined by my dad as always, the president of the AACC, the founder of Ignite, the director of the Global Center for Human Flourishing at Liberty University, doctor Tim Clinton, Dad, thanks for joining me.
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Speaker 3: As always, love having conversations, Zach, especially with our special guests. You know, yes, good stuff. I mean this is where life hits the road. You know what I'm saying. That's what it's all about, meaningful conversation.
00:01:27
Speaker 2: I can't wait as we're backstage here at our Ignitement's Impact Weekend twenty twenty six. Right here in Lynchburg, Virginia, Thomas for a Baptist Church sod out crowd forty five hundred men are gathering to deepen their relationship with God and develop and strengthen their community and relationships with one another. I think God's going to do something fantastic. And tonight we have a very special guest to lead us in concert, really to lead us in worship, mister Rhett Walker, who's backstage. Rhett cannot wait to dive in a little bit more aboutrhtt though he is a Grammy and a Dove nominated a singer and songwriter in the Christian space. But also he's got this this country, this pop flare about him when it comes to just be able to rock and roll Southern Southern.
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Speaker 3: Stop even even got the shoes to him.
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Speaker 1: Man, He's got something to him.
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Speaker 2: So many songs, gospel song days that we dreamed of, believer songs that you're very well aware of and familiar with, Rhet. I cannot wait to dive into today's conversation. Thanks for joining us, Rhet. Let me say this, as you prepare to go out to a room an audience of forty five hundred men, men are coming.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: In carrying things.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, pain and brokenness and shame, and you get the opportunity to lead us in the heart and in the posture of warship. How do you prepare and what's your prayer for tonight?
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Speaker 4: Well, my prayer in general going to a show is that people won't check their bags at the door, like bring it to the altar, bring it to the feet of Jesus. The stage that I'm on, I don't deserve that stage. Like nobody's stepping on that stage tonight deserves that stage. We are all flawed, messed up human beings, and so I think that's always my prayer. But tonight with men us men, we like you just said, we carry it. We're not the first to go be like, hey, wife, let me sit you down and talk about this like we carry it. We don't want to tell anybody, and so I think my biggest prayer tonight is that these men will just be vulnerable. It'll go Lord, you move, move through me, change what needs to be changed.
00:03:26
Speaker 5: So that's my prayer.
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Speaker 2: I can tell ret that it's not a performance with you, like you said, it's not about me getting up there to impress people.
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Speaker 1: This is personable.
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Speaker 2: You want to impact people, allowing God to use you as a conduit, a vessel through which he channels his message of hope to other people.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I have been doing it a while, It's been thirteen years, but I don't take it for granted. Like each stage is different, like each stage is a it's a different soul in that room that needs different help.
00:03:56
Speaker 3: And hey, there are seasons two in life when it seems like things are I don't know, just coming together, Like something's happening in our country. We hear people talking all the time about how Bible seals are up and how men in particular coming to God like never before, young men.
00:04:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, turning to Christ.
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Speaker 3: Seriously, you go back and you look at the condition of the country and the challenges, but then you look at the everyday life of men. You begin to realize it's a battle. I mean literally, it's in a throwdown fight. Not just culture. I'm talking about the battle for the hearts and souls of men, and the majority of men somewhere along the way rad have come to believe for whatever reason, maybe God he's good. But I don't know that he really loves me, because if he knows me the way you say he knows me, there's no way he could love me.
00:04:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, I tell people every night before I sing this one song, I'm like, look, you got to remember if we believe what we say, we believe, he didn't send Jesus to die for ninety eight percent, to die for ninety nine percent. It's one hundred percent paid in full. And people are out there going But Rett, you don't know me. You don't know the thoughts I have, or the addiction I'm dealing with or trying to get through, or the marriage problem or the wayward kid my son that don't respect me, or what. You don't know that, And yeah I don't. But I'm not the one that can heal that. That's only God. And so that's why we're here tonight or any night. I'm playing a show like I can't save you. Only Jesus can. But I can point you to Him and point you to the one that can save you. And so I think that's the beauty of grace and knights Like this, you know, and every other conference that you are doing all across the country, it's like you're coming together to just point to Jesus.
00:05:44
Speaker 5: It's not about anybody on.
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Speaker 4: That stage, like I just said, It's just about Him, right.
00:05:48
Speaker 2: You know, every person has a story. We all are familiar with suffering. No one's a stranger to struggle. And so for you, man, I was just doing my research and my home and I saw some of your backstory and just your upbringing the backwater behind. Really this man who sings songs like the gospel song, who sing songs like believer, I'm just like I saw in an interview recent and you said, I can't believe that I get to do this knowing who I once was and now who I now am. Take us back though, growing up raised around the faith, but then as a lot of us have right kind of wandering, drifting and finding your way back to him.
00:06:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I grew up a pastor's kid, and I did too.
00:06:29
Speaker 4: If you know, that's about to say. If you've met a PK, you know immediately. And I added some chapters to that PK book for sure, And and you know it.
00:06:41
Speaker 5: Was it was wild because I grew up.
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Speaker 4: I mean when I say, as in the church every day, like that's where I got dropped off after school because that's where my dad was. And you know, I learned to play music there mainly because I was the one that had to fill in for whatever. Dude didn't show up for the worship team on Sunday. So it's like the bass player can't make it. So figure that out, son, you know. But I grew up in the faith, and I always tell people I knew enough Jesus to get out of trouble. You know, like if they're like, Ray, you need to you need to quit talking, I'd be like, well, Philippians four thirteen says, you know, I could take scripture out of context so quick to fit whatever RENT needed. And I lived that way for seventeen years, and it caught up with me real quick. Just you know, living however I wanted to, didn't care the consequences or who it might, you know, hurt my family, whatever, And I just we moved. My dad had just got to church. He was the first time head pastor at this church, he'd been associate pastor before. And we were there six months and I got my girlfriend pregnant, and small town USA erupted because they were already mad because you know, he was trying to preach in genes and so that we didn't do that, you know, And so there are always already this guy's stirring things up. And then you know, the pastor's son gets his girlfriend pregnant. Now the whole town is just talking about this dude that knocked or the pastor son that knocked up his girl, and like, how can he run a church if he can't even run his own family, Like my dad had anything.
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Speaker 5: To do with it, you know.
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Speaker 4: And it's and I watched outside of this church just murmur and fuss and wine and talk bad and call names. And then I got kicked out of my school. And I was in a Christian private school when I got her pregnant. Then they kicked me out because I got my girlfriend pregnant. And all I could think was now's the time, Like I need the believers the most. Yeah, it was a summer before my senior year in high school, and the Christian school kicked me out, like I probably need to graduate with this baby coming, you know, And everybody was talking, and I was starting to tell myself like, man, I've got every reason to just run from this crap, like this is this is stupid, Like we.
00:09:02
Speaker 5: Every Sunday, we do the same dag.
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Speaker 4: I'm saying, like, I don't care about this if this is the way believers really are. And inside the four walls of that church was a small little congregation that rallied around me in April and said, listen, if you will put your eyes on Jesus and give your life to the Lord, we will help you. We're gonna stay by your side, especially because you don't know how much formula costs.
00:09:28
Speaker 2: You know.
00:09:29
Speaker 4: And so they're like, we're going to rally around you and support you, but you've got to put your eyes on Jesus and you've got to follow them. And I remember I hit me in April, my wife, hitting my knees and going, Lord, I've heard my daddy talk about grace, peace, redemption, all these things for seventeen years, and I need that to be true. And if that's true, here's my life, and so we gave our lives to the Lord. We got married, had that baby when I I'll have four kids, twenty one down to seven, and we celebrate twenty two years of marriage this July third, So congratulations. But the coolest part, and this is what I love on stage every night when I tell that little story right there, is the greatest thing about that is it has nothing to do with me in April, like we didn't read the right devotional or book or say the longest prayer or fast longer than anybody. Like it started with us just going Jesus, here's our life. Everything else fell in the place after that. Because I wanted to be a good dad. I screwed up along the way. I don't think any dad would say they haven't. You know, there's been many times I've had to go to my kids and go, hey, I'm sorry for the way I responded or reacted to that, you know. And now that we celebrate twenty three years, just looking at it's like this just points to God. And that's the same grace for anybody, not just for that in April. That's my favorite part of the show. And maybe tonight, you know, getting to remind me in or tell them for the first time.
00:11:07
Speaker 2: I'm gonna stop this right there and jump in to say, you're listening to build different I'm Zach Clinton. We need to break for a brief message from our sponsors. I'll be back with our guests to keep the conversation flowing right after this.
00:11:18
Speaker 1: You're listening to Life audio.
00:11:23
Speaker 3: One of my favorite songs of yours when Mercy found me. Yeah, you listening to you unpack that? It takes on a whole new connotation. Now that's what I've listened to that song a lot. You know that, Rhett, and I'm thinking growing up as a pastor's kid, I get. I understand that glass house issue and the challenge and the scrutiny and the ridiculousness, and by the way, also the frustration and the anger toward people.
00:11:50
Speaker 5: And how they they help.
00:11:53
Speaker 3: Church people sometimes treat pastors and people in the midst of storms. You hear what I'm saying, always good to see people. Quote come back to center, come back to grace and mercy. You hear what I'm saying, and quote love in such a way that we challenge one another to good works. We know the Lord loves righteousness. He does, and he calls us to that. But rhet not easily done and letting go a lot of that stuff and moving forward. It takes intentional effort. You don't just will yourself to do it. You've got to discipline yourself, train yourself in those ways. Talk about some of how maybe music became that DNA for you and how God used it in your life, the kind to pull you, you know that maybe really pull you toward Him in different ways.
00:12:48
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:12:48
Speaker 4: So I never had a plan b at all. I wanted to do music since I was a kid. Since then when seventeen hit, it mattered even more because it was like, oh man, as they hit the fan but up on three Christian bands, my dad saying Quartet.
00:13:03
Speaker 5: So I grew up on Gold City. And then.
00:13:07
Speaker 4: The second Christian band was the Supernatural Tour. I went and saw DC talk and I was like, I want to do like you can do it this get me again professional, like I want to do like so I learned my my vocals from Gold City. I learned like ooh, you can actually talk about Jesus and put on a show still like this can be a thing like well produced. And then the third Christian band, I grew up on was Leonard skinnerd.
00:13:35
Speaker 1: Put Southern rock and roll right that church music.
00:13:38
Speaker 5: So yeah, so that's kind of where I got my background.
00:13:43
Speaker 4: But growing up in church, A good part about like having a film in on those Sunday mornings was being around worship music my entire life, you know. And then when I was eighteen, a year after we had Riley Southeastern Seminary in wake Forest, North Carolina, asked me to come out there and be one of their worship leaders.
00:14:07
Speaker 5: Wow. And I was.
00:14:08
Speaker 4: Like, like, this town's still talking crap, like you want me out there? And and we did that, and I got to travel around to universities with like their worship team and lead. And then I was around not just my dad being like a spiritual leader in my life because he was the pastor of the church.
00:14:30
Speaker 5: There wasn't many for me except for my youth pastor.
00:14:34
Speaker 4: So now I'm around people that are studied, that have went you know, and and some I'm around these older men that are just like kind of pouring into my life. And then God just kept opening doors. And that was one of the prayers with me in April at first, was like God, like you're gonna have to shut this, you know, walker door for me because I'll do music to people are like, hey, it's weird for you to stand on stage, you're too old, like go home. So I'm always pray like, God, you're gonna have to shut the door. But he just kept opening doors. And a church called, and then we moved. And of course we were young and didn't have much money, and no one told us not to have two kids, like maybe make some money first. And we had my second son immediately after my daughter, and uh, and so then my mom so we would move a church, you know, if they'd pay me a quarter extra an hour. And then my mom called and she goes, right, if you're gonna do this music thing, I was praying for you this morning and God just put on my heart if you wanted to be a surfer, you would move to the ocean. She was like, why don't you move to Nashville? And that had been on my heart like crazy, but God had kept moving us. We didn't move five six times. I'm like, April's gonna kill me, like if we move again. And so I went to her and I said, hey, let's pray about this. What do you think about moving to Nashville, and she goes, do you feel like God's leading us to Nashville? And I was like yes, she goes, all right, figure it out, and so I was reluctant. I emailed two churches that was it, and didn't tell them my background and tell them like I had been leading worship at these colleges and I've been doing this for a few years now. And I emailed two churches and I just said, hey, are y'all looking for a worship leader. Two months later we moved and I got the church gig. And then two years later I signed my first record deal and God just kept with it. Was It's always been two's in my life too, but God just kept opening these doors, and so.
00:16:30
Speaker 5: That has literally drown.
00:16:32
Speaker 4: I love making music that shows my heart and connects people with Jesus, but like you said, music has really drawn me in because I get to continue to see God's grace in it, like He's let me do this tonight, forty five hundred men like a sold out thing. Like never in a million years did you know the dude that knocked his girl up at seventeen would be like, oh yeah, I bet I'd be going to Thomas road to a sold out with all these great people, and I be the concert at the end, never in a million years. So it is truly a picture of God's grace that he just continues to let it.
00:17:10
Speaker 5: And I try to screw it up.
00:17:12
Speaker 4: I'm human, like there's no reason I should be getting these things, but it's like God just keeps going. Now, man, I know I know what you really want, and you're actually using your voice to do what I really want.
00:17:26
Speaker 5: So I won't here you go.
00:17:28
Speaker 2: Isn't that the mystery of God, the incomprehensibility that we can't even fathom his ways and his goodness and his grace in our lives? Just a fun question here before we go a little bit deeper. Out of all the songs, right the gospel song when Mercy found Me Believer, anyone that particularly sticks out to you, is you know what? That was the song that God continues to use in my life, in my story to continue to draw me closer to his heart.
00:17:50
Speaker 4: That I wrote, Yep, Man on the Middle Cross, because that one was crazy because I live in Georgia again. I lived in Nashville for many years, but we've moved back to around my family and my wife's family, and I was driving to go right with Matthew West, and I had no idea of like any song to write, and like when where she found me being about teenage pregnancy. I like to write songs about life lived and lessons learned. You know, hey, if Wret can get through this, maybe I can get through this exactly.
00:18:23
Speaker 5: And I was I was.
00:18:24
Speaker 4: Literally scrolling TikTok and that's just sitting in the hotel room, just doom scrolling, going, Lord, please just give me something in the morning, I guess. And I came across the Man on the Middle Cross sermon by Alistair Beg yep and that and the clip that went viral. And the thing that got me was he said, imagine the man on the right ends up in heaven, say he's the angels, you know, he sees the angels or whatever, and the angels go, dude, how did how did you get here? Like you just died on the cross, Like you're a criminal? Like how did you get here? Like you didn't even you didn't even follow Jesus and you walk the same ground at the same time as him, Like what makes you think you can spend eternity? And he said, can you imagine if the man just looked at him and said, hey, I don't know where I am. I don't know how I got here. All I know is the man on the middle cross said I could come. And I was like, what a beautiful picture of grace because we try to complicate it, make it this trophy Jesus thing where if I do enough, rite, enough good and we need to do those things, but it maybe God will let me go to heaven. The scripture says, those who call upon the name of Jesus shall be saved those other good works and things come like I said earlier, come after that, because you see God's grace for a wretched soul when you go God man, I want to follow Jesus and love on people and tell the clerk at the grocery store about this God that I found. And so I went to Matthew's house the next day, and before like I could even knock on the door, he goes, Ritt, have you seen this tick talk? And it was the exact same clip, and I went, brother, we might have some questions will have to answer in heaven if we don't write this song. So and our prayer behind it was just that the Holy Spirit would meet people right where they're at when they hear it, it not be about me singing, and man it is it is so fun to watch each night, It's like people just go God, I'm just reminded of what he's done. I'm like, I can't. I don't deserve it and I can't earn it. Look at what he did.
00:20:30
Speaker 1: Yes, you know.
00:20:31
Speaker 2: I was on a flight with a team a couple of weekends back. It was our kickoff event for our twenty twenty six Extraordinary Women Tour, which is by Still Waters is the theme out of Psalm twenty three, and I was reading out of Mark chapter eight, and it was interesting because as I was reading about Jesus having just fed the four thousand, and Mark chapter six is the account of him feeding the five thousand that everybody's pretty well aware of twelve baskets of overflow, and this account in Mark chapter eight, after he feeds the four thousand, there are seven baskets of overflow, and then just moments later, Jesus gets on a boat with his disciples and they only brought one loaf of bread. So they're looking at each other disgruntled, upset because they forgot their bread rhet and they're mad, and they're weary, and they're worried, and they're frustrated, and Jesus hears them. And then he asked this question, like, do you do you not remember what I just did? Were you not just there like truly in person? I just fed them? Did you not see the baskets? And ask the question how many baskets were left when I fed the five thy twelve? How many baskets were left when I've had the four thousand and seven? He said, do you not yet understand? I think Satan would love nothing more? He uses fear, But I think rooted in fear is a spirit of forgetfulness. And when I think of worship, and I think of what you do every night leading people in the presence of God, you are reminding us to continually proclaim the goodness of God, to continually remember and practice that spirit of remembrance in our daily lives. Speak to just why do you think worship in the practice of remembrance is so necessary for us as mena faith?
00:22:07
Speaker 5: Because of what you just said, like the enemy.
00:22:11
Speaker 4: Like a few of my songs I wrote, believer, I wrote it brushing my teeth, and it was because as soon as I got up that morning, my first thoughts as I was getting ready was you're probably I think me and April got into an argument the night before and everything was fine about it felt like you're just not You're not gonna be the husband that you're supposed to be, Like you're you're it's always going to be like this it started off crazy, or you can't be the dad that you're. Your teen who's struggling with at school right now needs to be now all these souls that started happening, and I'm not really an anxious guy, like most of the time I'm told to calm down, but like I just started getting anxious and everything's Finns and I was like, no, I'm not like I'm I'm no, I've got Jesus like, I'm you know, I'm I'm a believer, I'm a gospel preacher, I'm you know, because of him, a mountain mover like all these things. I was like, no, like, I've got to be louder than this. That's why reading your word is important, That's why you know, being what you put in is what comes out. And so I wrote that song just brushing my teeth to remind myself, like hey, dude, like tell the end of me where to go, like we're And also I think another big thing is practicing sharing the gospel.
00:23:30
Speaker 5: I've got a buddy who just.
00:23:31
Speaker 4: Came to faith and he came to me one time and he goes, he's I mean like came to faith, like from nothing, like never went to church, nothing. And we had talked my kids are in school. We homeschool now, but they're in school. And every day at carpet up we'd sell on our golf carts and that man, why do you sing this? Because he knew I played music, and I was like, well, man, you know this comes from scripture or this comes from life. And so he just started reading and he finally came and one day on the golf PARTI goes. He goes, hey, Riet, I asked Jesus to come in my heart, but I don't want to talk about and I was like, all right, cool, like you know you're figuring this thing out. The next day on the on the cart, he goes, hey, man, because he don't know anything about church, he goes, I would like to start something where like maybe dudes come together and like talk about the Bible.
00:24:22
Speaker 5: But it not be like dumb.
00:24:24
Speaker 4: And I was like, you're talking about a small group, and yes, we can do that, and so we started, like he started this small group all because of just small conversations that he had been having with people around the neighborhood and you know, getting in his word.
00:24:38
Speaker 5: And I tell people all the time, like I try to practice it.
00:24:42
Speaker 4: At my local grocery store with people just any chance I can, because I felt guilty a year about a year ago, I was like, I only really share the gospel on stage, and is that equated to the only reason I'm on stage is because I'm getting paid, And so I kind of it's weird, like I do it for ministry, but.
00:25:03
Speaker 5: The only time I'm doing it is when there's a check.
00:25:06
Speaker 4: And so I was like, you know what, I've got to tell people in my community, Like that's where almost start at my grocery store. And so that's now that my small group is doing that, They're going out and like you know, and it was funny. They're like how do we do it? And I was like, start with Hey, Jesus loves you. It can start there. You build relationships with people, and so that's why I think. When you're constantly thinking that way, it's hard for the.
00:25:32
Speaker 5: Enemy to go. You're not going to be the man you need to be.
00:25:35
Speaker 4: You're not going to meet because you're constantly preaching goodness over yourself. I tell people all the time too, kids start acting crazy. Put worship. Tell Alexi to turn worship music on. They don't have to be ret Walker. Tell them to turn Olilan on, and the air in the room will change because it's hard for the enemy to get louder than that when when worship is just in your house.
00:25:58
Speaker 3: But there seems to be a shift in culture, even in music. You look at country music, Christian music, Brandon Lake, Jelly Roll, people out there, Carrie Underwood, people on bigger stages talking openly about Jesus. You've got Christian music that's soaring. You know that a lot of people are coming back. There's this crossover entry thing. A lot of people grew up on eighties music, et cetera. You know that talk to us about the dynamic of maybe your vibe, your approach, your entry point. You got a lot of guys who are coming here tonight. A lot of people think that we bring the choir and we don't most of these guys, maybe half of them or something like that, go to church barely, you know, off consistent, but not many. Most of the other guys, they probably grew up in a Christian home or they have some type of connection, but they really haven't been alive in their faith. They come here and this is an experience for them because it for whatever reason, we use outdoors, you know.
00:27:07
Speaker 1: Midway barbecue.
00:27:08
Speaker 3: We got jeeps and four wheelers, and we've got workshops on turkey hunting, predator hunting, duck hunting, to being a good dad, how to have a great marriage, how to overcome an addiction. All this stuff's going on. So what it does is it rips down walls. And for a lot of these kids people out here, you got fathers and sons who, by the way, the sons have never been in a church service where they heard their dad sing, you know what I mean. And so all this stuff's happening, okay, But something happens when I'll say.
00:27:39
Speaker 5: The boys get together. When the boys get together.
00:27:42
Speaker 3: And the place is staged, right, there's something that really explodes. And I'm speaking to that somehow. You have to enter into that portal, if you will, to get the right or the opportunity to bring that light into the darkness.
00:28:00
Speaker 1: You know that, And I don't.
00:28:02
Speaker 3: I don't know if I'm making sense. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, just what is that kind of wiring for you? Well, I'm looking at your hat, Jesus says, I mean years ago, nobody would ever warren that hat. Yeah, what I'm saying, No, that that would have been like the death of you. And in some circles, you got it.
00:28:17
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is actually out there.
00:28:19
Speaker 4: I love so Yeah, I'm getting Yeah, it's cool.
00:28:23
Speaker 5: That's cool.
00:28:24
Speaker 4: I think enough junk has hit the fan and there is enough. Yeah, And like people are, people are tired, and they're looking for hope. And the church for many years has done a terrible job of pointing people to.
00:28:42
Speaker 5: Where that hope is.
00:28:44
Speaker 4: Like there was outreach, you know, people would go make sandwiches for somebody, and a lot of churches.
00:28:50
Speaker 5: Did it, right, But I just have a little potluck or something. Yeah, but that's usually for the people that go there.
00:28:55
Speaker 4: And if you have a pot luck, I'm not going because I don't want to touch the food that I don't know who.
00:29:00
Speaker 5: That's weird.
00:29:01
Speaker 4: They put their hands in the green beans, like I'm not doing that, like you got food trucks here. But I think enough desperation. Stuff has hit the fan sins of our fathers where you know, just generational things have passed down like you said, addictions or whatever, and and people are tired, and dudes are finally going, man.
00:29:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, I can't I can't keep this up. This pace won't last.
00:29:25
Speaker 4: I'll lose my life, my wife, my kids, Like I'm this ain't gonna work. And then you starting to have the men rise up in the church, people that are like y'all that go, let's give them a reason to step into a church. No one, like you said, half these people went and darkened the door of a church. But the right person invited them that they trust because they hunt with and they go, yeah, it's like all right, I'll go to this stupid worship thing.
00:29:53
Speaker 1: But Red Walker's there. We'll go, we'll go, we'll go.
00:29:58
Speaker 4: But yeah, it's it's the thing where it's like, oh there's a there's a turkey hunting.
00:30:03
Speaker 5: Of course, like all right, we'll do it.
00:30:05
Speaker 4: You know. And then all of a sudden, the gospels laid out from people that they respected, like a tony dungee. It's like wait, you know, wait, what's he talking about? Like, I respect this dude because of the man he is. I don't understand the faith he's talking about, but I respect the man he is, So let me find out more about that faith and if it's because of desperation and people looking for something, and I tell people there was this. The thing that got me to really kind of why I do what I do is I heard a podcast one time with an atheist and two Christians that were like debating, and the atheist goes, if Jesus really is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, if he really is that, then how much do you have to hate someone to not tell them? And I was like, oh my gosh, Like that blows me away. And so I think I think we're starting to see people who were redeemed, you know, say a jelly roller or something that we're like so like caught off guard because of the life they've lived that they're like, oh my gosh, I gotta tell everybody.
00:31:12
Speaker 2: Good.
00:31:12
Speaker 5: Look, it's changed my life, I tell everybody.
00:31:14
Speaker 4: So there's an excitement in the culture, and I think it's opened the doors for more people, like in country music and you know, to go, Hey, I believe that too, you know, like Nashville is full of country artists that you would have never have known. But now that door is opening. And you know when we played the Opry sixteen times, now wow, and we don't change our set lists. Yep, they play the same songs like we're not going to hide it, you know. And I think that's that's the thing is, just got there and be bold and loud.
00:31:46
Speaker 2: You know where I'm going with this because I'm going to kind of land a plane here for a second. But when you talk about sharing your faith and being bold and being courageous about that unashamed. Years ago, I was sitting in the Hyatt I think it was the Higher Regency hotel that's connected the Orlando Airport, and I was invited to an event with fifty other kind of next gen ministry guys. And we're sitting in a room and we're under the teaching and the leadership of doctor j Strack, who is ad your friend of ours from Student Leadership University. And he gets up there and he's talking about dry eyed Christianity like that. There's so many Christians that are just so focused on their PhDs and the cars that they drive and they're nice homes and they're going to bed dry eyed while everyone else is crying themselves to sleep. And he talks about stepping into that moment. But then he said, don't you dare commit the sin of the desert. And everybody in the room is like, I've heard a lot of sins. I've never heard of the sin of the desert. And he kind of picked up on just what in the world we're talking about here, and he said, the sin of the desert is when you know where the water is, and he refused to share. And so it's the idea of what you're saying. Man, every day, let us be weary of committing that sin, but let us be bold enough to step into the moment, to step up to share the good news of the Gospel. And I think we do that best through this one phrase. When I was in the deepest, darkest lofe most moment in my life, so grateful that I had people and my dad and my family to walk alongside of me through that. But I'll never forget coming across a quote by a woman named Nancy Lee de Moss. They shared it every time I sit down with a worship artist. And this woman said this, I have learned that no matter what I come up against in this life, I can respond in one of two ways. I can whine or I can worship. And she said this, but it's impossible to worship without giving things right for you. Man, it's not about what we do or what we not do. It's about what's been done. What's a final word of hope you have that hat on Jesus saves about the gratitude that you have in your heart every single day for what God has done for you.
00:33:37
Speaker 4: I would just say, looking if I had to look back over the past twenty two years and what God has done, like he's capable, he's constant, and he's proven and he's able, and you're never too far gone.
00:33:55
Speaker 5: That's not a real thing, you know.
00:33:58
Speaker 4: And I think it's good to remar and remind yourself that, especially people that have never been to church. You think of it as maybe you know people that are too good for you. We don't serve a God that is in the middle of the paved road going hey, when you get your junk together, I'll be right here. Like he's in the mud, he's in he's in the woods with us going. Man, just turn around, just look at me, and I can get you back to the road. And so I think my biggest thing just as a reminder that that he's there and he's present, and all you got to do is just look.
00:34:36
Speaker 1: You know, in sports they say he see you, see you.
00:34:39
Speaker 5: That's good.
00:34:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, God sees us, he does, and we see you. We salute you, man, We appreciate the faithfulness. And may your best your best days be ahead of you, not behind you. Hey, you got a special guests going to join you tonight.
00:34:54
Speaker 5: Hey, let's know Olivia. Yeah, so she is. U got a few songs out.
00:35:01
Speaker 4: She's singing a Woman at the Well at a men's conference, which is what I asked her to do, just to see if it make her awkward.
00:35:08
Speaker 5: And I'm just kidding. I just really love that song.
00:35:12
Speaker 4: And she's she's a mom and she'll tell you more about it. But she's got a serious ExM show that you should tune into. Like when you talk about a hard working woman in the music industry. That's why me and my family were so excited to bring her out. Like she loves the Lord, She's passionate about it and spends a lot of time being passionate about it with all the stuff that she does to get the word out about Jesus. So yeah, I'm excited for people to hear her of some people know her more than me because of the serious ExM show. So I was also like, hey, maybe she'll talk about me on the radio and help me out a little bitter. No, we're excited.
00:35:48
Speaker 5: She's awesome and I can't wait for people to hear more.
00:35:51
Speaker 2: Yes, and speaking of that, retwork in our audience, go to find out more about you. I've always asked this question, does it matter Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube where they go?
00:36:00
Speaker 4: Nope, it does not matter wherever you stream music, stream it, you know, and but just tell your friends. And the biggest thing for me that I like on the on that set on the business side is Instagram.
00:36:13
Speaker 5: Like that's the one I'm on.
00:36:15
Speaker 4: The label asked to run it and I was like, no, I want to talk to the people. And so when they d M me, I'm the one.
00:36:21
Speaker 5: Talking back to them.
00:36:22
Speaker 4: And I'm like, if I was a pastor, I wouldn't be too cool for school, Like I'd be talking to the people. So, you know, thinking of it in that type of way, and so get Instagram just at Rett Walker, go find me stream my music because one hundred percent of the money I make from you streaming my music.
00:36:42
Speaker 5: Goes to feed needy kids. Wow yet, but now I feel bad. I mean my four media kids. That's what I talk about. The way He wove.
00:36:56
Speaker 2: It that makes me want to stream it even for You are a blessing dude. You're a gift to the church. You're a gift to us at Ignite. I can't wait to see what God doesn't.
00:37:05
Speaker 5: Invite it up tonight, Ben, Thank you, Thank.
00:37:08
Speaker 2: You for joining me to our built different audience. I just wanted to say thank you so much again for just giving us your time today. I hope him pray you are as encouraged as I was. Again, it is a choice to rejoice no matter what you're going through in this life. I pray that you would never forget the faithfulness of God. He continues to draw near to you as you continue to draw near to Him. Thanks so much for joining us. We love being a part of your life.
