Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 244 | Phil's Softer Side, the Secret to Shutting Jase Up, and What God's Economy Looks Like

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

Al is tickled to finally discover how to shut Jase up. Phil discovers he's a softie with the heart of an artist. Phyllis and Tony reflect on a year of Robertson life. Phil admits he felt weird running with artists at first, but he found a way to get over it. Guest Noah Elias talks about God's economy, becoming significant in God's kingdom, making everything an act of worship, and how to become a kingdom entrepreneur. And the Robertsons continue to pray for Mia. The Kingdom Entrepreneur's Essential Guide to 100x Results: https://NoahElias.net/duck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So, I have to say that I can't wait, and I have to wait a week to talk about with Jace without Missy what just happened on the last podcast that we filmed earlier. So I have not been so thoroughly entertained at, because, you know, Jace, when we're doing the podcast, he never shuts up, right? I mean, it's just story, story, story. The man was speechless.

I figured out how to shut. days up. Missy. Bring his woman alone. Bring the woman. And the man, he was just like in a, he was just like in a tomb. In a fetal position in the corner. He was just like, I saw him just like protecting.

And we go from that if you can survive an interview with your woman seated right next to you. Now we're in the mode where we're how to survive after running with artists. They said, well, these orders, I mean, they might have way weird. It ain't. I don't know. We got a couple of them today. And I'm like, what am I doing in the middle of a bunch of artists? We just found the title for this episode, Running with Artists.

There we go. Running with the artists. How to survive it. So we have some artists in the lair. This is the lair. Love it. This is what we call it. Yep.

So we have Noah Elias all the way from California. Yep. Which, I mean, well, we'll talk about that a minute. So we got Tony and we got Phyllis. Down on the river. Down on the river. river now you're part of the landscape. We just celebrated one year anniversary when we all first met. Exactly. February 21st. So after one year, Phyllis, you're my daughter that came out of the wood where

you just appeared. So what about the last year since we've met? It's been, it's been wonderful. I mean, I hear other stories from folks who haven't had as a good of an experience is what I've had. but getting to know you, getting to know the rest of the family, eating a bunch of good food, he'll randomly stop in, we'll see the truck pull up, don't say, there's your dad, and he'll come in and say, hey, you want to go look at the ducks. We're seeing where the ducks are flying into this blind. He'll say, hey, you want to go look at the backwater, see how much it's coming up on the land, and I'll jump in the truck, we just go and do it.

Or we'll go down and we'll cook together. We'll do something fun. There's never a dull moment. There's never a want for something to do. So it's been great. Welcome aboard. Well, and you got to, I think, I don't know if we talked about this last time of your own, if you had, you've been hunting.

You hunted quite a bit. Right. You hunted. Tony killed a deer. Which I was impressed because I didn't know artists could hunt. Oh, come on now. We were exchanging pictures. Oh, yeah.

So you hunt, too? I do. He's got some great kills. Oh, that's awesome. Because we thought you were just, because you, normally you're in the duct line, you're armed with your camera because you're working, right? Taking pictures. And I technically, I shoot more.

ducks in anybody. So someone called, with the camera. Someone called you a conscientious objector. It really offended you. Are you kidding me? I thought, now I'm going to go get in the deer stand. I thought you were like the guy on the movie, the Hacksaw Ridge. That was your role. So you had some kind of religious reasons you couldn't carry a gun. But then he shot a deer, you know, not quite where you should have. No, that wasn't a gut shot. It came out, though. Yeah. It came out. But you found it and you cleaned it and you ate it. It was dark. Yeah.

And Phyllis, I understand you won't eat Tony's deer because you're not sure of his cleaning abilities or is his cooking ability. What is it? He's doing a great job cooking. I mean, he's telling me, now I don't know because I've not tried it. But he's telling me that it's right up there with yours and with stones as far as the taste of it. He's been perfecting the craft of frying it in a Dutch oven iron skillet. So did you cook for Noah and his and your wife is here?

Shantel's with me. Shantel's with you. Hello, Shantel. She's just all for. We also got another family here. Grady from Oklahoma is here. And Grady built this table. We have a new table.

Which will never leave. It'll never leave because you can't move it. I mean, this thing is solid as a rock. It looks really good. It's really, Maple he's head. And what was it, what was it made from? A semi floor trailer. A semi floor trailer.

Oh, yeah. For sure. Where this came from. That's really awesome. And thank you, Gray, for doing that. great blessing. So we're going to trade out. He's going to be on an episode of In the Woods.

If you want to see that, they talk about you get to see him and meet him. And his family is here with him as well. His cutting boards is where we've been cutting up all of our deer and our ducks. Oh, is that where those came from? Cutting boards. And what's the name of your company? Budrose Woodchop. It's in Oklahoma.

And yeah, he doesn't, I didn't realize that's where the cutting boards. I've been using those myself. So I've still won everyone from moms. It's a skill set. Cutting boards. So I need to get one. Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

We talked to great. Tables, you know, I mean, that's a good skill. So it's quite the congruence today of things that are happening because we had Jason Missy here. We just anointed Mia and sent her on her way. She's having that surgery we talked about it. So I'll let you guys know next week how that turned out. So we're praying about that for sure.

Should you listeners a taste of what James 5 says, Al? Yeah, so that's a good thing to read. So we pray for Mia and you say, so how did you go about doing that? So we do this a lot at our church because we take this quite literally. Whenever James and James 515, actually it starts out in verse 13, he says if any one of you is in trouble, he should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.

Is anyone of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up. And I've always thought whether that was in the moment or later, you're going to be raised up. I mean, the beautiful thing is you win no matter what, which you prayed that over me, right? I mean, the same thing. That's correct.

No matter what happens, no matter what we look like in this life, the Lord is going to raise us. I reminded her of what Peter and the Apostle Paul said that our dwelling in this age, it's called a tent. We're living in a tent. these tents, as y'all have noticed, they wear out. And there's ailments, Mia. There's a problem with the tents because they weren't built to be eternal. Right. But there's an eternal house we'll live in, our glorified bodies,

where never any sickness always, no, no, no, no malfunctions with the body. Just think about a world that you live in where there's never a malfunction with your body for eternity. Yep. You say, is that one of the reasons you follow Jesus? Yeah. It is the reason. So these earthed tents, you know, we're given the spirit as a deposit. Yeah.

So I just said, Lord, we have one here, one of our family members. The old cleft palate, the tent didn't quite line up. Yep. But we love her. We pray that you'll be with her during this time. The final surgery, she's had, how many surgeries would you think? I think Missy said 13. This is their 13th surgery.

13 surgeries. And she's 17 years old. Yeah. So just think about that. But she's been a good trooper. She's never been whining. Oh, she's tough. Yeah.

And, you know, she's kind of got the blessing in this case. Sometimes it can be a curse for me and dad of the high pain threshold. Like she can be in a lot of pain and just some people have a low threshold. We just happen to have a high one. Dad's got it. My grandpa had it. And I guess she's blessed to have that too because Missy said she doesn't even hardly take pain meds from all that, you know, even when she, after these major surgeries,

because they're going in breaking her jaw. And it's a gruesome situation. But, you know, and I think we talked about it's harder on girls too. But, but yeah, Mia's tough. She's one the toughest girls I've ever met, you know, just to almost have a surgery per year on average for your life. And so the prayer is that this is the last one. And for the ones, the naysayers who just laugh at it or scoff at it when we pray to God to help this girl, you know, we've seen so many things. I'll follow in Jesus. We say, go ahead and laugh.

We're serious about it. Oh, for sure. Well, and Isaiah says that when he was on the cross, he took our infirmities. He carried our diseases. Yep. So that's what we pray. Exactly right.

So today, part of it, I want to just kind of update what you guys have been doing. Obviously, we've celebrated the year together. You guys have moved down in June. August. August. August. Yeah.

And so now that's been several months. of, and y'all are at our house at least once a week we try to get together to eat mostly. Yeah. Because Stone cooks for us, right? And, but I wanted a little bit of up down on your art stuff too because we've added, you can see now on set,

we have added the wood duck print. Tell us about this. Yeah. Didn't that look good? It looks great. I mean, it's the wood duck print, the limited edition that we have. That a lot of you have purchased in which we appreciate.

Yeah. And it's the, I call it the artist signature frame. It's in a neutral colored mat, neutral colored frame that's going to look great on any wall. Right. So if you order one, now you can, the frame, you can get the whole workup, right? Yeah, we've got, we've got a guy in West Monroe. He's a local business owner, great guy. He has a framing and printing shop, and he built us this frame out of reclaimed barnwood. And he's got that available for other people. If they want to buy the wood duck print, he'll frame it for him. And and send that directly here from Louisiana.

That's Tonythomasart.com. That's right. And if you put in the fill discount code, it's 20% off. They go there. You're saving money already. This is like a, it's like we're reading an ad on the podcast.

I love it. And so the idea of Noah being here is, well, you guys tell me. What was your connection? Noah's from California. So let me ask before you get to that. So I got to just ask, so people in the country,

in 40, I don't know if it's 49. States, but certainly in the South. Here we go. Yeah. Yeah. So we look at California. I'm learning this, by the way. I told him when he first walked.

You're one of them. He had his woman with him and walked in. And I'm looking at him. I said, where are y'all from? He said, California. I said, good night. I looked around. I said, they look normal.

They look perfectly normal. So that's what, I mean, it's really funny because California like intimidates the rest of us in one way or the other. Because everything, dad used to say everything good. and bad comes out of California. Okay. Every wave, the good and the bad seems to come from there. But it's, what's it like to, you've been there your whole life?

I have. Yeah, born and raised in California, southern California. Part of it, my parents split up at nine years old. And we were in Southern California right near Disneyland. Let's see, at nine, that's when I started hunting and fishing with my dad, duck hunting up in the Bay area, northern Bay area, up near Sacramento in the Delta. Yeah. So he was up there, and mom was down south.

and yeah so grew up in southern California ended up going back down south when I was about 13 started my business on a bike at 16 and yeah that's where it all started right there so most people don't know this but you just said it and dad and I know it because we've been up there and we've hunted that California has wonderful duck hunting I mean great duck huh yeah I mean and a lot of ducks we don't get here

I spoke at Modesto and oh yeah yeah yeah valley there and those guys what's the name of that you remember that sporting good story It was kind of our hub. Do you remember the name of it? I can't remember. I can't either. Yeah, but it was, we just went on where the ducks were up through California, but I was, I was impressed.

Yeah. And probably in terms of duck call sales through the course of our company, I would say California is always ranked up in the top two or three states in terms of sales. So you're an artist yourself. I am. Yeah. Yeah. So I started on a bike at 16 going door to door.

I had to hit survival. mode pretty young. So I started the business in Southern California at 16 in my yearbook. In the yearbook, it said Noah's art, very original name. Started going door to door saying, hey, do you need a sign done? We didn't have social media and tech back then. We didn't have websites. So it was all relational. And my grandfather, who worked 36 years at each of their jobs, didn't miss a day of work. They taught me, if you want to get work done, always carry a pen and meet everybody face to face, meet your banker. And so my grandfather for basically my mentors, my dad, unfortunately, he had an alcohol, drug addict, and mom had her own challenges.

So at that young age, it was like, man, we got to take this art thing and make it work, didn't have a choice. So back in when I was nine, though, I'm going through those hunting phases. It was a lot of fun. My dad later on moved up to Montana, fly fishermen, guided trips, hunted up there. So outdoors and doing life like that was a big part of my upbringing. But I was a city kid. You know, here I am in Newport Beach, California, hustling and growing the business.

And as soon as I graduated high school, moved into a warehouse, I wouldn't call myself homeless, but knew that I couldn't afford a house. Got a warehouse just like this, put up a drop cloth for a tent for a room, and said, hey, we're going to dump every bit of money that we got in here.

Later on, what happened was I started just, about 28, I got burned out. I was sitting up on the top of a cliff crying out to God, saying you give me this ability to paint anything but what do you want to do how can I glorify you with this and I literally had a midlife crisis at 28 crying out to my by the way guess how old I was when I had I don't even want to know how 28 no way so look I've since that time I've looked back at the number of people who were 27 28 29 yeah right

along in that time and the vast percentage of them that I've actually pointed to Jesus and They said, I'm ready to go. So the question would be why, what I think happens is by the time you get to be 28, and you're still like a dog chasing his tail, it's about along in there when you begin to wise up. Because a lot of people who come to Jesus, I just notice they're in that little time frame, 27 to 31, right along in there. Yeah. You know, let's take a break.

You know, it's interesting because you said it. It's that that's the point in time in everybody's life at some point, younger or older, whatever, that you ask that question. You have a track record. Why? You have a track record. Right. And you're saying, is this it?

And it ain't good. Yeah. Or is this it? You know, is this all there is. Right. So I'm going to ask you something about you, because you mentioned about having that connection of the outdoors at a young age. Do you think that plays into, I mean, you guys are both artists.

I mean, does, does God the creator and being a, able to look at that, being able to experience that, even being a city. Do you think that shapes people that are artists? Yeah. I mean, it does. And for me, the way I looked at it was this. At 28 years old, you're looking at a lot of life ahead of you, so you think, Lord willing, that you got a lot of time.

But I looked at, you've been given the superhero power of creativity. And I also knew the gravity of the fact that God's, if God's given me, if God is the ultimate creator and he's provided me, this creativity and the ability to take something out somebody's head and make it a reality. That's a powerful weapon. And that can either be used for good or used for bad. And I'm wondering how saltwater, if that in fact produced you, I want to know what department gave you the artistic skills you now have, man. Well, that came directly from above. I can tell you that. Salt water's a powerful thing. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. So it's coffee. But for me, it was at that age at 28, realizing, okay, I want to do something significant.

And this is what I now teach and help other believers do is I want to help you become the most not just successful but significant creator. And I keep going back to this. I was busy being successful trying to climb the corporate ladder, meaning like just making money and becoming survival because everybody says a starving artist. I'm like, hold on a second. There is a way to crack this code. And it's an upside down economy and it's God's economy. And so here's what it actually looks like. If we have been entrusted this gift of creativity, we all are creatives, we just don't admit it,

but we all are, I looked at the rest of my life and said, I can either spend the rest of this life, invest this rest of this life, or waste it. And most people spend their life spending it. And they spend their life just wasting it. And I said, that is true. If we look at the parable of the talents and what the Lord said, hey, you're going to look at this seed capital I've given you of time, talent, and treasure, how are you going to invest this to become significant in God's kingdom. So really what I'm trying to help people do is become rich eternally by taking the time that

they have down here with their creativity to have an influence on the world doing it. For Chantelle and I, we just finally said, hey, we have to go from doing good things to doing God things, things that Jesus would write a check for and turn our business from a company into a cause. And our hearts, because we have special needs in our family, we said we want to help rescue special needs AIDS orphans in South Africa, we have to partner with God in his business and say, what breaks his heart and puts a smile on his face? And now let's teach everybody else how to do that. And I believe wholeheartedly that the Christian CEO businessman is the most underserved missionary

on the planet. So how can we come alongside, put wind in their sale, get their business and their house in order, and turn it into a kingdom asset that furthers the kingdom. You know what's interesting? You have artists who paint ducks. There's a wood duck. You have some guys who sound like birds. Yeah. I basically, my skill set was I knew what these birds sounded like. I knew what a teal sounded like.

I built a little collar that sounds like them. That wood duck, he makes a certain sound. Kind of like a, it's a weird sound. I built a duck collar that sounded just like what. And then you had the mallard and the pintail and the gadwall. I just built these. The only skill set I had, the creative part, God gave me the ability to know what birds sound like.

I told someone, I said, it's like playing piano by ear. You know what they sound like, and you have wood and plastic and whatever, and you're trying to glue things together. And all of a sudden, you get one and you say, good night. That's it, because I've heard them so many. Phil, you just might be an artist. He is an artist. Maybe it is in some ways.

I'm telling you. You are. I'm feeling better. We're on it. There you go. Listen, a call is your countess. I'm feeling better. Keep it up.

Yeah. Well, we do have a saying around here that weird is in. So, you know, that's your saying. Well, to your point, we touched on this last time that God is the greatest artist of all time. You know, and I've learned and I'm still learning. I think I'll always keep learning this that, you know, his art, his creation has a purpose it draws us closer to him when we look at it he says in Romans that man is there's no excuse just look at the colors of that wood duck yeah colors you say yeah he just made that there had to

been someone that designed that I mean that's right because it's look how beautiful that is it's amazing how much you look at a wood duck and you're like boy yeah you just start there and just morph out and you say boy god when he makes something he makes it it is earth shattering and anyone who takes time to go out of nature and look around all the nature lovers, all the outdoors, women and people, you know, men, they see that. The beauty of it all. It's right. It is an awesome experience.

And since we know birds, in the bird world, that the males are typically the ones with the most colors and the, you know, they're trying to show out, I guess, to win it. And the females are usually the darker, more drab colors. But the females do all the talking. Not, I'm sure that's not like human beings. but they do all the quacking and most of the, you know, you fly over, the females are going to let you know they're down there.

The males are just a peep or a, you know, like you said. Just so we're clear that is not the case in this marriage. So when she starts running around the mouse, you can always say quack, quack, quack, quack, quack. This one right here, he's the talker. He's the quacker. I'm the listener. When she comes home, she's got 50 words, five words to say,

and I've got 50,000 words to say. Because, you know, during the day, you know, I'll tell you what my day looks like. If you would knock on the door and walk in, which happens in the South. Yeah, you don't really wait for the call, right? No. You just come in. I'm at my easel.

You get two seconds. So if you're not wearing pants, you're going to be embarrassed in the South. For sure. Always wear pants. Right. So I'm at the easel, you know, six or eight hour or whatever, you know, painting days. And I have the blue healer, the part wild dingo dog sitting on her bed right next to me. And, I mean, that's what it looks like.

She gets up. She's going to stretch. That means, well, like maybe I. I need to stretch and take a break. And that's right. Yeah. Well, one of the funny things that and interesting things, know that we've been able to discover Phyllis,

is that when you meet somebody for the first time, that's your blood, your kin, you know, and they're 44 years old when you meet them. And then you start, so you get to discover together how DNA works, you know, in terms of personality. I mean, And Phyllis is so Roberts.

I mean, there are just so many traits, which you said most of your life you couldn't figure out because you never really fit in your family. It was so interesting. And that's why I looked around and thought, wow, I'm so, why am I so different from everybody? There were similarities. Obviously, I'm still my mother's daughter. So that side of the family, I have their likenesses physically and otherwise. But the other side just wasn't there.

And it was so obvious to me. And I would compare myself physically. And being here, it just, it's so, you asked how it's been this last. you know, a few months physically being here and then, of course, the last year when this is all going down, it's this nice, warm blanket in a way to sit back and say, I fit in here. These are my people. This is why I act the way I act or look the way I look or do the things that I do. It makes sense in context now with the rest of my family being made whole. It's, it's, there's a wholeness there, you know, and that's really important, you know, for people to feel whole. We feel whole in Christ.

We know who, who we are in Christ. We have an identity in Christ, and that's important. He's our father, right? But there's still something to be said about knowing your earthly father and being a part of your earthly family and being there being reconciliation. Let's take another break. Well, you're exactly right, Dad. I mean, there was a couple of things that I've marveled at was one, as we've gotten to know, it's been a lot of time in conversation with Phil's and Tony, is that, I mean, God had his favor. He had his hand on you, you know, your whole life, because situations could have been there that you could have been harmed, you could have been in some really tough situation and just describing growing up.

And because, you know, we grew up. I mean, dad wasn't a Christian for my first nine years, 10 years. But from that point forward, I mean, we had a safe environment. I mean, you know, we, and but looking at that, I mean, God was looking out for you that whole time. I mean, there's no doubt about you can't, it couldn't be any other thing because if it just would have been left up to chance, you would have wound up a method or something bad. And yet you were drawn to spiritual when nobody else.

And we talked about that for it. So I just think, I mean, now I know that God has set this up in his infinite wisdom to reveal what he need to reveal. Second thing that I've marveled at is that, and you guys can probably relate to this as artists. You know, when I went to college, the only thing I know about art is I had to take art appreciation. You know, I was forced to. And, you know, which is, so then you're like, they're going to make you like this, that, and the other, which is why most people don't like it, because they want to be. be drawn to what they want to be drawn to.

But as an artist, I don't know how you guys are, but I don't know that you appreciate what you can do the way we can appreciate it. Because when you have no artistic ability in terms of painting or maybe it's anything that you appreciate in someone else. But I've appreciated about Phyllis is that like we grew up in this life. You know, so going to the land, to be honest, means nothing to me. I mean, it's just something I've done my whole life. You just go and we're hung over here, we hunt over there.

I don't, you lose a little bit of appreciation. for what the blessing of this whole life that we've had. But when Phyllis comes in, she appreciates every little thing, every trip over there, every time you look around. And I just, since I grew up with it, I just don't have that sense of all like I've seen you have. It's like every day's Christmas for you. It is. Every time I go out, it's fun.

I'm like, oh, wow, look what we get to do. And every day, like we talked about before, looking at God's creation, looking at nature, it's faith building. And it's, in a way, it's kind of me planting my own little seeds here. because I'm kind of a little sapling at this point. You're a little sapper's knee at this point. I am. But it is.

It's powerful to me. I don't take it for granted. Every time we go out there, I think it's awesome. I think it's fun. I enjoy it. I get something out of it every single time. And that's been fun for me to watch,

you know, to be a part of it. And especially, it was funny for all of us at first because dad, I mean, dad is man-centric, you know, and it's always been the hunting guys and he had all boys,

you know, and so mom is really kind of the only woman that's ever been in dad's life, you know. And so it's really interesting. We were all just kind of, you know, waiting to see what was going to happen when you put a woman in dad's life. So the first few months, he kept calling you the little girl because of his mind, you were like, a little girl. I was like, dad, she's 44. It was different.

I mean, try just carrying on conversation with your daughter and you haven't seen her in 45 years. Unbelievable. But I have to say, and dad, I give you credit, you have done great. We all, you have far exceeded our expectations. I guess we had a low bar for you too because I was like, how's dad going to deal with this? Yeah, a little my softer side is beginning to emerge. He's mellowing now. I can't imagine you in any way different.

That's all you all you all know, right? That's right. So, so tell our audience a little bit about kind of what brought you to Louisiana and kind of what's, because you explained it really well. I was going to read a part of an Instagram post I saw he made, but you just said it beautifully. What did I write? I can't remember. Oh, it was really good. The one that highlighted to me was what you just said in a minute ago. We wanted to use our home as a training ground to help leaders take their business from a company to a cause. I love that idea. And I love what you said in here about churches because I spent my life most of it as a pastor.

Yeah. And the impact, you're right, is so limited. So most of my career as a pastor was spending, one church, our church. And we did a lot of things that impacted people. It's great. I wouldn't trade anything for it. But I've realized now that I've kind of been outside of that doing this and doing the show and the other things, that the bigger the impact is where people are every day. Not two hours on Sunday. And we spend a lot of this podcast talking about how limited the church's influence is. And they've kind of made it that way, not on purpose. Everybody wants to win people. but the day to day, the business, you said it.

I mean, that's how you change culture. That's how you impact, right? Yeah, so I flew down for Tony and Phillips. We're doing the Discovery Day where I kind of look under the hood of life. We kind of take vital signs and assessment. Where are things at? You guys just moved down here. Where's the company going to go?

How would he make sure that this has eternal resorts? And we're all high-fiving in heaven as a result of this. Reminding, hey, God's currency is souls. how do we take our creativity of our time and our talent or treasure to use that and do business in that way? And essentially, you know, what was so beautiful, that part of the season of their life was as missionaries. There's no difference between what they were doing there and what they're doing here. It's just a different canvas. Yeah. Correct. So when you look at this life assignment that they're on, my prayer and hope and privilege has come alongside and say, hey, here's the ultimate goal.

here's how we measure success. It's not just in ROI here. It's kingdom ROI as well and help make sure that they have what they need for this journey. And God's elevated me from going on a bike door to door to doing this as a part of my portfolio. And I couldn't think of an integrator joy than seeing businesses become as fruitful as possible. And we get to do, but there's collaboration here too. Al is like that book we come out with just came out a few months ago. You know, Jesus, politics. That's right. What I was saying is what he is saying. That's right. Yeah. So we're in that. Yeah. So when I look at, when I look at the influence that we all have, let's say we're not in the big sea, or I should say the small sea of a church locally in terms of being on staff. Let's just be

that practical. Well, I would sit in the church pew and just go, I'm made for something more. I know it in my heart and my gut. I want to do, I want to partner with God on a big level. And I know that there are so many of us even listening to this going, they've got that tug. And I want to give everybody permission, listening to this. That's what the Lord ultimately wants is you living in your lane. There's a great saying that one of my mentors told me, and that is nobody, your kingdom calling is so unique to you that nobody before you or after you will ever live it.

So you can't compare yourself to anybody else. It's really encouraging because yesterday we spent the day together. And for now, for really, since we got back from Nicaragua in 2018, we've kind of been not floundering. We see that God had this coming. and, you know, this big life change was happening. So we know that God had this transition. But I've been telling Alan Lee, so like, I want to be in ministry.

This is what I want to do. This is what we've always wanted to do as a couple since our first date. We talked about full-time ministry. And so being able to spend the day with no one in his wife, I'm encouraged that I can see that that can happen. The God is opening that up. Our view of worship, kingdom living seven days a week. Totally. seven days a week.

Totally. It's not like at the appointed time. You're like, not enough time. This has to be lived out. And from another artist's perspective, let me jump in here and say this, that, you know, you grow up and let's say you're a creative and maybe you take art in school, you take classes, you go to college and you learn how to master your skill, your discipline, oil painting or watercolor or welding, whatever it is.

Yeah. But you don't know how to, how do you mix? how do you make an art business out of it? Yeah. How do you take your craft and turn it into something much greater than that? And then not only that, but how can you do a ministry? For sure. Out of that. So I think there's a lot of creatives that are probably listening going, yeah, that's me. Yeah. Well, to Phil's point on. Let's take one more. Right. So going back to Phil's

point of worship, right? And then talking about Sunday to Sunday, how we're leveraging our business of our time, talent, and treasure to glorify God through our business and whatever we're doing. Well, Paul's verse in Romans 121, this is what I think is really, really interesting. We'll come to faith, that's salvation. And people kind of look at almost like a remote control car and a remote control. And they're saying, Lord, you can have the car. You can have control with my car. And they don't think about the remote control itself.

Man, I'm willing to sacrifice it all, right? Well, Paul says this. He goes, here's a message version, Romans 12, 1, probably one of my favorites for entrepreneurs business, doing life as ministry. Here's what I want you to do. And I imagine Paul just kind of speaking in Phil's voice here. He goes, so here's what I want you to do, God helping you. Listen, I want you to take your everyday ordinary life, you're sleeping, you're eating,

you're going to work and you're walking around life. And I want you to place it before God is an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing that you can do for him. And listen, I don't want you to become so well adjusted to your culture that you fin into it without even thinking. Instead, this is what I want you to do. Fix your attention on God and you'll be changed from the, inside out and readily watch this, recognize what he wants from you, and then quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture that's always around you, dragging it's down to its level of immaturity,

God brings out the best of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. So what does that verse tell me? That's awesome. Want to know what the greatest act of worship is for me as a business owner? Not just to surrender my heart. Am I willing to have that Abraham Isaac moment where I'm willing to say, and I remember the day I did this, just after 28, that crisis of faith. Holy smokes, he's real.

Holy smokes, am I willing to say goodbye to my creativity and lay it on the altar? Am I willing to take my wife? I was bawling my eyes out. If you need to take her, take her, take my kids, take the town, take everybody I know in my phone and use it for your glory. And dude, I thought that was the end, but that was truly the beginning. And I think once our bit, once he knows we know that, and we're doing life and business in that way,

everything we do is an act of worship at back. Like, you standing at the easel, that's an act. How you deal with your vendors, that's an act. Living, that's an act. Living sacrifices. That's it. Which is your spiritual act of worship? What version was that you were reading?

That's message version. Romans 12. I love that. That was Romans 12 from the message. And you notice, I noticed something to add the difference when you're from California, you have a Bible. A well-worn version. Bible with this highlight mark and a computer. You see how he does both. Oh, yeah. The duck call there

and a duck call. But I just notice his setup here is a little different because you just have the Warren Bible. Yeah. That's analog. Digital, right? I'm computer illiterate. Got you. But now, when you want to look up a first, I know where it is, that's exactly what you do. But that's the fun part is, is helping creatives leverage their influence. We all have influence. Well put, well put. Well, and you're right. I'm so glad you spoke to our listeners because, you know, I sort a lot of emails and read a lot of what people ask. In fact, I was just on the phone with Aaron, who lives in Houston this past week, connected with him a while back, and he just surrendered his life to Christ, but he's kind of in that same place. You know, he's kind of, you know, he's got a young family and he's just, what do I,

you know, so we've had this conversation about how do I surrender fully to where then God can feel what he needs to in me. Yeah. As opposed to going to someone, to the pastor, whatever, and saying, what do I need to do? Give me a job to do. Yeah. You know, and I love that analogy about the car and the remote. That's awesome because that's exactly what we do.

There's a reason, Al, that going to church is not in the Bible. Yeah. It's not in there. That's right. You say, going to church. Yeah, yeah, I need to go get back in church and I need to go to church. You're like, you are the church. You're a member of the church.

100%. The kingdom. That's right. practice your skill set get out there let's go yeah everybody everybody has a skill set everybody all the way down to the least among us third grade education everyone is worth yeah something yeah i have a stat to share that i think's pretty pretty sobering i usually if i'm speaking somewhere usually kind of start off with that it's almost like the first hit in a in a football game it sets the tone but barna has done such a phenomenal job of research right good and um

basically, and I'll paraphrase this research, but it's for every hundred people that accept Christ, only 50% go to church. And of the 50 that go to church, only 10% pursue holiness. Wow. Okay. Then 1% actually make it to living a life of sacrifice where he's no longer my savior. He's now my lord. I'm not just looking to give some and bonus lots of the Lord.

Straight is the way. Narrow the gate. narrow. So what I call this now, I'm dealing right here with the 1%. Yeah. Who are the 1% that are willing to go into a life of sacrifice saying, I'm all chips in with time, talent, and treasure for your glory to increase that. Dude, you're in the father's business. Yeah. And everybody that are listening, I just want to give you permission. Your mission field is it doesn't mean you need permission from a four-walled church. The Lord's giving you permission in his word to say, you know,

the world is your territory. There's no boundaries to that with your influence. And now here's what I believe. We're going to stand before a Heavenly Father. He's going to go, I put, if you got more than 100 followers, you got a megachurch in your phone. If you got a megachurch in your phone, my question is this. You can sell a painting to Nicaragua in five seconds on social media. Here's my question, can I go on your social media and know that you're a believer? And at the end of your life, he's going to look at you and go, what did you do with my son and what I put in front of you? You got technology in year 2021 back to our 2021 last night. Yep. Listen, we're going to be held accountable for the influence that.

that we had and the potential that we possessed. And so that's a sobering reminder for me. I wake up to that just thinking, we got way too much at our fingertips and it doesn't cost me anything to go on YouTube or Instagram or social. And if you can use it a creative, clever way to get the gospel out to the world,

that's really what our mandate is. You know, let's take your last break. I was telling the conversation I was having with Aaron I was doing about the other day. One of the things he and I talked about because he asked the question that we get asked a lot. And I'd love to get y'all's take on it.

He said, you know, how do I, how do I study the Bible? How do I make the Bible meaningful, you know, because you just start reading it. It's like, what a, but I told him, I said, you have to view the Word of God. The only reason I study as much as I do is so I'm prepared to help other people understand what this book is about. You're a producer. That's the way I put it from me. I'm producing benefit for people's lives. That's the reason I go into it.

It's not that I'm doing it for myself. Yeah. You know, I'm just a conduit, you know, of the word. Totally. You know, and so I was telling, and this young man that I'm talking to, he obviously has that producer. He wants to produce. I said, just start talking. Just start your own podcast.

Start whatever. Start producing. And you will dive deep into this because you'll then be asking God to fill me so I can feel someone else. You know, I feel like that's the way it has to the interaction. So I've got a couple of approaches to that of why would I do it? But yesterday, remember what we talked about, the number one asset? It's our story.

The Lord dealt with story. He was the ultimate storyteller, and he met people with where they were at. If they were into agriculture, he's like, well, it's like a seed, you know, and he always met him where they were at. That's right. But in terms of your buddy, I'm looking at the fact that when we're an ambassador of Christ and we have an inheritance, and I think this beautiful story of what's happened in this family here with Phyllis and everything, when you come into the family of God, and you have an inheritance and you have a new identity and you have, it's almost like you're getting a uniform put on you. And if we had an ambassador from England come over here and show up and

walked in a room, we were like, whoa, hey, like they're in a uniform, they walk, they talk, they stand in a confidence, not in their own self-righteous cockiness, but they're confident in their identity and who they are. Well, as family members of the Lord, I just think as believers, is we vastly underestimate vastly underestimate who we represent. Right, right. If you really believe that you're an ambassador

of the kingdom of heaven, you'd walk into the room, you'd talk, you'd operate in a different mode and mentality. So why do I, why do I study this? Because I better be on point when I walk in a room

and represent the father's business. Right. And so I would just challenge him in a beautiful way of saying, dude, you're in the family business and your dad owns it. the CEO, but you get to be a manager of your lane. So I want to be up to speed on, this is what I call the brand Bible. Yep. Right. So if you look at it, it's like California. But when I look at this,

it doesn't mean I have to. It means I get to. That's right. So that fires me up. I want to be equipped and be ready to answer because here's what I believe, dude, that guy's on assignment. And the next assignment of going to the next level is going to be contingent on. how well he delivers on the little bits that the Lord entrust him. That's right. And you're right. I think so much of it is the lack of seeing big. And look, I admit, all the years I was in church work, I was focused on church work.

And that's why it was such a grind sometimes. You know, and that's why I was somebody that wasn't giving but only one to take and was just like, oh, I got to do with this person. And so, you know, now I've been preaching. I'm like, dad, now I preach for free. and it's so great because like nobody nobody's paying me so I feel so you know I don't worry about I mean now I just work for God say what he wants me to say yeah and I'm not worried about having to deal with this faction this one that one whatever because I think that's what happens to pastor

we figured out you know they can't fire you if they never hired you that's exactly right you'll leave when you want to yeah yeah Paul did a good job of that he's like listen you can't say anything on me. I didn't ask for any underwriting. That's right. That's it. And I understand now why I said it. That's the best man. Oh yeah. And then I, of course, another thing I say is, is somebody, if somebody's, and I told them first Sunday, we don't even pass a plate. Right. Or a bucket or whatever. It's so p. The first thing I said was, I said, if someone doesn't like my sermon, just remember, you get what you pay for. Now, a lot of preachers, a lot of preachers listen to this out across America. out when they hear that we don't pass the plate, they're probably going to say,

whoa, woo, and I always have to caveat by saying, we've got a box. We're not down on churches or contributions. We've got a bolted down box back in the back. Yeah. And we do remind them, we say, now look, if you have to have lighting or heat or cool. Electricity, yeah. Yeah. Water.

I said, we pay the water bit. And I'm not down. I'm old. If you want to flood. I said, so there's a little bit of money that needs to be. I said, but I'd just tell you, I'll pay for that. if I have to, I said, so you really don't want to pay anything. None. Zero. I just tell them, and people like, they're not charged money. Now, this sends shivers down some preachers back.

What are you thinking? Well, that's all you've ever known. And look, I'm not down on pastures. I love you guys. I love you guys. I love you guys. I love you guys. But I'm just saying. But we do want to speak to a bigger plan. I mean, that's doing what it's doing. What we're talking about here is outside of that because obviously the church has gotten left in the river. mirror in American culture. Yes. I mean, is that not fair to say? It's fair to say.

Yeah, I would, I would look at, we're looking at fishing. I mean, look at the environment we're in right now, this culture, fishing, hunting. You know, I told my story to Tony and Phyllis yesterday. Like, I literally thought I was going to start at an easel and die as an easel. Isn't it amazing how the Lord sees us? And we see ourselves one way. The Lord walks up and he's like, oh, no, I'm going to make you a fisher of men. You know, Peter's like, dude, I can't leave this boat.

My grandfather was a fisherman. My dad was a fisherman. His dad was a fisherman and so on in our family. And the Lord's like, dude, I need you to leave. I'm going to make you a fisher of men. You think you're just, that's your assignment. I'm going to call you into bigger and greater things. Territory expands.

Basically, I call that he's expanding your net. Yep. Here you look back on seasons of life. My mentor did a good job of articulating that with a rocket ship. We look at this whole rocket ship. You're up in the front and we're going to our destination with our assignment with God. Yeah? But what we don't realize is that these stages are going to burn off.

This was meant for this season of life. This was meant for this season of life. This was met, but it all keeps you going and fuels you for it. So when we look at our territories and we look at what God's entrusted to us in these seasons of life, we see ourselves in one way, but the Lord's like, I'm going to expand your territory based on how faithful and trustworthy you are with the little bit I give you. Then how that responds, I'm going to expand your net even more and more of territory. But the thing is, are you either going to be waiting for me to part the water?

Or are you going to be like Joshua where if you step in the water, I'll part it? He can't steer a ship that's at bay. And so I look at it as like, we have to be trustworthy with a podcast, with social media, with a written word with like pursuing our friends, pursuing relationships. Because at the end of the day, his currency is people. And if I'm not doing what I can to reach people, I'm not really in his business. And people say, well, I'm not a speaker. Hey, here's a sobering reminder. Evangelism is not optional.

That's right. That's right. evangelism is a command. That's right. So, guys, I'm just this piddly artist, but I got woken up to the reality that the gospel of the kingdom resides in me, and I have a responsibility with that and want to remind other people that they got a responsibility with it that we can use whatever our talent is, whatever our time is, and whatever our money is, that's going to convert to that.

That's right. And so I see you have a book here. Yes. 31 disciplines of highly successful creatives. So audience, if you want to check that out, if you want to learn more. It's really, it's been so good to have me on podcasts. That was a fast time. We're almost out of time.

Yeah. But I just wanted to say that, you know, relationships are what then builds into opportunities. 100%. So, Seeley, our old buddy, is the one that told us about you. And so, you know, he works with us on our. our books and all these different projects we do. And then so these guys are like, you know, we want a art business to go. And then, you know, here. I leaned into Seeley and I said, hey, you know anyone that can help out an artist. Yeah. So is that where it started?

That's how it started. Why he was eating the steak. Why we're doing that. Exactly. Yes. But yeah, God, God is, Cili's been a wonderful, he's an amazing man, a wonderful mentor. And he also represents when my other mentors, Charles Swindoll. Yeah. So I've read so many Swindoll. Yeah, so I grew up in Swindahl's house as a child, two years old. Yeah, we lived in the same area. And so I grew up in his son. That's from that area. I forgot about it.

So that's Celi tie there. And then all of that, kingdom collaboration, what we're talking about. And then this beautiful opportunity that came up, I just, you know, and then I just say, if the Lord's doing something like this, something massive is going to happen with the influence of this couple. Yep. And the ripple effects of everything that they're going to do collectively as a team is going to have a ripple effect in eternity. that's going to be unbelievable. And that goes for each one of us.

And hopefully the listeners will hear like God's got a plan not just for your life, but the kingdom of Simon on your life is going to be unbelievable. And the seed capital that you got with your time is the most precious asset that you can invest. So that's my favorite. It's been awesome having you own, Noah. And we don't have a lot of people from California here. So we are just like so honored and thrilled that how normal you are and your wife and your family. I feel like we're the deer.

I'm just going, look, there's one. Well, you are in Jason's seat, and I do like to throw him out of the bus. I got the tire marks on my back right now. It's just the natural thing. And Grady, thank you for the new table and your family. So glad you guys were able to share with us. We're about to go and eat some brisket. Did you cook for them?

I did. We made red beans and rice, cornbread. Oh, yeah. It got a little Louisiana. It was delicious. A little Louisiana stuff. And I just want to say, again, thank you to everyone that has supported us and has bought my art. Yeah.

Well, it's been awesome, of course, having you here. And again, a lot of people want to support us. And like Dad said, we don't ask for money. So it's like, well, hey, buy the wood duck print, you know. Well, I can tell you the direction that we're going. It's very encouraging to see that God's hand is in and all of this. And we have a path being laid out before us that we can be in ministry. We can minister to people, build the kingdom, fund it through art.

That's the plan. I felt real weird running with artists at first, but I'm over now. We've determined that you are also an artist. You're an artist. You're an artist. You're an artist. You're in the club. So I have a special gift for anybody that's listening that kind of is a way to step on the scale

just spiritually in the morning, a little devotional, just a questionnaire to kind of say, hey, how am I doing in these areas with the stewardship of my time, talent, and treasure? And is today going to be a waste or am I going to invest it? So I create, if you go to Noahelias.net, forward slash duck, noelias.net, forward slash duck you'll get this free download and you'll be able to read this and it's going to give you some promptings and questions to start your day to just look at you know am i running with those that have a kingdom mindset is uh is is my priorities when I wake up about kingdom priorities or just about getting myself more comfortable these are just wonderful ways to step on the scale and say hey how can

I be a kingdom entrepreneur that's going to have 100x results because he invites us some 30 some 60 but I want to live a life of 100x if that's something that's something that's a lot of you that your listeners would like. This is a great little questionnaire that's going to help me with that. Hey, we love free gifts. And I'm going to check it out because when I step on the scale in the morning, it's such a depressing situation. This will encourage you. That I need something like this to make you feel better by myself. There you go. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you

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