[Music] hey everybody you’re about to hear an amazing podcast with an amazing young man Jonathan Isaac and you’re going to be blown away because what God has done with him to bring him to where he’s at today will inspire you so stay tuned real life presents the Jack hibs podcast with intention and boldness to Proclaim truth equip the Saints and impact our culture today if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more ful filled life in Christ then make sure you leave us one of those fstar 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 well hey everybody welcome back to our Jack Hibbs podcast and we are so delighted that you’ve joined us and thank you by the way thank you uh for uh giving us a five uh star Mark thumbs up up sharing with others why because this podcast by God’s grace is really taken off and that’s because of you we can only offer up what we have but you take it and you run with it and

God’s been using it for that we are grateful and so spread the word listen before we get into uh today’s podcast you’re going to uh love this the scriptures tell us in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 listen to this it says therefore whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God and that is the Lord’s calling upon all of our lives and it is the calling upon uh the brother that we’re going to be interviewing today Brothers I should say and um we have with us uh In This Very Special podcast Jonathan Isaac who

is the remarkable uh player for the Orlando Orlando magic magic I don’t know why I always think of Orlando it’s hot so I think of heat and that’s not a good connection but um and his pastor and I want to say this right because it’s French but it’s Dr Duron that’s it that’s it he that’s heern now how did you get the last name of Hep my parents that’s a good question yeah yeah yeah but where did get into all of this from the Bahamas from the Bahamas somebody has to be from theam that’s

right but um so we’re gonna we’re going to dive in we’re going to talk about a lot of stuff everything from this young man’s career on the court off the court uh challenges setbacks victories um all of it in a book by the way and we’re going to be uh announcing this over and over again you’ll be able to uh get it at the site that is listed below uh and I think most often uh if it’s not directly from his ministry um Amazon but whatever is there uh get the book and here’s what we always ask when

we believe in a message like Jonathan Isaac his message we ask you to actually get two copies and here’s the reason why if you can afford it do it because you’re going to read one and you’re going to hang on to it and then give the other one to someone in your life especially a young person uh so that’s going to be tremendous so uh Jonathan Isaac it is an honor to have you with us and at the time of this podcast happening right now uh this young man stood up uh in front of uh several thousand people last night

a lot of them young people here and just hit it out of the park because of how remarkably open and tender you were to them and their response has been tremendous so let’s dive into a little bit as to who you are and you mentioned to them last night you mentioned to all of us last night um your can I say insecurities setbacks fears it’s hard for it’s hard for us to handle that because we see you so confident so strong but yet you’re a testimony to the work of God talk to us about it yeah so my name is Jonathan Isaac I’m uh play

basketball for Atlanta magic I’m 26 years old and uh uh yeah my story starts in Bronx New York uh my par my parents split up and I moved from Bronx New York to Naples Florida when I was 10 yeah and uh I went from a predominantly black community to predominantly white community and that’s where the majority of my struggle started trying to fit in trying to make friends um feeling a deep sense of insecurity about who I was and uh basketball became this safe haven for me where uh I was able to make friends

and the girls wanted to talk to me because of how good I was playing uh but it also was a gray fear of mine of playing bad because if I played bad I I felt that I would lose everything that I had gained I would lose the popularity I would use the friends um and I was I got into this this cycle of working for love working for acceptance working for peace instead of resting in peace or having something to to call a peace to myself and it wasn’t until um I got to the NBA after being the number one player in the

the the State of Florida being on anxiety medication having panic attack episodes in college in the whole nine this blew me away when I heard this to to meeting this guy on an elevator and him saying to me I can tell you how to be great and you got to know Jesus and from that moment it was like God took the wheel and and got us to this moment right I heard that last night and then I I couldn’t wait for us to get together this morning because I wanted to I wanted to ask doc how were you guys how did that happen first of all in an elevator right

uh but what what was the behind the scen stuff were you there for some Ministry vacation whatever how did you bump into Jonathan like first I want to say thank you for having us Pastor you are awesome you have you are awesome I thank God for your heart I I my wife said she saw you for the first time she said he looks like such a humble man I said honey he’s so nice so I was telling about your spirit so we can’t wait to come back every time we come to California we’re coming to your church so everybody

anybody we want you to know you need to come to Pastor Jack Church in California because you’re awesome it is you you are who you know you meet people you see them on TV but when you meet them you get to see their heart and we’re seeing your heart you’re such a kind man thank you very generous with Jonathan we lived in the same building and when we lived in the same building I’m not a basketball fan I love track and field so when I saw Jonathan i s I thought he played overseas and yeah I didn’t know he was he was just recruited

to Orlando to be and at the time Jonathan didn’t know whether he was going to be a St or not and I also remember telling him I said you’re going to start I said you’re going to be a start I just begin to speak over him but before we met I told him I said I knew I anytime I meet people I always try to minister to them anytime it wasn’t unusual to to to share the gospel so when I saw him I just told him coming out the elevator I was going upstairs he was coming down but Jonathan you know being an NBA player yeah they just keep

it moving they don’t check they don’t check for anybody else so when he came out I said to him I said can he got to be great he said tell me I said you got to know Jesus he said I know Jesus but he was just living a different lifestyle that was to keep me quiet to keep it moving yeah that’s right he really didn’t want to hear but we kept running into each other and I went to my wife and I said honey I said I met this young man I know God wants him in my life but but he don’t give me the time of day so

I just committed it to prayer so just prayed and and we just kept running into each other so one night um I I went home and when I went home things wasn’t too I decided to go out things wasn’t correct at home so I went for a ride when I went for a ride I was just driving and believe it or not Jonathan was coming out of movie theater and I was driving past the same time oh God the same this was like 10 almost 10 11:00 at night our our cars like he’s uh he’s going straight he and I’m turning and our cars

meet window to window side after I’d seen him a million times Angels moving the cars just the the steps of a righteous man ordered by the Lord yeah there you go and you you said about a movie you saw a movie that night yeah what’s what’s so interesting is uh I was during this time I had already went to that Chapel I went to a chapel service in the NBA and the chaplain said Luke 6:46 why do you call me Lord Lord did not do what I say and that was the first time I felt confronted with kind of having Christianity my back pocket um

just wait wait wait where did you you you got that verse but where did it come from it came from a chapel service so so you heard it in the chapel Ser yes 60 minutes before every game there’s a chapel um and one of my teammates invited me to it so I went I was a rookie in the NBA uh was already you know living my living the NBA lifestyle went to the chapel service and the chapel said Luke 646 I never heard the verse before why do you call me Lord Lord and I do what I say and I said that’s me and so I had started Ed uh saying you

know what I want to figure out if this Christianity thing is real and I started watching a ton of apologetics Frank Turk William Lane Craig we love Frank John Lennox the I started watching everybody and uh that’s when I went to a movie um with my old a trainer in high school he was a Christian always trying to get me to do Bible studies and I said man I just want you to be my trainer but we went to see a Christian we so we went to see a Christian movie it was awful unfortunately no I mean I yeah so we we

left it but it’s important for the time because we left that movie halfway through and went and watched Thor and Thor is like a three-hour movie yeah so then we’re ending the thing and he says to me where you at with God my trainer and I said you know what honestly man I’m searching I don’t really know but he said if you keep searching you’re G to find I’m pulling out of the movie theater and Doc is pulling pulling her across the same time the same time and then he said you and me lunch tomorrow

so both of us are headed home to to where we live and sh’s day we went to lunch the next day you want to take it from there yeah so in in the same way that I was searching I came across a verse that says whatever you do for the least of these you do for me and that was around Thanksgiving time so I have it in my mind Hey I’m I’m going to buy some burgers and pass it out to the homeless that was his Christian thing to do so we we go to lunch and or I think it was breakfast we go to breakfast and I start telling him about it like

because you know he talked about Christ like yeah I’m going to pass out these Burgers to the homeless and he’s like you can’t do that yeah I’m going to get some get some points yeah I’m going to get some points exactly right he says you can’t do that I said why not he said is um you got to treat if you’re going to feed people you got to feed people right correctly and so he says follow me so I follow him to Sam’s Club now I still don’t really know who he is right he does and I’m driving in the car and

I’m going what are you doing you do not know who this man is but I remember saying to myself something about this feels right so I follow him wait wait you’re missing a part of the story goad go ahead tell the part where you said this man is going to take my money and the food oh yeah no I’m so wait wait a 6’1 guys is is in intimidated well-dressed well groomed yeah I’m I’m I’m in the car behind him I’m foll to Sam we get to Sam’s Club I buy like $700 worth of food and he has some people

come pick it up and I’m thinking to myself I just fed this guy’s family for a year I’m not going to see him again and uh that’s what he’s thinking next thing you know um we we connect again he sends me a text message about a place to come um and I show up and there’s a line of 200 homeless people two to 300 homeless person and I hop in line the food is all cooked it’s all prepared I put my hair nut on I stand next to this beautiful young lady that’s my wife today that’s right te for the first time

boy people need to stay focused on that you want to find a husband and a wife find them in serving the lord that’s where you find them in the field in the field L met Bo in the field yeah so I I pull up next to her and and I put my hair in it on and we start serving the food and it was it it was the it was a beautiful just moment just serving the homeless and being out in the community and I was injured at the time I had rolled my ankle yeah and uh he brought me inside of what looked like a church but I’m still like I don’t know what’s

going on and he prays over my ankle uh his wife praise Michael and several leaders and I just remember feeling loved and U um I remember thinking to myself that God was real like I had done all of the Apologetics and I had gotten to that Cliff but that was the moment that I jumped off where I was like God loves me key and I went home that night and knelt on the side of my bed and said Jesus Come into my heart I remember the prayer from youth group and I started and then and I just started I told him I said you know what I said you need to to

come go to church with me he said he said I’ll go if you cool the pastor got to be cool so I took him to church he didn’t know who I was yet he just calling me Doc and then when I came out he said you’re the pastor he didn’t know I was a pass up and him good for you that’s excellent and it’s been seven almost eight years yeah excellent uh getting back to the apologetic weekend we can we can do the science right we can do the learning that’s right we can do all of the the background work which

the truth but when you saw the love that’s right and this is a great witness for all of us the the power of love to back up this the science of theology or the science of an apologetic argument it’s great to know the answers but it’s great to know why there’s the answer and who is the one that gave us that answer andol and he was just reeling you in by the power of His Holy Spirit and it was it was exactly what I needed because of what I had been dealing with behind the scenes yeah so everybody sees you know I’m I’m

the sixth pick in the draft number one player in the State of Florida but all the stuff that was behind the scenes to your point it was like the Apologetics address the Mind issue in terms of like you know what uh I see this being real but the moment of like you said the Holy Spirit reallying me and using it became it became tangible and then when I started going to the services and he’s teaching on faith and love and grace and I’m like oh my gosh it started it started to work on me and I talked about

it last night where these all these little instances of God allowing me to kind of through him to stand up to fear um that got me to standing up in front of the world the the people that you reached last night not only just in in the crowd but those that were no doubt watching um we will find out over time and then eventually we’ll find out in heaven but for me personally my granddaughter last night went asked how was it she just shouted great and you know listen teenagers are hard to impress hard to please yeah for

please and so what happened was is that out comes this star this man that has got everything that the world would seek after but what people didn’t expect I think was the humility uh and the package right of of the of the the redeemed Jonathan Isaac who found his footing in Christ because you shared things that by doing so you allowed us into private life did I did I get this right did I hear this right last night that you used to be so intimidated that you were speaking at a youth camp and that even even caused you

to be yeah I was a panic attack yeah yeah I had a panic attack while I was at Florida State and talking to uh talking to a bunch of kids and I remember uh I remember somebody Fanning my face afterwards and not even remembering what had happened um and I I even had instances like that in high school but the getting to Florida and being like the Big Man on Campus uh and everybody expecting that we’re bringing in Jonathan Isaac he’s the number one player in the State of Florida I had all of this pressure on myself about um

being able to perform and realizing like like if I don’t what everybody else would think about me that I was a fraud that I was uh you know I wasn’t capable and all that stuff even though I was trying to keep the image in the Forefront it was eating at me on the inside and I remember there were times where I would just be eating breakfast and I would tangibly freeze and my teammates would be like bro you good and I’m like I’m trying to break out of it and I can’t move let’s kind of dig

personal for a moment for the benefit of others um and I’ll share why in a moment but do you feel it coming on do you feel it somewhere when that when that moment was arriving it didn’t hit you like a train right did you kind of like feel momentarily coming on maybe a few minutes before that there’s this you might have noticed that your breathing is shallow or something can you describe a little bit of that for others that might be going through that yeah absolutely um just just just a feeling of like uneasiness and uh I

remember just like sweating a bit losing like ju just feeling like I had been overtaken by something in a sense of like I’m okay and all of a sudden something is gripping me um to where I’m I’m not in control anymore and uh my body’s reacting to it with the sweat and with the the uh not being able to you know make a sentence and then ultimately just completely freezing I say it that way way because um for years up until 1983 I stuttered really bad all my life and even when I asked my wife to marry me I will you please M marry me uh

she said thankfully yes and her mercy but for people who stutter um I can tell you that you can feel there’s about I’m GNA guess maybe 10 seconds ahead of time where you begin to feel this really bizarre it’s almost a pain on the inside you know what you’re about to say but you can’t say it there’s a there’s a disconnect and there’s and then that causes a tension and a pressure where you you feel your pulse immediately Spike you feel out of control and you don’t know what to say

and back in the day when I was young bullying was a cool thing to do so I even had teachers put me uh jack stand on top of the desk and read chapter 3 and they would laugh and all that kind of stuff and it was intense and it just caused me it caused me as as a young you know gosh I remember nine years old um I don’t know how personal we can be wait this is my podcast this is yours this is true so don’t tell anybody but I was walking home from school one day I was 9 years old I can tell you what I was wearing I can tell

you that I had I had uh white high top Converse tenis shes on I had a white T-shirt on Levi Levi buttonup 501s it’s just riveted in my mind I can see the faces of the six guys standing around me and they were in their young teens maybe so they said hey you’re you’re the guy that stutters and they started pushing me around and so they pushed me down and then they began to hold me down and each one of them took the opportunity as they urinated on me oh wow and they said this will fix it this will fix it

and I have to tell you when they went away I got up went home as you can imagine the stench the humili forget the stench yeah the internal pain was so great that from that moment on um I started hurting people however I could and it was almost like you know in the some Italian movie where you know Guido shows up to bump somebody off and he says you know it’s nothing personal right it was nothing personal but I had so lost control that I had no control couldn’t talk I couldn’t talk my way out of anything that I became

violent and that allowed me uh in Southern California we had what’s called Junior All-American football in other parts of of the states it’s called Pop Warner so I started playing contact football and I wasn’t very big but I was really mean because I had so much hurt on the inside and so I did did pretty good in in football uh but all for the wrong motive right right even buying hamburgers for somebody with the wrong motive doesn’t work well for me my motive was I had I had to bring people down to

where I live right and basically this hell hole of life and it was just terrible and I got saved in 1977 heard the gospel for the first time overwhelmed me that there was a father in Heaven that loved me but it wasn’t until 1983 where God in one night healed me awesome miraculously uh but that being said um those early years uh and there’s a lot of kids today oh yes getting bullied a lot today that maybe it’s their parents maybe it’s their physical situation um speak to their hearts I would say that uh it’s

still something that I deal with like the the for you being miraculously healed God please but like it’s been a continuous Battle of learning how to fight back and learning that I can fight back and learning that I have a choice to fight back and um many of the tools that know you know doc taught me was about using the word to speak back he always said that if the de if the devil speaks you speak back and you keep it moving and I remember so many instances of having that thought come across my mind you’re gonna have a terrible game

you’re a failure all these different things and saying back to myself God got me uh the righteous are as bold as the righteous are as bold as L love that passage that’s it and it would it would combat it and it would it would it would give me some some legging footing to stand on um and as I began to do that more and more I got to the place where where I’m able to stand in front of people and talk and share um and just learning how to rest in Christ’s Christ love not just that but when Jonathan

came on early on I used to tell him come meet me at 5:30 prayer so I started to build our relationship around prayer I knew if prayer was the foundation he would be able to stand so I started to teach him how to come to 5:30 prayer he would come and maybe pray for 5 minutes and fall asleep but that 5 minute turn into 10 minutes the spirit was willing the SP Spirit was willing then he would go to 30 minutes and then but prayer prayer wasn’t intrical part so I started to develop that spiritual foundation and

I think that’s what really begin to cause him to develop and really hear laying that Foundation of prayer this what you’re saying Doc is amazing right now because uh there’s the movie The Forge that’s out there where it’s really all about discipleship discipl making loving men loving on younger men to build them up in Christ and you live that out I mean that’s that’s exactly and that’s what we’re supposed to do I’ve seen too many churches that are and don’t get me

wrong that are fixated on evangelism and and look we all we’re all in fact Paul told Timothy that we are to do the work of an evangelist there is the gift of evangelist obviously Billy Graham and others have that gift uh but we’re called in Matthew 28 to make disciples right and this this is exactly what’s happened here right right meeting the need I think it’s so important to be able to meet people where they’re at when I met Jonathan it was meeting the need when I he he didn’t have the

furniture in his house certain things was in there when he would invite me over so I saw things around that could have where I could have helped and ministered so all of that was a part of just meeting the need I think he went away one time and had a real bad game and it was around Christmas time and when he went away he was he was feeling bad about Christmas but somehow We snuck into his apartment we put up a Christmas tree we put gifts the house and when he came back it just just totally just that love just begin to change and by all by

this will all men know you’re my disciples by the love you display so that was really key too with the love we showed and the people in the church just ministered when we could cook homecook meals we cook homecook meals just met him where he was at and he saw that and that’s what Drew him sometimes we make Ministry so hard but it’s just meeting the needs of persons when you meet their need you can’t you can’t defeat love you can’t pretend love love is real and the Bible says Love Never Fails so as long

as we operate in love love always wins no matter how it looks love will always win so good it was God’s love that won you w us that’s right that’s right when I said when you I’m talking about the pain that we were in you would say when you met that encounter with Christ was when you begin to heal and you was just totally healed from that so was that was God’s love you’re um you’re making me uh think of something that I have I must confess right here right now that I have become so

accustomed to God taking care of me and it’s what you mentioned a moment ago and I’ve I don’t think I’ve ever said this before but God healed me but I cannot go out before any one of the three services on Sunday or the midweek service on Wednesday or wherever I might be guest speaking I must confess the enemy even though he’s defeated um he never gives up really true because I and you just made me think this and know this and realize this every time I get ready to go speak I sense this attempted this attempted Ploy by the