All Episodes
Previous Next
Jan. 22, 2025 - Stay Free - Russel Brand
26:37
BREAK BREAD EP. 11 - NATHAN FINOCHIO
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Does that thing give any heat up?
They can, but it's just...
Yeah, they're muted.
I knew that if I got a cut from the clubhouse that it would look like that.
I know.
Totally.
It looks like it was used once thrown.
Yeah.
Which is appropriate.
Entirely. Entirely. Entirely. Entirely. Entirely.
Entirely.
Thank you.
Is that the start?
How do you feel about him in general?
Like, this wasn't the first time, was it?
This is, like, kind of a straw that breaks the camel's back, kind of.
Is that a start or a ultra-back thing?
Yes, sir.
Well, on screen is the logo, guys.
Thank you very much.
And also, give me cues, cos otherwise I, like, sort of, like, yo, Russell, and just chat to me, like, normally, cos otherwise I'm, like, I feel like I'm...
Adrift.
Thanks.
Cool.
Hello.
Thanks for joining us, Nathan.
The pleasure is all mine, Russell.
Nathan, I've just come back from Washington, D.C. It's very interesting.
I want to talk to you about it.
I want to say hello first of all to everyone that's watching us on Rumble Premium.
And like that, you're going to have to turn your cans down, guys, or have your cans on your ears because I can hear other stuff.
Thanks.
And it's, yeah, hello to everyone watching me on Rumble Premium.
Hello all of you watching on Locals.
It's a really weird time in your country, Nathan.
Let me just tell people so that we have an intro for you.
You know, in case people don't know who you are, Nathan Finocchio is a Canadian-born theologian, author, and teaching pastor.
He's the founder of Theo, Theo, how do I say that?
Theosho.
Greek is a dead language, but you do whatever you want.
Yeah.
That's pretty good.
Theosu, because there's so many conversations about semantics at the moment, and it's only really mouth noises, but mouth noises could be an expression of the Holy Spirit.
Oh, we'll get into it.
Theoseminary institution...
Wow, hold on, look at all these things!
Founder of Theosu and Theoseminary institutions dedicated to providing accessible, theologically sound biblical education.
So if there's one conversation I need to have this morning, it's with you, because I do need accessible.
There's no point in being esoteric and confusing and designed to obfuscate and keep people on the outside.
I don't need that.
But I also need it to be theologically sound.
So, Nathan, I can see why you have...
We've accrued so much success reaching people that otherwise might not have the benefit of learning the deep truths that are available to us in the Holy Book.
But before we get into it, I've still got a bit more of the introduction.
This is still the introduction phase, Nathan.
Nathan has offered several books.
Hearing God eliminate myths, encounter meaning.
Oh, you've got good titles.
And killer church, why some just survive and others thrive in the presence of God.
His latest book, 30 Day Shred, this feels like departure, is a devotional reading for the entire Bible in a month.
It can't be done.
Nathan, you can't do the Bible in a month.
Can you?
It's being done.
Thousands of people do it every January with me.
Hold on a minute.
I'm doing it in a year and it's actually quite taxing.
I know.
And I think that the devil designed the yearly, the annual Bible reading plan.
You know, to heed contemplation on Christians, you can't show up.
And I don't think that we were designed for, like, a year-long season.
I think we're designed for a sprint.
Personally, I think reading the Bible in 30 days is way easier than reading in a year.
Hold on.
So, you're saying that the cycle of a year is, by its nature, pagan.
Like, it's a kind of cosmological reference to...
To go around the sun.
So why do you think it's sort of satanic and satanine?
But reading in a month, I'd have to do, but I'm just going to use maths here, I'd have to do 12 times as much reading per day, and I'd have to do it every day.
So how does the course work?
It's about two hours of reading, one to two hours of reading a day.
And, I mean, like, if you, like, stop doomscrolling, And, you know, quit Fortnite for 30 days.
Like, we can get it done.
It can be done.
You're right about that.
I mean, what are you actually doing?
I mean, it wouldn't hurt me to read the Bible for two hours a day.
But is that included, including embedded commentary and guidance?
Or is that two hours of pure scripture and then your stuff?
Yeah, so here's my take.
My take is that typically when we're reading devotionally, it's kind of like examining the leaves of Scripture.
And I think that one of the things that many people lack is context.
And so when you take in the Bible in 30 days, you're not mining for gold necessarily.
You're looking for hitting a vein.
So rather than looking at the leaf of the tree, you're looking at the shape of the tree.
And that will then inform the rest of your devotional reading.
So when you take it all in that quickly, it is more of a bus tour.
But you're going to see major themes in Scripture.
And I think that those...
Chesterton once said that a couple big ideas are way better than a lot of little ideas.
And I think that context is what is many times lacking in a believer.
So, those are my thoughts.
I suppose, Nathan, there are many ways that you could contextualize something, even contextualization itself, which feels like a general appeal to find objectivity, like context, like this is it as an object in context.
But see how something like the bishop, I can't remember her name, but the bishop that gave the sermon the other day, I reckon, I've not looked.
Although I have looked at some internet, but I've not looked at so much internet as to overwhelm me.
I bet there's some people saying that scripturally what she did was spot on and correct, and other people saying that it was sort of heretical or disrespectful or something.
And I feel like...
The only way that I would be able to travel through such a subject would be, as you've just described, and using the Chesterton example.
Jeff Cavins said to me, I think on this show, the plain things are the main things, and the main things are the plain things.
So, and also experientially when I'm encountering scripture, like if I sort of go, if I like word by word, break it down, not that I don't enjoy that when people tell you the Greek root and the various ways that could have been translated.
If I was trying to do that on my own every day, I think I would freak out.
But when all of a sudden after sort of just reading and trying my best to sort of go, okay, this is just narrative.
Say if it's Matthew or if it's something like demanding from the Old Testament where it could, say when it just suddenly does a lot of lineage and sort of history.
I'm like, oh, this is pretty demanding.
And then out of nowhere, I'll get hit with something that's like, oh, you're speaking to me deeply now.
Like, even today, in today's, I mean, Bible in a year, which you're now suggesting might be satanic worship, Nathan.
Like, when I was reading that this morning, it was like, he's saying, our Lord, he's saying...
Let me just get it right.
Like he's saying, the blind follow the blind.
It's that bit.
If you're following the blind, you both end up in a pit.
And Peter goes, can you break that down a bit?
And he goes, oh, come on!
Like, he says something like, are you so dull in my translation?
But I really felt, like, when I was reading it, I felt like Jesus is mucking around a little bit.
Like, he's going, how many times have I explained this to you?
Because then he goes on to say, what goes into your mouth comes out of your butt, more or less.
And then he goes, but what goes into your mouth comes out of your butt.
But what comes out of your mouth is coming from your heart.
And I really sort of felt the humour.
And grace in him.
And I really felt like permission to be who I am from him.
And it's not like all, you know, like then the next bit, like because he's doing Old Testament as well, it was a bit of, it was a little bit where Joseph, Joseph's brothers have come to see him and he's like...
I would say messing with their heads a bit.
Oh, there's silver in your backpack.
How'd that silver get in there?
How'd that goblet get in there?
Now that, I'm a bit more perplexed by and reflecting on.
I'm like, why is there this...
Aspect of Joseph that is, you know, I understand narratively why that might be because of their actions, but biblically, scripturally and spiritually didn't entirely get hit by it.
So I can see, Nathan, the validity of that approach, even with this new book.
Now, would you take us through the Eucharist or communion or break bread with us?
And will you lead it?
Because, hold on a minute, like, theologically sound biblical education.
And accessibility is exactly how I'd like to break bread and drink the blood today, if that's okay.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I like this.
I went sacramental in my 20s, meaning like I was raised in the Pentecostal tradition where the elements were sort of reduced to mere Symbolism.
You know, brought my own bread.
Thank you.
There's quite a lot of bread.
Are you not going to eat all of that, are you?
Well, I'm going to have to.
I mean, I can't do that.
So, I believe that there's power in communion.
And when, you know, the scriptures say that when Judas...
When did that happen?
this happens at the last supper yeah and so there's every time you eat a bit something's going to happen um in first corinthians 11 uh you know you got people that are dying in this church spiritually physically because they're not eating at the table of the lord in a in a worthy manner but rather in an unworthy manner And I remember that really messing with me.
And so, you know, in 1 Corinthians 10, yeah, you read this and you're like, okay, I'll never eat communion again.
1 Corinthians 10, Paul calls it the cup of blessing.
But then in 1 Corinthians 11, it becomes the opposite.
So for Judas...
You know, he eats, the devil enters into him, but then on the road to Emmaus, people eat and Christ is revealed.
And so, like, the first worship service in the Bible ever, people died.
Cain and Abel, you know, somebody died.
Nadab and Abi, who was the first priest in the Bible at the, you know, worship service, they die.
Uzzah.
David's bringing the ark of the Lord into Jerusalem, and Uzziah doesn't follow the order properly.
He dies.
Uzziah is a priest.
He's a king.
He tries to do priestly things.
He goes into the temple.
He dies.
And that's the Old Testament.
And some people would be like, well, I'm not an Old Testament Christian.
I don't need to worry about that because I'm on the other side of the cross.
It's kind of like there's Old Testament God, there's New Testament God, and Old Testament God is beating you with a phone book.
You know, in the interrogation room and then Jesus comes in and he's like, you know, hauling the father off of you and he gives you a cigarette and you're just like, thank you for saving me from that guy.
And that is sort of the dichotomy that many have with the Old Testament, New Testament.
But then if you continue to read the New Testament.
People keep dying at worship services.
Ananias and Sapphira.
And then you have the Corinthians.
And so I remember that kind of like messing with me.
And, you know, I believe in grace.
I believe in the grace of God.
But there's a way to eat and there's a way not to eat.
And the way to eat of the table of the Lord is to be, I'm a sinner.
I'm a mess.
I need you, God.
That's the appropriate way.
The way not to eat is to go, this is all about me.
Contextually, in 1 Corinthians 11, when people are eating at the table of the Lord in an unworthy manner, rich people were eating all the food, they're getting drunk, they're leaving nothing for other people, and they were making essentially Christianity or church, spirituality, all about themselves, about manifestation, rather than coming in and going, I'm a hot mess, I need God.
And I think that when we come to the table of the Lord and we break bread, And we eat the bread and we drink the wine and we go, God, in the Catholic Mass, there's this scripture that they read together and they say, they recite it before they take the Eucharist.
Lord, I'm not worthy that you should enter my home.
Only say the word and my soul will be healed.
And if we have that posture, then taking communion isn't just remembering Christ's death.
It's eating and drinking grace and power into your life that literally changes you.
And that's what sacramental means.
It means that this isn't just remembrance.
Somehow this mystically turns into grace when I eat it, and I desperately need grace.
Like, the table of the Lord is for sinners.
It's for people who need God and confess their need for Him.
And as we do that and we eat, somehow we're eating and drinking power into our life.
And that's what I mean by sacramental.
And once you go sac, you never go back.
Let's go.
Thanks, mate.
Will you talk us through it?
Yeah.
Thanks.
Yeah, so Jesus, he said, you know, take this in my body.
It's broken for you.
And so, you know, we break the bread and we just go, Lord, thank you for your broken body.
We desperately need your broken body.
And we thank you that, you know, your body.
He who knew no sin became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God.
So, Lord, we thank you for your broken body.
Russell and I, we need it, and we eat it today in faith, knowing that your power and your grace is coming into our life in Jesus' name.
Thank you, Father.
Thank you.
And then we take the cup.
Blessings.
And Jesus, we thank you that you tasted blood so that we could taste the wine of life.
And so we drink it today just thanking you.
By his stripes, we are healed.
Amen.
Thank you, Nathan.
Since coming to Christ, I've been experiencing...
I think my mic's too hot, guys, and I think you should bring it down 20%.
From where it is now, there's a lot of comments about hot mics, so just bring it down about 20%.
Isaac, give them notes on whether or not that's worked.
Cheers, thanks very much.
Since coming to Christ, or Christ coming to me, what I've been surprised by is the...
Because some people are saying, Russ was a noisy eater, my mic's too heavy.
You can't be objective about sound when you're receiving it via a conduit.
You can only be objective about sound when you are in the presence.
If you receive the message via even technological means, you don't know what amplification and interpretation has taken place.
I am not a noisy eater, and you must experience Jesus within you as flesh.
Those are the two points that can be made.
Right there.
Thanks, man.
And what's happened to me lately...
It's weird to say this.
I'll see if I can make sense of it.
I feel like I'm experiencing Christ in ways that are really astonishing and surprising me.
This is as best as I can understand it.
There was a day where I was in an airport in Nashville, Nashville Airport, a couple of weeks ago, and I felt like this is how it came in my mind.
I see them as he sees them.
Now, normally, that would be super narcissistic.
Super narcissistic thing, because I'm sort of saying I'm seeing how God sees.
But it didn't feel like that.
It didn't feel like...
Oh, blessed are my children.
It felt like, oh my God, everyone's beautiful.
Everyone's really trying their best.
And it just happened all of a sudden.
I was in an airport and these kids were off on a ski holiday.
And everyone I encountered, I saw the beauty.
Even the person as I was putting my shoes in the tray thing, who was overly authoritative.
I was just like, oh, and they're being how they're meant to be.
It didn't touch me.
It didn't touch me.
And there's other things happen where I'm seeing in people, in others, I'm pointing at Jake here, who I work with, who produces the show, where I sort of see the sort of valor and strength of Christ and feel like, oh, there's such beauty in people.
There's such beauty in people.
And it's, like, it's not, like, normally in the past, if anything happened to me, I felt it was kind of about me.
So it either elevated me or somehow degenerated or...
Forgive the word.
Desecrated me.
But now, I feel like it's nothing to do with me.
I'm just sort of at it.
I'm just a living sacrifice.
Continual renewal of the mind.
Like, I am a tabernacle.
So, like, when I'm at this thing in Washington, I've just been in Washington, D.C. It's so overstimulating and overwhelming.
The thing that most impacted me is that I was at an event called Helping a hero, right?
I think that's the name because I'm still not satisfied that whatever their name is, it doesn't land good as a name.
You should name their organization.
I mean, because Theos U and Theos Seminary, good, but the books in particular, Hearing Good, Eliminate Myths, Encounter Meaning and Killer Church, and 30 Day Shred, good names.
I'll remember 30 Day Shred.
Anyway, like, but...
Even though I might have my criticisms of the name, and what do I know?
Sorry, because they might watch this one and go, we've worked hard on that name!
Meredith, who runs that organization, that build adapted homes for war veterans, as well as the veterans I met there that day, Daniel, Amos, Jason, Ox, many others.
It was a beautiful and overwhelming experience that pulled together so many things.
Don't say to me I need a quiet day.
I'm actually trying my hardest.
I'm working.
I'm working.
As I was told by a very great director, what's his name?
Ian Rickson.
If you are tired, you bring your tiredness.
And he said that as a director.
Before, you know, the Lord, you give it all to him.
You give it all to him.
Now, I recognize that scripturally there is a day of rest, and there will be one.
But today, I have an appointment with Nathan, and I do my appointment with Nathan, because if you get a gas bill for $60, that's God's way of saying, pay a gas bill for $60.
Unless you've concluded that there's an evil government, you know, sort of controlled by Luciferian forces, in which case you might want to oppose them.
And you will determine...
Which side of government you would evaluate?
Unless you've surrendered to God absolutely, then you wouldn't even have an opinion on that, seeing it as somehow trivial.
Anyway, so at that event, they're helping a hero, home for a hero, help a hero, help a hero have a home, where they build adapted homes for war veterans.
I met double amputees and a man, Zero, with facial burns from an explosion.
But what...
What really was amazing is because their proximity to Christ was so vivid, Nathan, and real, quickly all melted away.
All melted away.
Like, I mean, the disabilities became...
Obviously irrelevant.
And because they were so robust in him and so powerful.
And it struck me that the warrior's life is more pronounced and concentrated and that's why in culture we're drawn to warriors and criminals and why their stories and narratives are so fascinating.
And to hear of such extreme and bizarre and awful suffering and then to see its results clarified in me what the nature of suffering is about and where suffering can take you.
And I felt so gifted and blessed to be with them.
And that thing happened, Nathan.
After, like, the lady Meredith who was running the event sort of went around the room pointing at, and this is Jason, and he's now sort of an athlete for the Warriors events, and this is Oz, and he lost his leg.
Like, you know, I'm not remembering the correct injuries to person, but I, like, was starting to get, like, emotional, right?
And then when it got to Amos, like...
She went like his father died, his brother died in service, and then he was injured in combat.
I looked at him, this young man, he was like 30, and he had both boy and man in him.
And he was sort of big and strong, but kind of boyish in the face.
And as soon as I looked at him and heard that, I nearly started crying immediately.
Immediately.
And obviously it's a pretty tragic thing that was being described, but it wasn't that.
It wasn't the data.
It was this feeling that I got from this young man.
I was at the stage, and I'd already been up on the stage.
I'm talking at an event, and I've been funny for five minutes, and I've been sort of wacky appropriately, and I've established rapport and intimacy well in the room, just so you know.
And then I recognised that this is about talk to people, talk to people, and hear this stuff.
And you know if you're in church, or for you, or at an event, I suppose also for you, Nathan, If you are touched, it can be kind of beautiful to show that, like to reveal that you are touched because what is that feeling?
That's some Holy Spirit gear right there, like something passed between us, something passed between us.
But there's a point where if you tip over the threshold, like it might become, well, frankly, unprofessional.
And I nearly moved from, oh my God, that's so beautiful, to my own sorrow being unlocked.
And when I was right on that edge of that, right, I'd sat back down again in my chair.
And this geezer, Amos, he was standing and I was sitting and he put his arms round me.
While I was still sitting.
And you know how that can be awkward?
Like if someone's giving you a ride and you might give them a hug to thank them for the ride and you're both sitting down, it's almost like you might as well have a French kiss.
Like the body language can be so terrible.
And a hug between people that are sitting and standing can be difficult.
But instead of letting it be awkward, he just sort of pulled me up.
He pulled me up and held me up like that.
And it wasn't sort of...
Disrespectful, like you might pull up a puppet or a sack of potatoes.
He raised me up.
Come on, we're standing up.
And it was beautiful.
It was beautiful.
Then he told his story, which I won't repeat here, but we filmed it, so you will see at some point.
By the end of his incredibly moving and gracious story, which was sort of laden with constellation and coordinates that...
Touched him and provide the channel for him to be in that room.
At the end, just as he said at the end of his story, like when he finally went through, he'd been through his hero's journey and despair.
He'd met the mentor and was being given the information.
He was given by the mentor this information.
Look up what your name means.
Because the Lord knew when he told your parents to call you Amos, like what you would be and who you would be.
And the guy says, and I looked in the book.
And it's Amos says, and his voice breaks, and he goes, able to carry.
And as he said that, he began to sort of weep, and I did back what he had done at the beginning.
And when we look around, there's a standing ovation.
It's only less than 100 people in the room.
This is not some big fancy event.
And I felt, oh, God is here.
God is here.
▲
Export Selection