Drawing the Line: Faith, Fame, and Why Awards Don’t Define Worship

What happens when a Christian artist draws a line in the sand and says “no” to awards for work made for Jesus? We open with a bold act of non-participation—no Doves, no Grammys—and the deeper conviction that salvation is the only prize worth carrying. That sparks a bigger conversation about motive, platform, and whether excellence is best measured by applause or by obedience.

From there, we sit with the raw weight of playing Jesus on screen. A mid-scene wave of panic turns into a turning point: none of us is worthy, yet all of us are invited to serve the story. That humility reframes performance into prayer, and it leads into a rich journey through faith roots—Greek Orthodox beginnings, Catholic formation, and a renewed commitment to structured prayer and reflection through Hallow. Along the way, we take on historical questions about the Gospels’ reliability, comparing ancient sources and examining the stubborn details that make the resurrection claims hard to dismiss.

We don’t dodge the hard topics. We talk about love that tells the truth, sin that disguises itself as self-made gods, and the mercy that shields before it calls us to “go and sin no more.” Grace becomes the center—unearned, undeserved, and stronger than fear. And we ground ambition with the parable of the talents: gifts are meant to be multiplied, not buried. Excellence becomes worship when it’s stewarded for the Master’s joy. We close with an invitation to let Scripture read you back—answers for real life, courage for the long haul, and hope that outlasts trophies and trends.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Your voice helps more people find conversations that point hearts past the spotlight and back to the Source.

Chapters

• 0:47 The Line Between Art and Worship
• 1:00 Choosing Non‑Participation in Awards
• 1:41 Host Affirms Glory Belongs to God
• 3:46 Competitions and Credibility Concerns
• 5:21 Host Intro and Setup
• 5:46 The Weight of Portraying Jesus
• 7:27 A Panic, a Prayer, and Perspective
• 10:33 Faith Background and Tradition
• 13:07 Growing in Prayer and Practice
• 14:48 Evidence, Scripture, and Historicity
• 17:27 Sin, Identity, and Scripture
• 21:23 Grace, Salvation, and Assurance
• 21:24 Talents, Work, and Responsibility
• 22:37 The Bible as Living Wisdom

Transcript

SPEAKER_06: 0:36

As Christians, it's hard to know where the line in the sand is between being in the world and not of the world. And as a Christian artist, you know, I I dress kind of like the world. I kind of look like the world. My music can kind of sound like the world. So where's the line in the sand drawn? And I'm convicted, personally, that a line that I can draw is that I will not receive a trophy for something that is from Jesus and for Jesus. And I was wrestling with this last year. I even said that on stage after Devil Wars. I said that I'm still struggling with the concept of receiving this award, but all glory to Jesus. Every name will fade away, including mine, except for one name. But I feel a conviction to go even a step further and say, I don't know if I even want to step on the stage. I don't know if I want to step in the room. And so I have decided to take a stance of non-participation. I will not be attending the doves or the grammies. I hope to be an example to the youth that the trophy is our salvation.

SPEAKER_04: 1:27

God bless. Amen. And that was Forrest Frank, and this is the Food for Thought Faith Cast. And I have agreed with him my whole life. Music is a gift, it's a talent, and it's given to you by the Creator, and all glory goes to the Creator. I'm just telling you, it's music, it ain't football, it ain't sports, it's art, and the whole competition thing, the whole look at me, look at me, look at me thing is of an evil place. Because all glory and all gratitude in everything we do, we give all glory to God. Because without Him it is impossible. Jesus is an amazing thing. Uh John 15 chapter 12 says, My command is this love each other as I have loved you. That was the last command. We're supposed to love each other as Jesus loved us, which means we would lay down our life for each other. That's what it means. There is no other way, no other path. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 say, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your unstanding and always submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Romans 12 10 says, Be devoted to one another in love, honor one another above yourselves. Plenty of scripture all throughout the Bible. Um, I think Forrest Frank is making a bold move. I think it's an amazing move because I think it's all rigged anyway, it's for show. Every competition I've ever been a part of, any battle of the bands, anything growing up, even all state chorus competitions in high school and drama competitions, 100% rigged, and usually it was the hosting school that won everything. I've been asked many a times to do this local uh who's with the band show, and it's a competition. And I'm I'm a firm believer that it's rigged. Anytime somebody has a vested interest, or have a bunch of friends that have a vested interest in a competition, that person is usually gonna win nine times out of ten. Doesn't matter. We've got this thing called Augustus Best. Every single time somebody from downtown wins. Not saying that that's rigged, but you know, people have friends who actually work for the place doing the publications, if that makes 100% clarity for you. Anyway, I just wanted to jump on here and um say those things. It's a great day, it's the Food for Thought Faith Cast. And I am your host, B Rob, and I hope you enjoy the show I've got lined up for you. I love you, God bless. You might hear from me later, you might not. Stick around, there's more to come.

SPEAKER_03: 5:35

Some people would feel like that's a pretty heavy role. I mean it's Jesus, yeah. The basis of the world's largest religion, yeah. God himself, according to Christians. Did you ever feel that on you? Like that's a lot.

SPEAKER_09: 5:48

In the first season I did. Um there was this moment, especially, um which I've kind of talked about at times, where and it's still I think it still sort of uh affects me. I actually like telling the story because it's a reminder for me to to remember what it's all about and who I'm serving as I as I endeavor to portray this role. And so we were about midway through the first season and the time came for for me as Jesus to start preaching you know um uh full-on sermons. And we started filming and then as I was going through these words, I s I suddenly, it's like I kind of felt I was outside of myself, listening to myself preach to a crowd outside the doors of of in our story, uh Zebedee James and John's father, Zebedee's house. And there is a crowd of people that would was growing, crowd of of onlookers, you know, and our our our wonderful background actors that participate in the show, and and many of them of whom have participated for years. Um there uh the this crowd starts growing outside the house as Jesus begins preaching. And the scene's not specifically about Jesus, it's about other stuff that's happening in the background that becomes the foreground of the story, and in the background Jesus is preaching, but I still have to preach. I still have to say these lines from scripture convincingly and and try to mesmerise and galvanize the people that are are listening to me and get their attention. And they seemed really attentive, so much so that it made me uh really self-aware.

SPEAKER_03: 7:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 7:33

And I thought what am I saying? What are these words like these are holy, holy words set by the holiest being that ever walked the face of the earth? I shouldn't be doing this. This this feels wrong. And and so I would have those feelings, and then you know, we would stop and then move on to the next setup and put the camera in a different place, and and then as it as it went on, I I just had to stop the production for a moment to talk to the director to Dallas, uh, Jenkins. And I said, Can we just can we hold it, can we just slow down a second? And he said, What's what's going on? And so we I I took him aside. I said, Listen, man, I I I'm I'm having a hard time right now. Like I I was starting to feel panicked and overwhelmed. Um almost like they be I've only had one panic attack in my life, and and it started to feel like it was creeping into that, and I didn't know what why or how well I kind of knew I thought I knew why and um and what was going on, but I just said can can we slow it down? And he said, What's what's going on? And I said I'm saying these words and it's and hearing them, hearing myself say them, I don't feel worthy to be saying them. I drive home in the morning of the gift that I've been given in playing this role. And he puts his hand on my shoulder and he says, Brother, none of us are truly worthy. Here we are. I mean, it's you and me, we're do here we are, we're doing this so that the world may know his story. Those who haven't heard his story may know the impact that he's had on the world and on our lives personally, and I'm slightly paraphrasing because it's been many years since since we shot that, but that that was the essence and it settled my spirit and and I thought, you know, he's right, he's right. For whatever reason, God's all fit to put for whatever reason. God's all fit to put me in that role and not somebody else. Nobody else auditioned. There wasn't there weren't auditions for the role. He had just called me up and said, Do you want to do this again? And I said, Yes, of course. I didn't hesitate. And but then when we got to that moment, it started to dawn on me the weight of what it was that I was being given to do. And would then inform the encounters and the experiences that I would have as the show progressed, and as we now arrive here at season five, the dawn of season five.

SPEAKER_03: 10:35

When you started the series, did you believe did you believe it? Did you believe in the gospel?

SPEAKER_09: 10:41

Oh yeah. I was raised Christian, I was baptized Greek Orthodox. Uh we lived in New York City and then when my family moved into the suburbs, there weren't really Greek Orthodox options. So my dad having gone to Catholic school in Egypt and my mom being Catholic from Ireland and raised in the faith as well, uh, were more than uh happy to just uh go down the street to the local Catholic church. It was familiar to my dad and part of my mom's grow up grow upbringing and and for myself and my sisters it just it it didn't feel different. It just felt right. And uh so I'm in my first communion and my confirmation as a Catholic, and probably when I got into my early twenties, I was uh revisiting the idea of my Orthodox roots as as uh uh cousins and family members were getting married in the Orthodox Church. And I so admired the beauty and and and the the sanctity with which they they approach the liturgy, which is quite which is quite different than uh Catholicism for the most part. I mean there's Eastern Catholic rites which are more similar to to Greek Orthodox, but uh it w it was different, but it didn't draw me to go back completely. Because I think I just felt like no, this this feels this feels like the truth as I understand it in God's eyes. This seems true. And it's the church that Christ himself ultimately started, and for for the reasons God knows, uh and despite every every effort to thwart it, especially the the largest empire in the world at the time, despite the the Roman Empire's attempts to stamp it out through murder, yeah, it didn't happen. It's still going. And and that means something to me. Um and so doing the show, um, playing the character of Jesus, uh working with the Hallow, um, you know, doing all these prayer and meditation challenges with them, learning more about other stories of faith, other people of faith through like the challenges that we have coming up for for Lent here. Um I've grown deeper in my faith. It's drawn me closer to the church to want to know more about uh the aspects of the church that I didn't necessarily grow up learning, you know. Um I went to public school. So I had uh Tuesday afternoon catechism or whatever the day was where you went to catechism out. C C D C C D after school. And I you know, I I didn't learn any of the things that I've learned in the last several years because it's just not that's just not designed that way. And it's uh the church has such a rich history and tradition. It's it's so vast. It's a it's such a storehouse. There's so much to know and to learn. Um and through the experiences of of playing Christ and and getting to uh uh force myself to to go into um prayer and meditation uh prior to every season, um, through these these uh periodical uh prayer challenges, like we just did one in Advent for Hallow and and now we're doing the pray 40, which which starts uh Ash today, Ash Wednesday. Um it's it's it's forced me to just spend more time in the presence of God.

SPEAKER_10: 14:36

Hearsay from 2,000 years ago from some men that claim that he rose from the dead is about as valid as a children's storybook about you know elephants that can fly. Why how why do you base you know your belief on on scripture? You know.

SPEAKER_02: 14:52

Alright. Sir, do you believe Alexander the Great existed? Yes. Did you ever see him? No.

SPEAKER_10: 15:00

Did you ever talk to him? I don't believe I don't disbelieve Jesus' existence. I believe disbelieve uh you know acts that are attributed to Jesus.

SPEAKER_02: 15:09

Alright. Well, Alexander the Great lived about 323 BC. The first writings that we have about Alexander the Great are by Plutarch 400 years after Alexander the Great's life. No reputable historian denies that Alexander the Great really lived, even though the first writing about him is 400 years after the fact. Now, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all written in the first century, twenty to sixty years after Christ lived, taught, died, and rose from the dead. Those gospels, if you read them, they're not children's stories. The literary style is not fairy tale, it's historical narrative. So, you read them, and it's very clear that he died. A Roman soldier took a spear and jammed it in the side, and we read that a watery serum separate from clotted blood flowed from the side of Christ. He didn't just lapse into unconsciousness, the dude was dead. They take his body off the cross, they put it in a tomb, wrap it in 100 to 220 pounds of burial ointment and white linen, roll a stone in front of the tomb, set a Roman guard to make sure there's no grave robbers doing any hanky panky, and his followers all are tucking tail and running. They're scared spitless. Three days after he dies, the record shows he appeared risen from the dead to women. Women! Sexism is bad today. It was even worse back then. If you wanted to foist the fable on society that a dead Christ had risen from the dead, you wouldn't put a woman as your first eyewitness. That was not the way to gain credibility in that highly sexist chauvinistic society. But that's who Christ first appeared risen from the dead to. Then he went looking for Peter, the dude who denied him three times, knowing. Then he appeared to Peter. Peter was willing to die. Not for a belief. He died for what he claimed to have seen, the dead Christ risen from the dead. Hundreds of people who saw Christ died at the hands of the Romans, claiming we saw Jesus risen from the dead, he is Lord, and they died for him.

SPEAKER_05: 17:15

I am a Christian. I am a homosexual, I'm a bisexual. Bisexual. What does that mean? I am attracted to both men and women. Okay. What would you say is the Bible's stance on homosexuality?

SPEAKER_00: 17:27

Yeah, this is what it says in the book of Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, through 9, uh 6 through 9. It says this. And it's very relevant how it begins. What's your name? Val. Val? Nice to meet you, Val. It says this do not be deceived. That's how it begins. In other words, you can get into deception unless you understand this. And then it says, Neither fornicators, you know what a fornicator is? Yes. Okay, neither fornicators nor idolaters. You know what an idolater is? No. Someone who makes up a false God. I did it before I was a Christian. I created a God in my own image to suit myself. A nice, cuddly, snuggly God that I cuddled up to and prayed to every night for about ten years. But it wasn't the God of the Bible. My God had no sense of justice or righteousness, truth. He was part of my imagination, the place of imagery. And that's what we do. We make an image of God that accepts our sins. And it's called idolatry. And the Bible warns idolators will not inherit the kingdom of God. So it says, do not be deceived, neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor adulterers, nor thieves will inherit the kingdom of God. So the Bible is very clear. And Val, if I meet an adulterer, I've got to say to them, I love you. I want you to repent of your adultery and trust alone in Jesus. So your sins can be forgiven. If I meet an idolator, I say the same thing because I love him. A fornicator or a homosexual. I love homosexuals, and I love them enough to tell them if they want to enter God's kingdom, they've got to turn from everything God considers to be sin. The Bible is very, very clear about who will and who won't inherit the kingdom of God.

SPEAKER_05: 18:59

Well, the Leviticus verse originally meant to be a man, not lay with a boy, in meaning for pedophilia and not homosexuality.

SPEAKER_00: 19:08

What's gonna happen to you when you die?

SPEAKER_05: 19:10

I I believe in God and I love the way Jesus did by not discriminating against others for who they love, what they believe in. I don't discriminate against immigrants, against homosexuals, against women who have abortions against nobody because I love the way Jesus did. And Jesus washed the feet of Jesus personally washed the feet of the prostitute instead of stoning her along with others in the town.

SPEAKER_00: 19:37

I think you're getting a little mixed up with those two stories. One was a woman who was caught in the act of adultery, and the law said she should be stoned to death. And they threw up Jesus' feet and said, What are you gonna do? She was caught in the very act. Jesus knelt down and wrote in the sand, and he stood up and he said, He that was without the sin without sin, let him cast the first stone at her. And then he said to the woman, when they left, beginning in the youngest oldest to the youngest, he said, Woman, where are your accusers? And she said, None, Lord. And then remember what he said to her? Go your way and sin no more. Very clear.

SPEAKER_01: 20:10

They invited this pastor for a late night TV show, but he left them speechless.

SPEAKER_08: 20:15

And reading the Bible, I see. Oh, I think you could think of all of them. Because all of us have broken all of them. The Bible says if we break in one point, we're guilty of all. And then when Jesus came after Moses, he explained that the Ten Commandments can be broken in your heart by thought and intent. So in that sense, we're all guilty. And that's the reason the Bible says that everybody's a sinner. When I found Christ as my Lord and my Savior, the fear of death was taken away. And now I'm just as certain that when I die, that I'm going into another world that's just as real as this one. And uh, I'm not going there because I've preached to a lot of people. I'm not going there because I've read the Bible, I'm not going there because I'm good. I'm going there because of what Christ did for me on the cross. I'm saved by the grace of God. Now the word grace carries with it the idea that I don't deserve it. I can't buy my way, I can't work my way. I'm a sinner, just like you.

SPEAKER_11: 21:09

Now, but what does Jesus say about multiplication? This is a much more important teaching. The parable of the talents is one of the strongest lessons towards modern economy and entrepreneurs. Jesus, our Lord, is talking to his disciples about a scenario. He talked in parables, and it was a way that we could better understand, you know, what God wants to tell us. So Jesus says, look, there's three people, okay, and they're all given a certain distribution. And by the way, this is totally true. If I picked three random people and I brought them up on stage and I said, you get five dollars, you get five dollars, and you get five dollars. A day later, someone would have zero dollars, someone would have twenty dollars, and someone would have a hundred dollars. And in the parable the talents, one of the people hides their money under a rock, another person modestly multiplies, and another person tremendously multiplies that money. The person that hid their talent. Now, a talent can actually be applicable to your actual talent or money, right? So it actually in the story meant money. Who did nothing with it, who hid it under a rock, received condemnation in the parable. How dare you do nothing with what God has given you?

SPEAKER_04: 22:21

Never forget because Jesus was on the cross, you were on his mind.

SPEAKER_11: 22:32

I love the Bible, and even if you're not convinced, I I asked you to spend one hour a week and read the Bible. Because you know what I love about the Bible more? You read the Bible more, it reads you. Reads you back, it talks back to you. I've never found a book like that. Ever. It answers every single question. Infinite about wisdom in Proverbs, Psalms, about worshiping God in times that you are having difficulty and heaviness. What happens when we die? The answer is if you give your life to Jesus, you have life, life everlasting, which is the greatest hope for all of us. But also is murder wrong? Should we honor our parents? Should we care about our country? Jeremiah 29 7, demand the welfare of the nation that you are in because your welfare is tied to your nation's welfare. Every major question you might be wrestling with, there is an answer in the word of God.