From Prisoner To Preacher (The 8 Years Before I Went Viral on Soft White Underbelly) | #002

Unlearned Wisdom by Johnny Chang

Johnny Chang

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 871 Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 99 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we dive into my early years walking with Christ, moving into the church, and leaving the gang life. From meeting my mom's pastor to nearly going back to the streets, God worked through it all. Timestamps: 00:00 - First meal out: Korean BBQ tears02:00 - Intro to Johnny’s 8-year journey05:00 - Meeting Pastor Kim through his mom06:15 - Church by day, gang by night08:50 - Going all-in with church life10:18 - Pastor offers escape from the streets11:12 - Living in church but still armed12:23 - Gang turns on Johnny’s new faith13:17 - Trading gang status for salvation15:00 - Church dorm life & early prayers19:14 - Scrubbing toilets tests Johnny’s pride21:00 - Pastor calls out closed-off heart24:53 - Opening up builds trust with pastor26:00 - Humbling himself to become teachable29:50 - Learning forgiveness after gang war33:28 - Wrestling with salvation and sin cycles36:34 - Overcoming temptation with scripture truth40:30 - Using God’s word against deception47:42 - Setting boundaries to guard his flesh51:32 - Mentors show grace through near relapse 1:07:25 - Accepting the idea of becoming a Minister 1:26:52 - Viral Soft White Underbelly interview1:32:00 - Testimony spreads to strangers and enemies1:37:15 - From inmate to Minister through grace 🎙️ Watch/Listen to Unlearned Wisdom on every platform: https://linktr.ee/unlearnedwisdom 👾 Join my free Discord to submit your question for a future episode: https://discord.gg/nTuvmutSsU 🐉 Follow Johnny Chang everywhere: https://linktr.ee/johnnychang 🫶 Donate to support our Core of the Heart ministries: https://coreoftheheart.com/pages/donate 💙 For those that want to gain a deeper understanding of the Bible & get closer with God, to unlock true peace and happiness: https://coreoftheheart.com/ Core of the Heart is our digital community to support you in getting closer to the true Gospel. Membership includes: Weekly Bible Class with Minister Johnny, hundreds of hours of livestream content, sermons, Q&A's and resources to help you understand the Bible faster. 🕊️ Use code WISDOM for 50% off your first month. Sign up help here: ⁠https://shorturl.at/ZuAFD Ps. Don't forget to subscribe to this new channel! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we get into the meat of the podcast, I want to know, Mr. Johnny Chang, what was the first meal you ate when you got out of prison? The first meal I ate was Korean barbecue. Korean barbecue. It was in Roland Heights, I remember, paroled out of CRC, Norco. And the closest place was Roland Heights at that time. Hey, but that was like what you're like, do when I get out of here, I'm going to get Korean barbecue. That's what you're thinking about the whole time.
0:24.3	No, no. They were like, let's go to all you can eat. And I'm like, oh, yeah. And they're like variety of food. And at that time when I got out, it was hometown buffet. Do you guys remember hometown buffet? Yeah. Yeah. Kind of bad. They were trying to get me to go to
0:37.8	hometown, but then my dad was like, no, let's go to Korean barbecue. I actually forgot what it was
0:43.2	called, but it was in Roland Heights. How delicious was it? It was amazing. I was eating it. I almost
0:49.5	started crying. Seriously, it was bad, man. It was like, like, I couldn't, I couldn't, I was, I was like sad but happy. It was hard to explain. Once you got free, like what was on the food list? Like, what were you eating every day? What were you trying to do? Okay, so that night I got hungry again and I ate McDonald's. Like, I don't know why. Like, McDonald's filial fish, fire.
1:13.9	That spongy bread.
1:15.4	Oh, yeah, that was good.
1:17.1	What's for McDonald's order?
1:18.8	Usually, it's either a Big Mac with fries, like the Big Mac combo, or filial fish.
1:24.5	Yeah.
1:24.9	How often do you still eat that order?
1:27.1	I don't eat that anymore.
1:28.5	I'm trying to be healthy.
1:30.3	Dude, last time I had filial fish was like four years ago.
1:34.1	Hey, low key, the filial fish freaks me out because it's like fast food, seafood.
1:39.1	What?
1:39.8	It's good.
1:40.8	The sauce, the tartar sauce, the bun that never rots away. It's like Jesus bread.
1:47.7	Just never manna that never rots. So good. So we have a very special episode today. And well,
1:54.4	first of all, hit the intro. Welcome guys to the Unlearned Wisdom podcast by Johnny Chang.
2:01.7	We are on what?
2:02.9	Episode 2 now.
	...

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