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Fueling Faith
From Struggle to Service: Paul Rangel's Tale of Faith, Resilience, and Purposeful Living
Ever wondered how powerful the Bible can be in transforming lives? Let's discover together. We invite you to embark on an enriching journey of reading the Bible from start to finish, even suggesting handy Bible apps for those on-the-go. Hear from Paul, a devoted pastor, who uses his furniture store as a ministry, a refuge for those seeking prayer and his platform to share God's word. Together, we ponder on the courage it takes to live out one's purpose without fear and the vital role faith can play in the business world. This episode is a heartfelt exploration of faith, resilience, and purposeful living.
How's going, family and friends? We're here with the Feeling Faith podcast. I have my guest, paul Rangel. Paul, how you doing today?
Speaker 2:Doing fantastic, doing really good. Thank you for asking.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you for coming in. This man is a beacon to the community. He's super involved. He loves his community, loves his people. He's always out there promoting, encouraging, inspiring, sharing the good news and ultimately just being a light to this community. So I'm excited to get your story today, oh thanks. Make sure to stay till the end. I know he's got some exciting stuff to share with us. So, paul, tell us a little bit about you. Where were you born? What was your upbringing like?
Speaker 2:I'm homegrown. I was born in Los Angeles, california, back in the 1963. Yeah, there was a hospital down there, actually an official hospital called the California Hospital, and I was born there and I grew up in the streets of Los Angeles, out in South Central LA. So yeah, that's kind of my upbringing bringing back.
Speaker 1:South Central, yeah, south Central.
Speaker 2:Yep straight out of LA baby All right, yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:Tell us a little bit about your family life. What was your upbringing like? What would you experience as a kid growing up?
Speaker 2:Wow Grew up with my mother, who worked in a sweatshop in Los Angeles and she was the sole provider for our home and at the same time she was taking care of my grandmother. So I grew up basically with my mother and my grandmother and it's just. I grew up in the time, in that era where you know you rode the bus, you know you can look left, you can look right, no complications, you didn't have to worry about anything, even though it was still in South Central, you still had to be cautious. But I grew up in that era where things were just really calm, really peaceful. We enjoyed life to the fullest. Of course, in those days there were no, you know, internet or phones. So I grew up with one of those big giant TVs watching Batman.
Speaker 1:You know, robin, you know any Batman fans out there?
Speaker 2:Yep, that was me watching that in color with the kapow and the kaboom type of thing. So I grew up there. You know, in that era, Unfortunately, my mother and my father. They parted ways when I was about a month old so to this day I never got to meet my father. So my mother was my all. She was my, my father, my mother, my everything growing up. And one thing that I do recall growing up is is I picked up the, the work ethic that she exuded by taking care of us, you know, making sure that there was food on the table.
Speaker 1:Right, and how many siblings did you have? It was just me, just you, just me. All right, so you, mom and grandma, me mom and grandma.
Speaker 2:All right, the three of us.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so through my childhood I grew up in LA and when I was in my teens flashing forward now in my teens I learned to be independent and I learned to grow up rather quickly, especially in Los Angeles. Back in those days we lived in the south central area, so you can literally take a bus from where I lived straight to downtown LA. One bus would take you right into the heart of Los Angeles, on Broadway there, and in those days you can watch a movie or two for like two dollars. So my goal, my goal, was to take that bus, and with mom's permission, of course, after I did the chores, which was vacuuming and, you know, hearing AM FM radio, kids don't know about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they don't know about that but, you know, vacuuming and doing the dishes and whatever, just to earn those two dollars so that I can go sit at the movie theater for a good six hours, because the movies were about three hours long each in those days, plus a middle cartoon in between and then plus, you know, the second movie. So I would start like at 10 am and come back like around four or five pm and there was no worries, I can just take the bus and do that. So that's kind of how I grew up in Los Angeles. But one thing that I do remember again is is the work ethic that my mother left behind for me. So I'm very thankful for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what did your mom do?
Speaker 2:Again, again. She was working at the sweatshop, sewing what I mean by sweatshop. She was a. She sewed bundles of patterns on a sewing machine, you know, and it was like a, it was like a assembly line. So she would sit down and she would even take me to work. Actually sometimes, and I would watch her she would be sewing two pieces of fabric together, putting them through, you know, and then boom, next, next one. Just all day and all day. That's all she was doing. And it was hot. There's no air con in there, you know, fans blowing, if you can just picture that it was. That's what she did. Just like the movies. Just like in the movies, yeah, but here in the streets of LA, yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So you saw mom mom's here. She's doing probably things she doesn't want to do to take care of me, Take care of the necessities, put food on the table and you got your work ethic through that and through that experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so you, you own a company, right. Yes A little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I worked for corporate America for quite a few years, in fact all my life, since I was age 17,. All the way to you know, now in my fifties, and you know about eight plus years ago, my wife and I my wife Lisa and I we were in conversation and somebody was trying to recruit her, because she doesn't hear you design by trade. And they were trying to recruit her to go work at a company. And at that same time, we were discussing about maybe an opportunity for us to use our funds, our money that we had saved up, to open up our own business. And so, instead of having her go work and drive from you know where we live here, marietta, all the way to Ontario, we just made, took the plunge and said you know what? Lord, guide us, lead us. It's is it time now? And we just continued to pray about that and it was a time to To open up our business.
Speaker 2:So that lady was trying to recruit us here you ready for this? This is this is not me, this is God, okay. The lady that was trying to recruit my wife Was the actual owner of a factory that built sofas. Wow, and when we told her that we were going to open up our own business. She was like no way. And I said yes, we're gonna open up our own business. She goes okay, I'll tell you what. I will help you. I'm going to help you guys open up, and that's how we got started, you know, and with her help, it was truly a blessing from God.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:It was just amazing.
Speaker 1:Praise God. That's super cool, yeah, super cool. So I want to jump into your story, like how did you find God? I want to get get some testimonies of what, what Christ has done in your life, what, what's kind of walked me through the sure, the entry point and your relationship with Christ.
Speaker 2:Well, I grew up Catholic, like a lot of us. Okay, we would go Twice a year, you know, maybe Easter, which was exciting because I finally got some new shoes and a pair of new jeans, you know typically, and then, of course, for maybe maybe another time during doing Christmas. Those were the. That was it. We didn't go, you know, ritually every Sunday. We weren't that Catholic but we did, you know we did go on those, those particular.
Speaker 1:I relate to that. We did the same thing.
Speaker 2:So, naturally, as a kid, you know you really don't know a lot about God. You don't know a lot, you know, you know you don't know a lot about Jesus. The only thing that I do remember vividly is every time we would walk into those doors at the Catholic Church, man, it was kind of a weird feeling because you see all these statues and you know, you know, you see the, the statue of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, and it just a certain kind of reverence that you just felt, you know, when you were in there. It's like you know, you needed to, to, to, to, to pay that reverence. And of course, you follow what everybody else, you know, did, which is the sign of the cross, and there was always a little water there that you know. I always wondered what that was. So I didn't really get a lot of training on what this all meant, but I, I just followed, I followed the lead and basically that's that's what I did.
Speaker 2:So and through the years I grew up, in my teenage years, there was a neighbor of ours that was a pastor of a church and he took us to his church, just as like a fellowship for children and stuff, and that's where I really got to know God a little bit more. That's when I got to know Jesus a little bit more. Still not a hundred percent because I'm still young at 12, but yes, that's when the you know, the seeds were planted, so to speak, right. And of course, you know they always ask would you know, do you want to be baptized? And you know everybody else is doing it, so you're gonna do it too. So they give you a white t-shirt and then they dunk you in the water. But still, that was just Not quite. I didn't feel like that was the transformation period for me.
Speaker 1:Right, that was very surface level very surface level, the relationship yeah very much so.
Speaker 2:So now you flash forward into the Young adult years, which is my 20s, maybe mid 20s, 27, 28. You're a little bit now more knowledgeable. What's out there?
Speaker 1:right.
Speaker 2:And we attended a Calvary Chapel in West Covina. It was pastor Raul Reese's church.
Speaker 1:Reese's church yeah.
Speaker 2:Raul Reese's church and that's when he first started in a little market in West Covina and we would attend there and then one of the services he did an altar call and that's when I just man, it, just the, the Holy Spirit just overpowered me and I accepted, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ into my life. Full surrender, full surrender.
Speaker 2:So I thought so I thought because when you're young and you're eager to grow, your eat, your, you're hungry to do the best for your family. Because now you get married, now you have kids and Now you attend church, maybe one Sunday, maybe other every other Sunday, and you still Accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know what that thing called life does get in the way, and then what happens is you start to backslide.
Speaker 2:Yeah anybody familiar with backsliding? Oh yeah, been there, done that. So you start to backslide, and now for just one year, but for many years, many years and then now flash forward about 15, 16 years ago when we decided to join a small church in Temecula, and that's where we grew the most. My wife and I love it. Regroup, because we're now attending on a Every Sunday basis, now we're involved in ministry and Now we're reading our Bible more and more and we're starting to understand and go deeper Into our faith, because we're building not a religion, but we're building a relationship With Jesus Christ and a lot of people out there, you know, Especially with with the world that we live in today. They, they, they call it religion, but it's not. It's not religion, religion man makes religion. It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Amen, I agree with that.
Speaker 2:So, through that involvement, the pastor saw that, you know, we were hungry, we were working together as a team, and then he asked me to start holding a Bible study in my house and I'm like man was Lord, am I ready, am I not ready? And you know, you just, sometimes you just don't know when you're going to be put in a situation where you need to jump off that cliff and go for it. I, we jumped off that cliff and we went for it.
Speaker 2:You know, through his grace, through his guidance, and that's when we began to facilitate on a weekly basis in our home, and that's where you start to grow some more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you guys started a small group at your house, started a small group. Through that, you led that, you and your wife, my wife and I, we led that along with you know a few other couples in the church.
Speaker 2:They started their own as well. And then that's how you really, Because when you go to church on Sunday it doesn't stop there, it should carry on into the week, so that you can grow 100%, so you can become stronger, because the world's going to come at you. That's right. And how are you going to build your shield? Amen, how are you going to do?
Speaker 1:that I want to rewind a little bit. What was that transformative, pivotal moment in your life, for your life? You know what? We haven't been going to church, we haven't really truly, you know, invested in this relationship with God. So about 15, 16 years ago, what was it? What was that spark, what had happened at that time that encouraged you guys to really start getting involved?
Speaker 2:Well, I think what happens is, as you start to age and your children start to grow, you tend to figure out you know what? Am I leading my kids, you know, in the right path? Am I? Are they seeing mom and dad? Because kids are going to follow what mom and dad do. There is no way around it. So am I doing what I need to do for my family? And I think that was a pivotal moment. You know, not to mention that a good marriage needs to be strengthened by faith, and when you start to have disagreements or you know not too many reconciliation periods and for those of you that are married will understand this you can't just rely on your own free will to work things out. You need Jesus Christ to be in the midst of that.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:And so, when that was the turning point, when you know you, you, you, you, you, you, you, things will get in the way. But if you have God, who can be against? Who can be against?
Speaker 1:Amen, I agree. I think that's a great point and actually I think we should challenge everybody that's watching this. If you haven't, if you're watching this or listening, if you have not read your bible Even my video guys over there If you have not read the bible, start to finish. We want to challenge you, guys.
Speaker 1:So challenge you if you accept that challenge, comment below or or send us a DM. We'd love to hold you accountable to that. Reading the word is so important, it's very. It's under, underestimated, right. It's, it's truly the most powerful thing you will ever do in your life. And here's the truth. Whether you believe it and take it as truth or not, it will still transform you. You will still grow. There's so much about faith, finances, health, family and relationships, all there Law, direction, order, values, like everything that you. It's the syllabus real estate real estate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wealth it's, it's all there you want to be rich, you'll be rich there. I mean, it's all there and now it's all there. And I wanted to, just for the, just wanted to say one Another thing about this is for you techie fans out there that are watching this or listening to this this show is the big book, the bible, right, it's it. Can it be intimidating? Would you say it's intimidating, of course. It's very intimidating how many bibles are out in the homes, you guys that's collecting dust on the top.
Speaker 1:How many are out there?
Speaker 2:Okay, there's a lot, right? Yeah, don't let that intimidate it. Open up your word. Yes, don't be afraid to highlight and scribble, though you know what out of it. Okay, scribble, highlight it, use it it's, it's a. It's a Book. It's a. It's a. It's pages. Go for it, write notes in it, leave it as a legacy for your kids.
Speaker 2:Love it, leave it as a legacy. Hey, mom and dad, this is what they did. They were highlighting, this is what touched my dad this day. This is what touched my mom this day. That's how powerful this book can be. It can be a legacy that you can leave behind to your family, to your kids, to your son, to your daughter. It's amazing. And going back, not not to, uh, uh, I want to, just to share you techie fans. There's no excuses. Okay, download the apps. Yeah, holy bible. Okay, uh, bible dot is Dabs, which is d abs daily audio bible. You guys, go to your settings, download those apps and you can, if you don't have time to read it, listen to it.
Speaker 2:Yes while you're going to work, believe me, you will be transformed in no time. Go for it, you guys.
Speaker 1:Amen, I got mine here at the bottom. There it is my daily bible. Yep, I'll go, I'll read the, the verse of the day, and I listen to it. Look, check this out, it's so easy.
Speaker 2:Beautiful.
Speaker 1:Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the lord so techie guy. It's that easy.
Speaker 2:Look, I just did it like that. That's it, just download it. There's no excuse. There is no excuse. Challenge yourselves and go for it. You guys, amen, you'll be different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I love it. Thank you for sharing that, and that's a good pastor Uh to to challenge you guys, uh to read that. So I love it. Well, I appreciate your story. I want to hear now what's your, what do you feel your purpose is? What is your purpose in this life?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my purpose is to uh, share god's uh word, you know, because we are called upon. That's commandment Is to share his love, to share his word. And you, you were given a gift, and that gift is eternal life. Okay, so why are you holding on to it? So our goal is to give that gift to others.
Speaker 2:Okay, when we open up our furniture store uh, that was the main ministry is. It was an empty shell. We had my wife and I were holding these two large banners that said sofa spectrum furniture on there, and guess what we did? We invited the whole church, we prayed there. But one thing that my wife and I did is we decided when we first opened that that was going to be a place of ministry, a place of love, a place, a safe place for people to come and they can feel the genuine Authenticity about blessing. So guess what, through the years and we've been in business now for eight plus years I can't tell you how many people we have prayed for in our, in our store. You can't do that in corporate america because they call you a jesus freak or a crazy person, but in sofa spectrum you can bet you can be assured that we will not shy away from scripture. We're not going to shy away from sharing god's love to people.
Speaker 1:Amen, no, I love that. I love that. That's amazing. And I feel like there's so many people out there and I've had a lot of conversations with business owners who are like Kyle, like I can't mix my, my beliefs and my relationship with jesus and my business. I'm gonna lose business. Yada, yada, yada, excuse, excuse, excuse.
Speaker 1:And I always tell them the same thing. I say look, here's the truth. You have one mission in this life. You were created on purpose, for purpose and with a purpose. Your business is not your purpose, do you agree? And they'll always say like, yeah, I've you. Do you have a bigger purpose? Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1:So why are you not living that out? If you're, if you truly believe in god and you truly believe in eternal life, you believe that jesus died on the cross for your sins, that he rose three days later, that he died for you, why are you not sharing that message? Right In your business? Your business is your ministry, your business is your ministry. The truth is, there's only a certain percentage of people that are called the ministry within the four walls of the church, right, yeah, what about the other 90%, 95% of people, the business. And so it's so important that we keep that straight and we have our priorities in line. If we're putting our business before God, that's scary.
Speaker 1:I've been there. I've done that. This is like when I started marketing Empire Group. I was here to build my empire we're looking at. You know I was the CEO and you know we just had this conversation right when you got here, like I released that control to God. This is God's empire, this is God's company. He's the CEO. He's allowing me to steward my team. He's allowing me to steward, you know, a amazing studio. He's allowing me to be a steward of these things, but it's not mine. At the end of the day, it all goes back in the box, just like the game of Monopoly. It all goes back in the box. So we're here to be stewards of what God has blessed us with, and he should be able to trust us that we're gonna live out his purpose for our lives, not our purpose, because if we do things our way, man, we're broken, right, we're broken, it's like you'll be in that hamster wheel.
Speaker 2:if you want to do it your way, just keep going around in circles as opposed to being out of that wheel and spreading your love and sharing to others. That's why I'm out. You know, blessing the community and uplifting and encouraging those are things that God gives you to give to others. Share the love to the community.
Speaker 1:Paul, before we wrap this up, got one last question what's your encouragement to people who are going through kind of the same experience as you? You know, maybe going through the same experience you went through where they weren't going to church, they thought they had a relationship with God, but they weren't really in a relationship. What's your encouragement to them?
Speaker 2:Submit, submit, sell out. Don't touch the water. Jump in and surrender, because when you're dabbling at trying to do this, it just doesn't work. You've got to be all in. I think that we're all different. We were all created in our own unique way. Find your gift. Learn what your gift is If you have the gift. If God gave you the gift of gab, then that's what you use. If God gave you a gift to do a media production, that's what you do. If God gave you a gift to find your gift, find your gift because he gave that to you. Surrender yourself and let God lead you and guide you. It's complete surrender.
Speaker 1:Amen, I love that. Find your gift Fully submit, fully surrender. Yes, that's it All right, that's a great way to wrap this up. Paul, appreciate you being on on the show here. Thank you, appreciate your story, your testimony, everything you're doing in the community for God, continuing to live out your purpose and sharing the good news. Where can people find you?
Speaker 2:We're at sofaspectrumfurniturecom and you can just Google that. We have our handles on Instagram. We have sofaspectrum excuse me at sofaspectrumcustomdesigncenter. That's where I share my love for the community. I get on the video, I don't care what I look like. If I put it in my heart, I'm sharing it, you guys? He's the best. Yeah, so I'm out sharing that at sofaspectrumcustomdesigncenter. You can also find me at sofaspectrumfurniture. That's where I teach. I share benefits of purchasing and buying sofas or furniture or massage chairs or mattresses. And then there's a new one that will be starting out soon, which is Paul Rangel's sofaspectrum, and there I will be sharing more personal, intimate things. Maybe it'll be consistent of maybe talking about nonprofits, military, hitting certain strong avenues in that one. Also on Facebook, sofaspectrumfurniture and LinkedIn, of course, sofaspectrumfurniture or Paul Rangel.
Speaker 1:Love it. Yeah, right on, make sure you guys follow him, support him. If you need some new furniture, he is definitely the man. He's right up the street here, located in a beautiful city of Temecula, marietta. He's right there on the border, so make sure to show him some love and make sure to engage with his stuff. He's huge on the community. He's supporting our fellow business owners and continuing to just be doing a good work and being a good steward of what God has blessed him with. So anything else before we wrap this up, no, thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 2:Marketing Empire Group. You guys are the one-stop shop, and so I'm glad you brought me in so that we can share the love to the community and feel the faith.
Speaker 1:Amen. That's the Feeling Faith Podcast. Thank you guys for tuning in. We appreciate it. If you want to share your testimony or you know somebody who has amazing testimony that they need to share, make sure to reach out to us, feeling Faith Podcast, and also follow us. Hit that subscribe button so you can stay tuned for the next episode. Thank you guys, love you, god bless.
