Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:00:06 A welcome out to the grease house podcast. It's an honor to be here with you today. I'm in the studio actually by zoom with Steve castle, pastor friend of mine and Bob, Linquist another pastor friend of mine. And to be introducing, uh, Bob to our culture here today, as we get started in this, we want to invite you to sort of subscribe to the podcast. We're asking that you'd share it with a friend or to help us continue to spread the word. The podcast is going really well. The numbers and the analytics are really fun to look at. A lot of people are kind of getting in on this podcast and the conversation that we've created around the culture of grease ops. So yeah, check it out, check out our, uh, our gear online. We've got some really sweet look on apparel and just get connected to us on social media.
Speaker 1 00:00:49 You can find us grace ops two 12 on any social media platform. So yeah, we'd love for you to gauge your culture. Get connected, learn about the five-star charge or we're talking about, we just finished this past weekend and Steve and Bob were with us. We did this local backyard kind of a really cool event, an ax throwing competition with a really amazing steak meal and combined with a gray SOPs beanie. I don't know, it was like really awesome. It was like this big snow storm coming in. And it was a really fun time. Like we're out there, snow starting to fall and we're whipping axes at these targets. And it was like, we're like with all these biking somewhere, you know, it just, it was a very masculine setting. It was really cool. Like there's extra horn and dudes getting big, huge plates of steak and, um, lots of beards and the parking lot was full of like just big trucks everywhere had about 70 guys in total. And we just had a great time together. So we're really excited about all who came out to that. Yeah. So, Hey, welcome out, Steve and Bob is going to be here with you guys tonight.
Speaker 1 00:01:56 What else? Great to be here. Yeah. And Bob, if you would just kind of introduce yourself to our podcast, I met you through Steve and you've got an amazing background and TV and you're, you're doing really awesome things right now in your life. And I know you're an avid Hunter and you're, you're actually railing not just a church, but a region and you're going after the hearts of men. So that's why you and I like each other. So we have that in common. So say hello and introduce yourself to, to our audience, Brian, thanks. I'm so honored to, to be able to be part of, uh, what grace ops is doing in this podcast. I've been a Christian since I was 12 years old, which is a lifetime and really step into a different place with God. In 2016, an associate pastor of beloved church in Lena with Steve.
Speaker 2 00:03:00 Um, I also have Bob Linquist ministries and do a lot of things around the country. Um, pour into people in Pakistan. We've got stuff going, um, and in combination with beloved in, in many different countries, but, um, just really having fun remaster, collating men and bringing them into the identity that God created them to be. And then watching the fruits of that as, as their worlds change and their family's worlds change by these simple little concepts.
Speaker 1 00:03:40 Yeah. It's amazing in it to impact the world, people, the people in the world, but more importantly, men, Jesus having men around them. And that's totally, I'm saying that's a totally offended. Every woman listening now, I'm just playing
Speaker 2 00:04:00 Well. But really, truly
Speaker 1 00:04:02 I had, you know, there was women in, you know, very powerfully strategic in the new Testament church, but there's something powerful about 12 men around, you know, as the Christ. I mean, we're here today on this podcast because of those 12 minutes.
Speaker 2 00:04:19 Yeah. And we've been systematically demasculated for hundreds of years, it's been a process slow and gradual, and it's time we take our rightful authority back as men of God and then step into all that belongs to us.
Speaker 1 00:04:39 Yeah. Yeah. So it's good to have both of you on this, on this episode. And on this episode, we want to get into the talk here. We're actually going to talk about virtues are two ethics. That's what grease ops is kind of the essence of who we are is we're a culture that is that's calling men in to a way of living. And it is unapologetically the way of living that Christ modeled for us. We're trying to do it in a way that's not overly churchy and using all this over church stuff, or we're not just saying, Hey, you know, you all need to just quit looking at porn. And that's the worst thing you got going in this. The best thing you can do with your life is just stop looking at porn. I mean, we're trying to go way deeper into your life, your heart.
Speaker 1 00:05:21 And so we formed, we formed a, what we call an, an bill in our culture, which is the five-star charge, which we want to train and teach men for the next two, three, four, or five decades to honor to live with affection, to honor God, to live with affection towards those. They love to walk in the Liberty that Christ came to give to us, to war for the boundary lines of the protections of our heart, and then to be men of Valor, courage on the battlefield. So I've got these two incredible men, friends of mine on this call right now with me. And I want us to about what, what the heck drew us in because we could have went a thousand different directions of our lives. I wasn't a Christ follower. Like Bob says he was raised in church. I wasn't raised in church.
Speaker 1 00:06:07 I mean, I found Christ in my 16th, 17th year of life. And you know, so what the heck drew us in to a way of virtue, because I think we forget about that with Christ. You know, it's like, Oh yeah, I believe we get so stuck on I'm a believer I believe, or I was baptized or I signed some form and that's all kind of churchy. Churchianity stuff that I really can't stand because God didn't get your form. We didn't see that, that little membership card. And so for me, it's like, for me, it's like what drew men like us into the way that Christ would want us to go? How have we succeeded and failed? How's it made a difference in our life. How has being, living a life of virtue walking after the way of Christ actually helped us as men. So I want to talk about that here, because we live in a declining on morality and our culture, you know, in 2015, 20 years ago, when I was speaking to people, I used to bring stats up.
Speaker 1 00:07:04 And in nowadays I'm just like, Hey, our culture is morally declined. And everybody's like, yes, it is. I don't even have to push it. We don't need stats. And my big joke in that area is to prove that we're morally declined is found in yoga pants, you know, and the popularity of the yoga pants and all that stuff. Right? So the yoga pants could be the worst thing that's ever happened to society. But anyway, I guess I'll laugh at my own jokes. Um, so, Hey guys, talk, let's talk about this. What drew you into a life of character building and a life of virtue because essentially that's what the five star charges, it's like an endo forges your life. It's not a one and done. It's not like, Oh yeah, I mastered the five star charge, you know, in 2020, I'm going to do that this year.
Speaker 1 00:07:54 It's not something you mastered. It's about mastery. It's about, it's about constantly challenging yourself and learning where you can grow and seeing, Oh yeah, I could do better there. I can bump that up there. It's not a performance thing, the essence and the drive and the desire of our hearts to be men after God's own heart. So I don't know. You guys are great guys. I respect you a lot. So I just wanted you to talk about your own journeys, share a story or two, what the heck do men like you get out of a life of virtue?
Speaker 3 00:08:24 Well, for me, uh, you know, one of the things that I think is, um, the essence of who we were all created to be is to win, um, to do life well, you know, nobody, nobody truly wants to, to wake up every morning and know they're going to fail and go to bed every evening and know that they have failed. And so something that, um, is a driving force and in my own life is I want to do this life well. Um, which, which requires that you carry yourself with a, with a high level of virtue because all failure, um, honestly, uh, looks like the character of a person. So when a person is failing, all that is, is the fruit of a failed system and a failed internal system that is broken down, you know, virtue comes from a Latin word and it just means moral excellence and, uh, something that we, uh, something that our society makes fun of.
Speaker 3 00:09:40 It's literally the punchline of a joke when, um, you hear, or you see someone who wants to do something excellent, but then there's those few people that do something really excellent. And then we idolize him, you know, uh, a sports star that's really excellent. You know, Michael Jordan, we'll, we'll talk about Michael Jordan for a hundred years because he was excellent what he did. Um, and, and that's just a small thing, but one of the things that drove us is that nobody was more excellent than Jesus. And so for me to win at life and to do life well, I had to use the perfect model. And so now I model my life after the perfect man who did life perfectly and then offers that same life to us. And so I think this, this is a quality, a characteristic that's seated in every single one. The guy that's listening to this program, is there something on the inside of him that resonates every single day that drives him towards, uh, at least a desire to do life well.
Speaker 3 00:10:54 And the simplicity of it is I've found that way. I've found that that way. And that way is through Jesus, through Christ. How long ago was that? Well, I was, I was born again and, uh, and baptized with the Holy spirit with all that weird tongue stuff at five years old. So it's been, it's been 41 years. I've been on this journey. Um, uh, uh, um, many of those years I sucked at it. I was terrible. Um, but a bunch of those years, I figured some things out. And so now I'm on it. Swing, my pen dilemmas has gone the right direction and we're seeing a ton of things happen and lives impacted from that. And one of the, one of the, I think one of the groups, greatest compliments I've ever had, um, in the, in the 10 years, I planted a church about 10 years ago and we've been, uh, we've been hot and heavy ever since.
Speaker 3 00:11:51 And I think one of the greatest, uh, came from one of my long-term staff members. And, uh, he was, he was talking to, he said, you know, pastor Steve doesn't preach anything that he doesn't live there. I don't, I don't sit at home and come up with a cool message in three points, in a poem. Um, I lived this life out and then stand up at the pulpit and give people the revelations and the things that have impacted me. And when he said that, man, I was like, somebody seen it, somebody got it. And I was so humbled. I was, I was so flattered that really, what, what, what I was releasing into people's lives was, um, a virtue, a literal virtue. It was something that I was living, something that was part of who I was, and I was releasing it through work.
Speaker 1 00:12:44 Well, you know, you said you started a church 10 years ago. It takes a lot of character and virtue to stick with a church plant because literally there's a 90% failure rate when it comes to the church world. And so good job to you. And, you know, and I know the character and the way that you live has helped those virtues. So the virtue ethics, no aiming to live a life of high, high morality, you know, harm morality. And Bob actually said something earlier that you said he likes to re what'd. You say, re masculine man, is that the term you use re re and I, and you know, maybe you could expound on that a little bit because in this church culture, cause I'm like used to you 14 years ago, I, I started a church and then grease ops kind of was an idea.
Speaker 1 00:13:36 I had literally like 17 or 18 years ago on a computer. Um, an idea of one of those visionary things. Like I had thousand of them a day or five a day or however, you know, I was just a visionary is like, Oh, another idea, another idea. I know like, um, Tasmanian devil kind of thing, like just, you know, um, all these years later, I'm the same way with you, right? Like I'm all in. I remember when I started the church, there was a prayer I made the God because I set out to reach men. And in this church effort, I was very clear to God about that. I was like, Lord, I love you. And in being a man of spiritual discipline and embracing the ethics of Christ in character that I find in scripture is what I love about the Bible is there's so many imperfect people in the Bible that God uses.
Speaker 1 00:14:29 And you know, one of the words on the five star charge, one of our anvil words is honor. And for me, it's like, as I learned to know, God, I want to discover what he loves. I want him to, I want to know what he hates and I want to honor him accordingly. So I've been doing that for 25 years now. I've been trying to honor the Lord like, Oh man, the things you love, I want to draw near to, I wanna, I want to emulate those things in my life and the things you hate. I wanna, um, I wanna, I want that to not be part of my diet or part of my appetite, you know, I want to honor you accordingly. And so I set out, I remember saying, Hey God, you know, I'll go do this church thing. Cause you're kind of making me do it.
Speaker 1 00:15:10 So I'll go do it. And I was like, if, if I can't reach men, cause I had preached in like 300 churches up to that point, I had seen a good number of churches. Right. And so many churches are just female filled, um, female designed, you know, like how many pink carpets can I look at and mob this and purple that, and like just the, just the decor, like the, you know, nothing was masculine friendly. Like, you know, you'd walk in. It's like the carpet turned you off. The chairs turned you off. Everything is like a turnoff. And most of the churches I went into and it was like, I can see why men don't go to church.
Speaker 1 00:15:51 Not only women designed the place, but their grandma's designed it. You know? It's like, why did we get the Rose smelling, soap out and make, make me feel like I'm at my grandpa and grandma's bathroom or something. And I was like, it's just going to smell at grandma's house. Like no wonder, you know? So I was like, I was like, God, I really want to, I want to reach a lot of men for you. And if I can't reach men and I want to go do something else, you know, I want to go into sales or do something where I can just make money. So I, uh, I was really feisty in that time of prayer with God. I'd remind him that many times and, and uh, we've done good at reaching men, you know, and, and helping them come in that life of virtue. So, so I think church has just, uh, like Bob was saying, it's like an emasculating place at large and others. There's a lot of things that can be said there, but what are some of the things you see Bob in that area in mass collation and then like the term you use re masculinizing them? I never, I don't know that I ever heard that or use that term, but I like it.
Speaker 2 00:16:50 Well, I might've just made that up, but I used it a lot of times and a lot of scenarios because it's, to me it's fast. Um, not only has the world, I believe purposefully, um, cause men to be in the position that they're in, but we're being beat down in so many areas and you know, Steve touched on it and you've touched on it, Brian as well, there's this inherent motivation and drive inside of men. Very few men just go about their day and go to punch the clock. Or they, they take care of when they mow the grass, they make sure the car is washed well. They do things, something in their life they do with excellence. And it's because of that inherent desire that they have, they just need to be told what that's for and how to funnel it. When we, when we talk about virtue, um, and we start to show the behaviors that actually are of high, moral standard, we immediately begin to attract those same things to us.
Speaker 2 00:18:02 So when it's you and I hanging out, we're having great conversation. We're having fun, whatever we're doing, it doesn't matter. We can have a great time together and do it in a way that shows high moral standards, right? Like Steve and I were playing outside today a little bit afternoon and he rode my snowmobile around. Well, a lot of people that's like, well, that's all just, that's not kingdom stuff. Well guess what men like to have a good time. And, and, and, and that attracts men that likes to have a good time, but honor really plays into that a lot. I talked to a lot of men, I've talked to a lot of men over decades that don't understand why their wives don't honor them. Their children don't honor them. That is something that we can't demand people do. It's something that only comes by the virtuous lifestyle. We live in everything we do. So as I start to get a handle on that in my own life, it's been fascinating to watch how honor plays out. So big, not only in the kingdom of God, like you brought up Brian, but in society at large. So when you're at the workplace, people are attracted to you and they begin to honor you because of the honor you have, for those around you and your heavenly father,
Speaker 1 00:19:30 You have honors part of your character and part of your view of the world. You're really going to put that on the splay, love people, even if they don't love you, or you're kind of, even when they're not kind to you and you can, you can, uh, do this rare thing nowadays of shutting your mouth sometimes. Cause we all can, it's temptations. You know, it's like, we all want to gossip and talk about other other people, but if you could pull back and do you, one of those rare people were like, I'm just not going to talk about that. That's kind of like a rare form of honor in this culture. And you're right, like in the marketplace, that'll get you advanced, you know, people will see us and they will help you. It'll help you advance. So, you know, I love like the concept of virtue and character.
Speaker 1 00:20:17 I love it because it helps me see like what Steve was saying earlier. Like I want to live a life where I re I want to, I like the idea that there's rewards and the kingdom life. It's not like one size fits all. It's not like, you know, we all, we all get the same prize. We actually all get different rewards according to our own faithfulness. And you know, to him who endures to the end, you know, like that's all all through scripture and you know, there's, we get rewarded according to our faithfulness in the earth. And so virtue helps me to accomplish those goals. Virtue is that thing that helps shape me and perform me. And it's been huge for me as a father, I have four daughters, so great for me. Um, you know, and I have, uh, it's like, it's, it's just been great to help shape their character.
Speaker 1 00:21:10 They can look and see how I live my life and you know, um, they take on my feistiness, my vice the edge, but they also see the tender side of me. They see the, this side of character and in virtue they see what I do. They watch me. I know I care about people. They know, I lay my life down for other people all the time. And so I was one of the main things that attracted me into the Christian faith was that it was something that wasn't, I, I never sensed. It was like a one and done kind of thing. You remember the first time I heard about it as like, cause in the way I knew that was cause like I never knew anything about the Bible, my whole life, you know? So I'm going to give my guy, my life to the God of the Bible and it's, it's gonna, it has taken me 25 years to just kind of like halfway understand the Bible.
Speaker 1 00:22:00 So how would you guys inspire somebody into this life of character building and virtue, getting a thoughts or stories or ideas because it's, for me, that's what really attracted me to Christ. It's like he put on display, he modeled something and you can find it all through scripture, in the heart of God that I want to be a man of virtue. I want to be a man of character. You know, the way we've described it with very, very SOPs. I want to be a man of affection. I want to be affectionate towards my wife and my kids. I want my kids to see that from their dad. You know, I want them to see care in my eyes and tears at times. And I want them to know that, um, I really love them and I care about them and you know, my kids, I kiss my kids every day thousand times I do have four daughters and I've never let that stop me from just like wrestling with them, throwing them around, you know, just literally just full on body slam of something. Like just having fun, man, just being their dad, take them out in the snow, throw him down, throw snowballs at them. You know, let them throw snowballs at me. I've just, I've always been physically engaged with my kids and it's great because they seem to like it, you know, I don't, I don't ever feel like they're always like, Oh my gosh, keep stand when dad does it, but it's affection and I'm showing them affection. They make fun of me a lot.
Speaker 1 00:23:24 That's how they show fun of me. Like shut up,
Speaker 2 00:23:31 You know, for, okay. One of the things I was going to, I was going to go to is that every, every man that's listening to this, um, you already
Speaker 3 00:23:46 Have a character. So this isn't necessarily talking about trying to put something in you that you don't have. This is some, this is talking about something that you already possess and what are you going to do with your possession? Um, I, I view life like a mountain. So everyone is building a mountain. And, and the sum total of your life is the mountain at the end of your life. Character is the peak. It's the pinnacle, it's the part that everybody sees. And it's usually the most defining part of that life. You know, what are you going to be known for? What are, what are people, um, what does your wife say about you? What are your children say about you? Uh, what are those people that you're, uh, hopefully you're transparent with in your life? What do they say about you? You know, those are things that are going to, um, exist, not only, uh, in your, in your own heart and your own memories.
Speaker 3 00:24:56 Um, but they're going to be transported into other people's lives as well. What is the impact that you're having on your wife? What's the impact that you're having on your workplace, on your children? And that is going to be whatever the pinnacle of that mountain is. You know, I, I I've, I've said this when we just went through all this, uh, ignorance in, in 2020 with the pandemic and race Wars and, and the whole world going absolutely crazy. And, um, when the, when all of this racial, uh, contention was, uh, starting to be forced upon us by the mainstream media, you know, I did a video. And one of the things that I said in there is that racism is not something that anyone has ever been born with. Racism is something taught. You have to be taught to treat another person based upon their skin, their ethnicity, um, where they've come from, where they live, you have to be taught to treat them differently. And so men, what are we?
Speaker 3 00:26:11 Yeah, you'll get a, yeah, I'm sure you'll get suppressed. I've been, has been suppressed. I've had hundreds of videos and post suppress, and I'm one of those guys, but you know, where did that, where did that racist learn to be a racist? Well, he got it obviously from someone, a person of influence, which likely was a parent. You know, my children have literally grown up basically colorblind and it's because there was the character, the virtue that was in me, trained my children, not only in word, but in action that there, that every person is going to be in my life is going to be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. You know, uh, I have a dream, uh, uh, MLK is I have a dream speech is really real to me, I've studied it in depth. And that, that is just a singular, um, instance or a singular aspect of what we're talking about here. What is the legacy that you're putting into people's lives? What is the impact that you're having on people around you when that impact is positive and virtuous, it gives a peace and it gives, uh, it gives you a, um, an excitement towards life that very, very few men in today's world actually legitimately possess.
Speaker 2 00:27:42 Yup. Yup. Well, yeah. And just to dovetail with what Steve just shared, it's true. When you start to step into who you were actually created to be, life starts to be really super fun and it doesn't make sense in the world from the world's viewpoint. It doesn't make sense that we'll wait a minute. You're starting to act different than all the other men around you. I know, and look at what's happening. And it's a great time, guys. Your women are longing for you to be a man, a man, whether they know it or not, I've watched it happen so many times. I can't even count it. When men start to step into who they were actually created to be through a place of honor submission Valor, you know, at five star charged for real their relationships turn from okay to fantastic they're relationships that are Rocky turn great.
Speaker 2 00:28:58 And then into fantastic. And then the whole time that's going on, the man is having fun. Funny, never even dreamt possible. He's not frustrated because things are Rocky at home and he's walking on eggshells or his wife's walking on eggshells or whatever. This is all part of being who we were created to be the creator of the universe does designed the male for a specific role. And when we step into who we were created to be, it's really amazing. Yeah. Because living with virtue and character has to do with your behavior. You can only be what you actually about yourself,
Speaker 1 00:29:42 Right? You can only behave from that place of identity. And actually think of this scripture in those of you, listening might be familiar with the word where Jesus asked his disciples, who do you say that I am? And they said, well, some say some John, the Baptist and some say Elijah and some, you know, and he said, well, that's great, but what about you? What do you, who do you say I in, you know, and then Peter had come forward with this revelation where you're the Christ, you know, there's this spa moment, this passionate, you know, you're the Christ, the son of the living, God and Jesus. He said something very profound. It impacted me a long time ago. I've never forgotten this about that passage, that Jesus, the Peter actually had to realize who Jesus was. And then Jesus, right? The next sentence he says, and you are Peter.
Speaker 1 00:30:31 And upon this rock, I'm going to build my church and the Gates of hell will not prevail against it. And he gives him a big slice of his purpose and identity. I remember this is probably these 15, 16 years ago. I was living about four hours away from my parents. And I drove up to take my dad out for a steak. He was 55 years old. I believe I took him out for a steak dinner and at the steak dinner, he looked at me and he's like all your life, you know, he, and he's meaning. And since I've found Christ and you know, cause he wasn't into Christ, like all that, you know, like I influenced my father to get into Christ. And so I, uh, he asked me at the table at lone star and he said, how do you do that? I'm like, do what he's said, how do you live with purpose?
Speaker 1 00:31:17 He's like, you're so focused and you just know what you're supposed to do and all this stuff. And I'm like, no, I don't know dad, I guess it's just because it's just this past. Like when you start to live a life of virtue and it begins to shape your character and it begins to shape your behaviors and you're starting to see these, the truths of your own identity, the way God sees you. It's like, it's not an overnight thing. You know, that's what I'm getting this. The point is like, you know, dad, you're watching a culmination of, you're watching a combination of like, at that point, what I've been serving Christ like 10 years, you're seeing the fruit of 10 years of following the virtue of Christ and, and failing at it all the time and realizing, Oh man, I could do this better. I got to get this better.
Speaker 1 00:32:00 And I'm just kind of sharing this because I think a lot of guys get stuck or a lot of people get, you know, I'm really good at setting myself free from guilt. Like I just, I, I take it a little, I have a lot of grace on myself. It's like, Oh, I made mistakes there. And I got, I'm sorry. And if I sinned against other people, I want to tell them, I'm sorry to make it right. Um, cause that's the life of virtue, you know? So to my dad, I'm like, well, that's how I, I don't know, dad. I don't know exactly how to answer that, but I know how to answer it. You know, it's just, uh, I'm giving, you're seeing me put on display 20 years of our 10 years now it's 25 years now. I'm 25 years in. So literally 25 years ago, the things that I was telling my father I was going to do as I was a Christ follower, he looked at me, he's like, you're nuts.
Speaker 1 00:32:47 I was like, is it you're not going to do any of that. And how many jobs would even be like that in the country? And I'm like, I don't know, 1% he's Oh, you're going to get this. And that. I mean, he wasn't being mean, he was just trying to be realistic as a dad, like thinking you're you're nuts. Like you son, I know you're a smart guy. You're a talented guys. Do all kinds of things. But now 25 years later, there's like all this momentum, I've been a trailblazer. I've done all the crazy things. I've just keep doing impossible things. And God keeps coming through and keeps coming through and keeps coming through. And so living a life of virtue is an amazing life. It's not, it's not a life that you learn overnight. It's a life you learn with friends. It's a life in a community and a family.
Speaker 1 00:33:24 And you know, that's why I'm friends with you guys. If you guys saw me doing something, you know, where you were iron sharpens iron, even just when we're talking, right. There's times I'll say something, get online and see like he's, he'll kinda like have correct me. You know, they'll say something like, Oh, I'll challenge you on that one. Right. And over buddies at the end of the day, right? Like we're all friends. And so, you know, living a life of virtue is the way to go. And there's a lot of people that get stuck with guilt. So what would you say to the guy that's stuck? You know, say the guy, maybe headed a divorce. He can pass it. Maybe he failed. Maybe he went bankrupt. Maybe he doesn't, he's not affectionate with his family. What would you say to that man to that man? How would you inspire him to move forward and empower him?
Speaker 3 00:34:10 Uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna quote Billy Graham. Billy Graham says that when wealth is lost, nothing is lost when your health is lost, something is lost, but when character is lost, all is lost all as well. And the thing is, is that, um, only, only you get to, um, determine what that's going to be. In other words, when, when Billy Graham says, when wealth is lost, nothing is lost. What, what, that's basically what you can embody in that statement is a failure, a singular failure, or even a group of failures can not define you unless you let them define you. Right. You know, some people have literally embraced failure and allow that those failures to propel them. You know, Thomas Edison, I don't know off the top of my head, but I think Thomas Edison, um, tried to try to make a light bulb. And I think he felt, I think it was like 1100 times.
Speaker 3 00:35:17 He tried to make a light bulb and it never made a light. And somebody came up to him and they were basically messing with them. They're like, dude, you, you don't know how to make a light bulb. He said, no, but I figured out 1100 ways not to make a light bulb. And then eventually the light bulb. And obviously we all know Thomas Edison, you know, he's, he's now he's of the most influential people while we're sitting here in light, which honestly came from Thomas Edison. And so you can either have those failures. You can, you can have a divorce or you can choose to be a divorce seat, a person who has, has a divorce, you failed at something. So, uh, it says in Proverbs, a righteous man fall down six times. Well what's insinuated there is that he gets up seven. So an unrighteous person falls down six times and they just stayed out.
Speaker 3 00:36:12 So the difference between those two is, do you get up? So if you failed at a business, if you failed at a marriage, if you've failed maybe, uh, yesterday or for the last 10 years at parenting correctly or whatever your thing is, if you've failed at that, then the smartest thing you could do is say, okay, I failed and now I'm not going to now I choose that I'm not going to be a failure. I'm going to be successful. And I have failed as an activity in the past. So there's a difference between a person who fails and a failure. And it's important that we understand that, that what Brian was talking about is identity. If your identity is you are a failure, then the fruit is you fail. If your identity is you are going to be a man of virtue and character, then the fruit is you will have character and you'll have virtue. And every once in a while, you'll pop off a bad Apple. That will be a failure.
Speaker 2 00:37:19 Yeah. Yeah, it is. That identity is so strong throughout our journey. And, and you know, Brian, you said it first in this conversation and Steve, you said the same thing and I'll, I'll just reiterate that we all fall on our face. The difference is I have brothers that I love that love me. That will come alongside me as I stand up and not be a failure and hold my arms up. If that's what it takes. As we walk out this journey, arm-in-arm as brothers in Christ
Speaker 3 00:37:57 And not, not to do a commercial, but you know, not that many podcasts ago. Um, you know, Brian and I talked about having bloody brothers, you know, having bloody friends. And that's really important is, you know, when you fail, are there people in your life that are going to, um, condemn you to failure and basically hold your face down? You know, like a dog would, when I was a kid and our dog used to wet the carpet, you know, my dad would grab the dog and he'd rubbed that dog's nose in that to try to teach them to not do that. And I remember being a thinking, I don't think that's really the most effective way to do this. And so do you have people in your life that when you fail, do they just rub your face in that failure and say, smell it, taste it, you know, this is, this is the best way to get over a failure. Or do you have people that actually say, Hey, you know what? That was a failure. You're better than that. Let me walk with you in a better way of life. You need to have others who are bleed with you and not tell you that you're bleeding.
Speaker 2 00:39:07 And so the world wants to separate you. And you're in those moments. And, and, and, um, many people have failed miserably multiple times and turned out to be names. We know every day, just like Thomas Edison, JC penny failed like six or seven times. Audubon failed. Many times he thought he was supposed to start hardware stores. So don't let Yeah. So we can't let people hold us down, surround yourself with people. Don't be isolated, surround yourself with a band of brothers that will get with you and lift you up and help you rise up over those falls that we all have. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:39:59 And, uh, you know, as we wrap this up, I I'm reminded of a story. I used to always share my motivational speaking days. I used to share the story of sir Edmund, Hillary climbed, Mount Everest. And it was, I think it was like right around 1950, you get attempted to climb Mount Everest. And just his attempt to climb Everest was recognized by his local community as a success. So he was invited to some kind of dinner that they had a banquet in honor of him just for attempting to climate, like, cause he had almost done it, but he didn't. And they, they call him up on the stage. So there's like thunderous applause where he gets on the stage. And he, uh, there was a picture of Mount Everest. So he literally walked to the edge of the stage. He walked away from the microphone and he begins.
Speaker 1 00:40:51 He actually, his speech was actually just shouting the entire time at the photo of Mount Everest. This is what he said, this is exactly what he said to the photo. He walked up to it and he said, no, and he's shouting, you know, he's like, he's like, you beat me the first time, but I'm going to beat you the next time because you grown all you're going to grow, but I'm still growing. And what a powerful statement, you know, and like Steve was saying earlier, that's a statement that comes from a place of identifying and you're making a declaration that, so I would encourage you man, with that, you know, let us leave you on that positive note of empowering you to take on mindset where what you've done or what you failed at, or what's bombed in your life. You're not dead yet. It's not too late and you need to take on the mindset and the identity I'm still growing and be humble enough to crash into the culture we're creating, creating, and be humble enough to crash onto the anvil of the five-star charge and dig into it and start learning it.
Speaker 1 00:41:56 And it's not a sprint, it's a marathon, you know, we're going to, we're in this for the long haul. You know, so character virtue doesn't come overnight. It's formed over decades and it takes time. And our culture is in a moral decline and we're calling upon the men of our, of our day to rise up and it'd be men of virtue again. So when I equip you and empower you through the grace ups culture, so what guys has been an honor to be with you on this call? I look forward to the next time, cause I know we'll do more podcast episodes together. So Hey, we love everyone on our, uh, on our, uh, in our audience and on this podcast. And until next time live upright,
Speaker 0 00:42:38 <inaudible>.
