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In Ecclesiastes 3:11, we read that God makes everything beautiful in its time. It is comforting to know that nothing is wasted in God's economy, but all of it will be used for our good and His glory. You're invited to join us for poignant conversations and compelling interviews centered on believing for His beauty in every season.
Everything Made Beautiful (00:02)
Well, well, well, David Nasser, this has been a long time coming. I'm pumped about it. Thank you for being on the Everything Made Beautiful podcast.
David Nasser (00:11)
man, the one, the only Shannon Scott. My wife's absolute favorite preacher. If she only looked at me the way she looks at you when you're preaching, our marriage would be so much stronger.
Everything Made Beautiful (00:14)
You
She is so kind and you know, I did a whole professional bio for you before we started, which is super impressive. But I have to say, we have known each other for, I think it's the better part of 30 years. So you were the guy I heard about nonstop from my husband as his favorite pastor, preacher, teacher, speaker to...
David Nasser (00:41)
30 years. Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (00:54)
tour with and play for and do camps with and all I heard was NASA NASA NASA and then I met you and I understood why and those were some fun fun years and then you guys did the student life tour together one year and at the Birmingham tour stop I was the girlfriend who came to visit her man on the road
David Nasser (00:55)
Yeah.
So, time, yes.
Heh heh.
Everything Made Beautiful (01:19)
and little did I know that you and Jennifer had cooked up an entire engagement scenario for me and Jeff. So we went to your dad's restaurant, a French restaurant, if I'm not mistaken, with seven courses and the restaurant was empty except for rose petals and candles and me and my soon to be fiance, all arranged by you, which was so sweet and I will never forget it.
David Nasser (01:26)
yeah.
No, no, no, no,
That's the amazing Jeffrey B. Scott. You know what I mean? So that was all him. He was just cashing in a buddy favorite.
Everything Made Beautiful (01:50)
Yes, it is. is. Yeah. And then you were in our wedding. He
sang in your wedding. Like we've just we've had a lot of life and it's really sweet that it's now reconverging again in this season.
David Nasser (02:04)
Yeah, it really is. I love your family and just have so much respect and love for Jeff. My first ever memory of Jeff was him singing, I Will Exalt Your Name and a couple other songs in the Passion Movement. And I just remember thinking, man, God has his hand on this guy. And we became friends. Like you say, he sang at my wedding. And then when you came into town, when you came into his life, it went all caps.
Everything Made Beautiful (02:16)
Yeah.
David Nasser (02:31)
And it's just been amazing to see this the trajectory of your ministry in your life. And that celebrates you. Like you guys, if God's used you in such amazing ways. And I mean it when I say, as a, just a Bible teacher, my wife always says like, Shannon Scott has such a gift of lowering the cookies, meaning like amazing theology, not sugaring it down, not watering it down, but always making it so accessible, easy to understand to people.
Everything Made Beautiful (02:52)
Mm.
David Nasser (03:01)
So yeah, I'm grateful for you both.
Everything Made Beautiful (03:03)
Well, it was a sweet, I specifically remember once we moved to Nashville, it was a Sunday morning and we were sitting on the front row, I think I was hosting or something and Darren said, yeah, David Nassar is preaching this morning, do you know him? And I said, do I know him? And so, yes, it was really fun to get to now re-intersect.
David Nasser (03:22)
I secrets of that.
Everything Made Beautiful (03:29)
in Nashville and we'll talk a little bit about a project we got to do together just recently, but you have such a compelling and transformational faith story. So for people who maybe have even heard you preach at church or those kinds of things but don't know the full breadth of your story, I'd love for you just to take a few minutes and read everybody in because it gives such context to why you're so passionate about the gospel.
and about its impact for people. just take us down the road a little bit.
David Nasser (04:04)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I was born in the country of Iran. And in 1979, the Iranian revolution happened. And when that happened, we saw literally tens of thousands of Iranians massacred and killed in what I call religion gone wrong. The Ayatollah Khomeini and his religious zealots kind of we had a revolution took over the government. And at that time, Shannon, my dad was high ranked in the military in Iran.
And when the revolution happened and they were kind of replacing everybody who was anybody with somebody new, they were not doing it through regular governance or vote. I mean, it was a takeover. And so they were killing all of these people. And I remember those days. I remember as a kid, literally a soldier coming to our school, our military school. I was just a little kid. I was, you know, eight years old and calling my name out in front of the entire student body.
And as I came to the front, putting a gun in my forehead and telling me that he was called by his superiors to come and take my life because of who my dad was. And that afternoon or that morning that the soldier didn't kill me, obviously. And I remember my parents just putting on front burner this idea that like, we've got to get out of here as fast as we can. And so I have other memories as well. I remember soldiers dragging my father out of our home when they came to take him.
and my mom hanging on to the leg of one of the soldiers and she kept saying, just kill them quickly, just kill them quickly. My first memory ever of prayer was when my mom got us together after they took my dad out of our home and said, let's just pray and she just kept saying, just let them die quickly, let them die quickly. And at the end of the prayer, I asked her, what do you mean? And why are we saying that? And she said, well, your dad's best friend the day before was tortured slowly.
where they're taking your dad and so we seem to pray that he spared a slow torturous death and and like killed quickly and so I say all that to say growing up in a you know Shiite Muslim heritage in a and then experiencing like easily called the trauma of religion Takeover in my country the earliest memories I have of God are I don't know what we've done But apparently God has sent a soldier to try to kill me at school
and people under his name are trying to take my father's life. And that day my dad wasn't killed, he came home, and that's when we planned our escape. And in my mind, Shannon, we were escaping from God. We weren't escaping, you know, government. We were escaping from a religious leader who represented God to me. And so we did, we escaped from Iran, and we came to the United States. We were stuck actually in Europe.
for nine months, because when we escaped, the Iranian revolution was in the of the height of it. And that's when 54 Americans from the American embassy in Iran were held hostage. And so people were watching on TV how Iranians are burning the American flag, calling America the great Satan, how they've got these hostages. And so can you imagine, like we were from the wrong place at the wrong time. We were stuck in Europe trying to make it here.
The doors just wouldn't open until actually one day my mom got us together and said, we want to go to America. We ought to pray to America's God. She showed us a picture of a white, handsome, kind of a duck dynasty looking fellow. She was like, she was like, we want to go to America. This is Jesus. He's American. Let's ask him to let us into his country. And I'm so glad God is bigger than bad geography slash theology because we mentioned Jesus in a prayer.
Everything Made Beautiful (07:42)
you.
Right.
David Nasser (07:57)
and a week later the doors we couldn't open for ourselves. The Lord opened for us. And so I remember coming to America thinking, I hate religion, because I saw it destroy my country, but hey Jesus, thanks for letting us into your country. And we came to America and physically things got better, but emotionally I was just this outcasted fish out of water, right? This kid that just didn't blend in. And for years and years that was me. Until the day
my freshman year in high school was about to start, where my dad, in an attempt to try to fix it, in an attempt to help me not feel like a fish out of water, gave me this makeover. He took me to the mall, and I got new clothes, new haircut, new shoes, new everything. And I have a real affinity for clothes and stuff, and my counselor says it's rooted out of that. anyway, I remember those days where like,
I went from, I call it geek to chic, you know? And so I found friendship based on like learning how to play high school, my high school years. I had the right clothes on, I learned how to dump the right girl right before she could dump me, how to end up, how to be cold to people, to be perceived as cool to people. And on paper, it seemed like things had flipped, like things were better. But I went from a really lonely, insecure, you know, kid
to all of a sudden a really popular insecure kid who replaced one idol for another, one empty well to try to find nourishment out of with another. And it's so true where it says in the Bible, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world but to forfeit his soul? And that was my story. So right after high school, I graduated from high school, popular but just emotionally bankrupt, and a buddy of mine invited me to church. And...
Yeah, long story short, I went to church for the first time to be social. And this youth group, I call it youth group, they're really a youth ministry. They saw me coming. And man, it was like the 1040 window had come to them. They didn't need a passport, man. So they came to my house eight Monday nights in a row and shared the gospel with me. And for eight weeks in a row, I went to their church because I felt like there was something about them that was really
magnetic. know, love is such a kindness, it's such a superpower, you know. And eight weeks in, one night I heard the gospel and that's when I became a Christian and gave my life to the Lord. And I just remember struggling so much because I hated religion, you know, and I would even say to these Christians when they'd come to my house, Shannon, you know, like I don't want to be religious. I hate it. I'm kind of quasi Muslim by heritage, but I'm not even a good one.
You know, and they would say, no, no, no, no, we hate religion too. I remember actually one of the first theology lessons or Bible lessons they ever taught me that really sucked to me was they said, hey, you do know like the very people that nailed Jesus to the cross were the religious people. You know, which we can get into in just a minute as we talk about Holy Week. But I didn't know that. was like, really? They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just so you understand, you hate religion, we hate religion. You don't want religion, we don't want religion.
Everything Made Beautiful (11:13)
Yeah.
David Nasser (11:22)
for us or for you. And they kept saying, what we want for you is redemption. And I didn't understand it. We want grace. You know, we don't want you to clean up your act. We want you to give up your life. And so was 18 and two months old when the Lord saved me. yeah, God is so good. I became a Christian and my parents were never devout as Muslims until the night I became a Christian. And all of a sudden they were like, what are Muslims? I like, we are?
Everything Made Beautiful (11:47)
Mm-hmm.
David Nasser (11:52)
You know, and I got kicked out of the house for becoming a believer. And it's so good for me to learn like, it doesn't mean life gets easy. This isn't health and wealth, prosperity. You know, this is the gospel. It will cost you your life. And it was the best thing that ever happened. Like I moved in with, you know, six guys that lived in a one bedroom apartment. We ate ramen noodles every day. And the Lord just blessed man. And I grew in my faith.
Everything Made Beautiful (12:01)
Yeah.
David Nasser (12:20)
Within a couple of years, I saw my whole family come to know the Lord as well.
Everything Made Beautiful (12:25)
That is so, that is so, most people, would venture to say most people listening or watching right now cannot relate to having accepted Christ and been immediately ostracized from their family of origin in such a dramatic way. And I think we forget because oftentimes if we're honest in America, the gospel does not.
David Nasser (12:41)
Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (12:52)
cost us what it costs so many in so many parts of the world. And it's a good reminder, it's a poignant reminder to me that this experience of this health, wealth, prosperity, all this lack of discomfort that we often have in America is not the predominant experience of people all over the world who are embracing the gospel. And so
David Nasser (12:53)
Right. Right.
Right?
Everything Made Beautiful (13:21)
Thank you for just sharing your story. I'm so grateful for God's mercy on your whole family. Like that has to be such a sweet thing to watch over the years, because I know it wasn't overnight, overnight, overnight. I know that it was a process, but did you sense after you were saved that ministry would be part of your story? Like how soon after 18 and two months did you realize, I'm called to preach the gospel?
David Nasser (13:52)
Yeah, it's such an interesting question. I just remember this emotion. I remember the night I became a Christian, thinking to myself, my gosh, this is too good to keep to myself. The night I became a believer, I just remember it almost felt like I had found the cure of everything that's broken with me and my friends.
And we have been chasing after the wind. Like we have been smoking weed and getting wasted and partying and all. Like again, a bonfire of vanities. It's ecclesiastes. You know, it's like under the sun, I chased after all these things that were meaningless. And then you find over the sun is the one thing that's actually meaningful. And so I remember Shannon like giving my life to Christ and instantly feeling this is too good to kill. I've got to go tell people about it.
Everything Made Beautiful (14:23)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
David Nasser (14:44)
And nobody was handing me a microphone to go and preach somewhere. Nobody was like, hey, would you like to go to Mesa, Arizona and shoot videos together? Like we're about to talk about, like none of that was happening. I just, would go to Kentucky fried chicken. You know what I mean? Like, and buy and I have a revival. I would literally stand in line and at Kentucky fried chicken and wait on somebody who had changed and they were counting for like a, see that they could afford like a three piece meal instead of a two piece meal. And I, and I tap them on the shoulder and say, Hey, I'll buy you.
Everything Made Beautiful (14:52)
Mm Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
David Nasser (15:14)
the four piece meal and the biscuit and a pecan pie. If I can while you're eating, I would say like, if I can not talk to you about a speech that I wrote. And they gotta be like, okay, so I'll pay somebody six bucks to sit down and share the gospel with them. And I know this sounds old school, but like, we would go soul winning. Like we would go out on the street, downtown, South side, Birmingham and just share the gospel with people.
Everything Made Beautiful (15:28)
Yeah.
David Nasser (15:43)
and I would be at the gas station and I would like see someone and like I would talk them about the Lord. And I say that to say, the same thing I'm doing today, I was doing back then. Now, the audience in front of me feels a little different, you know, in one sense, but also like the other day, I shared the gospel, I was sitting on a plane, you know, heading back from an event and,
Everything Made Beautiful (15:56)
Yeah.
David Nasser (16:10)
the lady beside me, she actually started the conversation. She said, oh, I see you follow a lot of religious people. Somebody tells me she was looking at me, like scroll up on my Instagram. She goes, I see you follow a lot of religious people. And I was like, oh yeah. And so then we start, and then the next thing you know, I'm sharing the gospel with her. So I say that to say, that's why a lot of my messages when I do preach feel very much like, I feel like I'm drinking coffee with this guy.
Everything Made Beautiful (16:23)
Yeah.
David Nasser (16:40)
because I cut my teeth calling the ministry. like, I'm just gonna share the gospel with whoever God has in front of me. And there have been seasons when it's just one individual at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. And there's seasons where it's like an audience, you know, with a countryman attached to my face, you know, and I'm preaching a message for 30 minutes. But whatever the way is,
Everything Made Beautiful (16:40)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
David Nasser (17:09)
the truth and the life of it stays the same, right? And so when you asked me like, when did you know you were called to ministry? I never had like a moment where like I sense a prompting of like a call to ministry. For all I know, I might get to heaven and God will go. I meant for you to be a florist. Well, hopefully not a florist, but you know what saying? Like I might go to heaven and God might, but I actually think like for me, I've always been a bit of an interrupter, kind of a, that's my personality. And I've always been a bit of a,
Like I would have made a good lawyer, you know, my friends, like I always argued my way in and out of things and stuff like that. So being quite persuasive or salesman like, you know, which the biblical word for it is prophetic, you know, like proclaiming it's kind of my personality and my hard wire. And I also like when I love something, I want everybody to try it. You know, like we just spent
you know, with your team and my wife and I, spent a week together in Arizona and I'm texting you like, you gotta try this restaurant. You know, like I become an evangelist for anything I believe in. And so I, don't have to help me help you promote something. If it's, I think your burger is amazing, I'm gonna tell everybody about your burger. And so I say that to say, I like what is better to tell people about than the same gospel that set me free. And so,
Everything Made Beautiful (18:10)
Mm-hmm.
Right, right.
Yeah, that's good.
Yeah.
David Nasser (18:37)
When you asked me about a calling, just remember doing my life to Christ and going, I just gotta go tell people. And then the Lord has like somehow navigated through that. Like a couple of books were written that nobody bought. know, sermons were preached, these kind of things. Yeah, you're my mom, thank you. But I say all that to say like, for me, there hasn't been this distinct like calling. Now some people get that. They get a Damascus road, I didn't.
Everything Made Beautiful (18:49)
That's not true. I did. I did.
Yeah. Yeah.
David Nasser (19:06)
I just feel like I got saved and I wanted to save others.
Everything Made Beautiful (19:12)
the thing I love about your story is you were doing what God had hardwired you to do. And it has turned out that that is been the calling on your life and how you've, as Andy Stanley would say, eaten and live indoors, you know, but anybody
David Nasser (19:22)
Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (19:29)
doing what God has hardwired them to do and being willing to share the gospel doing it is really the magic of that. Not waiting for some like, I called into ministry? I'm not sure there's ministry apart from sharing the gospel, you know? So I appreciate that about your story. And you have done a lot in the last.
David Nasser (19:40)
Yeah.
Thank
Everything Made Beautiful (19:52)
three decades that I've known you. But I'd love to talk about one significant season in your life if that's okay with you. Were you going to say something? Yep.
David Nasser (19:58)
Can I just, can I just, since
I normally don't get to talk about this on podcast, but can I just say like on the note prior, like before we leave it, like I was just the other day thinking through the apostle Paul, like, you know, and you see him, first time we see him in scripture, he's at the lion's gate, an accomplice to Stephen's martyrdom. Then he's kind of like, that's not enough. Like he's then he's literally on
on the Damascus road to take out the people of the way, the way is Jesus, the way, the life, truth, mean the way, truth and the lie. And then God and him have this encounter, like there's this moment of salvation for him. And if a couple of days he's blinded, he gets out of bed. And I love, this is like a flyby passage, like I'm not talking about the apostle Paul, most quoted man, wrote a quarter, you and he said, like, I'm not talking about like this great theologian who wrote like,
the Declaration of Dependence called Ephesians 2, 1 through 10 or robust theology like Romans. I'm talking about like Paul just became a Christian. walks into like three, four days into his faith. He walks into the place where everybody knew him as a religious leader. And it says he caused havoc.
So I just like it. It's like Paul's been called, first time we see him, he's causing havoc. Then God saves him and he starts causing havoc. He just switched teams. He used to be causing havoc against them. I've always kind of been a havoc guy. I've always caused havoc. Like when I didn't know the Lord, it wasn't just me. I led people away from the Lord. I was trying to persuade everybody. Like every girl could do inappropriate things.
Everything Made Beautiful (21:30)
Yeah, it's good.
Hmm.
David Nasser (21:50)
every guy to just let's not just have one beer let's have 50 let's not just like drink this let's not just throw a party let's throw a massive party like everything for me has always been like i go all in and so i think the takeaway for someone listening is like some people they're just hardwired by god to be deep wells of reflection some people are hardwired by god to be loud and some people are hardwired by god to be more
Everything Made Beautiful (22:15)
Yeah. Yeah.
David Nasser (22:19)
you know, intellectual, more musical or whatever. And discovering your calling is there's a reason God made me weird and unique the way he made me. Now, how do I leverage that? Whatever it might be to let people know about him. And for me, it turned into a vocation, but bigger than that, the calling is for anyone listening, how do I leverage my life?
and my gift set, you know, that's very unique than anybody else, to advance the kingdom. You know? And once people figure that out, you know, then you're good at money, you become Dave Ramsey. You're good at music, you become Jeffrey B. Scott. You know, you're an incredible persuader, you become Shannon Scott, you proclaim. You're a great writer, you know? And so like,
Everything Made Beautiful (22:56)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yep. Yep.
David Nasser (23:17)
I think God can...someone listening, it's just like, okay, what is the intersection between my passion and my gifting? That's location of my calling, you know?
Everything Made Beautiful (23:26)
Yeah, yeah, it's
Yeah, that's so good. Thank you for saying that because I know that sometimes people feel discouraged if they don't have an overtly what we might consider spiritual calling on their life. Maybe they're like, I'm a phenomenal football player or track athlete and I really want that to be okay as a passionate believer in Jesus and it is. So thank you for saying that. That's such good pastoral wisdom.
Now you would not describe what I'm about to describe the way I'm going to describe it because you're super humble, but you have for a number of years prior to this, you pastored the world's largest collegiate ministry at Liberty and had such great impact there and that legacy is ongoing.
David Nasser (24:16)
Yeah.
Thank
Everything Made Beautiful (24:25)
What was that season like for you? I mean you talk about as an evangelist having a harvest there, a ripe harvest. What did you learn specifically about young adults and about you know the next generation in that season?
David Nasser (24:30)
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, first of all, let me just say it was the largest when I found it already. So I didn't take it to that number. It's and it also is it's just it was the largest Christian university in the world. And so and they bring everyone together, you know, several times a week. And so in that numerically, that's why it was the largest. But that said, it was an incredible almost eight years of Jennifer and I's life. And
We went for the students. didn't go for, as a matter of fact, I remember flying in there, Shannon, and spending some time with some of the leadership, and it was great. I was very impressed with them and their heart for the Lord, and the buildings were impressive, and like Liberty University is an impressive place to see with your eyes. But I didn't sense like a tug of like, this is the place. We loved where we were. We were in Birmingham. We were at a church plant in the inner city.
Our kids loved their school. We loved their staff. I was like, ride or die, I'm staying in Birmingham. But we had this thing called the Yes on a Table. So we went just to see what God was doing and if he was prompting. But then they had one last meeting. The day we were spending a couple hours at Liberty. And it was with some students. And listening to the students and their hunger for God and their desire to grow during their collegiate years for the kingdom and
to discover their true calling, not their profession, but their calling that we were talking about. Really kind of got our heart beat fast, you know? And so I say that to say, we went for the students. We stayed for the students. There were years where, like any other thing, were some tough years. And those are the years where we have to remind ourselves, like, now why did we come? We came for the students, we're hanging out for them. And then even as we left, we left to be a model to the students, I think.
Everything Made Beautiful (26:33)
Yeah, yep.
David Nasser (26:37)
of like, if God calls you to go, I can't tell you, always have a yes on the table. the two things I would say I learned from that season more than anything else. When it comes to actual leadership, I learned the power of surrounding yourself with people that are better than you at what they do. And that's how we were able to be successful. The Lord just gave us an incredible team.
Everything Made Beautiful (26:58)
Mm. Mm.
David Nasser (27:05)
of really able people. Like I'm kind of weirdly really good at a few things and then it sharply drops off. But it takes a village of people to accomplish like the assignment that God had for us. And it took people that were just so good at what they did, so much better than me at shepherding, so much better than me at administrative work and stuff and so.
Everything Made Beautiful (27:13)
You
David Nasser (27:30)
The biggest takeaway over and over again was like, it just took every single person. And I'm so grateful that God brought people into my life that were so good at what they did. And I was just, I was just, my job was just to get out of the way, you know, and let them do. So that was on the leadership side. When it came to the students, what I learned was that they, and I don't think it's any different. think, I don't think there was a moment where this wasn't true.
I think 18 to 24 year olds, and they've always been this way. Now, recently we've seen an upsurge where we're saying, since Asbury and some other things, is there a remnant of awakening and revival? Sure, there can be moments, but in the long span of things, 18 to 24 year olds come to God at that moment of discovery where, this is the first time typically for a college student where they're,
They're having to make their own decisions. There's no more helicopter mom, know, putting food in front of them and high school principal. 18 to 24 year olds are in that season of discovery and they really are asking God, how do I serve you best? And in that moment when they're porous, you get them from 18, this is an assembly line there. In that moment where you get them from 18 to 22, 23, 24.
Everything Made Beautiful (28:47)
Mm-hmm.
David Nasser (28:57)
They are so available to the Lord. And I think our Mormon friends have done a really good job of like putting them on a bike and making them go knock on doors. know, even though we don't believe in the same message, like the methodology of like, you get an 18 year old who's available, not tied down, is moldable, is shapeable, and be a good steward of that season. And so what I learned was like, that's the years where you can really help them understand the missional life.
Everything Made Beautiful (29:07)
Yeah, yeah.
David Nasser (29:27)
This is the moment to go ahead and say, I'm to go be a teacher in Mississippi because they need godly teachers in Mississippi. I'm going to go, I'm going to go be a doctor in, you know, in Taiwan because they're going to actually pay me to be a missionary in Taiwan. I'm going to go be a lawyer in Dubai because they need like, they're offering me a six figure salary to actually go on mission in Dubai. And so
So like this idea of like these are the years where you actually a lot of decisions haven't been made yet for you. You can make them. So why don't you just like bring your life before God and take them and say make offer yourself before him and just say like more than ever God I'm available to whatever you have for me, you know? And so that was the biggest takeaway. Like you get somebody from 18 to 24
Everything Made Beautiful (30:17)
Yeah, yeah.
David Nasser (30:25)
and they're in that moment. So if you can sit there in those moments and just help them discover their identity in Christ and then discover their calling for Christ, then I think you've done them well.
Everything Made Beautiful (30:40)
Well, I will say those students are very blessed to have had you, many of them for their entire collegiate career as their campus pastor in effect. And so I also love what you said about leadership and I have seen you model this, but it takes a incredibly confident, competent leader to say, me get people around me who are better than I am at various things.
And I think you have modeled that so well over the years, but that's such a good reminder to all of us in any aspect of leadership that it doesn't make us smaller to get people around us who are better than us at things. So that just, that was really profound to me.
Everything Made Beautiful (31:31)
Okay, so recently, as in in the last two weeks, we got to go to Arizona. Jennifer got to go. We took the QAVA team and we went to Arizona for a project and it was so fun. And so I called you up one day and I was like, hey, I have a weird question. And it's something that we had not yet attempted with QAVA but I just had an idea that it would be a really cool thing.
David nasser (31:44)
So fun, yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (31:59)
And we wanted to take people on a journey through Holy Week. And we wanted to find a place in the States that would kind of give us that illusion of some of that biblical landscape and those gorgeous mountain ranges and things. And Arizona delivers in that aspect. But what, I'm just curious, what drew you to this in the first place of like, yeah, let's slow down and go on a journey through Holy Week.
David nasser (32:26)
Yeah, well first of all, the invite, gracious invite, came from you, a person that we trust and we've done ministry with for a long time. To complement that, I mean, you are now sitting in a seat of leadership with QAVA an organization that's fast becoming, fast becoming known as like two things, like we are stubbornly, violently guarding good theology, like we won't compromise on that. And then at the same time, we want to tell the story.
of the biblical stories with aesthetic beauty and with excellence. And so to be invited into that space and be given permission was a quick yes for us. Like how do we go together in a place that's iconically known for sunrises and sunsets and to look at the sunrise, the sunset, the sunrise of Holy Week.
So I thought it was not just aesthetically beautiful, but symbolically appropriate. And then the content, man, everyone knows, you know, two events in the most important week in the history of the
Everyone has heard, even if you don't share our faith, about Good Friday and about Resurrection Sunday. But leading up to that, if you back up a little bit and think about the full bookends, a Palm Sunday all the way to Resurrection Sunday, you see the dovetail, the interlocking of the progression of a week that speaks incredible volume about the life and the journey of Jesus and then his disciples.
And then us, his now disciples. And so when you said, would you want to come and do these devotions? I was like, I've always wanted to tell the story of Holy Week. And now I get to do it with QAVA a group of people who are so good at telling story at such a high level of excellence. And so I was like, man, this is going to be amazing. So yeah, I'm really excited about it.
Everything Made Beautiful (34:32)
Yeah, it's gonna be so good. What I'm wondering, did anything surprise you or kind of hit you in a new way as you were just sitting with the content and studying it? I mean, you've taught it before, you know all the events of Holy Week, but I know you find like I do, it doesn't matter how familiar we are with passages of scripture, if we're faithful to dig, there's always more there.
So was there anything as you sat in preparation with these details that hit you differently or just hit you afresh about that week of the life of Jesus?
David nasser (35:12)
Honestly so much. I mean, I don't even know where to begin. You're asking me like was there one but I think about Palm Sunday and as I was preparing my heart and my mind like hey Like what is the content here that we want to like deliver in a seven minute five to seven minute video for people? There were things that I knew wants is in the story that I've never thought about before You know and just just the way that Jesus carries himself the decision donkey instead of stallion
You know, like those tiny little things that are just such like basic everyday principles of, or my own convictions on Palm Sunday of so often, so easily putting palm branches down and putting coats down and making a big ruckus at how much I love Jesus. But then like when it really comes to a difficult moment, like were those just words or were they really words that had deep meaning?
And then you go the next day and then the next day and then the next day and then the next. I'm just telling you, like silent Saturday, for example, for me, just preparing for it and thinking back at these seasons of waiting. You know, we're just really profound for me in preparation for this. You know, just on silent Saturday when we were shooting our video, my dad had passed away the Saturday before and I woke up
That morning, and I was thinking about just the content that we were preparing to deliver together about Silent Saturday and how God is always working in the waiting, that God has not abandoned us if we're kind of at a pause. And I thought about the months and months that we waited on the Lord to send my father home. And there's that tension of like, don't wanna see your daddy go, but at the same time,
He's in a bed and he's not communicating and you're like, Lord, he might be struggling. like, let him, he's ready, God. He knows you, let him go. And in that waiting, like, maybe somebody's watching this and you know what it's like to sit beside somebody that you love and just going, Lord, like, send them home, send them home. And in that waiting, God is doing a refiner's work. In that waiting, God is doing something bigger maybe in the life of the...
nurses around you. We don't always see it. But even in that moment, like it just meant something to me that it's never meant to me. And I probably preached silent Saturday 50 times. I've preached Good Friday 100 times. I've preached Resurrection Sunday, every preacher like over and over and over again. But coming back to it this time for me and teaching it has once again brought so much new light and so much new, we call it color.
You know, like so much more just nuance and discovery and more appreciation. You know, it was kind of like we were having church out in the middle of the desert together. We'd go out there to shoot these videos. And by the way, like I would be on take 11, you know, they'd be like, hold airplane coming by. And then I'd go back and revisit it again. just like it felt like repetitive meditative work for me.
Everything Made Beautiful (38:15)
Yeah, it really was. Yeah.
Totally.
David nasser (38:32)
to be sitting in like what was happening on the story of the withering fig tree on that Tuesday, 2000 years ago. So I say all that to say there was so much of it, but pick a day and I'll just tell you what it meant at a new level for me. And I don't know if it was the same for you.
Everything Made Beautiful (38:48)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
It was, mean, you know, the way we did this was I took a first pass at scripts and then you took a second pass at scripts and then I took a third pass. And so it really felt like we crafted it. And the more I sat in it, the more profoundly grateful I was for everything that led up to the
David nasser (38:59)
yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (39:17)
parts we celebrate on Sunday. And, you know, we called this from grief to glory intentionally. And I think it's important for us as believers not to just rush to Easter and rush past.
David nasser (39:19)
Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (39:35)
Good Friday, but frankly not rush past that entire week in Jesus life because every day and the things he was engaged in and what mattered to him on each day is profound for each of us today. And so what what would you say to people who may be new to intentionally slowing down Holy Week?
Why do you think it's important to consider both the grief and the glory of that whole week leading up to Easter?
David nasser (40:12)
Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think so often, sadly, we end up celebrating the holy roar of Easter without all the holy whispers and all the brokenness, the holy brokenness and the holy
like the less loud moments of a Holy Week. And we rob ourselves. And what we wanted to do with this was to say every part of this week has applicational truth for our life. And by the way, it will not take away from Holy Sunday.
Holy Roar Sunday, like the way you really prepare to maximize all that it means for you is to back up and say there's a reason why God progressively takes like himself and his disciples through the process of a week, a journey that has in it everything from intimate beauty to scandalous betrayal to religious confrontation.
to just a prayer and rest. There's not a whole lot that's not in that week. And I think also there are different years of my life where coming into Easter, I've been some years in a real valley of my life needing Easter. And some years in a real mountain top of my life needing Easter. Some years I'm getting ready to get married and I'm needing Easter. Some years I'm mourning the death of my father and I need Easter.
Everything Made Beautiful (41:24)
Right.
David nasser (41:46)
And what Holy Week does as a whole week is it allows you to understand the different ways that the Holy Spirit ministers to us through Resurrection power.
Everything Made Beautiful (41:57)
Yeah, it's good. Yeah. And in the Easter Sunday video, I remember specifically you saying, we are resurrection people today. Resurrection isn't something we celebrate that happened back then. It is also what we live out every single day of our lives. I'd love you just to talk for a minute around that.
David nasser (42:22)
Yeah, I can't emphasize enough how important it has been in my own walk with God to wake up every day, not just Easter Sunday, not just even Holy Week, but every day of my life and recognize that the Holy Spirit has given me resurrection power. Not my own power, because man, we're going to fail if it's in my own power, but resurrection power in every facet of my life. And so both in the saving work, like the tomb is empty,
Christ has risen and because of that I can find salvation. Not just in saving work but in sustaining work. So I have resurrection power today to walk into when it comes to my marriage. If my marriage feels like it's in a silent Saturday or confronting Tuesday, I can have resurrection power right now in my marriage. If my relationship with my kids is weird or if I'm just having a real struggle with my boss at work.
Everything Made Beautiful (43:13)
Mm-hmm.
David nasser (43:22)
There's not a facet of my life where resurrection power can't be afforded. And so I don't have to walk by my might, you know? And again, it's not just saving grace, but saving power, but sustaining power. And that's the resurrection power that God gives us every single day. So we don't have to plug in and plug out. Like we stay plugged in.
Everything Made Beautiful (43:43)
Yeah, that's so good. What are you personally praying that people will experience as they engage with this series? Whether it be every morning when they wake up or at night before they go to bed or even if they sit down and binge the whole thing maybe before Easter Sunday, what is your prayer for people as they engage with Holy Week?
David nasser (44:08)
Yeah, I think these eight moments, these eight videos, are about five to ten minutes long on purpose. They're not supposed to be everything that you do as far as your devotion is concerned. But I think it's a way for us to collectively, all of us who are going to join this one week journey together, to collectively step in to Holy Week and say, prepare my heart. And
So every day there is a bit of a scripture reading that we do and then there's about a five minute teaching about that particular day and then we turn it towards the person who's watching going, now that's what happened then, how does this apply to my life today? How is this vital? How is this about me in the trenches of this particular Tuesday right now?
And so what we want people to do is just to come available before the Lord and just say, I'm gonna watch this, whether it's with my iPhone, whether it's on, you know, just putting it on my TV, whether it's my laptop open, I'm gonna watch this for about five to seven minutes. And then hopefully, I'm gonna shut the device down and just spend a few minutes with God and just say like, Lord, what are you saying to me? What did you just say to me? And there's something really both personal
and corporate about this, that all over the world, Christians from all these different denominations and all these different paths and people are gonna watch the same and be literally on the same page on the same day, having the same questions posed to them, the same challenges, the same encouragements brought before them. And so how beautiful would it be for someone joining us to say, all right, QAVA is like bringing believers from all over the world together.
to literally every single day commit to say, for about five to 10 minutes, I'm gonna watch something, and then the Holy Spirit's gonna say something very different to me than he does to my wife if we're both watching the same thing. And so I think that's how God works so often. And there's beauty in the sense that we're gonna get to all do this together. And here's the thing.
Everything Made Beautiful (46:16)
Yeah.
David nasser (46:26)
Shannon Scott's gonna come into this week needing something very different than David Nassar. But the Lord is going to give from the same table for all of us specifically something. And I can't wait to hear, like, you're gonna listen to the Thursday devotional and get something very different from it, from the moment that you're in than I am. But I can't wait for us to, like, even talk about this. My encouragement would be for families to commit to watch it together and maybe even have dialogue afterwards.
So whether for me in the rhythm of my life, that's typically in the morning. My schedule allows me to begin my day with this video to watch it and then spend some time. But some people can end their day with it or they can do it on their drive to work. The main thing is wherever you can find the right margin to give it proper attention. Man, come before God and just say I'm available.
Everything Made Beautiful (47:21)
Yeah, well, I can't thank you enough for being part of this project. We were really excited about it and not just because it'll be cool or it'll look great or it's great content, but because the word of God is living inactive and we're excited for people to dive in and maybe experience the season of Easter in a more profound way than they have before. So.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I do want to ask you, as we end, the question that I ask all my guests, because this podcast is called Everything Made Beautiful because we do believe what Scripture says, that God is making everything beautiful in its time.
and that he is in a constant restoration and redemption process. And so we just like to consider beautiful things. So if you could design, if you could architect your perfect, beautiful day from start to finish, what would it look like? And the caveat is there's no restrictions on the perfect, beautiful day. So if you need to teleport to a couple of places you can.
David nasser (48:24)
Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (48:28)
If you're gluten intolerant, you don't have to be in the perfect, beautiful day. So what's your perfect, beautiful day if David Nasser gets to architect it?
David nasser (48:37)
Yeah, I just had one. I recently, you know, in my backyard, both grandbabies, you know, Jennifer Nassar doing her thing, her Jennifer Nassar thing, you know, like she had the, the old quilt, you know, that has been with us all 30 plus years of our marriage has made it through every home. And it's just kind of tattered. She had that thing open. The grandbabies were sitting there.
Everything Made Beautiful (48:46)
Mm.
David nasser (49:04)
We just poured a cheap little pickleball court in the backyard. It's not bougie, it's concrete and paint. So the kids, my daughter and my son-in-law and my son and my daughter-in-law, they were playing pickleball while we were watching the grandbabies. One of the grandbabies got up, went to the back, got on the trampoline that we inherited when we bought the house. We're jumping up on the trampoline and...
Everything Made Beautiful (49:08)
Mm.
David nasser (49:33)
I go turn the grill on, you know, we throw some cheeseburgers on and hot dogs and gluten-free, because that's what the grandbabies want. And I'm just telling you, like, it doesn't get better to be around my family and to see my son laugh, you know, as somebody hits a weird ball in the pickleball court and to look at my wife. she's only, I never thought she'd get prettier than when we were dating.
Everything Made Beautiful (49:59)
She is stunning.
David nasser (50:00)
And then she got prettier when he got married and I never thought then she got prettier when she became a parent and now, like, my gosh, now she's a grandmother. And just to see the smile that comes out of her when a grandbaby is like on her hip and she's walking. Like, I'd rather be in the backyard changing a diaper than any bougie house on Allege Beach on 38. But I'm just saying that to you, I mean it, like, the perfect day.
Everything Made Beautiful (50:24)
Yeah, yeah.
David nasser (50:30)
is a day with the people that you love, you know, and just giggles with the grandbaby. So yeah, that was, was, it doesn't get prettier than that, you know.
Everything Made Beautiful (50:37)
Yeah.
that's so good. I love that. I can actually see it. You're describing it and I can see it. That's amazing. I'm not a grandmother yet, but I have a feeling that will be a very, very good era for me.
David nasser (50:49)
You're gonna be a
cool grandma. Speaking of beauty, do you know what song Jeffrey B. Scott sang at my wedding? Because as I was describing that day, I always think soundtrack in the back of my mind. The song that came up was what we asked Jeff to sing. It's Cindy Morgan's How Could I Ask for More? And it's about a beautiful day.
Everything Made Beautiful (50:54)
Well, David. yeah.
I don't.
it's so good. Yeah.
David nasser (51:18)
And yeah, that song just came to my mind as I was talking about just the other day, those grandbabies being there, you know.
Everything Made Beautiful (51:24)
Yeah,
yeah, that's so good. Well, thank you, thank you so much for doing the project, for doing this podcast and just for your faithfulness over the years to steward so faithfully what God's called you to. It really is impactful. It's impacted me for a long time, but I know so many others who may not get the chance to tell you that. So I want to tell you on their behalf, just thank you.
David nasser (51:34)
Yeah.
Yeah, well,
thank you. And thanks, thanks, you know, to the whole entire team at QAVA I mean, they did an amazing job of hospitality and hosting Jen and I doing this video and shoot. I'm so excited. I think this is a really special. I sense God had his hand on it every day that we were there. And as we were honoring him, I sense that we're seeing something special be cooked up here.
Everything Made Beautiful (52:05)
Yeah. Yep.
David nasser (52:15)
for people to really be able to come and partake and to grow in their faith. My biggest takeaway, I gotta say before we get off, my biggest takeaway from QAVA was not that you are really talented in the way you do storytelling or that you are highest level of quality in the way you do all of those things. That is already your reputation. My biggest takeaway was the warm spirit of your team and the way that they were there and
how the one thing that seemed to matter the most in take after take after take after take was that we would honor God's word. Like if there was a pause, can we redo that again? It was, hey, let's rephrase that so that we're more clear on what happened. Instead of the sunlight wasn't right or the sound wasn't right, those things mattered. But what mattered the most to QAVA was we want to get this biblically right. And then when we present it to people,
Everything Made Beautiful (52:51)
Yes.
David nasser (53:13)
that we know that we've honored God in this truth. And so thankful for you.
Everything Made Beautiful (53:16)
Yeah,
it's good. Well, it's gonna be fun. And as David said, you don't wanna miss Holy Week from grief to glory with QAVA I'll put all the information in the show notes. I also wanna say, I'm gonna put David's information in the show notes. You need to follow him on social media, go to his website. You need to buy his books. Can they still buy your books? Like I wanna just shout out A call to die. That book I've had for...
David nasser (53:38)
Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (53:43)
25, 27 years now and it is still so, so, so good. So go get a call to die and anything else he's written. But you can find all of that information on his website. And David, thank you again. Please tell your stunning wife hello for us. So maybe we'll talk to her next. She's gonna be a great interview too for sure. Appreciate you, David and we'll talk to you soon.
David nasser (54:01)
I sure will.
yeah. We love you guys.
Thanks again.