A Ministry of Music with Erskin Anavitarte

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Call 866-WINASIA or to see chickens and other animals to donate, go to CritterCampaign.org. Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show. Stories of hopelessness turned into hope. Your chosen Truth Network podcast is starting in just seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. What if you're a basketball-playing, guitar-banging man of God who sings all the time, and then you get a call from the camp that says, hey, we canceled camp because of COVID. What do you do?

This guy's with me. He loves Jesus, and he's spreading the message of hope all over the country and the world. He's a hope dealer. He is Erskine. Erskine Music. Erskine Austin.

Erskine Atavatarte is the name. But you can do Erskine Music. I like it when you say Erskine Music. I'm going to tell you something. Go to that site, listen to his music.

You will be deeply touched, deeply encouraged because he's got a gospel depth to him and to his music. Erskine, how in the world did, because I know you, because we played some serious basketball. Yeah, that's probably how we got to know one another.

Yeah, more deeper now. I enjoyed getting to know you before you knew me, watching you perform at NRB. Oh, so it was kind of a sneaky thing. You led the whole group in worship. You did a phenomenal job. We got to talk, and I said, hey, that thing you did for like 10,000 people, can you do it for like 20 people in our Truth Booth at NRB?

10,000, maybe a bit of an exaggeration there. But can you take care of the little people too? And you know, you stoop down. And I said, I am the little people.

It's like, hey, nice to meet another one. No, but we're so grateful. So you do the praise and worship, but then you play college basketball. So there's a whole lot woven into your DNA. You're a champion for adoption and foster care.

You speak about spiritual awakening and revival and preaching the gospel. Let me ask this question. Let's just get out of the gate here. My favorite question to ask my guest, who is Erskine? Who is Erskine? Yeah, you say all those different characteristics about me, but man who loves the Lord Jesus Christ, a man who loves his family, loves his wife and has a new dog named Harriet that we got during COVID quarantine that is a nine month old border collie. And she's a part of our family now.

And so all those characteristics, along with video games and other things that makes up Erskine. Wow. And you shared your story some this morning at the New Canaan Society, a bunch of men, a lot more on Zoom probably than were in person.

Sure. You played the guitar, you were picking and grinning and blessing us like crazy. It was pretty awesome. But you talked about kind of a very fascinating, you know, you showed up at the white church, the black church, the white church thing. Then you sing this awesome song, which we're going to play for everyone here in just a second. But talk about that dynamic, you know, being in Texas and the first time you ever went to a quote unquote white church.

Yeah. You don't know what you don't know until you know. And it's kind of one of those things where church for me, as I was saying this morning was a bit of a disconnect. There was a lot of things that were strange. The environment was strange for me as a young child because it was something different that didn't happen any other time. It was the one day a week where things were irregular. The schedules were irregular.

People's attitudes, actions, dress in all mannerisms of culture were irregular on that Sunday. And so I remember on very many occasions just being, you know, maybe a little bit put off with the church because the message seemed to be a pretty hard line. You know, you're you're bad, sin, bad, bad, bad, bad.

And I'm thinking, I don't really like this that much. But, you know, grew up in that environment where there's a lot of people who invested in me and took the time to, you know, download into my mind and understanding the fact that I needed Jesus and I needed the cross and got saved at the age of 12. And, you know, really began throughout my teenage years having a hunger and a thirst for the Lord and all of its components. And a lot of those things that I disliked about the church, I came to love about the church, especially the length of the services. And, you know, you grew up in black church. I mean, you're that thing all day long. And I remember on one particular occasion getting out of church and saying, I really wish that I could go to church more.

Like, I wish we could do this whole thing over. Like, I want the whole day and everything just to be devoted to reading scripture and singing songs and having this atmosphere. And someone told me that, hey, there is a church that meets in the evenings. And I thought, this is amazing. Let's let's go to church in the evenings.

We can do more of this. And I remember it was an all white church that we walked into, Brother Billy Johnson. This is Miller Heights Baptist Church.

And I was kind of shocked because now I'm completely out of my element. There's all white people who are here in this building. And I'm thinking, I didn't even really think about the fact that God saved white people.

Like, is that I guess that's the thing. And Brother Billy was so gracious and continues to be even to this day of allowing me to share my gifts there with the congregation. And he even let me preach sermons.

They were some of the worst sermons I think that I've ever heard before. But he let me preach to his congregation on Sunday evenings. And, you know, as we got to know each other over the years, he just invested a lot of time and development and understanding and support and encouragement in my life. And so literally, I was being discipled by all black church and a black pastor, David L. Norman, as well as Brother Billy Johnson at an all white church, Miller Heights Baptist Church, and grew up with those two streams of influence in my life. And so it led to a type of rich understanding that gave me a little bit of perspective of both worlds that were going on there and some of the things that the church, I believe, can bridge the gap in helping people understand about the truth of the gospel and how it brings us together.

Wow, that's really cool. And that's inspired a song. That and other things have inspired a song.

Sure, that's a lifelong work. There is some real racial, ethnic acrimony in the culture, challenges, people upset, systemic racism they're talking about. There's the Black Lives Matter movement. So you found yourself as a man of God, as an African American man of God, ministering in white churches, black churches, speaking truth to this and was refreshing. And everybody walked out the room today just saying, wow, what a refreshing perspective that you gave about how Christ is really the one that brings it all together, I guess. Yeah, well, I don't think that's a new perspective. That's 2,000 years of the making of Christ being that reconciler who brings us together and breaks down these barriers of sin and breaks down these areas where normally our culture would be the largest determinant of what happens. And now our communion with Christ becomes the point in the ground in which we can relate to one another.

And so hopefully they were encouraged by that. But I want to say I didn't break any new ground today. I didn't say anything new.

I said something very old that perhaps we've forgotten in some capacities or maybe we've moved away from or just not highlighted to the degree that we should have. You just took us back to the truth, to the gospel, to the core of truth. And that's what you did. You just took us back to something that, you know, to the Lord Jesus Christ and you take folks to him and to the cross where the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

Amen. So here's the song. Set the song up. The name of the song real quick.

We're going to play it right now. The song is called Black and White. And it begins with the lyrics, the most segregated time in our country is Sunday morning at 11 o'clock, a quotation that I heard from Martin Luther King. And I thought, well, this could be put to to lyric. And so myself and another songwriter by the name of Jeff Pearson wrote this song. And it's been wildly received, actually, in various places around the world. To my surprise of people who are not necessarily dealing with the black and white issue, but the alienation that happens in cultures all around the world and have resonated with the song.

And so it's black and white. Here it is. And the website for folks that want to get this will take this right.

This song right into our break is what? Well, they can find my music on any place where music is played or streamed. And then ErskineMusic.com is my website. Fantastic. And we'll put some pictures up on social media of us. And I got a video of you singing this song on my Instagram. Yes.

I got it from this morning. It'll be on there. If you want to go to Stu Epperson, at Stu Epperson, watch a video of it.

But be sure you get this music and share it with your pastor and have this guy come sing and speak and preach for your camp, your group, your church, whatever your club. Conferences, retreats. Yeah. Here it is.

Here it is. The song. Black and white. Black churches. White churches right next door. They're on the same block. Both with hands raised high to Jesus.

Still a million miles between us. Black people. White people. Remember the God who made you and me equal. And not some people, but all people. Remember the God who made you and me equal. We all want to walk with Jesus. We all want to be about His will.

How do we break down the unseen walls where bridges need to be built? A song may not change your mind, but Jesus won't let me keep it inside. Black people. White people. Remember the God who made you and me equal. And not some people, but all people. Remember the God who made you and me equal.

Maybe it all begins by not focusing on ourselves, but fixing our eyes on Him. Living our lives as free fields. Black people. White people. Remember the God who made you and me equal.

And not some people, but all people. Remember the God. Remember the God who made you and me equal. You and me equal.

You and me equal. Have guitar. We'll travel. We'll preach about Jesus. He is Erstin.

He's with me right now, erstinmusic.com. What a blessing you have been in my life. Thanks for your friendship in Christ. It's been awesome to...

It goes both ways. Well, play basketball, and then you minister, you encourage me and so many. Erstin, you're passionate about the gospel. I mean, at the end of the day, you've sung about a lot of things. You've played the trombone. You play all kinds of instruments. I don't know many people that went to college and both participated in the marching band and played college basketball at a high level. What was that like?

That was a pretty rich experience. I remember on one occasion, it was a week before classes started, and I was at summer marching band, and I remember walking down the hallway, and there were a group of, I know who they are now, but a group of saxophone players who were having a conversation in the hallway as I was walking by. They didn't know who I was. They'd never met me before, but they said, Did you guys hear a rumor that there's going to be a guy that's on the basketball team that's going to actually be in marching band? And a couple of them were like, That'll never happen. No one would do that.

Who would do that? And I thought, Oh, I guess they're talking about me. And so that was a really rich experience to be able to be in both worlds. Literally, I felt like both sides of my brain were lighting up at the same time on any given day, depending on where I was on campus. And now you strap that guitar on, and you get in front of thousands of people, hundreds of people, dozens of people, prisons, camps, churches, groups, everywhere. Yeah, a few people, many people.

It doesn't matter. If someone calls Erskine, goes to erskimusic.com or calls your team, and they have you come to their church, to their homecoming, to a concert, what do they get? What is your passion to deliver when you set foot on stage? Well, the coolest thing about what it is that I do is there's so many varieties of music that I write, so many different genres.

I write pop, country, hip hop, R&B, ballad, soul, children's music, EDM. I do so many different things that I can literally ask them the question, what is it that your organization or group or church is needing to have happen? If it's just a worship set and we're doing corporate worship, and that's great. I love doing that.

That's wonderful. If you need me to do original music in various genres or a particular genre, I'm usually equipped to be able to do those kind of things as well. Various groups have had me, like this summer. I did the Ten Killer Baptist Association in Oklahoma, and I was the camp pastor as well as the camp worship leader. That's a bit much, and so normally in those type of settings, I bring my band with me, and so they can shoulder some of the load on the music. But speaking events, singing events, camps, retreats, conferences, like I said, sidewalk performances. If they need to do block parties in the neighborhood, there's some people who use me in evangelistic settings like that as well. And house concerts.

And house concerts. That is so cool. So that's a lot of fun. But tell us about your family, wife, kids. Kelly and I, my wife, we've been married for almost 18 years now, and it's been a wonderful journey. We had talked about in our engagement what maybe some of the possibilities of music could be in our lives and what different types of ministry might look like. She served a couple of years overseas in Zimbabwe before we were married, and we just always knew that the Lord was going to use us perhaps in an unconventional way. We had no idea at the time what that was going to look like, and so we've been married for 18 years. Approximately about 12 years ago, my wife and I adopted our two kids, Jasmine and Justin, and so they've been a part of our family since then. And it's just been tremendous to be a foster home as well as an adoptive home and to be able to see literally waves of kids come in and us to be able to do various things to get them further along in life.

So that's been a neat journey for us. I love what you shared this morning about abortion is such a hot potato in our culture, and of course we're all pro-life. Thank goodness our parents were pro-life or we wouldn't be here, but in that same vein, you mentioned that, hey, I'm pro-life all the way through. Yeah, let's extend that.

Let's keep that energy. We need to make sure that we're contending for the lives of children to be born into this world, but in the environments that they're born in, we need to make sure that if there needs to be an intermediary that steps in and says, hey, we can provide a home, we can provide some resources, we can help in this area, that we're also as energetic about those things as well. And that's where you all have really been champions for foster care and for adoption, and a lot of folks out there need to adopt and raise a godly seed that way, that you can send out in the world and make a difference. We know that there's a lot of persecution in the world today for Christians, and that could be coming home to arrested America. And in some ways it already is, but Irskine, one of your latest songs talks about Jesus Christ being worth it. Can you set that up?

And you've got a bracelet that you're branching there on your wrist. Yeah, is He worth it? Is Jesus worth it? Yeah, so hopefully we'll get a chance to hear this song, but it all springs from the fact that in very many places in the world, even today, we have our brothers and sisters who are persecuted to the extent of being threatened to lose their lives, lose their livelihood, lose their family members, lose their culture, lose everything for the sake of following Jesus. And so why would a person who is facing that kind of persecution stand for Christ in the midst of that? It's because Jesus is worth it. What Jesus has done on the cross and how Jesus impacted our lives. We know that to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord.

And we know that sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared. And so that theme, I think, is one that resonates around the world. But perhaps, perhaps that will begin to resonate more in our lives, even here in America, as we perhaps go through some challenging times and go through difficult times to recognize we continue to keep the main thing, the main thing. And maybe in some ways, Stu, it will cause us to galvanize and come to the center of saying there's a lot of peripheral arguments that we've gotten ourselves into and majoring on the minors when, in fact, the gospel and making sure the truth of what we believe is the thing that we most contend for. And that would be a unifying force.

As strange as that sounds, that would be a unifying force. And so the song is, Is He Worth It? And it was written by Nick Ripken. It's a derivative of his book, The Insanity of God and The Insanity of Obedience. Both Nick and Ruth are dear friends of ours and we love just being able to partner with them in their ministry. So we're going to go out with this song, Is He Worth It? And one of the lyrics that really hit me with this song when I heard you sing it earlier is that we have the privilege of carrying His cross.

Never quite heard it put that way. What a privilege it is. Thank you for sharing the Christ through music and word. Well, thank you for using all the avenues of opportunity and influence throughout the radio to be able to tell the truth and to tell people yourself. So thank you for that. Amen. Well, here it comes.

Is He Worth It? Learn more about Erskine, his podcast, his programming, his awesome music, all of his records, and have him come speak to your group. You'll be thoroughly blessed at ErskineMusic.com. And now here's this latest song that will really challenge you to pray for the person of your church and to step boldly into the gospel yourself. Maybe it's time we start stepping up, because that's what really matters. Go on, still.

Get them. People need to hear that, man. So I'll let you tell them about it right now in the song, Is He Worth It? by Erskine right here. God bless you, brother. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Oh, this is no play. It's no Sunday school. Just give up now.

Don't be a fool. They cheered and laughed and said, Is He worth it? This is no lie. They stole my child.

They'd give her back if I just denied. The road seems long ahead. Is He worth it? Be the prize. Be the prize. This love demands a sacrifice. I'll give what I can't keep to gain what I can't lose. Count the calls.

Count the calls. It's a privilege to be on the cross. No matter what I face, my heart is certain. Life is for to ask you to make a choice. Give it all away for a great joy.

Nothing's better than Jesus. When the heavens open up and we see His face, standing there, yeah, we're gonna say He was worth every pain. Be the prize. This love demands a sacrifice. I'll give what I can't keep to gain what I can't lose. Count the calls.

Count the calls. It's a privilege to be on the cross. No matter what I face, my heart is certain.

Yeah, no matter what I face, my heart is certain. That He's worth it. Oh. Yeah, He's worth it. Oh. You