God told me to close my business and start a podcast

Because love has to be chosen. If God appeared in full, people would worship out of fear. He reveals Himself to anyone who honestly asks.

Be honest. Tell God you don't believe, tell Him what you're angry about, and ask Him to show you He's real. A mustard seed of faith is enough to start.

So the result points to Him. Moses couldn't speak well and the disciples were fishermen and a tax collector; what they did could only be explained by God.

From YouTube's captions; small mishearings are possible.

0:00Welcome everybody to this podcast. My name is Adam Asenzo. And I would welcome you to the name of the podcast, but as of now, I don't have one yet. Um so, I'm praying that it it comes to me in the right time. Um but I just want to welcome you all in. And to begin, I just want to say that this is the last thing I would ever thought I'd be doing. But I believe this is what God has called me to do. When I say I never thought I would be doing what I'm doing right now, it's because this is the absolute last thing I personally would love to do if you left it up to me. Um but I've learned over the years that when God calls you to do something,

0:46there's no point in running from it. And I'm trying to face this head-on and do exactly what he's calling me to do um the first time. Because when you're disobedient, you learn very quickly um that God is not pleased with that. So, of course, if this is where he's leading me, he's going to back me. He's going to bless me. He's going to carry me. He's going to show me how to do it. He's going to equip me with the people, the equipment, the ideas, everything that I need to do this. And so, that's what I'm trying to do. And he has led me here. It was a very unexpected command from him. Um

1:32For a backstory, I've been in the furniture business for about 6 years now. I've got my own furniture business. Uh we've been here locally in the Boston area serving uh thousands of customers at this point now. Um I have watched this business grow. I've met a lot of different people. I've worked with a lot of different people. We've had different partnerships and relationships. And it's been a blessing. It's been a learning experience, but he asked me to shut it down. And I was not happy. I'm going to be honest with you. I It was unexpected. I It's not the thing that I wanted to do. I prayed about this business.

2:18I believed this business was going to go farther and farther, grow and grow. I was planning on having my own showroom in the Boston inside or close to Boston pretty soon. Um hire more people. We had uh partnerships with brand names. It was something that I had prayed about and looked at as my future for my family, for my my my children. And when he told me to shut it down, I didn't know what was coming. I didn't know where he was going to take me to next, but I have faith in him. And he has shown me before when I am obedient to him and I listen, he takes me to great things and great

3:03places and great people. So, that's what I'm doing. I have never really recorded my own podcast other than one time long time ago with a friend of mine. Um it was just about sports. We did one one episode and that was it. And here I am doing this now, but I'm thankful. I'm excited. I know he's going to lead me in this. And I just pray if I can touch one person's heart and lead him to the beautiful knowledge of God, that is worth it in itself. So, that's what I'm here to do. Now, why would God pick

3:50me to do a podcast when I don't do well at public speaking? Well, all throughout the Bible, that's what he does. God will take somebody who is the least likely person to be able to do this. Moses. God chose Moses to lead his people that he chose to reveal himself to the world through the Israelite people who were living in captivity as slaves in under the Egyptian [clears throat] rule at the time. And he came to Moses and said, "Moses, I have chosen you to lead my people out of captivity." And Moses basically said to God,

4:36"You've got the wrong guy. There's no way that I am the one to lead other people. I can't even speak that well." People say theologians say that he had a uh speech impediment. He wasn't even good at speaking. He said, "My brother Aaron is way better suited for this. He's great at public speaking. Choose him." But God said, "No, Moses, I chose you. I created you to do this. I made you. I know you can do this. That's why I'm picking you. I could have picked anybody." And God used him mightily. Jesus. He picked 12 disciples to go with him, live with him, learn

5:22underneath his tutelage. And the 12 he chose, you would think he would choose the smartest, most educated people, the wealthiest, the ones with the best social relationships. No. He chose, for example, Matthew was a tax collector. At that time, tax collectors were reviled. People hated them. He chose fishermen. He didn't choose the people you would typically pick. Why did he do that? If he's God, why wouldn't he just pick the best people to to do the the best possible work that you could ask them to do? Well, God's trying to reveal himself to the the How does he do that? How does he bring himself the most

6:08glory? The way he brings glory to himself and reveals himself to this world even more is by choosing people that are the last possible people that are going to do this because when he changes them and he lifts them up and he helps them everyone that knew those people they'll look at them and say, "There's no way they could have done that. I know that person. I grew up with that person. There's no way they could have done that." It had to have been God. That's who he chooses and that's why he chooses those people. So, he's going to pick someone who has never done anything like this and hates the even thought of it

6:54and he's going to make him speak because it's him moving through me and speaking through me. So, I'm just leaning on him and I know he's going to do it through me as he's done so many times. He's done mighty things through me and so many of the other people that I know that follow him. And when I think up and when I was thinking about what could I possibly talk about in this first podcast episode? Why do I think God asked me to do this? And the thing that I can only think of that's been in my heart for a very long time is people just don't understand him.

7:39People don't understand Jesus. People don't understand God. People don't understand the Bible. People don't understand why any of this. I mean and when I thought about it and as I started to think about and as I finally accepted that I had to shut down my business and I'm going to pursue this for him. I started asking myself, "Okay, like what am I going to talk about in my first podcast? What could I What does God want me to talk about? Why am I doing this?" And I just thought about the thing that's been on my heart for a very long time that people just don't understand

8:26what the purpose of any of this is. What is the purpose of the Bible? What is the purpose of God? What is the purpose of Jesus? I didn't understand any of it myself. It drove me nuts when people would talk about it cuz I didn't get it. I thought it was foolishness, it's a joke, it sounds silly, it sounds like make-believe. I grew up in the Catholic faith. I was baptized as a baby. I did all the classes growing up. I got my first communion, my confirmation. I went to Catholic school in high school for a few years and I took classes on memorizing who the people were, memorizing verses,

9:11but nobody ever helped me understand how does any of this relate to me? It just felt like I was reading a you know, a a nursery story, like a you know, a folk tale. Like it didn't seem like this is this actually happened. And God revealed all of it to me um as he brought me to a Pentecostal church um later on in my life and not to say that any branches are better than any others. I believe that there are great things that all these different branches are doing and there's also bad things that all these branches are doing. Um but even still we're all one church and I love

9:56every single brother and sister um exactly the same. And God revealed the answers to me as I grew older and he brought me to a Pentecostal church through through a a girlfriend of mine at the time. And that opened my eyes big time. It it changed me. It marked me forever. And the whole point of all of it is one thing. The God of the universe the creator of all things creator of you and I wants a relationship with us. That's it. It's literally a love story.

10:41And we get distracted and we over complicate a lot of times. Because I mean there's a lot in the Bible um that takes time to understand and but at the end of the day it is a story about the God of the universe created something that he could have a relationship with. He created children. And you might think why if God is real and you want a relationship with me and you wanted a relationship with these people, why wouldn't he just reveal it to us? And you might think, okay, if

11:26God is real, why wouldn't he just come here and show up and reveal himself to us if he really want a relationship with with me or or all of us? Well, to begin, in the Bible, the very very first chapter in Genesis, that is how it was. Him, Adam, and Eve lived together in the garden. He lived amongst his his creation. Until sin came in and we turned our back on God. That drew us from him. God is holy and pure and perfect. With the fall of mankind and the original sin, Adam and Eve we have turned our back on God.

12:11And because God is so pure and so holy, he cannot be around something that is not the same. And from that moment we were defiled. And so he separated himself from us. But he still loves us and he chases after us. And the way I explain it to a lot of people is for example, if you had a wife or husband and you guys were together 10, 20, 30 years and after all that time, someone came to you and told you that they paid your spouse to love you and to marry you and to spend all this all these years

12:56with you. Would you want to be with that person anymore? No. Absolutely not. Love at the end of the day it's only love if you have a choice. God is not going to force us to love him. If you were God, out of all your people, who would you want with you? Those that chose you or those that were forced to choose you? If he came down right now and revealed himself to us, when we just saw him right here, we'd all bow down out of fear.

13:41Why would you want that as a He calls himself the father. Not only our God, but our father. He wants to be our father. Our We are his children. He's not going He's not going to show up because we're going to out of fear worship him. He wants us to choose to love and worship him out of our choice. That's the only way it's love because we choose to love him back. Those are the people he wants to spend an eternity with. That's the whole point of this life. A choice to love him. And you may say, "No way. This is too much. I've needed God in the past.

14:27He did not show up for me. I'm angry with him. I don't believe it makes sense." But if you're like I was where it just seems like foolishness. It just seems like something to for people to hold on to to have hope cuz this life can be difficult sometimes. And you might have questions, "Why did he not show up for these difficult things I went through in the past? Why did bad things happen?" You might have a million questions, a million reasons why you don't even want to give him a chance. But I promise you, if you give him one honest prayer,

15:14that's all I'm asking. If you sit with him tonight, and it doesn't have to be any formal prayer of >> [snorts] >> feeling like you have to recite anything or say what he wants you to hear or say what you think he wants to hear. Look, he knows you. He knows your heart. He made you. The Bible says he knitted you in your mother's womb. He knows you. He created everything about you. He knows your brain. He knows your heart. He knows your thoughts. He knows all the things that you've been through. And and for that reason, there's no point in trying to sit there and and say what you

16:00think he wants from you. No. Tonight, sit with him. And be honest with him. Be vulnerable and raw. Just say, "God, I don't believe in you. I'm angry with you. All the things that you have in your heart, he can take it. He knows it already. Be open and honest with him and say, "God, show up if you're real. Show me that you're real." And I promise you he will. The Bible says we only need a mustard seed of faith.

16:46And if you look at a mustard seed, it's like the smallest thing you could ever imagine. It says with a mustard seed of faith, we can say to that mountain, "Move from there to there." And it will be done. All he's looking is a mustard seed of faith in your heart, and he will show up. And he knows exactly the way to show up too, cuz he knows what you think. He knows what will catch your attention the most. The way he shows up for me is different than the way he shows up for you and and everybody else. But he'll show up. He'll make it known that he's real. He'll make it known. He'll make it known to you in some way. But it takes your submission. It takes your willingness to try.

17:31It takes your willingness to come to him. The Bible says, "Knock and the door will be opened to you. Seek and you will find." That is exactly how faith works with him. >> [clears throat] >> Knock on the door in prayer. God, I'm here. I don't believe it, but I'm here. And watch what he does. Now, I've talked a lot about God. Who is this Jesus guy? How does he have anything to do with this story if God wants a relationship with us? Um to explain in the most simple terms possible, it's the gospel. The gospel is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And it's the four

18:17eyewitness accounts of four of his closer disciples um giving their account individually. Each one of them gives their own account of what they saw in their own words with living and and watching Jesus die and resurrect. And the reason Jesus was sent here was because what I mentioned earlier when the fall of man happened in the garden we have fallen away from holiness and pureness away from God and he had to separate himself from us cuz he's so holy, so pure, so perfect his it would kill us. So the entire story from Genesis to

19:02Revelation is God bringing his people back to him. God is called many things. God, father Lord He's also called the great judge. He's called that because he's a father and he's a judge. Cuz he's still God. He loves us like a father, but he's still God. And when there is a crime, just as I if I commit a crime tonight I have to pay that punishment. Even if I'm a good person even if I've done a lot of great things and helped people and gave to the poor,

19:48I still committed a crime. I still deserve consequence and punishment for that crime. No matter how A lot of people think that we deserve to be in heaven because we are good people and a lot of us are do good things, but in God's eyes who is like I said pure and holy we have all committed if we've committed one sin, we've committed all of them in his eyes. If we've committed one [clears throat] sin we are impure. We are we are not holy like he is and he cannot be with us unless we are holy with him again.

20:35So in the Old Testament so the only way to bring us back to him is for someone to take that punishment. I have sinned countless times. I still fall into sin. We all do. There's if anyone tells you in this world that they are they don't sin or they're perfect, they're a great person we've all sinned. Even me who tries to seek God in so many ways, I still fall short every day. The only way God could bring us back to him

21:20was for someone to take that punishment and he did not want it to be us. He loves us so much that he did not want us to take what we deserve. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. We were That's what we deserve. God gave us life and a life to live and he put us in a beautiful Earth. And we turned our back on him from the very beginning. And we deserve separation from him. Every time we sin. From the very beginning, we deserve

22:05eternal separation from him. But he loves us so much that he decided to take that consequence and that penalty on himself. He limited himself. God, all powerful limited himself and came here as a human amongst us. Lived a perfect life for 33 years. Never sinned. That's why they call him the spotless lamb. Jesus lived a perfect life. He never sinned cuz he was God and he was also man at the same time. And he took the penalty for our sins

22:50on the cross and took the most brutal death you could ever imagine. If you don't believe me, look it up. Look up the things that they did to him. The Passion of the Christ was child's play to what the Bible actually says happened to him. He took every single person's, you and I and every person that's ever lived, all of our sins upon himself on the cross. Offering us to be holy in his sight again. Pure and blameless. All we have to do is accept him and through his son, Jesus Christ. That's it.

23:37If we believe in him and what he did for us, he's offering us to be able to come back and be with him once again for eternity in paradise. That's what heaven is. That is the story of this entire thing. You've heard about Jesus and God your whole life. That's the whole reason we're here. And you might say, "Hey, I believe in science. I'm going to believe this God that came here and there are hundreds and hundreds of eyewitness accounts of Jesus being real, doing what he said he did,

24:25and the miracles are still continuing to happen to this day. And each one of his believers' lives is enough for me to believe what he said he did, he did. But, if you believe in science and you believe that two rocks hit each other in space and now we have all of this, we have consciousness, we have music, we Why do we cry? Why do we laugh? Why do we love? Where did all this come from? You can't tell me that it was from two rocks hitting each other. God is good. And I'm just going to speak of his goodness on this podcast and I pray that you

25:10would listen. If I have one soul that listens and it touches your heart and it plants a seed, that is enough. So, yeah, that is basically what I'm going to be doing for the rest of this podcast, um, wherever God leads me. But, I'm just thankful for this time and I'm thankful for what you watching. And yeah, if you have any ideas on what I should name this podcast, leave them down in the comments cuz right now I have nothing, but I know I know it'll come in the right time. So, I just thank you and uh I look forward to all the other episodes that are to come. So, yeah, let's just wrap this up with prayer. Um, I thank you, Lord, for every single person on the other side of this this camera. I thank you for for their

25:57willingness to listen to this. I thank you, Lord, uh for their lives. I thank you, Lord, for the things that you will do, Lord, through this podcast. I thank you, Lord, for this opportunity um to put me here, Father. I thank you for this these ideas um and this equipment, Lord, you've given me the the the means to even record this. I just pray, Lord, that you would touch someone on the other side of this this camera, Lord. Um, just plant a seed, Lord, um that does mighty things in their life. I pray, Lord, that they would take the time to sit with you, Lord, and be honest, Lord, speak from their heart and tell you, Lord, what they're feeling cuz you already know. You know what they're thinking, you know where their heart is, you know that they may be far from you, Lord, but you're always waiting. You're always waiting. You never leave us. You never forsake us, you say in your word. Um so, I just pray, Lord, they they give

26:43you that that even if it's one prayer. I pray you answer that prayer and you show up for them. You do whatever it takes, Lord, to get their attention. And I just thank you, Lord, for the mighty things you'll do through this podcast. And I pray for the name. In Jesus mighty name I pray. Thank you, Lord. Amen.