Q&A With Koloff- #171

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Whether it's cataracts, PRK, Lasix, or implanted lenses, when only the best is needed, see Dr. Johnny Gayton at eyesightassociates.com. This is the Truth Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, through Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolon. Welcome to another episode, Q&A with Kolov, the devil's nightmare. Welcome back to another episode, Q&A with Kolov, questions and answers, and this is where you get the opportunity to ask me a question or two or three.

And I'm excited today to have Darren Shearer back with me. Darren, welcome to Q&A with Kolov. Excited to be back, Nikita.

Thanks for having me. Well, and I say back, okay, so this is your first time on Q&A, but I want to make sure our listeners go over to the Man Up show and catch our full interview over there. Because, I mean, I could, I feel like I could do like 10 shows with you, Darren, with everything that you've done and are doing. Well, we had a fun conversation last time, and I'm sure this one won't disappoint either.

I hope not. I hope our listeners enjoy this one as much as they enjoyed the Man Up show. But before our listeners, so, you know, and I'm just looking at like some of my notes here, and I'm like, good gracious. I mean, you've authored quite a number of books, and I know you mentioned, you know, hosting your own podcast. I mean, there's a lot you're doing.

You wear a lot of different hats. Highlight something. You have a relatively new book, right?

But highlight some of the things you're doing for us, Darren. Yeah, so after the military, actually during the military, the Lord just really put it on my heart that the workplace is where he's called me to be a minister. And it wasn't necessarily just standing behind a pulpit like my dad did.

I grew up as a pastor's kid, as we discussed. Went to seminary, went to business school, and during business school started a publishing company. And the Lord just gave me this vision that I was living in a neighborhood called Washington Heights where there's a bridge called the High Bridge. The name of the company is High Bridge Books.

And that bridge was built as an aqueduct to bring water into the city. And the Lord said, this company is going to be like an aqueduct to bring life-giving stories and messages to people. And so we've got about two hundred and five books in our contract, I believe now. And I'm an author myself.

So, you know, the things that I teach our authors to do are things that I'm really trying to put into practice myself. And the conversation that I really enjoy the most is this conversation about the integration of the Christian faith in business. And so the most recent book on that is The Christ Centered Company. And so that one just came out just this past year to help Christian business influencers, regardless of the level of influence you have in your company, learn how to apply biblical habits, biblical business habits in your for-profit company. And so which is really, when I think about where Jesus did the majority of his ministry, it wasn't in the synagogue. I haven't calculated it out, but I'm thinking in my mind anyway, he spent a good majority time out amongst the people, whether it was in the marketplace or in the countryside or in somebody's home or wherever, but a lot more time out there than he did in the synagogue, correct?

That's right. Yeah, I mean, that's where the people are. And at least in the US, probably 85% of the Christian workforce spends most of their waking hours in a for-profit company. And so we need to really understand what is God's will for business.

And that's what I've really been trying to dig into over the last 10 years or so. Because some have tried to separate that, right? In other words, hey, I don't want to mix my business life with my, you know, I'll just say religious life, right, or whatever, right? Or, you know, my church life with my business life or so. But really, it really should all be one of the same, should it not?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, the Great Commission is to go make disciples. And where are you going to do that? Well, it's going to be where you spend your time. Where do you spend your time?

Primarily at work, if you're like most of us. And so, you know, that is a Great Commission. It is to go make disciples to reflect the character, the ways of the ability of God in the world. And primarily in a for-profit setting for most of us. And that has a unique, there's some unique challenges with that. And I think some of the disconnect is just the way we use terms like sacred, secular, you know, there is none of that. Like, yeah, you're either walking by the Spirit or walking by the flesh. And that's, you know, there's pastors that stand behind pulpits walking in the flesh.

Just like there's business people, you know, running companies managing money by the flesh. But we're called to walk by the Spirit no matter what your assignment is on this earth. And, you know, terms like, I'm in the ministry.

Well, hopefully that's referring to all of us. And it really ought to be because we are all the saints and we are all called to the ministry. It's just some of us that's standing behind a pulpit and others of us that's, you know, living in a mud over in another country and, you know, playing a church over there or teaching English as a second language.

But for most of us, it's going to be living out our faith in a typical office setting or factory setting or wherever your work takes you. Well, and you bring up an interesting, I mean, it's just kind of a rolodexing in my mind, some of my friends who are in the market. Now, you know, of course, I have friends in ministry, friends who are pastors.

And I have other friends, though, who are in the marketplace like you're describing. I remember challenging, you know, one of my friends with the name of Brian Johnson, him and his wife, Jamie, own a car dealership in Aiken, South Carolina. And and long story short, I challenged them to start putting Bibles in every glove box of every automobile they would sell. And because they sell 70, 80 cars a month on their lot there in Aiken. And when they finally start when they started doing that, they just they just saw the Lord really honored that started really prospering their business even more.

And and the stories that began there and that began to come back. People that, you know, had bought in the car and then later on either saw the Bible in there or occasionally looked in there when they were looking at the car. And they're like, hey, somebody left their their Bible in the car. They're like, oh, no, we just we put that in every car we sell just to you know, we just wanted that one of our small ways of blessing people.

And and it's pretty so one of the subtle ways that that they're able to, you know, to be a witness out there in the in the marketplace. And so let me ask you this. Out of all that you do. OK, and you do a lot.

You wear a lot of different pants. But out of all that you do, would could you single out Darren or say something like it's more fun than like, OK, when I'm in this environment, this is like off the chain for me or whatever. Anything you could single out or you just love to do everything you do. Well, I will say that, you know, book publishing is kind of what pays the bills around here. You know, and then I do I do get to do some teaching in around this conversation of the integration of the Christian faith in business and do some podcasting on that. But, you know, I would really like to be able to concentrate more on this this issue of of discovering and applying God's will for business, because I think the Lord is very very was very sincere when he gave us the Great Commission.

And it's not a it's not an optional kind of a kind of a thing. And and so but, you know, it's a lot easier to think about doing that in a church type setting. But, you know, you get a Bible in your in your glove box and a new car you just bought like that's that's kind of unexpected. And and that's one of the things that really excites me about serving God in the marketplace is people just aren't expecting it. You know, they're expecting it when they walk into a church to hear the gospel to hear the Lord talked about. But they're not expecting it when they're, you know, meeting with their realtor.

In fact, our realtor, we got connected on Zillow when we first moved out here. He just got baptized a couple of weeks ago in our church and is now helping to lead the Celebrate Recovery group at our church. And it's just really gotten on fire for God, which is just been been amazing. But you just don't expect to see generally most people don't expect they're not really looking for God in those kinds of settings, right?

You know, settings. Yeah. But but he's he's everywhere. And there is no place in the as the quote goes, where the Lord does not declare mine. Right.

Every square inch of the world. And I'm just I'm just paraphrasing. Abraham. Abraham Kuiper is just a wonderful, wonderful quote. But I firmly believe that. That's good.

In fact, I think I was just reading the other day. I don't know if it's one of the Psalms or I forget now, but I'm no Bible scholar, certainly. But he's like, hey, you know, go up to heaven. He's there. Go down to hell. He's there.

You know, you go to the mountaintop, you go to the depths of the sea. I mean, he's he's there, right? He's yeah. He's omnipresent. Right. He's everywhere.

So love that. Well, let me ask you this before we transition to what questions you might have for me. So our listeners out there, they're like, man, this guy's really intrigued. I'm intrigued by what this guy's talking about.

Where's where can people find out more about Darren Shearer? Where can where can they go? Yeah, if you want to publish a book for the glory of God and that those are the kinds of books that we look for. C.S. Lewis said we don't need more Christian books. We need more books written by Christians. So we have books, a lot of Christian books, but then we have other books that are industry specific and so on. But go to Highbridge books dot com. And if you want to learn more about discovering and applying God's will for business, go to theology of business dot com and you can also subscribe to the theology of business podcast. Awesome. Theology of business dot com and high bridge.

Say it again. High bridge. High bridge books.

High bridge books dot com. If you want to publish a book or just learn more about what Darren is doing. So. All right. Well, let's let's segue. Let's transition over to whatever questions Darren you might have for me. But if you want to fire away at your first one, let's go for it. All right.

Yeah, I got a couple of them. I was going to ask you about what it was like growing up in the salt mines of Siberia. But I thought that I didn't want to stir up any painful memories there. That's right. So. So let me ask you. So you got saved toward the end of your wrestling career, correct? Well, actually, technically about 11 months after I walked away from wrestling at the age at the age of 34.

OK. So if you were to go back into wrestling in your 20s, really with the strategic goal of making disciples of Jesus, what would you do differently? It's a great question. I don't know how well accepted I would have been. I have been tarred and feathered and run off by every promoter in the country. And I say that kind of tongue in cheek. But at the same time, you know, because I've had I've had people say, you know, were that were there Christians in the wrestling, you know, wrestling world that witnessed to you? No, in those days.

And the short answer is no, there wasn't there. There was one guy by the name of George South. He was they have a fancy term for now, Darren.

It's called enhancement talent. That's that's that's the back of the day. In other words, that was the guys that made guys like me look good. They were the technical term in the old school.

They will call the jobber. Yeah, right. They had to do the job, make us look good. And so George South has spent 40 to, gosh, almost 50 years in the business. But you always knew George was in the building because, you know what, what we might know as a track, like a gospel track.

There'll be those lying around in the bathroom stalls or, you know, somewhere in the back. And we're like, oh, George is in the house again, you know, doing that, doing his Jesus thing, you know. And it wasn't that we were, you know, look down, down, down at George while at the same time, we didn't really inquire either.

Hey, George, tell us about this Jesus. And so I don't know, Darren, I don't know how how well received I would have been and or how comfortable, honestly, I might have been, you know, trying to be salt and light, you might say, or trying to be a witness to the other wrestlers back in that. So I might have kept it. I don't know. I might have come just speculating, but I might have kept it pretty quiet and or, you know, found something else to do because, you know, wrestling, as people have anyone who knows anything about wrestling at all, you know, go to the history of wrestling, you know, there have been a lot of tragic deaths in wrestling. There's a very dark side to wrestling, you know, some aspects of it.

And so not not at least back then, not not a whole lot of God talk back then, if that makes sense. Yeah. I just saw this this YouTube video where somebody had put together a video of all of the professional wrestlers who have died over the last, you know, 50 years or so. Right. Yeah. Decades. And so I had you've seen those that had their cause of death, the age they died, the you know, the years of their life.

And yeah, it was really striking just how many, you know, suicides and just really bizarre drug, drug overdoses. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Nikita Kolof here and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?

Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Kolof Fans, and like it and follow today. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Would your company, business or you personally like to partner with me in supporting Kolof for Christ Ministries, The Man Up Show and Man Up Minutes? Go to kolof.net and click the donate button.

You can give monthly, annually or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. If you would like to support Kolof for Christ Ministries for a gift of twenty five dollars, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. For a gift of fifty dollars, Nikita will include his book Wrestling with Success. And for a gift of one hundred dollars or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption.

Go to www.kolof.net and donate today. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Yeah, so you feel like like like if if God had really called you there as like, you know, an Esther or a Daniel, like you feel like you probably I mean, what would you if you had to do it, you know, like you were in bondage. You were in Babylon.

This was your Babylon. You couldn't go anywhere. You just had to you just had to live it out, you know, sink or swim.

Like you would just I don't know what like specifically some of the specific choices you would have had to choose differently because of your commitment to Christ. Well, it really. So Jonah popped up in my mind, you know, go to Nineveh.

No, I don't like those people. But but then he eventually does go to Nineveh. Some accounts say the biggest conversion, you know, whatever 120,000 people, you know, at one time. But who man, I just of course, obviously, it's hypothetical and it's just speculation. But, you know, again, I don't I don't know. I don't know if I would have got discouraged, you know, trying to witness to others and them just, you know, shunning me or or, you know, you know, giving me the Heisman, so to speak. You know, it's talk to the hand. I mean, you know, Luger, for example, Lex Luger would say, you know, he because people did approach him with with the gospel message over the years.

And prior to his salvation, he'd he'd do exactly good. Look, he just he said, I don't don't even go there. Don't even talk to me about that Jesus stuff. I don't want to hear it.

You know, not interested, you know, kind of thing. Right. So I don't know how many of those guys, you know, might it might have been the same way. It's just gosh, I mean, it's a great question.

It really gives me some some pause for thought. I mean, anything I've ever done, you know, I've been all in. So if I had been all in in love of Jesus in those days now, I will tell you this. So so after I came to Christ, WCW was in Charlotte in December of 1995, and I had not seen any of the guys for really a little over two years. And I'd actually grown my hair out, shaved my mustache off, had a completely different look, was on fire for God.

And man, I did corral some of the guys there like I crowd sting for about a half hour. And I joke and say I threw up Jesus all over him to the point he's like, I got to go get ready for a match. And he later on told me when I said, we're going to continue this conversation.

He's like, oh, no, we're not. At least he said to himself. But and then later he would come to Christ in August of 1998. But so so I did witness to some of the guys there.

But now I was already out of the business. Right. And just on fire for God. But I don't know, Darren. It's a great question. Something something to ponder.

Could it might have been a completely different career back then. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It is. I realize it's a hard, hard question to to answer in hindsight. But, you know, just as I study this question of, you know, about serving God in the business world and certain industries, like are there certain industries where, you know, you just can't like you just you know, like you just can't really have. I mean, that conversation. Well, I think. Yeah. So you're you're that you're in that business right of of meshing your faith with the marketplace. And, you know, in the the climate we live in today, I guess I'd approach this conversation discussion to this way.

In the climate in which we were living in today. Yeah, I think. Well, I'll tell you what comes to mind. So there was a pastor from California who was asked to remember the specific deal. He was asked to open up prayer for Congress recently. Right.

Recently. And and he said he got like a like some kind of a handout or something said, you can't say Jesus Christ, you can't say God. You can't say like all these things you couldn't say in his prayer. OK. And he's like, wow.

I mean, right. And so he prayed and people go online and find this. He he prayed and he just prayed from the heart. And he mentioned all those things.

And oh, my gosh. I mean, you would think he, you know, had brought a bomb into the into the halls of Congress. But I mean, he lit a fire. I mean, people were congressmen, you know, atheists and agnostics. And they were like like irate that he would do something like that. And so anyway, so it appears as though there are certain certain settings that, man, if you bring up, you know, even the name of God, let alone the name of Jesus, that not only are you going to be reprimanded, you know, the marketplace, I'm guessing you might even lose your job. I mean, you know, get get the pink slip over, you know, get fired.

So we live in a very hostile environment in today's world towards Jesus, it seems in many environments. So anyway. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, let me ask you this other question. You know, this is one of my favorite questions to ask people because I don't know any other question.

You can ask somebody that helps to kind of reveal their theology more than more than question. You're right. I think so. I think so. I hope so.

OK, here's the question. Does God trust you? Does God trust me? Probably more than I trust him.

How's that answer? I'm still working on the Proverbs three, five and six. You know, trust the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding and all your ways.

Acknowledge him and he will direct your path. And, you know, so a little 30, 30 plus years, you know, that I've been walking with with the Lord and and full transparency, you know, especially in the area. I'll just say finances.

Right. Because I come from not the salt mines of Siberia, but I do come from the projects of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I was a product of welfare. And I was raised by a single mom, the youngest of four, that I really struggle with with money over the years. And being what I would say tight fisted and, you know, wanting to make sure I had that little, you know, that that that saved up for the rainy day in case something happened or whatever. And the Lord, Darren, really, really, really has been working with me, especially over the last, I'd say, five, 10 years to loosen up the purse strings, to be to really understand what it means to be a generous giver and a cheerful giver.

Well, be generous on every occasion and be a generous giver and and trust that financially. He's going to take care of me, that he's going to be there for me, that he's going to you know, the bills are going to be paid. And and what you may not know is the last payroll I have been on, like official payroll in terms of the marketplace and what were the area that you're in, you know, your area of expertise is WCW. You know what those initials stand for? World Championship Wrestling. 10 o'clock a.m. on Saturday morning.

World Championship Wrestling, Darren. And listen, that was November of 1992. So I've had no, you know, no steady income per se or or anyone writing me a check or, you know, making a direct deposit in my account for the most part since November of 1992. So it has been a walk of faith and really learning to trust the Lord. And so I would say he probably trusts me a whole lot more than I have trusted him. But but I'm getting there.

I'm getting there. Yeah. Can you really can you really trust him? I mean, we can't love until we first recognize that he first loved us.

Right. You know, we can't give something we haven't received. So can you really trust others? Can you trust God without first receiving his trust in you?

Well, and in my experience is, you know, man always let you down. Right. So we can trust others to whatever level that whatever that looks like in your world, you know, and trust another. And then and then, of course, you know, someone betrays your trust. It's a lot it's a lot harder to rebuild rebuild trust in this to initially trust an individual.

Right. Because, man, especially if they betray your trust, you know, and and so who I mean, we could do it. I guess we could do an entire show. Unfortunately, you know, we only have so much time today, but we could do an entire show on on on trust, trusting God and him trusting us. But I would say, you know, I would say, gosh, there's a lot of different directions I could go with this. But because what you're asking, there's there's there's some real depth to this whole conversation.

Yeah, it is. It is a very, very challenging, just theological question, because, you know, is does God trust the way we trust? If so, that's a very conditional, you know, fool me once shame on shame on you for me twice shame on me. You know, that's sort of our paradigm when it comes to trust. But I just I mean, for me, I can't get around the the the notion that if God is interested something to me, there has to be a measure of trust that comes along with that. So anything that God has given to me, he had he it's because he trusts me with it.

And but not everybody I talk to believes that, which is, you know, which is it's just interesting to me to see just to hear the different perspectives. It's like, you know, how can God trust a sinner? Well, when somebody can. Well, yeah, well, because he asked, because we're all we're all flawed, we're all broken.

I mean, you know, so he's got rights. I mean, you look at the original 12 disciples. I mean, you know, you just go through one by one by one and and go, you know, the fact that, yeah, the fact that he would even give us the opportunity being being broken, being flawed and trust us with like, I'll say that I'll conclude our conversation with this, the fact that he would give me the opportunity to lead somebody else to the foot of the cross, blows me away, that he trusts me enough to say, I'm going to bring this person across your path. And I want you to witness to that person and lead them to the foot of the cross, that they become a believer in me. So, you know, share your story with them. And by my spirit, Holy Spirit, I'm going to stir their heart.

They're going to be receptive to what you say and they're going to give their life to Christ that that to me, one of the biggest ways that God can trust us is with the soul of another individual. Right. So, yeah. Anyway, well, Darren Shearer, man, it's been great to have you on Q&A with Koloff. And one more time, people want to find out more about you. Give them those two websites one more time, Darren.

Yeah, to publish a book at a highbridgebooks.com. If you want to learn more about partnering with God in business, theologyofbusiness.com. Awesome. And thank you, all of you out there in Listening Land. You're so faithful to tune in each and every week. I want to challenge you to go out and live a God filled, God blessed day. Thank you, Darren. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to koloff.net and donate today. Nikita Koloff here.

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