Knocking down the Great Idol of 'Self.' | A City Post POD w/ Hector

City Post. And we back.

We. Back no man's in a minute.

Man, it really has bro. It ain't gonna name no names but

big worm, big perm, you know who you are bro.

Like pressure this with a little bit but.

You're not even that. That's right.

Yeah, but it's encouraging, man, that people are listening and,

you know, people miss it and you know, man, but.

We back. It's alright, man.

It's good to take a break, you know, a little season here and

there. Thanks.

You know, just build that anticipation.

Absolutely, that's right. So it's alright.

Yeah, man. Well, we back with another

episode of Build Equips, and I'm Hector and I'm here with.

Pastor Ricky, what's up, everybody?

Yay yay man bro. Lots of.

I like on preface it with this bro, like just to to look back a

little bit of this Fight Club series, man.

I was trying to explain it to one of my homies and like, you

know I'm a 90s kid right? Right.

So right, Right. The example I gave him is Bro.

You know the show, Martin. Oh yeah.

You ever seen the episode where he fight Mike Tyson and brothers

like up against the wall like hands swole arms like bro can't

move? Yeah, he takes one punch and

then he comes in the room with Gina.

Man, everything's like swelled up.

Yeah, bro, that's me. That's that's how the Holy

Spirit been breaking me off in this sermon series, bro.

Like Fight Club is like not pulled any punches with.

Me that's right, man, it's it's it's coming at you yeah, man no,

I agree you know what's funny is like as as you know, whenever,

whenever we come up with a sermon series like I pray and I

like Lord, where what do you want?

You know, what are you, what are you leading us to?

And for some reason this just kind of came in my mind and

yeah, I was like, man, I wonder we can learn from the fights of

the Bible. That's kind of where all this

came about. And if you if you look up fights

in the Bible, there's a lot of battles, like a lot of wars.

But then I kind of narrowed it down.

I was like, man, like individuals, you know, like the

verses, you know, like David versus Goliath, you know, Jacob

versus Esau, you know, Jacob versus the Angel.

Like it's just these, these one one-on-one, and then my

wrestling kicked in, you know, I was like, there's going to be a

handicap match. Like Pastor Gabe threw down,

which was awesome. And David, Goliath heavyweight

title, you know, it's just all these.

Yeah, it just all mesh together, man.

It's just the way my brain hits so.

Man, and it's been, it's been awesome, bro, Like it's been,

it's been refining. That's that's a term that I

really learned from the the Suffer Well series, you know,

and it's been building on that for me.

The Holy Spirit has really been teaching me so much through your

breakdown of the scriptures, bro, like and how you bring it

to life from, you know, we were talking about a little bit

before we record like the the Friday, you know, reference or

the little puppet reference. Are these things that that

really bring this scripture to like a movie for me?

Right. You can see it like real time

almost. Yeah, I agree with you.

And it's funny because even as I'm going through it, I'm like,

man, you know what, what that seemed like I was like, man,

that was like American me. I was like, dude, when he killed

his brother, you know, like real talk, because it, you know, the

scripture, the text doesn't say that Cain fought Abel Cain.

Like you just said, hey, let's go out in the field.

Next thing you know, he killed his brother.

You know, like the Bible doesn't talk about it.

There was like a throw down. There was a scuffle.

There was who knows? I mean, Abel was probably like

just walking and Caine sucker punched him, you know, like, I

don't know, I just, I just see these, this just kind of like

see it play out in my mind, you know, based on what the text

says. So yeah, man.

That's awesome. That the the Holy Spirit speaks

to you in those ways when you're studying is like man.

Just see it. Yeah, bro, but that's that's

awesome, bro. Yeah, for sure.

So what What has been like a fight for you through this

series? Yeah, No, that's, that's, that's

a great question. You know, like as we go week to

week to week, I feel like there's a few themes that have

like bubble to the surface a little bit, No, a lot of bit, a

little bit. I'm trying to be nice even for

myself. Like there's some things that

the Lord has like really pointed out to me.

When you look at all these battles, the battles never

against the foe, like the battles not against Goliath.

The the battle is internalized. It's against our sinful nature,

you know, like Goliath, it wasn't his size.

He was trying to use fear, man. When you look at Jacob, when he

wrestled the Angel, it was Jacob because there was something

inside of Jacob that God need to get rid of because Jacob wasn't

going to let it go. Man.

That leads me to our second. Like my second point is

something that I'm seeing a lot of is idolatry, bro.

Like the battle, like this whole idea of idols has so come to the

surface on all of these. Because I feel like when we

think of idols, we think of like old school Testament statues,

you know, whatever. Like what we saw in India?

Yeah, like what we saw in India, like, like, oh, you're going to

worship this but or we think statues, but an idol is anything

that competes with God for his affections and everything, so.

And that's when they hit me upside the head.

Bro said not beats. No, not like competes anything

that competes because in all honesty, nothing will be because

it's the Lord and the Lord will destroy your idol.

But when anything competes with it.

So if you, if you look at our culture, yeah, we could live.

We go down the line, youth sports, relationships, money,

all these things, but I think one of the greatest idols that

everybody fights with is the idol of self.

And, and I see it more and more with everything's about me and

even ministry, dude, like I, the more pastors I talk to,

missionaries, worship leaders, all these guys, it's all about

it. It's like, if I don't get that

shine, I don't want it. And it's like, are you OK with

serving the Lord, doing what he's asked you to do and not

getting one person liking your picture or video or not one

person interviews you or when not one person shouts you out,

you know, I mean, like, like, are you OK with that?

And so platform likes all that stuff, man, that that's an idol

of self. And and that's something that

the Lord has kind of shown. I got to protect myself from

that. You know, like you have to be

careful, Rick, cause the one time you start thinking that you

did this or it's all about you or it's then it's going to

crumble, man. It's, it's not going to go well.

It's not going to end well. There you go.

There we go. Yeah.

And then I, and really I as a pastor too, I got to protect

people from themselves because it's like, even if it, if it

comes down to a ministry or like even worship team, like if

anybody thinks they're like the star, like man, that anointing

is not going to be there. Like the Lord is going to pull

out. So it's not one person, it's

Jesus, you know, like Jesus is the, like they said, the hero of

the story. And and that's hard, man, 'cause

we think like, if we, if, if we do a good job, people don't like

it and more people are going to come.

And it's like, that's not how God brought the church.

Yeah. So it was this whole idea of

idols I see a lot of. And then there's a passage.

I know a lot of people are going to like disagree with me on this

one, but if I were ever to do a dissertation or like a APHD

paper, a thesis, A thesis, this is what I would do it on is

Deuteronomy 2828. You know, the Lord will afflict

you with madness, blindness and confusion of the mind.

And this is him talking about like idol worship.

And I'm like, bro. So when you think about like the

mental health issues that we struggle with, when you think

about people breaking down, when you think about people not being

able to sustain. What are you worshipping and or

what are you replacing with the Lord?

You know, like I have to ask those questions.

And if you dig deep, I think that there's some things there

that we have, we have competing with God and it's driving us

crazy. Yeah, Romans one.

I mean, we got, we argue about this.

That's fine. I got Bible, but I'm just saying

like it was just something that I feel like God revealed to me.

Like, I don't think we talked about idol worship enough.

Yeah, and that's that's one of those where like Holy Spirit had

me in a chokehold, was caving my chest in a little bit, had my

hair swole like Martin bro. But but on that specifically,

like the idols I made in my life, and one of them was the

how I was serving here. Wow.

You know what I mean. This I like that that smacked

me. You know, it's like Bros like,

yeah, you're doing all these things, but you really doing it

for me. Are you doing it like right,

right. You know, to get some kind of

yeah, like in your own back. You know what I mean?

Like, oh, I'm doing all these things.

And like something you said before we started recording is,

yeah, I was real busy, but was I effective, right?

Was I effective for the Lord? Like was I really like allowing

or surrendering myself to be a vessel or was I doing it for me?

No. So like that's one of those like

I had to take back and I really reflect on, you know, so.

No, man, and that's why like it's great to serve the Lord.

Like man, that's our lives. That's what our lives are like.

I served the Lord. Like I want to do things

excellent. But the motives, that's the

peace that we have to protect 'cause even pastors, ministers,

even worship leaders, missionaries, all these people

that serve the Lord have that, you know, like that's something

that all of us, every single person has to fight 'cause we

all want it. But it's, it's the flesh.

Yeah. It's the same thing, man.

It's the heart. It is.

It's what the heart wants. You know, the best way I heard

it, Like the Bible talks about how we should not follow our

heart. That's a terrible idea because

it says that the heart is wicked, you know, and one of the

best ways I heard it explained it, it's almost like a, an

algorithm. So if you are constantly angry

or if you constantly draw a specific person, you have to ask

yourself like, what are you constantly listening to?

What are you watching? And it's it's almost like an

algorithm. It's like when you get on

Netflix and you know, you look up like a movie about working

out. The next thing you know, it

there's like four other movies about working out.

Real talk. How did you know?

Because that's this technology is reading it.

So I feel like somebody told me that's kind of what our hearts

are like. So whenever we we tend to go to

a specific thing, it it wants more of that.

I was like, man, I never thought about it that way.

Yeah. Mind boggled right now.

Yeah, I was like, that's a great way to explain it.

And it just feeds you, you know, and that's how you become.

So just a thought. I'm just, yeah.

Do what that information? Yeah.

Well, anyway, like, but to go back on the idols, I mean that

that keeps me up at night because it's like, I don't want

to fall into that. I I want to, I want to be

faithful. I want to finish well, I want to

be obedient to the Lord. And I know that.

And it's a slippery slope. It's easy to fall.

Yeah. So just got to make sure I stay

close, right? Yeah, that's huge, bro.

So. Yeah.

How about you? Like is there anything that or I

know maybe something in the passage or maybe something that

stuck out to you? And the one that that's really

coming to mind right now was Elisha with the like, the visual

of soaking. Yeah, you know, the the

platform. And it's like man and God still

showed up and showed out, bro. And for those who who may not

know, I've been, I've been in a little bit of a season of

struggle, you know, and doubt started to creep in and you

know, a lot of things I was struggling with.

And the way God showed up and showed out, like that example

was just so powerful. And it's like reflecting back on

how many times the Lord has showed up like that in my life,

even in the midst of my idols, even in the midst of my

disobedience, like just showing His faithfulness and his his

love, His grace. You know, and that's what the

Bible says. He's faithful even when we're

not, right? Which is insane to me.

But yeah, man, that's, that's great, dude.

I love hearing that. Yeah, man, so that's been one.

Like, that's one that really comes to mind right now.

I'll just be super real this past Sunday, You know, I chose

to, I'm tired. I was at the crib.

I chose comfort, you know, and like to get, you know, hemmed up

in my kitchen by the Holy Spirit.

Listening to this live stream is like mental, like, you know,

'cause you know, that's how, that's how my God speak to me.

Sometimes they both let me know though, yeah.

Bro for real. Like literally like I was making

like I was meal prepping. That's so wild.

Yeah bro. So I was like, yeah, man, it's

it's just one of those where, like I said, the Holy Spirit

ain't been pulled in no punches this sermon series dogs.

Yeah. So.

So that's a couple. You know, I keep going like with

David and you know, that example and even a little bit right now

where you're talking about like our sand can drive us crazy.

You know, I'm going through the book of Kings and Samuel with my

nephew and my brother and even thinking about Saul, like Saul

was so consumed by his idol of, you know, the king, the Kingdom

go into his head and like God like literally ripping it from

him and taking the Holy Spirit from him and him going mad.

He went mad. He was eating grass.

Man look like that mental health.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like Nah.

So yeah, there there's a lot man in the scripture that shows like

people that turn away from the Lord, people that fall into

their sin committing suicide. I mean, I mean, this is real

stuff. It's I truly believe like when

you study mental health, trauma is the foundation for a lot of

mental health episodes. You know, we, we call them, you

know, mental obstacles or challenges, but you know, I feel

like Jesus is strong enough to break that and, and the cross

covers us. And I know it's churchy, but I

always tell people like, just try Jesus, like try Jesus and,

and then you'll see like counselling therapy is great.

They'll help you walk through it, but Jesus is the only one

that could break it, you know? It's real bro.

Yeah, man, it's, it's like I just keep seeing too much of it,

man. It's it's heartbreaking.

It really is. It's it's sad to see people go

through it. Yeah.

Man, it's. Hey, but but I do want to, you

know, one thing I admire about you, Hector, is even when you

were going through all that, you still showed up, you know,

because even like when we talk about like when Jacob wrestled

with God, like it was that you wrestled and, and it got to a

point where he was so exotic. He's like, man, just bless me.

Like I got I I get it. But you could have easily

disappeared. But you didn't.

You still showed up even in your struggles, you still came Bible

study, you still showed up Sundays.

And I think God honors that, you know, God, God definitely honors

that. So.

I appreciate that bro. Yeah, just got to keep doing it.

Yeah, and that's, that's something on the heels of, yeah,

of this sermon series, like that discipline piece.

Yeah. Like that's one of those things

where the Lord is like being painfully obvious with me.

He's like, brother, you, you gotta lock in here.

You gotta lock in this area of, you know, specifically like

being so disciplined in my relationship with the Lord.

We're like, I lean on that and trust on that more than my

feelings. Right, Right.

You know, so yeah, you have to. And even like the stuff you're

doing, man, with like I tell people there's stuff that you

don't see fruit of, you know, like, I don't think people will

see things. But like the even like the stuff

you're doing with like the videos, the social media stuff,

the reels, like those are like that word is reaching people,

you know, like people are watching it.

And I know I get a lot of like, oh, you know, it's, it's, it's

not that important or like, but I, I truly believe that God uses

that. And, and that's going to God's

going to use those clip all that stuff that you do, God uses it,

man. You might not see it, but like

on Sunday your lady showed up, you know, just like I've been

just stalking y'all on Facebook and you never know, man.

So anyway, I just want to encourage you with that.

I appreciate that. And and that, you know, I want

to shout out everybody that's been behind the scenes.

Yeah, true. And Nesto some Carla, yeah, bro,

Erics come in and and helped, you know, like everybody, bro.

Like that, that wasn't an easy feat by any means.

But man, look how the Lord is still using it, you know, like,

you know, you're mentioning before recording like the the

hits the YouTube live has been getting.

Yeah. You know this lady that visited

this week, like a testament to the Facebook man Gavino, you

know all those guys, everybody that you don't want to shout

them out too, bro. A lot of people that go behind

the scenes and show up and serve faithfully.

That's right. And don't get any shine bro.

So exactly just want to shout them out.

No, and that's the thing. And it fits the mission of the

church because if it's build equips and if if city post is

like this is the place where truth is going to be

broadcasted, you know, and that was the when we first started

even like building like the blueprint of the church.

That was the number one thing we said.

We're like, no matter who we are, people are going to know

that the truth comes out of city post like the word of God and

and the vision has always been, of course, to be a church that

was accepting, but also to be a church that gets the word out

and I believe all means yeah, and I know I hear people like

trust me, man, I get the whole anti social media.

I get the whole I'm like, whatever, do you, but we're

going to utilize all everything to get the name of Jesus out.

So me. So just throwing that out there.

That's real, bro, that's real. So in that, you know, I'll just

be very transparent, like bro, that stuff was kicking my butt

some weeks, like those nights I was here till 10:00, like just

trying to figure it out. Yeah.

You know, and like the the burnout piece, like it is real,

you know, especially when like you're saying, oftentimes I

don't see the results of it. So it's like bro, like why am I

doing this? Like I battle with that within

my, my own self is like bro, like, and you know that busyness

part, bro, like I've never been a good store to that, you know,

like I've always just like trying to get on to the next

thing, trying to check the next box until like I'm done and like

I didn't go lay down for a few days.

You know, he like that. That's that's another

conversation. But like that's something that

I, I struggle with man. So like on that topic of

busyness for the Lord and serving well, how do we store

that busyness well? I think it's sustainability, you

know, that's something like we we talk about is you have to

think about how do I make this sustainable?

Because honestly, like being here on Sunday till that late

and that's not sustainable. That's that's crazy.

That's like there's got to be easier ways to do things and

there's got to be better ways to do things.

So I think that's more of like a systems issue because if not,

the burnout is going to be real, you know, like it.

It's like, have you ever can college?

I know for me, like when when I first started, it was like, hey,

we have an exam. So what do most people do before

an exam? They cram, they stay up all

night, right? Like you don't sleep, eat

pancakes, whatever. Then you take the test in the

morning. I learned very fast that my

brain doesn't work that way. Bro.

I would stay up all night, drink my Red Bulls, hang out and I

still get F, you know, like because I'm so dog tired I, I

don't retain the information. So I had to learn like, hey,

what works for me, like, 'cause that right there what everybody

else was doing, it didn't work for me.

But my brother dude could read the chapter, you know, ace it

like the the day before. Like, you know, Ernie, man, that

dude, I never seen him study and that dude past college, like

nothing, you know, like, like people, everybody's different,

you know, So, so you have to 1st figure out how do I make the

sustainable? How do I do something that's not

going to maybe like what I'm doing is not the right way.

Like maybe I got to do something easier, you know, like more

simple. Yeah, something I can do from

the couch at my house or here, you know, but so I think like

stewarding your busyness is, is important.

Busyness is not a bad thing. Like it's, it's as long as, you

know, we want to be productive, not busy.

So if there's a goal in mind, if there's something that we want

to get accomplished, then yeah, yeah.

You make it work. And also remember, like God gave

us work. You know, in Genesis 3, he

didn't curse work. He cursed the ground.

Work is always a part of life. Men need work.

Like we need work is a good thing.

But I think burnout comes when we we don't start our business

well, when the motives change. And then when we don't find

something sustainable, it's all going to crumble.

Yeah, there's no way you're going to keep it.

So what does that look like for you bro?

Because. Oh.

I've told you I don't know how many times, I don't know how

many more times. I will tell you bro I don't know

how you do it all dog like for. Real, it's a lot.

So I know for me you talk about discipline and I think I've I've

always been a discipline person when it came to certain things.

So I'm a planner, so I plan ahead and, and I keep

disciplines, you know, so, and then also I, I blame blue zones,

man. Like man, it's a muscle that you

have to utilize. But like I've learned to be able

to do two or three things at once effectively.

A lot of people can't do that. So it's like even during my day,

I'm by vocational. So I'll do like some work stuff

and then maybe take a break and then like do some church stuff

and then keep going back to work stuff and then and then

utilizing my time. So instead of like going out to

eat, I'll go work out, you know, so that way I don't miss out

time with my kids. I tried to do everything between

like 845 and four. Yeah.

Because honestly, by 4:00, I I got to be on my way home to free

up a lane or meet with people or do church stuff or get ready for

Bible study or do things at home or go free Rachel up, you know,

So it's like my day ends. Spend time with the girls.

Once they go to bed, It's, you know, we back at it, right?

Yeah. So I've just learned to like,

just make compartments of like, hey, I'm going to clean for 30

minutes. You know, I'm not going to just

wait till the house, right. Tornado hit it.

Yeah. So, and then for me too,

something I, I worked on about two years ago was man, Ricky, go

to sleep. No, I'm dead serious.

Like fro close it down and go to bed.

Like you. You've got to get sleep.

Like, and. And honestly, I was staying up

till like 1231 o'clock working on stuff and.

And it was not good. I was not healthy.

It was so I I forced myself like, all right, I'm going to

bed. Time to go to bed.

Let's go. Yeah, and you wake up early, all

fresh, you know, Ready. Ready to do it.

Yeah. It's dope bro.

Yeah, man. So pray give it to the Lord and

go to bed. It'll be there tomorrow.

Put it. On a T-shirt.

Yeah, like, come on, man. My pastor got bars.

I still need that shirt. No, but it it's like, yeah, man,

balance, discipline, and then also like understanding the

goal, man. It's like busyness doesn't

equate to, you know, getting stuff done.

Yeah. Like, like, yeah.

And the higher you go in your career, you're going to see that

like, it's not about how many hours you work, It's about

accomplishing a task. Yeah.

Dang bro. So.

Man, on that note, what's coming down the pipeline?

Because I've seen this board, bro.

Oh. No, that's crazy.

Yeah, I. Get you a planner, but bro we

got a lot coming up for city. I'm a visual I, I tell I'm old

school. I write everything down.

Like I, I don't put stuff in my phone.

I got to write it out. So I always write it on the

board. So that way just reminds me, you

know, man, a lot happening, a lot of events come in, a lot of

great things. Something people don't know is

that, you know, we're helping our friend Pastor Joelle out.

He has a church called Prayer House.

So they use our building on Thursday nights for their church

to pray, you know, until they figure out where they're going

to end up. And then I think Fridays.

So they, their their worship team rehearses here.

But yeah, man, this is a lot coming.

But check the website has all the stuff on there.

We have a men's breakfast coming.

We have a Papa Pullga that same morning here.

But what I really would love to draw everybody to there's

opportunities to to serve. So Friday the 20th, we're having

a worship team slash creatives mini retreat.

It's going to be great. Dinner's going to be provided.

We're going to have a great time.

I have some friends coming in and it's just going to be a

great night of encouragement to being poured into help us like

level set. So and then the next morning,

Saturday, we have our I serve weekend and that's same thing.

We're just going to talk about vision opportunities to serve,

like where we're going this next year, getting people plugged in.

So same thing man. Just looking forward to it.

So you don't want to miss that. And then Livy's birthday is on

the 28th. Yeah, that's right man.

So I have no idea what we're going to do, but it's going to

be fun. See how you running around doing

something? Yeah.

You know, just being active Yeah, so yeah, and I will throw

this out there too, man, when it comes to like busyness, make

sure you take care of yourself because our bodies you got to

figure out the de stress stay moving, understand health.

I, I remember, man, I got to a place where I was like, Brian

got no energy, time to start working out.

Real talk, you got to, you got to put that in your head somehow

and that's really sustained me. So that that's been helpful.

You look good, bro. You look kind of swole in your

your T-shirts on Sundays. You know what?

I. Mean Nah, man.

Walk around like a little bulldog.

Man, it's, it's the food bro, it's the breakfast.

Monica be hooking it up man. Michael too.

Michael Be. Blessed.

Yeah, Michael. Yeah.

That, that that's a crazy team right there.

Yeah. It's it's, it's wild.

Monica's Cafe, Michael's Grill. Yes, I still need to get his

sign. I know man, I I brag about our

Bible study all the time. I was like, dude, we eat good.

The word is good. It's just a great time.

It's hard to talk like I look forward to.

It man same. I do.

It's something I've been telling, you know a couple of my

friends now, bro. Like these Wednesday nights with

you guys has become my anchor of the week.

Bro like. It's it's something I really

look forward to. It always replenishes my soul.

And then chop it up with the homies too.

Like, yeah, man, this is something that if you're on the

fence about coming to experience, I encourage you to

pull up. Like it's just dudes chopping it

up about Jesus. Might roast somebody here and

there, yeah, but it's good. Don't get your feelings hurt,

you know, grown and like I, I've just, I've gotten, I've just had

a great time meeting some of these guys.

Like, you know, now Pastor Gabe's involved, like man,

hearing his insight, like I've learned so much from him, you

know, like the O GS are coming, like my dad, like just hearing

like their perspective on God's word.

I mean, they've been around for a long time.

You know, I said there's no substitute for experience.

It's good to to learn from the the ones that have been there.

So yeah, man. But yeah, I've enjoyed it.

And then the Mike always hooks it up, bro.

Like, I haven't had one bad meal with that dude.

Facts. Not one at all.

It's crazy. Yeah, man.

Yeah, but that's all I got bro. I don't know if you got any

closing. Man closing thoughts.

I just want to say I I have enjoyed, thoroughly enjoyed

these last couple Sundays. Like I know you weren't here on

Sunday, but man, the vibe slash spirit on Sunday was it was hard

to explain. Like it, it was so lively, like

the, the sanctuary, the people didn't want to leave.

It was loud, like people talking, laughing, yelling,

like, I don't know, like it was awesome.

Even like the worship team warming up, everybody's chopping

it up laughing. I was like, oh, it's going to be

a good day today. But the vibe on Sunday was

incredible. Like the last couple Sundays

have been great. But I don't know, man.

Like, God just doing something great here and and I just always

leave so fulfilled, like my, my, I don't know, so much joy.

So it's been good, yeah. Well that's all we got.

We love y'all we out.