The Nick Bare Podcast - 176: How 10 Seasons In The NFL Shaped The Meaning Of Manhood | Heath Evans

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

I'm joined by Heath Evans, who spent 10 years in the NFL, built a career in broadcasting, and had every outward sign of success.But in this conversation, he reflects on the mission that changed everything.He shares how suffering exposed pride, sin, and self-glory, and how surrender led him to faith, obedience, and a new mission: discipling men and starting a non-profit serving fatherless boys.His testimony is a story about discipline, accountability, redemption, and what happens when your life stops being about you.CHAPTERS:00:00 Intro01:53 Chasing the NFL Dream03:55 Rock Bottom at NFL Network06:26 A Rescue Mission Through Suffering10:36 Building Guardrails Against Temptation14:59 Mourning Sin, Rejoicing in Christ22:12 Faith, Salvation, and Surrender31:09 The Fatherhood Foundation34:23 Discipline Starts at Home38:18 NFL Lessons in Leadership45:21 Transparency Builds Trust50:42 Accountability Sets the Standard54:44 Creating a Selfless Culture57:28 What Iron Sharpens Iron Really Means01:13:17 Non-Profit for Fatherless Boys01:20:43 The Legacy Club Vision for Bethesda RanchORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210FOLLOW:Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutritionIG: ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠YT: ⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitnessThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal [health or profession] advice. Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) is not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice.This podcast may not be republished without the written consent of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN)

All right, ladies and gentlemen, today on the podcast, we have Heath Evans, who served 10 NFL seasons starting in 2001. After that, join the NFL network as an analyst. He is a loving husband, father to six children, two by birth, fourth through adoption, and a strong man of God that I highly respect. So Heath, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. It has been a pleasure getting to know you the last 24 hours. Bless to be here, man. Well, thank you.

I've come across your content on Instagram primarily for the last couple months now, especially since giving my life to Christ. And it has been a guide, it has been you have been a mentor from afar. it has been very foundational that has led me and answer a lot of the questions I have around what it means to be a godly man but also a man who serves

people, community, wife, children, family. So I thank you for that. Well, and I thank the Lord for that. The man I was, eight and a half years ago, was not that man. but I thought it was. And I was like kind of many men today and deceived.

I had a form of religion, but denied the power of Christ thereof. And God was gracious. And he saved my soul and I've never been the same. And that's the way it's supposed to be. That's beautiful. Before we dive into what your life looks like today, I want to go back a little bit, your journey and career in the NFRAs. What was that like? What were, what were you pursuing? What was driving you? What allowed you to be

so successful in the sport that was your craft that you committed to? Yeah. People are going to get tired of hearing it today. But it was literally, even though I wasn't a child of God yet, I had not been saved. It was still God's common grace to me. Gave me great parents, gave me great coaches. I had a lot of great men around me that taught me how to be a mental monster. and how to be mentally disciplined and even how to serve others. I grew up in a Christian home, so most of my life from about 8 to 38

looked like a godly man. It had markings of a true Christian. But I just did them because I knew they were the right things to do. My heart really didn't want to do those things. I didn't want to love others. I didn't want to be sexually pure. I wanted to be the focal of every bit of attention. I didn't want other people to get glory.

I didn't want God to get glory. Now, I thought I was doing it right. But those 10 years in the NFL were marked by trying to give God glory and being a team chaplain in New England and a team chaplain in New Orleans. And so a lot of people would have looked at my life and like, no, he was a great, great teammate. But it wasn't until 38, you know, eight years post-NFL retirement where the Lord really kind of showed. me who I was truly and who I needed to rescue me. And who I was was was not pretty. It was a selfish, self-centered, arrogant man that had the world fooled and myself fooled. And then in God's grace, he showed me the love of Christ and that I needed a savior. But I needed that Savior to rescue me.

And he did. Did you have a rock bottom? What was the pivotal moment? God's rescue mission for me was extremely painful. At 38, myself and about seven other guys, guys much more famous than me, Marshall Falk, Warren Sapp, Donovan McNabb, Ike Taylor. Some, you know, first ballot hall of famers in there were accused by one woman of sexual harassment at NFL network. This young lady, about a year previous, had been fired from NFL network. She tried to sue the NFL for wrongful termination. Her case got tossed out of the courts in the L.A. County court system for no merit. Give that about nine, ten months.

The Me Too movement kind of rises up in game steam and power. She files the same lawsuit with a whole bunch of people's names. And then, of course, the courts hear it. the nine, I spent the next nine months being paid to kind of be quiet by the NFL. I didn't know that at the time. I was just trying to be a good fullback and, yes, sir, follow your boss's lead. At that time in my life, I would have said I was a Christian. I just said I would have been a carnal Christian or I was just not following the Lord.

Well, my heart didn't want to follow the Lord. I loved all the sexual immorality I was in. I loved all the fame. I loved all the power. I loved all the look at Heath. Well, through that nine months, I got to a point where the NFL called me and said, hey, if you don't sign these letters of non-disparagement covering the NFL and covering your accuser, we're going to fire you.

I'm like, fire me for what? You'll know I'm innocent. You've seen the text. You've seen the pictures. You've seen everything. And they said, oh, well, you know, when you turned over your phone to us, you know, that's an NFL phone. And you had naked pictures of yourself on your phone. I'm like, those weren't sexual.

You've had those for nine months. If you'd fire me, you should have fired. months ago. They were fitness check-in pictures, literally, front, back, my private phone. I didn't know that was the NFL's phone. So that's how they used that because I told them, I'm not signing anything. I'm not guilty. Y'all know I'm innocent. Put me back on error. Fire me. So after five weeks of trying to negotiate with my lawyer to try to get me to take a payout and to kind of name my price to walk away and pay out my contract, they fired me very quietly. And through that very devastating moment, I hit rock bottom and all the plans that I thought I had for my life financially,

corporately, all those things in about three or four months dried up. And I knew enough about God at that moment that, well, I can just run back to Jesus. My life's a mess. So let me just run back to Jesus. He's a good loving father, which he is. When I opened the Bible this time, which I had read numerous times, front to back over and over the way I was raised to, it came alive to me.

And for the first time I saw that I was a wicked sinner and that I was a liar and I was sexually immoral and I was an arrogant man and I was an inventor of evil and I was a gossiper and I was all these other marks of a man that needs Jesus. But I saw myself as that man for the first time. And then the Lord through his word kind of started asking me questions. First John kind of gives us a test of the true marks of a Christian man.

Do you love God? Do you love God's people? And is it a burden to obey God? And I probably could have convinced myself that I loved God and that I'd done some stuff, right? And I could have convinced myself, I've done all this, I've given all this money, I've done all these things for people. But when I got to the third test there in 1 John 5, I was like, Lord, it's it's always been a burdened to obey you. It's been a discipline.

It's just been something, oh, I do because this is what Christian men do. But the scripture is clear about the heart, a joyful obedience. And the Holy Spirit just empowered me to be honest with myself for the first time. And I was like, and I don't love God. And I've never loved God's people. I've just used God's people to make me look better. My charity work was about me. My sacrificial work was about to get people to see Heath, oh, look how sacrificial and intentional

Heath is. And that last question just kicked my butt in it because I was like, man, I've always, I wanted to be sexually able. I wanted to be prideful. I wanted to focus to be Heath. I, all these things that the Lord is supposed to change a man's heart, I'm like, I'm the opposite of that. And so by God's grace, the Lord is kind of like, yeah, but look at the last few months. that's not the case.

You do love me. And putting this world aside, which was namely just sexual immorality, didn't even really feel like a sacrifice. It had become a joy to obey Christ. And then as I start to think through all the stuff of Scripture, I know, I'm like, holy moly, I've been born again. Like, I've got a new desire. I'm a new creation. And it just became so evident. to me that Jesus had sought me, that his rescue mission had been set in place, and it was through

great suffering, kind of like my elder brother Christ suffered. I didn't suffer anything like that, but I got to partake in some of this suffering, which some of that was because of my own sin, had placed me in situations to be accused of some of that. But the other, as we were even talking last night, real betrayal from people that we have loved and served and cared for and done the right things by, and yet they turned their backs. And I felt that betrayal, but I couldn't take my mind off the fact of how much I had betrayed Christ and that my sin, because of his love, caused him to go to the cross and die for me. And that wrecked me. And that still wrecks me. And that's what drives me. I, by God's grace, love obeying God. I fail at it every day. But that was God's rescue mission

for Heath Evans. I thought I was saved, but I'd never been born again. I had made the profession. I'd been baptized. I had done all the good Christian things. But it was just another discipline like you and I would discipline ourselves to do X, Y, and Z every single day. God changed my heart. And for the last eight and a half years, I've just loved walking with Jesus. I'm curious how you would give advice to men as I paint this scenario. But before I get there, I heard you on a podcast describing recently. It might not have been a recent podcast, but one that I recently listened to is between you and Vince Del Monte. And, you know, you have this community you've built for men, to serve men, to lead men.

And I heard you in this interview, you know, you know, you. you point people to go to your website and if men are interested in being led and guided and mentored to send an inquiry. If you are a female, a woman who inquires, you're not going to respond. I found that bold and interesting.

I was just curious. And I just love to hear why. I have just curiosity, to be honest. Yeah. because my flesh is weak and temptation is real and Satan is real and he is like a roaring lion

seeking who he can devour and that devour is eternally there's two truths throughout scripture that when Christ saves a man he's going to hold him fast but that man that's being held fast by Christ

is going to be full of grace and power and want to make no provisions for the flesh. I'm not sure there's a man on the earth that loves his wife more than I love Chrissy. But I know I am weak. I am nothing without Christ. The very breath I breathe as I prayed for our teams this morning before we lifted, like, God's gracious to give us air. Outside of Christ, I know who I once was.

I know what that temptation used to do to me. I now see it as death. The sexual immorality that I used to enjoy that used to puff me up to make me feel something about myself momentarily used to be enjoyable. Now, because I see Christ rightly and I see Proverbs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 right?

I see the sexual immorality as death. But I know if I'm playing around with a line, I can easily slip. I don't want to tempt Satan to tempt me. I don't play around with idle time. I don't play around with idle parts of my daily schedule. Idleness is tempting Satan to tempt me. And I'm a weak man. In Christ, I can do all things. I can walk through any suffering. I can walk through any temptation. I can keep my mind fixed on the realities of Christ. But any man that knows what it is, to truly be a sinner. Any man that really has a simple understanding of what it means to fall short of the glory of God, according to Romans, we are not going to play with this line of temptation.

And so for me, I have no business being in a one-on-one chat with a woman. I have no business after my experience in an NFL network. I'm not going to step in an elevator with a woman one-on-one. people can say or do anything. But for me personally, I'm never going to attempt myself to be tempted. And sin often looks beautiful until it's not. And sin is fun until it's not. And I've seen sin for what it is. And so I don't want anything close to sin even be anywhere near my life.

And so, and heck, I don't have anything to teach women anyway. I'm going to teach my wife. I'm going to teach my daughters. But I ain't playing with sin. and that's one area of my life that we just don't mess with. But I'm also not going to keep arrogant men around me either because I used to love to be arrogant. And so I don't want to be in a position

where I can be tempted by sins that I used to love that sent my Christ to the cross. That's fair. What advice would you give men who have had a past of sin and a life that they're not proud of? And they struggle not to wear that previous life on their chest at all times. Yeah.

It's like they're trying to navigate this new chapter. They're trying to move beyond. But they're constantly reminded by their previous mistakes and failures. Yeah. And they've created that as their now and future identity. How do you get past that? Morn it. Matthew tells us early in the sermon on the mount that it,

that if we mourn well, there's a blessing. Sin is supposed to crush us. Sin is supposed to make us feel this like, this burden that we have to run to Christ to do something with. Is that the conviction? It is, but what's interesting is, is conviction by the power of the Holy Spirit will come in a current sin.

So four or five days ago, Chrissy comes in. I was trying to explain something to her. I knew in my mind that my wife was not in the position to kind of handle what I was going to try to suggest to her. But I'm like, I'm looking throughout the rest of the day. I'm like, so I said it, right? I know my bride. She gets frustrated, a little overwhelmed with all that I put on her.

And then I responded arrogantly. As soon as she walks out, like I'm trying to finish something. So I've kind of grown in this discipline of like, I'm going to confess it to the Lord quickly. I'm going to finish this task that needs to be finished. I knew it was only to take me a few minutes. And then I got my butt up and walked in Chrissy's office. I said, babe, I'm really sorry. That's right conviction over current sin.

Most Sundays, as we worship and as we pray and as we do these different things, I'm going to reflect back on some of the most wicked things I've ever done. I'm also going to kind of reflect back on Tuesday when I was super impatient with Zeke. I'm also going to reflect back on maybe Friday when I let the schedule kind of get out of hand and I didn't do the family devotions the way that I know I'm called to do them. And I'm going to mourn those in a way that point me, that make me run to Jesus because I'm not perfect. In the moment that I try to be perfect, I'm not seeing Christ rightly. I'm not seeing my need rightly. I love the fact that men know their sinners. I'm scared to death for the men that can think they can go

all we can never confess a sin. I would be humble and bold enough to say, brothers, if we're going through weeks and we're not walking in confession of sin, you're most likely not a real child of God. Sins are supposed to bother us. Sometimes the past as we mourn them, but then what that should do,

if we know Christ, man, we're going to look at that cross, and we're just going to rejoice because Jesus wasn't going to that, cross with like, I'm not really sure all the sins that Heath is going to commit. And so I'm kind of just die for this random amount. No, no, no, no, Jesus knows the hairs in my head. And he knows every betrayal, every, every wicked sin that I was going to love and really rejoice in for decades. He died for that. But he also died for the impatience that I have with my wife at times. He also died for the pride that's going to come out at a church member because I'm just not thinking rightly at some point when I'm trying to counsel him five years from now.

And so when we rightly see sin and rightly see the cross of Christ, it will start as a morning, but then it'll turn to her rejoicing because we know Christ knew us before the foundations of the world and that we were dead in our sins and that he brought us to life by. this life, death, burial, and resurrection. We're like sitting there, like, thinking about the cross, like, Jesus did this for me. Yes, the bride is a corporate. Like, it is a body of people, of this countless number that Revelation tells us that an innumerable amount of people like you and I that Christ died for. But we serve a personal Savior. He went to the cross for Nick Bear. And he went to the cross for Nick Bear so that Nick Bear can look at his life and be like, my Savior doesn't even remember my sins. They've been cast as far as the east is from the west. I am white as snow. The blood of Christ was shed to wash me clean. Morning of sin when it's the Holy

Spirit will lead us to, man, I hate that I betrayed my Christ this way. Look how glorious my Christ is. And he is faithful. I'm unfaithful. Nick, if we were going to look and count up our sins this week just in how we love Stephanie and Chrissy. If the cover of human nature was pulled back and God really exposed you and I's hearts, right? We'd melt like wax before a holy God. He's faithful to the too often faithless. And that's the story of Christianity.

It's a bunch of men that couldn't get out of their own way. And by God's grace, God gave them a new heart with new desire. made them a new creation, gave them new power, and those new appetites of their heart just grew more and more and more. I know I'm rambled here, but you look at the life of Paul. People always say, don't call yourself a sinner. I'm like, what Bible are you reading? I love the fact that I'm a sinner.

Not because it betrayed Christ, but it makes me know my need for Christ today. I believe John 15.5, like it's my favorite verse in the Bible. I can do nothing without Christ. nothing. I can't breathe. I can't love. I can't lovingly discipline my kids. I couldn't encourage you. I can't. The Bible tells us that we need the Lord to open our eyes so that we can see the glorious things of scripture, that we are like in our nature deaf to the beauties, right? And so I need the Lord. And so this sin that we struggle with, right? It's to get us to feel this weight in light of a holy God. that I can't, but Christ did.

And then the more rightly we look on Christ, brother, our souls will flourish. And we will be the most joyful, powerful, happy people in the world. You will never meet a holy man or woman who's not happy because they know Christ and they know their eternal security in Christ and it is fixed because Christ died for his people

and he finished his work. Sin is supposed to make us look at that cross and be like, it's finished. not because of me, but because of the eternal love of Christ. And that love motivates a man that's been born again. You know, I've never thought of it that way, that Christ went to the cross for me personally. Amen.

A personal savior. Yeah. And I'm just being honest. I've always thought of Christ going to the cross as this generalized blanket of I'm giving my life for the sins of everyone from now and for the future

not knowing these sins intimately and these people personally and it makes me feel the weight of the cross even more I've never thought of it on a personal intimate level I thought of a relationship with Jesus as a personal relationship

but not him going to the cross in such a way. Yeah. As you continue to grow in Christ, which I know you will, because he promises to make his people holy, the things that you're going to discover in Scripture that make your heart burst for joy. I know what it's like to have your first child, right, to hold these babies.

I know what it's like to, in purity and the marriage bed that God's created is to hold our wives in just beautiful intimacy, right? Like these are just like the tip of the iceberg things, right? Bro I'm telling you, the more you learn of Christ and what he has done for you. And what the Bible says, how God has loved you before time. When you read the gospel of John, you get to verse 12.

It tells us by the will of God you and I were saved. it starts to build this account that men like Nick Bear and Heath Evans that in worldly measures have accomplished a lot can take no credit for their salvation. It starts to humble us quickly. In John 3, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. Nicodemus is like the Michael Jordan of preachers to the Jewish people. He's the ruler of the Jews at the time, right? He is the dude. Jesus is talking to him about things of heaven. things of the kingdom. Nicodemus ain't got it, dude.

He's like, huh? Born again. Am I got crawled back up in my mama? Jesus is telling him, hey, did you have anything to do with your first birth? Nicodemus is like, no. Yeah, you didn't have anything to do with your second birth either. It was by the grace of God.

Verse 5, 6, 7, and 8 there in chapter 3. Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit. and the wind blows where it will. You have no idea where it came from. That was me at 38. I profess faith, a young boy, and had lived faith in a lot of ways, but my heart had never been born again.

And Jesus, the good shepherd, left the others and came and got me. The story of salvation is always intimacy of an eternal God that needs nothing. He is self-sufficient, supreme in all his ways, sovereign over all,

comes in rescues of people to show his love, to show his glory. Now here's the thing. God doesn't need glory because he needs nothing. The scriptures are abundantly clear. He was completely happy in and of himself,

the three-and-one triune God. But to display his love, came to save a people. And that people is me and you. As you keep building through the gospel of John, you're going to see these statements that no man can come to God, no man can come to the Father,

unless God draws him. So you see these statements in John 17 where Jesus is praying this high priestly prayer. He says, not praying for everyone. I'm praying for those that you've given me. The real gospel leaves no man a place to boast.

I can't look at my friends that I love dearly that don't walk with Christ and be like, why won't you just choose Jesus? The Bible's clear why they don't. They are slaves to their sin. They are sons of Satan according to 1st John. They are bound by their fleshly desires. their nature only knows sin. They need God to intervene.

This gospel offends many people. Many people will call this gospel arrogant. But it's the gospel of the Christian man's life. I did nothing. And he did everything. I loved my sin. And he gave me a heart that makes me hate sin. I love him.

And now I love him. And now I love people and I will give my life to boast in Christ rightly and to take a lot of verbal abuse for the gospel that we preach. Your boy, Chad, he preaches the same gospel. This is the gospel that humbles. Any gospel that gives a man a place to say that I did something is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus ain't a halfway crook. He didn't go halfway. He didn't come to make salvation possible.

He came to save his people. And that salvation humbles men like you and I and makes us live for Christ. It makes us love our wives. Because when we look at our wives, right? And we can see them in all their beauty. It'll make us see Christ and then we will want to lay our lives down for our wives the way Jesus laid his life down for us.

And it'll allow us to love and care for soul. in a way that no man can, and it's but by the grace and power of God. So, Nick, I'm going to tell you here in front of the world today, and everyone that listens, Christ didn't come to die to give Nick Barrett opportunity. No, Christ came to die to save your soul, because from eternity past, he loved you, and he set you apart. And Ephesians 1 says that before the beginning of time, in love, he predestined you. to you, for you to be his son.

As we get eyes to read the scriptures, you have to do a whole bunch of mental gymnastics to make Christ's salvation anything other than what I just told you. The problem with my salvation from 8 to 38 was I thought I chose Christ. And I did. I chose him every time I needed to recover from an injury. I chose him every time I wanted a Super Bowl trophy.

I chose him every time I got into a little trouble here or there. I chose him every time it served to me. At 38, I received Christ because I saw what he had already done for me. And that sealed the deal. And there's nothing greater than the fact that Christ died to bring me into right relationship with my creator. And there's nothing that is ever satisfied or ever could satisfy my soul more than that. The things of Christ that it gives me, my wife, my kids, everything else, they pay. hail in comparison to being able to stand before Holy God and know that he calls me son and that he is

pleased with me and that he loves me and that he disciplines me because he cares for me and that nothing and no one can pluck me out of his hand not even my sin not even my betrayal because he's going to hold me fast I ask men all the time what's the difference between Judas and Peter Judas betrayed Christ Peter betrayed Christ before Peter betrayed Christ before Peter betrayed Christ Jesus told him, when you return, when you're done stabbing me in the back three times, when you return, how did he know he was going to return? Because Christ knew he was going to bring him back. That's the story. There are no godly men. There are no great men of God. There's just a great God. And he holds his people fast. And the men of God can't boast. They boast in Jesus. And so we pity other people

that are caught in their sin. And we love them with the word of the Lord because we know that the word of the Lord is the only thing that sets a man's heart free. I'm curious, you know, growing up, and you speak to a lot of men now, and I know you have a nonprofit for fatherless boys, which I eventually want to talk about in this conversation. But what was your relationship like with your father growing up? What values did he teach you? and how did that shape the man you are today? I don't even know where to begin.

My dad's a rock star. He's a stud. Born in a different generation, a Marine custom home builder, tough as nails, hardest worker I've ever seen, did all he could to love me and my sister. Loves my mom well,

not perfectly. Your parents still alive? Yeah. Still married, 50. three years, something like that. That's incredible. Yeah. And both my parents have these wicked, sinful past.

And God radically saved both of them. And they've been born again. And I grew up in this godly Christian home with all the great, everything a kid could ever need to truly walk with Christ, oh, I had times 10. My father laid his life down to service family. And I don't even know where to start, Nick, man. He taught me how to eat.

He taught me how to train. He taught me how to take physical pain and put it to the side to do what you know you need to do. I mean, he taught me so much. He taught me to give your life to the Word of the Lord because it's the only thing that's going to satisfy your soul. He taught me what it's like to get up early in the morning and, hey, we're going to start our day with the Word of the Lord. He had this saying that he would tell all the people that he would disciple. No Bible, no breakfast. He's like, how are you going to be such a fool to feed your physical?

man, if you're not going to feed your spiritual man. This soul is going to live forever. This body here is going to burn up. So don't be a fool and feed your body all this protein and good stuff. If you're not going to feed yourself the word of the Lord first. And it always just stuck with me of like, it's just such a picture of like, man, we need Christ. And so I'm going to go to the word of the Lord. I'm going to have my soul filled every morning. But my dad was, listen, there's no perfect dad, but he was the perfect dad for me. And so from a foundational standpoint, he taught me how to be a man. And by God's grace, he's taken kind of all the lessons that he's taught me. And then as I've matured more in the scripture in some of the tender natures of Christ that he is instilled in me, that foundation is just flourished.

And I expect whatever the Lord uses me and empowers me to accomplish, I expect my sons to take that standard, that foundation, and just continue to grow on it. biblical truth that we see that each generation should pass on the riches of Christ and that we just keep growing and growing and growing so from each generation Lord willing these Evans men will truly be men of God and not cultural men you're sharing some of these stories last night I'd love for you to expand on some of them because I found it interesting but do you think you would have ever made it to the NFL if it wasn't for the way your dad was pushing you when you were younger not a chance. Not a chance. Can you share the burger story? Yeah. So at like 13, 14, my dad made me kind of signed my life away. He said, hey, are you serious about going to the NFL? And I'm like, yes, sir.

And he's like, well, I wouldn't be a good dad if I don't help you reach all your goals. So if you're serious, you need to sign this contract. I don't know how to necessarily get you faster, but I know how to make you stronger. I know how to make you bigger. We're going to eat. We're going to work out. And then you're going to go to church. You're going to talk to Ken Stone. Ken Stone played in the NFL for 11 years, he's going to help you get faster. You're going to do everything he tells you to do to get faster. And then I'm going to make you eat. We're going to work out here. Old garage, rusty, gym, you know, weights, bars, all the stuff, right? And so there was numerous times, numerous nights where my dad would let me get upstairs and get in bed. You know, I'd have my two egg sandwiches.

Mom would pack me five sandwiches. I'd have one after, you know, first hour weight training, and then I'd have three at lunch, and then I'd have one sandwich before practice. And then my dad would pick me up and we'd go to Wendy's right after practice. He'd stuff me with a few more burgers and we'd go home and have dinner, have two servings of dinner. And then right before bed, he would make me two burgers and get the frozen patties out. He'd make me two burgers and then like these salt dust protein shakes that I grew up on. They didn't, though they weren't like BPN shakes back of the day. They didn't taste good. And every once in a while, I'd just be lazy. I'd be a little punk. And I'd go upstairs all quietly and I'd get in bed. He'd wait to see the lights are off. And he'd be like,

Hey, son, I love you, Heath. I'm really proud of you. You worked really, you worked really hard today. And, you know, there ain't too many kids putting in the work like you're doing. You know, just go on and go to sleep without eating your burgers. You know, that kid down the street, he'll get your scholarship to Florida State. It's okay. Night, buddy, I love you, you know, like mocking me, but lovingly.

Yeah. He would push me in such a way. I would hate him in the time, right? I wanted to go to bed. It's 9.30, 10, whatever it is. But I'd get my butt up and go do the right thing. because he just, he found a way to kind of lovingly, mockingly, kind of just push those buttons to get me to do the things

because he knew every day mattered. He knew every night, every meal, every rest, every bit of hydration, every practice, every weight, every rep. And so he taught me that, like, you can't be living in the future, right? You have to live in the now, and you have to discipline yourself now. And it's easy to practice the habit of quitting. It's hard to be a winner. It's just really easy to be a loser.

It's this is. It's hard to be a winner. And so from early on, whether it was an extra rep, and I mean, Nick, he used to leave like 350 pounds on my chest at times because he was telling me I was just being a punk. He's like, you did this last week, you did more reps this week. If you did it once, you could do it before. I mean, I'm like literally got a rusty old bar about to roll on my neck. He's like, I don't care. Find a way to get it up. And those things created a disposition in me that when I look across the line and see Ray Lewis, who's far more far more powerful, faster, all the different things, right? We just find a way.

Well, yeah, he's better. Who cares? How am I going to find a way? And now it's kind of the story of my career from really high school to college through the SEC and in the NFL is just find a way. And there was never a level, never a place for an excuse. And if there is a true mentality based on how God's built man, we can accomplish great things, right?

It doesn't mean that we're going to do it for the glory of God. But the way God has built us, we are wonderfully created. Like we are freaks of nature at its fullest extent. That's meant to bring glory to Christ and praise God it does now. But without Brian Evans, man, I wouldn't be half the man that I am. It wouldn't even be close. I want to talk about what it means to be a man. But I think before we get into that,

I'm curious of the 10 seasons you spend the NFL, But what were some of the key takeaways? What did you learn? And I know now you look back at those years and it was sin, it was prior to being born again. But what were some of the positives that you left the NFL with? Oh, so many. So many. The hardest coaches were the best coaches.

The toughest environments were the most fun, the most enjoyable. I'd been in the NFL 40 years. and had spent a little bit of time of my fifth year with Nick Sabin, the first year he took the Miami Dolphins job. And when I got to New England with Belichick and Brady and Bruske and Bruske and Vrable and all the boys, like, you know, you've been in the league four years. Like, you know football. I knew nothing of football.

I knew nothing of real leadership, team leadership, right? I'd grown around up around a right, a real awesome dad. And so I knew things about masculinity and how to lead a home. But in the sense of like building a team and how you create a lot. long-term, like just dominance, right? I knew nothing. And I knew nothing about really studying the game. And so what I realized after the Lord saved me, and it's kind of been unique, I formulated this leadership training that has, by God's grace, blessed so many. But everything that was a success in the league, everything that worked to build championship mentality, championship culture,

championship plays. All those things are biblical truths that Belichick or Sabin or Sean Peyton not knowingly, but they've just stolen from the word of the Lord. Belichick built a 20-year dynasty on selflessness. He built a 20-year dynasty on serving others, on putting the team first, on being attentive. When we would walk in the New England Patriots facility, every single day, we had these four kind of marching orders. It was do your job, right? Work hard. Be attentive and put the team first.

People are like, oh, that's easy. I don't know. Those are impossible unless you are super intentional and super sacrificial. Work hard. It's easy to work hard for a few minutes. But when you're in December, and it's eight degrees outside, and you've got a third degree separated AC joint, right? You're grinding through a season.

Then how hard is that, right? The watchfulness of Scripture about, of just kind of even our enemy, right? But even watchfulness over our own souls, you know, 1 Corinthians 16, 13, 14, so it was about to be watchful, to be alert, to stand firm in the faith, right? Well, this is like a man standing on a tower, kind of guarding all his sides. with great intent being aware because we know that we're potentially under attack at all times. This attentiveness to the degree that it was taught in New England cost you everything. Like it cost you every bit of mental stamina.

It cost you every bit of mental discipline. Right. And then the last one, to put the team first, well, I want my touchdowns. And I want my catches. And I want glory. So how do you get 53 alpha dollar? How do you get Tom Brady to lay it down for the betterment of the team? How do you get junior seows, the late grade?

How do you get Randy Mosses to lay it down for what's best for the team? Well, you build a culture out of how powerful that truth is. Well, we know that has truth because that truth comes from scripture that this life isn't about us. It's about Christ. It's about others. And when we, even for the unregenerate man, the unsaved man, even when he lives the life of sacrifice doing good for others, there's pleasure in that. And there is reward at a soul level for that that sustains for a time. And so as I kind of, by God's grace, started to learn the

scriptures more. And then I started looking at all these different traits that these great coaches. I mean, like, who gets to play for Nick Sabin, the greatest college coach ever? And then Bill Belichick, the greatest, you know, it's him or Phil Jackson, right, in the sense of like, what you're going to, who are the best coaches that have ever coached any sport, right? Sean Payton now showing how good he is at Denver without Drew Brees and what we did with the saints. Like all the things that they taught us that had power that pushed us to this levels of excellence and greatness, all scriptural, all truths that you can find in the Bible. And so I've been able to extract that to teach my boys, to teach the men that God gives me, and to ultimately lead that way so I can practice.

when I preach and then get to reap the rewards and the benefits of doing things God's way. All truth comes from Scripture. Science is always going to prove the Bible eventually, but science is never going to catch up with Christ. He's too glorious. He's too powerful. He's too mighty. His riches are unsearchable. And so when we see truth and we see something working, we can always find it in Scripture.

And then we just need God's help to put the right heartbeat. because it's really, I want to win. I want my sons to be studs. And a lot of times, Nick, I want them to be studs so that the world will look at me and be like, what a good dad hate this. And that's a wicked heart. That's a selfish heart.

God convicts me of it. Lord, please forgive me. Lord, help me to raise these boys to know your glory, right? Because I know when I get praised, that doesn't satisfy my soul, right? But I do know when the Lord does these awesome things through his truth, he gets the glory, and he gives us the rewards. And that rewards is this Jeremiah 29-11 heart that the soul just flourishes, that he wants to bless us. He wants to prosper us.

That's not with money and wealth and cars and big businesses. That's a man that can lay his head on a pillow at night and go to sleep peacefully, not because everything's peaceful around him, but because he knows his God controls everything around him. And everything that that man faces is for his good and the glory of God. That's the happy man. That's the powerful man. And that's the man that's birthed and sustained out of the truth of scripture. And God showed me all these leadership things. This is God's eternal truth. Of course it works. But is God going to get the glory for all the Super Bowls and all the rings and all the greatness that comes out of it? For most people, he doesn't get the glory. but he'll get it in the end.

What were these coaches doing? These winning coaches that facilitated this culture that you speak about. Because I can only imagine how hard it is to lead a team of type A

alpha, high performing just warrior dogs. What are these coaches that are so good at what they do tactically doing to facilitate this culture that wins. Many things, but transparency and accountability. First transparency.

Dysfunctional doesn't look dysfunctional to the dysfunctional. Let me explain that. I don't want to say it one more time. Dysfunctional doesn't look dysfunctional to the dysfunctional. Nick, Heath, Bill Belichick, Sabin, John Peyton. We all have areas of dysfunction that we can't see. we have chinks in our armor that need to be replaced or re-engineered something, but we can't see them. We're blind to them. So if we're not transparent men, if we're not humble men that have

other men that have full right at any time to speak into our lives at any time about our dysfunction, our sin, our shortcomings, our weaknesses, we're far weaker than we think we know, right? Is that ignorance out of pride? It's always pride that won't be transparent. The greatest thing that God's done for me was allowed me to see the cross rightly so that I didn't feel guilty or condemned over my sin. I would mourn it, but I don't feel shame over my sin anymore.

I don't feel condemned. Christ died for me. God eternally loves me, and nothing and no one can change that. And so I'm just the happiest dude ever. I hate that I've grieved God. I hate that I fall short of his glory now. But like the fact that the Lord exposed my heart to who I am, and that's why I need Christ and Christ loves me anyway,

that makes me not want to be that man. The prideful man isn't going to admit his fears. He's not going to admit his shortcomings. He's not going to ask for help. He's not going to have, like King David had Jonathan that had the ability to kind of speak into his life, this friendship. You and I were talking last night about wounds from a friend can be trusted. My best friend is also one of my pastors.

He has come to me. I can't tell you how many times something about parenting, something I said to Chrissy, I'm just joking, whatever it may be that's like, hey, this isn't the attitudes, this isn't the heartbeat of a godly man. Hey, don't say that to your kids that way. It could really, right?

But Barrick knows that, like, I want to be a godly man. And I'm blind often to the realities of, of my sin. And so I've opened the doors to many godly men that know at any point in time, at any time of the day, whether on social media or whatever, they can call me and be like, hey, this is not representing Christ well. This is not the marks of a godly husband, whatever it may be. But I've had to open that door with transparency. Belichick had a guy. He could stop practice. He could go in his office, whatever he wanted. And he basically had full authority, to point things out that Bill would miss.

Now, not everyone could do that, but Brady could go in his office too. Willing McGinnisd, Mike Vrable, Teddy Bruske, guys that would earn his respect based on, A, their ability, their performance, and their own leadership attributes over time. You know, it took me probably two years

to earn Bill's respect and trust that he would then trust me in any environment or situation that he would put me in in a game. But Bill would listen. I remember when Randy Moss first came to New England to watch the education that Randy brought Bill and Tom based on what Randy knew defenses had to do because he was Randy Moss and to sit Bill Belichick at the time three Super Bowl ring. One is a defensive coordinator with Giants. Three as a head coach. Just sit back like with real awe and respect and listen to Randy and then learn and gleaned and then move on.

and become even a better coach because he knew he didn't know it all and that he had opened the door to further his wisdom. So that transparency is huge. Transparency is the key to transformation. If a man wants to grow in Christ, he better be transparent with his sin, with his fear, with his shortcomings, with all his weaknesses. We've got to learn to kind of open up this onion more and more with the good, godly, right people so that we can get more wise counsel to grow and flourish the way that God's word equips us to. God's going to use people. He didn't need people,

but he used his people to accomplish his goals. And so those are the things, but that does not happen without transparency. All those coaches had humility enough to open the door, to right leadership, to right input, to right instruction, to write you're wrong, and you need to change,

that allowed them to be what they need to be. The second one's accountability. In New England, no one was held more accountable than Tom Brady. If Tom Brady threw an interception, no matter this scenario, he was ripped shreds. And it went downhill.

But it's the opposite of every other team I was ever on. The superstars in Seattle, my first four years, my Combegin went in touch. They never got coached. They were never called to the carpet. They were never held to accountability. And so this level of like kind of pick your poison from the head coach, you can't respect a man that way. So you can't ever possibly serve a man

the way that we're kind of meant to in a team environment if you don't respect him. Now, sure, you can still keep doing the right things, but it's not from a heart level. And you're not going to meet one guy who spent more than two years with Belichick that didn't absolutely love that man. And it was the most relentless, hard place to play. I often say it was the hardest place to play in the world. and it wasn't anywhere close, but it was the most peaceful place to play. What made it so hard? Bro, the demands,

the level of excellence, the mental knowledge that you had to know about your team. Bro, we scouted the referees. What are the referees like to call? Do they call more holding? Do they call more pass interference? What will they get, will they let your hands be on the outside

or do you have to hold from the inside? Bill made us know everything. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday was a nightmare at times, just the burden of information that his scouting staff and all the coaches would bury us with. But we knew the expectation and we were given the information to know. So then it just came back to the fact of, hey, are you going to put in the work? Are you going to do the work to know everything that you're demanded, commanded to know? Well, guess what? Saturdays was like a part, excuse me, Sunday was like a party. They were the best days

of the week. No one out prepared us. No one was more studied. No one is more prepared physically, mentally, emotionally. Man, Sundays were like game day was the best day of the week and then you get up and do it all over again. Well, most people chill all week, study a little bit, whatever, and then they're all anxious and nervous come Sunday. Not our teams. Sundays were a party. And it was awesome. And you've experienced some of that stuff where you have paid the freaking price. And then you go into performance time, whatever that thing is with your team and you all know you're freaking ready. And then you get to perform at a level of excellence because the excellence started a year ago, six months ago. For us, it was, every week was cyclical. You're going to pay

the price. And boy, the price was heavy. The price was worth it because when you put in the work, man, I have a saying, hard work works. Everyone has different talents. But hard work is never going to let a man down. If you're truly working hard, it's going to work to some level. I tell a story of me and Randy Moss. Randy's a freak of nature, right? He's like a unicorn with cleats, right? I'm like, these short stubby legs. I'm a quick burst and I'm going to block and do these other things.

We both work tenaciously hard. His hard work got him a first ballot gold jacket. My hard work got me 10 years in the NFL. Some people like, oh, they look at other men like, oh, this got this. Screw that. Hard work works, and it works for every man, if we're willing to pay the price. And in New England, that bar was set so high, right? The intensity, right? But the intensity made the games fun and then winning with a team that everyone was suffering well together.

It was just awesome. In a worldly sense, there's just nothing like it. Get into the mountaintop with a group of men that have all sacrificed for the better men of the team is freaking beautiful. Who is responsible for maintaining that transparency and accountability? Was it the coach or was it the quarterback? Well, ultimately, Bill is responsible for Bill, right? So he had to make sure his own kind of checkboxes were in place, right? No one's making Bill do anything. What made New England such a sweet place was, for a long time, Mr. Kraft, all business,

it's Mr. Kraft, all football, all football, from every, penny spent to every player signed, to every punishment, you name it. That was Bill. And it created this hierarchy that could work because Kraft is the businessman. But businessmen don't need to be mixing into football. We see this every year of the Dallas Cowboys, right? Like Jerry Jones needs to step aside. He's not the smartest football guy in the room. And neither is his son. So they shouldn't be managing all football operational decisions for the Dallas Cowboys. You would have given Bill Belichick that roster two years ago when he got fired from the Patriots before he took the Carolina job. Barring injuries, Belichick would win multiple Super Bowls with that current Dallas Cowboys roster,

but they've got the wrong people in place. So Bill's ultimately responsible for his own transparency, his own humility, his own leadership, and the accountability of his team. But when you bring in the right people, the Brady's, the Breeze, Teddy Bruskees, the Mike Vrables, all the different things. the locker room kind of self-pleases itself because the standard has been set. When you live in a selfless environment and you're a cancer, you're going to stick out like a sore thumb. We walk around this office today here at headquarters, right?

Everyone's nice. Someone that's not nice, you're going to take about a week for someone to be like, what's wrong with him? Because everyone else here is so just gracious and kind. Well, in New England, if you were selfish and you weren't about the team's business, oh, you were going to stick out like a sore thumb. And then we were going to get you up out of there. But Bill would get you up out of there before the players ever had to. But your life in New England would be miserable if you weren't selfless.

If you weren't team first, if you weren't attentive, bro, those older guys, they'd run you ragged. You'd be asking to be fired. The culture places itself. Yeah, it's got to. The same thing happens here. It happens everywhere. Most cultures are just bad. Yeah.

High functioning teams I found they function in the way they do because of the way they please the culture. What's acceptable? Exactly. What are people willing to accept and walk by and tolerate? So this is an area where I really want to focus. And this is something that I'm still learning. and it's how we read scripture, how we interpret scripture, and how we apply it to our lives. And I briefly shared this with you while we were training and working out this morning.

I didn't want to dive into it too much because I want to hear your authentic response the first time during this conversation. You know, an example of that you see all the time online in the social space. it's a picture of a bunch of guys and then they quote Proverbs 2717 as iron sharpens iron so one person

sharpens another and me and my buddy is like we're hanging out together iron sharpens iron and I want to focus on this verse here but I think we can apply it to a lot of scriptures we read the Bible we read scripture and then we apply it to

our lives we don't interpret it in the way that it's meant to be read and interpreted based on the context of where it's placed. When you hear iron sharpens iron, how do you interpret that based off of your understanding of the Bible? And how do we apply it to our lives? Great question. You and I did it this morning in the gym.

And I was jacking with you in the camera. I'm like, I'm helping you guys get a couple extra reps. You ain't helping the old man get some extra reps. right. So there is truth to this. If you and I train together every single day, there's going to be areas where I'm going to make you better, and there's going to be areas where you make me better. And we're going to talk trash, and we're going to push each other. You're going to find my weaknesses. I'm going to find yours. I'm going to find your strengths. You're going to find my strengths. And we, because of just the way God has built us, we will make each other better. And that's good and right.

And men should do that. But that's not the full depth of that verse. When iron is sharp. it's hot and it's being beaten to death basically and it's being scourged in in a way that that makes it usable and that's due pain the kind of the literary work of proverbs at times right a lot of times it's hyperbole but hyperbole can never get to the extreme of really what christ is communicating right it's just to give us a picture of like oh this is what it's like so christ is what it's like so So Christ doesn't really want us to cut off our hand to get into heaven. But if our eyes are constantly leading us into lust, then we need to find a way to cut off every provision for the flesh should that our eye doesn't cast us into hell.

Ultimately, our heart is a reflection of our eye. Our heart is a reflection of our hand. But that methodology is to get us to see how important sin is and that we need to distance ourselves from it. So back to you and I, sharpening each other. if you and I were doing life together, then we're doing life together well based on the full counsel of God's word, right?

I'm commanded to constantly be taking the sin out of my own eye, the log, right? So I should see my sin like it's a freaking tree. And I should see your sin like it's a speck. So me before God, God, I am constantly being impatient with my kids. Please forgive me. Please help me to just walk in tenderness with my children so that I can reflect fatherly affection like you love me.

And then that gives me a posture to come to you later that day. Hey, when you hung up the phone with Steph and, you know, I could hear y'all getting into it. Your last response to her, like, does Christ respond to you that way? Now, a prideful man is going to be like, screw you, Heath, get out of my office. I don't want this noise. a godly man that's walking with Christ is immediately. If the Holy Spirit hadn't already burdened him, the Holy Spirit's going to immediately burden that man.

Like King David, Nathan comes to him, tells a story of this man. David's like, kill that man. And Nathan's like, that man is you, David. And immediately that boy's heart breaks with all his murder, all his adultery, all his sin. He is crushed into repentance. He penned Psalm 51 before you, Lord of my sinned and only you, right? He is mourning and loathing this sin, but he knows who is Christ is.

That's iron, sharpening iron. It's prayer. It's honor. Honor is never flattery. Most leaders flatter. And they don't even know they're doing it. Flattery is a lie. I have intentionally tried to encourage you in the last 24 hours.

I have no idea about all the ends and outs of your life, but I have seen God's great work in you. And I have seen you be very intentional and very sacrificial in ways that I think only God's men do. But if I was going to come in here and just try to blow smoke up your rear end and just even flatter you with true things, right? That takes no time on my part. It takes no prayer on my part. It takes no, hey, Lord, will you help me just to,

where Nick's hurting, will you help me just to be able to pray for that or just speak to that? Or Lord, would you send someone else just to meet him at the point of his need today? Honoring is something that costs me something before then I can encourage you with that honor. And sometimes honoring you would be calling you to the carpet

on areas that you're falling short, right? but in godly relationship and ironing sharpened iron it's this constant give and take you know berrick and i i'm a boy i'm a pastor we're in constant relational suggestions even just last week young pregnant wife of his hey you need to shut the work down for her i know you're on a pastor salary and all that screw that god's going to provide get your wife out of work a few weeks earlier so she can enjoy these last few weeks of your first baby. Oh, yeah. Okay, boom.

That's ironing, sharpen iron. I'm an older, more experienced man in ways, had kids, etc. So I was able to speak something to him that he was willing, humbly to take. That wasn't sin in his life. But this give and take of knowing brothers and doing life together that starts with transparency, where am I weak? Where do I need Nick to call me to the carpet? or do I need Nick to call me on a weekly basis,

hey, have you done this well this week? Right? That is true iron sharpening iron. It's costly. It's intentional. It demands transparency. It demands accountability. It demands two men giving their lives to the word of the Lord

so that they can rightly know how to honor and wound with humility and tenderness when Nick needs to be wounded by a check from his brother Heath. or vice versa. I mean, it's similar to the characteristics of a high functioning team. Yeah. Transparency, accountability. Yep. You had a post about this that I have the copy here.

And I think you described it very well. Because when I think of iron sharpens iron, I think of brotherhood. Yeah. And the necessity of brotherhood. We were having this conversation at dinner last night, but it's a really dangerous place to be when you have a lot of yes men in your life. They're telling you what you want to hear,

what they think you want to hear, not what you need to hear to check you. But I'll read your post because I think this summarizes it really well. Iron sharpen's iron. It doesn't mean to find a group of men who comfort you in sin.

That's not brotherhood. Real brothers love you enough to tell you the truth. They confront the compromise. They expose the excuse. They press you back to Christ. They do not leave you dull, soft, passive, or useless. They sharpen you for the fight.

And yes, it will sting. Correction usually does. But wounds from a faithful friend are better than kisses from a flattering fool. Amen. Men, stop surrounding yourself with people who make rebellion feel safe. Fine brothers who love Christ, love His Word, and love you enough to say, that is sin, repent, get back up, follow Christ.

Amen. I love that. And I was once someone who would use me and my brothers are hanging out and iron sharpens iron just because we're in a group of friends together. Yeah. Probably having conversations we shouldn't have joking about things that aren't actually sharpening each other. Yeah. You know, but I was on your website for Built Ready, and you have these five pillars. And those five pillars are discipline, truth, stewardship, belonging, leadership.

And I look at belonging, the brother, no man finishes the race alone. I used to be someone who prided himself in being a lone wolf. I don't need anyone else in my life. I want to do this on my own. I'm faster on my own. And then I started finally realizing, I can't do all this on my own. And I once said,

you can go fast alone, but you can go so much further together. And there's been evolutions to it. Sure. And then I realized, well, you can go further together if you're the right people. Yeah.

And for a while, I didn't know what the right people looked or felt like, but they have to be rooted in the same values. and beliefs in foundation in order to sharpen you. Yeah. Because if not, you're just getting softer, duller, weaker, more passive. Yeah. And we know, like, I seek wise counsel from men that aren't Christian.

But in God's kindness, I have enough understanding of kind of what we call the full counsel. So from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 that I can take the truths. of these very highly successful men, right? And then often it's the same blueprint. It's just for me, Lord, now help me accomplish this for your glory. Grow your kingdom. Grow these businesses so we can reach more men. Do things for your glory, not heaths. This truth, right, it can be applied. It's just the heart behind the application. If we're with the wrong group of men, we're just going to go faster towards destruction. And that destruction might come alongside

a booming business. The wise counsel part, and you know, Chrissy and I don't do anything unless we are in agreement together. But in God's kindness to us, we have many successful, worldly people to ask.

And then we have a full council of friends and pastors that are some just faithful pastors so they're nowhere near wealthy. but they have given their lives to studying God's Word. And then we do have two men in our lives that are very financially wealthy, but they give their life away.

And they are great business minds saturated in the truth of God's Word. And so we are constantly, hey, Lord, who are you placing in our lives? What purpose are they there for? what season are we in we just want to be intentional and sacrificial with all things the iron sharpens iron

is often Philippians 413 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me I have a sweatshirt that says I can do all things through a verse taken out of context

if there's two verses that have probably been most butchered for what they truly mean in scripture. It's probably your Proverbs 27 and then Philippians 413. Philippians 413 about doing all things to Christ who strengthens me

is not about winning football games. It is about loving our wives, right? It can be about being faithful here for you every day to serve and love your team at BPN, right? But it's not building to a billion-dollar exit. Right? It's no, I can do nothing. I tell my men all the time, Christ only gives impossible commands. Like, if you have a heart that loves sin, right? The Bible talks, can a leopard change his spots?

Right. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Can a dead man raise himself to life? Can a man be born again? Can a blind man make himself see? Can a deaf man make himself here? Right? Even 1st Peter 3.3,000, seven that commands you and I to live with Stephanie and Chrissy in an understanding way. Well, you and I don't understand our wives. We understand some things, but that command of scripture is to get you and I to hit our knees. I just don't understand this season we're in. And would you just give me the patience and the tenderness and the care for my wife to understand her in a way that I can serve her and love her and lead her well, right? Because all these things that I'm

commanded to do for Chrissy, I can't do. And half the time I don't even want to do them because I'm still selfish. And so when it comes to seeing scripture rightly, Philippians 413 was written in prison. Paul's not a thriving businessman. He's not building a supplement company. He's not raising kids. he's not self-promoting himself. He's like, no, I can suffer well in this prison cell. And I can write this adoring letter with great affection and great truth about Christ and Christ crucified to the Philippians so that through the power of God's word, they can read this letter that has been written by the power of the Holy Spirit,

and they can understand it and their souls can thrive. This man's in prison, preaching the glories of Christ. and this is the picture that that verse needs to be taken in. It should give us great comfort that whatever season we're in, the Lord has placed us there, and I can do all things that the Lord has commanded me to do today through his strength, because I have none. It's a humbling verse.

It's not a raise me up, look at me verse. And that's how it's twisted. It's very refreshing to hear. I want to pivot the conversation a little bit to talk about, the nonprofit you guys run for fatherless boys. And first of all, I want to know what it is, but why the need to serve fatherless boys? What is the consequence of those boys not getting the attention and love and support they need of where it's going to lead them?

Psalm 68.5 says that God is a father to the fatherless and a defender of the widows. This is who God is in his holy habitation. At the core of Creator, holy, holy, holy God. He is a defender of those who have no voice and have no protection and have no provision. The widow has no one. Biblically the widow, there's no kids, there's no husband. She has no rights to land. She has no rights to food.

She has nothing. And the Word of the Lord says that he is a protector of that powerless woman. The fatherless is this picture, no protection, no provision, no one to do all the things that you and I do for our children. The doctrine of adoption throughout scripture is simply this. we were slaves to sin. We were sons of unrighteousness. We were, 1 John says, we were sons of Satan

and we loved our sin and we practiced our sin. The doctrine of adoption is that Christ died for us and that Christ adopts us as sons and daughters. We were his enemies. We were living against him

and he comes and he takes us out of our sin of slavery and makes us sons and daughters of righteousness, heirs with Christ. Everything that Christ has with the Father, perfect union. We get covered in. We get protection.

We get the Prince of Peace as our elder brother that promises us he'll never leave us nor forsake us. If he has taken care of our sin, what won't he take care of? He will provide for our clothing. He will provide for our food. He is going to provide. because he cannot not provide,

because he is found faithful from eternity past. And so this heart of the Father all throughout Scripture that rescues these people that hate God. And that's the story. And when we look at Genesis 6.5, it talks about the heart of man being set on evil continually, that their heart can't even think pure good. And that's what the story of Scripture is about us,

outside of Christ. We love self. Romans 3 tells us that no man seeks for God, that we've been found unworthy from the tip of our tongue to the tips of our toes that we're just sin. And it's this clear picture, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love in which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our sins and trespasses against him made us alive together in Christ. This fatherly affection adopts. You ever met an adoptive kid that got to choose his parents? No, me neither. This story of scripture, this fatherly affection for people that don't deserve it, they weren't better, they weren't worthy. The scripture says in our sin we were unworthy, but God being rich in mercy. Nick, this mercy that God showed me, I want to show to the faultless.

God has overwhelmed my heart with how could you love me. I had it all. I had all the teaching, all the knowledge, all the parents, all the stuff. But I was so sinful and so selfish and so blasphemous towards this Christ that I knew in my head, but I did not love in my heart. And as he made me new, I have been overwhelmed with this doctrine that I am a son of God. He will always protect me. He will never leave me. He will never abandon me, even in my sin. He will discipline me because he loves me, but He will never condemn me in my sin because Christ died for me.

I want that love to be shown to these fatherless. You ask what happens to these kids if we don't? The statistics are awful for boys. If they graduate through the CPS system, meaning they age out at 18. By the time they're 20, they will be dead. they will be in a gang or they will be in prison, period, the end. Those are the facts. The state will try to cover it in a lot of different ways because they have screwed everything up for a long, long time. The lawsuits that are going on behind closed doors here in Texas because of the malfunctioning, dysfunctional CPS is heartbreaking.

You and I would be in tears in a matter of moments if we just saw these cases for girls. Do you know how many kids are in the system? somewhere between 45 and 55,000 at all times. In the U.S.? No, no, no, in the state of Texas. Oh, wow. Just in the state of Texas. Chrissy and I, obviously, we've adopted our four.

This is such a loaded conversation, and I've already rambled so much about Christ, but I just want to be clear. For the girls, if they age out through the system at 18, by the time they're 20, they're dead, they're being sex trafficked, or they're in some type of abusive relationship and addicted to either drugs or alcohol

or drugs and alcohol. We have talked to judges. We have known, I don't know how many CPS agents, our own experience with two older kids that were fosters momentarily, that they just didn't want to live under our rules and so they can kind of leave anytime they want. Call her my daughter, not going to mention her name,

but she is 19. She is pregnant right now with her second child out of wedlock. First baby daddy is serving 25 years in the federal pen for child, sex trafficking. Baby daddy number two is in the penitentiary for what we haven't found out yet. We had one young boy that came into our home. He's now in a gang. Our own story of our four adopted kids, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, you name it, and this system failed them. Bethesda Ranch is to bring hope to the hopeless, to be a father to the fatherless.

our vision here in Texas is to take back the CPS system. 52 years ago, the church did this, and it did it well. The church got lazy. The church started building businesses and business empires instead of building the bride. And we've abandoned these fatherless kids. Now the state has it. The state has no truth to build a system off of.

And so these kids are being ravaged in every way possible. what Chrissy and I are building now by the grace of God is called the Legacy Club, that Bethesda Ranch. I have raised millions of dollars in the past for child victims of sexual abuse that we would get them biblical private counseling. There was great success. We have kind of refocused our attention around the fatherless to achieve a few things. I wish Chrissy was here because she's much better about being brief,

concise and precise with this. The Legacy Club at Bethesda Ranch is this. On the Bethesda Ranch side, fatherless boys, ages 11 to 14. They won't be kicked out at 14, but they have to do our programs. They have to continue to graduate through, and then we'll see them through college, and we will see them through early adulthood. We will mentor and be fathers to these fatherless kids. We're using sports as the mechanism to grab them.

So football, basketball, and track, we are offering free education. These kids will be on our campus from every day, seven to about six. We will educate them. We will mentor them. We will disciple them. We will feed them and we will give them sports-specific elite training. I'm talking about the training you and I do. The training that you get in the NFL and the SEC, all free of charge. Is this happening right now, or is this what you're planning for? We are in the process of buying land. I think even in the last 48 hours, God that owns all that land, has moved heaven and earth. Hopefully here in the next couple weeks, we will have our hands on close to 100 acres in Alito that God has just miraculously

provided. So in November, the Lord kind of gave me what I believe to be these next steps. When we moved to Texas, four and a half years ago, we had a big vision for the fatherless. We didn't know what quite it was. We were praying and fasting. And we got busy going through the adoption process so that we could be registered. We were going after the kids that nobody wanted. The kids might burn down your house or stab you in the middle of the night or kill your dog. We tried to get many of those kids. The state just kept telling us no, no, no, no, no. We were given a call for our current four kids that are now Evans. And the Lord miraculously kind of walked us through that system. We were able to adopt them in about six and a half months. And after we kind of got them settled and have more

time and attention to kind of further this mission. We had just been praying and fasting. And early November, I went downstairs after a long, quiet time, and I gave Chrissy a big vision. And I expected her to be like, no, go back to your study and keep reading God's word. It's nuts. She's like, let's roll. And so this Bethesda ranch part, the thing about nonprofits are during times of economic crisis and for different reasons, they're very hard to fundraise for. This is a very expensive thing to feed and to eat. educate and to mentor. These boys will go through biblical discipleship every single year, how to think about God, how to think about themselves, how to think about work, how to think

about women, and how to think about life from a biblical worldview. And they will just continue to graduate through how to rightly think about these five things that will, matter of fact, they dominate their life. If they think well on these five things, they will have a successful life. If they think poorly about these five things, they will have a horrible life. Statistics prove it out. what's the engine that funds that we live in this longevity space where we have modern medicine and modern abilities to really help sustain life, strengthen life to give quality of life to people that most people don't know about this wellness space is going to be an $8 trillion space by 2030 we are bringing a wellness longevity club that's kind of like a golf club to Fort Worth

my architect designer who is a godly faithful brother Jeffrey Dungan has built resorts and hotels in 46 different countries. You can walk from the east coast to the west coast all across the country and can't step on a state that he hasn't built a beautiful property on. Think St. Regis Resort meets Fort Worth Ranch right in the heart of Fort Worth and Alito. This is a golf club with no golf course. It is a high-end buy-in for invitation-only members. That is a tax-deductible gift to Bethesda Ranch to build what we want to build for these fatherless boys.

But inside this club, we'll be building a legacy of health that gets passed down not only to the children of these club members, but it's also looking across the field and the legacy of their financial well-being. They're getting the best gym, the best doctors, the best nutrition, the best everything inside this club-type atmosphere. They'll have their monthly dues, but their main focus is building the legacy in these boys that would never have protection, provision, nothing. They're fatherless. They have nothing. And so if we step up or don't step up, these boys don't get provided for. And so we have kind of created an engine financially that will drive the ministry. And we want to duplicate these all over the state of Texas.

And I want to get about 15 of the most powerful men in the state under one roof. And I want to indoctrinate them with God's doctrine of adoption. And I want to teach them what's going on in this state for these children. And then we will prove with the toughest demographic, these boys that everyone says are foregone conclusions. we will prove what the word of the Lord will do. If people see our children, they've been in our home about two and a half years, and God has done miraculous work

in their hearts, mind, bodies, and soul. And we have no doubt if we get these kids on our campus for this many hours every single week, God will do the transformation work that he does when they hear the truth and they're living the truth with men like you and I in front of them, caring for their souls and disciplining them well.

God will do the miraculous work that he does. And we look back 10 years from now, 15 years from now, then we'll have six, eight thousand boys that have defied the odds that are fathers, that love their kids, that are functional adults, that are active participants in society, that are the gym men. They're the standard men. They're not in jail at 18 or in a gang in reproducing and leaving more fatherless kids. It just leaves a further wreckage in society. So we're putting kind of our stake in the ground.

We're saying, Lord, we know what your word can do. If men will be faithful, if men will step up, if they will lead. Children are built to follow. That's how God created them. They just need the right people to follow. And we've seen it in our own home, and I know the power of God's word. And so we're going to take the toughest demographic. We're going to watch God do miracle after miracle after miracle.

And we're going to send these boys out as functional adults that love God and that love their wives and that love their kids. And we're going to put it into this nonsense noise here because in CPS, we were talking on this night. You can't discipline these kids. you can't do anything. And you're defying the word of God. And when you defy the word of God,

nothing but chaos and dysfunction happens. And that's what's happening in the CPS system now. And so at Bethesda Ranch, Bethesia just means house of love and kindness. By God's grace, we're going to show God's love and kindness, starting with the boys. Eventually, the goal is to have all these kids, and we will house them, we will care for them.

We will nurture their souls as only God can. So these kids will be moving from the CPS, the system, to the ranch. These will be kids. Once CPS gets their hands on a kids, CPS can just create nothing but nightmares. These will be grandma that's got two boys that she can't handle anymore, that she's running to school every day and run into the ballpark and everything else, single moms, that maybe CPS is about to intervene, but the system hasn't gotten them in the system yet. these are the kids that we're going to be after. The CPS system is broken, wicked, it's dysfunctional. When you have children in your home,

if you have an expired can of jelly in your fridge, they can take your kids from you. If you have a cleaning solution left out on a counter and they do a surprise visit, they can take your kids. The rules and stuff that they do, along with the fact that you can't discipline these kids, you can't train these kids, you can't you to be a foster parent in the state of Texas and to do it biblically well means

you have to disobey the state and kind of have your well-being at stake every single day you're either going to obey the state and disobey the Lord and raise these kids in a wicked ungodly way or you're going to defy the state and hope they never find out it is dysfunctional mess we We have to put a stake in the ground now and keep these kids from getting into the system. So our goal, if you could just kind of imagine putting up a wall of fatherless boys kind of starting in Alito in this southwest corridor of Fort Worth that, hey, come here. You don't have to be a great athlete, right? But if you're interested in sports, we're going to train you in football, basketball,

or track. You train all those athletes the same at that age, right? We have to start somewhere. So this is the demographic that we're after. and then as we kind of prove proof of concept, which I know we will, then we'll invite more and more boys probably expand it to different sports. And then who knows what the Lord has. That's amazing.

But I know this, Nick, if we can get our hands on kids, God's word always works. We need God to save. We need God to change hearts. But we have watched our boys especially when they are under the instruction by God's grace of a godly man. That's no nonsense. and they are forced to work and forced to do chores and forced to submit to good, healthy authority, their lives change.

Men are attracted to healthy authority. Men want to be led. There's just very few leaders. And so if we can get these boys at a young age, get rid of all their stinking thinking, really put them in the paths of truths, watch what God does, and he'll do it. When CPS gets involved in a family

and they take a kid out of the home, where are they housing that child? There's a group of children that can range anywhere from call maybe 400 to 600 in Fort Worth. It's called CWOP, children without placement. You're 15 and you're kind of maybe somewhat violent or a bad attitude. And they can't place you in a home, which is most likely what happens because most foster parents have other responsibilities of their own children. So a good kid or a baby or a three-year-old most of the time can be somewhat simplistic to place. But the older a kid gets, there's just no place. And so they live in hotels down in downtown Fort Worth and their doors are open in their hotel rooms.

And you have one armed police officer kind of patrolling each floor. You've got a couple hundred kids on each floor. And their doors are open. They're there 24-7. They can't force them to go to school. They can't force them to do anything. they're feeding them hot pockets and other crap food that's killing these kids. And that's what their life is.

And they're just waiting to age out of the system at 18. What 15-year-old that gets removed by CPS that hasn't had a good mom or dad removed for good reasons, right? But he's grown up in a dysfunctional environment is going to choose to go to school. Very few. So they sit there and rot, watching TV, playing their Xboxes, all the other noise and nonsense. No instruction. No discipline. No love.

No touch, no healthy affection, no care, no nothing. What does that do to a human soul? Well, we see it. They look for attention and affection and discipline in all the wrong areas. The girls run to these sexual abuse pimps, right? Boys run to gangs. They end up dead, prison, and this is the stories. And no one freaking cares because no one knows.

And so we're going to run our big mouths, but we're going to put a plan in place where I know how to train sports. I know how to discipline young men. I know how to raise young boys. And so we can take these truths of the Bible, give people an extremely wealthy community, something to aspire to in the sense of a legacy of health for their family, all the while providing health for these boys that have never had anything.

They were going to ask God to do the miraculous because that's what he does. That's amazing, man. I love it. Well, for anyone who isn't following you online, They should for your proverb that keeps the stupid away. I'm always preaching to me first. I'll tell you, man, you are such a strong communicator, and your words are so well articulated.

And I mean, I constantly finding myself, re-watching your posts to transcribe them myself. And I reference them in podcasts and I share with the team here. So I love what you're doing. I love what you're sharing. And it's powerful. And I appreciate your brother. And I appreciate you, bro.

It's been sweet getting to know you. Yeah. Thank you for coming on. The dinner last night was beautiful. The workout. I'm glad I could smoke you in the sauna for a little bit today. I'm not burned my face off. What the heck?

But that was a great night. Good morning. And it's been an amazing conversation. Yeah, man. Love your brother. Grateful for you. Thank you.