You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome to another episode of Q&A with Kolov, The Devil's Nightmare. In studio with me today, Roger Gadd. And I'm glad to have Roger in studio. You know, a lot of times, you know, I'm calling you the wrestling fan, a wrestling fan, or calling somebody for Q&A with Kolov. But it's always a distinct pleasure to have somebody in studio.
Roger, welcome to Q&A with Kolov. Hey, thanks for having me, man. Well, and I mean that sincerely, it's fun to have guys in studio. You know, it doesn't always work out that way. But when it does, you know, just to be able to kind of look at each other and engage each other through this conversation is just a lot of fun for me.
And so, great to have you here. We go way back, way, way, way back. I think we figured out 33 plus years, and we may even say 35 plus years. I know as we were talking before we came on air, you've been married 33 years.
You said it was even before that. We go back into my, I'll just say it, into my BC days. And our listeners might go, like, some might not figure that out. That would stand for Before Christ. So Roger and I have known each other since Before Christ. But you're a husband, you're a dad, you're a granddad. You have a new grandbaby on the way, number six, is that right?
Right. And so take a minute and just tell us about your family. Tell us about your family.
Yes, I'm married to my wife, Michelle, for 33 years. We have three kids, Ross, Madeline, and Olivia, and all three are married. And they have, each of them, Ross has two kids. Madeline just had her second one, and Olivia has one. And then Ross has one on the way. But we have five granddaughters, three and a half years and younger right now.
Three and a half years and younger. Wow, that's a full quiver. And I know over the years, some of my kids have hung out with some of your kids. Of course, you and I have been in business together over the years and had fun kind of locking arms doing that. You're a marketplace guy. You're out in the marketplace. Currently, you're in the insurance world, right? What are you doing out in the insurance world? I do health insurance and life insurance. Okay. Just enjoying helping people through the process. Okay.
And so you're a marketplace guy. And you've coached over the years. I know you've worn that hat as well. You've done some coaching over the years. But more than anything, you have a powerful story and testimony.
I want to encourage you, go over to the Man Up show, go into the archives, and listen to my full interview with Roger Gadd and how he has overcome cancer, overcome stroke, heart issue, I mean, just a lot that he has overcome, that God has sustained him through. And he's a lover of Jesus. And so I guess a question I'd have for you, Roger, is as a marketplace guy, you hear all this debate and conversation over separation of church and state. Keep your religion to Sunday morning or whatever, but that's not you. One thing I know about you is you are Jesus with skin on. So no matter where you're at or who you are around, they may actually hear about Jesus in a conversation.
How do you blend those two together, your faith and love for Jesus, without working in the marketplace all these years? Well, one of the first things I do is I always have some really needed, leading questions like, you know, I was in the locker room at the sports center yesterday and I saw a guy in there and we just started talking and this and that. So, hey, I just kind of just bring up, hey, man, when you and your family go to church, where do you guys go?
Just not saying, ask him if he does go, just say when they do go. Where do you go? Where do you go?
Where do you go? And just opens up a conversation or just something, you know, I have all kinds of fun in the locker room. I can either whisper and then everybody wants to stop and listen to you. Or I'll speak, if you were in there, like I see Pastor Joe sometime in there. Okay. So what I'll do with Joe, I'll speak loud enough to him about what's going on.
So others can hear that are in there. So I do a lot of different things. I kind of, I kind of have fun with it. Yep. You know, you want to have a little fun with it, but really what, when we were actually talking about this, I have, I learned to share my faith years ago.
I went through an old Baptist training of a faith training. Okay. It was F A I T H. Okay. And F is for forgiveness. A is available.
I is impossible. God allows sin into heaven. T means we turn and repent and H stands for heaven. So I learned, and it's got scripture to go with it.
It's got great lead in questions. And I learned to do it that way until I started understanding scripture enough where I could do it lots of different ways, but I had to learn a way to do it. So over all these years, I have learned and I always see something at the church that I don't say is wrong, but I don't think it's done right is when I say this, that evangelism and discipleship should never be divided. That's good.
Should never be divided. This, this class that I have taught at our church before I call it relational evangelism slash disciples making disciples. So what the Lord showed me, this is a terrific story. One of my, one of my best friends from high school played high school football with him. I played safety.
He played cornerback. So we're, you know, we're, we are right there together. And the Lord over all of these years, he, I know nobody's birthday except for my families. I mean, I know nobody's birthday. So he actually, the Lord brought me his birthday for the last 15 or 20 years, like automatically brought it, brought it to me and I would, and I would, and I would call him. So he told his wife, he said, if nobody calls me today, I know Roger, God's going to call me today and wish me a happy birthday. And it's so weird for me because I don't have it saved in my phone. I don't really do any of that stuff where I'm remembering birthdays. So one day it was about four and a half years ago.
The Lord said to me, call Terry and asked him why he's not serving you. And, and I could do this because I've got a relationship with him. Right. Okay.
It's not a big deal. He had had a health challenge before that I seen a little change in. And then I see a little change in going back. Okay.
Slipping back into the old guy. So when I asked him, this was his response. He said, I've been thinking the same thing myself.
Wow. So obviously we know the Lord was in the conversation. He was in it.
He was in it. So share Christ with him. We talked and man, he's like ready to go all in. And then he goes to me just totally no phone calls, no texts, no return calls. He's not, he's not having anything to do with me.
He went into the witness protection program. So this is great. So in my office in, uh, Birchfield insurance and not in the office over Brian, you know, Brian. Yeah.
And, uh, so they were doing a little remodeling. So guess who was the GC that come through there? My buddy Terry. He comes walking through the office and he goes, Oh my gosh, I can't get rid of you. He just turned white as a sheet. Obviously he had, he had where he couldn't sleep. Nothing could happen for him. Okay.
Like he just was miserable. Okay. So eventually he accepted the Lord and going in the right direction, but this is where the story turns where the Lord showed me something that I had never done before.
Uh, it made me more consistent in my life. And this is something that we're going to talk about is that I said, Lord, Terry, when he goes to church, he goes to another church where their, where their family does. So he wasn't going to go to church with me. Okay.
Got a mother-in-law that he needed to take and stuff like that. So the Lord said, send him your devotion every day. Hmm. So that was on may, no, March the 12th of 2020. Okay. For almost four and a half years ago. Okay.
Four years and some odd months. Yeah. And I started sending him a devotion every single day.
And that led to my second one, the Lord. And you know me, I'm, I'm like you. I know lots of people and I've lived in Concord my whole life.
So, you know, I know pretty much everybody in your relationship, Concord, North Carolina, by the way. Right. Yeah. So relational. So keep going. So by doing that, I only send the devotion to someone that the Lord shows what's on your heart.
It puts it and it just, it, it, it just works. So I started sending it to him and then about halfway through several that I had, I realized sometime I was reading the devotion, but was not reading my scripture. The vote devotion is not going to change them. The scripture is going to change. Right. So I started sending the devotion in the scripture every single day.
So fast forward for four years. Plus I have 58 men on that list. Come on. That I send the devotion and the scripture to every day. Some of them are guys like yourself and said, man, what a great story, man.
Won't you send that to me every day? I have some of those guys that I meet guys that I play basketball with guys. That's the reason the Lord gives me that platform.
I'd be being so old and can still play. You know, I got great knees, ankles and all that B because he knows I'm going to share Christ with these guys. It's such a, it's such a easy way for me to do it. So I started doing it. I mean, like what I didn't know was going to happen, they would start sending it out, forwarding it on to somebody else. Yeah. They started sending it out to their family.
Some guys got 20, some guys have 30, some guys have, it's just crazy. So one of the, one of the stories that will kind of show you how that this works is a, is a guy named Mike. Mike is a guy that I met on the basketball court.
He's about 30 years old, kind of going through some problems with his marriage and this kind of stuff. And me and him just got to be close, close, close friends. And Mike, I started sending him the devotion.
Now, what I do is when the Lord lay someone on my heart for me to send them, this is what I say. I, and I, and I don't do it in a big group either, only individually. That's personal.
Nobody knows what everybody else's business is. So I just take a photo of it. I'm an old guy. I kind of liked my book. I take a snapshot of it with my phone in the morning and forward it out. That's just what I do. So I'm sending it to Mike and I said, Mike, I said, uh, uh, this was my devotion this morning. Thought I would share. So great.
Great. Starts reading it about seven months later. Now I've had conversation with Mike in between there, but about seven months later, Mike texts me on the phone. This is what happens when the Lord goes to work on people, when you, the timing is right and everything, and it makes it so easy. He said his exact words were Roger, how do I get close to God?
You're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com. If you are a business owner and would like to advertise your company or product on the man up show and or Q and A with Koloff contact me directly. Nikita Koloff at koloff.net. The man up show is honored to have Dr. Johnny Gayton is one of our longest running supportive sponsors. He's regarded as one of the world's leading elite eye surgeons. He is motivated by his faith and doing all things heartily as unto the Lord. His desire to do his best has contributed to success in his eye care practice performing over 70,000 eye surgeries. In addition, he's a world renowned speaker, writer, and author.
Go to eye associates.com for more information. Nikita Koloff 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 Koloff fans and like it and follow today. I said, man, let's get, let's get together. So we, so we got together at the old Concord mall, the little mall there next to sports center, we made it to food, made it to food court. And I said, so tell me what's been going on in your life. He said, man, I'm trying to figure this thing out, man. How do I get close to God, man?
How do I do it? And so I shared, so I shared Christ with him and I asked him, I said, what else have you been reading? He said, only thing I'm reading is the devotion you send me every day. So I shared Christ with him. He accepted Christ and there he goes forward. So it was like, the Lord did all the work, all we have to do is be obedient and be in the word. And be available, right?
And be willing and be available. And so you're hearing a story today of Roger Gadd, a marketplace guy. So, you know, he doesn't even go to seminary. He didn't, you know, he doesn't have a pastoral hat and stand on a pulpit every Sunday morning.
He's just out in the marketplace every day, making a difference as you're, as you're hearing from these stories and, and you can do the same thing each and every day. One more time, real quick, your faith acronym. I love that one more time, your faith acronym.
When you talk about what I do, the faith where I actually learned it. Yeah. If it's for forgiveness.
Forgiveness. A, it's available. Who is it available for?
It's available for all. That's kind of part of it. Okay. The I stands for impossible for God to allow sin into heaven. The T stands for turn, which in the Bible means repent. And that, and if we decide that we're going to follow Christ, H is for heaven and that's our home. Come on.
What a, what an incredible acronym. So, all right, well, man, we could, we could talk for hours and I know you have tons and tons of stories with, that just means we'll have to have you back one day to come back on Q and A with Koloff and, and, uh, and the man up show, get you back on the man up show as well. All right.
So I know you got a notepad in front of you there. I'm guessing you got some questions for me, so let's, where do we want to go? What do we want to start with? Let me ask that. Well, the first one I had was, and we kind of talked about it and we don't really remember really. How did we meet?
That is a great question. I, you know, I just think through, I'm going to say through mutual friends, you know, we've mentioned a few, I mean, Marty Cox comes to mind. David Graham comes to mind. David Isley, David Isley, who was for those who, you know, if you're an avid wrestling fan, you might recognize that name, David Isley, which Roger told me before we came on air, how him and David Isley took my Cadillac to the beach one, one time, I'm not so sure I gave permission to do that, but that's a whole nother story for a whole nother day. But um, I think to, uh, through just through mutual friends is what I would summarize and say.
Yeah. So this is a question I'm sure you've probably said lots of, or you've answered lots of times on here before, but I don't really know that I know this, how did the Lord get your attention years ago and what did that conversion look like? Well, the church where it happened, you're very familiar with, uh, at the time it was called Concord first assembly and, and, and through business, through other marketplace people, um, um, I had met the, this, this couple, uh, uh, Charlotte and Dick Elson through, through some business, uh, I was involved in, and they had invited me a few times. They were attenders there and they invited me a few times, you know, and I tell people, you know, I didn't grow, I didn't grow up in church. That's not to say I never went to a church or went to, but, but it wasn't something I frequented or did, did all that often. It just wasn't important to me back then. Um, but, uh, several months, you know, I left wrestling in November, 1992, and I'm trying to figure out, you know, like this buddy of yours, trying to figure out how he gets closer to God.
I wasn't trying to figure that out. I was trying to figure out what, what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Now that, now that I made an executive decision to leave pro wrestling and I meet, uh, Charlotte and meet Dick, they invite me to their, to their church. And I, at one point, uh, accepted that invitation, just called them and said, Hey, I'll be there Sunday.
And they said, great, we'll meet you there. And it really was just a divine appointment for me. It was on that first Sunday in, in that church that an invitation was given and really Roger, I would say I was successful, but unfulfilled.
I write about that in my book, wrestling with success, that I was successful, but unfulfilled. And it was an aha moment for me, honestly, that day, as I sat there and thought about, it's not, it's not said it, no, the story about Jesus, you know, the man who died on a cross had spikes driven through his hands and feet and the spirit through his side. I knew the story, but the story had never made the 18 inch trip from my head down to my heart until that day, I figured out what was missing. That was a relationship with Jesus, first one to the altar, on my knees, confessing and repenting, turn, confessing and repenting, turning away, uh, from, from the life I was living and, and headed now towards the cross and made a decision to do that for the rest of my life, to always pursue the cross and run towards Jesus and life's just never been the same sense from the day of that decision, uh, it's been, uh, a series of, you know, we have a amusement park in Charlotte called Carowinds, right?
That's an illustration of my life. I mean, it's been ups and downs and twists and turns, and, you know, sometimes I felt upside down, but nevertheless, the Lord's always been there with me, walking with me through that whole entire journey. And so, okay, to kind of, kind of tag on that a little bit. Okay. I always like to share with people, like people that didn't know the Lord, like me, I always keep things real simple.
Okay. I like to always share, and I'm going to ask you this. What was the first thing the Lord cleaned up on you? You had something that you just did or something that you do that it just went, wow, man, I got to stop doing that. I guess a couple of things come, come to mind and, and I wasn't, uh, I wouldn't say I abused these things, um, but you might say I, I used these things, um, and that was, uh, alcohol for me drinking. Uh, I wasn't a heavy drinker. All my wrestling buddies would tell me, in fact, or would say, you know, they would actually even browbeat me because I wouldn't go off to the bars with them all the time after matches and everything. And so every now and then I would just to get them off my back. But if I did, I would, honestly, I would probably nurture a beer the whole entire night and they wouldn't know the difference.
I figured if I had one bottle in my hand the whole night, whether it was one or 10, right. Uh, and so, so God made it very clear to me that, that, uh, I didn't need alcohol in my life. Like it didn't need to be a part of my life. And part of that was the plan he had for me. I can see now where, you know, Bible talks about don't cause your brother to stumble and fall. And, you know, wherever you land on, on alcohol, that's between you and God.
I just know where I land on it. And the standard he asked me to live by. So he made it crystal clear alcohol is not to be a part of your life to set that aside. And, and, and honestly, that wasn't hard for me, Roger, because I truthfully never have liked the taste of beer or hard liquor.
I just never have. So what's that wasn't hard. Um, the other thing is, is cussing, you know, cuss words, swearing and that sort of thing. And again, I wasn't, I wasn't some huge, but I was around it. You can't be in a wrestling dressing room and not hear a few bombs dropped, you know?
Um, and then you kind of just kind of get sucked into that and, and it becomes kind of almost a part of your language. Um, but he, again, he made it crystal clear, you know, put course jesting and in, you know, those kinds of words, uh, put, put them away. So that's the first thing he cleaned up on me. Okay.
It was my mouth. Okay. Yeah.
It was terrible when I say that. So my last question is the, is that can be deep. So when we say this, like, why don't we see more radical changes after people accept Christ like I've got a guy right now that's on my list, not even talking about that guy, but another guy that literally I've never seen a change like it stopped alcohol, just in the word. I mean, it's like, I mean, his kids, I asked his kid one day, his, his son's like 20 years old. And, uh, he said, uh, I said, can you tell the difference, tell me what difference it looks like in your, in your house now?
He said, oh my gosh, every, everything's changed music, everything they do, everything. I mean, it's like, this guy's such a, so my question is, why don't we see more of that more of that? We're not talking about Rocky Wagner. Are we, uh, who we know, who is a great, another great testimony of a, of an actual changed life. Right. And, and another one that comes to mind, I'll get to your question is Lex Luger.
Like if anybody knew Lex Luger back in the days of his narcissistic life, like that character he played, the narcissist was, was very close to reality by his own admission. I'm not saying anything. Look, he's a ministry partner of mine. He helps facilitate man camp with me and we've done a lot of ministry together.
He lived with me for 10 months. Right. And I have to say, he's evidence that if you knew him BC before Christ, and then no, and you are, you spend any time around him now, uh, like some of our wrestling buddies do who don't know Christ could not say that's a different man. He is not the same guy. So to get to the, I guess the answer to your question, I sometimes wonder, Roger, and again, at the end of the day, let me just say this, preface it by saying at the end of the day, God's only, God's the only one who truly knows the heart of a person, right? That's right. At the end of the day, he's truly the only one.
So we could give lip service. Like, in fact, I'm reminded the scripture says, yeah, they praise me with their mouth, but their hearts are far from me. And so I'm not God, but at the same time, you know, Bible also says, you know them by their fruits. And so people get hung up on that whole judging thing, or you're not supposed to judge anyone. Well, no, you can judge, but you'll be judged with the same measure. Fruit inspector.
Fruit inspector, right? And so I wonder if, and sometimes I say in some of our man up conferences, I'll say, I think the reason like, like we may be sin or struggle with sin and that sort of thing, because we're all flawed, we're all broken individuals, is that our heart is not yet, here's how I'll say it, not yet fully satisfied with God. That if we ever so fell in love with God, that the things of this world wouldn't even appeal to us at that point. But it's that struggle of, as even apostle Paul said, the flesh and the spirit. Man, it's, I invite the Holy Spirit to come live in me. And now it's really kind of game on, if you will, and you as a former coach can understand, you know, the battle, the battle between two opponents, or in this case, the battle between good and evil, or more specifically the battle between spirit and the flesh, which Paul talked about and clearly even at times struggle with, wow, the things I want to do, I don't do and the things I, right? So I think the key, so I would say all that, Roger, to say this, I think the key is if someone made a genuine decision to accept Jesus, okay, if they've really made a genuine decision, and again, for sake of time, maybe another day I'll share a story with Lex after he first got saved, how the Holy Spirit convicted a sin he continued doing after his salvation, and his spiritual mentor said, here's what the Bible says you're doing, Lex, and once he understood that, he broke that off, broke that, broke a relationship off, and was set free of that struggle. But I think, I think it's an, one, I think it's, is somebody genuine, did somebody's heart genuinely get transformed, and then if it did, the Holy, I got to believe the Holy Spirit is going to bring some conviction somewhere along the line there if you're practicing the same sin over and over and over again.
Does that make sense? Absolutely, absolutely. So I know that's kind of a long-winded answer to your question, but let me say one other caveat to this, one other little sidebar note. I can't expect, I can't lay the same expectation on somebody who, you know, let's say like yourself, you know, has been walking with the Lord, let's just say 30 years, and here I got a brand new babe in Christ, right? If I relate that to a brand new born infant versus someone who's 30 years old of Chronicle age, I expect more out of that 30-year-old than I do that newborn infant, and so I have to kind of take that same approach with a brand new believer in Christ, as the Bible refers to him as a babe in Christ, and now I've got to help disciple him, nurture him, and help him grow up into Christ, and hopefully as he has a desire, or she, a desire to do that, other things are going to fall by the wayside.
The old nature and the old struggles will fall by the wayside. Like the old story says, whichever spirit you feed is the one that's going to win. Yes, absolutely. I illustrate it this way, if visualized in your mind's eye, if we're in a building that has three rooms, and over on one side is the Holy Spirit, and on the other side is the flesh, and in the middle is the soul. Your soul is your mind, will, and emotions, right, because we're a three-part person, right?
Our soul is 523, we are a spirit, we have a soul, we live in a body, we're a three-part person, okay, and if I, and both doors can't be opened simultaneously, by the way, either the door to the flesh is open, or door to the Holy Spirit is open, so it's either or, and if my soul, my mind, will, and emotions, partners with the Holy Spirit, I can have more success at keeping the flesh in check, however, if I open the door to my flesh, and my fleshly desires, and that partners with my mind, will, and emotions, then I just kind of keep the door to the Holy Spirit closed, and don't give him an opportunity to transform and change me. That make sense? Absolutely. So, anyway, Roger, Gad, hey, how can people, if people wanted to know more about, you know, your insurance business, I think you got a phone number that people could call to connect with you? Yeah, they can call 704-425-8216. Alright, one more time.
That is 704-425-8216. Roger Gad, and such a pleasure to have you on Q&A with Kolov today, and again, I want to encourage you, go into the archives, and check out the Man Up show with Roger Gad. He has an incredible story of overcoming many, many health issues, and just more stories than we told today. So, hey, and thank all of you each and every week, you're so faithful to tune in and help spread the word on Q&A with Kolov and the Man Up show. Get the word out there, get the word out there for Truth Network, and my challenge to you is go out today and just live a God-filled and have a God-blessed day. 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 kolov.net and donate today. Hi, Nikita Kolov. Be sure to check out the Man Up show, now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to MorningstarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network, check out your local listings, or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. If you are enjoying Q&A with Kolov, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment. Are you looking for the perfect gift for your pastor?
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