The Nick Bare Podcast - 044: How To Finish The Race, Suffer Well and Leave A Legacy with Lyle Phillips

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

Today's podcast episode features an engaging conversation with Lyle Phillips, the pastor of Legacy Church in Nashville. Lyle shares his journey of rising above drug abuse to become a pastor, and we emphasize the importance of leaving a legacy through generosity. We discuss the idea of finishing well, even when you can't finish strong, and how pain can be used as a reward for enduring the process, shaping us for the better. It's a genuinely thought-provoking and uplifting conversation that will leave you feeling motivated and inspired. Enjoy! Save 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio Follow for more:  IG: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Keep up with Lyle here: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lylebphillips/ Topics: 00:00 Intro 1:30 Welcome 3:07 The Disney Marathon 8:53 We all need goals 16:14 Running as a spiritual practice 19:03 Running for clarity 21:38 What lead Lyle to a life of ministry 36:52 Prioritizing a relationship with God 39:18 Leaving a legacy through generosity 47:46 Stop for the one 53:21 Leaving an impact on people 58:50 Finishing well 1:08:48 Surrendering to the pain 1:18:14 What level of leader are you?

You are not always able to finish the race in the way that you intend to. You know, for a lot of people listening right now, I would bet you that 2023 did not go according to their plans. And that's life. You know, we set these goals for ourselves. We have these aspirations. We have to do lists, checklists, and then life happens. I want to encourage you to finish. You may not be able to finish strong, but you can finish well.

Do things with character. Do things with integrity. Do things with consistency. do things with faithfulness to God, to family, to church, that's how you finish well, even if you don't finish strong. If you've got to crawl over the finish line, crawl, but don't quit. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to thank you for tuning in and supporting the brand. Now, I have spent the last decade plus of my life building Bear Performance Nutrition, and we create effective supplements that you can trust to support your wellness, endurance,

and performance goals. We offer high-quality, great-tasting weight protein powders, effective pre-workouts, superfoods, sleep support, electrolytes, and much more. So if you want to support the content that we produce

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I appreciate you. and let's dive into the show. Today on the podcast, we have Pastor Lyle Phillips of Legacy Church here in Nashville, Tennessee. Welcome to the show, brother. Man, what an honor to be with you today. You know, it's full circle because my creative director who's sitting in the office right outside of where we're recording this podcast around, Jordan, before we moved to Nashville, he was like, hey, you know, you should check out this church

because he knew that Steph and I were looking for a church to be a part of as we were getting ready to move from Austin and Asheville. And he sent us legacy. Yeah. So me and my wife were talking about this last night where we remember being on our back patio watching one of your sermons

on like a Sunday afternoon with our baby girl, Charlie Grace, sitting on the couch. Wow. And now here we are, after meeting a few weeks ago, having this conversation, and it's just come full circle. It's been really cool and exciting. Unbelievable, to be honest. And vice versa, bro. Like, it feels like a full circle moment.

I told you this before we came on air. But I feel like I'm getting to do a podcast with one of my heroes, man. I appreciate that. You've inspired me a ton. So when we met and you said, oh, we've watched on YouTube. And I'm like, me too. I've watched on YouTube as well, man. So this does feel like a full circle moment, man.

It's a huge honor for me. And I want to say thanks, bro. Thanks for having me. Yeah, for sure. So I know you're in a marathon prep right now, right? Yes, sir, I am. This is your first marathon ever? It's not.

It's not. It's my second. The first was an absolute nightmare. So we're looking to improve upon the marathon the second time. What was marathon number one? Well, it was at Disney World. So I know there's no true marathoner that can, considers the Disney World Marathon, like a real marathon.

I've heard epic things about the Disney Marathon, though. It's so much fun. I've heard. It's so much fun. Now, it's the only marathon I've ever ran. So I ran it because my dad invited me. He's a marathoner, and, you know, my wife and I are kind of low-key Disney adults. Like, we go to Disney at least once or twice a year.

We're both annual passholders. So it wasn't that hard to convince me. Like, come run a marathon with me at Disney World. your wife is going to let you do it because it means another trip to Orlando. So I was like, okay, bet, let's do it. So I didn't really train. I have to confess. Like, he gave me a plan. I didn't stick to it. It sounds like my first marathon. Really? My first two marathons. So I don't know if you did this, but I did not run from Sunday to Friday. I ran on Saturdays only. Just one day a week. Yeah. And a long run at that. How long? How long did you run?

16, 18. I did a 20 once, and it was disastrous. That's an approach. It's a unique approach. I would not recommend it to anybody. Like, I started strong. And then I got to a point to where I was like, I don't really have time to do much. I'll just keep the long run going. So a few weeks prior to the marathon, I got sick. Maybe I had COVID. I don't really know. But when I got to the marathon, I was severely dehydrated. I was trying to find a place to. to get an IV before the run. And they were closed down because at the same time, it was snowing in Nashville that weekend. And so they closed down all those clinics. I flew to Orlando, got there, didn't feel right, didn't feel good. The first eight miles of that marathon, I was in, like, significant gut pain. And I just pushed my way through it.

Got to mile 18, ended up feeling good between 8 and 18. Got to mile 18 and started cramping pretty hard. So that last 8 miles was like a wall. walk run and I finished sadly I don't even want to say this out loud over five hours but leaning into your uh your sermon yesterday yeah bro you finished well yeah yeah I finished well not strong not strong but well so what's the goal now with what marathon are you running that you're training for it okay so I'm running the Disney again so I've got to you know I've got to come back and I've got to finish what I started that's right I got to redeem myself man uh so the goal now

to run an hour faster, which shouldn't be a problem. I think it was 520. So I'm going to run an hour faster, 420, which by the looks of it, I think I can do. I think based off of the work you've been putting in, like, I think you can definitely go sub four. You think so? Oh, for sure. Well, that's encouraging, man. Yeah. Because I'm getting after it right now. Are you having any issues right now, kind of like injury-related? Yeah, so a couple years ago, somebody undercut me on a layup playing ball, basketball. And I'm pretty sure I tore my meniscus. Didn't get a surgery. I didn't want surgical intervention. I just rehabbed it on my own, you know, knees over toes guy and that whole jam. And during this training, I have at one point in time, like, tweaked it a little bit. So it's

been odd, but for the most part, man, like I've nursed myself back. I've got a great coach working very hard. And on Saturday, I put in a half, two-mile warm-up, six active, and then I went like half a mile sub-9, followed by a quarter-mile sub-11, low recovery, and did repeats, which I guess runners know what I'm talking about, did repeats, I think four or five times. Bro, I finished strong. I felt good. I didn't just finish well.

I finished strong. I felt good. So, dude, I think I'm going to be ready for this marathon. The end goal is Boston, though. Okay. I'm going to be honest. If I'm going to run, man, I want to run a world race. Well, you're coming up on, are you coming up on 40 years old?

40, yeah. Do you know what you're 310? 310. 310. But if you, if you deduct it by, you know, the actual cutoff, it's 304. I can get you there. You think so? For sure.

Come on, man. Don't gas me up, Nick. No, no, dude, you can definitely get there. That's the one thing about running. Yeah. Running is that one activity, that one sport, that everyone can make progress in, you know, there's certain,

there's certain sports, like basketball, baseball, football, hockey. Like, there's, you can't get better all the time of those sports. Right. Like, there's God-given talent

that needs to be applied. 100%. But running is one of those things that if you were just consistent and you endure the process, you can keep making progress. You may not be running a two-hour marathon. Right.

Right. I'm breaking world records. But I think almost anyone can run sub three with time, obviously. Come on, man. We can get you there. Let's go. Well, I'm in. I'm in.

I want to get there. Like, you texted me the other day and said, man, I'm hungry for the sub 245. Yeah. Right? That's how I feel about the sub four right now. Like, I'm going to beat that sub four. Man, I grew up, I grew up an athlete. I grew up playing basketball.

And I grew up with a good dad, man, that pushed me hard. And so there's something about setting a goal that just motivates me intrinsically, intensely. I think we all need, we all need goals. Yeah. If you don't have a goal that is set, it doesn't really matter. I don't think what directly that goal is. But if you don't have direction or vision or trajectory in your life, you're kind of moving aimlessly towards nothing.

Absolutely. And it's pretty dangerous. I do too. I do too. Like how do you feel, let me ask you, how do you feel like having the goal of like a sub 245 has like focused your life?

I mean, are you waking up every day thinking about this? That's the interesting part about it is, I talk about this a lot, the all-inverse, all-consumed. I've been all consumed by goals in the past, and they've destroyed my relationship, they've destroyed my emotional reactions to things in work or family, friendships. I'm now all in on this goal, which allows me to be really focused on the outcome, but it doesn't distract from other areas of my life.

That's so good, bro. But at the same time, like when I wake up every morning, I know whether I want to run or not, I'm going to go run. Yeah. Like I don't wake up, but today's a good example. I had an appointment at 6.30 a.m., which meant that I had to run before that. So I woke up at 4. I was running by 4.45 to knock out my 10 miles. When my alarm went off at 4 a.m., I was like, man, it's like the middle of the night. I'm ready to go back to bed.

No, thank you. Plus, it's cold right now. Yeah, it's getting chilly. But there was not one ounce of me that said, I'm not going to do this. I went through the motions, went out in the kitchen, made my coffee, drank my G1M sport, put all my shoes, started the run. First mile is always rough. You fall into a rhythm. And you're like, wow, I feel, I feel good today. Yes.

So I think that's one of my strengths is I'm really good at being consistent at the things that I know I need to perform in order to. to achieve the goal that I've set. Yes. And then backwards planning to set a plan and then execute on that plan. Let's go. That's one thing that I can really hyper-focus on and just nail over and over and over again because I've done it before. I've then experienced the win.

And then, you know, I've quoted Tim Grover many times before on this podcast, but I will in this context again. one of the things that Tim Grover says is, you know, when you go after your first win, it's very challenging, it's very difficult. And the success of that win is pretty unpredictable. Wow. You put all this work in, and then you achieve that goal.

And when you achieve that goal, that builds a small amount of confidence. And that small amount of confidence allows you to go and then chase the next bigger goal. And then that's bigger goal requires more. work and more discipline and more consistency and more effort. And it's hard. And when you finally achieve that second goal, it builds even more confidence. So all these reps, it's the compounding consistency of achievement. Yes. And you build all this confidence over years and years and years and

years. I love that. That's powerful. That is very powerful. Where did you start, like on the marathon front, like how fast was the first one? My first one was three hours, 57 minutes. That's amazing. My second one is four hours, 15 minutes. So you digressed on your time. I did. What happened? I just didn't train.

I wasn't committed to the goal. I wanted to maintain size. I wanted to keep bodybuilding. I wanted to keep strength training. And I tried to just add some running here and there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, if I knew I was supposed to do like a 12-mile run that day. Yeah.

Well, maybe I was hitting like eight miles, but then I was spending more time in the gym because I really just wanted to strength train. Right, right, right, right. And then after that, I decided to go all in. Yeah. So I signed up for my first Iron Man triathlon.

And I followed a training program for that and very challenging, a lot of time committed, achieved that goal. And after I did the Iron Man, it kind of opened my eyes and perspective of Oh, well, I can actually, I can do this. Yes. What else can I do?

Wow. So then I said, I want to run a sub three hour marathon. Oh, come on. So I trained for that. I got my marathon down to 324, but I missed sub 3 significantly. That's hard, man. It was hard. It was a big, you know, it was a big, big progress.

And I trained for another year, and I ran at 256, then I trained more. Let's go. Let's go. And I trained more. I'm going for a sub-three-old. 245. But it's just incremental progress that doesn't happen overnight, but it happens over this long, extended period of time

of enduring a process. And this is why I love running. Because it's lengthy. And it is so applicable to all parts of life. You know, like I'm, I've been listening to, to Legacy's podcast. Yeah, yeah. So I like the fact that you guys record the sermons.

Yes. You put them on YouTube. You also put them on the podcast. podcast platform. Absolutely. Because for myself with a daughter who's one and a half years old,

we tried to make it to church yesterday morning. But you know, like sometime it ain't going to happen. Charlie wasn't having it. No, bro. We tried to watch it on YouTube in the morning when you guys made it live.

Of course. She wasn't having it then, so I ended up having to watch it last night. That's happy sometimes. But I was listening to like some of your sermons on the podcast platform recently.

And I get so much clarity when I'm running in the morning. And it's like, it's my time. There's no distractions. I listen to podcasts a lot or I'll listen to audiobooks. Yes. But I will tell you, since listening to, you know, sermons, it's a different way to ingest and digest the message. Yes.

I haven't been able to really consume in any other way. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for me, I do the same thing. When I run, I don't know if you run with AirPods or listen, but when I run, bro, I've always got a podcast, an audio book, a message, a leadership teaching. Because for me, when I'm in that active state of running, I feel like I retain a lot more information. Same. A lot easier. And I'm processing not only what I'm hearing, but also what I'm going to do with the information. Yep, which is one of the reasons I always tell all my friends to run. Like, you need to run for you, not just for your physical health, but for your emotional health, because you'll start to get clear about things that God might be speaking to you about. And then once your run is over, you can make a commitment to the things that you heard on the run. How have you found that running has impacted your relationship with God and the way that you preach? So deeply. All right, I have a dream. I want to have a group, like a running club called running monks. All right. So no one steal it from me. like this. But running monks. So like you're practicing some meditative things at the beginning of the

run. So like maybe you have a group of people. You come together at the park. You say, okay, we're going to practice what the Orthodox Church would call lectio divina, which would be we're going to get the Bible out and we're going to meditate on a certain scripture altogether. We're going to read it out loud, meditate on it. Then we're going to go for a run. And then on the run, we're going to listen for what God might speak to us or reveal to us about the passage that we've been meditating on and then come back together at the end ask one another. Hey, what do you feel? What do you sense? What do you feel like you heard? Okay, let's hold one another accountable to doing something about what we sense God is revealing to us. Love that. So, man, it's just a thought.

But for me, that's what I do on my runs. Like, I'm constantly editing in prayer. It's like, okay, this is what I feel led to do by the Holy Spirit. All right, do I need to do. Do I need to that and I'll go through those things on my run. And I feel like I get a lot of clarity. And then when I get home, I tell my wife, here's what we're going to do. So she knows when I go for a run, I'm not just exercising. Man, I'm going into the prayer closet. You know, that's when I, that's when I have a lone uninterrupted time with God. Like, I know for you, you have, you have a daughter, Charlie. Yep. And I've I've got three children right now. So finding time in my day, unless I get up at four o'clock, you know, I don't have that

a long time to just sit and to be with God. And so running's become a spiritual practice for me, man, not just a physical practice. The founder of the sauna that I use, his name's Pete. Okay. Sisu Sana. Okay. He hosts these things with his team called Zoom 2 meetings. Interesting.

where, I mean, you could apply this to the same thing that you want to put together, but he brings his team together and they go out and run trails. And to maintain Zone 2, aerobic base building, they make sure they can hold conversations. Yes. They go into these runs with an agenda for that 45 minutes to an hour. So everyone's forced to run slow. Everyone's mind's clear, it's focused, there's no distractions.

you don't have your phone going off, and they really dive deep into what they're trying to accomplish for that session. I would love to do that. It's pretty cool. Have you ever heard about this course? I think UC Berkeley put it up.

It's called Learning to Learn. I have not heard about this? No. You should check it out. I think it's, I cannot remember the website where you can get the course. Last time I checked it was free.

And they talk about passive and active brain states. And they were talking about how Salvador Dali, you know, the famous painter. Like he would be in an active brain state where he is planning and preparing his art, but in order to actually come to the place creatively to make the art, he would try to get into a passive brain state where he would like get into a place where he was almost falling asleep and then he would get in some of his best ideas in that passive brain state.

And so they talked about how running is one of the ways that we can do. get into a, and I hope I'm not wrong about this, but like a passive brain state where you're not so much like focused on reading or studying, but when you're running or you're walking, you're in a place where your brain can actually start to organize and put things in the right place and you can start to, you know, edit and take out things you no longer need and then decide on what to apply. So I mean, I think it's a powerful, powerful practice, spiritually, disobey, It's a great practice. It makes sense to me because a lot of people,

my running coach talks about this. A lot of people say that they run to clear their head. Yeah. And Jeff Cunningham, my running coach says, well, no, the reality is that you actually run to gain clarity. And I found, or I think the difference between a clear mind and a mind of clarity is a clear mind is, it's empty.

But a mind of clarity is organized. Like you said. So good. The only way I can describe it is when I'm in this state, I can take all the issues that I'm dealing with and kind of put them in compartments. Yes. And on different shelves. And I can focus on one task at a time, dissect it, and then find solutions to navigate it. Absolutely. And that's essentially Christian meditation. Christian meditation is different because we're not, looking as Christians to empty our heads, but to fill our heads with the right things. Yeah, I like that. And then, and then chew on those things. So I do want to give some context

before we dive a little bit deeper. Of course. Into this conversation. Of course. I'm curious what led you to pursue a life of ministry. I'll just some context around that. Recently, one of the conversations that Steph and I have been having is all about finding something that lights your soul on fire. Yes. And one of the ways I can describe this, you know, as we were talking about, like, running these races and these marathons,

when I am training for a marathon. Yeah. Every day I wake up, my soul is not lit on fire to go run that run. Sure. But when I tow the line come race day, I'm on fire.

And that whole race, I am a different person. Absolutely. I had this, like, this energy and this, I get emotional because of the reward that I'm feeling from the weeks and months leading up to that moment. And you cross the finish line. And like, it is this feeling that it's really hard to describe the people who haven't done it. And I think we all need to find this one thing that lights your soul on fire. And if you don't find that thing, you need to keep searching for it because it's out there.

And it might look a little bit different based off who the person is. Absolutely. So I give that context to ask, and I want to hear, you know, did you pursue ministry or did ministry pursue you by lighting your soul on fire? Oh, bro, you probably already know the answer to that question. I think anybody who's going to stay in a place of ministry, ministry pursued them. And it absolutely lights their soul on fire to do it. I wasn't always a pastor. I did grow up in a pastor's home, but I did not like church. I did not like the ministry. I did not like the Bible. I did not want to be a Christian. I wanted to be a professional basketball player. And, you know, I'm all of five foot 10, so I obviously have the height for it. Jokes. Like, I just wanted to be an athlete. That's what I wanted to do. And I knew in my early teenage years, that God was calling me into ministry. And I said, absolutely not. There is no way I will ever be in the ministry.

For all I know, pastors are all broke. And I don't want to do that with my life, you know. So I remember coming up with my own game plan for how I would be a Christian. I remember in prayer telling God at like 13, I'm going to get saved when I'm 40. And then I'm going to go to church and I'm going to sit on the back row. and I'm going to give my tithe so that I go to heaven when I die. I mean, this was my own personal plan of salvation. So obviously, terrible idea.

And your dad was a pastor? Oh, yeah, my dad's a pastor, right? And so he never missed a game. We were super close. He would always tell me about Jesus. But, dude, I just, I wasn't interested. I was more interested in being cool and playing sports and didn't do great in school. And, bro, unfortunately, by the time I was 16, I was playing basketball at a pretty high level.

But I was really checked out of life. You know, I played for Nike, Kentucky All-Stars. My teammate was Ray John Rondo, by the way, if you remember that NBA point guard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I got to play at a pretty high level, traveled all over the U.S., playing basketball, loved it, thought that's what I wanted to do with my life.

But as I said, I was completely disconnected from family, was really focused on the sport, and eventually fell into a lot of bad behavior, running with the wrong crowd. And by the time I was 17 years old, man, I was a full-blown drug addict. Oh, wow. Yeah, so, yeah, yeah. The stories, stories wild. I was a heroin addict by the time I was 18, shooting up heroin in one hand, methamphetamines in the other, popping pills, drinking fits of tequila every night,

19 years old, completely estranged from my family, living out of my car, 20 selling crack out of the window. I mean, bro, I got a story, right? People doing drive-by shootings on my house. I started running with a street gang. Buried best friends. Best friend and roommate shot and killed, point-blank range in the street.

Where are you living at this point? In Kentucky, believe it or not. Yeah. So you wouldn't think these things are going on in Kentucky, but that's, you know, I know it's a long answer to your question, but I had to go there, man, because... I'm glad you did. That's powerful.

Yeah, bro. That's where I was, man. I mean, overdosed three times. I've been in and out of drug rehab. I was in a state mental institution for a month of my life. Been arrested more times than I can count. Sorry, Mom. But yeah, man, I mean, that was the state of my life, bro, in my late teenage years.

You know, almost committed suicide. Like, you know, put a gun in my mouth. It's over. I'm going to kill myself. And that was the state. I'm talking like severely depressed, severely addicted, troublemaker, rap sheet a mile long, running the street, living out of my car, living in a drug house at one point in time with no hot water.

I mean, that was my life. Do you think any part of that was because you grew up in a household with a dad who was a pastor and was kind of rebellious? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to make my own path. You know, I've always been a pretty independent person. Like, if somebody tells me I can't do something, man, I'm going to do it.

right like if somebody said there's no way you'll ever run a sub four marathon oh bro that sub four marathon's gonna get done you know what i mean like i remember um i'll come back to in a moment you remember that uh that uh insanity program the DVDs and stuff absolutely bro so when my wife and i first got married we started doing those together and somebody said to me you know only seven percent of the people who start those get them finished and i said well you're looking at one of the seven percent and that's all i needed to finish so i think that's like i've always always been you're had that kind of mentality. We jokingly call it, and I told you so anointing. It's like, we just want to kind of be a rebel. So yeah, I think there was some of that, man. And then it's like, once you start

going down that path, man, it can get bad fast. And drug addiction, man, I mean, you know, a lot of people call it a sickness. I agree. You know, I've been there. I've been there. I've been a full blown attic. I've been hospitalized for addiction. I've been in AA, N-A. I've done all those programs, bro. So when I was 21 years old, I had told myself, I'm going to go to college. Like, I'm going to get my life together. I just buried my best friend. At that time, I wasn't looking for God or church or anything like that. I just said, I'm going to get my life together, so I'm going to go to college. So I tried that. Flunked out within the first semester. Couldn't do it. Went back to selling drugs and like that's what I declared I would do you know for the time being and uh bro I don't know

how to explain it to you other than other than it was just a sovereign encounter with God and one night I was rolling up some weed for the next day um getting ready to watch some TB before I fell asleep uh shook out of my sleep you know you're gonna have those moments like when you're falling asleep you kind of like shit you think you're falling or something yeah Shook out of my sleep and I thought I saw somebody walk past my window. I thought it was the SWAT team. They just kicked in my friend's door down the street. And I was, like I said, I was a drug dealer.

I thought they were coming to my house. Got up, looked out the window. Nobody was there. I took a step back and I had the same feeling, bro, that I used to get when I would be in church services at 12, 13 years old. Same feeling. And I recognize, like, though I'm not in a church, though I'm in this drug-infested apartment. I'm growing weed in my closet, man. cocaine in the cabinet.

Bro, God was there. And I'd never heard the voice of the Lord so clearly as in that moment. And he told me, you got six months. You can be dead or in prison unless you come home to me right now. Nick, that's how I got saved, man. It wasn't a church, wasn't a Bible, wasn't Christian TV. I hit my knees in that apartment. And I said, Jesus, I don't know how to live for you.

but I know enough to say, I repent of my sins and I give you my life. Whatever you want to do with my life, it is yours. Six months later, I was in full-time ministry, preaching the gospel, and that's what I've been doing for the last 20 years. That is wild. I did not know that story was going to do that way.

Thank you for sharing that. I'm sorry. I hope I didn't destroy your podcast, man. No, that was incredible. When you say lighten your soul on fire, bro, I've been lit up since that moment, Nick. Man, nothing has really changed over the last 20 years. I think about, so there's a story in the scripture, right?

Whether there's this lady, and she's a prostitute. She comes to Jesus, and she anoints his feet with the oil. Everybody, you know, knows about the lady that breaks the alabaster box, right? And Jesus says something about her. He says, when you've been forgiven much, you love much. bro, I just, I remember often just how much I've been forgiven of who I was, who I once was, where I was without God, man. And so now I have every reason to be grateful. I have every excuse to burn with passion for what I get to do. Because a lot of my friends are dead. A lot of my friends are in

jail. A lot of the people I grew up with, I don't see them anymore. Or I've shared this story with them, but there's been glass between the two of us. So man, today, like I am, lit up. I'm excited about what I get to do. And it's not because I get to stand on a stage. It's not because I get to preach in front of people. It's because I get the privilege of sharing what God's done for me with other people and then watching him impact their lives as well. That's what I get lit up for, man. I get so excited when I see other people have life transforming experiences. I mean, I believe it. What did that transition look like? You know, when I was younger, I had an eating disorder

and severe eating disorder that if I would have kept pursuing it would have killed me. Yeah. And I didn't know this. I did. Have you talked about this publicly? Yeah, not too much,

but I brought it up. I bring it up often. It's powerful, man. And this is when I was around 14 years old. And then I found health and fitness and that changed my life. And the transition was tough, but that's one of the questions I always get asked about is like, you know, when I bring

that up, it speaks to someone who is currently in that, that mindset of unhealthy relationships with food, killing themselves by starving themselves. And they often want to know, like, what did that transition look like? Not necessarily how do I get from point A to point B, because it looks different for everyone, but what did yours look like? Yeah, bro. What did your transition out of, you know, the struggle to that next phase through those six months. I'm sure it wasn't easy. No, it wasn't, but I have to say, you know, there's something we as Christians subscribe to and that is the doctrine of grace, man.

You know, it's unmerited favor that God gives you, though you don't deserve it. In spite of everything that you've done wrong and despite everything you've done right, like he loves you all the same. And so so much of that transition, I would say, was covered by the grace of God, man. Like that moment in that apartment was so powerful for me that I called my friend who was holding a bunch of money for me. Like I said, I was a drug dealer. I said, hey, man, I've had an encounter with God.

And I need you to bring me my money because I'm moving home. I remember telling my friend that I had made in that moment these commitments. I said, I'm going to be a Christian. and I'm going to be a good son to my parents. I've been estranged from my family for four years. Just like no communication? No. I came home on a couple of occasions

and my mom tell stories of me coming home and my hands shaking from addiction and I don't remember this. So there's like pockets in my life just kind of blacked out. And I'm going to be a good big brother. So I got three little brothers, you know, and I wasn't a good example to them.

I was a terrible example to them. And I made those commitments. And so that's the only commitment that I had. I said, I'm going to do what I know to do, which is I'm going to get my butt in church, man. And I'm going to sit and I'm going to listen to whatever it is that, you know, my dad, who's my pastor is going to preach. And I'm going to commit to reading the Bible. And I'm going to commit to praying, even though I don't know how to pray.

Like I just talk to God like a friend. And then whatever I learn from those environments, I will do. I will do it. I don't want to know it. I will do it. I will practice it. And so I, I, I, um, I don't know if I heard it from someone else, but I developed somewhat of a motto. And I said, I intend to find out what God might do with one life that's completely laid down to him. Like, what would your life look like if you stop saying no to God? This was kind of my thought. Like, what if I just never said no? What if I just said yes? Like, every time I heard a message? What if every time I felt a challenge? What if every time in prayer felt an invitation? What if I just said, I'm going to practice immediate obedience and just do

whatever God says? Like, what kind of life could I live? And honestly, that set me on a path of living a life of faith that was very adventurous, Nick. You know, I meet a lot of Christians today and they're like, man, I'm bored. I'm bored with my faith. I'm, you know, I'm bored with my walk. I'm bored with God. And I kind of jovially say, you're not bored. You're just disobedient. Like, what if you just said yes? What if you just deleted the word no from your conversations with God?

What would your life look like? Dude, it's going to get festive fast. Because he'll have you in places, man, that if he don't show up, you might die. And so, dude, right away, man, six months later, here's where I started preaching. Rest stops. Interesting. Yeah, bro. I used to go to rest stops.

And I would stand and I would wait for somebody to come to the water fountain. And I'd quote John Ford, and I'd say, hey, if you take a drink of that water, you're going to thirst again. And people thought I was crazy, bro. Did people listen to you? Yeah, a little bit, but most people thought I was crazy. I'm curious what happened when you shut up back at home. How did your family react? My dad let me back in, but my mother was very reluctant.

You know, they were like, don't steal from us again. Right. You know, because I used to steal stuff out of their garage when they'd go on vacation and then pawn it so I could buy Burger King. Dang. Yeah, bro. Honestly, I did not expect that background. Yeah, bro. We were out there, man, to where you are today.

We were out there, bro. What's really interesting for me is I've been working, I've been more intentional with building a relationship with God over this past year. Yeah. It's been a goal of mine for years, but I never made it a priority. Yeah. And the only way I can describe it is I would have issues in my life, whether personal or professional. And I knew in the back of my mind, the answer was to have a foundation of faith.

Yes. But for some reason, I would always avoid that solution. And I'd beg there's got to be a more tangible solution to the problems I'm experiencing. So I would go out of my way, searching for solutions to the problems I was experiencing. Now, I will be very honest in saying, like, I'm still working on and pursuing this stronger relationship with God and building my faith. I've been very open. We all are. I've been very open about that.

But the one thing I have found is when faith is a foundation in my life and I'm working on my relationship with God, I feel lighter. I feel at peace problems that arise don't necessarily feel like a crisis and I just I have faith in like whatever is supposed to happen

will happen I'm not going to try to fight against it and I'm just going to I'm just going to work through it and I feel so at peace and so at ease that it has transformed me as a person

my relationship with my wife the way I show up as a as a father to my daughter. Yes. Since moving to Nashville, especially, it's been a priority of mine. And I've seen it change my life. Absolutely.

It will change your life. It'll change anybody's life. I mean, you know, we're talking about fitness and running and how that has the possibilities of changing an individual's life, man. I mean, even the more so when you change spiritually.

And I think that anybody who is willing to take a risk and give themselves to a walk of faith, they will find so much more satisfaction on the inside, and they will find so much more peace for their souls, ultimately. Yeah, one of the things that I was just having a conversation about with Jordan and staff a little bit ago is I've been really just diving into generosity recently. And, you know, I'm writing a book right now.

It's called Go On More. Let's go. And it's all about the fact that going more is not just an action. It's actually an outcome that you achieve and are rewarded by being intentional with the work that you do in your life. I love that. And one of the chapters in this book that I'm working on is all about legacy. Let's go. And I know you speak about legacy quite often, which I want to dive into.

And as I'm working on this chapter in the book about legacy, I obviously came to this section that I'm writing on about being generous. Yes. And I would love to kind of have you help me unpack some of this. Sure. I have always viewed myself and I've been told by others that I'm a very generous person. And what I started finding about myself is I would be very generous. selflessly, not expecting anything in return.

Sure. But when I started being wronged by the people that I was being generous too, I started building resentment and anger. So then when I started acting with a generous behavior, I would have an expectation of how it should be received. And when it wasn't received in that manner, I would be disappointed.

Sure. So then I found myself being generous because I was expecting something in return, not being generous just to be generous. Sure. So I started doing research on this. I was like there's got to be like an answer to this. And, you know, this is where I went wrong.

I told Steph, I think the answer is that you have to be generous, but be generous in a way that isn't foolish. So then I started researching. I was like, well, this has to be the answer. You know, because if you act generous in a non-foolish way, you won't be wronged by people. And then I did some research online,

hoping to come across some Harvard Business Review. Of course. Or a medium article. But I ended up on a website that was referencing the Bible in the message. And it encouraged me to be foolishly. generous. Be generous even when you are wronged. Be more generous. That's right. When you are wronged. And that's where I've come to this conclusion of, you know, you said it in a sermon a few weeks ago.

Like you will never feel bad about being generous. You will never regret generosity. But what I'm understanding now is it will feel bad. You will regret it if you're being generous for the wrong reasons. Yeah. Dude, that is so good. That is really good. I'd love to hear your, you know, your thoughts on generosity, how it plays in the legacy, being selfless versus selfish because I believe that we can solve a lot of the problems in community, society, the world by being more generous, but generous in a way that we have no expectations of the return. Absolutely. I mean, I totally agree. I think that's possibly one of the reasons why people are less generous than they really want to be is because they have more of an

attachment to the outcome of what happens once they are generous rather than the virtue of generosity itself. I mean, in regards to legacy, I think it's impossible to leave a profound legacy without generosity because if you achieve all of your dreams, but you are the only person blessed by that, I would challenge whether or not those dreams were God dreams or just good dreams. And I know I'm putting that in a Christian context, and there's probably people listening who are not Christians, and they probably didn't even make it this far listening to me preach at this point. But hopefully, you know, hopefully that did, because I'd love to invite you to join our family. But, you know, when it comes to legacy, I often think about, okay, how can I,

take actions today that are going to make the world a better place tomorrow. And not just tomorrow next week, but 100 years from now, one of the things I encourage our church in is having a legacy mindset is having a 100-year mindset. Like, how are the actions I take today going to affect my great, great, great, great-great-grandchildren a hundred years from now? If I am not generous, there is no way that I'm going to be able to leave a legacy that is that positive that far from now. So I think in regards to generosity, a lot of people want to be givers. I think they do. I just don't think they know how to start. And it feels good. It feels so good.

What did Jesus say? It's more blessed to give than to receive. If you ever get bit by the generosity bug, you'll realize how addictive it is. And you'll start looking for opportunities to make the world a better place, make someone's day better, make someone's life better, giving. it's a reality man i mean every year we do this thing at the end of the year called uh you know our big give you know it's a financial offering so there's more expressions of generosity but every year my wife and i pray together and we ask god okay what is it that we are supposed to sew this year every time we do that the number we feel that we receive in prayer is always bigger than what we feel comfortable with every single time and so there's always

this challenge to become more generous. But you know what? I believe that by being more generous, we become more like God. Because God is generous. You know, you see the story of the prodigal son. It's not so much a spinthrift son as it is a spinthrift father. God vacated heaven by giving us Jesus. He is generous. It would seem as though it's wasteful in that he gave everything, right? Everything. He held back nothing in giving us Jesus. And so when we are generous, I believe that we practice something that God himself practices. Most famous scripture in the entirety of the Bible, for God so loved the world that he gave. Right.

And so we serve a generous God. And so if Christians are anything, we've also got to be generous. And I think by being generous, man, it certainly makes a world of difference all over the world. I love how Jewish people look at generosity. And I don't want to, you know, overcharacterize all Jewish people. But this is something on the basis of a book that I read called Thou Shalt Prosper by this guy named Rabbi Lepen. I don't know if you've ever heard of this book. It's a fascinating book.

Thou shalt prosper. He says, you know, money is so much more like a candle and so much less like cake. You know, a lot of times when we think about money, we think about a cake. It's like, okay, here's my slice of the cake, and then there's enough for everyone else. but I'd like to have a few more slices. You know, I don't want to share too much because if I share too much, then I won't have enough for me and for mine.

But Rabbi Lapen says, no, no, no, money's not like a cake. Money's like a candle. The more you share it, the more it's able to eliminate the world, make the world a brighter place, and by sharing it, you're never actually going to lose any

because money is not just a tangible physical object, but it's spiritual. It's an opportunity for us to become more like God in the way that we steward it. And I think that's one of the reasons why there's over 2,000 scriptures in all of the Bible about money, possessions, and how we steward it. I love that. Yeah, man. There's only 500 verses of scripture, by the way, around 500 about prayer.

Only 500 about faith. There's over 2,000 about money and possessions. I think that God cares about how we steward our generosity. Do you think that people often fear or are cautious the word generosity because they associate generosity with money. And they don't recognize that generosity can be time, energy, other parts of their life

or commitments outside of just monetary. I mean, for people with money, time is so much more valuable. You know, like stopping for somebody. You know, that's an act of generosity. You know, where I did mission school, a lady named Heidi Baker, you know, I lived in Africa for a while,

I lived in India for a while. It's another part of my story. You know, she has this big thing called stopping for the one. Just like you have Go One More, she has Stop for the One. So I need two bumper sticker decals. I need Go One More on the left side. Stop for the one on the right. I dig that.

You know what I'm saying? But it's about generosity. It's like a collab coming. It's a collab coming. Hey, I'm here for that collab, Nick. If you want to do it, I'm in. It's like, you know, how often do we get interrupted in our day? You know, if you're a public figure, you know,

in some ways, you know, most pastors are to their community. You know, if you have a couple hundred people who are a part of your church, you're always going to get pulled on every single day. Somebody at some point in time is going to interrupt your busy schedule and ask you to share some of your time with them. One of the ways that we can be generous is by stopping for the one and saying, you know what, I'm going to let you interrupt me. Because I realize a lot of my opportunities to grow in my face.

faith, grow in my discipleship, is by allowing myself to be interrupted and take that opportunity to be generous with my time, be generous with my love, give them my full attention, look at them in the eye, shake their hand, hug their neck. And whatever they ask for, share. It goes a long way. You live a better life, I'll tell you that, man. It's always the things we don't want to share as well, the things that God tends to bring up to us like, hey, share that. I remember, one time I was in Africa and man I had a I bought I brought with me a single pack of Haynes white t-shirts. All right. So when I was living in Mozambique at the time. And if you're familiar with Africa, the red dirt reality is is true, right? It's like it's everywhere. It's it's caked on you,

you know? And so when you have a pack of Haynes white teas, Nick, you you you covet those. You know what I mean? And that particular day I had just put on a brand. A brand, new Haynes White T. It was the last one I had in my pack. And there was this guy and he was like scooting along on the ground because he didn't have the use of his legs. So he had built himself a little wooden cart and he was just kind of scooting along and he was coming to the feeding program that we hosted there. And bro, I'm walking past the guy. And I feel like God's like, yo, help that guy. Like, no way, God. I've got on a brand new Haynes White T. I don't know if you know this or not God, but I've got on a brand new Haynes White T's like, hey, help that guy.

stop for the one. It's an opportunity to be generous. And so I committed to it. And bro, in the spirit of go on more, I'm like, I'm not just pushing the guy. I'm picking the guy up. Lord, if you want me to help him, it's happening. I scooped the guy up and we walked down the hill together. And you know what? I thought it was just going to be me giving. But by the time I dropped him off at the bus stop, it was me receiving. And that's the secret I think of generosity is you always get back more than you give in the process anyway. So people who figured out that secret realized, man, giving like that, being generous, it's not a law, it's life to anybody who's willing to practice it.

It compounds. Facts. You know, as you're explaining this, me and my wife talk frequently about love languages. Oh, yeah. And the way I show love is through acts of service. It's not the way that my wife receives love. But like that is my way of like showing I care and I love someone. And I have found that that act of service is a way for me to show my generosity.

Yes. Now it might not necessarily be money, but it could be like bringing people over to my house and cooking them a meal and breaking bread and having a great conversation over three to four hours. for me, that is so fulfilling and that's how I show I love you. You are my friend, you are my family.

And recognizing that is an active service for me, that fills my cup up. For some people, hosting a dinner and bringing people over, that empties their cup. For me,

that fills me. I could do that every night of the week. And I love it. But that energy for me, it compounds and builds and builds and builds. And my hope is that that energy

for the other people that I'm serving compounds and builds and builds and builds. And I hope that they leave that dinner saying, wow, we should host a dinner. Yes. Or we should go do something to show, you know, our love language being acts of service. Yeah, yeah.

And that generosity just becomes this life-changing movement that has so much power behind it. Absolutely. Bro, you're so good at this. I hope you know this about yourself. It's like you're so good at creating cultures that people long to be a part of. I appreciate that. You're really good at it, Nick.

Honestly, I was in bed last night with my wife. We were watching on the iPad, on the iPad, the recent Last Man Standing video, which, by the way, congrats, man. 100 miles? 100 miles. Come on. I wasn't the last man standing. Hey, that's okay. You got 100.

But I got a lot out of that race. It was amazing. You know, one of the things I took from that video, aside from the race and your endurance and everything, is just how phenomenally well, Nick, that you have created a culture of community and invitation for people to be a part of what you are building. You know, I watch builders all the time. I'm a part of a fraternity of pastors. You know what I mean? I don't say that officially, but like I follow them all on Instagram. and it's so common for leaders and people who build things to do it exclusively and kind of,

you know, gatekeep and not let people in. And I think what you've done, man, is you have built a phenomenal community, seeing all those tents and all the BPN flags and go on more flags and how everybody wanted to be a part of it. Bro, I think you doing stuff like that and hosting dinners at your home, man. You're knitting together a very, very impactful legacy, bro. I appreciate that. I mean, that is my goal in this chapter of my life right now. As I'm navigating this transition of becoming a father and we have more kids and I'm now finally prioritizing my relationship with my wife. Yes.

I mean, I heard one of the things you said in one of your sermons was about not allowing your family to have the leftovers. I was there. Yeah, me too. My family was getting all of my leftovers. And as I create content and I share my story and my journey and my message and I build companies, when I think about my legacy and who I want to be when I die one day and who I want generations of bears to become after I'm gone.

Yes. It's I want them to recognize me as a role model. and the people who are consuming everything that I share, I hope that that impacts their life for the positive. You know, now as my audience has grown with me over the years, a lot of people that follow me now are having kids and building families and moving into another phase of life. And I feel this responsibility and obligation to not tell people

how to live their life and what to do, but show them what to do. Yeah, yeah. but show them what I'm doing to become the man that I want to be. That's one of the reasons I've opened up and I've shared my journey with building a relationship with God. Yeah, absolutely. This is what I'm navigating and I'm working towards.

This is what I'm learning. This is what I'm struggling with. I'm by no means imperfect, but I'm trying to get better. Yes. I'm going to put all this out there in hopes that it leaves this impact and builds legacy for the people who are spending their time consuming. it. Absolutely. Bro, and I just want to say I respect you so much for doing that. Because I know as a public figure, a lot of people don't want to go public with things like faith because it can be

somewhat controversial for people. So I want to say thank you for doing that. I have a friend. He's a fitness personality. I guess I'm allowed to say that about Ben Greenfield. Do you know Ben? Not personally, but I've followed Ben's podcast for years. Oh yeah. I mean, what a legend, right? And he's now starting to, I mean, in the last couple of years, he's starting to do a similar thing. And like, he's sharing his faith. He's talking about his walk with God, you know. And that guy, man, speaking in generosity, that guy is so generous. And he is such a great father. And I think he's somebody that I look to like yourself. And I say, man, you guys are killing it on all aspects. I want to kill it in what God has called me to do as well. But I can't give my family the leftovers.

Because at the end of the day, you know, when I'm on my deathbed, none of my YouTube subscribers are going to be there to hold my hand. You know, it's going to be Charlie Grace, man. You know, for me, it's going to be Isaiah Triumph, my son, my boy, you know. It's going to be my daughter, Jeremiah Marie Rose, you know. She'll be holding my hand. And, bro, those are the things for me that motivate me more than anything else. I don't know if people think about death enough.

you know but dude i don't know i'm not trying to be morbid but i think about it every day i think about it frequently dude i mean you know the momentum mori that phrase that that's a that's an ancient christian phrase a lot of people don't know that they think it's some like you know sort of morbid you know some other uh type of religious but dude thinking about the reality that from dust you came from dust you shall return is a very profitable practice you know our lifespan is but a breath. I think, what was it, Solomon or David said that. Like, bro, we need to be thinking about those things because it's when we're faced with death, do we actually take inventory of how we live? Well, I heard you. I heard you talking about this concept. Yeah. And in one of your recent

sermons, and it was all about finishing the race. Yeah. And you said finish well. Yes. You don't always finish strong, but crawl if you must. Yeah. Don't quit. Finish well. And finish with your character

and integrity intact. Yes. So that resonates a lot with me in terms of not just how you finish anything, but how you finish your life. Like when I'm on my deathbed, I want to know that I still have my character.

Yes. And I still have my integrity. And I can rest well knowing I finished well. And what's so interesting about this, actually, I think you were talking about finished the race

in this past Sunday, right? Yeah, it was, yeah. This past Sunday sermon. And it's from 2nd Timothy 4-7. And you said, finish the race. And my brand director for BPN, same to Alex Rodriguez. Okay.

He came over from Adidas before coming to BPN. And he designed the t-shirts for the BPN marathon I think two years ago and the tagline was finished the race and I never understood I was like what does he mean by that wow I was like that must be some sort of

like just creative thing and I never asked I never pressed tone I was like I get it finish the race like motivation behind just like finish what you started and as I was listening to your sermon last night I texted him I said dude is finish the race biblical

he said yeah it's my little secret. I was like, stop, bro. Come on. I was like, you've got to keep like lean into that.

That is so cool. So his name's Alex. Come on, Alex. I wanted to kind of just talk about that because he's been instrumental in in my journey of building a relationship with God. He's pulled me into his office many times before and we just sat down. We've talked and I've,

I've just shared with him kind of the struggles that I've, of course, of course. Dealt with and managed. And, it was just so full circle, listen to your sermon last night, texting Alex,

because we have this big poster board outside of this office right here that has going more and finish the race on it. And I just couldn't believe how all these things are just like coming together in my life right now.

But I think it's, it's really hard for people sometimes to focus on finishing well. Everyone wants to finish strong. Right. But sometimes finishing strong is not an option. Right. And instead of quitting, finish well.

Finish well. Can you kind of just like talk more about that and why it means so much to you and why it needed to be a strong concept in the sermon yesterday? Yeah, absolutely, man. I mean, here we are on the edge of 2024. You know, so as a pastor, I'm looking at my congregation. That's my job, you know, to feed the flock entrusted unto me. So I'm saying, okay, what is it that I want to share with our community? And what I felt led to share was I want to encourage them to finish well and to start strong.

Now, at first, and I mentioned this yesterday in the message, I wanted to title the talk. finish strong. You know, everybody wants to finish strong. I was looking at Kipchogi, you know, the runner. I was so fascinated by the fact that he looks the same at the end as he does at the start. It blows my mind. It's crazy, bro. He's just, his shoulders are back.

I mean, his posture is crisp. Like, it's amazing. And I think that speaks to consistency and that's amazing. But if you're not Kip Kchogi, like, you're still responsible for finishing. And you may have to finish like some of these other athletes do where they crawl across the finish line. Like you are not always able to finish the race in the way that you intend to. I mean, like you said, like when you had a plan for one of your marathons, had a plan for my marathon, it didn't go the way that I expected to.

That's just like life. You know, for a lot of people listening right now, I would bet you that 2023 did not go according to their plans. And that's life. You know, we set these goals for ourselves. We have these aspirations. We have to do list, checklists. Here's what I'm going to accomplish this year, New Year's resolutions, and then life happens. You know, I have a ton of friends that have gone through so much in 2023. And so my encouragement as a pastor to them was, look, I want to encourage you to finish. You may not be able to finish strong, but you can finish well. And you can finish well by doing things good in the process, doing do things with character, do things with integrity, do things with consistency,

do things with faithfulness to God, to family, to church, that's how you finish well, even if you don't finish strong. If you've got to crawl over the finish line, crawl, but don't quit. You know, that was kind of my heart in delivering that message to people yesterday. I think it hit home for a lot of folks. You know, at the end, a lot of people came up, some people in tears, hey, can you pray with me? Now, 2023 is. sucked. It's been a bad year. It's been a hard year. And so my encouragement to everybody was the same thing. Yeah, but we're going to finish it together. Yeah. Let's finish together. Well, I think what happens with a lot of people is they get so desperate for the finish line

that their values go out the window. Talk about it, man. Just to get a cross of finish line. As you were talking about that, it made me think of what motivated me to sign out for my first, Iron Man actually. I was never motivated by watching people cross the finish line sprinting. Yeah. Like Kipchoggi's. Like I don't get jacked up watching someone cross the finish line looking fresh and being strong. The reason I signed up for my first Iron Man is there's this viral video of it was probably the 70s or 80s.

Iron Man Kona. It's out in Hawaii. It's a world championship of Iron Man. And there was this viral video of these two female triathletes and they were maybe a quarter mile out from the finish line on the marathon. You know, the last leg, right? The last leg of the marathon

and their bodies gave up on them. Full body seizures, they couldn't even stand anymore. So they're crawling on the ground to get to the finish line. that was not a strong finish by any means. No. But they were going to do whatever it took because they worked so hard to get there. They were crawling to get across.

And that's what made me say, I'm doing this. Yes. I want to feel and experience. That's right. It's not the people who were just walking by with Breeze. It's the people who go through the struggles and the pain and the hardship.

And they still push through and endure the journey in the process. And they finish well. That's right. Dude, there's no fruit that grows on the mountaintop. Fruit grows in the valley. You know, the valleys of life are the places of fruitfulness, the places where we stock up, the places where we get fed, the places where we transform, the places where we're changed.

You know, I thank God for the valleys. Like, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Like it's the valleys that are the character building. And I, Nick, I feel the same, bro. I watch, I've never seen that video. But I watch these clips all the time, you know, because athletics speak to me. You know, I grew up playing sports and I relate them to life. And I mentioned this in the message yesterday, but my wife and I follow this, this girl. Her name is, I don't know her actual name, but it's track club babe. I don't know if you ever seen her track club. I don't think so. Okay, track club babe. She's a cool mom. Her husband is in a,

Olympic qualifier. So he's a stud in his own right. But they put together like plans for people. And so my wife is following track club babe's plan. And it seems to be a good plan. And we run our long runs together on Saturday, kind of a zone two meeting. We process, we talk on Saturday. It's a fun thing. But track club babe, I'm sorry, I don't know your real name if you happen to hear this. But she is running probably like mile 18 of a marathon. I mean, right when it's spicy. You know, and her husband is like, I guess, on a bike or maybe in a vehicle. And he says to her, he's like, you hurting right now? And of course, she doesn't respond because she's hurting, you know, and you can see it in her face.

He's like, you're hurting right now? He's like, your job is to hurt right now. I love that part. Can you do your job? Woo! I got me jacked up. Bro, I was like, I'm ready to run now. Yeah.

I was in bed watching that. And I watched it three or four times. just like you with that triathlete teared up. Bro, tears coming down my eye because I was like, that's 20, 23 for me, man. That's 2023 for me, man. That's the Garden of Gatsimini for Jesus right before the cross, right?

It's like, dude, are you hurting right now? Well, that just might be the season of life God has you in. So that means your job is to hurt right now. Question is, can you do your job? How do you navigate that? How do you know, how do you know, when you're going through pain and struggling, it feels like everything's crashing down?

Yeah, bro. How do you know it? How do you have that perspective? Bro, you know how to navigate it. The same way you run marathons, you surrender to it. You give yourself to it. You yield yourself to it. You say, okay, look, I'm not hitting the eject button.

I know that this is the path of life that I am supposed to walk. Therefore, I'm not going to eject from it. Yes, it's very difficult, but for the joy set before me, as it was said about Jesus. You know, he suffered and he despised the shame and he went to the cross because he understood that Good Friday wasn't the last day, but it was unto something greater, the resurrection, right? And I think that is applicable to our racing.

It is applicable to our life. It's like, dude, I am going through hell right now, and it feels like Good Friday, but you know what? I just need to give myself to the plan of God for my life, and maybe that is to hurt right now, but I do know that resurrection is on its way. And by yielding to it, I bring myself into that place of paradise. And it's a lot of, there's a lot of peace around that.

A lot of peace around that, bro. Because you don't try to resist it anymore. Exactly. You got to give into it. I mean, I bet your wife would tell us, you know, whenever she went through the labor pains with Charlie, you know, and Stephanie was going through that. It's like, there comes a point where you got to stop fighting it. Yeah.

And you got to say, hey, I give up. Like, my body knows what to do. I'm having a baby. all right, I'm going to, in order for me to be fruitful, I'm going to have to be, I'm going to have to surrender. And I think that's a word for a lot of us, even though we don't, as men, you know, we don't deliver babies in the natural, but like, man, we are fruitful spiritually and in life. And I think the key to greater fruitfulness is greater surrender. One of the things I tell Steph all the time is when I'm in a race and I'm hurting, I want her to

tell me to suck it up. But she never does it. Are you okay? Are you hurt? What's wrong? Do you need to stop? So before we're going to everybody, I'm like, Steph, when I enter the pain cave and it gets dark,

I need you to come in with my ear and say, suck it up. Do your job. Do your job. Because if she did that, I'd be like, you know what? Let's go. Getting it done, man.

Get it done. Just truly surrender to all of that pain. because it is what you are supposed to experience to grow on the other side. That's right. That's right. And we need people to tell us that from time to time. You know, growing up for me, that was my dad. My wife is the same as Steph, bro. Like she's, oh, you good, you're okay.

I love you. You're doing a great job. You look great, you know, you're doing awesome. Which is awesome, man. I mean, it's great that we have such, you know, kind wives. Supportive. Everybody needs somebody in their corner. Be like, you hurting right now?

Oh, cry me a river. let's go, you know. A friend of mine recently, he's actually a part of our church. You know, so I'm his pastor. But sometimes that's weird, you know, because it's like, man, you're just my friend. You know, so he'd be like, you're my pastor. You know, I need to get some advice. I'm like, bro, we're the same age, you know, which is a different topic altogether.

I've had to, you know, come to terms with the fact that I may not necessarily be qualified to be certain people's pastor, but if God's anointed me to do it, then, you know, I've got to step out and trust God and do it. And so he calls me, he calls me a few weeks ago, and he's in Israel, right, at the time of the attacks. So he calls me two days later. He's there. He's stuck there. Can't get out.

All the flights are canceled. He calls me. He says, hey, I'm calling you because I'm telling you what I'm about to do. I said, all right, what are you about to do? So it's midnight in Israel, right? It's morning time here in Nashville. This is my sheep, right? This is somebody I'm accountable for.

I love this guy. Give my life for this guy. his wife, his kids come to our church every Sunday. They're there yesterday. Calls me and says, hey, I know you know I'm stuck here. This is what I'm about to do. Sorry, what are you going to do? He said, I got 70 kids with me.

Because that lady, Heidi Baker, that says, stop for the one. They have a school in Israel. Okay. I got 70 kids with me. Not little kids, like college eight kids. All their parents are calling me. They're from like 20 different nations or something, 15, 20 different nations. Tomorrow, I'm going to get in a tour bus that I've rented, and I'm going to put all of these 70 kids, and I'm going to drive east to Jordan until we get all the way to the border, and we're going to go through the checkpoint there, and we're going to get out of the war zone.

We're going to get out of the country. And I said, hold on. You're telling me that you are going to take 70 young people in a tour bus. You're going to drive how long? Three hours or whatever it is? through a war zone where you could get kidnapped and you're going to get to the edge and that's how you're going to get out.

And I said, tell me why you think this is a good idea. I said, bro, I'm your friend. I love you, but I'm also asking you as your pastor. Tell me why you think this is wisdom. Bro, he shares with me. He shares me his convictions. He shares with me what he feels like God's telling him to do.

He shares with me how he's come about this plan through prayer and through fasting and through, you know, counsel and community. And he's like, so I'm telling you as my friend and as my pastor, this is my plan. Are you going to pray for me? And I said, you hear from God. You're a man of great wisdom.

I believe that your plan is the right one. And I said, we're going to pray. I said, but before we pray, I want to say something to you. You've earned the right to do this. And I said that in tears to him. I said, you have earned the right to do this. Because if something happens to you and you die and you're killed because you're a Christian and you're a martyr and I have to do your funeral and I have to see your wife and kids every

Sunday knowing that this is how you gave your life, bro, I want to remind you, this is your privilege to lay down your life for the gospel. This is your privilege. And so that was like the last conversation, you know, that I was able to have with him before he did that, you know, on FaceTime. But I'm like, that's the kind of friend I want. I just want to be the kind of friend that I know that I need who somebody who's going to look me in the eye and not baby me when I'm preparing to take 70 kids through a war zone. It's like, bro, You have earned the right to give your life. So suffer well.

We need these people in our life that aren't going to tell us what we want to hear, but what we need to hear. We need to hear, man. I want somebody looking at me in the eye and Nick and say, suffer well, man. Suffer with dignity. You know, yeah, this is going to suck. But you know what? Do it with dignity, man. Because that's who you are.

And I'm holding you accountable to the greatness that you're called to, not just what you could get in trouble for. I think we've got this whole idea of accountability kind of wonky. You know, it's like, hey, make sure you keep me out of trouble. Well, that's great. But I want friends, accountability, partners, brothers that are going to hold me accountable to the great things that I've been called to. Not just the bad things I could slip up and make mistakes with. You know, somebody's going to look me in the eye and say, hey, man, you signed off for this, bro. Come on, man, we ain't giving up now.

I just have a CrossFit coach. You'd be like, you're feeling sorry for yourself? Get back on the bar. Severwell is, that's got a really nice. rain to it. That's something I'm going to carry through into this marathon coming up. Yeah, bro. Suffer well, man.

I like that. You've earned the opportunity to suffer well. I think about that in terms of, I think races can teach us a lot about lessons in life. Yes, sir. Because the outcome that we are able to achieve is only based off the work that we're willing to put in. That work requires patience and consistency. and dedication and faith to the process.

And then when you finally get a mile out and you're on pace for where you need to be, but you're in so much pain, that pain that you're experiencing and that time that you are achieving, you have earned to get there. I like that, bro. I talk about it in terms of ultra sometimes

where everyone wants to run 100-mile race, but no one wants to get to mile 80, 85, 90. Because they get to that point hurts really bad. You're a lot of pain. But it wasn't just given to you. You just moved your body, 85, 90, 95 miles to get to that point.

You're about to get to the finish line. You've earned that pain. You get done, you take your shoes off, and you look at your feet, and your toenails are missing. You've earned that. It didn't just happen to you. You know, someone to just come and rip off your toenials.

Like that is from the work that you've put in over miles and miles and miles. So look at that and embrace it because like that's a that's a medal. That's a reward. Yeah. No toenails is a medal. Yeah. Bro, there's this guy named Sam Chan. He's a new friend of mine.

He wrote a book called Leadership Pain. And one of the things that he says in the book is that you will be able to achieve the level of leadership that you're willing to suffer at. I like that. you'll be as big of a leader as you are willing to suffer. You made a comment about leadership a few weeks ago. It was actually in your built-the-last sermon that Steph has actually been referencing frequently. You know, as a leader in my business, an organization and among people, you know, in your sermon,

you had people rate themselves. scale one to ten as what level of leader they are in their life. Yeah, some people rated themselves at 7, 8, 9. And then you had them rate their subordinates as to what level leader they are. And if, say, the leader rates himself at a 7, 8, 9, but his subordinates rate themselves at a 4, 5, 6, that leader is not a 7, 8, 9. He himself is a 4, 5, 6. It's a harsh reality.

It is a harsh reality, but it makes a whole lot of sense. And it's the truth. It's the impact we have on the people who are following us. We're not leading ourselves. We're leading others to follow the light in which we are trying to guide. Yes, sir. Dude, it's so good, man. It's a harsh reality check, right?

Yeah, I do it all the time with my team. You know, we have 18 staff. I think it is. And so the inventory I constantly attempt to take with each of them as often as I can is, you know, where are they at in their leadership journey? Because where they're at is an indicator of where I'm at. Right. So if I'm not raising the lid for them to get better, this is why I want to put a gym in my church office, bro. It's because I want to constantly push our team to grow and to get better.

I never want them to settle and say, yeah, I'm satisfied with that because I'm not satisfied. And I want to be a better leader. And I know that, you know, whatever proficiency I possess as a leader is going to show up downstream in them. Yeah. So I'm constantly keeping tabs on what they can handle. But let me stock that. Jim was some BPN's up. Hey, let's go, man.

We will be the first church, if you would like, that is exclusively BPN users. I've got, what I've got in here, Nick? You got some in focus in there right now. We started as I filled up so I haven't finished it all. But I do have this at the house. Yep. I've got, bro, I've been on G, go one more sport since 2020. That, like, that blows my mind.

Since 2020, bro. Well, I know when I met you at church a few weeks ago. Yep. Because I am, I introduced myself, like, he doesn't know who I am. You're like, oh, yeah, I've been following your videos for years now. Oh, yeah. I'm like, no freaking way. I appreciate this support.

Oh, of course, man. I told Josh our mutual friend who introduced. introduced us when he said oh i'm i you know bringing my bringing my friend nick uh and and i'm like bro i know who nick bear is like we you think i'm living under a rock bro like i i love athletics i follow him i he's oh okay and i said yeah so like when i meet him i will try my best to contain my excitement and not fan girl well hey we'll be back at church here soon we'll keep watching online i'm excited to see you bro and uh i think you're going to crush Sub 4 on your marathon.

And we're going to get you to sub three. Let's go. We can get you there. I'm committed. We're going to do an all-out mile at some point. We have to. Are we going to do that? Yeah.

At the air park. Can I film it? Absolutely. Okay, so I can bring my camera guy and film it? For sure. Okay. So if and when, it's not going to be if. When, you know, I film that.

I'll definitely post it up on my socials and everything. Man, I, the fastest I've ever run a mile is 545. Okay. What's your goal? That, because I was a sophomore in high school. When you go out for a run, you know, easy day. What's your pace out right now? Easy day, 10 minutes or less.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, just put some time, time on feet. Yeah. Some speed workout out in there. I didn't get like a 5.30. Hey, let's go, man. Let's go.

My hope and my prayer is that it happens and I'm with you and we're going to hit some BPN before and recovery afterwards for sure that drops that's coming soon well i appreciate it man um you know the message you share the work you're doing it's it's been really impactful in my life and especially at a point in my life where it's something that i need to be the man that i want to be moving forward so i appreciate you hey man i appreciate you bro thank you for everything you do keep it up i'm i'm your biggest fan man thank you of course go on more.