Scott Nary- A Man on Fire!

Nothing says Christmas like a water buffalo. For a poor family in Asia, getting a water buffalo is like getting a farm tractor to pull a plow, or getting a milk truck full of delicious milk, or getting a stand at the market to sell cheese. A water buffalo opens the door for work, food, and income. More importantly, it opens the door to talk about Jesus.

And nothing says Christmas better than that. Hey, this is Jim Graham from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explore relationship instead of religion every week. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Once the Russian nightmare, now the devil's worst nightmare, and your tag team partner, Nikita Kolov. It's time to man up.

Welcome back. Here we are with another episode of It's Time to Man Up, the man up show with the devil's nightmare Jethoita. Nikita Kolov and I have in the studio with me today a special guest.

Well, they're all special, man. I say that every time, I think. I hope you as a listener don't get tired of hearing that. Special guest Scott Neri today with me in the studio. Welcome, Scott, to the show. Oh, it's awesome to be here, Nikita.

This is so cool just to be able to talk to the Russian nightmare. Well, I mean, were you a fan growing up? Oh, yeah.

I'm just curious. You were. I was a big fan. I'm from West Virginia.

That's all we did. The hills of West Virginia. Yeah, the hills of West Virginia. No, you put rednecks and wrestling together and I'll tell you what, that's what we were.

West Virginia rednecks and wrestling all go hand in hand. Is that what you're saying? Absolutely. That's not the words out of your mind.

That's not for me. I used to love to hate you. Which I take as a real compliment.

You know, somebody said that on Twitter the other day. They go, I hated you as a kid growing up, the 10 year old me or whatever. And I responded right. And I said, thank you so much for hating me. And then they responded and go, I don't think I've ever had anyone say thank you for hating them. But so anyway.

No, I take it as a compliment because I guess, you know, I did my job. Right. I mean, you hated me. Right.

So exactly. I used to dream of Russian sickling people like you did Sam Houston back in the day. Okay. Did you ever dream of Russian sickling me? Well, you were bigger than me back in those days. You're bigger than me now.

So we're going to get into that. Yeah, you're bigger than me now. So, but, uh, but back in the day, yeah, I had a few more. I had a few more muscles on me back back in those days.

Oh yeah. You were, you were big man. I was, but I, I tell people now I'm not trying to impress anybody at this stage.

I'm just trying to take care of this temple, just honor God with this body. And I'm not trying to look, look good in the mirror. You know, there was a day when I wanted to look good in the mirror, just for the record, you know, my ego and whatever else. Right. Not that men have egos. Do men have egos?

Yeah, they do. Maybe we'll get into that as well. But, but, uh, so, so, so West Virginia wrestling fan and, uh, do you have, uh, one quick favorite kind of wrestling memory other than hating me? Oh, no, I've got tons of memories, but, you know, I, I remember when you turned. Okay. And that was when you became good. Yeah. When I saw the light, when you saw the light, that was, that was a good guy.

When you can have a good guy. That was a great time. Okay. All right. So you remember that because that'll preach right there. That, that, that, that could, that could preach right. You are right.

You are absolutely right. Well, okay. So you, you hate, you love to hate me. So who did you love in wrestling?

Who was your, maybe one or two of your favorites? I love Magnum TA. Okay. And as I affectionately called them, MAGA TA. You go down.

I did. I love Tim. I love Lex Luger.

The total package. That's a good one. I was a big road warriors fan. Ooh, animal on a hog. Cause I was a big, I was a football player. Yeah.

And so they came out with the football pad. You're a weightlifter, obviously, as I look at you, others can't see you right now, but as I look, yeah. And you still are a weightlifter.

I still train. Yeah. We'll, we'll talk a little bit about that too, but so you identified with the road warriors. Yes.

And, uh, you know, I was kind of known Scott just for the record as kind of the Russian road warrior, just so you know, she actually could have liked me, you know, not hated me. Uh, I'm just saying, I'm just saying. Right. Right. Right.

Um, okay. See, see like the, the, the, the Legion at L O D the Legion of doom. Yeah.

Legion of doom. Yeah. You know, both those guys, uh, actually I was, uh, I had heard animal gave his life to Jesus and, and, and I called him up and had a conversation with, invite him to a conference in Phoenix, Arizona, a Christian athletes conference. And he goes, can Hawk come?

And I was like, I was silent. Like for a minute, I was like, um, Joe, you know, it's a Christian conference, right? Cause Hawk made no secret about his previous lifestyle. Right?

Right. I mean, he could party with the best of them. He made no secret about it. He can put you under the table. He would drink you under the table.

He would snort you under the table. He could say he's not going to do whatever. Right. Yeah.

Nobody's going to beat him in that game. Right. Right. So anyway, all that said, I go, he goes, well, I just feel prompted. I like, I should ask him. I'm like, Oh, okay. Ask him. He called me back for you a few hours later. He goes, you say he wants to come. I'm like, Oh, come on.

For real. And he goes, let me call pastor Larry. So I called Larry out in Phoenix. I go, the road warriors want to come to, to the aim conference, right?

Athletes international ministry. All that say condense the story down. When I got there, I'm like, Larry, have you seen him yet? Like I wasn't even sure that either of them would show up. Right. And he goes, no, I hadn't seen him yet. Well, they both came Jensen Franklin.

Yeah. A free chapel, right? Church in Georgia and all over the world now was the keynote speaker that first night. Hawk was the first one to the altar.

God saved, radically saved, radically saved, baptized him in the pool there at the resort in Scottsdale. And I took him on the road with me for a year and a half mentoring him before, before he passed away. Incredible story. So I don't know if you knew any of that story since they were kind of your heroes back in the day. So I didn't know that, but, but let's talk about you, man. So let's talk about like, like, okay, so you, you were a football guy.

You were a weightlifter and you and I have talked, but you went into a pretty fascinating career. So you, West Virginia University. Well, I grew up in Southern West Virginia. Okay.

Son of a coal miner. Okay. After I was a big football player, I ended up going to Bible college. Okay. Okay. All right. Went to Bible college.

And after I came out of Bible college, I went to Newfoundland, Canada, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, where I became a youth pastor, children's pastor, and went to neuromuscular sports massage therapy school. Oh, okay. That's a mouthful. Slow that down. Say that one more time.

That's a lot, right? It's neuromuscular sports massage therapy. It's not normal massage therapy. I was the guy that would fix you.

Okay. So I went to, I trained in deep tissue trigger point therapy. So I did a lot of work with athletes. So after I came back from Canada, I came in and did a stint with the Carolina hurricanes when they were in Greensboro, North Carolina. The hockey team, the hockey team. Yeah. NHL, NHL. Yeah. Okay.

Oh, I'm just trying to connect some dots here in my own mind. So, so you, you leave West Virginia, you go, well, you go, you go to the Bible college college in Louisiana after Louisiana. I go to Canada. I've, I've, I've gone everywhere.

I'm like Johnny Cash. I've been everywhere. I don't know.

I don't know. I've been everywhere, man. I've been everywhere.

I don't know that one show is going to be enough. We may have to bring you back sometime. But okay. So, so, so Louisiana school, is that where you studied with the massage? Not in Louisiana. I went after, after Bible college, I went to Canada and went to therapy school while I was pastoring while you were past. So you jumped right into ministry, right? Cause I wasn't making any money as a pastor.

So I needed to have a trade. Well, wait a minute. Everyone thinks, you know, pastors are just like super wealthy. What a misnomer, right?

People have no clue. Some people, some, I won't say all, some people have no understand, no, no clue and understanding that, that I mean, okay, for the record, there may be some, I'll just say quote successful evangelists out there that, that have made a pretty good pay day. But by and large, would you agree that for the most part, if you're in ministry, you're not in ministry to get wealthy. If you're in ministry, let me just say for the right reasons, you're not in ministry to get wealthy.

You're in ministry to bring a wealth of truth and knowledge and information to others who are sick and dying and need the truth of God's word to become healthy themselves. Absolutely. And the thing is what I found is when I got my trade, I was actually able to minister to more people in my job than I was at church. Yeah. Cause you're out in the marketplace, right? Where did Jesus do the majority of his ministry that I can tell it wasn't in the synagogue.

It's not that he never went to the synagogue and read the scrolls because clearly we see that he did, but the majority of his ministry praying and healing, you know, blind, blind men and, and you know, the woman with the issue of blood and everything was out in the crowds, was out in the marketplace. Right? Absolutely. So we'll fast forward. Now you would, so, so you come back from old Canada and now you would do some things with the Carolina hurricanes, you know, when they're in Greensboro and they're now in Raleigh and me training Canada, most of those athletes were Canadians.

So they wanted to a therapist that had trained in Canada because the, the standards were a lot higher for sports massage therapy. Yeah. So I, I, I did that for a bit and then I got hired on as a church to do, to be staff in Virginia. Okay. Um, long story short, over the course of time, my travels took me to North Carolina.

Okay. Now this was, this was wild. When I was in therapy school in Newfoundland, uh, the, a brand new team came into the NFL called the Carolina Panthers. Yeah, I've heard of those guys. Yeah. So while I, while I'm in St John's, Newfoundland, I think the Panthers came in 93 if I'm not mistaken, maybe 93. That's that's, that sounds okay.

So while I'm up, they had only been in the league a year and I'm, I'm up there in 95 and I'm leaving the school 95 and they asked me the students in Newfoundland, Canada, the farthest Northeast and all North America. They say, so Scott, what are you going to do after you're done with the school? All feet agree. Clemens carpet is where you need to be with carpet, final tile and hardwood from the top brands. Clemens carpet does it right from beginning to install voted number one by you in the reader's choice awards. Doug, Chad, Benny, Peewee, and the team at Clemens carpet look forward to seeing and serving you soon.

This is Nikita Koloff and I want to thank Clemens carpet for supporting my new show, man up Saturday afternoon at 12 30 on the truth network. And I stood up in front of class and I pointed my finger at them. I said, Mark my words.

One day I will be working with the Carolina Panthers. Wow. Now what was wild, it actually, I had no idea actually it was, it's like the Lord came upon me and I basically foretold something through the spirit of prophecy. You were, you were prophetically speaking over your own life. Yeah, I had no idea I was doing that.

Yeah. Well, needless to say, two years later I was working in with the Carolina Panthers, so I came back, I'm in North Carolina and I ended up meeting one of these athletes. I, I fixed his, his back. He had been going to their trainers, he's been going to the doctors, nothing changed. And all of a sudden he saw me and I was able to fix him. You had the knowledge he needed to correct the problem.

Right. So what happened through that divine, define, defining, defining moment is I met him and the next thing you know, we start doing life together and he started connecting me with other athletes. And you were doing, at this point you were doing this full time? Yes, I'm completely doing that full time. And through them I started meeting NASCAR drivers and I started working on all of the pro sports in Charlotte. I was the guy that did the personal training, I was the guy that did the sports massage therapy, and then I started, and I'm still not bothered, I'm still in church and I'm still preaching on the side. Okay, but that's not your full time thing at that point.

Every now and then a church will invite me to go preach, I'll teach Sunday school, I was involved in ministry, and then all of a sudden one day I end up just growing my business to the point I even became a Krav Maga instructor. Yeah, I'm not even sure what that is, Scott, but it sounds impressive, just for the record. Well, it's Israeli self defense.

Israeli self defense, okay. That's unique. That was the hardest training I've ever gone through in my life.

They about killed me, man. Wow. I was trained by actually IDF soldiers. Did you have to go to Israel to do that?

I had to go to Cincinnati, Ohio. Yes. Okay. Don't go to Israel, I went to Ohio.

Okay. Plan B, we're not going to Jerusalem, we're going to go to Ohio. So I went there and it was the hardest training. We started with 16 guys, we finished with 8, and everybody else dropped out or quit. I came back on crutches, a buddy of mine that went with me came back with a broken arm. Wow. I accidentally broke his arm. It was my fault.

Oh, oh. So you're the guy, for all these pro athletes. What was that training pertaining to? How was that going to be beneficial or useful to athletes?

It, I used it with how to, basically I used a lot of fighting techniques, you know, boxing, ground fighting, and it's all about fitness, right? Okay. And so, you know, I wasn't teaching them how to kill people, but I was teaching them how to be fit. Gotcha. Yeah.

Although as a side note, if they wanted to, they could, you could teach them how. Absolutely. And actually, my wife and I did that, we actually had, we did some training to, we had to work with the Charlotte Batter Women's Shelter, we actually trained, we worked with multiple agencies. Yeah. So I trained my wife in Krav Maga also. She's a little, she's a little lady, but I'll tell you why I wouldn't want to mess with her.

Well, they say sticks of dynamite are little too, but they have a massive explosion, right? So, so Carolina Panthers, Carolina Hurricane, NASCAR. Before we came on air, you said something, 2009, you, you were... Yes, I was a voter, the top trainer in Charlotte, North Carolina, through Carolina Living. Top trainer in North Carolina Living. And so, so what an extensive background you have in sports, the sports world, and athletics.

A lot of pro sports. Yeah. Yeah.

Now, okay. So, so you're doing all of that and you're doing some ministry kind of, we'll just say kind of on the side or, or it's not your main focus. At what point then did, was it kind of like, was it an aha moment for you? Like, okay, I need to walk away from this career and transition into more ministry or was, was there more or there was, there was, I call it the, you know, there was like a godly discontent knocking on my heart, a godly discontent.

And so the like that. And it's the knocks getting louder. It's like there was an itch that you can't scratch. And in one day, as I'm training, I get a phone call from a pastor in Canada. He says, hey, I want you to come up and be our associate pastor.

And I talked to my wife about it. We prayed... Dr. Newfoundland or... This is Nova Scotia now. Nova Scotia. Okay. Okay. That's a little further south, right? That's south.

Yes. Not much. Not much.

It's right by, it's right by Maine. It's still cold. Still cold. Still very cold.

Super cold. Okay. So, so we go up there and we pastor and I learned a lot of what not to do. It was, again, you know... You were lead pastor up there.

I was the associate. Social pastor. So it was, again, ministry is not for the faint of heart.

I tell people, one of these days I want to write a book said that would be titled, so you want to be in the ministry. Really? Okay. It's not for the faint of heart. It's not.

It's not. So we were up there around three years. And finally, you know, the Lord started steering us up about going America, America. Okay.

America shall be saved. We came back and I ended up, I started working with a man named Dr. Michael Brown. Okay. Familiar with Dr. Brown. He's actually on the Truth Radio Network. I was his trainer. His personal trainer. I was his personal trainer. You whipped him into shape. I'm the guy who whipped him into shape. You know, I see his posts on Instagram sometimes and he's doing like these, these core, core.

He was, here's a four minute core move for, you know. It must come from you. It does. If he shows you those green sliders he uses, those were the ones that I actually gave him. He did show those recently. Yes. His little mountain climber.

So he's doing his mountain climber. I showed him all that stuff. Nice. Okay.

Okay. So you link up with Dr. Brown. And what happens, I start, they start sending me to their schools all around the world and I start teaching what we call power evangelism because I was always an evangelist at heart, teaching people how to pray for people, how to, how to just minister to them. And so I would go to all these different countries, the Philippines.

I would go to the Netherlands. Wow. And, and it was pretty cool.

And I would, and I would, and I'd come back to the church that was based in Concord and I would fire, fire church. Yep. And I was the, the guy that did the outreaches. So as I'm doing this, we enrolled in Reinhard Bonnke School of Evangelism. Okay.

Okay. Now I've already gone to Bible college, but I felt like I needed to go there. So Reinhard Bonnke, and what an amazing man. So we went to his school of evangelism, my wife and I, and that's supernatural how we went down there anyway. And you got to sit in, literally sit under some of his teachings. Yes. I'm literally right beside, like from me to you is where Reinhard was. Wow.

Very cool. And so it was the most phenomenal time of just being around a true general of the faith. I mean, it's like Jesus was right there himself. At the end of the school, he, he prayed for every student.

And when he laid hands on me and laid hands with my wife, I just, nothing really happened. I just felt this, how can I say a burden, a burden for America. There's maybe an impartation there. Yes. Because he's well known as saying God gave him a vision to evangelize, you know, to save, save a marriage, you know, marriage to be saved or whatever.

Yeah. So, so this, this burden, it was, it was intense. And probably about three months later, I had an amazing encounter with Jesus that helped launch me into doing what I'm doing now. So right now we're stewarding a ministry that just turned four years old in January. It'll be five years old in this coming January. What's it called?

It's got the most unique name in the world. It's called 420 fire. 420 fire. Yeah.

420 fire. That'll create a conversation. Oh, it does.

It always does. It's based on first Corinthians four verse 20, where it says the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. So in other words, it's not a, just another, you're not just gonna hear another message. You're going to encounter Jesus. Amen. And so, so we, we do a lot of evangelism and we do a lot of, you know, we want reach out a lot of outreach after background.

Absolutely. And so what happens, we have these places that over four years, the Lord has had us start, we call them hubs of, of training for evangelism and outreach. And right now we're in 34 States and 10 different nations. I was just getting, yeah. I remember when we talked, when, when we met and spent some time together, broke, I say broke some bread together.

We drank, drank a glass of tea together, tea and coffee. But yeah, you were telling me a 34 States and 10 nations in less than five years. Less than five years. Yes. In less than five years. I would say the hand of God is on what, what you are doing.

It's been, it's been an intense time. We know the main headquarters is based in Kannapolis. So that's where our church is. Kannapolis, North Carolina. I'm familiar with K town.

K town. So what's wild is do you work with a minor league baseball team there? No, not yet. I don't know anybody from over there yet.

What's wild. I've, I've always been traveling so much. So, and you're in high demand.

I, I, that's obvious, right? So I'm always gone. I'm trying to stay home more. Okay. But what, again, our whole focus is to be in every state.

And so all 50 states and there's some states that we're not in. And, and you know, we're, we're trusting God for that. And I'm learning how to work with the Lord instead of working for the Lord. And as a type a personality, God's had to really rain me down sometimes because I, you know, we can sometimes make things happen ahead of him. And I've done that a time or two with my personality, but he's, he has a lot of grace for me, man. So traveling is good.

I mean, obviously, you know, as, as the Lord leads and guides and directs, but, you know, being homeless. So you mentioned this little stick of dynamite, this wife of yours. I heard, what's her name? Marcy.

Marcy. And, and you have children? Yes, we do. We have five kids.

Five. Okay. That'll keep you busy too.

And we have two mastiffs. Oh, you know, I remember you mentioning that to me though. Those, those are like, like small elephants. Oh my gosh. Yeah. My puppy, his name is Hank Williams.

Okay. So yeah, Hank is a year old and he's about 130, 140 pounds right now. It'd be like 180 or something. He's got two more years of growing. So your kids can put a saddle on him.

Oh yeah. His head is massive, but he's, he's a sweet boy now. Stella, she's, she's a hundred pounds.

She's, that's as big as she'll get. She's the female, but she's, uh, we've got signs at our house, you know, beware of dog. We don't, nobody's just going to come up on our place. So let me ask you a question. This just kind of popped up.

Let me ask you a question. So, so I mean, those who are listening to this, this conversation, I mean, you, you've, you've done a lot and are, and are doing a lot. And so for our listeners out there, um, everybody's quote busy. Right. But so how do you balance Scott between ministry, your health background, your travels, your family, a wife and five kids? Right.

How do you balance that? Oh, that's, I'll tell you that's, that's the challenge. And I, the Lord's had to really work with me, um, with that because one of the things that I've, I've found in the Lord's will speak to me, said, Scott, the devil's fine with you being a good Christian, as long as you're a busy Christian. You, cause you know the acronym for busy, right?

What is a burdened under Satan's yoke? Yep. There you go.

There you go. And busy, busy. And the thing is you can be busy doing ministry.

You'd be caught up in the machine. I think it's good. And it's good stuff. Right.

But it's gone. Yeah. You know, so while what happened at the start of four 20 fire, I was like going full speed and I was not thinking of my wife all the time. So after a while, the Lord had to take me to the woodshed and spiritual as we call Jesus meeting. Yeah.

Come to Jesus moment, spiritual spank. Exactly. So he had to teach me how to slow down. And so the way I balance balance. Yeah. So what I do now is I, I, I make sure that I don't take phone calls after a certain hour now because I mean we're in so many different time zones. It's challenging.

I got people always reaching out to me. Right. But I had to make like a hard stop. Yep. And so really to be intentional. I have to. Absolutely. Family really should be the very first ministry. Absolutely. Okay.

It really should. And so, but again, it's what, what good is it to have a growing ministry that's thriving and if you lose your family? Yeah. Cause how many unfortunate stories have we heard of ministers?

Really? The ministry became their mistress, so to speak. They were more married to it than they were to their own family.

And how many kids stories have I heard on man camp and other in other places of my dad cared more about the youth or more about his congregation than he did about me. Right. I've heard that once.

I've heard it a thousand times. So, so that's wise on your part to recognize that. Yeah. And, and, and be more intentional to, to balance that out.

I have a motto now that I actually took from the Navy Seals. They say this slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Okay. Because again, if when you take time to slow down, things will actually speed up in the kingdom. Okay. And so that's, that's really the balance of it all. And, and sometimes I'll fall down, I'll get back up. But the main thing is, is put, put Jesus first.

Yeah. Make sure that you spend quality time with your family. Make sure you rest. Make sure you take care of your health. And again, bring everything in balance because he, he wants us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

All these things will be added. Okay. So Jesus first, for those listening out there, Jesus first and your family, um, and you mentioned getting the proper rest and take care of your health, take care of your health, exercise, nutrition, eating, I mean, take, take care of your health.

And, and then the work, the work where in America, that seems to be the number one priority for many people should really be further down on the ladder, further down on the, on the scale. Right. And, uh, how can people find out more about 420 Fire? They can go to our website, 420fire.org. You click on that and you can find us, tell, it tells you everything we do, tells you our origin story and everything. And here's what's cool about this. Now, I don't even know what countries you're in. You said 10 different countries. And what's cool is this show, um, the podcast version of the show goes, the latest number, I got to get an update, is 52 different countries. So somebody may listen to this, this show in another country and go on that website. What is it again? 420fire.org.

420fire.org and go, Oh my gosh, they're right here in my city, in my nation, in my country. Right. And so you're doing some amazing things and it's crazy how quickly this show, this show goes, but, uh, I can't thank you enough for coming in and spending time with us and, and sharing just a little bit of your story and, and just a couple of things you said there at the end for those listening. If your priorities are out of order, give them those priorities one more time, Scott. Jesus first, Jesus first, family, family, make sure you take care of your health, rest, and, uh, and then again, seek first the kingdom, seek first the kingdom and that, and then whatever, whatever God's calling you to, uh, you know, whether you're out there in the marketplace or maybe you are in ministry and maybe you find yourself have been so consumed with ministry or, or so consumed with work in the marketplace that you're failing.

That your family's been suffering in the process or, or, or your relationship with Jesus has been suffering maybe. Right. Right. Um, and so consider those priorities that Scott just shared and, and maybe you don't even have a relationship with Jesus.

Right. Because we, there, there are those out there, right, Scott? Um, and man, today would, would be such an amazing day if after listening to this show, after listening to Scott's story that you made a decision, maybe you're in a car drive and sitting in a hotel room somewhere listening to this show, uh, to just, just, just humble your, yourself right now and just confess, uh, ask for forgiveness, repent, and, and invite Jesus to come into your life and invite Jesus to come into your heart and, and, and, and then take that back to your family, take that out into the marketplace. If, if you find yourself working, take that, uh, into ministry. If, if you're doing that, I don't assume that just everybody in ministry has a personal relationship with Jesus, but thanks for tuning in today to it's time to man up to man up show Scott Neri. Yes, sir.

Thank you for coming in. God bless you, man. God bless you, brother. Men, I would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luger and I at man camp pursuing the heart of God. Ladies, if you're listening, we'll send your men home better equipped to be men of God, godly husbands and godly fathers that appeals to you. Give them your blessing and encourage them to sign up today at man camp.info. Pastors, if you would like to bring Koloff for Christ ministries and man up conference to your community, go to koloff.org and email me.

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