Seal Attacked In Huntington Beach

00:00 - Speaker 1
Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture.

00:09 - Speaker 2
Hey everybody, you might find this to be a very interesting podcast. Sitting down with a US Navy SEAL having spent his time for our freedoms, and now he's out and about fighting a new fight, and it could very well involve you. So stay tuned. I think this is going to be awesome and it could very well involve you, so stay tuned.

00:27 - Speaker 1
I think this is gonna be awesome. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com/podcast Today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five-star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's Word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.

00:55 - Speaker 2
Well, everybody, we have a great guest with us today, and I've actually looked forward to this, because to hear what he has to say and to see what he has to do before him is something that is just in his wheelhouse. It's always something that God has put upon him to be a doer of what is right, what is good, and we're going to be talking today to Chad Williams, and we're excited. Chad, it's awesome to have you here.

01:26 - Speaker 3
Thank you so much for having me on.

01:27 - Speaker 2
So what I want you to do, I want the people to get to know you on several fronts. I mean just globally, and we'll talk about that, but by the time we come to the end, more specifically, what I would say locally, of course you know what I'm talking about regarding this, but give us a little bit. First introduction, who in the world is Chad Williams? And with that I'll just tee it up. If anywhere that you miss something, I'm going to say but tell them this, okay, but who's?

01:59 - Speaker 3
Chad Williams, I think, probably one of the big highlights of former US Navy SEAL, and most people watching probably know what a Navy SEAL is. But there was a time where back home a girl asked me if it meant that I worked at SeaWorld or something, as she put it. But what most might know, seal it's actually an acronym and it stands for our areas of operation. We operate in the sea, in the air and on land, and the last deployment I was involved in we were out in Iraq and we were given the task of hunting town men that make suicide vests and roadside bombs, and these are real awful characters. Oftentimes the guys that manufacture these suicide vests aren't very motivated to actually be the one to strap it on themselves. In fact, they have such a difficult time finding somebody to volunteer to raise their hand for that position. In one instance they couldn't find anybody. So what they resorted to doing is they went and they found two mentally handicapped women and strapped these vests onto them as they pushed them off into a crowded marketplace and they watched from a distance as they set it off with the remote, killing these women and obviously so many more.

03:04
So this kind of gives you an idea of the type of characters that we're up against, and I remember the last operation I was ever involved in.

03:10
We're going after a man that was an Iraqi policeman by day but bomb maker by night, loading up the vehicles and I'm kind of going over all of the I know's the checks in my mind.

03:22
I know where this guy lives, I know how we're getting in, I know my weapon is headspace and time. I got the 50 caliber machine gun in front of me and for those of you that might not know, let's just say that's a weapon that could really reach out and touch somebody looking through that green little world. And then I thought to myself and I also know this is it. This is the final operation, which also means just a matter of days from now I'm going to be back in my hometown, huntington Beach, california, surfing in the ocean. But what none of us really knew about that night was that we were actually being set up the entire time to get thrown into the absolute worst circumstances. We'd been in on this entire deployment as we found ourselves set up on an ambush and now suddenly we're engaging in this gun battle for our lives, and it truly was the team's ability.

04:06 - Speaker 2
Was it late or did somebody expose your operation?

04:10 - Speaker 3
It was the source of information that we believe that told us about that Iraqi policeman. They get paid for that information. I think that he saw an opportunity to maybe double down on that and he perhaps back channeled the information around to that Iraqi policeman that hey, they're coming for you. So he was set up with his buddies, he was waiting for us and we're taking effective fire from three different directions, meaning the rounds are being very effective. We're in this gun battle for our lives and it was the team's ability to operate as a united front to shoot, move, communicate, do what we do best that led to a pretty obvious conclusion. I'm here, I'm standing alive before you, sitting alive before you, but it's also worth remembering that it doesn't always work out that way. That's right, you know. We need to remember that our freedoms aren't free and when you consider the costs, what are they paid for in?

04:58 - Speaker 2
One could say paid for in the currency of our soldier's blood on the battlefield and of our soldier's blood on the battlefield, and there's certainly spiritual truth and application to that as well, because we know eternal freedom isn't free, it's paid for in the currency of the Savior's blood at the cross, amen. Wow, you know this is crazy. I wasn't going to mention this, but what you just said, I just finished today a new book and it goes off to the publisher now. A new book and it goes off to the publisher now. And the last closing argument that I make is a commissioning in this book, and the book is entitled, or I think. I think the title of the book will be something like, um, bold faith. But I end, and I was inspired driving out of San Diego over the bridge to Coronado, I looked to my left and there was the USS Michael Monsoor heading out.

05:46 - Speaker 3
Yes.

05:47 - Speaker 2
And I saw that and that was actually the inspiration for the end of the book that I just finished today and I went through his last few hours of his life, right and Ramadi, and how it was nothing for him in an instant, trained as a SEAL to cuddle that grenade that they threw up onto the roof and it hit him in the chest, he dropped to the deck, he curled up around it, took that blast and saved his Navy SEAL brothers and a couple of Iraqi soldiers as well.

06:25
But the point is in the end and you just said it is that selfless love is exactly what Jesus Christ did for us. There's a part of the divine People don't often think about that that when you're in battle like that, you're giving yourself to the point You're in a foreign land, you're wondering if anybody knows where you're at on the planet, and it's very selfless because you are engaged to not only hopefully walk out at the end of the day alive, but to preserve the freedoms of your nation. Very few people realize that they, you know you said in a matter of days you'd be back home surfing at the pier, right. A lot of people don't realize that for people to be surfing at the pier today, or at the mall or going to work or having a day off, is because there have been people just like you.

07:15 - Speaker 3
It's very easy to take for granted. I certainly did at a young age, surfing at the pier as a kid. I think the wake-up call for me it took junior year in high school. That's when 9-11 happened and that's when I began to realize that freedom isn't just some built-into-life, this is just the way it is default position Wow, that there really is evil out there that lurks. It's a spirit of evil. It's that desire to steal, kill and destroy. It's the desire of the terrorists. It's those that just sometimes want to watch things burn. And one of the things about Mikey's story that some people don't know Michael Monsoor, the one that jumped on that hand grenade is that he had the opportunity to save himself.

07:55 - Speaker 2
That's right, I read it. He was the closest to the exit.

07:58 - Speaker 3
Closest to the exit. It was just a step pivot away. He could have saved himself. He yelled out grenade to those guys so that they could take some form of cover as he threw himself over the top, covering it, absorbing the blast on himself. And I think that's a picture of what Jesus did at the cross. You know, jesus was never in trouble or in the crosshairs of God's judgment. You know we were really in the impact zone of where the consequences of that shrapnel is coming. But Jesus, in a sense, he didn't cover a hand grenade, but what he did cover, he covered the consequences of our sin at the cross so that we could live, so that grenade was never Mikey's problem, it was really the other's problem and sin was never Jesus' problem. It's always our problem. But what a picture of John 15, 13,. Greater love has no one than this one that lays down his life for his friends.

08:44 - Speaker 2
Absolutely. Yeah, I think again. I think it's divine-like, even though we are fallen creatures. I like the way CS Lewis looks at it is that there's still enough residual of God's image in us where there is this act of selfless response. You know, it's amazing. People you might be thinking. I don't know if that's true or not. You know, I mean, if you're at the beach, for example, and you see a little 10-year-old out there drowning, you're going to get up and go. You're just going to get up and go. I can't imagine anybody sitting on the shore, you know, letting this little guy drown. There's just something within us. Well, that's something. Think about it. That's something is what we got from our God. I mean, he, from the beginning, predetermined that when man would fall he would die. For us, that's right, absolutely epic.

09:41 - Speaker 3
Think about this too. It's actually criminal if you sit there and watch somebody drown. It's depraved indifference. That's right. You have the ability to do something about it, but you don't. And kind of in a similar way, there's even been self-acclaimed atheists that have noticed there's something similar about that in Christianity Penn Jillette.

10:00
He made a video Gifts of the Bible and he says look, I'm not a Christian, but he questions Christians. He says how could you believe that there's a heaven and a hell, or that some people could get everlasting life and others might not? And you think it's not really worth telling them about this because it might make things socially awkward. He says how much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them about it? And he says if I believed a truck was coming at you, and you don't believe the truck is coming at you? He says there's a certain point where I will tackle you.

10:31
And he says and this is more important than that. So we say, hey, look, christian, I don't believe what you believe, but if you believe it, wow, how much do you have to hate somebody? Because if we take Jesus' words at face value, we are looking at a drowning world and a lot of them don't even realize the current that they're in. But we know that, left to their own, they are going to drown, they go down and we have the life-saving message. We could be those lifeguards to share that message.

10:57 - Speaker 2
That's exactly right.

10:58 - Speaker 3
You know, I hope one day God doesn't, you know, say any of us are guilty of that depraved indifference. And God doesn't say any of us are guilty of that depraved indifference. And I think the principles there in Ezekiel 3, where he talks about the son of man, he says when I give you a word to warn the wicked to flee from their wicked way and you don't share it, they will still die in their iniquity. But their blood I will require at your hand. That's right, but if you do share it, and they don't turn.

11:20
At least your hands are washed.

11:22 - Speaker 2
You're exactly correct, blow the trumpet of warning. So, hb, being home, growing up on the coast, in the waves and the water, I'm just curious. I'm asking this, how much of that childhood played into you being a?

11:41 - Speaker 3
successful SEAL. I think it was extremely helpful because I was very comfortable in the water. You never get comfortable with the cold, but you know nothing about being tossed around and big waves like that. That's my playground right there, and I had the opportunity to be mentored by the most extraordinary Navy SEAL there ever was. I mean I'll say Scott Helvenston. He's the youngest man to ever make it through SEAL training. He completed the program at 17. He's a world champion panathlete. He's the youngest man to ever make it through SEAL training. He completed the program at 17. He's a world champion panathlete. He's the fastest SEAL on the SEAL training obstacle course. He was the only man to beat the Beast on a TV program called man vs Beast. He raced a chimpanzee through an obstacle course and pulled ahead of this monkey on the monkey bars. I mean, you can't make it up any better.

12:31
In normal cases that's not a big deal to say I beat a monkey, but this is a big deal. On monkey bars oh yeah, I took the monkey bars from the monkey and so you can imagine what it's like for him to be mentor. I mean, he really took me under his wing. How did that happen? Well, it was kind of a funny setup. It really was supposed to be something that was intended to discourage me from going after becoming a SEAL, because it makes sense. You know, I literally dropped out of junior college. I told my dad bad news, good news. Bad news is I'm failing all my classes and of course he wants to know his dad. Okay, what's the good news? Well, I'm snapping my finger, saying that's all right, dad, I'm going to be a Navy SEAL. And he's looking at me thinking, all right, you know he's talking to me, saying, son, you know, you haven't. You haven't shown the discipline it takes to make it through the local community college and now you think you're going to go be a Navy SEAL.

13:11
And I'm like, yeah. So he ended up contacting Scott Helvingston. I don't know how he got ahold of him. He tracked him down, he found him. But the request was I want you to meet up with my son and, if you're willing, I'm asking you to please just beat this desire of becoming a SEAL out of him. He has no idea what he's getting involved in. And so he replied, and his reply was an email. And this was the only thing that I saw before I went and met up with Scott for the first time. It's this email.

13:42
My dad says hey, so you want to be a SEAL. I'm like, yeah, dad, I want to be a SEAL. He goes, great, I set up a workout for you with the Navy SEAL. Check out my computer screen and all I see in the email is can Chad come out and play tomorrow? So I'm thinking like play like dad, you met some guy off the internet who says he wants to play with me and now you're arranging this meeting in a beach parking lot in Oceanside and he goes he's a SEAL son.

14:05
So I go meet up with him and I mean, he looks the part he looks like something Michelangelo carved out. He's pointing his finger at me, you Chad. I'm like yes, sir, all right, bubba, I was Bubba from that point forward that day. Get on over here. Long story short, he sends me off on a run out into the wetlands and says he's going to catch up with me. Well, about the time when he should be catching up with me, he's not there. So I start thinking to myself maybe I'm too fast for this Navy SEAL. He can't catch up on the run.

14:30 - Speaker 2
How old are?

14:31 - Speaker 3
you. I was like 19 at the time.

14:33 - Speaker 2
That's a typical thought of a 19.

14:35 - Speaker 3
I can take that guy. I was thinking of the names of my friends. I was going to be bragging to that day how the Navy SEAL never caught up. You know my buddy Brian, my buddy Mark.

14:44
But I look back over my shoulder and then it's like a scene out of Terminator 2. I mean, he's got the knife hands coming down this trail after me and there's no keeping that distance. He closes in like a canine out of the back of a squad car and as he brushes past me and I think that's it he's going to leave me in the dust. That's where he turns around and he basically just knocks me into the dust of the ground. He's punching me in the stomach. I've got the wind knocked out of me, dirt poofing up all over. He's jumping on top of me and just ragdolling me. He's got me by my shirt and I still have that sound in my head of just the threads of my shirt ripping and feeling the spit fly out as he's screaming in my face. And you got to put yourself in my shoes for a moment. You know, the only intel I'm operating on at this time is some guy my dad met off the internet I'm thinking human predator like this guy's got me out here and we're supposed to be playing.

15:34
Yeah, yeah, you want to come out and play. So I'm just thinking just survive, live. But then he said these words that really changed everything for me. I would say in life. He says you want to be a Navy SEAL, you better stay three paces behind me. Something about that moment, everything just clicked. It was like time stopped and I got this clarity of thought like this is it and this is for real, and this is one of the most defining moments in my entire life. If I quit right now, I will forever be a quitter, like the way I respond here is going to affect the trajectory of the rest of my life.

16:08 - Speaker 1
That's awesome.

16:09 - Speaker 3
And so I felt it just well up in my heart Like I rather die than quit. That's right. He got up, he said it one more time Three paces turns takes off, and I'll just say what took place on that trail for the next handful of miles. Looking back, after having gone through SEAL training, which you suffer greatly in SEAL training, I've never suffered so much as I did on that trail in a singular workout. I shouldn't even call it a workout.

16:33
It was a beat down session than this encounter with this Navy SEAL, scott Helvenston. But I hung in there and when we finally got to a point where he wrapped it up, he circled it up. I mean, he looks like he wants to fight me. I'm thinking no direct eye contact, I don't want to set this guy off and just use your peripherals keeping them over there. He breaks this really awkward tension by pointing at me and saying if we would have gone another mile or two, would you have stayed with me? And I just told him what came from the heart. I told him, scott, I'll die before I quit.

17:01
And it was from that moment forward, I mean, everything changed. He's going great. You want to meet up again in front of the workout tomorrow and I'm thinking, buddy, are we going to address the flashback you just had on the trail, like what was that all about, you know? But I found out over lunch two months later him, my dad and I about the whole setup. I learned the backstory that that was all intended to really just kind of break me of that desire becoming a SEAL because it didn't seem like I was taking it seriously.

17:29 - Speaker 2
It's kind of like Christianity If you can be talked into Christianity, you can be talked out of it. Exactly.

17:34 - Speaker 3
In fact, whenever I meet a young guy that wants to be a Navy SEAL, I try and talk him out of it. And if I could talk him out of it, it's really not for him If I give him all the reasons not to do it and he still is like no, I still want to do it. Then I'm like all right, let's start getting together and train, that's awesome.

17:50 - Speaker 2
So you served on SEAL Team 1 and 7. You did that from 2004 to 2010.

17:56 - Speaker 3
Yep, it all started in 04. By December of 2005, I was getting that trident pinned into my chest one of the happiest, most fulfilling moments of my life. There was really a lot on the line in terms of becoming a Navy SEAL. You know, one of the things that happened along the way was really a conversation with my mentor, scott, as he was taking an opportunity to go overseas one last time, to Iraq. It was only going to be a couple months. He was leaving about the same exact time I'm leaving off for boot camp. He's leaving just before I leave. So on this phone conversation he says all right, junior, I'm about to go do this thing. He's referring to going off to Iraq and he says I want you to know something, though, that I've never told anyone I've ever trained before. He says I know you're going to make it through SEAL training.

18:43
That ended up being the last conversation that Scott and I would have with each other, and just a handful of days later he was on a TV screen but this time he's not competing, you know, on man vs Beast. It's a smiling picture of him and I remember just kind of rubbing my eyes trying to figure out what Scott doing on TV right now, I thought he's in Iraq, and that's when I see, in the lower third of the screen, his birth date, followed by a dash, and it says March 31st 2004. And before I could process the obvious meaning of that, it switches from a smiling image to graphic video footage. It's him and three others that are lifeless in the streets of Fallujah, with a burning vehicle in the background, which was the vehicle he was in, and what had happened was his group was set up on an ambush, and these insurgents had videotaped everything that they were doing to him and these others.

19:27
As I'm watching these scenes now being played of him, you know, having rope wrapped around his legs and dragged through the streets, hung upside down from the Euphrates River Bridge, and then this mob is chanting and celebrating in Arabic. They're chanting with English subtitles Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans. Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans. Needless to say, I'll never have the words to describe what that moment and all the surrounding moments were like. One of the things in our seal creed, though, is that it says that we are forged by adversity, and that is something that I've continued to live by, and I think there's biblical truth to that as well is that you don't get to pick the adversity that you go through, like Joseph in the Old Testament never, it's like, yeah, I'll sign up for that one.

20:09
Have my brothers abuse me and then throw me into human trafficking and then, yeah, falsely accused, throw me into prison. But his duty still is just to remain faithful and steadfast to the Lord. He never allowed those things to knock him down in such a way to where people just point their finger and go, wow, yeah, he's out for the count. He's never resurfacing. We don't get to choose the adversity or the storms that we go through, but we always have a choice in terms of how we respond. Do you allow it to be a weight or a wing? Will it sink you or will you find a way to get back up? Or what we call in the teams to be forged by adversity?

20:41
It's very case by case, but I'll just say in that particular case, that forging process began for me when I remembered my mentors last words, it became so much more important to do this in honor and memory of him, so I wrote his name on the inside of my hat as a constant reminder and a motivation to make it through, and that's really part of our seal creed as well. In the worst of conditions, I'll rely upon the legacy of those who have gone before me to steady my resolve to guide my every deed. We think of men like Mike Monsoor, I think of my mentor, scott, and that's true for the Christian life, because we can look to the cross and consider what Jesus did on our behalf.

21:16 - Speaker 2
It's amazing. Paul told Timothy you need to prepare yourself. I'm paraphrasing Timothy, because you need to wage the good warfare. No man putting his gear on and moving forward will ensnare himself on the affairs of this life. Nobody takes on the battle with their Xbox in their hand or, you know, rubik's Cube or Play-Doh. It's about life and death. And isn't it amazing.

21:45
What if the Christian community globally, what if the church today took that kind of seriousness that what you're speaking of? Because what we're talking about is actually even more serious. We're not just talking about somebody losing their life, we're talking about somebody losing their eternal life without Christ. That what the church is fighting for and against is this incredible battle that's fought out in the invisible, but it's manifested in the physical. I just think that it's a tragedy that we live in an apathetic age right now, just like you said, where people don't understand where their freedoms come from. Our faith is a verb, it's active. Christianity does. It doesn't talk, it does, and there's so many lessons that or parallels that what you're saying is the Christian life. So we made it through the teen part. This was the baptism into the pursuit of the SEALs. So you went down, you went and signed up. I mean you just don't sign up to be a SEAL. You went and signed up in the US Navy or the Marines, which one was it?

23:00 - Speaker 3
The Navy and you go down to the recruiter's office. At that time they had a program called the SEAL Challenge Program. They don't promise you'll make it, but they promise you a shot at it, and so that's kind of how it is. I mean, the majority of people don't make it. It's a win-win, I think, for the Navy, because if they want to get recruits into the Navy, if this guy doesn't make it through SEAL training, it's fine, we'll get them on a ship somewhere, we'll put them somewhere that he's needed, and if we do produce a Navy SEAL, then we just produce a Navy SEAL. Yeah, so it's a way to you know many are called you know in a sense few are chosen.

23:35
You know, narrow is the gate and difficult is the way. So out of 173 guys in my class that all said I'll die before I quit, only 13 of that original class number are still standing there for graduation day. And I remember looking up thinking you know, scott, we did this, you know, because I had his name written on the inside of my hat as a constant reminder and a motivation. And my thought process was you know, when I was suffering and having to dig deep in how week, you know, you're up for five and a half days you get four hours of sleep. That's not per night, that's it for the five and a half days You're running over 200 miles. You're hallucinating.

24:08
I grew up watching Ninja Turtles and I'm seeing Donatello in the water and places and you know you're just, you're going through it. I would look at his name name and I think to myself you have to take me out of here in a body bag before I ever voluntarily get up and quit on that name. And people that quit, they have to ring a bell three times in front of all of their peers.

24:30
It's just not happening. And so it didn't happen. And that day did come, where I graduated and became a SEAL, and you know, it was one of the happiest, most fulfilling moments of my life, and so many more lessons to come after that. You know, one of the lessons that I learned soon after is so. It's a quote by a Christian philosopher. He says one of the loneliest moments a man will ever experience is when he's achieved that which he thought would deliver the ultimate and in the end it lets him down. And what he's referring to right, there is something I believe every listener or viewer is familiar with, at least to some degree. It's just that human condition, that idea that I'm not quite fulfilled with where I'm at. And what do you want? I guess I just want a little bit more Always a little bit more.

25:11
Yeah, so we buy into this belief that we are lacking something. But if I could just accomplish this goal or this achievement, this status, then I'll be satisfied or fulfilled, and it's a constant chase. It's like a vicious cycle. You get to a moment where you taste success. You eat it up, you're satisfied, but then you get hungry again. You chase it more, you're thirsting after something new. You get there, you drink it up, you're satisfied for a moment, you get thirsty all over again, and then there's those that finally get to a point where they can't conceive of a next thing to do, because they've arrived at the last rung of the ladder. There's always I could always go up from here, you know, but a certain point you can't say I can go up from here because you're at that last rung, you're at the peak of the mountain, and so many have come to this conclusion, I think of you know, even Jim Carrey, you know.

25:57
He says I wish that people could become rich and famous and have everything they ever wanted, so that they would know that it's not the answer. I think CS Lewis nails it, though, and he points out that if I find within myself desires in which nothing in this world can satisfy. The only logical explanation is that I am meant for another world, and Jesus put it best. He says what's a profit of man if he gains the whole world but in the end loses his soul? I had my version of gaining the whole world and becoming a SEAL, but my soul at that time was not oriented correctly. It wasn't right with the creator, and so I mean. The lesson here is that if you don't have any peace with your creator, you'll never experience any peace while you're here on earth.

26:36 - Speaker 2
It's impossible.

26:37 - Speaker 3
So I'm a member of SEAL Team 1. And on the outside it seems like I really got it all together, but inwardly I think I was probably more miserable at that stage of my life than I'd ever been, Isn't?

26:46 - Speaker 2
that something which, by the way, Wall Street, for example, the higher the building, the corner office, the greater chance of suicide.

26:58 - Speaker 3
I did not know that.

26:59 - Speaker 2
Wow, all the money, all the status, everything I've gotten, and that same exact feeling. It's human nature Without Christ, we're absolutely emptied. And so at what point did you come to Christ? How did that happen?

27:13 - Speaker 3
March 14, 2007, a night I'll never forget. Greg Laurie was sharing the message that night out of 2 Kings 5. 2 Kings 5, old Testament text.

27:23 - Speaker 2
Gospels all over it. So you're a seal.

27:27 - Speaker 3
Active duty Navy SEAL you said 2007?. Yeah.

27:30 - Speaker 2
So you're an active SEAL. You go to a Bible study.

27:33 - Speaker 3
Member of SEAL Team 1.

27:35 - Speaker 2
How'd you get to the Bible?

27:35 - Speaker 3
study Only to make family feel better.

27:38 - Speaker 2
There, you go.

27:39 - Speaker 3
Yeah, at that time I was there was. If anyone ever accused Chad Williams out there on the streets of being a Christian, there's not enough evidence to convict. You know, I would claim to be a Christian. That's my label on the outside, that's on my dog tag. Nothing about my life, you know, was evidenced by it. And so family was getting concerned, you know, because I was going out and drinking into an oblivion. You know, blackout and just real foolishness. It's personal robbery, but I would look at it at that time as if it was something to laugh about and brag about. And everything really just came to a head one night where I needed to get 26 stitches in my knuckles for a thing I don't remember. So I'm being confronted by family saying look, if you're going to come back home to Huntington Beach which I was coming back home often because Coronado is not that far away, that's right. They said you're not welcome here anymore, and so it was some tough love that I needed. Better to break your mom and dad's heart. I mean, they're precious people. They're always praying for me.

28:42
I would hear them praying for me, and this is just where my heart and soul was at at that time. I would interrupt them. I would hear them in their room praying for me and I'd throw the door open and be like what are you guys doing? You don't need to do that. Don't worry, I'm not an atheist. I believe in God. Okay, me and Jesus, we're good. But the truth was I wasn't at all. And so they're like we're worried for you, you need the Lord, and I was convicted by that. But I wouldn't ever let them see it, of course. Yeah. So I had regret over sin, but I wasn't repentant of it. Genuinely, I had no intention of really stopping. And so one night it all really came to a head where they're confronting me. They're saying look, you're not welcome here anymore.

29:24
I was coming into the house and the truth is I had a keg of beer stashed in the garage that I was getting ready to go get. That I'd stolen with some friends from a beer fest just a couple of nights before. So I thought I'll play my cards. I don't want to force my way through. I'll agree to go with them to this church thing that they want to go to.

29:36
It's a midweek thing that was happening at Calvary, costa Mesa. It was supposed to be a throwback to the big tent revival. At that time they were renovating the main sanctuary so there's no chairs in the sanctuary so they had a big tent out wood chips on the ground. I remember the worship music was a little different than I recall church being like, because it was a guy, dennis Akajani in dress, in all black finger stuff, you know picking, and I'm like this is kind of interesting. But I'm still looking at my watch Like just suffer through it, I'll get through this, I'll punch my card in to go into some church thing If I made it through the seals, I can make it to this service.

30:08
And it'll be over, and then my folks will go to bed and I'll fall off their radar. They'll be so happy I went. And then I'll go out and I'll do what I really wanted to go do that night Go party, go drink with some friends. Second Kings, chapter five. The story of a soldier by the name of Naaman.

30:22 - Speaker 2
I'm thinking great.

30:23 - Speaker 3
Well, if I'm at some church thing, at least I get to hear a story about a soldier. It's interestingly because, like Jesus, he says you know, if you knew the scriptures you would know that they testify of me. It's obviously talking about you know the law and the prophets. Here. The gospel message is all over this. I got saved by an Old Testament text, and so Naaman he's this commander. He's had great success in battle. He's got this entourage of men that highly respect him. He's really got it going on. It sounds like he could have been a seal, had there been a seal during his time, but he had leprosy. And Jesus, specifically looking back, said nobody during the time of Naaman had ever been healed of leprosy. That's right. And so now circle back and picture Naaman's life like this, if you would. So much for all that success.

31:04 - Speaker 2
And there's a little girl telling him you should go. There's a river in Israel.

31:08 - Speaker 3
She's the unsung hero she is. She's the evangelist in this story that had the boldness to speak up and say if only my master were with the prophet who was in Samaria, he would heal him of his leprosy. It's almost like I think, like hearing about an experimental treatment, like doctors have tried everything. We're so sorry, but there is this one experimental treatment. Like all your hope grabs onto that and you don't care what it costs, like let's give it a try. If it's for a loved one, I'll empty out the bank account.

31:37
I think that's Naaman's mentality. He has to ask his king if it's okay if he goes. He gets a letter. He says go, it's enemy occupied territory, 150 mile trip. He's bringing the equivalent of millions upon millions of dollars in gold, silver, apparel. He gets there to the door and he doesn't even come to the door, just sends a servant that relays the message that says go, dip yourself in the Jordan River seven times. When you come up, your flesh will be restored to you, you'll be clean. Well, what happens is is Naaman does not do that. He's proud, he becomes furious.

32:06 - Speaker 2
Furious yeah.

32:07 - Speaker 3
He's turning, he's leaving in a rage, he's venting out loud, saying-.

32:10 - Speaker 2
He wouldn't even come to me to speak to my face, and that's what his expectation was.

32:14 - Speaker 3
He should have come out and makes sense, I mean you watch it, but the flesh is saying yeah, I get it, it's almost proportional to the more important of a person you are back then the farther they come out to greet you. I mean, the welcoming party at least should have been on the porch For Jesus. It was outside the city gates when they thought the Messiah King's coming. At least for Naaman they should have. This guy won't even give him a face to face, so he could probably just about have his head, and before he does something like that, he's leaving in a rage. But the thing is is, if he leaves in this rage and continues in that direction, it's terminal. He dies and his real issue isn't the leprosy. That's just a surfacy symptom of a much deeper issue going on. It's the pride. That's what's really killing him Always murders.

32:56
And his men that he's with. They come running up to him, they're pleading with them. They're saying Naaman, look, you know, if this guy came out and gave you some big, great thing to do, you would have done it, but to him it seemed like foolishness.

33:06 - Speaker 2
And that great wisdom from his men, and they loved him. They spoke that no doubt because they loved him.

33:11 - Speaker 3
They care about him.

33:11 - Speaker 2
They cared about him.

33:23 - Speaker 3
And it seemed foolishness to those that are perishing. He looked at that water and thought I got better water where I'm from If I could just wash it off. When I go wash it off back where I'm from, exactly. But something that those guys said God uses it, it gets through and that's how it is, I think, for us as well. I've had people say things to me, or even my parents praying right behind their door, or I've had little remarks made by Christians when I wasn't a Christian that set off almost like a butterfly effect in my heart and in my mind.

33:45
Things that I couldn't put my head on my pillow at night without thinking about it obsessively, and it's things that God used. And I go back to those people. I think of one Navy SEAL. He's a Christian ministry now. His name's Jeff Bramstead. I tried to get him to recall that he told me once that God will not work with you until you give him an empty template to work with Chad. That rocked my world. Well, I go back years later to let him know just what an effect that had on me and how that played a part in my salvation. He goes. I said that. Like yeah, you said that. Are you sure that was me? Like I know exactly where we were standing when you said that he goes. That doesn't sound like something that I wouldn't have put it that way. I'm like, dude, that was you.

34:28 - Speaker 2
Apparently, that's what God did with your mouth. That's right On that day.

34:33 - Speaker 3
And so God could use it so powerfully. God's using so powerfully these words of these men that care about Naaman. Come on, naaman, look. I think this is where God began to get through. And Naaman realizes it's not the water that's going to fix me. It's true, I do have cleaner water where I'm from, but what's going to fix me here is it's going to be the God of Israel. He's going to do the heavy lifting. If I simply am faithful, if I'm just faithful and go out and dip those seven times, he'll be faithful Seven times in his brown water.

34:58 - Speaker 2
he's going to do his thing.

35:00 - Speaker 3
He comes up that seventh time and then in Hebrew the picture is he had brand new skin like that of a baby.

35:05
Yeah, and I remember just having my world rocked by that listening relating with Naaman. And then it got so personal, as it's pointed out, that look, just as Naaman is a certain man on the outside, who are you in front of your friends? Who are you in front of your friends? Who are you in front of your coworkers, your family? And that was me.

35:24
I wear the armor of being a SEAL, but at that stage of my life, inwardly I felt like I was more miserable than I'd ever been. But I don't let that out. I don't wear that on my sleeve. Just like you cover up any kind of vulnerability. I'm sure Naaman covered up his leprosy, but it felt like man. I'm just being totally exposed right now. I am this dead man walking like Naaman, and the real issue here is this pride. I put everything into becoming a Navy SEAL, thinking that's going to deliver the ultimate, and only God can really deliver the ultimate, because he is the ultimate and anything else you put in that place is really just an idol and it will leave you hungry and thirsty for more. And so this condition Naaman had, this leprosy.

36:03
Spiritually speaking, all of us, apart from God, are like spiritual lepers. We're all spotted and blotted and blemished in sin and, just like Naaman, couldn't do anything to get the leprosy off of himself. There's nothing that we can do to get sin off of ourselves, but if we're faithful, god will be faithful to do the heavy lifting, not by dipping into a Jordan River, but what God did is he dipped his son down into the world. That's Jesus. That's right To live that holy, perfect, sinless life. So not for one split second did he ever sin. So he's holy, he's pure, he's without blemish.

36:34
And the picture that really hit me that night was that Jesus at the cross traded skin with you and I. I pictured it the leprosy, the spiritual sin. He took it all on himself so that I could be switched and, lavish with God's grace and mercy, died in my place at the cross and conquered death rising again, which was his vindication that he's no blasphemer. He truly is who he claimed to be the Son of God. And it just clicked.

37:03
I got it that night and it hit me and I responded and all I could say is the scriptures are true. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things pass away. Behold, all things become new and my outlook. One of the things I immediately understood is, while I still am a seal and I will finish out this time as a seal I'm a seal for Christ. But also I want to be a part of sharing this message because while I might be able to save somebody's life on the battlefield, perhaps if we're fortunate enough, eventually that person will die, but if you save somebody's soul, you save them for all eternity. So this is the much more important battlefront is getting involved in ministry. As silly as it might seem to the rest of the world, I wanna go all in on this over here, and so from that point forward, I was all in for Christ.

37:51 - Speaker 2
Well, let's do this. The battle is not over. It's a different battlefield right now for you, and you don't quit. You are watching the soul of your country, the soul of your state, your county, your city in the crosshairs of an enemy ideology, and you've prayed and you've decided to do something about the next chapter of your life. Tell us what is it.

38:21 - Speaker 3
So that hometown I'm always looking forward to get back home to. You know, while overseas Huntington Beach, california, surfing in the ocean, it's not only the town I was born and raised in, but I'm raising my kids there now and you start paying attention a little bit more to your surrounding environment. You know, when you're raising your kids up and I've come to the realization that unfortunately you know a lot of these pastime favorite places. What makes Huntington Beach so great? They're beginning to erode away and it has everything to do with the leadership, not only at the city council level but then even beyond that. You know the leadership in our state and you know California, unfortunately, is kind of the laughingstock. It's a joke.

38:59
I travel the nation and I tell people I'm from California and you can hear the groans in the crowd Chuckling. But I'm proud to say that I'm from Huntington Beach, because Huntington Beach is almost like a light that shines in the darkness, and I think of the gospel of John how it talks about Jesus being the light of the world, how he came into the world. The light shined in the darkness, but the darkness could not overcome it. There's a little spark in Huntington Beach, california, and there is a metaphorical darkness in California that is trying to extinguish that light, and it comes down from the state, from Sacramento, from the governor. He's trying to extinguish that light, but it seems like for such a time like this, we have our community taking a stand. Yes, and for me, in a big way I mean this is part of the mandate of being a Christian it's Jesus' Sermon on the Mount that we're supposed to be salt and we're supposed to be light Meat. If it's just left to itself, what's going to happen?

39:55
is it's going to rot, it's going to decay, but the salt is a preservative and the Christian is supposed to be that preservative in the world. We're supposed to be active. This is part of loving our neighbor as ourselves, and so opening my eyes to the erosion and the rot that's happening in Huntington Beach. But I don't want this for my children. Well, it's not time to take off Nothing against people that do that leave the state. Like Governor Newsom is the number one U-Haul salesman. Year after year he's sending people away.

40:24 - Speaker 2
He laughs it off, but it's an absolute fact.

40:26 - Speaker 3
It's very true, yeah.

40:28 - Speaker 2
He thinks it's a joke. It's for real.

40:30 - Speaker 3
Those words hit one day downtown where I just kind of saw how things are just really falling apart in Huntington. The words that go you know, all that's required for evil to triumph is for good men to stand back and do nothing. I got hit with that and I thought somebody should do something about what's going on here. And it wasn't long before I put myself in the crosshairs of those words like oh, you think so? Well, how about you? And it wasn't a very big logical leap from I serve my country, I'm willing to do some civic duty as well, and I'm willing to do this for the sake of family and friends and for the sake of faith. Faith, family and friends, those have always been, you know, really my motivators, that thing that gets uncommon desire really working in my life. And so it really sparked right there for me that day when I saw just the drastic changes and erosion.

41:19
And then, completely unsolicited and just, pastor Joe Pettit from Calvary Chapel, the harbor. He calls me and he wants to pray about something. I don't know what it's about. I'm already thinking about running for city council and he says I want to pray about you considering running for city council. And I'm like, who put you up to this. He goes what do you mean? And I'm like name and names, it's so-and-so or so-and-so. They say something, did they tell you to do this? He goes no, this is just what the Lord's put on my heart. And it was after we went into a little private prayer room and we prayed about it. That was really the beginning of it, right there, just going into it full swing. And so I'm running for city council in Huntington Beach and what we're trying to do is, you know, we're trying to take a stand for righteousness in that town and we are up against, really, the state on it, you know it's true, the state has come after you.

42:09 - Speaker 2
The city, the city. For those of you who don't know Huntington Beach, there are pockets, believe it or not, in California that are little gems of freedom and love and faith and flag, and Huntington is one of those places. It's a unique place, but it was incredibly targeted by Gavin Newsom during the COVID circus and it has continued to be, if I remember right. The state tried to mandate low income density housing. Huntington Beach said wait a minute, we've got a persona here of the city that is legendary and we're not going to have some outside cowboys come on in. And the city stood against the state. They're still standing against the state, which is one of the reasons why I love that city.

43:05
But you're running, and you're running with several other guys, with a Lord willing to take the city council, and this is your fight, this is your battle. Listen, elaborate. But they tried to discredit him. Chad sent me photos of his signs being vandalized. He's being hated by some really messed up people, which tells you that you should vote for Chad. If these crazy balls are against him, then that tells you how to vote. But what can people do? Chad, give us some. What can we do initiatives for us, motivate us.

43:51 - Speaker 3
Right. So, number one, if you live in Huntington Beach, I need your vote, and not just myself, but those two others that I'm running with. So it's easy to remember. We're referred to, we've been coined the HB3. So it's Don Kennedy, butch Twining and myself, chad Williams. We also have a city clerk that will operate as our air support. That's Lisa Lane Barnes. So it's so important that we get her elected as well. The way that my team got set up on that ambush, it had everything to do with back channeling of information around to the enemy. As we speak right now, on our city council, we have three that are not friends, they are foes. They are friends with Governor Newsom.

44:28
They don't advocate for Huntington Beach in Sacramento, they advocate for Sacramento in Huntington Beach and they know strategically what our city attorney is going to do before he does it, because that information that he has to share he's obligated to share with the council gets back channeled from those three up to Sacramento so that they could keep hitting them off at the pass, and it's like we're being set up on an ambush, and so we need that united front on the council.

44:54
That was what led to mission success. When my team was set up on an ambush, we had the united front, and so right now we have these three traitorous foes that are sharing this information. So we have an opportunity. Here they are, they're trying to sell us out. We have an opportunity on November 5th to vote them out. And so if people love Governor Newsom hey, these three, they love Newsom and so you could remember them. They are the Newsom threesome. They go with them. But if you don't have love for Newsom and his policies that have destroyed California and you really want change, you know we're not politicians, we're hometown patriots, hometown boys. That's right, and we're trying to take a stand for righteousness.

45:30 - Speaker 2
Here's what's amazing about what you're saying. And, please, everybody, get this. And you might say, well, I'm watching from St Louis, it doesn't matter. The very same, similar scenario could be playing out in your town. What are you going to do about it? That's why, for us to preserve, listen, some go to war and some don't, but we all go to war for truth when we vote.

45:55
Okay, this is and, by the way, it is a gift given to us in this Republic that we live in, that we have. The Christian I'm talking to has the responsibility to vote, because people died to give us that freedom to vote, and we cannot take an opportunity or a talent given to us by God and bury it. Read the gospels, read what Jesus says about that. It doesn't go well. When you have a chance to make a difference, you have to do that, christian, don't sit it out. So the thing is, here's Huntington Beach, a bubble of liberty and freedom, in fact, one of the most amazing things I mean there's so much about Huntington Beach, but one of the things I don't know. If you're aware of this, you probably are, but the air show Oshkosh, wisconsin air show was the biggest air show in America forever, until the great Pacific air show and Huntington beach, california, it's epic, it's just the spirit of that city. Now, here's the thing If you live in that city and Chad uh, his name and Butch Twining and Don Kennedy and Lisa Lane Barnes.

47:04
Twining and Kennedy, the HB3, show up on your ballot. You should vote to preserve and to advance this hometown spirit that is Huntington Beach. If I remember right, you guys have the biggest 4th of July parade west of the Mississippi right. That's right and it's old school, awesome, it's incredible. But what do people? Where do they go to support you, to help you? You've been sued, You've been attacked.

47:32 - Speaker 3
That's right.

47:32 - Speaker 2
They're trying to do everything to stop you.

47:34 - Speaker 3
I've had to spend about $10,000 in court, go to superior court three different times, just simply defending the dignity of the fact that you know I am a Navy SEAL veteran. They wanted nobody to know that I ever was a Navy SEAL or have anything to do with being the SEALs, and so they've tried to sue me over it. They used a guy that is convicted of so many crimes to be the proxy to sue me so that I can't really fire back because he has no assets to go after. It's lawfare and it's happening on a local level, and so here's the biggest help that you folks can really do. It, you know, perform on is, you know, the big difference maker of outcomes. When you know my mentor was ambushed and my team was ambushed, it's the same input seals, it's an ambush.

48:18
The difference of outcomes had everything to do with the resources that we had behind us and, fortunately for my mentor, when they were supposed to have armored vehicles, because of budget cuts and money reasons, they didn't have armored vehicles. They're supposed to have heavy weapon machine guns, but because of money reasons they didn't have the heavy weapon machine guns. All of these things they should have had but they didn't have. While they're out there on the front lines. So you have the skill set there, but they don't have the armory, the weapons behind them to actually allow them to shoot, move and communicate, to perform to their ability In a very similar way. That's kind of what's taking place on this sort of battlefield in Huntington Beach is that I'm going to the front lines of the battle.

48:58
My SEAL team when we were ambushed, we had all of those things that we needed. We had the heavy weapon, machine guns, we had the armory, and it gave us the tools for success. So we're going forward to this frontlines battle and folks that are watching right now that aren't from Huntington Beach, you have the opportunity to function as that armory. You could provide the resources, you could provide the ammunition, as it were, by supporting the campaign so that myself and my teammates have what we need in order to fight that fight, so that we could be that united front that fights to victory. And so you guys could go to my website. It's pretty easy to remember. Hopefully we'll get a little lower. Third here, it's chad4hbcom. If you go to chad4hbcom, you'll find a link that you can click. It says donate now. And that would really be the biggest support and I really do need that help. Like I said, my opponents, they have outside help.

49:48
They have unlimited big help coming from the outside and really hurting me and hitting me hard, taking me to the courts, and so if the Christian community stands up and gives me that help, it would just really provide what I need to fight it out on the front lines of that battle.

50:03 - Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely Everybody want to encourage you and you don't have to be a citizen of HB to help. In fact, if you're a veteran, I think you ought to. You ought to help this guy out, man. But I tell you what locally please make sure you register to vote. Please make sure you do vote and vote early. I do believe in California, voting begins October 8th, I think it is.

50:26 - Speaker 3
It's early October, yeah, early.

50:27 - Speaker 2
October start and vote early, but by all means make your voice count. This is how you know. We change governments in this country by the stroke of a pen. We don't use bombs and guns. At least it's been like that for 250 years. I don't know how much longer it's going to stay like that, but we live in crazy times, man. We got candidates getting shot at. I mean, this is a wild, wild world we're in right now. We need to take back our God-given freedoms Now. Look you and I hope Jesus Christ comes back today, but we're fighting like he's not coming back for a hundred years. And by doing that, by the way, we stay ready and trained up to expect him and, at the same time, doing the right thing.

51:11 - Speaker 3
So the website again chad4hbcom, and this is a war that we're in. I love CS Lewis's quote. He says enemy occupied territory, that is what this world is. But Christianity is the story about how our rightful king has landed, you might say in disguise, and now he's calling us all to take part in his great campaign of sabotage.

51:33 - Speaker 2
Verbatim. Good job, he just nailed Lewis verbatim and that's perfect, Excellent. So you guys get out there and vote, vote HB, vote for Chad and go to his website please. So God bless you guys.

51:52 - Speaker 1
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